The Rise of Ideology in the Interwar Years - Communism, National Socialism, and Democracy

In this unit we will cover the rise of ideologies that shaped the interwar period as well as geopolitical developments, including hyperinflation in Germany and the Great Depression, which ultimately led to the outbreak of the Second World War in the 1930's. We will examine the Russian Revolution and the rise of communist Russa. We will look at National Socialism and the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, as well as Fascism and the rise of Mussolini in Italy. Finally, we will examine the expansion of democracy in the democratic states. The struggle between these ideological visions shaped the interwar period and laid the foundation for the Cold War that followed the Second World War.

UPDATES AND ADJUSTMENTS TO THIS LESSON MODULE WILL BE MADE PERIODICALLY DURING THIS TERM. YOU WILL BE INFORMED WHEN UPDATES HAVE OCCURRED.

CONTENT

In this lesson module we will be examining ideologies, including National Socialism in Germany and Communism in Russia, in the interwar period (approximately 1918-1939), and geopolitical developments which contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War. 

Additional details for each subsection of this module will be provided as we progress.

GOALS:

The object of the module is to acquaint you with the historical developments; political, economic, and cultural, within the interwar period.

You will acquire knowledge and understanding of political and economic factors which influenced the development of National Socialism, Communism, Fascism, and Democracy between the World Wars. Further, we will be examining the impact of the Great Depression on various nations, especially the USA and Germany .

You will acquire knowledge and understanding of the events leading up to the Second World War as well as an understanding of various justifications for actions which led to the outbreak of the war, including the analysis of sources to develop critical skills in assessing the validity and trustworthiness of historical documents.

As this is an interdiscplinary module, a key focus will be an integrated understanding of how geography, as well as political and other cultural developments shape and are shaped by historical processes within regions and cultures.

RESOURCES

We will be working with the following digital resources (for which you will be provided account information if necessary):

www.khanacademy.org

www.timemaps.com 

www.wikipedia.org

The BBC Documentary "The Russian Revolution": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHybEb4b_o

Various other documentary footage that will be made available in your ClassNotebook.

We will be working with the following print resources (current list is partial and will be updated):

Selections from historical documents for critical analysis

ASSESSMENT

Assessment will occur in the form of an exam which covers the material taken up in this lesson module.

Uppgifter

Exam Preparation - Study Questions

1.

• Be prepared to identify the following concepts, people, and events and their significance in relation to communism in general and its expression in the Soviet Union in particular:
• People
• Vladimir Lenin
• Joseph Stalin
• Leon Trotsky
• Karl Marx
• Events
• The February Revolution
• The October Revolution
• The Russian Civil War
• Stalin's purges
• Collectivization and the famines of the 1930's
• Concepts
• Basic ideas of communism as a ideology
• private property
• alienation
• capital
• labor theory of value
• exploitation
• monopoly capitalism
• class
• proletariat
• bourgeoisie
• commodity fetishism
• socialism
• utopia
• Marxism-Leninism
• the Party as vanguard of the proletariat

• Study Questions

1. Explain Marx's critique of capitalism as an economic system. According to Marx, what problems arise within a capitialist system? How does Marx propose to address these problems? How does Marx explain/describe the process in which capitalism evolves into communism? Use the concepts above as a part of your explanation.
2. Provide a general description of the historical development of the Soviet Union from the October Revolution until the outbreak of the Second World War. In doing so, identify major events and their significance to the development of Soviet communism as well as how individuals such as Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky guided the Soviet state from the period of the revolution forward.

2

• Be prepared to identify the following concepts, people, and events and their significance in relation to communism in general and its expression in the Soviet Union in particular:
• People
• Adolph Hitler
• Joseph Goebbels
• Paul von Hindenburg
• Heinrich Himmler
• Events
• Beer Hall Putsch
• 1932 Elections in which Hitler becomes Chancellor
• The Reichstag fire
• The Enabling Act
• The Night of the Long Knives
• Reoccupation of the Rhineland
• Kristallnacht
• The Anschluss
• The Munich Conference
• Concepts
• National Socialism
• "Stab in the back"
• Versailles
• Anti-semitism
• Appeasement
• Third Reich
• Master Race
• Overman (Ubermensch)

• Study Questions

1. Provide a general description of the historical development of National Socialism in the context of Germany in the 1920's through the 1930's. Be sure to include in your description the people, events and concepts above and their significance to the evolution and success of this ideology.
2. One of the most important concepts in dealing with History as a subject and as a conceptual apparatus that helps to shape human understanding is the use to which history is put both in the past and the present. That is, it is important to understand how individuals and groups use history to shape their understanding of themselves as individual and group. Your task is to explain how Hitler and the National Socialists used history to help them gain support for their ideology and eventually to achieve power in Germany, leading to the creation of the Third Reich. In doing so, explain how the concept of the "stab in the back" was used by the National Socialists to explain the defeat of Germany during the First World War and how they used the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles to shape and garner support for their policies during their ascent to power as well as in the lead-up to the Second World War.

3

• Be prepared to identify the following concepts, people, and events and their significance in relation to democracy and life in the USA in the 1920's:
• People
• Presiden Coolidge
• President Hoover
• Edward Bernays
•  
• Events or developments
• The birth of jazz
• The Lost Generation of authors (name a couple)
• The stock-market boom
• The consumer boom
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Prohibition
• Spread of technology as consumer goods (automobile, radio, household goods, etc.)
• The growth of advertising/public relations
• Republican party dominance and laissez faire economic theory
• The slow but steady expansion of the role of women outside the home
• Concepts
• Consumerism
• The Roaring Twenties
• The Lost Generation
• Laissez faire economics
• Freudian analysis of crowd behavior (see Edward Bernays or Walter Lippmann)

• Study Questions

1. Provide a general description of the 1920's in the USA with a focus on politics, economics, and cultural developments that helped to define the period as the "Roaring Twenties". Be sure to include in your description the people, events/developments and concepts above and their significance to life in 1920's America (USA).
2. Edward Bernays is an almost forgotten figure today. However, his impact on the U.S. and by extension the world during his lifetime and beyond is almost impossible to calculate. As the "father of public relations", Bernay's influence on economics/business, politics, culture, and society as a whole has been signficant to say the least. Your task is to identify, describe and explain concepts and techniques developed by Bernays for the purpose of swaying pubic opinion and how these were utilized during the 1920's-1930's and then show how these same techniques or concepts are still utilized today, for instance, in advertising.

Week 51 - Lectures and Reading

See below for the relevant lectures and readings for this week.

All material is available in your OneNote ClassNotebook in the approriate section of the Module "The Rise of Ideology in the Interwar Years":

Readings:

Historical Summary of the Interwar Years in the section titled the same.

Historical Summary of the Soviet Union in the section titled "Communism"/"Historical Summary of the Soviet Union"

Lectures:

1. What is Communism?

2. Karl Marx and the Critique of Capitalism:

Week 8 Assignments - Lectures and Readings

The assigned video lectures/documentaries and text-readings for this week are listed below. What we do not have time to cover in class is homework. Be sure to have completed all the video lectures and readings before Monday in Week 10. All videos and text-readings are available in the ClassNotebook in the section titled "The Rise of Ideology - The Interwar Years".
Video Lectures:

1.1 - The Great Crash - You Will Love History
Objective 5.1- The Great Crash


1.2 - The Depression Grips America - You Will Love History
Objective 5.2- The Depression Grips America


1.3 - Hoover's Volunteerism - You Will Love History
Objective 5.3- Hoover's Volunteerism

1.4 - F.D.R. and the New Deal - You Will Love History
Objective 5.4- FDR and The New Deal

1.5 - The Second New Deal - You Will Love History
Objective 5.6- The Second New Deal

1.6 - The Legacy of the New Deal - You Will Love History
Objective 5.7- Legacy of the New Deal


2.1 - The Great Depression - Crash Course
The Great Depression: Crash Course US History #33


2.2 - The New Deal - Crash Course
The New Deal: Crash Course US History #34

3.1 - John Maynard Keynes - Keynesian Economics - The School of Life
POLITICAL THEORY - John Maynard Keynes


Assigned Text:
These texts are in the section "assigned texts" in the ClassNotebook.

T.1.1 - The Presidency of Herbert Hoover - Khan Academy
T.1.2 - The Great Depression - Khan Academy
T.1.3 - FDR and the Great Depression - Khan Academy
T.1.4 - The New Deal - Khan Academy

Week 7 - Assignments - Lectures and Readings

The assigned video lectures/documentaries and text-readings for this week are listed below. What we do not have time to cover in class is homework. Be sure to have completed all the video lectures and readings before Monday in Week 8. All videos and text-readings are available in the ClassNotebook in the section titled "The Rise of Ideology - The Interwar Years".


Khan academy videos:
Immigration and Urbanization in the United States


Crashcourse videos:
Women's Suffrage
The Roaring 20's


The School of Life videos:
Consumerism


Khan Academy texts:
1920's Consumerism in the United States
American Culture in the 1920's
Prohibition in the United States
Republican Ascendancy in the 1920's

Exam Review - Study Questions

We will review the study questions as part of exam preparation for the exam of March 4 covering the module "The Rise of Ideology - The Interwar Years". Be sure to have WRITTEN answers to the study questions for each sub-module by the due date. These answers should be provided in your section of the ClassNotebook.

Exam - The Rise of Ideology in the Interwar Years

This exam tests knowledge and understanding of the material covered during the lesson module - The Rise of Ideology in the Interwar Years.