London 1945 Life in the Debris of War eBook Maureen Waller
Download As PDF : London 1945 Life in the Debris of War eBook Maureen Waller 
Seventy years has passed since London celebrated the end of World War Two. But 1945 wasn’t all about flag-waving on the Mall and Churchill’s V for Victory; in the months before the ceasefire, the city had been peppered with German rockets and nearly brought to its knees by death, destruction, food shortages and homelessness. Yet through it all, the city coped with the horrors, and Londoners kept calm and carried on.
London 1945 is their story. In this fascinating history of one of the capital’s most momentous years, Maureen Waller looks at how ordinary people from all over London coped with crisis; and she pays tribute to their spirit, courage and resilience. In a city where receiving an egg a month was a luxury and families were divided for years at a time, often never to come together again, it was the little pleasures that sustained morale It’s That Man Again on the wireless, Hollywood movies, black-market oranges, American GIs…
And if Londoners thought the end of hostilities would improve their lot, they were in for a shock. Demobbed soldiers returned to a city of bombed-out houses, mass unemployment, continued rationing, not to mention a newly-independent female population changed beyond recognition.
A colourful and very human history of a changing city, London 1945 reveals how, in the bomb-shattered streets of the capital, the foundations of our modern society were laid.
London 1945 Life in the Debris of War eBook Maureen Waller
When I began research for the sequel to my WWII historical novel, I honestly felt like I hit the mother lode when I came across this book! The prelude walked me through the streets of London just days after V-E Day and provided an overview of that time period which was exactly what I needed. Maureen Waller's meticulous research filled the pages with fascinating facts and detail, while incorporating the actual look and feel of London in those first months following the end of the war. And therein lies the author's brilliance, writing in a style that flows like a novel, pulling the reader into another place in time. Quite possibly the best historical resource I've ever read.Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: London 1945: Life in the Debris of War eBook: Maureen Waller: Kindle Store,ebook,Maureen Waller,London 1945: Life in the Debris of War,Studio 28,HISTORY Military World War II,HISTORY Europe Great Britain
People also read other books :
- The Food Revolution How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World (Audible Audio Edition) John Robbins Phoenix Books Books
- Some Girls Kristin McCloy Marieve Herington 0889290821997 Books
- From This Moment On Sheet Music edition by Arts Photography eBooks
- Chasing Faith eBook Phar West Nagle
- Unbreakable Hostage eBook LE Harvey
London 1945 Life in the Debris of War eBook Maureen Waller Reviews
Looking behind the scenes at London and the English people perseverance in spite all Hitler threw at them
This is a good one. Gives a good picture of life in 1945. If you like this sort of book--this is a must read.
Serious research; way, way too much detail. But, if you want to know how it was right there in London, right after V-E Day, it is all there for the reading.
Stories about these courageous people during these difficult times provide inspiration. People will find creative ways to survive in spite of the conditions. Well worth reading!
I bought this for my husband, who lived through WWII as a boy, in a town near London. He's always interested in WWII stories. He has not yet read the book, but in skimming through it, he's seen bits he thinks he will like to read about. If you have lived through this terrible war that seemed endless, you might see how it was for the Londoners, who got the worst of it.
Wow, I can't say enough good things about this book ! It covered every aspect of everyday life in London in 1944 through 1945 and was a fascinating look into
a most courageous time. It is hard to imagine how London endured the during the period and was able to carry on despite the hardships and dangers that occurred.
The end of the war did not provide much relief, the hardships continued and new dangers presented themselves. I have only been to London a few times so it was a little difficult
to understand the narratives of events that happened in various parts of the city; nevertheless, it was a fascinating look at conditions that Londoners were living under
Some did seem to bear more of the burden than others. This is an exceptionally well done book and a very comprehensive social history of the period. A general
once said that the only humanity in war is to get it over quickly; unfortunately, this did not occur in WW!! and the Londoners were subjected to inhumanities often beyond
imagination. It was an inspiration to have read their stories of courage.
OK, so you've been sufficiently beguiled by David Kynaston's marvelous `Austerity Britain' and `Family Britain' that you've decided to write a book yourself, say about that culminating year of the British World War II experience, 1945. You'll concentrate on life in London as the war winds down with the long-awaited Allied victory in Europe and then the surprisingly abrupt Japanese surrender and especially on the poignant and sorrowful realization of the populace that the end of those struggles did not at all mean the end of their sacrifices and deprivations. You'll describe in wonderful detail, with incisively selected first-person recollections and compelling narrative, every aspect of wartime life, from the effect on the populace of the V-1's and V-2's to the shortage of women's undergarments to the endless struggles with food rations to rationing's inevitable spawning of a black market to the sexual interaction of women without their men but with Allied substitutes to the reasons for the facially astonishing replacement of Hero Churchill with Bureaucrat Attlee. Sounds like a wonderful, and wonderfully rewarding, project, doesn't it? Too late. The definitive social history of that year in that city has already been written, and this is it.
While Professor Kynaston covers much of the same ground in `Austerity Britain,' the temporal breadth of that work obviously precluded the kind of detailed analysis Ms. Waller is able to bring to bear for this relatively short period in the capitol city. And she doesn't miss any aspect of life in describing the people's anxiety and the strange but understandable lassitude as the war ground to a resolution. Particularly striking to me is her portrayal of the attitudes of the civilian population to servicemen coming home from the war; rather than being greeted as returning `heroes,' they were as often treated as interlopers by a population which felt it had made at least as many sacrifices for the `cause.' Indeed, all of the elements which one would expect to bring to the British people an unprecedented sense of cohesion and resolve instead combined to produce an expectation-less emotional and economical malaise exemplified, if not created and abetted, by the doggedly redistributive but almost universally desired `welfare state.'
Ms. Waller says it best `The wartime community spirit was replaced by a selfish Me First mentality, and general lowering of the moral climate. The new Labour Government projected its forthcoming plans for the welfare state not as a vision for living for which the country would need to work hard, but, naively, as the first great chance to get something for nothing. It was an attitude that seeped into the very fabric of life. Fiddling expenses and ripping people off were typical examples of the new, post-war British disease.' Further reading on this subject is available online in the British dailies.
In sum, a terrific read which not only provides an unrivalled history of the matters addressed but an historical framework for much that has happened since. Sorry, you'll have to find another subject this one is done and done.
When I began research for the sequel to my WWII historical novel, I honestly felt like I hit the mother lode when I came across this book! The prelude walked me through the streets of London just days after V-E Day and provided an overview of that time period which was exactly what I needed. Maureen Waller's meticulous research filled the pages with fascinating facts and detail, while incorporating the actual look and feel of London in those first months following the end of the war. And therein lies the author's brilliance, writing in a style that flows like a novel, pulling the reader into another place in time. Quite possibly the best historical resource I've ever read.
0 Response to "⋙ Download London 1945 Life in the Debris of War eBook Maureen Waller"
Post a Comment