Paul Dutton is Assistant Professor of European History at Northern Arizona University. He completed his MA at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego. He has worked as a research analyst for the Center for Research and Education on Strategy and Technology, a public policy institute in Washington DC. Professor Dutton has published articles in the Journal of Modern History, French History, and Global Affairs.

• Acknowledgements; 1. An industrial model of family welfare; 2. A mutual model for social insurance; 3. Battle for control of social welfare: workers versus employers; 4. Challenges from city and countryside, 1930–1939; 5. Retrenchment and reform, 1939–1947; Bibliography; Index.

'Although this is a book of finely crafted history, complete with ample archival sources and rich empirical detail, it will be of interest to a much larger readership than period or area scholars only. This is the case particularly because Dutton is interested in the associational origins of the welfare state, a topic that has generated a great deal of research of late.' Canadian Journal of Sociology Online