Chapter 28
The Age of Anxiety
Uncertainty
in Modern Thought
Modern Art and Music
Movies and Radio
The Search for Peace and Political Stability
The Great Depression, 1929-1939
Uncertainty in Modern Thought


Most people
believed in progress,
reason, individual
rights – rational
human mind &
science – 1880s1920s
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 LogicoPhilosophicus 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 recreate 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
Marcel
Duchamp
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 selfdefense; 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 multiparty 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.

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
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