Grim fairy tales : the rhetorical construction of American welfare policy / Lisa M. Gring-Pemble.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-229) and index.

Series Foreword / Robert E. Denton, Jr. -- I. The Changing Faces of American Welfare Policy: Historical Roots of Contemporary Welfare Legislation -- 1. Welfare Legislation Is Symbolic: An Introduction -- 2. American Social Welfare Policy in Context, 1600-1935 -- 3. American Social Welfare Policy in Context, 1936-2003 -- II. Rhetorical Constructions of Welfare Recipients and Welfare Families in U.S. Congressional Hearings, Debates, and Legislation -- 4. "Are We Going to Now Govern by Anecdote?": A Portrait of the Misfortunate, the Feckless, the Young, and the Fathers -- 5. Legislating a "Normal Classic Family": The Rhetorical Construction of Families in American Welfare Policy -- III. The Rhetorical Force of Depiction in American Welfare Policy -- 6. In Search of an Exigence to Warrant Reform: Public Opinion, Policy Research, and Anecdotal Evidence -- 7. American Welfare Policy and the Ineluctable Appeal of Language: Conclusion and Implications.