Austerity Britain, 1945-1951As much as any country, England bore the brunt of Germany's aggression in World War II, and was ravaged in many ways at the war's end. Celebrated historian David Kynaston has written an utterly original, and compellingly readable, account of the following six years, during which the country rebuilt itself. Kynaston's great genius is to chronicle the country's experience from bottom to top: coursing through through the book, therefore, is an astonishing variety of ordinary, contemporary voices, eloquently and passionately evincing the country's remarkable spirit. Judy Haines, a Chingford housewife, gamely endures the tribulations of rationing; Mary King, a retired schoolteacher in Birmingham, observes how well-fed the Queen looks during a royal visit; Henry St. John, a persnickety civil servant in Bristol, is oblivious to anyone's troubles but his own. Together they present a portrait of an indomitable people and Kynaston skillfully links their stories to bigger events thought the country. Their stories also jostle alongside those of more well-known figures like celebrated journalist-to-be John Arlott (making his first radio broadcast), Glenda Jackson, and Doris Lessing, newly arrived from Africa and struck by the leveling poverty of post-war Britain. Kynaston deftly weaves into his story a sophisticated narrative of how the 1945 Labour government shaped the political, economic, and social landscape for the next three decades. |
Contents
5 | |
19 | |
Oh Wonderful People of Britain | 60 |
PART | 91 |
Were So Short of Everything | 93 |
Constructively Revolutionary | 129 |
Farewell Squalor | 143 |
Glad to Sit at Home | 171 |
Oh for a Little Extra Butter | 296 |
Jolly Good as a Whole | 325 |
A Decent Way of Life | 352 |
A Negative of Snowflakes | 397 |
Part of the Machinery | 405 |
Stiff and Rigid and Unadaptable | 431 |
Too High a Price | 460 |
Proper Bloody Products | 470 |
PART THREE | 183 |
Christ Its Bleeding Cold | 185 |
Our Prestige at Stake | 206 |
The Whole World Is Full of Permits | 222 |
Aint She Lovely? | 242 |
A Change in the Terms of Struggle | 278 |
SMOKE IN THE VALLEY | 287 |
PART | 289 |
What Do You Say? | 291 |
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Common terms and phrases
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