This volume challenges many widely held beliefs about the efficacy of the London Charity Organization Society. Politicians, social administrators, sociologists, economists, biographers and historians have been swayed by the strength of their propaganda. The Charity Organization Society continues to be used as an institutional model to illustrate the alleged advantages of voluntarism over state benefits. Poor Relief and Charity 1869-1945 exposes the misleading nature of many of its claims. It explains why they were shunned by other charities, treated with suspicion by parish clergy, disregarded by poor law guardians and seen as little different from the stigmatized poor law by those in need.

Over the last 200 years Britain has witnessed profound changes in the nature and extent of state welfare. Drawing on the latest historical and social science research The Origins of the British Welfare State looks at the main developments in the history of social welfare provision in this period. It looks at the nature of problems facing British society in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries and shows how these provided the foundation for the growth of both statutory and welfare provision in the areas of health, housing, education and the relief of poverty. It also examines the role played by the Liberal government of 1906-14 in reshaping the boundaries of public welfare provision and shows how the momentous changes associated with the First and Second World Wars paved the way for the creation of the 'classic' welfare state after 1945. This comprehensive and broad-ranging yet accessible account encourages the reader to question the 'inevitability' of present-day arrangements and provides an important framework for comparative analysis. It will be essential reading for all concerned with social policy, British social history and public policy.

A very important and thorough analysis of the debate on retirement and state pensions in Britain.

Politicians, social administrators, economists, biographers and historians have shared the belief that the Charity Organisation Society effectively rationalised relief to the Victorian poor and illustrated the advantages of caring voluntarism over impersonal state handouts. It is now clear that in provincial England these impressions were illusory. The alleged sinful profligacy of other charitable bodies was persistently condemned by the Charity Organisation Society for fostering latant sin amongst the poor. By exposing how they failed in practice to satisfy their own prescriptions for appropriate poor relief this volume asks whether the Charity Organisation Society were themselves morally equipped to castigate others about sin.

A long-awaited revised edition of one of our key History titles - one of the bestselling titles on the list This is a seminal text of social history Has a new introduction that evaluates the book within its present historiographical context. Part of our informal 'Vintage' history series of new editions - with a new 'classic' look and new introduction by the author.

This collection examines the variety of relationships between statutory and voluntary sectors, and considers two hundred and fifty years of welfare provision on an international scale.