preview

Chapter 30 Thought And Culture During World Wars And Totalitarianism

Decent Essays

Chapter 30-Thought and Culture in an Era of World Wars and Totalitarianism Reflection After World War I, many different things occurred in Europe. The relationships between the different European powers changed. The economies and governments of each country changed. Even the people changed in different forms due to their country 's successes of failures. However, two things that changed in which most people neglect is thought and culture. After the world wars, the thoughts of the enlightenment were over and the thought of existentialism started to take over. Even the art started to change to the point where Dada (a.k.a. nothing) starts to become the major art form. After the World War, culture and thought started to drastically change.
To show how it changed over time, we must start with the years after World War I. After the war, many intellectuals started to struggle with the ideas they had come up with. Before and during the war, many believed reason was able to show them how to live their lives and how to succeed as an individual and a population as a whole. However, the war discouraged this which led to an overarching theme of gloominess throughout Europe.
One example of this is Pablo Picasso 's magnificent piece named Guernica. This piece depicted the horrors of the world war and the hopelessness of the people after the war. Another example is the work of Oswald Spengler who described through his writings the three stages of culture. He believes that we went

Get Access