Margaret Tennant is Professor of History and Dean of the Graduate Research School at Massey University, Palmerston North. She has published widely on New Zealand social history, with particular emphasis on women's history, and the histories of health, disease and social policy. The Fabric of Welfare draws upon many years of research, and it complements Margaret Tennant's more recent work for the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. Her previous publications include: Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History (co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004); Paupers and Providers: Charitable Aid in New Zealand (1989), and two collections of essays on women's history, co-edited with Barbara Brookes and Charlotte Macdonald (1992, 1986).

Contents include: Part 1: The Nineteenth Century -- 1.1 The British Inheritance -- 1.2 State Activity -- 1.3 The Emergence of Voluntary Welfare -- 1.4 Organised Charity and Early Philanthropy -- 1.5 Religion and the Churches -- 1.6 Adult Rescue and Residence -- 1.7 Prisoners' aid and the Male Role in Rescue -- 1.8 Threads and Patterns. Part 2: War and Depression -- 2.1 The Expanding Role of the State -- 2.2 Social Work, Casework and the Personal Social -- Services -- 2.3 Wartime Negotiations -- 2.4 Health -- 2.5 Disability -- 2.6 Orphanages and Child Welfare -- 2.7 Depression and Unemployment -- 2.8 Interactions. Part 3: Partnership or Entanglement? The Welfare State and Voluntary Organisations, 1940s-1980s -- 3.1 The Consolidation of the Welfare State -- 3.2 Families and Counselling -- 3.3 Care of the Aged -- 3.4 Disability Services -- 3.5 Maori Social Services -- 3.6 Sisterhood and Social Services -- 3.7 Confronting Complexity -- 3.8 Interdependence -- 3.9 Promulgating Partnership -- Part 4: The Contract Crunch -- The Late 1980s and Beyond -- 4.1 Travering the New Terrain -- 4.2 Threads Broken, Threads Rewoven.