The classic study on the emergence of interest in poverty in the US, which essentially began in the 19th century. Most subsequent historians of the welfare state have to peek into Bremner's book to establish the origins of such phenomena as professionalized social work and settlement houses. I appreciated that Bremner had chapters on the representation of poverty in art and literature as well as chapters that gave more historical background about the sanitary movement and the rise of sociological means of studying poverty. Parts of it now feel very outdated, however (it was originally published in the 1950s). ( )