| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Young Man's Benefit: The Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Sickness Insurance in the United States and Canada, 1860–1929. By George Emery and J. C. Herbert Emery. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999. xx, 184 pp. $39.95, isbn 0-7735-1824-X.)

This book represents revisionism at its best. In just 150 pages, George Emery and J. C. Herbert Emery mount a devastating assault against the main pillars of fraternal historiography. 1

As the largest fraternal order offering cash stipends to members in times of sickness, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in North America (IOOF) serves as an ideal case study for this purpose. The benefit system it established reached its apogee in the 1890s but was slowly phased out beginning in the 1920s. 2

Emery and Emery dispute the standard explanations for the demise of the IOOF's sick benefits. Through extensive primary sources, they demonstrate that the system was financially sound and rarely, if ever, brought insolvency. Although IOOF lodges did not always follow the recommended actuarial principles of insurance experts, they counterbalanced any losses by raising revenue from alternative sources, such as rents. In addition, they reduced moral hazard by monitoring sick claims through visiting committees. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the aging of the membership did not pose an insurmountable threat. . . .

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