Re: Neccessary
"European countries had the same thing in the thirties and the lesson is wearing off here."
It is not surprising. Very few people who were adults then are still alive. The post-war Baby-boomers grew up in an era when parents didn't say much about those times - it was still too raw. It was only recently that I realised we had lived only a few doors away from the house from where Oswald Mosley made major rally speeches. The neighbour was a staunch Mosley supporter for the rest of his life.
Documentaries concerned themselves more with the war itself - rather than the longer build-up. Our school history lessons covered only before 1914. Many people now regard history as only a subject for romanticised TV/film dramas.
I have often wondered how my parents perceived the events unfolding in the UK and Europe in their early adult years. As I approach my span of threescore and ten - this year has finally given me a visceral handle on that.
"The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s" by Piers Brendon gives a good hindsight view of what was happening round the world.
A complement is the "Inside ..." series of books published between 1936 and 1939 by the journalist John Gunther. Those editions published before WW2 are the better for having no foresight of what was the outcome in all the countries he analysed. "Inside Europe" (Munich revised edition) is very informative.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
