How was Britain impacted by total war from 1939-51?

Britain – The Socioeconomic Landscape, 1939-79

In this course, Dr Alex Windscheffel (Royal Holloway, University of London) explores Britain’s changing social and economic landscape from 1939-79. In the first lecture, we think about the impact of total war on Britain from 1939-51. In the second lecture, we think about the rise of consumer society in Britain after 1951. In the third lecture, we think about the influence of television on British society from the 1950s onwards. Next, we think about the evolution of football as a spectator sport in Britain from the 1920s onwards. In the fifth lecture, we think about the development of leisure activities and mass tourism in postwar Britain. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about the emergence of Liberal society from 1951-79.

How was Britain impacted by total war from 1939-51?

In this lecture, we think about the impact of total war on Britain from 1939-51, focusing in particular on: (i) Churchill’s acknowledgement of the Second World War as a war of peoples and causes, rather than of chieftains and princes; (ii) the fact that, until 1943, more civilians than combatants had been killed in the Second World War; (iii) the cheerful and self-sacrificing presentation of British people in wartime propaganda; (iv) the class equality presented in wartime and postwar productions like In Which We Serve, Reach for the Sky and Fires were Started; (v) George Orwell’s 1941 wartime commentary titled The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius; (vi) the capture of the nation’s feelings towards the war and leadership by William Beveridge’s 1942 publication Social Assurance and Allied Services, known as the Beveridge Report; (vii) the depiction of a proposed welfare state and social assurance in the Beveridge Report as the continuation of the wartime ideals of fair shares for all; (viii) the 1945 Labour Party Election Manifesto, which promoted the need for the “spirit of Dunkirk” in postwar Britain; (ix) the widespread exclusion of Welsh, Irish and Scottish people from the wartime presentation of the war effort; (x) evidence of a lack of unity in the reality of wartime Britain, including the prevalence of strikes; (xi) Millions Like Us (1943), a film which highlighted the impact of the Second World War on women; (xii) the conscription of women by the National Service Act from December 1941; (xiii) the ‘double burden’ faced by mothers working in wartime industries; (xiv) the enhanced policing of women’s behaviour during the Second World War, especially after the arrival of US soldiers in Britain; (xv) the campaigning for women to stay in work after the Second World War to help rebuild the country; (xvi) the gradual lifting of the marriage bar in certain sectors after the Second World War; (xvii) the wartime controls of industry and pricing put in place by the government and their ongoing postwar impact; (xviii) the nationalising of industries by Clement Attlee’s Labour government; (xix) the continuation of rationing in postwar Britain as a key reason for Labour’s loss of power in 1951.