In the original dustsheet. Green cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available

This is the first volume of a history of Britain from 1945 to the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. This book covers the years from 1945 to 1951 – an age dominated by the shadow of war – and creates a complete picture of life in Britain, embracing both high politics and everyday experience. The author brings to life such characters as Clement Attlee, Ernie Bevin and Nye Bevan, and relates their respective government’s achievements – the establishment of the National Health Service and the reconstruction of the education system among others. The author traces Britain’s flirtation with Europe, the debacle with India and the dramas of the Korean War, and contrasts these with social developments in the UK.

Dr Peter Hennessy is a Professor of Contemporary History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, Visiting Professor of Government at the University of Strathclyde, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A frequent broadcaster, he regularly writes a column for Director magazine. Educated at Marling School, Stroud, St John’s College, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar, he is now a Visiting Fellow in the department of politics at Reading and Nottingham Universities. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, London, and a Council member of the Policy Studies Institute. Peter Hennessy worked as a full-time journalist for over ten years, mainly on The Times, the Financial Times and The Economist. In 1986 he was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary British History and its co-director from 1986 to 1989. He is a Vice-President of the Politics Association and a Trustee of the Attlee Foundation. He is the author of several books including What the Papers Never Said, Cabinet and Whitehall. He is married with two daughters and lives in north-east London.

Review: A thoroughly good read, as someone who witnesses the sense of entitlement from the ‘Baby-Boomers’ on a day to day basis, it was interesting to have insight into how the welfare state was set up. It is such a shame that the generation that has benefited most from the post war settlement takes every privilege for granted, and begrudges having to contribute more for its upkeep.

Peter John Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, FBA (born 28 March 1947) is an English historian and academic specialising in the history of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London.