Alvin Finkel aims to explore two competing notions of those who deserve empathy, and the history of welfare from 200,000 BCE to the present day. His scope is global, tackling the question of why countries and regions have diverged in ways of dealing with inequality, and the associated role of gender, class and race in the development of social policy. Why study social policy as a global phenomenon? The Introduction illustrates this through the case of West Bengal in 1967, juxtaposing the Left Front’s focus on social structures against Mother Teresa’s emphasis on aiding the victims. Finkel argues the history of compassion is also the history of competition within elites about the distribution of wealth, and the right to provide social aid. The book is organised in three parts – social policy from early humanity to Bismarck; social policy from the First World War to the Cold War; and social policy under neoliberalism.

Chapter 2 takes us from 200,000 BCE to the Middle Ages. Claiming that indigenous peoples and pre-state societies were egalitarian, Finkel gives examples of caring and sharing in early agricultural societies, slave societies, monotheism, charity and the major religions. Chapter 3 moves on to 1000-1850, and to charity and the Poor Law versus ideas of moral economy. Finkel argues the Poor Law was a means to both pacify the people and impose social controls on behaviour. During the key shift from feudalism to agrarian capitalism, ideas of the deserving and undeserving poor were symbolised in plans for the protection of children, and in the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, and foundling hospitals. Finkel surveys the English Poor Law (1536, 1601, 1722); the Speenhamland System which supplemented wages; the ideas of Malthus, Bentham, and Paine, and the New Poor Law, with the Royal Commission, the 1834 Poor Law Act, Chartism, and the spread of workhouses. Chapter 4 moves the focus to Empire, with examples of Portugese, Spanish, and British colonialism; social policy in the 13 American colonies, and medical services and relief in Ireland and South Asia.

Chapter 5 deals with social insurance and social policy in Europe, 1850-1914. The Bismarck insurance schemes covered compulsory sickness insurance (1883); accident insurance (1884); and disability and old age insurance (1889). Finkel notes that early state insurance schemes reached few people or provided modest benefits, but argues that this nonetheless marked a shift in responsibility for problems of health, disability, and old age. Britain saw the research of Booth and Rowntree, unemployment insurance (1911), and old age pensions (1908), building on earlier public health initiatives. Southern Europe and Russia also witnessed a shift from charity to state assumption of social responsibility and from the Poor Law to less punitive forms of state aid – a dramatic change in the relationship of citizens and governments. Chapter 6 explores social policy before 1914 in the former European colonies, including Latin America; developments in the United States that included Jane Addams and Hull House but also growing attempts to distinguish those unable and unwilling to work; and the experience of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, and Africa. What emerges was a focus on the rights of women and children, but also racism and the slow pace of reform before 1914.

Part 2 looks at social policy from the First World War to the Cold War. Chapter 7 explores the interwar period across countries that include Russia, Italy and Germany, Britain, Canada, and Australia. While the most impressive social policies were in France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and New Zealand, most people still relied on family and friends, informal networks that were weakened by colonialism, population mobility, urbanisation, and industrialisation. Chapter 8 surveys the Second World War and the Cold War, 1939-80, in the capitalist world. Finkel suggests the historic compromise between capital and labour ushered in middle-class consumerist societies, full employment, and cradle-to-grave social programmes that reduced inequalities. Drawing on different models for categorising welfare states, Finkel compares the United States and Canada; surveys the welfare state in Britain up to Thatcherism; and looks at Scandinavia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Welfare states saw a decline in poverty, but also the advent of neoliberalism. Chapter 9 surveys the communist world, 1945-91, with the Soviet model; Central and Eastern Europe; the Chinese Revolution; other countries in Asia; and Cuba. Chapter 10 looks at the post-colonial world, 1945-90. Why was the example of Kerala so rarely copied? Finkel contends many of the hardships faced by post-colonial jurisdictions resulted less from limited economic development than social and political power structures that ignored the needs of most of the population. Key themes were interference by the United States; neoliberalism and worsening socio-economic conditions in Latin America in the 1980s; apartheid in South Africa; and the role of international agencies. While notionally post-colonial, there was still intervention from developed industrial nations, especially the United States.

Part 3 considers social policy under neoliberalism. Chapter 11 surveys neoliberalism and advanced capitalism. It covers Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the United States, other English-speaking countries, Western Europe, and Asia. Finkel argues that neoliberalism increased poverty everywhere, concentrated power in fewer hands, and increased inequalities among citizens. Chapter 12 surveys post-Communism in China, Russia, the former Soviet Empire, East Germany, and Vietnam and Cuba. Chapter 13 tackles neoliberalism and underdeveloped countries, showing the conflicting goals of the World Bank, the IMF, and the WHO, and tracing developments in India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Finkel’s conclusion is that a capacity for compassion is common to all human beings, but cultural developments determine how broadly any individual or group extends their compassion. History illustrates both the emergence of social welfare policies in many countries, but also the exponential growth of global income disparities in the twentieth century. While compassion has become harder, mobilising to struggle for a more perfect world remains a human obligation.

This, then, is necessarily broad-brush, and there are some unsubtle or sweeping statements. With the mass of detail, it is at times difficult to pick out key themes. It is unfortunate that the point size is so small, and that the bibliography is on a separate website. Nevertheless there are helpful comparative Gini coefficients, and this is a readable survey that students will find useful. Some of the most interesting sections are those that move the focus to Argentina and Mexico; to Central and Eastern Europe; to Cuba; or to the situation of women in the former Soviet Empire. Overall, Finkel certainly offers a comprehensive and ambitious survey of the international history of welfare.