The Archaeology Of Interwar Europe (1918-1939)

The interwar period was one of extraordinary change. Out of the ashes of WWI grew an increase in consumerism, paradoxically played out alongside the Great Depression. Extreme politics flourished, and authoritarian regimes became established in Spain, Italy, Russia and Germany. The tensions between these new state formations and traditional polities resulted in re-armament and ultimately conflict. Simultaneously, the foundations of the post-War settlement and the welfare states were being laid. These social, economic and political developments all resulted in material developments that can be interrogated archaeologically. Whilst the archaeology of the 1920s and 1930s has been embraced by the research and CRM community in the US, it has largely remained underexplored in Europe, although the archaeology of the two World Wars has become increasingly a topic of interest. This session proposes to address this lacuna in research, highlighting existing work and identifying avenues for further research.