Part I. The Campaign for Old Age Pensions: 1. Introduction
2. The nineteenth-century background
3. Blackley, Chamberlain and Booth
4. The opposition of the Charity Organisation Society
5. The attitude of the Friendly Societies
6. The Labour Movement and the State
Part II. Contributory Pensions: 7. The First World War and the 1919 Ryland Adkins committee
8. From 'all-in insurance' to contributory pensions
Labour's lost opportunity
9. Neville Chamberlain, the 'New Conservatism' and the 1925 Act
Part III. The Debate on Retirement Pensions: 10. Labour and retirement pensions in the late 1920s
11. PEP and retirement pensions in the 1930s: an ageing population
12. Poverty surveys
Part IV. The Beveridge 'Revolution': 13. The pensions crisis of the late 1930s
14. All-party pressure in the late 1930s: the Treasury enquiry and the 1940 Act
15. The origins and working of the Beveridge Committee
16. After the Beveridge report, 1942-8
17. Conclusion.