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An Age of Anxiety
Chapter 34
Intro: Probing Cultural Frontiers
• War shock the European worldview
• Revolutions in science, psychology, art and
architecture
Postwar Pessimism
• “a lost generation”: American expat writers in
Paris (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc.)
– Disillusioned by war, focus on decline of society
• Religious uncertainty: criticized liberal Christianity
Postwar Pessimism
• Attacks on Progress: destroyed idea of the
universality of human progress (war = progress??)
• Belief in democracy fading:
– Intellectuals: more political participation = “tyranny
of the average person”
– Common people: political parties and corruption
Revolutions in Physics and Psychology
• Uncertainty in science:
– Einstein: theory of relativity; and others
• Psychology:
– Freud linked mental disorders to psychological issues
(esp. conflict between conscious and unconscious) ->
psychoanalysis
Experimentation in Art and
Architecture
• Lots of variety, but artists shared disdain for realism
and concern for freedom of expression:
expressionism, cubism, dadaism,
surrealism, etc.
– Focus on color and shape, plus
influences from Asian, Pacific,
and African societies
• Bauhaus: architecture influenced by design and art
for urban-industrial landscape
– Functional, simple, glass and steel,
very urban
Intro: Global Depression
• Countries attempted to rebuild their economies
• Temporary success in the 1920s
• 1929 -> Great Depression begins
The Great Depression
• 1920s: industrial production increased (after
repairs), but problems remained
• Economic problems:
– Germany and Austria: relied on U.S. loans for war
reparations
– France and G.B. used reparations to repay their U.S.
loans
– 1928, U.S. banks withdrew capital form Europe
The Great Depression (cont.)
• Other problems:
– As industry improved, less raw materials were need
(= drop in prices – rubber, coal, cotton)
– Agriculture: during war, non-European countries had
to produce more; once Eur. Was producing again, too
much supply -> low prices
• -> farmers couldn’t afford to buy manufactured
goods -> businesses cut back
production -> unemployment
increased
The Great Depression (cont.)
• 10/24/1929: Black Friday – U.S. stock market
crashed as investors suddenly dumped stocks due
to economic slowdown and overvalued stock
prices
– Investors called in loans, business activity slowed,
wages decreased, unemployment
increased
– Demand decreased, continuing the
cycle
The Great Depression (cont.)
• Spread around the world through 1930s, but to different
degrees
• Germany and Japan suffered because they were dependent on
exports to import fuel and food
• Countries that depended on raw material export, too
• Banks tried to raise money by calling in loans and liquidating
investments -> collapse of Austrian and German banks ->
decrease in industrial production and increase in
unemployment
Unite
d
States
Great
Britai
n
Franc
e
Germ
any
–46%
–23%
–24%
–41%
Wholesale prices –32%
–33%
–34%
–29%
Foreign trade
–70%
–60%
–54%
–61%
Unemployment
+607
%
+129
%
+214
%
+232
%
Industrial
production
The Great Depression (cont.)
• -> economic nationalism (tariffs, import quotas,
prohibitions) for self-sufficiency
• Backfired, because other countries did the same > decrease in international trade -> decrease in
production and income
Despair and Government Action
• Lots of personal suffering: loss of jobs, savings,
homes, dignity, hope
– -> shantytowns, breadlines, decrease in marriages,
births, divorces, increase in suicides, increase in class
conflict
Economic Experimentation
• Theoretically, capitalism is self-correcting
• 2 gov’t responses: first, did nothing; second,
focused on balancing budgets and stopping public
spending (=austerity measures)…. Both worsened
the effects
• Economist Keynes’ solution: gov’t should
stimulate the economy by increasing the money
supply to lower interest rates and encourage
investment
Economic Experimentation (cont.)
• Keynes also encouraged public works projects to
provide jobs and redistribute income through tax
policy
• Even though this meant budget deficits, it would
lower unemployment and increase demand,
leading to economic recovery
The New Deal
• Keynes ideas weren’t widely adopted until after
WWII
• U.S. president FDR initiated similar ideas: jobs, farm
subsidies, collective bargaining, minimum wage,
social security
– These social and economic reforms = New Deal
– Fundamental idea: gov’t should
intervene to protect the social and
economic welfare of the people
– Depression really didn’t end until
increased military spending of WWII
Intro: Challenges to the Liberal Order
• Some though capitalism/democracy were dying
• Russia: rule of the proletariat
• Fascism as an alternative to social and democracy
in Italy and Germany
Communism in Russia
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks had taken over, but there
was still opposition -> civil war (Reds vs. Whites)
– Bolsheviks used Red Terror, executed czar and his family
– Allies helped Whites, but Reds won because Whites
were too diverse
– Results: Many died of disease
and starvation and political
oppression became the norm
Russia’s Economy
• War communism: gov’t took over banks,
industries, private property, crops
• By 1921, had to rebuild society, but strikes,
rebellions, mutinies -> temporarily restored
market economy and some private enterprise
• Lenin’s New Economic Policy: state “capitalism”,
electrification, technical schools, then, he died
Stalin
• Stalin takes over as dictator
• First Five Year Plan for rapid econ. Dev.: product
targets in all econ. spheres, esp. heavy industry
(instead of consumer goods)
• Also, collectivization of agriculture: to feed
workers and increase efficiency -> protests,
migration, starvation
• Results: full employment, cheap housing and
food (when available), little material benefit
• => command economy – maximum centralization
The Great Purge
• Some wanted plural gov’t
• 1934 Communist Party Congress: rift in party ->
treason trials and purge of 2/3 of delegates,
military, and gov’t officials -> executions and
labor camps
The Fascist Alternative
• Reaction against liberal democracy and socialism
• Attractive to middle class and rural population
due to fear of class conflict and to nationalists
(glorifies the state)
• Common features: veneration of the state,
devotion to strong leaders, emphasis on ultranationalism, ethnocentrism,
and militarism
Italian Fascism
• Perfect conditions: disillusionment, weak political
leaders, ineffective government, economic
turmoil, social discontent, fear of socialism,
disappointment with outcome of war
• Benito Mussolini: 1919, established Italian
Combat Veterans League – gained support and
members in parliament
– used Black Shirts against socialists -> chaos
– 1922: marched on Rome -> King Victor Emmanuel III
appointed Mussolini prime minister
The Italian Fascist State
• 1925-31: fascists consolidated power legally ->
one-party dictatorship
– 1926: Mussolini seized power as Il Duce (outlawed
personal freedoms)
– Dissidents were exiled or faced capital punishments
– Aligned with business and landlord interests
– -> corporatism: all societal interests under the control
of the state
• 1939: signed alliance with Germany
German National Socialism
• 1921: Hitler becomes chair of Nazi Party and tries
to overthrow the gov’t (=Weimar Republic) ->
sent to prison
• Focuses on “path to legality”
– Conditions were right: disillusionment,
alienation, fear of socialism, humiliating
treaties, economic issues
– Promises greatness for Germany: racial doctrines,
attracted all classes, but esp. lower middle ->
radicalization of the people
Hitler’s Germany
• 1930-32: Nazi party gains seats in parliament;
President Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor
• Imposed his rule by declaring “state emergency”,
eliminated opposing parties, took away personal
(including workers’) rights, highly centralized,
purged judiciary and civil service, control of
police, imprisoned or murdered enemies
• Focus on racial superiority and purity: eugenics
Hitler’s Germany (cont.)
• Nazis started campaign to increase birthrate
among “racially valuable”
– Women’s role = wife and mother
– Policies: Tax credits, child allowances, marriage loans,
divorce only if wife was sterile, banned abortion and
birth control, pronatalist propaganda, awards for
having lots of children
– Results: birthrate didn’t actually increase much
Hitler’s Germany (cont.)
• Eugenics:
– 1933: compulsory sterilization for people with
hereditary disease
– 1935: abortions for “hereditary ill” and “racial aliens”
– 1939-45: murder of those
deemed useless to society
(= physically and mentally
handicapped)
Hitler’s Germany (cont.)
• Anti-Semitism: prejudice against Jews = key to
Hitler’s new racial order
– 1933: discriminatory laws to humiliate, impoverish, and
segregate Jews
– 1935: Nuremburg laws: no citizenship, prohibited
intermarriage or sex
• Goal: Jewish emigration
• Result: many left, esp.
intellectuals, scientists,
and artists, and, esp. after
Kristallnacht in 1938 (= pogrom)