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 recent book, From Welfare to Workfare, the Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945-1965 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), which focused on the transformation of welfare policies in the postwar period; and coming in fall 2008, Welfare in the United States: A History with Documents, with Premilla Nadasen and Marisa Chappell (New York: Routledge, 2008). My articles have appeared in such journals as Social Politics and the Journal of Women's History. 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. I will be on leave for 2008-2009 to pursue this project as a resident scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.”