In this article, the author discusses her comparative study of the history of the welfare state in the United States, England, and France, she studies some of the usual features of the welfare state, which include important entitlement programs, such as social insurance, and protective labor legislation, but she also focuses on the development of mass schooling, which is important in a trans-Atlantic comparison. And although the United States had little tradition of state spending for social welfare, no other country outmatches it for public expenditures on education. Americans have never agreed that citizens have the right to jobs, to health care, or to homes. But even their courts have acted to enforce children?s right to schooling. She added, that despite the explosion of recent histories of the American welfare state--because it is seen as an alternative to traditional programs of entitlement--few have paid much attention to schooling. But the reconsideration of the American welfare state shows that the emphasis on schooling has not always been an alternative for other social welfare reforms, but that at important moments, efforts to expand schooling have stimulated the growth of the programs that they traditionally associate with the welfare state. The author also discusses the numerous studies of education and public policy which helps everyone understand the contradictory values that surround American education. (Contains 80 footnotes.)