The Thirties - An Intimate History Of Britain

Product Description

Details:
As ‘ Wartime’ did for the 1940s, this book will grasp the broad spectrum of events in the 1930s in the words of contemporary witnesses drawn from metropolitan & provincial letters & diaries, newspapers, periodicals, books & the range of rich material available in the British Library.

J.B. Priestley famously described the three Englands he saw in the 1930s: Old Engl&, nineteenth-century England & the new, post-war Engl&. Thirties Britain was, indeed, a land of contrasts, at once a nation rendered hopeless by the Depression, unemployment & international tensions, yet also a place of complacent suburban home-owners with a baby Austin in every garage.

Now Juliet Gardiner, acclaimed author of the award-winning Wartime, provides a fresh perspective on that restless, uncertain, ambitious decade, bringing the complex experience of thirties Britain alive through newspapers, magazines, memoirs, letters & diaries.

Gardiner captures the essence of a people part-mesmerised by modernism in architecture, art & the proliferation of dream palaces, by the cult of fitness & fresh air, the obsession with speed, the growth & regimentation of leisure, the democratisation of the countryside, the celebration of elegance, glamour & sensation. Yet, at the same time, this was a nation imbued with a pervasive awareness of loss – of Britains influence in the world, of accepted political, social & cultural signposts, & finally of peace itself.

Ideal for:
A fantastic history book for fans of this decade.

This paperback book has 576 pages & measures: 19.7 x 13 x 5.8cm.