National Health Service: A Political History - Softcover

Webster, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019925110X ISBN 13: 9780199251100

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

The foundation of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948 was a momentous development in the history of the United Kingdom. Webster's political history is an entirely new and original examination of the NHS from its inception through to its management under the first term of the current Labour government, providing the necessary framework for assessing its future as we enter the new millennium.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Webster is at All Souls College, Oxford.

Review:

Review from previous edition Charles Webster has established himself as the doyen amongst modern medical historians in Britain and is the author of the magisterial two volume History of the N.H.S which took the story up to the electionof Thatcher./Joseph Melling University of Exeter/Science
and Public Policy August 1998.

Of the many books that will be published to mark its anniversary, it seems likely that this one, by Charles Webster, the former official historian, will receive the most attention...What is really interesting about this book, and is reflected in the choice of subtitle, is the third chapter,
which takes over from where the official historyleaves off, with the election of Margaret Thatcher in May 1979...This valuable and powerful book packs 50 years into just over 200 pages, offering both an indispensable examination of the NHS in its first five decades...However until then, some time in
the twenty-first century, this book will remain the standard guide to the middle-aged NHS./John Welshman University of Lancaster/Social HIstory of Medicine Vol 12, no.3 1999.

Charles Webster's magisterial and monumental two-volume history of the National Health Service (1988, 1996)...His status of official historian, while it gave him access to the archives denied to others under the thirty-year rule...the two volumes are likely to remain the definitive account of
the evolution of the NHS for the foreseeable future...Oxford University Press are to be congratulated on making it available at what is, by today's inflationary standards, a remarkably cheap price. It provides an incredibly comprehensive account of the main developments in the NHS./Rudolph
Klein/Social Policy, vol 28 - No.1, 1999.

"Webster brings the story up to date with his paperback political history". Medical History April 1999

In this short book, which is brillant digest of his magisterial two-volume official history of the NHS up to 1979, Webster continually points out that while no one was ever completely in charge, vested interest often exerted undue influence" E.H.R Sept 1999

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 019925110X
• ISBN 13: 9780199251100
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 300