Book review of Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor, A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers\u27 Compensation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. $37.50 hardcove

Larrison, Christopher R.

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 29 Issue 1 March - Symposium on Native American Wellness Article 14 March 2002 Review of A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation. Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor. Review by Christopher R. Larrison Christopher R. Larrison University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Social Policy Commons, Social Welfare Commons, and the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Larrison, Christopher R. (2002) "Review of A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation. Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor. Review by Christopher R. Larrison," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 29 : Iss. 1 , Article 14. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol29/iss1/14 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Social Work at ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. Book Reviews 185have good jobs which would sustain their lives and give themdignity. The transition from the Federal Emergency Relief Ad-ministration (FERA) to the Works Progress Administration(WPA)which offered jobs and wages was a natural progression for manyNew Dealers. Though not an historian, Hickok's lively writings,despite her biases, can serve as an informative and invaluablehistory of the early New Deal. The editors' work in compilingHickok's reports is commendable and the University of IllinoisPress's reprinting of this book is especially timely given currentdebates about the purpose and function of federally directedpublic welfare programs and services.John M. HerrickMichigan State UniversityPrice V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor, A Prelude to theWelfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2000. $37.50 hardcoverIn A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compen-sation Fishback and Kantor claim to "offer an alternative interpre-tation of the success of workers' compensation that builds on andenhances the analysis of earlier scholars." (p. 198). The authors'substantial, well-written, and compelling book does just that,integrating their earlier work concerning workers' compensationwith the writings of other thoughtful scholars. The end result isan in-depth analysis of how workers' compensation was createdand initially implemented in the United States at the beginningof the twentieth century.The overall structure of the book, eight chapters and elevenappendices, allows for either a medium or in-depth reading.In total there are 316 pages of which 203 are the eight-chapterheart of the book. The layout of the chapters, an introductionwrapped around an example vignette, the concise defining ofkey players, the identification of the questions to be answeredduring the chapter, supporting evidence, findings, and summaryprovide a clean structure. The footnoting is lavish, with the useof multiple parallel examples that augment and support the au-thors' primary points. The appendices offer the kind of detailed186 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfareinformation sought by individuals interested in a critical analysisof any scholar's work.The backbone of Fishback and Kantor's book is the sampleof data and statistical analysis, which bring to life the creationand early implementation of workers' compensation. The com-prehensive quantitative data, which is from a number of differentfederal, state, and private sources, is matched with elaborate anddetailed qualitative data. The combination of strong quantitativeanalysis and well-organized example vignettes and case studiesallows the reader to move from the personal to policy and backwith ease.The first three chapters of the book are spent carefully iden-tifying and explaining how "the legislation [workers' compen-sation] evolved from the mutual desire of workers, employers,and insurers to resolve problems with workplace accident lia-bility that had developed in the first decade of the twentiethcentury." (p. 199). The quantitative data show how the variousinterests represented by employers, workers, and insurers stoodto benefit under workers' compensation. As well, the data showhow the old negligence liability system, which relied upon thethree judicial defenses of assumption of risk (unspoken ex antecontracts in the form of higher wages in exchange for increasedwork place risk), fellow servant (coworkers was at fault for harm),and contributory negligence (harm self inflicted) was becomingan increasingly ineffective policy for employers and workers.The data convincingly demonstrate why the idea of workers'compensation attracted a "broad-based coalition of divergentinterests"(p. 136) and the authors' contentions are well foundedbased on the evidence presented.The last four chapters of the book (Chapter 8 is an epilogue)are spent examining the complex wrangling between interestgroups and politicians that occurs when legislation is in the pro-cess of adoption, even if it has broad-based support. In thesechapters the qualitative data, which comes in the form of indi-vidual state case studies are used to delineated how states sharedseveral features as well as how they were divergent in theirprocess of adopting workers' compensation. The data confirmstates differed significantly based on a variety of variables thatwere influenced by the unique political environment of eachstate. The authors organize and discuss the complex relationshipsBook Reviews 187highlighted in the case study data in a digestible and interestingfashion. For example, they use the implementation of workers'compensation to examine the sticky question of whether broadbased political movements or narrowly focused economic interestgroups are the determining factor in the development of legisla-tion (Chapter 6).Fishback and Kantor's other significant contention is that"workers' compensation set precedents for government require-ments of... Social Security, Medicare, and eventually to the en-tire network of modern social welfare programs in the UnitedStates." (p. 1). This point is not as convincingly argued as theauthors' other points, particularly in the area of workers' compen-sation's connection to Social Security and modern social welfare.The authors have underestimated the effect of the great stockmarket crash of 1929 on the fabric of U.S. culture. For the first time,the general public accepted the possibility that poverty, failure,and unemployment could occur as a result of an environmentalflaw rather than a personal one. This shift towards an ecologicalview of poverty provided the necessary impetus for the passageof Social Security and influenced the creation of modern welfare.Without the crash of 1929, workers' compensation in and of itselfwould not have led to Social Security and other modern so-cial welfare programs. Furthermore, the contention that workers'compensation's set precedence for Social Security and modernwelfare policy is not necessary to the authors' other arguments.In conclusion, I highly recommend Fishback and Kantor'sbook for any scholar interested in the creation and initial imple-mentation of workers' compensation in the United States. I alsorecommend the book to anyone looking to read a piece of modelsocial policy analysis.Christopher R. LarrisonUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCharles P. Blahous III, Reforming Social Security for Ourselves andOur Posterity. Westport, CT: Praegar Publishers, 2000. $39.95hardcover.Few government programs have been the targets of so muchpublic debate for so many years as Social Security. For much ofthe last half century in the United States there has been periodic

Review of \u3cem\u3eA Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers\u27 Compensation.\u3c/em\u3e Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor. Review by Christopher R. Larrison

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2796&amp;context=jssw

Review of \u3cem\u3eA Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers\u27 Compensation.\u3c/em\u3e Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor. Review by Christopher R. Larrison

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ScholarWorks at WMU