America Before WelfareAmidst the current debates on the future of welfare, one voice has been conspicuously absent: that of the unemployed and underprivileged. The result of almost a half-century of research, America Before Welfare traces the leadership and activities of the unemployed from industrialization to the outbreak of World War II. It is at once a profound work of history and an anecdotal window onto America's past, in the days before FDR's New Deal. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 4 | |
| 17 | |
| 29 | |
| 43 | |
| 58 | |
| 83 | |
Red Flag in Tompkins Square 1874 | 108 |
Illustrations after page | 229 |
The Beginning of the Great Depression 1929 | 231 |
The Great Response March 6 1930 | 245 |
Unemployed Councils 19301936 | 261 |
SelfHelp 1931 | 277 |
The First National Hunger March December 1931 | 284 |
The Ford Hunger March March 7 1932 | 301 |
The Bonus March Summer 1932 | 310 |
From Arsenic to Arson 18731874 | 126 |
Dictator for a Season 1877 | 131 |
Black Flag in America 18831885 | 140 |
Anarchists and Agitators 18831893 | 148 |
Armies Form 1894 | 155 |
Illustrations after page | 168 |
More Armies 1894 | 169 |
Coxeys Army 1894 | 180 |
Hallelujah Im a Bum 1907 | 187 |
Pie in the Sky 1914 | 199 |
Fight and Live 19211929 | 217 |
Action Everywhere 1932 | 323 |
Socialists and the Workers Alliance | 340 |
The Army of the Aged 19331942 | 355 |
Huey Longs Share Our Wealth Movement 1934 | 368 |
The Campaign for Unemployment Insurance 1931 | 388 |
Federal Workers | 408 |
Illustrations after page | 431 |
Notes | 479 |
Index | 541 |
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Common terms and phrases
action activities American appeared army arrested asked became began Bill called Chicago City Hall committee Communist Company conference Congress continued convention crowd December delegates demand demonstration depression efforts elected employed federal force give hand head held History House Hunger immediate increased Industrial International January jobless labor labor movement later leaders League less living March marchers mass mayor meeting million months moved movement organization Party police political poor President Press problem produce projects proposed Publishers radical railroad relief reported response Senate social Socialist society soon Square streets thousands tion took turned unem Unemployed Council unemployment Union United University wages wanted Washington women workers World York
Popular passages
Page 187 - The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Page 295 - God, who hast created man in thy own image; Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil, and to make no peace with oppression ; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice among men and nations, to the glory of thy holy Name ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Page 235 - ... we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.
Page 284 - This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will...
Page 187 - ... the greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes is poverty, and that our first duty, to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor. "Poor but honest,
Page 110 - ... off, more or less depreciated in value, until production and exchange gradually begin to move again. Little by little the pace quickens. It becomes a trot. The industrial trot breaks into a canter, the canter in turn grows into the headlong gallop of a perfect steeplechase of industry, commercial credit, and speculation, which finally, after breakneck leaps, ends where it began — in the ditch of a crisis. And so over and over again.
Page 204 - You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky ; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
Page 214 - When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run, There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun. Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one? But the union makes us strong.
Page 83 - I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.
Page 294 - Arise, ye prisoners of starvation ! Arise, ye wretched of the earth, For justice thunders condemnation A better world's in birth.
References to this book
Prisoners of Want: The Experience and Protest of the Unemployed in France ... Matt Perry No preview available - 2007 |