Contesting home defence: Men, women and the Home Guard in the Second World War (Cultural History of Modern War) - Softcover

Summerfield, Penny; Peniston-Bird, Corinna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719062020 ISBN 13: 9780719062025

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Contesting home defence is a new history of the Home Guard, a novel national defence force of the Second World War composed of civilians who served as part-time soldiers: it questions accounts of the force and the war, which have seen them as symbols of national unity.

It scrutinises the Home Guard’s reputation and explores whether this ‘people’s army’ was a site of social cohesion or of dissension by assessing the competing claims made for it at the time. It then examines the way it was represented during the war and has been since, notably in Dad’s Army, and discusses the memories of men and women who served in it.

The book makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front and introduces fresh ways of understanding the Second World War.

About this title

About the Authors

Penny Summerfield is Professor of Modern History at the University of Manchester

Penny Summerfield is Professor of Women's History at Manchester University

Corinna Peniston-Bird is Lecturer in History at the University of Lancaster

From the Back Cover

Contesting home defence is a new history of the Home Guard, a novel national defence force of the Second World War composed of civilians who served as part-time soldiers: it questions accounts of the force and the war, which have seen them as symbols of national unity.

It scrutinises the Home Guard’s reputation and explores whether this ‘people’s army’ was a site of social cohesion or of dissension by assessing the competing claims made for it at the time. It then examines the way it was represented during the war and has been since, notably in Dad’s Army, and discusses the memories of men and women who served in it.

The book makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front and introduces fresh ways of understanding the Second World War.

From the Inside Flap

Contesting home defence is a new history of the Home Guard, a novel national defence force of the Second World War composed of civilians who served as part-time soldiers: it questions accounts of the force and the war, which have seen them as symbols of national unity. It scrutinises the Home Guard s reputation and explores whether this people s army was a site of social cohesion or of dissension by assessing the competing claims made for it at the time. It then examines the way it was represented during the war and has been since, notably in Dad s Army, and discusses the memories of men and women who served in it. The book makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front and introduces fresh ways of understanding the Second World War.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719062020
• ISBN 13: 9780719062025
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328