"Widows and Orphans First" investigates the importance of local economies and values in the origins of the welfare state through an exploration of widows' lives in three industrial American cities with widely differing economic, ethnic, and racial bases. In Fall River, Massachusetts, employment was regarded as the solution to widows' poverty, so public charitable expenditure was drastically limited.In Pittsburgh, where few jobs were available for women or children - and where jobs for men were in 'widowmaking' industries such as steel and railroading - the city's charitable establishments were more sympathetic. In the border city of Baltimore, which had a large African American population and a diverse economy that relied on inexpensive child and female labour, funds for public services were limited, and African Americans tended to establish their own charitable institutions. In this unique comparative study of widows' welfare and family economy, Jay Kleinberg examines the role of children in society and the development of social welfare policy for widows.
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Book Description
The impact of surprisingly varied local attitudes towards widows and their children
Widows and Orphans First investigates the importance of local economies and values in the origins of the welfare state through an exploration of widows' lives in three industrial American cities with widely differing economic, ethnic, and racial bases.
In Fall River, Massachusetts, employment was regarded as the solution to widows’ poverty, so public charitable expenditure was drastically limited. In Pittsburgh, where few jobs were available for women or children--and where jobs for men were in “widowmaking” industries such as steel and railroading--the city’s charitable establishments were more sympathetic. In the border city of Baltimore, which had a large African American population and a diverse economy that relied on inexpensive child and female labor, funds for public services were limited, and African Americans tended to establish their own charitable institutions. In this unique comparative study of widows' welfare and family economy, Jay Kleinberg examines the role of children in society and the development of social welfare policy for widows.
About the Author
Jay Kleinberg is a professor of American history at Brunel University, West London, in the United Kingdom. She is the author of Women in the United States, 1830-1945 and other books.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Marie Besonet, a middle-aged widow, moved to Fall River from Quebec in the late 1870s so that her four oldest children could take jobs in the cotton mills. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
casework notes, other lone mothers, maternalist reformers, coresident children, pension advocates, other single mothers, manuscript census, white widows, city charities, pension movement, local overseers, pension legislation, older widows, pension rolls Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Fall River, African American, Social Security Act, New Deal, Children's Bureau, Great Depression, New York, Civil War, United States, Allegheny County, French Canadian, Progressive Era, Charity Organization Society, Family Welfare Association, Old Age Assistance, Bureau of the Census, Steel City, Linda Gordon, South Carolina, Vincent's Home, World War, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, North Carolina, Sisters of Mercy, Jane Addams New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Marie Besonet, a middle-aged widow, moved to Fall River from Quebec in the late 1870s so that her four oldest children could take jobs in the cotton mills. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
casework notes, other lone mothers, maternalist reformers, coresident children, pension advocates, other single mothers, manuscript census, white widows, city charities, pension movement, local overseers, pension legislation, older widows, pension rolls Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Fall River, African American, Social Security Act, New Deal, Children's Bureau, Great Depression, New York, Civil War, United States, Allegheny County, French Canadian, Progressive Era, Charity Organization Society, Family Welfare Association, Old Age Assistance, Bureau of the Census, Steel City, Linda Gordon, South Carolina, Vincent's Home, World War, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, North Carolina, Sisters of Mercy, Jane Addams New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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- Aid to Dependent Children by Winifred Bell on 7 pages
- Social Policy in the United States by Theda Skocpol on 6 pages
- Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare by Linda Gordon on 5 pages
- Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States by Seth Koven on 5 pages
- Family Time and Industrial Time (Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Modern History) by Tamara Hareven on 4 pages
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