“Their Finest Hour”: Britain and World War 2

Explaining appeasement

• Realist politics• Was GER a “rational actor”?• British public opinion re. war

PM Neville Chamberlain, a popular hero upon returning form Berlin. The

British public wanted peace.

World War 2

• Emergency Powers Act, Sept. ‘39• “The Phony War”• GER into Scandinavia, Apr. 1940• Dunkirk, 26 May – 4 June 1940• The Battle of Britain• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcPFNSkGZx4

The war economy

• Return of war cabinet• Civilian conscription, 20%• Women and the war

– 1941: registration between 19 and 30

• Rationing and new gov’t roles– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t60fPQoSmIk

• Lend-Lease Act, Mar. ‘41

A ration-book from 1941

The General Election of 1945• Clement Atlee, Labour PM• Social consequences of “wartime

welfare”– Reduction in class barriers– Employment and social “leveling”– Shift in public’s expectations of the

state– Beveridge Report, 1942– 1944 Education Act

• Conservatives’ prewar burdens

Mary Everitt in 1942, age 11