Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20923 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

Synopsis
"Having It So Good" evokes Britain emerging from the shadow of war and the privations of austerity and rationing into growing affluence. Peter Hennessy takes his readers into the front-rooms where the Coronation was watched on television, to the classrooms and now coffee bars of 1950s Britain - and also into the secret Cabinet rooms in which decisions about the British nuclear bomb were taken and plans made for the catastrophe of nuclear war. He brings to life the ageing Churchill, in his last faltering spell as Prime Minister, the highly-strung Anthony Eden taking his country to war in the teeth of American opposition and world opinion, and the rise of 'Supermac' Harold Macmillan, gliding over problems with his Edwardian insouciance. Above all, "Having It So Good" captures the smell and the flavour of an extraordinary decade in which affluence and anxiety combined to produce their own winds of change.

Customer Reviews

Superb work of political and social history
This is, quite simply, an excellent book. It is extremely well-written, handles its copious source material with panache and is a riveting read. Both 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' perspectives are provided, with lengthy and authoritative chapters dealing with politics and statecraft, consumerism and culture, and wider social issues as well. Britain's wider place in the world - its relations with Europe, the Commonwealth and the USA as well as the developing Cold War backdrop - is examined in detail and the author is invariably fair-minded in his appraisals of the conduct of political leaders, military commanders, civil servants and diplomats. The author usefully includes a liberal sprinkling of his own recollections, which help provide a vivid insight into 1950s Britain. A rewarding read for any fans of modern British history. It makes one look forward to the third volume, which will focus on the 1960s.