First published in 1940, this survey of the inter-war period not only includes surface aspects of the era – from plays and novels to dance fads and fashions – but also discusses the international influences at work in politics, science, business and religion. Short hair and shorter skirts arrived during the 1920s; New Education became a going concern; the British Labour Party became respectable at last; and, as the 1930s wore on, public acknowledgement of the possibility of another world war was feverishly avoided in an ever-increasing whirl of activities.