Foundations of the Modern State and Society, 1914-1929

In this period we see the foundation for conflicts that dominate the 20th C--the conflict between: 

Mc World--the modern global economy and culture of consumerism and hedonism--

and jihad--the forces of ethnic tribalism that seek to bring down the modern global capitalist world.

Jihad often takes the form of anti-modern religious fundamentalism.

 This clash was created by the changes that historians associate with modernity. These occurred at the turn of the century and are distinguished by the following characteristics.

 1.  One important attribute of the modern era is globalization of markets and international power politics based on economic interests.

 Our entry into WWI marked of the most important shifts of international economic and military power in the twentieth century.

 Before the 20^th century, Europe dominated world affairs.

In WWI, we provided the margin of victory for the allies and helped shape the treaties after the war.

This helped establish our economic dominance in the world, and American industry becomes globalized.

Thus, we see the beginnings of our later role as a global superpower that will make us a lightning rod for anger.

2. On the home front, WWI meant the establishment of the modern bureaucratic state 

There was a massive expansion of the federal government and greater intrusion of the govt. into the lives of individuals.

 This is outlined in Chapter 22

The fed government will become a flash point for later tribal groups such as the Aryan nations & KKK

3.  Deep social tensions also emerge from WWI:

 Class conflicts seen in labor & food riots during the War encouraged ethnic divisions that carried into the 1920s

 The results of these were seen in the Red Scare and immigration restriction, and in the revival of the KKK

The Klan’s new focus is 100% Americanism and  is centered on ethnicity (more so than race)

and on family values—concern with loose women

 These fears of communism sparked by Russian Rev, which came about during WWI.

 Anti-communism will become a permanent part of our foreign policy, and will lead us to take actions that are deeply upsetting to some people around the world.

 Anti-communism reflects an anxiety about our place in the modern global economic order.

 (We will see that communist countries do not conduct themselves in ways that favor capitalist interests. They do things like nationalize industries that American capital has built.)

 Racial and ethnic groups, then are scapegoated as communists because of these economic uncertainties and the fears.

 The KKK also feared loose women, which is part of another set of cultural trends associated w/ modernity.

4. The rise of mass consumer culture that promotes new values of materialism/consumerism, leisure & recreation, self-fulfillment, and sexual freedom.

 This trend sparks a backlash because these changes troubling many Americans on both ends of the political spectrum--though they are troubled by different things.

 Anti-modernism surfaces among educated, secular and liberal Americans.

They feel alienated from industrialization with its impersonal bureaucracy and its cheap mass-produced goods. 

Modernity for them is seen as creating a culture that was homogenized and inauthentic.

So they turn to cultural pluralism: a celebration of primitive, including the noble savage who leads a truly authentic life.

 They helped sponsor the rise of anthropology, and the quest to save "Primitive" cultures such as the Southwestern Indians.

Anti-modernism also happened at period of flowering of African American culture known as the Harlem Renaissance Jazz Age

 White folks discovered this music and it becomes another outlet for celebration of the primitive

Anti-modern celebration of the primitive carried in it a challenge to the double standard of Victorian sexual morality.

And the beginnings of the sexual revolution.

 Some conservative religious Americans also embrace anti-modernism. 

 To them the nation seemed to have turned to new secular values of self indulgence and  materialism. 

Tolerance of loose sexual morals (ironically, a result of anti-modernism on the other end of the political spectrum) was also upsetting to many.

 Wanted to “restore” older values of  purity, self-denial and the Protestant work ethic.

 Their concerns set off a conservative backlash seen in the KKK and in the rise of fundamentalism, as reflected in the Scopes trial.