Our Longest Days: A People's History of the Second World War

by Sandra Koa Wing (Editor)

For six years the people of Britain endured bombs and the threat of invasion, and more than 140,000 civilians were killed or seriously wounded. Men and women were called to serve in the armed forces in record numbers, and everyone experienced air raids and rationing. In these terrible times, volunteers of almost every age, class and occupation wrote diaries for the "Mass Observation" project, which was set up in the 1930s to collect the voices of ordinary men and women.

Using many diaries that have never been published before, this book tells the story of the war - the military conflict, and, mainly, life on the home front - through these voices. Through it all, people carry on living their lives, falling in love, longing for a good meal, complaining about office colleagues or mourning allotment potatoes destroyed by a bomb.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Biography Memoir, Research, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2008

Reviews

[Mary Shafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting and enlightening book. When it comes to WWII, we so often hear the stories of the governments, the combatant soldiers and other service people, and the battles. But we rarely get a glimpse into the everyday lives of regular people in countries where the war was taking place on a daily basis. It's easy, especially as an American reader, to forget that while we lived in relative safety here across the ocean, residents on nearly every other continent often found themselves subject to bombings, land- and air-based attacks, rationing far more strict than that imposed on Americans, and other privations and dangers we can only imagine. With this book, we no longer have to use our imaginations to know for sure what the British people went through. These stories were culled from the Mass Observations Scheme, a government program in which everyday people were encouraged to record their personal experiences during the war. I feel it was interesting that the British government was self-aware enough to realize that in the future, there would be people interested in this history-in-the-making.

Representing Britons from all parts of the island, "Our Longest Days" also brings perspectives from citizens from every walk of life: housewives, soldiers, public servants, factory workers, "land girls" and others. I found the journals of married women particularly illuminating, not just about the war, but also about their perspectives on gender inequality, their knowledge that their political views were of no value to men though they were often well-informed and insightful, and their general outlooks on life at the time. I think the biggest value in this book is that it reveals the commonalities between the lives of all people everywhere and in every time; that they are so much greater, really, than the political and ideological differences that keep us apart and that cause such wars as this describes.

I've read several books now based on the Mass Observation Scheme, and all are equally compelling. I did appreciate the care with which editor Sandra Koa Wing selected and edited these entries. The writers she chose to share and the way she grouped them chronologically helps the reader move through the war in much the same way the observers did, and very much helps put the reader in that period and frame of mind. I was sad to learn that, having been the Mass Observation's first Development Officer, she died the same year this book was published, 2007, at just 28 years of age. What promise she showed as a researcher and historian! Since this book was the second printing in 2008, I so hope she lived long enough to see this project to fruition in its first edition.

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020 bk 164. Part of the Mass Observation Diaries collection, this book features on a number of Britains who lived in and around London for the most part. One young lady worked in the land army as a gardener, her sister did the books and worked in her family's garage/store. Other folks were retired, married, some employed in new war work, others in jobs they had most of their lives. Most adjusted to the rationed diet, limits they were asked to put on their lives. Reading this during our state's stay at home to gradual opening was very interesting, especially the parts about the gradual relighting of England after the war. I though it was a sudden, wars over, lights are on, but according to this, it was handled in a slow way. A very interesting read.

[Margaret Galbraith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing account of first hand knowledge during September 1939 to September 1945 during WWII with Britain and Germany. The diaries of mainly middle class English people for the Mass Observation project it’s such a shame they did not focus more on working class but most in this are either University students or retired Engineers and wives of similar classes. It must have been an horrific time for all. I wonder if anything like this was conducted in Scotland as my uncle was killed in the Royal Navy not long after he joined up. Bombed at sea. My daughter Kylie an Historian herself found the war record for me. I just wish I’d found it when mum was alive and her siblings but perhaps better not to know. I have his water logged military bible with a hand written note inside “all hell broken lose …”! It was a report on human error caused the catastrophe.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A panoramic look via the lives of volunteers who signed up to write their own impressions during the war years. All of the writers are average British citizens and they simply state their day to day life events along with feelings, impressions and observations. The concept was genius and those who read the first person accounts will certainly feel as if they are there with the writers.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. A bit choppy with so many different voices, but great for an overall feel.

[Olly Mogs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it, just wished it could have been longer and we got to know the diarists a bit more

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been completely immersed in the war years through this fascinating and personal book.[return][return]Mass Observation is a social research organisation, founded in 1937, with the aim of creating an "anthropology of ourselves" - a study of the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain. The information was gathered in various ways, including a team of paid observers and a national volunteer panel of writers. People were interviewed on a number of topics and filled in monthly directives on themes such as jokes, eating habits, money and marriage. In August 1939, with war approaching, the organisation asked its panel to keep diaries to record their daily lives and selections from fifteen of these diaries are included in Our Longest Days. They make fascinating reading.[return][return]From Sandra Koa Wing s introduction:[return][return] It is worth noting, however, that the diarists did not represent a true cross-section of British society during the war. Although they came from a variety of backgrounds, and from different regions, most of them were middle-class, well-read and articulate. They tended to be people with a natural capacity for observing and for recording what they observed. Moreover, on the whole their political leanings tended towards left of centre; several were pacifists or conscientious objectors. [return][return]Because they are personal accounts there is that sense of being actually there during the air raids, hearing Churchill s speeches, reading the newspaper reports, experiencing the grief at the number of casualties and deaths and the terrible devastation of the war, the food and clothes rationing and the excitement of D-Day. There is also the hopelessness of the defeats during the first years of the war, the weariness as it went on and on, the yearning for peace and then the excitement, the anticipation and the anti-climax of VE Day and VJ Day.[return][return]The main events of each year are summarised before the diary entries for that year, which I found very useful as a quick guide to set the diaries in the context of world events. I began to feel as though I knew the people who wrote the diaries, so the brief biographies are the end were also interesting as there were brief details about what happened to them after the war. There are also a number of photographs, an excellent index and a selection of further reading of Mass Observation publications and other histories of Britain in the Second World War together with a list of related websites.[return][return]I think one of my favourites is Muriel Green, who was 19 when the war began. She became a land girl and moved around the country. On her 21st birthday she was working as an under-gardener at Huntley Manor in Gloucester. She wrote:[return][return] I shan t forget my 21st birthday. Apart from getting two greetings telegrams and achieving the first bath for nearly a month it has been the last word in flat. Totally depressing in fact. Life wasn t all depressing fro Muriel and she is one person who kept mainly optimistic and in October 1944 she reflected: It seemed strange to think that the war had been on over five years and how little different it was for us in spite of the ravages of war and what some had gone through. & Of course it will never be the same again, but there are many families with far greater losses than our petty grumbles. [return][return]Muriel s family was among the lucky ones. Not so Kenneth Redmond s whose brother Tom was killed in action. His entry on 11 November 1944 reads:[return][return] This day only means Remembrance of Tom War and its horrors, Peace and the best of life that it can bring all these things will mean to me Tom. I get very morbid when I think of it. [return][return]Herbert Brush was 70 in 1939. He was living in south London, a keen gardener, art lover, reader and writer of verse. He wrote diary entries from September 1940 to March 1951 and I particularly liked the personal details he included. He couldn t buy any razor blades in June 1942 and at the same time he was wondering how accurate the reports of the numbers of casualties reported by the Germans and Russians were, thinking of how pleasant it was to read about so many Nazis being slaughtered and noting the number of different pronunciations of Nazi .[return][return] Churchill says Nazzi , others say Nartzi , or Nertzi of Nassie . I like Churchill s best as he puts a snarl into the word. [return]My dad must have liked Churchill s best too as that is how he said it.[return][return]Margaret Forster is quoted on the front cover: I relished all these diaries . Me too. An excellent book.

[Cate's Book Nut Hut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoy these first hand accounts of WWII, but if you find it a bit daunting to read at one sitting, they are easy to leave and come back to.

However, this is not how I read these Mass Observation Project books. I read this over the course of a week, and felt like I had visited with the narrators. Sandra Koa Wing, the Editor, did a great job of selecting entries from a diverse age-group, and giving different view-points for the exact dates of events. The entries are candid, down-to-earth, and poignant,and do not regret one minute sharing their journey.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this after reading "Nella Last's War", which concentrated on one person and her wartime diaries. I missed the linear narrative from one person, but I liked the fact that we would get different points of view on one day's events. I think my only regret about this book is that it didn't carry on a little bit longer, past the end of the war. I guess I'll have to look for another book for that!

[93bcn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review here.

[Barbara Mader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find the Mass Observation Project fascinating--have read a few of the books that have sprung from the projects, and will undoubtedly read more.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating information about daily life in Britain during World War II.

[Ames · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent first hand narrative of life during and after the 2nd World War.