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Wartime: Britain 1939-1945
Half the British Army never left Britain during the Second World War and became, with the civilian population, the Home Front. In WARTIME the danger, courage, deprivation, exhaustion, fear, humour and, sometimes, boredom that the population endured for six years is vividly brought to life through the voices of those who lived through them. From the vituperative and funny diary of a Sheffield housewife through the letters of an artist killed at Monte Cassino to the experiences of four Liverpool children and their hostile mother billeted on a Cheshire family, the everyday hardship, frustration and sadness of the war vibrate off the page. Many of these stories have not been told before; many of the letters and diaries have never been published. Juliet Gardiner has had access to a staggering wealth of rich, new material which covers all aspects of the conflict from conscription, rationing, propaganda and censorship to the plight of separated families, lack of money, entertainment and victory. This is a truly authoritative, comprehensive and involving perspective of the war years at home.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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1029 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 14, 2020
Detailed and well researched, this massive book gives an extensive picture of every aspect of life on the home front in Britain during World War II. Plenty of statistics and technical information as well as first hand accounts from people who lived through this challenging time in British history.
November 13, 2019
In 1940 and 1941 Britain's Home Front was the front line in World War II. Until 1942, more women and children than soldiers had been killed. During the 9 months of "The Blitz" (as the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign of Britain was known) more than 43,500 people were killed and 71,000 seriously injured. Throughout that time, the front line troops were firemen, ARP (Air Raid Precaution) wardens, police, aircraft spotters, volunteers who drove ambulances and those who looked after tens of thousands of homeless whose houses were destroyed. There were Civil Defence volunteers and "heavy squads" who helped rescue those trapped beneath the rubble of bombed buildings and those with the horrific task of gathering up bodies and bits of bodies.
Juliet Gardiner's book provides us with an exhaustive account of the lives of "ordinary" people and throughout its pages are hundreds of examples of these people doing extraordinary things and the words and thoughts of hundreds more about the war and how it affected the different levels of Britain's class-ridden society.
People died in shoddily built air raid shelters and many were killed as a result of the "blackout" - the darkening of towns and cities to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to identify their targets by sight. Each chapter of this book deals with a different subject, such as the rationing of food and clothing, the conscription of women to serve in the armed forces (Britain was the first country ever to do this) and crime. Although the Blitz was confined to the early part of the war, bombing continued until April 1st 1945, when the last of Hitler's Vengeance weapons (The V-1 and V-2 rockets) fell on England. We read of the success and failures of evacuation of children and their mothers and the arrival of 100's of thousands of American GI's. Almost every aspect of life in wartime is covered and the almost every page contains details which are vivid and interesting.
Some of the stories of evacuation of children and the internment of people who had fled Germany because of their opposition to the Nazis are heartbreaking.
Repeatedly, this book gives the lie to the nostalgic view that many have of life during wartime. People were scared and exhausted, not only due to bombing attacks, but also the various deprivations they suffered as a result of total war.
This is an absolutely fascinating work of social history. Even the most mundane parts of everyday life take on a whole new meaning in the context of a nation at war. Despite the paperback being almost 700 pages long, I barely skipped a page. For anyone with an interest British history this is a must read. Highly recommended.
Juliet Gardiner's book provides us with an exhaustive account of the lives of "ordinary" people and throughout its pages are hundreds of examples of these people doing extraordinary things and the words and thoughts of hundreds more about the war and how it affected the different levels of Britain's class-ridden society.
People died in shoddily built air raid shelters and many were killed as a result of the "blackout" - the darkening of towns and cities to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to identify their targets by sight. Each chapter of this book deals with a different subject, such as the rationing of food and clothing, the conscription of women to serve in the armed forces (Britain was the first country ever to do this) and crime. Although the Blitz was confined to the early part of the war, bombing continued until April 1st 1945, when the last of Hitler's Vengeance weapons (The V-1 and V-2 rockets) fell on England. We read of the success and failures of evacuation of children and their mothers and the arrival of 100's of thousands of American GI's. Almost every aspect of life in wartime is covered and the almost every page contains details which are vivid and interesting.
Some of the stories of evacuation of children and the internment of people who had fled Germany because of their opposition to the Nazis are heartbreaking.
Repeatedly, this book gives the lie to the nostalgic view that many have of life during wartime. People were scared and exhausted, not only due to bombing attacks, but also the various deprivations they suffered as a result of total war.
This is an absolutely fascinating work of social history. Even the most mundane parts of everyday life take on a whole new meaning in the context of a nation at war. Despite the paperback being almost 700 pages long, I barely skipped a page. For anyone with an interest British history this is a must read. Highly recommended.
August 19, 2018
This is a must read for students of World War II. Gardiner provides an important social history, superbly telling the story of how the war impacted the lives of men, women, and children on the Homefront in Britain. The reader gains important insight into topics such as evacuations, rationing of food and other goods, living under blackout regulations and constant fear of bombing raids, fundraising and aluminum drives to build Spitfires, severe loss of life and housing due to bombing and rocket raids, women in the workforce, the return of men from battle and reunification of families following years of separation, and other important social topics. This history is needed for a more complete understanding of how the war impacted the everyday lives of British citizens. I highly recommend it!
March 23, 2011
This is a history of the Second World War, not of the campaigns and the battles, but of the Home Front. Each chapter deals with a different theme - evacuation, rationing, the Blitz, crime, women in the workplace, air raid shelters, propaganda, the media, the Home Guard etc. It's very well-written, very readable and includes a great deal of quotes and anecdotes from diaries, letters, interviews and surveys from the time. It really makes you realise what hell people went through, and how the Home Front was in its own way as dangerous as the real battle in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. A very worthwhile book.
June 25, 2019
I don’t think that most people can appreciate just how hard it is to write a good social history. Social history is, by its very definition, abstract. The views of an entire people are bound to be so varied as to defy easy generalizations. So how to take a vague feeling of oneness and shared values (as good a definition of civilization as any) and provide structure to it? And how do you do so in a way that keeps the reader’s interest without just listing off statistics and facts?
The way that this book manages it is by adopting a rough chronological order. The first chapter is about British reactions to the start of the war and the final chapter is their reaction to the end of the war. So much is obvious, though both manage to include enough variety of viewpoints to give a more nuanced impression than mere anxious fatalism or a strangely unsatisfied sense of closure. But how to fit in other, more thematic topics? To whit, the book has a chapter each on the evacuation of children, blackout regulations, army recruitment and militarization, conscientious objectors, information censorship, rationing, invasion anxiety, the internment of all foreigners, the internment of British fascists, bomb shelters and the Underground, Ireland during the war, war artists and the artistic community, essential industries and female recruitment, Americans and other foreign soldiers on British soil, planning for peace, and criminal activities. How do you make those fit into an apparent progression that feels like it is advancing forward in the war?
With great difficulty, although you’d never imagine it from the skill with which the book manages it. Issues appear mainly in the order in which they occur or are most common. Evacuation, blackout regulations, rationing, etc. are all covered first because they are the immediate consequences of war in 1939/40. While most of these chapters cover events into the later years of the war, the main focus is on the Phony War years. Then we move onto Dunkirk and the public reaction, which sets in motion the internments and invasion anxiety. A chapter on the Battle of Britain, two on the Blitz (1940 and 1941), the D-Day invasion, and the V-1s/V-2s, all serve to advance the timeline and make the book feel like there is a sense of progression. And the appearance of foreign troops on English soil appears when the Americans join up in ‘41. It all seems so natural and logical you can’t see the immense struggles that must have been required to force this material into such clear patterns.
The most impressive part is how we are given updates on these early chapters throughout the course of the book without it feeling out of place. The evacuees, for example, pop up all the time in the context of the Blitz and other subjects. We are told how, after the initial return home as the Phony War made evacuation seem an overreaction, the Blitz encouraged a new and better-planned round of evacuations. But since we’ve already gotten a chapter establishing the background for this we don’t need to lay out all the details that would usually be necessary. Rationing is similar and the endless references to bombs and bomb shelters progress in a similarly chronological pattern. But this doesn’t seem like an interruption so much as a natural progression of the story.
Many of the later chapters seem consumed by ephemera and updates, with the chapters on planning for peace and the V-1s/V-2s serving particularly well as a commentary on the declining morale and sense of being “browned off” that the populace was feeling. By the end of the book this sense of exhaustion is palpable and you have to wonder how the British public would have handled another year of war. Actually, I’d be rather curious to see a German version of this book because I really wonder how they dealt with the endless bloodletting and monotony. Were they as drained as the British were? Or did the new and sudden threat to their fatherland give them a powerful impetus to continue? I’d be interested to find out.
One of the highlights of the book is the astonishingly broad array of anecdotes taken from people from all walks of life and in all sorts of careers. I don’t know how the author managed to read all of these, but they add immeasurably to the feeling of ‘being there’. Some of these are famous people such as Vera Brittain or George Orwell. Others are mine workers or poor inner-city evacuees. Each chapter is filled with these anecdotes. I suspect they limit the book’s value as a source for those writing about WW2 (bring on the technical charts and vital statistics!) but there is no better way of capturing the feel of the Homefront. The immense and all-encompassing nature of the struggle is felt everywhere and by everyone, from the unfortunates living on the line between Dover and London where German bombers dropped unused bombs to the isolated inhabitants of the Orkneys who had to deal with an influx of POWs (especially the Italians) and the navy yards.
I cannot recommend this book strongly enough for anyone with an interest in WW2. Most books on that subject aim for flashier stories of the frontlines or the heart of Nazi Germany. But this book tells an amazing story of endurance, against all odds and despite an immense reluctance, which allowed Britain to continue the war long enough to provide the Allies a site from which to launch the invasion of Europe. The book is a monument of superb organization that succeeds so well it feels like the only natural way to cover the material. Just how difficult it must have been to avoid mentioning elements covered in later chapters, especially ubiquitous ones like rationing or exhaustion, astounds me. An excellent introduction to the British Homefront in WW2.
The way that this book manages it is by adopting a rough chronological order. The first chapter is about British reactions to the start of the war and the final chapter is their reaction to the end of the war. So much is obvious, though both manage to include enough variety of viewpoints to give a more nuanced impression than mere anxious fatalism or a strangely unsatisfied sense of closure. But how to fit in other, more thematic topics? To whit, the book has a chapter each on the evacuation of children, blackout regulations, army recruitment and militarization, conscientious objectors, information censorship, rationing, invasion anxiety, the internment of all foreigners, the internment of British fascists, bomb shelters and the Underground, Ireland during the war, war artists and the artistic community, essential industries and female recruitment, Americans and other foreign soldiers on British soil, planning for peace, and criminal activities. How do you make those fit into an apparent progression that feels like it is advancing forward in the war?
With great difficulty, although you’d never imagine it from the skill with which the book manages it. Issues appear mainly in the order in which they occur or are most common. Evacuation, blackout regulations, rationing, etc. are all covered first because they are the immediate consequences of war in 1939/40. While most of these chapters cover events into the later years of the war, the main focus is on the Phony War years. Then we move onto Dunkirk and the public reaction, which sets in motion the internments and invasion anxiety. A chapter on the Battle of Britain, two on the Blitz (1940 and 1941), the D-Day invasion, and the V-1s/V-2s, all serve to advance the timeline and make the book feel like there is a sense of progression. And the appearance of foreign troops on English soil appears when the Americans join up in ‘41. It all seems so natural and logical you can’t see the immense struggles that must have been required to force this material into such clear patterns.
The most impressive part is how we are given updates on these early chapters throughout the course of the book without it feeling out of place. The evacuees, for example, pop up all the time in the context of the Blitz and other subjects. We are told how, after the initial return home as the Phony War made evacuation seem an overreaction, the Blitz encouraged a new and better-planned round of evacuations. But since we’ve already gotten a chapter establishing the background for this we don’t need to lay out all the details that would usually be necessary. Rationing is similar and the endless references to bombs and bomb shelters progress in a similarly chronological pattern. But this doesn’t seem like an interruption so much as a natural progression of the story.
Many of the later chapters seem consumed by ephemera and updates, with the chapters on planning for peace and the V-1s/V-2s serving particularly well as a commentary on the declining morale and sense of being “browned off” that the populace was feeling. By the end of the book this sense of exhaustion is palpable and you have to wonder how the British public would have handled another year of war. Actually, I’d be rather curious to see a German version of this book because I really wonder how they dealt with the endless bloodletting and monotony. Were they as drained as the British were? Or did the new and sudden threat to their fatherland give them a powerful impetus to continue? I’d be interested to find out.
One of the highlights of the book is the astonishingly broad array of anecdotes taken from people from all walks of life and in all sorts of careers. I don’t know how the author managed to read all of these, but they add immeasurably to the feeling of ‘being there’. Some of these are famous people such as Vera Brittain or George Orwell. Others are mine workers or poor inner-city evacuees. Each chapter is filled with these anecdotes. I suspect they limit the book’s value as a source for those writing about WW2 (bring on the technical charts and vital statistics!) but there is no better way of capturing the feel of the Homefront. The immense and all-encompassing nature of the struggle is felt everywhere and by everyone, from the unfortunates living on the line between Dover and London where German bombers dropped unused bombs to the isolated inhabitants of the Orkneys who had to deal with an influx of POWs (especially the Italians) and the navy yards.
I cannot recommend this book strongly enough for anyone with an interest in WW2. Most books on that subject aim for flashier stories of the frontlines or the heart of Nazi Germany. But this book tells an amazing story of endurance, against all odds and despite an immense reluctance, which allowed Britain to continue the war long enough to provide the Allies a site from which to launch the invasion of Europe. The book is a monument of superb organization that succeeds so well it feels like the only natural way to cover the material. Just how difficult it must have been to avoid mentioning elements covered in later chapters, especially ubiquitous ones like rationing or exhaustion, astounds me. An excellent introduction to the British Homefront in WW2.
August 24, 2012
Juliet Gardiner's Wartime is a superb social history of Britain's "Home Front" experience in the Second World War. Drawing both upon the abundant literature about the war and Mass-Observation diaries kept by contemporaries, she gives readers a real sense of what the war was like for the people of Britain. By far the best book about the subject, it is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about how Britons lived, survived, and died during the long conflict that continues to cast its shadow upon the nation.
January 30, 2009
A terrific read that really broadened my knowledge of wartime culture, the extent of the bombings in cities outside London (why bomb Hastings?) as well as the privations and hardships suffered by the English. Excellent use of primary sources by Gardiner, using diaries and accounts of women who knew firsthand how little you could get with your clothing ration coupons. A fascinating read.
October 2, 2024
an incredibly fascinating read
July 27, 2010
This big book (692 pages) focuses on life in Britain during the war – a fairly straightforward subject it would seem but how to distill official, contemporary and personal accounts of a fast moving, supremely disruptive time? Gardner does it by gathering her facts under headings of crucial points in time and categories of experience using a formidable array of sources. The reader feels the terror of the blitz and the grinding want of wartime existence.
Wartime is not a history of the war, not even a history of the war in Britain but an account of what it was like to live during the war in Britain whether you were a serviceman, conscientious objector, housewife, prisoner of war, factory worker, child, artist, criminal, Italian, Irish. All encompassing is a fitting description.
Death, dismemberment and forced dislocation were just some of the indignities that Britons faced on a daily basis – and if it didn’t happen to them it happened to someone they knew. This book shows, as no other I have read, how they survived, collectively and individually, the insanity.
Wartime is not a history of the war, not even a history of the war in Britain but an account of what it was like to live during the war in Britain whether you were a serviceman, conscientious objector, housewife, prisoner of war, factory worker, child, artist, criminal, Italian, Irish. All encompassing is a fitting description.
Death, dismemberment and forced dislocation were just some of the indignities that Britons faced on a daily basis – and if it didn’t happen to them it happened to someone they knew. This book shows, as no other I have read, how they survived, collectively and individually, the insanity.
December 30, 2015
It's quite a challenge to pick up this book with the intention to read it cover to cover - all 700 or so pages of it. I'm so glad I have. This is a book that fleshes out in considerable detail the knowledge that most of us have - or think we have - of life on the Home Front in WWII. Though scholarly, it's intensely readable, and each chapter is crammed with nuggets of fascinating information, whether it's about evacuees, the unremitting horrors of the Blitz, coping with rationing, wartime crime....anything and everything about daily life in the bleakly difficult years of the war. I'm left with a renewed respect for the citizens who coped with privation, hunger, homelessness, loss and just general dinginess, as well as surprise at the level of lawlessness among certain sections of the population. This book is a really absorbing read.
March 6, 2015
This book is the best I have ever read about the British Home Front during the Second World War. A must read for anyone interested in this subject.
August 25, 2018
One of the only books I’ve encountered that made World War II absolutely fascinating to me.
July 4, 2017
Definitely the most interesting book I have read in some time, Gardiner covers a vast sweep of wartime experience in Britain, good and bad. Her selection of personal stories is excellent, and she has a good eye for telling detail. Necessary reading for anyone interested in the subject.
February 20, 2019
The Home Front at war
The author is a superbly talented social historian. She depicts many facets of a society which was daily impinge upon by total war. It will be difficult to write a better narrative.
The author is a superbly talented social historian. She depicts many facets of a society which was daily impinge upon by total war. It will be difficult to write a better narrative.
May 27, 2019
Learned much from this well written history of Britain during WWII. Book is very long and I had expected to skim much of it. Instead I read most of it carefully. As a reader of many novels set during this time period, I appreciated being able to see the realty upon which the novels were based.
September 12, 2018
4.5*
Detailed and fascinating account
Detailed and fascinating account
March 12, 2022
Very informative however very intricately and confusingly worded. Goes off of track slightly but overall is extremely enlightening about the goings on of WW2 and how the British were affected and Jews who lived in Britain were able to assimilate into rural countryside culture at the cost of their own religion. I was heartbroken to find out something likely but haunting about the treatment and traumatic situations some evacuees had to endure; it was estimated that between 10-15% of evacuees were abused sexually, emotionally or physically….on the bright side a somewhat large portion of these illegal actions and the people who committed them were prosecuted…
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2020
An excellent and very readable history of the British Home Front during the Second World War. Occasionally some chapters dragged but I think that was probably my lack of interest in certain subjects (it's a very comprehensive book, covering a lot of aspects of wartime life), rather than any fault of Juliet Gardiner.
March 20, 2022
A thorough account of people's experiences in the British home front during 1939-45. A word of warning to the casual reader: you may find somewhat more detail than you wanted - which nevertheless makes it a good reference, and an antidote to some of the leftover wartime propaganda making light of the travails suffered by the masses.
February 9, 2024
A fascinating account of life on the Home Front during the Second World War. Very well researched and a must read for anyone who desires a greater understanding of what it means to be British. We owe so much to those brave men and women and we must never forget their sacrifice for our freedom.
June 27, 2021
Brilliant book about the people of Britain dealt with World War II, from the stories and voices of people on the street. Extraordinary stories and amazing people. Fascinating read
July 4, 2024
Wartime facts
This book was excellently researched and presented with no bias shown. It told facts from many sides and made me realise several facts I hadn't thought of before.
This book was excellently researched and presented with no bias shown. It told facts from many sides and made me realise several facts I hadn't thought of before.
April 23, 2025
Very informative book. I learned a lot about Britain during those years. I highly recommend reading this book.
August 26, 2017
I had been looking for a book like this for years now. I've been a WWII buff of sorts for decades, and thought I knew all about the homefront lifestyle - this book has proven me wrong! It literally covers every aspect of civilian life in the UK (particularly London) from start to finish.
I would love even more to find work like this that describes German civilian life during the war. If you're reading this review and you know of a comparable piece, please leave a reply!
As an aside, I noticed in the afterword that the author shared resources with David Kynaston, who's written a series (that I'm about to start reading) in a similar vein, about Britain from 1945 to 1979. Hopefully it's just as good.
I would love even more to find work like this that describes German civilian life during the war. If you're reading this review and you know of a comparable piece, please leave a reply!
As an aside, I noticed in the afterword that the author shared resources with David Kynaston, who's written a series (that I'm about to start reading) in a similar vein, about Britain from 1945 to 1979. Hopefully it's just as good.
August 14, 2013
Truly superb account of life on the home front in wartime Britain, especially when it came to socioeconomic changes wrought by mobilization and strategic bombing. The one thing I would have liked to read more about was how the country was governed during the war, considering that the general election of 1945 was the first in ten years. I realize of course that when covering a topic as multi-faceted as a country at war, it's impossible to cover anything, but given how the war was framed as a fight to defend democracy and civilization against tyranny, I would have been curious to read about attitudes towards the coalition government, how it functioned, how local government functioned, etc.
February 10, 2012
Lots of information on a variety of subjects, and quite thorough. Covers all of Great Britain. Pretty good job of filling in historical and political backstory (e.g. North and South Ireland) without shifting the focus too much. I longed for maps in the book and did refer to my WWII atlas quite a bit. Sometimes there is a bit too much detail to keep the narrative flow going smoothly, but I appreciate being able to refer back to the detail . . . so I can't begrudge that. It's quite comprehensive. Huge and intriguing bibliography.
December 19, 2014
This is a readable and thorough history of this time in Britain. I gave it five stars because it is so comprehensive. As a reading experience for me, it took a long time because it was so detailed, at times more than I was interested in. But as a resource for research, or just to broaden one's knowledge of the time and the country, it is excellent.
March 5, 2015
While this is better written than most adult non-fiction, and impressively researched, it still has the sort of writing that makes me skim read. A good deal of the economic sections made my eyes glaze over. I would have loved to have been able to read just the selections about everyday life and times--it's fascinating stuff, and the part of the book that kept me plowing along.
March 14, 2011
One of those non-fiction books which consists of fascinating items of information strung together with mostly workmanlike but occasionally frankly appalling sentences. (I'm being picky. It was well organised and made excellent use of primary sources. But her PROSE.)
February 18, 2016
It took me 0ver a year to get through this tome on Britain during WW II. It is detailed, authoratative, and a genuine resource. I now fully understand why Britain became Socialist! There was no choice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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