"Who knew it was possible to write an epic panorama of the welfare state?" writes Peter Baldwin in his review of my new book, Compassion: A Global History of Social Policy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

This is a book that traces social determinants of health and welfare throughout human history--but in only 300 pages. It is, as far as I know, the only book to pull together all of human history's efforts to care for the vulnerable,  providing a detailed global overview of welfare from 200,000 BCE to the present day. From India to Tanzania, Scandinavia to Vietnam, I analyse why different countries and regions have diverged in their ways of dealing with inequality and with what results for the health and welfare of their populations. The book focuses on the role of social struggles in producing (or failing to produce) greater equality and the role of gender, race and class in the development of social policy and understandings regarding social determinants of health.

I am the author of the most-used survey history of social policy in Canada, and while researching and writing that book, observed the lack of any comprehensive text on social policy and policy borrowings at a global level. Though I had a 40-year scholarly career, I began my adult life as a journalist and I think that Compassion is about as free from jargon and confusing language as a general history can be. Indeed I honed my writing skills as co-author of Canada's best-selling survey Canadian history textbooks (pre-Confederation and post-Confederation), now in their seventh editions.


This recently published review of Compassion in Canadian Dimension summarizes what the book is all about.

In solidarity,

Alvin Finkel,

Professor Emeritus, Athabasca University


https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/compassion-as-social-policy

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