Dr Henry Irving

The Wartime Social Survey was designed to keep track of civilian morale and test the impact of government policy in Britain during the Second World War. This chapter explores the Survey through the lens of information history, using it as a case study to consider how information was viewed at the time. The chapter begins by reconsidering the infamous “Cooper's Snoopers” controversy. The affair shows that there was hostility to surveillance, but it overshadows other parts of the Wartime Social Survey's history. This chapter rectifies the imbalance by showing how the Survey carried out its work. A wider view shows that the Survey's work extended beyond the wartime emergency it was created to meet. With remarkably little fuss, it established itself as a pioneer in the field of social research and brought policymakers into closer contact with the lives of ordinary people than ever before.

Abstract

This article reflects on the role that urban history can play in contemporary efforts to reduce waste. It is focused on a public history project that uses the history of waste management in World War II as a critical vantage point from which to consider current debates over reduction, reuse and recycling. Placing this project within a broader discussion of public history in the United Kingdom, the article argues that urban history is well placed to encourage a critical understanding of the present.

This article uses a detailed examination on the 1948 and 1949 Bonfires of Controls to reassess Harold Wilson's development as a politician and examine the broader relationship between popular politics and economic policy. Whilst acknowledging the continued importance of the latter within Wilson's self-identification as a modernizing 'specialist', it contends that these events are best viewed as representing the birth of a professional politician. It will show that, although economically motivated, there was a marked disparity between each Bonfire's illusion and reality. Far from being entirely rational, each announcement straddled the gap between politics and economics. Within a post-war political landscape that had seen debates about controls become increasingly emotive, Wilson used the Bonfires to seize advantage. As a result, they can be seen to signify the point of his development from a self-identified professional economist to an astute political actor. © The Author [2013]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

This article builds upon recent scholarship on the recycling – or ‘salvage’ – schemes organized by the British government during the Second World War. Viewing the act of recycling as part of an interactive ‘communications circuit’, it uses records produced by the Ministry of Information to analyse the development of publicity produced for the national salvage campaign. Particular attention is paid to the public's role in shaping the course of the campaign. By demonstrating that a disjuncture between publicity and perceptions of inaction led to a sense of frustration, the article suggests that this example complicates the notion of a ‘people's war’.

1. The recent criminal trials of Erol Incedal on terrorism-related charges, in which central details were kept secret from the public, suggests a lack of clarity about information control in a contemporary context 2. It is legitimate to restrict information in the interest of national security, but only where this is strictly necessary and when safeguards exist to maintain open justice and freedom of expression 3. The British experience of security censorship during the Second World War provides a compelling case study of information control in an otherwise open society that should be used to inform future policy 4. The self-regulated system adopted during the Second World War ensured considerable press freedom, but was hindered by a lack of planning and poor co-ordination between the press and competing authorities 5. The Second World War case study suggests that information control procedures will always be contentious but that they can be made more successful through careful planning and co-ordination, the involvement of a broad range of representatives, and an awareness of the public interest in imparting and receiving information 6. Both the historic and contemporary case studies indicate that information control in an open society will rely upon a degree of self-regulation and require clear guidelines, co-operation, and opportunities for dialogue

This article re-examines the importance of the ‘people’s war’ by exploring the word history of the phrase. The article shows that the term was widely used and understood on the British home front during the Second World War. Our focus is on how it provided a framework to renegotiate citizenship. Drawing on a wide range of popular newspapers, magazines and life writing, we argue that the ‘people’s war’ was a flexible concept. It was used, on the one hand, to explain extensions to the duties of citizenship and encourage participation, and, on the other, to demand a greater voice, recognition and rewards for citizens. This shaped the lived experience of wartime, and provided a language for ‘ordinary people’, as well as politicians and the press, to articulate their demands in the present and hopes for the future. We argue that the ‘people’s war’ remains an important historical concept. The process of negotiation through the lens of the ‘people’s war’ not only sheds light on wartime experience; it also suggests new ways to think through vernacular understandings of citizenship and the relationship between the people and the state, in the post-war world and beyond.

The Environment Bill contains ambitious provisions for waste collection and has the potential to transform recycling in England. DEFRA’s proposals echo those of the Ministry of Supply during the Second World War. An understanding of this history draws attention to lessons and warnings that are applicable today. The implementation of a compulsory recycling scheme in summer 1940 led to a short term reduction in collections and long term doubts about the system. The staged implementation of consistent collections would avoid similar problems in October 2023 and could lead to higher rates of adoption in the long term. Wartime encouraged a temporary shift from private to communal dustbins. DEFRA should require local authorities to consider the viability of similar schemes before granting technical exemptions to consistent collection for reasons of urban geography. Surveys carried out in the 1940s showed that local messages were effective but had a greater impact when combined with other appeals, especially personal ones. DEFRA needs to devote more resources to explaining the historic changes included in the Environment Bill. A lengthy delay between the implementation of consistent collections and the introduction of clear labelling risks causing frustration – with people being told to do the right thing, only to find that the system makes it hard for them to do so. Similar problems in summer 1940 made later appeals less effective.

This article reveals the role of volunteers in the British government’s campaign to increase recycling during the Second World War. It argues that the overlooked experience of these volunteers can be used to the deconstruct the idea of a people’s war. Drawing on a range of underused archival sources, the article suggests that this concept remains an important frame of reference, albeit one that was invoked in various ways. It demonstrates that voluntary recycling schemes were led from the bottom-up, shifted the balance of power between private citizens and local authorities, and highlighted difference based on age, socio-economic status, gender, and geographical location. The article concludes that official appeals may have invoked the ‘people’s war’, but the way they were received was of most importance.

The Wartime Social Survey was designed to keep track of civilian morale and test the impact of government policy in Britain during the Second World War. This chapter explores the Survey through the lens of information history, using it as a case study to consider how information was viewed at the time. The chapter begins by reconsidering the infamous ‘Cooper’s Snoopers’ controversy. The affair shows that there was hostility to surveillance, but it overshadows other parts of the Wartime Social Survey’s history. This chapter rectifies the imbalance by showing how the Survey carried out its work. A wider view shows that the Survey’s work extended beyond the wartime emergency it was created to meet. With remarkably little fuss, it established itself as a pioneer in the field of social research and brought policymakers into closer contact with the lives of ordinary people than ever before.

This thesis builds on critical heritage research into the emotions of heritage. Where existing studies show that a visit to a heritage site can be an affective experience, this thesis asks whether the affective practices exhibited at heritage sites can be linked to social and political discourse in England. With this discourse increasingly dominated by emotional truth – what has come to be termed post-truth – it argues that the heritage industry must understand the impact it has on the world beyond its gates. To analyse this impact, a large-scale data collection exercise was undertaken using the review aggregate site Tripadvisor. This generated 28,000 data points from twenty-eight heritage sites of different kinds. The thesis uses a quantitative and qualitative analysis of this data to scaffold a wide theoretical discussion on perceptions of the past in England. This exploration establishes a theory I term ‘the living past’: a conjuncture of the past and present established through personal emotional connections to the past. The thesis then develops the emotional living past to demonstrate how it has given rise to homogenous national pasts in the form of ‘the imagined past’, ‘the equitable past’, ‘the dissonant past’ and ‘the consumable past’. These emotionally held, nationally developed pasts marry with the social and political discourse we find in England’s post-truth debates. This thesis offers a new way of collecting and working with data in heritage studies. By developing theories on the living past and the aforementioned national pasts, it also contributes to critical heritage understandings of emotions within the heritage environment. Most importantly, it demonstrates the link between England’s heritage industry and post-truth social and political discourses – before suggesting ways to break this connection.

The Second World War has frequently been invoked in commentary on Covid-19. The analogy is not always helpful, but we can take lessons from how the wartime government managed Air Raid Precautions and post-raid services. Air Raid Precautions (ARP) were well advanced by the time war was declared, but it is not too late for the government’s response to Covid-19 to catch up. The blackout provides the closest analogy to social distancing. Its success demonstrates that the government needs to communicate clearly the link between people’s behaviour and the national interest, using sanctions consistently. Volunteers were mobilised in large numbers during the Second World War, but were often poorly coordinated and equipped. Current schemes need to foster local networks and communication between volunteers, while existing pools of labour should be redeployed to essential tasks. The wartime government was slow to pivot when its pre-war forecasts proved wrong, causing serious problems for hospital provision and post-raid relief. There are obvious lessons here for an emergency that changes by the hour not the day. Local authorities carried many of the burdens of ARP and post-raid services, but were not given adequate funding to fulfil them consistently. Today’s government must avoid this mistake. The fire service was completely re-organised when its role on the front line became apparent – today’s crisis is already showing signs of flexible thinking, but we argue that this needs to go further and must involve representative bodies. This policy paper is the result of a virtual roundtable focused on Britain’s response to bombing during the Second World War. Convened by Henry Irving and held on 25 March 2020, the discussion brought together a range of expertise on civil contingency planning carried out under the umbrella of Air Raid Precautions (ARP). It was chaired by History & Policy in collaboration with the Centre for Culture and the Arts at Leeds Beckett University. Special thanks go to Alix Mortimer (History and Policy) and Andrew McTominey (Leeds Beckett University) for helping to organise the event and edit the contents.