The Home Front: Civilian Life in World War Two

This book deals with the experiences of those at home during the conflict of the Second World War, from mothers and children to voluntary organizations. Using significant events as markers, Peter Cooksley comments upon the differing experiences of these individual groups, using many previously unpublished or little-known accounts, from newspapers and interviews, and then explains these events in the wider context of the general conflict. The material examined here includes the declaration of war, the blackout, evacuation, the flood of government advice, the first bombs on the British Isles, rationing, petrol measures, travel restrictions, new faces in Parliament, the Beaverbrook touch, women's work in factories, evacuees brought home prematurely, ways to boost savings, the Bevin boys, propaganda, films, entertainment, and the differences in society by the end of war and what this meant for the future.