1922

With this kaleidoscopic review of 1922, the main entrance to the Roaring Twenties, the author offers ​us an engrossing and very multifaceted approach to a pivotal year situated four long years after the end of one of the bloodiest and destructive conflicts the World has ever known in contemporary history.
Compelling & entertaining, this rollicking journey will take you through twelve eventful months in history, politics and culture with lots of fascinating details & engaging protagonists as a very bruised and shattered World starts to slowly but surely recover from its wounds and steadfastly tries to get back on tracks after the long and rather tumultuous maelstrom of the postwar years.
A brilliant and unusual tapestry of a remarkable year to be enjoyed without any moderation.
Let's hope now that 2022 will turn out to be a little bit more sedate. One can only hope🤞

Many thanks to Netgalley and Oldcastle for this terrific ARC

This sprightly tour of the year 1922 touches on a range of events, themes and characters and includes passion, murder, comedy, public life, politics, art, science and adventure, subjects which are often in interplay in these short narratives. It moves smoothly between the deep South of America and the corridors of power in London, between those in high office and entertainers.
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. There are some very odd people and some very strange events tucked away in the year 1922. Nick Rennison brings these people and events to life in a series of telling, often moving, vignettes.
Lynch mobs and crimes of passion sit alongside aviation feats, Shackleton,s last voyage and the arrival of Louis Armstrong into Chicago.
This is a cornucopia of riches which has left me ready to look more deeply into much of the material presented in summary form here.

Although not obviously especially resonant, 1922 was a reasonably eventful year in global history. In Italy, a rally organised by Benito Mussolini got out of hand, resulting in a 'March on Rome' and, almost accidentally, the establishment of the world's first fascist state. In Britain, the BBC began broadcasting for the first time. TS Eliot's The Wasteland was published. Music hall legend, Marie Lloyd died. Harold R. Harris became the first man ever to successfully bail himself out of a plane by using a parachute. An eventful year indeed: all of these events occurred just in the month of October..
On a month by month basis, Nick Rennison's readable popular history book explores a number of the year's events. We learn about feats of speed and aviation, early Hollywood scandals, sporting successes, notorious trials and about Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. We learn about the rise of the flapper (20s slang for any thoroughly modern fun-loving young woman) and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Assassins strike,, American lynch mobs converge, in newly Soviet Russia, the ailing Lenin watches as Trotsky and Stalin battle to succeed him. The world recovers from a global pandemic.
A fascinating snapshot of the vanished world of a century ago.

The major, often world-changing events of the tumultuous year that is now nearly a century ago (of course, it will be a century when the book is published in 2022) are brought to life by Nick Rennison in this excellent book.
After the horrors of the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic, people just wanted to have a good time, and 1922 was the year that kicked off the “Roaring Twenties”. Hollywood was starting to grow despite frequent salacious scandals which would make our modern starlets blush.
The momentous events of 1922 are listed month by month, beginning in January with the Fatty Arbuckle trials and ending in December with the creation of the USSR. In between are Hollywood murders, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock cutting their teeth in films, assassinations, trials, wars, publication of classic works of literature (including James Joyce’s “Ulysses”) disasters, the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, violent strikes and the first FA Cup final to be decided on a (dodgy) penalty. And that is merely scratching the surface.
1922 was also the year that racial tensions exploded violently in the USA; Rennison’s depiction of racially motivated lynchings and atrocities are very graphic so be warned.
Each event is vividly brought to life by the author in a series of distinct, unfussy snapshots, without artifice or unnecessary waffle. Let’s hope 2022 turns out to be much more boring.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oldcastle Books for allowing me to view an advanced reading copy of this title.

I am not normally a fan of historical literature but the 1920s was an era that fascinates me, so i gave this a try! Wow, I loved it! It was a great read, and I am so glad i gave into that beautiful cover!

1922: Scenes from a Turbulent Year is quick-fire history, the past related in bite-size chunks, month by month through one year. In many ways, it's a great format for a popular history book: Rennison covers a lot of ground and packs in some really interesting facts. I enjoyed the contrast of headline stories - be they from sport or science, art or politics - and I got swept up in the zeitgeist of the 1920s.

On the other hand, a lot of context has been sacrificed to keep this book light and concise, and certain themes and countries (US, UK and Ireland in particular) are explored more than others. I think it definitely helps if you have a reasonable general knowledge of twentieth century Western history before you pick up this book, and there were quite a few names and events I wanted to dig deeper into after I'd put it down.

A welcome addition to popular history, and a fitting way to reflect on 100 years of history as we approach 2022.

This is such a fascinating book. I didn’t think it would be my kind of thing at all really, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t realise 1922 was such a busy year, which so much being repeated nearly 100 years later (global pandemic anyone?)

It grabbed me straight from the beginning, opening with the trials of Fatty Arbuckle and going on to book publications and controversies, the fall of Empires, prohibition, war, movies, and historical discoveries. It covers nearly every basis and it’s got a bit of something for everyone.

There’s not too much information to be overwhelming, but it gives you enough to interest you and entertain you, and then you could go and look it up if you want to learn more.

1922 was a busy year. Nothing stood still. Great change was on the horizon and new ways of thinking, new art and music forms were breaking through, the film industry was pushing through its scandals and experiencing growth. It wasn't only in the arts that things were changing, the shape of countries was also changing as well as their politics as well as leaders who had ideals, inspired from the past and their 1922 present. Nick Rennison in his book about this year informs in an interesting snippets that make me think of newsreel articles in some ways. Each part isn't overly long and yet has enough depth to pique interest and there are many events that occurred that readers may not know about this period of history. Each part, as well as being short is split into each month of the year.
This is a book that people ought to read as the impact is everlasting. By impact I don't mean it is all negative, there's positives too. It shows more that each year doesn't live in isolation of the year previous or what comes after.

There is clearly a lot of research in documenting a lot of what happened in 1922 and then to write it in a way that doesn't feel too text book like and is actually interesting enough to make you continue reading past the first pages to find out what else happened from the well-known and the perhaps lesser-known.

The book tells a bit of The Spanish Flu and its effects, which no doubt will bring people to think about the present times (at time of writing this blog post). It also documents the deaths for many reasons - from illness to assassination, of prominent people such as Shackleton, Alexander Graham Bell and more. There are people who I certainly haven't heard of and yet made an impact on the world and there are many people who I have heard of who also have made a lasting impact on the world. The book respectfully tells the truth about them and means people aren't forever forgotten about, whether they were good people or not.

There are a number of murders woven into months where there was better news such as the emergence of people who were to become sportstars and film stars of their time and their achievements as well as all the above in the blurb and so much more...

There is also political turmoil in a few countries in the world, including Russia, China, Italy as Fascist (far right) and Communist (far left) had emerged and getting stronger, especially Communism. It's interesting for those who don't know some of the smaller details that had a huge impact and both exist today, sometimes strong and powerful, some politicians on the edges and getting closer to far right or far left politics in the world. The countries still don't stand still as the fall of empires occur and near the end of the year, the formation of the USSR.

Jazz had emerged and the Roaring Twenties was starting to really flow and The Jazz Age had well and truly arrived and the changing dancing styles as older figurations of dancing started to completely transform into something more energetic and, considered by some, quite outrageous.

This is a book that will interest people who like history, are interested in the 1920's or just wondering what was happening in 1922 to expand their knowledge. There's something in it for all adults as so much was happening that lots of wider topics such as music, film, politics, famous people are covered and so much more... There is much people of any age can learn about.

1922 is a very important year in the XX century history and it's somehow similar to the times we're living.
There's plenty to learn form this book, a chapter for each month. Facts from different fields.
It's well researched, well written and compelling.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In 1922 the world was emerging from a global pandemic and was ready for change. Sound familiar? 1922: Scenes from a Turbulent Year by Nick Rennison takes on a month by month journey through 1922 looking at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of fascism, the birth of Modernism and the BBC. The changes that happened 100 years ago resonate still. 2022 looks to have aspirations to follow suit.