History of Modern Europe

Albert S. Lindemann is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Among his publications are Antisemitism, A History (2010), Esau's Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews (1997), The Jew Accused: Three Anti-Semitic Affairs (1992), and A History of European Socialism (1983).

• Preface: The Dilemmas and Rewards of a Concise Historical Overview xivList of Maps xixList of Figures xxAcknowledgments xxiiIntroduction: What Is Europe? 1“Christendom” and Europe 2Geographical Definitions 3Europe’s Unusual Seas: The Mediterranean and Baltic 6Europe’s Unusual Races 7European Languages 8Europe’s Religious Mixes 9The Differing Rates of Growth in Europe’s Regions 10Notes to the Reader 12A Few Words about the Further Reading Sections 12National and Thematic Overviews 13Biographies 15Historiography and Bibliography 15Further Reading (to the Introduction) 16Part I Romanticism and Revolt: The Seedtime of Modern Ideologies, 1815–40 171 The Legacy of the French Revolution 19France’s Preeminence 19The Changes Made by the Revolution 20The Revolutionary Mystique 20The Opening Stages of the Revolution 21The Causes of the Revolution: Precedents 22The Ambiguous Ideal of Equality 23Civil Equality for Jews? 24The Many Meanings of Fraternity 24The Revolution: Progressive or Regressive? 25Further Reading 282 The Congress of Vienna and Post-Napoleonic Europe: 1815–30 29A Uniquely European Meeting 29The Major Powers: Goals and Compromises 32Napoleon Returns: The Hundred Days 34The Issue of Poland 35Other Territorial Settlements 37Accomplishments of the Congress: Short-Term, Long-Term 39The Repressive Years in Britain 40Metternich’s Repressions 41Further Reading 423 The Engines of Change 43Conceptualizing Historical Change 43The Industrial Revolution and Its Preconditions 44The British Model of Industrialization 45Industrialization in Other Countries 47Resistance to Industrialization 50Technological Innovation and Industrialization 50The Implications of Industrial Change 53Further Reading 544 The Seedtime of Ideology: A Century of “Questions” 55Europe’s Major “Questions” and Its Belief in Progress 56The Elusive Genesis and Evolution of Europe’s Isms 56Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism 57Edmund Burke: The Conservative Tradition and Its Opponents 59Feminism and the Woman Question 60The Evolution of Liberal Theory and Practice: Radicalism and Utilitarianism 61Classical Liberalism 62Mill on Socialism and Feminism 63Fourier’s Fantastic but “Scientific” Vision of Socialism 65The “Practical” Socialist, Robert Owen 66Saint-Simon, Prophet of Modernism 67The Communist Tradition 68Romanticism and Classicism 69Further Reading 70Part II From the 1820s to the Great Depression of the 1870s and 1880s 715 Liberal Struggles, Victories, Dilemmas, Defeats 75The Revolution of 1830 in France 76Unrest in the 1830s 77Agitation to Repeal the Corn Laws 80The Great Hunger in Ireland 81The Darker Vision of Thomas Malthus 83Again, Revolution in France 84Reform in Britain: The Chartist Movement 85Revolutions of 1848 and the End of Metternich’s Europe 85The Republican Provisional Government and the “National Workshops” 86Rising Class Conflict and the “June Days” 87The National Question Outside France 87Growing Divisions among the Revolutionaries 88Further Reading 906 Nationalism and National Unification 92Problems of Definition 92Ideas of German Nationality 95People, Language, and State: Herder and Hegel 96Slavic Identities 97Southern Europe: Latin Identities 98New Power Relations in Europe: The Wars of Mid-century 99The Unification of Italy 101The Unification of Germany 103Further Reading 1057 Mid-century Consolidation, Modernization: Austria, Russia, France 106The Habsburg Empire 106The Russian Empire 110France’s Second Empire 113Further Reading 1168 Optimism, Progress, Science: From the 1850s to 1871 117The Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune 117The Classic Age of British Liberalism 121Britain’s Social Peace, Political Stability, and Economic Productivity 122Liberalism, Population Growth, and Democracy 123The Irish Question 124Darwin and Darwinism 125Further Reading 129Part III From Depression to World War: The 1870s to 1914 1319 The Depressed and Chastened 1870s and 1880s 133The Spread of Marxism: Controversies about the Meaning of Marxism 133The Development of Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Thinking 137Russian Revolutionary Movements in the 1870s and 1880s 138The Appearance of Modern Racial-Political Antisemitism 140Antisemitism in Germany 143The Weakness of Antisemitism in Italy and Britain 144Antisemitism in France: Renan and the Scandals of the 1880s 144Further Reading 14610 Germany and Russia in the Belle Epoque: 1890–1914 147A Rising Germany 148Liberalism Challenged, Mass Politics, and the Second Industrial Revolution 148The Influence of Friedrich Nietzsche 150New Aspects of the German Question 151The Evolution of German Social Democracy: The Revisionist Controversy 153Russia under Nicholas II 155The Appeals of Marxism in Russia and the Emergence of Leninism 156The Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5 158Revolution and Reaction in Russia, 1905–14 159Further Reading 16111 France and Britain in the Belle Epoque: 1890–1914 162France in Turmoil 162The Dreyfus Affair 164French Socialism 167Edwardian Britain 168The Boer War 170The Woman Question 173Further Reading 17512 The Origins of World War I 176Growing International Anarchy, Hypernationalism, Polarization of Alliances 177An Inevitable War? 178The Role of Personality and Chance 179The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 180From Euphoria to Stalemate Warfare 183Further Reading 185Part IV The European Civil War: 1914 – 43 18713 World War I: 1914 –18 189Stalemate Warfare in the West and Expansion in the East 1891916: The Battles at Verdun and the Somme 1921917: A Turning Point 193Autumn 1917 to Autumn 1918: The Last Year of War and Germany’s Collapse 196November 1918: The Balance Sheet of War 197Further Reading 19814 Revolution in Russia: 1917–21 199A Proletarian Revolution? 199The March (February) Revolution: Provisional Government and Soviets 200Lenin’s Return: The Paradoxes of Bolshevik Theory and Practice 204The Mechanics of the Bolshevik Seizure of Power 206The Constituent Assembly 207Civil War in Russia: The Red Terror 208The Failure of Revolution in the West 210What “Really Happened” in Russia between November 1917 and March 1921? 212Further Reading 21215 The Paris Peace Settlement 214The Settlements of 1815 and 1919 Compared; the Issue of German Guilt 214Popular Pressures, “New Diplomacy,” Russia’s Isolation 217Wilson’s Role: The Fourteen Points 217The Successor States and the Issue of Self-Determination 218The Creation of New Nation-States: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia 219Dilemmas and Contradictions of Ethnic-Linguistic States 220Minority Treaties 221League of Nations Mandates 222Further Reading 22416 The Dilemmas of Liberal Democracy in the 1920s 225Containing Germany: The Weakness of the League of Nations, 1919–29 226The Dilemmas of American Leadership: Isolationism 227Reactionary Trends and the Woman Question 228The Negative Impact of the Versailles Treaty: Undermining German Democracy 230The Evolution of Liberal Democracy in Germany 231Developments in the Third Republic 232The Brief Rule of the British Labour Party 234The Stock-Market Crash, November 1929: The Beginning of the Great Depression 235Further Reading 23617 Stalinist Russia and International Communism 237Stalin and Stalinism 237The 1920s: Lingering Dilemmas and the Industrialization Debate 238Stalin’s Victory in the Struggle for Power 240Stalin and the Jewish Question in the Bolshevik Party 242Collectivization and the Five-Year Plan 244The Blood Purges 2471939: The Balance Sheet: Paradoxes and Imponderables 249Further Reading 25018 The Rise of Fascism and Nazism: 1919–39 251The Origins of Italian Fascism 252Mussolini’s Assumption of Power 252The Evolving Definition of Fascism: Initial Relations with Nazism 254The Spread of Fascism Outside Italy, 1922–33 256Nazism: The Basis of Its Appeal 258The Nature of Hitler’s Antisemitism 259Hitler in Power 261A Moderate Solution to the Jewish Question? 265Nazi and Soviet Rule: Comparing Evils 266Further Reading 26619 The Origins of World War II and the Holocaust: 1929–39 267European Diplomacy, 1929–34 267Hitler’s Retreats, the Stresa Front 269The Great Turning Point, 1934–5: Comintern Policy and the Ethiopian War 270The Popular Front in France, 1935–9 273The Spanish Civil War, 1936–9 275The Era of Appeasement, 1936–8 278Evaluating Appeasement 281Further Reading 28220 World War II and the Holocaust: 1939–43 283Appeasement from the East and the Outbreak of World War II 284The Opening Stages of World War II 286War in the West, 1940 289The War against Judeo-Bolshevism 291The Turning of the Tide 293Victories at Stalingrad and the Kursk Salient 296Further Reading 297Part V Europe in Recovery and the Cold War: 1943–89 and Beyond 29921 Victory, Peace, Punishment: 1943–6 303The Problems and Paradoxes of Victory 303Planning for Victory 306Personal Diplomacy and Realpolitik 309Winning the War: Myths and Realities 312The Ambiguous Peace 313The Holocaust’s Final Stages: Vengeance 314The Nuremberg Trials 315Dilemmas and Paradoxes of Punishment 319Further Reading 32122 Europe’s Nadir, the German Question, and the Origins of the Cold War: 1945–50 322War-time Deaths, Military and Civilian 322The Unresolved German Question: Germany’s Borders 323Denazification 324The Two Germanies, East and West 326Schumacher and Adenauer 329Social Democrats vs. Christian Democrats 330Postwar Austria 331The Origins and Nature of the Cold War 331Further Reading 33623 The Mystique of Revolution: Ideologies and Realities, 1945 to the 1960s 337The Revolutionary Mystique in the Immediate Postwar Years 337Democratic Socialism in Western Europe: Great Britain 339Democratic Socialism in Western Europe: Scandinavia 341The Revolutionary Mystique, the Cult of Personality, and “Real” Socialism 343Titoism and the New Show Trials 344Stalin’s Death and Khrushchev’s “De-Stalinization” 345Revolts in Poland and Hungary, 1956 346The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 348East Germany and the Berlin Wall 349Further Reading 35024 The End of Imperialism, and European Recovery: 1948–68 352European Exhaustion and the End of Empire 352India and the Middle East 353New Dimensions of the Jewish Question 355“French” Algeria 358The Vagaries of Historical Memory: The Role of the Cold War 360The Establishment of the Fourth Republic in France 361Restoring Liberal Democracy in Italy 364European Unification: The First Steps 366De Gaulle’s Vision: The Fifth Republic 368Further Reading 37025 Europe in a New Generation 371Communism with a Human Face: Czechoslovakia, 1968 372Young Rebels in Western Europe 373France: The “Events of May” 375Feminism in the New Generation 376Further Reading 38026 Détente, Ostpolitik, Glasnost: A New Europe 381Shifting International Relationships: Frictions and Contretemps in the Soviet Union and United States 382The Impact of the Oil Embargo of 1973: “Stagflation” 383The Restive Soviet Bloc in the 1970s and 1980s 384Poland and Solidarity 385West Germany’s Ostpolitik: Management of Modern Capitalism 386Gorbachev and Glasnost, 1985–9 389The Disintegration of Communist Rule 391From Mystique (1989–90) to Politique (1991–2012) 391From Soviet Union to Russian Federation 392The Unification of Germany 393The Breakup of Former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia 394Western Europe: From Common Market to European Union 394Further Reading 39727 Europe in Two Centuries: An Epilogue and General Assessment 398Europe’s Evolving Identity 400European Liberties and Toleration 401The Irish Question 402The Woman Question 403The Social Question and the Role of the State 403The Eastern Question and the End of Empires 404The German Question 404Americanization, Globalization, and the European Model 406The Jewish Question 407The New Enemy: Islam 408Environmentalism under Capitalism and Communism 409The Demographic Question and European Xenophobia 410The Sovereign Debt Crisis: The Dilemmas of the European Union 411Further Reading 411Index 413