Modernity and the Road to WarWhat is Modernity ?

Conflicts associated between traditional values and new ideas

Agonized questions:The familyGender relationshipsEmpireReligionConsequences of technology and progressAnti-semitismMilitant nationalism

Accelerated pace of lifePrivate lifePopulation pressureReforming marriagePolitics of sexual identity

New Sciences of the Modern Self: Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)Challenging accepted beliefs of unified, rational manThe ID -- Libido, desires, instinctive DrivesThe EGO Mediating force, in touch with realityThe SUPER EGO Force of conscience & social norms

Revolutions in Science &

Albert Einstein (1879 1955)Big Bang Theory of the origins of the universe

Marie Curie (1867 1934)The discovery of radioactivityNobel Prizes for mother and daughter

Modern Art:Henri Matisse FauvismPablo Picasso CubismGeorges Braque Collage

Art Nouveau Arts and Crafts Mvmts.

Musical Iconoclasm

Growing Tensions in Mass PoliticsLabors Expanding Power Trade UnionsThe Battle for Suffrage -- Emily PankhurstGrowing resistance to imperialismRising Anti-Semitism Dreyfus Affair

Roads to WarGermanys Imperial Demands

Crisis in the Balkans

Sarajevo: the War erupts

Competing explanations of the origins of World War IThe Mood of 1914:

intense nationalism

victimhood

appealing to immediate feelings of patriotism and self-preservation

Competing explanations

The Short War Illusion

..A quick, cleansing thunderstom

Competing explanations

The Primacy of domestic politics

Power elites vs. rising labor

Competing explanationsGermany opts for war:

Now or never

The Fisher controversy