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Chapter 26
The Futile Search for a New Stability:
Europe Between the wars, 1919 - 1939
Outline:
I. An uncertain Peace: The Search for Security
A. The Great Depression
II. The Democratic States
III. Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian and Toratlitarian States
A. Fascist Italy
B. Hitler and Nazis Germany
1. Weimar Germany and the Rise of the Nazis
2. The Nazis State, 1933-1939
C. The Soviet Union
1. The Stalin Era, 1929-1939
D. Authoritarian States
IV. The Expansion of Mass Culture and Mass Leisure
A. Radio and Movies
V. Cultural and Intellectual Trends in the Interwar Years
A. Nightmares and New Visions: Art and Music
B. The Search for the unconscious
VI. Conclusion
Key terms and People:
- Dawes Plan
- Fascism
- New Deal
- Works Progress Administration
- Social Security Act
- Benito Mussolini
- Young Fascists
- Adolf Hitler
- Mein Kampf
- Ideology
- Stalin
- Patriotic Duty
- Charleston
- Joesphine Baker
- Flapper
- Jazz Age
- Leisure
- Abstract painting
- Salvador Dali
- Dada movement
- Carl Jung
Chapter Summary:
Most intelligent observers knew by the end of 1919 that the treaty ending World War I was flawed. The French,
who felt vulnerable to another German invasion and abandoned by their former allies, sought to weaken Germany and punish it
for past offenses, leading to hostilities on both sides. There were a few hopeful years, during the late 1920s, with a return
of material prosperity and the easing of tensions, but then the Great Depression of 1929 and following brought Europe back
to the brink of ruin: economic, social, and political.
The democracies—Britain, France, the Scandinavian countries,
and the United States—spent most of the 1930s trying to recover from the crash of 1929, while Eastern and Southern European
nations turned ever more to authoritarian and totalitarian governments. Following the lead of Fascist Italy, Germany surrendered
to Nazi rule. Communism in Russia took a turn to the right under Stalin’s iron fist. While Fascism and Communism espoused
widely different philosophies of economics and government, they showed striking similarities in their treatment of their people.
Democracy seemed to be on the wane.
Popular culture reflected the deepening pessimism of the 1930s. While entertainment
was more accessible to more people than ever before, through the rapid spread of movie theaters and radios, while there was
more time and opportunity for leisure activities than ever, people seemed driven to the pursuit of happiness as if it might
all soon end. Totalitarian regimes used film, radio, and leisure programs to increase their power. Democracies used them to
reward their hard-pressed citizens. The arts, literature, and music reflected the pessimism and irrationality of the day;
and physics continued to develop methods that might just as easily destroy as save the world. Thunderclouds gathered.
Focus Questions:
- How did France, Grat Britain, and the United States respond to the various crises, including the Great Depression,
that they faced in the interwar years?
- What conditions led to the emergence of Fascists in Italy and Nazis in Germany, and how did each group attain
power?
- What are the characteristics of totalitsrian states, and to what degree were these characteristics present
in Fascist italy, Nazis Germany, and Stalinist Russia?
- What new dimensions in mass culture and mass leisure emerged during the interwar years, and what role did
these activites play in totalitarian states?
- What were the main cultural and intellectual trends in the interwar years?
- Why have some historians labeled the 1920's both an 'age of anxiety' and a 'period of hope'?
Chapter 27
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