Society and Economy in Germany, 1300-1600 Book

An impressive and surprising look at welfare policy in the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s. Mittelstadt proves that far from being an era of universal consensus on welfare programs, policymakers and politicians battled strenuously over the meaning of assistance. Social Security doyens like Wilbur Cohen originally hoped to move all nominal "welfare" programs under the umbrella of social security, to take away the stamp of shame that putatively attached to receiving government help, yet his and others strategies, embodied in the 1961 and 1962 welfare reform acts, began pushing welfare recipients into rehabilitation work programs in order to strengthen that connection. Long before the famous 1996 reform, the connection between Aid to Dependent Children and the expectation of rehabilitation was growing stronger, and Mittlestadt shows why. It's a great look at how policy ideas have unforeseen political consequences.