Fighting the People's War

Dr Jonathan Fennell discusses the history of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War.

This talk focuses on the 'citizen armies' of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, the core of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War.

Jonathan Fennell will draw on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file, challenging our understanding of the war and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change.

He will show how fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies. He will also trace how soldiers' political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, proved instrumental to the socio-political changes of the post-war era.

Dr Jonathan Fennell is a senior lecturer at the Defence Studies Department, Kings College London.