A Synopsis of this Web Site Dedicated to the History of American Social Welfare

By: John E. Hansan, Ph.D.

"Note: The Social Welfare History Web site is a project supported financially by the Hansan Family Foundation, McLean, VA. The Web site was designed and initially developed by John E. Hansan, Ph.D. as an electronic prototype dedicated to the History of American Social Welfare. A short time later, an Advisory Committee composed of distinguished social welfare historians and scholars was recruited (see below). With the volunteer assistance and guidance of the Advisory Committee members, the Web site evolved into its present condition."

Introduction: The technological sophistication of the Internet and the World Wide Web offer a unique set of tools with which to identify, collect, integrate, and attractively display the rich and vibrant complexity represented by our nation’s social welfare policies and programs and how they touch the lives of all Americans. Current Internet technology affords the opportunity to examine the overall historical context of an issue or an event from multiple perspectives and to present it in a way that is both accessible and engaging to the public. Though designed for the general public, the Web site will include links to pertinent archives, libraries, scholarly Web sites, and other sources of reliable information about a particular historical subject, event or personage. The major components of the Web site will include: Historical Eras, Events, Social Welfare Organizations, Programs and Personages.

Social welfare lacks the prominence given to other sectors of our society like economics, science, politics, education, and medicine, each of which is the subject of intensive historical study and analysis. Part of the reason for this may be the fact that social welfare does not have a clear and distinct history; nor does it have any large natural constituencies championing its study or promotion. Our nation’s social welfare programs have evolved and taken shape largely as a result of economic, political, cultural and religious forces that have interacted, sometimes violently, over 350 years. The absence of a more rigorous study of American social welfare may also be attributed to the fact the myriad personal, social and economic conditions that concern social welfare workers and public and nonprofit social welfare organizations are matters that the more favored parts of the population may not want to think about until they are confronted with a social or economic condition over which they have little or no control, e.g., Hurricane Katrina, plant closings, the birth of a disabled child, or the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in a loved one.

Eventually, this Web site will reflect not just historical glory and greatness, but also the omissions or commissions of hurt, (such as discrimination toward women and minorities, stigmatizing treatment of persons with physical and mental disabilities, etc.). The contents of the Web site will grow and expand over time; and, it is our goal that it will include a balanced perspective, including the conflicts, tensions and shortcomings that are a significant part of American social welfare history.

Social Welfare History Project Scholars Advisory Committee

Allida Black, Ph.D., Research Professor of History & International Affairs, George Mason University and Director and Editor, The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers. The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers is a project designed to preserve, teach and apply Eleanor Roosevelt’s writings and discussions of human rights and democratic politics. Professor Black is the recipient of the Millennium Medal from The George Washington University, the 2001 Person of Vision Award from the Arlington County Commission on the Status of Women, and the James A Jordan Award for Outstanding Dedication and Excellence in Teaching from Penn State University, Harrisburg. She has received the JNG Finley Postdoctoral Fellowship at George Mason University, a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as fellowships from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Harry Truman Foundation, and the United States Information Agency. She received her Ph.D. from the George Washington University in 1993. Her publications include four books — Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism (Columbia University Press, November 1995), "What I Want to Leave Behind:"Democracy and the Selected Articles of Eleanor Roosevelt (Carlson Publishing, April 1995); Courage In A Dangerous World: The Political Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt (Columbia University Press, 1999), and with Jewel Fenzi, Democratic Women: An Oral History of the Women’s National Democratic Club (WNDC Educational Foundation, 2000) and as well as a variety of articles. Columbia University Press will publish and First Women: Power, Image and Politics from Betty Ford through Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2005. Oxford University Press will publish E.R.: Eleanor Roosevelt, Politics and the Dream of Democracy and is negotiating contracts for two classroom readers on human rights.

Edward Berkowitz, Ph. D., Professor of History and Public Policy and Public Administration and Director of the Program in History and Public Policy, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. His areas of expertise include disability and social security. Among his recent publications are: Robert Ball and the Politics of Social Security; America's Welfare State: From Roosevelt to Reagan; Rehabilitation: The Federal Government's Response to Disability; and Editor of Social Security After Fifty: Successes and Failures.

Harris Chaiklin, Ph.D., is Professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School Of Social Work; and he has also been a Fulbright scholar and visiting professor at Haifa University School of Social Work. His teaching specialties centered on the social aspects of practice and research. His research interests are in practice relating to crime and delinquency, the family, poverty, health, and history. He has published more than 60 articles and evaluation reports on these subjects. Recent articles include: The Elderly Disturbed Prisoner." Clinical Gerontologist; “Needed: More Education for Social Work Practice in Criminal Justice” Journal of Law and Social Work; “Current and Prior Mental Health Treatment of Jail Inmates: The Use of the Jail as an Alternative Shelter” Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless; “Franklin Benjamin Sanborn: Human Services Innovator.” Research on Social Work Practice.”

Clarke A. Chambers is a historian, educator, author, and founder of the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota and author of "Seedtime of Reform: American Social Service and Social Action, 1918-1933." Teaching at the University of Minnesota for his entire career, he pioneered in developing social welfare history within the graduate curriculum in both history and social work; he studied the development of the voluntary social welfare sector in the United States before many historians recognized it as a legitimate field for study and supported many other researchers in their work.

Larry W. Dewitt is the Historian at the U. S. Social Security Administration. He was a Fellow at the Council for Excellence in Government during 1993–1994, and is a member of the Society for History in the Federal Government and the Organization of American Historians. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1998, Mr. DeWitt received his B.S. in psychology from Northern Arizona University and did graduate work in History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University. He completed his M.A. in Historical Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and is currently a doctoral student in Public Policy, also at UMBC. He is the co-editor of an important reference work on Social Security, "Social Security: A Documentary History," published in 2008 by Congressional Quarterly Press. He is also the creator of one of the largest history-related Web sites in the federal government (http://www.socialsecurity.gov).

Robert Fisher, Ph.D., is Professor of Social Work at the University of Connecticut. His areas of expertise are social history and community organization. His most recent books are a co-authored monograph, Contesting Community: The Limits and Potential of Local Organizing (2010) and an edited work, The People Shall Rule: ACORN, Community Organizing, and the Struggle for Economic Justice (2009). Prior books include Settlement Houses Under Siege: The Struggle to Sustain Community Organizations in New York City (2002) and Let The People Decide: Neighborhood Organizing in America (1994).

Charles Garvin, Ph.D. received his Master's in Social Work (1951) and his Ph.D. (1968) from the University of Chicago. He worked as a group worker for Chapin Hall (Chicago)in 1951, Henry Booth House (Chicago) 1954-1956 and the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago (1956-1963). He was a Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan (1965-2002) where he taught group work as well as other courses. He is the author of 3 editions of the book Contemporary Group Work, as well as Social Work in Contemporary Society (with John Tropman) and Interpersonal Practice in Social Work (with Brett Seabury). He is the editor (with Lorraine Gutierrez and Maeda Galinsky) of the Handbook of Social Work with Groups and of Handbook of Direct Practice in Social Work (with Paula Allen Meares). He has written over 50 articles and book chapters, many of these on group work. He is a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups and was the first president after that organization replaced the Committee for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups. he is a life member of the board of the Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups. He is currently doing research on a group work model to train high school students to take leadership in resolving inter-group conflicts.

Linda Gordon, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor of history at New York University, New York, NY and recipient of many awards and honors. She is also a Fellow, Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library, 2004-05. Her areas of expertise include orphans and single mothers. Recent books by Dr. Gordon include: The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction; Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America; Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the Origins of Welfare. She is now working on a study of the photographer Dorothea Lange and the political culture of the New Deal and World War II.

Ellen Herman, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of History University of Oregon. Dr. Herman is a historian of the modern United States who is especially interested in the human sciences, social engineering, and therapeutic culture. She wrote a book on the impact of psychology on public policy and culture during and after World War II: The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts. Currently, Dr. Herman is completing work on a book about child adoption during the twentieth century. Dr. Herman also designed and maintains the Web site: The Adoption History Project. Her Web site is devoted to making adoption history accessible and interesting to visitors who may not be aware that adoption has a history at all.

June Hopkins, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Head of History Department, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA. Dr. Hopkins received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, her M.P.A. from Pace University, her M.A. from California State University, Northridge, and her Ph.D. from Georgetown University. She specializes in U.S. social history with emphasis on welfare history, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. Her book, entitled "Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer," was published in February 1999. "Jewish first wife, divorced": The Correspondence of Ethel Gross and Harry Hopkins, a joint project with Allison Giffen, Assistant Professor of American Literature at New Mexico State University, was published in January 2003. Note: Dr. Hopkins is the granddaughter of Harry L. Hopkins, the architect of the New Deal and a confidante of President Frankliin D. Roosevelt.

Michael Katz, Ph.D. is Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and a Research Associate in the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Katz’s work has focused on three major areas: the history of American education (The Irony of Early School Reform; Class, Bureaucracy, and Schools: The Illusion of Educational Change in America; Reconstructing American Education; the history of urban social structure and family organization (The People of Hamilton, Canada West: Family and Class in a Mid-Nineteenth Century; The Social Organization of Early Industrial Capitalism; and the history of social welfare and poverty (Poverty and Policy in American History; In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America.

Alice Kessler-Harris, Ph.D. is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History, Columbia University, New York, NY. Professor Kessler-Harris specializes in the history of American labor and the comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of women and gender. Her published works include Women Have Always Worked: A Historical Overview; Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States; and A Woman's Wage: Historical Meanings and Social Consequences. She is co-editor of Protecting Women: Labor Legislation in Europe, Australia, and the United States, 1880-1920; and U.S. History as Women's History. Her newest book, In Pursuit of Equity: How Gender Shaped American Economic Citizenship has won several prizes.

David Klaassenis the Curator/Archivist for the Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries. Selected publications include: "The Archives of Social Welfare in the United States, in Paul Stuart and John Herrick, eds., Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History (Sage, 2004); "The Archives of Social Welfare," in Richard L. Edwards, ed., Encyclopedia of Social Work , 19th ed. (Washington: NASW Press, 1995) 225-231; "The Archival Intersection: Cooperation Between Collecting Repositories and Nonprofit Organizations," Midwestern Archivist 15:1 (1990): 25-38; "`The Deserving Poor': Beginnings of Organized Charity in Minneapolis," Hennepin County History 47:2 (Spring 1988): 15-25; "Achieving Balanced Documentation: Social Services from a Consumer Perspective," Midwestern Archivist 11:1 (1986): 111-124.

Leslie Leighninger, DSW, is an Emerita Professor of Social Work at Arizona State University. Dr. Leighninger’s major areas of research include: Social Work and Social Welfare History, Social Welfare Policy, Women and Minority Issues. She has published books, articles and chapters on social policy of the New Deal, social work and public welfare policy in the 1960's, women and minorities in social work, and radical social work movements in the 1930's. Recent publications include: Social Work, Social Welfare, and American Society, 6th ed, 2005; The Policy-Based Profession: An Introduction to Social Welfare Policy for Social Workers, 4th edition (forthcoming, 2006); Social Work: Search for Identity (a history of professionalization in social work from the Progressive Era through the 1960's).

Kriste Lindemeyer, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, History Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD. Dr. Lindemeyer’s areas of expertise are childhood in the United States during the 20th Century and the U.S. Children’s Bureau. Her recent books include: The Greatest Generation Grows Up: Childhood in 1930s America; Co-author with Joseph M. Hawes: Historical Overview of Children and Childhood in the United States During the 20th Century; A Right to Childhood: The U.S. Children's Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912-1946; and Editor. Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: Women in American History.

Jerry D. Marx, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of New Hampshire Social Work Department. Dr. Marx’s interest in social welfare history is reflected in his publications: Social Welfare: The American Partnership and a number of refereed journal publications: Carter, VB & Marx, JD (submitted April 2005). African American and White charitable giving patterns: A national sample. Administration In Social Work; Marx, J.D. & Hopper, F. (2005). Faith-based vs. Fact-based Social Policy: The Case of Teen Pregnancy Prevention. Social Work, 50(3), 280-282; Marx, J.D. (2000). Women and Human Services Giving. Social Work, 45(1), 27-38.

Sonya Michel, Ph.D., Professor, American Studies and History, University of Maryland. Her research areas include gender and social policy in the U.S. and in comparative perspective, and she is particularly interested in the relationship between the public and private sectors and social provision. Among her publications are Children’s Interests/Mothers’Rights: The Shaping of America’s Child Care Policy; Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (co-edited with Seth Koven), and Child Care Policy at the Crossroads: Gender and Welfare State Restructuring (co-edited with Rianne Mahon). She is a founding co-editor of the journal Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society. In 2005-6, she is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where she is completing a study with the working title "Old-Age Insecurity: Instability and Inequity in America's Public-Private Welfare State."

Wilma Peebles-Wilkins, Ph.D., is a professor at the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University. She served for several years as Dean, Boston University School of Social Work, Boston, MA. Dr. Peebles-Wilkins has written and published extensively on the history of Blacks in American social welfare. Among her publications are: Janie Porter Barrett and the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls: Community Response to the Needs of African American Children; African American Leadership in Social Welfare History: An Empowerment Tradition; and Twenty-one biographical essays on African Americans in the NASW Encyclopedia of Social Work.

Patrick Selmi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of South Carolina, College of Social Work, Columbia, SC. Selected Publications in the history of social welfare include: Selmi, P. In Search of Social Change: Radicalism, Pragmatism, and the Development of American Social Work, 1889-1980 (under contract, Columbia University Press). Selmi, P., Hunter, R. Beyond the Rank and File Movement: Mary van Kleeck and Social Work Radicalism in the Great Depression, 1931-1942 (Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare). Young, D., & Selmi, P. Experiencing Social Work History: New York City as Case Study (Arete, in press). Farber, N. & Selmi, P. (eds). Classics in Social Work Theory and Practice. (under review, Lyceum Press). Selmi, P. Jane Addams, Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party Campaign of 1912 (in process).

David Stoesz, Ph.D., Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work and Executive Director, policyAmerica (www.policyAmerica.org). Selected publications: Quixote’s Ghost: The Right, the Liberati, and the Future of Social Policy; American Social Welfare Policy, 5th ed. (with H. Karger); A Poverty of Imagination: Bootstrap Capitalism, Sequel to Welfare Reform.

Paul H. Stuart, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the School of Social Work, Florida International University, Miami. He is the co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005). His fields of interest include the history of social work and social welfare; federal Indian policy; his publications include: Paul H. Stuart, "Historical Research," in Social Work Research and Evaluation: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, edited by Richard M. Grinnell, Jr., and Yvonne A. Unrau, 7th edition. (New York Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 329-338. John M. Herrick and Paul H. Stuart, eds., Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005); Paul H. Stuart, "Individualization and Prevention: Richard C. Cabot and Early Medical Social Work," Social Work in Mental Health, vol. 2, no. 2/3 (2004), pp. 7-20. Paul H. Stuart, "Social Welfare and Rural People: From the Colonial Era to the Present," in Rural Social Work: Building and Sustaining Community Assets, edited by T. Laine Scales and Calvin L. Streeter. (Belmont,CA: Books/Cole, 2004), pp.21-33; and Paul H. Stuart, “Linking Clients and Policy: Social Work’s Distinctive Contribution,” Social Work 44 (July 1999): 335-348.

Jake Terpstra , ACSW is a retired child welfare specialist. Mr. Terpstra graduated from Calvin College in Michigan and the University of Michigan school of social work. His employment in Michigan included two years as a county child welfare worker, two years as director of the Washtenaw county juvenile detention home, when he also was a court referee, four years as director of a private residential treatment program, and 13 years in State licensing of child welfare services, much of it as director of the Division of Child Welfare Licensing. During that time he was active in the Michigan Association of Children’s Agencies, including a term as president. With the deputy juvenile court administrator of the State Supreme Court he developed the state’s juvenile detention association, that later became national. In 1976 Mr. Terpstra was appointed as the licensing specialist for the U.S. Children’s Bureau. With staff reductions, the specialties of residential childcare and family foster care were added later to his responsibilities. He provided information and assistance to child welfare agencies in the states and some other countries. He wrote over 20 published articles. He retired in 1997, but continues to be active in child welfare activities, including serving on a child welfare committee of the Michigan chapter of NASW, and the editorial review boards of Residential Treatment For Children and Youth and the Journal of Public Child Welfare.

Betsy Schaefer Vourlekis, Ph.D. is professor emeritus of social work at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She received her B.A. from Harvard University, majoring in East Asian History, MSW from Columbia University, and Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Maryland, College Park. She practiced psychiatric social work at St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC, and was staff director for Health and Mental Health at the National Association of Social Workers prior to joining Maryland’s faculty in 1988. She served on the NIMH Task Force on Social Work Research (1988-1991) and chaired the follow-up National Implementation Committee (1991-1993). She was the project consultant and field researcher for NASW’s Clinical Indicator Guideline project that developed quality improvement monitoring indicators for social work/psychosocial services in medical and psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, dialysis centers, and home health agencies. She has worked extensively with health and mental health social work groups to design internal program evaluation tools that improve visibility and accountability for their practice. She was co-principle investigator on intervention research projects testing case management to improve adherence to diagnostic follow-up and adjuvant treatment in breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment, funded by the CDC and the NIH’s National Cancer Institute. Her historical research focuses on social work in the mental health arena.

Joan Oppenheimer Weiss, ACSW, LCSW, is an NASW Social Work Pioneer. Joan Weiss is a leader in the field of genetics and social work. During her career, spanning nearly four decades, she has been a very effective advocate for individuals with genetic disorders and her work and contributions are on the leading edge of genetic research. A leading spokesperson for the role of social work in the growing field of genetic research and education, Ms. Weiss has provided numerous lectures and workshops in the United States and Europe and has published several books in the field of genetics and social work.Ms. Weiss was a founder and first executive director of the Alliance of Genetic Support Groups, a major umbrella group for voluntary genetic organizations across the country. She also served as the co-director of the Human Genome Education Model (HuGEM) Project. HuGEM is an internationally recognized genetics education project for health professionals that seek to include consumers at all levels of policy, education, and research.