num_pages: 581
description: Illusions of Gold, the third volume of David Kynaston's ground-breaking quartet, "The City of London", sweeps us from 1914-45, through years of sharply fluctuating fortunes that began with the City at an all-time high, and ended with the 'Square Mile' ravaged by bombs, at its lowest ebb ever.As in the previous volumes, A World of Its Own and Golden Years, we find a host of plots and sub-plots, powerful central characters and colourful eccentrics, episodes of high drama and low comedy. With unerring judgment and story-telling verve, Kynaston takes us through the City's vain attempt to recover the glory days before the First World War, in the return to the Gold Standard; follows its tussles with government over control of monetary policy; and investigates its increasingly important links with British industry. He also examines its tense, complex relationship with politics, probing the notorious 'bankers' ramp' of 1931 that brought down the Labour government and giving a pioneering, richly suggestive account of the City's strong support of Appeasement. Infamous scandals like the downfall of the fraudulent financier Clarence Henry, are set against the daily trials and tribulations of clerks and jobbers. And over the whole scene, from his fastness at the Bank of England, broods the enigmatic figure of Montagu Norman, the City's 'Pope' for almost a quarter of a century, seen here in action, close-up, in a way that has never been possible before.Kynaston's great strength is his combination of enthralling anecdotes and vivid narrative with meticulous scholarship, based on an unparalleled variety of unpublished sources. The City of London is now hailed as one of the most ambitious historical projects of recent times -- a powerful and exuberant social and political history, as well as the key to understanding the City itself, in all its dimensions.
language: English
title: The City of London, Volume 3: Illusions of Gold, 1914-1945
titlecomplete: The City of London, Volume 3: Illusions of Gold, 1914-1945
genres: History, Finance
ratings_count: 6
series: History of the City
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Wadsworth Prize
publisher: Random House UK