The Reluctant Welfare State: Engaging History to Advance Social Work Practice in Contemporary Society

This is a textbook for a class. I have been surprised at how interesting the topic and presentation are.

The author does a good job going through each presidency. What brilliance! He started in the past and led up to the present (I'm making fun of the first editorial review which lauded the author for the "time-sequence" structure of the outline. That was for another edition (but I've got this edition).

My only gripe about it is that the author finds no redeeming qualities in conservative presidents, and paints liberal presidents as tormented angels...even LBJ.

I was assigned this book for a course I took on social welfare policy (I'm studying for my masters in social work) and actually LOVED reading it. Jansson's writing style is very fluid and engaging, and the material covers issues that I'd wanted to study since I was a freshman in high school but never got to study until now. This was actually a cool read (although, granted, if you're politically conservative, you probably won't be into it like I was), and I recommend it to anyone-- even just for the sake of reading, not just for school.

If you ever wondered about why liberals behave the way they do, or advocate big government, then this book is a must read. The book describes history in light of "social justice". Social justice is defined as redistribution of wealth and political power from those that have it to those that do not. History is defined by deviding it into those periods in which progress was made in redistributing the wealth and power, and those periods when progress in those areas were not made. Anything towards that end is described as good, and vise versa. In my humble opinion, this book is scary and should be a must read by everyone who plans on going into a voting booth. The book gives you a clear idea of why liberals want bigger and bigger government and ever increasing taxes, but directly from their game plan/text book.

I am reading this text for a graduate social policies course, and while I am impresed with the depth of treatment Jansson gives to his area, this book is shaky as a lone text in any course.

Chronicling the long, strange, and twisted involvement of the American government in the provision of what is commonly defined as "social welfare" the author takes a strictly chronological approach strongly resembling introductory American history survey courses. While disclosing previously unreleased information on Revolutionary America, the depth and complexity of the New Deal----unarguably American government's most revolutionary and profound social policy involvement in any century, is not given it's proportional treatment.

Granted, the premise of his particular book is not exactly a regular part of discussion in most social science courses (including 'liberal' college offerings) neccesitating a start at the begining, but I was left wanting much more.

Recognizing the provision of social services has been and will continue to be an inherently politcal concept, something in Jansson's style of writing sounds guarded, as if he is not willing to share all with the reading audience. Considering the critical nature of the subject mater being presented, this is a disappointment because a more substantial and pointed work could accomplish more.

America's ambivalent social welfare record makes the history depressing, but we need to understand where we have been in order to accurately chart where the country needs to go. That 1996's intensely punnitative welfare reform legislation was eagerly embraced by leading officials from all parties was only the most reccent mainifestation of the afforementioned love/hate duality.

Aid to Families with Dependent Children itself was ironically developed in the 1930's so widowed or single white women COULD stay at home with their children like all 'good' women of the day. Uncoincidentally, politicians began their assault on the program around the time of racial intergration even as enrollment remained predominantely white, the biggest federal expenditures were the armed forces and 'welfare mothers' as a whole were just as hardworking as the general population. Because payments never kept up with cost of living adjustments since the 1960's, the women by very definition had to be hard working in order to survive.

This book can be used in a course, but only in conjunction with a work such as Dinitto, emphasizing the inherently political activist underpinings and responsibilities of social policy.