Recollections
This section includes articles written from a variety of points of view, and some personal recollections relevant to the history of American social welfare programs, issues, and personalities.
- American Social Policy in the 1960's and 1970's - Jerry D. Marx, Ph.D., M.S.W., Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Social Work, University of New HampshireAs the decade of the 1960s began, the United States had the “highest mass standard of living” in world history.1 The strong American postwar economy of the late 1940s and 1950s continued into the 1960s.
- Civil Liberties--The Individual and the Community (1940)I think I will tell you a little story that brought home to me how important it was that in every community there should be someone to whom people could turn, who were in doubt as to what were their rights under the law, when they couldn't understand what was happening to them. I happen to go every now and then to a certain mining community and in that mining community there are a number of people who came to this country many years ago. They have been here so many years that they have no other country. This is their country. Their children have been born here. They work here. They have created great wealth for this country, but they came over at a time when there was not very much feeling of social responsibility about giving them the opportunity to learn the language of the country to which they had come, or telling them how to become citizens, or teaching about the government of this country....
- Cohen, Wilbur J. : A Perspective - Edward Berkowitz, Ph.D., Professor of History and Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University, Washington, DCWilbur Cohen bounded off the plane and down the jet way at Logan Airport. Unlike the other passengers, who were somewhat tentative as they faced the uncertainties of a new city, he did not measure his step. He walked, with determined energy, straight ahead.
- Cohen, Wilbur J.: Correspondence - Edward Berkowitz, Ph.D., Professor of History and Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University, Washington, DC...I have not answered your telegram of July 31 because I have very uncertain as to the general direction our work will take and the staff we will need. The time element is so short that we can not engage in any extensive research work...
- Cohen, Wilbur J.: Mental Retardation Legislation - Edward Berkowitz, Ph.D., Professor of History and Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University, Washington, DCOn mental retardation legislation, the second major sustained effort of the Kennedy years, Cohen operated as the servant of others. Cohen worked hard on this matter, and that was because Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who was an extraordinarily driven and dedicated woman, wanted him to do so.
- Current Issues and Programs in Social Welfare - Dr. Jerry Marx, Chair, Social Work Department, University of New HampshireAmerican social welfare, thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Social Security Act of 1935, is furthered currently by two major categories of cash support programs: social insurances? and public assistance. Social insurances are based on the prior earnings and payroll contributions of an individual, while public assistance, commonly known as “welfare,” is based on the financial need of an individual.
- Current Issues and Programs in Social Welfare: 2001 - 2017Note: This entry is an update to Dr. Marx's previous article, "Current Issues and Programs in Social Welfare." George W. Bush took office as the 43rd President of the United States in 2001. It was only the second time that the son of an American president had later also become president. Bush, a Republican like his father, had defeated Democratic candidate Al Gore from Tennessee in one of the closest and most contested presidential elections in U.S. history.
- Daniel Coit Gilman's Contributions to Social Work - Harris Chaiklin, Ph.D.This article brings the reader some evidence of social work history that has at the very least been neglected. Most people when asked who are the founders of social work were will mention Jane Addams, Mary Richmond, the Abbotts and maybe Ida Cannon, Charles Loring Brace and S. Humphreys Gurteen. The name of Daniel Coit Gilman is never included in the list of the greats. The case I shall make to you today is that his contributions to helping create the profession were at least as great as those still listed.
- Defining Community - Harris Chaiklin, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland School of Social WorkUntil the Civil War to be oriented to the community as a social reference was in conflict with Individualism which was the dominant American philosophy. The way these ideas played against each other illuminates an important part of the American experience, one that continues to be active today.
- Employment Services: A Brief HistoryPresident Warren Harding called a Conference on Unemployment in 1921. This Conference, of which Mr. Herbert Hoover (at that time Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce) was chairman...In commenting on the need for such a service, Secretary Hoover said, "One of the causes of ill will that weighs heavily upon the community is the whole problem of unemployment. I know of nothing [more important] than the necessity to develop further remedy, first, for the vast calamities of unemployment in the cyclic periods of depression, and, second, some assurance to the individual of reasonable economic security--to remove the fear of total family disaster in loss of the job. . . . I am not one who regards these matters as incalculable. . . There is a solution somewhere and its working out will be the greatest blessing yet given to our economic system, both to the employer and the employee."