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To Promote the General Welfare
The Case for Big Government
Edited by Steven Conn
240 pages
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210x140mm
978-0-19-985855-2
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Paperback
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23 August 2012
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- America's foremost historians analyze the history of the most pressing current issues revolving around the federal government
- Forcefully makes the case for the active role of government in American life
- Well-balanced and serious consideration of the federal government's place in health care, security, finance, and infrastructure
Americans love to hate their government, and a long tradition of anti-government suspicion reaches back to debates among the founders of the nation. But the election of Barack Obama has created a backlash rivaled only by the anti-government hysteria that preceded the Civil War.
Lost in all the Tea Party rage and rhetoric is this simple fact: the federal government plays a central role in making our society function, and it always has. Edited by Steven Conn and written by some of America's leading scholars, the essays in To Promote the General Welfare explore the many
ways government programs have improved the quality of life in America. The essays cover everything from education, communication, and transportation to arts and culture, housing, finance, and public health. They explore how and why government programs originated, how they have worked and changed—and been challenged—since their inception, and why many of them are important to preserve.
The book shows how the WPA provided vital, in some cases career-saving, assistance to artists and writers like Jackson Pollock, Dorothea Lange, Richard Wright, John Cheever, and scores of others; how millions of students from diverse backgrounds have benefited and continue to benefit from the G.I. Bill, Fulbright scholarships, and federally insured student loans; and how the federal
government created an Interstate highway system unparalleled in the world, linking the entire nation. These are just a few examples of highly successful programs the book celebrates—and that anti-government critics typically ignore.
For anyone wishing to explore the flip side of today's vehement attacks on American government, To Promote the General Welfare is the best place to start.Readership: Trade readers with an interest in American political and social history, especially liberals looking for reading material in the 2012 election season; America history survey courses; courses on American politics, government, and policy; AP Government; AP American History
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Edited by Steven Conn, Professor and Director of Public History, Ohio State University, US Steven Conn is Professor and Director of Public History at Ohio State University. His books include Do Museums Still Need Objects?, Metropolitan Philadelphia: Living with the Presence of the Past, and History's Shadow: Native Americans and Historical Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century. He is the founding editor of the online magazine Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective. Contributors:
Brian Balogh, Compton Professor, Miller Center and Department of History, University of Virginia;
Kevin Boyle, Professor of History, Ohio State University; Michael S. Barr, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School; Steven Conn, Professor of History and Director of Public History, Ohio State University; Richard R. John, Professor of Journalism, Columbia University School of Journalism; Paul C. Light, Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service, Wagner School, New York University; Zachary M. Schrag, Associate Professor of History, George Mason University; Thomas J. Sugrue, David Boies Professor of History and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania; Karen Kruse Thomas, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Jon Zimmerman, Professor of Education and History, Steinhardt School, New York University
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Chapter 1: Looking for Government in All the Wrong Places
Brian Balogh
Chapter 2: From Franklin to Facebook: The Civic Mandate for American Communications
Richard R. John
Chapter 3: "Roads Will Everywhere Be Shortened": Transportation and the Uniting of the Nation
Zachary M. Schrag
Chapter 4: Banking on Government: The Federal Role in Credit, Finance and Banking
Michael S. Barr
Chapter 5: One Third of a Nation: Big Government and the Search for Security
Kevin Boyle
Chapter 6: How the Federal Government Built the American Dream
Thomas J. Sugrue
Chapter 7: From Hook Worm to HIV: Solving the Nation's Number One Health Problem(s)
Karen Kruse Thomas
Chapter 8: Uncle Sam at the Blackboard: The Federal Government and American Education
Jon Zimmerman
Chapter 9: Art and Culture in the Public Interest
Steven Conn
Chapter 10: Government's Greatest Hits in Peril
Paul C. Light
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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