CHAPTER 28: Great Depression and the Rise of Totalitarianism

Postwar Era

A. Science and Society

1. Scientists developed theories, expanded understanding of universe, shook traditional views

a. Albert Einstein identified relationship between mass and energy, proposed theories of relativity

b. Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis, emphasized role of unconscious

B. The Testimony of the Writers

1. Modernism, reaction against past, took many forms

2. Barbarism, tragedy of World War I led artists to reject traditional views

3. Writers questioned faith in European progress

a. Franz Kafka depicted frustration of rational, well-meaning individuals in modern, irrational world

b. Oswald Spengler described signs of end of Western civilization in Decline of the West

C. The Transformation of Music

1. Composers broke away from “major-minor” system of tonality

a. Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg

D. Changes in the Arts

1. Artists took up abstract non-representational painting, Pablo Picasso helped develop cubism

3. Surrealism dealt with subconscious, primitive, irrational, violent, absurd

a. Prime examples: Salvador Dali, Georgio Chirico, René Magritte

E. Architecture

1. Walter Gropius furthered “international” style of architecture with horizontal lines, glass, exposed staircases

2. Bauhaus school emphasized functional art, architecture

3. Frank Lloyd Wright integrated building with environment, tried to interweave interiors, exteriors

F. Popular Culture

1. Urban middle classes became important consumers of popular culture

2. Movies, photography, mass press, technology brought new heroes, entertainment

3. Automobiles brought greater mobility, contact

4. Electricity brought lights, refrigeration, radios, phonographs, conveniences

5. Mass audiences discovered jazz and classical music through radio, phonograph

Postwar Prosperity Crumbles

A. The Debt Problem

1. U.S. went from being debtor to creditor nation

b. Debt posed transfer problem

2. Allies had lent to each other, Britain chief banker

B. The Great Crash

1. American economic trends felt worldwide

a. 3% of world produced 46% of output

b. Led by daring, sometimes sleazy speculators

2. Black Thursday saw stock market crash

a. Stock values plummeted, damage done, triggered Great Depression

C. The World Depression

1. World value of business fell by more than half

a. 25% unemployment in industrialized lands

b. Democracies threatened, dictators appeared

2. Middle classes hit by inflation/depression whiplash

3. Nations also depreciated currency

a. Gold standard abandoned

b. Wartime debts written off, forgotten

D. The United States

1. Strongest, richest country in world

2. U.S. turned isolationist, ignored League of Nations, concentrated on domestic affairs

3. Businessmen played active role in international business

4. Herbert Hoover won presidency in 1928, assumed good times

5. Great Depression began in 1929

a. U.S. had 25% unemployed by 1932

b. Many bank failures, bankruptcies

6. Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, started New Deal

a. Goals were relief, recovery, reform

Political Tensions After WWI

A. Interwar France

1. France suffered brutally in war

2. France oversaw foreign affairs on continent

a. Did well in 1920s, retreated later into Maginot mentality

3. France affected by Depression later than others

4. Popular Front under Léon Blum took reins in 1936, lasted only a year

B. Britain, 1919-1939

1. 1920s socially, politically difficult decade

a. Great labor unrest, unemployment

b. After Liberals and Conservatives failed, Ramsay Macdonald founded first Labour government

2. Ireland became increasingly hostile

a. Easter Rising, Irish Republican Army led to southern Ireland Free State(then Republic of Ireland in1949)

C. Eastern Europe

1. Except for Finland and Czechoslovakia, democracy threatened during interwar period

a. By 1939 most states had parliamentary facade, dictatorial reality

b. All suffered from economic weakness, inexperience, backward societies

c. Czechoslovakia had strong middle class, wealth to form most democratic state in Central Europe

2. Poland

a. Politically unable to overcome legacy of a century of partition, Pilsudski stepped in

3. The Baltic and Balkan States

a. Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian states born, 1918

b. Democratic trends battered by economic strife

c. Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece fought Italian imperialism, economic upheaval, corruption; dictators came to power

d. Romania failed to digest its huge World War I gains, fell to fascist groups in 1930s

Fascist Dictatorships in Italy and Germany

A. Italy and Mussolini

1. Though victorious in World War I, Italy suffered greatly

a. Lost 700,000 soldiers, inflation, unemployment grew; food shortages increased

2. Benito Mussolini active socialist, pragmatist, organized veterans groups

3. Socialists emerged as strongest party in elections of 1919, but lacked effective leadership

4. Mussolini’s fascists took advantage of upheaval, used violence to consolidate position

5. Building the Fascist State, Mussolini had no strict ideology

a. Passed laws to take powers from cities, regions, ended local self-government

b. Labor, capital instruments of state

c. Mussolini built corporate state

d. Antiliberal, anticonservative, anti-laissez-faire capitalism

B. Failure of the Weimar Republic

1. Defeat in war left social, political turmoil

a. Weimar state had liberal constitution, weak multiparty structure

b. Stigma of signing Versailles Treaty, extremists had contempt for moderates

C. Adolf Hitler

1. Shy outsider shaped by failure, Viennese influences

2. Encountered National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi), became leader

3. Hitler honed skills in demagogue, perfected message

a. Attempted putsch (revolt) to gain power, wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in prison

b. Party increased Reichstag seats to 107

4. Nazis overplayed hand in wake of Reichstag fire

a. New elections gave them 44%; formed majority by coalition with Nationalist party

b. Instantly passed Enabling Act to give Hitler right to rule by decree

5. Weimar government overturned, opposition crushed

a. Hitler took Germany from League of Nations, broke arms limits of Versailles Treaty, proclaimed Third Reich

6. War on the Jews

7. The Nazi Impact on Culture, Church, Education, and Society

1. Controlled all media, universities (promoted Nazi racist theories), schools (German Youth movement indoctrinated boys, girls)

2. Women expected to stay home, bear children, work when needed

Dictatorship in the Soviet Union

A. War Communism and the NEP

1. Lenin’s flexibility seen 1918-1924

a. Ordered Marxist economic goals to be pursued, disastrously failed, caused famine, ruin

b. Retreated, used New Economic Policy, with some capitalist practices, brought recovery

2. Lenin’s health broke, died 1924

B. Trotsky vs. Stalin

1. Party faced power transfer crisis

a. Trotsky obvious star, charismatic, key player

b. Stalin did less glamorous work, built party, created loyal network in Party

2. Stalin maneuvered various factions to destroy each other, by 1926 controlled state

C. Stalin’s Economics: Revolution from Above, 1928-1939

1. Stalin scrapped NEP, Imposed Five Year Plans

a. Called for industrialization, collectivization of agriculture

2. Sought to make peasants a rural proletariat

a. Precedent found in War Communism programs

3. Collectivization program a disaster

a. Peasants did not want to give up land, millions died through murder/famine

b. By 1940, 90% of land, 100 million peasants in collective and state farms

4. The Five-Year Plans, Central Planning system introduced in 1928

a. Heavy industry grew at expense of consumer goods

F. The Great Purges

1. Stalin consolidated hold on party, system, society

2. Methods included secret police, kangaroo courts, show trials, firing squads, labor camps

3. Purges of 1930s disposed of old Bolsheviks, state officials, army officers

G. Changes in Soviet Society

1. Atomization of society challenged family structure, Stalin pushed children to inform on parents

2. Church suffered under communist attacks

3. After brief artistic flowering, Stalin imposed tight controls on artists, musicians, writers