‘The secret power of England’

The Athenaeum ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 243-269
Author(s):  
Michael Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Domestic Economy ◽  
World War ◽  
National Agenda ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Scientists And Engineers ◽  
Second World

This chapter, which considers the Second World War and its aftermath, reveals how the clubhouse provided a meeting place for those members whose contribution to the war effort kept them in London in 1939, as it had in 1914, and for those engaged in new debates on economic and moral reconstruction which arose before war broke out, continued throughout hostilities, and shaped the national agenda in 1945. In the case of Arthur Bryant's and Sir Charles Waldstein's own club, the 'secret power of England' was to be found in the lives and work not only of its leading politicians and serving officers who ran the war and became household names, but also its moralists, theologians, and economists who applied their minds to the demands of a future peace. Crucial to the war effort were those less well-known civil servants and intelligence officers, scientists, and engineers who used the clubhouse. While valiant efforts were made to maintain the usual services during the war, many aspects of club life were adversely affected. In its domestic economy, the Athenæum's responses to the exigencies of war were often reminiscent of those recorded in 1914–1918; shortages led to all kinds of restrictions.

Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Edele
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
World War ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Middle Position ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Second World

This chapter turns to the present and explains the implications of the current study for the ongoing debate about the Soviet Union in the Second World War and in particular about the role of loyalty and disloyalty in the Soviet war effort. It argues that this study strengthens those who argue for a middle position: the majority of Soviet citizens were neither unquestioningly loyal to the Stalinist regime nor convinced resisters. The majority, instead, saw their interests as distinct from both the German and the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, ideology remains important if we want to understand why in the Soviet Union more resisted or collaborated than elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

scholarly journals Recalling Victory, Recounting Greatness: Second World War Remembrance in Xi Jinping's China

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Vincent K.L. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Xi Jinping ◽  
World War ◽  
National Unity ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Second World ◽  
Critical Turning Point

Abstract The recent surge in public remembrance of the Second World War in China has been substantially undergirded by a centrally planned and systematically implemented discursive shift which has remained overlooked in the literature. This study examines the revised official narrative by drawing on three cases from China's school curriculum, museums and formal diplomacy. It finds that the once dominant trope of “national victimization” no longer represents the main thrust in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) rhetoric on the Second World War. Under Xi Jinping, this has been replaced by a self-assertive and aspirational narrative of “national victory” and “national greatness,” designed to enhance Beijing's legitimacy and advance its domestic and foreign policy objectives. By emphasizing national unity and CCP–KMT cooperation, the new narrative offers an inclusive and unifying interpretation of China's war effort in which the victory in 1945 has come to rival the 1949 revolution as the critical turning point towards “national rejuvenation.” The increasingly Sino-centric and centrally controlled narrative holds implicit warnings to those challenging Beijing's claim to greatness.

A Quantitative Description of the Henan Famine of 1942

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 2007-2045 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY GARNAUT
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Description ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Political Control ◽  
World War ◽  
Food Markets ◽  
Famine Relief ◽  
Eyewitness Reports ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Bad Weather ◽  
Second World

AbstractThe Henan famine of 1942 occurred during the middle of the Sino-Japanese war, in a province that was divided between Japanese, Nationalist and Communist political control. Partly due to this wartime context, existing accounts of the famine rely almost exclusively on eyewitness reports. This paper presents a range of statistical sources on the famine, including weather records, contemporary economic surveys and population censuses. These statistical sources allow similarities to be drawn between the Henan famine and other famines that occurred during the Second World War, such as in Bengal, when the combination of bad weather, war-induced disruptions to food markets, and the relegation of famine relief to the war effort, brought great hardship to civilians living near the war front.

British Communists, the British Empire and the Second World War

2004 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 117-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Redfern
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Second World War ◽  
British Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Second World

For a few years after its foundation in 1920 the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) attempted, energetically prompted by the Comintern, to work in solidarity with anticolonial movements in the British Empire. But after the Nazi victory in Germany the Comintern's principal concern was to defend the Soviet Union and the liberal democracies against the threat of fascism. British communists criticized the British Government for failing to defend the Empire against the threat from its imperial rivals. After the entry of the Soviet Union into the war in 1941 they vigorously supported the British war effort, including the defense of Empire. This was not though simply a manifestation of chauvinism. British communists believed that imperialism was suffering a strategic defeat by “progressive” forces and that colonial freedom would follow the defeat of fascism. These chimerical notions were greatly strengthened by the allies' promises of postwar peace, prosperity and international cooperation. In the last year or so of war British communists were clearly worried that these promises would not be redeemed, but nevertheless supported British reassertion of power in such places as Greece, Burma and Malaya. For the great majority of British communists, these were secondary matters when seen in the context of Labour's election victory of 1945 and its promised program of social-imperialist reform.

Water powers: the Second World War and the mobilization of hydroelectricity in Canada, the United States, and Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Cohn ◽  
Matthew Evenden ◽  
Marc Landry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Hydroelectric Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Hydroelectric Development ◽  
War Effort ◽  
History Of ◽  
War Production ◽  
Second World

AbstractComparing three of the major hydroelectric power-producing countries during the war – Canada, the United States, and Germany – this article considers the implications of expanding hydroelectricity for war production and strategy, and how wartime decisions structured the longer-term evolution of large technological systems. Despite different starting points, all three countries pursued similar strategies in attempting to mobilize hydroelectricity for the war effort. The different access to and use of hydro in these states produced a vital economic and ultimately military advantage or disadvantage. The global dimensions of hydroelectric development during the war, moreover, demonstrate that this conflict was a turning point in the history of electrification.

GERMAN ESPIONAGE AND BRITISH COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA AND MOZAMBIQUE, 1939–1944

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
KENT FEDOROWICH
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
Intelligence Operations ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Second World

For most of the Second World War, German and Italian agents were actively engaged in a variety of intelligence gathering exercises in southern Africa. The hub of this activity was Lourenço Marques, the colonial capital of Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique). One of the key tasks of Axis agents was to make links with Nazi sympathizers and the radical right in South Africa, promote dissent, and destabilize the imperial war effort in the dominion. Using British, American, and South African archival sources, this article outlines German espionage activities and British counter-intelligence operations orchestrated by MI5, MI6, and the Special Operations Executive between 1939 and 1944. The article, which is part of a larger study, examines three broad themes. First, it explores Pretoria's creation of a humble military intelligence apparatus in wartime South Africa. Secondly, it examines the establishment of several British liaison and intelligence-gathering agencies that operated in southern Africa for most of the war. Finally, it assesses the working relationship between the South African and British agencies, the tensions that arose, and the competing interests that emerged between the two allies as they sought to contain the Axis-inspired threat from within.

The Womanpower Problem in Britain during the Second World War

1984 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 925-945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Women Studies ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
The Status ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Government ◽  
Second World ◽  
Status Of Women

At the national women's conference convened by the government in September 1943 Winston Churchill assured the women delegates that the contribution to the war effort by British women had ‘definitely altered those social and sex balances which years of convention had established’. His belief that the war had brought about profound changes in the status of women was shared by contemporary authors attempting to evaluate the effect of the war on British women. Studies written near the end of the war by Margaret Goldsmith and Gertrude Williams refer to a wartime ‘revolution’ in the position of women. Both authors defined this revolution primarily in terms of the changed position of women workers.

scholarly journals The Union of South Africa Propaganda Campaigns during the World War II

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anli Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
South African ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Media ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
Strategic Imperative ◽  
Second World

THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1939–1945). Part 1: The African Mirror Newsreels IntroductionAccording to Danny Schechter, when one fights a war, "there is a need to create and maintain ties of sentiment between soldiers and citizens, as well as a need for popular mobilisation and media support" (2004:25). During the Second World War the case was no different in South Africa. The Union of South Africa propaganda campaigns in all its forms were aimed at "motivating, managing, and feeding the media" - which in turn fed the nation. This was a key strategic imperative to try to build, strengthen and maintain a consensus and united front behind the war effort (Schechter, 2004:25).The significance of contemporary filmic visualisation or off-screen enactments of war experiences and their place in South African historiography of the Second World War has long been an under-researched area....

The War Guilt Problem and the Ligue des droits de l'homme, 1914-1944

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
War Effort ◽  
French Republicanism ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Significant Addition ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World

This book contributes in important ways to three distinct historical arguments. First and foremost, it is a significant addition to a still small, but growing, literature on the Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH), an organization founded in 1898 at the height of the Dreyfus Affair which lay at the very centre of French Republican politics in the era of the two world wars. It posits that the Ligue was half-dead by its own hand by 1937—well before the Nazi invasion of May 1940—because of its inability to resolve the question of war guilt from the Great War. The issue of war origins and war guilt transfixed it from 1914 down to the Second World War. Secondly, this book expands our understanding of the aetiology of French pacifism, thereby allowing for a deeper awareness of the differences between French and Anglo-American pacifism. It argues that from 1916 onwards one can see a principled dissent from the Union sacrée war effort that occurred within mainstream French Republicanism and not on the syndicalist or anarchist fringes. Finally, the book proposes a new explanatory model to help us understand some of the choices made in Vichy France, moving beyond the usual triptych of collaboration, resistance, or accommodation. This study is based on substantial research in a large number of French archives, primarily in the papers of the LDH which were repatriated to France from the former Soviet Union in late 2001, but also on considerable research in German archives—something other historians of the Ligue have not done. There is thus an exciting primacy of discovery here.

Belonging to Glasgow and Clydeside: Retrieving Regional Subjectivities in Wartime

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Chand
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Individual Male ◽  
Class Environment ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City ◽  
Second World ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Specific Contribution

This chapter examines the extent to which civilian men working in Clydeside during the war possessed distinctive and unique regional subjectivities. The chapter considers issues such as national identity and feelings of solidarity with men working in reserved occupations in other British regions. The chapter primarily argues, however, that distinctive regional aspects to worker subjectivity in Glasgow and Clydeside are revealed in oral testimonies. Much evidence emerges of local pride in industries around the Clyde. While some of this can be linked to the specific contribution of the region to the British war effort, such pride can also be attributed to feelings of deep knowledge, understanding and awareness of the region as a distinct locality, based on the immediacy and proximity of everyday life in the area to the subjectivities of reserved men. Indeed, the majority of oral testimonies reflect the notion that men in reserved occupations in wartime were often indifferent to the idea of ‘imagined’ British nationality, adhering more to local regional subjectivities. The attitudes of women towards male civilian workers, and consequently the subjectivities of reserved workers themselves, were firmly rooted in the immediacy of the distinctive industrial and working class environment of Clydeside. However, such local subjectivity often had a narrower focus than the city of Glasgow or the entity of Clydeside and was restricted to the places and people best known and most familiar to men. Although different levels of collective, ‘imagined’ subjectivity existed during the Second World War and were highly significant, ‘lived’ and continuous local subjectivity was inevitably most relevant to the individual male civilian worker in wartime.

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