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Jameel Hampton (2016), Disability and the Welfare State in Britain: Changes in Perception and Policy 1948-79 , Bristol : Policy Press , £70.00, pp. 288, hbk.
Hampton's book aims to fill the gap left by previous policy and historical works on disability in the UK. It is premised on the assertion that books on British disability policy to 1944 and after 1979 are available; the period 1948-1979 has received less attention. The book is well written, is driven by key dates in policy history and is rooted largely in archival resources. In this sense it offers a detailed insight into policy aims, pronouncements and effectiveness. To that end, it succeeds in the goals it sets out to achieve. The book is made up of 8 chapters, with chapters 2 through to 7 providing substantive disability policy insights. What is novel about the book? The book provides a carefully crafted appraisal of key legislative, parliamentary and select committee developments. For me, it is especially useful in mapping the deliberations of the Boucher, Guillebaud and Piercy Committees - their explorations of disability and their struggle with pre-existing official constructions of disability policy. It makes clear that the Beveridgean welfare state, its association with work and the contributory principle, in turn, left many sick and disabled people out of the welfare state settlement. The book also documents the struggles between those who attempt to take disability beyond the contributory principle and impairment-specific entitlements to more inclusive pan-impairment welfare. Hampton weaves these debates into the broader economic and political backdrop from the post-WW2 nation-building of the 1940s through to the Oil crises and stagflationary era of the 1970s.
Central to this book is the assertion that many academic and official accounts of disability policy...