What is it about?
The book describes the formation of Mass Observation, the social research organisation founded in 1937, and its subsequent history in relation to a theoretical understanding of everyday life.
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Why is it important?
It was the first book-length history of Mass Observation. It is significant for its account of the central importance of both Charles Madge and Humphrey Jennings to Mass Observation in contrast to those publications which focus more on the role of Tom Harrisson. It inspired a full-length article by Caleb Crain in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/09/11/surveillance-society
Perspectives
It was the culmination of ten years' off-and-on work and a monumental relief to complete. Although it is hardly the main feature of the book, I was particularly proud of putting together an account of Mass Observation's relationship with the Ministry of Information from archival sources because there simply wasn't a reliable account of this interaction before. I am even prouder of the account of Madge's work with Keynes and how this enabled the 1941 budget to incorporate millions of working-class people into the income tax system, a development which was crucial to financing the war and the Welfare State which was founded after it. Perhaps my favourite thing about the book is that it has allowed me to pass variously as an historian, a sociologist, a cultural studies academic and even, occasionally, as a literature person.
Dr Nick Hubble
Brunel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mass Observation and Everyday Life, January 2006, Nature,
DOI: 10.1057/9780230503144.
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