The Welfare State In Britain Since 1945

This account of welfare policy in Britain analyzes the period of so-called consensus between 1945 and 1975 and the years between 1975 and 1990 when state welfare came under ideological attack. The guide provides an assessment of the relative successes and failures of social and employment policy.

This textbook uses political theory to explain the growth of welfare in post-war Britain with special emphasis on social policy.

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.

Women born in mid twentieth-century Britain were the 'welfare state generation' – not only were their lives fundamentally shaped by the welfare state, they helped to transform it. In this ground-breaking work, Eve Worth examines the impact of the welfare state on the life course of women whose opportunities and social experiences were formed by it in the post-1945 period. Centred around an oral history study, this book argues that the welfare state was so central to the lives of women born in Britain between the late 1930s and early 1950s that they should be considered the 'welfare state generation'. The post-war expansion of the welfare state was one of the most transformative political changes of the twentieth century, yet we know little about its development in practice, nor its long-term impact on those who grew up within it. Using a ground-breaking life history methodology to examine women from their birth in the long 1940s to retirement in the mid-2010s, it includes thirty-six original life history interviews alongside social surveys and the Census for wider context By deploying a cross-class approach, this book moves the discussion on from just looking at university-educated women, to include women often overlooked in gender and social studies. Re-conceptualising the causes of social mobility in post-war Britain, exploring a new understanding of work and an updated periodisation of welfare state development, The Welfare State Generation offers a new approach to the history of class and gender, arguing that we need to move beyond the focus on women's emotions and personal identity, to consider their experiences and relationships with the state as employer, educator and provider.

A comparative analysis of social policies in Britain and France between 1914 and 1945.

This is a new edition of one of the most widely used texts on the history of social policy. 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. The new edition includes: - an entirely new chapter on developments since the 1997 General Election.- completely updated and amended text, including greater coverage of the Thatcher period.- a new conclusion drawing out what is seen as a distinctively British social policy direction.- more cross-country comparisons.- a fully updated reference section.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.

This is a unique and timely survey of the evolving priorities of the British welfare state since its inception in the late 1940s, with an emphasis on how current and future aims and features of welfare provision compare with the ambitions of its original architects. In this book, 15 commentators, including prominent academic experts in the field, and also members of think tanks, charities and campaigning organisations – with a foreword by the BBC’s Huw Edwards, explore themes such as health, education, housing, gender, disability and ethnic diversity. The result of this study is a rich, critical and thought-provoking exploration of the legacy and prospects of the welfare state – worth reading by anyone with an interest in debates on how a modern society should meet the needs of its citizens.