Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

Matthew A. Crenson

Published by Harvard University Press 1998

Building the Invisible Orphanage

A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

Matthew A. Crenson

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674029996

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare in America. Matthew Crenson argues that the prehistory of the welfare system was played out not on the stage of national politics or class conflict but in the micropolitics of institutional management.

Reviews

The virtue of Crenson's book is that it is a close examination of the sea change that brought the welfare system into existence in the first place.
-- David Warsh Boston Globe

A valuable book, sure to leave its mark as an important and scholarly examination of the roots of American social policy, not without implication for today.
-- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Building the Invisible Orphanage is an extraordinary piece of scholarship. It is based on prodigious research and will doubtless alter debates about the origins and development of the American welfare state. It offers a stiff challenge to prevailing perspectives on the history of welfare in the United States. It will be roundly debated and future scholars will have to reckon with its findings.
-- Robert C. Lieberman, Columbia University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Decline of the Orphanage and the Invention of Welfare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
2 The Institutional Inclination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
3 Two Dimensions of Institutional Change Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4 Institutional Self-Doubt and Internal Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
5 From Orphanage to Home Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6 The Orphanage Reaches Outward Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
7 “The Unwalled Institution of the State” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
8 The Perils of Placing Out Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
9 “The Experiment of Having No Home” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
10 Mobilizing for Mothers’ Pensions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
11 Religious Wars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	284
Conclusion: An End to the Orphanage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 400

eBook

Published: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 9780674029996