The experience of total war transformed the relationship between citizen and state in twentieth-century Britain. The first and second world wars saw a massive expansion of state power into everyday life: men and women were mobilised to serve in the armed forces and as workers in the domestic war economy. Alongside increases in the 'obligations' placed on citizens there was also an expansion of 'rights', from the expansion of the franchise from 1918 to the implementation of the welfare state after 1945. The cold war also had a profound impact on British citizenship. The state compelled young men to serve in the military until the early 1960s; it stigmatised members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, declaring communists to be unthinking agents of an enemy power. Cold war citizenship was not simply a top-down affair imposed by the state, however. Ordinary people articulated their own visions of citizenship based on resistance to the cold war orthodoxy, whether as Marxists or peace activists. This module will explore how the cold war shaped the concept and practice of citizenship in Britain after 1945, allowing students to analyse how the conflict led to new understandings of the citizen's relationship with the state and the wider community.
Category: Postgraduate