|
7. Between the Wars
I. General Trends A. New Status for Women - during World War I women went to work outside the home to maintain the economy and produce war goods - after the War women gained the right to vote in 24 countries
B. Difficulty in Returning to a Peacetime Economy 1) Immediate problems: - high inflation - high protective tariffs - large scale unemployment - agricultural recession
2) Early signs of recovery - due to U. S. investment in Europe - however, the European economy depended on German reparations which were paid with loans from the U.S.
3) The Great Depression of 1929
C. Intensification of Class Conflict and Nationalism
II. Reactions: Pessimism, Uncertainty, Anxiety A. Freud > "Man is a wolf to man." Civilization and it Discontents (1929)
B. Einstein > Theory of Relativity: E=mc2 - the Manhattan Project
C. Kafka > fear of the modern state Before the Law (1920)
III. Postwar Germany - Unwillingness to accept World War I defeat - High inflation - High unemployment - Instability of the Weimar Republic - Fear of Bolshevism
|