I will be presenting at the CONTED Graduate School Doctoral Research Seminar on Friday 20 June at Rewley House, Oxford.
The paper is titled ‘The People’s War, Tom Wintringham and the 1945 General Election’ and here is the abstract:
The historian David Edgerton recently argued that scholars of Britain during the Second World War should abandon the ‘people’s war’ concept as a way of assessing wartime society. But what does the term really mean, where did it come from, and is it still useful? This presentation will aim to answer these questions and in doing so shall explore how the 1945 General Election unfolded in Hampshire, with particular emphasis on the wartime writing of Tom Wintringham. Wintringham was an Oxford educated Spanish Civil War veteran and inspiration behind the formation of the Home Guard. He was also a founding member of Common Wealth, who were a rather idealistic socialist party, and stood as their candidate for Aldershot at the 1945 General Election. The surprising landslide victory for the Labour Party is often portrayed as the inevitable consequence of a ‘people’s war’ and it may still prove to be an insightful way to approach any study of the British home front.
For information on the other speakers and to register to attend either in-person or online, please visit the following link:
https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/events/view/doctoral-research-seminar-20th-june