Total Warfare and the Mixed Economy of Welfare, 1914-1950

This edited volume examines the effects of the two world wars on the welfare systems of European societies. Chapters analyse the dynamics between states and transnational social actors, including international institutions, voluntary associations, charities, foundations, non-governmental organisations, and advocacy groups. A key focus is on the relations between local, national, European, and trans-Atlantic spheres of action. Thereby, this volume offers a novel examination of the temporal boundaries between wartime and peacetime social policies, investigating when the military mobilisations that drove social welfare came to an end. Offering an alternative history of how European societies experienced and emerged from the two world wars, this book reinterprets the connections between warfare and welfare as they contributed to a new postwar order—the legacies of which continue to influence contemporary welfare systems today.