Social Security: A Documentary History

When you see good idea out there, pick it up and run with it. In the throes of the Depression a little plan developed by a hopeful politician named Townsend seemed to fit the bill for the millions of aged and disabled who found themselves destitute. In 1935 Congress set Social Security into place, despite criticism that it did not do enough. Now dispensing about $500 billion in benefits a year it still has its critics, but Social Security is still the only viable (perhaps) safety net for a large number of Americans. The authors ably annotate hundreds of pieces of legislation, correspondence, speeches, amendments, diaries, memoranda, commission reports, executive orders, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimony, pamphlets and bulletins, sorting chronologically. This could be a single source for many a research paper, and the annotations are accessible to everyone from high school on up. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)