I: Basic tour -- She's so unusual -- Tracks of my tiers -- Twice in a lifetime -- II: New horizons -- Ogres, onions, and layers (or, how Republicans built the American welfare state) -- Programs for the poor are not always poor programs -- Shaq is still pretty tall: public support for the...

A public option is a government-provided social good that exists alongside a similar privately provided good. While the public option is typically identified with health care policy, public options have been a longstanding feature of American life in a variety of sectors, ranging from libraries...