10% off all books and free delivery over £40 - Last Express Posting Date for Christmas: 20th December
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

The Five Giants

View All Editions

£19.99 £17.99

In Stock. Same day dispatch on orders before 3pm.

Add To Wishlist
Write A Review

About

The Five Giants Synopsis

A TIMES POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR
A LONGMAN/HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEAR

The award-winning history of the British Welfare State -
now fully revised and updated for the 21st Century.

'A masterpiece' Sunday Times

Giant Want. Giant Disease. Giant Ignorance. Giant Squalor. Giant Idleness.

These were the Five Giants that loomed over the post-war reconstruction of Britain. The battle against them was fought by five gargantuan programmes that made up the core of the Welfare State: social security, health, education, housing and a policy of full employment.

This book brilliantly captures the high hopes of the period in which the Welfare State was created and the cranky zeal of its inventor, William Beveridge, telling the story of how his vision inspired an entire country. The pages of this modern classic hum with the energies and passions of activists, dreamers and ordinary Britons, and seethe with personal vendettas, forced compromises, awkward contradictions, and the noisy rows of the succeeding seventy years. The Five Giants is a testament to a concept of government that is intertwined with so many of our personal histories, and a stark reminder of what we might stand to lose.

About This Edition

ISBN: 9780007335138
Publication date: 2nd November 2017
Author: Nicholas Timmins
Publisher: William Collins an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback
Pagination: 816 pages
Genres: Welfare and benefit systems
Central / national / federal government policies
Social security and welfare law
Housing and homelessness
European history
History of education
Public administration