Social Welfare

Social welfare combines traditional notions of charity with responses to modern social problems. In this far-reaching collection of articles on the birth of American welfare, readers will see a robust debate on the nature of poverty and the costs and benefits of combating it. Beginning with private charities, dramatically expanding in the Great Depression, and frequently changing direction near the end of the twentieth century, the story of social welfare reveals the many features of America’s relationship with its most downtrodden.