Advertising and Propaganda in World War II: Cultural Identity and the Blitz Spirit

The Blitz—the period of Nazi bombing campaigns on civilian Britain during World War II—was a formative period for British national identity. In this book, the author looks at the images, campaigns and slogans which helped to form the fabled "Blitz spirit"—powerfully echoed in Winston Churchill's speeches. Because advertisers attempted to capitalise on war-time patriotism, the author's unique focus on advertising provides a visually rich seam of new information on the everyday war, and makes an enormous contribution to the debate on people's experiences of war and nationalism. Using a hitherto unseen range of primary source material—advertisements in the press, slogans and posters—this work aims to reshape the contested meanings of the "Home Front," opening up cultural history discourses on gender and nationalism.