Rating: 
Summary: The definitive study of a dark decade
Review: This expansive historical survey opens with the First World War (highlighting the battle of Verdun) and proceeds with a protracted overview of the years leading up to the Crash of 1929--all of which proves to be essential background for a full understanding the book's focus: the infamous decade of Depression and dictatorships. The bulk of the book alternates between seven countries--the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Japan, and the Soviet Union, with important excursions to Spain and China. The first half highlights the repercussions of the Depression, and the last half details the events that led to World War II, with a pivotal intermission describing the Spanish Civil War as a preview of sorts to forthcoming afflictions. (The portrayal of Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia makes particularly gripping reading.) Instead of offering an overarching thesis or new claims (which, given the complexity of the decade, would nearly guarantee quick rebuttal from any of a variety of historiographic camps), Brendon summarizes the major figures and events of the decade, and his study benefits greatly from material that has surfaced since the fall of the Soviet Union. He occasionally presents two views of a major event or political figure and often presents the middle ground as the most probable. More descriptive than explanatory, this comprehensive history is unabashedly old-fashioned and traditional--in the very best senses of both terms. In spite of its length (700 pages, not including notes, bibliography, and index) and its density, Brendon's prose moves the pace masterfully, and he infuses the decade with an astonishing mix of humor, warmth, pity, and horror. Every passage is spiced with several witticisms or barbs uncovered by his impressive research. Less confidently, he offers detailed presentations of such occasions as Britain's Silver Jubilee of 1935, the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936, and the Paris International Exposition of 1937 (but not, strangely enough, the 1939 World's Fair)--yet he still analyzes adeptly the international importance of each of these events. Brendon traps himself in a cul-de-sac, however, when he discusses Hollywood, exposing less about the pervasive influence of popular entertainment than about his own high-brow tastes (e.g., his easy dismissal of escapist fair from Disney to Oz as "nostalgic evocations of small-town virtues" and "treacly affirmations of New Deal values"). Oh, but who really cares! Rarely has a single book synthesized for me so much information--both well-known and unfamiliar. Brendon has written what may well be regarded as the standard history of the decade. Not only should this book receive a permanent place in anyone's library, it will undoubtedly encourage readers to explore some of the many other volumes mentioned in the exhaustive bibliographic apparatus.
Rating:
Summary: It certainly was a dark decade
Review: This is a magnificent book. Though The Dark Valley is subtitled "a panorama of the 1930s", I'd say it's more of an epic, largely because of its sheer length and detail, and because of the sense of drama contained within. Piers Brendon has captured the feel of the decade completely (or so I assume, as it was long before I was around). Cycling through the major countries several times, we get a focus on the major events in the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Japan, and the Soviet Union (in that order each time), with a section on the Spanish Civil War in the middle. Lest this structure seem overly mechanical, it allows us to keep our attention moving, emphasizing the parallel nature of events and how the countries related to one another in that time. Besides the politics of the international scene, we get to see how life was affected for societies as the Great Depression gripped the world and political breakdown seemed imminent (or went far past imminent in some countries). With the perfect vision that come with hindsight, we watch the sometimes heroic and sometimes bumbling efforts of the major world leaders, wondering how they couldn't do more (and in some cases, how did these people ever get power?) There is, in fact, considerable focus on the personality and biography of nearly all the major figures. To really bring into focus the events of the forties, and to understand the aftermath of the first world war, one simply must grasp the thirties. Never at a loss for descriptive power, this book is an excellent source of enlightenment about that turbulent decade coined by one insightful Japanese writer as the dark valley.
Rating: 
Summary: Spell-Binding Inside Look at the Tumultuous '30s
Review: This is a tough one to review. Yes, it is beautifully written (but keep a thick dictionary at the ready) and yes, it provides dazzling details of the events and men of power during this remarkable era. On the other hand, it is at times cynical and more than a little pretentious. Still, it gives a tantalizing look at almost every national leader (one would hope for more on FDR) and world event, with a reporter's eye for minute detail. Many reviewers marvel at the elegant writing and narrative fluidity, but the attribution of all the troubles of the 1930's to the Great Depression is overly simplistic. But (on yet the other hand) we experience fascinating details of events in Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Russia, Ethiopia, Japan, China, and (far too little) the United States. We also see almost every world leader as a boob or an 'evil one', as Bush 43 would say. We suffer in excruciating detail the gulags and the breadlines, the silly lust for power, the cut of Mussolini's jaw, Chamberlain's insipid fawning over Hitler, etc. No new historical revelations, but an era fascinatingly described. Unfortunately we don't much learn the essential why of it all. But that's not its purpose -- this is a bauble of a book, not an academic analysis of the period. For that, far better to read David Kennedy's 2000 Pulitzer winner of the same general era, "Freedom from Fear". For the 1930's buffs, though, I highly recommend this precisely for its tightly written detail. And there are many spell-binding times for the true gourmand of pre-WWII history and biography. Depressing reading at times, but true to the period. Not a masterpiece of history, but one of the intimacy of the men and the terrible times.
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