- Paperback: 720 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; Revised edition edition (16 July 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 000710264X
- ISBN-13: 978-0007102648
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13.2 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 571,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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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
Product Description
An 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 that finds its chosen level somewhere between Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ and ‘1066 and All That’…There is something very moving about his rhetoric of transformation and ‘The Five Giants’ will stir up strong emotions. It is impossible not to respond in personal terms to a book that is a part of so many of our histories, woven into the day-to-day texture of our lives.’ Fiona MacCarthy, Observer
Beveridge was originally only supposed to sort out the web of insurance services stifling Britain. ‘The Five Giants’ recounts how his original vision and campaign blossomed enormously to inspire a country at war with the hope that the peace might bring comfort and security for all. The tale hums with the energies and passions of activists, dreamers and ordinary Britons, and seethes with personal vendettas, forced compromises, arguments about money, awkward contradictions, noisy rows and fervent perseverance. Nicholas Timmins, who has seen how the Welfare State works every day for the last two decades, assesses the key personalities, the key problems, the key victories and key defeats in his anecdotal, witty and illuminating study of the Welfare State from the 1940s to the present day.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
This is really well written - it sums up the welfare state and social policy issues really well, it covers the history of welfare and sounds really boring!! It's not - it's actually one of few social policy/welfare books that is quite easy going! It isn't 'textbook' style, more like 'story' style really! Many social policy courses will refer to Timmins and I would highly recommend having this book on your shelf :-)
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
"How did we get where we are today?" is one of the fundamental questions that history exists to answer. If you were to ask that question about modern Britain, you might think about Blairism, Thatcherism, the European Union, immigration and a host of other factors: and you'd be right. However, to really understand Britain and the way that people understand their relationship with the state, you need to start with the welfare state.
The story of how the modern welfare state was conceived and created at the end of the Second World War is extraordinary in itself. Bevan's battle with the BMA is legendary; less well known is the race against time to find enough steel to make all the safes for the new National Assistance offices or the belief that, as the nation's health improved, the bill for the NHS would gradually decline.
In this book, Nicholas Timmins looks at the background and creation of the welfare state in the context of the post-war world and follows it through its first half century into the early years of New Labour. Whilst "The Five Giants" is essentially a history of social policy since 1944, it is well illustrated with anecdotes about the impact of policy on the lives of ordinary people.
"The Five Giants" is history writing at its very best: well researched, balanced, readable and relevant.
The story of how the modern welfare state was conceived and created at the end of the Second World War is extraordinary in itself. Bevan's battle with the BMA is legendary; less well known is the race against time to find enough steel to make all the safes for the new National Assistance offices or the belief that, as the nation's health improved, the bill for the NHS would gradually decline.
In this book, Nicholas Timmins looks at the background and creation of the welfare state in the context of the post-war world and follows it through its first half century into the early years of New Labour. Whilst "The Five Giants" is essentially a history of social policy since 1944, it is well illustrated with anecdotes about the impact of policy on the lives of ordinary people.
"The Five Giants" is history writing at its very best: well researched, balanced, readable and relevant.
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