Years of Crisis: 1919-1939

Postwar Uncertainty

  • Post-war disillusionment: Shattered belief in progress and reason due to WWI horrors.
  • New ideas emerged: Scientific developments challenged traditional beliefs.
  • Technological advancements: Improved transportation and communication.
  • Social changes: Women gained more rights, young people adopted new values.
  • Cultural shifts: Unconventional styles in literature, philosophy, and music.

New Revolution in Science

  • Einstein's Theory of Relativity: Space and time are relative, not absolute; challenged Newtonian physics.
  • Freud's Influence: Freud's theories about the irrationality of the unconscious mind, weakened faith in reason.

Writers Reflect Society's Concerns

  • Themes of alienation and disillusionment in literature.
  • Kafka: Novels reflected anxiety and inability to escape threatening situations.
  • Joyce: Stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses mirrored workings of the human mind.
  • Lost Generation: American expatriate writers searching for meaning in post-war Europe.

Thinkers React to Uncertainties

  • Existentialism: Belief that life has no universal meaning; individuals create their own meaning.
  • Nietzsche: Advocated for a return to pride and strength, influenced politics in Italy and Germany.

Revolution in the Arts

  • Rebellion against traditional styles: Artists moved toward modernism and expressionism.
  • Cubism: Transformed shapes into geometric forms (Braque, Picasso).
  • Surrealism: Linked dreams and reality, inspired by Freud (Salvador Dalí).
  • New musical styles: Jazz emerged; composers like Stravinsky and Schoenberg experimented with irregular rhythms and dissonances.

Society Challenges Convention

  • New individual freedoms after WWI.
  • Women's Roles Change: Women gained suffrage, adopted new styles, and sought careers.
  • The Great Migration: African Americans migrated north for economic opportunities and to escape discrimination.

Technological Advances Improve Life

  • Automobile: Altered society with increased mobility and lifestyle changes.
  • Airplanes: Transformed travel, with pioneers like Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart.
  • Radio and Movies: Dominated popular entertainment and advertising; spread political propaganda.

Labor-Saving Devices in the United States

  • Increased use of electrical appliances due to wiring, consumerism, and installment plans.
  • Appliances included refrigerators, coffee pots, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and electric irons.
  • Ironically, these devices did not always decrease the amount of time women spent on housework.

A Worldwide Depression

  • Postwar Europe: Suffered immense human and economic costs; US and Japan were in better financial shape.
  • Unstable New Democracies: Many new democracies struggled due to lack of experience and coalition governments.
  • Weimar Republic: Germany's democratic government faced weaknesses and blamed for postwar humiliation.

Inflation Causes Crisis in Germany

  • Hyperinflation: Germany printed money to pay war debts, leading to severe inflation (1923).
  • Dawes Plan: American loan stabilized German currency and economy.

Efforts at a Lasting Peace

  • Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact (1928): Renounced war as an instrument of national policy but lacked enforcement.

Financial Collapse

  • Flawed US Economy: Uneven wealth distribution, overproduction, and decreased consumer spending.
  • Stock Market Crash (1929): Triggered by stock speculation and buying on margin.
  • Great Depression: Economic downturn with low production, high unemployment, and business failures.

A Global Depression

  • Global Impact: The collapse of the American economy caused worldwide depression.
  • Effects Throughout the World: Germany, Austria, Asia and Latin America were heavily affected.

The World Confronts the Crisis

  • Britain: Implemented tariffs, raised taxes, and regulated currency for recovery.
  • France: Political instability, but democracy was preserved.
  • Socialist Governments: Scandinavian countries used public works projects and welfare benefits.

Recovery in the United States

  • New Deal: Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of government reform, including public works projects and financial aid.
  • Keynesian Economics: Advocated government intervention to cure unemployment, adopted partly by Roosevelt.

Fascism Rises in Europe

  • Fascism: Militant political movement emphasizing loyalty to the state and obedience to its leader.
    Mussolini's Rise:

    • Seized control through force and intimidation

  • Hitler's Rise:

    • Gained influence through the Nazi party and manipulation

Fascism

  • Characteristics: Authoritarianism, nationalism, one-party rule, suppression of individual rights.
  • Italy: Mussolini established a fascist state.
  • Germany: Hitler and the Nazis established a totalitarian regime based on racism and expansionism.

Hitler Makes War on the Jews

  • Anti-Semitism: Nazi ideology targeted Jews as scapegoats.
  • Kristallnacht (1938): Marked the start of eliminating Jews from German life.

Other Countries Fall to Dictators

  • Eastern Europe: Many nations fell to dictatorships due to economic problems and lack of democratic experience.

Aggressors Invade Nations

  • Japan Seeks an Empire:
    • Militarists take control of Japan and invade Manchuria. And later China.
  • European Aggressors on the March:
    • Mussolini attacks Ethiopia and Hitler defies Versailles Treaty.

Democratic Nations Try to Preserve Peace

  • Appeasement: Britain and France made concessions to avoid war.
  • The German Reich Expands:
    • Hitler annexed Austria and demanded the Sudetenland.

Nazis and Soviets Sign Nonaggression Pact

  • Pact: Germany and The Soviet Union pledged not to attack each other, paving the way for WWII.