Acknowledging the religious influences in social work’s roots, Mark Henrickson proposes that it need not be constrained by it. Addressing current debates in international social work about the relevance of different perspectives, this book will allow practitioners and scholars to create a global future of social work.

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.

This text examines the ideas and practices underpinning state removal of children. Early twentieth century Spanish juvenile courts were involved in taking children from poor families, families displaced by war, and from political opponents. This study captures the voice and agency of the marginalized children and parents affected by mass removals.

Originally published in 1968, Language of Social Casework considers the way in which social workers commonly neglect language. It is suggested that part of this neglect is due to the ways in which social workers and their critics envisage the activity of social work. The traditional criticisms of philanthropy and social work, are, therefore reviewed, and an attempt made to describe some common responses to them on the part of the practitioners. This is followed by an examination of two terms that are of some importance in the language of casework: the ‘generic-specific’ concept, and the idea of the ‘settings’ of casework. But casework is also described in terms borrowed from other ‘contexts: it is seen as ‘art’ or ‘science’, as a ‘therapy’ or the offer of ‘friendship’. Each of these descriptions is considered in the last two chapters of the book. The book also includes a brand new and fully updated preface by the author, contextualising this 1968 publication, in light of advancements made in the past 50 years.

The Origins of the British Labour Party was first published in 1955. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. What were the social and economic forces in England that gave rise to the British Labour Party? How did the party function in its formative years? How does the British labor movement compare with its American counterpart? If American labor enters politics as a separate party, is it likely to adopt a program resembling the socialism of the British Party? Professor Reid's detailed account of the origins and development of the British Labour Party lays the groundwork for answers to questions like these, questions that are pertinent to the social and political issues of America as well as England. Since the appearance of a body of organized labor is a phenomenon occasioned by the process of industrialization, and since that process began in Great Britain almost a century earlier than on the American continent, the student of labor politics may well ponder whether something similar to the British experience lies ahead for America. Professor Reid describes the conditions that brought about a specifically labor party, tells how it was established, and traces its first 20 years as a parliamentary party. He shows that the party began as an alliance of diverse forces having in common only the conviction that neither the Liberal nor the Conservative party would tackle such issues as housing, minimum wages, or unemployment insurance. He makes clear that, in working to achieve these short-term goals, the varied elements that made up the party finally worked out the peculiar compromise on policy and philosophy that is the basis of the British Labour Party today.