Compassion: A Global History of Social Policy [Paperback]

Compassiontraces the ways in which various societies across the globe have responded to the vulnerable among them from early human history to the present. Along the way, Alvin Finkel assesses the impacts of economic developments, colonialism, political arrangements, gender, race, and social class in influencing how different peoples have defined the rights of individuals and communities facing hardship.

From Russia to Iran, from Scandinavia to Vietnam, this book looks at how social policy has been shaped by global social forces such as capitalism, imperialism and neoliberalism and analyses why different countries and regions diverged in their ways of dealing with inequalities and social needs.

This is a valuable resource for students on history, sociology or social work degrees taking modules or courses on the history of welfare/social policy or global history.

Dr Alvin Finkel is Professor Emeritus of History at Athabasca University, Canada.
Dr Alvin Finkel is Professor Emeritus of History at Athabasca University, Canada.

A book that manages to be simultaneously deep and global, ranging from our hunter-gatherer ancestors to the neo-liberal slash-backs of the 1980s. Who knew it was possible to write an epic panorama of the welfare state? Peter Baldwin, UCLA and NYU, USA

Alvin Finkel's Compassion provides an ambitious historic review of global welfare provision, exploring the underlying nature of how obligations to others are formed and reformed over time. For students of social policy it is a timely reminder of the importance of compassion and some of the contemporary challenges faced when mobilising this characteristic into future welfare endeavours. Lee Gregory, University of Birmingham, UK

Most books concerning social policy and welfare focus on developments in the Global North and place such within recent local or colonial histories. Finkel provides a refreshing alternative drawing on prehilC`