Description: Fraudulent Lives analyzes the scale, meaning, and consequences of welfare fraud in a Western nation from the seventeenth century to present day. It argues that fraud is written into the fabric of the founding statues of the British welfare state - and eliminating it has never been in the nation's best interest.
Brief description: Steven King is distinguished professor of economic and social history at Nottingham Trent University.
Review Quotes: "A highly original and important work. King's argument - that contemporary attitudes towards the welfare system in Britain have existed throughout the history of British public welfare, since the foundation of the Poor Law in 1601 - is well-supported by a range of documentary sources covering the time period, and human voices from the recent past." Pat Thane, Birbeck College, University of London