We Are at War. The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times

Mass Observation asked British people to keep diaries of their day-to-day experiences and post them in, thus collecting a vast historical goldmine. Here Garfield has selected five writers from this experiment and presents their diaries from Thursday, 24th August 1939 to Monday, 28th October 1940. Thus you get to see how real people living real lives reacted to the commencement of WWII. It's fascinating. This is the only type of history that keeps my attention - the observations of real, normal lives. It must have been an epic undertaking by Garfield and his team to select these extracts and honestly I wish there was so much more but he had to contain it to one book. It's not always thrilling, obviously there's no proper narrative, and show more sometimes, this being diaries, characters are mentioned and then dropped so you don't know what happened. At one point, one of the narrators mentions that her neighbours have decided to go on holiday to France! The same month that France surrendered to Germany! What happened to these hapless vacationers? Never mentioned again. Don't know. Even Garfield couldn't locate what happened to several of these writers after they stopped sending in their thoughts. He does try to give context to some of the historic events that the writers comment on, but I think there could have been more of this. At the start of each chapter, there is a brief timeline of big events, but I immediately forget all that once I get into the extracts. It would have been more helpful to put these above the specific dates. Anyway, it gets more and more interesting as it goes. Not all the writers are likeable (there's certainly a general level of antisemitism that just passes for normal that makes the read uncomfortable at times), but it is eye-opening how intelligent, curious, political and recognisable these voices from over eighty years ago are. It amused me that there are four level-headed women and one hysterical man, showing that sexist tropes never had a leg to stand on. Diaries are both a wonderful and limited resource of historical information, but this was well worth the read. I'd love to read more Mass Observations. show less

We Are at War is the second of Garfield's editing of diaries from the Mass Observation Project written by ordinary people in Britain, this time late summer of 1939 through October of 1940. Only one diarist, Maggie Joy Blunt, my favorite, is around for this second book. I liked the editor's comment in his Epilogue: "Hindsight can mess with history to a fatal degree, and we are lucky to have such passionately argued and reliably frank correctives as these."
I was less fascinated with these personalities than with those in the earlier book (Our Hidden Lives), but this one was still compelling. I learned that these people didn't see Churchill as the great savior of their country, that they mostly stayed in their houses when the bombs show more started falling at night, that even the least prosperous of them still had money for cigarettes and movies.
Besides Maggie Joy, a single woman, freelance writer living alone in Slough, these people were faithful diarists: Pam Ashford, a young, unmarried woman working in a coal exporting business in Glasgow and my second favorite; Eileen Potter, also unmarried, living in London and working to evacuate children to the country; Tilly Rice, a young mother with three children who moves out of harm's way when war is declared and then back to London when not much happens; Christopher Tomlin, a young, single man living at home as sole support of his elderly parents. Potter irritated me because of her choice to keep her diary in the present tense..."We boil a kettle and help Mrs X to mix food for her baby, and generally try to keep the children amused and tolerably quiet until the vicar is ready to take them away." That does not lend immediacy for me - just irritation. Tomlin just irritates me. He and his family are hugely opinionated with a dash of (maybe) new convert piety thrown in on the side as well as occasional frankness about his piles.
Once again, though, it is completely engrossing to participate in day to day lives while having the knowledge of how things came out in the end. I'm looking forward to the third book with more Maggie Joy and Pam! show less

This is the second book in the Mass Observation diaries series, but the first, chronologically. I liked We Are at War better than Our Hidden Lives, partly because it was more exciting -- there was, after all, a war on -- and partly because I found the diarists more likeable. Although these books are long and a bit of a plod to get through, anyone interested in the history of everyday life in Britain in the 1940s will find them an invaluable resource.

Another selection of diary extracts from the Mass Observation project chosen by Simon Garfield, this time covering the summer of 1939, when war was declared through to October 1940 when the German planes were bombing Britain's cities. Again, Garfield has chosen a good selection of diarists including my favourite diarist, Maggie Joy Blunt, from Our Hidden Lives.

I've never studied or read about WWII in depth so I was surprised to learn how prepared Britain seemed for this war, the evacuation of children and families from London was begun two days before war was officially declared; how, throughout the rest of 1939, people felt ready for anything and expected great change in their lives, but felt that nothing had really affected them show more except the great uncertainty they were living in; how convinced everyone was that Hitler would invade Britain in the summer of 1940 and how many of the diarists still hung on to hope despite how badly the war seemed to be going for the Allies during this time.

I don't think anything could really help me feel or understand completely what it was like to live through that dark and uncertain time at the beginning of WWII but reading these diaries certainly gave me some idea of what people felt at that time. A more emotional read than Our Hidden Lives and one that has made me want to read and understand more about WWII.

Two quotes:

Tilly Rice, Wednesday 15th May 1940:

Sometimes I feel that we are coming onto the very evening of civilisation, and that the noise and roar of battle are the last crashing chords of the finale. But my deeper conviction is that we shall come out in the end.... if we can hold them now. If. I don't feel nervous that the grim drama is going to come down and include me, although sometimes I suffer some apprehensions on behalf of my children. I can so easily conjure up the hateful possibilities of myself and the children homeless, of the feeling of utter desolation that must come upon people in those circumstances, the loss of security and stability and above all the terrible feeling of being unprotected. But that, let us hope, is only the playing of my imagination.

Maggie Joy Blunt, Monday 9th September 1940:

Life goes on. That is what amazes and thrills me. In spite of this increasing terror and destruction over London and the constant rumours of invasion, we get our food, our papers and letters. Buses and trains run fairly well to time. Work in factories and offices and shops continues. I have a great feeling that this is the death and birth of ages... the old order passing... and life in fire from the sky descending. show less

This is the second book in the Mass Observation diaries series, but the first, chronologically. I have yet to read Our Hidden Lives, the "first" book in the Mass Observation series, but if this is anything to go by, it will be as equally a good read. These books are long and (even with the fervor of war) a bit of a plod to get through, anyone interested in the history of everyday life in Britain in the 1940's will find them an invaluable resource.

Other books connected with the Mass Observation Project, that I have read and enjoyed,are:

[b:Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49|863963|Nella Last's War The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49|Nella show more Last|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1354902657s/863963.jpg|849379]

[b:Nella Last's Peace: The Post-War Diaries Of Housewife, 49|3368725|Nella Last's Peace The Post-War Diaries Of Housewife, 49|Nella Last|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1354902670s/3368725.jpg|3408066]

[b:Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49|7756319|Nella Last in the 1950s The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49|Nella Last|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328723895s/7756319.jpg|10612954] show less

This is the second book in the Mass Observation diaries series, but the first, chronologically. I have yet to read Our Hidden Lives, the "first" book in the Mass Observation series, but if this is anything to go by, it will be as equally a good read. These books are long and (even with the fervor of war) a bit of a plod to get through, anyone interested in the history of everyday life in Britain in the 1940's will find them an invaluable resource.

Other books connected with the Mass Observation Project, that I have read and enjoyed,are:

[b:Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49|863963|Nella Last's War The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49|Nella show more Last|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1354902657s/863963.jpg|849379]

[b:Nella Last's Peace: The Post-War Diaries Of Housewife, 49|3368725|Nella Last's Peace The Post-War Diaries Of Housewife, 49|Nella Last|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1354902670s/3368725.jpg|3408066]

[b:Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49|7756319|Nella Last in the 1950s The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49|Nella Last|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328723895s/7756319.jpg|10612954] show less