Bread for all: the origins of the welfare state

Description

"This ... new history tells the story of one [of] the greatest transformations in British intellectual, social and political life: the creation of the welfare state, from the Victorian workhouse, where you had to be destitute to receive help, to a moment just after the Second World War, when government embraced responsibility for people's housing, education, health and family life, a commitment that was unimaginable just a century earlier. Though these changes were driven by developments in different and sometimes unexpected currents in British life, they were linked by one over-arching idea: that through rational and purposeful intervention, government can remake society. It was an idea that, during the early twentieth century, came to inspire people across the political spectrum."--Jacket.;Introduction: A very British revolution -- 1. Atmospheric impurity -- 2. Below the poverty line -- 3. Reinventing Liberalism -- 4. The health of the nation -- 5. The well-being of the nation -- 6. The greatest argument for socialism ever produced -- 7. The man you can trust -- 8. Will the machine work? -- 9. In the long run we're all dead -- 10. Half-way to Moscow -- 11. Constructive progress -- Conclusion: This new entity composed of old elements -- Essay on sources.