ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complexity of the poor law by differentiating several distinct relief strategies that coexisted in a complex relationship by the early twentieth century. First, there is the strategy of the ‘crusade against out-relief after 1870; this was an inordinately ambitious attempt to educate the poor which degenerated into more repression of pauperism. Second, there is an indoors strategy of classification and treatment; this required new kinds of specialised institutions which were very different from the pre-1870 general mixed workhouse. The chapter discusses historiographic accounts that are specifically focused on the operations of the poor law from 1870 to 1914. So far the crusade, or the repression of outdoor pauperism, has been considered as if it were the one and only strategy of the poor law in the 1870s. After 1870, the configuration of the poor law becomes complicated because the institution operates two distinct strategies.
