Under the cover of kindness
Subtitle: the invention of social work
By: Leslie Margolin ; foreword by Eileen Gambrill.
Series: Knowledge, disciplinarity and beyond
Publisher: University Press of Virginia
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Charlottesville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
Subjects: Social case work; Social case work -- United States
Description: In Under the Cover of Kindness, Leslie Margolin looks at how this country's social welfare system developed and with what results. From his detailed examination of social work texts, primarily case histories, he argues persuasively that social work disguises its own assumptions and claims to power as a way of further legitimizing its actions.

By attending to these case histories, Margolin shows how social work entails not only the intrusion into the previously private space of the home but also the constant justification of this intervention - to both clients and workers themselves - as representing charitable and disinterested help. This book critically assesses how social workers invent themselves as they simultaneously invent their field of knowledge.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-211) and index.