Reviews
"Several case studies are particularly absorbing – even revelatory. Perhaps the greatest measure of the book's success is that, as I read, I continually found myself updating my list of favourite chapters".
Guy Ortolano, Associate Professor of History at New York University.
Full review in Cultural and Social History, December 2019
“John Law's engaging and richly textured 1938 challenges us to consider what the future used to look like - and, in doing so, opens up new ways of thinking about 1930s Britain. Drawing this remarkable year out of the lengthening shadows of war, Law reveals a world absorbed by the wonders of entertainment technologies and cutting edge architecture, the glamour of international travel and everyday novelties of Picture Post magazine. Insightful and surprising, 1938 is a compelling account of a modern world that has often disappeared from view.” – Matt Houlbrook, Professor of Cultural History, University of Birmingham, UK
“From television sets to office blocks to forgotten municipal airports, 1938 reveals a Britain enthralled by the wonders of modern life. With great lucidity and an eye for curious detail, Law charts a growing social optimism about technology that would reach fruition in the consumer culture of the 1950s.” – Richard Hornsey, Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Nottingham, UK
"Several case studies are particularly absorbing – even revelatory. Perhaps the greatest measure of the book's success is that, as I read, I continually found myself updating my list of favourite chapters".
Guy Ortolano, Associate Professor of History at New York University.
Full review in Cultural and Social History, December 2019
“John Law's engaging and richly textured 1938 challenges us to consider what the future used to look like - and, in doing so, opens up new ways of thinking about 1930s Britain. Drawing this remarkable year out of the lengthening shadows of war, Law reveals a world absorbed by the wonders of entertainment technologies and cutting edge architecture, the glamour of international travel and everyday novelties of Picture Post magazine. Insightful and surprising, 1938 is a compelling account of a modern world that has often disappeared from view.” – Matt Houlbrook, Professor of Cultural History, University of Birmingham, UK
“From television sets to office blocks to forgotten municipal airports, 1938 reveals a Britain enthralled by the wonders of modern life. With great lucidity and an eye for curious detail, Law charts a growing social optimism about technology that would reach fruition in the consumer culture of the 1950s.” – Richard Hornsey, Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Nottingham, UK
1938 Modern Britain
This book reclaims the late 1930s in Britain as an era of public and private modernity which had many of the characteristics of the late 1950s. It redraws the periodised accounts of this time and place to show continuities and divides.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/1938-modern-britain-9781474285018/
This book reclaims the late 1930s in Britain as an era of public and private modernity which had many of the characteristics of the late 1950s. It redraws the periodised accounts of this time and place to show continuities and divides.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/1938-modern-britain-9781474285018/