Skocpol on the State [ 30 Jul 1994 ]
Recently Alan Brinkley in the May 26, 1994 _New York Review of Books called Theda Skocpol's _Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origns of Social Policy in the United States_, "the most important study yet written on the early origins of the welfare state -- a brillant corrective to previous scholarship and a work with which everyone approaching this subjet must now contend" (p. 43). Would list members agree with Brinkley's assessment? If not, what specific problems do list members find in Skocpol's account of the origins if the US welfare state? Is her thesis of the US evolving from a "paternalist" welfare state to a "maternalist" one flawed? Is gender as important in the origins of the welfare state as Skocpol postulates? Perhaps list members doing research in this area would care to share their findings as it confirms or counters Skocpol's thesis.
E. Wayne Carp
H-State Co-moderator
carpw@plu.edu