ABSTRACT
In 1914, the main coordinating force was the COS, with its outdated concept of poverty and the state. The sector that emerged from the war had an entirely different view. Led by the new National Council of Social Service they were far more open to both cooperation with government and the adoption of modern management principles. Though the war did not, perhaps, usher in a deluge of social change there were some advances, especially psychological change in the consciousness of many ordinary women who assumed positions of responsibility in wartime charities. One of the dangers of playing down the impacts of the war on social change and considering it an aberration of history is the acceptance of the disillusion and alienation myths. Millions of ordinary men and women played their roles in supporting Britain's commitment to total war, not by putting on a uniform but through voluntary action. The organisations they joined also underwent a transformation.
