[.ca] The Promise of Private Pensions: The First Hundred Years (ISBN 0674945204)

Lively, straightforward, easily accessible:
Sass writes engagingly about the history of pensions, which goes back only about 100 years in the United States. He discusses the family handicraft economy of the mid-1800s, how it was displaced by large industrial firms, why pensions began, how they evolved, the impact of ERISA and the creation of defined contribution plans in the late 20th century. If you want to understand the policy issues of public (Social Security) and private pension reform and how they will affect you personally in the future, I suggest you turn back to the past for starters.