William R. Brock – författare

Investigation and Responsibility deals with the extension of social responsibility in the American states during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Lord Bryce questioned the reality of American belief in laissez faire, and recent work has reinforced these doubts. Professor Brock makes a substantial contribution to this reassessment, through an examination of the activities of the agencies established at a state level for the regulation of the social environment. Using the evidence provided by the published reports of the state agencies, he argues that these activities were far more extensive then has often been thought, and indicates the ways in which they laid the foundations for modern government activity in the fields of welfare, health, safety, labour law, and economic regulation. By a detailed examination of such agencies as boards of state charities and public health, bureaus of labour statistics, and railroad commissions, Professor Brock places the extension of state responsibility in a new perspective. The book also includes a reassessment of judicial opinion and closes with an examination of the way in which experience in the states influenced the development of national policy.

Probably no period in the history of any country has been studied so thoroughly as the United States from the early national period to the end of the nineteenth century. Amidst the vast number of books and articles it is easy to lose sight of the source material on which they depend. This book examines the nature of the principal sources, the kind of information they yield and the limitations to their use. It is not a guide to specialised research, but a survey of the raw materials from which all history must be made. Nor is it a book about the philosophy or methodology of history; but from it emerges a very positive statement about the way in which history ought to be studied and written.

Although Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal is remembered for bringing aid and assistance to millions of unemployed and indigent Americans, surprisingly little has been written about federal relief for unemployment. The great experiment of the Federal Emergency Relief Act challenged directly the deep-seated conviction that the relief of poverty was a local responsibility, and in so doing highlighted the deficiencies of local self-government. At every stage it was the elected officials and representatives who offered the most determined opposition to humane and national relief administration. The FERA brought the United States to the brink of a fully integrated welfare system, but a reversal of policy in 1935 split welfare into national, state, and local authorities, which was to have unhappy consequences in the future. In reviewing the experience of the FERA and the New Deal, Professor Brock's book raises important questions about American attitudes toward welfare, local government, and national responsibility.