Disability and the Welfare State in Britain: Changes in Perception and Policy 1948-1979

From its very start at the end of World War II, the British welfare state—despite its grand promises—excluded millions of disabled people. Disability and the Welfare State in Britain traces attempts over the subsequent three decades to reverse this exclusion. The first book to set disability in the context of the history of the welfare state, it shows how policy and perceptions were slow to change, and it offers close analysis of key groups and moments, like the Disablement Income Group and the 1972 Thalidomide campaign.