An oral and social history charting the end of the Second World War, and the slow 'outbreak of peace' between 8th May and 2nd September 1945.
Beginning with the signing of the German surrender to the Western Allies in Reims on 7th May, this 'people's history' will gather voices from all levels of society and from all corners of the globe to explore four months that would dictate the order of the world for decades to come.
Quoting from generals, world statesmen, infantrymen, prisoners of war, journalists, civilians and neutral onlookers, it will variously present the memories of the men and women who danced alongside Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret outside Buckingham Palace on the first night of peace; the reactions of the vanquished and those faced with rebuilding a shattered Europe; the often overlooked story of the 'forgotten army' still battling against the Japanese in the East; the election of Clement Attlee's reforming Labour government; the beginnings of what would become the Iron Curtain; and testimony from the first victims of nuclear warfare in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Combining archive sources and original interviews with living witnesses, The Summer of '45 will consider the lingering trauma of the war and the new challenges brought by peacetime in a style reminiscent of books such as The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War and Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II.
