In anticipation of the 2015 London Rare Book School, this blog post by Dr Henry Irving examines the idea behind the Ministry of Information’s Official War Books series. What gives a book popular appeal? This question was raised repeatedly in the Ministry of Information’s Publications Division during 1941. The way that it was answered led to… Continue reading Propaganda bestsellers: the role of paperbacks in the Second World War
Tag: Second World War
History and communication
Based at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, Professor Simon Eliot and Dr Henry Irving are leading research into the communications history of the Ministry of Information. Their post reflects on how this research has shaped their contributions to the Being Human festival programme, and of the importance of public engagement with humanities… Continue reading History and communication
From the archives: The end of the war and the return of academics to Senate House
The continuous day-and-night occupation with no break at week-ends or holiday times, made routine maintenance difficult. This year’s Bloomsbury Festival takes as a theme the idea of subverting the Ministry of Information as a Ministry of Communication. We talked in detail about this theme in an earlier post (The Ministry of Communication at #BloomsburyFest 2013).… Continue reading From the archives: The end of the war and the return of academics to Senate House
Refugee Week Series: Satire, Exile and World War II
Post by Dr Clare George. The second post, about exile libraries, can be found here. The third post, about refugee protection mechanisms, can be found here. Clare is the archivist working on The Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert Miller Archive: An Austrian Jewish Exile Theatre Collection. Final preparations are underway at the IGRS for the opening of the… Continue reading Refugee Week Series: Satire, Exile and World War II
Atlantic Archive – free access to British government reports on the US from World War II.
Atlantic Archive: UK-US Relations in an Age of Global War 1939-1945 Britain’s relationship with the United States changed fundamentally in the first half of the twentieth century, and the period 1939 to 1945 was particularly significant in this transformation. Britain was overtaken by the United States as the world’s foremost economic power, it became dependent… Continue reading Atlantic Archive – free access to British government reports on the US from World War II.