Richard Overy's The Morbid Age: Britain and the Crisis of Civilization 1919-1939 is a terrific read for anyone interested in the history of the 1920s and 30s. The current economic crisis has revived interest in the era of the Depression, given that so many recent statistics have set records for 'the worst since….' the 30s. Overy describes the widespread sense in the inter-war period that civilization was facing a possibly terminal crisis. The parallels and differences with our own times are fascinating. (He's a terrific writer anyway – I once attended a talk he gave on a previous book, Interrogations, about the preparations for the Nuermberg trials, and have never heard anything as compelling.)

The book explores different facets of the ways in which the sense of foreboding about civilisation manifested itself – attitudes to capitalism and central planning, the obsession with birth rates and eugenics, the development of psychoanalysis and so on. There are some fascinating nuggets. For example, an influential article published in 1935 predicted that the population would more than halve to 23 million by 1990 and plunge to 4.4 million by 2035. It prompted a moral panic about the need for the 'right' sort of people to breed more. What a great example of the folly of extrapolating trends – and a reminder that it only takes 9 months for a nation's birth rate to change dramatically.

The most striking difference between now and the 1920s and 30s is the absence today of such sharp ideological passions. Mark Mazower famously argued a few years ago that modern democracies were characterised by apathy because they are prosperous and peaceful. Thank goodness – nobody should wish to live in interesting times. Yet there is something tantalising about the scope then for passionate belief, and inspiring about the mass participation in lectures, clubs, marches, pamphleteering and collecting for Spain. I recommend The Morbid Age as a reminder about those darkly interesting times.