40 results
Contributors
-
- By Mitchell Aboulafia, Frederick Adams, Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert M. Adams, Laird Addis, James W. Allard, David Allison, William P. Alston, Karl Ameriks, C. Anthony Anderson, David Leech Anderson, Lanier Anderson, Roger Ariew, David Armstrong, Denis G. Arnold, E. J. Ashworth, Margaret Atherton, Robin Attfield, Bruce Aune, Edward Wilson Averill, Jody Azzouni, Kent Bach, Andrew Bailey, Lynne Rudder Baker, Thomas R. Baldwin, Jon Barwise, George Bealer, William Bechtel, Lawrence C. Becker, Mark A. Bedau, Ernst Behler, José A. Benardete, Ermanno Bencivenga, Jan Berg, Michael Bergmann, Robert L. Bernasconi, Sven Bernecker, Bernard Berofsky, Rod Bertolet, Charles J. Beyer, Christian Beyer, Joseph Bien, Joseph Bien, Peg Birmingham, Ivan Boh, James Bohman, Daniel Bonevac, Laurence BonJour, William J. Bouwsma, Raymond D. Bradley, Myles Brand, Richard B. Brandt, Michael E. Bratman, Stephen E. Braude, Daniel Breazeale, Angela Breitenbach, Jason Bridges, David O. Brink, Gordon G. Brittan, Justin Broackes, Dan W. Brock, Aaron Bronfman, Jeffrey E. Brower, Bartosz Brozek, Anthony Brueckner, Jeffrey Bub, Lara Buchak, Otavio Bueno, Ann E. Bumpus, Robert W. Burch, John Burgess, Arthur W. Burks, Panayot Butchvarov, Robert E. Butts, Marina Bykova, Patrick Byrne, David Carr, Noël Carroll, Edward S. Casey, Victor Caston, Victor Caston, Albert Casullo, Robert L. Causey, Alan K. L. Chan, Ruth Chang, Deen K. Chatterjee, Andrew Chignell, Roderick M. Chisholm, Kelly J. Clark, E. J. Coffman, Robin Collins, Brian P. Copenhaver, John Corcoran, John Cottingham, Roger Crisp, Frederick J. Crosson, Antonio S. Cua, Phillip D. Cummins, Martin Curd, Adam Cureton, Andrew Cutrofello, Stephen Darwall, Paul Sheldon Davies, Wayne A. Davis, Timothy Joseph Day, Claudio de Almeida, Mario De Caro, Mario De Caro, John Deigh, C. F. Delaney, Daniel C. Dennett, Michael R. DePaul, Michael Detlefsen, Daniel Trent Devereux, Philip E. Devine, John M. Dillon, Martin C. Dillon, Robert DiSalle, Mary Domski, Alan Donagan, Paul Draper, Fred Dretske, Mircea Dumitru, Wilhelm Dupré, Gerald Dworkin, John Earman, Ellery Eells, Catherine Z. Elgin, Berent Enç, Ronald P. Endicott, Edward Erwin, John Etchemendy, C. Stephen Evans, Susan L. Feagin, Solomon Feferman, Richard Feldman, Arthur Fine, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, William FitzPatrick, Richard E. Flathman, Gvozden Flego, Richard Foley, Graeme Forbes, Rainer Forst, Malcolm R. Forster, Daniel Fouke, Patrick Francken, Samuel Freeman, Elizabeth Fricker, Miranda Fricker, Michael Friedman, Michael Fuerstein, Richard A. Fumerton, Alan Gabbey, Pieranna Garavaso, Daniel Garber, Jorge L. A. Garcia, Robert K. Garcia, Don Garrett, Philip Gasper, Gerald Gaus, Berys Gaut, Bernard Gert, Roger F. Gibson, Cody Gilmore, Carl Ginet, Alan H. Goldman, Alvin I. Goldman, Alfonso Gömez-Lobo, Lenn E. Goodman, Robert M. Gordon, Stefan Gosepath, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Daniel W. Graham, George A. Graham, Peter J. Graham, Richard E. Grandy, I. Grattan-Guinness, John Greco, Philip T. Grier, Nicholas Griffin, Nicholas Griffin, David A. Griffiths, Paul J. Griffiths, Stephen R. Grimm, Charles L. Griswold, Charles B. Guignon, Pete A. Y. Gunter, Dimitri Gutas, Gary Gutting, Paul Guyer, Kwame Gyekye, Oscar A. Haac, Raul Hakli, Raul Hakli, Michael Hallett, Edward C. Halper, Jean Hampton, R. James Hankinson, K. R. Hanley, Russell Hardin, Robert M. Harnish, William Harper, David Harrah, Kevin Hart, Ali Hasan, William Hasker, John Haugeland, Roger Hausheer, William Heald, Peter Heath, Richard Heck, John F. Heil, Vincent F. Hendricks, Stephen Hetherington, Francis Heylighen, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Risto Hilpinen, Harold T. Hodes, Joshua Hoffman, Alan Holland, Robert L. Holmes, Richard Holton, Brad W. Hooker, Terence E. Horgan, Tamara Horowitz, Paul Horwich, Vittorio Hösle, Paul Hoβfeld, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Frances Howard-Snyder, Anne Hudson, Deal W. Hudson, Carl A. Huffman, David L. Hull, Patricia Huntington, Thomas Hurka, Paul Hurley, Rosalind Hursthouse, Guillermo Hurtado, Ronald E. Hustwit, Sarah Hutton, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Harry A. Ide, David Ingram, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Alfred L. Ivry, Frank Jackson, Dale Jacquette, Joseph Jedwab, Richard Jeffrey, David Alan Johnson, Edward Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Richard Joyce, Hwa Yol Jung, Robert Hillary Kane, Tomis Kapitan, Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, James A. Keller, Ralph Kennedy, Sergei Khoruzhii, Jaegwon Kim, Yersu Kim, Nathan L. King, Patricia Kitcher, Peter D. Klein, E. D. Klemke, Virginia Klenk, George L. Kline, Christian Klotz, Simo Knuuttila, Joseph J. Kockelmans, Konstantin Kolenda, Sebastian Tomasz Kołodziejczyk, Isaac Kramnick, Richard Kraut, Fred Kroon, Manfred Kuehn, Steven T. Kuhn, Henry E. Kyburg, John Lachs, Jennifer Lackey, Stephen E. Lahey, Andrea Lavazza, Thomas H. Leahey, Joo Heung Lee, Keith Lehrer, Dorothy Leland, Noah M. Lemos, Ernest LePore, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Isaac Levi, Andrew Levine, Alan E. Lewis, Daniel E. Little, Shu-hsien Liu, Shu-hsien Liu, Alan K. L. Chan, Brian Loar, Lawrence B. Lombard, John Longeway, Dominic McIver Lopes, Michael J. Loux, E. J. Lowe, Steven Luper, Eugene C. Luschei, William G. Lycan, David Lyons, David Macarthur, Danielle Macbeth, Scott MacDonald, Jacob L. Mackey, Louis H. Mackey, Penelope Mackie, Edward H. Madden, Penelope Maddy, G. B. Madison, Bernd Magnus, Pekka Mäkelä, Rudolf A. Makkreel, David Manley, William E. Mann (W.E.M.), Vladimir Marchenkov, Peter Markie, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Ausonio Marras, Mike W. Martin, A. P. Martinich, William L. McBride, David McCabe, Storrs McCall, Hugh J. McCann, Robert N. McCauley, John J. McDermott, Sarah McGrath, Ralph McInerny, Daniel J. McKaughan, Thomas McKay, Michael McKinsey, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernan McMullin, Anthonie Meijers, Jack W. Meiland, William Jason Melanson, Alfred R. Mele, Joseph R. Mendola, Christopher Menzel, Michael J. Meyer, Christian B. Miller, David W. Miller, Peter Millican, Robert N. Minor, Phillip Mitsis, James A. Montmarquet, Michael S. Moore, Tim Moore, Benjamin Morison, Donald R. Morrison, Stephen J. Morse, Paul K. Moser, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Ian Mueller, James Bernard Murphy, Mark C. Murphy, Steven Nadler, Jan Narveson, Alan Nelson, Jerome Neu, Samuel Newlands, Kai Nielsen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Carlos G. Noreña, Calvin G. Normore, David Fate Norton, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Donald Nute, David S. Oderberg, Steve Odin, Michael O’Rourke, Willard G. Oxtoby, Heinz Paetzold, George S. Pappas, Anthony J. Parel, Lydia Patton, R. P. Peerenboom, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Adriaan T. Peperzak, Derk Pereboom, Jaroslav Peregrin, Glen Pettigrove, Philip Pettit, Edmund L. Pincoffs, Andrew Pinsent, Robert B. Pippin, Alvin Plantinga, Louis P. Pojman, Richard H. Popkin, John F. Post, Carl J. Posy, William J. Prior, Richard Purtill, Michael Quante, Philip L. Quinn, Philip L. Quinn, Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, Diana Raffman, Gerard Raulet, Stephen L. Read, Andrews Reath, Andrew Reisner, Nicholas Rescher, Henry S. Richardson, Robert C. Richardson, Thomas Ricketts, Wayne D. Riggs, Mark Roberts, Robert C. Roberts, Luke Robinson, Alexander Rosenberg, Gary Rosenkranz, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Adina L. Roskies, William L. Rowe, T. M. Rudavsky, Michael Ruse, Bruce Russell, Lilly-Marlene Russow, Dan Ryder, R. M. Sainsbury, Joseph Salerno, Nathan Salmon, Wesley C. Salmon, Constantine Sandis, David H. Sanford, Marco Santambrogio, David Sapire, Ruth A. Saunders, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Charles Sayward, James P. Scanlan, Richard Schacht, Tamar Schapiro, Frederick F. Schmitt, Jerome B. Schneewind, Calvin O. Schrag, Alan D. Schrift, George F. Schumm, Jean-Loup Seban, David N. Sedley, Kenneth Seeskin, Krister Segerberg, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Dennis M. Senchuk, James F. Sennett, William Lad Sessions, Stewart Shapiro, Tommie Shelby, Donald W. Sherburne, Christopher Shields, Roger A. Shiner, Sydney Shoemaker, Robert K. Shope, Kwong-loi Shun, Wilfried Sieg, A. John Simmons, Robert L. Simon, Marcus G. Singer, Georgette Sinkler, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matti T. Sintonen, Lawrence Sklar, Brian Skyrms, Robert C. Sleigh, Michael Anthony Slote, Hans Sluga, Barry Smith, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, Robert Sokolowski, Robert C. Solomon, Marta Soniewicka, Philip Soper, Ernest Sosa, Nicholas Southwood, Paul Vincent Spade, T. L. S. Sprigge, Eric O. Springsted, George J. Stack, Rebecca Stangl, Jason Stanley, Florian Steinberger, Sören Stenlund, Christopher Stephens, James P. Sterba, Josef Stern, Matthias Steup, M. A. Stewart, Leopold Stubenberg, Edith Dudley Sulla, Frederick Suppe, Jere Paul Surber, David George Sussman, Sigrún Svavarsdóttir, Zeno G. Swijtink, Richard Swinburne, Charles C. Taliaferro, Robert B. Talisse, John Tasioulas, Paul Teller, Larry S. Temkin, Mark Textor, H. S. Thayer, Peter Thielke, Alan Thomas, Amie L. Thomasson, Katherine Thomson-Jones, Joshua C. Thurow, Vzalerie Tiberius, Terrence N. Tice, Paul Tidman, Mark C. Timmons, William Tolhurst, James E. Tomberlin, Rosemarie Tong, Lawrence Torcello, Kelly Trogdon, J. D. Trout, Robert E. Tully, Raimo Tuomela, John Turri, Martin M. Tweedale, Thomas Uebel, Jennifer Uleman, James Van Cleve, Harry van der Linden, Peter van Inwagen, Bryan W. Van Norden, René van Woudenberg, Donald Phillip Verene, Samantha Vice, Thomas Vinci, Donald Wayne Viney, Barbara Von Eckardt, Peter B. M. Vranas, Steven J. Wagner, William J. Wainwright, Paul E. Walker, Robert E. Wall, Craig Walton, Douglas Walton, Eric Watkins, Richard A. Watson, Michael V. Wedin, Rudolph H. Weingartner, Paul Weirich, Paul J. Weithman, Carl Wellman, Howard Wettstein, Samuel C. Wheeler, Stephen A. White, Jennifer Whiting, Edward R. Wierenga, Michael Williams, Fred Wilson, W. Kent Wilson, Kenneth P. Winkler, John F. Wippel, Jan Woleński, Allan B. Wolter, Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Rega Wood, W. Jay Wood, Paul Woodruff, Alison Wylie, Gideon Yaffe, Takashi Yagisawa, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith E. Yandell, Xiaomei Yang, Dean Zimmerman, Günter Zoller, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert, Jack A. Zupko (J.A.Z.)
- Edited by Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
-
- Book:
- The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 August 2015
- Print publication:
- 27 April 2015, pp ix-xxx
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Contributors
-
- By Tod C. Aeby, Melanie D. Altizer, Ronan A. Bakker, Meghann E. Batten, Anita K. Blanchard, Brian Bond, Megan A. Brady, Saweda A. Bright, Ellen L. Brock, Amy Brown, Ashley Carroll, Jori S. Carter, Frances Casey, Weldon Chafe, David Chelmow, Jessica M. Ciaburri, Stephen A. Cohen, Adrianne M. Colton, PonJola Coney, Jennifer A. Cross, Julie Zemaitis DeCesare, Layson L. Denney, Megan L. Evans, Nicole S. Fanning, Tanaz R. Ferzandi, Katie P. Friday, Nancy D. Gaba, Rajiv B. Gala, Andrew Galffy, Adrienne L. Gentry, Edward J. Gill, Philippe Girerd, Meredith Gray, Amy Hempel, Audra Jolyn Hill, Chris J. Hong, Kathryn A. Houston, Patricia S. Huguelet, Warner K. Huh, Jordan Hylton, Christine R. Isaacs, Alison F. Jacoby, Isaiah M. Johnson, Nicole W. Karjane, Emily E. Landers, Susan M. Lanni, Eduardo Lara-Torre, Lee A. Learman, Nikola Alexander Letham, Rachel K. Love, Richard Scott Lucidi, Elisabeth McGaw, Kimberly Woods McMorrow, Christopher A. Manipula, Kirk J. Matthews, Michelle Meglin, Megan Metcalf, Sarah H. Milton, Gaby Moawad, Christopher Morosky, Lindsay H. Morrell, Elizabeth L. Munter, Erin L. Murata, Amanda B. Murchison, Nguyet A. Nguyen, Nan G. O’Connell, Tony Ogburn, K. Nathan Parthasarathy, Thomas C. Peng, Ashley Peterson, Sarah Peterson, John G. Pierce, Amber Price, Heidi J. Purcell, Ronald M. Ramus, Nicole Calloway Rankins, Fidelma B. Rigby, Amanda H. Ritter, Barbara L. Robinson, Danielle Roncari, Lisa Rubinsak, Jennifer Salcedo, Mary T. Sale, Peter F. Schnatz, John W. Seeds, Kathryn Shaia, Karen Shelton, Megan M. Shine, Haller J. Smith, Roger P. Smith, Nancy A. Sokkary, Reni A. Soon, Aparna Sridhar, Lilja Stefansson, Laurie S. Swaim, Chemen M. Tate, Hong-Thao Thieu, Meredith S. Thomas, L. Chesney Thompson, Tiffany Tonismae, Angela M. Tran, Breanna Walker, Alan G. Waxman, C. Nathan Webb, Valerie L. Williams, Sarah B. Wilson, Elizabeth M. Yoselevsky, Amy E. Young
- Edited by David Chelmow, Virginia Commonwealth University, Christine R. Isaacs, Virginia Commonwealth University, Ashley Carroll, Virginia Commonwealth University
-
- Book:
- Acute Care and Emergency Gynecology
- Published online:
- 05 November 2014
- Print publication:
- 30 October 2014, pp ix-xiv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Mapping collective behavior in the big-data era
- R. Alexander Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien, William A. Brock
-
- Journal:
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences / Volume 37 / Issue 1 / February 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 February 2014, pp. 63-76
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
The behavioral sciences have flourished by studying how traditional and/or rational behavior has been governed throughout most of human history by relatively well-informed individual and social learning. In the online age, however, social phenomena can occur with unprecedented scale and unpredictability, and individuals have access to social connections never before possible. Similarly, behavioral scientists now have access to “big data” sets – those from Twitter and Facebook, for example – that did not exist a few years ago. Studies of human dynamics based on these data sets are novel and exciting but, if not placed in context, can foster the misconception that mass-scale online behavior is all we need to understand, for example, how humans make decisions. To overcome that misconception, we draw on the field of discrete-choice theory to create a multiscale comparative “map” that, like a principal-components representation, captures the essence of decision making along two axes: (1) an east–west dimension that represents the degree to which an agent makes a decision independently versus one that is socially influenced, and (2) a north–south dimension that represents the degree to which there is transparency in the payoffs and risks associated with the decisions agents make. We divide the map into quadrants, each of which features a signature behavioral pattern. When taken together, the map and its signatures provide an easily understood empirical framework for evaluating how modern collective behavior may be changing in the digital age, including whether behavior is becoming more individualistic, as people seek out exactly what they want, or more social, as people become more inextricably linked, even “herdlike,” in their decision making. We believe the map will lead to many new testable hypotheses concerning human behavior as well as to similar applications throughout the social sciences.
More on maps, terrains, and behaviors
- R. Alexander Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien, William A. Brock
-
- Journal:
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences / Volume 37 / Issue 1 / February 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 February 2014, pp. 105-119
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
In a recent New York Times column (April 15, 2013), David Brooks discussed how the big-data agenda lacks a coherent framework of social theory – a deficiency that the Bentley, O'Brien, and Brock (henceforth BOB) model was meant to overcome. Or, stated less pretentiously, the model was meant as a first step in that direction – a map that hopefully would serve as a minimal, practical, and accessible framework that behavioral scientists could use to analyze big data. Rather than treating big data as a record of, and also a predictor of, where and when certain behaviors might take place, the BOB model is interested in what big data reveal about how decisions are being made, how collective behavior evolves from daily to decadal time scales, and how this varies across communities.
Todd L. Savitt, Medicine and slavery. The health care of blacks in antebellum Virginia, Urbana, Chicago, and London, University of Illinois Press, 1981 (first published 1978), 8vo, pp. [xiv], 332, £4.50 (paperback).
- William R. Brock
-
- Journal:
- Medical History / Volume 26 / Issue 4 / October 1982
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 16 August 2012, p. 486
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Export citation
Thomas J. Barron, Owen Dudley Edwards, and Patricia J. Storey (eds.), Constitutions and National Identity: Proceedings of the Conference held in honour of Professor George Shepperson at the University of Edinburgh, 3-6 July 1987 (Edinburgh: Quadriga, 1994, £20). Pp. 316. ISBN 1 85933 003 7.
- William R. Brock
-
- Journal:
- Journal of American Studies / Volume 29 / Issue 2 / August 1995
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 16 January 2009, pp. 328-330
- Print publication:
- August 1995
-
- Article
- Export citation
Contents
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp v-vi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
8 - Disarray
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 278-325
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The new situation created by the end of the FERA called for decisions and action at every level. The federal government had to bring the new WPA into operation, identify and place as many employables as possible, approve new work projects, and deal with complaints if states were unhappy about the transition. In a separate operation the federal government had to approve arrangements made by the states for categorical relief. The states had to decide whether to return all responsibility for relief to local units, give control to counties, retain (at least for a period) their emergency relief agencies, or consolidate all public assistance in one department of welfare. Final action in local units would depend upon state policy, but they would immediately be called upon to certify the eligibility of individuals for WPA employment or categorical assistance.
The central machinery for WPA administration presented few problems. The staff of the FERA was transferred to the new agency, and what remained of the FERA became a division of the WPA. Once the FERA had made its last grant in November 1935, its residual duties were to account for what had been spent and prepare statistical reports. In the states the WPA administration was almost as easy to establish. In most cases, the state emergency relief director was appointed as the WPA administrator, and though he might experience some awkwardness in reconciling his state and federal duties, most states cooperated eagerly in the expectation that they would be relieved of responsibility for employables.
7 - Retreat
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 250-277
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In January 1935 Howard Hunter, the able and vigorous field representative in Michigan, ran into trouble. Frank D. Fitzgerald, the newly elected Governor, proposed to abolish the State Relief Commission, transfer its powers to the Department of Public Welfare, wind up the county relief committees, and restore all relief responsibilities to county poor directors and township supervisors. Hunter told him that the FERA could not possibly agree to these changes. In an interview, Fitzgerald promised to make no move without notifying Hunter and admitted that he was less interested in changing the relief machinery than in replacing the people who were running it. He also denied any commitment to the old order and hinted that he might consider alternative modernization plans.
Hunter had no faith in conciliatory moves by a Governor who was, as he told Hopkins, “unbelievably reactionary,” opposed to the whole relief operation, and intent only on getting control of federal relief funds. Hunter took it upon himself to assure members of the State Relief Commission that the FERA would not allow their “really fine program” to be ruined by permitting relief “to be kicked back into the hands of the township supervisors and reactionary politicians.” He asked Hopkins to back his stand and “when it is necessary to state very emphatically, that in the event of attempts to transfer the Relief Administration to the political Welfare Department … we will grant our funds to a specifically appointed Federal agency in the State.”
6 - To aid the states
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 204-249
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Despite all the pressure that the FERA could exert, the bottom line was that it existed to give grants to the states. Once a state had received a grant, it controlled expenditure; state law defined the authority of relief agencies, executive orders were issued by the governor or by the relief director he had appointed; the legislature decided what money should be appropriated from state resources. Members of a state relief administration and county directors might tacitly acknowledge the FERA as their real superior; but they were servants of the state, derived their authority from its law, were bound to observe the authority of the governor, and might find their operations curtailed if the legislature failed to make an adequate appropriation.
This situation made the relationship between the FERA and state authorities uneasy and possibly hostile. Field representatives had to spend a great deal of time conciliating governors, finding ways of circumventing those who were unsympathetic or obstructive, or working out the best way of backing those who were cooperative but who faced opposition. State relief directors were usually ready to follow the FERA guidelines, but if disputes arose they were fully entitled, as state officials, to resist federal directives. County commissions and township boards might have failed in the task of providing adequate relief, but they retained powers derived from state laws or constitutions. Most frustrating of all, for the FERA and its local allies, was inaction or obstructive action by majorities in the state legislatures.
3 - The impact of depression
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 84-126
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Contemporaries could not be blamed for the failure to foresee the unprecedented length and severity of the Great Depression triggered by the stock market crash of November 1929. The depression of the 1870s was ancient history and could be attributed to the malfunctioning of an immature economy. The older men in public life could recall the year 1893, when business activity was at a peak in January and fell steadily to its lowest point in June 1894, when the recovery that then began was complete by December 1895. Unemployment had not become serious until the depression had run for seven months and began to pick up four to five months later. In 1907 there had been a peak in January, the trough was reached in June 1908, but recovery took business activity to a new peak in January 1910. Industrial unemployment was severe only in the twelve months beginning in October 1907. The depression of 1920–1, though sharp, had been even shorter.
Drawing upon this experience, a reasonably pessimistic analyst in the spring of 1930 might have predicted a severe depression touching bottom in the spring or early summer of 1931 and ending early in 1932. Was the pattern likely to be distorted by the unprecedented losses sustained in the Wall Street crash? “Blood letting” was a phrase much on the lips of those whose business it was to know; unwise speculation and the erection of towering financial structures on insecure foundations were blamed; the losses were supposed to have left untouched the underlying strength of the economy.
4 - Federal relief
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 127-170
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
There was no serious discussion of federal aid before the winter of 1930–1. In Congress ten bills, of which the majority favored federal grants for relief in the worst hit areas, to be administered by the Red Cross (following the precedent of federal aid for victims of drought, earthquakes, or other disasters), sank without a trace. In the unlikely event that a bill of this type passed Congress, it faced a certain veto. Hoover did not rule out the possibility of federal aid in the last resort, but the reports reaching the POUR were almost unanimous in claiming that states and localities could get through on their own resources.
Men and women in close touch with relief work in the cities moved more rapidly to welcome outside help. The reaction of the more cautious among them is evident in speeches made to the National Conference of Social Work in 1930 and 1931 by C. M. Bookman, director of social agencies and of the Community Chest in Cincinnati. In 1930 he gave an account of the work of private charities in the city and stressed the importance of voluntary action, provided that it was well organized. A year later his concern was with the limitations of voluntary effort. In Cincinnati about one-third of the unemployed were by then dependent on relief and absorbing all the resources and energies of the agencies.
Preface
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp vii-vii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In 1984 I published a book on the agencies and activities of the American states in the late nineteenth century. It was my original intention to make a similar study for the years of the Great Depression, but a preliminary survey convinced me that it would be more rewarding to limit the investigation to federal and state welfare policies, with special reference to those concerned with the relief of unemployment. They added a new element to the functions of government, transferred responsibilities that had been exclusively local to the states and the nation, and challenged traditional attitudes toward poverty and distress.
The relief of unemployment also brought to light a basic dilemma of reform in a democratic society. The new policies were initiated and largely controlled by professional social workers and welfare administrators who had been elected to no offices. The principal obstacles to humane and efficient administration were raised by elected officials and legislators: Who had the right to insist? Who had the right to refuse?
The materials for a study such as this are voluminous. Every state has a story to tell, and the papers of many men and women in public life throw light on problems and events. Selection must be made, and an author can hope no more than that his choice will be deemed judicious.
Research in the United States was made possible by a generous grant from the British Academy. In Great Britain the sources for the study of the United States in the twentieth century are greater than is sometimes imagined.
9 - Debits and credits
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 326-369
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
When the National Conference of Social Work met in 1940, a wide review of the past, present, and future of public relief was on the agenda. Harry Greenstein, the former state relief administrator for Maryland, declared:
When the Federal Government took the position that direct relief was the primary responsibility of state and local governments, something vital was taken out of the relief program.
The result had been “a low grade of pauper treatment over wide areas” and, for those not employed by the WPA, “a precarious existence dependent upon inadequate and often non-existent local resources.”
Edith Abbott called her address to the same meeting “Relief, the No Man's Land and How to Reclaim It” but could see no hope of improvement without federal intervention. Using different imagery she spoke to the Illinois Conference on Social Welfare on “the disinherited relief program”:
The tenth summer is over – the tenth harvest is gathered – and we are still here – after ten years – with relief never more inadequate than it is at the present time. Things have gone steadily from bad to worse since the fatal decision about “ending this business of relief” was made by the federal government in 1935.
To illustrate the point she cited figures from Chicago. In the early days of the FERA, the average home relief per case had been $32.75 a month; it rose to $40.28 during 1934, then fell to $28.52 in 1937 and to $23.54 by 1939.
1 - A view from the peak of prosperity
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 7-49
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The Great Depression presented an unprecedented challenge to American institutions and assumptions, and in no sphere were the consequences more profound than in the treatment of poverty and destitution. To the men and women who sought quick relief for people in distress the response seemed to be exasperatingly slow; in retrospect the speed of change was remarkable. Public responsibility for the consequences of economic failure was recognized; functions that had been exclusively local were assumed by states; national agencies carried national power into areas hitherto reserved for the states; and if new ideas about the nature of poverty continued to rest on insecure philosophic foundations, old ideas were discarded.
The magnitude of the change raises perennial questions of continuity and discontinuity, of tradition and innovation, of survivals and new departures. How far were the changes, made in response to economic disaster, the acceleration of existing trends? Were they newly planted or did they grow from seeds sown in earlier years? Was there a break with the past or merely readjustment to changed circumstances?
There has been much discussion of the extent to which the New Deal was anticipated by Herbert Hoover's administration, but rather less of the relationship between the 1930s and the preceding decade. In the popular view the 1920s are still seen as the last and discredited gasp of an old order, a time of reaction and complacency, of froth and heedless optimism, the years that the locust had eaten.
5 - Parallel government
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 171-203
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The New Deal carried federal administration to the roots of American society. Activities that had never before been the concern of the national government came under federal scrutiny and local autonomy contracted. Although federal officials seldom possessed executive power in the states and formal respect was paid to local responsibility, a system of parallel government developed in which traditional authorities continued to function but the most important decisions were made in Washington. Nowhere was parallel government so clearly illustrated as in relief administration.
The new act followed closely the original LaFollette-Costigan bill, but with the modifications suggested by Hopkins and endorsed by Roosevelt. The RFC was authorized to borrow $500,000,000 for relief, but expenditure from this fund was the exclusive responsibility of a new Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). A grant of $200,000,000 was allocated to the states, each receiving a grant equal to one-third of its expenditure on relief during the preceding three months. The allocation by population had been dropped and relief expenditure emerged as the basic measure of need. Subsequent interpretation of this section made it clear that only the expenditure of public money could be taken into account, but that loans received from the RFC could be included. The remaining $300,000,000 (significantly, it was now the larger portion) formed a fund at the disposal of the federal relief administrator from which he could make discretionary grants “sufficient to provide an adequate standard of relief.”
Abbreviations
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp viii-viii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
2 - Local responsibility
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 50-83
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Government
After a lifetime of public service, experience of revolution in two countries, two terms as President, and frequent occasions to reflect on the political structure of nations, Thomas Jefferson declared that the establishment of small political units was “the most fundamental measure for securing good government, and for installing the principle and exercise of self-government into the fiber of every member of our commonwealth.” He maintained that the township of New England was “the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government and for its preservation.” Nor need administrative efficiency be sacrificed to promote political training, for “in government as well as in every other business of life, it is by subdivision of duties alone, that all matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection.”
Alexis de Tocqueville agreed that the secret of just government was the proliferation of self-governing political units, and asserted that without them a nation might possess the forms of free government but lack the spirit of liberty. Half a century later, James Bryce reaffirmed Jefferson's praise for the New England town and its town meeting. Of all of the forms of local government, it was the “cheapest and most efficient … the most educative to the citizens who bear a part in it.” In one short sentence, Bryce summed up a great American tradition: “The Town meeting has been not only the source but the school of American democracy.”
Index
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp 370-376
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Frontmatter
- William R. Brock
-
- Book:
- Welfare, Democracy and the New Deal
- Published online:
- 07 December 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 July 1988, pp i-iv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation