Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: An average, anti-success summary of the UK
Comment: In summay, Andrew tries to bring together a very complicated period of life in the UK and diluting it to the level of the average Guardian reader (i.e. tell me what to think and that be so, and by the way I like the working class, alright guv').
Generally well researched, but so distracted by his weird "liberal" / puritanical (anti-alcohol / fun) beliefs, that you don't know what he is trying to say. If this is the future of liberal and impartial journalism then we are destined to live with a Socialist Fascist system, and having experienced this book and this Government I think this is closer to being a reality than many think (despite the arguments of ideology!)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Comment: I took this book on holiday with me and I feel a week by the pool is a perfect way to enjoy this book.
I really enjoyed the pace of this work. I felt it gave just the right amount of detail without dwelling on unimportant facts.
For me it was constantly enthralling. As a 23 year-old I certainly learnt a great deal. The detail is far greater than the BBC series that accompanied the book. My only doubt is whether had I lived through the times discussed I would have found it a little lightweight.
Customer Rating:
Summary: History at its best
Comment: I found this book a real pleasure to read. It is a penetrating and scholarly account of Britain's post-war history. It is brilliantly researched and beautifully written - the author has a good eye for the amusing bon mot - yet it deals in a balanced and sensible way with the key developments and personalities of the post-war era. If a better book has been published in the past year, then I have not come across it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A future school textbook - and useful now.
Comment: This book was updated for its paperback release and having read it carefully I suspect that many of the errors referred to by other reviewers were removed at that point. Having lived out of Britain for a sizeable chunk of my adult life, I found that I had much to learn from the pages - several large gaps in my knowledge were filled in.
I found it difficult to detect any signs of bias, and Andrew Marr's easy writing style made it a pleasure to read. This is almost as far removed from the dry history textbook that I wrestled with as a young student as it is possible to be. For anyone wanting a crash course on British modern history, this could not be bettered. Well researched and referenced, this deserves to become a standard.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I learnt all I should have at school
Comment: If I hadn't been taught some trendy (in the 1970's) History O Level course I may have learned some modern history and have subsequently been on catch up since!
This is the most readable book I have read covering the post war period and having seen the TV programme the writers voice is audible. It's a must read for a holiday (preferably with understanding people who don't want to talk very much as being interrupted reading won't go down too well)
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