We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars [Import] [Paperback]

Martin Pugh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2009

Martin Pugh offers a uniquely untraditional view of Britain’s inter-war period; that among the many dramatic social changes taking place, our modern consumer society of dedicated shoppers effectively took shape during the 1930s.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martin Pugh taught history at the Aligarh Muslim University, India, from 1969-71 on V.S.O.; he was Professor of British History at Newcastle University until 1999, and Research Professor in History at Liverpool John Moores University 1999-2002. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the advisory panel of the B.B.C. History Magazine, and the author of eleven books on nineteenth and twentieth century history. He lives in Northumberland where he divides his time between gardening, research and writing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books (August 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844139239
• ISBN-13: 978-1844139231
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.2 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,056,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars `we danced all night' a new look at the "depression years", March 18, 2010

By 

Les Fearns "casahistoria.net" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars (Hardcover)

Simon Pugh's social history of Britain between the First and Second World Wars is an excellent text for the period. Well set out into themed chapters from dietary habits through to sexuality and gender, with excursions into areas as diverse as monarchy, empire, divorce and aviation his book gives readers a thorough understanding of the period. Essentially an advanced text book it reads well and easily, lending itself to dipping in and out to read specific chapters in isolation - very good if you have an essay on interwar society....

However reading all the chapters does reveal several interesting aspects of the period. One is the increasing demise of Scotland (suffering over twice the loss of life of any other region of Great Britain in the War then hit economically very hard by the decline of its heavy industry). More significantly, Pugh argues that far from being the period of economic depression, doom and gloom that it is usually portrayed as, outside depressed areas like Scotland the years were ones of growing prosperity which saw the emergence of much of modern consumerist Britain: aspirations of property owning, the increasing desire for consumer durables, and the restructuring of the economy on services based in the south rather than the traditional heavy industries of the north. Pugh even suggests the second World War is then perceived by society as an obstruction to all of this - hence the widespread desire from very early on in the war to seek an outcome that will broaden this process across society when war ends through a welfare state and greater planned economic development.