PROTECTING THE PEOPLE: The Central Office of Information

Following WWII, the UK Government replaced the wartime Ministry of Information with the Central Office of Information (COI), with the task of providing the public with information that would improve their lives in a brave new post-war world. Here the leading historian of propaganda David Welch presents its story through more than 200 of the finest examples 1946-2011 of the rich visual content the national information machine created. It is a feast of nostalgia and many will recall campaigns like the Green Cross Code and Keep Britain Tidy to influence behaviour, anti-drink driving and anti-smoking campaigns, to inform citizens about nationalisation, privatisation, the National Curriculum or Race Relation Legislation, to provide career opportunities information about the civil service, armed forces, teaching and nursing, inform people overseas about the UK and inform the public about their rights and entitlements and straightforward guidance to employers, workers, professionals about programmes and current regulations for example discipline in schools or education at work. The book is loosely chronological in structure with a more thematic approach for example the theme of Civil Defence in the 1980s because this was when the final Protect and Survive publications and films were produced. Crime: Together We'll Crack It. Health information films featuring Charley and family cartoon characters, booklets with illustrations teaching your children to clean their teeth or to give them the right healthy foods, not snacking between meals. Britain's bread hangs by Yorkshire's thread the bold poster states. Coughs and sneezes spread diseases: trap the germs in your handkerchief. And the baby points upwards crying 'Hey! Time I was immunised against diphtheria.' A nostalgic feast of posters and campaigns, bold colour, 272 very large quality pages, the British Library has chosen from its 15,000 object archive for this quality publication.