In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

xiii Acknowledgments Growing up in the Upper Ohio Valley, where the local economy had until recent decades depended on mining and steel, provided me with a rough education in the vagaries of employment. The boom time of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to decades when, for many, unemployment always lurked around the corner. The book is dedicated to my parents, Charles Terry Wasem and Jessie McCullough Wasem, who lived most of their lives in eastern Ohio. I would further acknowledge my brother, Terry Denton Wasem, and my lifelong friend Jackie Hawk Dunlap, both of whom live in eastern Ohio today, for their moral support as I was writing this book. The kernel of this book was a dissertation begun during the recession of 1982, the last time U.S. unemployment had reached 10 percent before it briefly topped out at that number in November 2009.The Institute for Social Research’s Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan funded much of my graduate studies and enabled me to work with many outstanding researchers. The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum also provided research funding, and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies gave tuition support. Considerable credit is due to my dissertation chair, Jerome M. Clubb, and committee members Maris A. Vinovskis, John E. Jackson, and Terrence J. McDonald for holding me to high academic standards while providing the encouragement necessary to complete the dissertation in 1989. Fast-forward two decades to 2009, when the nation was in the midst of the Great Recession. Joyce Vialet and her husband, John Vialet, became the catalysts for this book. Joyce had been my mentor in immigration policy at the Congressional Research Service and recalled that I was completing a dissertation on employment policy when we began working together in the late 1980s. Had it not been for the Vialets’ interest in discussing this subject during a stormy weekend in 2009 at Newport, Rhode Island, this book may never have been written. Soon all of my free time was devoted to researching the Employment Act of 1946 anew. As we walked our dogs together, neighbors Tad and Susan Cantril guided me to the public opinion data from the 1940s that formed the basis of Chapter 3. Survey research experts (and former classmates from the University of Michigan) Celinda Lake, Barbara Smela, and Fran Featherston provided valuable comments on that chapter. Labor economists Linda Levine and Gerry Mayer, as well as Joyce, Barbara, and Fran, reviewed the first draft of the manuscript. I am grateful to Kevin Hollenbeck of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, who expressed early interest in the book and suggested In order to view this proof accurately, the Overprint Preview Option must be checked in Acrobat Professional or Adobe Reader. Please contact your Customer Service Representative if you have questions about finding the option. Job Name: -- /347091t xiv key revisions to the manuscript. Benjamin Jones of the Upjohn Institute has been an energetic and thoughtful editor of the book. Erika Jackson typeset the manuscript, including the tables and figures. Any flaws and shortcomings, of course, are mine. The views and conclusions of this book solely reflect those of the author and not those of the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Library of Congress , or the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. In order to view this proof accurately, the Overprint Preview Option must be checked in Acrobat Professional or Adobe Reader. Please contact your Customer Service Representative if you have questions about finding the option. Job Name: -- /347091t ...

Share