‘The Invisible Chain by Which All Are Bound to Each Other’: Civil Defence Magazines and the Development of Community During the Second World War

This article uses local collaboratively produced civil defence magazines to examine how community spirit was developed and represented within the civil defence services during the Second World War. It highlights the range of functions which the magazines performed, as well as the strategies employed by civil defence communities to manage their emotions in order to keep morale high and distract personnel from the fear and boredom experienced while on duty. The article also discusses silences in the magazines — especially around the experience of air raids — and argues that this too reflects group emotional management strategies. The significance of local social groups in developing narratives about civil defence and their workplace communities is demonstrated, and the article shows how personnel were able to engage with and refashion dominant cultural narratives of the ‘people’s war’ in order to assert their own status within the war effort

A broken silence? Mass Observation, Armistice Day and ‘everyday life’ in Britain 1937–1941

Between 1937 and 1941 the social survey organization Mass Observation collected material on the ways that the British people experienced and thought about the commemorative practices that marked the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918. What they found was that while people were largely united in their observation of the rituals of remembrance, their thoughts and feelings about these practices were diverse. For some, the acts of commemoration were a fitting way to pay tribute to both the dead and the bereaved. For others, these acts were hypocritical in a nation preparing for war. This article draws on the Mass Observation material to trace some of the diverse ways that remembrance was embodied in everyday life, practised, experienced and understood by the British people as the nation moved once again from peace to war, arguing that studies of the practices of remembrance alone tell us little about how they have been understood by participants

A NEW TRIPLE SPECTROGRAPH FOR USE WITH MULTICHANNEL DETECTORS IN RAMAN AND OTHER APPLICATIONS REQUIRING HIGH STRAY LIGHT REJECTION

Author Institution:A new triple spectrograph, designed to increase the effectiveness and versatility of the multichannel detection concept, will be discussed. To achieve these goals, the system was designed with both concave holographic and plane holographic gratings. This combination provided excellent flexibility and stray light rejection equal to double 1-meter scanning systems. In order to further increase experimental flexibility, a unique 3-lens turreted output system was also added. This allowed the dispersion across the detector to the varied, thus enabling change of the spectral coverage and resolution without changing the grating. Specific examples of data taken with the DL-203 will be discussed. Multichannel detection offers advantages over scanning, such as faster, cleaner data collection and the ability to do real-time kinetic studies

Gender and the First World War:

The First World War focused public attention world-wide on changing gender norms, and in the minds of many, turned gender roles topsy-turvy. From the popular American poster of a young, uniform-clad woman who exclaimed, Gee I wish I were a man to the British recruitment advertisement that asked men to contemplate how they would answer the question, Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War, propaganda materials around the globe highlighted gender as a source of motivation. The war itself disrupted conventional gender norms as women labored in farms and factories, as young men enlisted for martial service, and as a new age of industrial war challenged prior ideas of wartime heroism and valor. The silencing of the guns in 1918 continued discussions of gender norms as societies and nations renegotiated gender norms by confronting the wars varied legacies of suffrage, disability, and memorialization. Historians have investigated these, and many other aspects, of genders role in shaping the conduct and experiences of the First World War. And yet, while the historiography is vast on the subject, scholars continue to interrogate new areas of inquiry and to rethink old questions through new perspectives. The centennial of the wars outbreak offers a natural point to reconsider our understanding of genders functions during the war and to speculate on new directions for scholarship. This roundtable features three scholars whose works have shaped the study of gender and the war and whose current projects outline promising new avenues of investigation. While each scholar brings a particular expertise on a particular region and method of analysis, collectively they have framed the current historiography and represent great potential for future works. Jason Crouthamel, a scholar of German history during the war, will discuss his work on trauma, masculinity, and sexuality. His work highlights diverse perspectives on male gender ideals, including homosexual veterans constructions of comradeship, which help us understand the degree to which ordinary soldiers accepted hegemonic notions of masculinity. Additionally, he will address the challenges of locating archival sources that allow for investigation of the history of male emotions, heterosexuality, and homosexuality during the war. Susan R. Grayzel will turn our attention to questions of femininity, domesticity, and civil defense on the British homefront. While Professor Grayzels seminal work on gender, citizenship, and national identities has framed much of current scholarship on gender, her discussion will encourage the audience to consider womens wartime experiences in new ways and to move beyond archetypal explanations for their work and roles. Tammy M. Proctor brings a focus on the ways the war shaped the experiences of civilians on a number of homefronts. Her remarks will challenge our understanding of the divide between war and home, between masculine and feminine wartime service. Joshua A. Sanborn, who studies violence and identity in Russia during the war and has also written more broadly on war and gender in Europe, will chair the panel and facilitate audience discussion. Each scholar will speak briefly (10 minutes) on the state of the field with respect to her or his particular field of inquiry. More than offering a summary of scholarship, however, each scholar will outline potential new directions for research, unexplored areas of inquiry, and fresh perspectives on old topics. With each scholar speaking for a brief amount of time, the majority of the panel will focus on interaction with the audience and with each other. We envision the panel as a lively discussion in which audience members and panelists contemplate new studies of the role of gender in the war