Description
Book SynopsisThis edition collects both volumes of Modernity Britain
for the first timeFollowing Austerity Britain and Family Britain, the third volume in David Kynaston''s landmark social history of post-war Britain''Triumphant ... A historian of peerless sensitivity and curiosity about the lives of individuals'' Financial Times''This superb history captures the birth pangs of modern Britain ... It is a part of Kynaston's huge achievement that such moments of insight and pleasure should accompany what has become a monumental history of our recent past'' The Times____________________David Kynaston's history of post-war Britain has so far taken us from the radically reforming Labour governments of the late 1940s in
Austerity Britain and through the growing prosperity of
Family Britain's more placid 1950s. Now
Modernity Britain 195762 sees the coming of a new Zeitgeist as Kynaston gets up close to a turb
Trade ReviewThis superb history captures the birth pangs of modern Britain ... It is a part of Kynaston’s huge achievement that such moments of insight and pleasure should accompany what has become a monumental history of our recent past *
The Times *
Richly detailed series … Indefatigable, judicious, with a magpie’s eye for detail and a lovely grasp of tone and balance, David Kynaston is one of the great chroniclers of our modern story ... Every paragraph contains some glittering nugget *
Sunday Times *
Triumphant ... A historian of peerless sensitivity and curiosity about the lives of individuals. His method is to immerse first himself, then his readers, in a deep quotidian fabric of the time, making every strand visible before gradually lifting his gaze and revealing the wider pattern *
Financial Times *
This compelling history of the nation is wise, funny, impeccably researched and beautifully written ... Not for one second does his writing sag under the weight of his research: if you asked him to plod, he simply wouldn’t know how … This latest volume will be every bit as addictive as its predecessors … Like a great composer, Kynaston dots little melodies into the opening minutes which he later allows to swell into major themes … The best way to review this book would be to take a leaf from Lewis Carroll and map it all out, word for word. As it is, you’ll just have to save me the effort by reading it for yourself *
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday *
An exciting read, containing moments of suspense and lengthy sections of analysis … Kynaston’s book makes salutary and urgent reading, suggesting that we might do well to live with half an eye on the Kynastons of the future *
Lara Feigel, Observer *
He is chewing his way through the giant lettuce-leaf of his chosen decades like a particularly thorough tortoise. Hares: watch out ... Kynaston is interested in getting the feel of life close up, and his range of sources is formidable *
Spectator *
Masterful ... Kynaston has an enviable ability to see both the trees and the wood, and patterns start to appear ... Kynaston’s project is already being acclaimed as one of the great achievements of modern history, and this fourth instalment, with its entrancing mix of entertainment, erudition and enlightenment, will enhance its status further *
Daily Telegraph *
The latest volume of Kynaston's history of post-war Britain chronicles an era of tumultuous cultural, political, and commercial change - Harold Macmillan's 'never had it so good' years. * The Mail on Sunday *
