Monthly Archives: September 2013

Critical Summary

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Mark Mazower’s text Dark Continent gives readers a panoramic view of the conflicts that Europe faced during the turbulent inter war period. The first four chapters cover a plethora of topics including racism, religion, eugenics, and many more. Mazower’s ability to tie these issues together is a testament to his skill as a writer and its what makes this book such a fascinating read. Throughout the book Mazower seems to tie all of his points to the larger idea that Europe’s inability to adapt to the idea of democracy led to the rising radicalization of almost all of Europe, with countries on the right like Germany, and Italy, or the left like Russia, and Hungry experiencing many of the same issues.

The inter war period was a dynamic time of extreme adjustment, controversy, and volatility throughout Europe. Issues such as the fall of the imperial powers, financial crisis, and rising nationalism, were brought to the forefront during this polarized time. Mazower theorizes that the conflicts in places such as Germany, Austria, Hungry, and Russia were not unique to each one, but rather he focused on the common fundamental issues facing these countries, organizing his text by theme rather than chronology. In all these nations existed a populous that shared the ideals of the Western powers–particularly Britain, France, the United States, and Switzerland–such as democracy and liberalism. These ideals, however, applied to a continent ravaged by war and occupied largely by a working class that preferred an increase in wages, to constitutional liberties, were ambitious and utopian. Attempting to break free from these ideals, Germany, Italy, Russia and many more countries turned to radicalism and violence to achieve there goal of dominance of there own populous and also the Europe as a whole.

At one time or another there where liberal democracies set up in all of Europe’s countries. However the failure of these democracies in countries like Russia led to a rise of radicalism, “His triumph, like Mussolini’s later from the Right, was really the consequence of liberalism’s failure” (Mazower P.11). This quote by Mazower is talking about Lenin and his success in Russia, however it can be used to describe many of the European democracies who let radicals like Lenin, Mussolini, and Hitler step into power gap’s left by these democracies. The Parliament’s of these countries where described by Mazower as so “Parliament seemed like a lens, magnifying rather than resolving the bitter social, national and economic tensions in society at large.” This view of Parliament although harsh was very true and, further illuminates the failure of “liberal democracy”.

Overall I highly recommend Mazower’s text to all who have a interest in this period. Although some of the information in this book are more for students of the undergraduate and beyond level, I cannot thing of a reason for any avid history buff to not have this text on their reading list. In one volume of around five hundred pages it is able to give a rather varied and compressive history of twentieth century Europe, a topic that could take volumes to write about.

Ivan Kramskoy: Life and Works

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Ivan Kramskoy was born in 1837 in Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh Governorate, in the Russian Empire. He was born to a lower class family and did not begin painting until he was fifteen. At fifteen, he became an apprentice to a painter. In 1857, after he discovered his love for art, he got the opportunity to study at the Academy of Arts, in St. Petersburg. In 1863, Kramskoy went to St. Petersburg to be a part of the Team of Artists. This was a group that lived together and shared their works with one another. During his time in this household, he also taught at the School of the Society for Promoting of the Artists.

Kramskoy was famous for his portraits and often got commissioned for them. Russian society felt that his portraits captured the Russian history and culture of that time. After Kramskoy traveled around Europe, he created the Itinerants’ Society of Traveling Exhibitions. Kramskoy’s purpose of this society was to educate Russians with contemporary art, culminate a love for art in Russian society, and stimulate the economy for artists. One of Kramskoy’s most famous works is Christ in the Wilderness. He painted this masterpiece in 1872. The clarity of Kramskoy’s portraits brings realism to the subject, shedding light on Russian society. Kramskoy died at the easel in 1887.

 

1863

1863,  Sophia Kramskaya Reading

 

1872

1872,  Christ in the Wilderness

 

Critical Summary of Mazower

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The first four chapters of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent serve as a well-written history of the changing bureaucracy, nationalism, economic and political shifts in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Within the book he critically examines the cultural roots leading to the political outcomes and ravaging effects seen throughout the changing countryside. He argues that the First World War and Treaty of Versailles lead to a new Europe of revolutions, reform and public uprisings that eventually lead to economic disaster. This change to the political system precipitated Hitler and Stalin’s Europe. Specifically, his analysis focuses on the weak political systems inability to adequately supervise and institute control over the populations.

Mazower’s work does a fantastic job in the analysis, and does not simply dwell on the hard facts on what lead up to the first and second World War. It is always tempting to write a simple chronology of events. The focus on the connection between social and political events largely bypasses the large section of World War One and instead examines the developing relationship between people and government.

Dark Continent’s writing uses very complex and specific logical arguments. Often they are long thematically and multifaceted including many points. However his connections build on one another culminating in an interesting perspective that helps one understand turn-of-the-century Europe. While the complex argument usually makes logical sense, it requires a slow and thoughtful time while reading in order to not lose the overall theme. Too often he becomes long winded, and his breaking down the specifics and evidence becomes slightly redundant at times.

The sources Mazower uses in his writing are a great benefit towards his argument. The research put into his work shows a significant amount of both primary and secondary sources. He does grace the more visual learners with maps, but fails to utilize photos and images of evidence providing less well-rounded evidence. Dark Continent is written post Cold War so the benefits of an open Soviet and Eastern European archives allow a more complete picture of tensions and events. This probably led to his focus on Eastern Europe and the USSR, since in previous works Western Europe social and political relations have been examined more significantly.

Overall Mazower develops an interesting focal point from which to see the development of Europe through the twentieth century. He examines the history in a different way, finding new informed connections. His structure is inherently dissimilar than most, with a broader and overarching aspect for the cause and effect of war and other major events. Well sourced and thought out, the book gives a fresh spin to early European social political relationships.

Critical Summary of Chapters 1-4 of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent

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The first four chapters of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent proves to be both an informative and transformative excerpt from this book. The chapters clear up all misconceptions that, through a series of certain calculated events, fascism somehow prevailed over democracy and therefore World War II was inevitable. However, it is discovered that  fascism was not a dark blip in Europe’s modern history. These chapters take a thematic approach, rather than a territorial approach, to explain exactly what was happening in both Western and Eastern Europe that led to both the development and breakdown of the democratic system and the rise of authoritarian powers.

This thematic approach may prove beneficial for a reader looking for common themes across several different countries. However, it may also be very confusing especially when Mazower is talking about England in one paragraph, and Hungary in the next. Similarly, some countries such as Russia and Germany are talked about far more than others. However, due to the nature of what was happening in those territories at the time, it can be understood that the events that took place there were talked about in more detail than others since the themes talked about, such as communism or nationalism, often happened in those countries at their core. Despite Mazower’s sometimes unbalanced way of looking at certain events, I found that the most beneficial part of this book was how the content was organized within the individual themes. For example, in Chapter 3, the topic of Eugenics comes up frequently, leading to a further discussion about racism. Mazower breaks this down with how each country dealt with it. Countries such as Poland, Hungary, Germany, and Greece were hard supporters of racist ideals such as anti-semitism. However, France and Britain saw both sides of the issue. He goes on to explain exactly what this meant for country policies and the Eugenics movement at this time.

The book does an especially great job at supporting it’s thesis’ with evidence from countless outside sources. They come from everywhere; constitutions, treaties, scholars from several different countries, journalists, critics, the leaders themselves, and so on. These sources collectively support the same ideas Mazower is trying to get through to us. The main theme of the book can always be found in his supporting arguments and sources. Democracy sometimes fails.

Dark Continent was written for an audience with a basic knowledge of European history. For this reason, I can absolutely recommend this book for undergraduates. These chapters, for me, took what I learned in secondary school and added details and context to the basic facts. The most important thing these chapters can do is explain the reasons for the area in history Europe wants to so desperately forget. “The reason why ‘fascisms’ come into being, is the political and social failure of liberal democracy’. (p. 17)

 

Critical Review of Mazower

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The first four chapters of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent offer readers a look into the European political, economic and social developments of the Interwar Era. Mazower’s main argument is that many factors influenced the political path that Europe followed: meaning that democracy was not an obvious or guaranteed form of government on the continent.

The changes that were rocking the continent at this time are clearly explained in the book using comparisons as many similarities were seen in countries across the continent. Mazower’s analysis of the way in which both right and left wing political movements gained traction during this period made especially good use of comparison to illustrate the trends throughout Europe. Through this level of comparison, Mazower displays an in depth understanding of the continent’s complexities. These nuances are presented to readers without becoming entirely overwhelming—a difficult task.

The book illustrates a deep understanding of the period in its use of anecdotes and quotations, but these details are very dense to read. Because so many quotations and examples are used, there is a lot of information to process and comprehend while reading. Moreover, the fluidity of Mazower’s own analysis is continually interrupted. Mazower assumes some level of knowledge on the part of the reader, especially in his explanations of events. He refers to many different political figures of the era, with little or no description of who they were and what they did.

Dark Continent does, however, address all of the major themes of the period with a sense of completion that is difficult to find. The book was published in 1998, and was very well received for the originality of many of its arguments. Since it’s publication, it has become a book that has informed many other historians and the perspectives present in their work. Mazower’s analysis of the political movements of the 1920s and 1930s has been used to explain political evolution in works about the Interwar Period and World War II. Julian Jackson’s France: the Dark Years (2003) addresses many of the same themes that Mazower touches upon.

The book does have some weaknesses that impact how the book should and must be read and received. The lack of bibliography at the end of the book prevents readers from being able to see his sources organized by type. The endnotes do reveal that Mazower relied heavily upon secondary sources, listing a very limited number of primary sources. This does not detract from the level of interpretation and study illustrated in the book; however, this does change the way in which the book needs to be read and studied, because it is not largely based on original research—which is surprising given that he wrote in the late 1990s about the Soviet Union, when Soviet archives had opened up to foreign researchers.

Despite the limited number of weaknesses displayed in the book, Mazower’s Dark Continent is an incredible resource for students and scholars studying inter-war Europe.

Versailles Treaty

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The Versailles Treaty ended the First World War and effectively left Germany in a state of disrepair. The allies viewed Germany as the aggressor, and thus required them to make full reparations for the damages that the war caused. From the allied perspective it is easy to understand why they came down so harshly on Germany for all the suffering that was caused, however the demands were unrealistic, prompting future conflict by creating an unsettled atmosphere that ultimately contributed to Hitler’s rise.

The treaty was especially harsh in terms of Germany and her territories. Articles 45, 51, 119, and 156 were meant to strip Germany down to a mere shell of its former self by forcing the cession of many territories. The coal mines in the Saar Basin were to be ceded to France as compensation for the destruction of coal mines in the north of France, frontiers from 1871 were restored, and claims to overseas possessions were renounced. Many of these land cessions were to the direct benefit of France because out of all of the Allied countries, France took the harshest blows from the war because a lot of the fighting took place on French soil. To this day there are still regions in France that are unlivable because large amounts of live munitions remain undiscovered.

It was also evident that the Treaty intended to prevent a future war with Germany by imposing severe limitations on the capabilities of its armed forces, which is demonstrated in Article 160. Although this may have seemed like a viable solution at the time, in hindsight it is apparent that such a policy was nearly impossible to enforce. This policy lead to a series of appeasements, which allowed Germany to slowly rebuilt its armed forces while under Allied watch, ultimately allowing them to accumulate a powerful arsenal that was at Hitler’s disposal.

After the Second World War the Allies approached the post-war rebuilding process far differently. Applying unfair and impossible demands to a defeated country leaves the political atmosphere ripe for radicalism. They learned from their mistakes and adopted a policy that was less harsh and more constructive.

Critical Summary: Mazower, Chapters 1-4

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Beginning in the 1920s, the first four chapters of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent describe a Europe traumatized by the First World War and caught in the thrall of a “bourgeois triumph”, heralded by the collapse of Europe’s great empires and their replacement with a “belt of democracies” stretching from the Baltic to the Balkans, each equipped with a constitution enumerating the liberal principles and rights of its citizens and leaders with the express aim of rationalizing governance and reducing politics to the management of institutions responsible for protecting and cultivating the welfare of ordinary citizens (4, 5). The first four chapters of Mazower’s book explain how European dreams of a pacified continent organized around a liberal democratic consensus collapsed in the face of widespread nationalism and economic crisis.

According to Mazower, the rise of national self-determination served as one of the first indications of the liberal democratic vision’s incapacity to maintain peace in Europe. “[The Treaty of] Versailles had given sixty million people a state of their own, but it turned another twenty-five million into minorities,” says Mazower. This development would then create a situation in which young nation states turned into cultural battlefields for majorities and minorities who refused to recognize each other as members of the same society. The creation of parliamentary democracies that favored strong legislatures over executive power could only aggravate this state of affairs (42). The Great Depression also drove Europeans to look for alternatives to liberal democracy. In the face of a worldwide economic crisis, economic nationalism –not free market capitalism- as adopted by Italy and the Third Reich, reduced unemployment and increased the people’s confidence in both the nation and the economy (115).

While these factors do provide adequate explanations for the failure of liberal democracy in Europe, Mazower proves most instructive when countering the misconception that fascism installed itself in Europe as an ideological aberration. Instead, it arose as a natural response to conditions and attitudes already well established in Europe at the time. In some cases, liberals even looked to fascism as a solution to economic and social troubles in their countries. Mazower makes his general survey of European history more accessible to undergraduates through succinct descriptions of specific situations that demonstrate his points. In one such case, Mazower turns to Italy as an example of the ideological fluidity between liberalism and fascism, explaining how Mussolini’s rise to power depended upon the support of three other political parties, including the Liberals, who, along with many members of the police, the Civil service, and the Court saw in fascism a last line of defense against socialism (14-15). The most disturbing portion of Mazower’s exploration of the fascistic elements germinating in Interwar Europe comes when Mazower reveals that liberals also shared a proclivity for eugenics and other theories of racial and social “hygiene”. We learn, for instance, that Weimar Germany, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries passed laws allowing for voluntary sterilization while implementing welfare programs to encourage “valuable” births over the expansion of “inferior” social groups (97).

Dark Continent will help any student searching for a concise analysis of fascism’s rise to power in Interwar Europe. Using a wide variety of secondary sources including academic journals based in the countries studied and primary sources including newspapers, pamphlets, and philosophical texts like Spengler’s Man and Technics, Mazower condenses an extraordinary amount of information normally unavailable to the average reader into a relatively small number of pages. This proves helpful for both students looking for a digest of secondary literature on the period and those searching for primary texts that reveal the concerns and interests of European thinkers writing at a particular stage in the Interwar period. Were I to make recommendations for the book’s improvement, I might suggest adding a description of how colonialism reinforced scientific racism and acted as the precursor to the genocidal tactics employed by fascists before and during World War II. However, this would surely exceed the scope of Mazower’s first four chapters. For more information on this particular subject, I recommend Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate the Brutes.

 

Critical Summary of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent

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Dark Continent by Mark Mazower is a historical text which covers the interwar period of Europe in a unique way. The first four chapters each focus on a different aspect of interwar Europe: the decline of democracy, nationalism and the effects it has on minority groups, health and social welfare as a means of control over populations, and the economies of nations. Mazower’s geopolitical coverage of Europe is large; he touches upon other countries in Europe that are usually neglected. Mazower’s interpretation of these historical events is also unique. He ties his interpretation into his themes of decline, fall, and social struggles in Europe to his thesis that Communism, Nazism, and democracy are more related than the reader may have originally thought. Through these views of the forms of governments and the main social struggle of the era, Mazower helps the reader gain a greater understanding of interwar Europe.

Starting with the first chapter and continuing through the next three, Mazower repeatedly points out the primary social struggle present throughout all countries and political parties: the strained relationship between the individual and the population as a whole. This is especially apparent in chapter three, when Mazower expands on the welfare state and social welfare. The welfare was not for the good of the individual; it was for the good of the country as a whole (89). This was constant throughout all countries in Europe. Another historian, Hoffman, reaffirms this idea in his historical writing, Cultivating the Masses. Hoffman, like Mazower, writes about a country’s concern for its productivity level, as it is directly correlated to the creation of social welfare for its people.

In Mazower’ interpretation of history, he views Communism as a favorable political solution. He touches upon the positives of Communism, explaining the basic goals of tackling corruption and social injustice. This interpretation sheds a positive light on Communism, which the reader may not have expected. He believes that the Soviet Union dealt with the issue of minorities and nationalism the best out of all of the governments. The Soviet Union was able to win over the minorities in the country by offering them involvement in the government (50). This united the country in a way in which no other country in Europe was able to do.

Mazower also examines the growth of Nazism in Europe, especially Germany. Nazism grew from citizens’ hatred of communism. This is apparent from many SS members’ own testimonies, including Hitler’s bodyguard, Rochus Misch. Like many members of the Nazi Party, he stated that he joined the SS because it was a “counterweight to the threat of the left,” and that it was for anti-communist goals. Yet Nazism was a form of imperialism that fits into history better than many believe it should (74). It did have a focus on social welfare; however that focus was then manipulated to benefit a minority of Germans, the Aryan race.

The most discussed form of government, which failed quite often, was democracy. In interwar Europe, there was not a universally agreed upon definition of democracy (5). This directly lead to the development of “democratic governments” which were no more than totalitarian or militant, non-parliamentary regimes. This can be seen in post-World War I Germany when a Constitutional provision, Article 48, was created in order to suspend the Constitution under specific conditions. This article was inevitably abused by then-Chancellor, Hitler, and although he was democratically elected, it is obvious that this abuse was not one of good faith and democratic idealism (33). From democracy, Nazism was born.  On the other hand, in other countries’ democracies, there was great distrust of the executive branch of government (19). Mazower does a good job of linking, comparing, and contrasting each individual European country’s form of democracy with the others.

From Mazower’s descriptions alone, the reader can see that these three forms of governments had similar goals. These three governments grew from and were related to each other; one cannot exist without the others. Each was constantly evolving, rising and falling with the changing climate of worldwide political trends. This leads to a greater understanding of the political structure, and conflict, in interwar Europe.

Overall, Mazower’s Dark Continent is a great text for an undergraduate history course. It intelligently follows the rise and fall of vastly different political ideologies in Europe, while also following the social struggles stemming from each. It does so without confusing the reader with irrelevant details, employing the use of brevity through text. It goes without saying that Mazower provides the reader with an extensive overview of the interwar period and successfully supports his thesis.

Mazower Critical Summary

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In Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent, Chapters one to four serve as a strong introduction to the cultural, political and economic problems that plagued inter-war Europe. Mazower argues that the growth of fascism, nationalism, bureaucracy, and new economic systems came as a counter-reaction to the failures of democracy and capitalism in post-World War I Europe. Arguing that because of the slow-pace of democracy and the economic failures that the Treaty of Versailles brought, revolutionaries mobilized the population and seized control of the governments, instituting radical reforms and changes in all aspects of life-social, political and economic which guided Europe to recover and another world war. While Mazower does do an excellent job of balancing a generalization of Europe and using specific examples; however, these examples tend to focus on Germany and Russia too much at certain points. While his use of these general outliers do help to show the extremes that Europe faced during these critical years, they do not add anything to his thematic arguments or prove his generalizations of the continent.

Dark Continent has the benefit of coming after the collapse of the Soviet Union which allowed Mazower and other historians access to documents previously unavailable. This helps to create the impact that Mazower’s work has on the general historical community. Mazower relies primarily on secondary accounts mainly from the 1970s and 1980s with some outliers in the 1960s and 1990s as well. His primary sources are limited, but when they are used, specific examples and quotes are used to bolster his argument.

The major issue with Dark Continent is the problems of length and organization. In order to provide clarity, Mazower organizes his topics thematically rather than chronologically. In order for the reader to properly follow this text, a companion text emphasizing the chronology of events in inter-war Europe is extremely helpful, allowing the reader to better understand the relationship between Mazower’s themes and the overall history between the wars. However, because Mazower analyzes overarching trends in those years, the way he organizes his text is quite understandable.

Overall, Mazower adds an interesting perspective to the changes of inter-war Europe, bringing new light to a period which primarily emphasis the actual events rather than the thematic trends one sees during those years.

Critical Summary of Mazower (Chapters 1-4)

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The first four chapters of Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent are incredibly informative, original, and thought provoking in regards to twentieth century European history. In these chapters he primarily focuses on the contending issues that arose after the First World War and continued to linger until the onset of World War Two. His approach is unique because he does not recount the history in a chronological order, instead choosing to focus on developing specific issues and showing how they were interrelated throughout the entire continent in one way or another. The thesis of these chapters is that the mixture of an unsettled post war climate and the failure of several democratic governments to solve the economic and social issues at hand led to a contentious political climate. This climate was ripe for the emergence of radical socialist and totalitarian regimes.

The first chapter is centrally focused on democracy and alternate forms of government. The second chapter is about nation building and post war re-structurement. The third chapter’s focus is based on government initiatives and social programs aimed at cultivating the populations of each nation. Lastly, the fourth chapter is about various economic conflicts and rebuilding efforts. Within each of these chapters Mazower chooses a topic and then elaborates on it and expands it to Europe as a whole. An example of this is when he addresses the toll that World War I inflicted on population numbers. The male populations were severely reduced in every country that fought in the war, leading to a fear of population decline and thus the weakening of the country. To combat this fear each government tried to bolster population numbers by encouraging women to reproduce prolifically, creating social programs to aid mothers in child raising, and either discouraging or outright outlawing abortion. Mazower wrote that there was a “pro-natalist reassertion of traditional family and gender roles,” that overtook much of Europe (Mazower, 84).

Mazower does an excellent job of supporting his evidence with a mix of primary and secondary sources. He cites a pro-natalist publication in Britain titled 1916 Cradles or Coffins? Our Greatest National Need, to emphasize the concern that genuinely existed in Britain. In the following sentence he mentions how Germany was doing the exact same thing, thus adhering to the structure of his book by emphasizing how certain prevailing themes crossed international boundaries and were applicable to Europe as a whole in one form or another. While his use of supporting evidence is prolific and well chosen, he tends to jump around in the text too often and does not sufficiently develop and expand his arguments.

Mazower does a good job of condensing the people, places, and events from this time period in history into one book considering how difficult of a task this is. The scope and density of the material are a grueling endeavor to tackle.  Although people who do not have background knowledge of European history may have difficulty challenging many of the preconceptions that exist, this is not a sufficient deterrant for reading this book. This text offers a fresh perspective on European History and would appeal to green undergraduates and scholars alike.