Sin, Organized Charity, and the Poor Law in Victorian England
Humphreys, Robert
New York: St. Martin's Press. 1995.
226pp. Illustrated, Bibliography, Index. [Victorian London]
ISBN: 0312127553
Casebook Review: 
This book challenges widely-held beliefs about the efficacy of the Charity Organization Society and its alleged epitome of the Victorian values of family, morality, character and thrift. The received impression of a powerful, respected, national network of provincial Charity Organization Societies each organizing poor relief in their locality is shown to be illusory. Now that the blatant failure of the Charity Organization Society to satisfy their own guidelines on poor relief has been exposed we can ask whether they had the right to rebuke others about sin.
