Information at War

The short-lived Ministry of Information (MoI, 1939–1946) had an outsized impact. It played a key role in the Allied war effort, and its work has reverberated in British culture ever since: from its much darker version (as the 'Ministry of Truth') in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four to memes based on the slogan 'Keep Calm and Carry On'. But despite its long legacy, it has been the subject of only limited scholarly investigation.

This multi-authored volume offers the first comprehensive and global history of the MoI. It explores the variety of tools it used to issue and control information, which ranged from the censorship of personal communications to the production of propaganda films. The book demonstrates the remarkable breadth and depth of its activities. It explores the MoI's use of a range of media, from pamphlets and posters to public meetings, films and exhibitions; its attempts to justify Britain's empire and imagine a post-war world; and its truly transcontinental reach, with a consolidated presence in many countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, and Europe. The book also establishes that the MoI was an inherently ambivalent institution: its negative side (the threat of an un-British level of state control) offset by its perceived ability to generate a sense of national purpose at a time of crisis.

The book sheds light on an important but little-understood chapter of British wartime history. The lively and highly illustrated chapters raise important and timely questions about the nature of state surveillance, information, and propaganda in an increasingly connected world.