The peace settlements at the end of World War I combined with severe economic problems to produce widespread discontent across Europe. Democratic rule in many states gave way to fascism, authoritarianism, and the totalitarianism of Stalin and Hitler.

 The peace settlement (The Treaty of ?) at the end of World War I left many nations unhappy and border disputes simmering throughout Europe.  The League of Nations proved a weak institution.  Democracy was widespread, and women in many European countries gained the right to vote.

 However, economic problems plagued France, Great Britain, and the German Weimar Republic.  When Germany declared that it could not continue to pay reparations (?), France occupied one German region as a source of reparations.  An American plan reduced the burden of reparations and led to a period of prosperity and American investment in Europe.

 The prosperity ended with the economic collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression.  European governments tried different approaches to ending the depression.

 Many middle-class Germans began to identify with anti- democratic political parties.  The new American president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, pursued a policy of active government intervention in the economy that came to be known as the New Deal.

 By 1939 most European democracies had collapsed.  Only France and Great Britain remained democratic.

 Benito Mussolini began his political career as a Socialist, but he abandoned socialism for fascism, which glorified the state and justified the suppression of all political dissent.  In Italy, Mussolini outlawed most political opposition, but also compromised with powerful groups and never achieved totalitarian control.

 After the Russian civil war, Lenin restored capitalist practices to prevent economic and political collapse.  After Lenin's death, Joseph Stalin emerged as the most powerful Communist figure.  Stalin sidelined the Bolsheviks of the revolutionary era and established totalitarian rule.

 His program of rapid industrialization and collectivization forced horrendous sacrifices on the population.  His political purges caused millions to be arrested, imprisoned, and executed.  Elsewhere in Eastern Europe and in Francisco Franco's Spain, authoritarian regimes were mainly concerned with preserving the existing social order.

 Adolf Hitler, a failed student and artist, built up a small racist, anti-Semitic political party in Germany after World War I.  Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch failed.  In prison, he wrote Mein Kampf—an account of his movement and his views.

 As democracy broke down, right-wing elites looked to Hitler for leadership.  In 1933 Hitler became chancellor.  Amid constant chaos and conflict, Hitler used terror and repression to gain totalitarian control.

 Meanwhile, a massive rearmament program put Germans back to work.  Mass demonstrations and spectacles rallied Germans around Hitler's policies.  All major institutions were brought under Nazi control.

 Women's primary role was to bear Aryan children.  Hitler's Nuremberg Laws established official persecution of Jews.

 A more violent anti-Semitic phase began in 1938 with a destructive rampage against Jews and the deportation of thousands to concentration camps.  Increasingly drastic steps barred Jews from attending school, earning a living, or engaging in Nazi society.

 After World War I, radio and film became sources of entertainment as well as propaganda tools.  Hitler and the Nazis made wide use of both.

 Work patterns after the war allowed many people to enjoy mass leisure activities such as professional sporting events, as well as train, bus, and car travel.  The Nazis organized events such as concerts for workers.

 The revolution in physics continued with Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.  The uncertainty of the post-war world became a prominent theme in art.  Dadaism and the surrealism of Salvador Dalí reflected absurdity in the world.

 Nazi art was intended to be authentically German.  In fact, it was largely derived from nineteenth- century folk art.  Literary interest in the unconscious produced the "stream of consciousness" technique of James Joyce's Ulysees.  The German novelist Hermann Hesse was influenced by psychology and Asian religions.