Product Description

In 1901, London was the greatest city the world had seen in size, wealth and grandeur. Yet it was also a city where poverty and disease were rife. London in 2001 was no longer among the world's very largest cities, but was still one where vast wealth was displayed - alongside beggars sleeping rough. Such paradoxes are among the defining experiences of living in London in this extraordinary century, and in this colourful book Jerry White tells the story not just of London, but of Londoners too. He examines the changes on the worlds of work, transport, popular culture, politics and government and shows how London affects its inhabitants, shaping their lives and being shaped in turn by them. Beautifully illustrated and with a wealth of detail, this is a definitive and highly readable history of London in the twentieth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35700 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His oral histories, Rothschild Buildings: Life in an East End Tenement Block 1887-1920 (which won the Jewish Chronicle non-fiction book prize for 1980), Campbell Bunk: The Worst Street in North London Between the Wars were reprinted by Pimlico in 2003 and his most recent book, London in the Nineteenth Century was published by Jonathan Cape in 2007. He is visiting Professor in London History at Birkbeck and in 2005 was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of London.

Customer Reviews

A biography of a City
Alongside his companion volume London in the nineteenth Century, this is a wonderful, easy to read biography of the city (without being over-simplified). For anyone who grew up in London - or arrived to fall in love with the city it is an excellent explanation and record of how our city developed. Historic decisions are contextualised within the history of the country more generally and you are helped to make links between social, Political, architectural changes.

He is working on the Eighteenth Century as I write. Can't wait!

PS You will become absorbed - a good holiday read, one chapter is never enough!

London in the 20th Century
An excellent read focusing on the geography, people, economy and lifestyles that make London the great city that it is. Can tell that Jerry White won't have voted for Ken Livingstone in 2008!

Full of facts but not bedtime reading
A good reference source for social history students but I found it too heavy going to keep my interest.