American neoliberalism matured in the mid-1970s by reviving poor law, not in the 1930s

Evidence

American neoliberalism, as it matured in the 1970s, must be understood as an attempt to revive and reinvent the poor law tradition as a wholesale alternative to the mid-twentieth-century welfare state. This was not a project that was self-evident in the Chicago School of American neoliberalism at its starting point in the 1930s, and indeed it was far from evident as late as 1970, when Milton Friedman could be found collaborating with President Nixon on the project of a basic guaranteed income. Rather, it crystallized in the mid-1970s—a turning point in American politics, when the perfect storm of inflation, unemployment, and the rising militancy of the new left convinced neoliberals they must articulate a much more potent critique of the expansion of welfare under President Johnson’s Great Society. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 215

American neoliberalism, as it matured in the 1970s, must be understood as an attempt to revive and reinvent the poor law tradition as a wholesale alternative to the mid-twentieth-century welfare state. This was not a project that was self-evident in the Chicago School of American neoliberalism at its starting point in the 1930s, and indeed it was far from evident as late as 1970, when Milton Friedman could be found collaborating with President Nixon on the project of a basic guaranteed income. Rather, it crystallized in the mid-1970s—a turning point in American politics, when the perfect storm of inflation, unemployment, and the rising militancy of the new left convinced neoliberals they must articulate a much more potent critique of the expansion of welfare under President Johnson’s Great Society. It is at this point that American neoliberals perfected their signature critique of the welfare state and that American neoliberalism per se acquired its mature form, in many ways distinct from the early Chicago School neoliberalism of the 1930s. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 215

Categorization

• XREF: Builds a periodization that challenges simpler accounts tracing American neoliberalism to early Chicago School or even to Friedman-Nixon guaranteed income proposals of 1970. — connects to: Neoliberal development thought began decades before its late-1970s influence. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1264; Neoliberalism’s 1980s breakthrough rested on decades of prior institutional groundwork — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 128; Neoliberalism emerged across the mid-twentieth century, not as a 1980s rebellion — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 86
• SEED: Potential essay angle: the family responsibility doctrine as the hidden through-line connecting poor laws, Gilded Age relief, and 1996 welfare reform.
• QUESTION: Friedman collaborating with Nixon on guaranteed basic income circa 1970 is a surprising fact worth chasing: was there an actual UBI-family policy lineage that neoliberals later repudiated?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 215

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal development thought began decades before its late-1970s influence. #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1264
• Neoliberalism’s 1980s breakthrough rested on decades of prior institutional groundwork #contradicts (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 128
• Neoliberalism emerged across the mid-twentieth century, not as a 1980s rebellion #contradicts (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 86