Blitz Spirit PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Blitz Spirit PDF full book. Access full book title Blitz Spirit by Becky Brown. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Becky Brown
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1529347041
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Get Book Here
Book Description
'An utterly fascinating book - conversations and human behaviours recorded in real time' Tom Hanks 'Fascinating ' Elizabeth Day 'A hugely affecting and absorbing read.' The Bookseller 'Finally, a book that is proving very therapeutic in these difficult times... Full of doubt, fear, anger and rueful comedy, they give the lie to the idea that the Brits maintained a stiff upper lip, but it's immensely consoling to know that our forebears sometimes thought that they were living through the end times but survived to enjoy better and brighter days.' Jonathan Coe, The Times 'With 34 million of us in Tier 3, these Mass Observation diaries have an added fascination: it's impossible to read them without coming across parallels on almost every page, people's characters revealing themselves under wartime restrictions just as they do under Covid ones.' The Times 'A great book - such a good read.' Jeremy Vine 'Brown's book features an eclectic selection from the wartime years and is full of fascinating and sometimes surprising insights.' Mail on Sunday 'Moving and unexpectedly funny, it's these words that may offer comfort.' Woman's Weekly 'What extraordinary voices of Britain living through crisis! A brilliant testament to resilience.' Anne Glenconner 'A stirring and evocative account of life on the home front. Full of surprises that bring a fascinating perspective on the blitz spirit.' - Deborah Cadbury, author of Chocolate Wars and Princes at War *** Throughout the Second World War hundreds of people kept diaries of their private daily lives as part of a groundbreaking national experiment. They were warehousemen and WRENs, soldiers and farmhands, housewives and journalists, united only by a desire to record the history they were living through. For decades their words have been held in the Mass-Observation Archive, a time capsule of ordinary voices that might otherwise have been forgotten. These voices tell the human story behind the iconic events of those six years, of the individuals grappling with a world turned upside down. From panic-buying and competitively digging for victory to extraordinary acts of bravery, Blitz Spirit is a remarkable collection of real wartime experiences that represent the best and worst of human nature in the face of adversity. Resonant, darkly funny and deeply moving, this new collection will reveal what it was like to live through a crisis of unprecedented proportions. A cacophony of hope, cynicism and resilience, Blitz Spirit celebrates ordinary lives - however small - and shines a light on the people we were, and the people we are now.
Author: Becky Brown
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1529347041
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Get Book Here
Book Description
'An utterly fascinating book - conversations and human behaviours recorded in real time' Tom Hanks 'Fascinating ' Elizabeth Day 'A hugely affecting and absorbing read.' The Bookseller 'Finally, a book that is proving very therapeutic in these difficult times... Full of doubt, fear, anger and rueful comedy, they give the lie to the idea that the Brits maintained a stiff upper lip, but it's immensely consoling to know that our forebears sometimes thought that they were living through the end times but survived to enjoy better and brighter days.' Jonathan Coe, The Times 'With 34 million of us in Tier 3, these Mass Observation diaries have an added fascination: it's impossible to read them without coming across parallels on almost every page, people's characters revealing themselves under wartime restrictions just as they do under Covid ones.' The Times 'A great book - such a good read.' Jeremy Vine 'Brown's book features an eclectic selection from the wartime years and is full of fascinating and sometimes surprising insights.' Mail on Sunday 'Moving and unexpectedly funny, it's these words that may offer comfort.' Woman's Weekly 'What extraordinary voices of Britain living through crisis! A brilliant testament to resilience.' Anne Glenconner 'A stirring and evocative account of life on the home front. Full of surprises that bring a fascinating perspective on the blitz spirit.' - Deborah Cadbury, author of Chocolate Wars and Princes at War *** Throughout the Second World War hundreds of people kept diaries of their private daily lives as part of a groundbreaking national experiment. They were warehousemen and WRENs, soldiers and farmhands, housewives and journalists, united only by a desire to record the history they were living through. For decades their words have been held in the Mass-Observation Archive, a time capsule of ordinary voices that might otherwise have been forgotten. These voices tell the human story behind the iconic events of those six years, of the individuals grappling with a world turned upside down. From panic-buying and competitively digging for victory to extraordinary acts of bravery, Blitz Spirit is a remarkable collection of real wartime experiences that represent the best and worst of human nature in the face of adversity. Resonant, darkly funny and deeply moving, this new collection will reveal what it was like to live through a crisis of unprecedented proportions. A cacophony of hope, cynicism and resilience, Blitz Spirit celebrates ordinary lives - however small - and shines a light on the people we were, and the people we are now.
Author: Paul Addison
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192588060
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403
Get Book Here
Book Description
During the Blitz, the morale of the British people was clandestinely monitored by Home Intelligence, a unit of the Ministry of Information that kept watch on the behaviour and opinions of the public and eavesdropped on their conversations. Drawing on a wide range of intelligence sources from every region of the United Kingdom, a small team of officials based at the Senate House of the University of London compiled secret reports on the state of popular morale as the Luftwaffe attacked Britain's major towns and cities between September 1940 and May 1941. Edited and introduced by two leading historians of the period, who tell the inside story of Home Intelligence and why it proved so controversial in Whitehall, the complete and unabridged sequence of reports provide us with a unique and extraordinary window into the mindset of the British during a momentous period in their history. Not only do they include in-depth reports on the effects of the bombing, including special reports on Coventry, Clydebank, Hull, Barrow-in-Furness, Plymouth, Merseyside and Portsmouth, but also insights into almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain as well as the response of the public to the shifting military fortunes of the war. Reading like the collective diary of a nation, the reports strip away the nostalgia that has grown up around the period, reminding us instead of the sufferings and sacrifices, the many frustrations and difficulties of daily life, the administrative bungling, the grumbling and petty jealousies, and the determination of the overwhelming majority to put up with it all for the sake of beating Hitler.
Author: Angus Calder
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448104041
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Myth of the Blitz was nurtured at every level of society. It rested upon the assumed invincibility of an island race distinguished by good humour, understatement and the ability to pluck victory from the jaws of defeat by team work, improvisation and muddling through. In fact, in many ways, the Blitz was not like that. Sixty-thousand people were conscientious objectors; a quarter of London's population fled to the country; Churchill and the royal family were booed while touring the aftermath of air-raids; Britain was not bombed into classless democracy. Angus Calder provides a compelling examination of the events of 1940 and 1941 - when Britain 'stood alone' against the Luftwaffe - and of the Myth which sustained her 'finest hour'.
Author: Juliet Gardiner
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007386611
Category : London (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Get Book Here
Book Description
September 1940 marked the beginning of Nazi Germany's sustained attack on civilian Britain. Lasting eight months long, the Blitz was the form of warfare that had been predicted throughout the 1930s, that everyone had expected since Neville Chamberlain's declaration that Britain was at war with Germany. The ferocity of the Luftwaffe attacks, combined with images of the City of London burning are widely considered to be iconic snapshots of Second World War history. Though compared with other great moments of that war -- D-Day, Dunkirk, V E Day -- the Blitz remains curiously unexamined. Apart from fragmentary accounts and local records, there is little in the way of a comprehensive account of the Blitz experience that so many British civilians went through -- as well as the social, political and cultural implications of the bombardment. Designed to break the morale of the British population, the nightly bombings certainly did devastate. But, as Juliet Gardiner shows in this hugely important book, they also served to galvanise the nation; from those eight months of terrifying Nazi onslaught, a new determination amongst people and politicians steadily emerged. Revealing, original and beautifully written, THE BLITZ is a much-needed exploration of one of the most important moments in Second World War history.
Author: Joshua Levine
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471131033
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Blitz of 1940-41 is one of the most iconic periods in modern British history - and one of the most misunderstood. The 'Blitz Spirit' is often celebrated, whereas others dismiss it as a myth. Joshua Levine's thrilling biography rejects the tired arguments and reveals the human truth: the Blitz was a time of extremes of experience and behaviour. People werepulling together and helping strangers, but they were also breaking rules and exploiting each other. Life during wartime, the author reveals, was complex and messy and real. From the first page readers will discover a different story to the one they thought they knew - from the sacrifices made by ordinary people to a sudden surge in the popularity of nightclubs; from secret criminal trials at the Old Bailey to a Columbine-style murder in an Oxford College. There were new working opportunities for women and clandestine homosexual relationships conducted in the shadows. The Blitz also allowed for a melting pot of cultures: whilst prayers were offered up in a south London mosque, Jamaican sailors crossed the country. Unlikely friendships were fostered and surprising sexualities explored - these years saw a boom in prostitution and even the emergence of a popular weekly magazine for fetishists. On the darker side, racketeers and spivs made money out of the chaos, and looters prowled the night to prey on bomb victims. From the lack of cheese to the increased suicide rate, this astonishing and entertaining book takes the true pulse of a 'blitzed nation'. And it shows how social change during this time led to political change - which in turn has built the Britain we know today.
Author: Jerry White
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448191807
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Get Book Here
Book Description
'Endlessly fascinating. . . White is such a brilliant historian' Mail on Sunday Lasting for six long years, the Blitz transformed life in the capital beyond recognition, marking a time of almost constant anxiety, disruption, deprivation and sacrifice for Londoners. With the capital the nation's frontline during the Second World War, by its end, 30,000 inhabitants had lost their lives. While much has been written about 'the Myth of the Blitz', its riveting social history has often been overlooked. Unearthing what it was actually like for those living through those tempestuous years, Jerry White paints a fascinating portrait of the daily lives of ordinary Londoners, telling the story through their own voices. 'As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable' Sunday Telegraph 'An impressive history of the capital at war. . . White, an accomplished chronicler of London's history, tells it with brio and a confident mastery of the sources' Literary Review
Author: Amy Helen Bell
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
ISBN: 9781848858497
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Get Book Here
Book Description
For the nine months of the Blitz, London was subjected to a brutal and indiscriminate bombing campaign, aimed for the first time in history at shattering the resolve of a nation. The Nazi raids on night-time London provide some of the defining narratives of World War II: the 'blitz spirit', air raid shelters in Underground stations and all the horrifying reality of one of the world's most powerful and historic cities under violent attack. This book tells the epic story of a London under siege through the voices of those that lived it. Amy Helen Bell here uncovers the personal stories of hundreds of Londoners from all walks of life, who scribbled in diaries and notebooks from inside air raid shelters and bombed-out houses to record their experiences of the Blitz. Expertly weaving these together, drawing out themes of loss, courage and love, what emerges is a thoughtfully argued and beautifully composed commentary on Britain's collective memory of one of the great conflicts of modern times. By letting the warmth, despair and hope of these personal recollections speak, 'London Was Ours' becomes a collective testament to the resilience of a people and a meditation on the nature of a nation's history.
Author: Mark Clapson
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
ISBN: 1911534491
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Blitz Companion offers a unique overview of a century of aerial warfare, its impact on cities and the people who lived in them. It tells the story of aerial warfare from the earliest bombing raids and in World War 1 through to the London Blitz and Allied bombings of Europe and Japan. These are compared with more recent American air campaigns over Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, the NATO bombings during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, and subsequent bombings in the aftermath of 9/11. Beginning with the premonitions and predictions of air warfare and its terrible consequences, the book focuses on air raids precautions, evacuation and preparations for total war, and resilience, both of citizens and of cities. The legacies of air raids, from reconstruction to commemoration, are also discussed. While a key theme of the book is the futility of many air campaigns, care is taken to situate them in their historical context. The Blitz Companion also includes a guide to documentary and visual resources for students and general readers. Uniquely accessible, comparative and broad in scope this book draws key conclusions about civilian experience in the twentieth century and what these might mean for military engagement and civil reconstruction processes once conflicts have been resolved.
Author: Mike Brown
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075246275X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Get Book Here
Book Description
The historian Carol Harris has collected together a remarkable series of accounts from the war's darkest days, with heart-warming stories of survival, perseverance, solidarity and bravery, the preservation of which becomes increasingly important as the Blitz fades from living memory. War with Germany seemed increasingly likely throughout the 1930s. The British Government and the general population believed that bombs and poison gas would be dropped on civilians in major towns and cities with the aim of terrifying them into surrendering. Today the Blitz, far from breaking civilian morale, is seen as achieving the opposite; it helped galvanise public opinion to carry on fighting the war. But in 1937, preparations to protect the population were hopelessly inadequate, and the British government was far from confident that people would respond in this way.
Author: Erik Larson
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 038534872X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 609
Get Book Here
Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis “One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—Time • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Vogue • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • The Globe & Mail • Fortune • Bloomberg • New York Post • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • LibraryReads • PopMatters On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.
