Reporting the Second World War

Tim Luckhurst is Principal of South College and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Engagement at Durham University, UK. He is also an award-winning journalist for BBC News and Current Affairs and former editor of The Scotsman, Scotland’s national newspaper.

• List of Illustrations 1. Introduction2. A Very Brief History of Newspapers3. The Press Barons, the Abdication of Edward VIII and the Era of Appeasement4. Newspapers in the Phoney War5. Churchill, Norway and Dunkirk6. Overseas Evacuation7. Battle of Britain8. The Blitz9. Morale, Intimidation and Censorship10. Britain and Russia: ‘One Touch of Hitler Makes the Whole World Kin’11. Banishing Want from Cradle to Grave: A Symbol of a New Britain12. Peculiar Problems: Reporting the American Presence13. 'Bomb Back and Bomb Hard': Allied Bombing of Germany14. Auschwitz, Belsen and Buchenwald15. ‘What a hair-trigger business the world has become’:Victory in Europe, a General Election, Atomic Bombs and VJ DayConclusionBibliographyIndex

Tim Luckhurst’s magisterial Reporting the Second World War: The Press and the People 1939-1945 does two things: It provides a scholarly, deeply-researched account of how British journalists reported the Second World War, and, in doing so, it shines a light on the practices of journalism. That a history book should succeed in doing both things is a mighty achievement.