An Age of Anxiety: Totalitarianism and Global Crisis in the Early 20th Century

Core Vocabulary and Intellectual Frameworks

• Nationalize: The process of placing private industries or assets under government control.
      * Named Example: Following the revolution of $1910$–$1920$, Mexico nationalized its petroleum industry.

• Proletariat: The working class or the masses of workers.

• Bourgeoisie: The capitalist class who own the factories and large businesses.

• Petty Bourgeoisie: Small business owners.

• Totalitarian Government: A system of government that exerts total or near-total control over its citizens.

• Communism (Marxism): A political and economic system based on the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
      * Core Belief: It is viewed as a worldwide struggle against class conflict and inequality.
      * Historical Context: Governments claiming to be communist often operated as socialist oligarchies or totalitarian dictatorships rather than true collectives.

• Marxism Defined: A utopian economic system envisioned as the final step in the natural evolution from feudalism, mercantilism, and capitalism.
      * Factors of Production: Land (and resources), labor, and capital (factories, machines, tools, investment money) are controlled by the proletariat and shared equally.
      * Property and Distribution: Private property does not exist. Goods and services are shared based on the principle: "To each person based on need, from each person based on skill and ability."

Major Patterns of the Early 20th Century

• Political Revolutions: Significant revolutions occurred in Mexico, Russia, and China.

• Post-WWI Recovery and Shifts: Western Europe partially recovered from World War I ($WWI$), but totalitarian governments emerged in Russia, Italy, and Germany.

• Rising Industrial Powers: The United States and Japan rose as industrial giants.

• Economic Hardship: The Great Depression caused widespread economic suffering throughout the West.

• Scientific and Cultural Shifts:
      * Physics: Advances in physics (Einstein, Heisenberg).
      * Psychology: New theories in psychology (Freud).
      * Social Changes: Greater freedom for women.
      * Artistic Styles: Rise of Modernist styles including Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, and Art Deco. These styles partly reflected the anxiety and uncertainty of the post-$WWI$ years.
      * Music: Rise of Jazz.
      * Architecture: Introduction of functionalism and the Bauhaus style.

Global Post-War Pessimism and Intellectual Shifts

• Postwar Pessimism:
      * The "Lost Generation": A term coined by Gertrude Stein to describe those disillusioned after $WWI$.
      * Human Progress: Growing pessimism regarding the idea of human progress, exemplified by Oswald Spengler’s work, Decline of the West.

• New Visions in Physics:
      * Albert Einstein ($1879$–$1955$): Introduced the Theory of Special Relativity, stating that neither time nor space are absolute values and vary with the observer.
      * Werner Heisenberg ($1901$–$1976$): Introduced the "Uncertainty Principle."
      * Impact: These scientific concepts were extended into the humanities and social sciences.

• New Visions in Psychology:
      * Sigmund Freud ($1856$–$1939$): Explored the life of the subconscious mind and the repression of sexual desires and fears.
      * Methods: Freud used interpretation of dreams and free association.
      * Impact: His theories were applied to mythology, religion, literature, and art.

• Experimentation in Art:
      * The horrors of war served as a point of departure for many artists.
      * The rise of photography made realism in painting seem irrelevant.
      * Art moved toward creation rather than reproduction, leading to a retreat into abstraction.
      * Key Movements/Figures: Les Fauves and Pablo Picasso ($1881$–$1973$).
      * Result: The disappearance of the distinction between "good" and "bad" art.

The Great Depression: Causes and Progression

• The Debt Cycle:
      * Austria and Germany borrowed money from the U.S. to pay war debts to France and England.
      * France and England were dependent on these payments to pay their own debts to the U.S. from $WWI$.
      * The entire system was dependent on the continuous flow of cash from the U.S.
      * U.S. investors began pulling out of the system in $1928$.

• Technological Disruptions:
      * Single-export countries were devastated by new technologies.
      * Example: Reclaimed rubber destroyed the rubber-based economies of the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and Ceylon.

• Agricultural Surpluses:
      * The $1920s$ saw massive overproduction, with the strongest harvests occurring in $1925$ and $1929$.
      * Wheat reached its lowest price in $400$ years.
      * Consequences: Farm income dropped, leading to less demand for manufactured goods and resulting in inventory surpluses.

• The Crash of 1929:
      * Black Thursday: October $24$, $1929$.
      * Mechanism: Stock purchases on margin (as low as $3\%$).
      * Trigger: Hints of a slowdown in Europe prompted investors to sell, creating a snowball effect.
      * Toll: Life savings were lost, and there were $11$ known suicides immediately following the crash.

• Economic Contraction:
      * Inventory surpluses led to layoffs, which decreased demand, leading to business failures.
      * By $1932$, U.S. industrial production was at half of its $1929$ levels.
      * $44\%$ of U.S. banks went out of business, leading to the loss of all deposits.

• World Economic Collapse:
      * Hardest hit were countries dependent on manufactured exports for essentials (e.g., Japan) and single-export countries (e.g., in South America).

Despair and Economic Experimentation

• Initial Government Action: In the U.S., "planned scarcity" was attempted, where vegetables, fruits, and animals were destroyed to raise prices. This era is depicted in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

• Keynesian Economics: John Maynard Keynes ($1883$–$1946$) argued for stimulating the economy by lowering interest rates to encourage investment and employment.

• The New Deal: Legislative programs enacted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the U.S.

• Final Resolution: Massive spending for World War II eventually ended the Depression.

The Russian Revolution and the Rise of the USSR

• Collapse of the Romanov Dynasty: Ended after $300$ years due to:
      * Social and economic inequalities and unrest.
      * Humiliation from the $1904$ Russo-Japanese War.
      * Weak leadership of Czar Nicholas II.
      * Losses and suffering during $WWI$.
      * Development of radical revolutionary groups, including the return of Vladimir Lenin in $1917$.

• Timeline of Power Shift:
      * 1915: Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate (and was executed with his family in $1917$).
      * 1917: A provisional democratic government led by Alexander Kerenski lasted only months.
      * October 1917: The Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government during the October Revolution.
      * March 1918: Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany to exit $WWI$.

• Russian Civil War (1918–1920):
      * The Reds: Bolsheviks (Communists).
      * The Whites: Mensheviks (Democratic-Socialists). The Whites were supported by several Western nations, including the U.S.
      * Outcome: Bolsheviks won in $1920$; Lenin became the leader.
      * 1924: Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ($USSR$).

• Marx’s Theoretical Steps to Communism:
      1. Conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat classes.
      2. Violent rebellion of the industrial proletariat.
      3. Overthrow of the capitalist/democratic state.
      4. Establishment of a temporary "dictatorship of the proletariat" where the state controls economic decisions (Socialism).
      5. Dissolution of class hierarchies.
      6. Emergence of a classless society, ending the need for government laws or institutions.

• Lenin’s Policies:
      * War Communism (1918–1922): Rapid collectivization and confiscations; it was massively unpopular.
      * New Economic Policy (NEP): In $1921$, Lenin backtracked, temporarily restoring a market economy and some private enterprise. Peasants could sell surplus at free-market prices. Policies included electrification and the establishment of technical schools.
      * Lenin's Death: Suffered three strokes and died in $1924$, leading to a bitter power struggle.

The Era of Joseph Stalin ($1879$–$1953$)

• Background: Born in Georgia; mother influenced him toward an Orthodox seminary education. He was known as the "Man of Steel."

• Rise to Power: Triumphed over party rivals; promoted "Socialism in one country"; leader of the Soviet Union by $1928$.

• Collectivization:
      * The elimination of private ownership of farmland to create large state-run collective farms.
      * De-kulakization: Targetted "kulaks" (wealthy land-owning peasants). The policy resulted in seized land, starvation, and the murder of millions.
      * Collectivization was halted in $1931$ with Stalin proclaiming its success.

• Five-Year Plan: State planning of industrial production managed by "Gosplan."
      * Focus: Rapid industrial growth in steel, coal, oil, and electricity; neglected consumer goods.

• Socialist Realism: A school of art emphasizing heroic idealizations of workers, soldiers, and peasants, used as pro-party propaganda.

• The Great Purge (1935–1938):
      * Stalin removed all suspected opposition, including two-thirds of the Central Committee and half of the army's high-ranking officers.
      * Quantified Toll: Between $1937$ and $1938$, more than $1.5 \text{ million}$ people were detained, and $681,692$ were shot.

The Rise of Fascism

• Definition: An ultra-nationalist government featuring a charismatic authoritarian leader, denial of individual rights, abolition of labor unions, militaristic foreign policy, xenophobia, and corporatism (organizing society into common interest groups under government supervision).

• Common Elements: Primacy of the state over the individual, devotion to a strong leader, ethnocentricity, militarism, anti-communism, and chauvinism.

• Symbol: The fasces—a Roman symbol of authority consisting of an axe surrounded by wooden rods.

• Fascism in Italy (Benito Mussolini):
      * Context: Public disappointment with weak territorial gains after $WWI$ and social turmoil.
      * Rise: Mussolini, a former newspaper editor, saw electoral successes in $1921$.
      * March on Rome: October $1921$. King Emmanuel III offered Mussolini the office of Prime Minister.
      * Paramilitary: The "Blackshirts."
      * Consolidation: In $1926$, he seized power as "Il Duce" (The Leader).

• Fascism in Germany (Adolf Hitler):
      * 1921: Hitler became chairman of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NAZIs).
      * 1923: Failed coup attempt; Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while in jail.
      * Public Discontent: Hitler exploited the "War Guilt" clause, reparation payments, and anti-Semitism.
      * Legal Power Grab: Post-$1929$, the Nazis became the largest party in parliament. President Paul von Hindenburg ($1847$–$1934$) appointed Hitler Chancellor in $1933$.

• Methods of Political Control:
      * Propaganda: Biased information via posters, radio, and speeches.
      * Censorship: Restricting news that contradicts the state.
      * Indoctrination: Instructing youth in government goals through education.
      * Religious Persecution: Banning religious organizations seen as threats.
      * Fear: Use of secret police and state-sponsored violence.
      * Purges: Execution of political enemies.

The Nazi Racial State and Anti-Semitism

• Racial Theories: Promotion of theories on racial superiority and purity.

• Pronatalist Propaganda: Encouraging births for the "favored" race.

• Eugenics Policies:
      * Compulsory sterilization of $30,000$ Germans.
      * Abortions made illegal for "healthy" Germans but mandatory for the "hereditary ill" and "racial aliens."
      * Euthanasia Program: Between $1939$ and $1945$, $200,000$ people with physical or mental handicaps were killed.

• Anti-Semitism and Laws:
      * 1935 Nuremberg Laws: Prohibited marriages between Jews and non-Jews; removed Jews from civil service and schools; mandated liquidation of Jewish-owned businesses.
      * Kristallnacht: November $9$–$10$, $1938$. Known as the "Night of Broken Glass," it was a major country-wide pogrom against Jews.