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“Floods? Snow? Swine Flu? Terrorist Threats? “Keep Calm and Carry On”
During the Second World War, the British government sought to use appropriate communications tools to convey policy to the populace, whether via posters, newspapers, radio, or legislation. Resource restrictions meant that there was not always a free choice in which to use.
Sound familiar? It should.”
Read the full abstract.
Strand: Either: ‘Death and the Arts’ or ‘Death and Culture’
Title: Death at War
Abstract:
In the Second World War, the second ‘total war’ of the Twentieth Century, death was a daily reality for both those on the fighting fronts and those on the Home Front in Britain. The Ministry of Information (MOI), officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine, working with other official bodies, including the War Office. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’.
Posters produced by the MOI needed to deal with the ever-present reality of death, whilst it was often difficult to be too realistic, as graphic images of death would not necessarily have been well received. How did governmental bodies deal with the representation of death, ensuring that the seriousness of their message was conveyed, whilst avoiding too “starkly realistic posters” for those who “already knew so much of reality”. Are there clear differences between the images aimed at soldiers, industrial worker and civilians? Was humour ever seen as an appropriate tool in relation to the possibility of death? What were some of the more subtle symbols of death which recurred within wartime posters, particularly within health and “Careless Talk” campaigns?
Biographical Details:
Dr Bex Lewis is Lecturer in History, Associate Lecturer in Media Studies and Blended Learning Fellow at the University of Winchester. The focus of her research is upon British propaganda posters, further information can be found on http://www.ww2poster.co.uk. Her most recent publication is a chapter for London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design, and she was a major contributor to: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/.
For more: Facebook Group: Death at Winchester
Currently preparing for the conference: Men at War: Masculinities, Identities and Cultures, Looking forward to presenting an image-laden paper! Gender theory is not exactly my field, but I have found it interesting dablling, and looking for ways to apply my other knowledge. Meantime, early start to the conference, and I’m one of the first panels… looking forward to meeting new people – and Julie Anderson and Ana Carden-Coyne who I knew from University of Manchester!
On 10-11 September 2009, the ‘Group for War and Culture Studies‘, University of Westminster are holding a 2-day international conference “Men at War: Masculinities, Identities, Cultures”, at Swansea University (in association with Gender & Society and Conflict & Memory research groups). I submitted an abstract for a paper, which has now been accepted. The abstract , within the theme of ‘War Propaganda and Masculine Identities’, was as follows:s
“Men at Work: Visible and Invisible Men in Second World War Posters”
Dr Bex Lewis, Honorary Research Fellow/Associate Lecturer, University of Winchester
The Ministry of Information (MOI), officially formed at the outbreak of the Second World War, was the central governmental publicity machine. Its role was to tell the citizen ‘clearly and swiftly what he is to do, where he is to do it, how he is to do it and what he should not do’.
Considering posters produced by the MOI during the Second World War, this paper will identify masculine identities, both visible and invisible, defined as ‘normal’. These images were interpreted by artists, accepted by the government, and published in wartime posters aimed at the ‘civilian army’.
Image courtesy of Onslow’s Auctioneers.
Swine Flu
The world is gripped by the fear of Swine Flu, as the World Health Organisation upgrades the current level of pandemic alert from phase 4 to 5. This does need to be kept in perspective as it is an unfortunate fact that thousands die every year from bog standard flu, and the current epidemic has not led to deaths in Europe at least.
Keep Calm and Carry On
However, this does give an option for the Keep Calm and Carry On to yet again be put to another use, and Zazzle is straight on it with “Keep Calm and Don’t Sneeze” – yet another clever use of the slogan, and its accompanied monetisation. They are not the only ones to pick up on the connection, as has Simon Calder, Jayne Dowle, Deborah Orr, Dan Ariely, South Wales Argus, Vince in Vancouver, and The Moustacho. Thanks to @SimplerDave on Twitter for pointing this out to me via Twitter!
Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases
Just wondering how long before these images make their way out again (I’m giving a paper on this in September). I was talking about this with someone a couple of years ago, as the flu jab leaflets looked distinctly Second World War style – and I guess they were aimed at that generation! Meantime, watch this 1945 video.
Conference proposal for “Framing Film” at the University of Winchester.
Working Title: ‘Selling a Healthy War’: propaganda posters and public information films produced by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Read the rest of this entry »
Centre for Metropolitan History: 13 November 2002
The creation of a healthy society was, perhaps, the dominant concern of social reformers in the first half of the twentieth century and many historians have considered the legislative processes through which such a society was produced. What have, hitherto, been little studied, are the locations in which the ideolgies of a healthy society were produced, especially in the inter-war decades. It is the aim of this workshop, using London as a case study, to investigate how social reformers developed particular models, practices and environments of reform in order to re-make London’s population into a race of healthy, active and educated citizens between the end of the Great War in 1918 and the declaration of the Second World War in September 1939.
Institute of Historical Research: 3rd-5th July 2002
“This year sees the fiftieth anniversary of Past and Present and one of the purposes of the seventy-first Anglo-American Conference is to mark and to celebrate this half-century. First published in February 1952, Past and Present has long been recognised as one of the foremost historical journals in the English-speaking world. From the very beginning, it sought to encompass the whole of human history, to draw its contributors from around the globe, to encourage controversy and disagreement, to welcome approaches and contributions provided by other disciplines, and to address large issues and broad themes in prose that was both scholarly and accessible.
But as befits a journal which has constantly sought to stress the interconnectedness of the past and present, and to identify and stimulate new approaches to the study of history, this anniversary conference will be primarily concerned with a timely and substantive task: to ask how and why and where and by whom the past has been – and still is – regularly re-written.
This continual re-writing is partly because of the dynamic inherent in the scholarly process; but it is also because of broader changes and specific imperatives in politics, society and culture. Under the general heading of ‘Re-Writing the Past’, the conference will explore such themes as: the liquidation of the past; the invention and dis-invention of tradition; the politics of historiographical revision; history as myth, memory and identity; the creation and contestation of historical epochs and periods; competing versions of the same past; history as propaganda and history as protest; history as orthodoxy and history as heresy; globalisation, IT and world history.”
drbexl
