Ian Gazeley's comprehensive study examines changes in the definition and measurement of poverty in Britain during the first sixty years of the twentieth century. Commencing with Rowntree's social survey of York in 1899 and ending with Abel-Smith and Townsend's Poor and the Poorest in 1965, Gazeley shows how the causes of poverty changed over the course of this period. Using the results of recent re-examinations of the social surveys of the period, Poverty in Britain, 1900-1965 also evaluates the extent to which the reduction in poverty is due to the actions of the State or to increases in real income (including more continuous income from fuller employment).
