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Home / Historical Periods / World War I & Interwar Era / Interwar Period

Period

Interwar Period

1918–1939 CE

The Interwar Period stretched from the end of World War I to the outbreak of World War II. It included peace settlements, economic instability, jazz-age culture, decolonisation pressures, fascism, communism, appeasement and the Great Depression. The period often feels suspended between trauma and impending catastrophe.

Its importance lies in how the unresolved consequences of one war fed into the next. Societies tried to rebuild while veterans, widows, refugees, revolutionaries and political extremists carried the past into new crises. Interwar history is especially useful for novels about espionage, crime, exile, modernity and the slow failure of peace.

Interwar novels and series often use the period's unease: old empires breaking apart, jazz-age wealth, political extremism, espionage and the approach of another war. Alan Furst's spy novels, Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels and novels by Kate Atkinson or Amor Towles fit naturally beside classic interwar crime and social fiction. The setting is especially useful for readers moving from World War I aftermath into fascism, exile, detective fiction and pre-war intelligence stories.

Related people for Interwar Period

Ada Blackjack1898–1983 Adolf Hitler1889–1945 Al Capone1899–1947 Arnold Wilson1884–1940 Asa Jennings1877–1933 Benito Mussolini1883–1945 Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig1861–1928 Edward VIII1894–1972 Eleanor Rooseveltborn 1960 Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945 George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon1866–1923 George VI1895–1952 Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia1901–1918 Haile Selassie1892–1975 Harry S. Truman1884–1972 Howard Carter1874–1939 Joseph Goebbels1897–1945 Joseph McCarthy1908–1957 Joseph Stalin1878–1953 Louisa Pesel1870–1947 Lucky Luciano1897–1962 M. M. Kaye1908–2004 Manfred von Richthofen1892–1918 Margaret Thatcher1925–2013 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk1881–1938 Neville Chamberlain1869–1940 Otto Hahn1879–1968 Vilhjalmur Stefansson1879–1962 Wallis Simpson1896–1986 William Randolph Hearst1863–1951 Winston Churchill1874–1965

Series

Series about Interwar Period (2 series)

Inspector Hannasyde in Order

by Georgette Heyer 4 books 4.3

Superintendent Hannasyde investigates four Golden Age murder mysteries built around difficult families, concealed financial motives and carefully staged crime scenes. The series moves from the grotesque discovery in Death in the Stocks through poison, disputed inheritance and linked murders. These novels were contemporary crime fiction when published rather…

Inspector Hemingway in Order

by Georgette Heyer 4 books 4.3

Inspector Hemingway takes the lead in four later mysteries distinguished by impossible-looking methods, country-house tensions and sharply observed social comedy. The sequence begins with No Wind of Blame and continues through a locked-room Christmas murder, a double killing and a village full of suspects. Like the Hannasyde books,…

Books

30 Best Novels About the Interwar Period

Bestselling authors first, then star rating.

Non Fiction

9 Non-Fiction Books About the Interwar Period

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.