Review: England in the Twentieth Century by David Thomson

Hardcover, 304 pages
Published 1976 (originally 1965)
Borrowed from the library
Read August 2013

The Pelican History of England: 9. England in the Twentieth Century (1914-63)

by David Thomson

This is a nice little history of fifty years in the early twentieth century. I was previously familiar with the broad strokes of this, especially the two World Wars, of course, but much of England's domestic affairs in the period between the wars was largely unknown to me. Thomson supposes some more familiarity with the covered politicians than I had, but I suppose that wasn't unreasonable in 1965. The big strikes and the formation of the Commonwealth of Nations were probably the part most interesting to me, as well as the details on the handling of the buildup to the Second World War, especially the the pacifistic sentiments of many in the 1920s and '30s. Not as essential as Thomson's nineteenth-century history, but he writes engagingly and informatively.