WW1 Britain

World War 1 (1914-1918) is usually remembered as fighting in the trenches in France. In literary terms the poetry and poets of the Great War as it became known, are remembered (see Student Guide to Poets of the First World War). 

But what is it like to be living in a country at war? What happened in Britain in the Second World War (1939-1945) is not only well documented, but it is still in living memory. Policy was developed on the basis of the experience of WW1.  

The shock of WW1 saw everything change. For example, passports and IDs were new - Britain had neither of these before 1914. People informed the Authorities on one another, and were encouraged to do so. Britain became a police state.  People with foreign sounding names were discriminated against - some living in fear of their lives. Spies were everywhere, supposedly. Fear and paranoia about enemy actions were common. Ben Gristwood in his Spies, Invaders & Saboteurs chronicles the growth of war psychosis from the 1870s onwards culminating in a new social reality in wartime Britain. The frontline of WW1 for the home population was the east of England which is the focus of this well researched book.