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2 - Mobilisation

from Part I - The Military and Political Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2019

Jonathan Fennell
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

The argument that the Second World War was a ‘good’ war has led to a ‘mythologised version’ of the conflict in the public consciousness. The war is remembered as Britain’s ‘Finest Hour’, when people, ‘both the “ordinary people” and the privileged put aside their everyday involvements and individual concerns, joined hands, and came to the nation’s defence. Public memories of the war continue to recall this as a historical moment when the nation was truly united.’ To many, the conflict was ‘one of the rare times in the past hundred years when the country lived up to what the British citizens thought it was’. This perception was no less powerful across the Dominions, if not India. It has been argued that the Second World War was for the Australians a genuine ‘people’s war, a war to abolish the injustice and insecurity’ of the interwar years.

Type
Chapter
Information
Fighting the People's War
The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War
, pp. 52 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Mobilisation
  • Jonathan Fennell, King's College London
  • Book: Fighting the People's War
  • Online publication: 21 January 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139380881.003
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  • Mobilisation
  • Jonathan Fennell, King's College London
  • Book: Fighting the People's War
  • Online publication: 21 January 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139380881.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Mobilisation
  • Jonathan Fennell, King's College London
  • Book: Fighting the People's War
  • Online publication: 21 January 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139380881.003
Available formats
×