Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>A communication history of the UK’s Ministry of Information 1939–46. It covers all the MoI’s work in the UK, and its marketing of the British case for war internationally to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Far East; and to Arabic and Farsi-speaking nations. It deals with the MoI’s administrative history, and the tension between publicity and propaganda; the experience of working in its headquarters (Senate House); the practice of censorship of books, newspapers, letters, telephone calls, and telegrams; the use of daily and weekly public opinion surveys to monitor morale; the publication of books, newspapers, magazines, comics, posters, badges, and flyers for UK and international markets in more than twenty languages; the production and use of photographs, and their censorship; the running of thousands of exhibitions in the UK and abroad; the financing and production of thousands of films to be shown in cinemas, village halls, factories, and to local interest groups, including the W.I.; the running of tens of thousands of public meetings, with free-for-all question and answer sessions; the organisation of multi-media advertising campaigns in the UK and abroad; and the creation and running of thirteen regional offices in the UK to ensure that the MoI’s messages were tailored to local and individual needs, and also to receive feedback from local groups and individual citizens. Finally, the book surveys the continuing impact of the MoI on British culture from the early post-war years to the Covid pandemic, and beyond.</jats:p>