The Origin of the Welfare State in England and Germany, 1850–1914
Social Policies Compared

This book offers a comparison of the origins of the welfare state in England and Germany (1850–1914).

E. P. Hennock (Author)

9780521597708, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 12 April 2007

400 pages, 4 b/w illus. 31 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.53 kg

'His style of prose is fluent and he succeeds in presenting his arguments succinctly but also convincingly.' The Historian

This book is a comparative study of the origin of the welfare state in England and Germany, from 1850 to 1914. It presents original conclusions about the differences between British and German approaches. Peter Hennock analyses policies on social security and the public provision of medical care, dealing with public poor relief, industrial injury, with sickness, invalidity and old age, and with unemployment. In each case policies in Britain and in the German Empire are compared for their actual provisions, their consequences and the politics that produced them. He demonstrates that national insurance has played a larger role in Germany than in Britain from the beginning, as it still does today, and that decisions taken before 1914 are crucial to the long-term differences between the welfare state in the two countries. The book will appeal to students and scholars of British and European political history, social history and social policy.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Public Relief of the Poor: 1. The national framework
2. The Urban Poor Law
Part II. The State and Industrial Injury: 3. Factory legislation to 1878
4. German accident insurance
5. British workmen's compensation
6. Factory legislation to 1914
Part III. Sickness, Invalidity, and Old Age: 7. The friendly societies of England and Wales
8. From Prussian Hilfskassen to German Krankenkassen
9. Cash benefits, contribution and coverage in the Friendly Society Era
10. German invalidity and old age insurance
11. British old age pensions
12. National health insurance for Britain
13. Medical provision in Britain and Germany
14. Contributions and benefits in the National Insurance era
15. White-collar insurance
Part IV. Unemployment: 16. Unemployment policies in Britain
17. Unemployment policies in Germany
Conclusion
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1], European history [HBJD]