Mary Richmond's 'Social Diagnosis'

History of social work in 20 books

Mary Richmond’s ‘Social Diagnosis’: my battered copy of the first paperback edition, Free Press, 1965

Mary E. Richmond’s books and social work

Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-1928) is regarded as one of the ‘founding mothers’ of American social work, and one of the sources of her worldwide influence is her books. But which one should we see as the crucial contribution that should be one of the 20 books in the history of social work? Several have claims:

• (1899). Friendly visiting among the poor: A handbook for charity workers. New York: MacMillan.

• (1917). Social diagnosis. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

• (1922). What is social case work?An introdutory description. New York Russell Sage Foundation.

• (1930). The long view: papers and addresses. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Friendly visiting is her first major publication, from her days as a leader in the charity organisation movement. It is informative about the practice of friendly visiting, and attitudes to charitable work during the period when it was written. It is important in being an early recognition of home visiting as a defining feature of social work, but it doesn’t yet look forward to an organised profession of social work in the way that her later books do. In many ways, its contribution is similar to that of Amelia Sieveking, the German pioneer already part of History of social work in 20 books, or C. S. Loch, in some ways the British equivalent of Richmond and Sieveking, who will feature later.

The importance of ‘Social Diagnosis’

Social diagnosis is a thick tome, regarded at the time in the US as a comprehensive textbook of practice in a new profession, produced at the cusp of growth in employment of women in social work jobs.