Insulating Families from Market Forces—The Rise of the Welfare State

This chapter shows that the constant in America’s relationship with markets hasn’t been the acceptance of a free-market economy, but rather the belief that the economy should serve the interests of families. The nineteenth-century rise of the market economy in the United States, it demonstrates, was accompanied by the rise of a set of beliefs that historians call the “ideology of separate spheres.” This ideology sold Americans on the market economy by claiming that it would help families thrive. By the end of the nineteenth century, though, it became clear that the market was failing to deliver on this promise for working-class families. Reformers then called for the government to step in to use regulation to support the promise that the market would protect families. The New Deal arose out of that view of the government’s role. For much of the twentieth century, the government’s responsibility to safeguard the well-being of families against harmful market forces was a fundamental part of our nation’s social contract.