This volume examines a number of themes central to 19th-century social and political history in Britain. Looking in detail at the 1834 reform of the "Poor Law", the author also considers the context in which the "Poor Law" was framed and the social values of those who supported and opposed it. The changing attitudes to poverty are considered with a review of the question, "were the poor better treated in 1914 than they had been in 1830?". The book also looks at the complex historiography of the subject.