Special Subject: Britain and the Second World War (V1346)
30 credits, Level 6
Autumn and spring teaching
This module concentrates on the impact of the Second World War on social, cultural, economic and political relations in Britain 1938-45. The extent to which the war had a profound impact on British society is the subject of vigorous debate among historians in secondary literature. A complicated historiography exists for many of the topics included in this module, and the reasons for this changing interpretation of the past will be explored.
The topics covered by this module include:
- 1930s appeasement
- civil defence and preparation for war
- civilian evacuation
- the Blitz
- the fall of Chamberlain and the Churchill coalition government
- Dunkirk evacuation
- war economy
- rationing
- agriculture
- women in factories and auxiliary services
- combatants' experience
- D-Day landings
- American service personnel in Britain
- Beveridge report and the post-war welfare state
- the General Election of 1945.
The emphasis of 'Special Subjects' is to examine a particular period in detail using primary sources and subsequent monographs and articles.
Primary sources include: Parliamentary Papers, government publications, contemporary social investigation and comment, contemporaneous essays and monographs, oral historical accounts, memoirs and diaries, films, paintings, poems, photographs, etc. Subsequen