Abstract

This article investigates the Air League of the British Empire and its attempts to promote air-mindedness within British society in the late 1930s. It draws attention to the Air League’s construction of a distinctly militarized aerial theatre—in the form of Empire Air Day (EAD)—and highlights the extent to which the event was embedded in popular civic ritual. Linking the themes of nation, empire, youth, and air-mindedness, the case of EAD provides important insights into the ways in which British society interacted with—and ascribed meaning to—technology, technological change, and modernity, in a period of high international tensions. The article shows that the Air Ministry valued the display as a vehicle for recruitment, propaganda, and as a way to project an image of military strength to domestic and foreign audiences. The display enabled the League to place before the British public a form of ‘popular’ militarism that was supported by large sections of British society, key military figures, members of the royal family, newspapers across the political spectrum, and by politicians of all stripes. EAD was a politically and culturally acceptable way of promoting rearmament and the military capabilities of the British state.

中文翻译：

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“数以百万计的眼睛转向了天空”：大英帝国航空联盟、帝国航空日和促进航空意识，1934-9

摘要

本文调查了大英帝国航空联盟及其在 1930 年代后期在英国社会中促进空气意识的尝试。它以帝国航空日 (EAD) 的形式引起了人们对航空联盟建造一个明显军事化的空中剧院的关注，并强调了该活动在流行的公民仪式中的嵌入程度。EAD 案例将国家、帝国、青年和空气意识等主题联系起来，对英国社会在高盛时期与技术、技术变革和现代性互动并赋予其意义的方式提供了重要见解。国际紧张局势。文章显示，空军部将此次展示视为招募、宣传的工具，以及向国内外观众展示军事实力形象的一种方式。展示使联盟能够在英国公众面前展示一种“流行”军国主义形式，这种形式得到了英国社会的大部分、主要军事人物、王室成员、政治领域的报纸以及各种政治家的支持. EAD 是一种政治和文化上可接受的促进重整军备和英国国家军事能力的方式。