The Emergence of the Welfare State in Britain and Germany

Wolfgang Justin Mommsen was a German historian. Mommsen's overall work reflects three major shifts in post-war German historiography. First, as the primacy-of-domestic-policy thesis gained ground, Mommsen placed particular emphasis on the domestic factors that influence policymaking under the Bismarckian, the Wilhelminian, and the Third Reich. Second, by using his experience from the study of Imperial Germany to shed light on the problems of interwar Germany, he underlined continuities in German history and contributed to the historicization of the Third Reich. Finally, although Mommsen located certain peculiarities in the German state and society, he treated German history, not in isolation from, but in firm connection with historical developments in the rest of Europe.

List of Tables List of Figures List of Abbreviations Preface Part I: The Historical Foundations of the Welfare State 1. The English Poor Law and the Origins of the British Welfare State 2. English Social Policy Around the Middle of the Nineteenth Century as seen by German Social Reformers 3. The Crisis of Poor Relief in England 1860-1890 4. Bismarck’s Social Legislation: A Genuine Breakthrough? 5. The Origins of British National Insurance and the German Precedent 1880-1914 6. The British Business Community, Social Insurance and the German Example 7. German Industry and Bismarck’s Social Security System 8. State and Unemployment in Germany 1890-1918 (Labour Exchanges, Job Creation and Unemployment Insurance) Part II: Unemployment and the Crisis of the Welfare Policies in the Interwar Period 9. Keynes and the Treasury View: The Case for and Against an Active Unemployment Policy in Britain 1920-1939 10. The Crisis of German Unemployment Insurance in 1928/1929 and its Political Repercussions 11. Creation of Employment as a Welfare Policy. The Final Phase of the Weimar Republic Part III: The Breakthrough of the Welfare State after the Second World War 12. Some Aspects of Social Policy in Britain during the Second World War 13. Bureaucracy and Innovation in British Welfare Policy 1870-1945 14. The Social Policy of the Attlee Government 15. German Post-War Social Policies Against the Background of the Beveridge Plan. Some Observations Preparatory to a Comparative Analysis Part IV: Past and Future of the Welfare State in Social-Scientific Perspective 16. Solution or Source of Crises? The Welfare State in Historical Perspective 17. Comments on Professor Peter Flora’s Analytical Perspective of the Welfare State 18. The Future of the Welfare State 19. The End of the Welfare State? 20. From the National Welfare State to the International Welfare System Index