“Totalitarianism by Consent”: The British Press during the People’s War, 1939-45 [Dr Kris Lovell, Research Seminar Series]

Weds 21 October, 16:00

This paper explores the political role of the British popular press during the Second World War. By drawing on quantitative and qualitative research, this paper explores the wartime popular press’ political role during a time of rationing (a strangely neglected subject in British historiography) and aims to provide a greater understanding of the relationship between the press and the Government. It challenges earlier assumptions that the British popular press acted as a bastion of democracy during the war by examining the press’ willingness to allow the country to become ‘totalitarian by the common consent of the nation’ and the implications this has for our traditional understanding of British wartime society.