Industrial Paternalism & Welfare Capitalism (2001)

This paper had its origins in an invitation from my old friend Nando Fasce (we go back as far as the Reuther Library in Detroit, when we were both young) to participate in a conference on the theme of "Public and Private in American History" that he and a group of associates among the lively community of Italian historians of North America were putting on. This invitation met all of my criteria for accepting a conference invite -- interesting theme, nice place (Torino in the early summer), other good people on the list already, free hospitality, and the prospect of a publication. I am quite happy with the paper (and essay) that I served up to them, which is a combination of: (a) critical, synthetic review article; (b) original research, some of it taken from my Bloodless Victories book, some from the old "Industrial Democracy and Liberal Capitalism" paper, and some from what would turn into "Between Convergence and Exceptionalism"; and (c) an attempt to draw together some quantitative underpinning to my own and other people's discussions on the rise of public and private welfare systems in the New Deal Era. When I sent it to David Brody for comment he was quite positive (always a good sign), especially about the Appendix, on the political significance of the postwar veterans' benefit system, which he found really interesting and quite persuasive. At the conference itself nobody paid much attention to my arguments, but that was mostly because I was sharing a platform with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who offered a book promo for his first volume of memoirs rather than what mere mortals would recognize as "a paper." Still, who cares? He was infinitely more interesting than anybody else present (including the late David Montgomery, doing his usual tribune-of-the-people schtick, which the Italians lapped up), a real class act.

• The paper itself (in preprint form, with a few unresolved issues, and most of my double-hyphen dashes lost in translation, as usual).