Citizens and Paupers

by Goldberg, Chad Alan

• ISBN13: 9780226300771
• ISBN10: 0226300773
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

There was a time when America's poor faced a stark choice between access to social welfare and full civil rightsa predicament that forced them to forfeit their citizenship in exchange for economic relief. Over time, however, our welfare system improved dramatically. But as Chad Alan Goldberg here demonstrates, its legacy of disenfranchisement persisted. Indeed, from Reconstruction onward, welfare policies have remained a flashpoint for recurring struggles over the boundaries of citizenship. Citizens and Paupersexplores this contentious history by analyzing and comparing three major programs: the Freedmen's Bureau, the Works Progress Administration, and the present-day system of workfare that arose in the 1990s. Each of these overhauls of the welfare state created new groups of clients, new policies for aiding them, and new disputes over citizenshipconflicts that were entangled in racial politics and of urgent concern for social activists. This combustible mix of racial tension and social reform continues to influence how we think about welfare, andCitizens and Paupersis an invaluable analysis of the roots of the debate.

Author Biography

Chad Alan Goldberg is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Paupers or Citizens? Struggles over the Status and Rights of Welfare State Claimants	p. 1
Claiming Rights as Citizen-Soldiers: Struggles during Reconstruction
"The 'pauper slavery' of the poorhouse": The Freedmen's Bureau, 1865-1872	p. 31
An Honorable Alternative to Poor Relief: Civil War Veterans' Pensions, 1862-1890	p. 76
Claiming Rights as Citizen-Workers: Struggles during the New Deal
"They are just 'reliefers' and have no rights": The Works Progress Administration, 1935-1942	p. 105
"A different class from the ordinary relief case": Old Age Insurance, 1935-1949	p. 153
From Citizen-Mothers to Citizen-Workers: Struggles after the New Deal
"Work with no rights and no pay equals slavery": Workfare in New York City, 1993-2001	p. 189
Respectable Aid for the Working Poor: The Earned Income Tax Credit, 1975-2001	p. 241
Conclusion: Relief, Rights, and Race in the Development of the Welfare State	p. 269
Notes	p. 293
Bibliography	p. 331
Index	p. 359
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