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Title: reflects American social attitudes
Review: Jansson describe the evolution of the US welfare state over 200 hundreds. He shows how it grew from the frontier mentality that so shaped American society and thought. Then, going into the Progressive Era and into the Great Depression and the New Deal, we see how the society adapted to changing expectations of need. Aided by a continually rising productivity that enabled the country to be able to afford ever more generous welfare.But going into more recent times, under Clinton and then Bush, we see struggles over such things as universal health care. While considered common in Europe, in the US, this was strongly beaten back.The book ends with speculations as to the future directions of welfare, especially under Republican administrations. Not the sort of thing to thrill a leftwinger! But American society tends to be far more conservative than the Europeans, so this should be no surprise.
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