'Picture Post', 1938-1945: Social reform and images of Britain at war

The British Labour's Party's triumph in the 1945 elections may be attributed in part to the popularization and promotion of a Progressive social reform agenda carried out during the war years by the weekly illustrated magazine, Picture Post.;From its founding in October, 1938 to Labour's rise to power, Picture Post evolved politically, graduating from a pre-war concern with domestic social conditions and open political discussion to a strident advocacy of post-war social reform and the development of independent candidacies and a third parliamentary party. Along the way, the magazine trod an ideological tight-rope, balancing its critique of the Coalition Government's conduct of the war with on-going secret negotiations with the propaganda wing of the Government, the Ministry of Information. By 1941, this always tentative cooperation ceased, to be replaced by the magazine's concerted effort to interest its readers in Home Front voluntarist programs (such as the Local Defence Volunteers) and in extra-parliamentary political activity.;Picture Post, 1938-1945: Social Reform and Images of Britain at War posits the question: What were the politics of Picture Post from its founding up to the end of the war, as manifested in text and photograph, in its editorial policy, and in its very representation of the world? Concomittant with this inquiry is an examination of the evolution of the illustrated magazine as a medium.;Working directly from weekly issues of the magazine, Picture Post, 1938-1945: Social Reform and Images of Britain at War traces a chronology of Picture Post's changing political concerns and functions. Supplementary information was gathered from personal interviews with the magazine's founding editor, Stefan Lorant, as well as with several members of its photographic corps. Picture Post's photoessays were published without accompanying photographic credit; the testimony of Lorant, the photographers, as well as rare access to the publisher's marked copies of the magazine's complete run, have made stylistic and thematic analyses finally possible. Additionally, Picture Post's mid-war consultations with the Ministry of Information are established by the reams of relevant correspondence and meeting minutes held in the Public Record Office. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).