Contesting Home Defence: Men, Women and the Home Guard in the Second World War (Cultural History of Modern War): Men, Women and the Home Guard in the Second World War (Cultural History of Modern War) - Hardcover

Penny Summerfield; Corinna Peniston-Bird

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719062012 ISBN 13: 9780719062018

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Contesting home defence is a new history of the Home Guard, a novel national defence force of the Second World War composed of civilians who served as part-time soldiers: it questions accounts of the force and the war, which have seen them as symbols of national unity. 

It scrutinises the Home Guard’s reputation and explores whether this ‘people’s army’ was a site of social cohesion or of dissension by assessing the competing claims made for it at the time. It then examines the way it was represented during the war and has been since, notably in Dad’s Army, and discusses the memories of men and women who served in it. 

The book makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front and introduces fresh ways of understanding the Second World War.

About this title

Product Description:

Part of the Cultural History of Modern War series, this study explores political challenges to the concept of home defence; the representation of the Home Guard during and after the War; and personal memories of participating in home defence. No jacket.

About the Author:

Penny Summerfield is Professor of Modern History at the University of Manchester. Corinna Peniston-Bird is Lecturer in History at the University of Lancaster -- .

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0719062012
• ISBN 13: 9780719062018
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328