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How well did civilian morale stand up to the pressures of total war and what factors were important to it? In this important work, Robert Mackay offers a robust rejection of recent contentions that civilian morale fell a long way short of the favourable picture presented at the time and in hundreds of books and films ever since. Whilst acknowledging that some negative attitudes and behaviours existed - panic and defeatism, ration-cheating and black-marketeering, looting, absenteeism and strikes - the author argues that these involved a very small minority of the population. In fact, most people behaved well, and this should be the real measure of civilian morale, rather than the failings of the few who behaved badly. This book shows that before the War the official prognosis was pessimistic but that measures to bolster morale were taken nevertheless, in particular with regard to protection against air raids. An examination of a range of indicative factors concludes that morale fluctuated but was in the main good, right until the end of the War. In explaining this phenomenon, due credit is accorded to government policies for the maintenance of morale, but special emphasis is given to the 'invisible' chain of patriotic feeling that held the nation together during its time of trial. This book will give students of the Second World War new insights into how and why ordinary people coped with the intolerable.

How well did civilian morale stand up to the pressure of total war and what factors were important to it? Rejecting contentions that morale fell short of the favourable picture presented during World War II and since, this work shows how government policies for maintaining morale were put in place.

This work deals with local governments and fiscal stress. In the first chapter, I analyze the response of individual housing sales prices to negative information or "news" about local public debt levels and their underlying impact on the provision of public goods and services. In particular, I use the announcement that rising levels of unfunded pension liabilities for the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System (SDCERS) were higher than previously perceived. In the second chapter, I analyze the effect of fiscal stress on local government fiscal structures. For this analysis, I focus on the sudden investment losses of nearly $1.7 billion in 1994 that led to Orange County's default on debt obligations and bankruptcy. In the third chapter, I analyze how local governments underfund their public pensions over the business cycle—where unfunded pension liabilities serve as an effective way to borrow from the public workforce. I look at changing levels of unfunded pension liabilities and the local government characteristics over the 2001 and 2008 recessions.

How well did civilian morale stand up to the pressures of total war and what factors were important to it? In this important work, Robert Mackay offers a robust rejection of recent contentions that civilian morale fell a long way short of the favourable picture presented at the time and in hundreds of books and films ever since. Whilst acknowledging that some negative attitudes and behaviours existed - panic and defeatism, ration-cheating and black-marketeering, looting, absenteeism and strikes - the author argues that these involved a very small minority of the population. In fact, most people behaved well, and this should be the real measure of civilian morale, rather than the failings of the few who behaved badly. This book shows that before the War the official prognosis was pessimistic but that measures to bolster morale were taken nevertheless, in particular with regard to protection against air raids. An examination of a range of indicative factors concludes that morale fluctuated but was in the main good, right until the end of the War. In explaining this phenomenon, due credit is accorded to government policies for the maintenance of morale, but special emphasis is given to the 'invisible' chain of patriotic feeling that held the nation together during its time of trial. This book will give students of the Second World War new insights into how and why ordinary people coped with the intolerable.