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In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law

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  • Fred Block
  • Margaret Somers

Abstract

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act that ended the entitlement of poor families to government assistance. The debate leading up to that transformation in welfare policy occurred in the shadow of Speenhamland—an episode in English Poor Law history. This article revisits the Speenhamland episode to unravel its tangled history. Drawing on four decades of recent scholarship, the authors show that Speenhamland policies could not have had the consequences that have been attributed to them. The article ends with an alternative narrative that seeks to explain how the Speenhamland story became so deeply entrenched.

Suggested Citation

  • Fred Block & Margaret Somers, 2003. "In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law," Politics & Society, , vol. 31(2), pages 283-323, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:31:y:2003:i:2:p:283-323
    DOI: 10.1177/0032329203252272
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    Cited by:

    1. Jane Jenson, 2008. "Getting to Sewers and Sanitation: Doing Public Health within Nineteenth-Century Britain's Citizenship Regimes," Politics & Society, , vol. 36(4), pages 532-556, December.
    2. Martin Ravallion, 2020. "On the Origins of the Idea of Ending Poverty," NBER Working Papers 27808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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