Fin de Siècle and Its LegacyMikulas Teich, Roy Porter For many years the term fin de siècle has been used to imply a state of decadence which was thought to have pervaded 'civilised' European society in the years around 1900. This volume of essays, which draw on a very wide range of disciplines, argues that the period was in fact one of dramatic change, essentially positive and forward-looking in character. This was the period of the rise of the giant corporation, of mass production and mass consumption, and of the development of the generation and distribution of electrical energy. Novel social features such as mass politics, mass media, and mass sport involved the body of ordinary people and in the arts, complex reactions to contemporary social reality were aroused and expressed. This was also the period which gave birth to the study of quantum mechanics, relativity physics, mental processes and genetics. This volume forms part of a sequence of collections of essays which began with The Enlightenment in National Context (1981) and has continued with Romanticism in National Context (1988). They bring together comparative, national and interdisciplinary approaches to the history of great movements in the development of human thought and actions. |
Contents
A LEGACY OF FINDESIÈCLE CAPITALISM THE GIANT COMPANY | 10 |
FIN DE SIÈCLE INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION | 28 |
THE ELECTRICAL CENTURY THE BEGINNINGS OF ELECTRICITY SUPPLY IN AUSTRIA | 42 |
HERALDS OF MODERNITY CARS AND PLANES FROM INVENTION TO NECESSITY | 54 |
NATIONALISM ANTISEMITISM SOCIALISM AND POLITICAL CATHOLICISM AS EXPRESSIONS OF MASS POLITICS IN THE TWENTIET... | 80 |
MASS MEDIA AND CULTURE IN FINDESIÈCLE | 98 |
FORWARD RACE AND THE LAUGHTER OF PYGMIES ON OLYMPIC SPORT | 115 |
PHOTOGRAPHY CINEMATOGRAPHY AND THE THEATRE A HISTORY OF A RELATIONSHIP | 132 |
PERSONALITIES AND PRINCIPLES ASPECTS OF LITERATURE AND LIFE FINDESIÈCLE ENGLAND | 170 |
HEROES MEADOWS AND MACHINERY FINDESIÈCLE MUSIC | 216 |
THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHYSICS | 235 |
A FEELING FOR THE WHOLE THE HOLISTIC REACTION IN NEUROLOGY FROM FINDESIÈCLE INTERWAR YEARS | 254 |
BIOLOGY AND BEAUTY SCIENCE AND AESTHETICS IN FINDESIÈCLE GERMANY | 278 |
THE UNMASTERED PAST OF HUMAN GENETICS | 296 |
| 325 | |
FINDESIÈCLE PAINTING | 147 |
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