Contesting home defence is a new history of the Home Guard, a novel national defence force of the Second World War composed of civilians who served as part-time soldiers: it questions accounts of the force and the war, which have seen them as symbols of national unity.
It scrutinises the Home Guard's reputation and explores whether this 'people's army' was a site of social cohesion or of dissension by assessing the competing claims made for it at the time. It then examines the way it was represented during the war and has been since, notably in Dad's Army, and discusses the memories of men and women who served in it.
The book makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front and introduces fresh ways of understanding the Second World War.

eBook - PDF
Contesting home defence
Men, women and the Home Guard in the Second World War
- 326 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Contesting home defence
Men, women and the Home Guard in the Second World War
About this book
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Information
Publisher
Manchester University PressYear
2013Print ISBN
9780719062025
9780719062018
eBook ISBN
9781847791542
Table of contents
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of abbreviations
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: contested histories
- Part I: Political challenges
- Part II: Representations
- Part III: Personal testimony
- Appendices
- Select bibliography
- Index
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Yes, you can access Contesting home defence by Penny Summerfield,Corinna Peniston-Bird in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & British History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.