Introduction

Understanding the Origins of Modern Social Provision in the United States

Part I

A Precocious Social Spending Regime

Chapter 1

Patronage Democracy and Distributive Public Policies in the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 2

Public Aid for the Worthy Many: The Expansion of Benefits for Veterans of the Civil War

Part II

The Failure of a Paternalist Welfare State

Chapter 3

Reformist Professionals as Advocates of Workingmen's Insurance

Chapter 4

Help for the "Army of Labor"? Trade Unions and Social Legislation

Chapter 5

Progressive Era Politics and the Defeat of Social Policies for Workingmen and the Elderly

Part III

Foundations for a Maternalist Welfare State?

Chapter 6

Expanding the Separate Sphere: Women's Civic Action and Political Reforms in the Early Twentieth Century

Chapter 7

Safeguarding the "Mothers of the Race": Protective Legislation for Women Workers

Chapter 8

An Unusual Victory for Public Benefits: The "Wildfire Spread" of Mothers' Pensions

Chapter 9

Statebuilding for Mothers and Babies: The Children's Bureau and the Sheppard-Towner Act

Conclusion

America's First Modern Social Policies and Their Legacies

Appendix 1

Percentages of the Elderly in the States and the District of Columbia Receiving Civil War Pensions in 1910

Appendix 2

Endorsements of Mothers' Pensions by Women's Groups: Sources for Table 9 and Figure 27

Notes

Index