In the Time of Gosford Park
This period in British history is well-documented in two books, one by a man of politics and the other by a man of letters: John F. Kennedy wrote While England Slept; and Robert Graves (author of I, Claudius) wrote The Long Week-end. The latter book closely surveys England's manners, mores, and social customs in the years between World War I and World War II.
While England was between the Wars in 1932, some of the historical occurrences that year were early indicators of the conflict to come: the Nazi Party led Germany's elections with 230 Reichstag seats, while widespread famine afflicted the USSR. Japan's aggression in Manchuria was protested by the United States.
Back in the U.S., Congress set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate the economy, while veterans of the First World War marched on Washington to lobby for cash bonuses (an idea rejected by the Senate).
Also in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. New books were published at a rate of about 40 each day. The English author John Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize for Literature, while Pearl S. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth. The year's Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards was Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel, starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford.
