1920s/30s Germany: cabaret, alcohol; WW1 militaria; mourning customs

[akiko]

Greetings! I'm working on an alternate history short story, in which WW1 never happens. Sort of; there's a large European War from about 1930-35, which then leads to the Cold War

Comments

[orthent]

For pre-WWI European social history, a good source might be Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower, especially the chapter "Neroism is in the Air," about prewar Germany. But really, all of it is good. I think there's still a lingering notion that the prewar world was idyllic; Tuchman does a nice job of exploding that to smithereens. As she points out, catastrophic wars don't arise out of idyllic circumstances. And "any statement about how lovely the pre-war era was, by persons who lived through it, will be found to have been made after the war."

For Russia and the Holy Roman Empire, try Crankshaw's In the Shadow of the Winter Palace and The Fall of the House of Habsburg; for the Balkans, Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, which can also double as a handy doorstop.

For cabaret theater, try Lisa Appignanesi's Cabaret. (I linked to it in my response to sollersuk, above, and I'm too lazy to make another link

[akiko]

Ooh. I just finished The Guns of August, and I like Tuchman's style: very readable and not the kind to make you fall asleep. My local library has a copy, so that's good. (German history in my library is 1914-19 and 1939-45, with some Cold War-alia in there. I should really get down to the Major University Library 15 minutes away and get a borrower's card.)

Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, which can also double as a handy doorstop. LOL. Tuchman said she basically elided the Balkans in TGOA because the book would have been 10 times as long.

Hmm, fire opal. Interesting. (One thing that would be sadly missing from my alternate world is the beautiful, depressing WW1 poetry. But also missing would be the Lost Generation, which .... might make up for it?)

Thanks for the info! I love this community :D

[orthent]

Aha. I knew the book where I'd read about the fire opal was around the house somewhere. It was Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory, which is an all-around good reference for influences of WWI on Western culture--all the influences that, of course, your world won't have

[akiko]

Thank you so much! If you were in person, I'd hug you