Danziger's Britain

by Nick Danziger and Dashka Slater

Book Overview

Nick Danziger began his journey in June 1994, as newspapers and magazines throughout the land commemorated the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings and recalled the Allies' war aims (to afford... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006382495
• ISBN13: 9780006382492
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Flamingo
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Depressing, enlightening, amazing,

I read this book a year ago prior to a month long stay in Scotland and still think about it. I am not a "depressed easily" kind of guy, but sometimes I could only read 10 pages at a time. I couldn't take any more. It was also enlightening and amazing. I have treveled to Middle East, Africa and S. America and around the U.S. so I know what economic depression and social depression can look like. But the dialogues Danzinger brings to the page really hit hard. Everyday we hear about and see the good effects of globalization. Social welfare--its supposed to be a good thing (it was when my family needed food stamps in the 1980's) This book really shows what happens when all the negative effects of globalization and social welfare converge on one geographic place and on individual people. Should be mandatory reading by everyone in the British Parliment. AND, by everyone in the U.S. Congress, as there are places in the U.S. that are beginning to look too much like places in this book. Highly recommended.

Stunning & Depressing

Wow. What a depressing book. In it, Danziger (Danziger's Adventures) recounts his attempt to discover, interview, and photograph "the huge ranks of the excluded and marginalized people of Great Britain." Danziger covers the gamut, from inner city, to tiny village, from recent immigrants, to the purest English, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, everywhere. I don't think I can sum up the result any better than the print reviews: "A chilling indictment of what we've let happen in the past two decades.... This book is so important that every one of us should read it and weep." --The Independent, "Grips and appalls the mind....The sheer extent of civil catastrophe and human waste here threatens to beggar belief." --Sunday Times. None of what he describes (children drug addicts, single mothers, welfare catch-22s, no future) would be considered particularly newsworthy in the US, on its own, but it does shatter the common perception Americans tend to hold of Great Britain. A polar opposite to Bill Brysons's fairly affectionate British travelogue, "Notes From a Small Island."