The enchanting panoramic view of the 1930s by Piers Brendon is a history of the dark and dishonest decade - a child of one world war and a parent of the next - that defined the course of the 20th century. It separately deals with the great powers of the period - USA, Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Japan, Spain, and Russia - and takes us through the ten years dominated by the Great Depression and political turmoil. When Broadway, Piccadilly Circus, Kurfurstendamm, and Ginza - bright symbols of hope after four years of slaughter - darkened as the giants of unemployment, misery, unrest, and fear took control. From the concentration camps of Dachau and Kolyma, the hunger of Ukraine, and the American dust bowl, to the Moscow metro, the Empire State Building, and the Paris Exposition, the "Dark Valley" reconstructs the 1930s through meticulous research. Brendon examines the great leaders - Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Tse-tung, Haile Selassie, and many others - not from the perspective of hindsight but in the context of their era. Additionally, through a vivid account of contemporary experience, it gives us a sense of what it was like to live then.
