'Rationing has not made me like margarine' : food and Second World War in Britain : a Mass Observation testimony
This thesis enhances our understanding of the British Kitchen Front through the examination of primary sources from Mass Observation Archive. It illuminates the everyday life of civilians, the impact of the war food restrictions on their eating habits and practices, but also on their perspectives and behaviours. Moreover, it argues that while the food practices of these civilians were modified by the wartime rationing and food scarcity, other factors of influence, namely social class, personal and familial circumstances and time were critical regarding eating habits, food choice and priorities. In order to conduct this research and respond to the difficulties presented by the sources examined, a tailor-made method of data extraction, categorisation and analysis has been designed. Using the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this method allowed an unusual quantitative treatment of massive qualitative data, the creation of measurable and comparable figures as well as their qualitative contextualisation. It was found that scarcity of food effectively modified the diet of the diarists, but also their actions and perspective. The food difficulties generated new behaviours, some unlikely to
Chevalier, Natacha
TX0341 Nutrition. Foods and food supply
'Rationing has not made me like margarine' : food and Second World War in Britain : a Mass Observation testimony. This thesis enhances our understanding of the British Kitchen Front through the examination of primary sources from Mass Observation Archive. It illuminates the everyday life of civilians, the impact of the war food restrictions on their eating habits and practices, but also on their perspectives and behaviours. Moreover, it argues that while the food practices of these civilians were modified by the wartime rationing and food scarcity, other factors of influence, namely social class, personal and familial circumstances and time were critical regarding eating habits, food choice and priorities. In order to conduct this research and respond to the difficulties presented by the sources examined, a tailor-made method of data extraction, categorisation and analysis has been designed. Using the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this method allowed an unusual quantitative treatment of massive qualitative data, the creation of measurable and comparable figures as well as their qualitative contextualisation. It was found that scarcity of food effectively modified the diet of the diarists, but also their actions and perspective. The food difficulties generated new behaviours, some unlikely to
make like food second world war britain mass_observation testimony enhances british kitchen front examination primary_source mass observation archive illuminates everyday_life civilian impact_war food restriction eat habit practice also perspectives behaviour moreover_argue food practice civilian modify wartime ration food scarcity factor_influence namely social_class personal familial circumstance time critical regard eat habit food choice priority order conduct respond difficulty present source examine tailor made method data extraction categorisation analysis design using advantage quantitative_qualitative methodology method_allow unusual quantitative treatment massive qualitative_data creation measurable comparable figure well qualitative contextualisation find scarcity food effectively modify diet also action perspective food difficulty generate new behaviour unlikely