Encyclopedia of social welfare history in North America /

Herrick and Stuart's unique, groundbreaking work takes as its subject the origins and growth of social welfare in Canada, the US, and Mexico, lending the contents (written by scholars from all three nations) a distinctive perspective absent from other reference publications on welfare. Most rival publications review either chapters in comprehensive social science encyclopedias or single volumes focused on specific topics such as poverty and research methods, ignoring the historical dimension. Although the 180 articles follow the work's definition of social welfare to include "education, informal mutual assistance, the development of the social work profession, and voluntary charitable activities " as well as state-supported efforts, they explicitly omit social work practice and education from consideration. They note, when available, primary sources and their location, commentary, and selected recent works. Three appendixes offer guides to sources of information by country, a master bibliography of relevant literature, and chronologies of important dates in the historical development of each nation's welfare systems. All users will find the topical lists of articles in the "Reader's Guide" section valuable. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. College and university libraries supporting curricula in history, sociology, and political science. R. B. M. Ridinger Northern Illinois University

Here is a reference work that provides readers with information about the history of social welfare in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. According to the preface, the purpose of the encyclopedia is to give users basic information about how these three nations have dealt with social welfare issues, some shared and some unique, and "to describe important events, developments, and the lives and work of some key contributors." Social welfare0 is defined broadly to include areas of education, informal mutual assistance, development of the profession of social work, and both voluntary charitable activities and -government--supported public welfare. Editors Herrick and Stuart are social work professors at Michigan State University and the University of Alabama, respectively; they are joined by more than 160 contributors. The 180 entries generally vary in length from one to just over four pages and include suggestions for further reading and, in some cases, collections of primary materials and "Current Comment," which consists of lists of documents produced during the time described in the entry. Appendixes at the end of the book include a good chronology of social welfare events in each country, followed by a master bibliography and a well-constructed index with cross-references. This encyclopedia has information in common with another recently published work, ABC-CLIO's Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy 0 (2004). There is also some overlap with another Sage publication, The Handbook of Social Welfare Management 0 (2000). One unique strength of the title under review is its multinational perspective. Many topics, among them Food assistance policy, Philanthropy0 , and Social Securit0 y ,0 are treated in separate entries for each country, making it easy to both focus on a particular country's social welfare history and draw comparisons. The "Reader's Guide" is also helpful in identifying entries associated with a specific nation, since it groups entries under Canada, Mexico,0 and United States, 0 among other categories. Although the quality of this encyclopedia is generally quite good, the issue for libraries is whether they can continue to justify the purchase of very specialized print encyclopedias. Recommended for those academic and public library collections where there is a specific need for basic information related to the history of social welfare in North America. --Diana Shonrock Copyright 2005 Booklist