“…a valuable and engaging contribution to historical debates about labor, poverty, relief, and belonging…[The papers] are written by leaders in their fields…and pulled together [by the editors] in an elegant and convincing treatment of the case for such a geographical spread.” · Alannah Tomkins, University of Keele“…a very valuable collection of articles on an important subject of social history in the long period running from the end of the Middle Ages to the 20th century…[Of particular interest] for an Anglo-American readership is the innovative comparative perspective that must be seen as a substantial contribution to the ongoing international research on poverty, poor relief and migration in Europe… All articles are of good, very good or outstanding academic quality.” · Lutz Raphael, Trier University