Struggle for Social Security, 1900–1935, The

For the first one-third of the twentieth century, proposals for workmen's compensation, unemployment or health insurance, and widow's or old age pensions met steep resistance on the grounds that such programs would diminish the dignity of the individual. In this book, Roy Lubove examines the clash between the traditional American ethic of individualism and voluntarism and the push for an active government role in social welfare assistance, and the battles within the social security movement itself. He concludes his study with the actual legislative enactments of 1935 when, after the experience of the Great Depression, social insurance came into its own.

Roy Lubove, was professor of social welfare and history at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of several books, including: The Progressives and the Slums; Social Welfare in Transition: Selected English Documents, 1834Ð1909and Community Planning i