The 1939-45 conflict was, for Britain, a total war; no section of society remained untouched by military conscription, air raids, the shipping crisis and the war economy. This book not only states the great events and the leading figures, but also the oddities and the banalities of daily life, and in particular the parts played by ordinary people: air raid wardens and Home Guards, factory workers and farmers, housewives and pacifists. Above all, the book reveals how, in those six years, the British people came closer to discarding their social conventions than at any time since Cromwell's...

In his latest book, Angus Calder explores the culture of Scotland, one of Europe's oldest nations. Offering a rich mix of social history, cultural observation, and a sharp sense of politics, Calder looks at Scotland as a place that has throughout its history had a strong democratic tradition. The period since the 1707 Treaty of Union with England has seen a nation with a quite distinct and independent identity, and it is no surprise that the decaying imperial state to its south, lumbered with anachronistic institutions and byzantine class distinctions, has latterly held little allure....