THE INTERWAR YEARS

CHANGES IN CULTURE

SOCIAL CHANGES

MUSICBefore the War: Romantic• Strauss Blue Danube• Brahms• Long Instrumental • pieces• Recurring themes• Emotional

Post War: Jazz• Louis Armstrong• African Influence• Reflects racial and

class mixing during the war

WomenBefore the war After the war

WomenBefore the war• Not allowed to vote• Upper and middle

class women did not work outside the home

• Often not allowed to own or inherit property

Women after the war• Gained the vote• Had become

accustomed to working during the war

• Gaining political power and social freedoms

• Flappers

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Major scientific advancements• Penicillin• Radioactivity• Theory of relativity

Technology• Cars• Radio• Film• Washing machines• Vacuums• Electricity

ART BEFORE THE WARMonet: Impressionism Degas: Impressionism

ART AFTER THE WARKandisky: Bauhaus Picasso: Cubism

ARTMax Ernst Surrealism Chagall: Surrealism

Literature After the WarLoss of faith: T.S. Elliot “Hollow Man”• “This is the way the world

ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. “

All Quiet on the Western Front•

"The war has ruined us for everything." - Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 5

"We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war." - Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 5

Freud and Psychoanalysis• The study of the

mind• Why do we behave

the way we do• Is there a

subconscious that makes us do things we arent really thinking about

• And now, I think, the meaning of evolution of civilization is no longer obscure to us. It must present the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in the human species. This struggle is what all life essentially consists of, and the evolution of civilization may therefore be simply described as the struggle for life of the human species.

POLITICAL ISSUES

ENGLAND• Labor party gains strength.• Britain moves toward socialism---

redistribution of wealth • Workers strike 1926---English

government cracks down and makes anti union laws

• 1916-1922---Irish start war and win independence

FRANCE• Political parties fight for power• Government power changes hand

repeatedly

USA• Emerges strong from war• Isolationism • “Red Scare”—conservative anti

communist feelings• Immigration laws restrict immigration

from southern and eastern Europe

Germany• Kaiser fled at end of war

Weimar Republic: Democracy replaces empire

Leaders of the republic signed the treaty

FOREIGN POLICY

End Of War •1919 Treaty of Versailles •League of Nations

Cooperation •1925 Locarno Treaties•1928 Kellogg Briand Pact

Defense •Maginot Line

ECONOMY

Post war economic issues• Low wages—leads to strikes• Unemployment• Overproduction• War debt

THE GREAT DEPRESSION• 1929—US Stock Market crashes• World wide depression follows• Economic problems worsen• Democracies begin to fail

GERMAN ECONOMIC TAILSPIN

End of War •Coal Mines to France•Reparations•No Army Allowed

Hyperinflation •1923: German coal workers strike government prints more money

•Dawes Plan ---US lends Germany money to help recovery

Depression hits •1923-1929 German economy recovering

•1929 Stock Market crash—US recalls loans