Evolution of National Insurance in Great Britain: Origins of the Welfare State

Professor Gilbert uses new material to give a new perspective on the history of British social legislation down to the outbreak of World War I. Essentially this is the story of the series of legislative experiments by which the British government attempted to provide the citizens of the nation with the physical, educational and welfare institutions that socialism had taught the working classes of western Europe to expect.

Central to the entire problem was the question of national health. The Boer War at the turn of the century had raised frightening questions about the health and physical efficiency of the English race. The danger could not be ignored in a world beset by the menace of Imperial Germany.

In the long run the important social innovation of Edwardian Britain was social insurance which has become the basic mechanism for the present welfare state and for the social security framework of the United States. Professor Gilbert shows how compulsory social insurance provides a mechanism by which citizens, though not relieved of their responsibilities to society. are required to prepare for them, Far from being a threat to capitalism, pre-World War I national insurance sought through social reform legislation to draw the sting of socialism.

Professor Gilbert's study adds a new dimension to our understanding of twentieth century history and a new awareness to those concerned to shape present-day social policies in Britain and the United States.