With the possible exception of churches, fraternal societies were the leading providers of social welfare in the United States before the Great Depression. Their membership reached an estimated 50 percent of the adult male population and they were especially strong among immigrants and African Americans. Unlike the adversarial relationships engendered by governmental welfare programs and private charity, fraternal social welfare rested on a foundation of reciprocity between donor and recipient. By the 1920s, fraternal societies and other mutual aid institutions had (...) entered a period of decline from which they never recovered. The many possible reasons for this decline included the rise of the welfare state, restrictive state insurance regulation, and competition from private insurers. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Timothy Sandefur’s book, Freedom’s Furies, discusses the profound impact on libertarian thought of the work of Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand. The book is essential reading for any person interested in the origins of modern libertarianism.

CRABGRASS FRONTIER: THE SUBURBANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES by Kenneth T. Jackson New York: Oxford University Press, 1985; 396 pp., $21.95.