Leeds at War 1939-1945 is a comprehensive account of the city's
experience of the war, covering in expert detail life on the Home Front
set against the background of the wider theaters of war.
The narrative of that global conflict is given with a focus on the
trials and ordeals that faced the people of Leeds as they cheered their
men and women fighters off to war, were bombed and saw their children
evacuated to rural areas.
Rare insights into the life of war-torn Leeds are included, along with
untold stories from the footnotes of that history, from the air-raid
shelters to the internment issues. The book incorporates the unique
human record of that struggle from memoirs and memories, so that the
reader sees the war bottom up from the ordinary people, although the
military experiences of Leeds' citizens are not ignored.
More controversial topics are also touched upon, such as anti-Semitism,
labor troubles and crime, to give a full and fascinating picture of a
great city facing profound trials of endurance, courage, and that true
Yorkshire grit that has been the hallmark of the city's rise to
prominence in Britain.