Rev Dr Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), eminent churchman and political economist, was a keen social reformer and played an instrumental role in the voluntary principle in Scottish poor relief during the changes associated with industrialization and urbanization of the early nineteenth century.
Chalmers was also pioneer of a comprehensive vision of society so organized that, in the midst of the changes of his age, it would recover a sense of individual and communal responsibility. The selections from his writings included in this set illustrate both his role as a social theorist and a...

Unemployment, poverty and role of the state were themes which structured the discourse of social theory and the developing social legislation in Britain at the end of the Victorian period and the early 20th century. This collection examines the neglected contribution of Bernard and Helen Bosanquet to that contemporary debate about the condition of the people, the process of social reform and the practice of social work. Like their contemporaries Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the Bosanquets were a significant partnership, integrating philosophy and practice, theory and action. Bernard Bosanquet,...

Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) is most famous for his contributions to the public health movement of the nineteenth century where his 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population highlighted the unsanitary conditions that prevailed in the industrial towns and cities of Victorian Britain. While particular cities are mentioned in his work, such as London, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, his work had an effect on Britain as a whole as it changed government policy on a national level. Other facets of social welfare in which he was actively involved included the Poor...

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The welfare state has been one of the most significant developments in twentieth-century Britain. Drawing on much recent research, The Twentieth-Century Welfare State narrates its principal changes and provides a thematic historical introduction to issues of finance and funding, providers and users and the role of the welfare state as a system of social stratification. Change and continuity are central themes, while the 'moving frontier' between the state and other suppliers in the mixed economy of twentieth-century welfare is also analysed.