Disability and the Welfare State in Britain

This book gives a comprehensive review of disability policies for ‘the general classes’ of disabled adults in the UK. In the British political tradition, these were those persons who were not entitled to war pensions, industrial injuries benefits, or the provisions of other specific pieces of legislation such as the Blind Persons Act. They did not gain proper recognition within the welfare state until the 1960s. This is the story of how that came to pass, and how ‘disability’ became an object of policy in Britain in the ‘classic welfare state’ era. Hampton’s monograph is important because it is the first to comprehensively synthesize the policy material on post-war disability. It will be essential reading for those in the growing field of disability history, providing much-needed and accessible context for the actions of central government. Most of the analyses we have of post-war disability policy in the UK have been written by disability activists. This is theoretically problematic because these studies are refracted through political action. Social models—in which disability is framed as a form of discrimination against people with impairment, rather than something ‘problematic’ and innate to the individual—are invaluable theoretical devices for understanding disability. However, much of the work on this period has focused on a very specific social model which emerged through disabled people’s organizations in the 1970s. This has been an effective political weapon and has given us much-needed insights into the lived experiences of disabled people. But it is not a timeless concept. Historians also need analyses of how ‘disability’ has changed meaning; social models themselves require historicization

Context (archaeology · Government (linguistics · Legislation · Medical model of disability · Perception · Political science · Politics · Psychiatry · Social policy · Sociology · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare state · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine and Dermatology Studies History · Psychology · History · Law