Paul Slack's book demonstrates the extent to which the poor in England has been formally provided for by the end of the period: the scale of the English welfare apparatus that had been firmly established by 1700 had no parallel in the rest of Europe. This book explains how this unique achievement came about.

This pamphlet examines recent research into the poor laws of Tudor and Stuart England. Dr Beier asks the question ‘who were the poor?’ and in answering it places the ‘problem of the poor’ in its historical context, examining it in relation to medieval provisions for dealing with poverty. He shows how far legislation was influenced by economic changes, by ideas about poverty and by the interests of the legislators themselves. Dr Beier evaluates the varying interpretations of the poor laws, from those who have seen them as an early ‘welfare state’ to those who have considered them to be the manifestation of a ‘Protestant ethic’. The major poor-law statues are summarized in an appendix, and there is a useful bibliography.

A concise synthesis of past work on a unique and important system of social welfare.

First published in 1986. The first edition of this work was in 1971. In the intervening years a number of books and articles have appeared which deal directly, or indirectly, with the subject of poverty in the early modern period, and the bibliography, in consequence, has been almost doubled. Some additional material (numbered from 78 onwards) and changes in emphasis have been incorporated into the text, and the Norwich material, in particular, has been revised and extended in the light of the author’s own more recent research.

This important collection of Margaret Pelling's essays brings together her key studies of health, medicine and poverty in Tudor and Stuart England - including a number published here for the first time. They show that - then as now - health and medical care were everyday obsessions of ordinary people in the Tudor and Stuart era. Margaret Pelling's book brings this vital dimension of the early modern world in from the periphery of specialist study to the heart of the concerns of social, economic and cultural historians.

Examination of welfare during the last years of the Poor Law, bringing out the impact of poverty on particular sections of society - the lone mother and the elderly.