And

[commandercranky]

Of course, the background check existed long before buildings flew into planes, but it seems to have hit new heights these past years of terror and metaterror. I'm sure that the history of the background check for professional licenses, credit applications, school admissions and bank accounts is lengthy. But when did it start, and what was its

Comments

[rootlesscosmo]

The Bar was always a special case; Patrick "Kayo" Hallinan, who eventually became San Francisco DA, had a juvenile record for aggravated assault that almost kept him from being admitted around 1963. (The State Supreme Court heard his appeal and admitted him.) But in less exalted areas, this nutsiness is pretty new. There's probably some systematic study of it; I don't know. I do remember from job-hunting and apartment-hunting in the 60's that the background check--and the resumé--were unknown, except if you were applying to be an FBI agent or something. Job applications had a few lines on which you were asked to list previous employment, going back five years, but for the kinds of jobs I was seeking--warehouse worker, shipping clerk, railroad fireman--it was generally understood that they didn't have the time or the desire to verify any of this. I think we assumed they only bothered if they were looking for an excuse to fire you: aha! you lied on your application! And since most of us drifted happily from job to job without waiting to

[commandercranky]

I'm surprised to hear that it has to do with loss of social mobility, just because it's initially counter-intuitive. But your suggestion makes sense; that we're all the more willing to jump through hoops when we need the prize offered at the end of the line of hoops.

My supposition was based on the hunch that resumes and the like were less critical in a town/culture where everyone knew each other. Once a certain level of mobility hits, it seems inevitable that those with some resource to control (jobs, credit, bar/school/club admission) would want to know just who the hell you are, anyway, and who can vouch for you. So I don't know that I'm suggesting that all this was a means to social mobility, but a response to it.

[rootlesscosmo]

I think we may be looking at different aspects or phases of the same phenomenon. The days when most Americans lived in small towns were already ending by about the first World War, and the footloose proletariat--the social basis of the IWW--was always defined in opposition to that life; the Wobblies sneered at "Home Guards," the meek workers who settled for safe wage-slavery rather than take their chances in the casual labor market--or on the frontlines of class war. But I think employers and merchants and landlords always wanted people to hold still and produce documents on demand; what was missing in my youth was the ability to compel this. But in my lifetime their capacity to impose this regime has expanded enormously, partly thanks to electronics and the increased centralization of finance capital, but also partly to the growing fear of unemployment that makes working people more willing to submit to it.

[below_the_belt]

the only thing i can tell you is that i used do background checks for a company based out of philly, before some particularly famous [and badly behaved] buildings ate some now-famous planes, and there was plenty of demand for it then..