Alan Allport est un historien éminent spécialisé dans l'histoire britannique moderne, en particulier sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale et ses conséquences. Son œuvre explore en profondeur les expériences des soldats de retour au pays et la vie quotidienne des militaires britanniques pendant le conflit. Allport est reconnu pour ses recherches approfondies et son style narratif captivant, qui donne vie aux événements passés et à leurs conséquences humaines. Ses analyses offrent des aperçus inestimables sur les dimensions sociales et psychologiques de l'histoire de la guerre.
Snapshots of gaiety and celebration are how some people today think of Britain in 1945. This book tells the real story of what happened when millions of ex- servicemen returned home. It draws on their personal letters and diaries to illuminate the darker side of the homecoming experience for ex-servicemen, their families and society at large.
More than three-and-a-half million men served in the British Army during the Second World War, the vast majority of them civilians who had never expected to become soldiers and had little idea what military life, with all its strange rituals, discomforts, and dangers, was going to be like. Alan Allport's rich and luminous social history examines the experience of the greatest and most terrible war in history from the perspective of these ordinary, extraordinary men, who were plucked from their peacetime families and workplaces and sent to fight for King and Country. Allport chronicles the huge diversity of their wartime trajectories, tracing how soldiers responded to and were shaped by their years with the British Army, and how that army, however reluctantly, had to accommodate itself to them. Touching on issues of class, sex, crime, trauma, and national identity, through a colorful multitude of fresh individual perspectives, the book provides an enlightening, deeply moving perspective on how a generation of very modern-minded young men responded to the challenges of a brutal and disorienting conflict.
Shortlisted for The Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2021A Times History Book of the Year'Britain's wartime story has been told many times, but never as cleverly as this' Dominic Sandbrook'Will make you think anew not just about the war, but about the Britain and Britons that fought it' Daniel Todman'A bracing reminder of the power of brilliant history to make us reconsider what we think we know' David EgertonIn the bleak first half of the Second World War, Britain stood alone against the Axis forces. Isolated and outmanoeuvred, it seemed as though she might fall at any moment. Only an extraordinary effort of courage - by ordinary men and women - held the line. The Second World War is the defining experience of modern British history, a new Iliad for our own times. But, as Alan Allport reveals in this, the first part of a major new two-volume history, the real story was often very different from the myth that followed it. From the subtle moral calculus of appeasement to the febrile dusts of the Western Desert, Allport interrogates every aspect of the conflict - and exposes its echoes in our own age.Challenging orthodoxy and casting fresh light on famous events from Dunkirk to the Blitz, this is the real story of a clash between civilisations that remade the world in its image.
From its early days as the world's leading naval power to the period when it served as the center of the Industrial Revolution, England has long been one of the world's most influential countries. Featuring photographs and maps, this book presents an exploration of the people, culture, history, geography, economy, and government of this nation.
10,000 Knitted Hats is a fun and clever flip-page instruction book for designing and building your own unique headwear creations.