Insurance is an important - if still poorly understood - mechanism for dealing with a broad variety of risks associated with modern life. This book conducts an in-depth examination of one of the largest and longest-established private insurance industries in Europe: British life insurance. In doing so, it draws on over 40 oral history interviews to trace how the sector has changed since the 1970s, a period characterized by rampant financialization and neoliberalization. Combining insights from science and technology studies and economic sociology, this is an unprecedented study of the evolution of insurance practices and an invaluable contribution to our understanding of financial capitalism.

Arjen van der Heide is Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research. He previously obtained his PhD at the University of Edinburgh and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.