Nationalismus, Konsum und politische Kultur im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit

Nationalism, Consumption and Political Culture in Interwar Europe
This review article provides an overview of some recent work on the cultural history of interwar Europe as well as some general reflections on the interpretation of a period that has often been reduced to a plethora of deficiencies. Studies on nationalism from Hungary to Spain, on consumer culture in France or Germany, and on political culture from the comparatively stable Netherlands to Stalinist Moscow converge in bringing out the heterogeneous, open-ended and productive character of the 1920s and even the 1930s - decades that point not only to the Second World War but also to post-war developments. Such a perspective can also explain why extremist movements and dictatorships were legitimate outcomes of this complex modernity, while having to employ unprecedented violence to bring this modernity under control.