Unit 6 The Roaring Twenties? European society in the interwar period Flashcards
6 InIntroduction
Nancy Mitford- ‘The Pursuit of Love’ ‘It’s rather sad, to belong as we do, to a lost generation’. (1945), Enjoyed a carefree, Bohemian lifestyle, one sister married Mosley, British Union of Fascists the other had an affair with Hitler
Interwar society - Two competing narratives one of hedonism and frivolity, the there pessimism and despair
Modernity - The quality or condition of being modern, feeling modern, a sense of a break with the past in positive (or negative) terms or even simultaneously
Modernisation - A process of evolution where pre-industrial societies became modern via industrialisation, urbanisation, rationalisation, secularisation and the widening of the political community
Modernism - an artistic movement late 19th C through to the interwar years. Artistic elite, avant-garde. Author Isherwood’s ‘Cabaret’, Berlin a powder keg waiting to explode. Anita Berber, bisexual dancer Otto Dix picture
6 InIntroduction 2
Interwar period - a distinctive and important moment of modernity, shifts in demographics, urban life, mass media, changing lifestyles of women and interventionist approaches to managing health and welfare
Was war an agent of change or just an interruption?
tensions in the experience of modernity pro and anti modern discourse
6.1 Moden populations
Modern populations - Germany,France and Austria’s populations al decline that was recovered by the 1930’s
Average number of children in Germany per marriage dropped from 4.7 before 1905 to 2 in 1925-29, results in anxieties about population growth
Eastern European populations growing in the interwar years and standard of life appears to be rising (Tillman 1934)
Prague and Warsaw become vibrant hubs of modernist culture during the 1920’s attracting intellectuals from the east and exporting new ideas in photography to the west (Fischer)
6.2 The interwar city as a site of modernity
Urbanisation gathers pace during the 1920’s and the first half of the 20th C witnessed the rise of the ‘metropolis’
Despite the pleasures and conveniences offered by the metropolis, modern urban life was not always viewed in a positive light due to uneven change (slums next new social housing). also the experience of modernity could produce a longing for stability associated with tradition and a lost rural idyll - could result in extremist political and violent parties emerging (a breeding ground)
6.3 Mass media and the transformation of popular culture
Popular culture and high culture, radio, theatre etc.
There were several groups for whom the segregation of work and leisure time did not apply, including women and the unemployed.
technology in the entertainments industry modernised it e.g. radio though some older entertainments from the 19th C did survive
The 1920’s and 30’s were a key moment in the development of mass culture - entertainment made for the people but not by the people though consumer generics (age, gender, class) continued to have some role in the creation of popular culture Modern culture challenged by totalitarian regimes as bourgeois, decadent and irrelevant promoting traditional lifestyles - the Nazis recognising mass media’s propaganda possibilities
6.3.1 The politics of production
British and French film production declined during the war years, Hollywood imports brought in
In terms of its local market, German film companies produced at least as many films as were imported
Britain, France and Germany introduce quotas for foreign films (1925-31) and in Soviet Union stopped altogether in 1929
Governments license radio telephony and broadcasting determining who broadcast and who received
6.3.2 Content
The politics of production shaped the content of the new mass media - local language had to be mixed with comedies and musicals if information films were to be watched and absorbed
Radio in Germany, Britain and Russia regarded as a tool for education and enculturation of the masses
Listeners start tuning into commercial stations e.g. Radio Luxembourg (1933) and Normandie (1931) for popular music
BBC in reply starts ‘hot music’ from 1030PM to counter commercial stations
6.3.3 Reception
Britain and Germany post higher rates of ownership of radios as opposed to public speaker broadcasts in Russia and bars, cafes and factories in Italy
Women tuning in during household chores background listening seen as working class, tuning in at a specific time seen as middle class
Cinema expanded available leisure opportunities of women as unlike pubs, this was a venue they could attend with their husbands or even alone
6.4 The ‘New Woman’ - myth or reality?
The motif of the ‘New Woman’ - 1920’s the right to vote, new occupations, rational and less restricted garments poses a challenge to the traditional role of women as homemakers in the private sphere
Historians ponder if the ‘New Woman’ actually existed? New occupations encountered during WWI, historians discuss and argue about this from 1960’s - 1990’s going to and fro from the era did/did not mark a moment of modernity in women’s lives
6.4.1 Modern fashion in the making of modern women
Feminists campaigning for women’s liberation, shrinking wage differentials, employment opportunities, enhanced legal status, sexual freedom - generally not realised
Sexual freedom tended to be limited to a small minority of the rich and professionals
Fashinons were an alternative indicator new rational styles, some masculine, beauty products, hairstyles
‘It was during the 1920’s that women began…to dress in a way that we can identify with today’ - Geneva 2008
6.4.1 Modern fashion in the making of modern women
ready to wear market to cater to new women’s needs - Kpnfektion - ready-to-wear - had become an essential branch of the German economy in the 1920’s
German schoolgirls began to have job aspirations, spend money on fashions and became important consumers
Village girls in Italy wore the same bright colours ‘autarchic’ silks, hike up skirts and shorter hairstyle as urban working girls who they copied - de Grazia 1992
New fashions were central to the sense of modernity that characterised the identity of the post WWI generation
6.5 Governments and populations
19th C state impinges very little on peasant farmers and industrial workers’ lives, early 20th C local/central governments increasingly regulate their behaviour and support them through crisis periods
Historians now think public policy and medicine fundamentally shaped by broader social, political and moral ideas (they cared?), not just to prevent disease spread
also these are a response to the concern about population’s strength and its growth slowing pre WWI and remaining low after it, statisticians in the 1930’s seeing populations in Britain 28 million in 1976 and 17 million in the year 2000
6.5 Governments and populations 2
At a time of intense national rivalries ‘population was power’ Davin 1978
British MP remarks that ‘The Empire cannot be built on rickety or flat-chested citizens (Davis 1978
6.5.1 Infant welfare
Early 20th C, children become a ‘national asset’ on whose health the future of nations depended, right wing governments outlawing abortion and discourage contraception singe men and women in France and bachelors in Italy pay extra income tax
Eugenicists concerned about the future of races and peoples advocate positive eugenic policies encouraging healthy, hard-working parents to have children and support to ensure the infants grew up to be strong
Historians point to middle-class women campaigning for, organising and staffing welfare schemes (a 1st arena for women’s political voice)
6.5.1 Infant welfare 2
Maternalism a set of ideas and actions that shifted motherhood and bringing up children from being private responsibility to a matter of public policy
20th C ideology throughout Europe is the duty and destiny of women to marry, have children and her key domestic role is to rear children
Welfare schemes set up across Europe as the fear of a declining population, especially in France grows
Historians argue that infant care advice given by middle-class staff to poor mothers on feeding babies expensive milk substitutes and take them to the doctor, was at best usless and at worst increased mothers’ anxiety and strained family budgets, though mothers of the time had a positive view of the schemes at the time in their letters
