The Making of Modern London

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.