Interwar period

The mining dispute of 1921, writes Patrick Renshaw, was one of the most serious industrial conflicts that Britain has faced.

David Mitchell introduces the Italian Romantic poet who played a brief part upon the European political stage.

In deciding on the Reoccupation of the Rhineland, writes D.C. Watt, Hitler said that he went forward “with the assurance of a sleepwalker...” His practical calculations proved to be “entirely justified.”

F.L. Carsten asks whether Germany has learned the lessons of 1918-1933.

The problems of the mining industry, which led to a General Strike in 1926, writes W.H. Chaloner, epitomised the struggle between capital and labour in twentieth century Britain.

The Field Marshal who had led his country to independence in 1918, writes Oliver Warner, was called upon twice to defend his own creation during the Second World War.

Geoffrey Warner describes a politically polarising event which would later influence the formation of French fascism and the Vichy state.

“We shall now proceed to construct the Socialist order” announced Lenin to the Congress of Soviets early on the morning of November 8th, 1917. He had prepared no blueprint from which to work, and forty years later, writes Ernest Bock, the structure of the Soviet state is very different from that which its founder envisaged.

Chris Millington examines a period of bitter political division in France, dating from the 1930s and coinciding with the Nazi Occupation, which raises questions about the nature and roots of French fascism.

Béla Menczer describes how the last Austrian Emperor strove to regain one of his family’s Kingdoms.