Colourful and eye-catching view of Britain's darkest & finest hour
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Even though most of us today never lived through the period, perhaps because as Britons, we feel we have a direct connection to the British Home Front. As a result, it has become one of the most widely researched and written about areas of Second World War history. So it may not come as breaking news that yet another general history of the period has been published.
However, this new work approaches the subject in an exciting, colourful and eye-catching way. Largely due to the influence of the internet and the burgeoning interest in collecting Home Front memorabilia, this large format book is visually, manually and aurally interactive.
Published in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, where most of the featured wartime memorabilia has been sourced, the text is written by leading Home Front author Juliet Gardiner.
Divided into manageable, chronological double-page articles, the book encompasses all the main elements of Britain during the war, including the pre-war tensions, evacuation, the Phoney war, military service, rationing, Dig for Victory, Dunkirk, the invasion scare, the Home Guard, the Channel Islands, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, internment, propaganda, bombing Germany, intelligence, war production, women, the Americans, D-Day, the V-weapons, the final victory and a new, post-war future.
As well as 200 photographs, the interactive side features removable quality facsimiles of an evacuee's photograph album, Ministry of Food, Dig for Victory, invasion warning, and German propaganda leaflets, a petrol ration book, a detailed full size fold-out map of the Operation Sealion landing beaches, a Luftwaffe target map of the London Docks, an ARP warden's typed Blitz report, a Keep Mum poster, a Make Do and Mend booklet and finally a VE day newspaper. There is also a tucked-in CD containing evocative first hand accounts.
Although much of the book's contents will be familiar to seasoned historians of the Home Front, it nonetheless allows easy reference to the main facts and information in a bright and attractive way. The book is probably more suited to students studying the Home Front or those approaching the subject from the deep end and wish to have a clear and accessible overview.
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