Austerity Britain, 1945-1951

the long version

"As much as any country, England bore the brunt of Germany's aggression in World War II and was ravaged in many ways at the war's end. In Austerity Britain, celebrated historian David Kynaston has written a hugely ambitious and compellingly readable account of the following six years, during which the country indomitably rebuilt itself." "Kynaston's great genius is to chronicle England's experience from bottom to top: coursing through the book, therefore, is an astonishing variety of ordinary contemporary voices, eloquently and passionately displaying the country's spirit even as they were unaware of what the future would hold. Their stories also jostle alongside those of more well-known figures such as journalist-to-be John Arlott, making his first radio broadcast, actress Glenda Jackson, and writer Doris Lessing, newly arrived from Africa and struck by the leveling poverty of postwar Britain."--Jacket.