Whistling in the Dark asks -- and answers -- the question, "How does this image match with memory and experience?"

Comparing wartime documents and postwar memory, Jean R. Freedman creates a nuanced portrait of "what really happened". Interviews with survivors reveal the importance they placed on music, theater, film, speeches, and radio drama -- ephemeral artifacts too often lost to scholars. By examining the meaning and influence of popular images about the war, Freedman shows their continued importance in present-day British politics.

Because their "finest hour" lasted six years and involved millions of people, it is not surprising to discover courage coexisting with cowardice, unity with selfishness, humor with fear. By looking at lesser-known groups of Londoners who survived the Blitz -- women, Jews, working-class people -- Freedman powerfully reconstructs wartime London.