Material Cultures of Childhood in Second World War Britain

By Gabriel Moshenska

Subjects: World war, 1939-1945, children, History, World war, 1939-1945, social aspects, HISTORY, World War II, Children, great britain, World War, 1939-1945, Children, Great britain, social life and customs, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, Military, Social life and customs, Manners and customs, British Personal narratives, Material culture, World war, 1939-1945, personal narratives, british, War and society, Social aspects, General

Description: Modern warfare is a unique cultural phenomenon. While many conflicts in history have produced dramatic shifts in human behaviour, the industrialized nature of modern war possesses a material and psychological intensity that embodies the extremes of our behaviours, from the total economic mobilization of a nation state to the unbearable pain of individual loss. Fundamentally, war is the transformation of matter through the agency of destruction, and the character of modern technological warfare is such that it simultaneously creates and destroys more than any previous kind of conflict.