| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 260 words from this article are provided below; about 558 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, 107.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Matthew A. Crenson. Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1998. Pp. xii, 383. $45.00.

When Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich suggested that critics of his 1994 proposal to establish more orphanages should view the 1938 movie Boys Town, the overlooked orphanage returned to public discussion. Now Matthew A. Crenson offers a wide-ranging analysis of the American child welfare system replaced by the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) public welfare program (1935) and supplanted by the current public assistance program in 1996. 1

This intriguing book demonstrates that American orphanages and residential child welfare institutions of all types were expensive, labor intensive, and subject to much criticism (often deserved) as cruel, inefficient, and obsolete. Many orphanages, like the New England Home for Little Wanderers (1864) or the Home for Destitute Catholic Children (1865) in Boston, were founded in response to the Civil War impact on the homefront but were deemed outmoded by twentieth-century social workers. Focused on child welfare in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Ohio, Crenson's book scrutinizes individual institutions. Like many students of social welfare, he assumes that antebellum and Victorian-era orphanages, asylums and sectarian "homes" of various types succumbed to the problems that Progressive-era social workers and politicians tried to solve by Mother's Aid (1914) and similar state public assistance programs. Crenson sees in the failure of the congregate orphanage the inspiration for home placement and later efforts to keep families intact by financial subsidies and supports. . . .

There are about 558 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.