Conrad, Peter. Modern Times, Modern Places: Life and Art in the 20th Century. 1998. An original and wide-ranging study of both high and mass culture.

Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. 1968. One of the best-known interpretations of German culture in the 1920s.

Stromberg, Roland. European Intellectual History Since 1789. 1966. Chapters 6 and 7 of this classic intellectual history focus on the interwar years.

Out of the Trenches: Reconstructing National and Gender Politics in the 1920s

Fitzpatrick, Sheila and Yuri Slezkine (eds.). In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War. 2000. A collection of first-person accounts.

Goldman, Wendy Z. Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936. 1993. A detailed look at the impact of the Russian revolution on women.

Kent, Susan Kingsley. Making Peace: The Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar Britain. 1993. Examines the effort to reverse the wartime revolution in gender roles.

Roberts, Mary Louise. Civilization Without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917-1927. 1994. A look at the reaction against the "New Woman."

Rothschild, Joseph. East Central Europe Between the Wars. 1974. An older but still one of the best accounts of this tumultuous region in this tumultuous time.

Silverman, Dan. Reconstructing Europe after the Great War. 1982. A general survey, particularly good on economic history.

Wynot, Edward. Cauldron of Conflict: Eastern Europe 1918-1945. A brief but excellent account that doesn't skimp on the telling details.

The Rise of the Radical Right

Aldcroft, Derek. The European Economy 1914-1990 (3rd ed.). 1993. The first three chapters of this useful study give a solid and fairly non-technical explanation of the economic developments and disarray of the interwar period.

Bookbinder, Paul. Weimar Germany: The Republic of the Reasonable. 1996. An innovative interpretation.

De Grazia, Victoria. How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945. 1992. Examines the experience of Italian women under fascism.

Fischer, Conan. The Rise of the Nazis. 1995. Part of Manchester University Press's excellent "New Frontiers in History" series, the book summarizes the latest research and includes a section of primary documents.

Kershaw, Ian. The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the Third Reich. 1987. Focuses on the crucial role played by propaganda in Hitler's Germany.

Koonz, Claudia. Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics. 1987. Studies Nazism's impact on German women.

Mack Smith, Denis. Mussolini: A Biography. 1983. A very readable biography.

McDonough, Frank. Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party. 2003. Part of Pearson's "Seminar Studies in History" series, this brief, clearly written account summarizes the latest research and includes a selection of primary source documents.

Peukert, Detlev. Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life. 1987. A study of German reactions to the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

Whittam, John. Fascist Italy. 1995. A short synthesis of the latest research. The book includes a section of primary documents and an excellent bibliographic essay.

The Polarization of Politics in the 1930s

Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s. 2000. Fast-paced but carefully researched and comprehensive overview of the histories of the U.S., Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Japan, Russia, and Spain.

Carrere D'Encausse, Helene. Stalin: Order through Terror (A History of the Soviet Union, 1917- 1953, Volume Two). 1981. A brief but convincing account of the way in which Stalin seized and held power in the Soviet Union.

Dolot, Miron. Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust. 1985. Riveting account of the mass deaths resulting from Stalin's collectivization policies in the 1930s; written by a survivor.

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s. 1999; and Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization. 1995. Superb history-from-the-bottom-up.

Getty, J. Arch and Oleg V. Naumov. The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. 1999. Interweaves recently discovered documents with an up-to-date account of the Great Purge.

Gilbert, Bentley Brinkerhoff. Britain 1914-1945: The Aftermath of Power.1996. Short, readable overview, designed for beginning students.

Jackson, Julian. The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy, 1934-1938.1988. A political and cultural history.

Pedersen, Susan. Family, Dependence, and the Origins of the Welfare State: Britain and France, 1914-1945. 1993. Shows how welfare policy was inextricably linked to demographic and eugenic concerns.

Thomas, Hugh. The Spanish Civil War. 1977. An authoritative account.

Tucker, Robert. Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929. 1973. Of the many attempts to get inside Stalin's head, this work remains the best.

Volkogonov, Dimitrii. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. 1996. A recent study by a Russian historian.

European Empires in the Interwar Era

Brown, Judith. Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope. 1989. An important biography.

Levine, Marilyn. The Found Generation: Chinese Communists in Europe during the Twenties. 1993. Illuminating case study of the interplay between western and eastern cultures.

Rose, Phyllis. Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time. 1990. A fascinating study of the life and times of a remarkable woman.

Stovall, Tyler. Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light. 1996. Explores the globalization of culture from the perspective of black Americans in Paris.

Films

Burnt by the Sun. 1994. This portrayal of life in the Soviet Union in the 1930s won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Cabaret. 1972. This Bob Fosse musical provides an unforgettable portrait of Berlin in the 1920s.

Gandhi. 1982. A superior film, although the treatment of Gandhi borders on the hagiographical.

Michael Collins. 1996. A visually gripping version of the Irish Revolution.