Policymaking for Social Security is a wonderfulbook—perhaps the best book ever written on American social policy.Derthick's achievement is all the more remarkable when it isconsidered as the middle book of a “social policy trilogy,” alongwith Uncontrollable Spending for Social ServicesGrants (1975) and Agency Under Stress(1990). Taken together, these books provide as fine an introductionto American social policy as I can imagine; taken together withThe Politics of Deregulation (1985), whichDerthick wrote with Paul Quirk in this same period, they provide anincomparable overview of American politics.