CHAPTER 30 – THE WEST AT THE DAWN OF THE
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter discusses the political, spiritual, and technological forces that shaped and reshaped much of the social experience of twentieth century Europe before and after World War II. In addition, it focuses on the intellectual life of Europe during the twentieth century and assesses the political and social climate in the early twenty-first century. The chapter begins by discussing the movement of peoples during and after World War II. The displacement of 46 million people in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Soviet Union resulted in border changes and internal migration to Western Europe. Between 1945 and 1960, about half a million Europeans left the continent, often to be replaced by non-European immigrants who entered as a result of the decolonization of European empires. French and British colonials came as “guest workers” to fill the labor needs of the growing European economies. The influx from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East became by the end of the twentieth century a source of racial and cultural antagonism that has spawned right-wing resentment and confrontation. Given special note in the chapter is the rising migration of Muslims into Europe and the attending tensions.
The chapter then discusses the establishment of the Welfare State in Western Europe during the 1950s and the economic implications of such social legislation at the end of the twentieth century. It then moves on to the changing roles of women in the work force and the development of feminism.
Since World War II, European feminism has set a new agenda of political and social equality expounded in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. There have been notable changes in the work patterns and social expectations of women. In all social ranks, women have begun to assert larger economic and wider political roles. The number of married women in the work force has sharply risen. Marriage remains a standard association of both men and women, but the birth rate has fallen or stabilized in many industrialized countries.
The twentieth century has seen unparalleled changes in the pursuit and diffusion of knowledge. The technology of radio, television, and computers caused a communications revolution, fueled, as well, by the explosion of printed matter. The sheer quantity of information now available has in itself contributed to the fragmentation of public opinion and intellectual life. At the same time, a growing number of Europeans have received a university education, including women and people from many socio-economic backgrounds. The university became for the first time since the Reformation the center of intellectual life and its major new developments. Perhaps the single intellectual movement most characteristic of the mood of twentieth-century European culture is existentialism. Typically, the existentialists have all been influenced by the revolt against reason, which began in the nineteenth century. Rather than understanding human beings in the light of reason, the existentialists have argued, they must be examined in extreme situations. For these experiences, in which human nature is laid bare, show that people must formulate their own ethical values, rather than find them in traditional religion or rational philosophy. The anguished vision of the existentialists reflected the extreme conditions in an era of world wars. With the coming of prosperity to Europe in the 1960s, existentialist thought lost much of its popularity. The major existential writers include the Germans Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, the Frenchmen Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the Dane Søren Kierkegaard.
After a brief survey of art since World War II, the text turns its attention to the Christian heritage. Christianity underwent a theological revival after World War I. Churches have raised critical questions about colonialism, nuclear weapons, human rights, and other major issues. Many religious thinkers (especially Karl Barth) reemphasized the transcendence of God and the dependence of humankind upon the divine. This neo-orthodoxy rejected the nineteenth century’s optimism in man’s near divine nature.
The chapter continues with an assessment of the impact of calculating machines and computers on society. By the end of the twentieth century, Europe had entered a new age of technological revolution through the computer and health advances in medical care.
The chapter then turns to an assessment of economic cooperation and the unity of the European nations brought about by the formation of the European Union. However, the Union does not exist without discord. The future health of the Union will depend on the member states’ abilities to negotiate complex debates regarding social policies, the future of their economies, and what role the state should play in economic affairs.
Finally, the chapter examines three events in 2008 that may lead to a lessening of tensions between the United States and Europe and a new direction for Europe and the world. The first was the Russian invasion of
Georgia discussed in Chapter 29. The second was the election of Barack Obama. The third was the beginning of a world financial crisis. The crisis and its fallout will dominate American and European affairs for many years to come.
OUTLINE
I. The Twentieth-Century Movement of People
A. Displacement Through War
B. External and Internal Migration
C. The New Muslim Population
D. European Population Trends
II. Toward a Welfare State Society
A. Christian Democratic Parties
B. The Creation of Welfare States
C. Resistance to the Expansion of the Welfare State
III. New Patterns in Work and Expectations of Women
A. Feminism
B. More Married Women in the Work Force
C. New Work Patterns
D. Women in the New Eastern Europe
IV. Transformations in Knowledge and Culture
A. Communism and Western Europe
B. Existentialism
C. Expansion of the University Population and Student Rebellion
D. The Americanization of Europe
E. A Consumer Society
F. Environmentalism
V. Art Since World War II
A. Cultural Divisions and the Cold War
B. Memory of the Holocaust
VI. The Christian Heritage
A. Neo-Orthodoxy
B. Liberal Theology
C. Roman Catholic Reform
VII. Late-Twentieth-Century Technology: The Arrival of the Computer
A. The Demand for Calculating Machines
B. Early Computer Technology
C. The Development of Desktop Computers
VIII. The Challenges of European Unification
A. Postwar Cooperation
B. The European Economic Community
C. The European Union
D. Discord over the Union
IX. New American Leadership and Financial Crisis.
X. In Perspective
KEY TOPICS
Migration in twentieth-century Europe
Europe’s Muslim minority
Changing status and role of women in Europe
New cultural forces and the continuing influence of Christianity
The impact of computer technology
The movement toward the European Union
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How did migration affect twentieth-century European social life? What internal and external forces led to migration?
2. In what ways was Europe Americanized in the second half of the twentieth century? How do you explain the trend toward a consumer society?
3. How have women’s social and economic roles changed in the second half of the twentieth century? What changes and problems have women faced since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe?
4. How did the pursuit and diffusion of knowledge change in the twentieth century? What have been the effects of the communications revolutions? Has Western intellectual life become more unified or less so? Why?
5. What did Nietzsche and Kierkegaard contribute to existentialism? How was existentialism a response to the crisis of the twentieth century?
6. What were the technological steps in the emergence of the computer? What changes will computers bring in the next decade?
7. What were the major steps in the emergence of the European Union? Why is the Union now facing crisis?
LECTURE TOPICS
1. The New European Muslim Population: Until recently, most Europeans regarded their national culture as Christian or secular and paid little attention to Islam. But since the 1960s, a sizable Muslim population has settled in Europe as a result of the attraction of economic growth and the process of decolonization. Muslims share certain social and religious characteristics and have generally remained unassimilated and self-contained. Many in this community served as unskilled labor in the 1970s and 1980s, but as European growth slowed and these jobs disappeared, European Muslims became the target for right-wing politicians who blamed them for current problems of crime and general unemployment. It should be remembered that European Muslims are not a homogeneous group and come from different Islamic traditions. Because of the radicalization of parts of the Islamic world, European Muslims have come under increasing scrutiny and restriction by European governments.
2. A Twentieth-Century State of Mind: The intellectual life of Europe since 1914 has been a difficult period to survey because of its absence of unity and shared values. Like the preceding generation of intellectuals, Europeans after 1914 questioned traditional certainties, but to an even greater degree and with an even greater diversity of responses. Their quest took place against a background of the most extreme social and political conditions: two bloody world wars, unprecedented political repression and slaughter, and great economic unrest. The period was a time of turmoil reminiscent of the disintegration of the later Roman Empire. In both cases, extreme conditions encouraged extreme intellectual conclusions. Many writers of the twentieth century rejected reason and science as the primary guides to life. Their search for new values was marked by anxiety, fear and even desperation. It is symptomatic of this time of uncertainty that most of its intellectual movements were very short-lived.
3. The Modern Church: In the face of political ideologies and material prosperity, the Christian churches have continued to exert considerable influence in thought and politics. Perhaps the most important religious departures have occurred within the Roman Catholic Church. Under the leadership of John XXIII and Paul VI, the second Vatican Council (1959–1965) undertook the most extensive changes to occur in Catholicism for at least a century. Among other liberal moves, the church turned to a mass celebrated in the vernacular, established relations with other Christian denominations, and shared more papal power with bishops. The papacy’s continued policy of priestly celibacy and prohibition of birth control have led to international controversy and deep resentment for some. John Paul II (1978–2005) followed in the traditions of his namesakes, but has added other dimensions to his office. He encouraged the expansion of the church in the non-Western world and commands broad support in the church largely because of his attractive and charismatic personal qualities. The appointment of Benedict XVI as his successor marked a return to more traditional Catholic values.
SUGGESTED FILMS
Search for Unity: A European Idea. Time-Life. 52 min.
Knowledge or Certainty. Time-Life. 52 min.
A Woman’s Place. Xerox Films. 52 min.
An Essay on War. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 23 min.
Yes We Can: the Barrack Obama Story. NBC News. 240 min.
John Paul II: the Millennial Pope. PBS. 150 min.
Pollock. Sony. 122 min.
ATLAS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
The Modern World
TEACHING RESOURCES
Images
The most important accomplishment of the European Community was the launching on January 1, 1999, of the Euro, a single monetary unit that replaced the national currencies of most of its member nations. In Frankfurt, Germany people crowded around a symbol of the new currency. AP Wide World Photos
Muslim Women Wearing Headscarves, France. The presence of foreign-born Muslims whose labor is necessary for the prosperity of the European economy is a major issue in contemporary Europe. Many of these Muslims, such as these women, live in self-contained communities. Figaro Magazine/Torregano/Getty Images, Inc.—Liaison
Margaret Thatcher, a shopkeeper’s daughter who became the first female prime minister of Great Britain, served in that office from May 1979 through November 1990. Known as the “Iron Lady” of British politics, she led the Conservative Party to three electoral victories and carried out extensive restructuring of the British government and economy. AP Wide World Photos
Simone de Beauvoir, here with her companion, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, was the major feminist writer in postwar Europe. Keystone_Paris/Getty Images Inc./Hulton Archive Photos
Despite the ongoing debate among political leaders on the merits of government programs in Britain, these programs continue to be popular. This 1998 celebration commemorates fifty years of the British National Health Service (NHS). © Tim Graham/Corbis Sygma
George Orwell (1903–1950), shown here with his son, was an English writer of socialist sympathies who wrote major works opposing Stalin and communist authoritarianism. Felix H. Man/Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
In 1968 a student rebellion in Paris threatened to bring down the government of Charles De Gaulle. This was only one example of the explosion of student activity that rocked the West in the late 1960s. © Bettmann/CORBIS
Children across the world play with LEGO toys. Tom Prettyman/PhotoEdit
Tatjiana Yablonskaya, Bread, 1949. Ria Novosti/Sovfoto/Eastfoto
Jackson Pollock, One (Number 31, 1950). Oil and enamel on unprimed canvas, 8 ft. 10 in. 17 ft. 5 in. (269.5 X 530.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by Scala-Art Resource, NY. Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection Fund (by exchange). Photograph © 2000 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 00007.68. © 2004 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Rachel Whiteread’s Nameless Library in Vienna commemorates the thousands of Austrian Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust. Corbis/Bettmans © Reuters NewMedia Inc./CORBIS
The Copenhagen Opera House The New Opera House opened in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2005. The structure has come to symbolize free enterprise in the European Union because its full cost was covered by private, rather than government, funding.
Throughout his pontificate John Paul II continued a close relationship with his native Poland to which he made several visits. The earliest of these was important in demonstrating the authority of the church against Polish communist authorities. Shown here in his Polish visit of June 1999, the pope would celebrate mass before several hundred thousand Poles after the collapse of communism which had occurred a decade earlier. AP Wide World Photos *
The earliest computers were very large. Here in a 1946 photograph J. Presper Eckert and J. W. Mauchly stand by the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) which was dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Electrical Engineering. CORBIS/Bettmann