The Battle of London 1939-45: Endurance, Heroism and Frailty Under Fire

Description

The definitive, meticulously researched social history of London in the Second World War, which transformed the capital, and life within it, beyond recognition. London and the nation were at war with Germany from 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945. These were almost six years of intermittent anxiety, disruption, deprivation and sacrifice. While the moments of agony were not continuous, for eight months from September 1940 to May 1941, and again for much of the period from December 1943 to March 1945, London was under sustained, sometimes unrelenting, aerial bombardment by night and by day. By the end of the war, one in two of the nation's civilian war dead had been Londoners, nearly 30,000 people. Throughout the war, London was the nation's front line, and the capital and its people bore the brunt of the nation's suffering. No Londoner would ever forget the V-rockets, the 'weapons of retaliation' fired onto the capital by the Germans even as they were losing the war. Yet if the bombing defined the era for those who lived through it, the months of terror were outnumbered by those spent knitting together the skein of daily life at work, in the home, on the allotment, in the cinema or theatre and, not least, standing in those interminable queues for daily necessities that were such a feature of London's war. Much has been written about 'the Myth of the Blitz', but Jerry White has unearthed what actually happened during those years, getting close up to the daily lives of ordinary people, telling the story through their own voices. London was a city with a wartime population of some 6 million people. Some were heroes, some were villains, and some were both at different moments in time. Most fell between these extremes and just made do as best they could. None, though, could escape the drama which beset them. For every Londoner who stayed in the capital it was the time of their lives- 'I would rather have been in London under siege between 1940 and 1945 than anywhere else,' recalled the literary critic John Lehmann some years later, 'except perhaps Troy in the time that Homer celebrated.'

Professor Jerry White teaches London history at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of an acclaimed trilogy of London from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. His more recent books include Mansions of Misery- A Biography of the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison and Zeppelin Nights, a social history of London during the First World War. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of London in 2005 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Jerry White is one of London's best historians...and in this enveloping book he tries to scrape away the myths that have obscured our view of the Second World War and reintroduce us to what life in the city between 1939 and 1945 was actually like -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times * As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable... From the Myra Hess lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, to the extraordinary resilience and bravery of Londoners... all can be found in this book -- Anne de Courcy * Sunday Telegraph * The Battle of London 1939-45... benefits hugely from a vast and well-chosen range of quotes and anecdotes, conjuring the atmosphere of a city under siege with vivid force. What's most striking in this raw and comprehensive portrait of a city on fire is just how enchanting and appealing it is: you actually start wishing you had been alive to witness it -- Sebastian Milbank * Tablet * [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. He has a good nose for a piquant anecdote and clear-eyed awareness of the failings as well as the fearlessness of Londoners -- Alan Allport * Literary Review * Jerry White has a unique relation to London and Londoners. More than a historian, he is the city's witness, champion and town-crier... White does not rehearse the cliche of the Blitz spirit. Instead, by giving narrative commentary to the bit players in the drama...he presents a more complex, bleak and confused tale -- Frances Wilson * Oldie * Endlessly fascinating... White is such a brilliant historian: he casts his net way beyond the usual territories. His books are consequently peppered with colourful vignettes drawn from all sort of unconventional sources, high and low -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * This fascinating social history is pieced together as a mosaic of dozens of experiences... White does not shy away from dismantling some of the dearly held myths about the Blitz spirit, but equally his compassion and fondness for London shines through on every page... a rich tapestry of life under fire in the capital. -- Katja Hoyer * Spectator * The definitive and most readable account of the city during the conflict. The Battle of London 1939-45 is the most meticulously researched social history of wartime London that one could ever hope to find... the detail is woven together in such a way, and so colourfully, that it frequently pulls the reader up short with the realisation that the author did not actually experience himself all that he writes about... Almost every page contains a riveting and truly astonishing revelation about that fascinating period in the city's history * History of War * White's account is a vivid and highly accessible insight into how ordinary life both turned upside-down and continued in a 'new normal' during a once-in-a-generation emergency that we can now all relate to -- Harry Verity * Who Do You Think You Are? * Both the terror and the calmness in Jerry White's exemplary social history of London during the war years... [an] illuminating...tour de force -- Colin Shindler * Jewish Chronicle *