Home Front Diaries: Over Representations of the Chattering Classes?

The use of diaries, memoirs and personal journals as primary sources has grown exponentially over the last few years, not least with the re-emergence of Mass Observation as a popular and possibly dominant source of personal memories particularly of the Home Front in the Second World War. However these sources have also become items of controversy and debate over the narrow social group they represent. For those beyond the chattering classes, long hours of war work, coupled with domestic responsibilities in increasingly difficult circumstances, as the privations of war increased were not conducive to diary and journal keeping. This paper will look at these sources and consider them in the light of their limitations and the sometimes condescending and patronising attitudes shown towards the few sources where the working classes had a voice.