The First World War largely directed the course of the twentieth century. Fought on three continents, the war saw 14 million killed and 34 million wounded. Its impact shaped the world we live in today, and the language of the trenches continues to live in the modern consciousness.One of the enduring myths of the First World War is that the experience of the trenches was not talked about. Yet dozens of words entered or became familiar in the English language as a direct result of the soldiers’ experiences. This book looks at how the experience of the First World War changed the English language, adding words that were both in slang and standard military use, and modifying the usage and connotations of existing words and phrases. Illustrated with material from the authors’ collections and photographs of the objects of the war, the book will look at how the words emerged into everyday language.

Family Newspapers? provides the first detailed historical study of the modern popular press's coverage of sex and private life, from the start of the mass newspaper reading boom in 1918 to the triumph of the Sun's sexualised journalism in 1978. In this period, newspapers were at the heart of British popular culture, and Fleet Street's preoccupation with sex meant that the press was a hugely significant source of knowledge and imagery about sexual behaviour, personal relationships, and moral codes. Focusing on changing ideas of what sexual content was deemed 'fit to print', Adrian Bingham reveals how editors negotiated the tension between exploiting public curiosity about sex and ensuring that their journalism remained within the bounds of acceptability for a 'family newspaper'. The study challenges established interpretations of social change by drawing attention to the ways in which the press opened up the public discussion of sexuality before the 'permissiveness' of the 1960s. Exploring the spectacular diversity of the press's sexual content - from advice columns to pin-ups, from court reports to celebrity revelations - Bingham offers a rich and thought-provoking investigation of a media form that has done much to shape the character of modern Britain.