Overview
Between the mid-fourteenth century and the Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601, English poor relief moved toward a more coherent and comprehensive network of support. Marjorie McIntosh's study, the first to trace developments across that time span, focuses on three types of assistance: licensed begging and the solicitation of charitable alms; hospitals and almshouses for the bedridden and elderly; and the aid given by parishes. It explores changing conceptions of poverty and charity and altered roles for the church, state and private organizations in the provision of relief. The study highlights the creativity of local people in responding to poverty, cooperation between national levels of government, the problems of fraud and negligence, and mounting concern with proper supervision and accounting. This ground-breaking work challenges existing accounts of the Poor Laws, showing that they addressed problems with forms of aid already in use rather than creating a new system of relief.
Full Product Details
Author: Marjorie Keniston McIntosh (University of Colorado Boulder)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Imprint: Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)
ISBN: 9781139057547
ISBN 10: 1139057545
Publication Date: 05 January 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Undefined
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
'... a magisterial account of the early evolvement of practices that were to become the pillars of the 'mixed economy' of caring for the poor over the course of the entire early modern era. Superbly researched and cogently written, the book is an essential reading for students and scholars of society and politics in late medieval and early modern times.' Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, author of The Culture of Giving: Informal Support and Gift-Exchange in Early Modern England 'On the basis of an extraordinary amount of painstaking research on an enormously wide range of manuscript material, both in the national archives and in local record repositories, Marjorie McIntosh's fine new book skilfully reunites the mediaeval and early modern historiographies of poor relief; and convincingly argues that the unjustly neglected and often misunderstood statutes of 1552, 1563 and 1572 must take pride of place in our understanding of the chronology and meaning of the nascent system of welfare in early modern England.' Steve Hindle, Director of Research, The Huntington Library
In Poor Relief in England 1350-1600, acclaimed historian Marjorie McIntosh offers a magisterial account of the early evolvement of practices that were to become the pillars of the mixed economy of caring for the poor over the course of the entire early modern era. Superbly researched and cogently written, the book is an essential reading for students and scholars of society and politics in late medieval and early modern times. -Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, author of The Culture of Giving: Informal Support and Gift-Exchange in Early Modern England
Author Information
Marjorie Keniston McIntosh is Distinguished Professor of History Emerita at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her previous publications include Controlling Misbehavior in England, 1370–1600 (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Working Women in English Society, 1300–1620 (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and two books about colonial and postcolonial African women.
