|
|
|
REVIEWS
| The Segregated Origins of Social Security: African Americans and the Welfare State. By Mary Poole (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. xi +258 pp. $59.95, cloth; $22.50, paper).
|
| This is a long overdue book: since completing my dissertation thirty years ago, I have wanted to have a full description and explanation of The Segregated Origins of Social Security. Mary Poole offers public historians, social historians, social scientists, social workers, and students of policymaking a detailed reading of primary sources by those men and women instrumental in shaping and enacting the first four programs of the 1935 Social Security Act—Grants to States for Old Age Assistance (Title I), Federal Old-Age Benefits (Title II), Grants to States for Unemployment Compensation Administration (Title III), and Grants to States for Aid to Dependent Children (Title IV). |
1
|
|
"African Americans were not denied the benefits of Social Security because of the machinations of southern congressional leadership, as is assumed," Poole argues. "The Act was made discriminatory through a shifting web of alliances of white policymakers that crossed regional and political parties ... who genuinely sought to build a fairer and better world, and devoted their waking hours to that challenge, but whose vision was steeped in racial privilege" (p. 6). Not everybody will agree with Poole's interpretation of the data, especially her emphasis on the economic value that political economists, including those taught by or who associated with John Commons, placed on "whiteness" in the first third of the 20th century. That said, no one interested in the foundations of the modern U.S. welfare state can afford to ignore her analysis. |
. . . |
There are about 685 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.
|
