Our NHS: Writing the History of Britain's Best-Loved Institution

Our NHS: A History of Britain's Best Loved Institution is a political, social, and transnational history that considers why the service became tied to national identity and why it survived the rise of neoliberalism. In explaining the persistence of the NHS, Andrew calls attention to the endurance of social democracy in a nation where this form of politics is commonly depicted as vanquished after the 1980s. His interpretation challenges historical narratives - in British history and many other fields - that map the rising hegemony of neoliberalism in the late-twentieth century as well as a media portrayal of the NHS as gripped by a constant state of 'crisis'. Instead, he offers a way of thinking about how social democratic structures and values could acquire durability. Far from a plucky story of survival, the book interrogates the consequences of swelling popular investment in the commonplace 'Our NHS'. He shows how the growth of 'welfare nationalism' both buttressed the NHS from free-market opposition and also created racialised exclusions for patients and staff hailing from overseas. In this talk, Andrew places his book in conversation with other recent work on the NHS and welfare state and discusses the methodological and writing choices he made in the process