Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities: Hopeful Dreams, Stark Realities

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Many British cities were devastated by bombing during the Second World War and faced stark economic dilemmas concerning reconstruction planning and implementation after 1945. How did politicians, civil servants and local authorities manage to produce the cities we live in today Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities examines the underlying processes and pressures, especially financial and bureaucratic, which shaped postwar urbanism in Britain. Catherine Flinn integrates architectural planning with in-depth economic and political analyses of Britain's blitzed cities for the first time. She examines early reconstruction arrangements, the postwar economic apparatus and the challenges of postwar physical planning across the country, while providing insightful case studies from the cities of Hull, Exeter and Liverpool. By addressing the ideology versus the reality of reconstruction in postwar Britain, Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities highlights the importance of economic and political factors for understanding the British postwar built environment.

Reviews

In a very well written and exceptionally well organized book, Flinn achieves her goal: She clearly highlights the political and institutional reasons why the reconstruction plans for the blitzed cities didnt come to fruition [For] anyone interested in a better understanding of the incredible challenges involved with rebuilding Britain after the war, Id recommend it enthusiastically. * EH.net *
A meticulous, detailed account of what became of cities such as Coventry, Liverpool, Hull, Exeter and Portsmouth whose urban fabric was torn to shreds by German planes, and the ideas of the planners who sought to rebuild them ... This book [contains] extraordinary attention to detail. * Contemporary British History *
A superbly researched and useful addition to the existing body of work on reconstruction. * Journal of British Studies *
Catherine Flinns excellent book raises important questions that extend far beyond the reconstruction of blitzed cities, the role of planners, and the triumph of modernism over historical reimagining. It also raises questions of how limited resources were allocated after the war, how decisions were made by the local and national state, how private economic interests operated within a planned economy. Her findings will be of great interest not only to urban and architectural but also to economic, political and cultural historians of postwar Britain. * Martin Daunton, Emeritus Professor of Economic History, University of Cambridge, UK *
The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, and the Grenfell Tower Disaster in London demonstrated that while causes of urban disaster may be simple, the consequences present major challenges. In her meticulous study, Flinn shows that the reconstruction of Britain following the air raids of World War Two saw many grand plans. Some were realized, while others were undermined by political, practical and economic constraints. Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities is essential both for our understanding of post-war British history, but also as a corrective to naive arguments that urban renewal can always be straightforward. * Mark Clapson, Professor of Social and Urban History, University of Westminster, UK *

Author Bio

Catherine Flinn is Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her main research interest is the impact of politics and economics on the architecture and landscape of modern Britain.