A TIMES POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR A LONGMANHISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEAR The award-winning history of the British Welfare State -now fully revised & 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 & a policy of full employment This book brilliantly captures the high hopes of the period in which the Welfare State was created & 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 & passions of activists dreamers & ordinary Britons & seethe with personal vendettas forced compromises awkward contradictions & 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 & a stark reminder of what we might stand to lose