Transcript Chapter 34 An Age of Anxiety Still from The Cabinet of Dr.

Chapter 34
An Age of Anxiety
Still from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
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Postwar Pessimism
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The “Lost Generation”
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Term coined by Gertrude Stein, the writer/playwright/art
patron and godmother of Americans in-exile in Paris after
the war.
Shortage of marriageable men in Britain, France, and
Germany; surreal spectacle many men on the street lacking
limbs in Paris, London, and Berlin
Disillusionment after WWI and pessimism over
idea of human progress

Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West: multi-volume work
by a retired school teacher theorizing that civilizations are
like organisms, and that Western civilization was dying.
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Postwar Pessimism
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Many attacks on progress: Scientists and technological
innovations were deemed responsible for the making of
poisonous gas and explosives that killed millions and
destroyed agriculture and cities.
Science and technology blamed for the industrialized mass
killing and maiming of World War I.
Most western democracies granted suffrage to all men and
women following the war, but faith in democracy’s ability to
deal with complex problems of the modern world was waning.
Many intellectuals became disillusioned with democracy
because they saw it as lacking positive values. Some worried
about the democracy’s “rule of inferiors” and its tendency to
reward mediocrity.
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Revolution in Physics
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Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)
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Theory of special relativity
Neither time nor space are absolute values as they vary
with observer; destabilizes orderly system of
Newtonian physics
The uncertainty principle: the act of observation
interferes with whatever is being observed
Concepts extended to humanities and social sciences
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Revolution in Psychology
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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
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Explored the life of the subconscious mind
Repression of sexual desires and fears cause
psychological disorders
Interpretation of dreams
Free association
In the 1920s and 1930s: Widespread application
of his theories to mythology, religion, literature,
art, etc.
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Experimentation in Art
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Photography makes realism irrelevant
Art as creation, not reproduction
Retreat to abstraction
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Les Fauves (“wild beasts”) Group of artists led by Henri Matisse
and André Derain in the first decade of the 1900s. Favored wild
colors and stepped away from realistic representation.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Non-western and ancient “primitive” styles
influence modern European art
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Experimentation in Art
Henri Matisse, Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra), 1907
André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906,
Fauvism
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Experimentation in Art
Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1905-06
Bust of a Man, 1908
Guitar, 1912
é
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
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Experimentation in Architecture
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Staatliches Bauhaus: First school for modern design
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Director: Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
Operated from 1919 to 1925 in Weimar and from 1925 to 1933 in
Dessau; shut down by the Nazis
Teachers are practitioners and artists rather than academics
No extraneous ornamentation; designers should work for
industry and mass production
Bauhaus Aesthetic Leads to New Style of Skyscrapers
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“Glass boxes” of the “International style”
 Loved by businesses and governments
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Experimentation in Architecture
Bauhaus Dessau building
designed by Gropius,
opened in 1926
Poster for a 1923
Bauhaus exhibition
Oskar Schlemmer,
Bauhaus Stairway,
1932
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Experimentation in Architecture
“Glass Boxes” of the “International Style”
United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan
designed by Le Corbusier, completed in 1952
Lever House in Manhattan
completed in 1952
11
European Origins of the Great
Depression
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Austria/Germany borrow money from U.S. to pay
war debts to France and England
France and England pay debts owed to U.S. for
WWI
System dependent on easy credit from U.S. banks
U.S. investors begin to call in German and
Austrian loans in 1928 in part to put the money in
the booming New York stock exchange
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New Technologies and the Great
Depression
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Countries that rely economically on certain raw
commodities are hurt by new technologies that lessen
demand for them
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Reclaimed rubber destroys rubber-based economies of
Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, Ceylon
More widespread use of oil hurts the coal industry, which is
vast and employs many people in the U.S.
In the late 1920s, the U.S. economy was in the middle
of a transition from a primary reliance on heavy
industry to consumer good production.
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Agricultural Surpluses and the Great
Depression
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Overproduction in 1920s in Europe, United States, Canada,
Argentina, and Australia.
Strongest harvests in 1925, 1929
Wheat at lowest price in 400 years
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Farm income drops
Less demand for manufactured goods in the agricultural sector
Inventory surpluses
The Dust Bowl: The 1930s drought and overused soil create
conditions for massive wind erosion in the Great Plains,
causing massive dust storms and exacerbating depression
conditions.
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Agricultural Surpluses and the Great
Depression
Dust storm in the U.S. Midwest in the 1930s
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Black Thursday - October 24, 1929
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Small Investors: The booming stock market of the 1920s led many
brokers to sell to regular, middle-class people. Roughly 16 percent
of American households owned stocks.
Speculation: Stock could be purchased on as little as a third of the
face value on the assumption they would continue to go up; brokers
would lend the rest.
Hints of slowdown in Europe in 1928-1929
Underlying weaknesses of U.S. economy begin to show in 1929
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Consumer demand weakens early in the year; sales of automobiles had
begin to drop off
September: Highly volatile stocks market; cycles of falls and recoveries
Black Thursday (Oct. 24) and Black Tuesday (Oct. 29)
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Market turns down, triggering a swell of panic selling; loses $30 billion in
the span of a few days; the collapse turns global
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U.S. Economic Collapse
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Inventory surplus leads to massive layoffs in
manufacturing plants
Layoffs lead to decreased consumer demand and
businesses fail
In 1932, industrial production of the U.S. is half of 1929
levels
Forty-four percent of U.S. banks out of business by the
early 1930s: Deposits lost (not insured)
Because the world depended on the export of U.S. capital
and the U.S. import market, this created a global effect.
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World Economic Collapse
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When U.S. investors called in loans, banks in Austria
and Germany became vulnerable because they had
been major recipients of U.S. loans.
The Germany economy experienced a huge economic
slide that by 1932 resulted in 35 percent
unemployment and a 50 percent decrease in industrial
production.
Foreign trade fell sharply between 1929 and 1932
causing further losses in manufacturing and
employment.
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World Economic Collapse
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Hardest hit: countries dependent on export of
agricultural and manufactured goods
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Chile: Devastated since its economy was so reliant on the export of mined
copper and nitrates.
Caribbean: Sugar exports decline
Argentina: Beef exports decline
Brazil: Global devaluation of coffee hurts the Brazilian economy greatly
and pushes industrialization efforts for economic diversity.
Germany: Reliant on exporting manufactured goods, Germany suffered
greatly: 5 million unemployed by 1932, severe hyperinflation, all
exacerbated by reparation payments.
Japan: Not too hard hit due to aggressive deficit spending by the
government to develop heavy industries (especially munitions).
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Initial Government Attempts to
Increase Demand
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U.S.: “planned scarcity” in 1934
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Vegetables, fruits, crops, and animals destroyed: 10 million acres
of cotton and 12,000 acres of tobacco plowed under, 6 million
pigs slaughtered, and a whole California fruit crop allowed to rot
on the vine.
Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath: Bitterly angry passage points
to the irony of the government destroying crops at a time when
people are starving.
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Initial Government Attempts to
Increase Demand
From The Grapes of Wrath (published 1939):
“The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in
the river and the guards hold them back; they
come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges,
but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still
and watch potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being
killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the
mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in
the eyes of the people there is the failure; an in the eyes of the
hungry there is a growing wrath.”
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Social Effects of the Great
Depression
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Thinkers like French physician Charles Richet believed
that removing women from the workforce would solve
the problem of male unemployment and increase the
nation’s low birthrate.
Great Depression caused enormous personal suffering
Millions struggled for food, clothing, and shelter
Marriage and birthrates declined, suicide increased
Intensified social divisions and class hatreds
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Social Effects of the Great
Depression
Great Depression Bread Line near the Brooklyn Bridge
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New U.S. Strategies
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Laissez-faire, “planned scarcity” approaches fail
Economist John M. Keynes (1883-1946) challenged
classical economic theory: the belief that capitalism was
self-correcting and operated best if left alone.
Keynes argued the depression was a problem of
inadequate demand, not supply; therefore, governments
should play an active role in stimulating economy and
consumer demand.
Keynes: Health of the economy is not measured by
production, but by employment.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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The New Deal of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt anticipated many of
Keynes's ideas.
After 1932, Roosevelt put in place
protections for the banking system, massive public works
projects, and farm subsidies
Creates the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Legislation established minimum wage, social security,
and the right to collective bargaining for workers' unions
WWII Spending: Whether New Deal worked is still
debated; ultimately gearing up production for World War
II lifted the depression.
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The Bolshevik Revolution
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In October 1917, Lenin led an armed
uprising against the Provisional Government.
Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party
(“Minority Party”) as the Communist Party
in order to win wider support.
Civil War: Anti-Communist “Whites” fight
against new “Red” regime from 1917 to 1922.
In December 1917 Lenin set up a secret
police force known as the Cheka; agents spied on industrial workers
and peasants and reported disloyalty.
Lenin launched the “Red Terror” campaign in September 1918
against anti-Soviet peasants, striking workers, and anyone associated
with the White Guard. Some estimates say 50,000 people were
arrested and executed in this period.
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War Communism, 1918-1922
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Lenin pushes for rapid implementation of Communist
reforms during “War Communism” of Civil War
period
Rapid collectivization of farms and confiscations of
private property
Massively unpopular, Lenin backtracks in 1921
He initiates the New Economic Policy (NEP), which
allows for partial privatization of the economy; marks
a stepping back from pure Communist program
Lenin crushes workers’ strikes, peasant rebellions,
and a sailor’s revolt.
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New Economic Policy (NEP)
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The New Economic Policy (NEP) temporarily
restored private enterprise in Russia.
Large industries, banks, and transportation and
communications facilities remained under state
control
Government returned small-scale industries to private
ownership.
The government allowed peasants to sell their
surpluses at free market prices.
Technical schools established
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Lenin’s Death
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Lenin suffers three debilitating strokes and dies Jan. 21, 1924.
Bitter power struggle among Bolshevik leaders ensues.
Lenin had written that Stalin was too rude and lacking finesse
to become the Secretary-General.
Stalin in the 1920s
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Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
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Native of the nation of Georgia
in the Caucasus
Mother’s influence leads to
Orthodox seminary education
Stalin triumphs over party rivals
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Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin,
and Leon Trotsky
Stalin: Name means “Man of steel”
Advocates socialism in “one country”: wants to consolidate
Communism in the Soviet Union, not use it as a platform for
global revolution as per Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
Eliminates rivals; removes Trotsky from power in 1927, deports
him in 1929, and has him assassinated in Mexico City in 1940
Has firm grip on rule over the Soviet Union by 1928
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Stalin and Economic Planning
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Stalin initiates the First Five-Year Plan (1928-1933)
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Massive collectivization of agriculture
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Gosplan: the Soviet central planning agency controls all aspects
of the economy
Focuses on developing heavy industry, collectived farms with use
of state-owned tractors, and electrification
Kulaks: peasant land-holders who resisted collectivization;
targets of government persecution
Stalin halts collectivization in 1931
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Proclaims its success, although reduction in productivity and
famine resulted in 1932-33: millions die of starvation
Destabilized Stalin’s power, heightening his paranoia
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The Great Purge (1937-38)
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“Congress of Victors” in 1934 was the 17th annual meeting of
the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, but was the last
clandestine attempt to unseat Stalin, but the disloyalty was
reported to Stalin.
Later nicknamed the “Congress of Victims,” because of the
1,996 delegates, over 1,100 would be arrested over the next
three years.
The “Cleansing”
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Stalin removes all persons that he suspects of opposition from
1935-1938
Two-thirds of Central Committee
Half of army’s high ranking officers
Sent to labor camps or executed
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The Growth of European Fascism
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From fasces, Roman symbol of state authority
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Axe surrounded by wooden rods
Originates with Benito Mussolini in 1919
Mussolini’s doctrine included elements of
nationalism, national syndicalism, expansionism,
and anti-socialism
Corporatism: Private corporations maintained, but
close control of the economy by the government
Outside of Italy and Germany: Argentina,
Japan, Peru, Paraguay, Romania, Spain, etc.
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Fascism: Common Elements
1. Primacy of state over individual
2. Devotion to a strong leader
3. Ethnocentric: Faith in superiority of one’s own
culture
4. Militaristic
5. Anti-communist
6. Chauvinistic: Interests of one’s nation before all
others
7. Xenophobic
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Fascism in Italy
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Poor showing of post-WWI Italian
government
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Fascist Party of Mussolini, former socialist newspaper
editor, has big electoral successes in 1921
March on Rome in October 1922: King Emmanuel III
offers Mussolini office of prime minister
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Public disappointed with weak
territorial gains
Economic and social turmoil
Blackshirts: Paramilitary organization that Mussolini used to
bully government to give him more political power
In 1926, he seizes power as Il Duce, “the leader”
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Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and the
Nazi Party
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Hitler becomes chairman of the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party (Nazis) in 1921
Attempts to overthrow Munich government in 1923 “Beer Hall
Putsch”
Writes autobiography Mein Kampf in jail, which becomes
massively popular; outlines his plans clearly and capitalizes on
public discontent with postwar era
Articulates anger at war guilt clause of Treaty of Versailles
Expresses resentment toward the heavy reparation payments
Expresses frustration with the Weimar Republic being imposed on
Germany and the major parties’ inability to come to consensus
Outlines his ideas about Anti-Semitism
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Consolidation of Power Reichstag
Fire
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Nazis become single largest party in the Reichstag
between 1930-1932, but did not have a majority
On Jan. 30, 1933, weak president Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)
appoints Hitler as chancellor; conservative leaders thought they
would be able to manipulate Hitler
Hitler declares an “emergency” when a Communist terrorist set fire
to the Reichstag on Feb. 27, 1933, as a part of a supposed plot to take
over the government
Nazis consolidate absolute power: suppress opposition, abrogates
constitutional and civil rights
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Make the Nazis the sole legal party
Destroy trade unions
Purge judiciary and civil service of perceived enemies
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The Racial State
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Theories of racial superiority, racial purity
Policies of eugenics
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Compulsory sterilization of 30,000 Germans
Abortions illegal for healthy Germans, mandatory for
“hereditary ill” and “racial aliens”
Euthanasia program kills 200,000 people with physical
or mental handicaps between 1939 and 1945
Precursor to massacres of Jews, gypsies, and
homosexuals
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Anti-Semitism
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Influence of nineteenth-century racism
Nuremburg laws of 1935 define Jews on a racial
basis
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Prohibits marriages between Jews and non-Jews
Removal of Jews from civil service, schools
Liquidation of Jewish-owned businesses or purchase by non-Jews
Kristallnacht: major country-wide pogrom on
Jews, November 9-10, 1938, encouraged by Nazi
officials
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Means “night of broken glass”
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