Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction: The Mass-Observation Project 1
Defining Mass-Observation 1
A Brief History of Mass-Observation 4
Everyday Life and Social Transformation 10
Chapter 1 Historical Background 17
Everyday Life in the Long Twentieth Century 17
Social Surveys: From Booth's Life and Labour of the London Poor to Kracauer's Die Angestellten and the Lynds' Middletown 27
Chapter 2 The Space of Former Heaven 38
Cambridge Experiment 38
Letter to Oxford 46
British Social Anthropology 54
Popular Poetry and the 'Thirties' 61
Chapter 3 The Intellectuals and the Masses 79
Profane Illumination and New Objectivity: English Surrealism and British Documentary 79
Empson's Imaginary Solution 91
Chapter 4 Early Mass-Observation 104
The Formation of Mass-Observation 104
Coronation Pastoral 120
Chapter 5 Britain Begins at Home 133
First Year's Work 133
First Year's Reception 142
The Munich Crisis 150
The Lambeth Walk 157
Chapter 6 The Mobilisation of Everyday Life 165
Active Leadership and the Civilian Army
The Ministry of Everyday 179
Co-operating with the Tax Collector 189
Chapter 7 The Demobilisation of Everyday Life 200
Politics, Penguins, Pubs 200
Society in the Mind 212
The Resumption of the People's War 219
Conclusion: Mass-Observation Reassessed 226
Afterword: Extra/Ordinary People 230
Bibliography and Sources 255
Index 268
