Britain: The Dragon Years (1915-2000), An Introduction

Two World Wars Led to Two Generations of Terrifying British Women. Let's get started on why that matters

Massive handbags at the ready, my Granny, May, and her friends Joyce and Peg McLean, three of my own Great British Dragons, or to be more precise, Scottish Dragons, in the wild, sometime in the late 50s or early 60s. Image: Annette Laing, 2024

Not interested? Here’s some “real” history with dates and wars and a King and blokes with swords and heads chopped off and stuff to hold you, until I circle back round to that sort of thing here at Non-Boring History

For the rest of us, however, here’s my occasional reminder that I am a trained social and cultural historian and former tenured history professor (PhD) whose academic specialization is in early America, modern Britain, and the Atlantic World, and who wrote a dissertation on white clergymen, based on reading 10,000 letters in 18th century handwriting, on microfilm, and who points out that battles are not “real” history, but messy things that don’t always signify much beyond sound and fury.

Oh, and if you want a historian who reflects your political and cultural views back to you, pumping sunshine up your skirt to reassure you you’re smart and “on the right side of history” (no such bloody thing, ffs) you’re in the wrong place. But maybe give this wild side a try. Thing about history? You never know what subject might float your boat, because most history simply never makes an appearance in the ghastly US history survey. Non-Boring History is a good place to find out. What sorts of subjects?

Like British dragons, the mid-20th century sort.