Scan barcode
A review by lazygal
The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society by Paul Thompson
4.0
On the one hand, Thompson channels [a:Studs Turkel], quoting "living Edwardians" about their lives. On the other, it's a dry-ish social history about the Edwardian era.
Had I been in charge, I would have had the chapter on childhood, where we really get the opportunity to learn what it was like to grow up during that era, be the lead chapter. I would have come back to those voices again and again, so that the reader got even more of an understanding of what it was like to get an education, work, vote, etc.. This book doesn't do that, and the structure seems a little all over the place, with little narrative flow.
However, the 360 view of people's lives is fascinating - Thompson describes the rich, the poor, the country folk and the city folk (and all manner of lives in between).
Had I been in charge, I would have had the chapter on childhood, where we really get the opportunity to learn what it was like to grow up during that era, be the lead chapter. I would have come back to those voices again and again, so that the reader got even more of an understanding of what it was like to get an education, work, vote, etc.. This book doesn't do that, and the structure seems a little all over the place, with little narrative flow.
However, the 360 view of people's lives is fascinating - Thompson describes the rich, the poor, the country folk and the city folk (and all manner of lives in between).