The sympathetic state : disaster relief and the origins of the American welfare state / Michele Landis Dauber.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Disaster relief and the welfare state -- Building the sympathetic state -- Innovations -- The spreading delta -- Crafting the Depression -- The bomb-proof power -- The well-beaten path -- We lost our all -- Living in a sympathetic state.

Print version record.

Even as unemployment rates soared during the Great Depression, FDR's relief and social security programmes faced attacks in Congress and the courts on the legitimacy of federal aid to the growing population of poor. In response, New Dealers pointed to a long tradition - dating back to 1790 and now largely forgotten - of federal aid to victims of disaster. In 'The Sympathetic State', Michele Landis Dauber recovers this crucial aspect of American history, tracing the roots of the modern American welfare state beyond the New Deal and the Progressive Era back to the earliest days of the republic when relief was forthcoming for the victims of wars, fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

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