New: Mass Observation Online Part III – access to post-war sources

MO3Mass Observation enthusiasts will be pleased to know that Oxford has now acquired part 3 of this wonderful resource. The latest addition to Mass Observation Online supplements coverage of the war-years and for the first time includes personal writing material from the post-war years.

Oxford users have access to MOO via SOLO or Databases A-Z.

The new content provides opportunities for in-depth research of subjects from an age of post-war austerity and the rise of consumerism and the welfare state:

  • demobilization
  • health and the NHS
  • reconstruction
  • industry
  • sport
  • holidays and leisure

The following new materials are now included:

Diaries, Men and Women, 1946-1950

A full run of diaries up to the end of 1950. You can trace and compare individual accounts of everyday life and events in Britain in the first five years following the end of the Second World War.

Directives, Men and Women, 1946-1947

The complete set of directives for 1946-1947 covers such varied subjects as political parties and policies, reading habits, drinking habits, spiritualism, the cost of living, expectations for 1947, Britain’s place in the world, anti-Semitism, and responses to the Nuremberg Trials.

Topic Collections

Thirty new Topic Collections from the war and post-war years are being added, more than doubling the Topic Collection digital holdings of the existing resource. These include:

  • Propaganda and Morale, 1939-1944 (including material on public opinion, propaganda theory, Beaverbrook campaigns, government advertising campaigns, and Ministry of Information exhibitions)
  • Conscientious Objection and Pacifism, 1939-1944 (including surveys of pacifists, and materials on cultural and legal aspects of pacifism)
  • Press, 1938-42 (including analysis of the press, newspaper placards and cuttings)
  • Police, Law and Invasion Preparations, 1939-1941 (including police reports, accounts of crime and accidents in the Blackout, and Invasion Leaflet Questionnaire Replies)
  • Reconstruction, 1941-1942 (including regional reconstruction surveys, plans, and progress reports, and material on the Housing Centre and the National Council of Social Service)
  • Coal Mining, 1938-1948 (including surveys of mines, miners and mining towns)
  • Industry, 1940-1955 (including industrial and war factory surveys and material on strikes and industrial disputes)
  • Sexual Behaviour, 1939-1950 (including reports on sex in and outside of marriage, sexual morality, questionnaires, and material on contraception, ‘Lonely Hearts’ clubs, and venereal disease)
  • Health, 1939-1947 (including surveys of health, the National Health Service and chemists’ shops)
  • Family Planning, 1944-1949 (including family surveys and matrimony questionnaires)
  • Live Entertainment, 1938-1948 (including fairs, the theatre, pantomime, music hall and concerts)
  • Sport, 1939-1947 (including cricket, football, golf, rugby, darts, dogs, and sport in wartime)
  • Holidays, 1937-1951 (including the Beveridge holiday questionnaire, holiday camps, holiday transport and activities)

Watch the ‘Mass Observation Online’ video overview on YouTube


Largely taken from http://www.amdigital.co.uk/m-collections/collection/mass-observation-iii/.

Related Links

What else in the Mass Observation Online? See my blog post of 24 June 2010.

Other useful resources:

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