Nine Wartime Lives: Mass Observation and the Making of the Modern Self

by James Hinton

James Hinton uses diaries kept by nine 'ordinary' people in wartime Britain to re-evaluate the social history of the Second World War, and to reflect on the twentieth-century making of the modern self.

These diaries were written by some of the unusually self-reflective and public-spirited people who agreed to write intimate journals about their daily activity for the social research organisation, Mass Observation. One of the nine diarists discussed is Nella Last, whose published diaries have been a source of delight and fascination for many thousands of readers. Alongside her there are chapters on eight other Mass Observers, each in their own way as vivid, interesting, and surprising as Nella herself.

A central insight underpins the in seeking to make the best of our own lives, each of us makes selective use of the resources of our shared culture in a unique way; and, in so doing, we contribute, however modestly, to molecular processes of historical change. Placing individuals at the centre of his analysis, James Hinton probes the impact of war on attitudes to citizenship, the changing relationships between men and women, and the search for meanings in life that could transcend the wartime context of limitless violence.

Consistently sensitive, thoughtful and often moving, this beautifully written book resists nostalgic contrasts between the presumed dutiful citizenship of wartime Britain and contemporary anti-social individualism, pointing instead to longer run processes of change rooted as much in struggles for personal autonomy in the private sphere as in the politics of active citizenship in public life.

274 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Rae O’Shea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would have been a lot better if he let the Diaries speak for themselves. I could read Nella Last’s Diaries repeatedly and find them interesting. Her writing takes you right into the fabric of her life. This book does not and unfortunately it goes downhill from there.

[Skyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given it five stars if only it were made twice as long by containing more excerpts from the diaries. The nine lives included my beloved Nella Last.

[Roger Gault · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made a mistake - I didn't check the goodreads reviews, trusting some others. Oops!

I've enjoyed the other MO collections I have read. One of my life-long quests is trying to understand what people of the past had in their heads -what were they thinking and what did they do about it. MO and their writers have done a good job of helping me down that trail.
The people in this book seem fine for revealing what WWII Britain, but the author seems to be filtering their diaries through his own thoughts in order to accomplish some sort of argument with other social history history academics - rather than letting them speak for themselves. There were nearly no actual diary quotations.

If you want to know the people, don't bother with this book.

[Gill · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a struggle. It just didn't live up to expectations, with too much editorial and far too little of the actual MO diary entries.
Second half better than the first.