This book was originally published in 1941. In September 1939, the family life of large numbers of parents and children in England and Scotland was voluntarily broken up; 750,000 school children, 542,000 mothers with young children, 12,000 expectant mothers, and 77,000 other persons left their homes and agreed to go wherever they were sent, in small country towns and rural areas. Yet no sooner was the great migration accomplished than its reversal began. Mothers and children began to trickle back to the industrial centres from every district.

The Cambridge Evacuation Survey arose from a discussion, in October 1939, among child psychologists and social workers, many of whom had taken part in the actual evacuation, or were engaged in some form of practical work among children, who felt that a detailed study of what was happening in one area might bring out causal sequences which would become blurred and lost in a larger and more comprehensive study.

This volume collates and analyses the information taken from the survey, including chapters on what the children say, children and foster parents, and children's recreation in Cambridge.