Second City
Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain
- Hardcover
592 pages
- Release Date
15 October 2022
Summary
For over a century, Birmingham has been the second largest town in England, and at the heart of British history. In his enjoyable and thoughtful new book, Richard Vinen captures the drama of a small village that grew to become the quintessential city of the twentieth century- a place once synonymous with mass production, full employment and prosperity but which came to a cataclysmic halt in the 1980s.
For much of its existence, Birmingham has been a great magnet for migration, drawing…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780241454534 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0241454530 |
| Author: | Richard Vinen |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Imprint: | Allen Lane |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 592 |
| Release Date: | 15 October 2022 |
| Weight: | 800g |
| Dimensions: | 240mm x 162mm x 39mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
PRAISE FOR NATIONAL SERVICE : Written with compassion and insight, Vinen’s book brilliantly recreates the atmosphere of postwar Britain.
Vinen’s biography of the city is a spirited attempt at uncovering the mystery of how Birmingham, in his view, has managed for so long to stand at the centre of Britain’s modern industrial, economic, political and cultural history without anyone noticing… This absorbing book shows us how we did it. – Lynsey Hanley * Observer *
Richard Vinen’s new history of his native city explains everything … Vinen has written a history of Birmingham, but it is also a theory of Birmingham. And also, perhaps, a theory of England. I buy it. – Matthew Sweet * Daily Telegraph *
[A] sweeping history … There’s a much better story to be told [about Birmingham] - and it’s revealed between the covers of this book. – Pete Paphides * The Times *
A superb retort to [the] slings and arrows of derision … Birmingham’s very mutability … is the key to its survival. – Stuart Jeffries * Spectator *
Absorbing … There is unlikely to be a fuller or more informative history of Birmingham than Vinen’s. – Jonathan Coe * Financial Times *
Birmingham’s ordinariness has prevented us from seeing what is extraordinary in its history. Brummies shaped our everyday world … Vinen’s book provides a template for how we might level up the way we write about England’s northern and Midland cities. – Robert Colls * Literary Review *
Second City makes the case that Brum is, for all its amorphousness, England’s second city, and rightly pays tribute to Joe Chamberlain for transforming it through his progressive policies in the 1870s. – Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph Books of 2022 *
A key text for understanding our times … Highly recommended, truly thought provoking. – Ruth Barbour * Open History *
PRAISE FOR NATIONAL SERVICE: Written with compassion and insight, Vinen’s book brilliantly recreates the atmosphere of postwar Britain.
– Tony Barber * Financial Times Books of the Year *I can’t recall ever having read so unexpectedly fascinating a book… every single page has something of great interest on it. – Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *
About The Author
Richard Vinen
Richard Vinen is Professor of History at King’s College, London and the author of a number of major books. He won the Wolfson Prize for History for National Service (2014).
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