The Global 1930s

Decentering the traditional narrative of American breadlines, Soviet show trials and German fascists, The Global 1930s takes a truly international approach to exploring this turbulent decade. Though nationalism was prevalent throughout this period, Matera and Kent contend that the 1930s are better characterized by the development of internationalist impulses and transnational connections, and this volume illlustrates how the familiar events of this decade shaped and were shaped by a much wider global context.
Thematically organized, this book is divided into four main parts, covering the evolving concept and trappings of modernism, growing political and cultural internationalism, the global economic crisis and challenges to liberalism. Chapters discuss topics such as the rivalry between imperial powers, colonial migration and race relations, rising anti-colonial sentiments, feminism and gender dynamics around the world, the Great Depression and its far-reaching repercussions, the spread of both communist and fascist political ideologies and the descent once more into global warfare.
This book deftly interrogates the western-focused historical tropes of the interwar years, emphasizing the importance and interconnectedness of events in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Wide-ranging and comprehensive, it is essential and fascinating reading for all students of the international history of the 1930s.

Marc Matera is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. His publications include The Women's War of 1929: Gender and Violence in Colonial Nigeria (2012, co-authored with Misty L. Bastian and Susan Kingsley Kent) and Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century (2015). Susan Kingsley Kent is Professor of Distinction in the Department of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. Her recent publications include Aftershocks: Politics and Trauma in Britain, 1918-1931 (2009), Gender and History (2012), The Global Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 (2012), Africans and Britons in the Age of Empires, 1660-1980 (2015, co-authored with Myles Osborne) and A New History of Britain since 1688: Four Nations and an Empire (2016).

Acknowledgments Introduction: the Wilsonian moment betrayed, 1919-1929 Part I: Primitive modern Chapter 1: '30s modern Part II: Internationalism Chapter 2: Imperial internationalisms Chapter 3: Anti-colonial internationalisms Part III: International crisis Chapter 4: The Great Depression Chapter 5: Revolts Part IV: International challenges to liberalism Chapter 6: Global communism Chapter 7: Global fascism Conclusion: the road to war