The Five Giants [New Edition]: A Biography of the Welfare State - Softcover

Timmins, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000733513X ISBN 13: 9780007335138

Publisher: William Collins, 2017

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 title

Review:

‘Why make a book that was first published in 1995 one of the political books of the year? Because this third edition of the classic history of the welfare state adds 16 years to the previous account. Anyone who hasn’t read Five Giants will want to start at the beginning, particularly for the excellent account of the founding of the NHS. But those with previous editions will find, for instance, the explanation of how the Lansley health reforms went wrong riveting’ Danny Finkelstein, The Times

‘For years now, old copies of The Five Giants have been changing hands in Westminster for dizzying sums – and for a simple reason. Other books just offer fragments of the story of British government, only this gives you the full picture. I lend my copy to new recruits at The Spectator not as history but as a guide to what they will encounter – and how the same problems keep surfacing again and again. The facts and the figures, the jokes and one-liners, the power and the personality – The Five Giants has it all. It's possible to understand modern Britain without reading this book, but it's just a lot harder (and a lot less fun)’ Fraser Nelson, Spectator

‘Nicholas Timmins has done something extraordinary: he has made a masterpiece of contemporary history even better. Updated, extended and more relevant than ever, this book is quite simply indispensable’ Matthew d'Ancona

‘A tour de force – thoroughly researched and vividly written’ Sunday Times

From the Back Cover:

'Winner of the Longman/' History Today' prize and the 'Yorkshire Post' Prize'

"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. Nicholas Timmins' book recaptures brilliantly the high hopes of a period in which the welfare state began to be created, and conveys the cranky zeal of its inventor, William Beveridge. The onslaught of 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 projects 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, 'The Observer'

"A remarkable tale, remarkably told."
FRANK FIELD, ' Literary Review'

"Timmins' blockbuster is amazingly readable... brilliantly researched and in no way flashy or superficial. He writes vividly about remarkable personalities and characterises experts and civil servants as well as figureheads. Taking us into clashes and committees, ha has a fine eye for racy quotes."
ANGUS CALDER, 'Scotland on Sunday'

"Extraordinarily comprehensive without ever being comprehensible."
ROY HATTERSLEY, 'Independent'

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 000733513X
• ISBN 13: 9780007335138
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 816