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.