The People’s Game and the People’s War: Football, Nation and Class in Britain, 1939-1945
Abstract
The image of World War Two as a
‘people’s war,’ during which a new sense of British national identity was forged,
has initiated considerable scholarly inquiry in recent years. Some have argued
for a remaking of Britishness during the war, seeing it as period when popular
consciousness of the ‘national’ was enhanced and notions of communal and
collective identities increasingly articulated. Others have outlined the limitations
of the ‘people’s war’ rhetoric, flagging up the tensions, divisions and social
distinctions which continually threatened to destabilise the government’s
call to unity. This article breaks new ground in arguing that football became a
key emblem both of the people and the nation in wartime Britain. Valued as a
source of home front morale, and a means of keeping war workers fit and
healthy, the game was also increasingly recognised as central to ordinary British
life; part of the routine and rhythm of the everyday. However, as an emblem
of the ‘nation,’ and competing ideas of what constituted it, the ‘people’s
game’ was also a site for expressions of disunity, division and dissatisfaction.
Drawing on a mixture of official archives and private collections, as well as on
representations in the popular press and on the radio, this article explores three
main areas: the relationship between the wartime government and the game;
the connections made between football and class identity; and the interaction
between nation and region in the treatment and representation of football.
Description
Citation : Taylor, M. (2015) The People’s Game and the People’s War: Football, Nation and Class in Britain, 1939-1945. Historical Social Research, 40 (4), pp. 270-297
ISSN : 0172-6404
Research Institute : Institute of History
Peer Reviewed : Yes
Collections
- School of Humanities [1781]