| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 304 words from this article are provided below; about 600 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Laura Jensen. Patriots, Settlers, and the Origins of American Social Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2003. Pp. xii, 244. Cloth $60.00, paper $20.00.
Laura Jensen's book offers a thoughtful historian's challenge to the widely influential interpretations of political scientist Stephen Skowronek and historical sociologist Theda Skocpol about the character of the national government of the United States up to the Civil War and the history of U.S. social welfare policy from the Civil War to the present. Jensen sums up her argument in a single sentence: "By the time the Civil War began, the United States had a firmly established history of national-level social provision rooted in the entitlement of certain categories of Americans who served the purposes of the state as it sought to claim, protect, and expand its sovereignty over an immense portion of the North American continent" (p. 205). Pre-Civil War pensions for veterans should be seen as "entitlements" that set precedents for social provision that endure to the present day, Jensen insists, and so should early policies for the settlement of federal lands.	1
The "early American state," as Jensen puts it, used creative and effective means to push aside Native American and European claimants and establish control over a continental empire. Lacking either the ability or the willingness to pay an army of adequate size, the early federal government provided land and, eventually, pensions to old soldiers who possessed qualities deemed "deserving," especially when it wished to persuade new soldiers to enlist. Lacking adequate numbers of regular soldiers or officials, the early federal government made considerable use of selective land grants to attract armed white settlers to strategic frontier locations, in the Northwest Territory, in Florida during and after the Seminole Wars, and in Oregon and Washington.	. . .

There are about 600 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.