This fundamental work offers a comprehensive and well-founded account of the development of social activity - in this volume from the Enlightenment to the end of the 19th century and the beginnings of professional social work. Described are social movements, thought, policy, and practice in response to the social question: How are poverty and misery, injustice and disadvantage to be managed in the upheavals of the times? By describing the genesis, regulation, and organization of remedies, the evolution of social work is placed in the historical context of social development.