Sin, Organized Charity and the Poor Law in Victorian England

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 1-13

3. The Poor Law Crusade against Outdoor Relief

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 14-28

4. The Provincial Crusade: Results and Reactions

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 29-49

5. Victorian Ideology, Early Attempts to Organize Charity, and the Beginnings of the Charity Organisation Society

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 50-63

6. The Emergence of Provincial Charity Organisation Societies and Responses, 1870–1890

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 64-100

7. The Activities of Provincial Charity Organisation Societies, 1870–1890

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 101-143

8. Ideological Change in Late Victorian Britain: The Response of Provincial Charity Organisation Societies and the Local Government Board

   • Robert Humphreys

   Pages 144-174

9. Back Matter

   Pages 175-226

   PDF

Politicians, social administrators, economists, biographers and historians have shared the belief that the Charity Organisation Society effectively rationalised relief to the Victorian poor and illustrated the advantages of caring voluntarism over impersonal state handouts. It is now clear that in provincial England these impressions were illusory. The alleged sinful profligacy of other charitable bodies was persistently condemned by the Charity Organisation Society for fostering latant sin amongst the poor. By exposing how they failed in practice to satisfy their own prescriptions for appropriate poor relief this volume asks whether the Charity Organisation Society were themselves morally equipped to castigate others about sin.

• bibliography
• Britain
• crusades
• England
• Great Britain
• ideology
• knowledge
• law
• organization
• relief
• society
• Victorian era

• Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

  Robert Humphreys

ROBERT HUMPHREYS

Policies and ethics