Description

Book 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.



Table of Contents

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


Bibliography
Index

Creating the People’s War: Civil Defence

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    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Mon 13 Jul 2026.

    A Hardback by Jessica Hammett

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      Publisher: Manchester University Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 02/08/2022
      ISBN13: 9781526162410, 978-1526162410
      ISBN10: 1526162415
      Also in:
      History European history Social and cultural history Military History Second World War

      Description

      Book 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.



      Table of Contents

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


      Bibliography
      Index

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