Welfare and Social Policy in Britain Since 1870: Essays in Honour of Jose Harris

This collection of twelve essays reviews the history of welfare in Britain over the past 150 years. It focuses on the ideas that have shaped the development of British social policy, and on the thinkers who have inspired and also contested the welfare state. It thereby constructs an intellectual history of British welfare since the concept first emerged at the end of the nineteenth century.

The essays divide into four sections. The first considers the transition from laissez-faire to social ...