UC Historian David Monger’s chapter, ‘Press and Propaganda’, has recently appeared in the collection The British Home Front and the First World War, edited by Sir Hew Strachan and published by Cambridge University Press. The collection builds on a 2018 conference at St Andrews University, funded by the British and Scottish governments as the academic capstone of official events marking the centenary of the First World War. David’s chapter, drawing on more than a decade’s research, summarises the activities of the press and propagandists across the four nations of the United Kingdom. It rejects outdated assumptions about deception and manipulation, noting the shift in scholarly understanding of wartime propaganda in recent years. Instead it discusses the regular emphasis on voluntary participation in all aspects of Britain’s war effort as a constant of press and propaganda commentary. Such emphases created an inclusive environment in which all Britons could take part and demonstrated convictions that, when informed of the need, most citizens would choose to act. However, they also laid the groundwork for the greater compulsion of British citizens if voluntary action was insufficient.
The chapter can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025874.030
