Men in reserve: British civilian masculinites in the Second World War
Juliette Pattinson, Arthur McIvor, and Linsey Robb
Abstract
This book focuses on working class civilian men who as a result of working in reserved occupations were exempt from enlistment in the armed forces. It utilises fifty six newly conducted oral history interviews as well as autobiographies, visual sources and existing archived interviews to explore how they articulated their wartime experiences and how they positioned themselves in relation to the hegemonic discourse of military masculinity. It considers the range of masculine identities circulating amongst civilian male workers during the war and investigates the extent to which reserved workers ... More
This book focuses on working class civilian men who as a result of working in reserved occupations were exempt from enlistment in the armed forces. It utilises fifty six newly conducted oral history interviews as well as autobiographies, visual sources and existing archived interviews to explore how they articulated their wartime experiences and how they positioned themselves in relation to the hegemonic discourse of military masculinity. It considers the range of masculine identities circulating amongst civilian male workers during the war and investigates the extent to which reserved workers draw upon these identities when recalling their wartime selves. It argues that the Second World War was capable of challenging civilian masculinities, positioning the civilian man below that of the ‘soldier hero’ while, simultaneously, reinforcing them by bolstering the capacity to provide and to earn high wages, both of which were key markers of masculinity.
Keywords:
Working Class,
Masculinities,
Reserved Occupations,
Civilian Men,
‘Soldier Hero’,
Second World War,
Work,
Oral History
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781526100696 |
| Published to Manchester Scholarship Online: May 2017 |
DOI:10.7228/manchester/9781526100696.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Juliette Pattinson, author
Reader in Modern History at the University of Kent
Arthur McIvor, author
Professor in Social History and Director of the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde
Linsey Robb, author
Senior Lecturer in History at Teesside University
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