The welfare state in Britain since 1945 /

This excellent book provides the first comprehensive history of welfare policy in postwar Britain. Lowe (Univ. of Bristol, UK) provides full accounts of the six areas covered by welfare policy (employment, social security, the National Health Service, education, housing, and social work), as well as an overview of the theoretical frameworks typically used to analyze welfare policy. The book is thorough, fair, and well written. The historical narrative provides a good background to the early formation of the welfare state and the attacks on it after 1975. The reader is given more than enough statistical evidence to form an independent judgment of whether these policies achieved their desired goals. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty. B. W. Bateman; Grinnell College