Product Description

David Kynaston's "Austerity Britain 1945-51", the first book in his series "Tales of a New Jerusalem", was a major "Sunday Times" bestseller in 2007. Here is the first volume from this landmark book covering 1945-48. Beginning his groundbreaking series about post-war Britain, Kynaston presents our nation through the eyes of those who lived there. Meet Judy Haines, a Chingford housewife, struggling daily with food rationing; Henry St. John, a self-serving civil servant in Bristol; and, the young Glenda Jackson, taking her 11-plus. Using mass observation, diaries, letters, newspapers and magazines from the time, "A World to Build" is an unsurpassed social history: intensely evocative to those who were there and eye-opening for their children and grandchildren.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9606 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'A wonderfully illuminating picture of the way we were' The Times 'The book is a marvel the fullest, deepest and most balanced history of our times' Sunday Telegraph 'Multi-layered, embroidered with great richness of detail Austerity Britain kicks off a series that will end in 1979. What a treat we have in store' Craig Brown's Book of the Week, Mail on Sunday 'There can be no doubt that this book is both a history and a triumphant work of art unputdownable' Observer

About the Author
David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written fifteen books, including The City of London (1994-2001), a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and W.G.'s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentleman vs. the Players at Lord's in July 1898. He is currently a visiting professor at Kingston University.

Customer Reviews

A disappointment
I had high expectations for this book. The concept sounded great and the publicity had been very favourable. But a couple of chapters in I began to feel disappointed, and then angry and frustrated. Kynaston uses his source material in a shamelessly partisan fashion. Nothing unusual about that for a historian, perhaps, but here the narrative is so one-sided as to subtract almost all credibility from the text. It's fine for him to believe the post-war Labour government actually did the country more harm than good...but for him to imply (on the basis of very limited surveys and testimonies) almost the entire population felt the same way is preposterous. Reading this book you'd think most of the UK were ignorant, backward whingers who hated all politicians. Saying that, he doesn't even attempt to represent the whole of the UK, despite the 'Austerity Britain' title. Northern Ireland isn't mentioned once. Scotland is confined to a few pages about Glasgow. There's a south east/midlands bias which is really unsubtle. Certain passages are useful from a purely empirical point of view. Overall, though, this is a flawed attempt at what could, and should, have been an impressive work. If you want the definitive history of this period, read Peter Hennessy.