Keith Sinjohn Joseph was born on 17 January 1918. Between his conception and his birth the world which lay in wait for him underwent a dramatic and lasting change. In November 1917 a Bolshevik government was installed in Russia. Just nine days before Keith's birth the US President Woodrow Wilson, in his “Fourteen Points”, advocated self-determination and open negotiation at a League of Nations against the old ways of secret diplomacy and hostile alliances. After more than three years of carnage in Europe the beginning of 1918 brought a mixture of fear and confidence for the opposing forces; the Germans believed that the conclusion of a separate peace with Russia would lead to a rapid victory, while Britain and its allies sought to stave off collapse until American troops arrived to swing the conflict their way. A. J. P. Taylor stressed the importance of January 1918 in world history; in that month, he wrote, “Europe ceased to be the centre of the world … there began a competition between communism and liberal democracy which has lasted to the present day”. That pregnant verdict was published in 1956 – the year in which Keith Joseph became a Conservative MP. More flippantly, the authors of 1066 and All That lamented this period as one in which Britain lost its status as “Top Nation” and history came to a full-stop. Joseph lived to see another major reordering of world forces, and the apparent end of conflict between the competing ideologies of 1918. But the upheavals of January 1918 produced the context which dominated his political career.