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The theme of this talk is to show often by highlighting individual examples how global events and trends, be they economic, political, cultural or social, impinged on the everyday life of Bath and its citizens during the inter-war period. Over the twenty years 1919-1939 they ranged from the impact of the Spanish flu’, the post war economic recession and the labour unrest it triggered, culminating in the General Strike of 1926. After a brief respite Bath was then buffeted by the crises of the 1930s: the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism at home and abroad. Jewish and political refugees from Germany opened the eyes of Bathonians to the nature of Nazi Germany, while reports from Spain brought home the reality of the suffering in the Spanish Civil War, as did the presence of Haile Selassie in Fairfield House, the consequences of Mussolini’s conquest of Abyssinia.. By March 1939 after Hitler’s annexation of Bohemia, the drift to war accelerated. Over the next six months conscription was re-introduced, plans for evacuees from London drawn up by the Corporation and blackout exercises held, and on 3 September war was declared. To understand more fully the impact of these events on the city, the character of inter-war Bath is explored: was it a health resort, a cultural gem or a backwater populated by retired officials of the Raj and impoverished spinsters? Did its industrial sector modify its reputation as the ‘Athens of the South-West’
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