The English poor laws, 1700-1930

Introduction: approaching English poor law history. Point of entry ; A wealth of approaches to poor law history

The poor laws in the eighteenth century: changing patterns of relief in a maturing capitalist system. The parochial basis of the old poor law ; Poorhouses and workhouses ; 'Farming out' and outdoor relief ; Childbirth and child-rearing ; Medical care ; Attempts to broaden the administrative area ; Thomas Gilbert's reforms ; Open and close parishes ; The effects of quickening economic change ; The 1790s: death, war, and the spectre of revolution ; The allowance system ; Economists, philosophers, and moralists

Debates, experiments, and reforms, 1800-1832. Evangelizing the poor ; Wartime privations and the slowing of reform ; The poor laws and economic development ; Post-war dislocations and demands for reform ; Renewed parliamentary activity ; Select vestries ; The Nottinghamshire reformers ; Poor relief in the final years of the old poor law ; Captain swing and the poor laws

The new poor law takes shape, 1832-1847. The reform ministry and poor relief ; The royal commission on the poor laws ; Passing the new poor law ; The poor law commissioners assume authority ; Creating poor law unions and boards of guardians ; Workers' resistance to the new poor law ; The workhouse and the strategy of deterrence ; Anti-poor law politics and chartism ; Poor relief in the hungry forties ; The Andover scandal and the end of the poor law commission

Mid-Victorian poor relief, 1847-1870. The poor law board ; Expanding poor law services: education ; Expanding poor law services: medical care ; Treatment of the insane ; Migration, emigration, and vagrancy ; Changes in settlement and rating ; The increasingly urban character of poor relief ; The growing alarm over outdoor relief

The revival of deterrence and the expansion of services, 1870-1900. ; The local government board and poor relief ; Organized charity, the poor law, and the crusade against outdoor relief ; The war on vagrants ; The changing nature and uses of the workhouse ; Family maintenance on poor relief ; Democratizing the boards of guardians ; Women guardians and poor law officials ; New definitions of poverty

The eclipsing and transforming of the poor law, 1900-1930. Labour and poor relief: the first phase of poplarism ; The Royal Commission on the poor laws, 1905-1909 ; The liberal government's new array of social services ; The impact of the great war on the poor law ; Post-war crises and the revival of poplarism ; Neville Chamberlain and the struggle with the guardians ; The end of the boards of guardians ; The persistence of the poor law

Conclusion.