PARISH AND BELONGING: COMMUNITY, IDENTITY AND WELFARE IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1700-1950

"What role did the parish play in people's lives in England and Wales, between 1700 and the mid-twentieth century? By comparison with globalisation and its dislocating effects, this book stresses how important parochial belonging once was. Professor Snell discusses themes such as subjective ideas of belonging, cultures of local xenophobia, settlement law and practice, marriage patterns, the continuance of out-door relief in people's own parishes under the new poor law, the many new parishes of the period and their effect upon people's local attachments. The book highlights the continuing vitality of the parish as a unit in people's lives, and the administration associated with it. It employs a variety of historical methods, and makes important contributions to the history of welfare, community identity and belonging. It is highly relevant to modern themes of globalisation, de-localisation and the decline of community, helping to set such changes and their consequences into local historical perspective."--Jacket.