British Humour and the Second World War: Keep Smiling Through

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Description

This book skilfully combines cutting-edge historical research by leading and emerging researchers in the field to investigate the utilization of British humour during the Second World War as well as its legacy in British popular culture. Juliette Pattinson and Linsey Robb bring together case studies that address a variety of situations in which humour was generated, including wartime jokes, films, radio, cartoons and private drawings, as well as post-war recollections, museum exhibitions and television comedy. By adopting an original interpretative framework of various wartime and post-war sites, this books opens up the possibility for a more variegated, richer analysis of Britains wartime experience and its place thereafter in the cultural imagination. Through the lens of humour, this book promises to add critical nuance to our understanding of the functioning of British wartime society. Covering sources such as The British Cartoon Archive, BBC World War II Peoples War Archive and The Ministry of Information, and including analysis of the lasting role of comedy in Britains memories and depictions of the war, the result is a rich addition to existing literature of use to students and scholars studying the cultural history of war.

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British Humour and the Second World War offers an important intervention in understanding the inner thoughts and mood of the nation in regard to the Second World War. It speaks authoritatively to how people coped with the war and provides a fresh view on how we have come to understand this national moment. * David Clampin, Subject Leader for History, Liverpool John Moores University, UK *

Author Bio

Juliette Pattinson is Professor of History at the University of Kent, UK. Linsey Robb is Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, Northumbria University, UK.