Using cliometric methods and records from six grand-lodge archives, A Young Man's Benefit rejects the conventional wisdom about friendly societies and sickness insurance, arguing that IOOF lodges were financially sound institutions, were more efficient than commercial insurers, and met a market demand headed by young men who lacked alternatives to market insurance, not older men who had an above-average risk of sickness disability. Emery and Emery show that many young men joined the Odd Fellows for sickness insurance and quit the society once self-insurance - savings - or family insurance - secondary incomes from older children - made it feasible for them. The older men, who valued the social benefits of membership and did not need the sick benefit, gradually became a majority and dismantled the IOOF's insurance provisions.

George Emery is professor emeritus of history at the University of Western Ontario and the author of The Methodist Church on the Prairies, 1896-1914.

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"a very significant contribution to the field ... This book presents a thorough and convincing analysis of the fate of sickness insurance in the largest fraternal organization in Canada and the U.S. " Leonard Moore, Department of History, McGill University. "an advance in the application of theory to history, a contribution to the area of health insurance, and a major addition to the literature on friendly societies." Frank Lewis, Department of Economics, Queen's University.