Brimming with insight and detail, Sandbrook’s gripping and witty social history of early-seventies Britain recreates the age of angst and unrest which transformed the nation forever.
State of Emergency : Britain 1970-74 is a brilliant history of the gaudy, schizophrenic atmosphere of the early Seventies.
The early 1970s were the age of gloom and glam. Under Edward Heath, the optimism of the Sixties had become a distant memory.
Now the headlines were dominated by social unrest, fuel shortages, unemployment and inflation. The seventies brought us miners' strikes, blackouts, IRA atrocities, tower blocks and the three-day week, yet they were also years of stunning change and cultural dynamism, heralding a social revolution that gave us celebrity footballers, high-street curry houses, package holidays, gay rights, green activists and progressive rock; the world of Enoch Powell and Tony Benn, David Bowie and Brian Clough, Germaine Greer and Mary Whitehouse. Dominic Sandbrook's State of Emergency is the perfect guide to a luridly colourful Seventies landscape that shaped our present, from the financial boardroom to the suburban bedroom.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141032153
Number of pages: 768
Weight: 561 g
Dimensions: 197 x 130 x 34 mm
Superb ... vivid ... magnificent ... Anyone who was there should read it: and so should anyone who was not -- Simon Heffer Literary Review Hugely entertaining, always compelling, often hilarious -- Simon Sebag Montefiore Sunday Telegraph Thrillingly panoramic ... he vividly re-creates the texture of everyday life in a thousand telling details -- Francis Wheen Observer Masterly ... nothing escapes his gaze Independent on Sunday Splendidly readable ... his almost pitch-perfect ability to recreate the mood and atmospherics of the time is remarkable Economist There is so much to enjoy ... Neatly interweaving his interpretation of the Heath years with insightful reflections on everything from racism in television to the rise of self-sufficiency, football hooliganism and sex comedies, Sandbrook has produced a memorable portrait of Britain in an era of angst and upheaval Sunday Times Sandbrook is an inveterate demolisher of myths Independent on Sunday This epically enthralling account of the Seventies will be read with embarrassed recognition by those who lived through it and disbelieving astonishment by those who missed it Independent
Just like his earlier books, sandbrook brings his combination of straight history, diary extracts from the key players and ordinary citizens, and penetrating insight into the often dark days of the early 1970s. A big... More
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