Department Faculty

“I am a political and social historian of the United States with an interest in gender and women, race, and the state. I focus on the twentieth century, especially post-World War II; social policy and politics; liberalism; second-wave feminism; and most recently, militarization and the all-volunteer Army.

My first two books traced the transformation of welfare policy in the United States (From Welfare to Workfare, the Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945-1965, University of North Carolina Press, 2005; and Welfare in the United States: A History with Documents, with Premilla Nadasen and Marisa Chappell, Routledge, 2009.) Most recently, I have written about the historical relationships between left-liberalism African-American feminist organizations in mid-to-late twentieth century. Over the years, my articles on these topics have appeared in such journals as Social Politics and the Journal of Women's History, and my research has been supported by such institutions as the Mellon Foundation, the University of Michigan, the Pennsylvania State University, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. I am currently at work on a book that situates the post-1973 all-volunteer military's benefits as part of the history of the welfare state, poverty, and politics in the late twentieth century United States.”