Short description:

"Historians of modern Britain have often written about the relationship between leisure and industrialisation, but few have connected leisure and the welfare state. As Robert Snape reminds us, policy-makers in Britain have a long-standing interest in citizens' happiness and wellbeing, making them important topics for thinking about the meanings of both welfare and leisure since the late nineteenth century."

— Chris Renwick, Professor of Modern History, University of York

Tracing the evolution of social thought on leisure in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present day, this book documents an alternative and almost totally ignored discourse of leisure as a field of welfare. Investigating evolving understandings of leisure in social philosophy, the nascent social sciences and welfare economics, it explores the ways in which leisure became a field of individual and social welfare in terms of personal growth, cultural democracy and social citizenship. While the social philosophy of ancient Athens remained a reference point, new modern meanings of leisure were forged in the intellectual and political cross-currents of late Victorian and Edwardian political economy, the 'new' liberalism and social ethics. In terms of welfare economics, the book's pivotal figure is John Hobson, a self-declared economic heretic, who adopted Ruskin's idea of intrinsic value as the basis of a new political economy in which leisure would be crucial to individual and social well-being. Providing a unique contribution to the historiography of leisure and welfare and to current debate around wellbeing and work, this is a timely and interdisciplinary book.

Robert Snape is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Bolton, UK. He has taught leisure studies and leisure history in UK Higher Education institutions for over thirty years. From 2001 to 2007, Robert was the Secretary of the Leisure Studies Association and from 2013 to 2017, Chair of the Association. He has published extensively in the history of leisure.

Long description:

Tracing the evolution of social thought on leisure in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present day, this book documents an alternative and almost totally ignored discourse of leisure as a field of welfare. Investigating evolving understandings of leisure in social philosophy, the nascent social sciences and welfare economics, it explores the ways in which leisure became a field of individual and social welfare in terms of personal growth, cultural democracy and social citizenship. While the social philosophy of ancient Athens remained a reference point, new modern meanings of leisure were forged in the intellectual and political cross-currents of late Victorian and Edwardian political economy, the 'new' liberalism and social ethics. In terms of welfare economics, the book's pivotal figure is John Hobson, a self-declared economic heretic, who adopted Ruskin's idea of intrinsic value as the basis of a new political economy in which leisure would be crucial to individual and social well-being. Providing a unique contribution to the historiography of leisure and welfare and to current debate around wellbeing and work, this is a timely and interdisciplinary book.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction.- 2. The Re-invention of Leisure in Nineteenth-century Britain.- 3. The Theorisation and Organisation of Leisure: The New Liberalism and Social Ethics.- 4. Leisure, Community and Welfare: Social Reconstruction in Interwar Britain.- 5. The Consumption of Leisure in Post-First World War Britain.- 6. Leisure in the Social Service State.- 7. The Retreat of the State.