Fracture

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 century--for 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.