On their original publication, the four volumes of The Making of Modern London were hailed as innovative and riveting histories of the city, combining living memory with diligent historical research. Accompanying a popular television series of the same name, The Making of Modern London was a groundbreaking publication drawing upon the extensive knowledge and expertise of leading academics of the day. Now skillfully woven into one volume, this new publication picks up the story in 1815, when London was the gas-lit, horse-drawn city of Charles Dickens' day. In the two centuries that followed, London has become one of the greatest cities in the world, with a history that is endlessly fascinating and enduring, especially when it is related in the words of the people who lived and breathed the city—from the lightermen on the 19th-century River Thames and the debutantes who jitterbugged their way around the dancefloors of the 1930s to the East Enders sharing their emotional memories of the air raids and bombings of World War II. This is one of the few histories that records the excitement of the Coronation in 1953, the "Swinging London" of the 1960s, and the revolution in dress and habits from the 1970s onwards. Written with verve, sympathy, and elan, this is the intimate story of London.

The Making of Modern London

History

Weightman, Gavin

Humphries, Steve

Europe

Ebury Press

The Making of Modern London 1815-1914

SIDGWICK JACKSON

The Making of Modern London 1914-1939

This investigation into the sexual experiences before marriage of young lovers in Britain during the first half of this century is based on many frank interviews with old people, with extracts from their life stories. The author reveals that when couples did make love, it was in defiance of strong taboos and conventions which forbade "fornication" and "promiscuity". Parents issued dire warnings to their daughters and threatened them with the workhouse if they brought home trouble. Books offering sexual advice tried to persuade the young that masturbation was bad for their health and that persistent "self abuse" could lead to insanity. Sex education was banned in most schools. Many chemists and clinics refused to provide contraception for the young. Early women's police patrols arrested young people who became too amorous in public places. The author says that only those at the top and bottom of the social scale, like fashionable young aristocrats or rebellious street gangs, managed regularly to escape from this kind of control. Perhaps the greatest tragedy was the fate of the "unmarried mother". Beckoned by the workhouse, not the welfare state as today, some even served life sentences in mental hospitals for their "sins". The author rescues the stories of victims like these from obscurity and shows how there was a high price to pay for sexual respectability in the past - and part of the sacrifice was these women's lives.

Secret World of Sex: Sex Before Marriage: the British Experience 1900-1950

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Sidgwick Jackson Ltd

In this illustrated book, leading social historian Steve Humphries explores the lost world of Victorian Britain's most popular mass medium: the magic lantern. Drawing on Doug and Anita Lear's unique collection of slides, he tells for the first time the remarkable story of the rise and fall of this powerful cinematic device. Through these rare and extraordinary images, never before published, we are given a private glimpse of the Victorian world as it appeared to those who lived in it. The magic lantern was invented in the seventeenth century and went on to become, by Victorian times, a highly sophisticated machine which entranced large audiences with its stunning array of images. Rather like television today, lantern slides in those days came to reflect the passions and prejudices of the age. Lanternists developed their art (of cover the fever of imperialism, wars, disasters, royal occasions and sporting triumphs. But perhaps the magic lantern was at its most interesting when it explored the social realities of the period. These images capture everyday life in the street, at work, at play, even in the slums of Victorian Britain. Illustrated with 200 black and white and a superb collection of hand-coloured slides, this book illuminates a lost world, as well as constituting, the magic lantern has lain dormant for almost a century. Steve Humphries "Hooligans and Rebels - an oral history of working class childhood and youth", all four volumes of "The making of modern London, christmas past, a secret world of sex, and a century of childhood" which he produced and was serialized by channel four in the spring of 1989.

Victorian Britain Through the Magic Lantern

Lear, Doug

Pan/Macmillan

Offering a nostalgic evocation of Britain's maritime heritage (military, commercial and leisure) during the first half of the 20th century, this book presents the testimonies of men and women who lived and worked on the sea when Britain was the foremost maritime nation in the world.

The call of the sea: Britain's maritime past, 1900-1960

Travel

BBC Books

The 80th anniversary of the end of World War I is fast approaching, and the event will be commemorated by a special documentary on the BBC and Discovery Channel. Veterans is the official tie-in to the series.

Veterans: The Last Survivors Of The Great War

Van Emden, R

Military

Reminiscence Large Print

Veterans: Last Survivors of the Grea

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Isis Large Print

All Quiet on the Home Front: An Oral History of Life in Britain During the First World War

The truth about the sacrifice and suffering on the home front during World War I is rarely discussed. In this book, some of the oldest men and women in the country speak about experiences and events that have remained buried for 85 years. Their testimony shows the same candor and courage we have become accustomed to hearing from veterans of the western front. Those interviewed include a survivor of a Zeppelin raid on Hull in 1915, a Welsh munitions worker recruited as a girl, and a woman rescued from a bombed school after five days. There are also accounts of rural famine, bereavement and the effects on families back home, and even the story of a woman who planned to kill her family to save them further suffering.

Van Emden, Richard

Headline Book Publishing

The truth about the sacrifice and suffering on the home front during World War I is rarely discussed. In this book, some of the oldest men and women in the country speak about experiences and events that have remained buried for 85 years. Their testimony shows the same candor and courage we have become accustomed to hearing from veterans of the western front. Those interviewed include a survivor of a Zeppelin raid on Hull in 1915, a Welsh munitions worker recruited as a girl, and a woman rescued from a bombed school after five days. There are also accounts of rural famine, bereavement and the effects on families back home, and even the story of a woman who planned to kill her family to save them further suffering.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Humphries, Steve. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Humphries, Steve