Creating the People’s War: Civil Defence Communities in Second World War Britain (Cultural History of Modern War) - Hardcover

Hammett, Jessica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1526162415 ISBN 13: 9781526162410

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2022

Synopsis

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.

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About this title

About the Author

Jessica Hammett is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol -- .

From the Back Cover

Creating the people's war examines how the personnel of the civil defence services understood and represented themselves as essential wartime workers. Civil defence was the most significant voluntary organisation of the Second World War and involved millions of men and women of every class, generation and geographical location in Britain. This is the first book to focus on civil defence, and it explores both the importance of the organisation within the war effort and the everyday experiences of personnel.

The book asks: why has the 'people's war' been such a persistent and attractive myth? It shows how this myth was used by ordinary people to describe the value of their work, disputing hierarchies of war service. Fractures and divisions within civil defence continued throughout the war on lines of gender, generation, class and morality.

Chapters focus on First World War veterans, housewives, adolescents, conscientious objectors and couples engaging in extra-marital affairs. Sources used include personal narratives in diaries, memoirs and oral histories alongside popular representations. Significantly, the book highlights the importance of group narratives through records of conversation and co-produced community civil defence magazines.

This examination of civil defence shows that in their social groups and personal narratives, volunteers were able to reshape understandings of citizenship and duty to fit their own circumstances. They wrote themselves into the 'people's war' and invested it with meaning, creating national identity from the bottom up.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526162415
• ISBN 13: 9781526162410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272