The Inter-War Crisis 1919-39

Author: Richard Overy

Edition: Revised Second

Publisher: Pearson Longman

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 9781408223178

This is a rarity: a textbook that amply fulfils its educational purpose and is also stimulating and exciting to read. The book’s cover illustration of the man who has lost everything in the Wall Street crash directs us to one crisis, the Depression, but Richard Overy guides us through what he sees as a more general 20-year crisis, which encompasses international relations, revolution and counter-revolution, the social trauma of industrial modernisation and the cultural shock of modernism. He discusses these crises in separate chapters but skilfully synthesises them into the crisis of a world struggling to accommodate itself to constant change during what was as much a moral as an economic or political predicament.

Who is it for? It constitutes a brilliant seminar for history students and will be valuable to students in many disciplines.

Presentation The main text is supported by document extracts, a chronology, vignettes of leading figures and a guide to further reading.

Would you recommend it? Yes. Students of 20th-century history will find it invaluable.