Bibliography
This bibliography is taken from History Online, which provides bibliographic information on books and journal articles published by UK academic publishers. The bibliography below represents a selection of books on topics related to the history of welfare in History Online. Search History Online for other books and journal articles.
Publishers are giving special offers on some of the books listed below. See individual book entries for details.
State welfare and social policy
The British Welfare State: A Critical History
John Brown
The nature of the British 'Welfare State', established in the 1940s through the acceptance of the Beveridge Report's recommendations and assumption, has long been the subject of an inconclusive debate, even though knowledge of its history has increased as official papers have become open to access under the thirty year rule. What aims, interests and forces shaped its development before and after the Beveridge Report's appearance, from the Liberal innovations in social policy before 1914 to the collapse of full employment in the 1970s? This book examines the answers to such questions provided by recent historical research and discussion, offering a critical and comprehensive study of the modernisation of social policy in Britain.
Published 1995; ISBN 9780631171928
Wiley Blackwell are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Use the code V9468 to order online. This offer is valid until 31/03/09.
British Social Policy: 1945 to the Present
Howard Glennerster
This is a new edition of one of the most widely used texts on the history of social policy in Britain. Covering the period from the end of the Second World War to the present day, Howard Glennerster focuses on the welfare state to explore the myths that have shaped popular conceptions of social policy, and which continue to dominate current debates.
From the earliest days of the welfare state, to New Labour's reform commitments for the new century, Glennerster concludes that social policy can only ever be understood in the context of the political and economic concerns of the time. For this third edition the author provides a new final chapter covering New Labour's policy in the twenty-first century and updates the book's earlier chapters, tables, charts, and select bibliography.
Published 2006; ISBN 9781405152440
Wiley Blackwell are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Use the code V9468 to order online. This offer is valid until 31/03/09.
The Making of the Irish Poor Law, 1815–43
Peter Gray
The Making of the Irish Poor Law, 1815–43 examines the debates preceding and surrounding the 1838 act on the nature of Irish poverty and the responsibilities of society towards it. It traces the various campaigns for a poor law from the later eighteenth century, and analyses the nature and internal frictions of the great Irish poor inquiry of 1833–36, along with the policy recommendations made by its chair, Archbishop Whately. It considers the aims and limitations of the government's measure and the public reaction to it in Ireland and Britain. Finally, it describes the implementation of the Poor Law between 1838 and 1843 under the controversial direction of George Nicholls.
It will be of particular importance to those with a serious interest in the history of social welfare, of Irish social thought and politics, and of British governance in Ireland in the early nineteenth century.
Published February 2008; ISBN 9780719076497
Available to buy online at Manchester University Press
Contraception, Colonialism and Commerce: Birth Control in South India, 1920–1940
Sarah Hodges
This book outlines both the overlapping stories of the international birth control movement in south India, one of the strongholds of Indian birth control advocacy, as well as the south Indian indigenisation of international birth control. More than simply a supplementary narrative or case study, it argues that India's engagement with birth control remade the international scene just as India was refashioned by its engagement with international birth control.
Published June 2008; ISBN 9780754638094
Ashgate are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Simply enter the code H8ARX20 at the checkout page. This offer is valid until 30/04/09.
From Beveridge to Blair: the first fifty years of Britain's welfare state, 1948-1998
ed. Margaret Jones and Rodney Lowe
The creation of Britain's welfare state in 1948 was an event of major international importance. This study offers an introduction to the evolution of both the structure of the welfare state and attitudes towards it. It concentrates on five core services: health care, education, social security, the personal social services and housing. For each service it examines the original vision, the attempts to implement this vision, the resulting complexities and controversies and, above all, the impact on individual "customers". A wide range of documentary evidence is used, including published and unpublished government sources, political memoirs, newspaper exposés and personal testimony.
Published 2002; ISBN 9780719041037
Available to buy online at Manchester University Press
The development of the welfare state 1939-1951: a guide to documents in the Public Record Office
ed. Andrew Land, Rodney Lowe and Noel Whiteside
The sheer volume of records in the Public Record Office has, in the past, frequently discouraged their effective use. There is, in fact, a wealth of information contained within departmental records relating to specific areas of policy. This handbook seeks to introduce, primarily to those interested in welfare but also to those with a wider interest in social conditions and social change, the potential of such government papers. Examining the main social services in turn, each chapter covers policy files of central significance, additional records relating to each issue and includes references to files covering particular aspects of those issues.
Published 1992; ISBN 9780114402495
Available to buy online at amazon.co.uk
The Birth of Industrial Britain: Social Change, 1750–1850
Kenneth Morgan
The companion volume to The Birth of Industrial Britain: Economic Change, together they provide a comprehensive guide to Britain's development as the first industrial power. This volume focuses on the social impact of early industrialisation on the population and looks at living standards, work and leisure, crime and the law, religion, education, the Poor Law and popular protest.
Published 2004; ISBN 9780582302709
Pearson Education are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Simply enter the code GR004A at the checkout page. This offer is valid until 28/02/09.
The State and Society: A Social and Political History of Britain 1870–2008 (Third edition)
Martin Pugh
A vigorous interpretation of political and social developments in Britain since the late Victorian era, State and Society is one of the most respected and widely read introductions to modern British history. In it, Pugh explores, as his central theme, the relationship between the British state and its citizens with characteristic skill and insight. In this new edition, the text is extended to cover the premiership of Tony Blair, from his election in 1997 to his departure a decade later. Pugh examines Blair's legacy, looking at issues such as electoral reform, the idea of a British presidency, enivironmentalism, the Iraq War, civil liberties and national identity. In addition, existing chapters have been fully revised to reflect recent developments in historical thinking and restructured to highlight key themes.
Published 2008; ISBN 9780340966891
Hodder Education are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Simply enter the code WH0002478 at the checkout page.
Occupational welfare
Suffering, Dying and Military Medicine on the Western Front, 1914–1918
Leo van Bergen
This book examines military victims of the First World War, looking at what could happen to a soldier from the moment he got on the train that brought him to the front, until the instant he was killed and buried.
In five chapters - Battle, Body, Mind, Aid, Death - the varied experiences of the wounding and suffering of soldiers are explored, drawing on stories from both sides of the Western Front in the First World War. Drawing on British, French, German and Dutch sources it shows the consequences of modern warfare on the human individuals caught up in it, and the way it influences our thinking on 'humanitarian' activities.
Published March 2009; ISBN 9780754658535
Ashgate are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Simply enter the code H8ARX20 at the checkout page. This offer is valid until 30/04/09.
Collective welfare
The British Working Class, 1832–1940
Andrew August
In this insightful new study, Andrew August examines the British working class in the period when Britain became a mature industrial power, working men and women dominated massive new urban populations, and the extension of suffrage brought them into the political nation for the first time.
Framing his subject chronologically, but treating it thematically, August gives a vivid account of working class life between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, examining the issues and concerns central to working-class identity. Identifying shared patterns of experience in the lives of workers, he avoids the limitations of both traditional historiography dominated by economic determinism and party politics, and the revisionism which too readily dismisses the importance of class in British society.
Published 2007; ISBN 9780582381308
Perason Education are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Simply enter the code GR004A at the checkout page. This offer is valid until 28/02/09.
Gender and Rural Modernity: Farm Women and the Politics of Labor in Germany, 1871–1933
Elizabeth Bright Jones
Gender and Rural Modernity explores how and why women's productive, reproductive and symbolic roles on German family farms assumed ever larger importance in the eyes of contemporary observers and how German farm women themselves shaped debates over agricultural labor and the nation's future before, during and after the First World War.
Published April 2009; ISBN 9780754664994
Ashgate are offering History in Focus readers a 20% discount. Simply enter the code H8ARX20 at the checkout page. This offer is valid until 30/04/09.
The Mass Observation Archive: Papers from the Mass-Observation Archive Part 1: Publications, 1937-1966
University of Sussex
Mass-Observation was a pioneering social research organisation whose papers provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain from 1937 to 1965. Its strength is that it describes everyday life in the words of ordinary people, with extensive interviews and records of overheard conversations, rather than through polls. The collection is also a wonderful source of contemporary ephemera.
Part 1 provides an ideal introduction to the collection by offering all 25 books published by Mass-Observation between 1937 and 1950. These are all now out of print and are held by very few libraries. They address topics such as shopping, drinking, life during the war, and attitudes to royalty. There is also an account of the original aims of Mass-Observation and of their first year's work, where their anthropological and sociological approach is endorsed by Bronislaw Malinowski.
More information from Adam Matthew Publications
Women, Politics and Welfare: The Papers of Nancy Astor, 1879–1964 Part 2: Subject files: Children and the Family
Reading University Library
This project makes available for the first time the correspondence and papers of Nancy Astor. This second part concentrates on her work concerning Children and the Family, which was a central preoccupation of her political career. There are subject files for Adoption, Baby Week, Maternity and Child Welfare; Education, Playing Fields and School Milk; Family Endowment and Guardianship; Head Mistresses and Nursery Schools; Child Slavery; the Children's Bill (in which she played an active part), and Juvenile Delinquency and Children in Institutions.
Nancy Astor played a major part in advancing the cause of women. Serving as a member of Parliament for over 25 years, she was a powerful advocate of minority issues, famous for her oratory. This collection will enable scholars to re-assess her career and provides important primary evidence on the major social and political issues of the twentieth century.
More information from Adam Matthew Publications