War and the British - Gender and National Identity, 1939-91

List of contents

1. British National Identity, Gender and the Second World War: An Introduction
2. Making Histories: The Popular Memory of the Second World War
3. The Public Construction of Gender Roles in Wartime
4. Mass-Observation, Gender and National Identity in the Second World War
5. Gender, National Identity and Memory: The Falklands War
6. Gender, National Identity and Memory: The Gulf War
Conclusion

About the author

Lucy Noakes is Rab Butler Chair of Modern History at the University of Essex, UK.

Summary

Popular memory of World War II was the dominant factor contributing to a sense of national identity in the Falklands War of 1982 and the Gulf War of 1991. This text looks at public and private ideas of national identity, how they were arrived at and the extent to which they were shaped by gender. It provides a synthesis between the key concepts of "national identity", "popular memory" and gender as a social and cultural construct. Recent studies of World War II, and popular memory of the war, have focused on the extent to which it is remembered as a "people's war". This book builds on this work by examining how ideas about gender shaped the experiences of the war and its memory and concludes that despite women's wartime role in "total war", men in the armed forces were encouraged to regard themselves as being bound together in unity by masculinity and common experience, while women remained individuals with prime responsibilities to home and family. Their role as active participants remained "problematic" and remained so even the Gulf War in 1991.

Foreword

This text looks at public and private ideas of national identity in times of war, how they were arrived at and the extent to which they were shaped by gender.

Product details

• Authors: Lucy Noakes, Noakes Lucy
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.12.2020, delayed
• EAN: 9781350183162
• ISBN: 978-1-350-18316-2
• No. of pages: 232
• Series: Social and Cultural History Today
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > General, dictionaries; Cultural Studies, HISTORY / Social History, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Peace, Social & cultural history, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Feminism & feminist theory, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Social and cultural history, c 1938 to c 1946 (World War Two period), Peace studies and conflict resolution, Feminism and feminist theory, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), Peace studies & conflict resolution, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period)