The Evolution of the British Welfare State : A History of Social Policy Since the Industrial Revolution

The Factory Question I. THE FACTORY CHILD CHILD labour was not the creation of the Industrial Revolution. Many a medieval tapestry, depicting children at work, gives the lie to the idea of a 'Merrie England' of feudal times when children laboured not at all. Behind closed doors the domestic system hid much unseen exploitation of children, for in many ways parents were the severest taskmasters of all. There is no real case to support the hostile anti-industrial view in the early nineteenth century which invented, most notably in the words of Engels, a golden age of rural bliss in pre-industrial society: 'The workers enjoyed a comfortable and peaceful existence ... they were not forced to work excessive hours .... Children grew up in the open air of the countryside and if they were old enough to help their parents work this was only an occasional employment and there was no question of an 8 or I2 hour day.'l The vision of children whiling away the hours in idyllic surroundings and doing nothing more strenuous than dancing round the maypole is certainly not supported by the recollections of men who had themselves grown up in the eighteenth century. They recalled arduous employment in cramped conditions and inevitable long walks in the early hours to the nearest market. Yet, as with so many other social problems, the Industrial Revolution concentrated and multiplied what had previously been diffuse and remote from the public gaze. A visit to one large mill in industrial Lancashire or Yorkshire could furnish the evidence of child labour which would have taken a large-scale investigation into private dwellings in the age of the domestic system. The excessive labour of children could be ignored when scattered across the Pennine hamlets, but not for long would it remain unnoticed and unremarked in a smoky industrial city. Apart from this concentration, the Industrial Revolution added two main strands to the prevailing pattern, those of discipline and danger which were the creation of the new factory system. a EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH WELFARE STATE Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-9 The Factory Question....Pages 11-27 The Poor Law....Pages 28-50 Public Health....Pages 51-71 Education and Welfare....Pages 72-90 Laissez-faire and State Intervention in the mid-Nineteenth Century....Pages 91-114 The Growing Awareness of Poverty....Pages 115-134 Liberal Social Policy, 1905–14....Pages 135-163 The Inter-War Years....Pages 164-191 War and Welfare in the 1940s....Pages 192-222 Conclusion....Pages 223-232 Back Matter....Pages 233-299 Historical study of the development of social policy and the welfare state in the UK from about 1830 to 1950 - discusses the impact of industrialization on social change in respect of child labour and hours of work in the factories, health services, education, welfare, social security, etc., examines social theory regarding state intervention, and outlines the growing awareness of social problems stemming from poverty and unemployment. Bibliography pp. 281 to 294 and references