ABSTRACT
The landmark Social Security Act became the centerpiece of the modern welfare state. The Depression exposed the roots of economic insecurity in the twentieth-century economy. The Depression created a crisis in the family as well as in the economy. The crisis in the family, like that of the economy, was rooted in trends that the Depression intensified, especially the deterioration of the mechanisms that previously contained women – particularly white, married women – in the home. Only when the 1935 Social Security Act made the federal government responsible for public relief and for a new, more comprehensive program called social insurance did the United States begin to develop a non-emergency, permanent welfare state. The sagging economy, loss of jobs, and changes in family life generated widespread political disaffection in the 1930s. An increasingly politicized working class began to demand that the government provide for its economic security.
