Riding for a fall.(The Thirties: An Intimate History)(Book review)

The Thirties: An Intimate History

by Juliet Gardiner

Harper Press, 30 [pounds sterling], pp. 974, ISBN 9780007240760

[telephone] 24 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655

Many attempts have been made to portray the 'Roaring Twenties', or the 'Gilded Nineties', or the something-or-other sometime-else, but in truth the 1930s is one of the few decades that fits neatly into a nice round summary, with the Great Depression at one end, the second world war at the other. The 1920s had seen a sharp recovery from a war in which 30 per cent of all men aged 20-24 had died. The following 10 years was a decade of extremes, of hunger and despair, but also rising wages, falling prices and increased standards of living; a decade of political tension, the rise of fascism and a belief in modernity and improvement.

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H. V. Morton, that …