H. Howell Williams

Welfare Reading List–UPDATED

hhowellwilliams

clinton-prworaI’ve been conducting research on welfare policy in America for the better part of three years. I recall at the beginning of my research tweeting to Jyl Josephson at Rutgers U something to the effect of “I can’t find any good histories of AFDC. Any pointers?” It was one of those classic graduate student mistakes of presuming that, because your three google searches hadn’t turned up much, there must not be much out there. Boy was I wrong. I have compiled this list to do my small part in preventing a future graduate student from making the same mistake, and I will update it as I find new/interesting texts.

 

  • Mimi Abramovitz
    • Regulating the Lives of Women (1996)

    • Under Attack, Fighting Back (1996)

  • Andrea Louise Campbell
    • Trapped in America’s Safety Net (2014)
    • The Delegated Welfare State ([2011], co-authored with Kimberley J. Morgan)
  • David Garland
    • Punishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies (1985)
  • Martin Gilens
    • Why Americans Hate Welfare (1999)
  • Marie Gottschalk
    • The Shadow Welfare State (2000)
  • Barbara Hobson, ed.
    • Making Men into Fathers (2002)
  • Christopher Howard
    • The Hidden Welfare State (1997)
    • The Welfare State Nobody Knows (2007)
  • Jyl Josephson
    • Rethinking Sexual Citizenship (2016)
    • Gender, Family, and State (1997)
  • Michael B. Katz 
    • The Price of Citizenship (2001)
  • Julia F. Lynch
    • “A Cross-National Perspective on the American Welfare State” (2014)
  • Gwendolyn Mink
    • Welfare’s End (1998)

    • The Wages of Motherhood: Inequality in the Welfare State, 1917-1942 (1996)

    • Welfare: a documentary history of US Policy and Politics ([2003] ed w/ Rickie Solinger)
  • Paul Pierson
    • Dismantling the Welfare State? (1994)
    • The New Politics of the Welfare State (2001)
  • Theda Skocpol 
    • Protecting Soldiers and Mothers (1992)
  • Joe Soss, Richard C. Fording, and Sanford Schram 
    • Disciplining the Poor (2010)
  • Steven Teles
    • Whose Welfare? AFDC and Elite Politics (1998)

 

 

Tweet me with your suggestions for anything I’ve missed!

 

UPDATE:

The African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) has produced an amazing welfare reform syllabus. Do check it out.

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