In The Shadow Of The Poorhouse. This item is unavailable.In The Shadow Of The Poorhouse

With welfare reform a burning political issue, this special anniversary edition of the classic history of welfare in America has been revised and updated to include the latest bipartisan debates on how to end welfare as we know it." In the Shadow of the Poorhouse examines the origins of social welfare, both public and private, from the days of the colonial poorhouse through the current tragedy of the homeless. The book explains why such a highly criticized system persists. Katz explores the relationship between welfare and municipal reform the role of welfare capitalism, eugenics, and social insurance in the reorganization of the labour market the critical connection between poverty and politics in the rise of the New Deal welfare state and how the War on Poverty of the '60s became the war on welfare of the '80s.

In this history, Katz explores the roots of our ambivalence toward welfare and the welfare state, revealing the patterns which have recurred from era to era and which continue to frustrate reformers to this day. From the poorhouse era to the New Deal, from the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare, Katz provides the long perspective so often missing from the debates over "ending welfare as we know it". And this tenth anniversary edition contains an expanded introduction and a new concluding chapter, bringing the story to the present and analyzing the politics that lie behind the welfare reform act of 1996.