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Harry's Last Stand

How the World My Generation Built Is Falling Down, and What We Can Do to Save It

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Harry's Last Stand

Written by: Harry Leslie Smith
Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
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About this listen

As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so you can help change it....

In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran, and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith’s Guardian article – "This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time" – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society.

Now he brings his unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, benefits policy, political corruption, food poverty, the cost of education – and much more. From the deprivation of 1930s Barnsley and the terror of war to the creation of our welfare state, Harry has experienced how a great civilisation can rise from the rubble. But at the end of his life, he fears how easily it is being eroded.

Harry’s Last Stand is a lyrical, searing modern invective that shows what the past can teach us and how the future is ours for the taking.

©2014 Harry Leslie Smith (P)2015 Audible, Ltd Anthropology Biographies & Memoirs History Political Science
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What the critics say

"A kind of epic poem, one that moves in circular fashion from passionate denunciation to intense autobiographical reflection...should be required reading for every MP, peer, councillor, civil servant and commentator. The fury and sense of powerlessness that so many people feel at government policy beam out of every page." (Melissa Benn, Guardian)
"Smith's unwavering will to turn things around makes for inspirational reading." ( Big Issue North)
"Mr Smith's is a rousing, earthy writing that's part Tony Harrison, part Dennis Skinner." (NudgeMeNow.com)
"This hymn of wrath against the toxic nexus of money and power in austerity UK from a Bradford pauper's son, excommunicated from the Catholic church for marrying an 'enemy' woman in post-war Germany, is a compelling life-verdict." (Paul Routledge, The Tablet)

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Profile Image for Jennifer Anthony

Brilliant!!

Real understanding of the past. The struggles of the Great Depression from someone who truly lived the experience that has been so forgotten today. The fight of the Second World War and loss they suffered proudly to make this a better world. The thrive of the 1950s and 60s.
The world is changing back to the dire times of that Great Depression If we forget about our history we are doomed to relive it !!
Must read by all. Should be read in schools!!!

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