"This collected edition of Professor Kaufmann's essays, written over many years and now translated into English, offers a way of thinking about the welfare state that may not be familiar to an international readership; indeed it exposes the distinctively different intellectual foundations that have shaped the continental European notion of state welfare compared with those of the English-speaking, or Anglo-Saxon, world...[a] splendidly eloquent set of essays." · Journal of Contemporary European Studies "An exceptional reprise of the welfare state experience, the author's sociological approach provides the means for gauging the adequacy of social policy over time and offering projections about the future... Highly recommended." · Choice "This book renders accessible a rich set of essays on the past and future development of the welfare state in Europe... and is essential reading." · from the Foreword "The author belongs to a handful of leading German sociologists....