Traveling Europe Between the World Wars

This book studies “armchair” travel writers who journeyed to Europe during the interwar period of 1919–1939. It focuses on travel conversations writers experienced as they sought the real Europe stripped of press reports and government propaganda. They encountered a continent where a cherished past was colliding with an ominous future.

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Traveling Europe between the World Wars is a study of “armchair” travel writers who journeyed to Europe during the interwar period of 1919–1939. They traveled the continent for two main reasons: to chronicle the political and social upheavals of the age through encounters with “ordinary” Europeans and to revel in the legendary, idyllic Europe of their earthly dreams. As post-World War I traumas, the Great Depression, and the sudden rise of fascist and communist ideologies wracked the continent, the writers were struck by how many people felt another world war was inevitable. This study focuses on travel conversations writers experienced on trains, along roadsides, or in cafés, homes, and inns as they sought the real Europe stripped of press reports and government propaganda. What they found was a continent in transition—where a cherished past was colliding with an ominous future.