Alfred J. Kahn – författare

This is the first volume in a series reporting on the evolution of family policies in twenty Western welfare states and comparing current provisions. The developments are presented in the context of a report on family change for each of the countries, and with a view of the economic, political, and institutional contexts in which they occurred. Each of the country reports in the present volume has been prepared as a team collaboration by internationally recognized experts. The co-editors have prepared an analytic introduction, which discussed the methodology for the series as well as the hypotheses that emerge from these first case-studies. The topics include family formation and current structural patterns, families and the division of labour, the income of families (earnings, taxation, transfer programmes) as well as the political and institutional context for family policy. An extensive bibliography is provided. About the series:A series of country studies and comparative analyses examining major changes in the family and the broad specturm of family policies in Western industrial society in the second half of the twentieth century. Vol. 2: The Consociational Democracies: Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands Vol. 3: France and Southern Europe Vol. 4: Capitalist and Socialist Central Europe: Austria, the Germanies, Hungary, and Poland Vol. 5: The Scandinavian Welfare States Vol. 6: Family, Industrial Society, and the Welfare State in the West: Early Variations and Long-Term Developments in Comparative Perspective Vol. 7: Family Policies in the West Since World War II: A Cross-National Analysis

Breaking the Slump is the engrossing story of baseball during the 1930s, when the National Pastime came of age as a business, an entertainment, and a passion, and when the teams of the American and National Leagues fielded perhaps the greatest rosters in the history of the game. Whether as rookies, stars in their prime, or legends on the wane, Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Dizzy Dean, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio all left their mark on the game and on the American imagination in the decade before America's entry into the World War II. In one remarkable year, 1934, the entire starting lineup of the American League All-Stars consisted of future Hall of Famers. This surfeit of talent provided much needed entertainment to a nation struggling through economic hardship on an enormous scale. In the face of the Great Depression, noted baseball historian Charles C. Alexander shows, Organized Baseball underwent an array of changes that defined the structure and operation of the game well into the postwar decades.The 1930s witnessed the advent of night baseball, the flowering of an extensive and, in some cases, controversial minor-league system of "farm clubs," and the exploitation of the relatively new broadcast medium of radio. Power brokers such as Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and owners Branch Rickey and "Colonel" Jacob Ruppert oversaw these and other developments even as they retained other traditional aspects of the game. As it had since the 1880s, the reserve clause continued to limit the salaries and mobility of ballplayers, subjecting them to the will of ownership to a degree unfathomable today. And Organized Baseball remained racially segregated throughout the 1930s, as the Negro leagues operated largely beyond the notice of white baseball fans. While tracing these and other organizational developments, Alexander keeps his focus on the daily experience of the ballplayers. What was it like for young men trying to make their way as professional ballplayers in an economy that offered few prospects for them otherwise? What kind of conditions did they have to deal with in terms of playing facilities, transportation, lodging, and relations with their employers?And what about the play itself? Alexander offers an expert appraisal of how the ballplayers and the quality of the game they played differed from today's.Americans have periodically been reminded of baseball's extraordinary capacity to enrich and enliven the national spirit during hard times. Breaking the Slump is a vivid portrait of the great game and its cultural significance during America's hardest times.

As the American workforce has changed in recent years to accommodate an increasing number of working parents, the workplace itself must also adapt. Sheila Kamerman and Alfred Kahn, two of the most respected authorities on work and the American family, explore in this study the ways in which the workplace has responded to social change. They examine innovations in the workplace as well as enduring concerns--fringe benefits, day care and other services, and employers' policies at the workplace. And, they assess employers' adequacy in assisting parents of young children to manage simultaneously their work and family roles. In doing so, Kamerman and Kahn separate over-optimistic "wish lists" from reality, and mere claims of certain effects from observed results. They also look at some critical benefits and services in detail, delineating which are useful and practical. The authors consider whether a workplace-based pattern of provision will meet everyone's needs and, if not, what alternatives are possible. While endorsing a serious role for employers, they stress that government must also take a role in respect to families of working parents.

As the American workforce has changed in recent years to accommodate an increasing number of working parents, the workplace itself must also adapt. Sheila Kamerman and Alfred Kahn, two of the most respected authorities on work and the American family, explore in this study the ways in which the workplace has responded to social change. They examine innovations in the workplace as well as enduring concerns--fringe benefits, day care and other services, and employers' policies at the workplace. And, they assess employers' adequacy in assisting parents of young children to manage simultaneously their work and family roles. In doing so, Kamerman and Kahn separate over-optimistic "wish lists" from reality, and mere claims of certain effects from observed results. They also look at some critical benefits and services in detail, delineating which are useful and practical. The authors consider whether a workplace-based pattern of provision will meet everyone's needs and, if not, what alternatives are possible. While endorsing a serious role for employers, they stress that government must also take a role in respect to families of working parents.

Looking at the theory and practice of privatization in its broadest manifestations, the contributors to this volume scrutinize the combination of public and private initiatives that makes up the present U.S. social sector. As they discuss privatization both in production and delivery of services and in financing, they reveal complexities that have been ignored in recent ideological arguments. This book, while warning about political misuse of privatization, offers an unusually rigorous definition and theory of the concept and presents a number of case studies that show how public and private sectors variously cooperate, compete, or complement one another in social programs--and how various systems have accommodated to the privatization rhetoric that has come to the fore under the Reagan administration. The contributors are Marc Bendick, Jr., Evelyn Z. Brodkin, Arnold Gurin, Alfred J. Kahn, Sheila B. Kamerman, Michael O'Higgins, Martin Rein Richard Rose, Paul Starr, Mitchell Sviridoff, and Dennis Young. Originally published in 1989.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Looking at the theory and practice of privatization in its broadest manifestations, the contributors to this volume scrutinize the combination of public and private initiatives that makes up the present U.S. social sector. As they discuss privatization both in production and delivery of services and in financing, they reveal complexities that have been ignored in recent ideological arguments. This book, while warning about political misuse of privatization, offers an unusually rigorous definition and theory of the concept and presents a number of case studies that show how public and private sectors variously cooperate, compete, or complement one another in social programs--and how various systems have accommodated to the privatization rhetoric that has come to the fore under the Reagan administration. The contributors are Marc Bendick, Jr., Evelyn Z. Brodkin, Arnold Gurin, Alfred J. Kahn, Sheila B. Kamerman, Michael O'Higgins, Martin Rein Richard Rose, Paul Starr, Mitchell Sviridoff, and Dennis Young. Originally published in 1989.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

As more and more mothers of young children have entered the work force in America, the question of child care has become a major issue among employers, scholars, policymakers and, of course, the general public. The accepted view among those who see a high rate of female labor force participation as inevitable has long been to achieve a consistent maternal/parenting leave of approximately six months, followed by access to good quality child care facilities for use at parental option. Some European countries are, however, now going beyond this point by financially enabling parents to stay at home for one, two, or even three years after childbirth. Sheila Kamerman and Alfred Kahn explore with European scholars child care and parenting policies in six countries, and examine the motives and perspectives involved, the specific problems and their costs, the extent to which countries can report the impacts of their methods, and the potential implications of these experiences for the United States.Through these national examples, the editors introduce an important policy debate concerning parenting and children under three. Among the questions raised are whether the government should make it financially easier for parents to remain at home, what the effects of leave policy would be on need for and use of child care facilities, what the relationships between such assistance and the broader income support policies would be and--ultimately--what the consequences of such policies might be for parents and children. The editors begin their work with an introductory chapter that defines the issues for the United States and the reasons for looking toward Europe, and follow with six chapters examining the policies of countries in the lead in this field: Austria, Germany, France, Hungary, Finland, and Sweden. The book concludes with a final chapter that suggests possible directions for U.S. policy. This work will be an important resource for planners and for courses in sociology, family studies, early childhood education, and social policy, as well as for public, corporate, and academic libraries.