The two others, which followed the same design principles, were:. Possibly, this was because it was considered less appropriate to the conditions of the blitz than to the mass panic expected in the event of a German ground invasion. The other posters were heavily criticised. Anthony Burgess later claimed it was rage at posters like this that helped Labour win such an enormous landslide in the election.
Wrenched out of this context and exhumed in the 21st century, however, the poster appears to flatter, rather than hector, the public it is aimed at. One of the few test printings of the poster was found in a consignment of secondhand books bought at auction by Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, which then created the first reproductions. The power of Keep Calm and Carry On comes from a yearning for an actual or imaginary English patrician attitude of stiff upper lips and muddling through.
This is, however, something that largely survives only in the popular imagination, in a country devoted to services and consumption, where elections are decided on the basis of house-price value, and given to sudden, mawkish outpourings of sentiment. It is a nostalgia for the state of being repressed — solid, stoic, public spirited, as opposed to the depoliticised, hysterical and privatised reality of Britain over the last 30 years.
At the same time as it evokes a sense of loss over the decline of an idea of Britain and the British, it is both reassuring and flattering, implying a virtuous if highly self-aware consumer stoicism. The Keep Calm and Carry On poster is only the tip of an iceberg of austerity nostalgia. Although early examples of the mood can be seen as a reaction to the threat of terrorism and the allegedly attendant blitz spirit, it has become an increasingly prevalent response to the uncertainties of economic collapse.
Interestingly, one of the first areas in which this happened was the consumption of food, an activity closely connected with the immediate satisfaction of desires. Along with the blitz came rationing, which was not fully abolished until the mids. Accounts of this vary; its egalitarianism meant that while the middle classes experienced a drastic decline in the quality and quantity of their diet, for many of the poor it was a minor improvement.
Either way, it was a grim regime, aided by the emergence of various byproducts and substitutes — Spam, corned beef — which stuck around in the already famously dismal British diet for some time, before mass immigration gradually made eating in Britain a less awful experience. The figure of importance here is the Essex-born multimillionaire chef and Winston Churchill fan, Jamie Oliver.
The second phase was the book , TV series and chain of shops branded as the Ministry of Food. Yet it was this very unease that ensured the poster would remain hidden from public view until one dusty copy was re-discovered by two booksellers in Alnwick at the turn of the twenty-first century. The rest, as they say, is history. Tags: ministry of information , posters , propaganda , publicity.
Comment by Susan Cham posted on on 27 June Great article. I love the use of history to remind people of how the past relates to today. Comment by Dr Bex Lewis posted on on 30 June Comment by Lynda Mugglestone posted on on 02 August Really interesting article - 'carry on' in the specific sense being used here, is, incidentally, a form of expression that derives from WW1 where it has its own propagandist role.
Comment by Henry Irving posted on on 03 August Thanks for the recommendation Lynda - it's very interesting to hear that the wording has a First World War precedent. They were to be displayed all over Britain in prominent places where they could not be missed. The posters were meant to stand out with big, bold text with bright, eye-catching colours alongside the image of the crown of King George VI.
The idea was to get them out quickly as a fresh boost of morale if there was an attack. There was one indication of it being hung in a shop window in Leeds as reported in a local paper at the time. It was only in when an original copy was found in a bookstore in Alnwick hidden within some dusty old books.
Since then, more have been found, but there are still very few surviving original copies from the print in It is thought that the rest may have been destroyed towards the end of the war in in the paper salvage that was taking place.
What's hot. Where does keep calm and carry on come from? Love you lots. Keep calm and carry on eating Oreo's! Popular now. Who uses keep calm and carry on? Note This is not meant to be a formal definition of keep calm and carry on like most terms we define on Dictionary.
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