Never Again: Britain 1945-1951
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Product Description
Product Description
The first volume of Hennessy's postwar history of Britain concerns an age dominated by the shadow of war. With the beginnings of the Cold War, the foundations of the new Europe and the granting of independence of former colonies, Britain was forced to negotiate a new place in the world. It was also a time of rationing and of rebuilding, marked by the founding of the NHS and the welfare state. This comprehensive history embraces both high politics and everyday experience. It recreates the mood of the time and tells us where people lived, how they worked and what they wore.
About the Author
Peter Hennessy was described by the late Ben Pimlott as ‘a political historian and journalist who has himself become something of a national institution’. He is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary College, London, and the author of the best-selling The Prime Minister and The Secret State (all Penguin). He is a frequent broadcaster and is regularly consulted by all political parties on constitutional and historical questions.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Took me back over sixty years to my own childhood growing up during and immediately after the war. Helped me understand my parents, for they really lived through it.
Format:Paperback
In this book and in the next in time, "Having it so Good" dealing with the fifties, Hennessy sets out to create a narrative history of wartime and postwar Britain with some analysis of causes and trends and largely succeeds. It must be very difficult to write about recent history, as its results are still not completely resolved. Much of the shaping of Britain in this time had to with politics and politicians and it is right for Hennessy to quote these extensively, although he also quotes plenty of non-politicians in all walks of life where their contributions are relevant. I think the review by W. Crawford would have been more correct if Hennessy had set out to write a bottom-up social history of the times, but he did not claim to do this. Other authors like Arthur Marwick in "British Society since 1945" have done that and done it well, but they did not claim to be writing political history.
The book contains detailed narrative on and explanation of a period where the documentation is enormous, and Hennessy does a very good job of picking out the important matters, generally without too much unnecessary detail. His style is readable without compromising on content and, at the end of the book, I felt that I had a much clearer understanding of what happened in this period, and a wish to read his next book,"Having it so Good" which I did later. If I did not give it five stars, it is because in parts it was a little too lengthy.
The book contains detailed narrative on and explanation of a period where the documentation is enormous, and Hennessy does a very good job of picking out the important matters, generally without too much unnecessary detail. His style is readable without compromising on content and, at the end of the book, I felt that I had a much clearer understanding of what happened in this period, and a wish to read his next book,"Having it so Good" which I did later. If I did not give it five stars, it is because in parts it was a little too lengthy.
16 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not a social history of Britain. It is an elitist study of the period concentrating on history from the viewpoint of the senior politicians who made the key decisions at this time. It is very London, Downing Street, Westminster, Whitehall dominated and ignores the rest of the population. There is a large amount of quotations from the diaries, autobiographies or books of politicians. If these were left out it would reduce the book's content by about 1/3 and make it far more readable.
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