Synopses & Reviews
By the time the Great War ended in 1918, the West was traumatized and impoverished. Germany lay in ruins, France and Britain were weakened, and Russia was rent by internecine political conflict following the Communist Revolution. With the United States newly ascendant, it was clear that the old world order had dissolved. The future looked more uncertain than ever.
In [Title TK] critically acclaimed historian Philipp Blom argues that, amid this uncertainty, Europeans and Americans directed their energies inwards, launching into hedonistic, aesthetic, and intellectual self-discovery while at the same time bracing themselves for the inevitable renewal of hostilities. Europeans produced new often strange brands of art, science, and spirituality: Surrealism and Art Deco, silent film and theories about the inner structure of the atom. At the same time, they flocked to Communism and fascism, the dangerous new political ideologies vying for power across the continent. In America, the Harlem Renaissance marked the flourishing of black culture, and the appearance of flappers sparked new thinking about the place of women in society. Yet undercurrents of racial and class conflict were nevertheless evident: in the invention of immigration quotas that turned away Europeans fleeing repression in their home countries, and in the desperation of Okies traveling along Route 66, in search of better lives amid the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Many of the he cultural and scientific movements that flourished in the West during these years would come to define the twentieth centuryfor better and for worse.
Covering vast swaths of history and territory with ease, Blom captures not only the seismic cultural shifts that defined the interwar period but also the distinctive mix of bitterness and liveliness that fostered both innovation and strife. A sweeping and brilliant evocation of the major movements of the interwar period, [Title TK] reveals how these seminal years defined the 20th century, and continue to define our own.
Review
KirkusA book to be absorbed, marveled at and admired for the wide range of research linking events and thoughts.”
Review
Publishers Weekly[A] thoughtful portrait of the interwar years
this well-written account brings a refreshing clarity to such uncertain times.”
Kirkus
A book to be absorbed, marveled at and admired for the wide range of research linking events and thoughts.”
Library Journal
This historical account will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in cultural analysis.”
Review
Wall Street Journal[An] eminently readable tome full of splendid anecdotal detail. Mr. Bloms ability to convey a mood and to synthesize complex issues, is admirable.... Anyone reading this book today in the context of our own culture of doubt will feel an immediate affinity to the anxious and even desperate celebration of life that it portrays.”
Financial Times
Bloms technique is to blend transformative moments with biographical vignettes, sometimes of offbeat personalities. Experts on specific episodes can be sought out elsewhere. For the general reader, Blom delivers an orderly sense of the maelstrom of incidents and ideas with panache.”
New York Times
A fluent, often entertaining account of the period.”
New Yorker
[A] lucid appraisal of Western cultures between the wars
”
Literary Review (UK)
Compelling
Like other good popular histories, Fracture will make the uninitiated think, and the initiated think twice.”
Publishers Weekly
[A] thoughtful portrait of the interwar years...this well-written account brings a refreshing clarity to such uncertain times.”
Kirkus
A book to be absorbed, marveled at and admired for the wide range of research linking events and thoughts.”
Library Journal
This historical account will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in cultural analysis.”
Synopsis
At the end of the First World War, the West was traumatized, impoverished, and facing a geopolitically uncertain future. In [
Title TK] critically acclaimed historian Philipp Blom argues that, amid this uncertainty, Europeans and Americans directed their energies inwards toward aesthetic and intellectual self-discovery. Europe produced strange new brands of art, science, and spiritualitysuch as Surrealism and Art Decowhile flocking to exciting but dangerous new ideologies including communism and fascism. In America, the Harlem Renaissance marked the flourishing of black culture, and flappers sparked new thinking about the place of women in society. Yet undercurrents of racial and class conflict were pronounced, fueled by immigration quotas and the poverty of the Dust Bowl.
[Title TK] is a sweeping evocation of the tumultuous interwar period, and the sublime cultural movements and terrifying ideologies it spawned.
Synopsis
When the Great War ended in 1918, the West was broken. Religious faith, patriotism, and the belief in human progress had all been called into question by the mass carnage experienced by both sides. Shell shocked and traumatized, the West faced a world it no longer recognized: the old order had collapsed, replaced by an age of machines. The world hurtled forward on gears and crankshafts, and terrifying new ideologies arose from the wreckage of past belief.
In Fracture, critically acclaimed historian Philipp Blom argues that in the aftermath of World War I, citizens of the West directed their energies inwards, launching into hedonistic, aesthetic, and intellectual adventures of self-discovery. It was a period of both bitter disillusionment and visionary progress. From Surrealism to Oswald Spenglers The Decline of the West; from Fritz Langs Metropolis to theoretical physics, and from Art Deco to Jazz and the Charleston dance, artists, scientists, and philosophers grappled with the question of how to live and what to believe in a broken age. Morbid symptoms emerged simultaneously from the decay of World War I: progress and innovation were everywhere met with increasing racism and xenophobia. America closed its borders to European refugees and turned away from the desperate poverty caused by the Great Depression. On both sides of the Atlantic, disenchanted voters flocked to Communism and fascism, forming political parties based on violence and revenge that presaged the horror of a new World War.
Vividly recreating this era of unparalleled ambition, artistry, and innovation, Blom captures the seismic shifts that defined the interwar period and continue to shape our world today.
About the Author
Philipp Blom was born in Hamburg and trained as a historian in Vienna and Oxford. He is the author of A Wicked Company, The Vertigo Years, Enlightening the World, and To Have And To Hold. He frequently contributes articles to the Financial Times, the Independent, and the Guardian among others. A host of cultural programming on Austrian National Radio, he lives in Vienna.
Table of Contents
Introduction: 1,567 Days
Part I: Postwar
1918: Shell Shock
1919: A Poets Coup
1920: Moonshine Nation
1921: The End of Hope
1922: Renaissance in Harlem
1923: Beyond the Milky Way
1924: Men Behaving Badly
1925: Monkey Business
1926: Metropolis
1927: A Palace in Flames
1928: Boop-Boop-a-Doop!
Part II: Prewar
1929: The Magnetic City
1930: Lili and the Blue Angel
1931: The Anatomy of Love in Italy
1932: Holodomor
1933: Pogrom of the Intellect
1934: Thank you, Jeeves
1935: Route 66
1936: Beautiful Bodies
1937: War Within a War
1938: Epilogue: Abide by Me