The Welfare State 1929-1985

Carson's full-scale treatment of American history combines scholarly exactness with evocative passages that lead the listener to a clearer understanding of the people and events, the triumphs and the shortcomings, which have shaped this nation. This fifth volume commences with the Great Depression and takes us to the mid-eighties. As the author of Basic Economics, Carson is well-suited to diagnose the causes of the stock market crash and the years of economic depression which followed. Further discussions include the New Deal, the National Labor Relations Act, the start of Social Security, World War II, the Cold War, welfare in the US and abroad, black activism, the Cultural Revolution, Vietnam, the rise of the Conservative movement, Nixon and Watergate, the Carter presidency, and the beginning of the Reagan years.

Clarence B. Carson (1925-2003), author and lecturer, recieved a BS in education and an MA in history from Auburn University, as well as a PhD in history from Vanderbilt University. He has served in the US Army, taught at the high school and college levels, and authored ten books and over five hundred articles.

Mary Woods began her career in Washington, DC, where she performed at Ford's Theater, the Folger Theater, Round House, and Washington Stage Guild. She spent several seasons at New Playwrights' Theater developing new American plays. She is a veteran narrator of Talking Books for the Library of Congress, and received the Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award for fiction in 1996. Formerly a radio news director, she now hosts a daily local affairs interview program on Catholic Radio, for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. She lives in Albuquerque, where she continues to act on stage and in film. She received her BA at the Catholic University of America in Fine Arts and Drama.