David Kynaston – Austerity Britain, 1945-51 (2009)
History – 640 pages – my copy (paperback) a present from the true gentleman, Mr Mooney, Xmas 2009
- 4 nods
‘A marvel’, notes the Sunday Telegraph; ‘Exemplary’, says the Mail of Sunday; whilst the Guardian has no bones about hailing it as ‘a classic’. All hail the historian David Kynaston indeed! Austerity Britain is the culmination of tremendous devotion and a great deal of research – two books sandwiched together – to create this mammoth read for the delight of any layman and student interest in post-war politics.
Why all the praise? Quite simply, it leaves no stone un-turned. The period 1945-51 is well noted for being the first majority Labour government: the time of Attlee and of Bevin; of the rise of the NHS and of Keynes; of fiscal tightening and the rebirth of modern Britain. Kynaston notes of all of this, but also so much more: housing gripes, the rise of multi-media, writers and scoundrels, sport and communism.
Kynaston’s range of sources is simply breathtaking, earning many compliments from the Book Worm. However, this praise is also its chief failing. Kynaston commits to all and sundry, leaving the reader to trawl through page after page of housing policy, both unrelenting and never ending.
Whilst the second notable flaw of Austerity Britain is its lack of analysis. Kynaston is great at throwing quote after quote and reference after reference upon the reader, a seeming orgy of the statistic. Yet what of the rolling up the sleeves, of adding his own comment, of perhaps, staking his flag upon the ground. Of course, Mr Kynaston could be saving such energy for later books – he has been commissioned a whole series to conclude at the accession of Thatcher in 1979 – however, after surmounting over six hundred pages, the reader feels a little cheated at having to continue onwards to Family Britain, a cliff-hanger for our eyes.
The Worm highly recommends this book to all who want to know what it was actually like in this changing period. Britain had won the war, yet it had a battle in order to win the peace. A battle that rages to today. The Worm will continue on with Kynaston’s series, a sequence for all serious history buffs and fans alike. Hail Mr Kynaston, indeed – but the prince has yet to show himself a true king.
