Friday, 15 February 2013

Britain in Our Century: Images and Controversies by Arthur Marwick

Britain in Our Century: Images and Controversies by Arthur Marwick lands on the |> SALE <| shelves in my shop.

Thames & Hudson, 1985, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black and White Photographs;

From the cover: "Here is the story of what has been happening to Britain and her people in what Arthur Marwick calls this most exciting century, our century.

Britain in 1900 was the world's greatest trading nation, ruled by an upper class that had a near monopoly of power, with a female population for whom domestic service was the single largest occupation. Professor Marwick takes us on a journey through the successive decades of the century, painting in strong colours the features of each period — the twenties, for example, with their sense of the future in movies and cosmetics and civil aviation; or the fifties, heavily flavoured by Suez and Teddy Boys, Look Back in Anger and Lucky Jim. There is much that is unexpected in this tale, partly because of the great and rich regional diversity of the nation, but from beginning to end we are taken to the heart of the vital themes in British life: the extent to which old England — one part of which was J. B. Priestley's land of "cathedrals and minsters and manor houses and inns" -ever existed, the extent to which it became a "modern" state with cocktail bars, Woolworths and swimming pools; whether, as Winston Churchill said, the First World War really effaced "the old landmarks and frontiers of our civilization", and what the wars that followed — among them the Falklands conflict — contributed; and, above all, that strange "secular Anglicanism" which despite colossal and continuing differences in privileges and living conditions, demands for violence and revolution, marks out British society from all others.

This is social history of a very special kind, written around a marvellously revealing collection of illustrations, all especially researched for a probing vision of Britain in our Century."

Very Good — in Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper, heavier at the head of the spine which is now frayed, nicked at the bottom corner of the lower panel. Text complete, clean and tight.

Red boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 224 pages. Index. Bibliography. 10¼" x 7¾".

This book will be eventually reach my delightful website...(added to my Social History category.) but get 60% off buying from this very blog blog... Buy it now for just £2.60 + P&P! Of course, if you don't like this one there are plenty more available here!


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