The history of caring in America

?Should there be a pauper among you . . . you shall not harden your heart and clench your hand against your brother the pauper. But you shall surely open your hand to him … ? (Deut. 15:7-8; Alter trans.) A recurrent question about modern America is to what extent we have adhered to this and similar admonitions to care for ?the least of these.?
The question is prompted by a new book from Katherine Newman and Elisabeth Jacobs, Who Cares?: Public Ambivalence and Government Activism from the New Deal to the Second Gilded Age. Newman ... More >Major Book Notebook