Chapter 28The Age of Anxiety

Uncertainty in Modern ThoughtModern Art and MusicMovies and RadioThe Search for Peace and Political StabilityThe Great Depression, 1929-1939

Uncertainty in Modern Thought Most people

believed in progress, reason, individual rights – rational human mind & science – 1880s-1920s

1880s thru 1920s some serious thinkers and artists. optimist thinking of times

WWI influenced intellectuals who believed mankind = violent, irrational animals

French poet & critic Paul Valery expressed this uncertainty in work – saw Europe looking at future w/ dark foreboding

Modern Philosophy Freidrich Nietzsche = rejected Christianity – argued

West overemphasized rationality & stifled passion/animal instinct that drive creativity; Most famous line = God is dead, murdered by Christians who no longer believe in him

Henri Bergson = believed immediate experience/intuition as important as rational/scientific thinking for understanding reality

Georges Sorel = rejected democracy & said socialism would come to power through a huge general strike of all working people – this would shatter capitalism

Logical Empiricism Logical empiricism rejected

most traditional philosophy – from existence of God to meaning of happiness.

Ludwig Wittgenstein argued in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1922 that philosophy = logical clarification of thoughts; so it is study of language (which expresses thoughts)

Great issues of ages; God, freedom, morality = waste of time since it cannot be tested by science/math. Statements only reflect personal preferences & opinions. “Of what one cannot speak, of that one must keep silent.”

Existentialism Existentialism = analysis of

existence; meaning of life is through free will, choice & personal responsibility

Most existentialists were atheists; Influenced by shattering of beliefs in God, reason, & progress (WWI)

Jean Paul Sartre –Being and Nothingness (1943), Existentialism is a Humanism (1945) believed individuals must give meaning to life through actions

Albert Camus refused the label of existentialist but is linked w/ this mode of thought. Wrote essay –The Rebel, & a novel, The Stranger. Camus believed in Socialism, against marriage, won Nobel peace prize for his writings against capital punishment

The Revival of Christianity Post WWI

thinkers/theologians tried to revitalize fundamentals of Christianity

Believed humans = sinful, imperfect & need God’s forgiveness

Leading Christian existentialists = Soren Kierkegaard (19th cent) who rejected formalistic religion & committed to remote/majestic God

Karl Barth – sought to re-create religious intensity of Reformation. Religious truth is made through God’s grace

The New Physics Progressive minds accepted

Darwinian concept of evolution and believed science based on hard facts & controlled experiments

New physics believed atoms = fast moving particles (electrons & protons)

Marie Curie – radium emits sub-atomic particles & does not have constant atomic weight

Max Planck – showed in 1900 that subatomic energy is emitted in uneven spurts (quanta) & not steady stream

Albert Einstein undermined Newtonian physics further w/ idea that time & space = relative to viewpoint of observer & only speed of light is constant; theory of special relativity

Freudian Psychology

Sigmund Freud – human behavior = irrational. Key to understanding mind is primitive irrational

unconscious called the id – which is driven by pleasure seeking desires

The id is constantly at battle with other parts of mind. The rationalizing conscious part is ego.

The ego mediates what a person can do, while the superego, is driven by what a person should do (deeply ingrained moral values)

Twentieth-Century Literature Intellectual climate of pessimism,

relativism, & alienation also expressed in literature

Novelists used stream of consciousness technique to explore psyche (Virginia Wolf, James Joyce)

Writers such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce, & William Faulkner wrote about complexity & irrationality of human mind

Art and Entertainment Cubism concentrated

on a complex geometry of zigzagging lines and sharply angled, overlapping planes

Guernica (1937)

Non-representative Art Dadaism: "Dada" was a

nonsensical word that mirrored a post-WWI world that no longer made sense.

Attacked all accepted standards of art and behavior, delighting in outrageous conduct

MarcelDuchamp

Surrealism influenced by

Freud's emphasis on dreams

Dali’s The Persistence of Memory

Movies Moving pictures were first

shown as a popular novelty in peepshows and penny arcades in the 1890s, especially in Paris.

Motion pictures became the main entertainment of the masses until after WWII.

Motion pictures, like radio, became powerful tools of indoctrination, esp. in countries with dictatorial regimes.

DEMOCRACIES IN THE 1920S

I. Weimar Republic The Social Democratic Party

(S.P.D.) took control of the government on November 9, 1918

Fear of communist revolutions throughout the country prompted Party Leader Philip Scheidemann to proclaim an republic, but without official consent from any other parties.

Threats from the Left Germany’s lack of experience

with democratic traditions made the Weimar’s hold on power tenuous

The Weimar Republic had to rely on conservative military groups to save it from communist outbreaks throughout the country

The gov’t was given support by the military provided that the gov’t maintain discipline in the army and root out Bolshevism

In effect, the Weimar gov’t became a prisoner of the German army

Freikorps vs. Spartacists

Treaty of Versailles, 1919 To Germans of all political

parties, the Versailles Treaty represented a harsh, dictated peace, to be revised or repudiated as soon as possible.

France was eager to punish Germany (but even more eager to ensure its future security against German aggression)

England believed a healthy German economy was essential to a healthy British economy (John Maynard Keynes Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919)

Conservatives, including influential military elements, saw the signing of the treaty as a “stab in the back” or the “diktat”—the “dictated peace”

New Constitution created in August 1919 Reichsrat: upper chamber

represented the Federal states.

Reichstag: lower house elected by universal suffrage; supplied the Chancellor and Cabinet.

President elected for a 7-year term.

Female suffrage granted

Kapp Putsch, 1920 Ruhr Crisis, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, 1923 Dawes Plan, 1924

rejoined the world community of nations

Locarno Pact, 1925: Germany and other European nations agreed to settle all disagreements peacefully.

Germany allowed to join League of Nations in 1926

Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928: Renounced war as "illegal" except for self-defense; signed by 62 nations but had no real enforcement mechanism

II. France: economic problems Challenges were similar

to those in Germany Death, devastation, and

debt of WWI created economic chaos and political unrest

Throughout the 1920s, the government’s multi-party system was dominated by parties on the right (conservatives) - Supported status quo and had backing of business, army, and Church

III. Great Britain Wartime trend toward greater

social equality continued, helping maintain social harmony.

Representation of the Peoples Act (1928): women over 21 gained the right to vote.

Yet, the concentration of wealth in Britain was more geared towards the top than any other European country

Top 1% owned 2/3 of the national wealth

Growth of social welfare Labour party rose as a

champion of the working classes and of greater social equality

Conservatives regained power by framing the Labour party as pro-communist when it officially recognized the Soviet Union

Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) ruled Britain between 1924 and 1929. Was a conservative

Showed the same compromising spirit on social issues: female suffrage, expanded pensions to widows, orphans and the elderly.

The Irish Question After Easter Rebellion (1916)

the extremist Sinn Fein faction gained prominence in Ireland.

Prompted a civil war between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Black and Tan, England’s special occupation forces there.

October 1921, London created the Irish Free State, from which Ulster withdrew, as part of the British Commonwealth (Northern Ireland)

In 1922, Britain granted southern, Catholic Ireland full autonomy after failing to suppress a bitter guerrilla war.

The Great Depression (1929-1933) Long-term problems within the

U.S. economy Overproduction of agriculture

in Europe Stock Market Crash Hawley-Smoot Tariff bankers began recalling loans

made to Germany and other European countries

Impact on Europe Shattered the fragile optimism

of political leaders in the late 1920s

Decline of production occurred in every country (except Russia with its command economy).

Mass unemployment resulted: Germany hit hardest (43%); Britain 18%, U.S. 25%

Attempted remedies New Deal- “Keynesian

approach” Scandinavia's response to

depression was most successful under its socialist gov't

British recovery abandoned gold-standard,

reorganized industry, increased tariffs, reformed finances, cut gov’t spending, balanced budget (although unemployed workers received barely enough welfare to live on)

Economy recovered considerably after 1932.

With France… Impact of the depression didn’t

occur immediately as France wasn't as highly industrialized as Britain, Germany & the US

The depression increased class tensions and gave birth to a radical right that supported gov’t reorganization along fascist lines.

Popular Front: Threat of fascism prompted coalition of republicans, socialists, communists and radicals

Popular Front led by Leon Blúm

“French New Deal” failed France remained politically

divided as Germany continued its rearmament in late 1930s