| Filename | air-panic-of-1935.pdf |
| Filesize | 187.30 KB |
| Version | 1 |
| Date added | 27 July 2013 |
| Downloaded | 1894 times |
| Category | Articles |
| License | Not to be redistributed in any form |
Accepted, peer-reviewed version of article published as Brett Holman, ‘The air panic of 1935: British press opinion between disarmament and rearmament’, Journal of Contemporary History 46 (2011), 288-307. Final version available at dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022009410392407. Details here. PDF format.
Abstract: The British fear of bombing in the early 20th century has aptly been termed ‘the shadow of the bomber’. But the processes by which the public learned about the danger of bombing are poorly understood. This paper proposes that the press was the primary source of information about the threat, and examines a formative period in the evolution of public concern about airpower, the so-called air panic of 1935, during which German rearmament was revealed and large-scale RAF expansion undertaken in response. A proposed air pact between the Locarno powers enabled a shift from support of disarmament to rearmament by newspapers on the right, while simultaneously supporting collective security. Paradoxically, after initially supporting the air pact, the left-wing press and its readers began to have doubts, for the same reason: the need to support collective security. This episode sheds new light on early rearmament, and how the government was able to undertake it, despite the widespread feelings in the electorate in favour of disarmament.
Paul Drye
Thanks for this. I stumbled across it while researching the Swedish mystery airplane flap of the 1930s as part of a footnote to a bit I'm writing about the Swedish Ghost Rockets. I'm looking forward to getting a broader picture this afternoon once I'm finished footnoting and can settle down with my iPad for a read.
Brett Holman
Post authorI hope you find it useful! Please feel free to post a link here -- I see your post on the ghost rockets is up already. My more recent mystery aircraft posts can be found here.
Peter Garwood
I try downloading the Scareship Age and get nothing but pages of indecipherable text.
What am I doing wrong?
Brett Holman
Post authorI was able to download it, and it opened just fine for me. What ebook reader are you using?
JDK
I just tried a bit of experimentation, and attempting to download (clicking on the download button) the EPUB version without an EPUB reader on Firefox got the wall of junk text in a browser window. Downloading an EPUB reader, and trying again solved the problem. (Mac, Firefox).
Brett Holman
Post authorYes, it's quite possible there's no ebook reader software installed. Amazon makes some pretty slick, free Kindle software for MOBI, and there's Adobe Digital Editions for EPUB, also free. Of course there are others too.
jerrywarriner
The PDF version refused to download, so I downloaded the document as an EPUB. I found a converter on the Web at http://www.convertfiles.com/convert/ebook/EPUB-to-PDF.html.
It worked beautifully.
The Munich crisis is my favorite topic of the interwar years. I have more books, documents, documentaries and articles on that than almost any other subject from the period.
I'm in Heaven! Thanks for providing this valuable information.
Brett Holman
Post authorYou're welcome. Sorry you had problems with the PDF (it downloads okay for me) but I'm glad you were able to find a workaround!
Jenny Sloggett
Thank you for making these article available. I look forward to the Next War in the Air. I am a PhD student with the University of Newcastle and my topic involves civil and military defence preparations in south-eastern Australia from 1935 to 1945 (NSW, Qld, Vic), particularly the involvement of state and local governments. The impact of the British example and British instructions for defence planning cannot be overestimated.
Whilst I was in Melbourne last April for the 1942 Shadow of the War conference, I picked up a copy of At Home and Under Fire: air raids and culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz by Susan R Grayzel (Cambridge University Press, 2012). It make a useful supplement to Terence O'Brien's volume of the official history on civil defence in Great Britain because of its focus on popular literature and use of letters and diaries as sources.
Brett Holman
Post authorThat's a great topic. I read Kate Darian-Smith's book on Melbourne during the war a while back; Richard Waterhouse is also doing some interesting work on the panic in Australia after the fall of Singapore (which I mentioned here). I'd love to know more.
I'm actually writing a review of Grayzel's book for a journal at the moment, or not writing as the case may be…
Christopher
What the article says about the psychological aspects of the scare is fascinating. It might be worthwhile to explore if this links to the paranoia about empire and the threats to the latter.
Brett Holman
Post authorInteresting idea. Of course the danger to the Empire was always implicit in the question of the Navy, and sometimes explicit (particularly in the colonies themselves), but I can't think of any real imperial dimension to the airship panic. It was very much focused on the security of the British Isles themselves. Something to look out for, though -- thanks.
Gary Ball
Thanks for this, a great resource as I am researching airships over Wales as part of a centenary project.
http://www.projectzerohistorymatters.blogspot.co.uk and was not aware of the extent of the scare ship stories.
Brett Holman
Post authorGlad you've found something useful here. South Wales was an epicentre of phantom airship sightings in both 1909 and 1913. It's hard to imagine that E. T. Willows isn't connected somehow, though it seems clear he wasn't actually present at the time, so I suspect inspiration more than anything else.