The Modern British State: An Historical Introduction - Couverture rigide

Harling, Philip

 
9780745621920: The Modern British State: An Historical Introduction
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0745621929 ISBN 13 : 9780745621920
Editeur : Polity Press, 2001

Synopsis

This book is an unprecedented synthesis of the literature on state development that explains how and why the contours of the British state have changed over the last three centuries. Ranging in scope from the Glorious Revolution to New Labour, it provides a fluent and comprehensive introduction to the changing shape and role of the British state.


Philip Harling's main theme is the dramatic broadening of the state's functions and its cost over the last three centuries, and most noticeably over the last one. As late as 1870, most Britons assumed that the only tasks that should be entrusted to the central government were issues such as the defence of the realm, the maintenance of public order, and the provision of basic amenities such as street lighting. Today, they assume that these tasks ought to extend - and of course they do extend - to the provision of education, retirement benefits, unemployment insurance, health care, and a host of other services. Harling takes a number of historical factors into account in his assessment of the broadening trajectory of the state, such as the enormous expansion of the state's traditional war-making role over the eighteenth century, the uneven development of new regulatory duties in the nineteenth century, the impact of the two global wars of the twentieth century, the growth of the postwar welfare state, and the political reaction against it.


Engagingly written and persuasively argued, The Modern British State should serve as a core text for a wide variety of courses in modern British history, politics, public policy, and historical sociology.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

Philip Harling is Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Polity Press
Date d'édition
2001
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0745621929
ISBN 13 
9780745621920
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
296
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780745621937: The Modern British State: An Historical Introduction

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0745621937 ISBN 13 :  9780745621937
Editeur : Polity Press, 2001
Couverture souple