No Wealth but Life: Welfare Economics and the Welfare State in Britain, 18801945 [Hardcover]

This book re-examines early twentieth-century British welfare economics in the context of the emergence of the welfare state.This book offers a fresh perspective on the history of welfare economics in Britain, arguing that it needs to be considered alongside the movement toward a welfare state. It is argued that there were two competing approaches to welfare economics, associated with the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, based on different philosophical foundations.This book offers a fresh perspective on the history of welfare economics in Britain, arguing that it needs to be considered alongside the movement toward a welfare state. It is argued that there were two competing approaches to welfare economics, associated with the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, based on different philosophical foundations.This book re-examines early-twentieth-century British welfare economics in the context of the emergence of the welfare state. There are fresh views of the well-known Cambridge School of Sidgwick, Marshall, Pigou, and Keynes, by Peter Groenewegen, Steven G. Medema, and Martin Daunton. This is placed against a less well-known Oxford approach to welfare: Yuichi Shionoya explores its foundations in the idealist philosophy of T. H. Green; Roger E. Backhouse considers the work of its leading exponent, J. A. Hobson; and Tamotsu Nishizawa discusses the spread of this approach in Britain. Finally, the book covers welfare economics in the policy arena: Maria Cristina Marcuzzo and Atsushi Komine discuss Keynes and Beveridge, and Richard Toye points to the possible influence of H. G. Wells on Churchill and Lloyd George. A substantial introduction frames the discussion, and a postscript relates these ideas to the work of Robbins and subsequent developments in welfare economics.1. Introduction: towards a reinterpretation of the history of welfare economics Roger E. Backhouse and Tamotsu Nishizawa; Part I. Cambridge Welfare Economics and the Welfare State: 2. Marshall on l"