English 1061 England at War 1900-1950

1903: First heavier-than-air flight of Wright Brothers. 1908: First commercial radio transmissions. Ford Motor Company invents the Model T. 1909: Fall of Korea and annexation by Japan. 1912: The Titanic sinks off the coast of Newfoundland. 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria killed in Sarajevo, triggering World War I. 1917: Russian Revolution ends the Russian Empire. 1918: End of World War I. Spanish flu pandemic. 1925: Benito Mussolini gains dictatorial powers in Italy. First televised image created. 1929: Wall Street crash and beginning of the Great Depression. First people sent to gulags in the Soviet Union. 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. 1937: Japanese invasion of China. 1939: Nazi invasion of Poland triggers World War II in Europe. 1900-1939: Progress Fails

War Becomes Deadly The First World War is caused by an assassination, but it is only the trigger for a European civil war caused by the buildup of professional standing armies and the growth of antagonistic alliances in Europe caused by nationalist sentiments. The war begins as a popular, Romantic movement until its unprecedented level of destruction become felt. The Ottoman and Austrian empires collapse.

War Becomes Deadly Twentieth century war was mechanized with tanks, railroads, poison gas, machine guns, and toward the war’s end, airplanes. The bloody medieval Battle of Agincourt (1415) resulted in about 8,000 deaths. Compare this to the Battle of the Somme in 1916, which saw over one million casualties. In 1918 much of Europe was in ruins, and its younger generation of men depopulated. Europe suffered some 40 million deaths.

The Modernist Death of Civilization Intellectual and cultural: Poets, thinkers, and leaders were shocked by the war and questioned Victorian and enlightenment ideas of progress. Some saw an end to the values of western civilization. What became known as the “Lost Generation” of poets and artists became centered in Paris where they responded to the destruction of the old Europe—these movements became tied to modernism, with sub-movements such as Dadaism (based on nonsense) and later existentialism and nihilism. T.S. Eliot, in The Waste Land, calls civilization “a heap of broken images.”

Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson, 1854) Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell. They that had fought so well Came through the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred. When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wondered. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!

Suicide in the Trenches (Sassoon, 1918) The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner (Randall Jarrell, 1945) I KNEW a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark. In winter trenches, cowed and glum, With crumps and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again. . . . . You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Consequences of war The decline of belief in unending progress: Science in the Victorian era had seen itself as a means to a better world, once freed from the old burdens of religion and superstition. Although the war did not necessarily cause a mass return to Christian faith, it did destroy much of the Victorian respect for scientists. Scientists were now often seen as “agents of death” for creating inventions that had nearly destroyed the world. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 symbolized the failure of technological and scientific arrogance.

Consequences of war The rise of The United States. With European physical infrastructure ruined, its peoples depopulated and weakened by postwar diseases, and its values discredited, the USA began to become a world power and to overtake Europe. The Americans played a strong role in postwar talks and its economy and political influence hugely expanded through its participation in the war effort.

Consequences of war The early rise of globalization. Technological innovations in communications, such as telegraphs and then telephones, and movies and radio and then early television broadcasts, allowed faster communication. The growth of cars and railroads and advanced shipbuilding allowed trade and travel to become easier. The love affair with “the great god CAR” led to the growth of early suburbs and highway systems.

The Roaring ‘20s in England Postwar prosperity and decadence Voting rights for women Changing social roles

Great Depression, England 1930-39

Storm Clouds Fascism. Post-war Europe decided to punish Germany heavily for its instigation of the war. This pushed Germany into such ruin that in its chaos Hitler and National Socialism gained credibility. Partly inspired by German Romanticism and nationalism, the pseudo-science of Darwinian evolution of the fittest race, and vague economic socialism, Hitler was an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish dictator who used the new tools of propaganda and technology to build a terror state.

Storm Clouds Communism. In Russia communist rebels established a totalitarian state, The Soviet Union, also managed by the repressive use of industrial technologies. Lenin and then Stalin crushed dissent such as churches and intellectual elites, building prison camps. As western democracies fell into economic depression in the 1930s, many saw the world in a bad state where European nations were falling into dictatorial rule. Ford himself was no liberal democrat, endorsing the substitution of the engineer for the politician as “a very natural step forward.”

World War II (1939-45) Deadliest conflict in human history About 85 million deaths Involves 30 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia “Allies”: England, USSR, USA, China “Axis”: Germany, Japan, Italy Technological innovations of radar, computing; but also atomic bomb

World War II (1939-45) Because of mass conscripted and volunteer armies, and because of civilian attacks and the economic burden of industrial war, everyone is affected. To this day there are economic, political, and demographic consequences of World War II.

England at 1945: Cynicism and Change WWII is not as heavy a blow to Europe as WWI, but English cities are badly damaged. As soldiers return, social and economic problems mount, and rationing continues. Winston Churchill, after leading the country during the war, is defeated in election. The ideologies of the war (Fascism; Communism; Holocaust; propaganda) and the bomb remain difficult legacies and issues.

Postwar England

Characteristics of late modernism Strongly existentialist Affected by WWII, Holocaust, and bombings of Japan Urban and intellectual Centered more on USA (Chicago, NY)

Art of the Holocaust

Late Modernist Painting

Late Modernism in Art - Art made from industrial objects - Beyond paint

Late Modernism in Art - Angles and cubes still popular - Abstract symbolism

Late Modernism in Music Pierre Schafer – Apostrophe (1948) Dave Brubeck – Time Out (1959) John Cage – A Flower (1950)