From Relief to Social Security: The Development of the New Public Welfare Service

From Relief to Social Security: The Development of the New Public Welfare Service
By Grace Abbott

2000/05 - Beard Books
158798038X - Paperback - Reprint - 396 pp.
US$34.95

This landmark book deals in a broad way with public welfare policies and the importance of civil service in the social welfare program.

Publisher Comments

Category: Family Law | Law

This title is part of the Legal History list.

Of Interest:

Social Security in the United States: An Analysis and Appraisal of the Federal Social Security Act

Grace Abbott, who was the only social worker to head an important Federal Bureau at the time, presents various temporary and permanent plans for mitigating some of the most serious consequences of the Depression that followed the financial collapse of 1929. Many of the policies discussed are still part of our current thinking with regard to the welfare principles of a democratic government with a Federal and state system.

From a marketing blurb:

The financial collapse of 1929 brought misery and tragedy to millions of American families. From Relief to Social Security presents various plans for mitigating some of the most serious consequences of the Depression which ensued. The author, Grace Abbott, was the only social worker at the head of an important Federal bureau. Her methods of temporary and permanent relief are documented in her papers, which form the basis of this book, published by her sister after her death. The book deals in a broad way with public welfare policies and the importance of civil service in the social welfare program.

But this is not merely a Depression story. The policies discussed are still part of our current thinking with regard to the welfare principles of a democratic government with a Federal and state system.

No book reviews available.

Grace Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska on 17th November, 1878. She was a noted teacher and social reformist. She established the Immigrants' Protective League (IPL) as well as teaching at the University of Chicago; she was then appointed as director of the child-labour division of the United States Children's Bureau before becoming director of Illinois State Immigrants Commission. Warren Harding appointed Abbott as head of the Children's Bureau in 1921 while concurrently being a member of the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Women and Children (1922-34) that had been established by the League of Nations. Abbott became then became professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago and was involved in helping Franklin D. Roosevelt draft the Social Security Act (1935). This legislation that set up a national system of old age pensions and co-ordinated federal and state action for the relief of the unemployed. She was the author of several articles and editor of several reviews. Grace Abbott died in Chicago on 19th June, 1939. From Relief to Social Security (1941) was published posthumously.

Part 1	Toward an Adequate Public Assistance Program
	The Social Services a Public Responsibility	3
	The Tragedy of Transients	49
	Rural Public Relief during the Early Depression Period: The Lesson of the Coal-mining Communities	69
	The Need of Federal Aid for Relief in the Winter 1932-33	121
	With a Note on "Relief by a National Private Agency in the Great Drought"	156
	Children and the Depression	161
I.	A National Warning, December, 1932	161
II.	Children Face the Fifth Depression Winter, 1933	171
III.	Relief or Mothers' Aid, March, 1934	182
IV.	A New Horizon for Children in the Post-depression Period	188
	The Beginnings of the Social Security Act	199
	The Social Security Act and Relief	226
	Mothers' Aid in the Modern Public Assistance Program	262
	Toward Health Security: "Economic Security against Illness"	290
Part 2	Some Administrative Problems of the Public Welfare Services
	The Public Protection of Children: A First Part of the Public Welfare Program	305
	Developing and Protecting Professional Standards in Public Welfare Work	327
	With a Note on "Personnel in the Public Welfare Program"	342
	The Public Welfare Administrator and Civil Service in State and Local Services	346
	Pseudo-science versus Sound Administrative Procedures	364
	The County versus the Community as an Administrative Unit	370
	Index	381

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