Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots
David Lammy
Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots
David Lammy MP predicted the riots of 2011 a year before they took place. Following the violence he spoke passionately for his constituents. Now, in Out of the Ashes, he analyses the causes of the disturbances and their implications for the future. He draws on his experience of growing up in Tottenham - the area he now represents and the place where the riots began. He explores the human stories behind the headlines. Above all, he seeks to explain why the breakdown of law and order was so swift and so widespread, and offers a way forward for Britain.
3.5 out of 5 based on 5 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Society, Politics & Philosophy |
| Format |
Paperback |
| Pages |
272 |
| RRP |
£9.99 |
| Date of Publication |
November 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-0852652671 |
| Publisher |
Guardian Books |
| |
David Lammy MP predicted the riots of 2011 a year before they took place. Following the violence he spoke passionately for his constituents. Now, in Out of the Ashes, he analyses the causes of the disturbances and their implications for the future. He draws on his experience of growing up in Tottenham - the area he now represents and the place where the riots began. He explores the human stories behind the headlines. Above all, he seeks to explain why the breakdown of law and order was so swift and so widespread, and offers a way forward for Britain.
Reviews
The Daily Telegraph
Mick Brown
“… an astonishingly thorough and finely nuanced analysis … What underpins this book is Lammy’s love for Tottenham, a place which may seem to be a Petri dish of all the social failings that led to the riots, but where most people want the same thing as everyone else: “A decent home, a decent job, decent opportunities for their children.””
05/12/2011
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The Observer
David Matthews
“… Lammy offers a plausible explanation for what happened … Written off as the work of a "feral underclass", who deserved the draconian sentences they got, this supposedly criminal enterprise looked less a political problem and more one for the courts to deal with. But as Lammy reminds us throughout the book, a continual lack of education, ineffective parental guidance, poor role models, ill-discipline, unemployment and a host of social and developmental ills created the perfect storm for a riot.”
10/12/2011
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The Financial Times
David Goodhart
“This is not a book with many ... lighter moments, but it skips along thanks to its author’s skill at storytelling. Most important, though the phrase Blue Labour does not feature, it begins to sketch out a post-liberal way of thinking for the centre-left that is alive to the many dilemmas and unintended consequences of progressivism. To date Blue Labour has been an intellectual curiosity without much of a political base, indeed with many enemies on the left. Lammy’s book for the first time makes it sound like a credible political idea.”
09/12/2011
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The Sunday Times
Harriet Sergeant
“Highly readable … Everyone has their own ideas on what caused the riots. It seems churlish to berate Lammy for not including mine. Still, his omission of education — or rather the lack of education in our inner-city schools — is curious from a former minister of higher education who more than most knows the transforming power of a good school.”
11/12/2011
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The Guardian
Stafford Scott
“… there is little sense that he has managed to grasp the scale of disaffection felt by those who participated in the riots ... It's shocking that Lammy has very little to say about the things that really matter in areas such as Tottenham, and indeed matter in terms of the country's future. There's almost nothing about schools and education.”
09/12/2011
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