HIST 354 - Seminar: The History of the American Welfare State

FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. This course surveys the history of the U.S. welfare state from its origins in the poorhouses of the nineteenth century to the “end of welfare as we knew it” in 1996. The historical development of the American welfare state is covered, touching on such key policy developments as Progressive Era mothers’ pension programs, the Social Security Act of 1935, Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. Although this course focuses primarily on the United States, students are also asked to compare the U.S. case with the welfare states of other western democracies - including Great Britain, France and the Scandinavian nations - to understand how and why the United States took such a different path. Moving beyond simple policy history, students engage such questions as how the U.S. welfare state has reflected, reinforced, and in some cases produced class, racial, and gendered identities. Michelmore.