One of our most celebrated historians shows how we can use the lessons of the past to build a new post-covid society in Britain

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 covid） and AC （after covid）。 He looks back to Sir William Beveridge's classic identification of the 'five giants' against which society had to battle - want， disease， ignorance， squalor and idleness - and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state in his wartime report。 He examines the steady assault on the giants by successive post-war governments and asks what the comparable giants are now。 He lays out the 'road to 2045' with 'a new Beveridge' to build a consensus for post-covid Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved by the first。