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Review
The autobiography of a nation assembles an impressive array of evidence and argument for judging this fascinating moment in British postwar cultural history. Uniting the best of history and cultural studies, Becky Conekin contributes an essential building block for the gradually accumulating historiography of the postwar era. --Geoff Eley, University of Michigan
This book makes a significant contribution to the design and social history of postwar Britain. --Simon Gunn, University of Leeds
This book makes a significant contribution to the design and social history of postwar Britain. --Simon Gunn, University of Leeds
Review
"The autobiography of a nation assembles an impressive array of evidence and argument for judging this fascinating moment in British postwar cultural history. Uniting the best of history and cultural studies, Becky Conekin contributes an essential building block for the gradually accumulating historiography of the postwar era." -- Geoff Eley, University of Michigan
"This book makes a significant contribution to the design and social history of postwar Britain." -- Simon Gunn, University of Leeds
"This book makes a significant contribution to the design and social history of postwar Britain." -- Simon Gunn, University of Leeds
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is simply a brilliant book about one of the most exciting cultural experiments in twentieth century Britain. Becky Conekin's meticulous study of the 1951 Festival of Britain stands as the definitive account of this remarkable event. Designed to celebrate and promote postwar recovery, and the achievements of industrial and technological progress, the Festival offered a bold and exciting vision of what `being modern' would be like in the postwar world, and how the future would look and feel, as the arts and sciences were used to recast everyday life. Conekin shows how the Festival originated in ideas about how to create a better-informed citizenry (and a popular, cross-class, search for new knowledge from the 1930s), and in attempts to cater to (and manage) popular national taste. She convincingly shows that the Festival did more than just celebrate Britain's emergence from the ravages of war, it offered the British people an image of a new improved modern world, characterised by the newest scientific discoveries, and the principles of modernist design and architecture. She also solves the mystery of why references to empire and the war experience were so muted. The exuberance of this nationally popular and fondly remembered event - for which the South Bank was brought into being, and the daringly engineered and staggeringly beautiful Skylon pictured on the cover stands as an icon - comes across on every page of the book. The energy with which the Festival's demonstration of technological progress and programme of 'elegant fun' was embraced rewarded the ambition of its planners.
This book is full of fascinating detail, and intriguing paradoxes. Its significance lies not just in its account of the Festival, though, for Conekin beautifully depicts the postwar period as a moment in which ideas and intellectual work were taken seriously for their own sake, in which utopian thinking was part of public debate and fed into government planning, and in which social democratic ideals were used to enhance the quality of life in more than material ways. Designed for an academic readership, this book is also for a general reader interested in what this unique experiment shows about the history of Britain in the twentieth century and who isn't phased by a few academic references. It is also a joyful read - allowing us to recover an episode in cultural experimentation that reminds us that thinking across conceptual boundaries leads to inspiring and imaginative thinking that could still contribute to our thinking about innovation and everyday life in the modern world.
This book is full of fascinating detail, and intriguing paradoxes. Its significance lies not just in its account of the Festival, though, for Conekin beautifully depicts the postwar period as a moment in which ideas and intellectual work were taken seriously for their own sake, in which utopian thinking was part of public debate and fed into government planning, and in which social democratic ideals were used to enhance the quality of life in more than material ways. Designed for an academic readership, this book is also for a general reader interested in what this unique experiment shows about the history of Britain in the twentieth century and who isn't phased by a few academic references. It is also a joyful read - allowing us to recover an episode in cultural experimentation that reminds us that thinking across conceptual boundaries leads to inspiring and imaginative thinking that could still contribute to our thinking about innovation and everyday life in the modern world.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are now quite a few books on the Festival of Britain, most of them either overwhelmingly concerned with design and architecture or nostalgic about people dancing to Geraldo. Dr Conekin's book is different, perhaps because she is an American and can be objective, without being too conscious of, say,the English obsession with Alice in Wonderland and other national quirks. So we get a serious piece of social history, thoroughly researched and straightforwardly presented. If you want to know why the Festival happened, how it happened, what it was like, what it meant in the context of the time, and what its afterlife has been, this is the book for you.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The festival of Britain is a fascinating pinch point in British popular culture. Conceived as a reward for the public after their years of sacrifice and as the glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel of the years of austerity.
The Autobiography of a Nation examines the festival from a number of different angles and considers its motives, influences and politics with commendable clarity but it's a pretty dry read.
As an academic study it lacks a really good factual overview by way of introduction, which makes it a poor primer for people whose prior knowledge of the Festival is limited. A certain amount of the context is assumed to be understood. The illustrations too are somewhat limited - too many smeary black and white photographs of the personnel involved and not enough plans of the site. But the biggest fault, from the point of view of the non-specialist reader is that Conekin has a very limited appreciation of the telling detail, the revealing anecdote that can be so useful in bringing uncertainties of austerity Britain to life.
Its a good book but, I doubt many people would want to read it for fun
The Autobiography of a Nation examines the festival from a number of different angles and considers its motives, influences and politics with commendable clarity but it's a pretty dry read.
As an academic study it lacks a really good factual overview by way of introduction, which makes it a poor primer for people whose prior knowledge of the Festival is limited. A certain amount of the context is assumed to be understood. The illustrations too are somewhat limited - too many smeary black and white photographs of the personnel involved and not enough plans of the site. But the biggest fault, from the point of view of the non-specialist reader is that Conekin has a very limited appreciation of the telling detail, the revealing anecdote that can be so useful in bringing uncertainties of austerity Britain to life.
Its a good book but, I doubt many people would want to read it for fun
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