Austerity Britain, 1945-51

Tales of a New Jerusalem #1

by David Kynaston

Coursing through Austerity Britain is an astonishing variety of voices - vivid, unselfconscious, and unaware of what the future holds. A Chingford housewife endures the tribulations of rationing; a retired schoolteacher observes during a royal visit how well-fed the Queen looks; a pernickety civil servant in Bristol is oblivious to anyone's troubles but his own. An array of working-class witnesses describe how life in post-war Britain is, with little regard for liberal niceties or the feelings of their 'betters'. Many of these voices will stay with the reader in future volumes, jostling alongside well-known figures like John Arlott (here making his first radio broadcast, still in police uniform), Glenda Jackson (taking the 11+) and Doris Lessing (newly arrived from Africa, struck by the levelling poverty of postwar Britain. David Kynaston weaves a sophisticated narrative of how the victorious 1945 Labour government shaped the political, economic and social landscape for the next three decades.Deeply researched, often amusing and always intensely entertaining and readable, the first volume of David Kynaston's ambitious history offers an entirely fresh perspective on Britain during those six momentous years.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, British Literature, World War II, Historical, Economics

704 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written eighteen 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 the author of Austerity Britain, 1945-51, the first title in a series of books covering the history of post-war Britain (1945-1979) under the collective title "Tales of a New Jerusalem".

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. Drawing on hundreds of newspaper reports, diaries, letters and the records of Mass Observation, David Kynaston details everyday life in Britain as it emerged from WW2. He seems to have covered every aspect of life including home and family life, politics, work, education and culture. Attlee’s Labour government may have promised a New Jerusalem, but 1940’s Britain was still a drab, dreary place to live. Housing shortages. Rationing of food, clothing, petrol. Economic hardship, nationalisation, but also the birth of the NHS. Welcome to Austerity Britain, the era that gave birth to Orwell’s 1984.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Announcing a searchable on-line glossary for David Kynaston's Austerity Britain

This is an excellent and VERY detailed history (the first in a series) of the UK after World War II. The intended audience seems to be British people; it is an instance of a nation re-telling its story to itself. There's nothing wrong with this; in fact, it is very necessary. However, it sometimes makes the book difficult for the non-British to understand, because the author assumes that the reader is aware of common British cultural references. In addition, sometimes ordinary citizens who just happened to leave diaries behind appear in the narrative without identification; it's hard to tell upon first reference if a person is an ordinary citizen or someone you should have heard of. Finally, there's a liberal use of non-English words, many of which I had never heard or read before, probably due to my inferior colonial education.

As an aid and encouragement for non-Brits attempting to tackle this book, I have assembled and posted a searchable glossary of obscure (to me) names, places, and words used (in my opinion) without sufficient explanation. It is in the form of a spreadsheet on Google Docs here.

I hope this attempt to push the boundaries of Goodreads-related web geekery is of use to someone somewhere.

I chose to exclude from this glossary all names, places, etc., that I felt were sufficiently explained in this book. Also, I chose to exclude names, etc., that I felt were sufficiently famous, i.e., that I had heard of before I read this book. Some of these names include:

All British Prime Ministers, all rock group members or individual acts that had hit records, Alan Bennett, Patrick Stewart, Quentin Crisp, Isaiah Berlin, Cecil Beaton, Ian Dury, Anthony Powell, John Fowles, Norman Tebbit, Arthur Scargill, Arthur Koestler, Tom Courtenay, Roy Hattersley, Elvis Costello, Glenda Jackson, Kingsley and Martin Amis, Philip Larkin, Benny Hill, V. S. Naipaul

As mentioned, in addition to the luminaries listed above, this book strives mightily to include the voices of average people, which is a refreshing change. On the other hand, there are times when you find yourself pretty deeply into the weeds on topics like trade unionism and urban planning in the period. I didn't mind, but it's definitely not for every taste. I intend to read the already-published second volume, Family Britain, as well as the as-yet-unpublished third volume, tentatively titled Modernity Britain.

I invite you to submit comments, corrections, or suggestions about the glossary in the comments section after this review.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first of a series of social histories, which looks at post-war Britain from 1945 to 1979. In this first volume, 'Austerity Britain,' we are taken from 1945-51.

The author presents a really panoramic view, in this book; encompassing diaries, social research, such as mass observation studies, interviews, popular radio - and later television - shows and considering economics, politics, sport, education, work and housing. From popular culture, such as, "Andy Pandy,", "The Archers," and ITMA, or comics like, "Eagle," through seaside resorts, holiday camps, theatre, cinema and football; through to the mining industry, nationalisation, the beginning of the NHS, this is Britain, emerging from wartime.

Indeed, this begins with celebrations at the end of the war. Although war had ended in Europe, it was still going on in further parts of the globe, but the newspapers were more concerned with politics and sport. People, you sense, were more interested in their own lives and looking inward, while change was in the air. Election was seen as a certain Tory victory, after Churchill's success as a war leader, but instead, Labour gained the first overall majority in its history. Clement Atlee headed for the Palace to inform the King, "I've won the election." "I know," the King laconically replied. "I heard it on the six o'clock news...." You feel he lacked enthusiasm for this moment.

Still, with war over, dance halls, theatres and cinemas were packed, with people keen to enjoy themselves. The lights of London were back on and Labour had an ambitious plan for health, education, housing and town planning. Of course, much of this social revolution stalled, with people lacking modern housing and town planners insistent on telling them what they should want (flats) rather than what they actually wanted (houses with a garden). Meanwhile, much business was still run by the old boy network and modernisation was desperately needed. Inefficiency, underinvestment and old fashioned attitudes prevailed.

This book is full of wonderful snippets and humour. For example, there are heart throb, Dirk Bogarde's, list of qualities he would demand from a future wife, in a women's magazine, which include such delights as, "NEVER try to order a meal from a menu when I am with you." This resulted in one reader, Evelyn S Kerr (Evelyn, I applaud you!) to write in and state, "After reading Dirk Bogarde's article, I find that I am his ideal woman. The only snag is, I breath. Do you think it matters?"

Mostly though, as the title suggests, this is 'Austerity,' Britain. A country battered by war, left with shortages, debt, endless queues and rationing. Without the country pulling together in the war effort, these shortages quickly became frustrating and difficult to accept. Rather than improving, rations lessened and people, who had been making do and mending for many years, simply wanted to go out, enjoy themselves, and have nice things. It was a country on the cusp of consumerism - greedy for new goods, but not yet having the opportunity to buy them. I look forward to reading the next in the series as the country moved into the fifties and further change.

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like after finishing "Wartime Britain: 1939-1945" (by Juliet Gardiner and edited by David Kynaston and a MUST READ for anyone reading Kynaston's series), I am left realizing that I knew much less about the period that I thought. I am astonished that conditions in Britain actually worsened immediately after the war. And although the United States contributed to the rebuilding of Europe via the Marshall Plan, I am confused by why the US didn't help more with the food shortage. Amazing work.

[Graeme · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magnificent book! Austerity Britain, 1945-51,is the first in the Tales of a New Jerusalem series of three books by historian David Kynaston. He combines the usual macro-historical elements with the contemporary observations of the players, the media, and ordinary people who maintained diaries or wrote letters. It is penetrating, painstakingly accurate, and balanced in its treatment of contentious issues and necessarily flawed human beings.

If you are interested in the Kynaston histories, I strongly recommend Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 Harald Jähner

Both Germany and Britain were in deeply miserable states after the war, but Germany's recovery was faster and stronger, in my opinion.

[Uwe Hook · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to confess to being somewhat disappointed by David Kynaston's Austerity Britain: 1945 to 1951. At 633 pages (plus notes), it brings new meaning to the terms "ponderous tome" and "laborious read". On the plus side, it does offer a considerable amount of well-researched detail about the period. But that said, it is crippled in presentation by a frequently frustrating lack of context and a baffling lack of structure. Reading through it was a considerable struggle, somewhat on the scale of attempting to put together a 10K piece jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box cover to serve as a guide. All in all, I think that the real target audience for this book is either people who are already fairly familiar with the period or Britons who are over the age of 60 and can actually remember it.

While the individual details are interesting, the lack of context leave the reader in something of a muddle, very much a case of being unable to see the forest for the trees. And while the quotes from individuals, famous and ordinary, from the period do offer interesting insight, after a while one gets the impression that Kynaston is determined to include a quote from every single person who ever lived in or visited Britain during those years. It really does get to be overkill after a while.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive social history of Britain between 1945 and 1951, with unprecedented implementing of NHS (Aneurin Bevan), a new social security system (James Griffiths) and the education system changes (Ellen Wilkinson), all introduced by the Labour government of Clem Attlee after the war. The book is a gold mine of anecdotes collected during various public surveys during that time, with a focus on living conditions, rationing of basic products and sentiments experienced by the society, especially from the working and middle classes.

One of the anecdotes really made my day. It is a relation from VE day celebrations made by a young boy enjoying the celebrations with his parents: "The man who earned his living by having boulders broken on his chest in Williamson Square was standing outside the restaurant belting out the song "Tomorrow is a lovely day". My Dad gave him a shilling and shook his hand ... like they were equals. My mother made him go instantly to the Gents, to wash off the germs."

[Paul Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost wincingly comprehensive but it is still an impressive feat. A must read for anyone interested in modern British history, this covers how Britain started to recover from the war.

[Rob McMinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part 1
I think this is possibly the most enjoyable history volume I’ve read. This is largely to do with Kynaston’s rich range of sources, which include the Mass Observation project (MO). MO was a sociological project that ran from 1937 to the 1960s, and was a way of recording testimony about everyday life in Britain, as recorded by volunteers who filled in questionnaires, kept diaries, and recorded overheard conversations. It’s my kind of history. I’m always far more interested in the quotidien details for ordinary people than I am in what the toffs were up to.

Which is not to say that the toffs aren’t here too, because they are. Writing diaries, memoirs, recording the details of meetings in Number 10, or complaining that you can’t get good servants nowadays. There are chapters dealing with the Atlee government and the extreme challenges it faced as it introduced the Welfare State and the NHS, and dealt with public expectations of what life ought to be like after the war. And there is lots of detail about town planning and the housing crisis: the prefabs and the blocks of flats, and the huge amounts of concrete being poured.

The first part of this takes us up to the middle of 1948, just before the Olympic Games. It’s an era of extreme shortages and ch-ch-changes. Soldiers being demobbed, families with nowhere to live, queues for everything – from bread to birdseed, and (in 1947) power cuts amidst the coldest winter since 1814. They couldn’t get coal to the power stations and so – in freezing temperatures – power was cut for five hours a day. And then, when people could get a bag of coal, it had lumps of slate in it, and lots of dust.

It’s interesting to note that the peace when it came (in 1945) didn’t feel like peace ought to feel. There was a golden period between VE day and VJ day, but after this people felt cheated of the peace they’d fought for by the unsettling presence of the atomic bomb and the beginning of the Cold War (1948 saw the start of the Berlin Airlift). And by shortages and rationing that felt worse than the war. Underfed and overtaxed, we spend our lives in queues docketed and ticketed. The first post-war Christmas was ruined by shortages and price gouging. Butchers refused to pay the inflated prices set by their suppliers, so their hooks hung empty.

It was the era of the spiv – the dodgy geezer in a shiny suit with a David Niven moustache. It was also an era of high crime. One person came home to find that someone had been in and stolen an overcoat, some tinned sardines, a pound of tea and two pots of marmalade. Such small things, but also so painful to lose in an era of rationing and shortages. Can you imagine?

A fascinating detail for me was the idea that people were desperate for privacy after the war. It seems to say so much about the British character that, as soon as it was over, they wanted no more of the kind of communal living forced on them by the Blitz or by life in the Services. People generally didn’t want to live in prefabs, but they appreciated their modern amenities: doors and walls, and a modern kitchen, a private bathroom. I remember when I was young that trips into London on the St Pancras line would take you through Cricklewood, where there were still prefabs by the railway tracks. I think the last of them were demolished as recently as 2011.

What people most definitely didn’t want was to live in a block of flats. Only about 15% of people, when asked, said they thought they might like it. But up they went anyway. Not as many as the planners wanted, but enough. And the new towns: Stevenage, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead. And places like Houghton Regis, a smallish village between Luton and Dunstable, get housing estates we were still calling “London Overspill” in the 60s.

It was (another) era of a Labour government, with a majority, which failed to tackle the problem of the private schools, or the House of Lords, or Oxbridge. Too much else on their plates, and the Tories quietly seething in the background, waiting for power to inevitably come their way again. At the same time, the more cynical Tories quite glad for Labour to be getting the blame for all these things beyond their control, like cold winters, and runs on the currency.… ’twas ever thus. And the fundamental truth about the Labour movement, then as now: that the activists are always more idealistic and thoughtful than those being acted upon, who are conservative to their very bones.

Part 2

I feel like almost every point made about the post-war Labour government in this review should be accompanied with the words, then, as now.

The second half of Austerity Britain 1945-1951 continues the good work of the first half (reviewed here), but puts less emphasis on the daily grind of queuing for meagre food rations, I suppose because it would have felt repetitive. On the other hand, it might have very effectively transmitted to the reader the experience of that continual grinding drag of shortages and cold and poor housing.
Instead, there is more focus on that first “successful” Labour government as it limped into a second term with a much-reduced majority. As before, I can’t help feeling there are lessons here for Starmer and his current administration. If the public are feeling the pinch, if they don’t feel better off, happier, warmer, better fed, then disillusion sets in very quickly. It doesn’t matter how big your majority is. And with the support of the right-wing press and the ingrained conservatism of the British working class, Labour were (and are) screwed.

If it’s not the bond markets or the currency exchanges, it’s the hunger and the shit weather. But most of all, as Harold Macmillan put it, it’s events. Shit happens, completely beyond your control or purview, and suddenly you’re on a runaway train to oblivion. In hindsight, it was probably a huge mistake to go “all in” on supporting the Americans in Korea, but the Labour government at the time felt they had no choice. They were – as ever – ably supported by the rapacious press, who always love a war (it’s good for sales), but then came under pressure to increase defence spending. Something had to give, and it was the NHS (charges for prescriptions and spectacles) and higher taxes.

The most striking thing, for me, reading about this Labour government, which was riven with internal conflicts, was how old and sick and tired they already were by 1950. It had been a long hard slog to get into power with a useful majority, and they were exhausted — and dropping like flies. This was a 1930s generation of politicians entering the 1950s. They were not equipped. And, apart from the sick and the dead, the younger generation made the decision to play politics, to serve their ambitions. They’re looking ahead to the inevitable leadership contest and, if not the next election, the one after that. I’m looking at you, Harold Wilson.

Meanwhile, Britain is creaking out of its long dark decade of austerity and hardship and rationing, with the Tories set to reap the benefits of the “You’ve never had it so good” years. Because progress was slow. Then, as now houses take time to build. People were desperate for a bit of privacy, indoor plumbling, modern amenities. And when they did come, they did so in disappointing forms. There were new housing estates and new towns, but there were no shops, or no pubs, and the bus fares were expensive. People were happy with their bathrooms but unhappy with everything else they’d lost.
As the 1950s begins, the sense that towns can be planned begins to lose ground. Long before Milton Keynes became the whipping post for the anti-planning crowd, people are describing new estates as “dumps” and there is no sense of civic pride. The flats start going up. Utopian ideals about this kind of community living come face to face with reality. It is notable that the middle class architects, town planners, politicians, etc. are not the ones who are living in the flats. Kynaston makes a point about the number of children in the suburban living rooms of middle class families compared to the number in the living rooms of these new working class flats.

And, you have to say, just two minutes thought about the practicality of expecting kids being sent to play safely in the communal playgrounds of blocks of flats when mum or dad is eight floors up should lead to one conclusion. Ridiculous, impossible, just storing up future problems.

It’s always housing, in this country. Look at where we are now. How many of our current problems can be laid at the door of the housing issue. I live in a town that regularly floods, in which you cannot see a doctor or (if you move into the area) find a dentist, but still this place is earmarked for new housing and people rightly complain about the expansion. Starmer’s idea of building new towns is probably the right one, but look at the discourse that has afflicted Milton Keynes all its life. It’s not the place it used to be, either, because that central idea of planning and planned development – with rules and a philosophy behind it – has gone out of the window.

Kynaston looks at how the culture was developing too, around sport, theatres, radio, and (especially) television. It’s fascinating to think that this is still the world before the 1953 Coronation, which was Year 0 for mass adoption of television ownership (or, more likely, rental). It’s remarkable to think how renting a television was the norm even 30 years ago. It’s also sobering to realise that the BBC hasn’t really changed in its weird attitudes and frustrating behaviours. The two-hour blank screen in the early evening, to give parents time to put their children to bed without distractions is a case in point. Putting on plays that were boring and difficult for the betterment of the nation is another. Kynaston takes us, in this second part, from the 1948 Olympics (the austerity Olympics, which seem to have barely made a ripple among the masses) to the first televised FA Cup Final, Blackpool against Newcastle, Stanley Matthews leaving the field, at 36, still without a winner’s medal.

Then there’s the launch of The Archers and the popularity of radio comedy, like the forever weird Educating Archie, whose star was a ventriloquist’s dummy. On the radio. But that show was an early outing for Tony Hancock, who would go on to mass popularity in the following decade.

One last thing that stuck in my mind. Like many of my generation, I have memories of Watch with Mother on the television. I’m not old enough to remember Muffin the Mule, but I do remember Andy Pandy (which I always hated, along with all the other shows with stringed puppets, like The Woodentops). What I definitely didn’t realise at the time was that there were only ever 26 episodes of Andy Pandy in the black and white era that I watched as a kid. 26 episodes, repeated again and again between 1950 and 1969. It reminds me of Disney re-releasing all their films every 7 years.

It was a cracking read, a great book, most enlightening with lots of food for thought, still depressingly relevant today.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2886816.html

I read an greatly enjoyed the second book of this series a couple of years ago; I'm glad to say that the first is just as good, a detailed internal history of England (with a bit of Wales, less Scotland and no Northern Ireland) during basically the term of Attlee's Labour government. Kynaston's sympathy for the detail is tremendously engaging, and humanises a surprisingly alien place and time. There are some imporessive recurrent themes: rationing remained a constant reality (and of course enabled the black market to flourish), with most food remaining rationed until after the period covered in this book. Despite the Labour victory, government remained firmly in the hands of the civil service whose upper ranks shared a deep Establishment background - it was the 60s before anyone really challenged this. This was true also of the fledgling BBC, which did not even cover the 1950 World Cup (in which England was famously defeated by the Unites States). Some interesting people pop up again and again - Glenda Jackson and Pete Wyman, promising teenagers; the diarists both obscure (Henry St.John); and well-known (Molly Panter-Downs).

In contrast to the second book in the series, there is plenty of party politics here. The Labour Party, having won power (on the ideas framed by Michael Young, a figure I had forgotten about), successfully created the National Health Service and nationalised the coal mines, and crucially threw its lot in with Truman rather than Stalin. But I was unaware of the role that sudden death played in the politics of the day - Ellen Wilkinson, the Minister of Education, died in 1947, and Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary and the Lord Privy Seal, in 1951. (This just doesn't happen any more. The last British cabinet minister to die in office, of this writing, was Lord Williams of Mostyn in 2003; the last of the same weight as Wilkinson or Bevin was Anthony Crosland in 1977.)

The Labour government's reputation for competence was hit early on by an event for which it bore no responsibility and whose consequences it would have been very difficult for any government to mitigate: the exceptionally cold winter of 1946/47. Six weeks of very cold weather from late January to early March were followed by heavy rain, which added to the thaw to flood towns and countryside. The winter of 1962-63 was colder, but I guess that the country's infrastructure was better able to cope (and it was not immediately followed by heavy rain, as had happened in 1947). The bad weather hit industrial and agricultural productivity very hard, and certainly prolonged rationing and post-war hardship. Kynaston describes all of this vividly but unsentimentally, possibly the best passage of the book.

In summary, well worth reading.

[Jarvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once came close to approaching David Kynaston to edit a collection of material on the history of the city of London. Who knows what would have happened if I'd succeeded? I might have delayed the start of one of the most amazing projects of our times or even put put him off it completely...
Kynaston is writing a history of Britain during what might be called the 'welfare period' (roughly speaking 1945 to 1979, from the birth of what came to be called the welfare state to the point at which Mrs T, in her own words, 'came down from the mountain' to put an end to such nonsense).
Trench one consists of the 'austerity years', when the war had been won but there were no fruits of victory. It deals with the monumental developments of the period for example, the birth of the NHS or the restructuring of education. But it deals with them both in terms of the great and the humble, trawling a vast range of sources, especially diaries, to outline the policy debates but also to find the voice of the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus. The result is a panoramic view of Britain in the period, with coverage of sport and culture as well as emerging debates on the issues of housing, health, education, and the management of the economy. Which makes it as entertaining as it is insightful. And it is hard to believe quite how constricted, in a material ay, Britain as through this period - it is like reading about East Central Europe in the '70's.
It is possible to argue that the book might have been approached differently. It is very 'inside the whale', it is a UK view of the UK and the nascent stirrings of the European project are dealt with in a few pages. It approaches things chronologically and just occasionally it would be good to know what the long term implications of some of the things described were (this is normally hinted at but something more thorough going would be good). For example there is a masterly account of the situation at the UK's major motor manufacturers, all of whom had a different approach to labour relations. It would be good to know which, if any. were more successful in the long run and whether relations with the labour force were the key determinant. This might be to come, of course.
Ultimately, though, it is futile to blame the book for things it is not. This is a masterpiece of social and economic history (which it needs to be - this offering deals with 6 years and is over 600 pages long, the whole project is on course to be longer than Proust!)

(A gratifying footnote: it is interesting to note how many of the major contributors to the debate were Routledge - often Allen & Unwin authors - I counted more than a dozen including Beveridge, Titmuss, Laski, Michael Young, and, not forgetting, Attlee himself...)

[Michael Meeuwis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If for you, as for me, social history is catnip, then--to mix a metaphor--you will devour this. Kynaston's authorial intercessions over the mass of material he selects seem pretty minimal; and, as a number of other readers have mentioned, there are many moments where readers who are not British and of a particular generation will not get references the book seems to assume we will. This is far from crippling to the overall effect of the book, however, which gives a (to my mind) remarkably even-handed account of the development of English society in the immediate postwar years. Kynaston loves voices from diaries and from Mass Observation; and although I suppose I would have preferred a more analytic account of these voices, the material itself is fantastic.

Kynaston's overall project is to map English society from the origins of the welfare state to Thatcher in 1978. This is a topic that, I think, responds well to even-handedness, given how divisive Thatcher's legacy remains. I see it as a virtue of the book that those sympathetic and antipathetic to the Thatcherite project could find in this book material to justify their position: Kynaston is sympathetic both to those creating the NHS and to those criticizing (for example) automobile unions for what seems a crippling failure to innovate. This is, further, the most thorough account I have read of the tensions between what postwar planners wanted--communal living, planned cities--and what the mass of the populace seemed to want once their immediate physical needs were met: privacy and self-determination. Certainly, anyone arguing that Thatcherism is un-English can find much in this book to correct them--although, and I think this is a virtue, Kynaston also identifies ways that modes of collective planning responded to immanent national needs and wants.

I look forward to finishing this series with pleasure.

[Deodand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm cheering myself for finishing. This is a 630-page book and it doesn't flow. That's not a knock on the quality, though, as the prose is wonderful. The author is taking a cut through all aspects of life in Britain (mostly England) during these years, and when I say all I mean all.

I struggled a bit reading about political machinations, as I'm not super keen on knowing every single one of Aneurin Bevan's thoughts and feelings. The most interesting parts to me were about everyday life and how the austerity measures made getting through one's normal day just a bit more challenging. The birth of the NHS is also an interesting point.

I wasn't fully aware of how low the UK had fallen economically and spiritually as a result of the war until I read this book. We all know they were bombed and supplies were low, but the impact of the war, and the nation-wide attempt to recover back to normal life, doesn't get spoken about much anymore. In spite of my struggles to finish this book, I would say it is worth it, and I will be thinking about it long after finishing.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my childhood! Kynaston uses an amazing range of sources from official reports and papers to the diaries and letters of 'ordinary people'. In doing so he also covers almost every aspect of life in Britain at that time. Britain was recovering from 6 years of war and the cost of that war and reconstruction placed a great burden on Britain's depleted resources.

Being only 11 at the end of the period I do not recall much of the political & economic events covered in the book. I recall many of the shortages and the cultural & sporting events etc. It all rings very true and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in that period of UK history.

It is apparent from the book, and my memories of my late parents recollections,that, after 6 years of deprivation & loss, and the relief and joy of victory, the austerity of post-war Britain was as hard, or harder,to bear than the difficulties of war-time.

[F.G. Cottam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superbly researched and structured social history of Britain in the years after the end of World War Two. What's remarkable is how remote a time it seems. Kynaston (and his judicious use of sources) recreate this lost kingdom really vividly, pungently and sometimes poignantly. But it seems a much more remote country than the span of a single lifetime could measure. I don't agree with some of his conclusions, but this is still a brilliant and brilliantly entertaining piece of scholarship and a sober reminder of what could be achieved when an elected Government was itself governed largely by selfless idealism.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anecdotes and narratives about the postwar Labour government. An absorbing, sprawling, detailed book, but lacking structure and overview. It doesn't go anywhere. I would have prefered a clear alternation of chapters between the political narrative and the reactions of people at large. Topic headings would have been useful, too.

[Bertie Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Austerity Britain is without doubt one of the most heavy-going books I have read in the last few years, not only for its length (six-hundred and fifty pages) but also for its monotonous style. Given the right subject matter and right author these books can be some of the best you will ever read, however with Austerity Britain I felt as if the subject matter was not given the justice it deserved.

There is nothing particularly second-rate about Austerity Britain. The book is written well enough and includes personal experiences of those living through this time as well as more encompassing and general social and economic developments during these years. One of the things Kynaston discusses really well is the rationing in the post-war years and the black market, which sprung up among the middle and upper classes. I particularly enjoyed the passage Kynaston includes of a mother and son's reaction upon getting their first banana since before the war, which they are so unfamiliar with they are uncertain if they are meant to be peeled from the bottom or the top. I also thought the discussion of the 1945 election was really insightful as I have always struggled to comprehend how a prime minister as beloved as Churchill could have suffered such a crushing defeat. Kynastion explains how the election was in large part a reaction against conservatism and in favour of socialism which had gained immense support among the working class in the preceeding years.

One of the aspects of this book which became extremely tiresome after a while was the use of journal/newspaper entries from the people experiencing these changes. this would have been good in small doses, but he has one of these passages on almost every page, and it can really take away from the overall narrative of what he is discussing, as the passages are sometimes not even particularly relevant. I also think this book is better served for those who have actually lived through this time period, as a lot of the time he writes about very niche events or topics like a certain radio presenter or cricket game, etc, which really only serves as nostalgia for those that were living through these events.

Kynastion is an expert in social history, which means this book very much has a focus on the lives of ordinary people and the conditions they lived in throughout these six years. Kynastion often discusses the developments of housing and urban planning in these years, which sounds like it would be quite dull, but I actually found it to be very interesting. One of the most startling parts of the book is the table he provides in chapter 13, which shows that almost half of UK housing in 1948 did not have a bath and other essentials. overall Kynastion focuses a great deal on the working class and how they were effected by the nationalisation of various sectors most notably the health service with the establishment of the NHS.

I would have liked to have seen more written about the rebuilding process that took place after the war and a more in depth look at some of the austerity measures that the labour government enacted, but overall this is a good study of life in post war Britain, which is best suited for those who have lived through this period in British history and are interested in the social history of the UK.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew from David Lodge that Britain was still rationing nearly a decade after the war, which they won, ended, but I did not know why. Turns out it's because America didn't give them any discounts on supplies and materiel and their foreign accounts balance was shot. The housing supply was pitiful; housing people was one of the new Labour government's biggest priorities. Housing was Victorian or pre-Victorian in too many places, and the Blitz had taken out solid chunk of it anyway. The first few seasons of Call the Midwife, when the bathroom is out the back of the multi-unit slum building and there might be running water in the hallway. These were the conditions. And they were being observed. Sociology was already invented, and various citizens around England were asked to keep diaries, which are invaluable here. So we have thoughts of various people walking around the center of London on VE Day trying to find the celebration, and people bemoaning the bread ration, and visiting someone who has just bought their first television, and all the sports, and the NHS, and pop culture, and holidays. The food is rationed, but everyone gets a holiday at Blackpool. Absolutely excellent book and I'm very happy I read Nick Hornby mentioning it years ago in one of those compilations of his books column.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had been an extraordinarily hard six years since the end of the war--in some ways even harder than the years of the war itself.

David Kynaston, Afterword

From what gets dutifully reported in this huge volume, the battle with austerity and desperation was a fearsome fight in Britain following the war. Whole blocks, neighborhoods, sections of London and other cities were devastated; and the population that got out from under were basically devastated again. Those who were lucky enough to see VE day were often forced into situations that crushed spirits and weakened the resolve that should have come with Victory. Beyond the destruction was huge national debt to be repaid under the Lend-Lease treaty, the continuation of shortages and rationing, and a nation more geared toward khaki, blackout curtains and munitions than peacetime.

The war still lingered, not only in the bombed places but in people's minds and behavior. Any conversation tended to drift towards the war, like an animal licking a sore place. 1949, Doris Lessing.

No shortage of national resolve though, in the heroic efforts to get the nation back on its feet; the Britons that had refused to grow 'vegetables-only' per wartime edict, defiantly keeping their gardens in flowers secretly-- would make the postwar push. What soon became obvious was that not only was the rebuilding going to require intensive effort, but that what got built was not really going to resemble what came before it. Britain was a tumbling empire coming down off its Victorian and Edwardian highs. Neglected or ignored concessions to modernity had to be faced up to in the postwar era, and new solutions were disconcertingly the only solutions :

The very first thing to win is the Battle of Planning. We shall need to have planning on a national scale, boldly overstepping the traditional boundaries of urban council, rural council, County Council. Boldly overstepping the interests described so often as vested. 1943, Beveridge Report.

In Kynaston's book the planning never ends, even in the rear-view mirror; the Labour government headed by Atlee is at once lionized for symbolizing a new, integrated Britain and then derided for the fact that no symbolism could leverage an entire nation out of the ditch. There is much that is judged to be integral to any new plan-- new philosophies about class and education-- but there was no budging on policy by those interests described by Sir Wm. Beveridge as 'vested'. The more it would change, the more it would stay the same.

Wobbly on its feet the new government proved very susceptible to public opinion, as after all the whole war effort had been shouldered by that public to defend and preserve, but also the public had changed. Immigration, wartime loss, class shifts and a new broader sense of international scale had opened up new avenues for inclusion, society-wide change. From urban design to the new National Health service Britain would embark on a more humanitarian path. The vested interests were best advised to accept and invest rather than drag heels.

It is never so stated in the book, but rides just underneath Kynaston's narrative, that the Fifties were coming, and great seismic rumblings were in their infancy. The second brutal war in just a half century had worn down barriers; the unblinking vigilance of purely Market force was distracted, frayed. The burdens of humanitarianism, worker protections, health, welfare and housing concerns began to push at the door of this rigid capitalist, militarist, banking & manufacturing economy. Beyond the typical needs and requirements, a philosophical change seems to have taken hold.. people had opened their eyes, Britain was not a castle nor its populace grateful serfs; they'd earned a voice in what would take place, and wouldn't be having more of the same dreary war-austerity-war cycles.

Kynaston's book itself does battle with the scale of the proceedings-- how to navigate from the grand historical arc down to the necessary minutiae without losing the thread. Overall he does very well with marshaling the representative data, but he's fairly dull going about it. (In a book about drabness and drear, this has to be a fight waged in every sentence..) As much as it's painful to think so, he could do with a bit more of the dramatic voicings of the Ken Burns documentary school of history; sometimes the lists and factoid blizzards in the 632 pages here are simply overwhelming.

Once in a while, though, a direct-from-the-era excerpt rings hauntingly true. Working on a schools report in 1950, journalist Laurence Thompson is quoted, searching out signs of new life in an otherwise-banal girls gymnastics class, in a Secondary Modern school :

They had the lithe, long-limbed grace which schoolgirls have, and schoolboys have not. They swung from ropes and leapt over horses with a panache and freedom of limb which took my breath away. I found myself thinking, in the gloomy way one does, that in a few years they would be doping themselves with the pictures three times a week in order to endure their stuffy offices and factories; they would be standing packed in buses; suffering the sniggering, furtive unlovely approach to love in a cold climate; growing old under the burden of children, household duties, fear of war...

But a change was at hand, and it was beginning to emerge in the late forties of Kynastons period here; that it would develop for another ten years before exploding into the Swinging London of the 60's wasn't yet apparent. This is a valuable history, (over)packed with game-changers, large and small. I'm signing up for the whole ride. Next up, 'Family Britain, 1951-1957'.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating social history of Britain in the immediate post-war period. This was an important time in Britain’s history, with the creation of the NHS and a number of important reforms to housing and social welfare. I found the material on health and housing policy most interesting. A great strength of the book is how chock-full of detail it is, including quotes from a number of diary-writers at the time and survey results from the Mass Observation project. In places though, the accretion of detail becomes a bit much, eg. a section detailing all of the different children’s television shows on at the time. But overall a very informative and mostly engrossing read.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed the first book in this series (A World to Build : Austerity Britain 1945 - 1948) in my post of 6th December 2023. Smoke in the Valley carries on where that left off. This is another hugely researched book but the repetitive nature of including so many extracts from different sources does at times get a little tedious.

WHAT DO YOU SAY

At the start of the book there are some gems. Such as the blockbuster start of the opening ceremony of the first post war Olympic Games at Wembley in 1948. And banned from the parade was the cox of the British rowing eight because he only had one leg! We hear about the race riots in Liverpool and the vast number of people taking trains to the coast on Bank Holiday (63,287 from Waterloo alone). There are many extracts from diaries the author has found including one for Norman Wisdom at the Spa Theatre, Scarborough. We are told about the shortages, the rationing (I remember my parent's ration books quite clearly), and about how milk was delivered in churns to fill our own containers. In April 1949, sweets came off rationing, I was four. But the soap ration was terribly "insufficient".

OH FOR A LITTLE BUTTER

As an example of the extracts from diaries, Gladys Langford (a school teacher) said "the streets are deserted, lighting is dim, people's clothes are shabby and their tables bare". We were lucky that Dad worked for a grocers. The black market was in full swing and nearly all new cars were only for export. As for television for those very few in the south of England who had a set, there was only one hour in the daytime and two in the evening. (We were fortunate to have our first tiny black and white TV for the coronation in 1953. We were never allowed to watch commercial programmes when ITV started in 1955 when I was nearly eleven. So it was a thrill to see them when we went to stay with our grandmother). So it was the radio that prevailed in our house. Take It From Here was one of the first popular shows. I was not keen on a lot of the political stuff, particularly the ins and outs of nationalisation.

JOLLY GOOD AS A WHOLE

We hear about the early days of the NHS and the "teething problems". Literally. The start of laundrettes (I used them all the time in the sixties), the new big housing estates and tower blocks. Quite a lot about sport, there were 46,000 outdoors at White City for some heavyweight boxing. And a full Wembley Stadium for the World Speedway Championships. Half a million applied for 85,000 tickets. At the packed cinemas came the Ealing Comedies: Whisky Galore, Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico. Some disturbing stuff about the growth of communism. Austerity was compounded by devaluation.

A DECENT WAY OF LIFE

On the radio came Wilfred Pickles and his Have a Go. I remember it well as it went on for years. Variety Bandbox was live on Sunday Evenings with Eric Sykes, Frankie Howard. Listen with Mother also started on the radio. Among the extracts from diaries, a young Czech woman on a visit was amazed at the drabness, bomb damage, poor clothes and food and very little in the shops. In 1949, 6,000 people were struck down with polio. An awful disease. In 1950 the first TV transmitter outside London started up in the Midlands.

A General Election took centre stage in February 1950. We hear about the campaigns and election parties held in big hotels, Tony Hancock performed at Claridge's and there were 2,000 at The Savoy. Labour held on to power but with a very reduced majority after that 1945 landslide.

A NEGATIVE OF SNOWFLAKES

The author paints a picture of the grim industrial landscape, the mines and the slag heaps. But not in the south. He quotes Hunter Davies from his youth: "my whole memory is of dust and dirt, industrial noise and smoke". (We were lucky to live in Totley and then Alton). The huge consumption of coal added to the smoke and smog. (Now that I do remember when we lived in London).

PART OF THE MACHINERY

Heavy industry was a hard place to work. Even car plants had their serious injuries and deaths. (I never met my maternal grandfather who was pensioned off when he broke his back down the mines. I did know my step maternal grandfather who was missing an arm after a mining accident.)

One of the author's main sources in this section was Ferdynand Zweig, a social anthropologist who recorded numerous conversations with workers. He compared the working class with office workers, the difference in pay and job security. In 1952 he published "The British Worker" with hundreds of interviews.

STIFF AND RIGID AND UNADAPTABLE

There is a series on the radio called What is wrong with the British Economy. Almost everything? However, British exports in 1950 were 50% higher than in 1937 and it's share of world trade was up from 21% to 25%. Only because the rest of Europe and Japan were so much worse. But then I skipped through much about the financial sector, business, the city, the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange. We hear about the newly nationalised industries and the unions. All quite boring stuff.

TOO HIGH A PRICE

How dismal for the country were the railways, roads and telecoms, all in desperate need of investment. They stumbled along compared with other countries. Then the restrictive practices run by the unions held everything back. Just look at the newspaper industry. To criticise a union official could lead to discipline or even the sack. Sixteen year old Norman Tebbit swore he would break them. The author tells us "Neither side of British Industry was willing, when it came to it, to follow the American gospel of productivity, with it's persuasive emphasis of new methods and new techniques of doing things".

PROPER BLOODY PRODUCTS

I enjoyed the part about motor car manufacturing. "By 1950 the British motor industry enjoyed a staggering 52% of world motor exports". In terms of overall production, that in France, Germany and Italy combined "only just exceeded Britain's 476,000. Japan only made 2,000 cars in the year. But the reliability (or should I say unreliability of British made cars) was a big problem. "A disastrous trail of breakdowns and unavailable spare parts". The industry was blighted by strikes and go-slows. It was filthy work in the factories. I was less interested in the part about mines and miners, ports and dockers.

ANDY IS WAVING GOODBYE

Hurrah! We have something about TV. But first there are the comics. The first edition of The Eagle came in 1950. I now remember that we had a newspaper delivered to us every day in the mid to late 1950's. And inside once a week was The Eagle. With Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, and PC 49. My brother John had The Swift and Paul's was the Robin. At the time these were all hugely popular and were a great success story. Then there were the other D.C. Thomson comics such as The Beano, Hotspur, Wizard (those two were my favourites), Dandy, Topper and Beezer. Grown up magazines also did very well.

So much for some entertaining reading. A correspondent tells us that London was a "decaying, decrepit, sagging, rotten city". But eggs acme off ration and so did petrol. But the Whitsun weekend brought out every car resulting in massive traffic jams in the south. The 1950 World Cup was held in Brazil. England did eventually send a team, but they were a disaster.

On the radio came two new shows: Educating Archie (a huge success) and Andy Pandy for children. I didn't realise how big an issue was the annual cricket match at Lords between The Gentleman (amateurs) and Players (professionals). The hierarchy at the MCC were awful. Supermarkets started up around this time, but there were still the small shops. In the summer holidays of 1950, Butlins was going strong.

THE HEAVIEST BURDEN

Back to February 1950 and the General Election. A narrow Labour victory but with a massively reduced majority. There seemed now to be very little strategy for the country. But then the government decided to support America in their war in Korea. Just when the country is recovering from the last one.

A KIND OF MEASURING ROD

There is very little in this book about the Royal Family. I wonder why. But here they are at The London Palladium for the Royal Variety Performance. Even the rude Max Miller was on the bill. He overran so much that he held up the visiting American stars of the show Jack Benny and Dinah Shore. Completely different was a part about the Eleven Plus and how schools all gave out the results in different ways. Ten excerpts from (now) famous theatrical stars who wrote about their times at school. Then the horrors of teaching in secondary modern schools and "a pioneering survey of how the 1944 Education Act was playing out".

Back to rationing and that for meat was truly awful (Argentina was to blame), 4 to 5 ounces for a whole week. Sausages were no substitute as nearly all fat. "A meat shortage, a fuel crisis, a flue epidemic, a hastily conceived and over ambitious re-armament programme having a sharp impact on the consumer".

On New Year's Day of 1951 (I'm just six years old) comes a trial run of The Archers on The Light Programme that came after Mrs Dale's Diary. The former still going strong! TV was only provided by the BBC, but at least it was not confused by commercial aims. There were plays in the evening on the radio. In the theatre in London it was all classics, no room for modern writing or contemporary issues.

THEIR OWN PRIVATE DOMAIN

In the April of 1951 came the first census for twenty years. The quality of housing was truly abysmal. So much was very old and dilapidated. (Even when I visited my grandmother's newer 1930's council house when I was not much older, the lavatory was outside, and toilet paper was torn up newspaper). The government was desperate to build new house but were struggling to do so. There was much argument about whether flats were the answer. This was one of the best parts of the book recounting how housing policy was left to local councils. One huge success was Churchill Gardens, 1600 dwellings in London's Pimlico on the north bank of the Thames between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. The 32 blocks included nine storey flats, four storey maisonettes and three storey terraced houses. A mixed development conceived by the young architects Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya that gained a big reputation. The London County Council handed over all housing development to it's architect's department.

A vast new estate in Glasgow called Pollok came to house residents from the slums of Govan and The Gorbals. for the first time they had an inside toilet and bathroom. But as ever, not everyone was impressed by living in a flat.

THAT DUMP?

The huge Quarry Hill Estate in Leeds was the subject of a radio programme on Friday 6th April 1951. When anyone was asked what they thought about it, the reply was usually "What, that dump?". Sunday 8th April was census day. The following day the England touring cricket team arrived back, yes, by boat! Judy Garland performed at The London Palladium. The Tuesday was Budget Day delivered by Hugh Gaitskell. Nothing exciting, but it did lead to the resignation of Aneurin Bevan who was minister for health that was followed by two other ministers, Harold Wilson and John Freeman. Preparations were underway for The Festival of Britain on the south bank of The Thames. Intrepid correspondent Gladys Langford visited and told us it was a muddle. There were 100,000 at Wembley for the FA Cup Final with Stanley Mathews on the Blackpool losing side to the winning Newcastle. But the reference to "the Mathews final" was two years premature as this was when Blackpool beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in 1953. The cup final this year takes place four weeks later on 25th May.

[Lloyd Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal survey, ranging from the impact of light entertainment on the working class to grand strategy in the wake of WW2. Only things missing really were the domestic reactions to decolonisation/"decommonwealthisation" - conspicuously India (1947), but Israel (1948), South Africa and Ireland (1949) also.

[Slavo Ingilizov · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opening account on British culture and history. As a foreigner living in Britain, some of the things I was witnessing daily were completely inexplicable... until I read this book. It gives a unique view on why the British are what they are. It's a history book, but told through diaries of the people who lived during those times. This gives a unique personal touch and is much more enjoyable than classical history books.

Did you know how the NHS was created? Or that the left ideas dominated British politics after the war? Why was the rail network nationalised and how did people live through the strict rationing in the extreme scarcity of the 40s and 50s? Fascinating accounts of these and more interesting stories that made me understand Britain a lot more easily.

[Ilya Gerner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trying to get myself in the mood for the post-debtpocalyptic hellscape (post-downgrade hellscape?) of furloughed federal employees warming themselves by trashcan fires while the rest of us dance for pennies in our bankruptcy barrels, I’ve been reading David Kynaston’s Austerity Britain: 1945-1951. Some observations:

1. While this is cold comfort to British government workers facing layoffs and UK citizens dealing with service cuts, today’s Coalition-imposed austerity just isn’t that austere compared to the post-War version. A sample of chapter titles includes these Eeyoric gems:

Waiting for Something to Happen
We’re So Short of Everything
Christ It’s Bleeding Cold
The Whole World is Full of Permits
Oh, for a Little Extra Butter!
Stiff and Rigid and Unadaptable

2. That said, “shared sacrifice” meant something altogether different from its present use. Kynaston notes that the living standard of the working class, which made up 75 percent of the country, was 10 percent higher in 1948 than a decade earlier, while real salaries for the “middle class” declined by 20 percent. Post-War rationing generated angst and a thriving black market, but left the average worker - as well as the poor and unemployed - with a secure source of nutrition. The National Health Service, compulsory social insurance, and the rest of the welfare state was generally welcomed (I enjoyed Nye Bevan’s characterization of the Tories as “vermin,” while he stumped for the NHS), even as nationalization of industry was met with either indifference or hostility.

3. Reading this will make you more appreciative of F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, but less tolerant of Hayek’s present-day readers. Atlee’s and Bevan’s Labour Government really was intent on some regimentation and centralization of economic power, and implemented its plans with a joylessness that was reflected in a society of constant form-filling and queue-waiting. I can now blame the dourness of Labour’s Britain for Reagan’s turn to the right:

"For almost four months the American film star Ronald Reagan spent his working days at Elstree Studios, making an instantly forgettable movie, The Hasty Heart, set in a hospital compound in Burma. ‘You won’t mind our winter outdoors - it’s indoors that’s really miserable,’ an Englishman had helpfully warned him, and - wearing either pajamas or shorts for the entire picture - Reagan froze most of the time. His otherwise determinedly cheerful memoirs recall a series of gloomy images and episodes: an appalling London fog that ‘was almost combustible, so think was it with soft-coal smoke’, lingering for almost a week ‘until a kind of claustrophobia threatened to drive everyone stir-crazy’; the only outdoor illumination coming from ‘dim and inadequate street lamps’; the ‘severe limitations on food’; and a hotel in Cardiff where Reagan in the small hours ran out of shillings for the gas fire and ‘finished the night wrapped in my overcoat.’ At Elstree itself he was also unimpressed by the contrast between the ‘tremendously talented, creative people’ he was working with and the ‘incredible inefficiency that makes everything take longer than it should’, not helped by union restrictions on the hours available for filming."

Witnessing the planned nationalization of coal and steel, the unremitting use of ration books, and a fastidiously censured BBC, a contemporary right-wing observer might be forgiven for writing a crank pamphlet warning of Sovietization. With hindsight, we know the Labour government built a fundamentally decent, if too austere, society, never wavering from a democratic and anti-Soviet path.

Recommended for those interested in British history.

[Adrian Dormer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit heavy going but very interesting. Governments havent learnt from the past and are still making the same mistakes.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Kynaston begins his book, the first of a planned multi-volume survey of Britain, on a high note by chronicling the celebrations of V-E Day. It is a joyous starting point for his ambitious goal, which is to chart the evolution of the nation from the end of the Second World War to the election of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in 1979. It is an era that began with the commitment to nationalizing industries and creating the modern welfare state and ended with a government winning power with a promise to undo many of these programs, and Kynaston plans to show how the country developed over this period. This he does by focusing on the people who lived in those times, drawing from the early work of Mass-Observation, contemporary press accounts and the private writings of diarists to provide a sprawling portrait of Britain in the late 1940s.

What particularly stands out is how much different the nation was back then. The Britain that emerges from these pages is a nation driven by an industrial economy, with an overwhelmingly white and predominantly male workforce in physically demanding jobs producing a quarter of the world's manufactured goods. The everyday lives of these Britons was different as well, lacking not only the modern conveniences that the author notes early in the text but even many of the basics of prewar life, basics which had been sacrificed to the exigencies of war. Kynaston notes their growing frustration with ongoing scarcity, a frustration that illustrated the gulf between their harsh realities and the idealistic dreams of government planners that is a persistent theme of the book.

Richly detailed, superbly written, and supplemented with excellent photographs, Kynaston's book is an outstanding account of postwar Britain. It offers readers an evocative account of a much different era of British history, yet one with all-too familiar concerns over youth, crime, and an emerging multiracial society. Having devoured its pages, I look forward eagerly to the next installment and the insights Kynaston will offer.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this 700 page hardback tome did have me pondering that there are some advantages to the soul-less Kindle as I lugged it around in my bag. But not enough to make me give up on paper, cover art, design and smell... oh where was I. Yes this book. Simply wonderful social history of post-war Britain. I love Kynaston's approach which is to illuminate the macro with the minor - i.e. what the man and woman on the street was thinking/doing. He has hunted down several diaries and also some wonderful quotes from 'Mass Observation', a very Orwellian sounding government organization which basically involved asking people questions and reporting on overheard conversations in pubs.

And the Conservatives voted several times against the foundation of the NHS, god a real consistency of idiocy there. Thank heavens for Nye Bevan, what a gift with words he had, really drove the argument home. Not all politics either, fascinating stuff on what people did in their free time, holidays, the growth of TV, rationing and black market food..'spivs'. Oh great stuff, but man I'm glad I didn't have to live through those times, bombed by the Nazis and then years of poverty, pretty grim..'first real egg for ten years...ooh I made Harold a cake'....

[Lizixer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally I have got around to reading a book that I took out of the library 3 times but never got around to - probably because of its sheer size but the magic of the kindle app meant I could read this on my various devices and I soon found myself unable to put the book down (except when I ran out of battery-a definite disadvantage to reading books on tablets).

You see, I thought I knew about that post-war period thanks to the stories from family, the myth-making of successive governments and TV dramas. Of course, I *knew* nothing.

Using Mass Observation and contemporary sources covering popular culture, politics, sporting history and 'high culture' Kynaston pieces together a portrait of a country exhausted by war, hungry and tired and barely keeping its head above water.

And reading it raised a lot of questions for me to ponder about paternalism, failed Modernism and the truth about one of the most dearly held beliefs of the left, 'the Spirit of '45'

A book whose chapters will be worth delving into again and again.

[Martin Empson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the Tories and their lickspittle friends the Liberal Democrats try to destroy every last vestige of the welfare state, what better book to read than an account of Britain's greyest hour - the post war years. Austerity Britain is well titled. The sufferings of the war-years, the rationing, the death and destruction rapidly passed into a period of dull greyness. People continued to go hungry, if anything rationing got worse as the food aid that had poured into the country from the United States no longer arrived. The destruction wrought by bombing, added to the over-crowded conditions in many working class areas from before the war, meant that housing was in short supply.

Continued....

http://resolutereader.blogspot.com/20...

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew very little about the time period, but my interest in the British motorcycle industry has had me ready for a good book of postwar British history for some time. This is a fantastic, highly readable introduction. Its explicit focus on class is refreshing and reminiscent of Howard Zinn's work. It's a true people's history, in that there's less here about Great Men and Their Deeds and more about how social and economic trends came about and affected ordinary Britons. Personal diaries and archival social science research are used brilliantly, and provide much of the book's insight into the British character. I'm looking forward to the next volume.