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Book Information

Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-5261-6241-0
Pages: 272
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Price: £80.00
Published Date: August 2022
BIC Category: Modern History, History, Early 20th century c 1900 to c 1950, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Military history, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Military / Other, HISTORY / Military / World War II, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, Humanities / Second World War, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Humanities / Military history, Humanities / Social & cultural history, Humanities / 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, Second World War
Series: Cultural History of Modern War

Description

Why has the 'people's war' been such a durable and attractive myth? Creating the people's war examines how civil defence personnel engaged with this narrative during the war and in the following decades to answer this question.

Civil defence was the most significant voluntary organisation of the Second World War, involving millions of men and women of every class, generation and locality in Britain. This book shows how local communities of civil defence personnel co-developed narratives about the value of their work which challenged hierarchies of war service. In their social groups volunteers wrote themselves into the 'people's war' and invested it with meaning, creating national identity from the bottom up. Community was both central to these representations and vital for their production.

Introduction
1 Community
2 The people's war
3 Veterans
4 Housewives
5 Adolescents
6 Lovers
7 Conscientious objectors
Conclusion

Bibliography
Index