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Full-Text Articles in Other History

How The Women Of The Soe Were Made To Wage War: A Brief Account Of Noor Inayat Khan’S Experience As A Biracial Female Soe Agent, Leah B. Veerasammy Dec 2023

How The Women Of The Soe Were Made To Wage War: A Brief Account Of Noor Inayat Khan’S Experience As A Biracial Female Soe Agent, Leah B. Veerasammy

The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History

This article explores the experiences of women of colour in the British Army during the Second World War, and the influences of race and gender on their work, focusing specifically on the experiences of British-Indian SOE agent Noor Inayat Khan. Inayat Khan’s experiences in training and fieldwork are analyzed based on her relationship with superiors and colleagues, taking into account their racial and gender-based biases, as well as Inayat Khan’s relationship to her own identity as a woman of colour in a largely white male environment. Ultimately, women within the British Army experienced a number of disadvantages due to prevalent …


Desegregation Through Entertainment: Rodgers And Hammerstein’S South Pacific As An Instrument Of Military Policy, Leana Sottile Jun 2020

Desegregation Through Entertainment: Rodgers And Hammerstein’S South Pacific As An Instrument Of Military Policy, Leana Sottile

Voces Novae

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific became a staple of mainstream popular culture. However, the musical also served a specific function within the American military where its usage by the United Service Organizations and Department of Defense was widespread. This case study examines how South Pacific arguably served a way to ease the blow of desegregation on the military by other means, in this case, entertainment. This was achieved by combining the show’s progressive views on racial tolerance with the prevalent wartime nostalgia and romanticism in the piece. All of …


A War To Save Civilization: African American Soldiers In Britain During The Second World War, Joseph Dickinson Jun 2020

A War To Save Civilization: African American Soldiers In Britain During The Second World War, Joseph Dickinson

Voces Novae

During the Second World War, thousands of African American servicemen and women were sent to the British Isles as part of the war effort. Their arrival sparked a debate over American racial beliefs and how they would affect society in Britain, with many white Americans quickly finding that the locals were largely disapproving of the systems of segregation and discrimination common in the United States. Conflicts concerning race often escalated into violence between white soldiers, black soldiers, and the British civilians, forcing the American military to reevaluate their stance on discrimination and segregation in the armed forces.