Negotiating Relief: The Development of Social Welfare Programs in Depression-Era Michigan, 1930-1940 by Susan Stein-Roggenbuck

Abstract

Book Reviews135 stability.Celebrations in the Iron Range, however, were slower inmaking this shift,which Nemanic explains by pointing to the region's ethnic diversity, class tensions, and harsh physical environment. The cold and isolation of northern Minnesota forced theWelsh, Irish, Italian, Slavic, and other immigrants to pull together to survive,which in turn thwarted efforts by themining companies to divide workers based on ethnicity. Independence Day celebrations became vehicles for theworking-class inhabitants of the Iron Range to protest the abuses of the mine companies aswell as a day to create theirown brand ofAmerican identity. Thus, counter to thenational trend, Iron Range workers and their families continued to embrace the radical strainof Independence Day celebrations well into the twentieth century, seeing it as "a day for freedom of expression" (p. 95). They observed the holiday with rowdy parades, as well as by drinking, cross-dressing, and ridiculing theirbosses. In the last chapters of this book, Nemanic explores how changes of the mid-twentieth century, such as the emergence ofmass media, the creation of the "New Deal," andWorld War II pushed the people of the Iron Range to adopt more of the dominant national culture,which dampened but did not end the radical nature of their Independence Day celebrations. At times, Nemanic is repetitive, circling back and discussing points shemade earlier. In other places, she brings up tantalizing issues but does not fully develop them. This is particularly true in the last part of the book, where she discusses how the Independence Day celebrations were revived in the Iron Range as a way to bolster tourism in the region but does not fully contextualize this change. Overall, though, One Day for Democracy succeeds in using a national holiday as a window into the regional distinctiveness of the Iron Range. Jeanne Petit Hope College Susan Stein-Roggenbuck. Negotiating Relief:The Development ofSocialWelfare Programs in Depression-EraMichigan, 1930-1940. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2008. Pp. 252. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth, $49.95; CD, $9.95. The perfect complement to top-down histories of theNew Deal are local studies of the entrenched political and economic traditions that determined the extent towhich federal relief initiatives impacted lives at the community level.Negotiating Relief is an illuminating analysis of 1930s 136 MichiganHistoricalReview Michigan from the pre-New-Deal era through the 1939 Welfare Reorganization Act. Based on close readings of relief-agency case records in four counties, the analysis demonstrates how "fiscal localism" (defined as "the attempt tominimize local expenditures and provide tax relief, even at the expense ofwelfare services") as well as a fierce fidelity to "home rule" ultimately limited the reach of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and federal works programs (p. 3). Stein-Roggenbuck maps the antagonistic discourses between competing interest groups, including local relief administrators, professional social workers, and the recipients themselves, to show how conflicts at the state level over opposing principles ofwelfare resulted in the uneven implementation ofNew Deal reforms. The first half of her study recounts the chronological development of relief operations in Michigan from the onset of theGreat Depression to the emergence of the firstNew Deal. She reveals how conservative fiscal attitudes had forged patterns of local relief administration that remained resistant to federal directives?despite the increasing desperation ofMichigan's poor. Subsequent chapters offer detailed case studies of how these "competing narratives of relief' affected the management and distribution of aid (p. 5). One chapter examines the conflict that arose within the social-work profession when reliefworkers without formal training answered the urgent demand for casework staff; another analyzes how recipients of aid actively negotiated with social workers to assert their own notions of worthiness and what factors limited their influence on rehef-administration practices. The final chapter documents the eventual triumph of home rule that reinstated local control over Michigan's relief programs by the end of the decade and created a "third track" of noncategorical, community-controlled welfare that further burdened the poor with capricious stipulations and exclusions (p. 8). The greatest strengths of Stein-Roggenbuck's study are found in its balanced comparison between local and federal interests,which isbased on thorough research into county histories and conditions, aswell as...