Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes de Virginia Nicholson

Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s

Virginia Nicholson

InPerfect Wives in Ideal Homes, Virginia Nicholson tells the story of women in the 1950s: a time before the Pill, when divorce spelled scandal and two-piece swimsuits caused mass alarm.

Turn the page back to the mid-twentieth century, and discover a world peopled by women with radiant smiles, clean pinafores and gleaming coiffures; a promised land of batch-baking, maraschino cherries and brightly hued plastic. A world where the darker side of the decade encompassed rampant prostitution, a notorious murder, and the threat of nuclear disaster.

Perfect Wives in Ideal Homesreconstructs the real 1950s, through the eyes of the women who lived it. Step back in time to when our grandmothers scrubbed their doorsteps, cared for their families, lived, laughed, loved and struggled.

This is their story.

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Virginia Nicholsonwas born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, grew up in Yorkshire and Sussex, and studied at Cambridge University. She lived abroad in France and Italy, then worked as a documentary researcher for the BBC. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her books include the acclaimed social historiesAmong the Bohemians,Singled Out, Millions Like Us, andPerfect Wives in Ideal Homes. She is married with three grown-up children and lives in Sussex.

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Virginia Nicholsongets us closer than we have ever been before to the complicated day-to-day reality of women's lives during that still controversial decade, the 1950s
Nicholson handles her material with confidence, sympathy and, ultimately, optimism that for most women things have improved, so thatthe abiding emotion is not gloom but, in my case, admiration for my mother's generation and gratitude that it was so much better for ours
Nicholson uses vivid contemporary sources and oral testimony to show the constraints under which so many women lived.Like David Kynaston'sFamily Britain . . .Nicholson has the same knack of seamlessly piecing gripping individual stories into a panorama of ordinary life
Animportant and humanebook of female social history . . . In this work, Nicholson musters voices toprofound and deeply politicaleffect. Much of the material in this book will be familiar to women over 55: we were born into this world. For younger women, though, Nicholson's book should benecessary reading, to remind them how far we have travelled.
Anupliftingandheartwarmingread
Nicholson spells out the contradictions of this era so well: a new world dressed in old clothes
Remarkable. To today's young, it'll sound like life on another planet
The achievements of the women in this book haunt us and move us to admiration
Insightfulsocial history. Mixing research with a wealth of anecdote, Nicholsonbrings history to vivid and touching life
Poignantly illustrates how the women of the 1950s yearned for the innovative technology of the era to liberate them from repetitive drudgery
Indefatigably researched, moving and perceptive, Nicholson handles her wide-ranging material with sympathy, humour and a lightness of touch. Her enviable gift for interpretation and storytelling is balanced by first-hand accounts ofthose women of the 1950s, their youth so relatively recent, who have trusted her with the intimate details of their lives
There is certainlywarmthin [Virginia Nicholson's]curiosityas she delves into the stories of her mother's generation . . . Nicholson's judgements are rightly andoften amusingly sharp. . . Herskill as an interviewerleaves her subjects revealing long-kept secrets andher flair as a writermakes us care about these young women and what happens to them
Richly detailed. We hear from women working as air hostesses, housewives, biscuit packers, prostitutes, academics, models, secretaries and Buttlin's Redcoats. We discover how women felt entering beatuty contests, having to give up work on marriage, being defined by their husband's jobs, becomming unmarried mothers, enduring racism, marching against nuclear weapons and desiring other women.Nicholson's own commentary, in turns compassionate and wry, holds everything together
Afascinatinglook at the lives of ordinary women in 1950s Britain
Meticulously researched
A ground-breaking book,richly nuanced with titbits of information,insightandunderstanding
Remarkably perceptive and well-researched . . . Virginia Nicholson has produced anotherextraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written
Aninspiringbook,lovingly researched, well-written and humane . . .the period is beautifully caught
The popular image is of a world where women wore little frilled pinafores with immaculately coiffed hair and happy smiles as they dusted, swept and baked . . . ButNicholson's book reveals a much darker side of life
Gripping, constantly surprising: a page-turner. We hear at first hand the life stories of women from different walks of life, from factory workers to debs.Each story draws you right in and it's always a wrench to move on

Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s

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Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s

Preț: 72.49 lei

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