ABSTRACT
This introduction provides an overview of the key themes and questions guiding this Routledge Interwar World volume. It explores the benefits of a “global” approach to the era and asks three major questions: When was the global interwar? Where was the global interwar? How global was the interwar? We argue that the idea of a fixed “interwar period” follows a Eurocentric framework that swiftly dissolves if scholars take a more global approach. The interwar period has no objective coherence, serving instead as a (Eurocentric) “moral narrative” about the dangers of ideological extremism and militarism. By including perspectives from different geographical and thematic vantage points, we instead show the multifaceted nature of globalization during this period, the myriad experiences of global phenomena like the Great Depression or the flu pandemic, and we question standard narratives of what mattered most to people around the world in these decades.
