Description
Book SynopsisAn accessible and entertaining narrative history of the establishment, development and unravelling of the British Welfare State now fully revised to cover Blair's first term. Lively writing in the style of Peter Hennessy.Giant Want. Giant Disease. Giant Ignorance. Giant Squalor. And the insidious Giant Idleness, which destroys wealth and corrupts men. These were evils to be vanquished by the postwar reconstruction of Britain. Timmins' book recaptures brilliantly the high hopes of the period in which the Welfare State began to be created, and conveys the cranky zeal of its inventor, William Beveridge. The onslaught on the five Giants was the work of five gargantuan programmes that made up the core of Beveridge's Welfare State. These were social security, health, education, housing and a policy of full employment. It is notoriously difficult to write about such subjects and keep the reader reading, but Timmins performs wonders of narrative clarity, anecdote and human detail in a book th
Trade Review‘A splendid book – knowledgeable, readable and fair.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A tour de force – thoroughly researched and vividly written…a masterpiece.’ Sunday Times
‘Extraordinarily comprehensive without ever being incomprehensible.’ Roy Hattersley, Independent
