Why theorise welfare? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different perspectives on welfare? How would you recognise a theory of welfare if you saw one? This accessible introductory text shows how debates about welfare systems and provision are about much more than the organisation of services or benefits; they are also about how societies do and should develop and change and how major social divisions - such as class, gender, ethnicity or sexuality - are affected by change.

With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918

At the end of 1917 Britain and France faced a strategic nightmare. Their great offensives against Germany had been calamitous, leaving hundreds of thousands of young men dead and wounded for negligible territorial gains. Despite America's entry into the war the US army remained tiny, the Italian army had been routed, and Russia had dropped out of the conflict. The Central Powers now dominated Central and Eastern Europe, and Germany could move over forty divisions to the Western Front. Yet only one year later, on 11 November 1918, the fighting ended in a decisive Allied victory