In 1874, John Richard Green, a virtually unknown former clergyman, sold the rights for his school textbook, A Short History of the English People, to Macmillan for 350 pounds sterling, a generous sum for a work expected to sell a few thousand copies. To everyone's astonishment, the work sold 32,000 copies in its first year, and a half million copies thereafter. This publishing phenomenon was also a breakthrough in historiography, for unlike earlier histories, which focused on kings and statesmen, Green's work revolved around the common people, their creative energy, and their devotion to self-government. Thus, Green was a critical figure in the transition from the writing of history of elites to a broader history of social and cultural change. He was also one of the last great amateurs at a time when the field was coming to be dominated by academic specialists. By providing an examination of Green's career, this book illuminates a critical juncture in the history of the discipline.

The English Poor Laws, 1700-1930 traces the laws' development from localized measures of poor relief designed primarily for rural communities to an increasingly centralized system attempting to grapple with the urgent crises of urban poverty. Some of the topics covered are the deterrent workhouse, medical care, education, assisted emigration, family maintenance, vagrancy, and the relationship of the poor laws to private charity.

Although welfare reform is currently the government's top priority, most discussions about the public's responsibility to the poor neglect an informed historical perspective. This important book provides a crucial examination of past attempts, both in this country and abroad, to balance the efforts of private charity and public welfare. The prominent historians in this collection demonstrate how solutions to poverty are functions of culture, religion, and politics, and how social provisions for the poor have evolved across the centuries.

"The Great Tradition" traces the way in which English constitutional history became a major factor in the development of a national identity that took for granted the superiority of the English as a governing race. In the United States, constitutional history also became an aspect of the United States's self-definition as a nation governed by law. The book's importance lies in the way constitutional history interpreted the past to create a favorable self-image for each country. It deals with constitutional history as a justification for empire, a model for the emergent academic history of the 1870s, a surrogate for political argument in the guise of scholarship, and an element that contributed to the Anglo-American rapprochement before World War I. The book also traces the rise and decline of constitutional history as a fashionable sub-discipline within the academy.

The English Poor Laws 1700-1930 examines the nature and operation of the English poor law system from the early eighteenth century to its termination in 1930. The book traces the law's development from a localised measure of poor relief designed primarily for rural communities to an increasingly centralised system attempting to grapple with the urgent crises of urban poverty. The deterrent work house, medical care, education, assisted emigration, family maintenance, vagrancy and the relationship of the poor laws to private charity are some of the topics covered.