Lecture: Gap Years: National Service, 1945-1962

Date

October 27, 2010

Time

18:00–19:00

Place

King's College London, Strand Campus: London

Room

Great Hall

Price

See below

A lecture by Richard Vinen.

Richard Vinen’s lecture will describe the only period in British history that has seen compulsory military service in peacetime. It will argue that the study of this subject tells us something about a neglected generation (made up of men who were too young to fight in the Second World War and too old to swing in the 60s). It also tells us about class and social mobility – especially because the army’s conception of rank and status was returning to a more rigid model after the comparatively open promotions of the war at a time when civilian society was becoming more fluid – about masculinity and about the way in which the British remember, or forget, their wars of decolonization.

Richard Vinen specialises in twentieth century history. His current research is on Modern Britain and in particular on the Thatcher governments of 1979-1990. Previously he has worked mainly on twentieth century France and produced a number of publications on Vichy, the fourth republic and the Algerian War. These researches culminated in the publication of The Unfree French: Life under the Occupation (Penguin, 2006) which looks at the consequences of the French army’s defeat in 1940 through the daily lives of those caught up in the horrors of war. He has also written a general book on twentieth century Europe, A History in Fragments: Europe in the Twentieth Century (Little Brown, 2000).

Cost: Free, booking required. To book, please contact humanities-events(at)kcl.ac.uk

Part of King's College London Arts & Humanities Week

Organizers

Inside Out Festival

Registration

For this event no registration is necessary on the Inside Out Festival website but may (if stated above) be required elsewhere