Bold Relief

Edwin Amenta is Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University.

• List of IllustrationsList of Tables and FiguresPrefaceIntroduction: Paradoxes of American Social Policy3Ch. 1An Institutional Politics Theory of Social Policy18Ch. 2An Indifferent Commitment to Modern Social Policy, 1880-193454Ch. 3America's First Welfare Reform, 1935-193680Ch. 4Consolidating the Work and Relief Policy, 1937-1939122Ch. 5Some Little New Deals Are Littler than Others162Ch. 6Redefining the New Deal, 1940-1950191Ch. 7A Welfare State for Britain231Conclusion250Afterword270Notes273Initials of Organizations and Programs331Sources of Illustrations333Index335

Co-Winner of the 1999 Distinguished Publication Award, Political Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1998 "In Bold Relief, Edwin Amenta brings welcome attention to the wide range of social services promulgated in the mid- and late 1930s... Bold Relief offers a useful and insightful overview of the origin and limits to US social policy."--Political Science Quarterly "With convincing evidence, Bold Relief limns a bold new vision of federal social policy from the New Deal through the 1940s."--Reviews in American History "Amenta insists that [social insurance and assistance programs] were constructed around the public provision of work for those in need... The argument is impressive, and it offers a political reminder that providing work was, for a time, thought a legitimate and desirable role for governments."--The Times Higher Education Supplement "Bold Relief restores an important dimension to the history of American social policy... One hopes that the book will inspire advocates of all kinds of policy to be bolder--and better informed--about creating the political and administrative preconditions necessary for new social policies."--Social Service Reviews