How Welfare Worked in the Early United States: Five Microhistories

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Gabriel J. Loiacono (Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh)

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States

Five Microhistories

Gabriel J. Loiacono (Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
23 September 2021

Social & cultural history; Welfare & benefit systems; Social work

"What was American welfare like in George Washington's day? It was expensive, extensive, and run by local governments. Known as ""poor relief,"" it included what we would now call welfare and social work. Unlike other aspects of government, poor relief remained consistent in structure between the establishment of the British colonies in the 1600s and the New Deal of the 1930s. In this book, Gabriel J. Loiacono follows the lives of five people in Rhode Island between the Revolutionary War and 1850: a long-serving overseer of the poor, a Continental Army veteran who was repeatedly banished from town, a nurse who was paid by the government to care for the poor, an unwed mother who cared for the elderly, and a paralyzed young man who attempted to become a Christian missionary from inside of a poorhouse. Of Native, African, and English descent, these five Rhode Islanders utilized poor relief in various ways. Tracing their involvement with these programs, Loiacono explains the importance of welfare through the first few generations of United States history. In Washington's day, poor relief was both generous and controlling. Two centuries ago, Americans paid for--and many relied on--an astonishing governmental system that provided food, housing, and medical care to those in need. This poor relief system also shaped American households and dictated where Americans could live and work. Recent generations have assumed that welfare is a new development in the United States. This book shows how old welfare is in the United States of America through five little-known, but compelling, life stories."

By: Gabriel J. Loiacono (Associate Professor of History Associate Professor of History University of Wisconsin Oshkosh)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 155mm, Width: 231mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 362g
ISBN: 9780197515433
ISBN 10: 0197515436
Pages: 246
Publication Date: 23 September 2021
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Gabriel J. Loiacono is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He has spent much of the past two decades studying the ways early Americans responded to poverty. Loiacono has published articles in The Atlantic, Rhode Island History, New England Quarterly, and Journal of Policy History.