The White Welfare State: The Racialization of U.S. Welfare Policy. By Deborah E. Ward. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. 208p. $60.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

A growing literature (including works by Kenneth Neubeck, Noel Cazenave, Gwendolyn Mink, Jill Quadagno, Sanford Schram, Joe Soss, Richard Fording, and Martin Gilens) examines the racialization of welfare policies, welfare administration, and welfare politics. Deborah Ward's book contributes nicely to that literature. The contributors to this literature prove to be an interdisciplinary group and include scholars from history, policy studies, political science, and sociology. Ward's book offers insight to readers from all those fields, although policy-oriented readers may find they seek more analysis, or at least a broader discussion of the implications of the research.