Contesting Home Defence Men Women And The Home Guard In The Second World War 1st Edition Corinna Penistonbird Penny Summerfield Bertrand Taithe Peter Gatrell Max Jones Ana Cardencoyne by Corinna Peniston-bird; Penny Summerfield; Bertrand Taithe; Peter Gatrell; Max Jones; Ana Carden-coyne 9781847791542, 1847791549 instant download after payment.

Contesting home defence is a new history of the Home Guard, a novel national defence force of the Second World War composed of civilians who served as part-time soldiers: it questions accounts of the force and the war, which have seen them as symbols of national unity. It scrutinises the Home Guard's reputation and explores whether this 'people's army' was a site of social cohesion or of dissension by assessing the competing claims made for it at the time. It then examines the way it was represented during the war and has been since, notably in Dad's Army, and discusses the memories of men and women who served in it. The book makes a significant and original contribution to debates concerning the British home front and introduces fresh ways of understanding the Second World War.