The Failure of Political Extremism in Inter-War Britain by Andrew Thorpe

The Failure of Political Extremism in Inter-War Britain by Andrew Thorpe (Editor) is a very short book, less than 100 pages, about the extremism in the 1920s and 1930s. I read it for my studies even though I didn’t intend to. I started to read a chapter and then finished it in one sitting.

What I loved is that it looks at both the right and the left, the moderate and the extreme political movements. As each chapter is written by another historian, the style is different. The chapters are:

Andrew Thorpe – The Only Effective Bulwark Against Reaction and Revolution: Labour and the Frustration of the Extreme Left

Harry Harmer – The Failure of the Communists: The National Unemployed Worker’s Movement, 1921-1939: A Disappointing Success

Bruce Coleman – The Conservative Party and the Frustration of the Extreme Right

Richard Thurlow – The Failure of British Fascism

It offers a clear analysis and I would highly recommend the book if you are studying the period. If not, it might be a bit too boring and fact-focused for a general reader. I gave it 4 stars because I felt the chapter on communism, while very interesting, was a bit too specific for a book of this length. It was interesting, but, for me, it was not as good as the other three chapters, mainly because of the focus and not for the quality of the writing.