Description: The Workfare State recounts the history of the evolving social contract for poor families from the New Deal to the present. Challenging conventional accounts, Eva Bertram argues that conservative Southern Democrats in the 1960s and 1970s led the way in developing the modern workfare state, well before Republican campaigns in the 1980s.
Review Quotes: "Bertram has given us a major work that presents a compelling reinterpretation of the history of public assistance policies in the US. All scholars who are interested in policy, politics, and poverty should read this book carefully; it is an essential guide to our present moment."-- "Economic History Review"