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History of Social Welfare Policies & Programs Up to the 1930s

This guide focuses on resources that you can use when seeking information on the history of social welfare policies and programs in the U.S. up to the 1930s.

Target Populations: Veterans

Veterans Benefit History
Brief overview of benefits from the Revolutionary era to Vietnam. From PBS.
A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States.
Robert L. Clark, Lee A. Craig, and Jack W. Wilson. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. Available?
"American's First Social Security System: The Expansion of Benefits for Civil War Veterans,"
Theda Skocpol. Political Science Quarterly 108(1), Spring 1993, 85-116.
"Between 1880 and 1910, the U.S. federal government devoted over a quarter of its expenditure to pensions distributed among the populace...This article analyzes the political forces behind the growth of federal Civil War pensions...." Rutgers-restricted Access.
"Veterans Interests and the Transition to Government Growth: 1870-1915,"
Randall G. Holcombe. Public Choice 99 (3-4), June 1999, 311-326. Rutgers-restricted Access.
Bonus March, 1932
Newspaper clippings, correspondance, photographs, and other materials relating to the military dispersal of World War I veterans and their families who had set up an encampment in Washington in an attempt to pressure the government to redeem their bonus certificates.
"Terminating Entitlements: Veterans' Disability Denefits in the Depression,"
Mitchel B. Wallerstein. Policy Sciences 7(2), June 1976, 173-182.
Examines "a short-lived attempt to reduce entitlement benefits for veterans during the era of the Depression." Rutgers-restricted Access.