Fri 24 Nov, 7:30pm
‘…essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the history of our NHS.’
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP
OUR NHS: A History of Britain’s Best-Loved Institution – Andrew Seaton
Andrew Seaton will be talking about his recently published book, a bold new history of the NHS, exploring the conditions of its surprising survival – and the experiences of the people who keep it running. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after the talk and to purchase the book and have a personally signed copy.
In recent decades, a wave of appreciation for the NHS has swept across the UK. Britons have clapped for frontline workers and championed the service as a distinctive national achievement. All this has happened in the face of ideological opposition, marketisation and workforce crises. But how did the NHS become what it is today?
In this wide-ranging history, Andrew Seaton examines the full story of the NHS. He traces how the service has changed and adapted, bringing together the experiences of patients, staff from Britain and abroad, and the service’s wider supporters and opponents. He explains why it not only survived the neoliberalism of the late twentieth century, but also how it became a key marker of national identity. Perpetually “in crisis” and yet perennially enduring, Seaton emphasises the resilience of the NHS, the political values it embodies, and the work of those who have tirelessly kept it afloat.
‘In Our NHS: A History of Britain’s Best-Loved Institution Andrew Seaton explores how the National Health Service, a great achievement for Aneurin Bevan and the left, became a national institution commanding widespread support. With an appreciation of the motives of those who have attacked its founding principles, to penetrating analysis of its resilience, this book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the history of our NHS.’
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, author of Harold Wilson: The Winner and Nye: The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan
Andrew Seaton is the Plumer Junior Research Fellow in History at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford and is an expert in the history of modern Britain and the NHS
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