The Solidarities of Strangers

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. Residualism Taken for Granted, 1700–1834: 1. The welfare process under the old poor laws; 2. Weekly doles: communal support in the eighteenth century; 3. Excluding paupers, 1780–1834; Part II. Residualism Refined and Restricted, 1834–60; 4. Classifying and confining paupers, 1834–60; 5. 'Though poor, I'm a gentleman still'; 6. 'Pauperism' in practice, 1834–70; Part III. Residualism Re-evaluated and Rejected, 1860–1948; 7. Re-evaluating the urban poor, 1860–90; 8. The multicampaign war on pauperism, 1870–1906; 9. Popular rejection of the poor laws; 10. New principles for social action, 1906–48; Epilogue: residualism redux, 1948–95; Appendix: collection and analysis of settlement examinations; Bibliographic essay; Index.

'Lynn Hollen Lee's book puts flesh on the dry bones of poor law administration by citing human experiences … derived from a largely untapped wealth of local records, autobiographies and other personal testimony … this is a particularly timely book … [and] is of great value in making sense of the wide range of poor law research in recent years and in focusing on the human experience of public relief.' The Times Literary Supplement