The Dark Valley

Description

This overview of the 1930s is the story of the dark, dishonest decade, child of one world war and parent of the next, that determined the course of the 20th century. The book examines the great powers - USA, Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Japan, Spain and Russia - and takes the reader through ten years dominated by the Great Depression and political turmoil, when promises of hope grew dim as unemployment, hardship, strife and fear took over. The leaders - Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Tse-tung, and others - are examined, not in hindsight, but in the context of their age. The book also looks at how people used to live, what they wore, what food they ate and the suffering they endured.

Piers Brendon is the author of more than a dozen books, including biographies of Churchill and Eisenhower, the best-selling Eminent Edwardians, the highly-acclaimed The Decline and Fall of the British Empire and, most recently, Eminent Elizabethans. He also writes for television and contributes frequently to the national press. Formerly Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, he is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

A fantastic, sweeping history of the 1930s... Brendon is a superb writer, taking an exceptionally complex, dense topic and building a compelling narrative. -- John Stepek * Money Week * The best history book I've read since Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy... Wonderful and enthralling -- Ruth Rendell * Daily Telegraph * Brilliant, cinematic, utterly illuminating... No other historical account I know can rival this... Masterly -- Valentine Cunningham * Financial Times * A delight to read, a literary triumph sparkling with moments of real humour and compassion -- Richard Overy * Sunday Telegraph * Piers Brendon's long book has such brilliance and narrative power, and contains so much fascinating detail, that reading it has all the excitement of novel -- John Grigg * Evening Standard *