Allied Communication to the Public During the Second World War - by Simon Eliot & Marc Wiggam (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Simon Eliot is Professor Emeritus of the History of the Book at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK. He is a general editor of The History of Oxford University Press (2014) and the co-editor of A Companion to the History of the Book (2009), with Jonathan Rose. He has just directed an AHRC-funded project on the history of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46.

Marc Wiggam is Senior Lecturer in International History at the University of Oslo. He is the author of The Blackout in Britain and Germany, 1939-1945 (2018).