logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2023
29m 24s

Emotional revolution in postwar Britain

IMMEDIATE MEDIA
About this episode

After the psychological trauma and family separation of the Second World War, Britain underwent an emotional revolution. Psychologists and social reformers focused more than ever before on the vital importance of loving and intimate family relationships. And as Teri Chettiar tells Ellie Cawthorne, intimacy wasn’t just intended to improve life at home, but also forge a new generation of productive, well-adjusted citizens.


(Ad) Teri Chettiar is the author of The Intimate State: How Emotional Life Became Political in Welfare-State Britain (Oxford University Press, 2023)


The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Yesterday
Edward the Confessor: life of the week
Edward the Confessor, England’s penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, has long been remembered as a saintly, pious monarch – but was he really the weak ruler whose indecision paved the way for the Norman Conquest that some historical sources would have us think? And if not, how should we ... Show More
49m 42s
Aug 24
Britain and the Caribbean: from slavery to Black Lives Matter
Histories of British involvement in the Caribbean tend to focus mainly on the period of plantation slavery but, in her new book Empire Without End, Imaobong Umoren argues that we need to take a broader view. It's only by taking the story back to the 16th century and forward until ... Show More
30 m
Aug 23
Nationalism: everything you wanted to know
Human beings tend to identify with being in a group, and, historically, few groupings have been more potent than the idea of the nation. But when did people first embrace the idea of the nation state? Is nationalism predominantly a right-wing creed? And does it thrive during peri ... Show More
45m 17s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
347: The American Revolution (Part 1)
“America, late the strength, now the foe to Britain, dismembered, torn, I fear forever lost to England, whence she sprung.”The American Revolution came about due to growing tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain, primarily over issues of taxation and representat ... Show More
1 h
Aug 2022
100 Years of British Political Nightmares
Over Britain’s first century of mass democracy, from the Great Depression to the pandemic, politics has lurched from crisis to crisis. How does this history of political agony illuminate our current age of upheaval? Phil Tinline is a leading producer and presenter of historical n ... Show More
29m 19s
Jun 2024
Cumbria: the forgotten Anglo-Saxon kingdom
William of Normandy sailed across the Channel and swiftly conquered England in 1066 – or at least that’s how the story goes. But, in this Long Read written by Sophie Thérèse Ambler and James Morris, we reveal how the northern stronghold of Cumbria remained untouched for another 2 ... Show More
19 m
Feb 2024
417. Britain in 1974: State of Emergency (Part 1)
“Who governs Britain?”Britain in the early 1970’s was a state in crisis, and by 1974, things had never seemed bleaker. Held hostage by the Trade Unions, British industry was flailing. England’s sporting record was atrocious, the economy was tanking and the prospect of a miners’ s ... Show More
59m 47s
Nov 2023
Love, Lust & Fighting in World War II
It can be hard to comprehend the magnitude of historical events, with World War Two a prime example of this. By 1945, some 3 million British people had served. As such, the rich diversity of masculinity and sexuality of those men is often reduced or hidden from the history books. ... Show More
42m 1s
Jul 2008
Christopher Capozzola, “Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of The Modern American Citizen” (Oxford UP, 2008)
I confess I sometimes wonder where we got in the habit of proclaiming, usually with some sort of righteous indignation, that we have the “right” to this or that as citizens. I know that the political theorists of the eighteenth century wrote a lot about “rights,” and that “rights ... Show More
1h 7m
Jun 2024
464. Modern British Elections (Part 2)
From the turn of the 20th century, election campaigns - though still replete with politicians behaving badly - have evolved. They have become less mass-participation events or festivals, and receded, with the majority of the population growing increasingly indifferent. Though, fo ... Show More
56 m
Nov 2019
Britain's secret propaganda war
How sex, jazz and 'fake news' were used to undermine the Nazis in World War Two. In 1941, the UK created a top secret propaganda department, the Political Warfare Executive to wage psychological warfare on the German war machine. It was responsible for spreading rumours, generati ... Show More
13m 55s
Sep 2020
The Battle of Britain
In a moment of great danger to national survival, the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large scale attacks by the Luftwaffe. So how did the Battle of Britain play out? What was Germany’s objective? And how important was it to the direction of the Second World W ... Show More
22m 52s
Aug 2011
Charles Townshend, “Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia” (Harvard University Press, 2011)
An earlier author described the British invasion of Mesopotamia in 1914 as “The Neglected War.” It no longer deserves that title thanks to the brilliant treatment of the subject by Professor Charles Townshend (University of Keele). His Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopot ... Show More
1h 5m
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami