th Interpreting the 20 Century: The Struggle Over Democracy Part I Professor Pamela Radcliff THE TEACHING COMPANY ® Pamela Radcliff, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, San Diego Pamela Radcliff was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and grew up in Clifton, New Jersey, and Escondido, California. She received her B.A. in history, with membership in Phi Beta Kappa, from Scripps College, one of the five Claremont Colleges, then spent a couple of years traveling around the world before beginning graduate education at Columbia University. She studied modern European history at Columbia, where she received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, completed in 1990. Since the conclusion of her graduate work, Professor Radcliff has been teaching at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of History. She teaches undergraduate courses on 20th-century European history, modern Spanish history, the history of women and gender in modern Europe, and 20th-century world history. She has received two awards for undergraduate teaching, one granted by the university faculty and another by the students of her world history course. Professor Radcliff’s historical research has focused on Spanish history in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on popular mobilization and the long-term struggle to establish a democratic system of government. She has published articles and books on these issues, including From Mobilization to Civil War: The Politics of Polarization in the Spanish City of Gijón, 1900–1937, which received the Sierra Book Award from the Western Association of Women’s Historians in 1998. She also co-edited (with Victoria Enders) a collection of articles on the history of women in modern Spain, Constructing Spanish Womanhood: Female Identity in Modern Spain. Her current book project focuses on the construction of democratic citizenship during the transition from an authoritarian to a democratic regime in Spain in the 1970s, and her latest article on this topic is “Citizens and Housewives: The Problem of Female Citizenship in Spain’s Transition to Democracy,” appearing in the fall 2002 issue of the Journal of Social History. Professor Radcliff also served as an associate editor for the recent multivolume Encyclopedia of European Social History and belongs to a number of professional associations, including the American Historical Association and the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. Professor Radcliff lives in Solana Beach, California, with her husband, Bill Perry, and their two children. ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership i Table of Contents Interpreting the 20th Century: The Struggle Over Democracy Part I Professor Biography............................................................................................i Course Scope.......................................................................................................1 Section 1: Introducing the 20th Century Lecture One Framing the 20th Century...........................................3 Lecture Two The Opening ActWorld War I...............................6 Lecture Three Framing the PeaceThe Paris Peace Treaties..........8 Section 2: The Interwar Crisis in the West Lecture Four Intellectual Foundations: Nietzsche and Freud........11 Lecture Five Art and the Post-War “Crisis of Meaning”..............13 Lecture Six Gender CrisisThe “Woman Question”................15 Lecture Seven The Origins of “Mass Society”................................17 Lecture Eight Defining Mass Society and Its Consequences.........19 Lecture Nine Crisis of CapitalismThe Great Depression..........21 Section 3: The Challenge of Fascism and Communism Lecture Ten Communist IdeologyFrom Marx to Lenin...........23 Lecture Eleven The Rise of Fascism.................................................25 Lecture Twelve Communist Revolution in Russia............................27 Maps..................................................................................................................29 Timeline.............................................................................................................36 Glossary................................................................................................See Part II Biographical Notes..............................................................................See Part III Bibliography.......................................................................................See Part IV ii ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership Interpreting the 20th Century: The Struggle Over Democracy Scope: The 20th century transformed the world in ways few could have imagined in 1900. Making sense of this transformation is the challenge of this 48-lecture course. Because one course could never provide a history of every corner of the globe, our focus will be on how the different regions and countries interacted with each other. It is through this interaction that we can discern the common themes that allow us to talk about the history of the world. One of the key themes was precisely how the growing interaction between regions would operate. By 1900, the process of Western expansion and imperialism had created a level of global interdependence that would only get stronger as the century progressed. But the interdependent world order created by Western imperialism was a fundamentally hierarchical one, based on Western leadership or domination of the non-Western world. The 20th century was defined by the various efforts to transform this connection into a more democratic relationship between Western nations and the rest of the world, or between the developed and less developed regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. In the first two-thirds of the century, these efforts focused on the struggle for independence from colonialism, while in the latter part, Third World nations pursued the more complex search for prosperity and stability. The struggle over democracy was also a key theme in the Western, or developed, world. Most Western nations had some form of representational political systems in 1914, but they were not democratic. Furthermore, the process of democratization was neither automatic nor harmonious. Until almost the end of the century, the democratic ideal had to compete with powerful challengers, especially fascism and communism. The fascist alternative was defeated with the Second World War, while the communist challenge lasted until 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Parallel to these challenges, there were ongoing debates about the nature and practice of democracy that did not end in 1989. Although democracy emerged at the end of the century as the unquestioned political ideal, the parameters of a truly democratic world order are still vigorously contested. Thus, the struggle over democracy frames the end, as well the beginning, of the 20th century. The first lecture in this course sets up the framework of struggle over liberal democracy and a broader set of ideas associated with it, what we will call the “Enlightenment project.” The remaining two lectures in Section 1 explain why this new era began in 1914 rather than 1900, with the outbreak of the First World War and the “crisis of meaning” it precipitated. Section 2 explores in more detail this “crisis of meaning” of the interwar years, in which a generation of Western artists and intellectuals questioned all the certainties of the Enlightenment project and the cultural and social order in which they lived. Section 3 focuses on the political manifestation of the interwar crisis, in the form of alternative political ideologies and regimes that challenged liberal democracy’s claim to offer the best form of government and society. In Lectures Twelve through Fourteen, we will look at what these ideologies promised and why they attracted so many people; in Lectures Fifteen and Sixteen, we will focus on what happened to communism and fascism in power in the USSR and Germany. Section 4 shifts the locus of struggle to the non-Western world, where the competition among liberal democracy, communism, and fascism took shape in the first serious anti-imperialist movements of the century. Each of the four case studies, China, India, Mexico, and Japan, illustrates a different kind of imperialist influence and a distinct path to national independence in the decades leading up to World War II. Section 5 analyzes the Second World War as a mid-century watershed that marked the culmination and defeat of the fascist challenge but also the end of an imperialist world order based on European domination. Section 6 explores the new world order that emerges out of the Second World War, one dominated by the clash between democratic and communist systems and by the stalemate, that is, the Cold War, between two new superpowers. In particular, we will look at the contested origins of the Cold War and its impact on American society and its democratic system. Section 7 shifts again to the non-Western world, where the Cold War realignment helped set the stage for the process of decolonization. Although this process created dozens of independent nations, it also generated a new set of problems and challenges for the developing world, or what became known as the Third World. Through the use of case studies once again, these lectures will chart alternative paths to development and the successes and pitfalls of communist, liberal democratic, and mixed models. Section 8 looks at a series of challenges that undermined the ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 1 Cold War order, from Western-based social movements that questioned the democratic credentials of the “free world,” to Eastern-bloc dissidents who cast doubt on the socialist credentials of the USSR, to a new political movement based on religious fundamentalism that rejected many of the values on both sides. The section ends with a lecture on the demise of the Soviet bloc after 1989, which analyzes how and why the communist challenge finally collapsed. The final lectures of Section 9 will speculate on the post-Cold War world since 1989 and the prospects and challenges for a democratic world order in the 21st century. 2 ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership Lecture One Framing the 20th Century Scope: How do we create a framework for understanding this tumultuous century of dramatic transformations? This lecture presents possible frameworks of interpretation and defines the perspective of the course. Most scholars would agree that the struggle over democracy was a key theme spanning the entire century, as well as the different regions of the globe. This course emphasizes the complexity and unresolved nature of that struggle, in contrast to some accounts that have claimed the final victory of democracy. It is true that the century witnessed the triumph of what we will call the “Enlightenment project,” or the adoption of liberal, democratic, rationalist principles in much of the world. However, the period was also marked by serious challenges to democracy in theory and practice, exposing contradictions and alternative visions not easily dismissed. Outline I. The 20th century transformed the world in ways few could have imagined in 1900. Making sense of this transformation is the challenge of this 48-lecture course. A. Every scholar would agree that what most defines the 20th century is the degree of changes experienced over a 100-year period. To state what might seem obvious, the world was a dramatically different place in 1900 than in 2000. 1. First, there has been a demographic revolution of unprecedented dimensions. 2. The population of the globe has tripled and, moreover, has been dramatically redistributed. 3. Whereas in 1850, more people lived in Europe than in any other region, by 1975, a majority lived in the developing world. 4. Likewise, whereas in 1900, 90 percent of the world’s population lived in rural areas, most of them farmers, now more than 50 percent live in cities. 5. Part of the reason population has expanded is the dramatic increase in life expectancy, even in the poorer countries, as a result of technological and scientific advances. 6. The increase in life expectancy has propelled other changes, including the decline in the birth rate and the extension of education, as parents focus more energies on their fewer children. Thus, in the 1970s alone, the number of universities in the world doubled. 7. The changes in political systems have been equally momentous. In 1900, the primary political reality was empire, mainly the overseas European empires, but also the Ottoman, Russian, and Austro- Hungarian empires in Europe. 8. In the year 2000, this colonial world is gone, replaced by a panoply of new nationsfrom 50 in 1900 to 180 in 2000. 9. In addition, in 1900, few if any states qualified as fully democratic, but in 2000, the vast majority of nations are democratic, at least on paper. B. It is easy to stack up a list of facts that illustrates the level of transformation that marks the 20th century, but it is more difficult to decide how to make sense of these changes. 1. At some level, the decision to define the 20th century as a single historical subject is an arbitrary one. 2. One approach would be to stick closely to a chronological accounting, without trying to isolate particular themes or tell a single story. 3. Another would be to focus on a particular theme or themes and build a narrative story around those themes. 4. Finally, another approach is to abandon the idea of a single story and pick several independent themes to analyze. 5. All these methods have their strengths and weaknesses, because no single approach can provide a complete history of such a complex subject. 6. The only way to approach such a challenge, then, is to be aware that every telling of the 20th century implies a perspective, a position, an interpretation of what the history of the world was about during this period. ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 3 II. In this course, we will follow the narrative approach of focusing on particular themes and building a story of how those themes developed over the course of the century. A. This approach has the benefit of telling a coherent story that is more accessible, although of course, it has the disadvantage of sidelining numerous other themes. B. The major theme chosen, “the struggle for democracy,” implies a political reading of the 20th century, although it is important to understand this struggle in the broadest termsas the debates over, and the practice of, democratic ideals and forms of government. In other words, it is about the efforts to define and establish “liberty and justice for all” on a global level. C. Others have told this narrative as a triumphant success story, but in this course, the emphasis is on a struggle that is still unresolved. III. Within this framework, the course will focus on the “struggle for democracy” at two levels. A. The first is how it shaped the interaction between different regions and countries, especially between the West and the non-Western world. 1. By 1900, the process of Western expansion and imperialism had created a level of global interdependence that would only get stronger as the century progressed. But the interdependent world order created by Western imperialism was a fundamentally hierarchical one, based on Western leadership or domination of the non-Western world. 2. The 20th century was defined by the various efforts to transform this connection into a more democratic relationship between Western nations and the rest of the world, or between the developed and less developed regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. 3. In the first two-thirds of the century, these efforts focused on the struggle for independence from colonialism, while in the latter part, “Third World” nations pursued the more complex search for prosperity and stability. B. The struggle over democracy was also a key theme in the Western, or developed world. 1. Most Western nations had some form of representational political systems in 1914, but they were not democratic. 2. Furthermore, the process of democratization was neither automatic nor harmonious. Until almost the end of the century, the democratic ideal had to compete with powerful challengers, especially fascism and communism. The fascist alternative was defeated with the Second World War, while the communist challenge lasted until 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet bloc. 3. Parallel to these challenges, there were ongoing debates about the nature and practice of democracy that did not end in 1989. 4. Although democracy emerged at the end of the century as the unquestioned political ideal, the parameters of a truly democratic world order are still vigorously contested. 5. Because the United States has been the model for the democratic world, it has also been at the center of debates and controversy and, fairly or unfairly, held to a higher standard. 6. Thus, the struggle over democracy frames the end, as well the beginning, of the 20th century. IV. To comprehend the terms of this struggle, we need to begin with a clear understanding of the “world order” in 1900, as seen from the European center of the world. A. Most Western European countries were guided, at least theoretically, by what we could call the “Enlightenment project.” B. Its defining principle was liberalism, the ideas of which provided a framework for political, social, and economic organization. C. Liberalism defended the rights of individuals, a contract form of government, the rule of law, and some form of representative government, not necessarily democratic. D. In the economic sphere, it promoted a laissez-faire approach to the market, which was supposed to operate best without any government interference. E. Because of the focus on individual rights, private property was a cornerstone of liberalism. F. The faith in individual self-management derived from a philosophy that assumed the basic rationality of men. 4 ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership G. By implication, liberalism was an optimistic philosophy, given that the rule of reason served as the basis for continual progress. H. In 1900, the Enlightenment project underpinned an optimistic European civilization, confident of its own future and its right to rule the rest of the world. 1. Underneath the surface, there were blatant contradictions. 2. In liberal European societies, not all individuals had the same rights; that is, these societies were not yet democratic systems. 3. And, of course, the principles of self-determination did not apply to the colonial world. 4. What forced these contradictions into the open was the First World War, which undermined confidence in Western civilization and threw doubt on the validity of the Enlightenment project. Essential Reading: Tony Judt, “The Story of Everything.” Gary Wills, “A Reader’s Guide to the Century.” Supplementary Reading: Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991. Michael Howard and William Roger Lewis, The Oxford History of the 20th Century. Clive Ponting, The 20th Century: A World History. Questions to Consider: 1. Is tracing the history of the 20th century a valid undertaking, or are we left with the choice of leaving out too much or including so much that it is meaningless? 2. How would you define your own perspective on what the history of the century was about? ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 5 Lecture Two The Opening ActWorld War I Scope: For most historians, the 20th century began in 1914, not 1900. This lecture analyzes why the First World War played this pivotal role of opening a new historical era and addresses why it had such a destabilizing political, economic, and psychological impact on the existing world order, led by a dominant Western Europe. We will examine the new form of trench warfare, which confounded conventional expectations about how war was to be waged, and the brutal physical and emotional costs of such a war. Finally, the lecture argues that the war opened up a “crisis of meaning,” or a sense of uncertainty about the political, cultural, and economic values of Western Europe, a crisis that set the stage for the turmoil of the following decades. Outline I. Why did the First World War become such a pivotal moment, opening a new era in world history? A. To answer this question, we must understand where the major European powers were on the eve of World War I. B. Although Europe appeared to be at the height of its power and prestige, there were underlying tensions among the dominant countries in the interdependent system of markets and alliances. 1. After the unification of Germany in the 1860s, this country became a new industrial power and threatened Britain’s hegemony. 2. The Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires were beset by growing nationalist movements. 3. Jockeying for power pushed European countries into opposing blocs of alliances. 4. This kind of political maneuvering had been the goal of European politics since 1815. Ever since Napoleon, European leaders agreed that alliances should be formed to continually shift the balance of power to maintain equilibrium. 5. By 1914, there was an interdependent world market but no international police system to defend Europe’s domination of it. 6. Major European powers competed for colonies, resources, markets, and military supremacy. They felt increasing pressure to maintain their extended empires, their living standards at home, and their control over world markets. 7. These tensions increased during the Balkan crises and erupted after the assassination of the heir to the Hungarian throne in June 1914. 8. Everyone expected war in the summer of 1914, but no one expected a new kind of war. II. What was new about this war? A. From the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the war entered a stalemate that lasted four years. B. The stalemate led to the invention of a new form of trench warfare, which claimed high casualties. C. In addition, a technological revolution in weaponry, including the invention of the machine gun, made existing strategies obsolete. D. All these events combined to create a war of staggering casualties with no foreseeable end; it was a war of attrition in fact and in theory. E. The eastern front did not have the same trench warfare but had equally high casualties. III. How did the war finally end, and what were the results? A. The stalemate was finally broken by: 1. The Russian Revolution in 1917, which closed the eastern front when the Bolsheviks signed a separate peace; 2. The entry of the Americans into the war after Germany declared open submarine warfare in the Atlantic in August 1917. B. An armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. C. With the war over, the enormity of the destruction could finally be absorbed. 6 ©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership