About the book
1930s
The 1930s are remembered for unemployment, political extremism and the approach of another world war, yet they were also years of expanding cinema, radio, suburban growth, consumer innovation and memorable popular culture. Britain experienced the decade very differently depending on region, occupation and income.
1930s brings these contrasting experiences together. It explores government, monarchy, work, housing, entertainment, sport, science and daily life while tracing the international tensions that increasingly shaped public debate. Economic recovery reached some communities while others endured persistent hardship, and hopes of preserving peace weakened as events in Europe became impossible to ignore. Clear and wide-ranging, this volume presents the decade as more than a prelude to war. It shows a society modernising unevenly, searching for security and carrying its unresolved divisions towards the crisis of 1939.