Third Year Module
Module Leader: Dr Rachel Duffett
Rationale and Content:
This module will examine British society on the Home Front during the First and Second World Wars. War has been described as ‘the locomotive of history’: a force that accelerates society’s rate of change, whether in terms of economic development, a levelling of class, shifts in gender scripts or changes in cultural production. Whilst many historians agree that war, especially world war, has a profound impact upon the nation as the conflict unfolds, there is disagreement on the extent and longevity of the changes that it brings. This module offers students the opportunity to explore the way that war was experienced by British society and how those experiences affected post-war developments. An understanding of the impact of the World Wars requires analysis of the memories and myths subsequently constructed, which maintain their currency long after the guns have been silenced. For example, why has the cultural memory of the First World War as a conflict that wiped out a generation through the uncaring brutality of its military commanders become so established? Was the Second World War really experienced as the ‘People’s War’, a time when deprivations were shared, social differences were levelled and people pulled together, without complaint, for victory?
Some major themes such as the structure and social impact of wartime economies and labour mobilization will cut across both periods of study, particularly in terms of the contribution and experience of women. The role of propaganda and censorship in shaping domestic understandings of both wars will be considered, as will the conflicts’ impact on sexual behaviour whether the ‘khaki fever’ of 1914-18 or the popularity of the ‘over-paid, over-sexed and over here’ GIs during the later conflict. The module will introduce students to a range of primary sources and historiographical debates on the topic.
Learning and Teaching Strategies:
This module will be delivered through a combined weekly lecture and seminar plus tutorial support. Where appropriate supporting resources will also be made available online. We will use a wealth of primary sources, including transcripts of letters sent home from the trenches of the Western Front, oral histories, literature, posters, art, music, magazines and propaganda films such as The Battle of the Somme (1916) and London Can Take It (1940). Seminar sessions will be designed to encourage student participation and will support students in strengthening their skills of presentation, discussion, debate and argument, as well as those required for the evaluation and interpretation of secondary and primary sources.
Assessment:
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Module
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Mode
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Weighting %
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Length
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Submission date
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The Home Front:
1914-1918 &1939-45
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Oral Presentation
Essay
Exam
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10
40
50
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20 mins plus handouts
2500 words
2 hours
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As scheduled
Week 6
End of semester 2
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Recommended introductory reading:
J.M. Bourne, Britain and the Great War 1914-1918 (London, 1994)
Angus Calder, The People's War Britain 1939-45, New Edition (London, 1992)
Arthur Marwick, The Deluge: British Society and the First World War (London, 1965)
Rex Pope, War and Society in Britain, 1899-1948 (London, 1991)
George Robb, British Culture and the First World War (London, 2002)
Further Reading:
1914-18:
Samuel Hynes, A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture (London, 1992)
Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War (2008).
Gerard De Groot, Blighty: British Society in the era of the First World War (London, 1996)
Jessica Meyer, (ed.), British Popular Culture and the First World War (2008)
Avner Offer, The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation (London, 1989)
Michael Roper, The Secret Battle: Emotional Survival in the First World War (Manchester, 2009).
1939-45:
Angus Calder, The Myth of the Blitz (London, 1991)
Juliet Gardiner, Wartime Britain 1939-1945 (London, 2004)
Robert Mackay, Half the Battle: Civilian Morale in Britain During the Second World War (Manchester, 2003)
Nick Hayes and Jeff Hill (eds), 'Millions Like Us'? British Culture in the Second World War (Liverpool, 1999)
Anthony Aldgate and Jeffrey Richards, Britain Can Take It: The British Cinema in the Second World War (Oxford, 1994)
Harold Smith (ed.), War and Social Change: British society in the Second World War (Manchester, 1986)
Sonya Rose, Which People's War? National Identity and Citizenship in Wartime Britain 1939-45 (Oxford, 2003)