Review

Textbooks, Readers, and References

Since the 1960s, historians have argued that Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal created a new welfare state in the United States. In an effort to deal with the massive economic crisis of the Great Depression, the president and his advisors crafted a federal relief system designed to bring help to those who needed it most. State governments, themselves hard hit by the shifting economic tides, could no longer meet the needs of the growing numbers of poor seeking aid. In this books, historian Jeff Singleton argues that such interpretations do not adequately explain the origins of direct public assistance in the United States. Moreover, he contends that Roosevelt's policies provided the foundation for current policy debates concerning the nation's welfare system.	1
According to Singleton, other scholars have been guilty of perpetuating several myths surrounding the emergence of the American welfare state. Most notably, Singleton challenges the standard interpretation of Herbert Hoover's relief programs, noting that most relief efforts after 1930 were financed with public funds. Volunteerism, despites rhetoric to the contrary, was not the cornerstone of Hoover's welfare programs. Direct government payments to the unemployed and other needy Americans was Hoover's solution to a lack of a specific welfare policy. Likewise, Singleton notes that during the first months of the Roosevelt administration, relief funding remained level, meaning there was no dramatic influx of relief funds after March 1933. Roosevelt's plans, in fact, called for an end to what the author terms "means-tested relief." (17)	2
According to Singleton, Roosevelt hoped to end direct relief with a combination of work relief, social insurance, and unemployment compensation. In 1933, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) began the process of instituting a broad system of federal work relief as the primary mechanism to combat poverty that soon included the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and other programs. The Social Security Act of 1935 established an important component of this program, but according to Singleton, the relief it provided the poor was more psychological than economic. These federal programs provided for the needy without passing on welfare caseloads to the states, which could not afford to deal with them. Still, Roosevelt's welfare programs never received full funding. Here he agrees with traditional interpretations in arguing that southern Democrats united with conservative Republicans to block funding of Roosevelt's efforts. Had the president's program won the backing of Congress, Singleton suggests, the suffering of America's poor would have been alleviated more quickly and the modern welfare system would have been a stronger, more positively perceived element in American life. More importantly, Singleton argues that a stronger welfare policy in the 1930s might have avoided costly debates over welfare's future in the 1990s.	3
Despite a strong reliance on primary sources and grounding in several theoretical models, this book has several important flaws. First, Singleton's argument is very presentist and tends to color his interpretation of events and themes. He argues that the current state of American welfare policy can be traced to developments during the 1920s and 1930s. Perhaps this is true, but such an explanation ignores other social, economic, and political evidence that suggest other factors. It seems to me that the Great Society programs of the 1960s were as important in shaping national welfare policy as the New Deal. Second, he argues that by 1937, the stigma of direct relief had been erased for many Americans, yet he gives little evidence to support this contention. The literature on the Great Depression is filled with people who took pride in their participation in work programs. Very few voice their private views about being forced by circumstance to accept direct payments. Lastly, his argument and sources seldom addresses conditions among the rural poor, especially in the South and West. The author errs when he assumes that what may have been true about the problems of the welfare system in urban areas was shared by those elsewhere. The book, though highly detailed, lacks a narrative flow that would make it suitable for classroom use. Still, scholars of the New Deal and of American public policy should examine Singleton's controversial interpretation.	4
Western Carolina University Richard D. Starnes

Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.