The impact of the two world wars on cultures of grieving: Grief in England, 1914–1980

The 20th-century transformation of grief was above all impacted by the cultural effects of the two world wars. In Victorian culture, death was often accepted and grief was openly expressed. However, the scale and the nature of the three-quarters of a million British war deaths in World War I led to a culture of emotional avoidance, private grief and minimal social ritual. World War II intensified individual and social repression of grief as the pervasive cultural practice, with some variations by class, gender and region. Only since the 1960s has there been a revival of personal and public emotional grieving, led mainly by middle-class women from the cities, large towns and the south.