Reviews for Democracy and International Trade: Britain, France, and the United States, 1860-1990

The average rating for Democracy and International Trade: Britain, France, and the United States, 1860-1990 based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-29 00:00:00 Henry Miller Mary Poole's The Segregated Origins of Social Security seeks above all else to demonstrate that the welfare system in the United States has, from its very inception, been discriminatory and racially segregated. Poole argues that in all its non-medical programs the 1935 Social Security Act was deliberately structured to channel African Americans away from the programs designed for workers and into a system of public assistance in which more control could be exercised. In tracing the origins of this discrimination she found that it was not, as she expected, simply a case of southern congressional leadership driving a racist welfare policy, but a shifting web of alliances that crossed regions and parties. Franklin D. Roosevelt's own cabinet were among the most influential voices in forming the discriminatory nature of the Social Security Act. Poole argues that these voices genuinely sought to create a better, fairer America, but that their vision was steeped in racial bias and whitewashed by privilege. Poole argues that in the pre-SSA era there was a feeling of hope that New Deal policy might address the issue of racial injustice in America. FDR had appointed Mary McLeod Bethune (a Black woman) to his cabinet, many mass movements (such as the CIO) were promoting interracial collaboration, and the Democratic party was suddenly commanding control of the African American voting bloc, led by religious and social leaders. However Ralph Bunche noted that the re-ordering of society brought by the New Deal also had the potential to forever "cement the Negro in a permanent position of segregated inferiority in society." Poole argues that the latter sadly came true. The proposed Lundeen and Townsend social security bills had the potential to weaken the racial barriers in US society, but the SSA- formed and won by voices across the political aisle and across the nation, including those closest to FDR- only served to entrench them. The influence of Northern elites on this cannot be understated, and the Wisconsin-based CES (Committee on Economic Security) was highly influential in the process. The group followed a policy of 'colorblindness' that did not directly espouse white supremacy but nonetheless resulted in its entrenchment in welfare law. The group advocated for the exclusion of farm-workers and domestic workers from the employment protection acts for reasons supposedly not motivated by race, however it was African American workers who lost out dramatically as a result. Poole's book complicates the previous understanding of the racist nature of the New Deal. Her work challenges the 'solid south' interpretation that seeks to defend FDR and place the blame on the southern block of congressional leadership, instead demonstrating the important role that racial privilege played across party lines. She questions the previously accepted narrative that the New Deal policy was racially motivated, instead suggesting that a system of privilege and supposed colorblindness led to the entrenchment of racial inequality. The victory of the North in the New Deal order came at the expense of the predominantly black south, meaning that many Southern African Americans were left impoverished and discriminated against. The enforced system of continued dependence on welfare that they experienced was characterized by many as little more than a 'new form of slavery'.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-05-03 00:00:00 Edward Quiroga Important points, weakly argued.