British Religion and the World Wars: A Subject Bibliography of Modern Literature
Religion did much to shape contemporary British opinion and behaviour during the First and Second World Wars, but it featured rather less in the initial historiography of either conflict. The situation has changed considerably in the past half-century, with a steadily increasing number of academic and popular outputs on the religious aspects of the wars. As key milestones, in connection with the centenary of the First World War and the eightieth anniversary of the Second World War, have occurred or approach, it seems an appropriate time to take bibliographical stock.
This volume is the first to offer an in-depth listing of modern literature, in English and other European languages, on British religion and the First and Second World Wars, both on the home front and in combat zones. Coverage extends to Judaism and alternative religion, as well as Christianity. More than 1,200 items are included, comprising monographs, book chapters, journal articles, and postgraduate theses. They are arranged by subjects, in separate sections on each war, with cross-references and a cumulative index of personal names.
Carefully compiled over several years by an accomplished religious historian and bibliographer, the work will be an indispensable reference tool to those embarking on investigations into the religious landscape of Britain during the World Wars, and those who wish to discover what has been written about their chosen field to date. It will also help identify gaps in scholarship and encourage researchers to try and fill them.
Clive Field, OBE, is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of History and Cultures of the University of Birmingham, UK, and a former Director of Scholarship and Collections at The British Library. He has researched and published extensively on the social history of religion in Britain from the eighteenth century to the present day, and is a particular authority on the history of religious statistics and of Methodism. His most recent books are Britain’s Last Religious Revival? Quantifying Belonging, Behaving, and Believing in the Long 1950s (2015); Secularization in the Long 1960s: Numerating Religion in Britain (2017); and Periodizing Secularization: Religious Allegiance and Attendance in Britain, 1880–1945 (2019). He is co-director of the British Religion in Numbers website, a British Academy Research Project.
“Mention was made in this journal in October 2018 of Clive Field’s comprehensive online bibliography of literature concerning British religion and the First World War. Field has now published an updated version in hard form, extending it, too, to the Second World War, to which many ecclesiastical historians are now turning their attention. Over 1,200 items are listed by subject area, roughly half on each war, with cross-references and indices, and Field is open to suggestions of further additions. The result is an indispensable tool for all researchers in this area, a great service for which Field deserves profuse thanks.”
Michael Brierley
Worcester Cathedral; Modern Believing, 62.1, Winter 2021
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