Welfare in the United States

Welfare has been central to a number of significant political debates in modern America:

• What role should the government play in alleviating poverty?
• What does a government owe its citizens, and who is entitled to help?
• How have race and gender shaped economic opportunities and outcomes?
• How should Americans respond to increasing rates of single parenthood?
• How have poor women sought to shape their own lives and influence government policies?

With a comprehensive introduction and a well-chosen collection of primary documents, Welfare in the United States chronicles the major turning points in the seventy-year history of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Illuminating policy debates, shifting demographics, institutional change, and the impact of social movements, this book serves as an essential guide to the history of the nation's most controversial welfare program.

Premilla Nadasen is Visiting Associate Professor and Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at Brooklyn College. She is the author of Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (Routledge).

Jennifer Mittelstadt is Assistant Professor of History and Women’s Studies at Penn State University. She is the author of From Welfare to Workfare: The Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945-1965.

Marisa Chappell is Assistant Professor of History at Oregon State University. She is the author of The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America.