Trust Among Strangers
Friendly Societies in Modern Britain

The first major historical study of social trust in modern Britain, this book offers a fresh perspective on friendly societies.

Penelope Ismay (Author)

9781108459945, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 September 2019

229 pages, 6 b/w illus. 2 maps 1 table
23 x 15.3 x 1.2 cm, 0.35 kg

'An exceptional work of history revealing how the principle of mutuality, built upon notions of friendship and trust, and embedded in the practices of friendly societies from the time of Daniel Defoe, played a central role in the formation of the modern welfare state. It played a special role in the thinking behind the National Health Service, which might be considered a friendly society writ large.' Gareth Stedman Jones, Queen Mary University of London

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the internal migration of a growing population transformed Britain into a 'society of strangers'. The coming and going of so many people wreaked havoc on the institutions through which Britons had previously addressed questions of collective responsibility. Poor relief, charity briefs, box clubs, and the like relied on personal knowledge of reputations for their effectiveness and struggled to accommodate the increasing number of unknown migrants. Trust among Strangers re-centers problems of trust in the making of modern Britain and examines the ways in which upper-class reformers and working-class laborers fashioned and refashioned the concept and practice of friendly society to make promises of collective responsibility effective - even among strangers. The result is a profoundly new account of how Britons navigated their way into the modern world.

Introduction: new beginnings
1. Friendly society before friendly societies
2. Friendly societies and the meaning of the new poor law
3. The battle between savings banks and friendly societies
4. Trusting institutions: making the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Manchester Unity
5. Trusting numbers: sociability and actuarial science in the Manchester Unity
Epilogue: alternative endings.

Subject Areas: Welfare & benefit systems [JKSB], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]