WELFARE AND THE STATE , 1900- c.1939.
CONVENOR: Prof.Pat Thane
British Social Policy-General Surveys
Paul Slack The English Poor Law,1531-1782.
Poverty and Policy in Tudor and Stuart England.
J.D.Marshall The Old Poor Law
ME Rose The Relief of Poverty 1834-1914
K.Williams From pauperism to poverty (Poor Law to 1914)
MA Crowther Social Policy in Britain 1914-1939
George Peden Social and Economic Policy, Lloyd George to Margaret Thatcher
Pat Thane Foundations of the Welfare State (2nd edition, 1996, not 1982 edition).
R.Lowe The Welfare State in Britain since 1945 (2005 edition)
G.Finlayson Citizen, State and Social Welfare, 1830-1990 ( voluntary action).
F.Prochaska The Voluntary Impulse
MA Crowther The Workhouse System
Bernard Harris The Origins of the British Welfare State, 1800-1945.
Comparative surveys
R.Jutte Poverty and Development in early Modern Europe.
D.Ashford The emergence of the welfare states
P.Baldwin The politics of social solidarity.Class bases of the European welfare states.
G.Bock and P.Thane eds Maternity and Gender Policies.
S.Koven and S.Michel eds Mothers of a new land. (maternity and child welfare)
P.Flora and A Heidenheimer The development of welfare states in Europe and America
E.P.Hennock. British social reform and German precedents.The case of social insurance
1880-1911.
On more detailed aspects of British social policy, pre 1945 (though some cover the whole
century)
G.Behlmer Child abuse and moral reform in England 1870-1908.
C.Bellamy The Administration of central and local relations 1871-1919
M.Daunton House and Home in the Victorian City.Working class housing, 1850-1914
A property owning democracy? .
D.Dwork War is good for babies and other young children. (child welfare pre 1918)
FML Thompson ed. Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750-1950
Vol.2 Ch.2. M. Anderson'The social implications of demographic change', Ch. 4 Daunton
'Housing'.
Vol.3. Ch.1 Thane.'Government and society 1750-1914'; CH 2. Harris Society and the state in
the 20th c'. Ch 3 SutherlandEducation; Ch 4 Berridge Health and medicine; Ch 7 Prochaska
Philanthropy.
V.Fildes et al Women and children first: international maternal and infant welfare 18701945.
G.Finlayson Citizen,State and Social Welfare in Britain 1830-1990. ( onVoluntary Action)
'A moving frontier: voluntarism and the state in British social welfare 19411949.' Twentieth Century British History 1,2, 1990.
F.Prochaska Women and Philanthrophy in Victorian and Edwardian England.
WR Garside British Unemployment 1919-39
BB Gilbert The Evolution of National Insurance in Great Britain
British Social Policy 1914-39
Jose Harris William Beveridge, a Biography
Unemployment and Policy:a study in English social policy , 1886-1914
Private Lives,Public Spirit:a social history of Britain 1870-1914.
E.P.Hennock 'The measurement of poverty:from the metropolis to the nation 1880-1920'
Economic History Review May 1987
Patricia Hollis Ladies Elect.Women in English Local government 1869-1914
R.Humphreys Sin,Organized Charity and the Poor Law in Victorian England (good critique
of the Charity Organization Society)
M.Jefferys ed. Growing Old in Twentieth Century Britain
Pat Thane Old Age in English History. Past Experiences, Present Issues .
M.Pelling and R.Smith Life,Death and the Elderly.Historical Perspectives
H.Jones Health and Society in 20th c Britain.
Jane Lewis The Politics of Motherhood: Child and Maternal Welfare in England, 19001939.
R.Lowe 'The second world war:Consensus and the foundation of the welfare state' Twentieth
Century British History1,2, 1990
J.Macnicol The Movement for Family Allowances.
L.Marks 'The luckless waifs and strays of humanity:Irish and Jewish immigrant unwed
mothers in London 1970-1939' Twentieth Century British History 3,2, 1992.
S.Pederson Family,Dependency and the origins of the welfare state.Britain and France
1914-45.
Ellen Ross Love and Toil ( women and poverty in East London, pre 1914)
M.Sanderson Educational Opportunity and Social Change in England .
G. Searle The Quest for National Efficiency
Eugenics and Politics in Britain.
H.L. Smith ed. War and Social Change (impact of second world war)
S.Szreter 'The importance of social intervention in Britain's mortality decline' Social History
of Medicine 1.1. April 1988. (1970s-1914)
P.Thane ed Origins of British social policy.
'Women and the poor law in Victorian and Edwardian England' History Workshop
Journal 1978.
'The working class and state 'welfare' 1870-1914' Historical Journal 27.
'The cultural history of old age' Ageing.Australian Cultural History No.14 1995
‘Unmarried motherhood in twentieth century England’ Women’s History Review ,
Feb.2011, pp 11-30.
J.M.Winter The Great war and the British People (impact of first world war on health and
social conditions)
Katharine Bradley Poverty, Philanthropy and the State. Charities and the Working Classes in
London, 1918-1979. (2009)
Mark Freeman Social Investigation and Rural England , 1870-1914.
Sources; Contemporary Works
Lady Bell At the Works (1907)
Maud Pember Reeves Round About a Pound a Week. (1913)
Margaret Llewelyn Davies Life as We Have Known it. By Co-operative Working Women
(1931)
Maternity. Letters from Working Women (1915)
Margery Spring Rice Working Class Wives (1939)
William Beveridge Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
Full Employment In a Free Society (1944)
Voluntary Action (1948)
Beatrice Webb My Apprenticeship
Our Partnership
S & B Webb History of Local Government
E.Rathbone The Disinherited Family.
Charles Booth Life and Labour of the People of London ( 1902, 17 vols)
BS Rowntree Poverty. A Study of Town Life. (1902)
Suggested questions for discussion:
What were the causes and extent of poverty, 1900-1914?
Why was there a ‘quest for national efficiency’ from c. 1900? What was the impact a) on
voluntary action, b) on state action?
Why were old age pensions introduced in Britain 1908?
Why was national insurance introduced in Britain in 1911?
What was the relationship between state and voluntary action a) 1900-1914, b) 1914-18, c)
1919-39
Assess the impact of World War 1 on social policy.
Why and with what effects did council house building expand between the wars?
Was the impact of the inter-war economic depression on social conditions and social policy
wholly negative?
Did educational opportunity increase 1900-1914 or 1918-39?