Beveridge in the Longue Durée

Abstract I come neither to bury Beveridge nor to honour him, although the temptation to strive for one or the other of these two extremes is great at the half-century mark after his most lasting achievement.1 Any retrospective evaluation not wholly in thrall either to ritual encomium or denunciation is likely to hover ambiguously between honouring and burying. Examining Beveridge and his influence in the comparatively longue durée we have put behind us since the publication of Social Insurance and Allied Services is no exception. The longue durée is a concept usually attributed to the French historian Femand Braudel. It marks an attempt to situate historical events in their broadest possible context, in a flow of time that is almost geological in its imperceptible movement.