Bio:
I began my study in sociology in the 1980s as the Ronald Reagan administration sought to undermine and contract American social policy—a political episode that helped to shape my interests in sociology. I wanted to know why the United States had the social policy that it did, and why attempts to advance or retrench it were successful or not. This led me to pursue the study of political sociology and social movements and to try to make sense of American social politics in comparative and historical perspective. Since then I have been working largely on two projects related to this concern. The first concerns the development of American social policy in comparative and historical perspective.