Contact details
- Name:
- Mr Stephen Thompson
- Position:
- PhD student - Informing, motivating and diverting the citizen-soldier: The provision and use of books, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals by the British Army in the Second World War (1939-1945)
- Institute:
- Institute of English Studies
- Email address:
- stephen.thompson@postgrad.sas.ac.uk
- Website:
- https://ies.sas.ac.uk/people/stephen-thompson
- Studies:
- Student
- Research Projects & Supervisions
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- PhD Topic:
-
Thesis:
Motivating the citizen-soldier: The provision and use of books, pamphlets, newspapers and magazines by the British Army during the Second World War (1939-1945).
Research:
During the Second World War a rapidly expanded British Army faced a crisis of morale amongst its newly conscripted citizen-soldiers. The army needed to overcome the soldier’s ignorance of the reasons why he had been called up to fight, deal with his anxieties over matters left behind in his civilian life, and tackle an all-encompassing atmosphere of indifference and boredom.
The thesis examines the range of books, pamphlets, newspapers and magazines assembled to inspire, educate, inform, and entertain the men and women of the wartime army and assesses their contribution to sustaining troop motivation. My research delves into areas traditionally seen as outside the mainstream of book history; areas such as newspaper publication, pamphlet production, and the publishing of popular fiction.
- Supervisor:
- Professor Rick Rylance (IES, SAS)
- Research interests:
- History of the book