Divided Citizens

The New Deal was not the same deal for men and women - a finding strikingly demonstrated in Dividing Citizens. The book provides a historical account of how governing institutions and public policies shape social status and civic life. In her examination of the impact of New Deal social and labor policies on the organization and character of U.S. citizenship, Suzanne Mettler offers an incisive analysis of the formation and implementation of the pillars of the modern welfare state: the Social Security Act, including Old Age and Survivors' Insurance, Old Age Assistance, Unemployment Insurance, and Aid to Dependent Children (later known simply as "welfare"), as well as the Fair Labor Standards Act, which guaranteed the minimum wage.

Suzanne Mettler is Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.