It examined 1930s Britain through its material culture, with Crawford reaching the judgement that it was a society in which appearances were given greater importance than value, with clothing, for instance, emphasising bourgeois respectability over comfort. He attributed much of this to the impact of capitalism and consumerism on British culture. The work fitted within an established genre of 1930s publications which lamented the state of British society, in particular the quality of its food and manufactured products as well as its increasing suburbanisation. By the outbreak of the Second World War the work had become less marketable due to its unpatriotic nature, and when in 1943 Crawford proposed it to Methuen Publishing they turned it down; he gave copies to a few friends, but never published it. In anticipation of the Second World War, Crawford expressed the view that he would "remain neutral" and not take sides, not because he favoured fascism over liberal democracy but because he saw both as repugnant forms of capitalist society which would ultimately be swept away by a socialist revolution; in his words the war would be "a clash of imperialisms, a gangsters' feud". After war broke out, he decided that in the event of a German invasion of Britain he would destroy all of his leftist literature lest he be persecuted for possessing it. In November 1940, the German Luftwaffe began bombing Southampton, where the OS offices were located. Crawford removed some of the old OS maps and stored them in the garage of his house at Nursling, while also unsuccessfully urging the Director-General to remove the OS' archive of books, documents, maps and photographs to a secure location. Subsequently, the OS headquarters were destroyed in the bombing, resulting in the loss of most of their archive. The refusal of the OS administration to take his warnings seriously infuriated Crawford, exacerbating his anger about the civil service's red tape and bureaucracy. In his words, "trying to get a move on in the Civil Service was like trying to swim in a lake of glue". Resigning his membership in various British societies, he unsuccessfully tried to find employment abroad. With little for an archaeology officer to do at the OS in wartime, in mid-1941 Crawford was seconded to the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England "for special duties during wartime". They assigned him to carry out a project of photographic documentation in Southampton for the National Buildings Record, producing images of many old buildings or architectural features that were threatened by the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign. He appreciated the value of this work, taking 5,000 photographs over the course of the war.