Each item on our timeline of social work history provides pointers to the most relevant literature. Additionally, the following publications have provided us with plenty of information and inspiration. To avoid mentioning them at all or most items, we provide an overview of these more general publications here.

• Axinn, J., & Stern, M. J. (2007). Social welfare: a history of the American response to need (7 ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
  
• Barker, P. (Ed.). (1984). The founders of the welfare state. London: Heinemann.
  
• British Journal of Social Work, special issue on the history of social work, 2008, with Caroline Skehill as guest editor
• de Swaan, A. (1988). In care of the state: health care, education and welfare in Europe and the USA in the modern era. Cambridge/New York: Oxford University Press.
• Ehrenreich, J. (1985). The altruistic imagination: a history of social work and social policy in the United States. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  
• Katz, M. B. (1996). In the shadow of the poorhouse : a social history of welfare in America, tenth anniversary edition. New York: BasicBooks.
• Trattner, W. I. (Ed.). (1998). From poor law to welfare state: a history of social welfare in America (6 ed.). New York: Free press.
  
• Young, A. F., & Ashton, E. T. (1956). British social work in the nineteenth century. London: Routledge. (10 Mb file!)