Poverty and Sickness in Modern Europe: Narratives of the Sick Poor, 1780-1938

(Paperback)

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This book provides a genuinely pan-European analysis of pauper narratives, focusing on the experiences of the sick poor in England, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales. The contributions highlight the value of pauper narratives for exploring the agency, rhetoric and experiences of the poor and sick poor, significantly enhancing our understanding of the ways in which national and regional welfare systems operated. By foregrounding the particular experiences and strategies of the sick poor, this volume helps to establish and understand the central sentiments of the relief system and the core experiences of those under its care. What emerges is a demonstration that how a relief system treated its sick poor and how those sick poor were able to navigate the system tells us more about welfare history than analysis of any other group.

Reviews

Assembled by three distinguished historians of poverty this volume consists of an introduction and ten essays, mostly focussing on Britain and Germany (three chapters each) but also including chapters on Ireland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden ... anyone with a research interest in this field will find plenty of food for thought ... there is much of value here, therefore, and the volumes production in reasonably priced paperback format brings it within the ordinary scholars reach. -- Joanna Innes, University of Oxford, UK * Family & Community History (Vol. 16.2) *

Author Bio

Andreas Gestrich is Director of the German Historical Institute London, UK. Elizabeth Hurren is Reader in History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Steven King is Professor of Medical Humanities at Leicester University, UK.