No Fixed Abode

Homelessness is now a much greater problem than twenty years ago. In Britain today around half-a-million homeless people form a regrettable permanent 'underclass'. This book spells out their similarities with the spurned vagrant of bygone days. It traces how for centuries emergent laws have combated alleged threats from unruly vagrants while largely ignoring causal factors like economic fluctuation, bad harvests, disease and war. It is argued that only educational and social reform will alleviate the homeless plight.

Autorentext

ROBERT HUMPHREYS trained first as an engineer, prior to a wide-ranging career including applied research, university lecturing, consultancy and senior management in the private sector. He now teaches in the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dr Humphreys is the author of Sin, Organised Charity and the Poor Law in Victorian England.

Zusammenfassung
Homelessness is now a much greater problem than twenty years ago. It traces how for centuries emergent laws have combated alleged threats from unruly vagrants while largely ignoring causal factors like economic fluctuation, bad harvests, disease and war.

Inhalt
List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Early Vagrancy Legislation Tudor Responses The Travelling Poor in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Victorian Attitudes Vagrancy Around the World Wars Homelessness and the Welfare State Conclusion Bibliography Index