Half the Battle

How well did civilian morale stand up to the pressures of total war and what factors were important to it? This work offers a robust rejection of contentions that civilian morale fell a long way short of the favourable picture presented during World War II and in hundreds of books and films ever since. It acknowledges that some negative attitudes and behaviours existed - panic and defeatism, ration-cheating and black-marketeering, looting, absenteeism and strikes - but argues that these involved a very small minority of the population. Robert Mackay demostrates how government policies for the maintainence of morale were put in place, giving special emphasis to the patriotic feeling that held the nation together despite the official pessimistic prognosis in the initial stages of the war.