| This dissertation presents a historical analysis of the social research organization Mass-Observation along with its founders and hundreds of volunteers. M-O began in 1936 during the years of rising tension when a second global conflict appeared inevitable and wrapped up operations in 1949 after the Second World War had ended and the welfare state was taking shape in Britain. As keen observers of everyday life, M-O inevitably recorded much precious information about a pivotal period in twentieth-century British history. Due in part to some provocative statements made by employees, however, M-O has often been misunderstood as an insignificant anomaly of the interwar years. This thesis challenges these views by arguing that M-O was at the centre of a number of vibrant and powerful currents that were reshaping the lives of people in Britain and beyond. I argue that M-O can tell us a great deal about the meaning of science, professionalization, liberalism, advertising, propaganda, democracy and education in mid-twentieth-century British society. In turn, I believe that regarding M-O in light of these elements forces us to reconsider M-O and its operations during its dozen years in the field. I also argue that the M-O archives, held at the University of Sussex, hold a unique collection of documents that allow a different type of historical investigation of everyday life. In the final two chapters I use the personal documents of mass-observers to provide telling examples of personal and national identity as experienced in everyday life. |
