Appeasement Project Resources
Professor Julie Gottlieb is leading a collaborative project bringing together history teachers, academic historians and artists to explore the history of appeasement ‘from below’ and introduce new sources, resources and methods into the History curriculum.
Teaching resources from 19th April workshop
The history of appeasement, the successes and failures of peace initiatives in international relations, and the social history of World War II are popular topics in secondary schools, and at GCSE and A-level. They are, however, taught mainly from the perspective of history from above.
On 19 April, 2023, Professor Julie V. Gottlieb, Department of History, University of Sheffield, and playwright-director Nicola Baldwin ran a schools’ event that included a read-through performance of the play “The Nervous State”, followed by 3 different hands-on immersive exercises for students to choose from. By dramatising F.L. Lucas’s Journal Under the Terror, 1938, students and their teachers were able to enrich their understanding of appeasement by gaining insight into the psychological, personal, and popular experiences of living in times of acute international crisis. Participants also considered the ways in which we all inevitably internalise the failures of peace.
80 pupils from Outwood School, Sheffield; Chaucer School, Sheffield; King Edward School, Sheffield and Manchester Grammar School, Manchester, attended the drama performance and immersive exercises workshop at University of Sheffield on April 19th, 2023.
There were four components to the event.
- Pupils watched a live performance of The Nervous State, a play by Nicola Baldwin, dramatising the F.L. Lucas’s Journal Under the Terror, 1938 (1939). Lucas was a fierce critic of Appeasement.
- Journal writing based on interacting with Lucas’s Journal Under the Terror, 1938 (1939), write your own journal entry to chronicle this moment in time and how you are responding to current events, delivered by Prof. Gottlieb.
- Sources for a history from below and a history from within the Munich Crisis. Analysing and comparing Mass Observation, Lucas’s journal and Chamberlain diary letter, delivered by Jamie Jenkins.
- Scene Study from Nicola Baldwin’s “The Nervous State”, a dramatisation of F.L. Lucas’s Journal Under the Terror, 1938 (1939), delivered by Nicola Baldwin.
The pupils and their teachers appreciated the workshops and the opportunity to attend such an event in a university setting.
Following the workshop, students were asked what the play and workshops added to their knowledge on the topic. Here are some of their responses:
“Added an emotional perspective that you don’t get from a textbook”.
“I learned about just how much people experienced anxiety in anticipation of the war while others were excited”.
“It helped me to understand the struggle that ordinary people went through during this time rather than just the famous, important figures that we usually learn about”.
“Gave me inspiration”.
“It helped me to understand the struggle that ordinary people went through during this time rather than just the famous, important figures that we usually learn about”.
“About the public's opinion of what was happening and what information they were being given compared to what the leaders knew”.
“It gave me an idea of how individuals felt, which is often missing from sources”.
“The idea of how ordinary people responded to crises and in History as a whole: it was interesting to see the perspectives of ordinary people rather than leaders”.
Resources
Materials from April 19th Appeasement workshops for pupils gives an indication of the events activities.
The film ‘A History From Within: New Approaches to Teaching the History of Appeasement in the Classroom’ features coverage of the workshops.
All teaching resources from the workshops
Resources for teacher workshop
On 7 June, 2023, Professor Julie V. Gottlieb, Department of History, University of Sheffield, ran a teachers’ event that explored new approaches to teaching the history of appeasement in the classroom. The history of appeasement, the successes and failures of peace initiatives in International Relations, and the social history of World War II are popular topics at Key Stage 3, GCSE and A-level. They are, however, taught mainly from the perspective of history from above, with little regard for the psychological, personal, and popular experiences of living in times of acute international crisis, and the ways in which we all inevitably internalise the failures of peace.
Bringing together a dynamic team of partners from schools, the Historical Association, the Mass-Observation Archive, playwright and actors, and academic historians this one-day conference road-tested new teaching materials, supporting teaching innovation, providing CPD, and generating discussion and collaboration.
Workshop slides given by Professor Julie Gottlieb
Historical Association website material
The Historical Association is our key partner, and their website hosts the resources generated by the team of teachers, teacher-educator, archivists, academics and artists. We have collaborated with the HA to engage teachers with this cutting-edge scholarship and these timely perspectives on appeasement, exploring ways of introducing it (and the sources on which it is based) into history classrooms.
Nicola Baldwin is a renowned playwright, writer and director. She has collaborated with historian Julie V. Gottlieb, dramatising F.L. Lucas’s Journal Under the Terror, 1939 (1939).
In the text, Baldwin gives insight into the creative processes by which she adapted the journal into a play, "The Nervous State"
Initial work was completed in Bolton in Lancashire, which was known as 'Work Town'.
In addition to the paid investigators, a National Panel of volunteer writers was set up and they kept diaries of particular dates.
Britain by Mass Observation was one of their early works for a general readership, and it was published in 1939 as a Penguin Special.
Historical Association Website
Using Drama to teach History
Nicola Baldwin is a renowned playwright, writer and director. She has collaborated with historian Julie V. Gottlieb, dramatising F.L. Lucas’s Journal Under the Terror, 1938 (1938). Lucas was a fierce critic of appeasement. The text 'Staging the Nervous State - Using theatre to explore the history of Appeasement and the War of Nerves' is a version of a presentation Baldwin gave at a teachers’ conference on June 7, 2023 at the University of Sheffield, that disseminated outcomes of the project at that point in its life. She refers to Lucas’s life and times, his journal, and the dramatic mirroring of his wife Prudence’s breakdown and the breakdown in international relations.
In the text, Baldwin gives insight into the creative processes by which she adapted the journal into a play, The Nervous State. She explains how the script changed shape as it was performed to different audiences, including to school pupils on April 19th, 2023 at the University of Sheffield. The play is currently being adapted into a short feature film. A filmed performance of the play is available to watch on the Player.
Videographer Kitty Turner was commissioned by the project to make a film about the making of the play and the co-creation of the teaching materials for schools. Kitty’s film is called “History from Within: New approaches to teaching the history of appeasement in the classroom.”
Using Drama to teach History resources
Using Mass Observation in the Classroom: Sources and Questions for enquiry
Mass Observation is a Social Research organisation that operated between 1937 and the early 1950s, although it has continued to collect original material from 1981 onwards too. The Mass Observation Archive is currently located at the University of Sussex.
Its founders wanted to gauge public opinion and measure this against how it was reported in the press and the media of the day. The early ethnographic work of Mass Observation was undertaken by investigators who conducted direct surveys (street to street and door-to-door), but also through indirect evidence where they wrote down what they observed or overheard. Initial work was completed in Bolton in Lancashire, which was known as ‘Work Town‘.
The Mass Observation Archive contains boxes of evidence collected by investigators under over 80 themes, such as politics, smoking, sexual behaviour, shopping etc. The boxes not only contain written records but photographs and also what would normally be regarded as ephemera.
In addition to the paid investigators a National Panel of volunteer writers was set up and they kept diaries of particular dates. Sometimes the writers filled in open-ended questionnaires called directives. Most of the directives in 1938 were concerned with reactions to the Munich Crisis and the imminence of war. There were 128 contributors, 70 men and 58 women.
The collated responses demonstrated a variety of views and opinions and reflected the ever-changing nature of the situation in actual time. Britain by Mass Observation was the first publication by the organisation in 1939 by Penguin Books. Julie V. Gottlieb is the first historian to make use of the Mass Observation Archive in researching the history of Appeasement “from below”.
Sheffield students’ response to Munich Edge of War
The historical drama, based on Robert Harris’s novel, “Munich– The Edge of War” premiered on Netflix in January 2022. This was just as the teaching on Professor Julie Gottlieb’s University document-based module HST2030 The Munich Crisis and the British People had finished. Together with the Faculty’s Schools’ Outreach Officer Linda Billam, Julie invited a selection of her students to discuss and critique the film, and to think about the key differences between historical fiction and historical dramatisation and adaptation. What follows is an edited version of that discussion, with special interest about the pros and cons of using a dramatic film as a history teaching resource.
Recording and discussion outline
Netflix’s Munich - The Edge Of War: A Film For Our Time? - History Matters blog
Teaching Appeasement in the classroom with Year 9 Pupils at King Edward VII School, Sheffield
TBC
Press coverage
- Anxiety on eve of Second World War caused spike in ‘crisis suicides’ - The Times
- Munich – The Edge of War: women in historical films are too often unrealistic - The Conversation
- Julie Gottlieb, 'Munich Crisis 1938: Appeasement of Hitler was linked to suicides in Britain, says academic', - The Yorkshire Post