Table of Contents

* Introduction: Understanding the Origins of Modern Social Provision in the United States * Part I: A Precocious Social Spending Regime *1. Patronage Democracy and Distributive Public Policies in the Nineteenth Century *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 *3. Reformist Professionals as Advocates of Workingmen's Insurance *4. Help for the "Army of Labor"? Trade Unions and Social Legislation *5. Progressive Era Politics and the Defeat of Social Policies for Workingmen and the Elderly * Part III: Foundations for a Maternalist Welfare State? *6. Expanding the Separate Sphere: Women's Civic Action and Political Reforms in the Early Twentieth Century *7. Safeguarding the "Mothers of the Race": Protective Legislation for Women Workers *8. An Unusual Victory for Public Benefits: The "Wildfire Spread" of Mothers' Pensions *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

Promotional Information

By demonstrating the pivotal role of women's voluntary organizations as well as individual women leaders in constructing early twentieth century social welfare policy, Skocpol not only rewrites the history of social welfare but gender history as well. -- Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University Protecting Soldiers and Mothers is a landmark book. Its unified argument and wealth of detail will be of compelling interest for political scientists and historians, theorists of the welfare state, social policy-makers, and feminists...By means of searching, consistent, grounded investigation of the ways that policies are made (or are not made) in the United States--along with lively, well-informed use of comparative national data--the book ruptures the 'inevitability' model of welfare state development and opens the door to new and different policy making in America's future. -- Nancy Cott, Yale University Theda Skocpol's Protecting Soldiers and Mothers will be regarded as one of the most significant books-perhaps the single most significant book-on the development of the American welfare state. -- Martin Shefter, Cornell University Skocpol's book is a landmark contribution to the history and politics of American social policy. She has reclaimed a major and forgotten period that does much to explain why the American welfare state took the shape it did. -- Hugh Heclo, George Mason University

About the Author

Theda Skocpol is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. Her previous works include the prize-winning States and Social Revolutions.

Reviews

A monumental study that will likely become a classic in the history of the modern welfare state.
*New York Times Book Review*

Complex, richly detailed…and grounded in extensive archival research… [Skocpol] has demonstrated that the polity and political institutions do matter… [A] powerful book that will surely generate a great deal of new research and writing about the history of social provision in the United States.
*The Nation*

Recognition that a kind of welfare state emerged even in America has hardly stilled the need to ask, once again, why the American variant came out so differently from those in western Europe. Skocpol’s newest book… brings to these issues as powerful and iconoclastic an intellect as the historical sciences possess. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers belongs on a shelf of social policy history classics.
*Journal of Economic History*

Protecting Soldiers and Mothers is doubly important because it gives us new facts to think about and new perspectives within which to think about them… Skocpol’s research is so original and thorough and her critical intelligence is so strong…that her book will become the necessary starting point for all who study the evolution of social welfare policies in the United States.
*Journal of Policy History*

Invites readers to remember a halcyon period in women’s politics when—both in spite and because of women’s formal political exclusion—extensively organized, politically active women united around motherhood and claimed a place for women in social policy.
*Women’s Review of Books*

Protecting Soldiers and Mothers is a landmark book. Its unified argument and wealth of detail will be of compelling interest for political scientists and historians, theorists of the welfare state, social policy-makers, and feminists… By means of searching, consistent, grounded investigation of the ways that policies are made (or are not made) in the United States—along with lively, well-informed use of comparative national data—the book ruptures the ‘inevitability’ model of welfare state development and opens the door to new and different policy making in America’s future.
*Nancy Cott, Yale University*

Skocpol’s book is a landmark contribution to the history and politics of American social policy. She has reclaimed a major and forgotten period that does much to explain why the American welfare state took the shape it did.
*Hugh Heclo, George Mason University*

Theda Skocpol’s Protecting Soldiers and Mothers will be regarded as one of the most significant books—perhaps the single most significant book—on the development of the American welfare state.
*Martin Shefter, Cornell University*

By demonstrating the pivotal role of women’s voluntary organizations as well as individual women leaders in constructing early twentieth century social welfare policy, Skocpol not only rewrites the history of social welfare but gender history as well.
*Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University*

A monumental study that will likely become a classic in the history of the modern welfare state. -- Rosalind Rosenberg * New York Times Book Review *
Complex, richly detailed...and grounded in extensive archival research... [Skocpol] has demonstrated that the polity and political institutions do matter... [A] powerful book that will surely generate a great deal of new research and writing about the history of social provision in the United States. -- Alex Keyssar * The Nation *
Recognition that a kind of welfare state emerged even in America has hardly stilled the need to ask, once again, why the American variant came out so differently from those in western Europe. Skocpol's newest book... brings to these issues as powerful and iconoclastic an intellect as the historical sciences possess. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers belongs on a shelf of social policy history classics. -- Daniel T. Rodgers * Journal of Economic History *
Protecting Soldiers and Mothers is doubly important because it gives us new facts to think about and new perspectives within which to think about them... Skocpol's research is so original and thorough and her critical intelligence is so strong...that her book will become the necessary starting point for all who study the evolution of social welfare policies in the United States. -- Aaron Wildavsky * Journal of Policy History *
Invites readers to remember a halcyon period in women's politics when-both in spite and because of women's formal political exclusion-extensively organized, politically active women united around motherhood and claimed a place for women in social policy. -- Gwendolyn Mink * Women's Review of Books *
Protecting Soldiers and Mothers is a landmark book. Its unified argument and wealth of detail will be of compelling interest for political scientists and historians, theorists of the welfare state, social policy-makers, and feminists... By means of searching, consistent, grounded investigation of the ways that policies are made (or are not made) in the United States-along with lively, well-informed use of comparative national data-the book ruptures the 'inevitability' model of welfare state development and opens the door to new and different policy making in America's future. -- Nancy Cott, Yale University
Skocpol's book is a landmark contribution to the history and politics of American social policy. She has reclaimed a major and forgotten period that does much to explain why the American welfare state took the shape it did. -- Hugh Heclo, George Mason University
Theda Skocpol's Protecting Soldiers and Mothers will be regarded as one of the most significant books-perhaps the single most significant book-on the development of the American welfare state. -- Martin Shefter, Cornell University
By demonstrating the pivotal role of women's voluntary organizations as well as individual women leaders in constructing early twentieth century social welfare policy, Skocpol not only rewrites the history of social welfare but gender history as well. -- Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University