State of emergency ; the way we were Britain, 1970-1974

• Date de parution : 29/12/2010
• Editeur : Viking Adult
• EAN : 9781846140310
• Série : (-)
• Support : Papier

• Nombre de pages : (-)
• Collection : (-)
• Genre : Histoire
• Thème : Histoire de l'Europe
• Prix littéraire(s) : (-)

In State of Emergency Dominic Sandbrook captures a fascinating time in British history.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Britain seemed to be tottering on the brink of the abyss. Under the ungainly figure of Edward Heath, the optimism and prosperity of the Sixties had become a distant memory.... Voir plus

In State of Emergency Dominic Sandbrook captures a fascinating time in British history.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Britain seemed to be tottering on the brink of the abyss. Under the ungainly figure of Edward Heath, the optimism and prosperity of the Sixties had become a distant memory. Now the headlines were dominated by strikes and blackouts, unemployment and inflation, mugging, pornography and car bombs. As the world looked on in horrified fascination, Britain seemed to be tearing itself apart. And yet, amid all the gloom, glittered a startling creativity and cultural dynamism that would continue to influence our lives long after the nightmares of the Seventies had been forgotten.


In this brilliant new history, Dominic Sandbrook recreates the gaudy, schizophrenic atmosphere of the early Seventies: the world of Enoch Powell and Tony Benn, David Bowie and Brian Clough, Germaine Greer and Mary Whitehouse. He takes us back to an age when the unions were on the march and the socialist revolution seemed at hand, but also when feminism, permissiveness, pornography and environmentalism were transforming the lives of millions. It was an age of miners' strikes, tower blocks and IRA atrocities, but it also gave us celebrity footballers and high-street curry houses, organic foods and package holidays, gay rights and glam rock.


For those who remember the days when you could buy a new colour television but power cuts stopped you from watching it, this could hardly be a more vivid book. And for those born later, it is the perfect guide to a luridly colourful landscape that shaped our present from the financial boardroom to the suburban bedroom: the weird world of Seventies Britain.