Morley, Joel (2020) The Memory Of The Great War And Morale During Britain's Phoney War. The Historical Journal, 63 (2). pp. 437-467. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000062
Morley, Joel (2020) The Memory Of The Great War And Morale During Britain's Phoney War. The Historical Journal, 63 (2). pp. 437-467. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000062
Morley, Joel (2020) The Memory Of The Great War And Morale During Britain's Phoney War. The Historical Journal, 63 (2). pp. 437-467. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000062
Abstract
This article examines the memory of the Great War and the under-explored topic of morale during the Phoney War, and contributes to, and connects, their historiographies. Analysis of previously unexamined Mass Observation material confirms and qualifies some of the concerns about morale that MO expressed at the time. It also reveals that many Britons looked backwards to Great War during the Phoney War, whether they had lived through the Great War or not, and their memories and understandings of the Great War informed their attitudes to the Second World War. Memories of wartime trauma were just one facet of the varied legacy of the Great War that Britons drew upon. Importantly, Britons of different ages drew upon post-war representations and personal and vicarious experiences to different extents, but those who were able to typically ascribed influence to personal rather than cultural memories of the Great War. This complicates the assumption that the latter determined Britons’ responses to the outbreak of the Second World War and contributes to understandings of both the reception and influence of cultural representations of the Great War, and the place of the Great War in the subjective worlds of Britons during the Second World War.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Uncontrolled Keywords: | First World War; Mass Observation; Second World War; Morale; Memory |
Subjects: | D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D501 World War I D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D731 World War II D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain |
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2019 12:03 |
Last Modified: | 16 May 2024 19:44 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/24130 |
Available files
Filename: Morley, Memory of the Great War and Morale in the Phoney War, accepted pre-copy editing version Feb 2019.pdf