Habits of compassion : Irish Catholic nuns and the origins of New York's welfare system, 1830-1920 / Maureen Fitzgerald.

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2006], ©2006.

x, 298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-292) and index.

Republican mothers and brides of Christ -- Good girls, bad girls, and the Great Hunger, 1845-70 -- Placing-out and Irish-Catholic cultural reproduction, 1848-64 -- Saving children from the child-savers, 1864-94 -- "The family" and "the institution" : the roads to the White House, 1890-1909 -- The immaculate conception of the welfare state, 1895-1920.