Alwyn Turner A Shellshocked Nation review and information book about Britain between the wars. Profile Books this book by Alwyn Turner, the British historian on January 22 in 2026.
Alwyn Turner A Shellshocked Nation review
- “An admirable analysis of this most misunderstood – yet most relevant – period of British history.” (Simon Jenkins)
- “A sparkling account of popular culture in Britain between the wars, embracing Gracie Fields and George Formby as well as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain.” (Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government, King’s College, London)
- “This is just glorious: almost every page stops you dead with insight into a world at once utterly strange, yet still living somewhere within us all.” (James Hawes)
A Shellshocked Nation
- Author: Alwyn Turner (England)
- Book type: British history of the interbellum
- Publisher: Profile Books
- To be released: 22 January 2026
- Length: 384 pages
- Format: hardcover / ebook
- Prize: £ 25.00
- Order book from: Amazon / Bol
Blurb of the book about Britain between the Wars
A fresh and inventive social history of interwar Britain, from Armistice and the Spanish flu to the announcement of war.
After the calamity of the Great War, there was a desire in Britain for escapist fun – the lights of the Jazz Age, radio comedies and the pictures were a welcome respite from the grim reality of the Great Depression. Yet the storm clouds were gathering, and Britain between the wars was a turbulent, restless place – and where the foundations of the modern nation were laid.
Combining cultural, social and political history, A Shellshocked Nation is the next instalment in Alwyn Turner’s highly original history of the twentieth century, sketching a portrait of the interwar nation through its entertainments and scandals, its people and political crises. From the General Strike to the BBC, Irish Home Rule and the rise of fascism, this is the definitive story of Britain’s most anxious era.
Alwyn Turner is a historian and writer who teaches at the University of Chichester. He is best known for his histories of twentieth-century Britain; All in it Together was a Sunday Times Book of the Year, and his last book, Little Englanders, Britain in the Edwardian Era, was a Times History Book of the Year.