Half the Battle: Civilian Morale in Britain During the Second World WarHow well did civilian morale stand up to the pressures of total war and what factors were important to it? This book rejects contentions that civilian morale fell a long way short of the favourable picture presented at the time and in hundreds of books and films ever since. While acknowledging that some negative attitudes and behaviour existed-panic and defeatism, ration-cheating and black-marketeering-it argues that these involved a very small minority of the population. In fact, most people behaved well, and this should be the real measure of civilian morale, rather than the failing of the few who behaved badly. The book shows that although before the war, the official prognosis was pessimistic, measures to bolster morale were taken nevertheless, in particular with regard to protection against air raids. An examination of indicative factors concludes that moral fluctuated but was in the main good, right to the end of the war. In examining this phenomenon, due credit is accorded to government policies for the maintenance of morale, but special emphasis is given to the 'invisible chain' of patriotic feeling that held the nation together during its time of trial. |
Contents
War imagined | 17 |
A united nation? | 22 |
Preparing for the storm | 31 |
The view from below | 39 |
War experienced September 1939May 1941 | 45 |
The Phoney War | 46 |
The Emergency MaySeptember 1940 | 59 |
The Big Blitz | 68 |
Stimulating patriotism | 161 |
Easing the strain | 186 |
Food | 195 |
Working conditions | 205 |
Health | 207 |
Recreation and leisure | 209 |
Some essential inessentials | 215 |
Beveridge and all that | 221 |
War experienced 194145 | 91 |
Separations | 97 |
Restrictions restrictions | 105 |
Working and not working | 119 |
EXPLANATIONS | 139 |
Persuading the people | 141 |
Controlling the news | 142 |
The propaganda of reassurance | 149 |
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A. J. P. Taylor air raids areas attack Battle of Britain behaviour Beveridge Blitz bombers bombing Britain British broadcasts campaign cent Churchill cinema citizens Civil Defence civilian morale Daily Daily Mirror diary effect effort enemy evacuation evidence factory fear feel fighting File Report film forces Gallup George Orwell German Government Government's Harold Nicolson Harrisson Hitler HMSO home front Home Intelligence Ibid increase industrial invasion J. B. Priestley Labour Party less living Lord Woolton Margery Allingham mass Mass-Observation ment mental military million Ministry of Information months Nella Last never November official Orwell patriotic peace people's Phoney War Picture Post political popular population pre-war problem programme propaganda radio reconstruction recorded Second World Second World War September showed social spirit survey things thought tion Titmuss Tom Harrisson University Press victory wartime week women Woolton workers