A Duty of Care

A Duty of Care

By Peter Hennessy
Unabridged
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Peter Hennessy is a historian and a dreamer ... Here is the vision of a kinder Britain, shared by the creators of the welfare state in the first postwar years ... Hennessy's book is a recital of reflections upon a long and often brilliant career as a social and political observer ... He sees huge challenges ahead in social care, social housing, climate change, artificial intelligence, technical education and the fragility of the Union, which present policies are quite inadequate to address. ... At the heart of the author's thesis is his contention that the British people during the pandemic have shown themselves to be much better than their rulers; that we must find means to mobilise our true national spirit through a nobler politics ... His enthusiasm and, yes, virtue shine through its pages, together with his rage towards those who fail us in the "duty of care" of his title. It is an inspirational work.
Max Hastings

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The 'duty of care' which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed?

In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before corona) and AC (after corona). He looks back to beginnings when, during wartime, Sir William Beveridge identified the 'five giants' on the road to recovery: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state. Hennessy examines the attack on the giants after the war and asks what the giants are now, and calls for 'a new Beveridge' to build a consensus for post-corona Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved in the decades after the Second World War.

© Peter Hennessy 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022