ABSTRACT
Accounts o f Britain in the Second World War present the myth of total war, a ‘people’s war’ , in which pride and prejudice were dispensed with for the sake o f the common good. Brass-hats lost their dignity, mansion-houses their railings. The Home Front and the army were at one. The ‘Dunkirk spirit’ entered the language as a synonym for sacrifice - the British at their best when their backs were to the wall, the supreme example o f national oneness. If national unity was unquestioned, then nothing should have stood in its way.
