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

It is great to prepare for the public health exam.

Brilliant synthesis about Beveridge Report and its implementation by Atlee. Particularly useful on how the 1945-1951 consensus broke down and how the Thatcherites and New Labour devastated the gains of the immediate post war period.

The Title is catchy but the book contains an extraordinary compendium of information about people and policies on the welfare state in Britain from its foundation after WWII to the present day. It is a large tome and the print is small as modern publications go but it is well-worth browsing, if not reading the whole volume at once. Interesting comments which may not be found elsewhere. Recommended.

Very valuable history of the welfare state, putting current problems and conflicts of interest into a long-term perspective. The carefully researched and referenced detail of who said what, and why it was listened to or not is informative and largely avoids polemic: however that same detail might be a problem for some readers.

This is and excellent and comprehensive history of the welfare state and associated measures taken, successfully and otherwise, to address the five giant evils besetting British society prior to the outbreak of the second word war. It is very readable, and for anyone interested in social history this is a must have book.