An historical and literary look at the 1920s and 1930s in England - while casting an eye on how the similar pattern of boom and depression affected the USA. Apart from the historical background to the period, the course will examine the varied social changes as illustrated by the Bloomsbury Group and the Mitfords, T.S. Eliot and Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell and John Steinbeck. The course will also include popular music, song and dance from Louis Armstrong and the Charleston in the Twenties to Al Bowlly and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the years leading up to the second world war.