What do you think?
Rate this book
Never Again: Britain 1945-51
Authoritative, powerfully engaging, and highly readable - winner of England's most prestigious prize for nonfiction, the NCR Award - Never Again is the definitive history of a crucial moment in twentieth-century England: the years 1945 to 1951, when Britain established a welfare state even as it withdrew from the Empire.
After the ordeal of World War II, world-class historian Peter Hennessy notes, the British "were driven not merely by the pressing need to turn rubble into factories and homes and roads, but...to ensure that never again would slump and economic depression be allowed to distil the social poison that made fascism possible." With this mandate, the Labour administration under Clement Attlee established the National Health Service; nationalized the Bank of England, the railroad, and the steel, coal, gas and electric industries; and constructed the welfare state - an ambitious undertaking of social change "on a scale and a duration never surpassed in the nation's history."
Yet successive financial crises, the Cold War threat and the need for rearmament, new foreign competition for its industries, the country's ambivalence toward union with Europe and its refusal to acknowledge its diminished status as a world power - all sent Britain's economy into decline, with many of the goals of social reform left unrealized. Hennessy provides a comprehensive account of life in Britain during this pivotal era, from the highest levels of government - with intimate portraits of the major figures of the time, such as Attlee, Nye Bevan, Ernest Bevin, Lord Franks, and Lord Plowden - to the experiences of ordinary people; from bread rationing to "welfare" orange juice; from the jitterbug to the "Goon Show"; from the "New Look" in fashion to the comedies of Ealing Studios. Lucid, engrossing, and elegantly written, Never Again is a tour de force of narrative history.
After the ordeal of World War II, world-class historian Peter Hennessy notes, the British "were driven not merely by the pressing need to turn rubble into factories and homes and roads, but...to ensure that never again would slump and economic depression be allowed to distil the social poison that made fascism possible." With this mandate, the Labour administration under Clement Attlee established the National Health Service; nationalized the Bank of England, the railroad, and the steel, coal, gas and electric industries; and constructed the welfare state - an ambitious undertaking of social change "on a scale and a duration never surpassed in the nation's history."
Yet successive financial crises, the Cold War threat and the need for rearmament, new foreign competition for its industries, the country's ambivalence toward union with Europe and its refusal to acknowledge its diminished status as a world power - all sent Britain's economy into decline, with many of the goals of social reform left unrealized. Hennessy provides a comprehensive account of life in Britain during this pivotal era, from the highest levels of government - with intimate portraits of the major figures of the time, such as Attlee, Nye Bevan, Ernest Bevin, Lord Franks, and Lord Plowden - to the experiences of ordinary people; from bread rationing to "welfare" orange juice; from the jitterbug to the "Goon Show"; from the "New Look" in fashion to the comedies of Ealing Studios. Lucid, engrossing, and elegantly written, Never Again is a tour de force of narrative history.
544 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
16 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Peter Hennessy
60 books47 followersPeter Hennessy is an English historian and academic specialising in the history of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London.
He was born in Edmonton, the youngest child of William G. Hennessy by his marriage to Edith (Wood-Johnson) Hennessy
Hennessy attended the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, and on Sundays he went to St Mary Magdalene church, where he was an altar boy. He was educated at St Benedict's School, an independent school in Ealing, West London. When his father's job led the family to move to the Cotswolds, he attended Marling School, a grammar school in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He went on to study at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a BA in 1969 and a PhD in 1990. Hennessy was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard University from 1971 to 1972.
Hennessy went on to work as a journalist during the 1970s and 1980s.
He went on to co-found the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986.
From 1992 to 2000, Hennessey was professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. From 1994 to 1997, he gave public lectures as Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London. From 2001, he has been Attlee professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary.
Hennessy's analysis of post-war Britain, 'Never Again: Britain 1945–1951', won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1992 and the NCR Book Award in 1993.
Furthermore, his study of Britain in the 1950s and the rise of Harold Macmillan, 'Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s', won the 2007 Orwell Prize for political writing
Hennessy was created a life peer on November 8, 2010.
He was born in Edmonton, the youngest child of William G. Hennessy by his marriage to Edith (Wood-Johnson) Hennessy
Hennessy attended the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, and on Sundays he went to St Mary Magdalene church, where he was an altar boy. He was educated at St Benedict's School, an independent school in Ealing, West London. When his father's job led the family to move to the Cotswolds, he attended Marling School, a grammar school in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He went on to study at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a BA in 1969 and a PhD in 1990. Hennessy was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard University from 1971 to 1972.
Hennessy went on to work as a journalist during the 1970s and 1980s.
He went on to co-found the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986.
From 1992 to 2000, Hennessey was professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. From 1994 to 1997, he gave public lectures as Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London. From 2001, he has been Attlee professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary.
Hennessy's analysis of post-war Britain, 'Never Again: Britain 1945–1951', won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1992 and the NCR Book Award in 1993.
Furthermore, his study of Britain in the 1950s and the rise of Harold Macmillan, 'Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s', won the 2007 Orwell Prize for political writing
Hennessy was created a life peer on November 8, 2010.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 6, 2015
Peter Hennessy is certainly one of my favourite historians of any age and period, and I've thoroughly enjoyed reading any number of books and articles he's written over the years. But Never Again, I regret to say, was a very disappointing book. In addition to the often startlingly clunky writing, the narrative had a tendency to feel disorganised and uneven, lurching along as ideas and themes were picked up for brief periods of time and then discarded. Even the sections that contain some noteworthy quotations and little-known bits of intriguing historical information have to contend with sentences such as the following: 'Since the final end of Empire in the 1960s, the economic historians have discovered a rich seam of retrospection as they mercilessly subject this kaleidoscopic phenomenon to the spartan rigours of cost-benefit analysis.' Granted, this book was first written and published back in the early 1990s, but surely another read-through would've flagged sentences like that one for deletion, or possibly even revision.
Authorial voice is a difficult thing to find when writing history, especially when writing for an audience that is not necessarily a specialist audience already acquainted with most of the material. When done well, it produces the kind of history book that simply immerses the reader in the time period and subject to hand. When done less than well, it makes reading a struggle and finishing a chore. As I see it, Never Again mainly has its problems in the authorial voice -- the unevenness of the narrative, leaping from topic to topic and from casual conversational or anecdotal style to professorial lecturing tone without a lot of apparent thought put into smoothing the transition, makes it jarring and occasionally difficult to follow. I suppose I keep stressing my disappointment because I know that Hennessy is more than capable of drafting a truly well-written history book. I already own the next volume in this series; I'll have to see if that one has more of the Hennessy style that I've grown to enjoy.
Authorial voice is a difficult thing to find when writing history, especially when writing for an audience that is not necessarily a specialist audience already acquainted with most of the material. When done well, it produces the kind of history book that simply immerses the reader in the time period and subject to hand. When done less than well, it makes reading a struggle and finishing a chore. As I see it, Never Again mainly has its problems in the authorial voice -- the unevenness of the narrative, leaping from topic to topic and from casual conversational or anecdotal style to professorial lecturing tone without a lot of apparent thought put into smoothing the transition, makes it jarring and occasionally difficult to follow. I suppose I keep stressing my disappointment because I know that Hennessy is more than capable of drafting a truly well-written history book. I already own the next volume in this series; I'll have to see if that one has more of the Hennessy style that I've grown to enjoy.
September 16, 2021
I was curious to know more about the time immediately before I was born and what the post-War era was like. This book is so readable and covers a large landscape. The photo on the front made me think they'd be more about the ordinary person, but I suppose 'they' don't write books, memoirs or keep diaries for later publication. The coverage of the political movers and shakers is brilliantly outlined, including key names and more obscure ones too. Hennessey met many of the people involved many years later and accesses some primary sources. For an overview of the surprising change to a socialism of sorts in the UK post WWII, the foundation of both the NHS and the Welfare Sate and Britain's place in the world with the Empire fading are all there. Hennessey talks about that alleged 'special relationship' with the USA, the beginnings of the Cold War. A very good read, a very through overview balancing viewpoints for a primer on this era, you cannot do better
October 9, 2025
I really am a sucker for a "long British guy history tome," and this one delivers precisely that.
It's an entertaining, and deeply sourced, look at postwar Britain and the attempts of the new Labour government to carry out transformative social policy, economic reconstruction, and navigate the birth of new regional and global political/economic blocs and the emergence of the Cold War. I really admire that it centres the thinking and limitations of the time and of the protagonists involved, in a sympathetic and human way.
Particularly as a leftish person, it's fascinating to see the tensions within the Labour Cabinet as to big questions like the management of nationalized enterprises, health care, and participation in NATO.
A really splendid bringing-to-life of the era that left me much richer for having read it.
It's an entertaining, and deeply sourced, look at postwar Britain and the attempts of the new Labour government to carry out transformative social policy, economic reconstruction, and navigate the birth of new regional and global political/economic blocs and the emergence of the Cold War. I really admire that it centres the thinking and limitations of the time and of the protagonists involved, in a sympathetic and human way.
Particularly as a leftish person, it's fascinating to see the tensions within the Labour Cabinet as to big questions like the management of nationalized enterprises, health care, and participation in NATO.
A really splendid bringing-to-life of the era that left me much richer for having read it.
December 1, 2017
Very good though tbh more Whitehall 1945-51 than Britain
July 11, 2021
Detailed.
May 14, 2016
It is easy to overlook the late 1940s, seeing the period merely as the time between the more interesting events of the Second World War and the 1960s. As Peter Hennessy, one of Britain's leading modern political historians, shows, this would be to miss something important.
Hennessy starts his exploration with a consideration of the war period, considering some of the reforms and changes that had started to be planned under Churchill's coalition government, in which Attlee and other Labour Party figures played an important role. Although Labour's landslide victory in the 1945 General Election may seem inevitable to us in retrospect, Hennessy shows how it came as a surprise to most people at the time, not least Churchill and Attlee.
Through a series of thematic chapters, Hennessy sets out the policies, challenges and achievements of the Attlee government. What comes out is the extraordinary breadth of the issues addressed over those six years. The process of withdrawal from Empire was begun, with independence for India and a reconsideration of relationships with Britain's Far Eastern territories. The Welfare State was established, through the NHS, housebuilding, education and social security changes that in many respects shape British life today, two generations later. Britain's relationship with Europe was set for much of the succeeding decades, with issues and views that seem little changed even now. The alliance with America was both tested and strengthened, while that with the Soviet Union turned into hostility. The economy was both nationalised and suffered repeated dramatic shocks. This was certainly not a period of calm and stability! Yet Hennessy also shows that the lives of ordinary people were not dominated by these dramatic changes, with much that was settled and enjoyed.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the concluding chapter, where Hennessy reflects on Attlee's government. This presents a strange paradox. On the one hand, Labour had taken bold steps that had changed much about Britain, making it in many ways a very different country from that of the 1930s. Yet he also shows that Attlee, his political colleagues, and their civil servants were also deeply traditional in many respects, taking the continuation of Empire, Britain's leading place in the world, and Government's role in society, as inevitable and continuing. His assessment is that this was, in many aspects, a government seeking (with some success) to resolve the challenges of the 1930s, rather than one seeking to find a new role and place for Britain in the transformed world of the 1940s.
Dense and wide-ranging, yet well written and accessible, Hennessy's work provides a fascinating insight into an important period in British history.
Hennessy starts his exploration with a consideration of the war period, considering some of the reforms and changes that had started to be planned under Churchill's coalition government, in which Attlee and other Labour Party figures played an important role. Although Labour's landslide victory in the 1945 General Election may seem inevitable to us in retrospect, Hennessy shows how it came as a surprise to most people at the time, not least Churchill and Attlee.
Through a series of thematic chapters, Hennessy sets out the policies, challenges and achievements of the Attlee government. What comes out is the extraordinary breadth of the issues addressed over those six years. The process of withdrawal from Empire was begun, with independence for India and a reconsideration of relationships with Britain's Far Eastern territories. The Welfare State was established, through the NHS, housebuilding, education and social security changes that in many respects shape British life today, two generations later. Britain's relationship with Europe was set for much of the succeeding decades, with issues and views that seem little changed even now. The alliance with America was both tested and strengthened, while that with the Soviet Union turned into hostility. The economy was both nationalised and suffered repeated dramatic shocks. This was certainly not a period of calm and stability! Yet Hennessy also shows that the lives of ordinary people were not dominated by these dramatic changes, with much that was settled and enjoyed.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the concluding chapter, where Hennessy reflects on Attlee's government. This presents a strange paradox. On the one hand, Labour had taken bold steps that had changed much about Britain, making it in many ways a very different country from that of the 1930s. Yet he also shows that Attlee, his political colleagues, and their civil servants were also deeply traditional in many respects, taking the continuation of Empire, Britain's leading place in the world, and Government's role in society, as inevitable and continuing. His assessment is that this was, in many aspects, a government seeking (with some success) to resolve the challenges of the 1930s, rather than one seeking to find a new role and place for Britain in the transformed world of the 1940s.
Dense and wide-ranging, yet well written and accessible, Hennessy's work provides a fascinating insight into an important period in British history.
September 13, 2009
A study of the "quiet revolution" as personified by Attlee.
This era brought about substantial changes but is not terribly exciting to read about.
This era brought about substantial changes but is not terribly exciting to read about.
February 19, 2012
Great survey of the immediate post war era. Good for political junkies like myself but had an acceptable amount of social history.
November 9, 2012
Bit long winded but Hennessy writes reasonably well and the story he tells is full of facts and information about the period.
Read
May 17, 2009Never Again: Britain 1945-1951 by Peter Hennessy (2006)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews