Rites of Spring

The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age

Modris Eksteins

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9780547525525
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War I
• Index: History

This award-winning cultural history reveals how the Great War changed humanity. This sweeping volume probes the origins, the impact, and the aftermath of World War I—from the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945. "The Great War, " as Modris Eksteins writes, "was the psychological turning point...for modernism as a whole. The urge to create and the urge to destroy had changed places." In this "bold and fertile book" ( The Atlantic Monthly ), Eksteins goes on to chart the seismic shifts in human consciousness brought about by this great cataclysm, through the lives and words of ordinary people, works of literature, and such events as Lindbergh's transatlantic flight and the publication of the first modern bestseller, All Quiet on the Western Front. Rites of Spring is a rare and remarkable work, a cultural history that redefines the way we look at our past—and toward our future.

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Acton, Harold, 26

Acton, Lord, 118

Adams, Reverend J. Esslemont, 111

Adorno, Theodor, 301

“Aerial Locomotion” (Grand Palais, Paris), 252

aestheticism: of life, 77–78; and politics, 42

agents provocateurs, 232–33, 235

AGFA firm, 68

airplane: fascist enthusiasm for, 323; fatality rate among flyers, 263–64; military potential of, 263, 265 (see also air raids); Nazi use of, 322; symbolism of, 251–52, 264–65; symbolism of Lindbergh’s flight, 251–52, 261–67

air raids: of Great War, 158, 159, 210, 214

Aisne front, 99

Aitken, Alexander, 172

Akenbrand, Alfons, 199

À la recherche du temps perdu (Proust), 209

Albert, king of Belgium, 245–46

Albert cathedral: destruction of, 158

Alcock, John, 248

Aldington, Richard, 284, 292

Alfonso XIII, king of Spain, 27

alienation: and soldiers’ sense of camaraderie, 229–32; and trench warfare, 211–12

Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft, 19

All Our Yesterdays (Tomlinson), 292

All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque): accusations in, 283–84; as best seller, 291; criticisms of, 282–83, 288–89, 297; defecation imagery in, 226, 288; film of, 281, 298, 329; as great war novel, 292; language of, 288; lost generation theme of, 283, 284; military objections to, 288–89; and modernism, 294; Nazi banning of, 289–90, 298–99; and postwar mentality, 282, 283, 290, 292–93, 296–97, 298; as propaganda, 288–89; publishing history of, 285–87; reception and reviews of, 286–90; and revisionist history, 296; sales of, 276–77, 287, 291; serialization of, 276; themes of, 281, 282, 283; translations of, 276–77, 286, 288; truth of, 286–90, 298; veterans’ response to, 292–93, 296–97; writing of, 281–85

Almond, H. H., 121

Alsace, 49

America. See United States

American Civil War, 90

Americanization: of Europe, 267–71

anarchism, 47

Anschütz, Gerhard, 196

Antheil, George, 284

Anti-Machiavel (Frederick II), 70

anti-Semitism, 20, 302–3, 308, 310, 318–20, 327; Nazi final solution, 320; as self-hatred, 319,...