But then in September 1938 came Munich, and Neville Chamberlain’s three trips to meet Hitler to avert the outbreak of war. Some of the personal reactions recorded by Mass Observation in 1938 feel remarkably familiar. Life’s too short to keep on with war, war, war.” And another woman adds: “Oh, when I see the paper I turn the page over. In 1938, Mass Observation saw its primary purpose as drilling through the patriotic rhetoric of Fleet Street newspapers to the land that Irish poet Louis MacNeice described as “the kingdom of individuals”. There they would be: sober, factual, grave and rarely consulted; but always warning against the ultimate crisis, like an old-fashioned sermon on hell.

Source: The Guardian December 08, 2018 06:00 UTC