ABSTRACT
Our choice of text to introduce the history of social work is, as its title suggests, ‘a provocation’. Along with the authors of this important article, we have opted to step outside the familiar social work history narratives, which focus on the stories of the poor laws and the development of the welfare state, the role of ‘friendly visitors’ and the Charity Organisation Society and the importance of university settlements as sites of student learning and community activism. Instead, we have chosen to share with readers an account which has, to a large extent, been ignored in histories of social work, that is, the history of social work and social work education’s ‘engagement with black lives and black communities’ (p.391). In a carefully crafted and detailed timeline, Williams and Bernard present this untold story, which we are re-presenting in full. We urge readers to also think about what other untold stories exist within social work’s past. The Further Reading includes references to some of the more familiar social work history texts.
