Berry Mayall

Virginia Morrow

Bringing in the harvest. Watching for enemy aircraft. Rescuing survivors from the wreckage of bombed houses. Keeping the family business running when parents were enlisted into war-work. These are just a few examples of how children and young people made substantial contributions to the war effort during the Second World War. You Can Help Your Country: English children’s work during the Second World War reveals the remarkable, hidden history of children as social agents who actively participated in a national effort during a period of crisis. This highly-illustrated volume draws on interviews with people who were school-age during the war, on archives and on school histories which recorded wartime activities as well as children’s accounts of their experiences at the time. Children expressed both positive and negative views of their work: exhilaration and exhaustion, pride and resentment, delight in new freedoms and anger at deprivation. Applying a sociological approach, the authors outline the social history of childhood during the first half of the twentieth century, documenting heated debates about the ‘proper’ activities of children and analysing the thinking that questioned class-based childhoods and schooling and promoted better health and better educational opportunities. In this context, they examine how children responded to appeals to ‘do their bit’ as urged through government poster campaigns, BBC radio broadcast programmes for schools, propaganda films and children’s fiction. This is a stimulating, entertaining and scholarly contribution to the history of childhood, which will enable the reader to think about ideas of childhood today and their rights, as citizens, to participate in the social and political life of their society. It will be essential reading for academics, researchers and students in the field of educational sociology and more widely, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in social history and war studies.

English Children's Work During the Second World War

You Can Help Your Country

First published in 2011, You Can Help Your Country: English children’s work during the Second World War reveals the remarkable, hidden history of children as social agents who actively participated in a national effort during a period of crisis. In praise of the book, Hugh Cunningham, celebrated author of The Invention of Childhood, wrote: ‘Think of children and the Second World War, and evacuation comes immediately to mind. Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow have a different story to tell, one in which all the children of the nation were encouraged to contribute to the war effort. Many responded enthusiastically. Evidence from school magazines and oral testimony shows children digging for victory, working on farms, knitting comforts for the troops, collecting waste for recycling, running households. What lessons, the authors ask, does this wartime participation by children have for our own time? The answers are challenging.’

You Can Help Your Country: English children’s work during the Second World War

Priscilla Alderson

A practical guide to carrying out ethical research with children and young people, this practical handbook examines the ethical questions that arise at each stage of research, from first plans to dissemination and impact. Illustrated with case studies from international and inter-disciplinary research, it offers advice for addressing each ethical question, issue or uncertainty. Including: • A showcase of the best practice on a range of topics including data protection • Practical guidance for responding to recent global changes in policy and practice in ethics and law • Discussion of the challenges and opportunities of digital research with children The updated second edition continues to provide an excellent resource for those exploring the old, current and new consensuses on the ethics of researching with children.

Virginia Morrow

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