Modern Thought and Midwar Years 1850 - 1939

1. Modern ThoughtandMidwar Years1850 - 1939 Kent Christian Aurianna Nuehs

2. Modern Thinkers David Friedrich Strauss • Questioned the historical evidence of Jesus. • Intellectual skepticism. The Life of Jesus 1835

3. Modern Thinkers Charles Darwin • Formulated the theory of natural selection. • Revolutionized biology. • Created religious controversy. 1859 On the Origin of Species 1871 The Descent of Man

4. Modern Thinkers Sigmund Freud • Created psychoanalytical approach to psychology. • Humans governed by inner forces: aggression and sexuality. • Human irrationality.

5. Friedrich Nietzsche • Believed that western culture had destroyed the concept of divinity. “God is dead.” • Explained human behavior with the “Will to power.” • Called for the coming of an Overman.

6. Science • X- Rays and Radiation • Wilhelm Roentgen published a paper on his discovery of x- rays in Dec. 1895. • A form of energy that penetrated various opaque materials. • In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium emitted a similar form of energy.

7. Other Scientific Theories • Quantum Theory of Energy • Pioneered by Max Planck in 1900. Energy is a series of discrete quantities, or packets, rather than a continuous stream. • Relativity • Discovered by Albert Einstein in 1905. Time and space exist not separately, but rather as a combined continuum. Moreover, the measurement of time and space depends on the observer as well as on the entities being measured. • Uncertainty Principle • Discovered by Werner Heisenberg in 1927. The behavior of subatomic particles is a matter of statistical probability rather than exactly determinable cause and effect.

8. Politics and Religion • Educational Act of 1870- (Great Britain) provided for the construction of state- supported schools run by elected school boards, whereas the old government had given small grants to religious schools. • Education Act of 1902- (Great Britain) provided state support for both religious and non- religious schools, but imposed the same educational standards on each. • Falloux Law of 1850- (France) the local priest provided religious training in public schools. • The Ferry Laws- (France) replaced religious training in schools with civic training.

9. Literature • Flaubert Madame Bovary (1850) • Ibsen A Doll’s House (1879) • Shaw Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893)

10. Zola • Between 1871 and 1893, he published 20 volumes of novels that explored subjects few writers dared to approach. L’ Assommoir, written in 1877, discussed alcoholism and its problems. Nana, written in 1880, he looked over prostitution, and the life of a prostitute.

11. Vladimir Lenin • Marxist Russian politician • Leader of the Bolsheviks, seized power November 1917 • First working example of a Communist state. • WWI – December 1917 signed armistice with Germany, taking Russia out of the war. • Believed that Communist revolutions would soon break out across Europe.

12. Benito Mussolini • Fascism: authoritarian, nationalist, single party state. • 1922 40th prime minister of Italy. • Italian National Fascists Party. • His involvement in the Spanish Civil War alienated him from France and Great Britain. • He and Hitler were buddies early on, but Mussolini distanced himself after Hitler started promoting his master race.

13. Fascism • Fascism seeks to purify the nation of foreign influences that are deemed to be causing degeneration of the nation or of not fitting into the national culture. • Fascists commonly utilize paramilitary organizations for violence against opponents or to overthrow a political system. • The fascist party and state is led by a supreme leader who exercises a dictatorship over the party, the government and other state institutions.

14. Adolf Hitler • Gained popularity by opposing the Versailles Treaty. • Beer Hall Putsch 1923. Failed to take over Germany by coup d'état. • Directed the invasion of Poland 1939. Beginning of WWI. • Motives: Free Germany from Article 231 End economic despair Expand German borders

15. Weimar Republic • 1919 – 1933 (end of WWI to beginning of WWII) • German people humiliated by WWI. • Inflation made the currency nearly worthless. (Dawes Plan) • French invasion of the Ruhr valley weakened morale. • Popular support of the Nazi party. • Enabling Act 1933 allowed Hitler to rule by decree. (Totalitarianism)

16. Kulturkampf • Bismarck's greatest blunder • He believed that the Church threatened the unification of the German states. • The “May Laws” of 1873 applied to Prussia. It required priests to be educated in German schools and Universities, and they were required to pass state- administered exams. The state could veto the appointment of priests. • The legislation abolished the disciplinary power of the Pope and the Church over the clergy and transferred it over to the state. • When some Bishops and Clergy refused to obey these laws, Bismarck used the police against them. In 1876, he had either arrested or driven out all of the Catholic bishops from Prussia.

17. League of Nations • Wanted to negotiate international disputes. • Woodrow Wilson called for the League in his Fourteen Points, but America never joined the effort. • Failed to halt military buildup in Germany. • Disbanded at the outbreak of WWII. • Attempted to facilitate worldwide disarmament. • Kellogg-Briand pact outlawed war.

18. Herbert Spencer • Applied the laws of survival of the fittest to society. Social Darwinism • Believed that the human race advances through competition. • His ideas were used to justify “might makes right” philosophies.

19. Modernism • Critical of middle class society and accepted morality. • Not deeply concerned with social issues. • Concern for the aesthetic or the beautiful. • Believed that each of the arts should and could influence the others. • The development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed by the horror of World War I, were among the factors that shaped Modernism.

20. Virginia Woolf • Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories • regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century • famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), • book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.“ • Bouts of depression • On 28 March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse near her home and drowned herself. She was 51.

21. Impressionism • Broke away from the French standard of painting realistic historical and religious themes. • Emphasized emotions rather than accuracy. • Captured every day themes and natural light. • Impressionists: Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir… • Post-Impressionists: Van Gogh, Seurat, Lautrec…

22. Renoir Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette Impressionists Monet Impression, Sunrise Manet A Bar at the Folies-Bergère Manet Ballet Rehearsal

23. Pablo Picasso • Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, known as Pablo Picasso ( 25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) • Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer. • One of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. • Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) • Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

24. Pablo Picasso (Cont.) • Criticized war in several paintings. • Remained neutral in both world wars and the Spanish Civil War. • Supported the Soviet Communist rule.

25. Van Gogh • Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter • Work notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color • had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. • After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died at the age of 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found).

26. Zionism and Irish Independence • 1935 Nuremberg Laws strip away Jewish citizenship in Germany. • Theodore Herzl called for a separate Jewish state. • Movement of Zionism. • Irish Home Rule Bill 1914, delayed until after WWI. • Sinn Fein movement for Irish self government. “We ourselves.”