Chapter 26: THE AGE OF ANXIETY (1880 – 1940)

Modernist movement

• philosophers and scientists questioned and abandoned many cherished values and beliefs guided Western society since 18th cen Enlightenment and 19th cen triumph of industry and science

Friedrich Nietzsche

• German philosopher

• influential after death

• wrote mote as prophet in provocative and poetic style

• in first of ‘Untimely Meditations’ (1873) argued ever since classical Athens, West over emphasized rationality and stifled authentic passions and animal instincts that drive human activity and true creativity

• ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’ claimed Christianity embodied ‘slave morality’ that glorified weakness, envy, and mediocrity

Nihilism

• philosophical idea human life entirely w/o meaning, truth, or purpose

• asserted all moral systems invented lies and that liberalism, democracy, and socialism corrupt systems designed promote weak at expense of strong

Henri Bergson

• French philosophy professor (1859-1941)

• argued immediate experience and intuition important as rational and scientific u\thinking for understanding reality

• religious experience or mystical poem more accessible to human comprehension than scientific law or mathematical equation

Logical Positivism

• philosophy that sees meaning only in those beliefs that can be empirically proven, and therefore rejects most concerns of traditional philosophy from existence of God to meaning of happiness as nonsense

Ludwig Wittgenstein

• logical positivism

• Austrian philosopher (1889-1951)

• immigrated to England where trained numerous disciples

• ‘Tractates Logico-Philosophicus’ (Essay on Logical Philosophy (1922); argued philosophy only logical clarification of thoughts and there it shud concentrate on study of language which expresses thoughts

• great philosophical issues of ages [God, freedom, morality, so on] entirely senseless/great waster of time cus science couldn’t prove them

Existentialism

• * philosophy that stresses meaninglessness of existence and importance of individual in searching for moral values in uncertain world

Jean-Paul Sartre

• French existentialist

• “existence precedes essence’; no God-given, timeless truths outside or independent of individual existence

• only after birth do ppl struggle to define essence entirely on own

Simone de Beauvoir

• according to Sartre and lifelong intellectual partner Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) existence itself is absurd

• human beings terribly alone for no God to help them

“man is condemned to be free”

• Sarte’’s words

• cus life is meaningless, existentialists believe individuals forced to create own meaning and define themselves through actions

• such radical freedom is frightening and Sartre concluded most ppl try to escape it by structuring lives around unconventional social norms

Christian existentialists

• (post ww1) number thinkers and theologians began revitalize fundamental beliefs of Christianity

• called

• Christian existentialists cus shared loneliness and despair of atheistic existentialists, stressed human beings’ sinful nature, need for faith, and mystery of God’s forgiveness

Soren Kierkegaard

• revival Christian belief after WW1 fed by rediscovery of work of nineteenth-century Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard

• ideas became extremely influential

• believed impossible for ordinary individuals to prove existence of God but rejected notion that Christianity was empty practice

• ‘Sickness unto Death’ (1849) mastered religious doubts by suggesting ppl must take ‘leap of faith’ and accept existence of objectively unknowable but nonetheless awesome and majestic God

Karl Barth

• Swiss protestant theologian

• in brilliant and influential writings; argued human beings imperfect, sinful creatures whose reason and will hopelessly flawed

• religious truth therefore made known to human beings only through God’s grace no reason

• ppl had to accept God’s word and supernatural revelation of Jesus Christ w/awe, trust, and obedience, not reason or logic

Gabriel Marcel

• existential Christian

• born into cultivated French family and found in Catholic church to answer what he called postwar “broken world”

• Catholicism and religious belief provided hope, humanity, honesty, and piety for which he hungered

• him and countryman Jacques Maritain denounced anti-Semitism and supporter closer ties with non- Catholics

Marie Curie

• her and French husband, discovered radium constantly emits subatomic particles and thus does not have constant atomic weight

Max Planck

• showed in 1900 that subatomic energy is emitted in uneven little spurts

“quanta”

• called spurts quanta and not in steady steam as previously believed

• his discovery called into question old sharp distinction b/w matter and energy might be different forms of same thing

Albert Einstein/special theory of relativity

• German- Jewish genius

• theory; postulated time and space are relative to observer and only speed of light remain constant

• used analogies like moving train for layperson

Ernest Rutherford

• “heroic age of physics”

• (1919) showed atom could be split

Neutron

• 1994; seven subatomic particles identified most important being Neutron

• physics realized Neutron capacity to shatter nucleus of another atom would release unbelievable force

• discovery fundamental to subsequent dev of nuclear bomb

Werner Heisenberg/uncertainty principle

• German physicist

• uncertainty principal: postulated nature itself ultimately unknowable and unpredictable

• suggested universe lacked any absolute objective reality

• everything “relative” that is dependent on observer’s frame of reference

Sigmund Freud

• (pre Sigmund Freud) poets and mystics had probed unconscious and irrational aspects human behavior

• most scientists assumed conscious mind processed sense experiences in rational and logical way

• Freud dev different view of human psyche , concluded human behavior basically irrational, governed by unconscious, sort of mental reservoir that contained vital instinctive drives and powerful memories

Id/ego/superego

• Freudian terms to describe three parts of self and basis of human behavior which Freud saw as basically irrational

• primitive and irrational id, sexual, aggressive, pleasure-seeking instincts

• super ego also irrational but kept id in check

• ego; rational self that most conscious and worked negotiate b/w demands of id and super ego

Neurosis

• mental illness resulted when three Freud’s structure out of balance

• id’s instinctive drives extremely powerful, danger for individuals and indeed whole societies was unacknowledged drives might overwhelm control mechanism of ego in violent distorted way

Chicago School of architects

• led by Louis H. Sullivan used inexpensive steel, reinforced concrete, and electric elevators to build skyscrapers and office buildings lacking almost any exterior ornamentations

Functionalism

principle that buildings, like industrial products should serve as well as possible the purpose for which they were made w/o excessive ornamentation

Le Corbusier

• Franco-Swiss architect

• one of great champions of modernism “a house is a machine for living in:

• ‘Towards a New Architecture” (1923); laid out guidelines meant to revolutionize building design

• argued architects should affirm and adopt latest technologies

• rejecting fancy ornamentations shud find beauty in clean, straight lines of practical construction and efficient machinery

• resulting was “international style” were typically symmetrical rectangles made of concrete, glass, and steel

Walter Gropius

• 28 years old

• broke sharply w/past in design of Fagus shoe factory at Alfeld , Germany - clean, light, elegant building of glass and iron

• (1919) merged schools of fine and applied arts into Bauhaus

Bauhaus

• German interdisciplinary school of fine and applied arts that brought together many leading modern architects, designers, and theatrical innovators

Abstract

• (last centuries) artists tried to produce accurate representations of reality

• modern paintings and sculpture became increasingly abstract as artists turned backs on figurative representation and began break down form onto constituent parts; lines, shapes, and colors

Impressionism

• impressionists looked to world around them for subject matter, turning backs on traditional themes such as battles, religious scenes, and wealthy elite

Claude Monet

• French impressionist artist (1840-1926)

• tried portray sensory “impressions” in work

• colorful and atmospheric paintings of farmland haystacks exemplify way impressionists moved towards abstract

Edgar Degas

• French impressionist artist (1834-1917))

• tried portray sensory “impressions” in work

• pastel drawings of ballerinas exemplify way impressionists moved towards abstract

Mary Cassatt

• American impressionist artist (1844-1926)

• tried portray sensory “impressions” in work

• capturing fleet moment of color and light often blurry and quickly painted images more important than heavily detailed precise rendering of actual object (all impressionist artists)

Post-impressionists/ expressionists

• built on impressionist motifs of color and light but added deep psychological element to pictures, reflecting attempt to search within self and reveal 9or express) deep inner feelings on canvas

Vincent van Gogh

• Post-impressionists/ expressionists artist

Cubism

• highly analytical approach to art concentrated on complex geometry of zigzag lines and sharply angled overlapping planes that exemplified ongoing trend toward abstract, nonrepresentational art

Pablo Picasso

• Paris 1907

• (1881-1973)

• established cubism

Futurism

• radical art and literary movement determined o transform mentality of anachronistic society

Filippo Marinetti

• (1876-1944)

• Italian

• 1909: announced founding of futurism

• traditional culture couldn’t deal w/advances of modern technology (tv, radios, airplanes, ocean lines, ect) and way these changed human consciousness

• embraced future and cast away past, calling for radically new art forms that would express modern condition

Dadaism

• artistic movement of 1920s and 1930s that attacked all accepted standards of art and behavior and delighted in outrageous conduct

Richard Huelsenbeck

• “Art in its execution and direction is dependent on the time in which it lives, and artists are creatures of their epoch”

• one of Dadaism’s founders

• “The highest art will be that which in its conscious content presents the thousandfold problems of the day, the art which has been visibly shattered by explosion of last week, which is forever trying to collect its limbs after yesterday’s crash”

Surrealism

• deeply influenced by Freudian psychology and portrayed images of unconscious in art

• painted fantastic worlds of wild reams and uncomfortable symbols where watched melted and giant metronomes beat time in precisely drawn but impossible alien landscaped

Salvador Dali

• surrealist

Marcel Proust

• French novelist Marcel Proust

• (1971-1922)

• in semi autobiographical ‘remembrance of Things Past’ (1913-1927) recalled bittersweet memories of childhood and youthful love and tried discover innermost meaning

• lived like hermit in soundproof Paris apartment for ten years, withdrawing from present to dwell on past

Stream-of-consciousness

literary technique found in works by Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and others, that uses interior monologue - a character’s thought and feelings as occur - to explore human psyche

Virginia Woolf

• English author

• (1882-1941)

• created novel (Jacob’s Room) made up of series of monologues in which tried to capture inner voices in prose

• portrayed characters whose ideals and emotions from different period of lives bubble up as randomly as patient on psychoanalyst’s coach

William Faulkner

• (1897-1962)

• one of America’s greatest novelists used same technique in ‘The Sound and the Fury’ (1929) w/ much tense drama confusedly seen through eyes of man who mentally disabled

James Joyce/Ulysses

• Irish novelist

• ironic parallel b/w aimless wandering of his hero through streets and pubs of Dublin and adventures of Homer’s hero Ulysses on way home from Troy

• surely one of most disturbing novels of generation

• abandoning any sense of conventional plot; breaking grammar rules and blending foreign words, puns, bits of knowledge, and scarps of memory together in bewildering confusion

“anti-utopias”

• nightmare visions of things to come

• writers reject idea of progress

T.S. Eliot

• wrote poem ‘The Waste Land” (19222) which depicts world of growing desolation expresses widespread despair that followed WW1

Franz Kafka

• Czech writer

• portrayed incomprehensible, alienating world

• “The Trial” 91925) and “The Castle” 91926) are stories about helpless individuals crushed crushed by inexplicably hostile forces

• as in famous novella “The Metamorphosis” (1915)

• died young at 41

• sparred horror of seeing world of nightmare materialize in Nazi states

Igor Stravinsky

• Russian composer

• ballet “The Rite of Spring” caused riot practically

  • combo of pulsating rhythms and dissonant sounds from orchestra pit w/earthy representations of lovemaking by strangely dressed dancers on stage shocked audiences accustomed to traditional ballet

Alban Berg

• (1885-1935)

• opera “Wozzeck” first preformed Berlin (1925)

• blending half-sung, half-spoken kind dialogue w/ harsh, atonal music

• gruesome tale of soldier driven by Kafka-like inner terrors and vague suspicions of infidelity to murder mistress

Arnold Schoenberg

• composer in music convention

• led by him, abandoned traditional harmony and tonality

• musical notes in given piece no longer united and organized by key; instead independent and unrelated

• twelve-ton of music of 1920s arranged all twelve notes of scale in abstract ,mathematical pattern or “tone row”

“modern girl”

somewhat stereotypical image of modern and independent working woman popular in 1920s

“talkies”

• practices put Euro producers at disadvantage until “talkies” permitted revival of national film industries in 1930s part France

Sergei Eisenstein

• directed series epic films

• (1898-1948)

• brilliantly dramatized Communist view of Russian history

Leni Riefenstahl/Triumph of the Will

• in Nazi Germany, talented woman film maker (1902-2003)

• directed masterpiece of documentary propaganda; Triumph of the Will

• based on 1934 Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg

• comboed stunning aerial photography w/mass processions of young Nazi fanatics and images of joyful crowds welcoming Adolf Hitler

• film released 1935, brilliant yet chilling documentary of rise of Nazism

British Broadcasting Corporation

• parliament in GB set up independent public corporation; BBC

• supported by licensing fees

Dictated peace

• Treaty of Versailles created temp peace

• Germany hated it

• France fearful and isolated

• Britain undependable

• US turned back to Euro probs

• Eastern Euro in ferment

• Communist Russia had unpredictable future

Reparations

• French politicians believed massive repartitions from Germany vital for economic recovery

• after compromise failed and betrayed by American pred Wilson; French only hope in provisions of Treaty of Versailles

• large Reparations payments could hold Germany down indefinitely ensuring French security

John Maynard Keynes

• many brits agree with him

• English economist

• denounced Treat of Versailles in book “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” (1919)

• astronomical reparations and harsh economic measures impoverish Germany, encourage Bolshevism, and increase economic hardship in all countries

• his attack engendered much public discussion and became influential

• created sympathy for Germany in English-speaking world, which often paralyzed English and American leaders in relations w/Germany over next two decades

Little Entente

• alliance joined Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia against defeated and bitter Hungary

Weimar Republic

• young Germany republic

• made first payment in 1921

• then inability to pay more announced

Moratorium

• Weimar Republic proposed Moratorium on reparations for three years with clear implication that thereafter reparation either drastically reduced or eliminated entirely

Rhineland

• Jan 1923: French and Belgian armies moved out Rhineland and began occupy Ruhr district creating most serious international crisis of 1920s

Ruhr

• heartland of industrial Germany

Passive resistance

• German gov ordered ppl of Ruhr to stop working and offer passive resistance to occupation

“black shame”

• French sent over forty thousand colonial troops through North and West Africa to control territory

• German propagandist labeled these troops “black shame” warning African soldiers savages, eager to brutalize civilians and assault German women (racists)

Gustav Stresemann

• (1878-1929)

• assumed leadership of gov

• tried compromise; called off passive resistance in Ruhr and in Oct agreed in principle to pay reparations, but asked for re-examination of Germany’s ability to pay

Dawes Plan

War reparations agreement that reduced Germany’s yearly payments, made payment dependent on economic prosperity, and granted large US loans to promote recovery

Locarno

• 1925: leaders of Europe signed number agreements at Locarno, Switzerland

• Germany and France solemnly pledged accept common border, and both Britain and Italy agreed fight either France or Germany if one invaded other

Kellogg-Briand Pact

• (1926) Germany joined League of Nations

• (1928) fifteen countries signed Kellogg-Briand Pact

• initiated by French prime minister Aristide Briand and US secretary of state Frank B. Kellogg

• signed states agreed “renounce [war] as an instrument of international policy” and to settle international disputes peacefully

Social Democrats

• thought working class divided, majority supported nonrevolutionary Social Democrats

Franc

• (early 1926) Franc fallen to 10% of prewar value, causing severe crisis

• Poincare called to office and slashed spending and raised taxes, restoring confidence in economy

• franc stabilized at about 1/5th prewar value, economy remained fairly stable until (1930)

Labour Party

• relative social harmony accompanied by rise Labour Party as determined champion of working class and greater social equality

• committed to kind of moderate revisionist socialism that emerged pre WW1, Labour Party replaced Liberal Party as main opposition to Conservatives

• shift reflected decline of old liberal ideals of competitive capitalism, limited gov control and individual responsibility

Ramsay MacDonald

• (1924) and (1929-1931) Labour Party under Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) governed country w/support of smaller Liberal Party

• Labour moved toward socialism gradually and democratically so as not to antagonize middle class

Great Depression

worldwide economic depression from 1929 to 1939, unique in its severity and duration and with slow and uneven recovery

Buying on margin

• many wealthy investors, speculators, ppl of modest means bought stocks by paying only small fraction of total purchase price and borrowing remainder from stockbrokers

• very dangerous

• when prices starting falling 1929, those margin buyers either had put up more money which often impossible or sell shares to pay off brokers

Gold standard

• Britain went off Gold standard: refusing convert banknotes into gold and reduce value of money

• Britain’s goal = make goods cheaper and therefore more salable in world market

• more twenty other nations including US (1934) went off these so few countries gained real advantage from this step, though Britain exception

“counter-cyclical policy”

• gov generally cut budget when shud have raised spending and accepted large deficits in order stimulate economy

• this “counter-cyclical policy” (post ww1) advocated by Keynes became well-estab weapon against downturn and depression

Herbert Hoover

• Pres Herbert Hoover and administration initially reacted to stock market crash and economic decline with dogged optimism but limited action

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• won landslide presidential victory 1932 w/grand but vague promises of “New Deal for the forgotten man”

• goal was to reform capitalism in order to preserve it

• rejected socialism and gov ownership of industry, advocated forceful gov intervention in economy and instituted broad range of gov supported social programs designed stimulate economy and provide jobs

Agricultural Adjustment Act

• 1933

• aimed at rising prices and thus farm income by limiting agricultural production

• these measures worked while and 1935 farmers repaid Roosevelt w/overwhelming support of his re-election campaign

National Recovery Administration

• NRA

• intended to reduce competition among industries by setting minimum price and wages

• broke with cherished American tradition of free competition

• participation voluntary, but aroused conflicts among business ppl, consumers, and bureaucrats, never worked well

• program abandoned and declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court 1935

Works Progress Administration

• WPA, (1935)

• created to undertake vast range of projects

• one fifth entire US labor force worked for WPA at some point in 1930s, constructing public buildings, bridges, and highways

• enormously popular, and opportunity of taking gov job helped check threat of social revolution in US

National Labor Relations Act

• 1935

• gave union organizer green light by declaring collective bargaining to be policy of US
  union membership more doubled from 4 million (1935) to j9 million (1940)

• (1935-1938) gov rulings and social reforms chipped away at privileges of wealthy and tried help ordinary ppl

Popular Front

• short-lived New Deal-inspired alliance in France led by Leon Blum that encouraged union movement and launched far-reaching program of social reform

Leon Blum

led popular front

• number communisis in parliament jumped dramatically from 10-72 while Socialists led by Leon Blum became strongest party in France with 146 seats

Spanish Civil War

• (1936-1939)

• political dissension in France encouraged by Spanish Civil War

• authoritarian Fascist rebels overthrew democratically elected republican gov

• French communists demanded gov supported Spanish republicans while many French conservatives gladly joined Hitler and Mussolini in aiding Spanish Fascists