National Service Life Stories: Masculinity, Class, and the Memory of Conscription in Britain

National service was a defining feature for a generation of young men in post-war Britain. Around 2.3 million of them were called up between the end of the Second World War and 1963 when conscription finally ended. Based on original oral interviews with well over one hundred men who served their country, this book explores the way in which compulsory military participation reverberates in the memories of interviewees and how their experiences may have shaped their attitudes and behaviour across the life course. Unlike existing accounts, the voices of men from working-class backgrounds are foregrounded particularly in this study, which shines new light on important areas of scholarly interest, including the changing meaning and experience of class, masculinity, and citizenship, as well as the complexities of popular memory.