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This book takes a fresh approach to the London Blitz by viewing this time through individual local boroughs of the metropolis. The term 'London Blitz' means that culturally we have become accustomed to understanding that the actual blitz experience was the same wherever in the capital one happened to be, despite some areas being hit more than others. This book illustrates how there were many London blitzes, not one, influenced by a myriad of metropolitan localities, and giving rise to an agency of locality that helped to shape the lived blitz experience. By walking through the streets of London, this book conducts a local area analysis, witnessing the blitz through six London localities, representative of the assorted administrative, economic, and socio-political variables prevalent in wartime London. Covering air raids alongside topics like the provision of shelters, homelessness, and communal feeding, it shows how any history of the London Blitz must acknowledge that it was an experience reflective of a varied metropolis.
List of contents
1 Introduction and Historiography.- Preamble.- Eve of the Main London Blitz: June-September 1940.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Tip and Run Raids: 1943.- Little Blitz: 1944.- V-Weapons: 1944-1945.- Historiography Review.- Critique of Historiography: An Absence of Locality.- Historiographical Themes: Home Front Studies.- Historiographical Themes: The Myth of the Blitz.- Shaping Wartime Experience: Metropolitan Differentials.- Class.- Gender.- Race.- Shaping Wartime Experience: The Agency of Locality.- Local Area Analysis.- The Six London Boroughs.- Metropolitan London: Finsbury.- Metropolitan London: Bermondsey.- Metropolitan London: Kensington.- Suburban Essex: East Ham.- Suburban Surrey: Croydon.- Suburban Middlesex: Acton.- Applying a Thematic Approach.- 2 Planning for War: London and the Localities.- Pre-War Fears.- Planning for War: Central Government.- Planning for War: Regional and County Level.- Planning for War: Local Authorities.- Metropolitan London: Finsbury.- Metropolitan London: Bermondsey.- Metropolitan London: Kensington.- Suburban Essex: East Ham.- Suburban Surrey: Croydon.- Suburban Middlesex: Acton.- 3 Main London Blitz Local Response: Metropolitan London.- Air Raids.- Eve of the Main London Blitz: June-September 1940.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Shelters.- Eve of the Main London Blitz.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Homelessness: Rest Centres.- Eve of the Main London Blitz.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Communal Feeding.- Eve of the Main London Blitz.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- 4 Main London Blitz Local Response: The Suburbs.- Air Raids.- Eve of the Main London Blitz: June-September 1940.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Shelters.- Eve of the Main London Blitz.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Homelessness: Rest Centres.- Eve of the Main London Blitz.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- Communal Feeding.- Eve of the MainLondon Blitz.- Main London Blitz: September 1940-July 1941.- 5 Post-Blitz London: The Local Response.- Tip and Run Raids 1943.- Little Blitz 1944.- V-Weapons 1944-1945.- 6 Local Response: Conclusions.
About the author
Darren Bryant was awarded his PhD in History from Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.
Summary
This book takes a fresh approach to the London Blitz by viewing this time through individual local boroughs of the metropolis. The term ‘London Blitz’ means that culturally we have become accustomed to understanding that the actual blitz experience was the same wherever in the capital one happened to be, despite some areas being hit more than others. This book illustrates how there were many London blitzes, not one, influenced by a myriad of metropolitan localities, and giving rise to an agency of locality that helped to shape the lived blitz experience. By walking through the streets of London, this book conducts a local area analysis, witnessing the blitz through six London localities, representative of the assorted administrative, economic, and socio-political variables prevalent in wartime London. Covering air raids alongside topics like the provision of shelters, homelessness, and communal feeding, it shows how any history of the London Blitz must acknowledge that it was an experience reflective of a varied metropolis.
