The British Council was established in the mid-1930s as an instrument of the then-emerging cultural diplomacy. To this day it operates in many countries throughout the Globe.
I am surprised that I have failed to find any "history" of the British Council, not even an official one. I am especially interested in the Second World War chapters. The Council helped several exile representations to run their information and propaganda services. Any suggestions?
I don't know about histories, but a relevant document was published last year in The South Slav Journal. It is David Shillan, "Confidential to British Council: Report, Evacuation from Belgrade, 1941." Shillan was the organizer and first director (1939-41) of the British Council's British-Yugoslav Institute in Belgrade.
Thanks Eric! While this is not going to help me to solve my "problem", i.e. how the Council interacted with governments-in-exile in London, it´s definitely of interest.
Govt's-in-exile in London: Did the British Council interact with them? I'm really curious. I would have thought that once they had been recognized, or were still recognized, the FO would have communicated directly with them. But I don't know, and wonder who worked with them prior to recognition or after recognition was dropped?
Dear Pavol, hope this will be of some help:
Book - Dockrill, Michael L., and John W. Young. British Foreign Policy, 1945–56. Springer, 1989.
Book - Pennycook, Alastair. The cultural politics of English as an international language. Routledge, 2014.
Book - Howatt, Anthony Philip Reid, and Henry George Widdowson. A history of ELT. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Regard
Tom
Leaving aside Philippe Taylor's books on British cultural propaganda, such as The Projection of Britain and British Propaganda in the Twentieth Century, etc., there are two official histories the later one from the 1980s: Frances Donaldson, The British Council - the first fifty years, Jonathan Cape, 1984
There are also several new works on the British Council during the Second World War. For example: Edward Corse, A battle for Neutral Europe - British Cultural Propaganda during the Second World War, Bloomsbury, 2014.
Thank you very much - and apologies, since it looks like I have done a really poor search.
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