Just Finished Reading: Fracture – Life and Culture in the West 1918-1938 by Philipp Blom (FP: 2015) [411pp] 

When I was young and ignorant (or at least more ignorant) I used to think that the period between the 20th centuries World Wars was a time of peace. I have long been disabused of this notion. As a French delegate to the Versailles conference said with great prescience, they had not just signed a peace treaty but rather a 20-year armistice. He was not wrong. The supposed ‘War to End Wars’ had instead shattered the world system, fracturing most of the last Empires in Europe as well as fatally damaging the globe spanning British Empire. The ramifications of this passed over the planet like an earthquake with regular aftershocks changing the world forever. Yet, even as the quake echoed around the world tensions still built beneath the surface and, unknown to the vast millions hoping for a better future a greater, even more devastating, quake was building. 

But, as with all times of social and political unrest, the West saw an outpouring of creativity both remarkable in its breadth and staying power. Works of art, literature, poetry, music, dance, and theatre since recognised as ground-breaking, indeed epoch defining, arose during this time. Not always recognised instantly (or quickly) with the regard later generations placed on them, they shocked, enthralled or dismayed the public often in equal measure. With the breaking of the international system anything, it seemed, was possible. One of the great epicentres of this new found freedom of expression was Berlin where an explosion of avant-garde art, music and lifestyles both appalled locals and attracted international visitors (who much later would be called the ‘jet set’). Briefly overshadowing Paris as the European city of culture, Berlin was THE melting pot of new ideas in a new world. 

Covering this and much else besides – including the emergence of Surrealism, Art Deco and the Jazz explosion, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the bizarre findings of Quantum Mechanics, the Charleston dance craze and psychoanalysis – this was an epic tale of the Wests reaction (or maybe over-reaction) to the devastation of total war on a scale not seen before as individuals, major groupings and whole nations struggled to come to terms (or at least try to) what had just happened and to try to square the discontinuity between what they had been told (or promised) in 1914 and what had resulted by 1918. Chocked full of interesting observations, personalities and ideas this was one of the best books of the year so far for me. I do find the ‘between the wars’ era quite fascinating for a whole host of reasons (personally I’m kind of obsessed about periods of rapid or fundamental change – probably because we’re living through one) and this did nothing to diminish that interest, quite the contrary in fact. If you’re after a detailed look at the era in a single volume I’d definitely recommend this as a very good place to start. Highly recommended as is all of this author’s works. 

[Highest page count of the year so far: 411pp][+14pp]