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Title: Reconstruction, Reaction, and Continuing Revolution: The 1920s and 1930s


1
Reconstruction, Reaction, and Continuing
Revolution The 1920s and 1930s
  • The West
  • CHAPTER 25

2
The Waste Land
  • Heightened anxiety and loss of certainty colored
    much literature, philosophy and theology, after
    1918
  • Existentialism taught that existence was a prison
    and that the universe was devoid of meaning
  • A sense of absurdity and waste dominated visual
    arts

3
Building Something Better
  • Growth in utopian vision and hope for improvement
    in literature, art and architecture
  • Belief that art could serve a social purpose
  • Celebration of the transforming power of
    technology - movement and speed
  • Development of airline and automobile industries,
    and Hollywood cinema

4
The Reconstruction of Russia
  • Between 1917 and 1921, Russia was wracked by
    civil war and economic disintegration
  • Bolsheviks turned to authoritarian methods and
    terror, to impose order
  • Modification of Marxist theory banned political
    debate and disagreement
  • Retreat from communist economic policies

5
The Reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe
  • Continuing ethnic divisions and economic
    underdevelopment led to the collapse of
    democracy, across Eastern Europe
  • A formidable anti-democratic force in the
    military and bureaucracy endured, in Germany
  • Resentment of the punitive peace settlement of
    1918 and of the economic crisis of 1923-1924
    fueled popular support for anti-democratic
    movements in Germany

6
The Reconstruction of Gender
  • Emergence of the New Woman - physically,
    economically and sexually independent
  • Extension of franchise to women and increase in
    employment opportunities
  • Strong, concerted effort to re-impose traditional
    roles by religious, political and commercial
    leaders

7
The Fascist Alternative
  • Fascism - condemned liberalism and socialism,
    identified the nation as the dominant social
    reality
  • Under Benito Mussolini, the fascists transformed
    Italy into a one-party state that reinforced
    élite interests
  • Mussolini utilized modern mass media and age-old
    rituals to create a cult of personality and an
    elaborate political theater

8
The Great Depression and the Spread of Fascism
  • By 1925, American investment was keeping European
    economies functioning - US became the financial
    center of the West
  • 1929 US stock market crash led to collapse of
    European economies - the Great Depression became
    a global event
  • Political and social disorder of the Great
    Depression enhanced the appeal of fascism

9
The Nazi Revolution
  • Nazism combined fascist ideas with a racialized
    view of German political history and an
    apocalyptic vision for Germany
  • Under Adolf Hitler, Germany became a Nazi
    dictatorship, with all authority centered in
    Hitlers hands
  • Nazi rule restored economic prosperity and
    national pride, and promoted a cultural
    revolution in the German identity
  • Nazification - the violent repression of groups
    considered biologically inferior, especially Jews

10
Women and the Radical Right
  • In fascist ideology, the restoration of order
    meant the return of women to homes, as wives and
    mothers
  • Nazi régime used incentives to encourage
    motherhood, and systematically excluded women
    from professional advancement
  • In Fascist Italy, incentives and penalties to
    encourage marriage and parenthood targeted both
    men and women

11
The Soviet Union Under Stalin
  • Josef Stalin advocated the total socialization of
    the economy and fast-paced industrialization
  • Industrialization was achieved by severe
    discipline of workers, and forced labor
  • The Great Purge, 1934-1939 - mass executions and
    deportations of perceived enemies
  • Development of a personality cult around Stalin
    and restoration of Russian nationalism

12
The Search for Middle Ground
  • Beginnings of social democratic thought, as a
    third way between fascism and communism
  • Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal laid the
    basis for the US welfare system
  • John Maynard Keynes articulated a theory of
    deficit spending to stimulate economic growth, in
    times of depression

13
The Spanish Civil War
  • Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy actively supported
    the right-wing rebels against the Republican
    government
  • Soviet support for the Spanish government split
    the Republican cause and prevented official
    support from Britain, France and the US
  • Defeat of the Republicans became symbolic of the
    advance of the radical right in Europe

14
The Expansion of Empire
  • Creation of new British and French Mandates, in
    the Middle East
  • Development of unique national identities and
    parliamentary autonomy, in British dominions,
    seen as expanding the West
  • New emphasis on the necessity of empire for
    economic prosperity

15
The Erosion of Empire
  • Independence of the majority of Ireland, 1921
  • Industrialization in the colonies and the Great
    Depression fueled anti-Western sentiment and
    nationalist movements
  • Especially in China, the export of communist
    ideology from the Soviet Union helped the spread
    of nationalism

16
The Question of Westernization
  • Non-Western nationalists sought political
    independence and economic modernization
  • Mustafa Kemal Pasha pursued a policy of
    nationalism and modernization that attempted to
    Westernize Turkey
  • Mohandas Gandhi emphasized Indian customs and
    identities to build a nationalist movement that
    pursued non-Western modernization

17
The Power of Primitive
  • Following the First World War, many Europeans
    lost faith in the idea of Western superiority
  • Freud and Carl Jungs psychological ideas
    dissolved the boundary between civilized and
    primitive
  • Influence and celebration of African and Asian
    traditions in Western intellectual and artistic
    pursuits

18
The Kingdom of Corpses
  • Dramatic re-evaluation of Western cultural and
    political assumptions
  • Soviet communism, fascism and Nazism all rejected
    Western ideas of individual rights and the rule
    of law
  • The legacy of war, the global economic crisis and
    the failure of democracy fueled a sense of
    despair about Western civilization
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