Customer Reviews
The People's War - By: Patricia Adlam, 12 Apr 2008 
Our Longest Days is a collection of excerpts from just a handful of the diarists who participatedin the Mass Observation Project during the Second World War; a broad mix of housewives, conscientious objectors, students, voluntary service workers, land girls, those with army & air-force backgrounds, young & old; those who had seen the First World War, & those to whom the deprivations & horrors were altogether new. The collection covers the war from beginning to end, & each significant event of those six years is touched on by more than one diarist.
Nella Last's diary was published (and filmed) separately, & this is unsurprising when you read these excerpts next to the others... although regularly domesticin nature, her writing is intimate, honest & covers the gamut of private reactions & public observances throughout the war. That said, Nella's entriesin Our Longest Days are sparse, & by no means the highlight... the wise observations of Edie Rutherford are particularly interesting, as is the reporting of Land Girl, Muriel Green whose enthusiasm for her new position provides & upbeat accompaniment to her matter-of-fact take on gender-discrimination & entries which could, if more self-conscious, have been labelled feminist. Meanwhile, the men's excerpts tend towards describing public reaction to the notable events (air raids, ships sunk by either side, political commentary) & maintain the sense, throughout the collection, of the war's progression both at home & overseas.
The horror of the war has been better described elsewhere, but the casual terror & necessary quick adjustment to changes of thosein the UK, the opinions, both educated & instinctive of the people who were intimately involved & yet one step removed from the war is a thing of fascination - this is a vital addition to any war literature collection, but is also an important slice of the lives of ordinary peoplein a different time.
The real "Home Front" - By: L. Mason, 15 Mar 2008 In the 1930s, an amateur anthropologist (Tom Harrison), a documentary film-maker (Humphrey Jennings) & a journalist (Charles Madge) joined forces to set up an organisation that came to be known as Mass Observation. Running from 1937 until the 1950s it collected the thoughts & aspirations of many ordinary people. The nature of the project was that the invidiuals who took part were self-selected, & so were mostly middle class & reasonably well-educated. Their submissions werein the way of freely written diaries &in responses to specific enquiries.
Our Longest Days picks from this vast archive just 15 people & shows us their reactions to daily life during the Second World War. Whilst this might seem limitingin some ways, the spread (by age, gender, occupation & location) is sufficient to give a broad view, while allowing us to really get to know individuals & watch their views develop & change.
The result is a fascinating insight to the war on "the home front" & the mundane things that mostly concerned people. The "war" itself seems to feature littlein the minds of most contributors except insofar as it directly impinges on them & their family. This isn't one for those specifically interestedin the war. It's a wonderful piece of social history written by those who lived it. International policy & military strategy take a back seat to themes of family, friendship, class, gender-equality & moralityin a changing world. Definitely recommended.
What it was really like in the Second World War - By: Lucerosie, 11 Mar 2008 Mass Observationin World War II recorded the thoughts & feelings of ordinary people. It's not a representative sample as the participants were self-selecting & tended to be from the educated middle class but with a variety of different age groups. There's a massive archive of entries for the Second World War & it's from this that the entries for ''Our Longest Days'' have been selected.
In all just fifteen people provide the selected entries so you get a real feeling for their personal stories - some you'll like but there are some you won't. The short introduction to each chapter shows how the war was progressing, so you can see how the personal entries fit into the wider story.
It could have been dry but the editor (now sadly dead at the age of 28) has used her skills wisely & allowed the individual stories & personalities to emerge. It's not about the big events but about how the war impinged on people's lives - or didn't impinge very much at the beginning. It's interesting too to see how attitudes (to class, to gender) have changedin the last sixty years.
It's a surprisingly enjoyable & enlightening book & not just for those who are interestedin the war.
