The Culture Of Western Europe

Book excerpt: A revised and updated edition of this established cultural history examines the interplay between eighteenth-century rationalism and nineteenth-century romanticism as they meshed and modified one another to shape the prominent trends of the twentieth century.A new chapter, The Changing Pace of Life," skillfully bridges an analysis of romanticism and its link with nationalism by outlining the effects of the Industrial Revolution on all elements of society with particular attention to politics, economics, class identity and conflict, transportation, communication, religion and morality, family structure, medicine, and art.A new conclusion interweaves analysis of the postwar effects of social psychology, the return to liberalism, the emergence of civil rights movements, and the persistence of nationalism beyond the bounds of World War II.