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ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Edinburgh University Press

ISBN: 9781399522540

RRP: £24.99

PAGES: 296

PUBLICATION DATE:
August 1, 2025

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Scottish Society in the Second World War: Tradition, Tension, Transformation

By Michelle Moffat

Uncovers a distinctly Scottish experience of the Second World War

  • Provides an original overview of Scottish society during the Second World War
  • The first academic monograph that attempts a national approach to the British home front, and also draws out areas of cultural difference with established scholarship on other nations and/or regions of Britain
  • Makes a significant contribution to knowledge of Scottish culture and society during the twentieth-century
  • Uses a diverse and largely untapped range of archival sources, and features 19 black & white illustrations
  • Includes the experiences of women, children, prisoners of war, Irish in Scotland, Scottish Jews

Surprisingly little is known about Scottish experiences of the Second World War. Scottish Society in the Second World War addresses this oversight by providing a pioneering account of society and culture in wartime Scotland. While significantly illuminating a pivotal episode in Scottish history, this book also charts the uncertainties that permeated Scottish society at that time: relating to nationhood, to cultural identity, to Scotland’s place within the Union, and towards the country’s future.

Using recently discovered archives, this text examines key aspects of wartime life, including work, leisure, morale, and religion. It also explores the underlying tension between conformity and resistance, and the ways that social fissures shaped Scottish responses to war. Further, in taking a national approach to the British home front, it draws out areas of cultural difference between Scotland and established scholarship on other nations and regions of Britain.

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Michelle Moffat

Dr Michelle Moffat is a historian of war and society, affiliated with the History Programme at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her previous publications include with Alison Loveridge, Rebecca Duell and Julie Abbari, ‘Night Landscapes: A Challenge to World Heritage Protocols’, Landscape Review, 15:1 (2014): 64-75; and Review of World Heritage Committee Operational Guidelines in Relation to Starlight Reserves (Christchurch: University of Canterbury, 2011). Her award-winning doctoral research examined Scottish life and society during the Second World War. She is currently researching dissent and discontent in Second World War Scotland. This is her first monograph.