Providing for the Poor

The Old Poor Law dispensed benefits to paupers in a uniquely comprehensive, pre-modern system of relief. Providing for the Poor re-examines the micro-politics of poverty in the long eighteenth century. It bridges the gaps in our understanding of the experiences of people across the social spectrum whose lives were touched by the law and explores some of the wider arguments concerning the nature of welfare during economically testing times to produce a radical new history of the Old Poor Law in astonishing detail.