Grace Huxford 
The Korean War in Britain 
Citizenship, selfhood and forgetting

The Korean War in Britain explores the social and cultural impact of the Korean War (1950–53) on Britain. Coming just five years after the ravages of the Second World War, Korea was a deeply unsettling moment in post-war British history. From allegations about American use of ‘germ’ warfare to anxiety over Communist use of ‘brainwashing’ and treachery at home, the Korean War precipitated a series of short-lived panics in 1950s Britain. But by the time of its uneasy ceasefire in 1953, the war was becoming increasingly forgotten. Using Mass Observation surveys, letters, diaries and a wide range of under-explored contemporary material, this book charts the war’s changing position in British popular imagination and asks how it became known as the ‘Forgotten War’. It explores the war in a variety of viewpoints – conscript, POW, protester and veteran – and is essential reading for anyone interested in Britain’s Cold War past.

Table of Content

Introduction: The Korean War in Britain
1. No woman wants any more war: popular responses to the outbreak of war
2. You’re in Korea my son: experiencing battle
3. Citizen soldiers: national servicemen in the Korean War
4. Brainwashing in Britain: Korean War prisoners of war
5. How to bring the boys home: popular opposition to the Korean War
6. Forgetting Korea: the Korean War in popular memory, 1953–2014
Conclusion
Index

About the author

Penny Summerfield is Professor of Modern History at the University of Manchester

Penny Summerfield is Professor of Women’s History at Manchester University