Seven Lives from Mass Observation by James Hinton

Seven Lives from Mass Observation by James Hinton

What was it like to live in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century? In a successor to his acclaimed Nine Wartime Lives: Mass Observation and the Making of the Modern Self, James Hinton uses autobiographical writing contributed to Mass Observation since 1981 to explore the social and cultural history of late twentieth-century Britain. Prompted by thrice-yearly open-ended questionnaires, Mass Observation's volunteers wrote about their political attitudes, religious beliefs, work, childhoods, education, friendships, marriages, sex lives, mid-life crises, aging - the whole range of human emotion, feeling, attitudes, and experience. At the core of the book are seven 'biographical essays': intimate portraits of individual lives set in the context of the shift towards the more tolerant and permissive society of the 1960s and the rise of Thatcherite neo-liberalism as the structures of Britain's post-war settlement crumbled from the later 1970s. The mass observers featured in the book, four women and three men, are drawn from across the social spectrum - wife of a small businessman, teacher, social worker, RAF wife, mechanic, lorry driver, City banker: all active and forceful characters with strong opinions and lives crowded with struggle and drama. The honesty and frankness with which they wrote about themselves takes us below the surface of public life to the efforts of 'ordinary', but exceptionally articulate and self-reflective, people to make sense of their lives in rapidly changing times.

This immensely readable and thoroughly captivating volume is about contemplating our own lives as much as the lives of the observersHinton suggests an overt rethinking of our own autobiographical biases as historians while deftly uncovering the subtle and not-so-subtle motives of his historical subjects. This is a valuable work that not only promises to redirect future uses of MO but also offers a key shift in the historiography toward an anthropological model for assessing historical documents like those produced for and by MO. * Sandra Trudgen Dawson, Journal of Modern History *
Hinton pushes historians to rethink historical narratives by including the biographies of ordinary lives ... I personally look forward to future scholarship based around the stories Hinton presents here and the scores of others waiting to be told. * Tina M. Peabody, H-Net *
it is a marvellous and revealing read, and amply repays Hinton's efforts. * William Whyte, 20th Century British History *
Fascinating. * Harry Mead, Northern Echo *
a book that will undoubtedly serve as an exemplary model for future historians of social history, Mass Observation and the latter half of 20th-century Britain. * David Kilgannon, Reviews in History *
There are some powerful, shocking, heart-wrenching and inspiring stories here, illustrating the theme that "human beings -- obstinate, intelligent, creative -- make meaningful lives out of whatever fate chooses to throw at them". * Brian Maye, Irish Times *

James Hinton, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick, has published widely on the social history of twentieth-century Britain. His early work in labour history included The First Shop Stewards' Movement (1973) and Labour and Socialism (1983). A spell of intense political activism in the 1980s anti-nuclear movement was reflected in Protests and Visions: Peace Politics in Twentieth-Century Britain (1989). Turning his attention to the 1940s, he published two monographs on contrasting groups of active citizens: Shop Floor Citizens: Engineering Democracy in 1940s Britain (1994); Women, Social Leadership, and the Second World War (2002). Since retiring in 2004 he has worked on Mass Observation, publishing Nine Wartime Lives: Mass-Observation and the Making of the Modern Self (2010) and The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949 (2013).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780198787136
ISBN 10	0198787138
Title	Seven Lives from Mass Observation
Author	James Hinton
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2016-10-06
Number of pages	218
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.