Mass Observation Redux
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4494751 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan D Pennybacker (corresponding author), D Pennybacker |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 411-419 |
| Publication date | 2007-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbm054 |
| OpenAlex | W2079015346 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
In September 1941 the New Statesman published an ‘East End working girl's’ testimony about the conditions in a Stepney air-raid shelter, as told to the anthropologist and ethnographer Tom Harrisson. Winston Churchill read Harrisson's essay and his outrage at its revelations led to the dismissal of the borough's Air Raid Protection Officer. Critic Nick Hubble's new study of Harrisson and his collaborators’ Mass Observation (MO) project cites Churchill's quick response to the testimony as evidence of the efficacy of MO's method as deployed in the war emergency. At least in this instance, the retelling of his informant's visceral story resonated in the halls of power. Strangely, given the complexity of Hubble's excellent appreciation of Harrisson and his fellow MO co-founders, he does not comment upon the racial perceptions so starkly evident in the young woman's testimony. Along with a plaintive description of the physical conditions of the decrepit shelter, she...
Art · Art history · CITES · Dismissal · Girl · Literature · Outrage · Political science · Power (physics) · Census and Population Estimation · Data Analysis and Archiving · History · Law · Psychology · Race, Genetics, and Society
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2013 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |