Britain and 1940

1940 was the most significant year in European history this century. Its reverberations are still with us. But the implication of what happened in 1940 have meant different things in different countries. For Britain it was ‘the finest hour’, the beginning of a People’s War. How did people foresee 1940 before it happened? How were representations changed over the years? What does 1940 mean now? This book covers the pre-history of 1940 in Britain, tracing the great fear that a second world war would perhaps mean the end of British civilisation. It charts the development in wartime culture and popular politics of the myths of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. It describes the varied ways in which the myths of 1940 have impacted on British politics and attitudes to the outside world since. Malcolm Smith argues that myths are historical events in their own right, that they form conceptions of the past, that they need explanation rather than exposure as ‘lies’. The book presents a panorama of the influences that have constructed national consciousness around a crucial moment in British history.

Author Biography

Malcolm Smith is Senior Lecturer and Chair of History at the University of Wales, Lampeter. He teaches in the field of War Studies and British popular culture and his previous publications include British Politics, Society and the State (Macmillan, 1990).