Britain between the wars

[RedRedRose]

We are going all 1920's and 1930's in a quest for your various recommended readings. (And videos!)

A neglected era sandwiched between the two wars; Was it really a time of unemployment and bread queues or the advent of cinema and mass culture? Should it have heralded peace and a lot to labour? Or, was the march to another war inevitable?

Key works on- the 1926 General Strike, BUF, the CPGB, British attitudes towards the Spanish Civil War, advent of new welfare policies, appeasement and responses to the Great Depression also appreciated.

On the list:
Charles Loch Mowat - Britain Between The Wars, 1918 1940
E.H. Carr - The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939
Martin Pugh - Hurrah for the Blackshirts! // We Danced All Night // The Pankhursts: The History of one Radical Family
(Can anyone recommend better books on the BUF and the Pankhursts?)
Piers Brendon - The Dark Valley; A Panorama of the 1930s (more European focused)
Tim Bouverie - Appeasing Hitler (a colleague strongly recommended this)


'The Road to World War II' 16 part series

Anything else, greatly received

 

[RedRedRose]

The people behind 'The Great War' YouTube channel also have:
Between 2 Wars
Between 2 Wars: Zeitgeist!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Thinking back, my gran didn't really talk much about that period in her life. She was ten when WWI broke out, and went into service once she left school. She had her first two kids in the 1920s so I guess life would have been tough for her back then.

 

[RedRedRose]

I remember someone telling me before 1945, their auntie used to go house to house on the bike collecting for welfare on the account of the family being so poor. After the 1945 labour landslide victory, she threw away the bike.

Call me a dyed-in-the-wool-leftist, but without the Beveridge welfare reforms, unless you were in a strong unionised workplace, I have an unshakable image of Victorian slum tenements, the post-WW1 slump, then the depression and lots of dodgy politics. Maybe the Pugh book will be an anecdote to that image.

 

[platinumsage]

I think this period should be primarily viewed through the government's attempts to restore the gold standard. Their misguided but consensus-based attempts to defend it to the pre-war level, in the face of inflation and high-interest war debts, by squashing wages and prices through the Geddes Axe was the prime impetus for most of the social changes including the general strike.

As to reading I think Billy Bragg covered this period comprehensively in his Between the Wars ditty.

 

[Pickman's model]

We are going all 1920's and 1930's in a quest for your various recommended readings. (And videos!)

A neglected era sandwiched between the two wars; Was it really a time of unemployment and bread queues or the advent of cinema and mass culture? Should it have heralded peace and a lot to labour? Or, was the march to another war inevitable?

Key works on- the 1926 General Strike, BUF, the CPGB, British attitudes towards the Spanish Civil War, advent of new welfare policies, appeasement and responses to the Great Depression also appreciated.

On the list:
Charles Loch Mowat - Britain Between The Wars, 1918 1940
E.H. Carr - The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939
Martin Pugh - Hurrah for the Blackshirts! // We Danced All Night // The Pankhursts: The History of one Radical Family
(Can anyone recommend better books on the BUF and the Pankhursts?)
Piers Brendon - The Dark Valley; A Panorama of the 1930s (more European focused)
Tim Bouverie - Appeasing Hitler (a colleague strongly recommended this)


'The Road to World War II' 16 part series

Anything else, greatly received

Richard overy, the morbid age

 

[Pickman's model]

I think this period should be primarily viewed through the government's attempts to restore the gold standard. Their misguided but consensus-based attempts to defend it to the pre-war level, in the face of inflation and high-interest war debts, by squashing wages and prices through the Geddes Axe was the prime impetus for most of the social changes including the general strike.

As to reading I think Billy Bragg covered this period comprehensively in his Between the Wars ditty.

Not the bloody great war in Europe in the preceding decade which had saddled the country with so much debt and killed many hundreds of thousands then

 

[platinumsage]

Not the bloody great war in Europe in the preceding decade which had saddled the country with so much debt and killed many hundreds of thousands then

It was the peculiar way the war debt was dealt with that meant, unlike many similar countries, Britain didn't have a roaring twenties.

 

[Pickman's model]

It was the peculiar way the war debt was dealt with that meant, unlike many similar countries, Britain didn't have a roaring twenties.

How many similar countries were there, can't be many with empires the size of Britain's. And even fewer which saw the area of their home territory decline by about a quarter

 

[platinumsage]

How many similar countries were there, can't be many with empires the size of Britain's

The 1920s high unemployment, high debt repayments (debt to GDP rose significantly throughout the 20s), high taxes reduced through austerity (anti-waste league etc) were all a consequence of misguided government policy not an inevitable effect of the war.

 

[Pickman's model]

The 1920s high unemployment, high debt repayments (debt to GDP rose significantly throughout the 20s), high taxes reduced through austerity (anti-waste league etc) were all a consequence of misguided government policy not an inevitable effect of the war.

So none then

 

[Pickman's model]

Anyway RedRedRose out of the ghetto by Joe Jacobs

 

[RedRedRose]

I think this period should be primarily viewed through the government's attempts to restore the gold standard.

I knew something of this, but not Geddes Axe. So, thanks for that.

Richard overy, the morbid age

I read the first chapter and didn't like it. It was an intellectual history tour of the period, not a good starting point. I might come back to it after a few other books.

Anyway RedRedRose out of the ghetto by Joe Jacobs

This book came up in many previous conversations. I don't suppose you have an electronic copy?

 

[Pickman's model]

I knew something of this, but not Geddes Axe. So, thanks for that.


I read the first chapter and didn't like it. It was an intellectual history tour of the period, not a good starting point. I might come back to it after a few other books.


This book came up in many previous conversations. I don't suppose you have an electronic copy?

Can't find one, but sure you can pick up a cheap copy online via bookfinder.com

 

[RedRedRose]

As to reading I think Billy Bragg covered this period comprehensively in his Between the Wars ditty.

Indeed he did.

It's an excellent song with no shortage of optimism and nodding to the labour movement. However, "they brought prosperity down at the armoury" never really made sense to me in light of Chamberlain and the policy of appeasement.

 

[platinumsage]

Indeed he did.

It's an excellent song with no shortage of optimism and nodding to the labour movement. However, "they brought prosperity down at the armoury" never really made sense to me in light of Chamberlain and the policy of appeasement.

Chamberlain borrowed heavily to drastically increase defence spending in the mid-1930s, and presided over a massive rearmament program in the years before the war, much faster than Germany in some sectors. So despite his appeasement policy the country was very well prepared for war.

 

[RedRedRose]

Appreciated. However, the song works on a juxtaposition for the years 1919-1939, but that lyric is only applicable from 1936 onwards.

 

[Pickman's model]

Chamberlain borrowed heavily to drastically increase defence spending in the mid-1930s, and presided over a massive rearmament program in the years before the war, much faster than Germany in some sectors. So despite his appeasement policy the country was very well prepared for war.

Being prepared for war involves much more than just having weapons. Look at Russia atm, for example. The British way in warfare has for centuries consisted of being part of a coalition and mobilising men and money better than opponents.

 

[platinumsage]

Being prepared for war involves much more than just having weapons. Look at Russia atm, for example. The British way in warfare has for centuries consisted of being part of a coalition and mobilising men and money better than opponents.

Sure, the British economy was well-placed to win the second world war, as enough was spent on rearmament for short term needs, but carefully not too much so as to cause inflation and other systemic problems that would hobble the country's ability to prevail in a long drawn-out conflict.

 

[platinumsage]

Appreciated. However, the song works on a juxtaposition for the years 1919-1939, but that lyric is only applicable from 1936 onwards.

I think Billy Bragg is a LibDem pacifist or something, not sure how much research he did on inter-war factory output for this song.

 

[Pickman's model]

Sure, the British economy was well-placed to win the second world war, as enough was spent on rearmament for short term needs, but carefully not too much so as to cause inflation and other systemic problems that would hobble the country's ability to prevail in a long drawn-out conflict.

Oh don't post such dreadful drivel. It's like lend-lease never happened.

 

[platinumsage]

Oh don't post such dreadful drivel. It's like lend-lease never happened.

I was referring to the level of rearmament spending prior to the war, merely highlighting that it was at an optimal level. I didn't say that such spending, or the resultant economy, were sufficient in themselves to win the war.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Was it really a time of unemployment and bread queues or the advent of cinema and mass culture?

or both? (to some extent depending on who / where you were at the time?)

if London is your thing, then 'Semi Detached London' by Alan A Jackson may be worth a read (it's out of print and a bit pricey - possibly worth seeing if library has / can get it) - probably slightly more about the boom of owner-occupied suburbs, but also covers the municipal 'cottage estates'

the Municipal Dreams blog is mostly on council housing (as is the book) so includes pre-1914 and post-1945 as well - also ventures in to things like municipal health centres from before the NHS.

'Our Flag Stays Red' by Phil Piratin (1930s communist party councillor and 1945 MP in Stepney) has cable street, rent strikes and more

 

[RedRedRose]

if London is your thing, then 'Semi Detached London' by Alan A Jackson may be worth a read (it's out of print and a bit pricey - possibly worth seeing if library has / can get it) - probably slightly more about the boom of owner-occupied suburbs, but also covers the municipal 'cottage estates'

I can't find a cheap copy, but this has reminded me to have a look for Colin Ward.

Managed to find the Piratin book. Thanks

 

[RedRedRose]

British Rearmament in the 1930s: A Chronology and Review



Interestingly, from 1929-30, it took until 1935-6 for the expenditure to increase.

 

[oryx]

The Thirties - An Intimate History by Juliet Gardiner is a great read.

The Thirties: An Intimate History eBook : Gardiner, Juliet: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

The Thirties: An Intimate History eBook : Gardiner, Juliet: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Puddy_Tat]

If municipal socialists are of interest, Fenner Brockway's 'Bermondsey Story, the life of Alfred Salter' and 'Ada Salter: Pioneer of Ethical Socialism', by Graham Taylor (not, I assume, the footballing one) may be of interest - they were active in the liberal party, then Independent Labour Party, then Labour Party before, during and after the 1914 War.

They were both Bermondsey (and from memory, LCC councillors), he was MP as well. She was London's first woman mayor, and the first labour woman mayor in the country.

May be a case of trying to see if library has them - the former seems to be going for a bloody silly price, which I certainly didn't pay, and the latter seems to be confused in some catalogues with a book about border collies (I got the border collies book from somewhere that's not amazon when i tried to buy it and sent it back... did get a copy second hand somewhere else which i haven't got round to reading yet.)

 

[JimW]

Love on the Dole bit of a classic.

 

[RD2003]

Love on the Dole bit of a classic.

Patrick Hamilton and Julian MacClaren-Ross also capture what it was like for life's losers in that period.

 

[RD2003]

Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Coming up for Air.

Way better than Animal Farm or 1984 too.