Allied Communication to the Public During the Second World War: National and Transnational Networks

In the Second World War, the home fronts of many countries became as important as the battle fronts. As governments tried to win and hold the trust of domestic and international audiences, communication became central to their efforts. This volume offers cutting-edge research by leading and emerging scholars on how information was used, distributed and received during the war. With a transnational approach encompassing Germany, Iberia, the Arab world and India, it demonstrates that the Second World War was as much a war of ideas and influence as one of machines and battles. Simon Eliot, Marc Wiggam and the contributors address the main communication problems faced by Allied governments, including how to balance the free exchange of information with the demands of national security and wartime alliances, how to frame war aims differently for belligerent, neutral and imperial audiences and how to represent effectively a variety of communities in wartime propaganda. In doing so, they reveal the contested and transnational character of the ways in which information was conveyed during the Second World War. Allied Communication during the Second World War offers innovative and nuanced perspectives on the thin border between information and propaganda during this global war and will be vital reading for World War II and media historians alike.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Foreword, David Welch (University of Kent, UK) 1. Introduction, Simon Eliot (SAS, University of London, UK) and Marc Wiggam (University of Oslo, Norway) 2. The Ministry of Information on the British Home Front, Henry Irving (Leeds Beckett University, UK) 3. Lend to Defend: The National Savings Committee during the Second World War, Victoria Carolan (University of Greenwich, UK) 4. A Citizen-Soldier ‘Must Know What He Fights For and Love What He Knows’: The work of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs between 1941 and 1945, Stephen Thompson (SAS, University of London, UK) 5. Britain To-day, Bulletins from Britain and Britain: some semi-official British periodicals in the USA during World War Two, Alice Byrne (Aix-Marseille University, France) 6. Teamwork: Carlton Moss, US Propaganda Film, and the Fight for Black Visibility in WWII, Joseph Clark (Simon Fraser University, Canada) 7.Allied War Correspondents’ Resistance to Political Censorship in World War II, Richard Fine (Virginia Commonwealth University, USA) 8. ‘The Rot Must Be Stopped Even At The Cost of Some Public Discussion’: Antisemitism in the Polish Forces as a Crisis of Policy and Public Information, Jim Wald (Hampshire College, USA) 9. ‘For a German Audience We Do Not Use Appeals for Sympathy on Behalf of Jews as a Propaganda Line’: The BBC German Service and the Holocaust, 1938-1945, Stephanie Seul (University of Bremen, Germany) 10. Inventing a New Kind of German: The BBC German Service and the Bombing War, Emily Oliver (University of Warwick, UK) 11. Diverging Neutrality in Iberia: The British Ministry of Information in Spain and Portugal during the Second World War, Christopher Bannister (University of Manchester, UK) 12. ‘Innocent Efforts’: The Brotherhood of Freedom in the Middle East during World War II, Stefanie Wichhart (Niagara University, USA) 13. ‘The Meek Ass Between Two Burdens’? The BBC and India during the Second World War, Chandrika Kaul (University of St Andrews, UK) Index