Reporting the Second World War: The Press and the People 1939-1945 [Paperback]

The decisive role of Britain's wartime newspaper journalism in shaping public opinion and government policy has been majorly overlooked. Much of the existing historiography has framed Britain's newspapers as mouthpieces of state propaganda, readily conforming to the wishes of the wartime coalition. Tim Luckhurst challenges this through an analysis of illuminating and largely forgotten controversies which underscore the function the press held as guardians of democracy and propagators of dissenting opinion in British politics and society - from the overseas evacuation of children to the Allies' carpet bombing of German cities.

Reporting the Second World Waris a timely and important intervention that duly recognises the place of national, regional and specialist titles in speaking truth to power in a democracy at war.

Tim Luckhurst's magisterialReporting the Second World War: The Press and the People 1939-1945does two things: It provides a scholarly, deeply-researched account of how British journalists reported the Second World War, and, in doing so, it shines a light on the practices of journalism. That a history book should succeed in doing both things is a mighty achievement. Journalism

Reporting the Second World Waris a book which makes you feel good and proud to be a journalist and leaves you with the feeling that the history of journalism itself can be written with so much more optimism, truth and inspiration. The Journal: Magazine of the Chartered Institute of Journalists

Reporting the Second World War: The Press and the People, 1939-1945is an impressive and important contribution to media studies of the Second World War. It is l£.