The welfare state arouses controversy whether attention is focused on its recent past or future development. Leading experts in welfare history draw together the latest research in essays combining broad policy surveys and detailed case studies. The key questions are 'What is a welfare state?' and 'How can it best be analysed?'. The history of the British welfare state suggests that the traditional approach has been too narrow. Current policy should be informed by a greater sense of history.

DAVID GLADSTONE Director of Undergraduate Programmes in Social Policy, University of Bristol
PAUL JOHNSON Reader in Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science
JANE LEWIS Professor of Social Policy, London School of Economics
JOHN MACNICOL Reader in Social Policy, Royal Holloway, University of London
CHRIS PIERSON Professor of Politics, University of Nottingham
LORD PLANT Master of St Catherine's College Oxford
SAMIT SAGGAR Senior Lecturer in Government, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
JOHN VEIT-WILSON Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Northumbria and Visiting Professor, Department of Social Policy, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Preface; P.Catterall Introduction; R.Lowe Inequality Redistribution and Living Standards in Britain since 1945; P.Johnson Renegotiating the Boundaries: Risk, Responsibility in Personal Welfare since 1945; D.Gladstone The Voluntary Sector and the State in Twentieth Century Britain; J.Lewis From Problem Family to Underclass, 1945-95; J.Macnicol Democratic Socialism and Equality; R.Plant The National Assistance Board and the Rediscovery of Poverty; J.V.Wilson The Trade Union Movement the Social Contract and Social Policy 1970-74; H.Fawcett Immigration and Economics: the Politics of Race and Immigration in the Postwar Period; S.Saggar The Welfare State: from Beveridge to Borrie; C.Pierson Index