You Can Help Your Country

First published in 2011, You Can Help Your Country: English children’s work during the Second World War reveals the remarkable, hidden history of children as social agents who actively participated in a national effort during a period of crisis. In praise of the book, Hugh Cunningham, celebrated author of The Invention of Childhood, wrote: ‘Think of children and the Second World War, and evacuation comes immediately to mind. Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow have a different story to tell, one in which all the children of the nation were encouraged to contribute to the war effort. Many responded enthusiastically. Evidence from school magazines and oral testimony shows children digging for victory, working on farms, knitting comforts for the troops, collecting waste for recycling, running households. What lessons, the authors ask, does this wartime participation by children have for our own time? The answers are challenging.’You Can Help Your Countryis a stimulating, entertaining and scholarly contribution to the history of childhood, prompting thought about childhood today and on children’s rights, as citizens, to participate in social and political life. This revised edition includes a new preface and illustrations, and offers an up-to-date reflection on the relevance of thinking historically about children’s work for global campaigns to end child labour. It is essential reading for academics, researchers and students in childhood studies, the sociology of childhood and children’s rights. Its engaging style will also appeal to anyone interested in social history and the history of the Second World War.

Praise for You Can Help Your Country
‘Mayall and Morrow have performed an enormous service, not only in broadening our perspective of children to include their economic and social contributions to the war effort… but also in exploring both the nature of childhood” and the ambiguity surrounding adult–child relations at a time of national crisis (and beyond). Where the evacuee was confined to a specific social (children’s) space, the child worker, in vacating the classroom, implicitly frequents “adulthood”. In raising questions about the nature of children/childhood, this is a timely, relevant and accessibly written book, and is an ideal text for students in education, history and sociology.’ – Professor Harry Hendrick, University of Warwick
‘Another major contribution to the sociology of childhood by two pioneers in the field. Drawing from a rich variety of previously untapped resources, including children’s own accounts of their lives during the Second World War, Mayall and Morrow document the extensive labour and other contributions to the war effort made by English children. Though focusing on a particular period of crisis… You Can Help Your Country makes a strong case for enabling children to speak for themselves, and to participate more fully in socially useful activities.’ – Sarane Spence Boocock, Rutgers University