Looking Back at Britain: War and Peace 1940s

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The invention of photography in the first half of the 19th century gave people a completely different way of recording what was happening around them and soon professional and amateur photographers were turning their lenses onto every subject imaginable - monarchs and politicians, soldiers at war, industry and transport, farming and rural life, national celebrations, ordinary people at home and at work, entertainers and actors, fashion, sport, school and much else. Their work has given us a unique view of our nation's heritage. This volume looks at the major events, people and stories of the 1940s through photographs that reveal the essence of those times. In June 1940, Winston Churchill looked forward a thousand years to when Britons would still say that 'This was their finest hour'. Wartime Britain saw heroism and hardship, but it was a time when the country pulled together towards a common goal. It was also an era of growing equality that carried over into peacetime. In 1945 the people threw out their war-winning Prime Minister and chose instead a Labour government who delivered the welfare state and the NHS. Relive these times in the dramatic and moving pictures presented in this book.