From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State

by Beito, David T.

• ISBN13: 9780807848418
• ISBN10: 0807848417
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, more Americans belonged to fraternal societies than to any other kind of voluntary association, with the possible exception of churches. Despite the stereotypical image of the lodge as the exclusive domain of white men, fraternalism cut across race, class, and gender lines to include women, African Americans, and immigrants. Exploring the history and impact of fraternal societies in the United States, David Beito uncovers the vital importance they had in the social and fiscal lives of millions of American families. Much more than a means of addressing deep-seated cultural, psychological, and gender needs, fraternal societies gave Americans a way to provide themselves with social-welfare services that would otherwise have been inaccessible, Beito argues. In addition to creating vast social and mutual aid networks among the poor and in the working class, they made affordable life and health insurance available to their members and established hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the elderly. Fraternal societies continued their commitment to mutual aid even into the early years of the Great Depression, Beito says, but changing cultural attitudes and the expanding welfare state eventually propelled their decline.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Abbreviations Used in the Text	xv
Introduction	1	(4)
This Enormous Army	5	(12)
Teaching Habits of Thrift and Economy	17	(27)
Not as Gratuitous Charity	44	(19)
The Child City	63	(24)
From the Cradle to the Grave	87	(22)
The Lodge Practice Evil Reconsidered	109	(21)
It Almost Bled the System White	130	(13)
It Substitutes Paternalism for Fraternalism	143	(18)
Our Dreams Have All Come True	161	(20)
Our Temple of Health	181	(23)
The End of the Golden Age	204	(18)
Vanishing Fraternalism?	222	(13)
Notes	235	(56)
Bibliographic Essay: Sources on Fraternalism and Related Topics	291	(16)
Index	307