
Purchase
Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age
Grove Press
June 2010
On Sale: June 1, 2010
352 pages ISBN: 0802119441 EAN: 9780802119445 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
Juliet Nicolson pieces together colorful personalities,
historic moments, and intimate details to create a social
history of the two years following the Great War in Britain.
Not since Nicolson’s The Perfect Summer have we seen an
account that so vividly captures a nation’s psyche at a
particular moment in history.
The euphoria of Armistice Day 1918 vaporizes to reveal the
carnage that war has left in its wake. But from Britain’s
despair emerges new life. For veterans with faces demolished
in the trenches, surgeon Harold Gillies brings hope with his
miraculous skin-grafting procedure. Women win the vote,
skirt hems leap, and Brits forget their troubles at packed
dance halls. The remains of a nameless soldier are laid to
rest in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster
Abbey. “The Great Silence,” observed in memory of the
countless dead, halts citizens in silent reverence.
Nicolson crafts her narrative using a lively cast of
characters: from an aging butler to a pair of newlyweds,
from the Prince of Wales to T.E. Lawrence, the real-life
Lawrence of Arabia. The Great Silence depicts a nation
fighting the forces that threaten to tear it apart and
discovering the common bonds that hold it together.
No awards found for this book.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|