Snapshots of gaiety and celebration - the street parties, the victory speeches - are how some people today think of Britain in 1945. But the years following the end of World War II were far from a golden age of pride and self-confidence. The country was troubled though triumphant, subject to continued rationing and political change. Wracked by social disorder, austerity and disillusion, Britain was exhausted - and it was the return of those men who had fought for their country who seemed to be a root cause of the trouble. Demobbed is the real story of what happened when millions of ex-servicemen returned home. Most had been absent for years, and the joy of arrival was often clouded with ambivalence, regrets and fears. Returning soldiers faced both practical and psychological problems, from reasserting their place in the family home to rejoining a much-altered labour force. Civilians worried that their homecoming heroes had been barbarized by their experiences and would bring crime and violence back from the battlefield. Problem veterans preoccupied the entire country. Alan Allport draws on their personal letters and diaries, on newspapers, reports, novels and films to illuminate the darker side of the homecoming experience for ex-servicemen, their families and society at large - a gripping tale thats in danger of being lost to national memory.
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A highly impressive debut, demonstrating great scholarship and an ability to balance the humane detail of fractured lives with a wider perspective of the political and social context ... certainly the most insightful text on the 1940s to have appeared this year. --Ian Cawood, Times Literary Supplement
Allports wonderfully insightful study asks us to rethink the conventional chronology It is not only refreshingly free of jargon but remarkably moving. If all academic history was written this way, popular historians would be out of a job. --Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
A masterful study of the subject Demobbed is a detailed and sympathetic examination of this difficult story. Making imaginative use of contemporary court and press accounts as well as the holdings of the Imperial War Museum Archive, it outlines the tribulations of a damaged generation, intertwining personal testimony with the authors thoughtful and cogent analysis [Demobbed] wears its erudition lightly and has a pleasing, easy style. --BBC History Magazine
Allports wonderfully insightful study asks us to rethink the conventional chronology It is not only refreshingly free of jargon but remarkably moving. If all academic history was written this way, popular historians would be out of a job. --Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
A masterful study of the subject Demobbed is a detailed and sympathetic examination of this difficult story. Making imaginative use of contemporary court and press accounts as well as the holdings of the Imperial War Museum Archive, it outlines the tribulations of a damaged generation, intertwining personal testimony with the authors thoughtful and cogent analysis [Demobbed] wears its erudition lightly and has a pleasing, easy style. --BBC History Magazine
About the Author
Alan Allport was born in Whiston, England, and grew up in East Yorkshire. He has a doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a postdoctoral lecturer at Princeton.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By bookworm
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book for my dad for christmas. He well remembers the experience of being demobbed after WW2, and greatly enjoyed reading this excellent and well-researched book. He has only one minor quibble: the author doesn't distinguish between discharged and demobbed. Those demobbed were still liable for recall, and some were in fact recalled at the time of the Korean War, to their utter amazement and disgust. My dad thinks none of them actually went to Korea but replaced regulars who were sent there. He himself received a letter in about 1950-51 telling him that he was still in the RAF and should hold himself in readiness for recall, which fortunately never happened.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a refreshingly short book but one that smacks of authenticity from cover to cover. It will particularly appeal to demob babies like myself (1947). I found the comment of the previous reviewer very interesting and something that I did not know about. My own Father was sent on a two week refresher course during the Korean War and I remember it well, particularly the present he brought me back. This book has just the right balance of anecdote and research and I recommend it without reservation.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book as my father was in Burma during the 2nd world war and was actually awarded a Military Cross for bravery.
I did not see him until I was nearly 5yrs old and we always had an uncomfortable relationship until his death in 1975. I found reading this book very emotional as I experienced very similar feelings to the ones portrayed in chapter 2 (so you're back then). I was terrified of this strange man who appeared one day as to me my Dad was someone who wrote letters and sent the occasional parcel from abroad.I was just starting to get to know him when he died at 63 and I found I missed him far more than I ever thought I would. So to anyone who was born during the war and had a father fighting abroad I urge you to fead this book. Thank you to Alan Allport for writing it.
I did not see him until I was nearly 5yrs old and we always had an uncomfortable relationship until his death in 1975. I found reading this book very emotional as I experienced very similar feelings to the ones portrayed in chapter 2 (so you're back then). I was terrified of this strange man who appeared one day as to me my Dad was someone who wrote letters and sent the occasional parcel from abroad.I was just starting to get to know him when he died at 63 and I found I missed him far more than I ever thought I would. So to anyone who was born during the war and had a father fighting abroad I urge you to fead this book. Thank you to Alan Allport for writing it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Demobbed
Read and enjoyed the nostalgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
Published 14 days ago by P. J. Newman
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good.
Detailed, absorbing, authentic.
Bought for research on the period, and little written about the experiences, and the expectations, of these men who had served and... Read more
Bought for research on the period, and little written about the experiences, and the expectations, of these men who had served and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mark Twin
5.0 out of 5 stars
an important and increasingly relevant book
you wonder how anyone could've made it, you wonder if the war at home was greater than than the war abroad, you realise that we're at war with ourselves as much as anyone else,... Read more
Published 23 months ago by jackson day
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Research on Demobilization of British Soldiers
Alan Allport, born in England, moving to the United States in 1994, earned his doctorate in History and has become an expert on WWII; currently lecturing at Princeton. Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2011 by Dr. Watson
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