History of Humanity

Volume VII

The Twentieth Century

Edited by Sarvepalli Gopal

and Sergei L. Tikhvinsky

Co-edited by I. A. Abu-Lughod,
G. Weinberg, I. D. Thiam and W. Tao
 HISTORY
OF
HUMANITY
Scientific and Cultural Development
 History of Humanity
Scientific and Cultural Development

Volume I Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization

ISBN 978–92–3–102810–6 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09305–7 (Routledge)

Volume II From the Third Millennium to the Seventh Century BC

ISBN 978–92–3–102811–3 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09306–4 (Routledge)

Volume III From the Seventh Century BC to the Seventh Century AD

ISBN 978–92–3–102812–0 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09307–1 (Routledge)

Volume IV From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century

ISBN 978–92–3–102813–7 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09308–8 (Routledge)

Volume V From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century

ISBN 978–92–3–102814–4 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09309–5 (Routledge)

Volume VI The Nineteenth Century

ISBN 978–92–3–102815–1 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09310–1 (Routledge)

Volume VII The Twentieth Century

ISBN 978–92–3–104083–2 (UNESCO)
ISBN 978–0–415–09311–8 (Routledge)

In memory of Paulo E. de Berrêdo Carneiro,

President of the first International Commission
for a Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind
(1952–1969) and of the present Commission
from 1979 to 1982
 History
of
Humanity
Scientific and Cultural Development

Volume VII
The Twentieth Century

Edited by
Sarvepalli Gopal
Sergei L. Tikhvinsky

co-edited by
I. A. Abu-Lughod G. Weinberg
I. D. Thiam W. Tao

UNESCO
Publishing
United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
First published
by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7, Place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France
and
Routledge
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Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, United Kingdom

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© UNESCO 2008

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Printed and bound in 2008 by Grafica Veneta

The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation
of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions
expressed therein, which are not necessarily those
of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.

The designations employed and the presentation of material

throughout this publication do not imply the expression of
any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning
the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of
its authorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers
or boundaries.

The International Commission for the History of the Scientific

and Cultural Development of Mankind bears intellectual
and scientific responsibility for the preparation of
this new edition.

Generic names containing the word ‘man’

should be understood to refer to both sexes of the human species.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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ISBN 978–92–3–104083-2 (UNESCO)

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 PREFACE

Koïchiro Matsuura
Director-General of UNESCO

With the publication of this seventh and final volume of the and countries, especially those that had achieved
History of Humanity, UNESCO has successfully completed independence since the end of the Second World War,
one of its earliest and most ambitious projects: the were not adequately represented.
publication of a universal work of international cooperation In 1969, the President of the International Scientific
conceived to provide ‘a wider understanding of the scientific Commission, the late Paulo E. de Berrêdo Carneiro,
and cultural aspects of the history of mankind and of the prophetically declared: ‘The day will come when that which
mutual interdependence of peoples and cultures and their we have written … will have to be replaced. I should like to
contributions to the common heritage’ (Resolution 5.7 of think that our successors will attend to this, and that a
the UNESCO General Conference at its second session, revised version of these volumes may be published at the
November 1947). dawn of a new millennium’.
It is worth emphasizing that this noble objective lies at And just a decade later, that day came. In 1980, the
the very heart of UNESCO’s founding principles of Commission recommended to the General Conference that
‘advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of the new History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of
peoples’ and ‘promoting the free flow of ideas and images’ as Mankind should not be merely a revision, but rather a
stated in the Organization’s Constitution. radical revamping of its predecessor. Thus, the new edition –
The task of ‘composing a universal history of the human later renamed the History of the Scientific and Cultural
mind from the varying stand-points of memory and Development of Humanity and commonly referred to as the
thought that characterize the different contemporary History of Humanity – would reflect new developments in
cultures’ was, indeed, a challenge for UNESCO. In the historical methodology and recent findings of historical
late 1960s – some twenty years after launching this research in all fields of study (especially emerging disciplines),
prodigious editorial project – the First International while presenting a broad and balanced picture of the
Commission, in collaboration with a distinguished team different world cultures without imposing any one
of scholars from different countries and backgrounds, gave philosophy of history or proposing any particular civilization
birth to the six-volume History of the Scientific and Cultural or period as a paradigm.
Development of Mankind. This work, which eventually With a view to responding to the demand for a
appeared in six languages, received wide praise for the high decentralization of historical viewpoints and interpretations
quality of its contributions and the originality of its and complementing the History of Humanity collection,
approach. UNESCO also decided to undertake a series of regional
However, it is common knowledge that all historiography histories reflecting the perspective of the populations
is ‘work in progress’ and, in the continuous flux of history, concerned and published in several languages to reach the
neither interpretations nor facts are set in stone. In fact, widest possible readership. Among the series are the six-
history itself has moved on, altering in the process the volume General History of the Caribbean, the six-volume
perspectives from which the past is viewed. It is therefore History of the Civilizations of Central Asia, and the General
hardly surprising that, shortly after the completion of the History of Africa, comprising eight volumes and also
first edition, both compilers and readers became aware of published in several African languages including Hausa,
the need for extensive revision owing to a number of factors, Kiswahili and Fulani. The completion of the latter series in
particularly the astonishing advance of knowledge and 1999 saw the commencement of a second phase intended to
achievements since the project’s inception, but also the extend the dissemination of this work to the greatest
increasing demand for pluralism in historical approaches. number of readers and particularly Africans. Meanwhile,
Moreover, many considered that this first edition still the international editorial teams continue their work on the
reflected, to a certain degree, the predominant Eurocentric two other regional histories: the General History of Latin
vision characteristic of the period and that certain regions America (eight of the nine volumes have been published to

v
 PREFACE

date) and The Different Aspects of Islamic Culture (three of specialists from all geocultural backgrounds working in
the six volumes have been published so far). some 85 countries who have contributed to this historic
This new approach to presenting the history of the undertaking. A project of this magnitude and complexity
development of humankind is consistent with UNESCO’s inevitably encounters its share of hurdles in the form of
ongoing commitment to enhancing awareness of cultural delays, painstaking revisions, etc. However, the intellectual
diversity and promoting pluralism in cultural exchanges. integrity and unwavering dedication and patience of all
These ambitious goals have become even more urgent in those involved in this extraordinary exercise in international
light of the dizzying pace of globalization in recent times. and intercultural collaboration have enabled us to weather
As reaffirmed by UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on the storm and achieve our objective.
Cultural Diversity, adopted by its General Conference in I am sure that readers will make known their own views
2001, ‘cultural diversity is an ethical imperative inseparable in the years to come. Of course, the Commission is well
from respect for human dignity’. aware that given the time it took to complete the project
The construction of true cultural pluralism first requires and the ever-increasing pace of scientific research, the
the abandonment of prejudices and the rise of a shared present edition might fail to take into account some of the
culture based on the acceptance of diversity. I am confident latest findings in certain fields. Such shortcomings are
that the History of Humanity will contribute towards the inevitable.
realization of these noble objectives by fostering intercultural Nevertheless, in committing this work to their scrutiny,
understanding and reinforcing the central notion of unity UNESCO and the International Commission are taking
within the diversity of the human family and the the final step in the task entrusted to them by the community
interconnectedness of progress and development in all parts of Member States represented at the General Conference.
of the world. It is my firm belief that each of us stands to benefit from this
Today, more than 25 years after the decision to create a great testimony to our common past and act of faith in our
new History of Humanity, I am very proud to present this shared future.
completed second edition, which has greatly expanded upon
the pioneering work of those dedicated scholars responsible
for the first edition. I should like in particular to express my
admiration of and deep gratitude to the members of the Koïchiro Matsuura
Second International Commission and to the 540 distinguished

vi
 contents

Preface v   7 New countries and world politics 71

Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO Iba Der Thiam, coordinator
Introduction 71
Foreword x Iba Der Thiam
Charles Morazé, former President of the 7.1 Relations between industrialized and
International Commission industrializing countries 73
Nodari A. Simonia
General introduction xvi
7.2 Africa and the new international
Georges-Henri Dumont, President of the
International Commission economic order 81
Edmond Kwam Kouassi
The International Commission xviii Conclusion 87
Series list xix Iba Der Thiam
List of plates xx   8 Women 88
List of tables xxiii Françoise Thébaud
List of figures xxiv   9 Youth 98
List of maps xxv François Dubet
The contributors xxvi 10 Older generations 103
Tampalawela Dhammaratana
Preface xxxi 11 People with disabilities 107
Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky Seamus Hegarty
12 Traditional science and knowledge in East Africa 110
Acknowledgements xxxiii Judith Mbula Bahemuka and Wellington N. Ekaya
13 Modern science and changing notions of time,
A Introduction: The twentieth century in space and matter 116
world history 3 Michel Paty, coordinator
Georges-Henri Dumont in collaboration with Michel Morange and
Christian Houzel
B Thematic section 14 Science as a system of ideas – first half of the
twentieth century 153
1 The world at the beginning of the twentieth Ludmila A. Markova
century – Crisis within imperialism 21 15 Science as the activity of acquiring knowledge –
Charles S. Maier
second half of the twentieth century 160
2 Stabilization, crisis and the Second World War 31
Ludmila A. Markova
Charles S. Maier
3 The end of empire and the transformations of 16 Medicine and public health 168
the international system 45 Jean-Charles Sournia
Charles S. Maier 17 Technology and applied sciences
4 National liberation movements and 17.1 Knowledge and practice 191
the collapse of colonialism 56 Eriabu Lugujjo
Nodari A. Simonia 17.2 Agriculture 194
5 Post-colonial problems – Former colonial powers Eriabu Lugujjo
and new states 63 17.3 The oceans – Resources and mariculture 198
Nodari A. Simonia Eriabu Lugujjo
6 Responses to post-colonial problems 67 17.4 Electronics 206
Nodari A. Simonia and Sophie Le Callennec Eriabu Lugujjo

vii
 CONTENTS

17.5 Applied astronomy and interplanetary 25.4 Culture and mass production –
space exploration 211 Cultural industries 362
Eriabu Lugujjo Elizabeth K. Jackson and Alemseghed Kebede
17.6 Materials 219 25.5 Culture and politics 366
Eriabu Lugujjo Anne Legaré
17.7 Energy sources and applications 225 25.6 Culture, the arts and society – Individual
Eriabu Lugujjo freedom and expression 370
17.8 Culture and communication – traditional Anisuzzaman
modes and new technologies 229 25.7 High culture and popular culture 377
Judith Mbula Bahemuka Theotônio dos Santos
18 The social consequences of scientific and 25.8 Culture, national cultures, cross-
technological knowledge and practice 235 culturization, acculturation and inculturation 381
Dominique Ngoïe-Ngalla Henri Madelin
19 The disciplines of the sciences of society 241 26 Literary and artistic culture 386
Peter Wagner and Björn Wittrock, coordinators 26.1 Literature 386
Introduction 241 Marc Bensimon and Astrid Guillaume
Peter Wagner and Björn Wittrock 26.2 Nationalism and internationalism
19.1 History 244 in modern art 408
Rolf Torstendahl Caroline A. Jones and John Clark
19.2 Anthropology and Ethnology 254 27 Physical culture and sport 447
Heidrun Friese Clarisse Pereira-Palhinhas
19.3 Archaeology 260 28 Education 464
Andrew Colin Renfrew Lê Thành Khôi
19.4 Demographics 264 29 Information and communication 491
Tian Xueyuan Rafael Roncagliolo, coordinator
19.5 Sociology 267 29.1 A new international information order 491
Peter Wagner José Antonio Mayobré
19.6 Economics 273 29.2 The press and the mass media 496
Rafael Roncagliolo
Claudio Sardoni
29.3.1 The world’s archives 502
19.7 Legal Sciences 281
Michel Duchein
Nicola Lacey
29.3.2 Library development 506
19.8 Political Science 285
Pamela Spence Richards
Björn Wittrock
29.3.3 The development of the world’s
19.9 Linguistics 291
museums 511
Stephen A. Wurm
Sid Ahmed Baghli
19.10 Geography 295
29.4 The information revolution – Technology,
Paul Claval methodology and industry 515
20 Applied social science – Development and Michel Cartier
consequences 299 29.5 The development of international languages 524
Hellmut Wollmann David Dalby
21 Philosophy 308 29.6 Human mobility, cultural interaction and
Ru Xin, coordinator tourism 531
in collaboration with Ye Xiushan, Teng Shouyao, Miquel de Moragas and Carles Tudurí
Jiang Yi and Zhao Tingyang 29.7 The individual and information technologies 541
22 Religious traditions 320 Jörg Becker
Jean Lambert
23 Ethics 333 C Regional Section
Peter Singer
24 Psychology 340 30 Western Europe 553
Hans Pols Pascal Ory and Dominique Pestre
25 Intellectual culture 350 31 Eastern and Central Europe 575
Anouar Abdel-Malek, coordinator Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky, coordinator
Introduction 350 Introduction 575
Anouar Abdel-Malek Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky
25.1 High cultures and dominated cultures 351 31.1 The Soviet Union and the Russian Federation 579
Gananath Obeyesekere Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky and Yuri S. Borissov
25.2 Social conditioning and the ideological 31.2 East-Central and South-East Europe 591
trend in the historical-cultural process 355 Alexander S. Stykalin, Victor A. Khorev,
Geoffrey Hawthorn František Svátek, L. Nagy, Nikolai Todorov,
25.3 The effects of science and technology and A. Chojnowski
on intellectual culture and art 358 32 North America 601
Oumar Dioume Claude Fohlen

viii
 CONTENTS

33 South and Central America and the Caribbean 630 36.1 Western thought, education and
Gregorio Weinberg, coordinator science in India 725
33.1 South and Central America 630 Aparna Basu
Gregorio Weinberg, Luis Alberto Romero 36.2 Scientific practices in India
and Germán Carrera Damas before independence 731
33.2 The Caribbean 653 Kapil Raj
Hilary McDonald Beckles 36.3 Colonialism, nationalism and the
34 West Asia and the Arab World 661 institutionalization of science in India 735
Anouar Abdel-Malek, coordinator Dhruv Raina and Syed Irfan Habib
Introduction 661 36.4 The National Movement in India and
Anouar Abdel-Malek the foundations of scientific and
34.i Iran (Islamic Republic of) 663 industrial research 740
Ali G. Dizboni Dhruv Raina and Syed Irfan Habib
34.2 Turkey 36.5 The evolution of science and technology in
34.2.1 Transformations India since independence 746
in the first half of the 20th century 666 Vissid Siddhartha
Sina AkȘin 36.6 The development of national scientific and
34.2.2 Developments industrial research 749
in the second half of the 20th century 668 36.6.1 Science and technology in Pakistan 749
Timour Muhidine Faheem Hussain
34.3 Afghanistan 670 36.6.2 Science and technology in Sri Lanka 755
Roland Gilles Susantha Goonatilake
34.4 Syria, Iraq and Lebanon 676 36.6.3 Science and technology in
Mahmoud O. Haddad South-East Asia 759
34.5 Palestine and Jordan 680 Suzanne Moon
Ali Mahafzah 36.7 Conclusion 765
34.6 The Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, Dhruv Raina and Syed Irfan Habib
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, 37 East Asia 767
Oman 684 Tao Wenzhao, coordinator
Mariam Lootah in collaboration with Yang Tianshi, Shigeru Nakayama,
34.7 Egypt 687 Gao Zengjie, Cheng Chongde, Yao Kecheng, Shen Yilin
Anouar Abdel-Malek and Bahodor Iskandorovich Iskandarov
34.8 The Sudan 691 38 Oceania 788
Saidou Kane Roy Macleod
34.9 The Maghreb – Libya, Tunisia, Algeria,
Morocco, Mauritania 694 d Conclusion 799
Saidou Kane
39 An interdependent world: achieving peace and 801
34.10 Conclusions and orientations 697 sustainable development through
Anouar Abdel-Malek international cooperation
35 Sub-Saharan Africa 700 Georges-Henri Dumont
Iba Der Thiam, coordinator in collaboration with Sergei L. Tikhvinsky,
in collaboration with J. F. Ade-Ajayi, Lameck Gregorio Weinberg and Tao Wenzhao
K. H. Goma, Thierno Bah, Joseph-Roger de Benoist,
Pierre Kipré, Elisée Coulibaly, Penda M’Bow, Chronological table 805
G. B. Ogunmola and Arlindo Gonçalo Chilundo
36 South and South-East Asia 722 Index 851
Dhruv Raina and Syed Irfan Habib, coordinators
Introduction 722
Dhruv Raina and Syed Irfan Habib

ix
 foreword

Charles Morazé
former President of the International Commission

Among the great tasks assigned to UNESCO by the underscored the major role that historians would play in the
Constitution is the duty to promote and encourage realization of what he called a ‘gigantic enterprise’. Huxley
mutual knowledge and understanding throughout the later outlined a project that was to be submitted to the
world. While many of the divergences that divide people future UNESCO. In 1950, in accordance with the resolution
date from a distant past, an analysis of their historical passed by the General Conference of UNESCO, an
antecedents discloses links which draw them nearer to International Commission was set up and the publication
one another, brings light to their contributions to a of a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of
common patrimony of humanity, reveals the ebb and Mankind (in six volumes) was approved. The first volume
flow of cultural exchanges and emphasizes their increasing appeared in 1963.
tendency to become integrated into an international How was this ‘gigantic enterprise’, conceived by Huxley,
community. judged? In most cases, the volumes were not well received
by critics. They did not question the data included. Rather,
So wrote Paulo E. de Berrêdo Carneiro, president of the they mainly objected to the criteria for the selection of data
International Commission (1952–69) in the opening and the interpretations advanced. Yet a closer look at these
paragraph of the preface to the History of the Scientific and criticisms revealed that, skilled as they were at pointing out
Cultural Development of Mankind in 1963. Today, it would certain flaws and misconceptions, these commentators
be difficult to say anything about humanity’s ‘increasing hardly proposed concrete suggestions that would improve
tendency to become integrated into an international the work in the future. On the whole, however, we were left
community’, unless an attempt were made to assess the with the impression that, notwithstanding its shortcomings,
outcome of this ‘tendency’ as reflected in the current state of a very large number of readers found the work commendable,
the world. Today, few events remain local. Information on particularly as a first step towards achieving an ‘essential
any major or minor occurrence is communicated to task’.
seemingly almost everyone immediately, and an action No elucidation – rational or otherwise – of the origins or
undertaken in one part of the world inevitably has global the evolution of humankind can be offered once and for all,
repercussions. Those who experience this ‘planetarization’ as if by divine revelation. Writing a history of the
sense the ‘integration’ of all human beings into an development of humankind necessarily constitutes an
international community less as a ‘tendency’ than as a fait undertaking that one has to return to over and over again.
accompli. But what about the vast excluded majority of Nearly thirty years passed before UNESCO decided to
people, who pose the question in completely different terms. resume an enterprise that could by no means be regarded as
What they seem to ask is: can a ‘common patrimony of finished. Requested by the new Member States, a recasting
humanity’ be achieved solely through an integration based of the first edition deserved the wholehearted support of all
on scientific and technical developments? What then can those who helped establish the Organization. The changes
we do to ensure an equal access to such means for all, when that had taken place since the project’s inception rendered
the more fundamental task of reducing existing differences necessary and amply justified a revision and re-evaluation of
in the very standards of living lags far behind? history, and the members of the International Commission
The idea of writing a history of the development of were the first to acknowledge such a need. There were, of
humankind was first put forward by Julian Huxley, the course, other and more imperative reasons. Two of these
executive secretary of the Preparatory Commission of should be pointed out here.
UNESCO. In 1946, Huxley wrote that ‘the chief task The first concerns developments in the area of research
before the Humanities today would seem to be to help in methodology. Since the 1960s, historical knowledge has
constructing a history of the development of the human increased considerably and has turned from factual history
mind, notably in its highest cultural achievements’. He to a greater interest in anthropological research. The added

x
 FOREWORD

insight offered by present studies – however imperfect they had to be abandoned. Some thirty years later, the New
may be – deserves to be transmitted to a larger public. The Commission decided to take more time over the distribution
second and perhaps less obvious reason derives from the of the work to be included in seven, rather than six, volumes.
role that the writing of history can, and should, play in Moreover, each volume would be coordinated with the
increasing our level of awareness. Writing, or as in the others and as many authors as necessary would be called
present case, rewriting the history of human scientific and upon to cover a wide range of fields. The selection of the
cultural evolution requires not only taking stock of the new criteria on which the new history would be based first led to
data available, but also helping to evaluate and assess the a detailed examination of the comments made by the readers
various implications – positive as well as negative – of all of the first edition. After much debate, all agreed that it
changes that have occurred. Justifying science in the name would not be satisfactory to simply juxtapose a series of
of all its benefits and advantages amounts to refusing to regional histories. One of two possible solutions had to be
accept the damaging effects it can have. We have gradually chosen: dividing history either into themes or into periods
become accustomed to the presence of many latent nuclear and analysing each according to themes and regions. The
volcanoes without compensating for the technological risks. first option – an idea that had already been put forward
Not enough has been done to counterbalance the excessive before 1948 – would perhaps have helped bring out in a
monetary investments needed to build up such arsenals more significant manner the factors that render manifest
with sufficient funds to help confront the problems afflicting the common destiny of humankind. But the state of
certain segments of humanity. Technological development historical research at that time, which in most cases and
has also begun to seriously endanger animal and plant life owing to an ever-increasing acquisition of skills proceeded
on our planet. Factors such as these remind us of the need in the form of temporal as well as regional specializations,
for greater vigilance. constituted a real obstacle to the realization of such a
Universal histories and histories of the world abound. scheme. It was therefore decided that each of the seven
So many have been published and continue to be published volumes would be devoted to a single period and would
that one could question the need to produce yet another contain a thematic and regional section.
one. No doubt many readers will be surprised at this Yielding to the constraints imposed by the state of
venture. Each in his own way will of course judge the knowledge and research did not, however, solve all problems.
relative value of this new edition. There is, however, one The idea of splitting the past into defined periods pleased
major difference: other works of history enjoy a certain no one, since most historians tend to view it as an organic
freedom that has in a sense been denied to the present one. whole. But, taking everything into consideration, had the
They are free to choose themes, periods and regions that objective been to separate one cultural component from
best suit the demands of a particular readership and a another or, for example, the physical from the cultural or
specific conception of history. Such works can thereby the religious from the profane, this act of surgery would
claim a certain cohesiveness, which also helps establish a have turned into an exercise in vivisection. Opting for the
certain uniformity of expression and style. The present lesser evil, the Commission thus decided to proceed by
work has been founded on an entirely different principle: chronological sections. This, at least, allowed for the
the greatest possible diversity. This diversity proved to be, preservation of a certain unity within each group.
on the one hand, so great that it is difficult to stop it from Already in the 1950s, it had become evident that the
becoming disparate and, on the other hand, not great form of periodization upheld by the European tradition
enough to allow for a convenient regrouping of elements loses its meaning when applied to the other parts of the
into types. The fault lies not in the venture itself or in those world. Terms such as ‘antiquity’, ‘the Middle Ages’ or
who took up the task. It lies mainly in the present state of ‘modern times’ have little significance insofar as Asia is
historical knowledge. The analytic nature of historical concerned, and perhaps even less for Africa. Admittedly, we
research today blocks the way to synthesis and to the kind continue using such terms for the sake of convenience. We
of approach required in the writing of history that can be cannot totally discard them, but we should try at least not
considered truly universal. to trust them fully.
This work can serve only as a history of the world and The importance of each period is measured more in terms
not as a universal history. This, of course, is already a of what humankind has contributed to each than in terms of
considerable achievement. We should not count on the a duration defined by astronomy. The ‘Great Discoveries’ of
diffusion of universalism, which is the subject of inquiry by the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries led to some
a very small, privileged minority, as long as all cultures are spectacular changes in the history of the world. A sudden
not equally represented and historians from all parts of the growth of ideas and of commercial capitalism accompanied
world are not endowed with the same means and cannot by or resulting from military conquest gave rise to migrations
claim the same status, social and otherwise. that brought about the creation of a new map of the world
Not claiming to attain the unattainable does not, and new conceptions of humanity’s destiny. This moment
however, mean renunciation. The roads to universalism are marks a turning point that we have ever since perceived as an
full of twists and turns. But, they all lead to the same acceleration of history. It was, therefore, decided that three
destination; one history for one united world. Since this volumes of the present work would be devoted to the period
history could not reach the highest common factor, it had following these significant changes and transformations,
to tend towards the lowest common multiple. And in this while four volumes would cover the entire preceding period,
respect, the present work has not failed in its mission. starting from the origins of humankind and leading up to the
In 1950, we elaborated in three days a plan that would sixteenth century. The Commission also decided to devote an
take eighteen years to complete. With a view to ensuring increasing number of pages to recent years. The fifth volume
unity of style and presentation, we decided that each of the thus covers three centuries; the sixth, one and a half, while the
six volumes should be written by a single author. Such ideas seventh spans a single century.

xi
 FOREWORD

A word of caution is, however, in order. We often make human evolution: (1) the use of materials and tools
use of a concept of progress that is based on the quantitative accompanied by the emergence of cultures; (2) the moulding
and not the qualitative value of achievements. Manufactured of a geopolitics or a geo-culture signalled by the appearance
goods, consumer items and exchanges, whether they concern of major works of all kinds, all of which were to be of lasting
concrete objects or ideas, can be more or less quantified. value; (3) partitive convulsions that forced in advance the
But, as we do not posses any means of measuring happiness distinction of cultural identities through the play of mutual
or well-being, we cannot infer from this that the quantitative influences; (4) conceptions resulting from a closed human
and the qualitative value of this progress is the same, universe whose planetary course lies within a limitless space;
particularly insofar as the world in general is concerned. and (5) the intensification of centres of development under
Moreover, this notion of progress should not hinder a the pressure of a form of capitalism that has become
proper appraisal of all that was contributed to history by industrial and an industry that is becoming scientific. The
our ancestors, to whom we owe our existence and our way seventh volume will thus deal with the issue of these new
of living. currents and the tidal waves that they provoke: facets that
Great care was taken to avoid placing undue emphasis on lead to the birth of a new type of polarization and as a result
what could be considered the European landmarks of of which traditional cultures fall into abeyance.
history. The years 1789 and 1914, although highly significant Such bird’s-eye views as those offered here are not
in the history of Europe, served only nominally as points of misleading because they are crude; they seem questionable
reference. It was understood that, depending on the case, because they escape our sight when we remain too close to
the ethnocentrism implied by these dates would be reduced the ordinary facts, and in this regard we mainly confront the
as much as necessary through a proper and adequate limitations of our methods of research. No one is unaware
treatment of the issues preceding or following them. of the difficulties inherent in all attempts to provide a
Similarly, to avoid falling into the traps of Western synthetic view of humankind’s common destiny. There is no
traditionalism, it was considered necessary to cease using answer to these difficulties from which the present
the Christianization of the Roman Empire as a mark of the subdivision of each volume into themes and regions suffers
end of the Ancient World and the beginning of the Hegira, – into themes that highlight the shared characteristics of all
in the third volume, which covers the period from 700 bc to human beings, and into regions to underline human
ad 700 , the middle of which comes before the beginning of diversity.
the era acknowledged – belatedly – also by Muslims. In each volume, the thematic parts should have been the
The Commission’s choice does not conflict greatly with easiest to work out. Several problems were, however,
the Chinese system of dating, because around the same encountered. In order to ensure that the cultures that
epoch the same phenomenon appeared in both the east and benefit from the spectacular development we witness today
west of Eurasia: the awakening of tribes in these Central- were not favoured beyond measure, it was considered
Asian steppes, who until then had been restricted to a necessary to reduce the importance granted to theoretical
disorderly, Brownian form of movement of particular innovations and their applications and therefore to refrain
groups, and who henceforth united and set off to conquer from using scientific discoveries as chronological pointers.
the largest empire the world has ever known. Events such as Had this not been the case, the distribution of themes
this draw our attention to the advantages of following a would have been a simple matter. It would have sufficed to
calendar determined not by the permanent aspects of the begin with a survey of the scientific and technical knowledge
planets but by climatic variations. Indeed, the Mongols acquired over a given period of time, and then to retrace the
would not have reached such a degree of power had the causes in their sequential order.
climate not favoured the humidification of the pasturelands Just as it was necessary to tone down the privileges
that nourished their horses. However, it will be a while conferred on some by the process of evolution – and, more
before a calendar based on climatic variations is available. particularly, to question a system of values rooted in an
We still lack information on some vital factors: the overly univocal notion of progress – it also was necessary to
evaluation of harvests, the extension or the regression of standardize the distribution of themes by including more
lacustrine and forest areas, phytographical analyses, and so ‘ordinary’ references: for example, by starting with a
on. Only when we have obtained such necessary data can we description of the physical and natural conditions in order
think of establishing a new type of periodization that can be to arrive at the scientific through the demographic and the
verified through meteorological calculations extrapolating cultural. This not only enhanced the uniformity of the
and applying to the past our present conjectures about the volumes but also offered the major advantage of emphasizing
influence of solar explosions on the atmosphere. ways of living. Whatever these are, they must first satisfy
The period to be treated in Volume IV was therefore set the basic physiological needs – a vital minimum dictated by
by the end of Volume III (the seventh century ad) and the the instincts of survival and rendered partially relative by
beginning (the sixteenth century ad) of Volume V. the differences of climate. Each culture responds to this in
Volumes I and II have been devoted to the many thousands its own manner, and accords as much to its natural
of years constituting the origins of humanity. The richness environment as to the habits that it inherits. Certain
of the new data at our disposal made it necessary to treat acquired needs are then added to this vital minimum –
separately the period extending from the third millennium superfluous needs become necessary and established in
to the beginning of the seventh century bc. varying degree according to the social hierarchies and
The division into seven volumes was dictated by a geohistorical differences. Moreover, as human beings are
combination of factors ranging from the abstract to the not only biological but also thinking and feeling entities,
practical – including ensuring the more or less equal size of each material culture is accompanied by a culture that can
the volumes – in keeping with historical facts. Beyond all be called ‘spiritual’ in the widest sense of the term, and that
specific differences, five principal stages can be recorded in also varies according to the situation. Finally, even though

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 FOREWORD

the conditions are not identical, material culture and original sense of the word, ‘science’ means knowledge, with
spiritual culture are interrelated. no distinction implied between knowledge and know-how.
This enunciation of the common grounds on which all Today this word has taken on such a specific meaning that,
human lives are established stands to reason and would for a vast majority of the most highly informed minds,
seem evident to any lay person. It could also, however, lead science denotes truth, as opposed to the falsity of myth. Yet,
us to think that it is easy to find historians ready to develop many eminent scholars acknowledge that this ‘truth’
each theme. The present state of historical knowledge proves contains a part of myth and that it is indeed thanks to this
that this is not so and, as always, for the same reason. that methods and knowledge advance. It is by working
Insignificant as this problem may be, the solution lies in within the mythological that we reduce the part of myths,
abandoning analytical methods and adopting a synthetical elements of which always survive in the very heart of
approach. science.
Undoubtedly, current research and investigations help The barriers that have been most resolutely built against
us in our evaluation of material and spiritual cultures, but the ‘intelligence’ of history have their sources in the gradual
separately. We are completely ignorant about the formation of separate enclaves of investigation. Social,
interconnections between the two. Where does this economic, political, literary history and so on – each domain
notorious deficiency come from? Two main causes can be follows its worn path and rarely meets the other, or never
advanced. enough to allow for the establishment of criteria common
The first concerns the elaboration of a global history. to all that could constitute the basis for a truly universal
Indeed, when it comes to local or regional histories, each history of scientific and cultural development. The worst
confined to a particular epoch, the data we possess helps us form of such separation can be found in the cosmic distance
either to deal with some of the problems or to contribute by that has been introduced between the history of religion
offering some information. But when one problem or and that of science, and this in spite of some highly
another needs to be looked at from a global point of view, remarkable, though rare, attempts to make them move
we confront a major dilemma: which elements of the towards each other via the social and the philosophical
available data should be included in an inventory of an domains. No significant results should be expected until the
absolutely common heritage? In other words, which gaps between ordinary language and scientific language are
advances made at one place or another, or at one point of bridged, particularly when the latter makes use of
time or another, effectively contributed to what can be called mathematical terms so fully exploited by the initiated few
‘general progress’? The workshops of historians can boast of and so inaccessible to the secular masses.
few (if any) historians who specialize in the evaluation of This brings us back to the question of the limitations of
‘generalities’! When the need for one arises, then it must be this edition referred to earlier: limitations concerning the
admitted that the courageous few who undertake such a basic logical presuppositions on which a truly universal
task suffer from the absence of sufficient information and history of humankind should be founded. It is only on the
are compelled to work in conditions that make their basis of certain common features that one culture can
achievements all the more admirable but considerably curb comprehend something that is part of another culture and
their influence. that the people of today can understand a little of what lies
This first cause leads to the second: the absence of criteria in the past. But then, given the present state of our knowledge
that would make it possible to distinguish effectively the and the manner in which the basic logical presuppositions
subjective from the objective, as much in the work are handled, our history will remain beyond the reach of the
accomplished as in the reputations won. Here we touch general public – however enlightened – for which it is
upon an issue that is too important to dismiss without intended.
further discussion. Nonetheless, a certain merit – perhaps less significant
Studies on primitive or savage societies, particularly than hoped for – makes this second edition worthy of our
those conducted since the mid-twentieth century, carried attention. By eliminating the notion that the cultures
anthropology to a high degree of what must be called the rendered marginal by ‘progress’ represent groups of people
‘intelligence’ of cultures. In these societies, myth plays a ‘without history’, the study of cultures wherein myth is
fundamental role. It legitimizes matrimonial and social dispersed among all kinds of domains could only gain from
behaviour as well as customs and ways of living – the way the experience of those whose lives are, even today, steeped
one eats, dresses and organizes one’s life inside and outside in a mythology that they all consider fundamental. We have
the dwelling. In an even more significant manner, it not yet reached our goal, but the step taken marks a definite
legitimizes one’s spiritual behaviour as much in times of war improvement in terms of our understanding of history.
as in peace. This global aspect of myth itself leads us to the And, as readers will discover, it is this aspect of the thematic
heights from which, at a glance, we can view not only the part of each volume that makes this work truly exceptional.
various behaviours as a whole, but also the very logic that We now come to the question of the treatment of regions
sustains them. in each volume. To begin with, let us look at a major
Historical evolution disperses myth, without, however, ambiguity that threatened the very conception of these
abolishing the mythological function. It provokes the sections. An example will suffice. To which region does
growth of branches and favours ramifications. What had Newton belong? To Cambridge? England? Europe? The
developed thanks to myth, religion and literature (moral West? The world? There is no doubt that the universality of
and political), art and technique breaks up later into more his law of gravitation makes him a part of the common
and more subdivided areas of knowledge: differentiations heritage of humanity. Yet, undoubtedly this law discovered
that lead to the belief that the logic of myth or of the sacred by a particular man, at a particular place and point of time,
is challenged by that of ‘Science’, a word that obstructs more would seem to have miraculously descended from the skies
than all others what we term historical intelligence. In the if we did not take into account the facts of the discovery, the

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 FOREWORD

circumstances leading to it and the manner in which the law for example, the commerce or the conquests in ancient
was adopted by all. Should we have then talked about times across the deserts of Sinai appear as manifestations of
Newton in one way in the thematic chapter and in another the hostilities existing between Africa and Asia. This
in the regional? Although the difficulties involved in solving distinction between the two continents becomes nonsensical
such a problem are great, they turn out to be less so when when applied to the period when Egypt did not consider
confronted with yet another problem that would have itself as African, Assyrian or Asian. Each region perceived
resulted from any attempt to merge the two parts into one; itself first as constituting the whole universe or as
for, in that case, the question would have been, ‘which one?’ representing the whole universe as defined by its own gods.
A fusion of all into the regional would, to a great extent, We must be aware of the dangers of accepting such ideas,
have simplified the task, given that we are dealing with which still survive in the unconscious, for they may affect
specializations in different fields. But it would have led to our conscious minds and foster notions of rights and
the very unpleasant need to emphasize the merits of one privileges detrimental to the development of universalism.
culture at the cost of the others. A fusion of all into the The need to determine the number of pages to be devoted
thematic? In that case, Newton’s law would have been to each ‘contingent’ arose from certain customs that,
stripped of its socio-cultural characteristics and this would although anachronistic, sometimes generate very strong
have led to some kind of sanctification of the ‘genius’. opinions and influence our decision. It also arose from the
Needless to say, our observations concerning Newton apply fact that the distrust of ethnocentrism expressed itself in
to all thinkers and discoverers and to all that humankind terms that were very ethnocentric. Including Cro-Magnon
has created. man in an inventory of ‘European’ sites amounts to
Some readers will perhaps regret the fact that this history, attributing to him a label that contradicts all that was felt in
whose dominant note is certainly transcultural, does not times when existence could not be conceived of except in
succeed better in overcoming certain problems resulting from terms very different from those related to our planetary
habits and preconceived notions. We all talk about ‘Asia’ and territoriality. Similarly, the concept of Africa was itself
‘Europe’. Originally, these were names given to Greek foreign to the African empires of kingdoms, each constituting
nymphs and, together with Africa, were used to distinguish for itself a world in itself and, at the same time, a work that
the three principal, cardinal points of the world perceived by belongs to all. Readers will understand such imperfections,
the Mediterranean navigators: the east, the north and the, which have resulted from a need to adopt a pragmatic
south respectively. As for the continent of America, its name approach.
was curiously given to it by a cartographer who, while Applying modern notions of geography to any period of
outlining a map of this continent, used the information the past relieves us of the dizziness felt when we look down
supplied to him by Amerigo Vespucci. In the case of the into the immense depths of time, yet it is in these depths that
nymphs as well as in that of the cartographer, we can no cultural but also natural interactions, direct or indirect,
longer distinguish the subjective from the objective. What multiplied: a swarming mass much too indecipherable to
was in fact a very subjective decision in the first place now allow for the delineation of linear ancestry. Physical evolution
appears to be very objective because it is commonly accepted leads perhaps to the formation of races, but as the human
by everyone. We cannot change something that has been so species can be known through its customs, faculties and
firmly established over the years, but the often very serious cerebral activities, this privilege common to all reduces
problems and disadvantages that result from the practically to nothing the particularisms that some – not
ethnocentrism implied by such customs need to be pointed always disinterested – viewpoints defined formerly as racial.
out. The human species cannot really be differentiated except
Depending on the epochs, Egypt is at times best as ethnic groups and through customs that defy any
understood when considered as African and at others when simplistic typology. A strong capacity for adaptation,
its civilization is regarded as having acquired much of its peculiar to humans, enables them to invent a practically
significance from a dual Nile-Euphrates identity. Similarly, limitless number of solutions to the problems posed by all
instead of remaining Mediterranean, southern Europe kinds of environments, and even more so by circumstances
became continental when the centre of gravity of exchanges that the smallest events modify and great events transform
and developments shifted to the Atlantic. China constitutes altogether. In this lies the most amazing aspect of history:
another example. This Middle Kingdom felt the effects of the infinite variety of answers that each individual or
the existence of other continental regions when its Great collectivity finds to the questions put to it by destiny. The
Wall no longer protected it from the conquerors it later more history accelerates its pace and becomes more specific,
tried to assimilate, or when it yielded perhaps for too long a the more our destiny becomes enigmatic. This is because
period, to the attack of the seamen and naval forces coming every human being is a human being, and no single one
from the other end of the world, that is, from Europe. resembles another.
Geographical perspectives change from one era to The demise of the colonialists who believed or claimed to
another. But it is difficult to incorporate such changes and be the civilizers of this world led to the birth of many new
align them with the periodization adopted for a publication nations and many new member states of international
devoted to history. Those responsible for planning the seven organizations. ‘New’ in what sense? The establishment of a
volumes had to devise the ways and means of solving such ‘new World Order’ is bound to remain a utopian idea as
problems. At times, they had to resort to certain subterfuges long as history has not explained how a local body of
so as to prevent the periodization from turning into some historical cultures finally engendered what it has over the
kind of a jigsaw puzzle and requiring frequent rearrangement. centuries referred to as ‘civilization’: a world full of
This entailed, however, the risk of introducing certain contradictions. Intended as universal and respectful to other
anachronisms. cultures, this civilization has turned out to be materialist
Such risks are in no way negligible. To a modern mind, and destroyed many cultures as a result of the superiority

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 FOREWORD

that it attributed to its own system of laws and rights. Two the world has reached this convergent point, we are obliged
challenging tasks thus face historians: acknowledging the to give up the idea of showing the divergences that future
universalism that lies hidden beneath all particularisms and historians will have to face. We have, however, provided
agreeing among themselves on what should be made notes at the end of articles, which have been written so as to
generally known in this respect. ensure maximum diversity and the broadest possible
An elucidation of the past requires personal as well as participation. A certain degree of arbitrariness persists, of
collective efforts. This twofold process should have found course. But this is unavoidable as long as the excesses that
spontaneous expression in a work meant to aid the analyses lead to are not minimized through the elaboration
advancement of knowledge. The Commission recommended of syntheses based on criteria derived from irrefutable
therefore that, in addition to the thematic and regional parts, logical presuppositions – presuppositions that help
a third part be added that would have comprised specific establish universal certitudes. Let us not forget, however,
supplements on details that needed developing, problems that innovations originate only within the gaps of
that needed solving, and finally a presentation of different certitude.
and opposing opinions on interpretations in dispute. This One of the merits of this work resides in the fact that it
project met with overwhelming difficulties, and some has succeeded in enlisting the collaboration of a very large
explanation is called for. number of people, representing a large number of regions
This international history, which had been conceived as and cultures. The Commission also encouraged the
a result of dialogues and discussions, would evidently have formation of local working groups responsible for
gained considerably from a presentation of the differences obtaining and organizing the data to be included in the
in interpretation in their proper dimensions. It would have various chapters. This present work marks perhaps only
been more lively and instructive and have given readers the beginning of such collective efforts. Nevertheless, it
more food for thought. Unfortunately, the dispersion of enables us to anticipate satisfactory results. Knowing
authors to be included and chosen from the whole world oneself well in order to make oneself better known
demanded means and time that were unavailable. The constitutes a major contribution to mutual understanding.
editors, who had already undertaken a tremendous amount In this respect, historical research resembles an unearthing
of work, could not have successfully completed this of unconscious phenomena. It brings to light that which
additional task without assistance, in particular from in the nocturnal depths of individual or collective existences
specifically chosen committees. Taking into account the gives them life, so to speak, in spite of themselves or against
costs of travel and accommodation, the already high cost of their will.
the operation would have nearly doubled. No doubt a day This publication will no doubt give rise to much criticism.
will come when, debates on themes and regions being easier Even if these critical responses turn out to be harsh, they
than they are now, it will be possible to expound history as will justify the project, whose main objective is to arouse us
it is revealed by a confrontation of knowledge and viewpoints from our dogmatic slumber. Historical events take care of
on particular questions concerning all humanity. this much more efficiently, but at a much higher price.
Until the state of knowledge and of historical research in

xv
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Georges-Henri Dumont
President of the International Commission

Societies are making greater demands than ever on history, continue to increase, bringing profound changes to the
but urgent as they might be, these demands by various face of the world.
groups are not altogether straightforward. Some societies It scarcely needs saying that the task laid upon the
look to historians to define their identity, to buttress the International Scientific Commission, under the
development of their specific characteristics or even to chairmanship of the late Paulo E. de Berrêdo Carneiro and
present and analyse the past as confirming a founding myth. then of my eminent predecessor, Professor Charles Morazé,
Conversely, other societies, influenced both by the Annales was both enormous and difficult.
school of historiography and by the geographical, First of all, international teams had to be formed, as
chronological and thematic enlargement of history, aspire balanced as possible, and cooperation and dialogue organized
to the building of bridges, the ending of self-isolation and between the different views of the major collective stages in
the smoothing out of the lack of continuity that is the lives of people, but without disregarding the cultural
characteristic of the short term. identity of human groups.
In 1946, those attending the meeting of the first Next, attention had to be given to changes in chronological
Preparatory Commission of UNESCO agreed that it was scale by attempting a scientific reconstruction of the
part of the fundamental mission of the United Nations successive stages of the peopling of our planet, including the
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to lay the spread of animal populations.
foundations for a collective memory of humanity and of all Lastly, steps had to be taken to ensure that traditional
its parts, spread all over the world and expressed in every methods of historical research, based on written sources,
civilization. The International Scientific Commission came were used side by side with new critical methods adapted to
into being four years later with the apparently gigantic task the use of oral sources and contributions from archaeology,
of drafting a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development in Africa for the most part.
of Mankind. Publication of the six volumes began in 1963, To quote what Professor Jean Devisse said at a
marking the successful conclusion of an international symposium in Nice in 1986 on ‘Being a Historian Today’:
endeavour without parallel, but not without risks. Success ‘If we accept that the history of other people has something
with the general public was immediate and lasting, to teach us, there can be no infallible model, no immutable
notwithstanding the reservations expressed by the critics, methodological certainty: listening to each other can lead to
who often found certain choices disconcerting but who a genuine universal history’.
were not consistent in the choices and interpretations they Although historians must be guided by a desire for
proposed as alternatives. intellectual honesty, they depend on their own views of
Considering the amount of time required to prepare it, things, with the result that history is the science most
the first edition of the History must be seen as a daring vulnerable to ideologies. The fall of the Berlin Wall a
achievement. Although it had a number of faults inherent few weeks after I assumed the presidency of the
in the very nature of historical knowledge, it nonetheless International Commission symbolized the end of a
opened up new avenues and encouraged further progress. particularly burdensome ideological division.
In 1978, the General Conference of UNESCO decided In a way, the impact of ideologies will be lessened by the
to embark on a new and completely revised edition of the fact that the chief editors of each volume have sought the
History because it realized that along with the considerable invaluable cooperation not only of experienced historians
development of historiography – the improvement in but also of renowned specialists in disciplines such as law,
what are called its auxiliary sciences and its growing links art, philosophy, literature, oral traditions, the natural
with the social sciences – there was an extraordinary sciences, medicine, anthropology, mathematics and
acceleration of day-to-day history. What it did not know, economics. In any event, this interdisciplinarity, which
however, was that the pace of this acceleration would helps avoid error, is undoubtedly one of the major

xvi
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

improvements of this second edition of the History of described and explained the structure of each of the volumes,
Humanity over the previous edition. with a thematic chapter, a regional chapter and annexes.
Another problem faced was that of periodization. It was This structure, too, may be modified so as not to upset the
out of the question to systematically adopt the periodization complementarity of the pieces of the mosaic.
long in use in European history – i.e., Antiquity, the Middle Having completed their work, the International Scientific
Ages, and modern times – because it is now being extensively Commission, the chief editors of the volumes and the very
called into question and also, above all, because it would large number of contributors will now be able to adopt as
have led to a Eurocentric view of world history, a view whose their motto the frequently quoted saying of the philosopher
absurdity is now quite obvious. The seven volumes are thus Etienne Gilson:
arranged in the following chronological order:
We do not study history to get rid of it but to save from
Volume I Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization nothingness all the past which, without history, would
Volume II From the Third Millennium to the Seventh vanish into the void. We study history so that what,
Century bc without it, would not even be the past any more, may be
Volume III From the Seventh Century bc to the Seventh reborn to life in this unique present outside which
Century ad nothing exists.
Volume IV From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century
Volume V From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century This present will be all the more unique because history
Volume VI The Nineteenth Century will have shown itself to be not an instrument for legitimizing
Volume VII The Twentieth Century exacerbated forms of nationalism, but an instrument, ever
more effective because ever more perfectible, for ensuring
It must be stated at once that this somewhat surgical mutual respect, solidarity and the scientific and cultural
distribution is in no way absolute or binding. It will in no interdependence of humanity.
way prevent the overlapping that there must be at the turn
of each century if breaks in continuity and the resulting
errors of perspective are to be avoided.
In his foreword, Professor Charles Morazé has clearly

xvii
 T he I nternational
C ommission
for the New Edition of the History of the
Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind

President: G.-H. Dumont (Belgium)

Members of the International Commission: E. Mendelsohn (United States of America)

I. A. Abu-Lughod (Palestine) (deceased) E. M’Bokolo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
A. R. al-Ansary (Saudi Arabia) J. H. Kwabena N’Ketia (Ghana)
J. Bony (Côte d’Ivoire) T. Obenga (Congo)
E. K. Brathwaite (Barbados) B. A. Ogot (Kenya)
G. Carrera-Damas (Venezuela) Pang Pu (China)
A. H. Dani (Pakistan) W. Sauerlander (Germany)
D. Denoon (Australia) B. Schroeder-Gudehus (Mrs) (Canada)
M. Garasanin (Former Yugoslavia, Fed. Rep. of) R. Thapar (Mrs) (India)
T. Haga (Japan) I. D. Thiam (Senegal)
I. D. Thiam (Senegal) K. V. Thomas (United Kingdom)
F. Iglesias (Brazil) (deceased) S. L. Tikhvinsky (Russian Federation)
H. Inalcik and S. Akşin (Turkey) N. Todorov (Bulgaria) (deceased)
S. Kartodirdjo (Indonesia) G. Weinberg (Argentina)
J. Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso) M. Yardeni (Mrs) (Israel)
C. Martinez-Shaw (Spain) E. Zürcher (The Netherlands)

Bureau of the International Commission

A. R. al-Ansary (Saudi Arabia) R. Thapar (Mrs) (India)
E. K. Brathwaite (Barbados) I. D. Thiam (Senegal)
G. Carrera-Damas (Venezuela) K. V. Thomas (United Kingdom)
A. H. Dani (Pakistan) S. L. Tikhvinsky (Russian Federation)
E. Mendelsohn (United States of America) N. Todorov (Bulgaria) (deceased)

Former Members
E. Condurachi (Romania) (deceased) M. Kably (Morocco)
G. Daws (Australia) H. Nakamura (Japan)
C. A. Diop (Senegal) (deceased) J. Prawer (Israel) (deceased)
A. A. Kamel (Egypt) (deceased) S. Zavala (Mexico) (deceased)

Honorary Members Former Presidents

S. A. al-Ali (Iraq) P. E. B. Carneiro (Brazil) (deceased)
P. J. Riis (Denmark) C. Morazé (France) (deceased)
T. Yamamoto (Japan)

Secretariat (UNESCO)
K. Stenou (Mrs), Director, Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue
A. Moussa Iye, Chief, Section of Intercultural Dialogue
R. Lo Giudice, Programme Specialist
K. Touré (Ms), Secretary

xviii
 H istory of H umanity
S cientific and C ultural
D evelopment
in seven volumes

Volume I Co-Editors: M. S. Asimov (Tajikistan) (deceased)

Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization P. Gendrop (Mexico) (deceased)
A. Gieysztor (Poland) (deceased)
Editor: S. J. De Laet (Belgium) (deceased) I. Habib (India)
Co-Editors: A. H. Dani (Pakistan) Y. Karayannopoulos (Greece)
J. L. Lorenzo (Mexico) (deceased) J. Litvak King/P. Schmidt (Mexico)
R. B. Nunoo (Ghana)
Volume V
Volume II From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century
From the Third Millennium to the Seventh Century bc
Editors: P. Burke (United Kingdom)
Editors: A. H. Dani (Pakistan) H. Inalcik (Turkey)
J.-P. Mohen (France) Co-Editors: I. Habib (India)
Co-Editors: C. A. Diop (Senegal) (deceased) J. Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso)
J. L. Lorenzo (Mexico) (deceased) T. Kusamitsu (Japan)
V. M. Masson (Russian Federation) C. Martínez Shaw (Spain)
T. Obenga (Congo) E. Tchernjak (Russian Federation)
M. B. Sakellariou (Greece) E. Trabulse (Mexico)
B. K. Thapar (India) (deceased)
Xia Nai (China) (deceased) Volume VI
Zhang Changshou (China) The Nineteenth Century

Volume III Editors: P. Mathias (United Kingdom)

From the Seventh Century bc to the Seventh Century ad N. Todorov (Bulgaria) (deceased)
Co-Editors: S. al Mujahid (Pakistan)
Editors: E. Condurachi (Romania) (deceased) A. O. Chubariyan (Russian Federation)
J. Herrmann (Germany) F. Iglesias (Brazil) (deceased)
E. Zürcher (The Netherlands) Shu-li Ji (China)
Co-Editors: J. Harmatta (Hungary) I. D. Thiam (Senegal)
J. Litvak King (Mexico)
R. Lonis (France) Volume VII
T. Obenga (Congo) The Twentieth Century
R. Tapar (Ms) (India)
Zhou Yiliang (China) Editors: S. Gopal (India) (deceased)
S. L. Tikhvinsky (Russian Federation)
Volume IV Co-Editors: I. A. Abu-Lughod (Palestinian Authority)
From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century (deceased)
I. D. Thiam (Senegal)
Editors: M. A. al-Bakhit (Jordan) G. Weinberg (Argentina)
L. Bazin (France) (deceased) Tao Wenzhao (China)
S. M. Cissoko (Mali)
A. A. Kamel (Egypt) (deceased)

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 L I S T O F plat E S

  1. Portrait of Lenin, by Isaak Brodsky, 1930, 28. Japanese Emperor Hirohito in coronation robes, 1928
facsimile 29. Adolf Hitler in Dortmund, Germany
  2. Rosa Luxemburg, with the leadership of Germany’s 30. Spanish general and dictator Francisco Franco
Independent Socialist Democratic Party   31. German troops entering Warsaw, 1939
  3. A New Yorker down on his luck after the 1929 Wall 32. French President Charles de Gaulle in Algeria, 1958
Street crash 33. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta
  4. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December Conference, February 1945
1941 34. East German youth organization demonstrating
  5. Cossack military commander Reza Khan, 1921 against the Marshall Plan, 1950
  6. Spanish-born artist Pablo Picasso 35. US President Kennedy and Soviet leader
  7. African-American jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, 1986 Khrushchev in Vienna, 1961
  8. Charlie Chaplin in his classic film Modern Times 36. Anti-Soviet demonstration in Prague, 1968
(1936) 37. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
  9. Swedish actress Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931) 38. President Samuel Nujoma speaking at Namibia’s
10. Notre-Dame-du-Haut Chapel in Ronchamp, France, independence ceremony, 1990
designed by Le Corbusier, 1950–55 39. Propaganda poster of Chinese leader Mao Zedong
11. United Nations Headquarters, New York City 40. Indonesian President Achmed Sukarno
12. Meeting of members of NATO, 1957 41. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister
13. Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the 42. Yugoslav leader Josep Broz Tito, Indian Prime
Democratic Republic of the Congo Minister Indira Gandhi and Egyptian President
14. Anti-apartheid activist and South African President, Gamal Abdel Nasser
Nelson Mandela 43. US civil rights leader Martin Luther King
15. Signing ceremony of the Camp David Accords, 44. Signs of apartheid in South Africa, 1956
Washington, DC, September 1978 45. Child soldiers in Sudan, 1971
16. Confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis, 46. Shantytown in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Bethlehem, 1988, during the first intifada 47. Pakistani immigrant at London’s Gatwick Airport
17. The Berlin Wall, 1989 48. Festivities surrounding the meeting of the Organization
18. Fiber-optic system, developed in 1993 of African Unity (OAU), Sierra Leone, 1980
19. US astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin on the Moon, 1969 49. Uneasy neighbours: luxury and squalor in a modern
20. A drawing of a telecommunication satellite metropolis
21. One of the first British television sets from 1949 50. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an
22. Illustration of the assassination of Archduke Franz adult cell in 1996
Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo, 28 June 51. Female firefighters at Pearl Harbor, 1941
1914 52. Afghan Muslim women under the Taliban regime,
23. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1997, donning a full burqa
24. Benito Mussolini during the Fascists’ March on 53. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 1995
Rome, 1922 54. Suffragettes demonstrating in London, 1911
25. Prisoners forced to labour in a Nazi concentration 55. Eritrean women waiting to cast their vote in a
camp during the Second World War referendum, 1993
26. German Nazi soldiers harassing a Jew 56. Golda Meir, one of the founders of the State of Israel
27. Chinese soldiers of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist 57. The Beatles, 1965
regime 58. Student uprising in the Latin Quarter in Paris, May 1968

xx
 L ist of plates

59. Woodstock ’94, Bethel, New York 105. French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
60. Indian children on the streets of Calcutta 106. Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore
61. An elderly Chinese woman and her grandson 107. Mausoleum of Chinese leader and political
62. An older Korean woman dressing a girl before a philosopher Sun Yat-sen
shamanistic ritual 108. Pathway of the Philosophers, Kyoto, Japan
63. Rehabilitation centre in Sierra Leone, financed by 109. Tanzanian intellectual and statesman Julius Nyerere
Médecins Sans Frontières and Handicap 110. Mexican writer, philosopher and politician José
International Vasconcelos, 1929
64. Béatrice Hess, French Paralympic swimming 111. The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior, sunk by the
champion French secret service in 1985
65. Sisal fibres drying in the United Republic of Tanzania 112. A Muslim woman wearing a chador in Tehran, Iran
66. Mozambique women working in a rice cooperative 113. Korean followers of neo-Confucianism during a
67. Masai youth at a traditional ceremony ceremony commemorating the birth of Confucius
68. Physicists Max Planck and Albert Einstein, 1930 114. A young Shinto nun
69. German Nobel Laureate Max Born 115. Nuns in San Salvador, El Salvador, where
70. British scientist Paul Dirac, recipient of the 1933 Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated in 1980
Nobel Prize in Physics 116. A Burmese Buddhist monk
71. Nuclear particle accelerator 117. Young Buddhist novices at the Gandan monastery in
72. US astronomer Edwin Hubble Mongolia
73. A mainframe computer 118. Indian holy men praying on the River Ganges
74. US geneticist and Nobel Laureate Thomas Hunt 119. A Jewish school in the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim
Morgan quarter in Jerusalem
75. US bioglogist Craig Venter, renowned for his 120. Muslims at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem at
research on the human genome Ramadan
76. Symbols of the International Red Cross and Red 121. Pope John Paul II blessing a crowd in Zaire (now the
Crescent Movement Democratic Republic of the Congo), 1980
77. Preparation of an anti-cholera vaccine 122. Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Hiroshima, Japan, 1995
78. US biologist Jonas Salk, discoverer of the polio 123. Sperm samples for in vitro fertilization
vaccine 124. Genetically engineered maize plants
79. Preparation of antibiotics, 1956 125. Convoy of the International Red Cross arriving in
80. Domestic washing machine, late 1940s Rwanda, 1993, with humanitarian aid
81. Planned Parenthood advertisement, 1967 126. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov
82. A doctor vaccinates an African girl, 1979 127. Young Inuit woman and child, 1903
83. Model of the virus responsible for Acquired 128. The automobile assembly line, introduced by Henry
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Ford
84. Dispensing traditional medicine in Manali, India 129. Performance of Japanese kabuki theatre
85. The Wright brothers, c. 1903 130. A typesetter working on a linotype machine, 1970
86. Flensing a whale 131. US composer George Gershwin
87. Wall-mounted German telephone, c. 1927 132. Poets André Breton, Paul Eluard, Tristan Tzara and
88. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin Benjamin Péret, 1932
89. US astronaut Bruce McCandless performing the 133. Russian author Ivan Bunin
first untethered space walk, 1984 134. Irish-born writer Samuel Beckett in Paris
90. M ir, the Russian space station, awaiting the US 135. French writer Marguerite Yourcenar
shuttle Discovery, 1995 136. Indian-born UK author Salman Rushdie (left),
91. Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia South African writer Nadine Gordimer (centre) and
92. Centrale Solare Eurelios, outside Adrano, Sicily German novelist Günter Grass (right)
93. A wind farm in Hurghada, Egypt 137. US writer F. Scott Fitzgerald with his wife Zelda,
94. A crude-oil loading bay in Kuwait and daughter
95. Nuclear power station in Didcot, UK 138. US playwright Arthur Miller and his wife, actress
96. Polish-born British anthropologist Bronislaw Marilyn Monroe, 1956
Malinowski 139. African-American author Richard Wright
97. French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre 140. Caribbean poet and playwright Derek Walcott
Bourdieu 141. Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges
98. French pioneer of modern sociology Emile 142. Columbian writer Gabriel García Márquez
Durkheim 143. Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka
99. German pioneer of modern sociology Max Weber 144. Indian writer and anthropologist Amitav Ghosh
100. British economist John Maynard Keynes during a 145. Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata
UN conference 146. Bust of Chinese writer Lu Xun
101. German defendants at the Nuremberg Trials, 1945–46 147. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907
102. US linguist Noam Chomsky 148. Pablo Picasso, Guitar, 1912
103. British philosopher and political activist Bertrand 149. Vladimir Tatlin, The Sailor, 1911–12
Russell 150. Vladimir Tatlin, model for Monument to the Third
104. French existentialist philosopher and writer Jean- International, 1920
Paul Sartre 151. Carlo Carrà, Interventionist Demonstration, 1914

xxi
 L ist of plates

152. Max Ernst, Celebes (The Elephant Celebes), 1921 developmental psychologist Jean Piaget
153. View of the Exposition Internationale des Arts et 164. New York City preschoolers watching the US-
Techniques dans la Vie, Paris, 1937 produced educational programme Sesame Street, 1970
154. Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937 165. UNESCO Headquarters in Paris
155. Kazuo Shiraga, Untitled, 1957 166. Racial segregation at the University of Oklahoma, 1948
156. Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1948 167. Early US advertisement for Thomas Edison’s
157. Robert Rauschenberg, Coca-Cola Plan, 1958 Triumph phonograph
158. Robert Smithson, No. 7 from Yucatan Mirror 168. A publicity poster for the film King Kong (1933)
Displacement, 1-9, 1969 169. Tarahumara peasants in Mexico watching videos,
159. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic 1991
Games 170. The library in Holland House (1605), London, after
160. Poster for the first Olympic Winter Games, 1924 a German bombing raid, 1940
161. Ethiopian Olympic champion Abebe Bikila 171. Exterior view of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
162. Unemployed Chinese youth at the gates of the 172. Video surveillance camera on a UK street
Forbidden City, Beijing
163. A child taking a test based on the theories of Swiss

xxii
 LIST OF TABLES

  1 Traditional ecological knowledge and Western 16 Percentage of the 1985–1986 cohort reaching the
science   112 grade   477
  2 Cases of poliomyelitis morbidity in Europe and 17 Research and development in terms of personnel and
Oceania   172 expenditure   478
  3 The eradication of smallpox in selected 18 Expenditure on higher education   481
countries   174 19 Cultural indicators 1980–1990   485
  4 Malaria morbidity in selected countries   175 20 Percentage of households owning VCRs in selected
  5 Four categories of knowledge   192 countries   499
  6 Five generations of computers   209 21 Media consumption by region   500
  7 Commonly used metals   219 22 The evolution of ICTs   516
  8 Raw materials in Portland cement   221 23 New technology and media in the West: Three stages
  9 The gap between rich and poor countries   238 of development   518
10 Male and female athletes participating in the 24 Evolution of the information society   519
Summer Olympics   454 25 International tourist arrivals and revenue worldwide,
11 Winners of the World Cup 1930–2002   455 1950–1998   533
12 Public expenditure on education in developing and 26 Spending on international tourism by country   533
developed countries   469 27 Economic impact of tourism (1999)   534
13 Gross enrolment ratios by sex in sub-Saharan Africa, 28 Activities by public relations agencies in wars,
the Arab States and South Asia   474 1967–1993   545
14 Enrolments and gross enrolment ratios, 29 Growth of centres of excellence   751
1990–1997   476
15 Gross enrolment ratios by level and sex in 1997   477

xxiii
 LIST OF FIGURES

1 Transistor family history   208 5 Information overload or the ‘information wall’   517
2 Philosophy of research and development in materials 6 The anatomy of information highways   520
science and engineering   220 7 Organization of the content industry   522
3 Women’s participation in the Olympic games   455 8 Growth of R&D organizations   750
4 Net enrolment ratios for the 6–23 age group,
by region (1970–1990)   476

xxiv
 LIST OF MAPS

  1 Europe after the First World War   4 13 Regional migration in North America,
  2 Colonial empires in 1914   22 1940–1960   604
  3 The process of decolonization   47 14 Post-1945 military regimes in Latin America   633
  4 Decolonization since 1945   57 15 The Arab world   661
  5 Colonization and independence in Africa   58 16 British colonies in Africa   703
  6 United nations Partition plan (1947)   61 17 French colonies in Africa   705
  7 The armistice agreements (1949)   61 18 Portuguese colonies in africa   707
  8 Israel and the Occupied Territories (1999)   61 19 Decolonization and new states in East Asia (after
  9 Principal migratory movements at the end of the 1945)   723
twentieth century   65 20 Decolonization in Oceania   792
10 The break-up of the Soviet Union   577
11 Eastern Europe, 1945–1990   599
12 Eastern Europe, early 1994   599 All maps drawn by Nicolas Merlet

xxv
 THE CONTRIBUTORS

Abdel-Malek, Anouar (Egypt). Field: social sciences. Cambridge (UK); President of the All India Women’s
Director of research, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Conference, New Delhi.
Sociales (EHESS), Paris.
Becker, Jörg (Germany). Fields: communications, media
Abu-Lughod, Ibrahim A. deceased (Palestine–United and information technologies. Professor of political science,
States). Field: social sciences. Former Chairman of the Marburg University; Managing Director of the KomTech-
Political Science Department, Northwestern University Institute (Solingen).
(Chicago); Vice-Chairman and Professor of international
relations, University of Birzeit; co-founder and editor of the Beckles, Hilary Macdonald (Jamaica). Field: Caribbean
Arab Studies Quarterly; member of the Palestinian National history. Pro-vice chancellor, University of the West Indies
Council. (UWI), Kingston, Jamaica. Professor of social and economic
history, Department of History, UWI. Member of the
Ade-Ajayi, Jacob Festus (Nigeria). Field: nineteenth- International Task Force for the UNESCO ASPnet
century West African history. Former Vice-Chancellor of Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project.
the University of Lagos; member of the scientific council of
the UNESCO General History of Africa; Professor De Benoist, Joseph-Roger (France). Field: contemporary
Emeritus. history of French-speaking West Africa; former Director of
research, Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta
Anisuzzaman (Bangladesh). Fields: Bengal literature, Diop, Dakar; member of the Académie des Sciences de
culture, identity and history. Professor, Department of l’Outre-mer, Paris.
Bengali Literature, Dhaka University Abash, Bangladesh;
former Chairman of the Bangla Academy. Bensimon, Marc (United States). Field: French literature
(Renaissance, Baroque, modern and comparative literature
Baghli, Sid Ahmed (Algeria). Fields: art, art history and and art). Professor of French Emeritus, University of
cultural heritage. Former Director of the Algerian museums; California at Los Angeles.
member of the scientific advisory board of Institut National
du Patrimoine Maghrébin, Tunis; adivsor for the Algerian Borissov, Yuri S. (Russia). Field: cultural history of central
delegation to UNESCO. and south-east Europe. Researcher, Institute of Slavic and
Balkan Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Bah, Thierno (Guinea–Cameroon). Field: military history
of Central Africa. Founding member of the Association of Carrera Damas, Germán (Venezuela). Field: history.
African Historians, University of Yaoundé. Founder of the Chair of Theory and Method of History;
Professor, Central University of Venezuela.
Bahemuka, Judith M. (Kenya). Field: sociology. Teaches in
the sociology department and holds the UNESCO Chair on Cartier, Michel (Canada). Field: communications. Faculty
Women, Basic Education, Health and Sustainable member, University of Quebec (Montreal); consultant in
Development at the University of Nairobi; Ambassador of new information and communication technologies.
Kenya to the United Nations.
Chilundo, Arlindo Gonçalo (Mozambique). Field:
Basu, Aparna (India). Fields: modern Indian history, history economic and social history of Africa; Associate Professor of
of education, women’s history. Former Professor of history at history and Director and Coordinator of studies, University
the University of Delhi; visiting fellow, Wolfson College, of Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique.

xxvi
 THE CONTRIBUTORS

Chojnowski, Andrzej (Poland). Field: history. On the the Conseil International des Archives, Archivum, and
history faculty of Warsaw University and also affiliated with Gazette des Archives.
the Mordechaj Anielewicz Center for the Research and
Teaching of the History and Culture and Jews in Poland, Dumont, Georges-Henri (Belgium). Field: history.
founded in 1990. Historian, Université de Louvain; Professor Emeritus of
economic and social history, ICHEC of Bruxelles. Honorary
Chondge, Cheng (China). Field: Chinese history. Director Curator, Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire; member of the
and research fellow, Institute of Qing Dynasty History, Académie Royale. Author of Léopold II (Grand Prix de la
People’s University; Vice-Chairman of the National Biographie de l’Académie Française); member of the
Committee on Compiling the Qing Dynasty History; UNESCO Executive Board (1981–1989).
President of the Chinese Association of Mongolian History.
Ekaya, Wellington N. (Kenya). Fields: ecology, range
Clark, John (Australia). Field: modern Asian art. Professor management, human migration. Lecturer, University of
in the Art History and Theory Department, University of Nairobi, Department of Range Management; member of the
Sydney. Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; editorial board of the Journal of Human Ecology.
recipient of the Australian Centenary Medal (2003).
Fohlen, Claude (France). Field: economic and North
Claval, Paul (France). Field: human geography. Professor at American history. Professor emeritus; Chair of the American
the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Member of the European History department at the University of Paris I-Sorbonne.
Academy.
Friese, Heidrun (United Kingdom). Field: anthropology of
Coulibaly, Elisée (Burkina Faso). Field: history of the sciences. Teaches in the Department of Social and
archaeology. Chargé de mission, Musée des Arts d’Afrique et Political Sciences, European University Institute, Florence
d’Océanie (MAAO), Paris; senior researcher on the history (Italy).
of mines and metallurgy team, University of Paris I, Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France. Gilles, Roland (France). Field: Islamic art and culture.
UNESCO expert on Oriental textiles. Responsible for
Dalby, David (United Kingdom–France). Field: modern collection and exhibitions, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
languages. Lecturer in modern languages, Fourah Bay College,
Sierra Leone; Professor and researcher of Western African Goma, Lameck K. H. (Zambia). Field: zoology. Former
languages, School of Eastern and African Studies (SOAS) of Vice-Chancellor, University of Zambia; Minister of
the University of London. Education, Foreign Affairs, and Higher Education, Science
and Technology (Zambia).
Dhammaratana, Tampalawela (Sri Lanka). Field:
comparative philosophy and Asian studies. Council member Goonatilake, Susantha (Sri Lanka). Field: sociology of non-
of the World Buddhist University, Bangkok. Post-doctoral Western culture and science. Royal Asiatic Society of Sri
UNESCO Fellow, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Lanka.
University of Paris-Sorbonne, France.
Gopal, Sarvepalli, deceased (India). Field: modern history of
Dioume, Oumar (Canada–Senegal). Field: mathematical South Asia. Professor Emeritus of contemporary history,
economics and econometrics. Director of research and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
development at AirTel Com, Montreal; research in
engineering mathematics and telecommunication networks; Guillaume, Astrid (France). Fields: German language,
member of ASSNET (African Summit for Science and New linguistics and comparative literature. Associate Professor,
Technologies); former lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique, Université de Besançon (France).
Montreal.
Habib, Syed Irfan (India). Field: socio-cultural and intellectual
Dizboni, Ali Ghanbarpour (Canada–Iran). Field: history of scientific knowledge in India. Scientist at the
international relations and comparative politics (Middle East National Institute of Science, Technology and Development
and Central Asia). Assistant Professor, Royal Military Studies, New Delhi.
College of Canada (Kingston).
Haddad, Mahmoud, O. (Lebanon). Field: modern Middle
Dubet, François (France). Field: sociology. Author of several East history. Chairperson of the Department of History,
books on social movements, the city, marginality, youth, University of Balamand (Lebanon); Former Associate
education, work and social theory. Sociologist, University of Professor, History Department, Columbia University (New
Bordeaux II; member of the CADIS (Centre d’Analyse et York). Member of the Middle East Studies Association (US).
d’Interventions Sociologiques, CNRS, EHESS); member of
the Institut Universitaire de France; Director of studies, Hawthorn, Geoffrey (United Kingdom). Fields: international
EHESS, Paris. politics and political economy. Professor of international
politics, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge
Duchein, Michel (France). Field: history of archives. University.
Honorary General Inspector of the Archives de France and
former head of the technical service of the Direction des Hegarty, Seamus (United Kingdom). Fields: Educational
Archives de France; former Editor-in-Chief of the journal of research, disability and special educational needs; school

xxvii
 THE CONTRIBUTORS

reform. Director of the National Foundation for Educational London School of Economics; member of the Mannheim
Research in England and Wales. Centre for the Study of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Houzel, Christian (France). Field: history of mathematics, Lambert, Jean (France). Field: comparative anthropology of
numbers and symmetry. Professor of mathematics, IUFM monotheist religions. Teacher and researcher, Centre
(Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres), Paris; former d’Etudes Interdisciplinaires des Faits Religieux of EHESS,
Director of the Bulletin de la Société Mathématique de France. Paris and CNRS.

Hussain, Faheem (Pakistan). Field: physics. Former Head Le Callennec, Sophie (France). Field: history of religion in
of the Office of External Activities, Abdus Salam International sub-Saharan Africa; Université des Réseaux d’Expression
Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy). Teaches Française (UREF), Paris.
physics in Pakistan.
Legaré, Anne (Canada). Field: political sociology of modern
Iskandarov, Bahodor I. (Republic of Tajikistan). Field: relations between the state and society. Professor of political
history of Tajikistan. Doctor of History and Academician; science, Université du Québec, Montréal.
Honorary Director, Institute of History, Archaeology and
Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Le Thanh Khoi (France). Fields: comparative education,
Tajikistan; Avicenna Price laureate. social and economic development. Professor Emeritus,
University of Paris V (Sorbonne).
Jackson, Elizabeth K. (United States). Field: culture and
mass production, Africa and African-Americans. Professor Lootah, Mariam (United Arab Emirates). Field:
in the Department of Communications, California State contemporary history of the Gulf region. Professor of applied
University, Bakersfield. sciences, University of Al Ain, UAE.

Jones, Caroline A. (United States). Field: twentieth-century Lugujjo, Eriabu (Uganda). Field: electrical engineering
visual art and culture. Associate Professor of Art History, materials. Consultant in technical and vocational education,
History, Theory and Criticism Section, Department of and science and technology policy. Professor at Makerere
Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). University (Faculty of Technology); former member of the
Executive Board of UNESCO; member of the Uganda
Kane, Saidou (Mauritania). Fields: history and interna- National Council of Science and Technology.
tional relations; integration and cultural aspects of
development. Numerous professorships: Ecole Nationale MacLeod, Roy (Australia). Field: social history of science,
d’Administration, Nouakchott, (Mauritania); UNITAR medicine and technology. Professor of history, University of
headquarters, Geneva; Sorbonne (Paris); and institutions in Sydney.
Belgium and the Netherlands. Promoter of human rights
and African languages. Mączak, Antoni (Poland). Field: modern history of Europe;
Professor, Institute of History, University of Warsaw.
Kebede, Alemseghed (United States). Fields: social theory,
social movements, and cross-cultural encounters. Professor Madelin, Henri, S. J. (France). Field: political science.
of sociology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Teaches political philosophy and sociology at the Faculté
California State University, Bakersfield. Jésuites de Paris (centre Sèvres) and at the Institut d’Etudes
Politiques de Paris (IEP).
Khorev, Victor A. (Russia). Field: Eastern European
literature. Deputy Director of the Institute of Slavic and Mahafzah, Ali (Jordan). Field: contemporary Arab history
Balkan Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. and thought. Former President of Mu’tah University and
Yarmouk University; Professor of history, University of
Kecheng, Yao (China). Field: Oriental languages. Associate Jordan (Amman).
Professor, Department of Oriental Language Studies,
Beijing University; council member of the Association of Maier, Charles Steven (United States). Field: twentieth-
Mongolian Language and Literature; council member of the century Europe and international relations. Leverett
Association of Mongolian Republic Studies. Saltonstall Professor of history at Harvard University;
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kipré, Pierre (Côte d’Ivoire). Field: modern and
contemporary African history. Professor, Université Markova, Ludmila A. (Russia). Fields: history, historio­
d’Abidjan. graphy of science, philosophy and sociology of science.
Researcher, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy
Kouassi Kwam Edmond (Togo). Fields: international of Sciences.
politics, peace and conflict studies; international African
organizations. Consultant for various international Mayobre, José Antonio, deceased (Venezuela). Field:
organizations and NGOs; Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law international mass media studies. Director of the
and Political Science, Université du Benin. International Centre for the Study of Communication
and Development (CIEDESCO); Professor of mass
Lacey, Nicola (United Kingdom). Fields: criminal law and communication, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello,
justice, legal and social theory. Professor of criminal law, Caracas, Venezuela.

xxviii
 THE CONTRIBUTORS

M’Bow, Penda (Senegal). Fields: medieval African history, Pols, Hans (Australia). Fields: history of science, psychology
gender issues and religion. Professor, History Department and medicine. Teaches in the History and Philosophy of
of the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences, Cheick Anta Science Unit, University of Sydney.
Diop University, Dakar; former Minister of Culture of
Senegal. Raina, Dhruv (India). Field: social theory of science and
technology. Associate Professor in the Department of Social
Moon, Suzanne (United States). Fields: history of science Sciences, Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies of
and technology, history of South-East Asia. Assistant Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Professor, Colorado School of Mines (US).
Raj, Kapil (India). Field: history of science. Professor, Centre
de Moragas, Miquel (Spain). Fields: communication, Koyré of Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales
technology and social change. Professor of communication (EHESS), Paris.
sciences; Director of the Institute of Communication,
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Renfrew, Andrew Colin (United Kingdom). Fields:
archaeology and archaeogenetics. Former Professor of
Morange, Michel (France). Field: biology. Professor at the archaeology, University of Cambridge; Former Director of
École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and Université de Paris VI. the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in
Cambridge. Supervised many excavations, especially in
Muhidine, Timour (Turkey). Fields: contemporary Turkish eastern Macedonia and Greece.
literature, comparative literature (Europe and Middle East).
Reader in Turkish literature at INALCO, Paris; writer and Romero, Luis Alberto (Argentina). Field: social and cultural
translator. history of contemporary Argentina. Professor, University of
Buenos Aires.
Nagy, Zsuzsa L. (Hungary). Field: twentieth-century
Hungarian history. Professor of history at the University of Roncagliolo, Rafael (Peru). Fields: sociology, communica-
Debrecen with research interests in the two Hungarian tion and journalism. Professor, Universidad Católica del
revolutions after the First World War, the Paris Peace Perú; former President, World Association of Community
Conference in 1919; urban history, Budapest; and free- Radio (AMARC); former Vice-President International
masonry of Europe. Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR/
AIERI); journalist.
Nakayama, Shigeru (Japan). Field: history of science and
learning in East Asia. Former Professor, Science Technology dos Santos, Theôtonio (Brazil). Field: political economy.
and Society Center, Kanagawa University. Professor Professor, Universidad Federal Fluminense and coordinator
Emeritus, School of International Business Administration, of the UNESCO-UNU Chair/Network on Global Econo­
Kanagawa University. mics and Sustainable Development.

Ngoïe-Ngalla, Dominique (Congo). Fields: pre-colonial Sardoni, Claudio (Italy). Field: macroeconomics and
history of the Congo and anthropology . Professor, Université twentieth-century economic analysis. Associate Editor of
de Brazzaville. the Review of Social Economy and the Review of Political
Economy. Professor of economics, Università di Roma ‘La
Obeyesekere, Gananath (Sri Lanka). Fields: social theory, Sapienza’.
psychoanalytic anthropology and Buddhist history and
practice. Emeritus Professor of anthropology, Princeton Shen, Yilin (Korea). Field: Korean social sciences. Senior
University (USA). Fellow, Center for Documentation and Information of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; former Editor-in-
Ogunmola, Gabriel B. (Nigeria). Field: biochemistry. Chief of the Journal of Social Sciences Abroad; Vice
President of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences; Dean of the Editor-in-Chief of The Republic of Korea Today; and
Postgraduate School of Ibadan University (Nigeria). supervisor of Koreana.

Ory, Pascal (France). Field: cultural history. Professor, Shouyao, Teng (China). Field: comparative studies of
Université de Paris I (Sorbonne). Western and Eastern philosophy. Head of the Section of
Aesthetics; Professor of philosophy, Institute of the Chinese
Paty, Michel (France). Field: philosophy, epistemology and Academy of Social Sciences.
history of science. Emeritus Director of research, CNRS;
co-founder and former Director of the REHSEIS team of Siddhartha, Vissid (India). Field: history of science and
the CNRS and the University of Paris VII (D. Diderot). technology. Scientific adviser to the Indian Minister of
Defence.
Pereira-Palhinhas, Clarisse (Congo). Fields: philosophical
sciences and linguistics. Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Simonia, Nodari, A. (Russia). Fields: history of South-
Humaines, Université M. Ngouabi. East Asia, socio-economic and political problems of
developing countries, and national liberation movements.
Pestre, Dominique (France). Field: history of science. Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and
Director of Studies, EHESS, Paris; Director of the Centre International Relations; member of the Russian Academy
Alexandre Koyré of the CNRS-EHESS. of Sciences.

xxix
 THE CONTRIBUTORS

Singer, Peter (Australia). Fields: philosophy and bioethics. Weinberg, Gregorio (Argentina). Field: history of education
Deputy Director of the Centre for Human Bioethics; and science in Latin America. Honorary Professor of the
Professor of philosophy, Monash University, Melbourne, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature and Doctor Honoris
Victoria. Causa, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Former Director,
Centro de Documentación Internacional; former Director,
Sournia, Jean-Charles deceased (France). Fields: surgery, Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina; Vice-
public health, the history of medicine. Surgeon, member of President, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y
the French Society of Medical History; Former President Técnicas.
of the International Society for the History of Medicine.
Wenzhao, Tao (China). Field: history, Sino-American
Spence Richards, Pamela deceased (United States). Field: relations. Research Professor, Institute of American Studies
library history. Former Professor of library and information of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); Former
studies, Rutgers University. Deputy Director and Secretary General, Chinese Association
of American Studies.
Stykalin, Alexander S. (Russia). Field: cultural history of
Central and South-East Europe. Researcher, Institute of Wittrock, Björn (Sweden). Field: History and sociology of
Slavic and Balkan Studies of the Russian Academy of social science. Professor of government, Stockholm
Sciences. University; Director of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced
Study in the Social Sciences, Uppsala.
Svátek, František (Czech Republic). Field: political history.
Senior Researcher and member of the Scientific Council of Wollmann, Hellmut (Germany). Field: comparative public
the Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of policy. Professor Emeritus, Humboldt University, Berlin.
Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague.
Wurm, Stephen A. (Australia). Field: linguistics of the
Thébaud, Françoise (France). Field: twentieth-century Pacific area, East, North and Central Asia, ancient and
women’s studies Professor of contemporary history at the modern Near East, and Arctic areas. Professor of linguistics,
University of Avignon (France). Founder of the French- Australian National University; Research Director, former
language journal, CLIO, Histoire, Femmes et Sociétés. President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities;
former President of CIPSH-UNESCO.
Thiam, Iba Der (Senegal). Field: modern and contemporary
political history of Africa. Professor of history, University of Xin, Ru (China). Fields: Philosophy and aesthetics. Vice-
Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar. President, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;
Vice-President, Chinese National Committee for
Tianshi, Yang (China). Field: history of Chinese culture and UNESCO.
modern China. Professor, Institute of Modern History of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Vice-Chairman and Xiushan, Ye Xiushan (China). Field: Western philosophy
Secretary General of the Association of Modern Chinese and aesthetics. Chairman of the Academic Committee;
Culture. Professor of philosophy, Institute of the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences.
Tikhvinsky, Sergeï L. (Russia). Field: history. Chairman of
the National Committee of Historians of the Russian Xueyuan, Thian (China). Field: modern history. Member of
Academy of Sciences, Moscow. the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

Tingyang, Zhao (China). Fields: ontology, epistemology Yi, Jiang (China). Field: contemporary Western philosophy.
and philosophical logic. Associate Professor, Philosophy Head of the Section of Contemporary Foreign Philosophy;
Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Associate Professor, Philosophy Institute of the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
Torstendahl, Rolf (Sweden). Fields: history and theory of
historiography; Emeritus Professor of history, Uppsala Zengjie, Gao (China). Fields: history of Japanese culture
University; Professor of history, Mälardalen University. and comparative culture. Professor and Deputy Director,
Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of
Tuduri, Carles (Spain). Fields: information sciences, Social Science.
communication; development of tourism. Faculty member of
the Department of Management and Marketing of the
Tourism Industry, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya;
Associate Professor for the promotion of tourism, Universitat
de les Illes Balears.

Wagner, Peter (United Kingdom). Field: history and theory

of the social sciences. Currently Professor at the European
University Institute (Florence) and has taught at universities
in the UK, California, Sweden, Paris and Berlin. Contributor
to the UNESCO World Social Science Report and author of
numerous books.

xxx
 P R E F A C E to volume V I I

Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky

The seventh and final volume of the History of the Scientific science and culture during the century should place them in
and Cultural Development of Humanity is at last available to the context of the period’s main political, economic and
readers of this unique collection prepared under the social processes throughout the world, rather than to set
supervision of the International Commission constituted out to undertake ‘a political analysis of the century’.
by Resolution 4/1.2/6, which was adopted by the General Professor Dumont stressed the importance of examining
Conference of UNESCO at its 20th session in 1978. the twentieth century’s influence on science and culture, the
Devoted to the twentieth century, this volume was begun consequences of the Cold War, the disintegration of the
along with the other six volumes, but owing to financial Soviet Union, European unity, ethnic issues, problems of
difficulties and changes in the staff of the UNESCO cultural identity following decolonization, and extremist
Secretariat over the last decade of the century, the religious movements. Other participants of the discussion
preparation of Volume VII (as well as Volume VI, entitled emphasized the need to reflect on the growing rift between
the Nineteenth Century) was interrupted for several years. poor and rich countries and to condemn racism, apartheid
As our readers know, the previous volumes of the History of and genocide. All participants highlighted the need to
Humanity were published in English by UNESCO and the explore the process of decolonization and its consequences
British imprint Routledge: Volume I, 1994; Volume II, on the state of education, science and culture in the countries
1996; Volume III, 1997; Volume IV, 2000; Volume V, of Africa, Asia and Latin America. They appealed to the
1999; and Volume VI, 2004. authors not to focus only on the negative processes that
The last meeting of the Editorial Board of Volume VII took place in these countries over the course of the century,
took place in June 1996 at UNESCO Headquarters in but to include the century’s positive events and developments
Paris. At this meeting, the Board discussed and approved a as well.
detailed outline and established a calendar for the completion The views and remarks of the members of the Bureau of
of the writing and editing processes. Over the following the International Commission as expressed during that
nine years, all contacts between the members of the Editorial meeting were summarized by the Secretariat and transmitted
Board and the staff of the UNESCO Secretariat were to the commissioned authors.
limited to occasional parcels or faxes containing drafts of In many respects, this final volume of the History of
proposed articles. Humanity is unique: whereas readers of the preceding
Volume VII reflects the great variety of cultures to be volumes generally accept the facts and evaluations presented
found in countries around the world. In spite of increasing by the various authors, some readers of Volume VII might
interdependence, it can be noted that every nation still disagree with the manner in which certain authors interpret
strives to maintain its unique cultural identity. particular events of the twentieth century. This can be
During the above-mentioned meeting of the Editorial explained by the fact that practically all readers of
Board conducted under the chairmanship of Professor Volume VII will have been born and spent most of their
Georges-Henri Dumont from Belgium, President of the adult life in the twentieth century; indeed, many were not
International Commission of the History of the Scientific only contemporaries, but also witnesses, and in some cases,
and Cultural Development of Humanity, members of the actors in the major events of the century. Moreover, they
Board from Argentina, China, India, Russia, Senegal and will know about many aspects of the earlier decades of the
the United States as well as a representative of the Palestine century through their parents, relatives and friends of elder
National Authority expressed their views about the generations. Therefore many readers will have made their
preliminary text of Volume VII as proposed by Professor own subjective evaluations of certain events and processes
Everett Mendelsohn from the United States. mentioned in this volume. Likewise, as they were educated
The participants of the meeting suggested that authors in the twentieth century, some of the authors were
of the various chapters devoted to the development of necessarily influenced by the century’s events and the

xxxi
 PREFACE

prevailing ideologies and viewpoints. According to a popular Gregorian calendar. In 1924, Greece accepted the Gregorian
adage, ‘large objects can only be seen from a distance’. More calendar, followed by Turkey in 1927 and Egypt in 1928.
time is required to develop a multifaceted, objective Within the twentieth century, there are also different
evaluation of the stretch of the road that humankind has types of chronological divisions specific not only to various
travelled in the twentieth century. When asked how much countries but also to distinct branches of science, culture,
time people needed to be able to understand the past the arts, sports, etc. The authors contributing to this volume
century, the late-nineteenth-century Russian historian use various means of dating events and processus discussed
V. Kliuchevsky answered, ‘three centuries’. in their contributions. Some authors consider revolutions
It is well known that the process of history cannot be cut to be the principal landmarks of the twentieth century (e.g.,
artificially in a Procrustean manner. So it is with the process the Chinese Revolution of 1911, which overthrew two
of globalization that began several centuries ago and thousand years of imperial rule and proclaimed a Chinese
accelerated rapidly in the twentieth century to reach its republic; the revolutions of February and October 1917 in
zenith in the era of cyber communication. In the diverse Russia; the Revolution of 1949, which led to the proclamation
fields of economy, politics, science and culture, the twentieth of the People’s Republic of China, etc.). Other authors take
century is the continuation of the nineteenth century and as their reference points the First and Second World Wars
witnessed advances in these fields at an ever-accelerating and the Cold War. Many authors employ such terms as
rate. ‘atomic era’, ‘cosmic era’, ‘era of radio and television’, ‘jet-
Similarly, many events that took place in the nineteenth propulsion aviation era’, ‘era of  DNA, ‘transition and laser
century had their origins in the eighteenth century. For this era’, etc. For former colonies, the chronology of the twentieth
reason, the authors of Volume VI (from over forty countries) century is neatly split into the colonial and post-colonial
defined the volume’s time frame as the period extending periods. More than a chronological demarcation, this
from the French Revolution (1789) to the beginning of the dividing line reflected a change in historical outlook.
First World War (1914). Like previous volumes, Volume VII consists of two
Many authors in the present volume begin by an incursion parts: a thematic section and a regional section. The chapters
into the end of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the first section deal with the principal types of
of the twentieth century even though the latter period was transformations observed throughout the world in the
already dealt with by some authors of Volume VI. The twentieth century, the changes in everyday life of different
main division of the History of Humanity into centuries is strata and groups of the population (women, young people,
sometimes very arbitary: in China, Korea and Japan and in elderly people, the disabled, etc.) and evolutions in the fields
other East-Asian countries, the system of chronology was of education, public health, sports, and in diverse branches
based on the rule of a particular emperor or king. In rural of culture, and natural, social and human sciences. In the
areas of these countries, the lunar calendar with its 60-year second section, these subjects are illustrated through
cycles is still observed. In countries with sizeable Muslim examples taken from the regional level and from different
populations, the Islamic calendar began in 622 ad, the year countries.
of the Hegira, marking the emigration of the Prophet The authors of this volume are scholars from various
Mohammed from Mecca to Medina countries around the world, and they are responsible for the
Before the 1917 Revolution, Russians observed the Julian accuracy of the facts contained in their contributions as well
calendar, which is 13 days behind the more widely observed as for their evaluation of events and processes.

xxxii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The UNESCO International Commission for a New Edition He also wishes to pay tribute to the late Professor
of the History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Sarvepalli Gopal, Chief Editor, and the late Professor
Humanity elaborated, following a decision of the General Ibrahim A. Abu-Lughod, Co-Editor; and finally to all the
Conference in 1978, the concept of this ‘new edition’. members of the UNESCO Secretariat involved in this
The UNESCO International Commission, the authors project for their indispensable assistance.
and UNESCO Publishing wish to thank all those who He extends his grateful thanks to the Government of the
have kindly given permission for the reproduction of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Institute of
illustrations in this book. World History of the Russian Federation, and the National
The Chief Editor (Professor Sergei L. Tikhvinsky) of Committee of Historians of the former USSR, which have
this volume wishes to pay tribute to the support received organized meetings and conferences within the framework
from the Presidents of the Commission: Professor Paulo E. of the preparation of this volume.
de Berrêdo Carneiro, until his death in 1982, Professors UNESCO also wishes to express its gratitude to the
Charles Morazé and Georges-Henri Dumont; and from World Islamic Call Society for its generous financial
the Co-Editors, Professors Iba Der Thiam, Gregorio assistance to this project and to Planeta DeAgostini for
Weinberg and Tao Wenzhao. their contribution to the iconography of this volume.

xxxiii
 A
I N T RO DU C T ION
 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
IN WORLD HISTORY

Georges-Henri Dumont

When did the twentieth century begin? If we refer strictly forever. Although the League of Nations was based on
to the Gregorian calendar, the response is clear, but as Woodrow Wilson’s ideas and his mystical approach to
Charles S. Maier demonstrates in the first chapter of this democracy, the United States, paradoxically, was not a
volume, the period from 1901 to 1914 was, in many respects, member. Léon Bourgeois of France was soon persuaded of
a continuation of the nineteenth century. In the few the need to create, within the framework of the League of
industrialized countries of that period, social stratification Nations Assembly, an International Committee on
continued and was intensified by technological progress. Intellectual Cooperation that would study the problems
The majority of the world’s population, which did not have involved in coordinating science libraries, copyright, the
access to the advances of that era, was still engaged in preservation of the architectural heritage in Europe and
agriculture or traditional production activities. The Asia, the organization and role of museums and the
imperialist world order, which took the form of colonialism collection of major musical compositions and educational
in Africa and Asia, was consolidated by this division. The films. Albert Einstein, Marie curie, Henri Bergson,
Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Habsburg monarchy Gonzague de Reynold and Jules Destrée were among the
and the Russian empire of the tsars were multi-ethnic twelve internationally recognized figures who were
formations that survived in this political context and led to appointed as members of the committee. Subsequent
competition, crises and alliances in which colonial rivalries members included Salvador Madariaga, John Galsworthy,
also played a part. Félix Weingartner, Paul Valéry, Helen Vacaresco and
If there is a break with the nineteenth century, it coincides Henri Focillon.
with the First World War, which marks the beginning of Meanwhile, alas, the first links were being formed in a
what historian Eric J. Hobsbawm calls ‘the short twentieth chain that was to lead to another catastrophe. While in
century’. countries whose parliamentary tradition had survived the
upheavals of war, power alternated or was shared between
socialists and conservatives on a democratic basis, in those
The post-war period countries where poverty had exacerbated the humiliations
of defeat or the disillusion of victory and where there had
If we agree that the final battles of the absurd war that been any kind of revolutionary or nationalist agitation to
lasted from 1914 to 1918 marked the end of the nineteenth prepare the ground, the masses were prepared to follow
century, we must also acknowledge that in 1919, as soon as charismatic orators from both the left and the right
the treaties of Versailles, Saint-Germain, Trianon, Neuilly wings.
and Sèvres had been signed, many of the economic and In 1917, tsarism had already collapsed in Russia. In the
social problems that were to beset the twentieth century course of the last two months of that year and the first two
emerged, as did the new century’s chosen political months of 1918, before the German advance into Russian
orientations. Having bled itself dry for more than four years, territory, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided to
resorting to loans after using up all of its reserves to pay for abandon the war. On 23 February 1918, with the German
weaponry, Europe forfeited the control of the world’s army occupying most of Western Russia and the Ukraine,
economy that it had exercised for centuries. It was no longer the new Soviet Government, urged on by Lenin, began
a creditor but a debtor, owing money in particular to the forming the Red Army in order to repulse first the German
United States, which supplanted it as the world’s economic troops and subsequently those of the fourteen states which,
leader. alongside the White Army, had joined the military
Treaties are to some extent an opportunity for the victors intervention against Russia.
to settle old scores, and Woodrow Wilson, President of the Having emerged victorious from the struggle with the
United States, whose intervention in the war had been White Army and its allies, Russia was confronted by a drop
decisive, wanted more than the usual diplomatic settlements in agricultural production and an economic depression.
that had prevailed over the centuries. Wilson proposed Lenin, assisted by L. N. Krassin, the People’s Commissar
bringing the world’s moral and spiritual forces together to for Trade and Industry, launched the New Economic
create a permanent organization that would maintain peace Policy (NEP), which was beginning to produce its first

3
 introduction

Map 1  Europe after the First World War

Adapted from J. Channon (ed.), 1977, Atlas historique de la Russie, Autrement, Paris.

positive results when Lenin was struck down by an attack of general of the Communist Party in 1922, he played one
hemiplegia. He left the political stage in March 1923 and supporter against the other, sidelined his opponents and
died in January 1924 (Plate 1). imposed his autocratic rule step by step. Equality was
The fascination of many Western intellectuals with supplanted by party favouritism, fraternity by betrayal and
communism, which they regarded as being synonymous liberty by force.
with democracy, has been analysed by French historian In Germany, where the Reich had given way to the
François Furet. Weimar Republic, the left wing of the workers’ movement
At first sight, the goals of communism can indeed be and the Spartacists, inspired by the apparent success of
mistaken for the goals of democracy, which explains its the Soviets, tried to stage a revolt. However, they lacked
attraction. They both hope to rid the world of all domination popular support and their leaders, Karl Liebknecht and
and exploitation. But once Stalin had become secretary- Rosa Luxemburg (Plate 2), were brutally killed on the

4
 INTRODUCTION

orders of the German military establishment. The 30 January 1933, Hitler became head of government and
June 1920 elections revealed that opinion had shifted in established his dictatorship by the ruthless elimination of
favour of the right wing, though not yet to the extreme all opponents and rivals, notably in the so-called ‘Night of
right. The peace treaties had not been negotiated according the Long Knives’.
to the European tradition of public law. They had been
imposed on Germany and were considered by both the
army and the people to constitute a diktat. Hitler impressed A series of disasters
the German masses by his ability to deal with the
consequences of the Treaty of Versailles in three years. The series of disasters of the 1930s began in Asia in 1931
He presented both communism and capitalism as Jewish with Japan’s attack on Manchuria. When the League of
initiatives. The spectre of hidden forces — constituted by Nations condemned this act, Japan responded by leaving
Jews, Jesuits and Freemasons, who were described as the organization in 1933. The West did not want to risk a
heimatlos — led to anti-Semitism and a perversion of war in the Far East, and China was compelled to tolerate
Darwinism that gave rise to the idea of a superior race. Japanese occupation of Manchuria, allegedly independent
Six million people — mostly women, children and elderly under the rule of P’u-Yi, the last emperor of the Manchu
people — were to be exterminated in the application of Dynasty, who had been deposed in February 1912.
this barbarous ideology. In October 1933, Germany also left the League of
Although the Italians had won the war, they felt they Nations, which it had joined in 1926. The collective security
had lost the peace. Widespread discontent with the mechanism proposed to the League of Nations by
occupation of factories by workers was exploited by Benito Mr Litvinov, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, in
Mussolini, who had founded a new movement, the Fasci di 1935 was coming apart, and the fragility of the agreement
Combattimento, in March 1919. Mussolini abandoned his between France and Great Britain gave the dictators
programme of revolutionary social reforms in favour of considerable leeway. On 16 March 1935, Hitler violated the
nationalism, the glorification of ancient Rome and the Treaty of Versailles by reintroducing compulsory military
exaltation of force and of the leader (or Duce, as Mussolini service and unveiled his plans to reconstitute an army
was to be known), and won over the middle classes, civil numbering between 500,000 and 600,000 men. France’s
servants, tradespeople, farmers and students. When some reaction was to sign a rather vague mutual assistance treaty
50,000 Fascists marched on Rome, they met no resistance, with the Soviet Union, while Great Britain, without
and Mussolini became prime minister. consulting France, authorized Germany to build warships
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Americans were of up to 35 per cent of British tonnage.
carried away by the prosperity generated by their technical In the same year, Mussolini attacked Ethiopia with a
innovations and new production methods, particularly view to expanding Italy’s territory. Ethiopian Emperor
in the automobile industry. Proud of aviator Charles Haile Selassie in turn appealed to the League of Nations,
Lindbergh, who had flown non-stop from New York to but the resulting economic sanctions against Italy proved
Paris in May 1927, they were happily buying cars, radios, to be a fiasco, and the ‘empire of the Negus’ fell under
electrical appliances and furnishings on credit and indulging Italian control.
in a frenzy of speculation on the stock market, which In March 1936, German troops marched into the
resulted in boosting share prices to levels completely out of demilitarized Rhineland. This was the last opportunity to
proportion with the real value of the firms concerned. In keep Hitler in check without starting a war. The German
October 1929, the whole system collapsed in a matter of troops had orders to withdraw if the French army intervened
days. In fact, the crash on Wall Street coincided with a to prevent the occupation. However, France did not dare
downturn of the Kondratieff cycle, conferring on it an aura make take such action at a time when Italy was protesting
of unprecedented drama (Plate 3). against the sanctions decided on by the League of Nations
The interdependence of the world’s economies was soon and Britain was negotiating with Hitler. The Rome-Berlin
apparent to all: the crisis promptly became international in axis was born.
scope as it engulfed one country after another. Banks Officers of units stationed in Spanish Morocco mutinied
collapsed, factories shut down and raw materials rotted in under orders from General Francisco Franco in 1936, and
warehouses. In Brazil, coffee was even used as fuel and the movement spread to several cities in Spain. The
burned in the boilers of locomotives. Many countries Republican Government opposed the movement, thereby
resorted to protectionism to remedy the situation, restricting setting the scene for civil war in Europe. Taking advantage
imports and raising customs duties. of the fact that Great Britain (obsessed by fears that
In the United States, the New Deal introduced by communism might gain a foothold in Spain) and the France
F. D. Roosevelt, elected to the White House on of Léon blum’s Popular Front had decided not to intervene,
8 November 1932, led to a recovery assisted by an upturn in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sent equipment and
the economic cycle, but in Germany the increasing poverty thousands of soldiers to confront the volunteers making up
resulting from the depression played into the hands of the multinational brigades opposed to Franco. An appalling
Hitler’s Nazi Party (NSDAP). At the legislative elections civil war ensued. ‘The firing squads are mowing people down
held in September 1930, he won 6.4 million votes and like hay’, noted the French aviator and writer Saint-Exupéry.
107 seats. Heavy industry supported him by contributing On 26 April 1937, the Luftwaffe bombed the Basque town
some 2 million marks to his party annually. In the of Guernica. Two years later, Franco had triumphed and
presidential elections of 1932, Hindenburg, still a symbolic proclaimed himself El Caudillo (leader), joining the Duce
figure, won a majority, but Hitler’s 13.6 million votes more and the Führer.
than doubled the number he had obtained in 1930, and this In the meantime, the Nazis had marched into Austria,
score was confirmed in that year’s legislative elections. On meeting no resistance. However, more was to come. After

5
 introduction

a meeting in Munich on 30 September 1938, Chamberlain Anti-colonialist movements and

and Daladier agreed to the dismantling of Czechoslovakia, agitation between the wars
naïvely convinced that their policy of appeasement had
been successful. That illusion was soon to be dispelled: on While certain European countries were swept by
14 March 1939, pro-Nazi Slovakia proclaimed its revolutionary fervour from 1920 onwards, Asia and Africa
independence and Bohemia and Moravia were declared a were trying to throw off the yoke of the West. On the one
German protectorate. The city of Memel (Klaipeda) and hand, communism encouraged liberation from colonialism,
Memelland were seized from Lithuania, and shortly as much out of self-interest as on principle, and on the other
afterwards Mussolini took possession of Albania. hand, the colonized peoples were hearing echoes of
Although it was rather late for the democracies to Woodrow Wilson’s support for self-government. Once
reverse their policy, they eventually did so by guaranteeing released from Ottoman domination by the Allied victories,
the independence and territorial integrity of Poland, the Arab States had to contend with British and French
Romania and Greece. In fact, they were incapable of ambitions and also the aspirations of the Jews, who had
defending any peoples, as Stalin well knew. In the summer been encouraged by the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting
of 1939, against a background of continuing negotiations the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people
between the USSR and the West, the German-Soviet in Palestine. They found it increasingly difficult to accept
Pact was concluded. Poland was immediately invaded by the presence of British troops in Baghdad and Jerusalem
the new partnership, although Russia did not join sides in and of French troops in Beirut.
the war until it was attacked by the Nazis on 21 June 1941, While Kemal Ataturk repelled the Greeks who had
which marked the true outbreak of the Second World landed in Smyrna, Abd-el Aziz Ibn Saud, the leader of the
War. Of a far greater magnitude than the preceding world Muslim Wahhabi sect, deposed Emir Hussein in 1924–
war, it was to engulf a larger area, bringing with it the 1925 to proclaim himself king of what was to become Saudi
horror of systematic genocide exemplified by the Arabia. To compensate Hussein’s two sons, the British
Holocaust. Over and above territorial considerations, the offered the Kingdom of Iraq to Faisal and the Emirate of
very future of civilization was at stake. Transjordan to Abdallah. In the Middle East, tension was
In Chapter 2, Charles S. Maier divides the Second thus building up to dangerous levels.
World War into four distinct conflicts. The first conflict In Persia, theoretically independent (but in fact under
involved Western Europe. From April to June 1940, Hitler the control of the West), Reza Khan, who had commanded
took over Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, a Cossack squadron in Tehran, used a nationalist movement
Luxembourg, Belgium and France. Great Britain found as a basis to seize power and proclaim himself Shah of Iran
itself fighting single-handed on both the Atlantic and the (Plate 5). In Afghanistan, King Amanullah sought to break
North African fronts. The second conflict, which had a loose from the pervasive influence of the British by
more ideological dimension, began in June 1941 when the demonstrating willingness to collaborate with the Soviet
Führer decided to invade Russia. The defeat of the German Union.
army at Stalingrad on 2 February 1943 was the turning India had sent one thousand soldiers to fight on the
point in this theatre. The third conflict saw Japan overrun battlefields of Europe and borne a considerable proportion
the whole of South-East Asia. The Japanese bombing of of British war costs. In exchange, Indian intellectuals
the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on expected their country to be granted autonomy in the form
7 December 1941 enabled President Roosevelt to surmount of a dominion status similar to that of Australia and Canada,
the pacifism widely supported by the American public and but the new constitution proposed by Great Britain failed
lead the United States into the war (Plate 4). Until then, to fulfil these expectations, and the resulting disturbances
the American participation was limited to providing were severely repressed by the British. Gandhi, a frail-
equipment to Great Britain and Russia under the Lend looking man with a gentle yet stubborn temperament who
Lease Programme. Despite the Americans’ superior had worked as a lawyer in Bombay, became the spokesperson
weaponry and their contribution to the defeat of Germany for the independence movement. He inspired an admiration
in May 1945, the conflict with Japan appeared likely to bordering on awe as he went about preaching passive
endure. To curtail it, the United States resorted to atomic resistance and civil disobedience and shunned violence.
weapons in August 1945. The resistance movements in Eventually a violent confrontation occurred between the
occupied France, Belgium, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia, ancient Indian traditions and British imperialism.
Poland and Russia and in South-East Asia were the Responding to his frequent imprisonments with hunger
protagonists of the fourth conflict, which was a key feature strikes, the Mahātmā (great soul) exerted an ever-growing
of the war despite its lower profile. fascination on the masses.
A fifth conflict could be added: the battles in North Strictly speaking, China had never been colonized, but for
Africa, which continued with the landings in Italy and the a long time, successive Western interventions had severely
collapse of the Fascist dictatorship. restricted its independence. There was a puppet government
The Second World War also differed from the preceding in Beijing, which was dominated by several Chinese military
war by doing away with the dividing line between civilians cliques supported by various foreign powers. Sun Yat-sen,
and combatants. The bombing of Warsaw, Leningrad, and after him Chiang Kai-shek, worked for the unification of
Rotterdam, London and Coventry by the Germans, the China and the abolition of the military cliques. Sun Yat-sen’s
Allied bombing of Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden, and collaboration with Moscow was decisive. The USSR
finally the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and supported the Kuomintang in its armed struggle against the
Nagasaki, all targeted civilian populations. If those who government in Beijing by supplying arms and dispatching
died of hunger are included, the civilian death toll probably military and political experts. It also organized a modern
numbered approximately fifty million. army, led by Chiang Kai-shek.

6
 INTRODUCTION

In Egypt, nationalist disturbances made Great Britain and dreams. In eschewing any rational control, surrealists
renounce its protectorate in 1923 and eventually recognize created a kind of cohesion of the incoherent. Surrealism
the country’s independence, with reservations regarding had a crucial influence on writers such as André Breton,
defence and foreign affairs in particular. The Wafd Party, Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon in France, Federico Garcia
having won the 1924 elections, continued to pursue its Lorca in Spain and, to a lesser extent, César Vallejo and
objective of complete freedom from British domination. Pablo Neruda in Latin America. Transformations of its
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco were increasingly dream-like images and visions into a form of ‘magic realism’
considered the linchpins of the Muslim community. There can be seen in the paintings of Max Ernst and René Magritte
was no threat as yet to France’s position in Algeria, but in and Salvador Dalí, and in the early films of Luis Buñuel,
Tunisia the Destour (Constitution) Party was calling for an Jean Cocteau and Jacques Prévert.
end to the protectorate and provoking serious incidents. In While the avant-garde surged forward, many others
Morocco, Spain suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands seeking to re-establish centres of gravity for the spirit and a
of dissident Rif tribes, and a republic of the confederated moral code to help control instinctive forces, focused on
Rif tribes was created by a little-known local leader, Abd contemporary social issues. This was true of the Catholics
el-Krim. In 1925, he attacked French Morocco, but the Paul Claudel, François Mauriac, Georges Bernanos and
following year the combined French and Spanish forces led Paul Valéry, a disciple of Mallarmé, in France. In Italy,
by Marshal Pétain forced him to surrender. Giuseppe Ungaretti adopted a neoclassical approach.
From sub-Saharan Africa came as yet no more than faint Expressing themselves in the German language, Rainer
stirrings: meetings in Kenya organized by Thuku calling for Maria Rilke explored the secret life of the soul, thomas
the end of forced labour and the redistribution of land; in Mann scrutinized the Hanseatic bourgeoisie, Franz Kafka
the Belgian Congo, the enigmatic utterances of the preacher described the absurd, and Ernst Jünger denounced Nazism
Kimbangu; and the sudden wave of strikes in Sierra Leone in veiled terms, while bertolt Brecht openly opposed it. In
and Gold Coast, formerly part of German Togo. England, scepticism verging on pessimism and a tendency
towards sarcasm characterize the work of D. H. Lawrence,
James Joyce and George B. Shaw. The exiled American
The burgeoning of science, the arts poets T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound were exceptions. In the
and literature from 1918 to 1940 United States, writers became aware of their country’s
different groups and described them in language sometimes
Whatever else may have happened between the two world far removed from classical English: John Dos Passos with
wars, it was a period of intense activity in science and an often brutal energy, Ernest Hemingway with a restrained
produced an abundance of works of art and literature. force, and William Faulkner with refinement.
Science, especially physics, with the extension of the More than in the nineteenth century, cosmopolitanism
quantum theory announced by Max Planck in 1900, encouraged the circulation of both artistic works and their
continued to expand and intensify activity in its fields of creators. It permeated the works of Paul Morand, André
investigation. Disciplines became specialized to such an Malraux, Herman Keyserling and Somerset Maugham and
extent that close international collaboration became enabled the West to discover the Indian poet, Rabindranath
essential. Einstein would not have been able to formulate Tagore. The École de Paris (the Paris School), which
his theory of relativity without the experiments of the extended its influence as far as the United States, included
American Michelson, the formulas of the Dutch physicist artists such as Van Dongen (a Dutchman), Picasso (a
Lorentz and the work of the Lithuanian-born Spaniard) (Plate 6), Modigliani (an Italian) and Foujita (a
mathematician Minkowski. French physicist Louis Japanese).
de Broglie, the initiator of wave mechanics, based his In the years following the creation of the Soviet Union,
formulation on a combination of quantum theory and the new regime accepted various predominantly leftist
Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. intellectual and artistic tendencies; however, in the early
Chemists produced explosives and poison gas but also 1930s, the Communist Party outlawed many avant-garde
synthetic medicines and plastic materials, thereby fostering movements and proclaimed so-called ‘social realism’ as the
the rapid expansion of photography and cinema, and of only officially acceptable artistic doctrine.
insulin, which revolutionized the treatment of diabetes. Maxim Gorky rallied to the Communist regime,
While physicists proclaimed the existence of the atom, Vladimir Mayakovsky took to singing the praises of the
biologists began deciphering the mysteries of the gene. Revolution, and Mikhail Sholokhov, whose writing has
A new generation of artists and writers emerged from sometimes been compared to Tolstoy’s, entitled his
the war with hostility to authority and a desire to break best-known work Quiet Flows the Don. Others, such
with the traditions of the preceding generations, as evidenced as Boris Pasternak, were forced underground, and
by the work of cubists in France, futurists in Italy, De Stijl their works would only become known after the Second
in the Netherlands and constructivists and suprematists in World War.
Russia, to name the most prominent avant-garde movements. Despite the growing reputations of such innovators as
Some members of the literary and artistic avant-garde Arnold Schönberg and Alban Berg, the avant-garde had
appropriated dadaism (dating back to 1917), German little effect on opera, no doubt because the bourgeois
expressionism and the pre-1914 French literary movement audience for this musical genre had no wish to be shocked.
known as unanimisme. Its international repertoire went no further than Richard
John Willett wrote that surrealism sprang out of dadaism Strauss or Leos Janacek, and Giacomo Puccini was a staple
as if making a plea for a revival of the imagination, following almost everywhere. But ballet, which had traditionally been
the revelation of the unconscious by Sigmund Freud, and associated with opera, was almost completely transformed
for a new emphasis on magic, chance, the irrational, symbols even before the end of the First World War. In 1917, the

7
 introduction

Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev staged La Parade in Zyklon B, a gas containing prussic acid. In Auschwitz, the
Paris to music by Eric Satie and with a scenario by gas chambers could kill 10,000 men, women and children a
Jean Cocteau, scenery and costumes by Pablo Picasso and a day. The ovens functioned 24 hours a day, and the ashes
programme-introduction by Guillaume Apollinaire. and bone fragments that remained were used as agricultural
Diaghilev would subsequently collaborate with Igor fertilizer.
Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Georges Auric, Darius Realizing that the re-establishment of peace would
Milhaud, Manuel de Falla and Francis Poulenc for musical require quite a different approach from that needed to win
accompaniment, and Georges Braque, Juan Gris, André the war, all the states that had been directly or remotely
Derain and Georges Rouault for set designs and costumes. involved in the Allied effort proclaimed their determination
People were soon flocking to see Diaghilev’s ballets, and this to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,
brought recognition for the composers and painters which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to
involved. mankind. The United Nations founding conference was
In America, a new style of music known as jazz, which held in San Francisco from 25 April to 30 June 1945. Its
had emerged from the migration of Southern blacks to the Member States undertook to take collective action to
cities of the North-East, gained recognition abroad maintain peace and friendly relations, based on the principle
(Plate 7). Welcomed with open arms by the avant-garde of equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination,
because it represented a break with tradition, jazz was seen to deal with economic and social, intellectual and
as a symbol of modernity, and Duke Ellington became a humanitarian international problems in a manner respectful
cult figure. The technological developments that led to the of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without
establishment of the record industry and radio soon made distinction of race, sex, language or religion (Plate 11).
jazz the universal language of youth culture. Other signs of Although the United States had not joined the League of
cosmopolitanism, the Argentine tango and the samba of Nations, it was the driving force behind the United Nations,
the carnival of Rio, reigned supreme in dance halls which had at its disposal financial and technical resources
throughout the 1920s. vastly superior to those of the League of Nations, and a
Before the First World War, cinema had been more a network of specialized agencies. UNESCO was founded to
curiosity than an art, but the situation changed during and deal with education, science and culture, while the
after the conflict. Charlie Chaplin (Plate 8) was an International Labour Organization and the World Health
undisputed genius, and in both Weimar Germany and Organization focus on work- and health-related issues,
Soviet Russia avant-garde directors created noteworthy respectively. Other specialized agencies included the Food
art films. Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein emerged and Agriculture Organization, the International Bank for
as a masterpiece of silent film. From the 1930s, the talented Reconstruction and Development, the International
populist films of René Clair, Jean Renoir and Marcel Carné Monetary Fund, the International Civil Aviation
stood their ground against the tidal wave from Hollywood, Organization, the World Meteorological Organization,
which had secured the collaboration of European exiles the Universal Postal Union and the International
such as directors Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch and Telecommunications Union. Subsequently, other
Billy Wilder and actresses Greta Garbo (Plate 9) and institutions would be set up as needed, for example the
Marlene Dietrich. United Nations Development Programme and the United
As the Second World War approached, India was Nations Environment Programme.
producing 170 films a year and Japan more than 500, but The twenty Member States that founded UNESCO in
Hollywood alone, releasing more than 10 films a week, had London on 16 November 1945 wished to resume the work
greater access to world-wide distribution. of the defunct International Committee on Intellectual
Once art nouveau had wound down, the artistic and Cooperation in a considerably broadened scope. Meeting
political avant-garde also set its seal on architecture and the amidst the smoking ruins of the British capital, they asserted
decorative arts for a time. The innovative Bauhaus school for that, in the words of American poet Archibald MacLeish, ‘it
architecture and applied arts founded by Gropius was is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be
dissolved in 1933, the same year Hitler took power. Hitler, constructed’. In the second half of the twentieth century,
Stalin and, to a lesser extent, Mussolini opposed all forms of UNESCO carried out a considerable number of tasks:
modern art, which they considered decadent. Instead, they promoting the right to education; effectively contributing to
encouraged a monumental neoclassical architectural style the rescue, safeguarding and enhancement of humanity’s
devoid of originality. In the democracies, on the other hand, cultural and natural heritage; providing support for artistic
innovation was more sought after, thanks to pioneers such as creativity, so often stifled and endangered by the new
Swiss-born Le Corbusier (Plate 10) and the German-born technological and economic environment; mobilizing
Mies van der Rohe, who reacted against the extensive use of political leaders to increase and share scientific knowledge;
ornament and sought to set architecture on a rationalist path promoting the free flow of words and images; and attempting
by favouring clean and simple lines and elegant sobriety. to reduce the flagrant imbalance in access to information
and means of communication available to industrialized
and developing countries.
Hopes of a new world order More vulnerable than the specialized agencies, the
United Nations General Assembly and Security Council
Once the war was over, the full horror of the concentration often proved incapable of taking positions. At the beginning
camps was exposed. In addition to resorting to firing squads, of 1947, fighting was reported in China, Greece, Palestine,
torture and deliberate starvation, Hitler had literally India, Indonesia and Indo-China, and the USSR pursued
industrialized death. In the concentration camps, the Nazis its eastern European expansion, which Stalin considered
built gas chambers in which the victims were suffocated by essential to the country’s security.

8
 INTRODUCTION

Meeting in Yalta, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin divided receiving American aid worth over $2.2 billion between
Europe along the front lines reached by Allied forces. 1945 and 1949, the armies of the discredited Chinese
Neither Roosevelt nor Churchill had wanted this division, government of Chiang Kai-shek were beaten by the troops
but the two leaders resigned themselves to the fait accompli. of communist leader Mao Zedong. The struggle came to an
The countries of Central and Eastern Europe were end on 1 October 1949, when Mao proclaimed the
subsequently plunged into communism: Poland and establishment of the People’s Republic of China, and Chiang
Czechoslovakia after unsuccessful attempts to save a Kai-shek took refuge in Taiwan, an island militarized by the
parliamentary regime, and Romania, Bulgaria and Albania Americans.
by communist minorities supported by the Soviet Union. No sooner had the communists triumphantly concluded
Tito’s Yugoslavia was the only country to opt spontaneously the civil war in China than another conflict broke out. On
for a people’s democracy, thus obtaining a degree of freedom 25 June 1950, the armies of the Democratic People’s
from the Kremlin. Republic of Korea (known as North Korea) crossed the
On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General 38th parallel, which, by virtue of the Tehran Conference
Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human (1943), separated it from its rival to the south, the
Rights. Forty-eight of the then Member States voted in conservative Republic of Korea. The latter, led by Syngman
favour, none against and eight abstained. The text’s principal Rhee, was recognized by Washington, while North Korea,
author, Nobel Prize winner Professor Cachin, once drew a led by Kim Il-Sung, was recognized by the USSR.
distinction between the declaration proper and the The matter was immediately submitted to the United
implementing measures, which he considered more Nations Security Council, which the USSR was boycotting
important and less carefully elaborated. Unfortunately this in protest against the presence of a representative of Chiang
assessment remains relevant at the beginning of the twenty- Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese Government. As there was
first century, notwithstanding the development of new no risk of the notorious veto being applied, the Security
generations of rights: economic, social and cultural rights, Council decided to oppose the aggressor by force and
the right to education, development and humanitarian requested that the United States appoint a commander to
assistance, the rights of the child, and so on. the intervention force that would fight under the United
Nations flag.
Many West European contingents rallied to the United
The Cold War Nations’ call, but there was no doubt that operations were
financed and directed by the United States. Initially, the
Germany was split in two by the Potsdam Conference intervention forces drove the invaders back to the border
(1945), but Berlin had a special status, occupied by the with Manchuria, but the unexpected mass intervention of
Soviets in the east, the British in the north-west, the the Chinese communists, supported by the USSR, changed
Americans in the south and the French in the south-west. the situation. It took the skilful strategy of General
The sectors administered by the Americans and British MacArthur to give the United Nations troops the advantage
promptly became a bizone, the nucleus of the future federal once again, and the Chinese-North Korean forces were
state of West Germany. driven back beyond the 38th parallel. General MacArthur,
Communist ideology had not just penetrated Central who publicly favoured an all-or-nothing approach, hoped
and Eastern Europe. Civil war was raging in Greece, and to continue fighting until he reached Manchuria. Refusing
had it not been for the presence of 40,000 British soldiers, to take responsibility for unleashing a global conflict,
the country might have fallen to the guerrillas (andartes) of President Truman overruled General MacArthur and
Markos Vafiadis, making Turkey an indefensible outpost recalled him.
in an ocean of communism. Of even greater concern to the When the Chinese and North Koreans realized they
President of the United States, Harry Truman, was the could not win, they agreed to negotiate, and an armistice
considerable threat of the communist parties in France reinstating the status quo before the outbreak of the conflict
and, especially, Italy. Truman considered it necessary to was signed in Panmunjom on 27 July 1953.
counter the risk of economic, social and political The Cold War had been intensified by the Korean War.
disintegration by supporting Europe with America’s The United States sought allies, urging Japan to reconstitute
surplus resources. The Marshall Plan was approved by the a defence force, and in 1954 the Americans sponsored the
United States Congress on 2 April 1948 and administered creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. In the
by the sixteen members of the Organisation for European same year, the United States signed a pact with the
Economic Co-operation (OEEC). Nationalist Chinese government of Taiwan concerning the
Stalin’s response to the introduction of the new German island’s protection. In 1955, the United States supported
mark and the creation of the OEEC and the bizone was to the creation of the Baghdad Pact (later to become the
block land access to West Berlin. Two million Berliners Central Treaty Organization — CENTO) signed by Great
might have starved or frozen to death if the Americans had Britain, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan and designed to
not airlifted supplies of food and coal. The blockade was counter Soviet expansion in the region.
finally lifted on 12 May 1949. One month earlier, the first The USSR possessed the atomic bomb as early as 1949,
steps towards the American policy of containment had and the strategy of Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin’s successor
been followed by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty from 1953 to 1964, took account of the atomic factor,
on 4 April, which involved the United States in the Western focusing on the development of intercontinental ballistic
defence system (Plate 12). missiles. On 14 May 1955, Moscow responded to the
A world divided into two camps, each armed with atomic admission of West Germany to NATO by creating the
weapons, was entering the period of the Cold War, and the Warsaw Pact, which brought seven Eastern European
first confrontation occurred in the Far East. Despite countries under a unified command controlled by Moscow.

9
 introduction

In the United States, President John F. Kennedy and his During the war, Indonesians like Sukarno had
Secretary of State Robert McNamara favoured the doctrine collaborated with the Japanese. Rejecting the return of the
of flexible response, making it possible to intervene in all Dutch, they sought independence. The Dutch Government
sorts of conflicts without immediately resorting to nuclear agreed to a kind of Indonesian Commonwealth in the
weapons. One of President Kennedy’s first crises erupted in framework of a Dutch-Indonesian Union, but to no avail.
Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro had seized power on the island, The Dutch then tried to force the nationalists into
putting an end to the corrupt and bloody dictatorship of submission. India and Australia appealed to the United
Sergeant Batista. The new regime’s left-wing tendencies Nations Security Council, which ordered a ‘ceasefire’.
were of concern to major American industrial interests that Fighting nevertheless continued, but the Dutch had only
were deeply committed in Latin America and very influential limited military resources at their disposal. On
in the White House. In July 1960, President Eisenhower, 27 December 1949, they finally recognized the independence
hoping to eradicate the communist experiment at an early of the Republic of Indonesia.
stage, reduced to 700,000 tonnes the import quota for In Indochina, too, the departure of the Japanese triggered
Cuban sugar. As might have been expected, the USSR a nationalist groundswell of opposition to the colonial
bought the sugar Washington had refused, supplied power. Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Viet Minh
Fidel Castro with oil and offered to place rockets at his Communist Party, took over Government House in Hanoi
disposal. This support from the USSR reinforced Cuba’s and proclaimed Vietnamese independence. Bao Dai, the
revolutionary tendencies, which spread throughout Latin emperor of Annam, was obliged to abdicate. The French
America, where the immense poverty of the masses made played a double game, recognizing the Republic of Viet
communism particularly appealing. Nam as a free state belonging to the French Union, but at
President Kennedy had refused to intervene when anti- the same time seeking to make Cochinchina, in the south, a
Castro forces, backed by the CIA, attempted to invade separate autonomous republic. The government of the latter
Cuba in 1961, but when he became convinced in the was entrusted to Bao Dai and recognized by London and
following year that the Soviets were building missile Washington, while Ho Chi Minh’s government was
launching ramps in Cuba and dispatching nuclear weaponry recognized by Moscow and Beijing. The ensuing First
to the island, he asked the Senate for authorization to recall Indochina War lasted six and a half years, and France
150,000 reservists and took a series of military measures sacrificed 92,000 dead, 114,000 wounded and several billion
that clearly demonstrated his refusal to yield to the Soviets. dollars before agreeing to a ceasefire at the Geneva
On 22 October 1962, President Kennedy presented Nikita conference. Viet Nam was divided into two along the 17th
Khrushchev with an ultimatum. Khrushchev finally agreed parallel: to the north, the People’s Republic of Viet Nam,
to repatriate the rockets and dismantle the bases, whose and to the south an independent state with Cambodia and
existence Fidel Castro had consistently denied, in exchange Laos lying to the west.
for the dismantling of American missiles along the Turkish- The Americans were slow to realize that the First
Soviet border. Indochina War was not simply a colonial war, and eventually
discovered at great cost that the expulsion of the French had
not improved the situation in South-East Asia in the
Decolonization slightest.
The Bandung Conference, which took place in Indonesia
Already underway before the advent of the Cold War, the in April 1955, marked a turning point in the history of
process of decolonization, which led to the end of the decolonization. For the first time, Africans and Asians from
world’s empires, was undoubtedly one of the major events independent developing countries met to publicly proclaim
of the twentieth century. It began in Asia for a variety of their unwillingness to be dominated by the great Western
reasons, the most important of which, as regards Indo- powers. The conference was attended by delegates from
China and Indonesia, was the fanning of hatred towards 29 Asian and African countries, representing one-half of
Europeans by the Japanese army in the countries that it had the world’s population. They unanimously condemned
occupied, then, after the capitulation, the arming of racism and colonialism, denounced the dangers of nuclear
nationalist movements in the hope that they would oppose weapons and called for peace. They refused to align
the return of the colonizers. themselves either with Moscow or with Washington, a
The United Kingdom had been weakened by the war, position that would prove untenable.
and this accelerated decolonization in India, but complications In Bandung, Nehru had affirmed Asia’s wish to assist
soon arose from the Muslim League’s determination to Africa. The British Government had long ago decided on
secure the establishment of an independent Muslim State. the progressive emancipation of its African colonies with
There were riots and massacres, notably in Bengal and representative nationalist movements. As early as 1954, it
Calcutta. Despite Gandhi’s efforts and prestige, he was had abrogated the rights conferred by treaty on the British
unable to prevent partition. In August 1947, after a round- in Egypt, thereby leading to the independence of the Sudan,
table meeting, Lord Mountbatten announced the creation of until then administered jointly by Egypt and Britain. In the
two states, India and Pakistan. As soon as the viceroy and wake of these events came the decolonization of the Gold
British troops had left, in January 1948, disorder ensued. Coast, where Kwame Nkrumah had subjugated the
Gandhi was assassinated by a supporter of the caste system, population. On 6 March 1957, in the presence of the
and tension between the two new countries continued, with Duchess of Kent, Ghana’s independence was solemnly
both laying claim to Kashmir. The British colonial monolith proclaimed in Accra. Nkrumah remained in power until
had been divided into five independent states: India, Pakistan, 1966, when a military junta overthrew him.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Bangladesh and, after 1947, Burma, After discussions held at three round tables and marked
which had been occupied by the Japanese. by a visit from Queen Elizabeth II, Nigeria gained

10
 INTRODUCTION

independence in 1960, but civil peace was shattered seven d’état, the attempted secession of Katanga, the assassination
years later by the war that erupted following the secession of of Patrice Lumumba (Plate 13), and, the rise to power of
Biafra. the dictatorial General Mobutu.
From 1960, decolonization gathered pace. In that year, A series of delayed decolonizations ensued beginning in
the British relinquished British Somaliland, which merged 1980 with Southern Rhodesia, thereafter known as
with the formerly Italian Somalia. In 1961, Sierra Leone Zimbabwe, as a result of the unilateral declaration by
and Tanganyika gained independence. Uganda followed Ian Smith establishing an independent regime controlled
suit in 1962, and Zanzibar in 1963. The situation in Kenya by the white settlers. Decolonization occurred in Guinea-
was more complex: London’s efforts to seek conciliation led Bissau and subsequently in Mozambique, the Cape Verde
first to a multi-racial government and then to independence. Islands and Angola thanks to Portugal’s ‘Carnation
In 1964, Nyasaland became Malawi and Northern Rhodesia Revolution’, which unseated President Caetano, the
Zambia. In the same year, Tanganyika and Zanzibar successor of Salazar. In 1977, Djibouti, the former territory
merged to form Tanzania. of the Afars and Issas, gained independence. The long
After the Second World War, France, like Great Britain, struggle against the racist regime in South Africa led to the
recognized the inevitability of the emancipation of its sub- abolition of apartheid in 1990, and eventually to multiracial
Saharan African colonies. For a long time, it believed that elections, from which the former political prisoner Nelson
the process could take place within the framework of a R. Mandela emerged as the country’s first black president
policy of assimilation ‘into the life and institutions of the (Plate 14).
French community’. In 1956, the French Government The decolonization process examined by Professors
passed a law (Loi-Cadre Deferre) providing for representative N. A. Simonia and I. D. Thiam in Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 of
institutions in the twelve West African territories under its this volume completely transformed the world political map.
authority and in Madagascar. The initiative failed to satisfy The number of independent states in Asia increased five-
the demands of a majority of African leaders, who proclaimed fold, while those in Africa rose from one (in 1939) to nearly
during a meeting held in Bamako, from 25 to fifty. Decolonization, however, did not solve all the problems
30 September 1957, that ‘the independence of peoples is an of the young states. The new Africa, facing formidable
inalienable right enabling them to exercise the attributes of difficulties, neglected agricultural development to focus on
their sovereignty in the interests of the masses’. Realizing industrial technologies, most often implanted by multinational
the shortcomings of the Loi-Cadre Deferre, General de firms. This was one of the forms of neo-colonialism that
Gaulle, who was recalled to power in March 1958, declared, confronted the countries of the Third World with unequal
in a speech given on 24 August 1958 in the sports stadium terms of trade. Another form of neo-colonialism resulted
of Brazzaville, ‘Whoever wants independence can take it. from exponentially increasing debt, aggravated by the
The metropole will not seek to prevent it’. A referendum International Monetary Fund (IMF), which forced
ensued, and only Guinea chose independence, the other governments to impose draconian budgetary restrictions on
countries preferring autonomy within the French their people, with dire effects: unemployment, collapse of
Community, which entitled them to receive economic and public services, poor infrastructure maintenance, price
financial assistance from the metropole. However, the increases, currency devaluation, and deteriorating health and
referendum was ambiguous, and autonomy was accepted education services. A source of rivalry between East and
only as a step on the path to independence, which was West until the collapse of the USSR, Africa also suffered
rapidly obtained by Congo-Brazzaville, the Ivory Coast, from Balkanization, as the frontiers between its states were
Dahomey, Upper Volta, Madagascar, Mali, mauritania, those of the former colonies and seldom those of the different
Niger, the Central African Republic, Senegal and Chad. ethnic groups. Some 70 coups d’état ensued, not to mention
Some of these new states were fortunate enough to be led ferocious outbreaks of genocide in the Great Lakes region.
by outstanding figures such as Félix Houphouët-Boigny of
the Ivory Coast and especially Léopold S. Senghor of
Senegal, who extolled the cultural concept of ‘negritude’ in The explosive situation in
his writings. t h e  M i d d l e E a s t
French policy in North Africa differed from that carried
out in sub-Saharan Africa. There were 200,000 Europeans The Afro-Asian neutralist movement initiated by the
in Tunisia, 300,000 in Morocco and 1 million in Algeria. Bandung Conference was reinforced via the Islamic Jakarta-
Whereas France resigned itself fairly promptly to the Tangiers axis, which was based in the Near East. Referring
independence of Tunisia and Morocco, it wished to retain to this region, Lenin had declared ‘Whoever holds sway
its hold on Algeria. From 1957 to 1960, General R. Salan there will be master of the world’.
and his army conducted a war in which the use of torture Great Britain had raised the thorny problem of the
and collective repression outraged the Catholic Church and ‘Jewish national home’, but being unable to reach a solution
many French intellectuals. The Algerian War destabilized to the satisfaction of both Arabs and Jews, the issue was
France and its army, which was shaken by a failed generals’ passed on to the United Nations, which, in November 1947,
putsch. General de Gaulle had returned to power thanks to recommended the division of Palestine into a Jewish State
the insurrection of French extremists in Algeria, and and an Arab State. Jerusalem was to be granted an
paradoxically he ended the conflict by subduing the international status. The Zionists were quick to react: on
extremists and granting independence to Algeria in the 14 May 1948, the day after the British mandate in Palestine
Evian Agreements of 2 July 1962. ended, Israel unilaterally proclaimed its independence under
In the meantime, the Belgian Congo was granted the presidency of Chaim Weizmann. The Arabs immediately
independence rather precipitately after a round-table took up arms but, most unexpectedly, the young Israeli
meeting in 1960, but this was followed by a series of coups army fought them off and went on to annex the Negev and

11
 introduction

West Galilee. Count Bernadotte, dispatched by the United guerrilla operations while using diplomatic means to
Nations as mediator, was assassinated by Jewish terrorists. promote his position at the international level.
While the states of the Arab League and Israel continued The Palestinian resistance had established itself in
to engage in both covert and open warfare, Great Britain, Jordan, and in September 1970, King Hussein organized a
together with France, the United States and Turkey, comprehensive crackdown, forcing 5,000 members of the
requested Egypt to participate in the defence of the Middle PLO to leave Jordan for Lebanon or Syria. This prompted
East as regional state and co-guarantor. This proposal, which certain factions to resort to international terrorism. At the
ultimately led to the Baghdad Pact, was categorically rejected Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, a Palestinian commando
by the Egyptians, who also demanded the immediate and – named Black September in reference to the crackdown in
total evacuation of British citizens present on their soil. Jordan – massacred twelve Israeli athletes.
On 23 July 1952, a military coup led by General In 1970, Anwar al Sadat succeeded Colonel Nasser. Two
Mohammed Neguib led to King Farouk’s abdication and years later, applying the doctrine of non-alignment
the proclamation of an Egyptian republic. In 1954, the same supported by Tito in Yugoslavia and Nehru in India,
year, Syrian President Adib Shishakli was ousted by a Sadat demanded and obtained the withdrawal of the
military revolt, and General Neguib was relieved of all his 20,000 Soviet military advisers previously invited to Egypt
responsibilities and replaced by Colonel Gamal Abdel by Nasser. On 6 October 1973, the day of the Jewish feast
Nasser. On 26 July 1956, after the United States had of Yom Kippur, the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal,
withdrawn its offer of loans to build a high dam on the Nile and the Syrian army attacked the Golan Heights. Taken by
at Aswan, Nasser announced the nationalization of the surprise, the Israeli forces were nearly defeated for the first
Franco-British Suez Canal Company. ‘More than half of time. During the same period, the representatives of
Britain’s annual imports of oil came through the canal’, ten Arab states, meeting in Kuwait, used oil as a weapon,
recalled the then British Minister of Foreign Affairs, doubling the price of the barrel on two separate occasions
Anthony Eden, in his memoirs. France had not forgotten and exacerbating the crisis already affecting the industrialized
the considerable support, both moral and material, the world. In the face of this renewal of hostilities, the United
Algerian insurrection had received from Nasser’s Egypt, Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 338, which
and Israel, for its part, was more than willing to take the provided for a ceasefire, the application of Resolution 242
opportunity to expand. On 26 October 1956, it attacked and negotiations with a view to the establishment of a just
Egyptian positions in the Sinai Peninsula. Two days later, a and lasting peace in the Middle East.
Franco-British air force went into action in the canal zone, The Cold War formed the backdrop to this series of
and parachutists occupied Port Said. The matter was conflicts in the Middle East. In order to prevent the USSR
brought before the United Nations by the USSR, which from bringing its influence to bear in the region, United
had just crushed a revolution in Hungary and was free to States President Nixon instructed his secretary of state,
intervene elsewhere, and the United States, in the midst of Henry Kissinger, to persuade Israel – the Yom Kippur
presidential elections, felt that the adventure was likely to War having turned to its advantage – to cease hostilities,
exacerbate feelings in the Arab countries and throw Egypt and Egypt to accept a compromise. In 1977, the United
into the arms of the Soviets. The United Nations General States and Egypt agreed to ask the Israeli Prime
Assembly condemned France, the United Kingdom and Minister Menachem Begin to engage in the negotiations
Israel, ordered the withdrawal of their forces and decided to that led to the Camp David Accords, signed in Washington
send in the United Nations’ own forces, the ‘blue helmets’. in 1978 under the presidency of Jimmy Carter (Plate 15).
The Franco-British-Israeli forces resigned themselves to According to these agreements, Egypt recognized the
withdraw from Egypt, thereby ending a colonial war without existence of Israel, in exchange for Israel’s evacuation of the
resolving the Middle East conflict. Sinai Peninsula.
After the Franco-British-Israeli diplomatic defeat in the If president Carter thought he had laid the foundations
Suez Crisis, Colonel Nasser assumed the role of the for a comprehensive solution to the problems of the Middle
uncontested leader of Arab nationalism and hoped to realize East, he was soon to be disappointed. Syria and Iraq called
the long-cherished dream of pan-Arab unity. Although he Egypt to task for concluding a ‘separate peace’ and in 1981
failed in Jordan, where King Hussein, after dissolving his Anwar al Sadat was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalist
parliament for their pro-Nasser leanings, was rewarded by army officers.
America, Nasser succeeded in Syria, which united with The Camp David Accords had not provided for any
Egypt to form the United Arab Republic from 1958 to solution to the problems of Palestinians living in the territories
1961, and in Iraq, where General Qasim overthrew the still occupied by Israel or in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon
monarchy. and Syria. It was, in fact, from its bases in Lebanon that the
In 1967, when Nasser barred access to the Gulf of Aqaba PLO launched its numerous raids on Israel. Intent on putting
to ships flying the Israeli flag, Israel launched a preventive an end to the raids, Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 on
war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. In six days, Israeli the orders of Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, and the
troops took the Gaza Strip, Sinai, the West Bank and the Phalangist Christian militia perpetrated massacres in the
Golan Heights. Once again, the United Nations intervened. Sabra and Chatila refugee camps. Under pressure from
Security Council Resolution 242 recognized Israel de facto outraged international opinion, Israel concluded a peace
but required it to withdraw from the territories conquered treaty with Lebanon in 1983 and agreed to withdraw its
during the Six Day War. However, the resolution did forces, except in South Lebanon, an area still divided among
nothing to improve the immediate situation. various factions. Syria was standing by.
In 1969, Yasser Arafat took control of the Palestine In Palestine, too, clans and factions were co-existing uneasily
Liberation Organization (PLO) and opted for an ambiguous when not in open conflict. The PLO opted for moderation and
two-pronged strategy, which consisted of encouraging accepted United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338, but many

12
 INTRODUCTION

radicals rejected this approach and joined Al Fatah. Nineteen by no less murderous reprisals. At the end of the twentieth
eighty-seven marked the beginning of the first intifada or century, few people still talked of negotiations.
Palestinian ‘uprising’ in Gaza and the West Bank, but the
PLO managed to keep the demonstrators under control
(Plate 16). At a meeting in Algiers in November 1988, the T h e c o l l a p s e o f t h e USSR
organization recognized the existence of two states – one
Jewish and one Arab – which earned it the recognition of the The Gulf War had made it abundantly clear that there was
United States. only one remaining superpower: the United States. Before
To add to the confusion in the Middle East, in 1990 the America of President George W. Bush attained a solid
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which was embroiled in war with potential for imperialism, President Reagan implemented a
Iran during most of the 1980s, invaded Kuwait and rearmament policy (totalling 7 percent of the country’s
bombarded the State of Israel with Scud missiles, posing as GNP) that forced the USSR into military expenditure
the champion of Arab identity and the Arab cause. Israel’s beyond the capacities of the Soviet economy despite the
refusal to retaliate foiled Hussein’s hopes for the formation desire of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to remain
of an Arab league. The Iraqis were beaten by an international competitive with the United States in this field. When
coalition endorsed by the Security Council and directed by Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in March 1985, the
the United States, without the participation of Russia. Not situation changed. Hoping to liberalize the communist
wishing to exceed their United Nations’ mandate (the economy, the new Kremlin leader set out to implement a
liberation of Kuwait), the coalition troops did not march on transitional policy somewhere between outright capitalism
Baghdad, nor did they support a Shiite uprising, which the and orthodox socialism. Alongside economic perestroika
Americans had encouraged in the hopes of overthrowing (‘reconstruction’), his policy of glasnost (‘openness’) was
Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime. intended to introduce transparency in political and social
For a while, the Gulf War positively affected the situation issues. Press censorship was abolished, and the Supreme
in the Middle East. A meeting in Madrid, sponsored by the Soviet publicly condemned the Stalinist era. In the realm of
United States and Russia, brought Israel, Egypt, Syria and foreign policy, Mikhail Gorbachev put an end to the Cold
Lebanon to the same negotiating table. PLO delegates also War by initiating the talks that led to the 1987 signature in
took part in discussions as members of the Jordano- Washington of a treaty in which Americans and Soviets
Palestinian delegation. The letter of invitation to the Madrid agreed not only to a general arms limitation but to the
Conference provided for a first phase of bilateral negotiations progressive destruction of their nuclear weapons.
to be followed by a phase of multilateral negotiations dealing Perestroika and glasnost spread to the satellite countries in
with regional issues, such as arms control, regional security, Eastern Europe like a tidal wave. In Poland, where native son
water, the refugee question, the environment, economic Pope John Paul II wielded considerable influence, agitation
development and other questions of general interest. It was spearheaded by Lech Walesa’s Solidarnosc movement had
an admirable initiative that remains relevant at the beginning gained so much popularity between 1981 and 1988 that
of the twenty-first century. President Jaruzelski was obliged to agree to free elections.
The first steps were encouraging. In August 1993, Solidarnosc’s landslide victory in 1989 marked the beginning
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met representatives of the end of communist domination. Hungary followed suit
of the PLO secretly in Oslo and together they prepared by opening its border with Austria, and thousands of East
the groundwork for an agreement on Palestinian Germans rushed through the breach thus opened to
autonomy. In September, a declaration on Palestinian immigrate to West Germany. Erich Honecker was forced to
autonomy was signed in Washington. The PLO recognized step down as president and, on 9 November 1989, his
the legitimacy of the State of Israel, while the Israelis successor, Egor Krentz, decided to hold free elections. The
accepted the PLO as negotiating partner and declared same evening a jubilant crowd began dismantling the
their willingness to militarily withdraw from the Gaza quintessential symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall
Strip and Jericho. In September 1995, the Taba Agreement (Plate 17). Less than a year later, the two Germanies were
– known as Oslo II – expanded Palestinian autonomy, united. The communist regimes in Bulgaria and
but the signing of the agreements failed to put an end to Czechoslovakia were the next to be overthrown, but that of
the terrorist attacks and suicide missions of Palestinian Romania ended in a bloodbath. Dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu
kamikazes or to the installation of more Jewish settlements. and his wife were arrested and executed with no semblance
On both sides, fanaticism overruled wiser counsel. In of legality. In August 1991, Gorbachev granted independence
November 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was to the three Baltic States: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
assassinated by a radical Israeli, and in July 2000 Prime The revolution took an ugly turn in federal Yugoslavia
Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat dug in their heels under the Serb Slobodan Milosevic. In the spring of 1990,
at Camp David, despite President bill Clinton’s desire for Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina had
an agreement. Radicals in both camps welcomed the announced their intention to leave the federation. Slovenia
failure of Camp David. secured its independence after a ten-day battle with the
On 28 September of the same year, Ariel Sharon, the federal army, but the Serbs managed to occupy a third of
leader of the opposition and future prime minister, provoked the territory of Croatia, which had not yet organized its
the indignation of Muslims by paying a visit to the Haram defence, before a provisional ceasefire was imposed by the
al-Sharif, an Islamic holy place in Jerusalem. Whether United Nations. Fighting broke out again, and it was not
deliberate or unintentional, Sharon’s defiant gesture triggered until 1995 that the Croats gained the upper hand. Militias
off the second intifada, which was more violent than the first on both sides engaged in ‘ethnic cleansing’.
and intensified as the Israelis took increasingly repressive Outbreaks of ethnic cleansing increased during the
action against it. Murderous suicide missions were followed battle for the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

13
 introduction

The United Nations and subsequently NATO intervened. while the lesser-known treaty created the European Atomic
In the American city of Dayton, Ohio, in 1995, Serbs, Energy Community (EURATOM), devoted to the
Croats and Muslims agreed on a division between a development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The authors
Croat-Muslim federation, including the war-torn city of of the treaties of Rome also aimed at eventually achieving
Sarajevo, and the Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska). an integrated Europe, but, as with the plans for a European
The conflict’s death toll numbered 200,000, and more Defence Community, General de Gaulle was opposed to
than 2 million men, women and children were forced into the idea of a United States of Europe. In 1961, the United
exile. Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark applied for membership
In Kosovo, an integral part of Serbia, Milosevic had of the EEC, and Norway followed suit in 1962. True to his
arrested the leaders of the Albanian majority in 1989, and reputation as ‘a minority of one’, General de Gaulle refused
put the Serbian minority in control of the province. The to admit these new members, and once again vetoed an
Democratic League of Kosovo responded by organizing attempt at enlargement in 1967. Two years later, under
unofficial elections, which brought Ibrahim Rugova to President Georges Pompidou, France finally came around
power in a parallel government. In early 1997, the Albanian to the views of its five partners, and on 1 January 1973, the
resistance rallied behind the Kosovo Liberation Army, and United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark joined the
the scene was set for civil war. Serbian politicians and European Economic Community. This was the signal for
paramilitaries tracked down rebels and carried out massacres further enlargement with the entry of Greece in 1981 and
in villages suspected of having harboured them. NATO Portugal and Spain in 1986, when the membership reached
made its position clear by organizing aerial manoeuvres twelve. In 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden were
above Albania, thus helping the United Nations to persuade admitted, bringing to fifteen the total number of members
Milosevic and the Kosovan Muslims to agree to a ceasefire of the European Union, the organization’s official name
on 13 October 1998. The 1,380 observers sent to Kosovo by since 1993.
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe At the Paris Summit of December 1974, it was decided
(OSCE) quickly discovered a mass grave crammed with the that the parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg would be
bodies of the executed Albanian Kosovans. International elected by universal suffrage, and that a European Council
opinion was as outraged as it had been by the Serbian-led would bring together the Community’s heads of state three
genocides in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Milosevic responded times a year in order to reinforce cooperation between
to the NATO delegates who had come to Belgrade to member states. The Single European Act, signed in
protest by expelling the OSCE observers from Kosovo. The Luxembourg in 1986, aimed to harmonize national
talks held in Rambouillet (France) in February 1999 ended legislation in such areas as taxation, the recognition of
in complete failure. Without UN approval, NATO diplomas, social law and the right to asylum. The act also
bombed Serbian positions in Kosovo and deployed troops. stated, albeit in timid terms, that the signatories would
Entrusted with the difficult task of supervising the attempt to formulate and implement a joint European
reconstruction of the province and maintaining order, foreign policy.
NATO forces have remained in the region to the present The Maastricht Treaty of February 1992 expressed a
day, but the situation in the Balkans continues to be resolve to continue the process of creating an ‘ever-closer
explosive. union’ by enlarging the European Union to include a
number of applicant countries emerging from communism
and Soviet domination by strengthening the administrative
Europe’s progress towards unity structures in Brussels, and by launching a common currency,
to be named the euro, in 2002. The United Kingdom,
The states of Western Europe assumed some important however, decided to continue using its national currency,
tasks in the context of the efforts of NATO and the United the pound sterling. In March 1999, with a view to
Nations to deal with the murderous imbroglio in Bosnia enlargement, the European Union conferred associate
and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, but they were bystanders members status on three NATO members from Eastern
in the diplomatic process, leaving the United States in sole Europe: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.
charge of the diplomatic manoeuvring and decision-making. Although potentially more powerful than the United
This situation demonstrated that the long march towards States economically speaking, the European Union was not
European unity had not yet achieved the objective of a in the same league as the world’s only remaining superpower
common foreign policy. after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like the European
The starting point was the creation of the European Union, the new Russia was able to make its voice heard; yet
Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 by France, even though its opinions were listened to and indeed sought,
Italy, Germany and the Benelux countries (Netherlands, Russia did not have a decisive impact on the policies of the
Belgium and Luxembourg). The ECSC was founded with United States in the world at large.
the aim of sowing the seeds of a broader and more integrated The same could be said of China, at the turn of the
community, but the plan for a European Defence century. Under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping since the
Community had been rejected by the National Assembly late 1970s, the country has resumed sovereignty over the
in France, leading to some consternation followed by a territories of Hong Kong and Macao, whose liberal
period of reflection. In 1955, the foreign ministers of the economies fit in with Chinese reforms allowing for a mixed
so-called ‘Six’ met in the Italian city of Messina and, on the economy in which state enterprises exist alongside private
basis of a report by Paul-Henri Spaak, agreed to re-examine businesses. However, China’s future is challenged by a
the construction of Europe in the economic sphere. Two number of serious problems including social and human
treaties were signed in Rome on 25 March 1957: one rights issues, the independent forces in Taiwan and
established the European Economic Community (EEC), separatist forces in Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang.

14
 INTRODUCTION

The scientific revolutions In the twentieth century, biology caught up with

physics. Indeed, the history of molecular biology and
Chapter 13, devoted to scientific development in the genetics is something of a saga. Both fields were condemned
twentieth century, shows us that the number of discoveries as bourgeois sciences in the USSR, and met with opposition
made after 1940 is ten times greater than all those previously in the United States, France and Germany. Nevertheless,
brought to light by humankind. Not only were hundreds of between 1940 and 1965, scientists working in those
postulates revised or even discarded, rational approaches disciplines identified the fundamental mechanisms
were undermined by the concepts of relativity and governing the functioning and reproduction of living
indeterminism. Modest laboratories with two or three organisms. In 1944, it was shown that genes were made of
researchers were replaced by large-scale institutions with DNA, the complete structure of which was described in
state-of-the-art instruments. ‘Big science’ required costly 1953. Researchers expect to unveil the complete structure
and cumbersome equipment, using the most advanced of the human genome in the early twenty-first century.
technology. This was particularly true of sub-atomic physics The astounding advances made in genetics and the
and astrophysics. resulting medical applications raise ethical questions, as
In physics, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and they appear to pose a threat to the freedom of the individual.
Max Planck’s quantum theory had revolutionized concepts Less spectacular than the above-mentioned breakthroughs,
of time, space and radiation. Subsequently, Rutherford, de yet equally important, new magnetic resonance imaging
Broglie, Lawrence, the Joliot-Curies, Hahn, Strassmann, (MRI) techniques make it possible to watch the brain at
Meitner and Kurchatov laid down the foundations for work, and electronic microscopes enable cell biologists to
nuclear physics, whose military applications – including appreciate the complexity of living cells.
nuclear weaponry in the context of the Cold War arms As Professor Morange points out in Chapter 13, one of
race – went hand in hand with peaceful uses (e.g. the the aims of biology in the twenty-first century will probably
development of nuclear reactors and power stations). It be the combination of theories of evolution with
henceforth became possible to produce energy by nuclear developmental biology, molecular biology and cell biology.
fission as well as by thermonuclear fusion, the basis for the Just like the natural sciences, the so-called human
hydrogen bomb. If the process of fusion could only be sciences made considerable progress in the twentieth
controlled, it could become a practically inexhaustible century, involving philosophy, psychology, ethics, sociology,
source of energy. pedagogy, the different theologies, and problems affecting
The laser (an acronym for ‘light amplification by the status of women, young people, the elderly and the
stimulated emission of radiation’), an intense beam of light disabled. Specialists give an account of the progress made in
capable of being directed with extreme precision, became these disciplines in Chapters 8 to 11 and 21 to 24.
operational in 1968 thanks largely to the pioneering work of
1964 Nobel Prize winners Basov and Prokhorov (USSR)
and Charles Townes (US). Laser technology led to important The conquest of space
innovations both in quantum optics and in solid-state
physics (Plate 18). Its many applications included boring Earth’s first artificial satellite was launched on 4 October
though solids, excising tumours, disintegrating kidney stones 1957. The short ‘beep beep’ sent back by the Soviet Union’s
and measuring distances. A laser beam focused on the Moon Sputnik I was soon replaced by the much more complicated
illuminates an area less than 2 km in diameter. signals put out by other Russian and American satellites:
Progress in the field of radio astronomy enabled Lunik 3, launched on 4 October 1959, which photographed
astrophysicists to obtain more detailed knowledge of the the side of the Moon that we never see, and Tiros, the
properties of stars, and, during the 1960s, to identify forerunner of the meteorological satellites. As the list grew
radiogalaxies (discovered in 1953) with quasars and pulsars. longer, the general public lost interest, leaving specialists to
The late twentieth century witnessed the construction follow new developments in the field.
of large land telescopes, such as the one atop the Mauna Indeed, people appeared more fascinated by the exploits
Kea volcano in Hawaii that scans the sky of the northern of the astronauts: Yuri Gagarin, Guerman Titov, Gordon
hemisphere, and the European Southern Observatory Cooper and Valery Bykovski, who were joined in orbit by
(ESO) in the Chilean Andes. The Hubble Space Telescope Valentina Tereshkova, the Komarov-Feoktistov-Yegorov
has increased our knowledge of distant galaxies and of trio, and Leonov and White floating in space. The world
extrasolar planets. Today, the field of cosmology, based on was waiting for the moment when a human being would set
theories of general relativity and on astronomical foot on the Moon, and the historic event finally occurred at
observations, focuses on the structure and evolution of the 10.56 p.m. EST on 20 July 1969, when the two astronauts
entire universe. Detailed study of the Earth’s structure and of Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Television viewers around
dynamics drew renewed attention to the previously rejected the world could see Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the
theories of continental drift and plate tectonics postulated Moon and planting the Stars and Stripes on its barren
by Alfred Wegener in 1912. Fifty years later these same surface (Plate 19).
theories revolutionized our image of the world. In 1976, Viking 1 and Viking 2 explored Mars, apparently
The natural sciences devoted to the study of man – completely devoid of life, and found Venus equally
palaeoanthropology, anthropology, ethnography and inhospitable. The space probe Voyager 2 set its sights on
prehistory – combined with techniques used in chemistry Uranus after photographing the rings of Saturn.
and physics and with excavations, pushed the emergence of Despite occasional fatal accidents, astronautics continued,
our human ancestors further back in time. The becoming increasingly international in terms of the
Australopithecus skeleton found in Ethiopia, and nicknamed sponsoring countries and crew members. The construction
Lucy, is considered to be some 3.5 million years old. of the international inhabited space station was a thoroughly

15
 introduction

joint undertaking, the different parts being taken into space The internationalization
by a succession of American and Russian vessels. of culture
Meanwhile, hundreds of satellites were being launched
for espionage, weather forecasting, radio, television and One of the most striking features of the development of
telecommunications (Plate 20). No sooner had space been culture after the Second World War was the move away
conquered than it was threatened with congestion! from the traditional centres of elite culture. In painting, the
Paris School that held sway between the two world wars
yielded its pre-eminence to the New York abstract
The individual becomes expressionists. ‘It is not surprising’, observes Eric
the focus of literature J. Hobsbawm in Age of Extremes – The Short Twentieth
Century 1914–1991,
As we have pointed out, several avant-garde movements 
emerged in literature and the arts after the First World War, ‘that in the 1950s, in the heartland of consumer democracy
but this was not the case in the aftermath of the Second the leading school of painters abdicated before image-
World War. It was as if the horrors of the latter conflict, makers so much more powerful than old-fashioned art.
the institutionalization of genocide and the threat of atomic Pop artists (Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg,
catastrophe called for a different perspective on life and the Oldenburg) reproduced with as much accuracy and
world. In their introduction to sub-chapter 26.1, Marc insensitivity as possible, the visual trappings of American
Bensimon and Astrid Guillaume point out that after the commercialism: soup cans, flags, Coca-Cola bottles and
Second World War, writers were more focused on the Marilyn Monroe’.
individual and relations between individuals than ever
before. This was true at the national and regional level and In 1957, under the direction of modernist architect Oscar
in the context of efforts to eradicate colonialism, racism and Niemeyer, work was begun on the construction of the city
all other forms of oppression. These shared aspirations led of Brasilia, which would replace Rio de Janeiro as the capital
to an international interplay of influences, and Russian of Brazil. Beginning in the early 1970s, many artists
writers such as Ilya Ehrenburg, Joseph Brodsky and experimented with post-modernism, which was not strictly
Boris Pasternak were accordingly accused by the ruling speaking a movement, but a rejection of the dogmas of
regime of ‘cosmopolitanism’. international modernism. In architecture, skyscrapers were
Among the abundance of literature produced after the cheerfully topped with ‘Chippendale’ pediments and other
Second World War, works by women on all continents traditional decorative elements.
were particularly numerous and noteworthy, owing partly The outstanding characteristics of culture in the
to the emergence and affirmation of women’s rights, or, second half of the twentieth century, under the influence
more precisely, to ongoing efforts to achieve equality of the of old and new forms of media – records, tapes, radio,
sexes (see Chapter 8). Suffice it to cite the following television (Plate 21), video, cable, etc. – were its
examples: Rina Lasnier and Marie-Claire Blais (Canada), internationalization and transformation into a mass
Aïssa Khelladi (Algeria), Emma Bel Haj Yahia (Tunisia), phenomenon. One can, indeed, speak of the ‘cultural
Nadine Gordimer (South Africa), Anita Desai (India) and industry’ when decisions regarding the production,
Yamada eimi (Japan). Alongside Alain Robbe-grillet, two reproduction, storage and distribution of cultural goods
women, Nathalie Sarraute and Marguerite Duras, were the and services are made on the basis of industrial or
leading exponents of the nouveau roman in France. When commercial criteria. Thus mass production is based on a
that literary movement ran out of steam, many authors, marketing strategy that takes precedence over cultural
notably Marguerite Yourcenar, turned to more classical development. However, such a strategy does not
forms of novel and theatre. necessarily hinder cultural development and, in certain
Observation of life and the behaviour of the individual cases, it may even promote it.
led to the philosophical attitude illustrated in the novels and In fact, one must marvel at the transformation of the
plays of Jean-Paul Sartre, which suggested an existential cultural life of the great majority of those living in the West.
approach and defined hell as ‘other people’. Albert Camus, Less than a century ago, even a very mobile music-lover
less pessimistic, believed that humanity was not necessarily would not have had the opportunity to hear Beethoven’s
a lost cause. Ninth Symphony or Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto
During this period a large number of authors published more than once or twice in a lifetime in concert halls seating
autobiographies in a more or less disguised form. They no more than a few hundred. Today, thanks to modern
included Günther Grass in Germany, Taha Husayn in communication technology any work in the concert
Egypt and Nirad Chaudhury in India. Another distinctive repertoire can be enjoyed by 250 million people on a single
feature was the impact of colonization and decolonization evening. Moreover, each person can listen to the works
as found in the works of such gifted writers as Tahar Ben again simply by recording the performance, purchasing a
Jelloun (Morocco), Albert Memmi (Tunisia), Léopold tape or CD, or by borrowing it from a library.
S. Senghor and Sembene Ousmane (Senegal). However, cultural industries do not necessarily have
Sexual liberation advanced hand in hand with the feminist cultural objectives. In fact, the multinationals that have
movement, and writers such as Henry Miller, Vladimir chosen this niche will create a product solely on the basis of
Nabokov and Yukio Mishima extended the boundaries of global market research. Their initial approach is based on
morally acceptable subject matter. An influential twentieth- the same marketing techniques as those practiced by
century voice was English author George Orwell, who manufacturers of washing machines or motorcycles.
warned us of the invasion of the individual’s private life by Inevitably, their production is designed to appeal to average
‘Big Brother’ – the all-powerful State. tastes at the national or international level.

16
 INTRODUCTION

As advertising increases and diversifies demand, cultural ‘The political function of the family is two-fold: (1)  it
industries have recourse to symbols, images, ideas, myths reproduces itself by crippling people sexually. By
and materials that become increasingly standardized, until perpetuating itself, the patriarchal family also
we end up with what is called ‘world culture’. This implies a perpetuates sexual repression with all its results: sexual
‘star system’ that focuses demand on a single performer and disturbances, neuroses, psychoses, perversions and sex
‘prototypes’ that form the basis for a series of similar cultural crimes; (2) it creates the individual who is forever afraid
products. This is particularly noticeable in the film and of life and of authority and thus creates again and again
recording industries. the possibility that masses of people can be governed by
Star systems, prototypes and standardization call for a handful of powerful individuals’.
abundant supplies of capital. Only on the international
market can one hope to obtain a satisfactory return on the In France, the protest movement led by Daniel Cohn-
many kinds of investment required by cultural industries. Bendit was launched at Nanterre University in 1968.
Hence the world-wide distribution of American television Hoping to improve on Berkeley and West Berlin, the
serials such as Dallas, which premiered in 1978. French protesters adopted a political stance and considered
It need hardly be pointed out that the more limited a themselves a French revolutionary avant-garde movement,
market, the less its aspirations are taken into account, and ready to instigate the overthrow of Gaullist power. After
the ‘smaller’ the cultural identity, the more vulnerable it is. occupying university lecture halls as well as theatres and
cultural centres, whose artistic staff willingly joined in, the
protesters went on to set up barricades and resort to urban
Youth, protest and counter- guerrilla tactics. On 13 May 1968, the Confédération
culture Générale du Travail (CGT), a left-wing labour union, called
for a 24-hour general strike. Was this the start of the
Youth did not become a field of sociological research until revolution? The authorities were clearly at a loss: government
the 1960s. In Chapter 9, François Dubet reminds us that ministers did not even know where to find President De
the emergence of new behaviour patterns among young Gaulle. The working class, which had initially participated
people as a category was one of the social changes in the protest by occupying factories, began to dissociate
characteristic of the twentieth century. Paradoxically, this itself from the bourgeois youths and progressively to opt
change occurred essentially in the Western world, where out. The Communist Party and the CGT were wary of
young people were less numerous, more independent and leftism, and workers denied Daniel Cohn-Bendit and his
better educated than in other regions. friends access to the factories. The adventure had ended in
The first carefully organized revolt broke out at the failure, and de Gaulle took advantage of the May ’68 ‘scare’
University of Berkeley, in the United States, in 1964. This to strengthen the powers of the Fifth Republic.
time it was no longer the basically passive protest of beatniks The period of violent protest in the 1960s coincided with
dreaming of a lost paradise that could be rediscovered the prosperity of an untrammelled consumer society. The
thanks to the heady delights of alcohol and ephemeral love recession of the 1970s was a different matter. Hardest hit by
affairs, or of hippies throwing off bourgeois taboos in a unemployment, young people had doors shut in their faces.
drug-induced state. It was a veritable movement. Feeling rejected, many of them took refuge in sub-cultures,
Massive hippy gatherings such as Woodstock were not, characterized by reggae or rap music, and sometimes in the
of course, devoid of political content. Through their protest violence of the skinheads and the temptations of the extreme
songs, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and other stars right-wing ideologies.
had unambiguously opposed the Vietnam War, but they Typically American phenomena included the ‘Jesus
did not directly challenge the established social order, which Revolution’ (Jesus Christ Superstar) and adaptations of
was not unduly disturbed by their long hair, Indian-inspired Zen Buddhism. The Women’s liberation Movement and
clothes and blue jeans. In fact, blue jeans eventually became the Gay Liberation Movement soon took root in Europe
a mainstream fashion item suitable for both sexes, and where they eventually flourished.
particularly lucrative for America’s cotton industry. The most influential and powerful of all the contemporary
The Berkeley protesters, not content with deploring the leftist movements is environmentalism, although similar
absence of political freedom within the university, attributed ideas were sometimes expressed, albeit less forcefully, on
it to a conspiracy between academic research, on the one the right of the political spectrum. Leftists have always
hand, and the government and private industry on the regarded humanity’s arrogant determination to subject
other. Whether they knew it or not, they were propounding nature to its arbitrary and unlimited power and to give
the theories of the philosopher Herbert Marcuse (One- economic considerations precedence over respect for the
Dimensional Man), who saw bureaucratic and environment as a crime. Be that as it may, the American
state-dominated capitalism leading to a technocratic society ecology movement, which was closely linked with Green
that would take control of all forms of expression. parties in Europe, gained wide support in the industrialized
In 1966, student unrest crossed the Atlantic, creating countries. No longer the preserve of leftists, it became a
disturbances at the Free University of West Berlin. Rudi worldwide movement, bringing about a timely and general
Dutschke, the life and soul of the movement, was a refugee awareness of humanity’s responsibility towards nature,
from East Germany who was dissatisfied with the regime in animals, plants, in short, towards life.
West Germany. In heaping scorn on liberal capitalism and This seventh and final volume of the monumental history
Stalinist communism in equal measure, he was a typical of the scientific and cultural development of Humanity, like the
leftist. The rebels soon diversified by denouncing the family six preceding volumes, is divided into two sections. In the
as well as the university. All were now disciples of Wilhelm first, dealing with specific themes, eminent scholars who
Reich, who wrote in his book The Sexual Revolution: responded to the call of the International Commission outline

17
 introduction

the development and significance of achievements in their referred to as the ‘immediate past’. The members of the
respective fields. In the second section, contributors focus on Editorial Board of Volume VII are aware of the risks that
data collected on clearly delimited regions of the world and this lack of perspective implies for historians and accept the
address issues specific to each region. The volume is completed criticism and discussion that the late Professor Charles
by a chronological table, an index and selected illustrations. Morazé foresaw with serenity in his foreword as further
The twentieth century, which has only recently ended, contributions to the cultural and scientific knowledge and
and in particular the post-1945 period, belongs to what is interdependence of humanity.

18
 b
thematic section
 1
THE W O R L D AT THE B E G INNIN G O F
THE T W ENTIETH CENT U R Y
Cr i s i s w i t h i n I m p e r i a l i s m

Charles S. Maier

ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESTRUCTURING OF

THE IMPERIALIST ERA TERRITORIAL STATES AFTER 1850

The history of world societies in the twentieth century By 1900, the partition by the imperial powers of Africa and
presents some extraordinary general features, many of them much of Asia as well as the major archipelagos of the Indian
continuations – in intensified form – of nineteenth-century Ocean and the South Pacific had just about been completed.
trends. Among those that must strike even the casual After the First World War, the territory of the Ottoman
observer would be the continuing revolutionary progress of Empire in Asia and the German colonies overseas would be
technology – above all the use of non-human energy sources redistributed to other great powers. Increasingly during the
for production, transport and communication but also the interwar years, protest movements in some of the long-
great gap between those who benefited from such advances standing French and British domains would contest this
and those vast numbers still performing their agricultural colonial order. Nonetheless, only after the Second World
work and manufacturing in traditional ways. In terms of War did most of the West’s colonies achieve
world political organization, the striking characteristic of independence.
the beginning of the twentieth century was the extraordinary Still, to understand this imperialist world, one cannot
control that the relatively few technologically advanced simply begin in 1880 or 1890. It is necessary to take account
societies came to exert on peoples elsewhere (what we of the great transition in developed state structures that had
commonly term ‘imperialism’), and at least until mid- taken place a generation or two earlier, from the 1850s
century, the bitter rivalry and destructive warfare between through the 1870s. The United States – once it overcame
the imperialist powers. the Confederacy’s military effort at secession (1861–65) –
Nor was imperialism the only pervasive inequality. The the states of Central Europe grouped in the German
progress of technology also transformed social relations Confederation (1864–71), the states of the Italian peninsula
within states, establishing a particular sort of stratification (1859–70), emerging Meiji Japan (1853–68), the British in
in industrial societies based on access to scientific knowledge India after the Mutiny (1856–57), and to some degree, the
and on control of financial and industrial resources as well Mexicans after defeating the French imperial expedition
as the more traditional ownership of land or high (1862–67), the reorganized Dominion of Canada (1867),
governmental rank. Thus technological advance, the spread and many other societies unified or reunified their state
of political control over the less economically developed structures in this period. This transition involved
societies by the more advanced, social inequality, and world transforming, often by force, confederally organized
war were characteristics of an era that is often designated as territories into more centralized federations.
the age of imperialism. This does not mean that imperialism The reorganized states applied the new technologies of
alone established global inequality or that it made the world railroad and telegraph to permeate the national space and
wars inevitable. However, these basic features of the era establish a greater degree of hierarchic control from the
arrived as a historical constellation of forces and relationships. centre. The process involved the social classes that were the
It is difficult to specify their causal interaction and to agents of technological change, including bankers,
imagine that they did not impinge on each other in profound industrialists, ambitious civil servants and engineers, who
ways. In the chapters to follow, we examine their compelled the old governing elites, drawn largely from the
interrelatedness and their evolution. landed classes, to share power and office.

21
 thematic section

The intellectual and governing elites of these cohesive financial control and political influence over Egypt. Bismarck
nation-states rapidly adopted the new doctrines of Social was persuaded to support German colonies in present-day
Darwinism that inculcated notions of unremitting struggle Namibia, Tanzania, and Cameroon by the mid-1880s.
for survival, not only among animal species, but so-called Pressed into faits accomplis by such ambitious imperialists
races and nations, and they embarked on a new period of as Carl Peters in East Africa, Cecil Rhodes in South Africa,
rivalry and expansion. Once the Crimean War and the wars and George Goldie in what would become Nigeria in the
of Italian and German unification had yielded a new 1880s, the politicians of the metropoles worked to settle
European order, they were soon followed by encompassing their potential rivalries at the Conference of Berlin in 1884,
alliance systems within Europe and strategic competition to where King Leopold of Belgium won recognition of the
claim territorial possessions abroad. Equally striking was settlements he sponsored as the Congo Free State. An
the rapid ascent of the non-European powers that had also Anglo-French treaty and Anglo-German agreement in 1890
undergone modernization. Less than thirty years after the cleared the way for British visions of more extensive
Meiji restoration, Japan defeated the Chinese rapidly in settlement and development in the Lakes area (Uganda).
1895 and fought the Russians to a stalemate after British-French rivalry in the upper Niger area and all the
spectacularly destroying their fleet. Three decades after its way across to Chad led to another convention in 1898,
own long and costly civil war, the United States humiliated whereupon London found itself consolidating British rule
the Spanish by its rapid victories of 1898 and divested that in Nigeria and the French hold on Chad. West Africa was
long-standing empire of its last colonies, except its Moroccan no sooner settled than conflict loomed on the upper Nile
enclaves. and in southern Africa between Rhodes and the Boer
The European powers (Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Republics. The French gave up claims in the Nile region,
Britain, and France) possessed colonies since the era acquiring, in return, recognition of their primacy in Tunisia
following Renaissance exploration. France had already and, in effect, Britain’s acquiescence in their right to
annexed Algeria in 1830. Although for a few decades in the penetrate Morocco – and ultimately the quasi-alliance of
mid-nineteenth century doctrines of free trade had led to the Entente Cordiale, which quickly developed into a
relative disinterest in territorial control overseas, by the mutual strategic tool for limiting German ambitions in
1870s and 1880s, the disparity between the power of the Europe. The ambitious governor of the Cape Colony, Alfred
technologically advanced states and the more traditionalist Milner, who supported Rhodes and expansion into the
and fragmented structures in Asia and Africa invited Transvaal embroiled Britain in the costly Boer War. The
expansion. The Russians pushed into the multiple Dutch-descended settlers were eventually forced to concede
jurisdictions in the Caucasus and Central Asia in the 1860s defeat but in effect won guarantees for the racialist policies
and 1870s. Then, shortly after 1882, Britain asserted within the emerging Union of South Africa. The process

Map 2  Colonial empires in 1914

Adapted from R. Chaliand, 1998, Atlas du millénaire: La mort des empires 1900–2015, Hachette, Paris.

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 THE W O R L D AT THE B E G INNIN G O F THE T W ENTIETH CENT U R Y

reveals the underlying historical dynamic of world politics inhospitable regions, and few Europeans chose to go,
in the forty years before the First World War. While the preferring the open societies of North and South America.
enhanced power of Western nation-states led to policies of The more interesting approach to this question involves
expansion, rivalry, and annexation in Asia and Africa, the examining pressures on policy-makers that transcend
conflicts over influence in these regions profoundly individual motivation. We can distinguish two or three
heightened the sense of confrontation among European major interpretations, each with at least two sub-
nation-states. interpretations. Political historians of international
During the same years, the British extended their relations, such as American scholar William Langer, argued
acquisitions further in Burma, while the French expanded that in effect the European powers looked to colonial
their control over Indochina. The Dutch consolidated their acquisition as part of the continuing rivalry between states
hold over Java, then moved onto northern Sumatra and Bali after 1870s. Since European space was crowded and divided
and the outer islands of ‘the Indies’. Although China was and even the smallest claims involved warfare, it was natural
too huge and venerable a state to colonize, the European to project rivalry into the non-European regions that seemed
powers forced the weakened Qing dynasty to cede weaker. Since the European struggle was a Hobbesian one,
extraterritorial jurisdictions along the coast and in states pressed into new territory – as Robinson and
Shandong. Japan would wrest Taiwan (Formosa) and Gallagher later argued (1970) – to protect previous strategic
extraterritorial enclaves in Manchuria from China in 1895, commitments or because they were effectively ‘sucked in’ by
and establish the colony of Chosen (Korea) in 1910. The continuing challenges at the latest frontier they had reached.2
international force sent to subdue the Boxer Rebellion in Thus an anti-imperialist prime minister, William Gladstone,
1900 served implicitly to demonstrate to China’s rulers and found himself persuaded to intervene in Egypt lest the
citizens the strength of the Western powers and to mutually French do so and because control of Suez seemed necessary
restrain the Europeans and Americans from unilateral in light of prior imperialist commitments in India. Once in
acquisitions. The United States announced its stake in Cairo, expansion up the Nile allegedly followed because of
preserving China from partition (the ‘Open Door’ policy), the resistance that always came from beyond the frontier or
even as this emerging world player took over Spanish the weakness that compelled further intervention. Such an
possessions in the Philippines, finally defeating an explanatory approach had the virtue of allowing for step-
indigenous resistance movement after several years of by-step reconstruction of policy-making in the European
struggle. During the same period, the Americans also capitals, but even when it discounted allegedly altruistic
established a virtual protectorate over Cuba. By 1910, the claims about teaching indigenous peoples self-government
only scope for expansion was for imperial powers to trade or bestowing Christianity or human rights, it also tended to
possessions, as in the second Moroccan Crisis, or to take be apologetic in its denial of any real imperialist agenda.
them outright from each other. The Ottoman Empire, Imperialist actions somehow always arose in response to
losing territory in Europe and lagging economically, seemed conditions from the periphery that presented unpalatable
the candidate ripest for ultimate partition.1 alternatives: America took over the Philippines lest the
Japanese seize them.
The second set of explanations has focused pre-eminently
‘EXPLAINING’ IMPERIALISM on the economic disparity between what would later be
called the First World and the Third World. Non-socialist
Historians have long wrestled with large questions raised by radicals Henry Wilshire, John Hobson and later Marxist-
this creation of the imperialist order. What motivated the inspired theorists suggested that the advanced economies
sudden surge of colonial takeovers? How could such acts be sought raw materials, cheap labour and new markets in the
accomplished and then maintained with such small colonies. When it was realized that in fact the colonies –
commitments of men and arms? We can rephrase the issues with the possible exception of the huge Indian domain
as ‘why imperialism?’ and ‘how did imperialism prevail?’ The – were unlikely to yield markets, another strand of neo-
third question is perhaps even more difficult to assess and to Marxian explanation was introduced by Rosa Luxemburg
answer: what effects did the experience have on the colonized, and others: namely that the process of capitalism involved a
and the colonizers? But we shall address the first two long-term tendency for the rate of profit on investment to
questions here and postpone that of imperialism’s legacy. fall (since surplus was provided by labour not capital, and as
employers had to compete through investment in ore
efficient production, they also condemned themselves to
Why imperialism? declining rates of profit).3 In this perspective, the colonies
might offer higher rates of profit. This insight was elaborated
Traditional historians from the imperialist communities in different ways. John Hobson suggested that the search
have often interpreted this as a question of motivation, and for profitable investment led to colonial expansion and was
have thus examined the stories and reasons given by the ultimately a result of the vast inequalities of wealth inside
adventurers who set up colonies, the Roman Catholic and Britain. Rosa Luxemburg argued that the tendency for the
Protestant Church representatives who sought to evangelize, rate of profit to fall under capitalist production necessitated
the soldiers who sought an opportunity for advancement a search for newer and more profitable investment arenas to
after the period of warfare ended in Europe, the policy- be sought abroad.
makers who felt their countries must compete or accept a Rudolph Hilferding, trained as a physician in Austria
shameful decline. Justifications, however, are not but taking up politics in Berlin, proposed that a unique
motivations. One of the major justifications by colonialist structural fusion of banks and industries (so-called ‘finance
enthusiasts was that the colonies provided an outlet for capital’) made this search for higher rates of profit so
excess population, but these territories were often imperative in the early twentieth century. Lenin borrowed

23
 thematic section

from Luxemburg and Hilferding but, writing in the midst unwieldy and sometimes inefficient in modernizing
of the First World War, examined primarily the investment Ottoman Europe or Qing China, in the interior of the
rivalry in Eastern Europe and suggested that imperialism Maghreb or ‘black’ Africa. Often, the states that Europeans
must be understood as a general stage of economic encountered (as was the case of the Aztec and Inca empires
development inevitably leading to territorial conflict and, in the sixteenth century, or the American Indian
therefore, so he predicted, to the chance for revolution.4 confederations, Iroquois, Creek, Cherokee, etc., in the
A later variant on Marxist notions of class conflict – but eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) were themselves recent
advanced by analysts who would claim to be influenced by, creations and, in any case, agglomerations where some tribal
but not adherents of simple Marxism5 – suggested that the units aspired to recover independence in league with
process of industrialization had unleashed such a sharp Europeans. The Europeans had centralized in the 1860s
degree of class-conflict that manipulative governments and drawn on new technological resources for territorial
chose foreign adventures to take the minds of the masses off domination, whereas the states they encountered had not
domestic claims. made this transition. Where Asians or Africans did
In all these views imperialism had a certain logic or undertake similar reforms, they did not succumb. Japan was
rationality within the terms of the capitalist system. This the pre-eminent example, itself becoming an imperial power.
meant that imperialism might end only with the final The mid-nineteenth century monarchs imposed a
transformation of capitalism. Only Schumpeter (1915) programme of state building on Thailand, which had the
claimed that imperialism in fact represented a non- good fortune to remain a buffer between British and French
rationalistic or ‘atavistic’ hold over pre-capitalist aspirations colonial territory, as Persia (Iran) did between Russian and
(which the existence of protective tariffs in Central Europe British. Elsewhere the very ancientness of dynasties and
helped to preserve) and that ultimately capitalism would states sometimes gave them the legitimacy to stand up to
destroy imperialism, a theory similar to that proposed by the invaders, as in Ethiopia until 1935–36 and, of course,
Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen. 6 China.
Historians have repeatedly sought to test these theories,
finding in general that imperialism did not really ‘pay’ national
societies in aggregate, but that, as Hobson or Schumpeter GLOBAL INEQUALITIES AROUND 1900
recognized, it did pay key elites who made policy at home.7
Most recently, non-Marxist authors have proposed that All in all, however, the imperialist world reflected a high
the long history of British imperialism is best explained as a point of hierarchical distribution of resources: political and
result of ‘gentlemanly capitalism’, which refers to an effort economic. If we envisage the imperialist world as a phase of
by men of property and culture, less involved with industrial world history, as seems proper, then both in terms of
management than with banking and services, to sponsor economic resources and political power and both within
overseas empire that established them as a patrician elite in states and between them, the imperialist world of 1900
a conservative social order.8 Nonetheless, to this author the incorporated a high if not the highest degree of unequal
political motivations – the fear of international political distribution of resources that the world had seen to date.
rivalry marked by arms races, alliances, as well as overseas The historian cannot claim that such differences would
expansion – seem to have provided the more urgent not have existed without imperialism. In a Leninist theory,
agenda. it is precisely the differences of development that give rise to
imperialism (which includes economic penetration and
foreign investment). The real role of imperialism was to
How did imperialism prevail? help perpetuate this differential development. By and large,
two theoretical stances have contended in trying to explain
Why and where did Europeans prevail? How could such the outcomes. The heirs to older theories of imperialism –
small expeditions of Europeans conquer such vast regions especially the ‘dependency theorists’ active thirty years
and then administer them at such little financial expense? ago – proposed, in effect, that Western enrichment
Theories here are less developed. Of course, the European depended upon Third World poverty, that some mechanism
states enjoyed decisive technological advances: gunboats existed where the poor nations were poor because the rich
and ships, the latest weaponry. Nonetheless, defenders of were rich and vice versa. It was structurally logical for high-
autonomy could also acquire at least small arms, and wage societies to maintain the poverty of low-wage
Europeans did meet defeat at the hands of indigenous societies.10 Such a view found an echo in the United Nations
defenders: the British by the Zulus in the Battle of the Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
Spears (1879), the Italians at Denali (1887) and Avowal although it was always sharply contested.
(1896). But, in fact, the Europeans also possessed a different Since 1980, with the general disillusion with Marxist
sort of resource, which in a broad perspective can also be theories, more culturally oriented notions have become
construed as a technology: that is, the modern state equipped dominant. Such thinking, perhaps represented most
with functionally developed bureaucratic organization, succinctly by the work of such specialists as David Landes
permanent armed forces and obsessed with the notion of and Francis Fukuyama, proposes that a commitment to
frontier and territorial control that the more fluid or even education, thrift and accumulation, the rule of law and
nomadic states had not chosen to develop. honouring of contracts, and networks of trust, have been
It is too simple to divide states and tribes (which often crucial for economic development. 11 Obviously, the
was a pejorative concept).9 Africans, of course, had political representatives of poor ex-colonial countries can be consoled
structures, some very extensive and highly organized, but by the first view, while those proud of First World
the states that sent their soldiers and agents into the achievement enjoy the second. The original notion of
periphery were of a different order. State structures were dependency theorists that wealthy countries had a stake in

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 THE W O R L D AT THE B E G INNIN G O F THE T W ENTIETH CENT U R Y

Third World poverty seems unsustainable. However, However, the non-Western world operated by different
colonial rulers and investors from wealthy countries often rules. Whether in the Congo up to the 1880s or in Latin
tended to freeze levels of development or encourage activity American mining ventures (the Putumayo scandal broke in
that autonomous elites might have shaped differently. 1910), Europeans felt little restraint in imposing the
While the proportion of economically active people engaged harshest of labour conditions. Joseph Conrad captured the
in agriculture fell by 1910 to about 5 per cent in Britain and ‘otherness’ of the imperial experience: the fact that almost
Belgium, about 25 per cent in countries that industrialized every abuse of power might be undertaken because it
but kept significant agricultural sectors active, such as the remained invisible (except for the occasional horrifying
United States and Germany, and remained from 40 to scandal, such as that of Leopold’s Congo, or the atrocities
60 per cent in the less developed European lands, such as of the German war to suppress the Herrero) and European
Spain and Italy and in Eastern Europe, the countries of military adventurers were effectively uncontrolled.
Africa and Asia remained overwhelmingly peasant societies Nonetheless, the more pervasive and widespread effects of
(c. 65–75 per cent).12 Still, analytically we cannot know imperialism were probably subtler than the horror stories
what the hypothetical alternative in the absence of depicted in Heart of Darkness. Distinctions were made
imperialism might have yielded: autonomous national between those supposedly fit to rule and those destined to
development as in Japan, or no development? What serve: the presumption was that colonial subjects were
percentage of rent from mineral resources might be childlike and capable of only certain stages of intellectual or
considered justifiable for the European owners of mines – administrative attainment, and that colonial development
that prevailing in developed countries or a higher one, if was designed to serve the purposes and wealth and the ego
these resources had otherwise lain undeveloped? Ultimately satisfactions of master races far away. 13 To be sure,
moral criteria and not historical research must be applied to thousands of missionaries were motivated to found
answer these questions. educational and medical institutions. Still, they pursued
The inequality between nations was matched by the their work symbiotically with the traders and the politicians.
inequality within nations. Europe was richer than it had Essentially imperialist apologists claimed that vast areas
ever been, but income, and even more so, wealth was highly and populations must wait indefinitely to enjoy the
concentrated. In many societies and regions – the southern collective autonomy Europeans had come to take for
states of the United States, Romania and the Balkans, granted since the Enlightenment and French Revolution.
southern Italy or Andalusia – agriculture remained In an era that seemed to prize national independence as a
backward and landlords controlled a labour force of poor supreme human value, the defenders of imperialism
peasants, who themselves had often lost their land, remained maintained that many of the world’s peoples were not yet
in almost perpetual heavy debt, or lived as day labourers on mature enough to claim it.
the great estates. Political conditions reflected these quasi-
peonage societies: landlords could control the votes of the
peasantry and trade these electoral supporters for patronage CRISES OF THE IMPERIALIST POWERS,
and favour from the capital. Great landowners received 1900–1918
enormous revenues from their tenants and often from the
rights to coal and other minerals on their territory. In some Two types of empire
societies, these distinctions of wealth did not matter in
assuring political representation; but in Germany and its From antiquity to the twentieth century, empires have
states, political representation was skewed according to tax played an ambiguous role in international relations. By
payments, favouring the wealthy. In Britain, where no subjugating fractious ethnic rivals, they can help ensure
revolution had redistributed property, the inequalities were regional peace within their borders, but their frontiers
the highest in Europe, although America was on its way remain sites of recurrent skirmishes, and as they decay,
towards equivalent stratification. Such inequality was conflict becomes endemic. International structures at the
perfectly compatible with economic development, advance, beginning of the century included two sorts of imperial
and often growing welfare. systems, and each type was becoming more a source of
Indeed the European societies were initiating the first potential conflict than a guarantor of regional order.
stages toward what later became known as the welfare state. The first and older set of empires comprised the extensive
Bismarck introduced social insurance for illness and old age land-based monarchies based on a dominant ethnic group
in Germany in the mid-1880s; he was motivated by that had subjugated peoples on its peripheries. Nineteenth-
conservative calculations and a concern to weaken the century nation building in Western Europe had left the
advance of the Social Democrats among the growing ethnic peoples remaining in the multinational empires
industrial working classes. The British Liberal government restive and ambitious. The Austro-Hungarian Empire
of 1906 enacted similar measures. In France and Catholic included about ten recognized ethnic or linguistic groups,
countries, more paternalist schemes of social insurance tied governed in two sub-units: the Kingdom of Hungary and
to the employer were launched. While the federal the Austrian half of the monarchy. Within the Austrian
government of the United States would not intervene until half, Czechs, Poles, and Italians contested the Germans’
the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the hegemony, and the dynasty sought to represent all the
world economic crisis, some of the states under progressive peoples. Within the Hungarian half, South Slavs (Croats,
control introduced regulations for minimal wages and Serbs) and Romanians aspired to more rights, and the
maximum hours. In fact, throughout the European and national groupings outside the border ambitiously looked
American world, women’s work, as well as hazardous to influence their irridente within the Habsburg realm. By
occupations such as mining, were increasingly regulated. the late nineteenth century, periodic crises over language
Child labour was being eliminated in most sectors. and school rights paralyzed parliamentary life.

25
 thematic section

The decomposition of the Ottoman Empire was even colony) in 1905, and again in 1910–11, and the latter
more advanced. During the course of the nineteenth confrontation resulted in a frontier adjustment between
century, Greeks, Serbs, Romanians, and Bulgarians had German and French possessions in Cameroon.
progressively won their independence. The Ottomans
attempted periodic reform in the nineteenth century,
introducing some parliamentary institutions, but the Alliances, armaments, and origins of the First
reformers, who pressed for more parliamentary government, World War
usually supported a stricter imposition of Turkish national
policies as well, provoking ethnic discontent. A distinctive feature of the evolution of international
The Russian Empire, based on the expansion of Muscovy, relations after the unification of Germany and Italy was the
included: Poles, Ukrainians, Finns and other Baltic peoples formation of fixed military alliances in peacetime: the Dual
in its western areas; Georgians, Armenians and diverse Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary of 1879
peoples of the Caucasus; the states and former khanates of (enlarged a few years later into the Triple Alliance with
Central Asia; Buryats in the east; as well as diverse ethnic Italy, which was less likely to function successfully) and the
groups within Russia proper, such as Germans and Tatars, Franco-Russian alliance (1894), which was a response to
Bashkirs, Udmurts, Kalmyks among others. As of 1900, the former. Through the 1890s, the ruling British
Russia was less subject to centrifugal decomposition but conservatives believed that their maritime supremacy
was caught up in the rivalries over Korea at its eastern limit allowed it a policy of ‘splendid isolation’, but the Fashoda
and the Balkans on its south-western periphery. China, crisis, the German naval challenge and the fact that every
strictly speaking, was less of a multinational or multicultural other power aspired to the colonial position Britain had
empire; although its inner-Asian frontiers included Turkish, acquired made it look for support to Russia in 1902 and to
Uighur, Mongol and other non-Chinese regions, it faced France in 1904. In 1907, the British further interacted with
more serious disintegrative threats along its coastal regions, the Russians, their long-standing rival in Central Asia, in
which Europeans were taking over as their own enclaves – order to protect against a conflict over Persia or India and
by outright cession, long-term lease, or extraterritorial Afghanistan. Effectively, although they tended to deny it to
concession.14 themselves, Britain had been locked into the bipolar
The other type of empire was precisely the overseas competition.
colonial domains and protectorates cited above. As of the Not only alliances but also significant arms races were
early twentieth century, the problem they presented for involved. Conscription levels were raised in Germany in
international relations was less the restiveness of unwilling 1893 and 1913 (bringing the peacetime army to 864,000);
subject peoples (although major conflicts took place, the French switched from two to three years of mandatory
especially the United States’ campaign to subdue a military service in 1912. Given the fact that young men
Philippine independence movement after 1898 and the faced reserve requirements for many years after active
German campaigns in South-West Africa against the service, as well as the perfected logistics of railroads (in the
Herrera rebellion) than the competition among the French mobilization of 1914, only 20 out of some 4,300 trains
Europeans themselves. The rivalry for overseas empires was were late), the major powers on the Continent could have
one of the considerations that led the Germans to attempt a approximately two million men at battle stations within a
naval armaments challenge to the British between 1898 and few weeks. Their war plans provided for about half to be
1910. Colonialism and ‘navalism’ – now justified by the deployed rapidly and, in the case of Germany, pre-
tracts of the American Admiral Mahan15 – went hand in emptively.16
hand. Colonial expansion was a stake in the larger strategic Such military alliances and arms increases might have
competition among the European powers, but it also been accommodated without war (after all the Warsaw
threatened to make that competition far more dangerous, as Pact and NATO confronted each other with high levels of
the domains available outside Europe for partitioning were arms from the 1950s through the 1980s). The problem was
successively appropriated. By 1900, most had been carved that the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires were
up, although the Japanese annexed Korea in 1910 and subject to disintegrative pressures, and the conflicts these
Manchuria in 1931, while the Italians seized Libya in 1912 created involved links to the new colonial powers. Russia
and Ethiopia in 1936. and Japan went to war over their rivalry in Korea, itself a
Crises over respective colonial domains or conflicting stake for their respective aspirations because China had
ambitions for potential colonies became more preoccupying. shown itself so feeble vis-à-vis Japan in 1895. Germany
As mentioned above, imperial rivalries shaped European attempted to demonstrate the weakness of the Entente
alignments. The French and British confrontation at Cordiale shortly after its announcement by an ostentatious
Fashoda near the headwaters of the Nile in 1898 helped to demonstration challenging the French predominance in
prompt a rethinking of their relationship. Both powers, Morocco. The Reich, however, emerged isolated, except for
after all, were preoccupied by German ambitions, and its Habsburg ally, thereby guaranteeing closer Anglo-
Britain also watched uneasily as Russia (allied to France) French cooperation. The European situation became even
and Japan (its own new ally in the Pacific) moved closer to more unsettled when the Austro-Hungarians, concerned
war over their conflicting ambitions to control Korea. These by their own failure to share in colonial acquisitions, decided
motives prompted London and Paris to work toward the to annex neighbouring Bosnia, the former Ottoman
Anglo-French Entente Cordiale of 1904, designed to dependency that the Congress of Berlin had awarded
forestall any undesired tangles and also to coordinate Vienna as a form of trusteeship thirty years earlier. Russia
defensive planning against Germany. The Americans took was angered at this unilateral expansion, as were nationalist
the Philippines from Spain in 1900; the Germans threatened Serbian circles that aspired to unify the ethnic Serbs of the
the French paramount position in Morocco (not formally a province. Austria’s ally, Germany, compelled Russia to

26
 THE W O R L D AT THE B E G INNIN G O F THE T W ENTIETH CENT U R Y

accept the fait accompli. The Italian government, preoccupied Europe had carried out their rivalries by conquests and
by Austria’s annexation of Bosnia and anxious to win competition in the ‘periphery’, i.e., Asia and Africa, but that
nationalist public opinion at home, took advantage of competition, of course, magnified the overarching sense of
Turkey’s new difficulties to seize Libya as a colony in 1911. Darwinian struggle at home. The war finally resulted from
Continuing Turkish weakness led the Balkan states of rivalries among European powers largely over European
Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro to conquer the issues. The nationalist aspirations of the peoples of Eastern
territory of Macedonia, and they soon fought a second war Europe, many of whom were still included within the land-
among themselves over the division of territorial spoils. based European empires, and the limited capacity for
Concerned with the growth of Serbian strength, Austria, in institutional reform on the part of the Ottomans, Austro-
collaboration with Britain, forced a settlement that Hungarians, and Russians, led to continuing conflicts. The
established the new state of Albania, designed to keep old empires ignited the war as they resisted ethno-national
Serbia from acquiring an Adriatic outlet. Consequently, by pressures, and the war eventually destroyed them.
1914 the international system was very brittle. The war required an unprecedented mobilization of
Particularly disturbing were the mutual suspicions of resources: what General Ludendorff called ‘total war’, such
Russia and Germany; each believed itself increasingly that by 1918 Germany, Britain, and France were perhaps
vulnerable. Berlin military planners were convinced that the devoting 40 to 50 per cent of their GNP to military uses.
modernization of Petrograd’s railroad system around 1917 On the western front, the Germans’ rapidly invaded Belgium
would facilitate rapid mobilization of Russia’s massive army and France with devastating casualties, but after failing to
and thus undercut their strategy for dealing with the danger reach Paris, the two sides dug into trenches that remained
of a two-front war. Influential members of the General Staff largely stable (although heavily and disastrously contested)
contemplated pre-emptive war in 1912 and 1914. Russia until the great German offensive and subsequent retreat of
was certain that Germany was bent on penetrating the 1918. Almost one man in four between the ages of 18 and 40
Balkans in league with Austria and propping up the would be killed among the French military. The toll on
Ottoman Empire. French policy-makers actively reassured Germans was slightly lower, but a higher number of men
their Russian allies that Paris was a reliable partner in case were killed (1.3 and 1.8 million respectively). In Eastern
of a showdown. Europe (outside Serbia), the percentages might be lower,
When the Austrian heir apparent, Franz Ferdinand, was but this resulted from the fact that the armies were not
assassinated by Serbian-assisted terrorists in Sarajevo on frozen into fixed entrenchments and huge numbers of
28 June 1914, it took some time to understand just how troops were captured en masse.
critical the crisis might become (Plate 22). The chief of the The Russian Empire collapsed first. Its massive armies
Habsburg General Staff was determined to thwart Serbian enjoyed a few weeks of initial success in East Prussia, then
aspirations, and the more cautious heir apparent was no committed some disastrous strategic errors and suffered a
longer around to argue against the chief’s reckless policies. major defeat at Tannenberg. German and Austrian victories
In early July, the German ministers believed that they must forced withdrawals in Galicia (a region in present-day
show support for their Austrian allies, while German Poland and Ukraine) in 1915, and the military recovery
military leaders persuaded themselves that this might be the under General Brusilov in 1916 could not be sustained.
last chance to take on a huge, modernizing Russian army. Troops fought stolidly but with inferior equipment. While
Russia, with France’s implicit support, was determined that improved in 1916, industrial support was deficient.
it would not accept further faits accomplis. The French Motivation flagged as retreat continued, and with surprisingly
president and government felt they had to show full support little resistance, the prospect of mass mutiny led to the tsar’s
for their allies’ firm stance. By the end of the month, when abdication and the declaration of a republic in the 1917
British leaders had become truly alarmed and sought a joint revolution. In the confused conditions of wartime Petrograd
mediation with Germany, Berlin refused to rein in its and the sudden political competition, the provisional
Austrian ally. By the first days of August, the continental government lost almost all authority. Its decision to continue
powers were at war, and to Germany’s dismay, the British the war effort along with its allies cost it major support.
Liberal coalition decided it could not ignore the obligations Returning from exile, the Bolshevik leadership established
it had incrementally negotiated with France. With Britain its authority in the factory councils (‘soviets’) as well as in the
came the ‘White’ dominions: Canada, Australia, New workers and soldiers councils, while the reformist socialists
Zealand, and even the new Union of South Africa despite (Mensheviks), the professorial Liberals, with limited support
some Boer hesitations. India and other colonies had little in middle class and professional circles, and even the would-
choice. The Ottomans joined Germany by the end of 1914; be representatives of the peasantry, the Social Revolutionaries
Italy attacked Austria the following spring; Bulgaria sided of Alexander Kerensky, could not establish effective political
with the Central Powers, Romania joined the Entente and control. Having maintained the most radical anti-war
the United States finally intervened on the side of the position, the Bolsheviks knew what they wanted, and seized
Entente as an associated power in April 1917. Other power in a coup d’état in the so-called October Revolution, in
countries, notably Portugal, Brazil, Japan, and China, soon which a party with hitherto a weak position took precarious
aligned themselves with the Allies to maintain goodwill. control of the Russian State. Dissolving the recently elected
Constituent Assembly in which they had only about a
quarter of the delegates, the Bolshevik leaders skilfully
The war’s impact on imperialism announced a new International to win support abroad for an
attractive programme of immediate land redistribution to
What was the relationship of the war to the imperialist the peasants, and peace without annexations. The new
international order? Did the overseas empires exacerbate or regime accepted huge cessions of the former tsarist realm in
displace conflict? For a generation after 1870, the nations of Eastern Europe to make peace with Germany, and mobilized

27
 thematic section

supporters in what became a brutal civil war on multiple pragmatists maintain decisive power at home through the
fronts. Despite Western support for their adversaries, the 1920s and postponed a war for hegemony in the Western
Bolsheviks prevailed by 1921. Hand in hand with the most Pacific.17
exalted promises of world proletarian revolution came the The First World War had clearly shaken the premises of
organization of an effective secret police, the Cheka. colonial rule. The British and the French had brought the
Opposition parties and eventually the competing factions of indigenous peoples of their African and Asian domains to
the revolutionary front were successively suppressed. Lenin assist in the Great War: Senegalese troops served in the
was ruthless toward opposition, but also understood that in French occupation forces in Germany; Indian army units
a period when violence had become a worldwide had fought in the Mesopotamian campaign against the
phenomenon, the rhetoric of liberal politicians was limited. Turks. The Indian Army was expanded to two million men,
To win the civil war, he announced war communism, and the country was taxed and subject to war loans to pay
resorted to class warfare in the countryside, requisitioned for their upkeep. Labour battalions recruited from Egypt
property. He ostensibly promised self-determination to the and the West Indies, or hired on a contract basis from
diverse ethno-national components of the empire, which for China, built railways, supply depots and unloading ports in
several years became arenas of struggle on their own before France. Colonial subjects who travelled to the theatres of
being safely centralized again within the reorganized Union war (or fought themselves in the African and Ottoman
of Soviet Socialist Republics. campaigns) were plunged into a world where whites no
The Ottoman and Habsburg empires also collapsed longer presented a united front, as they had during the
under the massive strains of war and economic hardship. Boxer Rebellion, but were visibly bleeding each other to
The Habsburg armies held up surprisingly well, if assisted death. They were sometimes introduced to Marxist
by German cadres, but as the Central Powers went into ideologies of pacifism and other underground ideas of anti-
retreat, the empire finally decomposed and the various war protest. Even when they remained resistant to unrest,
national leaderships declared independent republics. In they then had to return to their galling subaltern roles in the
Turkey, the Sultanate was left isolated in Constantinople, colonies.18
while Mustafa Kemal’s Turkish nationalists seized control Moreover, Woodrow Wilson and America’s role briefly
in Anatolia, replacing the old regime by 1922. While the crystallized an almost messianic sense of expectation among
German Empire was more of a nation-state, it too collapsed many spokesmen for the working classes and for
with defeat. The land empires in effect disintegrated. independence worldwide. The Paris Peace Conference was
However, the First World War did not achieve the fraught with the sense of a transformed world order, and
formal independence of colonial regions overseas. the representatives of Korea, China, Egypt and many other
Decolonization was to be achieved only after the hitherto colonized nations expected the situation to be
Second World War. The situation of the extensive and redressed.19 The colonial economies, meanwhile, had been
populous areas of the world still held in colonial dependency infused with new vigour as the belligerents called for raw
was fraught with contradictions after 1918. The ideology of materials and manufacturing. Colonial areas were not
the victors centred on the concept of self-determination – immune to the waves of working-class and revolutionary
for Serbs, Poles, Czechs and Belgians, but not for colonial unrest that surged throughout the world from 1917 to
peoples. According to British and French imperialist 1921. In India, above all, the Congress Party had already
doctrines, colonial subjects would be ready for self-rule only put self-government on its agenda, and a vigorous labour
after an indefinitely long period of ‘preparation’, either movement had emerged. Protest movements and strikes
through indirect rule by cooperative Christian-educated were renewed. Nonetheless, colonial authorities were
university-trained indigenous elites, or through inculcation determined to maintain ‘order’, and the movement ran its
with the French republican values that Paris propagated. course, with several incidents, the bloodiest of which
But that time was still far off. occurred in April 1919 in the Punjabi city of Amritsar,
No matter how devoted American policy-makers were where the heavily armed British commander killed nearly
to Wilsonian ideals, they were hardly prepared to recognize 400 and wounded 1,200 Indian protesters who had rallied
their relevance for the Caribbean and Central America. in a local stadium.
And the Japanese leaders, who had pursued an imperial The victors in Europe, in short, were not prepared to
agenda since taking Formosa (Taiwan) in 1895 and Korea relinquish their domains. The key to the peacemaking
in 1910, sought to exploit their country’s intervention on process outside Europe was not imperial divestiture, but
the Allied side in the First World War to establish their sufficient agreement on joint approaches by the colonial
country as the dominant power in Manchuria and the powers and appropriate redistribution of German or
Shandong peninsula at a time when northern China Ottoman possessions to make future conflict unnecessary.
succumbed to fragmenting successor battles after the By 1916, the French and British had agreed that they would
collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Although Western objections divide Ottoman possessions in the Middle East after an
helped China resist Japan’s Twenty-one Demands for a Allied victory. The French, who had long-standing
protectorate, and the Chinese claimed a place at the Paris commercial and religious interests in the Christian and
Peace Conference by joining the coalition against Germany, Druse settlements of Lebanon and the north-western part
the ‘Big Four’ negotiators still awarded Japan control of the of Mesopotamia, were awarded territories south of Turkey,
former German possessions in Shandong. Angered by this which they divided into the two ‘mandatory’ republics of
dismissal of their own country’s national rights, Chinese Lebanon and Syria. Further to the south along the
students and protesters organized a huge protest – the ‘May Mediterranean and extending eastward across the Jordan
Fourth Movement’ – against foreigners and the weakness of River, the British took over Palestine and the newly
the fragmented Chinese regime. Still, Western recognition established Kingdom of Trans-Jordan. They also received
of Japan as a major Pacific naval power helped Tokyo the long sweep of ‘Mesopotamia’ from the Persian Gulf to

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 THE W O R L D AT THE B E G INNIN G O F THE T W ENTIETH CENT U R Y

Syria (to be reorganized as Iraq), making sure to retain the chance. Once the upheavals of 1919 were suppressed or
oil-rich area around Mosul. dissipated, however, the imperial order seemed to have
To reconcile abstract Wilsonian ideals with the colonial acquired renewed lustre. Empires existed on borrowed time,
appetites that the war had enhanced, the new League of but even that would eventually seem intolerable to those
Nations was empowered ostensibly to assign the who were asked to wait.
redistributed German colonies as ‘mandates’ to the existing
imperial powers: France and Britain in Africa, Japan and
the United States in the case of Micronesian island N otes
possessions. Called on to ratify partition agreements made
among the major powers, the very organization that 1. H. L. Wesseling, Divide and Rule: The Partition of
promised a peaceful world order could thus be exploited to Africa, 1880–1914, trans. Arnold J. Pomerans, Westport,
sanction a new lease on life for European colonialism. CT, 1996; Y. T. Matsusaka, The Making of Japanese
Organizing political authority in these regions remained Manchuria, 1904–1932, Cambridge, MA, 2001; W. Lafeber,
a somewhat improvisational task. The British recognized the The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, vol. 2:
independence of the Bedouins of the Hejaz, who under The American Search for Opportunity, 1865–1913, New York,
Sharif Husayn had thrown in their lot with Britain against 1993; F. Ninkovich, The United States and Imperialism,
their nominal Turkish overlords. Although Husayn’s Oxford, 2001. For the Dutch in Indonesia see M. C. Riklefs,
ambition to be caliph of the Arabs did not long survive the A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200, 3rd ed., Stanford,
war, one of his sons was installed as leader of Iraq, while the CA, pp. 143–89. Other experiences: R. Aldrich, Greater
other was awarded Trans-Jordan. London retained direct France: A History of French Expansion, Basingstoke, 1996.
administration of the remaining western area of Palestine, 2. The debates over the theories of the imperialism of
where they had somehow to reconcile the interests of free-trade and the ‘open-door’ and the troublesome frontier
Zionists – who had been promised a Jewish homeland by can be found in Wm. Roger Lewis (ed.), Imperialism: The
the Balfour Declaration of 1917 – and resident Arabs. In the Robinson and Gallagher Controversy, New York, 1976.
Arabian Peninsula, where an eighteenth-century revivalist 3. As of 1914, however, foreign investment flowed 51 per
movement had brought the house of Saud to power, the cent to Europe and North America, 19 per cent to Latin
hereditary leader Ibn Saud consolidated the interior America, 16 per cent to Asia, only 9 per cent to Africa and
territories, conquered the Hejaz by 1925–26, and in 1932 5 per cent to Oceania (including Australia and New
proclaimed his domains the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.20 Zealand). See R. Cameron, A Concise Economic History of
Egypt continued as a kingdom under British protection; like the World from Paleolithic Times to the Present, New York,
India, it had become an important economic component of 1989.
the imperial textile industry. Thus London had acquired a 4. J. Hobson, Imperialism, London, 1902; R. Luxemburg,
vast domain of semi-autonomous protectorates, theoretically Die Akkumulation des Kapitals (1913), trans. A. Schwarzschild,
ruled by the newly inserted institution of monarchy, but in The Accumulation of Capital, New York, 2003; R. Hilferding,
fact governed by a fitful alliance of influential families and Das Finanzkapital (1910), trans., London, Boston, 1981;
London resident authorities. The Dutch retained their rich V. I. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism,
possessions in ‘the Indies’; the Union of South Africa took 1916.
over German South-West Africa (Namibia) as a mandate. 5. H-U. Wehler, Bismarck und der Imperialismus.
The French set out to consolidate their influence in Morocco, Cologne, 1969.
Lebanon, and Syria and to win over the Syrian elites. For 6. J. Schumpeter, ‘Imperialism,’ in Imperialism; Social
both France and Britain, the training of indigenous military Classes: Two Essays, trans. H. Norden, New York, 1955; T.
units was a key task. Veblen, Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution,
The demands of the First World War revealed how New York, 1916.
useful a role loyal colonial forces might play. Indian forces 7. P. K. O’Brien, ‘The Costs and Benefits of British
had been critical in the Mesopotamian campaigns; Imperialism 1846–1914,’ Past and Present, No. 120, Aug.
Senegalese formed part of the post-1918 French occupying 1988, pp. 163–200; L. E. Davis and R. A. Huttenback,
force in Germany. The armies also offered a channel for Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Economics of British
training key elites and inculcating a sense of belonging to an Imperialism, Cambridge, 1988; D. K. Fieldhouse, Economics
overall colonial mission, but positions of command remained and Empire, 1830–1914, London, 1973; M. De Cecco, Money
reserved for the Europeans. Could the loyalties engendered and Empire: The International Gold Standard, 1890–1914,
among the colonial elites overcome the enhanced ideologies Oxford, 1974; W. G. Hynes, The Economics of Empire,
of self-determination? After indulging in four years of London, 1979. For a balance of the French experience,
unprecedented organized violence against each other, could J. Marseille, Empire colonal et capitalisme français, Paris
Europeans truly reconstruct a united front to rule so many 1984.
non-Europeans, especially when their rivalries had 8. P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, British Imperialism
contributed to their sanguinary conflict? And after 1688–2000, 2nd ed., London, 2002.
expending so many of the resources offered by the colonial 9. P. S. Khoury and J. Koistiner (eds), Tribes and State
world for that cause? Far-sighted statesmen in Europe as Formation in the Middle East (Berkeley, 1990), esp. the essay
well as nationalist leaders understood that the system had by R. Tapper, ‘Anthropologists, Historians, and
to evolve, but the wager for the colonial powers was that Tribespeople on Tribe and State Formation in the Middle
some new form of association that would preserve their East’, pp. 48–73.
cultural and economic ascendancy might painlessly emerge. 10. See C. Furtado, Accumulation and Development: The
Had they not been so embroiled among themselves in the Logic of Industrial Civlization, trans. S. Macedo, Oxford,
wake of the First World War, they might have had a better 1983; A. Gunder Frank, Dependent Accumulation and

29
 thematic section

Underdevelopment, New York, 1979; T. K. Hopkins, I. M. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wallerstein et al., World Systems Analysis: Theory and
Methodology, Beverly Hills, CA, 1982; S. Amin, Unequal BAYLY, C. A. 2004. The Birth of the Modern World 1780–1914: Global
Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral Connections and Comparisons (Series: Blackwell History of the
Capitalism, trans. Brian Pearce, New York, 1976; Imperialism World). Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford.
and Unequal Development, New York, 1977. BAYLY, C. A. , JOHNSON, G. and richards, j. f. (Series Editors). 1988.
11. D. S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Why Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. (The New
Some Are So Rich and Some Are So Poor, New York: W.W. Cambridge History of India.) Cambridge University Press,
Norton, 1998. F. Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and Cambridge.
the Creation of Prosperity, New York, 1996. BROWN, J. M. and LOUIS, W. R. (eds). 1999. The Oxford History of the
12. P. Bairoch, The Economic Development of the Third British Empire: The Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press,
World since 1900, Berkeley, 1975. pp. 13–48. Oxford and New York.
13. A. Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized, H. CAIN, P. J. and HOPKINS, A. G. 2001. British Imperialism 1688–2000.
Greenfeld, trans., 3rd ed. London, 2003. (2nd ed.). Longman, London.
14. For recent surveys: D. Lieven, Empire, London, 2003; DUUS, P. 1995. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of
D. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire,1700–1922, Cambridge, Korea, 1895–1910 (Series: Twentieth Century Japan: The
2000; R. A. Kann, A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526– Emergence of a World Power, 4). University of California Press,
1918, Berkelely, CA, 1974; J. D. Spence, The Search for Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Modern China, New York, 1990. Gallagher, J. and Robinson, R. 1961. Africa and the Victorians: The
15. A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Seapower on History, Official Mind of Imperialism. University of Wolverhampton,
1660–1783, London, 1965. Wolverhampton.
16. The literature on the origins and course of World HOCHSCHILD, A. 1998. King Leopold’s Ghost. A Story of Greed, Terror
War I is immense and does not abate. For the preceding and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Houghton Mifflin, New York.
arms race see D. Herrmann, The Arming of Europe and the KANN, R. A. 1974. A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918.
Making of the First World War, Princeton, 1996; D. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Stevenson, Armaments and the Coming of War: Europe, KENNEDY, P. 1980. The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism
1904–1914, Oxford, 1996; and most recently H. Strachan, 1860–1914. George Allen & Unwin, London.
The First World War, Vol.1: To Arms, Oxford, 2001, with LANGER, W. L. 1951. The Diplomacy of Imperialism. (2nd ed.). Alfred
extensive bibliography. The figures on soldiers and trains A. Knopf, New York.
are from Strachan, pp. 175, 206–07. LIEVEN, D. 2003. Empire. The Russian Empire and its Rivals. Random
17. Chinese events in Spence, op.cit.; A. Iriye, After House, London.
Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, MANNING, P. 1998. Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880–1995.
1921–1931, Cambridge, MA, 1965. (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
18. See R. W. Kilson, Calling up the Empire: The British MARSEILLE, J. 1984. Empire colonial et capitalisme français: Histoire d’un
Military Use of Non-White Labor in France, 1916–1920, divorce. Albin Michel, Paris.
Cambridge, MA, 1990; M. Michel, L’appel à l’Afrique: MATSUSAKA, Y. T. 2001. The Making of Japanese Manchuria,
Contributions et réactions à l’effort de guerre en A.O.F. (1914– 1904–1932. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
1919), Paris, 1982. NINKOVICH, F. 2001. The United States and Imperialism (Series:
19. E. Manela’s forthcoming study surveys these Problems in American History). Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
developments. For now see, ‘The Wilsonian Moment and OSTERHAMMEL, J. 1995. Kolonialismus. C. H. Beck Munich. English
the Rise of Anticolonial Nationalism: The Case of Egypt,’ translation, 1997, FRISH, S., Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview.
Diplomacy & Statecraft, 2001. Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton.
20. D. Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the QUATAERT, D. 2000. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. (Series: New
Modern Middle East, 1914–1922, New York, 1922. Approaches to European History, 17). Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
WESSELING, H. L. 1996. Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa,
1880–1914. a. j. POMERANS, Translation , Praeger Publishers,
Westport, CT, London.

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 2
STA B I L I Z ATION , C R ISIS , AN D THE SECON D W O R L D W A R

STA B I L I Z ATION , C R ISIS ,

AN D THE SECON D W O R L D W A R

Charles S. Maier

PROLONGING COLONIAL RULE Karamchand Gandhi, the remarkable ascetic 50-year-old

leader of resistance, moved in late 1920 to transform the
As before the First World War, events in Europe had a Congress Party into a more effective mass organization and
direct influence on the colonies. Imperial control was more initiate a campaign of civil disobedience – non-cooperation –
extensive but also more precarious. The inter-war phase of for the sake of self-rule and ultimately independence (Plate
European domination involved a race between reform and 23). Social pressures added to nationalist grievances.
rebellion. Progressive Europeans hoped for gradualist co- Wartime provisioning requirements for the large Indian
optation of local elites in an effort to forestall real army had stimulated Indian textile and other industries in
independence, but by the inter-war era, they had to deal Bombay, Madras, Bengal and elsewhere. Overarching
with the growing impatience and skills of a new generation potential urban and rural class conflicts were the fundamental
of politicized and educated indigenous leaders. Right-wing fissures of the huge articulated set of communities that
European critics of colonial reforms correctly predicted that constituted India: the gap between the untouchables, whom
continued concessions would only lead to increasing Gandhi insisted must be included in the Congress to the
pressure for independence. But their only alternative was instinctive repugnance of upper-caste leaders, and the
the recourse to force. Ultimately the British would recoil division between Hindus and Muslims, led in the Congress
before the violence that would have been required, while the by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The more urgent the demands
French accepted it (after the Second World War), only to for national independence, the more fissured the
find that their own society was brought to the edge of civil subcontinent appeared. British resistance to further reform
war. after the dominion proposals of the abortive Simon
As the threat of aggression from Germany, Italy, and Commission led to a five-year campaign of civil disobedience
Japan grew far more menacing by the mid-1930s, London’s from 1930 to 1931, including a dramatic march to the sea to
military resources – the ultimate coin of empire, even if protest the salt tax, and again after 1932.
rarely spent – were stretched very thin. Troops were An Indian nation had to emerge, but when, and what
required for security in Europe, initially in Ireland, in cohesion might it possess? The final pre-war British answer
Palestine and the Middle East, and eventually South Asia. was the Government of India Act of 1935, the upshot of
The duration and demands of the First World War had initial Round Table Discussions with Indians in 1931–32.
already made London dependent on the reserves of wealth It envisaged a federal dominion when half of the princes
and manpower contributed by the self-governing dominions (subject to the Raj but ruling a quarter of the population)
and also on the financial support of the United States. In might agree and, in fact, served as the basis for the post-war
Britain’s major possession, the Indian subcontinent, further constitution. But until ratification by the princes, power
cessions of authority to the nationalist movement were would remain with the Viceroy. Meanwhile the British
virtually inevitable. British reforms announced in 1917 and governed the congeries of princely states, crosscutting sects,
formalized in the 1919 Government of India Act began a occupational units, communities, and held on to decisive
partial movement toward self-government within the Raj. power.2
Under a notion of diarchy, education, agriculture, and India was the largest of Britain’s imperial possessions,
health were to be devolved upon provincial legislatures but the others gave just as much trouble. The inability to
elected by Indian constituencies. Revenue, law, and order reconcile Ulster Protestants to Irish autonomy led to
were to be reserved for the vice-regal government.1 continued violence between the uprising of 1916 and the
The British were not prepared to relinquish India partition treaty of 1922. Egypt saw nationalist rioting in
between the wars, and the movement for self-government in 1930 and 1935 although Egypt was nominally an independent
India (the National Congress) still believed caution was kingdom and received League of Nations membership. Iraq
required. In the wake of the Amritsar massacre, Mohandas achieved independence in 1932, and the Kurd-Sunni-Shiite

31
 thematic section

divisions that have dominated headlines since 2002 took ‘indigenous’ autonomy, there were conservatives whose
their toll in the early 1930s as well. In mandatory Palestine, policy, in the words of one French governor general in
Arabs revolted against Jewish migration in 1936, and only Viet Nam, was ‘surveillance, punishment, repression’. 5
appeasement policies in Europe allowed London to deploy Still, the system broke down when it did because the
the needed troops to quell the uprising, although Britain colonial powers could not stabilize their own peaceful order
acquiesced to Arab pressure to limit Jewish immigration at after the First World War, and descended toward renewed
a time when brutal Nazi policies had made the situation of and even more destructive warfare. The whole structure of
German Jews pure torment.3 inter-war European political reconstruction depended upon
Given the military and administrative expenses, was a fragile prosperity. Once it fell apart, and once, too,
maintaining a colonial empire still worth the effort? Of nationalist and fascist regimes came to power in Europe
course, a few left-wing protesters aside, Europeans still (and in Japan), renewed large-scale warfare would have
believed it essential and on several grounds. It testified to been hard to avoid. The First World War had already
strategic supremacy for the metropole despite the armed created the conditions for nationalist movements to advance
forces that had to be garrisoned abroad if not actually in the colonial world. The Second World War made their
engaged in endemic fighting. It rewarded a powerful network rapid success far more likely.
of elites at home. It promised safe control of vital resources,
including petroleum for the British and rubber for the
French. The Dutch continued to develop the oil and mineral THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS AND
wealth of their vast Indonesian archipelago. Secured at THE VULNERABILITY OF DEMOCRACY
bargain prices, the bounty of the Third World – oil and
rubber and cotton, tobacco, copper and precious metals – Even before the Great Depression, the more fragile
compensated for the wartime squandering of wealth in the democratic regimes in Europe had already collapsed. The
First. Colonialism also reaffirmed the cultural or ‘civilizing Hungarian revolution of 1919 was suppressed by a military
mission’ of Europeans after the terrible lapse of the counter-revolution that installed an authoritarian (if
First World War. European administrators trained native nominally parliamentary) regime in that country, so reduced
civil servants, organized education, and selectively in size by the Treaty of Trianon. Spain and Italy abandoned
interpreted the social and cultural worlds that they sought liberal-democratic institutions in the 1920s; Poland’s
less to penetrate than to keep under control. The transactions military began to curb parliamentary power.
of everyday rule in the empire profoundly influenced the But the world economic crisis of the 1930s made
colonized country, but also the colonizers. Young men of democratic prospects far worse. The prosperity of the late
the metropole found themselves possessors of an unsettling 1920s, promising as it appeared, rested on a very fragile
power that offset the dull daily tasks of rural administration; foundation and was vulnerable to key policy failures. For it
servants abounded without real cost; and youthful idealists was based on an effort to restore what was an oversimplified
could construct a humanitarian and ethical vocation among interpretation of how the international economy ran before
their subjects abroad. the war. Before 1914, the major world economies had
It is an open question whether capitalism reinforced or adopted the so-called gold standard, which seemed a
finally weakened the structures of colonial domination. prerequisite for membership in the civilized world. The gold
International economic exchange built on and helped to standard provided that the subscribing countries’ central
perpetuate the unequal relationships of metropole and banks promised to redeem their national paper currency in
colony, the latter as source of commodities or relatively gold. This meant in effect that no participating country
cheap labour. But industrial unrest was a prevalent feature could accumulate significant deficits on current account or
of inter-war colonialism, as indigenous labour, uprooted pile up import surpluses beyond the values of what it
from a crumbling village structure (as it had been in Europe exported or borrowed from foreign investors. If it continually
the previous century), continued to migrate to the mines of spent more than it earned from abroad, holders of the
Katanga or Witwatersrand, the port of Mombasa (Kenya), country’s currency and bonds would supposedly worry
the textile factories of Cairo or Bombay.4 about the real value of the paper assets they held and would
Since the cause of the working class had also become a run down the spendthrift nation’s gold reserves, supposedly
major ideological theme of European political activists, forcing a hike in its interest rates and an offsetting contraction
these developments created an opposition to colonialism at of foreign purchases. The beauty of the system was that it
home. The Second International had condemned supposedly kept an international equilibrium automatically.
colonialism before the First World War. The communist In effect the Bank of England was the linch-pin of much
parties took up the issue after the First World War, and it international exchange (although the French franc and
remained one of their fundamental themes until the 1980s, German mark played large roles in Eastern Europe), and
when Soviet armies were mired in Afghanistan. Moscow’s despite vast foreign expenditures, the Bank of England kept
own control over its Central Asian, Ukrainian, or Baltic the pound sterling at its pre-announced gold value.
peoples never seemed to involve any of the same issues. The The income that Britain received from foreign investment
more overseas colonies were integrated into a world and its positive balance of trade with its colonial possessions,
economy, the more their fate was caught up in the divisions above all India, offset its negative balance of trade with
of domestic politics. Europe. Returns from outside Britain minimized the
Colonial domination could not have been preserved deflationary adjustments at home that might be required to
forever. The French, the British and the Dutch were divided maintain the country’s extensive foreign investments and
among themselves as to how much self-governance they confidence in the pound more generally. What is more,
could encourage. For every far-sighted and cultivated London actually could shift the real costs of monetary
colonial administrator who advocated expansion of adjustment onto the countries that held sterling. The

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First World War, however, shattered this world, which frequently renewed. In addition, once the stock market
seemed to guarantee international financial equilibrium so began to climb rapidly at the end of the 1920s, American
painlessly and automatically, but which in fact was already investors tended to borrow to buy Wall Street securities,
finding it more difficult to operate without central bank not Central European bond issues. Once the American
intervention even in the last years of peace before 1914.6 stock market plummeted in 1929–30, with its huge
The post-war years saw no easy restoration of world contraction of American wealth (since so many individuals
trade. Russia, which had been a major purchaser of Central and banks had tied up their credit in the market), American
European goods and a provider of grains, timber, and other savings were no longer available.7
materials, plunged into the economic misery of civil war, Democratic politics in the new countries of Central
hyperinflation, and isolation. The successor states to the Europe was linked to prosperity, which was rapidly
Austro-Hungarian Empire also became a depressed area; vanishing. Over the next three years, unemployment would
the former internal trade of the Habsburg Empire was now rise to catastrophic proportions: perhaps over 25 per cent of
fragmented by new frontiers and hostilities. Stagnation the work force in the United States and Germany. The
meant that urban areas no longer could absorb the excess national output of countries slumped badly. In Germany
labour of the countryside. And whereas hard-pressed and the United States – the hardest hit industrialized
peasants of Eastern and Central Europe and southern Italy countries with reliable statistics – GNP descended to about
had also migrated to the Americas in record numbers from 60 per cent of 1929 levels by late 1932, at which time the
1890 to 1914, they could no longer do so after war broke out. statistics were bottoming out in Britain and Germany. But
In 1924 the United States, caught up in a cycle of xenophobic hard times were spreading to France and Spain.
reaction to its earlier openness, passed the Johnson Act, Although we think of the Depression in terms of
which virtually shut its borders to Eastern Europeans. industrial unemployment, it brought great suffering as well
As wartime demand slackened, most economies to rural communities. Vigorous demand and rising prices
underwent a short but very sharp recession in mid-1920 and for agricultural products brought vast expansion of output
1921, triggered in some cases by a rapid cut in expenses as and then a collapse of prices from 1920s to 1930s. Bumper
states sought to return to normal financial conditions. In years sent grain prices skidding in 1927 and 1928; they did
1922, in the United States prosperity returned and the not recover in 1929 and as grain suppliers sought to dump
Americans entered a vigorous seven-year expansion. But all their stocks, prices fell to three-fifths of the 1913 level by
industrial economies remained subject to business cycles: 1932. Only by the thirties did interventionist governments,
vigorous investments and demand usually declined after whether of the left or nationalistic, introduce national
seven years of expansion. marketing boards that could control sales and pay farmers
The problem was even deeper, in fact, because of the to curtail output.
war’s wastage of savings and capital. During the war, The fate of agricultural producers was thus as harsh as
countries had not renewed industrial infrastructures and those of industrial workers. Since the family farm could
had indirectly taxed national savings by cumulative price not ‘fire’ its old parents and numerous children, or export
increases through two- or three-fold ablative inflation. its excess young working adults to cities without jobs, it
Nations had also gone heavily into debt; some of this debt left them to stagnate without shoes, clothes, schooling,
was internal and owed by one citizen or bank to another medicine, housing, urban manufactures, and even clean
and thus would be settled by internal redistribution of water or an adequate diet. Outside Britain and Belgium,
wealth usually at the cost of those on pensions or rents or industrial countries still retained large rural populations –
other fixed income. But, in addition, Britain, France, and up to 50 per cent living in areas defined as rural in the
Italy owed significant war debt payments to the United United States, about 25 per cent on farms in Germany. In
States, while Germany owed reparations to Britain, France addition, most of the rural population outside Europe, the
and Belgium. Moreover, each country had lost significant northern United States and Canada, or coastal and Great
foreign assets whose earnings had helped offset the cost of Lakes North America was overwhelmingly composed of
imports: Britain had sold off about 25 per cent of its foreign peasant producers, usually dependent upon costly loans
portfolio. The relatively easy burden of international from seedtime to harvest. Hard-pressed farmers switched
exchange and debt before 1914 became far more oppressive their political allegiances – many voting Democratic
in the 1920s. instead of Republican in the United States by 1932, but in
When Britain and other countries ‘returned to gold’ Germany defecting en masse to the National Socialists by
between 1925 and 1930 (or more precisely adopted a gold- 1930. The Democrats seemed to promise cheap money
exchange standard where dollars could also serve as a and credit, and the Nazis promised security of farm tenure
reserve), most felt the need to raise prevailing interest rates and even higher tariffs and protection than already existed.
in order not to lose reserves. However, the tight money They also handily blamed Jewish creditors for the woes
policies of the late 1920s inhibited investment in Britain and of farmers.
exacerbated labour relations in Germany. Britain had Other commodities underwent the same passage from
revalued the pound at a rate that meant its products were boom to bust, and as peasants suffered, political turbulence
relatively more expensive than those available in or from grew. Coffee bean prices declined by 75 per cent from 1927
America, thereby producing an extra burden on its balance to 1931, helping to open the way to the Brazilian dictator,
of payments. With the United States now a net creditor Getulio Vargas. The rubber plantations that had boomed in
nation, any American failure to ‘recycle’ dollars to Europe South-East Asia (as increasing numbers of automobiles
would add to the deflationary pressures. Americans poured spurred the need for tires) saw prices collapse, helping to
their savings abroad into all sorts of European loans, some provoke nationalist resistance movements. The collapse of
for productive investments, others for public amenities. sugar prices brought misery to Indonesia and hardship to
Many of these loans were short-term and had to be the Caribbean. The collapse of silk prices meant greater

33
 thematic section

poverty for two-fifths of Japan’s farmers, and aggravated the and hydroelectric construction (the Tennessee Valley
discontent of many Chinese peasants, who would undermine Association), passed a national system of old-age pensions
the precarious control of the Chinese nationalist government. based on compulsory business and employee contributions
The prices of some crops fell dramatically even though (Social Security) and eventually gave labour unions the
demand remained relatively stable: the price of cotton right to organize workers if they won a majority in factory
decreased by two-thirds. The response varied: silent or plant (the Wagner Act). Roosevelt’s remedies were often
suffering or acceptance of wage labour, flight and migration, inconsistent, and the Congress remained more conservative.
occasionally open rebellion. American tenant farmers in the Nonetheless, despite his inconsistency and initial
southern states, i.e. sharecroppers, dependent for yearly unilateralism, Roosevelt’s buoyant politics and oratory
credit on landlords who controlled the payback of ‘settle’ shattered the passive helplessness that seemed to afflict the
they finally received, remained in misery and increasingly previous Hoover administration. By 1936, the Democrats
compelled to switch their peonage into wage labour. 8 became the majority party, holding the support of the
African-Americans would eventually accelerate their southern states they had had since the Civil War, and
migration to the industrial cities of the North once urban gaining for the first time the votes of urban blacks, many
factories began to revive. Egyptian peasants, also dependent farmers, labour unions, small businessmen and a critical
on a cotton monoculture, cut back their consumption of number of patrician bankers and industrialists – a
food grains by a quarter. combination that kept the presidency in the hands of the
In South-East and East Asia, the price of rice fell 50 per Democrats for twenty years and made Roosevelt the first
cent even though consumption hardly fell. The results were president to win a third and then a fourth term. Other
rural immoderation in Japan, the rise of prostitution, a new coalitions, in Sweden or later the so-called Popular Front in
resentment of the city and of recent trends toward France, pursued similar policies. But Roosevelt became a
liberalization, and a symbiosis of distressed peasants and a symbol par excellence of a popular and democratic response
belief in the saving role of the military. If German peasants first to economic hardship and then to the rise of Fascism
looked to the National Socialists, the Japanese put their and Nazism.10
trust in militarist values. Where white colonial authorities The stakes seemed very high. For in fact, the dominant
reinforced local landlords, peasant rebellions were a trend did not seem to be that of the left, but the illiberal
possibility. Vietnamese peasants revolted unsuccessfully as right. The appeal of fascism emerged out of the
the authorities sought to collect taxes in the face of collapsing First World War, or even before. Nationalists stressed that
rubber prices. By the end of the 1930s, South Vietnamese military conflict was a fundamental condition of modern
landlords had largely supervised a switch from tenancy to society; countries were locked in perpetual rivalry; politicians
wage labour (a trend also underway in the cotton South of talked and talked, but soldiers solved problems. The notion
the United States), whereas peasant tenancy remained more of military saviours was not far away in the 1920s, and hard-
resilient and resistant in the North. In Burma, continued pressed monarchs might appoint military dictators. Faced
collection of poll tax payments as rice prices collapsed with growing civil strife between left and right and a move
triggered a rebellion through 1931–1932, which British toward republicanism, the Spanish monarch appointed a
rulers put down only with difficulty. Whether in South- military strongman, Primo De Rivera, in 1923, who
East Asia, West Africa, the Dutch Indies or the Middle governed for eight years by a sort of implicit social bargaining
East, the mid-1930s were to prove the point of inflection for before being discredited by corruption, the continuing war
European colonial rule. That is, mobilization of labour and in Spanish Morocco, and encroaching economic stagnation.
peasants and intellectuals that achieved decolonization after Until his popularity ebbed, Primo was one of the first
the Second World War really ‘took off’ in terms of military saviours of the inter-war although they had
organization and protest during the 1930s.9 appeared frequently in nineteenth-century Spain and Latin
America. However, it was in Italy, Germany, and Austria
where the most spectacular transformations occurred.
CONTENDING POLITICAL RESPONSES Mussolini organized his Fascio di Combattimento in
AND IDEOLOGIES 1919, on the basis of soldiers’ camaraderie and their yearning
for radicalism. The movement prospered in the Po Valley
Such an economic disaster had profound effects on politics. between 1920 and 1922, as it teamed up with landlords to
It essentially undercut the progress toward a restoration of smash the newly militant rural labour unions. As the
liberalism and in many countries undermined the coalitions parliament became paralysed between old and new parties,
needed to support democratic government. The United the King named Mussolini prime minister in late
States was an exception. Since the Republicans were in October 1922 (Plate 24). For two years, he ran an
power and persisted in deflation, the voters turned toward administration that hovered between dictatorship and a
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who did not campaign for sort of manipulated party clientelism. By 1925–1926,
radical measures, but whose New Deal still turned toward however, he had opted for single-party rule and was
major social and economic experimentation. The Roosevelt transforming the ideology of fascism into a glorification of
administration profoundly altered government in the the all-powerful state and party, which must organize
United States by enlarging the role of the federal government, unions and businesses into government-sponsored
which stepped in to provide emergency relief, to organize ‘corporations’. The opposition was driven into exile,
public works (the Public Works Administration and sometimes imprisoned, or sentenced to a sort of village
Works Progress Administration) and to prop up farm confinement in remote areas. A secret police, political
prices by instituting limits on crop planting (the Agricultural tribunal, press censorship, glorification of the party,
Adjustment Act). It also put young people to work in public subjection of parliament, and claims to educate a new Fascist
conservation jobs, began huge new natural resource planning man made the Italian experiment a qualitatively new sort of

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regime – one the Fascists themselves liked to call plebiscitary approval for his policies. When
‘totalitarian’.11 President Hindenburg died at the end of August 1934, the
By totalitarian, Mussolini meant originally that Fascism army allowed Hitler to accumulate the power of chancellor
claimed the totality of political power – no other party was and president as the self-proclaimed Führer.
to exist, although in fact the other parties continued a The Italian Fascist regime and the German National
harassed and minority existence until they were pressured Socialists shared much in common, but also had significant
to dissolve in the mid-1920s. As the regime stabilized and differences. Both movements stressed the role of the party
the term was also later applied by many European and in running the state. Both leaders had been spiritually
American scholars to Hitler’s Third Reich and reborn by war; Mussolini had broken with the Socialist
Stalin’s Soviet Union, it became even more encompassing, Party in which he had made his pre-1915 career as a radical
and suggested that the single party and the leader it glorified editor to take up the notion of the war as revolution and
organized not just politics but society as a whole. The ruling then to organize would-be radical soldiers into a fascio, or
party was intended to reshape the economy, education, and militant movement whose name suggested the unity of
sports, to control the media, theatre and culture – in brief, determined individuals bound together. Hitler had realized
not just suppress outright opposition and democratic that war would give him his vocation. A young Austrian
institutions, but organize an all-controlling regime and who saw his aspirations to be a great artist frustrated, Hitler
society in which individuals found fulfilment through a was fulfilled, indeed exalted, by his military service in the
regimented public sphere. It was this claim that was the real German army. When he was gassed near the end of the war
novelty of the inter-war period, and perhaps of twentieth- and then internalized the humiliating defeat, he understood
century politics in general. It was a fundamental rejection of that he must now live for politics directed against the flabby
the belief in the individual as the basis for government; civilian governments and the socialists and Jews that had
henceforth it was to be the nation or the racial community, allegedly betrayed the country. Here was a key difference
or the proletariat (and its agent the party). Liberalism was from his Italian counterpart. Nazism had anti-Semitism at
allegedly weak, talky, outmoded. The economic crisis its core even if over the next years Hitler might also scorn
supposedly confirmed that it had failed. alternative parties, castigate the feckless republic, its
Mussolini’s regime was hardly totalitarian at all in parliamentary system and the craven compromises on
comparison to Hitler’s, who required only a year to reparations. Both leaders remained convinced that nations
consolidate the dictatorial control that Mussolini had could remain vital only by virtue of war, that they were
needed five years to build. The stability of the German locked into a Darwinian struggle for survival, that politics
Republic (known as the Weimar Republic) founded after must ultimately be based on unremitting conflict (a notion
the defeat in the First World War remained hostage to that tempted many theorists in the inter-war period), and
prosperity. The new regime was widely, if unfairly, blamed that as leaders they had the personal mission to inspire and
for the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and it also seemed organize the masses. Mussolini, however, found his allies
totally dependent on the deals among the political parties. among the nationalist intelligentsia that emphasized the
When adverse economic conditions made it impossible for role of law, not liberal law, but the state. He retained his
the Social Democratic Party that represented much of the title as ‘head of government’, that is, an appointee of the
organized working class to find a common ground with the monarch, and he restored the prerogatives of the Catholic
representatives of the industrial community, the parliament Church. Hitler stressed (and found the allies to agree) that
was paralysed, and Reichspresident Paul von Hindenburg the German People, were more fluid and more encompassing
had to resort to rule by decree. Voters defected to Hitler’s than the state and its officers and that they spoke through
National Socialist Party, which had seemed doomed to him, so that ultimately the Führer was the source of law.12
extinction in the mid-1920s but secured 20 per cent of the
vote in the September 1930 Reichstag elections. Continuing
parliamentary paralysis made the party increasingly popular, SOVIET POLICIES AND POPULIST
and by the summer of 1932 it collected almost 40 per cent of MOBILIZATION OUTSIDE EUROPE
the electorate. After growing violence in the streets and
some unsuccessful efforts to find a chancellor who could It is little wonder that many Western intellectuals –
alleviate unemployment and win back votes, Hindenburg horrified by watching a cultivated Western nation wilfully
was prevailed on by short-sighted conservatives and civil turn its back on human rights, do away with a liberal
servants to call on Hitler as the head of a coalition cabinet republic, and turn toward savage values – felt that liberal
on 30 January 1933. Within two months Hitler had built democracy was impotent, politically as well as economically.
the first concentration camps (Plate 25), exploited the arson Some political activists and intellectuals believed that only
of the Reichstag building (probably an independent action) communism could solve the crisis of liberalism and stand
to arrest the Communist Party deputies and limit freedom up to fascism by nationalizing economic resources and
of the press, allowed his Storm Troopers to boycott Jewish embarking on a thoroughgoing state planning. While many
shops, introduced legislation to ‘restore’ the civil service – on the left remained within the parties of democratic
i.e. to fire Jews from government office including the socialism – from whom the communists had split after
educational system (Plate 26) – and finally to browbeat the Lenin came to power in Russia and whom the communists
Reichstag deputies to pass a constitutional amendment, the denounced in the late 1920s and early 1930s as ‘objectively’
so-called Enabling Act, that gave him virtually absolute helping the fascists – others believed that only the hard
power for five years. Within a year, he would abolish the discipline of the Communist Party could bring about
state legislatures, abolish all parties but the National transformation. The politics of toughness and sometimes
Socialists, pull Germany out of the long drawn-out secrecy was allegedly necessary on the left, if it was not to
disarmament conference in Geneva, and win a resounding prevail from the right. The Communist Party had

35
 thematic section

consolidated power in Russia by progressively stifling other resisted fascism and redefined political theory and culture.
parties and then independent voices. Even under Lenin, the And into this world of total control – so appealing to many
party had moved to exert total control; but the system Western intellectuals, so devoted to history and higher
became far more repressive by the 1930s. purpose, and potentially the only force to stop Nazism –
Stalin managed to emerge at the top of the party by came a fantastic series of political upheavals in which,
adroit alliances, first by taking sides against the Bolsheviks orchestrated by Stalin, the party turned on its own vast
he denounced as too radical and impatient, then by turning membership, discovered and denounced plot after alleged
against the earlier allies that he now claimed were too plot, and through a series of show trials, first of alleged
gradualist and complacent, even condemning Leon plotters against the Leningrad Party, then supposed
Trotsky – the outstanding leader along with Lenin of the wreckers from the factional fights of the 1920s (Bukharin
revolutionary period – as a traitor to the Bolshevik project and Trotsky), and finally against half the army command
because he did not accept the idea of subordinating the (accused of being in league with the Germans abroad). No
project of international revolution to constructing a socialist one knows how many party members were expelled, arrested
order ‘in one country’. In the mid-1920s, Stalin had warned and ultimately shot. Millions were sent to the forced labour
against over-ambitious nationalization of village lands; now camps, the gulags, where the toll taken by cold and disease
in 1928, he decreed moving beyond the NEP (the New remained very high.
Economic Policy was a retreat from war communism that Faced with this phenomenon, Western interpreters took
allowed the resumption of small private enterprise, foreign the concept that the Italians had themselves coined –
investment and the retention of private peasant lands) and totalitarianism – and applied it to those aspects of the
forcing the peasants into collective farms. Peasants resisted dictatorial experience of the 1930s that Fascism, National
but, over the course of a year and a half, local communists Socialism and Stalinist Communism had in common: the
applied pressure so that they would faithfully troop to the role of the party, glorification of the leader, the use of terror
local authorities and place their land either in the nationalized and arbitrary arrest to destroy solidarities and ‘atomize’ the
plot (the Sovkhoz or state farms) or the local cooperatives population, and planning for war. Like all typologies,
(Kolkhoz, or collective farms). Their animals were also ‘totalitarianism’ subordinated specific differences among the
taken, as were tractors and other implements. To orchestrate experiences to which it was applied: the extermination of
this vast renunciation of individual holdings the party the European Jews found no parallel in the Soviet Union,
started a campaign against allegedly wealthier peasants, the nor did the latter regime ever indulge in the plans for
Kulaks, who could employ farm labourers and were widespread conquest that motivated Hitler. Later historians,
supposedly dedicated to bitter counter-revolutionary perhaps reacting against the Cold War era idea of
resistance. The rallying calls of the hour became totalitarianism – made famous in Hannah Arendt’s volume
‘dekulakization’, ‘the Kulak as the bitter adversary and The Origins of Totalitarianism – would suggest that
rapacious rural creditor’. Above all in the Ukraine, where totalitarianism was less total than originally depicted, that
resistance to the Moscow regime remained strong, the party interstices of private life, inner opposition and culture might
moved into high gear, cutting off supplies and contributing exist, that rule was fragmented and often inefficient. These
to widespread famine. Bukharin would incur Stalin’s later observations are correct, probably more correct for Germany
revenge by suggesting that peasants would produce more in than Russia, and most correct for Italy. Nonetheless, the
response to market incentives, but the party leadership totalitarian experience of the 1930s was one of the defining
would then have remained subject to the resistance of this moments of the twentieth century – a moral extreme that
huge social group.13 (along perhaps with the later Cultural Revolution in China)
No sooner was the collectivization campaign underway seemed a nightmarish culmination of history.
than Stalin introduced the first of several Five Year Plans; Outside Europe, the Fascist and Soviet experiences found
an ambitious and rapid effort to increase industrialization. admirers who thought they could borrow selected elements
The NEP vanished in the cities; property was taken over, from the new European movements. Chinese politics
vast numbers of rural workers were forced off their land and remained in disarray, eight years after the declaration of a
into the cities, where they laboured intensively to build republic and displacement of the Manchu Dynasty in 1911.
factories, the Moscow subways, hydroelectric plants, the Revolutionary authority quickly passed from the ideological
iron and steel industry of the Don Basin, new Siberian leader of the revolution, Sun Yat-sen, to General Yuan Shikai,
centres of industry. Gigantic projects became the order of who manipulated the last vestiges of imperial authority in
the day. Much of this, too, was inefficient, and a great deal Beijing, as well as claiming the mandate of the new
rested on semi-coerced labour especially of the youth revolutionary parliament; but Yuan died in 1916. When
organization or Komsomol.14 But at a time when Western outraged students in Beijing marched against the feebleness
economic output was falling sharply, and the misery of of their regime on 4 May 1919, the country they sought to
unemployment raged, the Soviet Union underwent an mobilize was fragmenting under their feet. The north of
industrial transformation of unprecedented rapidity. China soon disintegrated into competing warlord
Communists and left-wing intellectuals in the West could jurisdictions, while Japanese forces retained footholds in the
boast that while capitalism was finished, Soviet communism former German colonies in Shandong as well as railroad
was transforming Russia, unemployment was unknown centres of Manchuria, and even for a while in the coastal
and the economy was leaping ahead. region of a disintegrating Russia. Back in China and based in
Any real achievements, however, came at the cost of Canton (Guangzhou) in the south, Sun Yat-sen turned to
political freedom. The party embodied the wisdom of Soviet advisers and reorganized the Guomindang (Chinese
history, and it, in turn, depended upon the wisdom of the Nationalist Party, KMT) along lines deeply influenced by
leader, its First Secretary, Comrade Stalin, increasingly the Soviet party practice. But the KMT included diverse factions
recipient of adulation, who guided a worldwide movement, and interests. After Sun’s death, his successor, the organizer

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of the new Whampoa military academy, Chiang Kai-shek, ORIGINS OF ANOTHER WORLD WAR
initially continued the communist collaboration and
reaffirmed Sun’s venerable ‘Three People’s Principles’ that By the late 1930s, therefore, all the bright hopes of the
stressed nationalism, democracy and socialism. Between League of Nations, of internationalism, of tolerance and
1925 and 1928, Chiang Kai-shek came the closest he would liberalism, were sputtering to an end. Only a decade and a
ever be to transforming the KMT into a national half separated the last military echoes of the First World
revolutionary force, winning control in the south and central War in the eastern Mediterranean (1922) from the Marco
coastal China, establishing his capital at Nanjing, and finally Polo Bridge clash between Japan and China (1937), which
turning on his own unprepared communist collaborators opened the East-Asian theatre of the Second World War.
(Plate 27). By 1928, the KMT ejected the Beijing warlords An even briefer six years separated the treaties of Locarno
and completed their takeover. The remnants of the erstwhile (1925), which seemed to ensure peace in Europe, from the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who had, as Stalin Manchurian takeover by Japan that defied the principles of
consistently urged, collaborated with Chiang until the end, the League of Nations (1931). This period (shorter than the
remained in disarray, until finally in the mid-1930s, they wars in the ex-Yugoslavia) marked the brief moment, in
migrated to a new regional stronghold in Yenan and which it appeared that ‘collective security’, as embodied in
reoriented their strategy around Mao Zedong’s concept of the League of Nations, might be feasible.
peasant revolution.15 Collective security in the inter-war years did not have the
Nationalist and populist political mobilization was thus same connotation as the concept later adopted from 1949 to
a far broader experience in the 1930s than just its German 1989, when it referred to the NATO alliance against and
or Italian manifestation might suggest. Not all of it was the Warsaw Pact and a perceived Soviet threat. Inter-war
totalitarian; even in Japan the encroachment on civil liberties collective security meant that all nations in the League
and dissenters depended less on a well-formed ideology of should come together if one of their number or a country
state or party power than intimidation by zealots and the outside demonstrated aggressive behaviour. It was more
slow stifling of opposition. Nationalist strongmen embarked fluid and ad-hoc, yet this beautiful dream also proved hard
on heroic modernization as in Turkey. Populists, often to put into practice. By the 1930s, it was clear that some
from the military, attacked the entrenched elites of wealth countries, pre-eminently Japan, Italy, and eventually, Nazi
and privilege in the name of the people in Latin America. Germany, had expansionist designs. The first breach of
Lazaro Cardenas, president of Mexico, restored the lustre collective security took place in Asia, where the Japanese
of the institutionalized revolution and its party (the PRI) military, still aspiring to a hegemonic role in northern
by listening to country folk at the grass roots and then China, became alarmed by Chiang Kai-Shek’s advance
nationalizing the British and American oil companies. In toward Beijing. Japanese units had established their
Brazil, where the federal states retained a good deal of ‘dominant’ power in Manchuria by 1910, and they remained
authority, the state governor Getulio Vargas seized power involved in warlord politics after 1911, and during the 1920s.
in 1930, as the precarious power sharing of state magnates As renewed claimants to power in Beijing and North China
broke down under the impact of the disastrous fall in coffee challenged Chiang Kai-Shek’s claims to authority, the
prices. By 1938, supported by Brazilian fascist ‘Integralistas’, Japanese occupiers across the wall continually intervened,
Vargas dissolved the congress and declared a ‘New State’, a finally seizing the excuse of intervening to prevent local
title that the Portuguese military leader Salazar had shortly clashes that threatened the railroads to seize control of the
before invented to describe his own authoritarian coup. Manchurian provinces in 1931 and then to reorganize the
Vargas’s new constitution, while never fully implemented, vast industrialized areas into a Japanese protectorate, named
nonetheless entrusted him with total power as President of Manchukuo. The Chinese Government had little choice
the Republic. but to accept the fait accompli, and while the League sent a
In Argentina, the developing middle classes managed to mission to investigate and deplored the action, it took no
secure a decade of liberal (radical) rule through the 1920s, concrete counter-measures. Japan responded to the sanction
only to have the earlier oligarchic elements – generals, by simply withdrawing from the international
ranchers, bankers and clergy – seize power in 1930. The organization.
military took over in 1943, and the most talented of their The intervention had decisive influence within Tokyo as
number, Juan Peron, built a new populist movement in well. The Japanese Government was divided between liberal
symbiosis with the labour unions of Buenos Aires.16 These and nationalist leaders. While the liberals included cautious
populist leaders mobilized working classes and the poor (the military officers and admirals, and there were civilians
descamisados, or shirtless ones, in Argentina), threatening among the nationalists, increasingly it was the military
liberal newspapers and the parliaments and parties establishment that formed the backbone of the nationalists.
traditionally controlled by entrenched and privileged elites. The death of the Taisho Emperor (1912–26) and elevation
The Latin Americans sometimes claimed to emulate the of the young Hirohito (known by his official name as the
Fascists, and they sought to distance themselves from the Showa emperor, 1926–89) marked a difficult period for
United States. Indeed, a similar movement led by Governor Japanese liberalism (Plate 28). The second half of the decade
Huey Long emerged in Louisiana in the 1930s, only to be saw a series of rival party cabinets and leaders, who were
cut short by his assassination. Wherever they arose, such unable to effectively organize the new potential for mass
movements testified to the discrepancy between democracy, which seemed primarily to generate corruption
parliamentary forms, which remained under the control of and inside deals. The collapse of rice and silk prices (perhaps
wealthy and powerful elites, and the reality of vast social two-fifths of peasant families grew cocoons) during the
and economic deprivation. Authoritarianism allegedly on Depression was disastrous for the rural economy. Rural
behalf of the people thus remained (and remains) a recurrent impoverishment and the rise of prostitution as a recourse
political temptation for ambitious and demagogic leaders. for hard-pressed peasant families, many of whom also had

37
 thematic section

menfolk in the military, meant a reaction to the liberalism expansion to the south urged their case. The Imperial Navy
and democratization of the previous decade and a call for especially looked to a wider war in the south; Japan lacked
patriotic virtues. The Manchurian adventure gave the rising the oil for its expanded fleet. It was imported from the
militarists at home a stronghold outside the jurisdiction of United States and the Dutch East Indies, but if these
Tokyo, and there was always the danger of a coup at the sources were cut off, then conquest of the Indies might be
periphery should civilians try to limit the army’s role. the only recourse. Such a manoeuvre would involve war
Tension increased and right-wing officers felt justified in with the British, the Dutch and probably with the Americans
taking up the weapon of assassination, following the example as well. As of 1938–39, these alternatives were unresolved
of young Samurai officers in the turbulent transition of the and indeed still somewhat theoretical. Americans were still
1850s and 1860s, and by the fanatic who attacked Hara in far from involvement, committed largely to neutrality,
1921. In attempted coups of May 1932 and February 1936, enraged by the atrocities in China, but with a relative
the prime ministers were assassinated.17 handful of primitively armed troops in the Philippines or
The programme of expansion was renewed in 1937, as Hawaii hardly prepared to constitute a serious threat. But
Japanese troops exploited a clash with Chinese soldiers at the time for decision was approaching. The German-Soviet
the Marco Polo Bridge near the border of Manchuria to non-aggression pact, the subsequent outbreak of war in
launch a rapid invasion southward. Japanese forces moved Europe and the adverse fortunes of the Allies – with the
swiftly, but were only partially successful. They rapidly took conquest of the Netherlands and France, and the siege of
the coastal strip of China, indulged in a brutal occupation, Britain – American rearmament and fleet expansion and its
and when they arrived at Chiang Kai-Shek’s southern control of steel and oil supplies, were soon to make Japanese
capital of Nanjing carried out an orgy of brutal killing of choices all the more acute. The one option that might have
Chinese prisoners and civilians – perhaps up to 300,000, spared Japan an expansion of conflict – a retreat from China
while the delegates of Western powers, who as a legacy of and return to the regional pacts of the 1920s – was, however,
their own special status, observed from their extra-territorial precisely the choice that military control of policy-making
enclave. However, Chiang Kai-Shek’s government retreated precluded.
into the interior with a capital at Chunking and some Manchuria and the visible ineffectiveness of the League
provisioning via the ‘Burma’ road into British held territory. would have important ramifications in Europe. Collective
A stalemate prevailed, and the Japanese had to contemplate security was a weak reed. Hitler decided that he would not
a more extensive war than originally conceived. be bound by its constraints. In Mein Kampf, the book he
Such a war would probably entail a collision with the dictated during his brief imprisonment after the unsuccessful
West. To justify expansion, the Japanese leaders Munich coup of November 1923, Hitler had outlined a
recommended uniting Asians against colonialism in a vision of a vast ‘living space’ (Lebensraum) in east-central
Greater East Asia in a co-prosperity sphere, although the Europe, where German settlers would rule a population of
blessings of liberation they were bringing to the Chinese Slavic peasant subjects. Only a few non-Germans believed
invalidated the concept. It was clear that the United States, that a German Chancellor would actually cling to such a
with bases in the Philippines for at least another decade, brutal and megalomaniac vision. Hitler’s advent did not
sympathized with China and would resist accepting seem to radically escalate German ambitions, but in
Japanese hegemony in the western Pacific. With its colonies December 1933, he demonstratively withdrew from the
of Hong Kong and Singapore and its role in Burma long-standing disarmament parleys at Geneva on the
(Myanmar) and India, Great Britain was also a potential foe pretence that the French would not agree to equality of
even if London feared a war in Asia at a time when the arms. By March 1935, he announced that Germany no
German menace was growing in Europe. Another possible longer considered itself bound by the military clauses of the
enemy was the Soviet Union, with its long Manchurian Treaty of Versailles; the country would activate a conscript
frontier, as well as memories of Japanese occupation of its army (to fill out the cadres that had already been planned)
far eastern territories during the Russian civil war, and the and build a military air force.
war they had fought over Korea during 1904–05. How should the West react? The underlying dilemmas
Faced with Chinese resistance and the hostility of the of the new order resulting from the Versailles Treaty, based
Western powers, the Japanese had to make difficult choices. as it was on keeping Germany safely disarmed, emerged
At this point, international rivalries became crucially with painful clarity from 1934 to 1936. To go to war over an
important. For the Japanese army, a collision with the announcement of restored German military sovereignty
Russians seemed the greater danger or the greater seemed excessive. The European left still believed in
opportunity. Did it not make sense to take advantage of the disarmament, the new generation of youth seemed deeply
apparent turmoil that the vast purges suggested might be pacifist, still disillusioned by what seemed the pointless
underway in the Soviet Union to strike pre-emptively? sacrifice of those now in their thirties and forties. If France
Japanese probing actions against the Soviet and Mongolian would not disarm, why should Germany not be allowed to
border region, however, were badly pummelled in 1939 by restore its own forces? France, Italy, and Britain convened
the Russians at the large clash at Nomonhan, which at Stresa to declare that they would cooperate to resist any
suggested a large attack would not be easy. Moreover, the German aggression, but their response amounted to little.
German-Soviet non-aggression pact of August 1939 meant For a few years after 1935, the French and British would
that the Japanese could not count on the Soviet’s having to still retain a preponderance of force. Hitler had vast
fight a two-front war. After Hitler’s attack on Russia on ambitions, but he was not mad; he understood what was
22 June 1941, that situation drastically changed, but by that feasible and what was not. If there had been a firm Anglo-
time the Tokyo government was also reorienting its French policy of deterrence, it might have restrained his
objectives. The Tokyo government secured its own neutrality behaviour or – so Germans secretly reported over the next
pact with Moscow in April 1941, and advocates of continued years – led the generals to remove their Führer rather than

38
 STA B I L I Z ATION , C R ISIS , AN D THE SECON D W O R L D W A R

be forced prematurely into a disastrous war. But in fact, as were issues of imperialist politics. During 1934 and early
neither London nor Paris was willing to sustain a policy of 1935, Mussolini in fact still appeared to offer London and
firmness. Paris a potential ally against Germany, especially since he
The precariousness of the Versailles Treaty became even originally feared Nazi designs on neighbouring Austria. But
more apparent, therefore, when Hitler announced in March this divergence of the dictators was not to last. Mussolini
1936 that he would no longer observe the strictures against coveted empire, and by autumn he was exploiting a border
garrisoning the demilitarized zone that extended from conflict between the Italian colony of Eritrea and the
50 km (30 miles) east of the Rhine to the French border Ethiopian monarchy as a pretext for possible conquest.
(Plate 29). Hitler assured his nervous generals that Paris Haile Selassie, the young emperor, appealed to the League.
and London would not act, and he was right. The British The British and French cabinets sought to arrange a
opponents of resistance argued that the territory, after all, partition scheme but it aroused popular rejection at home
was German, and French policy-makers, desperate to avoid when its details leaked out. When the Italian invasion of
war, were happy to defer to London. Each appeaser drew Ethiopia finally began, London and Paris reluctantly had to
support from the other.18 agree to the sanctions that the League voted. These remained
Diplomacy and possible deterrence of Hitler became ineffective; oil was not on the list of products prohibited to
additionally hostage to paralysing conflicts between Italy, and Mussolini moved quickly with bombs and poison
ideological systems. On 6 February 1934, right-wing squads gas against the Ethiopians, who fought bravely but were
and pro-fascists marched on the French Parliamentary Palace soon subjugated. Mussolini learned that Hitler would
across from the Place de la Concorde and had to be dispersed support his aspirations, and in the autumn of 1936, the two
by gunfire. Their mobilization was followed the next day by a dictators announced the Rome-Berlin Axis. In return,
massive demonstration of the left-wing supporters. Just six Mussolini accepted Germany’s annexation of Austria a year
days later, the Austrian Christian Social Party – increasingly and a half later.
authoritarian in orientation and seeking to hold its own France, Britain, and Italy might have formed a plausible
against the competition of a pro-fascist Fatherland Front – counterweight to Germany until 1935. Even France and
forcibly suppressed the Social Democrats, shelling the Britain alone might still have counted on their joint deterrent
apartment complexes that housed the Viennese working capacity until after the occupation of the Rhineland. Hitler
class and imposing a quasi-dictatorial regime. had already startled his possible adversaries by removing the
The new Spanish Republic, voted into power in 1931 danger of Poland’s inclusion in an anti-German alliance by
with high hopes, was also torn between left and right. After signing a non-aggression pact with Warsaw in 1934. For the
a Republican victory in municipal elections, Alfonso XIII, realistic French foreign minister, Louis Barthou
discredited by his long reliance on the military dictator, (unfortunately assassinated with the King of Yugoslavia in
Primo de Rivera, departed into exile. The left-wing coalition 1934), only an alliance with Russia could effectively contain
– including the Republicans, led by the newly chosen Hitler. The Soviet regime was distasteful, but so had been
president, Manuel Azana, the socialists, and the delegates the Tsarist regime before 1914. Stalin, too, became
from the Catalan and Basque regions in quest of preoccupied by the rise of a German regime ideologically
decentralization – introduced a new constitution providing dedicated to eradicating Bolshevism. His foreign minister,
for autonomy statutes for the Catalans and the Basques, Maxim Litvinov, became the most eloquent spokesman for
and a secularized school system, which aroused the hostility collective security at the League of Nations at a moment
of the Catholic Church. However, the coalition was unable when the West was abandoning the concept.
to agree on a land reform programme. Agrarian radicalism, In 1935, at the Seventh Congress of the International
organized by the powerful anarcho-syndicalist trade unions Communist, the Soviets announced an important change of
(CNT), which refused political cooperation, continued to policy: henceforth communist parties throughout the world
seethe. Facing mounting problems, and dissolving from would be encouraged to cooperate with ‘progressive’
within, the left-wing coalition was voted out of power in elements of the bourgeoisie and the Social Democrats they
1934. The new centre-conservative government delayed the had hitherto condemned as lackeys of fascism. For the
reforms in progress and tried to undercut the concessions to elections coming up in France and Spain, a broad Popular
the autonomous regions, helping to provoke what proved a Front coalition promised to oust the right-wing and
very ill-advised revolt by the populist leader of the socialists, potentially pro-fascist regimes.
the northern mine workers, and Basques and Catalans who Although the left as a whole did not substantially increase
feared they would lose their newly promised autonomy. its vote in the two divided polities, the new coalition allowed
The government flew in troops from Spanish Morocco, the Popular Front to triumph in the Spanish parliamentary
suppressed the revolts, arrested thousands and seemed election of February 1936, and in the French vote in June. In
prepared to execute harsh reprisals – a policy that in turn both countries, the political situation seemed particularly
galvanized a new left-wing re-emergence around the issue of tense and violence could easily erupt. The rallies and strikes
amnesty and organized to halt what they depicted as a slide in France following the June elections convinced many
toward fascism. This new left-wing coalition – the so-called right-wing voters that the country was on the verge of
Popular Front – emerging in both Spain and France with revolution.
Stalin’s blessing from afar, now included, alongside socialists In Spain, extremists on both sides of the political
and the liberal left, the communists. The Popular Front spectrum were resorting to political assassination. After
thus responded to fears of fascist advance at home and (as increasing violence in the streets between rightist and
discussed below) to the Soviets’ calibration of the Nazi anarchist political squads, four leading Spanish generals
threat of war. and their confederates in numerous Spanish cities staged
The ideological confrontation taking place in Spain was uprisings on 18 July, not all of which succeeded. Burgos and
also helping to transform European international politics, northern Castilla, outside the Basque Country and the

39
 thematic section

Asturian coal region, passed to the insurgents or Nationalists. The government nationalized the Banque de France and
In Madrid and Barcelona, Andalusia and Aragon, Loyalists indulged in a rhetorical fusillade against ‘financial feudalism’.
initially prevailed, although a rapid ferrying of troops from Although Blum inherited a milder version of the European
Morocco quickly secured Nationalist control of Seville and depression, joblessness was nonetheless preoccupying, and
southern Andalusia. In the areas controlled by the leftists, a he sought a Keynesian reflationary solution involving public
wave of revolution broke out after the Nationalist uprising. spending. But the government – still committed long after
Throughout the summer and autumn, revolutionary the British and Americans had ceased to maintain the gold
committees carried out rural collectivization and wildcat value of the franc – faced capital flight. Blum finally did
takeovers of factories, but the exuberance of anarchist have to devalue; he also declared a ‘pause’ in his legislative
collectives lasted for no more than a year. The communists programme and finally sought exchange controls to halt the
were zealous in suppressing their would-be rivals as export of capital. Rebuffed by the upper house of the
Trotskyites, and together with centrist Republicans and parliament, he resigned in 1937. A new cabinet, now led by
moderate socialists took over for the long task of defending a Radical Socialist politician devoid of reformist inspiration,
republican territory. The government’s appeal for led the majority. Blum would return briefly in the spring of
international aid was largely rebuffed, except by Mexico and 1938 as Hitler annexed Austria. Henceforth his task was to
the Soviet Union. Russia provided assistance and helped try and rally a less partisan government for the sake of
organize the International Brigades, a major force of rearmament. Indeed he had nationalized the fragmented
sympathetic volunteers, many communists in exile from aircraft industry and his energetic aviation minister
Germany and Italy, others from the United States, who encouraged new production, but conservatives refused to
were sent to augment the Republic’s army and fought until cooperate until the remnants of the Popular Front were
late 1938. The new Popular Front French Prime Minister, dismantled. The consequences went far beyond France, as
Léon Blum, contemplated sending assistance, but he was possible projects for colonial reform in Algeria and above all
unwilling to act unilaterally as the British refused to Indochina were placed on hold. In the metropole, another
intervene arguing that they did not want the war to spread. Radical Socialist, Georges Daladier, now prepared to
Instead, Britain took the lead of patching together a non- distance his party from their earlier cooperation with the
intervention agreement supposedly designed to preclude all parties and unions of the working class.
outside intervention or aid. Nonetheless, Italy and Germany By 1938, the governing coalitions in the Western
were willing to supply the insurgents with air power and democracies had in effect long abandoned the concept of
trained pilots. Madrid became the first city to experience collective security and were unwilling to entertain any
sustained air bombardment, in November 1936, and alternative but trying to satisfy Hitler’s demands and hoping
German squadrons destroyed the Basque town of Guernica that he would be satisfied by reuniting the German peoples
in the following year. The civil war lasted almost three years of Central Europe into his Reich. The French would not act
and cost the lives of half a million (of the 25 million) without the British, and under Neville Chamberlain, the
Spaniards. Over the long run, the Nationalists prevailed, British Conservative majority was committed to settling
slowly conquering more territory, ultimately splitting German grievances by the policy they defined as
Barcelona from Madrid, and forcing hundreds of thousands appeasement. In March of 1938 when the leader of the
over the Pyrenees in early 1939. Franco took power in the Austrian Christian Socialists tried to organize a plebiscite
name of the Falange (itself a mixture of would-be fascists to demonstrate that his country wanted to remain
and Catholic traditionalists) and the Navarre Carlists, a far- independent, Hitler marched into the neighbouring nation
right political party and militia (Plate 30). Spain slipped to great acclaim and organized a vote that showed
into two decades of repression and stagnation, its regime overwhelming enthusiasm for forced integration into
surviving the defeat of the fascist powers in 1945 because Greater Germany (so-called Anschluss). Hitler himself was
Franco kept the country out of the Second World War clear that at some point war would come with the Western
despite Hitler’s insistence. powers and continued his ‘four year plan’ of military build-
The Spanish Popular Front perished in civil war, while up. By late spring of 1938, he turned his attention to
in France, the movement petered out from its own Czechoslovakia, where the country’s three million German
contradictions. A triumphant left-wing majority came to speakers (originally from the Austrian Empire) were being
power in June, bringing to office a Jewish Socialist prime stirred up by local Nazi supporters who claimed that Prague
minister, Léon Blum, who admired Roosevelt and sought to was imposing intolerable restrictions on their ethnic
institute a programme of wage hikes, paid vacations, and identity. Hitler seemed to be threatening to go to war.
reformist measures. The right-wing opposition hated the British emissaries and the press suggested separating the
coalition, and some of Paris’s fashionable young intellectuals ethnic German Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and
began to dream of Fascism and Nazi activists. The ruling allowing it to unite with Germany. The Czech Government
coalition soon succumbed to disagreements. The moderate headed by Eduard Benes could have forced France at least
Radical Socialist Party of the provincial middle classes had to honour treaty commitments and go to war with Germany
joined the coalition to win the elections, but they hardly if it had insisted on taking up arms, but fearful of being
warmed to socialist causes, and when the communists abandoned, the Czechs finally consented to the deal that
unfurled the red flag or sang the International they had Chamberlain insisted on negotiating with Hitler in late
second thoughts. September and October 1938 at the conferences held in
As the new government took office, a massive wave of Bad Godesberg, Berchtesgaden, and Munich. Stalin himself
sit-down strikes shook the country. Blum summoned sensed that Britain and France were deeply reluctant to
industrialists and union officials to sign a collective- confront Hitler as he withdrew the International Brigades
bargaining agreement that raised wages, recognized the from Spain and in the next year would consider his own
unions and mandated a forty-hour week and paid vacations. arrangement with Germany.

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Chamberlain presented the Munich Agreement as a Rotterdam in 1940, and then with great destruction against
great triumph. He had preserved the peace, and Hitler had London, Coventry and other targets in the Battle of Britain
assured him that he had no further claims in Europe. The in 1940. By the time the Anglo-American forces began their
Labour opposition and, just as important, the opponents of bombing offensive, they used hundreds of four-engined
appeasement in his own party were less sure. In any case, bombers on city targets and killed tens of thousands in
Hitler – taking advantage now of Polish and Hungarian Berlin and Hamburg and other German cities, culminating
designs on those portions of Czechoslovakia inhabited by in 35,000 dead in Dresden (February 1945), and, in Japan,
their irridenta as well as of Slovak demands for autonomy – with perhaps 100,000 dead in the great Tokyo incendiary
moved into Prague in mid-March 1939. He annexed bombing. Approximately 150,000 lost their lives when the
Bohemia and Moravia as a ‘protectorate’ within the ‘Great atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
German Reich’ and allowed the Slovaks their own dependent Since the war effort depended on civilian production
state. Chamberlain reluctantly concluded that Hitler could facilities, it was believed that such civilian casualties could
not to be trusted to keep his word, and the British extended be justified. Wartime famine conditions killed millions in
guarantees to Poland and Romania. Chamberlain’s China and even in British-held Bengal.
apologists claimed that appeasement had won the West a By the time the war ended, some 60 million people had
year to rearm, and indeed both Paris and London accelerated perished from war-related causes. Populous urban centres
their rearmament. But Hitler was also arming further, and were devastated, food production was curtailed, and millions
the resources of Czechoslovakia were now lost to any of refugees displaced to wander across Europe. The Russians
Western coalition. paid the heaviest toll and lost perhaps 25 million soldiers
The major question was the stance of the Soviet Union, and civilians. The Jewish communities of east-central
and on this issue scholarly debate still continues. Stalin had Europe had been liquidated. And in a final chapter about
clearly lost interest in Popular Front collective security by 12–15 million Germans were driven from the recovered
late 1938. Stalin could justifiably conclude that the French Czech Sudeten land and the formerly German territories of
and British had no serious interest in an effective military East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia (awarded to the Poles,
alliance with Moscow. Deep into the summer of 1939, they who had lost the eastern borderlands they had disputed
showed no urgency in part because they discounted the with the Soviet Union since the First World War). Perhaps
efficacy of the Soviet military forces after the purge trials 3 million ethnic Germans died in these 1945 upheavals,
and probably in part because of ideological blinkers. By the along with about 600,000 killed in air raids on German
spring of 1939, Stalin dropped his foreign minister Litvinov cities, 4 million soldiers and another 2.5 million who never
(who as a Jew was offensive to Berlin) and was exploring returned from military captivity, a heavy price for their
negotiations with Germany. He continued to pursue them earlier enthusiastic support for Nazi policies. In Asia, up to
even as, by the summer of 1939, the British and French – 15 million Chinese may have died in famine and flooding
who consistently underestimated the Soviets’ military and military-related operations; the Japanese sacrificed
capacity – desultorily began to approach the Russians. about 2 million of their soldiers and perhaps 400,000 of
Hitler could offer more than the Western Allies, however: their civilians to bombing, against which they had no
one-third of Poland and perhaps a free hand elsewhere in adequate defences. Perhaps a million Indians died in the
Eastern Europe; and on that basis the Non-Aggression wave of refugees who poured back from conquered Burma,
(Ribbentrop-Molotov) Pact of 23 August 1939 was and at least another million in the Bengal famine. Half a
concluded, permitting Hitler to attack Poland a week later million Vietnamese perished in the famine of 1944. Even
(Plate 31). Ostensibly the friction arose over the issue of when famine did not kill millions outright, the misery of
Warsaw’s ill-treatment of Germans in the Polish Corridor, cold and hunger (as in the Netherlands in the winter of
but the immediate goals were the recovery of Danzig 1944–45, or besieged Leningrad) carried off infants and the
(present-day Gdansk) and the conquest of Poland. The elderly and imposed mass misery. Major cities of Germany,
Germans staged a border incident to justify their invasion of Japan and western Russia, along with Warsaw, Budapest,
Poland on 1 September, and Britain and France responded Manila and dozens of other urban centres, lay in ruins. The
with a declaration of war on 3 September. railroads, bridges, ports, and factories of Italy and northern
France were devastated.
The war can best be understood as four interlocking
THE SECOND WORLD WAR conflicts. The first was the Anglo-French war to resist
German hegemony in Eastern Europe, the war that was
The Second World War dwarfed the First in its extent and triggered by Hitler’s invasion of Poland and, in effect, was a
its destructiveness. The line between civilians and soldiers, resumption of the conflict of 1914–18. This war ended with
which had still been largely observed in the First World War, Hitler’s conquests of Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries
was virtually erased. The Nazis used the SS as well as units (the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) in April and
of the army to pursue genocidal policies in their areas of May 1940, and then the capitulation and occupation of
conquest, attempting to annihilate all the Jews of Europe France, and the removal of all British forces from the
(they managed to kill about 6 million of Europe’s 11 million continent a month later. This was what has been described
Jews, several hundred thousand Roma and Sinti, large as ‘the last European war’19. Britain was left to carry on the
numbers of homosexuals and people with disabilities, and anti-Hitler battle on the North African front and at sea on
many Russian and Polish civilians, as well as thousands of the North Atlantic.
reprisal victims in the West). The air war increased in The second conflict was the major ideological war of the
destructiveness: German bombers had been used with Soviet Union (in coalition with the Americans and the
increasing devastation against Madrid and Guernica in the British) against Hitler. This war was started when, after a
Spanish Civil War in 1936, against Warsaw in 1939, against period of uneasy neutrality in Eastern Europe, Hitler

41
 thematic section

reverted to his long-held hostility to Soviet Communism Japanese were divided about surrendering until the very end
and to his old aspirations for Lebensraum and invaded and responded to the final ultimatums with enough
Russia on 22 June 1941. In the number of troops engaged, reservations to let the impatient Americans go ahead with
the savagery of the fighting, the German disregard of their programme. By this time, area bombing by massed
traditional restraints on violence and killing, the heroic bomber fleets with great civilian casualties had long become
intensity of the Soviet armies and industrial effort, this a matter of course.22
struggle was unprecedented. The turning points were the The fourth conflict involved what might be called ‘the
Russian defence of besieged Leningrad for almost three war of succession’ in the areas occupied by Germany and
years, the halting of the Germans before Moscow in Japan, that is the war of resistance movements against the
December 1941, and the German defeat at the end of the occupying forces and the collaborationist governments or
six-month combat for Stalingrad (from July 1942 to pro-Axis elements that collaborated with them in France,
February 1943). This was the war that saw the largest land Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland and the occupied
battles along a front almost 2,000 miles long, and vast portions of the Soviet Union. Similar struggles took place
civilian casualties, including the large-scale Jewish in Japanese-occupied South-East Asia. This fourth conflict
liquidations. Until the Anglo-American forces invaded was thus a war of partisan armies and savage reprisals, which
Italy in summer 1943 and then, with larger forces, occupied tended to rage in 1944–45 as it became clear that the
France in June 1944, almost all the fighting took place on Germans and Japanese would lose the struggle underway.
the Eastern Front, although the United States provided Essentially it was a war to decide which elements would rule
increasing amounts of materiel to both Britain and Russia once the Germans and Japanese were forced to surrender.
through its Lend Lease Programme.20 In France and Italy the diverse political forces within the
The third conflict was the East Asian war, starting with Resistance – communists, Catholics, non-communist
the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 (if not Manchuria socialists, leftist democrats, and even traditionalist and
six years earlier), but expanding in scope with the Japanese Catholic nationalists – largely cooperated. However, in
decision to invade South-East Asia – including Burma, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Poland, communists and non-
Siam, Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines – communists divided (and most momentously, perhaps, in
in a series of lightning attacks in December 1941 and early China) and often ended up in a civil war within the civil war
1942. It was the Japanese attack on the US naval base in that divided both resistance coalitions from the collaborators
Hawaii (Pearl Harbor) on 7 December that finally incited and occupation forces.
President Roosevelt to overcome the divisions of American Stalin and Churchill conferred in November 1944 and
public opinion and to bring the country into war. Although informally agreed that the West would have pre-eminent
American positions in the Far East were overrun and lost, control (90 per cent) in Greece, while Russia might determine
in the long run the economic potential of the country and events in Romania, with Poland and Yugoslavia being split
its capacity to rebuild its navy as well as a vast air force 50-50. Whether on this basis or not, Churchill helped the
meant that the Japanese wager on a rapid conquest was pro-Royalist resistance forces disarm the communist
fruitless. guerrillas, while in most of Eastern Europe, the pro-Soviet
Tokyo’s calculations still remain puzzling in some groups were supported in their rise to power. Thus in
respects, for the balance of material resources doomed their Eastern Europe and China and Viet Nam the last stages of
enterprise. Japanese policy-makers decided that American the Second World War merged into the opening phases of
demands to withdraw from China were unacceptable, and the Cold War and national anticolonial struggles.23 Even as
they hoped that if they conquered the oil resources they millions of soldiers and the populations of the occupied and
needed and established a defensive perimeter, the United combatant countries experienced immense relief at the end
States would seek a settlement.21 Although they rapidly of the immense war, new political and military struggles
overran much of the region, the British and Americans emerged in the colonial world and Eastern Europe.
continued to hold southern New Guinea and fought over It was remarkable that dreams of national reprisal and
the next few years to reconquer the islands of Micronesia vengeance, which had so poisoned democratic politics and
and eventually the Philippines and island bases that enabled international relations after the First World War, played
them to launch massive air bombardments of the Japanese no significant role after the Second World War. In that
home islands. Japan might well have surrendered without sense, the old exaggerated aspirations of nationalism and
use of the atomic bomb in August 1945, but there was domination among the European powers and Japan had
strong bureaucratic momentum to use this new weapon burnt themselves out. It was now the turn, however, for
once it had been developed, and the Tokyo leadership tried long-nurtured ambitions to nationhood to emerge among
to negotiate for a less drastic outcome. Moreover, the the colonial peoples. So, too, the victory allowed aspirations
Americans were impatient for surrender; the American for ideologically motivated regional hegemony to manifest
General Staff clung to its predictions that an invasion of the themselves among the largest post-war powers: the Soviet
home islands would be necessary and would be very costly if Union, China, and the United States. Struggles over empire
Honshu and Tokyo had to be taken by ground forces. The had not yet ended.

42
 STA B I L I Z ATION , C R ISIS , AN D THE SECON D W O R L D W A R

NOTES Crises, Ithaca NY, 1986. P. Hall (ed.), The Political Power of
Economic Ideas: Keynesianism across Nations, Princeton,
1. For a brief survey of developments, J. M. Brown, 1989.
‘India,’ in Brown and W. R. Louis, The Oxford History of the 11. A. Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy,
British Empire, vol. 4: The Twentieth Century, pp. 421–46. 1919–1929, 2nd ed. Princeton, 1987. For the concept of
2. J. M. Brown, Ghandi: Prisoner of Hope, New Haven, totalitarianism see A. Gleason, Totalitarianism: The Inner
1989; J. Nehru, An Autobiography, London, 1936; A. Jalal, History of the Cold War, New York, 1995.
The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the 12. For the most recent treatments see I. Kershaw, Hitler,
Demand for Pakistan, Cambridge, 1985. 2 vols., New York, 1998, 2000; and R. Evans, The Coming
3. P. Sluglett, Britain in Iraq, 1914–1922, London, 1976; of the Third Reich, New York, 2004. Still valuable is
H. Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary K. D. Bracher, The German Dictatorship: The Origins,
Movements of Iraq, Princeton, 1978; N. Bethell, The Structure, and Effects of National Socialism, Jean Steinberg,
Palestinian Triangle: The Struggle between the British, the trans., New York, 1970.
Jews, and the Arabs, 1935–1948, London, 1979; M. J. Cohen, 13. For biographies: I. Deutscher, Stalin: A Political
Retreat from the Mandate: The Making of British Policy, Biography, Oxford, 1968; and A. Ulam, Stalin: The Man and
1936–1945, New York, 1978; B. Wasserstein, The British in His Era, rev. ed., Boston, 1989; S. Cohen, Bukharin and the
Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab-Jewish Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888–1938,
Conflict, 1917–1929, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1991. Oxford, 1970. The literature is far more ideologically divided
4. F. Cooper, On the African Waterfront: Urban Disorder than that concerning National Socialism. For a detailed
and the Transformation of Work in Colonial Mombasa, New study of economic policies and institutional change,
Haven, 1987; J. Beinin and Z. Lockman, Workers on the E. H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–1923, 3 vols.,
Nile: Nationalism, Communism and the Egyptian Working New York, 1985; Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution,
class, 1882–1954, Princeton, 1987; R. Chandavarkar, Imperial 1899–1919, London, 1997.
Power and Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State in 14. S. Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a
India, c.1850–1950, Cambridge, 1998. Civilization, Berkeley, 1995. On Ukraine see Lettere da
5. Cited in P. Brocheux and D. Hémery, Indochine: la Kharkov: La carestia in Ucraina e nel Caucaso del nord nei
colonisation ambiguë, 1858–1954, new rev. ed., Paris, 2001, rapporti diplomatici italiani 1923–33, ed. A. Graziosi, Einaudi,
p. 310. Turin, 1991.
6. A. L. Bloomfield, Monetary Policy under the 15. J. D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, New York,
International Gold Standard, 1880–1914, New York, 1959; 1990, pp. 275–424.
P. Lindert, Key Currencies and Gold, 1900–1913, Princeton 16. F. C. Turner and J. E. Miguens (eds), Juan Perón and
Studies in International Finance, No. 24, Princeton 1969; the Reshaping of Argentina, Pittsburgh, PA, 1983;
M. de Cecco, Money and Empire: The Internatonal Gold T. Halperin Donghi, La Argentina y la tormenta del mundo:
Standard, 1890–1914, Oxford, 1974. ideas e ideologies entre 1930 y 1945, Buenos Aires, 2003;
7. For the difficulties of the inter-war gold standard and F. L. Corsi, Estado Novo–politica externa e projeto nacional,
debt payments see B. Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold São Paolo, 1999; T.E. Skidmore, Brazil 1930–1964: An
Standard and the Great Depression, New York, 1992. On the Experiment in Democracy, New York, 1967.
collapse of international trade and payments, see C. P. 17. Japanese war origins: A. Iriye, The Origins of the Second
Kindleberger, The World in Depression, 1929–1939, Berkeley, World War in Asia and the Pacific, London, 1987;
1985. For a treatment of the World Depression that covers W. LaFeber, The Clash, New York, 1997, H. P. Bix, Hirohito
agrarian distress outside Europe and America, and the Making of Modern Japan, New York, 2000; Y. Sun,
D. Rothermund, The Global Impact of the Great Depression, China and the Origins of the Pacific War, 1931–1941, New
1929–1939, London and New York, 1996. York, 1993.
8. G. Wright, Old South, New South: Revolutions in the 18. For European international relations in the 1930s, see
Southern Economy since the Civil War, New York, 1986, J. T. Emmerson, The Rhineland Crisis March 7 1936, London,
pp. 198–238. 1977; R. A. C. Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement:
9. For the importance of the labour issue in the late British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War,
1930s, F. Cooper, Decolonization and African Society: The New York, 1993; J. B. Duroselle, La Décadence 1932–1939:
Labour Question in French and British Africa, Cambridge, Politique etrangère de la France, Paris, 1979; G. Weinberg,
1996. See also A. J. Stockwell, ‘Imperialism and Nationalism The Foreign Policy of Hitler’s Germany. Starting World War
in South-East Asia,’ in Brown (ed.), The Oxford History of II, 1937–39, Chicago, 1980.
the British Empire: The Twentieth Century, pp. 465–89; 19. J. Lukacs, The Last European War, September 1939/
N. Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, vol. II, December 1941, Garden City, NY, 1976.
Cambridge, 1992; M. Gershovich, French Military Rule in 20. Again, a huge literature. Most recently among general
Morocco: Colonialism and its Consequences, London, 2000; studies and providing further bibliography, R. Overy, Why
P. Khoury, Syria and the French Mandate: The Politics of the Allies Won, New York, 1996, and Overy, Russia’s War
Arab Nationalism, 1920–1945. Princeton, 1987; Brocheux Effort, London, 1998; G. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A
and Hémery, Indochine: la colonisation ambiguë. Global History of World War II, Cambridge, 1994.
10. Among the many treatments of Roosevelt and the 21. H. P. Willmott, Empires in the Balance: Japanese and
New Deal, A. Schlesinger, Jr. The Age of Roosevelt, 3 vols.; Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942, Annapolis, MD, 1982.
E. Hawley, The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly, 22. A massive literature exists on the American decision
Princeton NJ, 1964; a comparison of Swedish, American to use the atomic bomb. So-called ‘revisionists’ in the 1960s
and German situations in P. Gourevitch, Politics in Hard and 1970s suggested that with an eye on postwar rivalry,
Times: Comparative Responses to International Economic Washington wanted to demonstrate its nuclear power to

43
 thematic section

the Soviets. A judicious review of the decision is available in COOPER, F. 1996. Decolonization and African Society: The Labor
M. Bundy, Danger and Survival, New York, 1990, and Question in French and British Africa (African Studies Series: 89).
diverse articles by B. J. Bernstein, and most recent, R. B. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, EICHENGREEN, B. J. 1992. Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the
New York, 1999. Great Depression, 1919–1939. Oxford University Press, New York.
23. Many studies exist on all the occupied countries. For EVANS, R. J. 2004. The Coming of the Third Reich. The Penguin Press,
an emphasis on the civil wars involved see C. Pavone, Una New York.
guerra civile, Turin, 1991; W. R. Roberts, Tito, Mihailovic KERSHAW, I. 1998. Hitler: 1889–1936 Hubris. W. W. Norton &
and the Allies, 1941/1945, Rutgers, 1973; M. Mazower, Inside Company, New York.
Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation 1941–44, New  2000. Hitler: 1936–1945 Nemesis. W. W. Norton & Company,
Haven, CT, 1993; A. Kédros, La résistance grèque (1940– New York.
1944), Paris, 1966 (very pro-left), J. Coutouvidis and KHOURY, P. S. 1987. Syria and the French Mandate: The Politics of Arab
J R. Nolds, Poland 1939–1947, Leicester, 1986; on the Far Nationalism, 1920–1945. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
East, C. Thorne, The Issue of War: States, Societies and the KINDLEBERGER, C. P. 1986. The World in Depression, 1929–1939,
Far Eastern Conflict of 1941–1945, London, 1985; A. W. McCoy Revised and Enlarged Edition (Series: History of the World
(ed.), Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation, New Haven, Economy in the Twentieth Century, 4). University of California
CT, 1980. For great power politics in the war, H. Feis, Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Princeton, 1957. LOUIS, W. R. 1977. Imperialism at Bay, 1941–1945: The United States
and the Decolonization of the British Empire (Reprint edition, 1986).
Oxford University Press, Oxford.
OVERY, R. 2004. The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY W. W. Norton & Company, New York.
PAXTON, R. O. 2004. The Anatomy of Fascism. Alfred A. Knopf, New
Books cited in the bibliography for Chapter 1, including the York.
titles on imperialism, have not been cited again here. ROTHERMUND, D. 1996. The Global Impact of the Great Depression,
1929–1939. Routledge, London.
BAUMONT, M. 1967. La Faillite de la Paix. Tome I : De Rethondes à SPENCE, J. D. 1990. The Search for Modern China. (2nd ed. 1999).
Stresa. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. W. W. Norton & Company, New York.
 1968. La Faillite de la Paix. Tome II : De l’affaire éthiopienne à la THORNE, C. 1985. The Issue of War: States, Societies and the Far Eastern
guerre 1968. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. Conflict of 1941–1945. Hamish Hamilton, London.
BETTS, R. 1985. Uncertain Dimensions: Western Overseas Empires in WALTERS, F. P. 1960. A History of the League of Nations. (2nd, one-
the Twentieth Century. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, volume ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford/Royal Institute of
MN. International Affairs, London.

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 3
T h e E n d o f E m p i r e a n d t h e  Tr a n s f o r m a t i o n s o f t h e  I n t e r n a t i o n a l Sy s t e m

The End of Empire and

t h e  Tr a n s f o r m a t i o n s o f
t h e  I n t e r n a t i o n a l Sy s t e m

Charles S. Maier

DECOLONIZATION which in theory remained as liabilities that might be

withdrawn) as it drew on their resources to fight the Pacific
The end of the Second World War completed the War. Lend Lease shipments ceased with the end of the war,
transformation of the imperial systems. Although and a $3.75 billion line of credit for the post-war era from
nationalist political leaders, among them Charles de Gaulle the United States was negotiated conditional upon London’s
and Winston Churchill, aspired to keep control of their promise to make sterling freely convertible and to dismantle
country’s empires, this was to be a vain dream, and the the protectionist agreements negotiated between the wars
efforts to renew or prolong colonial domination proved with other members of the British Commonwealth. Britain
costly and often bitterly divisive at home. In Africa, the had to exercise influence rather than power, and the
French did crush one major uprising with great bloodshed structure of colonial rule was thus to be transformed into a
in the Aurès Mountains, and they reclaimed authority in more associative arrangement.2
North Africa and South-East Asia. But the colonial peoples, Britain, however, ruled many areas of mixed ethnicity
who had seen the Japanese overrun European possessions and religion that threatened to descend into intercommunal
in South-East Asia, understood that their rulers were not violence when granted autonomy. Rioting and mob violence
invincible. in the 1930s had already provided a foretaste of possible
In post-war struggles those who remained loyal to the future events. The Arab uprisings of 1936 had led London
colonial powers felt abandoned to the local revolutionary to try to limit Jewish migration at a period in which Jews
forces when their former rulers finally yielded independence. were being harassed in Europe. In India, the leader of the
‘Betrayal’ of those who had remained loyal to their rulers Muslims in the Congress, Ali Jinnah, insisted on a separate
remained a poignant theme that Westerners defending state for Muslims, and although Gandhi resisted, Nehru
their role in Asia and Africa would evoke from 1941 until accepted the bitter medicine. With a self-imposed deadline
the American helicopters left Saigon in 1975. The Japanese of 1 January 1947, a frontier was hastily drawn – but in fact
had themselves posed as liberators of the territories they members of each community lived on both sides of the line,
occupied from colonial rule and had found collaborators in and the days of independence brought mob mayhem and
the Philippines, Burma, and within the Indian National killing as Hindus and Muslims tried to flee to their respective
Army. But instances of cruelty and heavy-handed rule soon countries.3
provoked resistance movements. National movements, The British, caught in the intractable conflict between
however, such as the Vietminh, who emerged to fight the Zionist aspirations and Arab interests handed the future of
Japanese, were hardly willing to acquiesce to colonial rule the mandate in Palestine back to the United Nations, which
once again. Moreover, the United States stood in theory after President Truman finally resolved to support the
behind the decolonization movements, or at least did so scheme, voted for a partition into two states in the fall of
while Franklin D. Roosevelt was alive before the development 1947. The Jewish communal authorities accepted the plan.
of the Cold War.1 Arabs and Palestinians were determined to resist, and war
Although Prime Minister Churchill was an inveterate between Palestinians and Jews on the territory of the
believer in Britain’s imperial role, the permanent officials in mandate began and climaxed with the initial victory of the
London and the new Labour Party government (elected in Jewish armies over the Palestinians between March and
July 1945) believed that Britain should seek to exercise its May 1948. When in mid-May the British mandate over
post-war role through indirect means. The country was Palestine formally ended and the Israelis declared the
financially depleted by the war as many of its remaining independence of the Jewish State of Israel, the neighbouring
post-war assets had to be liquidated to pay for the struggle. Arab states invaded the new country. After coming close to
It had granted its colonies in the Middle East and India military catastrophe, Israel successfully defended the
extensive credits in London (the so-called sterling balances, territory, and following truces in late spring and summer,

45
 thematic section

expanded the originally envisaged frontiers by the 1949 and its Governor General. Roosevelt did not support this
armistices. The successive phases of the war proved goal, but he disappeared from the scene a month later. In
humiliating and catastrophic for the half or more of the August and September as Japanese authority collapsed, the
1.4 million Palestinian inhabitants of the territory, who fled Vietminh took control in the North during 1945, but France
their homes under instructions from Arab propagandists or reoccupied the area around Saigon. French-Vietminh
were expelled by Israeli forces – the reasons are contested negotiations began in 1946. Ho Chi Minh was willing to
– during the course of the fighting.4 readmit French troops in order to oust Chinese forces that
At the same, Britain relinquished its formal residual hold might otherwise never leave. While a Vietminh delegation
on Egypt, Iraq, and Transjordan even while military and went to Paris to negotiate, fierce clashes, provoked certainly
financial advisers helped maintain a shadow influence. in part by the local French military forces, broke out in
London was not yet ready to quit Malaya, where it faced a Haiphong in November and Hanoi in December. The
dogged communist independence movement during the so- ensuing struggle lasted eight years.7
called Emergency. For another fifteen years, it would not The situation in Indochina introduced the French, and
have the resolution to divest itself of the middle African later the Americans who took over the struggle, to a new
countries where white ‘settler’ minorities still counted on type of warfare that military theorists on both sides analysed
Britain to prolong their control (Kenya, Nigeria, Rhodesia). as revolutionary or guerrilla war, in which the enemy were
And finally, it would have to prepare to leave the countries absorbed into the local population in the presence of French
of West Africa, the Gold Coast and Nigeria, where it also soldiers, but returned to reassert control of the population
left a legacy of hostile ethnic groups – the Hausa North and when the foreigners departed.8 Such a war – as in Greece
the Yoruba and Ibo South – confined within borders that or Yugoslavia during the German occupation – was a
the dominant groups wanted to preserve. struggle to control the local population. In Indochina, and
For all the vexation of imperial divestiture, the British later in Algeria, the French officers believed that the
withdrawal still seemed easy compared to the French majority of the local population did not support the
situation. 5 Between the wars, the French Right had liberation movement, but had to be protected. The
envisioned the ‘valorization’ of the empire as a way to retain Vietminh, later the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale)
a threatened great-power status, and the Vichy regime of in the south, were supposedly extremist, their analysis
1940 carried on this aspiration. On the other side, Charles went, and famous for their ruthless violence. Instead the
de Gaulle, as leader of the Free French challengers and, by French proposed to set up a government under Bao Dai
1944–45, provisional president of the new Fourth Republic, that would opt for union with France, but they vastly
also wanted to preserve as great an overseas French role as overestimated the legitimacy it might possess. Increasingly
possible. Meeting in Brazzaville in late January 1944, he and the French Right suggested that all these movements were
pro-Free French officials envisaged the formation of the part of a communist conspiracy to undermine the West.
French Union, which the reformers planned would federate Indeed Ho Chi Minh was a Marxist as well as a nationalist,
the colonies and embark on their industrial development, and committed to a communist victory. The arrival of the
while the traditionalist administrators insisted it would Chinese communists at the Viet Nam border in 1949
assimilate their populations without independence and reinforced this sense of a life and death struggle against
preserve the political and cultural primacy of the metropole. international communism. However, the trouble was that
Félix Eboué, a socialist of West Indian origin and governor in fact the countermeasures taken drove more and more of
of Guadeloupe, and Henri Laurentie, who advanced a the youth into the camp of the nationalist forces. The
sophisticated scheme for a federal assembly in which all French in fact lost finally in a major conventional siege and
members of the French Union were to be represented, were battle in north-east Viet Nam when their troops were
the major advocates of the new ideas, which collided with besieged at Dien Bien Phu. A new premier, Pierre Mendès-
the conviction of most administrators and military that France, promised peace in forty days or vowed to send in a
France’s ‘civilizing mission’ and goal of ‘assimilation’ meant mass of conscripts and not just smaller forces of professional
firm control. Shifting politics in Paris and the resistance of soldiers, and a deal struck at Geneva in 1954 divided the
military officials and some colonial administrators precluded country at the 17th parallel. But already both sides were
application of the more liberal interpretations, although it is preparing for the next stage. The peace provided for
unlikely that in the long run these would have satisfied elections in the South; Northern Vietnamese communists
nationalists. The transition in the states of French West were seeking to infiltrate and control the elections, and the
Africa remained perhaps the happiest exception due in part Americans supported postponement. The scale of the
to the stature and intellect of African leaders who could fighting increased in the South until the Americans had
merge ideals of ‘negritude’ with the universalist aspirations committed half a million troops. Only in 1973 would a
that the French republican tradition offered. But the long- peace agreement be negotiated.9
term evolution of all the African states would face grave Paris had long since extricated itself from Indochina and
difficulties, and the responsibility of the colonial state for its other colonies. Mendès-France had acceded to Tunisian
economic setbacks and authoritarian outcomes in the self-government and the transfer of power to the long-
decades after independence will be long debated.6 standing nationalist movement, the Neo Destour of Habib
In the states of Indochina, the Japanese ended the Bourguiba. Demands for Algerian independence were
formerly residual French administration in March 1945, another matter, however. Neither Premier Guy Mollet, a
after the Vichy regime had collapsed at home, and encouraged socialist, nor other centrist forces, who held power after the
supposedly independent regimes. Gaullist forces resolved to next parliamentary elections, were prepared to capitulate in
reassert sovereignty, envisaged again a French Union that Algeria, which the French defined as an integral part of the
would cede ‘appropriate’ (propre) internal autonomy but French Republic and included a million French settlers,
maintain control of external relations in the hands of Paris who had made the cities of the coast their home. But even as

46
 T h e E n d o f E m p i r e a n d t h e  Tr a n s f o r m a t i o n s o f t h e  I n t e r n a t i o n a l Sy s t e m

Map 3  The process of decolonization

Adapted from B. Delaveau, et al., 1989, Décolonisation et problèmes de l’Afrique indépendante, Edicef, Paris.

the end of the war was being celebrated on 8 May 1945, in such as the bombing of the hospital at Sakiet Sidi Yousef in
Europe and Algeria, nationalist demonstrations provoked a February 1958, which threatened in turn to trigger a UN
massive repression by the French military in Sétif and the debate, where the Americans might have felt compelled to
Constantine region, which left between 15,000 and 40,000 join in a condemnation of Paris policies.10
Muslim casualties and hampered any future gradualist Without American support, the colonial powers just
settlement. By the early 1950s the Resident General was could not persevere in resisting anti-colonial uprisings.
determined to meet uprisings with forceful counter- When Washington believed that nationalist forces were
measures including the destruction of villages harbouring communist agents of Moscow, they usually lent assistance
rebels. As in Indochina, the French were convinced that the but not at the cost of a possible direct military confrontation
National Liberation Front (FLN, a term that would be with Russia or China. As late as 1954, President Eisenhower
used in Algeria and then by the insurgents in South Viet and his chief of staff contemplated using a nuclear weapon
Nam after 1954) was unrepresentative of the native to help the French avert defeat in Indochina. Although he
population they considered loyal. The FLN began to strike accepted the Central Intelligence Agency’s plans to help
with bombs at European gathering places in the city of overthrow the communist strongman of Guatemala,
Algiers, and civilians became the true hostages of the Eisenhower had the good sense to decide against Paris’s
struggle. The French applied counter-terrorist doctrines, desperate request.
destroying the rebel cells in Algiers, regaining apparent Moreover, by 1955, the emerging ex-colonial nations,
control of the Kasbah by using torture to interrogate sponsored by a China now seeking to distance itself from
captured FLN soldiers. They won ‘the battle of Algiers’ by Moscow, and likewise by India and Indonesia, and including
1957, but could not win ‘the battle of the frontiers’. oil-rich Arab lands, gathered at Bandung to coordinate
Supported by the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel their policies as a cohesive bloc of ‘non-aligned’ powers.
Nasser and lodged across the border in Tunisian ‘sanctuaries’ Washington did not appreciate their neutralist stance, but
the FLN could be pursued only by indiscriminate air strikes, the State Department did not wish to seem aligned with a

47
 thematic section

retrograde policy of defending colonial positions. In the while Dutch forces sought to organize a federal state
autumn of 1956, Guy Mollet, who was angered at Egyptian throughout the archipelago. Sukarno gained American
assistance to the FLN, and Prime Minister Anthony Eden, support by suppressing the communists. When the Dutch
who was determined to reverse Nasser’s recent embarked on a second police action at the end of 1948,
nationalization of the Suez Canal, colluded with Israeli occupied the republic’s capital and arrested the Sukarno
leaders to plan an invasion of the Sinai Peninsula, supposedly government, the Americans lost patience and threatened to
rescue the Canal from Egyptian mismanagement, and suspend Marshall Plan aid. It was easier to put pressure on
overthrow the ambitious Egyptian leader. But the American Amsterdam than on Paris, and Sukarno’s nationalist
Government decided that this policy could not be allowed movement – in contrast to the Vietminh – had proved
to stand. It disavowed its NATO allies, and at the very itself staunchly anti-communist at a time when the Cold
moment the Soviets threatened to use missiles if necessary War was becoming disturbing. Unable to prevail outside
against Britain and France, Washington decisively applied the major cities in any case, the embittered Dutch ceded
pressure, including a threat to the British pound sterling, control of all but West New Guinea, which was yielded as
and compelled London and Paris to back down. The Suez West Irian only in 1962.12
reversal completely undercut Eden’s domestic position and With the early 1960s, one might end the history of the
caused a deep moral crisis in London, where defenders of overseas colonial empires. The Indians annexed the small
residual British power felt humiliated and betrayed by their Portuguese enclave of Goa in 1961. The Belgians
major ally. It also suggested to Paris that if America turned precipitously abandoned the Congo Republic in the face of
hostile, they could not prolong their struggle in Algeria even nationalist resistance in 1960, although not without
if they seemed to be winning.11 attempting (with CIA aid) to support a secessionist
These difficulties caused the uneasy coalition governments movement in the province of Katanga with its important
in Paris to fall apart. The conservatives and Catholics would copper mines still controlled by the Union Minière. Britain
not accept yielding control of Algeria to the FLN while had granted the Gold Coast independence as Ghana in
increasing numbers of the centre left and the socialists were 1957, and Nigeria followed in 1960. London’s plans to
unwilling to escalate the pursuit of the rebels. In an effort to federate the departing colonies, whether in the federated
retain a majority, the government sought to offer partial states of Malaysia, the West Indies, the Central Africa
reforms and autonomy, which proved too grave a concession Federation or Southern Arabia, lasted only a few years:
for the right wing and insufficient to satisfy the rebels. each dissolved into national states upon or shortly after
Settlers and generals, who feared Paris would capitulate in gaining independence. Nigeria, a federated unit since 1914,
May 1958, seized power in Algiers, formed a committee of underwent a long and cruel civil war, but remained a
public safety, dropped paratroopers on Corsica, threatened conglomerate nation. Only a few Portuguese redoubts
to land in Paris and prompted even socialist deputies to remained in Africa, and the Portuguese army, tired of the
accept the return to power of General de Gaulle, who had fruitless battles in Angola and Mozambique, revolted in
retired from public service twelve years earlier (Plate 32). 1974, to end the authoritarian regime at home and terminate
De Gaulle won massive support for a new constitution a senseless war.13
that sharply curtailed the power of the legislature to For the former colonial powers, the end of empire
overthrow cabinets and endowed the president of the Fifth brought often-immense political recrimination at home,
Republic with far greater authority over international affairs although only in France and in Portugal did the conflicts
and legislative initiatives. As new president, however, bring down a regime. Nationalist Europeans felt their sense
de Gaulle quickly came to realize that France could not win of national mission and historical status diminished.
the Algerian war. From the settlers’ adulation, he incurred Soldiers who had tried to win the hearts and minds of loyal
their wrath, had to face down a new attempted coup d’état collaborators felt they were being forced into betraying
in 1961, and subsequent assassination attempts by them. Liberal colonialists were grieved that their lofty
irreconcilable conspirators, and finally, by 1962, signed the projects for economic development and political education
Evian Accords that allowed the FLN to govern Algeria. were now to be interrupted. In the context of the Cold
The Dutch, who had hoped to recover ‘the Indies’ and War, many feared the advance of communism. Yet, the
overthrow the Republic of Indonesia that nationalist conditions were hardly catastrophic for the metropolitan
leaders A. Sukarno and M. Hatta had declared upon the societies. The money invested in colonial enterprises did
surrender of the Japanese, abandoned their ambitions better in fact than domestic investments. Advocates of
slowly. At first, they relied on the British and Anglo-Indian decolonization understood that their own ‘civil war’ – that
forces in the theatre, and then re-established themselves on is, the Second World War – bore a major responsibility,
the eastern islands. An armistice painfully ratified by March and that control over such distant peoples could not be
1947 envisaged a United States of Indonesia under the perpetuated. In fact, they often learned to keep influence by
Netherlands crown, which would federate the nationalists’ indirect means; agreements with the new Algerian
republic based on Java and Sumatra with an East Indonesian Government allowed Sahara oil to be exploited by France;
State to remain controlled by the Dutch. The armistice, the Union Minière kept its properties in the Congo. The
which faced opposition in both camps, unravelled a few British continued to train the armies of the Middle East;
months later as the Dutch decided they should exploit the promising students of West Africa came to Paris, while
their 100,000 soldiers stationed so far from home and those from South Asia went to London and Oxford.
embarked on a police action that reconquered much of Families seeking work gravitated from the former colonies
Java. A further agreement signed in January 1948 on the to the cities whose language they had learned and adopted,
USS Renville also failed to hold. Events moved toward a eventually, in effect, to transplant their communities,
chaotic climax as Islamic and communist challenges to the cuisines, and cultures of the so-called ‘Third World’ into
Sukarno-Hatta leadership emerged within the republic, the cities of the former colonial powers. Europe was

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prospering, more consistently than in any other period of its Were those who led struggles for liberation all revolutionary
history, and in that post-war economic growth and the heroes, as students in Paris or Berlin claimed in their ‘tiers-
ideological exertions of the Cold War, and in the new ideas mondisme’ of the 1960s and 1970s, even if they then
of integration – through the Marshall Plan, the Coal and surrendered to self-aggrandisement, grandiose and
Steel Community, the European Community – a new sense impoverishing developmental schemes, and arbitrary power?
of Europe was born. But only reluctantly and slowly would Colonial rule had withheld decisive political responsibility:
its citizens recognize that they had to integrate as their it had not allowed local assemblies to educate a new
neighbours those who had once been their subjects. parliamentary class; it allowed the native best and the
As for the former colonies, they gained the independence brightest to study philosophy in the metropole, but not to
which almost every citizen believed was the prerequisite for practice politics. It trained officers, intellectuals, and civil
their society’s advancement. Westerners told them that it servants at best, but not party leaders. Defenders of the
profited not to gain national independence if their new system had always argued that some day the colonial world
native rulers suppressed human rights that were better would be ready for self-government, but that day was always
guaranteed under the colonial powers. Even Washington in the future – and then one day, it was at hand. The rise
statesmen argued that the rule of the Communist Party and fall of overseas colonialism were one of the most
over the citizens of Russia was far more oppressive than important, if not the most essential, developments of world
governance by colonial officials. For the indigenous peoples history in the century from approximately 1870 to 1970,
of the Maghreb or Central Africa or Asia, such a calculation and it is hardly an unblemished story.
was usually beside the point. Wisely or not, intellectuals
and simple tribesmen alike believed that collective self-
determination was the foundation for all other rights. They The Cold War and a divided world
moved from being subjects to citizens. The measures for
local representation, which Paris or London schemes had Decolonization played out against the growing polarization
offered from the Government of India Act in 1935 to the and tension of the Cold War. The United States and Britain
Algerian Loi-Cadre Deferre of 1956, always resisted that on the one side, the Soviet Union on the other shared the
basic grant of national self-determination. On the other objective of defeating the Axis, but had different visions for
hand, the indigenous governments that took over after the future, even if both sides invoked the term democracy.
independence often succumbed to bitter internal rivalry, Critical divisions began to emerge already before the end of
military dictatorship, and ethnic strife. The institution the the Second World War. The Russians grew suspicious at
colonial powers had trained most effectively was the military, the West’s waiting so long to open a Second Front in
whose leaders often emerged with the sense that they alone ­north‑west Europe. Americans and British grew fearful
might speak for the national interests of their new country, that Moscow wished primarily to impose one-party rule on
or that they alone would be free from corruption and the areas of Europe its armies swept into.
clientelism. The era of colonial rule had left arbitrary Still, the months of impending and accomplished victory
national borders that did not coincide with tribal lines, but in 1945 brought hope for a new post-war order that
leaders resisted any changes lest all frontiers be thrown into culminated in the founding conference of the new United
contention. Nigeria’s vast expanse, for example, included at Nations organization at San Francisco from April through
least three different basic cultural areas and rivalry enough June 1945. Arduous allied negotiations had produced a plan
to provoke a tragic civil war. Even where partition for a General Assembly that was to include all fifty
accompanied independence, as in South Asia, inter- participating countries and a Security Council to address
communal violence remained high. High expectations of urgent questions of war and peace and would comprise five
economic development were often frustrated as governments permanent members, the USA and USSR, France, Britain,
sought to institute prestigious building projects, implant and China, each with a veto right, plus a rotating
industries that lacked a market infrastructure, and control representation of other states without vetoes. Collective
food prices to still urban protest. The models of state security was a major strand of Franklin Roosevelt’s hopes
socialism attracted many intellectuals in Africa and India for the post-war world; the emerging UN was, in effect, his
throughout the 1960s, even as they resisted adaptation to monument, and the spirit it incorporated marked the work
the world market. Foreign companies still controlled of its major agencies (including UNESCO) and the ongoing
mineral wealth or petroleum resources. L’Afrique noire est discussions that led to the Declaration of Human Rights by
mal partie (Black Africa in Trouble) was the title of one apt 1947. For all the disappointments and divisions that would
study of the 1960s.14 Politics disappointed many intellectuals. follow, the idea of an international civil society based on
Arab leaders yearned for unity but generally could not political and social rights remained a normative summons
institute pluralist governments at home. Vast and voluble to global hopes for peace and freedom.
India divided into cross-cutting communities of faith, class, But difficult post-war issues had already emerged. Faced
and region, preserved government by discussion but with potential discord after military victory, Roosevelt
remained ransom to vast reservoirs of poverty and village attempted to secure the basis for post-war cooperation at
under-development. The British had re-infused its many the Yalta Conference in February 1945 (Plate 33); the
jurisdictions with the notion that a common state could Russians won strategic concessions in the north-eastern
provide the possibility for letting its fragmented people provinces of China (Manchuria) bordering the Soviet
preserve political identity. Union as a price for promising their entry into the Pacific
Historians and political leaders debated the so-called War three months after the end of the European war, a
legacy of colonialism. Was it an unmitigated evil like commitment they met to the day (which turned out to be
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness on a huge scale, in which two days following the destruction of Hiroshima). A
arbitrary power necessarily blighted any initiative taken? compromise was patched together to overcome the rival

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governments that both sides had sponsored in liberated this opposition in effect remained only perpetual
Poland. The reinstated Warsaw government would be opposition.16
based mostly on the Russian-sponsored Polish committee The future of China was troubling, but neither Moscow
of national liberation, although one quarter of its members nor Washington could shape the outcome of that massive
would be drawn from the Polish government in exile that struggle. The conflict between nationalists and communists,
had so antagonized Stalin by refusing to accept his frontier barely adjourned to meet the Japanese threat, was bound to
demands and accusing the Soviets of executing thousands resume. As the Japanese moved toward surrender, Stalin
of Polish officers in the Katyn forest, a charge that was signed a treaty with Chiang’s government in return for
indignantly denied but turned out to be accurate. The new strategic and railroad concessions in Manchuria and a
government in Poland, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, was Chinese guarantee that Mongolia could subsist as an
to be subject to free elections. Eastern Europeans would independent state. A strong state run by Mao Zedong
later complain that Yalta amounted to a condominium in (whose peasant-oriented revolutionary mission had already
which Washington abandoned the liberty of their region to clashed with the disastrous Soviet wager on collaboration
Moscow in return for a free hand in the West. In fact, with Chiang in the mid 1920s) was not likely to grant the
Roosevelt and Churchill felt that they could wrest no more same concessions, and the Soviet leader placed first priority
satisfactory a settlement given the presence of Russian on establishing a clear-cut sphere of territorial security.
soldiers up to the Elbe River. Moscow would consistently urge restraint on Mao even as
Washington and London grew alarmed when the Civil War resumed and the Communists enlarged their
throughout 1945 and 1946 communist elements resorted areas of control. Meanwhile, the United States, which had
to intimidation and violence against the pro-Westerners in unsuccessfully urged a mediated solution in the Marshall
Romania and Poland. The agreement reached at the mission of 1946, watched as Chiang’s control of China
Potsdam Conference of July 1945, which provided for disintegrated under his miscalculated efforts to seize
occupying Germany as a united country and drawing immediate military control in Manchuria and the North,
reparations from its industrial plan, also broke down such endemic corruption, and advancing hyperinflation with its
that inter-allied cooperation became virtually inexistent. destruction of a money economy. By 1948, the Communist
The British and Americans feared Russian subversion of forces moved to open battles and won a striking series of
any new all-German institutions; they were frightened by military successes in central and then southern China.
the evident conformity the Russians were imposing over As the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, and Mao announced
their own zone through a new Socialist Unity party. The the establishment of the People’s Republic on 1 October
Russians and Anglo-Americans also quarrelled over Iran 1949 in Beijing’s Tienanmen Square, the Truman
– both sides were scheduled to leave that country, which administration seemed initially inclined to accept history’s
they had jointly occupied during the war – but the Russians verdict and to leave ‘Formosa’ to its own defence. But the
were supporting communist secessionists in Azerbaijan commitment of the Republican Right to ‘free China’, the
province and withdrew only after Truman threatened a intensity of Cold War politics, and the intervention of the
major crisis. The Russians also distrusted American control PRC in the Korean War precluded a simple policy of
of the atomic weapon. The American offer for disinterest. Instead the ‘loss of China’ became a domestic
internationalization of nuclear production (the Acheson- issue, and the ‘old China hands’ in the State Department
Lilienthal Plan) proposed US atomic disarmament but were scapegoated by Senator Joseph McCarthy and other
only at the end of a long process in which other countries Republicans, even as General MacArthur called for
placed their production facilities under international enlarging the Korean War to China itself, using atomic
control. As presented to the UN by American negotiator weapons, if appropriate.
Bernard Baruch, the plan further demanded that the As for the new Chinese regime, isolation and the
Security Council veto be set aside in enforcement issues. devastation of the country he inherited led Mao to solicit a
Soviet nuclear research was well enough underway not to thirty-year treaty of friendship and aid with Moscow in
have to accept what Moscow considered an asymmetric US February 1950 even at the cost of renouncing claims to
proposal. And, on the other hand, it was probably utopian Mongolia. The Chinese secured an aid package and the help
to expect that American authorities would surrender what of Soviet technical advisers. The treaty could hardly be the
they considered the ultimate resource of their nation’s post- last word, however. If a smaller Yugoslavia (albeit aided by
war power.15 the United States) could defy the Soviets, a huge China
Tension grew also in East Asia. The occupation of Japan could not be a predictable ally. But for the next years with
did not give rise to the same conflict between the former the Cold War at its height and an open war in Korea from
coalition partners since Washington had rejected the last- June 1950 until July 1953, the latent tensions between
minute Soviet request for a zone of post-war administration. Moscow and Beijing remained subordinate to a sense of
Japan’s future as a non-military, but crucial, American ideological common cause.17
security partner with a unique fusion of liberal parliamentary If Washington moved hesitantly toward an
and bureaucratic politics emerged out of General anticommunist stance in East Asia, it had already become
MacArthur’s proconsular role in helping to shape post-war deeply committed to the policy of ‘containment’ in Europe.
institutions. After a resurgence of left-wing and labour While Stalin and his advisers found the Truman
protest in 1947, MacArthur reined in economic administration less committed to conciliation and
restructuring. Organized labour would negotiate extensive cooperation than Roosevelt seemed to have been, the British
employee security provisions, but only at the firm, not the and Americans perceived a Soviet threat to impose
national level. A Marxist intellectual culture would remain unchecked Communist Party control in what Moscow
strong, and student protests against the close ties with described as the peoples’ democracies of Eastern Europe
Washington would shake the political scene in 1960, but and to drive pro-Western leaders from any influence in that

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region. The behaviour of each side confirmed the other’s countries now engaged in political trials against Titoists.
fears. At his famous speech on receiving an honorary degree Indeed, under the new ideological reaction, political trials
at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in March became a depressingly familiar feature in all the Eastern
1946, Churchill declared that an ‘iron curtain’ was descending European countries, and non-communists, or by 1950–52
over Europe. It became the West’s metaphor for the next loyal communists targeted as Titoists, were forced into
four decades. abject confessions, imprisoned, and sometimes executed.
The ambiguous political agendas of 1945–46 – when in The wave of persecutions crested in 1952, as Stalin seemed
France and Italy in the West, and Poland, Hungary and on the verge of a major persecution of alleged Jewish
Czechoslovakia in Eastern Europe, communist and non- conspirators, including intellectuals and even his physicians,
communist power sharing still seemed possible – ended by with only the Soviet leader’s death in March 1953
mid-1947. Communists and their affiliated trade unions interrupting the ominous preparations. The United States
were either rebuffed or decided on a resolute opposition in meanwhile was caught up in its own rites of political
the West. In Central and Eastern Europe, members of purification, known as ‘McCarthyism’, as espionage
agrarian and popular parties were tried, imprisoned, revelations and the climate of the Cold War allowed the
sometimes executed, and the significant socialist parties demagogic senator from Wisconsin (and other exploiters of
painfully split over the issue of collaboration in so-called anti-communist reaction) to try to impose a climate of
peoples’ fronts that their communist allies would dominate. political conformity.20
In Greece, outright civil war began, provoked in part by Both sides rushed to arm, and the United States helped to
a dubious 1946 plebiscite confirming the monarchy, then organize the NATO alliance in the West and proposed to its
encouraged, not really by Stalin, but the Yugoslav communist allies to accept German rearmament, finally approved by
leader Josep Brodz Tito, whose resistance to Moscow’s 1955. The Soviets responded with the Warsaw Pact. Fearing
discipline would make him a hated heretic in Kremlin eyes the massive land strength of the Soviets, the Allies responded
by 1948 and an ally of opportunity for Washington. When with nuclear deterrence. When the Russians exploded a
in February 1947, the British told Washington they could nuclear device in 1949, Washington pressed ahead with a
no longer subsidize the Government of Greece’s struggle crash programme to develop hydrogen weapons.
against communist guerrillas, the US president enunciated From 1950 to 1953, military confrontation seemed
the so-called Truman Doctrine, which provided for assisting imminent. Indeed Stalin accepted the proposals of
countries under attack by armed subversion. However, Kim Il Sung to try to reunify Korea by force, as it was
Germany was the major issue. With lack of unity, believed that the United States would not intervene. But in
uncertainty about reparations, and inability to agree on a fact the Americans did enter Korea with the agreement of
monetary reform, the economy continued to languish. After the United Nations’ Security Council and fought a
a frustrating Council of Foreign Ministers session in devastating war to an inconclusive armistice in 1953.
Moscow, the US president announced that Washington Underestimating how important China considered the
was prepared to help any regime fighting armed subversive stakes, Washington’s policy-makers and generals were
groups. In June 1947, American Secretary of State Marshall shocked when the Chinese entered the war in November
proposed that the United States would provide cooperative 1950, but US-led troops managed to stabilize the front by
European regimes access to what would amount to about the next spring.21
$13 billion worth of imports over the next four years. As In such a context, it was hardly surprising that American
important as the aid itself (over 2 per cent of American views of decolonization struggles changed. The United
GNP and initially a sizable percentage of what Europeans States initially encouraged decolonization, urging the
could devote to reconstruction) was the incentive it provided British to leave India, then Palestine, pressing the Dutch to
for further Western European cooperation – and the clear give up their rearguard action to hold Indonesia, and
line it ended up drawing against the communist regimes in ultimately aligning against the British and French during
the East and the communist parties in the West.18 the Suez conflict. Originally the United States wanted the
With the fall of 1947, and events of 1948, Europe, at French out of Indochina, but once communist Chinese
least, became effectively divided. The Russians felt that troops reached the southern border of China, it seemed
participation in the Marshall Plan required too much more important to prop up the French position against the
control and withdrew from the conference, forcing their Vietminh than encourage home rule. Still, when Israel,
East European governments to follow their lead (Plate 34). France, and Britain conspired to re-seize the Suez Canal
They summoned Communist Party leaders to Poland in from Nasser, after he nationalized it forcibly, President
September and instructed them that there would now be a Eisenhower ostentatiously worked to compel British
period, no longer of cooperation, but of long conflict with withdrawal. American objectives were ambiguous. In theory
the West. In February 1948, the local communists forced a pro-Third World, the US Government was reluctant to
coup in Prague, but two months later elections in Italy accept the fact that national movements were also effective
confirmed the defeat of the communists. Europe was and very loyal communists.
moving toward division. The Western Allies finally did The emerging Third World powers tried to escape falling
carry through a monetary reform in the zones of Germany under the patronage of the United States or the ideology of
under their control and summoned a constitutional the Soviets. Their self-proclaimed non-alignment vexed
convention to create a founding document. The emerging John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s secretary of state, who
West German State was matched by an East German one tended to see the Cold War as a Manichaean moral
in 1949.19 confrontation. Still, between 1953 and 1955, there were
The temperature of the conflict grew dangerously high. hopes for a ‘thaw’ in communist policies after the death of
When the Yugoslav communists rejected Russian Stalin and the advent of an uneasy ‘collective leadership’.
leadership, the schism provoked a massive reaction as all the The new rulers relaxed the iron grip of the secret police and

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executed their colleague, Lavrenti Beria, who controlled this hierarchies, was a frightening spectacle, not only in the
feared agency; they stopped the anti-Semitic purge being West but in the European communist world.
prepared, and relaxed the pace of forced industrialization Khrushchev’s direction of Soviet and world communist
and collectivization in the satellites. By 1956, Khrushchev politics was hardly consistent, however (which his colleagues
denounced the crimes and errors of Stalin to the Twentieth would recognize when they peacefully removed him from
Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, a speech that power in late 1964). He under-estimated the learning
helped to undermine ideas of party infallibility throughout capacity of President Kennedy when they met at Vienna in
communist ranks. The armistice ending the Korean War spring 1961 (Plate 35), although he correctly gambled that
was concluded in the summer of 1953, the Indochina NATO would accept the new status quo when he allowed
conflict was apparently resolved a year later; in 1955, the the East Germans, who faced a growing desertion of
Russians agreed to an Austrian State Treaty that ended the productive citizens to the West across the still-open inner-
occupation and provided for a neutral but clearly non- Berlin frontier, to erect the Berlin Wall. And after the
communist regime. After a flurry of notes about German American debacle at the Bay of Pigs, Khrushchev was
reunification (probably the result of rival policies within the emboldened to change the overall strategic balance and
Kremlin), each side fully accredited its respective German place missiles in Cuba, a wager on a windfall gain that led
ally and stabilized its respective military alliance. the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation in the fall of
Was there a chance at détente? Eisenhower met 1962.
Khrushchev and Bulganin, and journalists celebrated ‘the Both sides were given pause by the brush with catastrophe,
spirit of Geneva’. The Soviet leader, who finally consolidated and by mid-decade it seemed finally that détente might
his supremacy by 1956, gave renewed signs of flexibility, but resume. Foreign policy in the German Federal Republic was
he was not independent enough or at least not inclined to moving from the grip of Adenauer’s Christian Democratic
dismantle the Soviet grip on the states already in the Soviet Union to the now reformist Social Democrats, who under
orbit. When in October 1956, reformist Hungarian Willy Brandt were preparing the concepts of Ostpolitik or
communists giddily yielded to their citizens’ desire to secede negotiated coexistence with the East German regime.
from the Warsaw Pact and liberalize the regime, the Soviets Throughout the Soviet bloc, ideas of mild economic
invaded to suppress what became a full-scale uprising. The decentralization and market-oriented reforms were gaining
post-Stalin ‘thaw’ was brought to a halt throughout the favour. Social theorists suggested that both sides might
socialist world. Instead Khrushchev decided to reinforce ‘converge’ toward mixed economies and welfare states.
the status of Russia’s most industrialized but vulnerable Nonetheless, the growing momentum for reform proved
protectorate, the East German regime, and opened what too risky for the cautious Soviet bureaucracy. When, in
became a protracted crisis over the status of East and West spring 1968, Czechoslovak party reformers sought
Berlin by threatening in 1958 to give the GDR the right to democratic reforms and, buoyed by public enthusiasm,
control traffic to Berlin, still officially under four-power ultimately hinted at independence from the Warsaw Pact,
control. Khrushchev’s successor, Leonid Brezhnev, decided the
The new threat over Berlin reflected what we can now see movement must be quashed lest it begin spreading (Plate
was a period of confused departures in the history of the 36). The ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’ justified Warsaw Pact
Cold War and indeed of world politics – initiatives that intervention if socialism was endangered by counter-
were contradictory, might have led to détente, but were still revolution. As had happened with the suppression of the
too easily reversed. For the first time since the Second Hungarian revolt twelve years earlier, the Warsaw Pact
World War, the United States had to face a potential intervention and the removal of the Prague reformers
adverse balance of payments situation from the end of the disillusioned many communists who had set their hopes on
1950s, which it attributed to the cost of maintaining its the spreading momentum of liberalization. While in 1956
troops abroad. Eisenhower’s effort to advance personal defections largely involved Western communists, after
diplomacy at a new summit conference in 1960 was marred 1968, the intellectuals and party members throughout
by the Soviet Union’s capture and display of a U-2 pilot Eastern Europe began losing their faith.
who was shot down on a covert intelligence-gathering
mission high over Russian air space. The American president
had to finish his term in 1961 with no real agreements but a The end of an era
vague warning against the role of ‘the military-industrial
complex’ in American politics. His successor, John F. From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, the premises of world
Kennedy, seemed young and innovative but fully committed politics were transformed in a way that historians have only
to continuing an even more effective Cold War struggle, begun to analyse. At the level of international politics, the
which would soon lead to his supporting the disastrous changes were logical enough and might well have been
invasion of American-based Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs predicted. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President
in Cuba. Nixon spectacularly reversed America’s long boycott of
On his side, Khrushchev was preoccupied about Mao’s China and established relations in 1971. Although the new
ill-conceived ‘Great Leap Forward’, forced collectivization rapprochement had little immediate effect on Hanoi’s
(and the massive famine that accompanied it), and he policy, the United States extricated itself from Viet Nam,
recalled Soviet advisors in 1960. The ensuing polemics and abandoning the South to takeover by the communist
rift between the two great Communist powers became a North in 1975. Mao himself called a pause to the Cultural
long-term feature of the socialist world. Mao’s unleashing of Revolution and his successors, above all Deng Xiaoping,
the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966, which moved cautiously but decisively toward economic policies
convulsed China for a decade and seemed to aim at that combined planning and market incentives. Foreign
destroying all political and remaining social and cultural investment and Chinese entrepreneurship unleashed a

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process of growth that has transformed the country in the technology and the computer, coupled with the movement
succeeding decades. Party control was challenged by the of traditional heavy industry to East Asia or Latin America,
great manifestations at Tiananmen Square in July 1989, but meant the need to remould the labour movement in the
successfully repressed, and the party managed to keep a West and East. The First World or the industrialized West
growing sphere of political debate and fundamental saw the slow attrition of its classical industrial labour
economic upheaval under its own continuous tutelage. movement. The Second World or the state socialist
Britain’s return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty economies of the former Soviet bloc simply disintegrated,
was an emblematic step in this remarkable ascent. But it and what was once known as the Third World tended to
also symbolized how profoundly the relationship between bifurcate, with one group of economies successfully
former world masters and subjects had been changed as the industrializing and another falling further behind world
twentieth century closed. Formal colonialism ended with standards. Massive waves of new migrants streamed from
the Portuguese military’s renunciation of the country’s rural areas to the vast cities of hard-pressed developing
remaining possessions in the mid-1970s. The remaining nations, and from Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, and the
specimen of the older variant of land-based empire ended Middle East to Europe and North America. International
with the collapse of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. financial organizations controlling capital and production
The communist system had prolonged the possibilities for in vastly separated sites across the world provided a new
empire beyond 1917, but for reasons discussed below, framework for the economy, far less tied to traditional
could not do so after the 1980s. What critics called neo- territorial authorities than previously. National powers in
colonialism – the domination of Third World economies Western Europe tended to devolve ‘down’ to the regions of
by the West – did not disappear, but the balance of the nation-state or ‘up’ to the European Community (later
economic power between the industrialized West and the called the European Union), which significantly enhanced
other world regions changed fundamentally. its authority under the striking leadership of Jacques Delors
‘Third World’ critics and theorists from Latin America during the 1980s. The United States, which had seemed
had elaborated a so-called dependency theory (see Chapter financially over-committed in Viet Nam and Europe during
1), which argued that the prosperity of the industrial the Nixon and Carter administrations, enjoyed a remarkable
countries resulted from prolonging the relative backwardness surge of economic growth under President Reagan and his
of the non-industrialized countries in order to benefit from successors, in large measure because it took such a
cheap labour and under-priced commodities. Such an commanding lead in the new computer-based service
analysis informed the appeals for redistribution of resources industries as well as the popular products of a world
and wealth proposed by the United Nations Conference for consumer culture. In addition, the great centre of
Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Opponents of such international state socialism, the Soviet Union, in effect
a prescription criticized instead the developing world’s dismantled its own institutions and dissolved the last
misconceived vast development projects, squandered bastion of old-style imperial control.
resources, disincentives for agricultural production, and How did this remarkable and totally unexpected outcome
corruption and repression. It would be an indication of the occur? Once reformist economic and political initiatives
changed terms of debate that a leading theorist of dependency seemed to spin out of Communist Party control in the late
theory in the 1960s would introduce successful market- 1960s, the Soviet leader decided that he could at least assert
oriented reforms as President of Brazil in the 1990s. Russian superpower parity on the basis of the country’s
After almost thirty years of unprecedented real economic huge military capacity, including missiles and nuclear
growth, Western countries underwent a difficult decade in strength. He did secure American willingness to negotiate a
the 1970s. The four-fold increase in the price of cheap series of agreements with NATO members – the Strategic
petroleum decided by the oil-producing countries in early Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT I and II) and the Helsinki
1974 contributed to both inflation and deflationary and Madrid accords that emerged from the multilateral
pressures. Under the pressures of inflation, the long era of Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
post-war capital-labour solidarity, forged after the (CSCE). The Helsinki Accords provided for the recognition
Second World War to reconstruct the European economy, of existing borders (thus protecting East Germany), but
began to fray under the pressures of simultaneous inflation also committed the Soviets to agree to guarantees of human
and unemployment. The United States, which from 1948 rights – a pledge often violated, but one that provided a new
until its involvement in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s generation of critical intellectuals in Eastern Europe with a
had effectively underwritten the international economy by foothold for organization and protest. Even if suppressed,
means of the Marshall Plan, military assistance, and private Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and, to a far greater extent,
investment, faced mounting resistance to the reserve- the Solidarity movement of 1980 in Poland revealed the
currency status of the dollar. In August 1971, President growth of dissent within the Soviet bloc. At the same time,
Nixon abandoned the long-term American commitment to Brezhnev’s wager on preserving superpower parity on the
maintaining a gold parity for the dollar and forced a re- basis of military power also faltered. The Soviet Union’s
negotiation of exchange rates, and finally renounced any army became demoralized and mired down in the effort to
commitment to purchase foreign currencies for dollars in control Afghanistan. Despite major protests at home,
spring 1973.22 NATO members resolved to match Moscow’s deployment
Although it could not be recognized at the time, in the of intermediate range missiles that would have possibly
1970s the world economic and territorial system was subjected Europe to nuclear blackmail. The percentage of
entering a new phase of development that has only Soviet GNP needed to preserve Russia’s arsenal was also far
accelerated in the quarter century since. Both capitalist and higher than the 4 per cent or so required in the West, and
communist economic systems were put under strain; the the Soviet civilian economy faced grave difficulties during
growth of a whole new technological sector, information the 1980s. After some brief efforts to grind greater

53
 thematic section

productivity out of central planning following Brezhnev’s and affluence had to coexist with the claims of militant
death in 1982, and by his two short-term successors, faith. Was it not possible that by the beginning of the
Mikhail Gorbachov (Plate 37) decided he must loosen the twenty-first century the world community might learn
grip of state socialism and introduced policies of perestroika finally to live without empire? This was a revolutionary
(‘reconstruction’, i.e. decentralization and market reforms) possibility but also a disorderly one.
and glasnost (political openness or transparency). The
reforms, necessary though they were, led to consequences
that he could hardly predict, including the final dismantling
of the communist bloc as it had been established since the NOTES
end of the First World War. With the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, after an abortive coup by foes of reform in 1. C. Thorne, Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain
1991, in effect the last of the old land empires had come to and the War against Japan, 1941–1945, London, 1978; The
an end, and with it, an era of political control that had Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Far Eastern Conflict of
marked the period from the late nineteenth century.23 1941–1945, NY, 1985.
What forces for international cohesion might now secure 2. W. R. Louis, Imperialism at Bay, 1941–1945: The United
world order? For almost a century, from approximately States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, Oxford,
1870 to the 1960s, the age of imperialism had linked what 1977.
used to be called the First and Third Worlds. Imperialism 3. For British goals and difficulties, W. R. Louis, The
and the world economy had confronted tribal structures in British Empire in the Middle East 1945–1951: Arab
western and southern Africa and the Middle East with the Nationalism, The United States, and Post-War Imperialism,
centres of finance and industry in Europe and North Oxford, 1984; and W. R. Louis, ‘The Dissolution of the
America. It had prolonged but then destroyed the remaining British Empire,’ in W. R. Louis and J. M. Brown (eds), The
land-based multinational empires – three of which had Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 4, The Twentieth
disintegrated after the First World War, and the last of Century, Oxford, 1999, pp. 329–56.
which had fallen apart at the end of the 1980s. If indeed 4. By the late 1980s, critical Israeli historians abandoned
there remained new transnational forces that might help the the original Israeli claim that the Palestinians had fled
diverse peoples of the world preserve peace and prosperity merely under instructions from Arab authorities who
and a sense of collective dignity, these forces derived less wagered on a rapid reconquest. The current debate among
perhaps from their respective political units, than from historians revolves more around the issue of whether plans
continuing prosperity and NGOs, who served as trustees for a forced transfer motivated Yishuv (Jewish) authorities
for the environment, for human rights, and mitigating from the outset, or expulsions gained momentum village by
disease and hunger.24 In effect, the NGOs concerned with village during the armed clashes. See E. L. Rogan and A.
environment and human rights were the transnational Schlaim (eds), The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History
agents that equilibrated the for-profit firms that restlessly of 1948, Cambridge, 2001; B. Morris, in his contribution,
drove the international economy forward. Perhaps such ‘Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948,’ documents
political structures as the European Union or NATO widespread if ‘haphazard thinking about transfer before
would also provide international order. 1937 and the virtual consensus’ thereafter, denies any
The United States remained clearly the world’s greatest ‘master plan’ was applied during the war (pp. 48–49), but
conventional power, but its political agenda was reduced also sees more concerted expulsion than when he wrote The
largely to the international enhancement of market Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949,
democracies, i.e. a type of liberalism that would be favourable Cambridge, 1987. For background see also M. J. Cohen,
to the continued progress of global economic forces. As the Retreat from the Mandate: The Making of British Policy,
twentieth century closed, America was less an empire than 1936–1945, New York, 1978, and Cohen, Palestine to Israel:
a consortium of banks, media giants, a culture industry, From Mandate to Independence, London, 1988; B.
innovative computer companies, and enterprising providers Wasserstein, The British in Palestine: The Mandatory
of financial services. But it became unclear whether the Government and the Arab-Jewish Conflict, 1917–1929, 2nd
United States could or would exercise a stabilizing or ed., Oxford, 1991.
disruptive role based on its at least temporary military 5. For a useful comparison see M. Kahler, Decolonization
primacy. The devastating assault on the World Trade in Britain and France: The Domestic Consequences of
Center and Pentagon on 11 September 2001 was a shock International Relations, Princeton, 1984. For the reluctance
that left American politics hostage to unforeseeable and of the Dutch to bid a final farewell to their empire see A.
contradictory feelings of supremacy and vulnerability. Lijphart, The Trauma of Decolonization: The Dutch and
Although most of its allies accepted Washington’s military West New Guinea, New Haven, 1966.
intervention in Afghanistan to hunt down the training 6. For the transitions, J.-R. Benoist, L’Afrique occidentale
grounds of the Al Qaeda ‘network’ that claimed responsibility française de la Conférence de Brazzaville (1944) à l’indépendance
for the attack, the subsequent American and British invasion (1960), Dakar, 1982; P. Gifford and W. R. Louis (eds), The
of Iraq in the spring of 2003 drew dissent from some key Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization, 1940–60, New
NATO allies, France and Germany above all. The continued Haven, 1982; T. Chafer, The End of Empire in French West
military involvement in turbulent Iraqi politics also divided Africa: France’s Successful Decolonization? Oxford, 2002.
Americans at home. The United States might conceivably 7. M. Shipway, The Road to War: France and Vietnam,
persevere in an effort to take on a wider imperial role, but it 1944-1947, Providence, 1947; S. Tønneson, The Vietnamese
was also possible that its volatile public opinion might back Revolution of 1954: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and De Gaulle in
away from such an exercise of power, which was unlikely in a World at War, Oslo, 1991; D. G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The
any case to prevail in a world in which the desire for order Quest for Power, Berkeley, 1995.

54
 T h e E n d o f E m p i r e a n d t h e  Tr a n s f o r m a t i o n s o f t h e  I n t e r n a t i o n a l Sy s t e m

8. A. Tandrup, ‘World War and Village War: Changing R. Griffith, The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the
Patterns of Rural Conflict in Southeast Asia, 1945-1955,’ in Senate, 2nd ed. Amherst, MA, 1987; J. M. Oshinsky, A
A. Antlöv and S. Tønneson (eds), Imperial Policy and Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy, New
Southeast Asian Nationalism 1930–1957, Richmond, Surrey, York, 1983.
1995, pp. 170–90. 21. W. Stueck, Rethinking the Korean War: A New
9. H. Tertrais, ‘L’émergence de la guerre civile dans le Diplomatic and Strategic History, Princeton, NJ, 2002.
conflit d’Indochine (1945–1954),’ Relations Internationales, 22. F. J. Gavin, Gold, Dollars, and Power: The Politics of
no. 105, spring 2001; J. Valette, La guerre d’Indochine, Paris International Monetary Relations, 1958–1971, Chapel Hill,
1994; A. Thévenet, La guerre d’Indochine, Paris, 2001. NC, 2004.
10. A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954–1962, 23. On these events: A. Brown, The Gorbachev Factor,
rev. ed., London, 1996; M. J. Connelly, A Diplomatic Oxford, 1996; D. Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of
Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Soviet Empire, New York, 1994; C. S. Maier, Dissolution:
the post-Cold War Era, New York, 2002; B. Stora, Histoire The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany,
de la guerre d’Algérie, Paris, 1993. Princeton, NJ: 1997; I. Banac (ed.), Eastern Europe in
11. W. R. Louis and R. Owen (eds), Suez 1956: The Crisis Revolution, Ithaca, NY, 1992; T. G. Ash, The Magic Lantern:
and its Consequences, Oxford, 1989; D. B. Kunz, The The Revolution of ’89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin,
Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis, Chapel Hill, 1989. and Prague, New York, 1990.
12. M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 24. For approaches to this theme: B. Kouchner, Le
1200, 3rd ed. Stanford, 2001, pp. 247–86; Part 4; F. Gouda Malheur des Autres, Paris, 1991; J. Keane, Global Civil
and T. B. Zaalberg, American Visions of the Netherlands Society? Cambridge, 2003.
East Indies/Indonesia, Amsterdam, 2002.
13. For surveys, R. von Albertini, Francisca Garvey, trans.,
Decolonization: The Administration and Future of the Colonies,
1919–1960, New York, 1982; J. Stringhall, Decolonization BIBLIOGRAPHY
since 1945: The Collapse of European Overseas Empires,
Basingstoke, 2001. BETTS, R. F. 1998. Decolonization: Making of the Contemporary World.
14. R. Dumont, L’Afrique noire est mal partie, Paris, 1962, Routledge, London and New York.
rev. ed. 1973. For a good survey, Frederick Cooper, Africa BOSE, S. and JALAL, A. 1998. Modern South Asia: History, Culture, and
Since 1940: The Past of the Present, Cambridge, 2002. Political Economy. Routledge, London and New York.
15. See M. Bundy, Danger and Survival, New York, 1988; CHAFER, T. 2002. The End of Empire in French West Africa: France’s
B. J. Bernstein (ed.), The Atomic Bomb: The Critical Issues, Successful Decolonization? Berg, Oxford and New York.
Boston, 1976. CHRISTIE, C. J. 1996. A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decoloniz­
16. See J. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of ation, Nationalism and Separatism. I. B. Tauris, London.
World War II, New York, 1999; also Dower, Empire and COOPER, F. 1996. Decolonization and African Society: The Labor
Aftermath: Yoshida Shigerua and the Japanese Experience, Question in French and British Africa (African Studies Series: 89).
1878–1954, Cambridge, MA, 1979; and A. Gordon, The Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Wages of Affluence: Labor and Management in Postwar . 2002. Africa Since 1940. The Past of the Present. Series: New
Japan, Cambridge, MA, 1998. Approaches to African History. Cambridge University Press,
17. J. D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, pp. 484– Cambridge.
533; T. Tang, America’s Failure in China, 1941–1950, GIFFORD, P. and LOUIS, W. R. 1982. The Transfer of Power in Africa:
Chicago, 1963.. Decolonization, 1940–1960. Yale University Press, New Haven,
18. For differing views, A. S. Milward, The Reconstruction CT.
of Western Europe 1945–51, Berkeley, CA, 1984; M. Hogan, KHILNANI, S. 1998. The Idea of India. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New
The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction York.
of Western Europe, 1947–1952, Cambridge and New York, LOGEVALL, F. 1999. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the
1987; G. Bossuat, La France, l’aide américaine et la construction Escalation of War in Vietnam. University of California Press,
européenne 1944–1954, 2 vols. Paris, 1992; C. S. Maier and Berkeley and Los Angeles.
G. Bischof (eds), The Marshall Plan and Germany, New LOUIS, W. R. 1984. The British Empire in the Middle East 1945–1951:
York and Oxford, 1991; F. Gori and S. Pons (eds), The Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism.
Soviet Union and Europe in the Cold War, 1943–1953, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Basingstoke and New York, 1996; V. Zubok and RICKLEFS, M. C. 2002. A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1200.
C. Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to (3rd. ed.). Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Khrushchev, Cambridge, MA, 1996. SPENCE, J. D. 1999. The Search for Modern China. (2nd ed.). W. W.
19. For the German division see N. Naimark, The Russians Norton & Company, New York.
in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, STORA, B. and HARBI, M.  (eds) 2004. La guerre d’Algérie, 1954–2004: La
1945–1949, Cambridge, MA, 1995; and a dissenting view: fin de l’amnésie. Robert Lafont, Paris.
C. W. Eisenberg, Drawing the Line: The American Decision
to Divide Germany, 1944–1949, Cambridge, 1996; also
important: M. Trachtenberg, A Constructed Peace: The
Making of the European Settlement, 1945–1963, Princeton,
NJ, 1999; T. Garton Ash, In Europe’s Name: Germany and
the Divided Continent, London, 1993.
20. E. Latham, The Communist Controversy in Washington:
From the New Deal to McCarthy, Cambridge, MA, 1966;

55
 4
thematic section

National Liberation Movements

a n d t h e C o ll a p s e o f C o l o n i a l i s m

Nodari A. Simonia

T he history of the formation of Portuguese Empire began to break down, and later
national liberation movements Zimbabwe (1980), Western Sahara (1982) and Namibia
(1990) liberated themselves from colonial dependence
The genesis of national liberation movements is connected (Plate 38). With the collapse of the racist regime in the
with the final phase of colonialism when the West entered South African Republic in 1994, the political system of
a higher stage of development and started to export colonialism came to an end.
industrial capital to colonies and semi-colonies. It was
accompanied by large-scale infrastructure construction, the
development of modern communication facilities, the The specific character of anti-colonial nationalism
creation of new administrative-bureaucratic structures.
Moreover, during this period, a larger part of the local Nationalism was the main ideological banner in the
population had access to education. The condition was ripe liberation struggle of the peoples of three continents. But
for the formation of new social classes, including national the case in point is a particular phenomenon, entirely
intellectuals, as well as the press, new political organizations, different from what we know about the European experience.
etc. In other words, there emerged at this time the minimum The origins of nationalism in Europe in the epoch of
historical prerequisites for national awakening and gradual absolutism was mainly endogenous, as national identity and
transformation of uncoordinated spontaneous national statehood were forming on the basis of the
manifestations of traditional protest and rebellion into a developing domestic market and elements of civil society
modern ‘nation-wide’ anti-colonial liberation movement. that began to take shape. The genesis of nationalism in Asia,
Important international events, such as the revolutions Africa and Latin America was exogenous. It originated
in Russia (1905–7), Iran (1905–11), the Ottoman Empire within the framework of the ‘metropolitan country-colony’
(1908), China (1911–13) and Mexico (1911–13) gave a system as a reaction to the unequal situation and unjust
powerful stimulus to liberation movements. An even more distribution of the wealth and power. For this reason, it
profound effect on the processes of national awakening was was, for the most part, based on an anti-foreign attitude
produced by the First World War and the ensuing Russian from the outset.
Revolution of 1917. However, it was the Second World War Although no two countries in the region are alike, if we
that became a historical turning point in the fortunes of the compare the conditions under which nationalism
peoples of colonies and semi-colonies. The myths that the originated on different continents, we shall see that a larger
power of colonialists could not be resisted and ‘the white proportion of the peoples that managed to retain their
man was invincible’ were completely dispelled in the crucible traditional statehood during the epoch of colonialism (over
of that war. fifteen countries) were Asian. Most of them (up to 10)
In the aftermath of the war, the countries of South-East managed to remain semi-colonies. A considerable
and East Asia formed the first echelon of liberated states. percentage of the states in Asia are characterized by a high
Between 1945 and 1949, nearly all the countries of the degree of ethnic homogeneity (Japan, both Koreas,
region proclaimed their independence. They were followed Mongolia, Bangladesh), the predominance of a main
by the states of North Africa (1951–56). As a result, during national group (China, Thailand, Turkey, Iraq, Burma,
the first post-war decade, out of 1.5 billion people living in Kampuchea, Laos, Singapore) or the prevalence of closely
the former colonial countries, about 1.2 billion gained related ethnic groups naturally united into one ethnic
freedom. Ghana (1957) and Guinea (1958) were in the group (Indonesia, the Philippines). At the same time, such
vanguard of a new liberation movement that peaked in 1960 countries as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Malaysia,
(‘the year of Africa’), when 17 African states gained Nepal are ethnically diverse. Owing to all these
independence. Finally, from the mid-1970s on, the circumstances, the progress of national-state development

56
 N a t i o n a l L i b e r a t i o n M o v e m e n t s a n d t h e C o ll a p s e o f C o l o n i a l i s m

Map 4  Decolonization since 1945

Adapted from B. Delaveau, et al., 1989, Décolonisation et problèmes de l’Afrique indépendante, Edicef, Paris.

in Asia is quite evident as a peculiar ‘country individualism’ historical uniqueness and claims of the high level of spiritual
was taking shape there, and there was no continent-wide development among African peoples. Its main objective
pan-Asian movement. was to create a single African state. In 1919, Harvard-
A certain number of factors are responsible for the trained sociologist W. E. B. Dubois organized the first
relative lateness of the awakening of a mass national Pan-African Congress in Paris, which was able to voice
consciousness in African countries. With the exception of some of the concerns of Africans and to make suggestions
predominantly Arab northern regions of the continent, clan for the educational, social and economic development of
and tribal relations prevailed in Africa, even where state Africa and the administration of the mandated territories.
entities were formed. On the whole, Africa was colonized The second congress, convened in London, Brussels and
relatively late. As late as 1876, up to 90 per cent of its Paris in 1921, and the third in London and Lisbon in 1923,
territory was unclaimed. As a result, anti-colonial ideas drew attention to the ills of the colonial system in Africa
originated outside Africa and were based on the awareness and the evils of racial discrimination resulting from the
of racial rather than national oppression. diaspora. But the fifth congress, held in Manchester in
1945, marked a turning point by the active participation of
such outstanding figures from Africa as Kwame Nkrumah,
Pan-Africanism Jomo Kenyatta and Peter Abraham, who were determined
to shift the movement to Africa and actively pursue
The idea of African unity was conceived by Edward independence and the unity of the African continent.
W. Blyden, from the West Indies, in the middle of the Beginning in the late 1950s, pan-Africanism began gradually
nineteenth century. He advocated unity and race evolving from a movement for continental unification into
consciousness of an African identity of the Negro or a movement for the united action of independent African
African race. Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, states. The concept of African unity was interpreted in
a political movement for the unification of the Negroes different ways by different African leaders. The various
against racial oppression took shape. It acquired on official tendencies were represented at several conferences held in
status in 1900 at the first Pan-African Conference, held in Africa in 1958, 1960, 1961, which resulted in the creation of
London under auspices of the Pan-African Association, the OAU (Organization of African Unity) in 1963. Ever
led by Trinidadian lawyer Sylvester William. Thus, initially since, all efforts (particularly in the 1980s and first half of
the movement was an initiative of the African diaspora the 1990s) to revive the ideals of pan-Africanism have been
community and was based on the ideas of cultural and doomed to failure.

57
 thematic section

Arab nationalism the people’s self-government, and the first Congress of the
NLF, held in 1964, approved the course for ‘socialist
The geographical location of the Arab world – at the reforms’ (land reform, nationalization of foreign trade,
junction of two continents – could not but affect the banks, etc.). Subsequently, the government of Houari
processes of national awakening. In addition, the Arabs had Boumediene began placing great emphasis on nationalism.
been conquered and remained part of the Ottoman Empire In the ‘National Charter’ (1976), the principle of ‘self-
until the end of First World War. On the one hand, this reliance’ was stressed and Islam was proclaimed the state
factor served to consolidate the spirit of Arab unity, but on religion. In the revised version of the charter (1986), a more
the other hand, the Arabs within the Ottoman Empire important role was given to private national capital.
were isolated from direct Western influence for many
centuries. Common historical destinies encouraged the
emergence of a pan-Arab movement. In contrast to pan- Nationalism in Latin America
Africanism, pan-Arabism was based on shared
ethno-cultural, linguistic and religious factors which Processes of national awakening in Latin America had a
proponents of pan-Arabism use in their broad interpretation unique character. By the beginning of the nineteenth
of the concept of a single Arab nation. century, colonialism in Latin America had not paved the
In the 1920s and the 1930s, the conditions were ripe for way for any of the usual prerequisites for the emergence of
the emergence of ‘regional’ (i. e., country) nationalism, nationalism. The independence gained between 1810 and
particularly in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia and 1926 by most of the Latin American countries resulted
Algeria. Thus, pan-Arabism began to coexist alongside with primarily from European events – Napoleon’s occupation
‘regional’ nationalisms. of Spain and Portugal and the overthrow of the long-
Algerian nationalism was profoundly affected by the standing monarchies. Consequently, independence did not
long and unrelenting liberation struggle against the French reflect the emergence of national states, and the process of
colonial power (1954–62). This struggle provoked internal the formation of nations was a lengthy one.
radicalization and gave rise to pan-African and even ‘Third At the beginning of the twentieth century, cultural
World’ (F. Fanon, 1925–61, French politician and nationalism prevailed; however, before long, a more efficient
psychiatrist) guidelines and orientations. In the course of form emerged. The so-called ‘economic nationalism’
struggle for liberation, Algerian intellectuals adopted a proclaimed the priority of the nation’s ownership of all land,
critical attitude towards a colonial-capitalist political water and natural resources (Mexican Constitution of 1917).
economy and drew up guidelines for the restoration of the In practice, it resulted in the establishment of large state
economy through centralized planning. Their position was corporations and the nationalization of basic industries, the
formulated in 1962 by the Tripoli Programme of the policy of industrialization, and the introduction of restrictions
National Liberation Front (NLF). After independence, on the activities of foreign capital (Argentina, Mexico, Chile
nationalization was carried out and the state sector was and Brazil). This type of nationalism represented a
established. The state established control over foreign compromise between the semi-colonial cosmopolitism of the
capital activities. A large-scale exodus of the European old ruling circles and radical nationalists, who disclaimed the
population set the stage for the emergence of the system of role of external factors. It was oriented toward domestic

Map 5  Colonization in Africa Independence in Africa

58
 N a t i o n a l L i b e r a t i o n M o v e m e n t s a n d t h e C o ll a p s e o f C o l o n i a l i s m

production and consumption, but for the sake of successful Before reunification with South Viet Nam, the country’s
economic development, the rational use of foreign investments social development could be described as the synthesis of
and assistance was also advocated. the Soviet political system and a ‘war communism’ type of
The Pan-Continentalism movement originated in the economy. In 1979, the leaders of the country made the first
course of the liberation struggle and was initially directed fundamental revision to their development strategy. More
against Spain and Portugal. Led by Simon Bolivar, it emphasis was placed on material incentives, private
assumed the spirit of continental unity – americanismo. enterprise, expansion of the market for consumer goods,
Later on, the idea of continentalism acquired a new base – etc. In 1986, a new programme of liberalization of the
anti-yankeeism (directed against the United States) – economy was adopted. The main objective of the programme
particularly after the Mexican War and as a consequence of was industrialization and modernization, the granting of
a broad interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. In the 1930s privileges to private capital and drastic reductions in the
and 1940s, the United States made an attempt to assuage state sector. As a result of a new law on foreign investments
those negative attitudes and to weaken Latin American adopted in 1987, the economy became more open.
continentalism through the concept and the policy of
‘multilateralism’.
Cuba

D ifferent M odels of S ocialism Perhaps the main peculiarity of the socialist regime in Cuba
is the fact that the policy of the United States had a
The upsurge of liberation movements and the collapse of dominant role in its genesis and development. Fidel Castro,
the colonial system were played out within the framework who since 1956 had led the partisan war against the
of the confrontation between two systems. As a consequence, dictatorial regime of Batista and came to power on
in a number of the countries, communist parties managed 1 January 1959, was a radical nationalist who did not share
to take over the leadership of liberation movements, thereby communist convictions. From the very beginning, the
facilitating their rise to power. United States took an extremely negative attitude towards
the Castro regime. In January 1961, it broke off diplomatic
relations with Cuba and imposed a diplomatic and economic
China blockade on the island. In April, they organized the Bay of
Pigs landing operation. All these actions pushed Castro to
After the People’s Republic of China was founded there was the left and made him seek allies in the socialist camp.
some disagreement among the leaders of the country’s Castroism differed from both the Soviet model, distinguished
Communist Party: some advocating following Stalin’s model by the important role of the Communist Party and a
while others remained faithful to Lenin’s ‘New Economic preliminary organization of the proletariat for the seizure of
Policy’. The unique feature of the socio-economic policy of political power, and from the Chinese model, according to
the new Chinese leadership was the way it dealt with its which the Communist Party joined the United Front,
bourgeoisie (creation of mixed state-private enterprises, which encompassed the proletariat and the peasantry as
policy of redemption of the private capital, etc.). Subsequently, well as the bourgeoisie. Castro and his followers in Latin
the development of Chinese society began to follow the tenets America (Fidelistas) believed that in order to overthrow a
of Maoism. In 1958 and 1959, Mao Zedong undertook the corrupt dictator, it sufficed to organize a guerrilla war in
‘Great Leap Forward’ that resulted in the establishment of rural and urban areas.
rural communes and in large-scale industrialization (Plate Among the early features of Cuba’s distinctive brand of
39). The country strove to achieve self-reliance and the level socialism was total disregard for the principle of material
of highly developed capitalist countries. From 1966 to 1976, incentives and an emphasis on moral incentives. However,
the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’ against ‘old ideas, Cuban leaders eventually had to abandon such policies and,
old culture, old habits and old customs’ was launched. from the late 1960s, the features of the Soviet model became
However, after Mao’s death (1976) and Deng Xiaoping’s more and more prominent in the country’s social
return to power, radical economic reforms were undertaken, development. After the end of the Cold War, Cuba found
though the Communist Party retained its leading political itself in a crisis situation that impelled the leaders of the
role. China is now in the process of establishing a socialist country to start developing a mixed economy.
market economy.

Nationalist socialism
Viet Nam
From the very start of their activities, a large number of the
Vietnamese socialism emerged from the flames of the armed national leaders of liberation movements came under the
liberation struggle that lasted for 35 years (initially against influence of socialist ideas. However, practically all of them
Japanese occupation, then against French colonialism and combined the general idea of socialism with their specific
lastly against the military intervention of the United States). types of nationalism and traditionalism.
From the very beginning of the struggle the Communist
Party managed to organize a broad national front – Viet
Nam Independence League (or Viet Minh). As the nucleus of Indonesian socialism
that front, the Communist Party did not bring forward any
socialist slogans and pursued a rather flexible social policy The ideology and practice of Indonesian socialism is
that brought it mass support, particularly from the peasants. connected with the name of the country’s first president,

59
 thematic section

Achmed Sukarno (Plate 40). It is based on five principles Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
known as ‘Pancasila’: nationalism, internationalism,
democracy, social justice, belief in God. Alleging that The idea of non-alignment has roots in the socio-political
Western liberal democracy was inapplicable to Indonesia, and religious-philosophical teaching of Mahatma Gandhi.
in 1957 Sukarno proposed the system of ‘Guided Democracy’ A distinctive feature of Gandhi’s philosophy is the necessity
on the basis of which he formed a Mutual Cooperation of mass non-violent resistance to colonialism (‘Satyagraha’
Cabinet (Goton Royon Cabinet). Soon afterwards, the or truth grasping) and using the strength of one’s mind
concept of ‘Indonesian socialism’ was supplemented by the against brute material force. Jawaharlal Nehru (Plate 41)
ideas of NASAKOM (an acronym for: nationalism, religion transferred the basic principles of Ghandi’s teachings to the
and communism). The external aspect of ‘Indonesian sphere of foreign policy. In July 1956, on the island of Brioni
socialism’ was radical anti-colonialism, anti-neocolonialism (Yugoslavia) I. Tito, J. Nehru and G. A. Nasser signed the
and anti-imperialism. declaration that proclaimed the principles of the Non-
Aligned Movement. In 1961, 25 state and government
leaders of the non-aligned countries gathered in Belgrade
Arab socialism, the Baath movement for their first conference, which formulated the movement’s
three main goals: scaling down global confrontation, the
Originating in Syria in 1953, this movement appealed to struggle against colonialism, and economic development.
the poor, landless peasants for support against foreign The movement emerged as a reaction to the Cold War
influence and big landowners. It encouraged the and the rigid bipolarity of the world in the 1950s. At that
nationalization of industry but also favoured private time, even large developing countries were not able to
property and enterprises in the hopes of improving general effectively counteract pressure from the superpowers and
social welfare. The Baath motto was ‘Unity – Freedom – resist being drawn into military-political blocs (the Baghdad
Socialism’, ‘Unity’ referring to a single centralized Arab Pact, CENTO, SEATO, etc.). For this reason, certain
State and ‘Socialism’ being the economic essence of Arab countries decided to resort to collective diplomacy under the
socialism, which was essentially nationalist and bound to banner of the Non-Aligned Movement (Plate 42). The
serve the Arab nationalist cause. Second NAM conference, which took place in Cairo in
1964, put forward the idea of forming the Group of 77,
which was established at the UNCTAD conference the
Bandung and the ‘Third World’ concept same year. The fourth conference, held in Algeria (1973),
adopted the Declaration and the Programme of the New
Almost immediately after the emergence of new independent International Economic Order (NIEO). The following year,
states, they became an object of confrontation between the a special session of the United Nations General Assembly
‘two world systems’. At first, the prevailing opinion in the approved the Declaration establishing the NIEO.
West (particularly in the United States) was that the former By the early 1990s, 10 conferences of the NAM had
colonial and dependent countries should embark upon the taken place, and its membership rose to 111 countries in
path of modernization and Westernization (Edward Shils, 1995. However, after the Cold War ended, the NAM found
Lucian W. Pye, David E. Apter, S. P. Huntington, itself in an entirely new environment: political decolonization
S. N. Eisenstadt and others). The Soviet bloc believed that had been completed, developing countries had become
liberation revolutions would not end at the nationalist stage increasingly differentiated, and the internal fragmentation
and would develop into social revolutions. The African and within the movement was intensifying. Regionalization and
Asian countries considered that they were trying to become the formation of a multi-centred world structure had begun.
an independent part of the world community. The Afro- The NAM was confronted with the need to reconsider its
Asian conference in Bandung (Indonesia) was a landmark in objectives, strategies and, probably, even its very existence.
the history of newly independent states. Among the
participants of the conference – convened in April 1955 on
the initiative of Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and The Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf
Burma – were such prominent political figures as Sukarno,
Nehru, Zhou Enlai, Pham Van Dong and Norodom During the entire twentieth century, the Middle East had
Sihanouk. Representatives of 29 Asian and African countries been in the spotlight of world public opinion and the centre
approved 10 principles of international cooperation. of conflicts between various geopolitical, military and
Initially, the term ‘Third World’ (le tiers monde), referring economic interests. Already considered strategic in 1869 at
to a particular world community, was widely used in France the opening of the Suez Canal, the region acquired even
(A. Sauvy, G. Balandier), and subsequently around the greater importance in the twentieth century when new oil
world, to distinguish developing countries from the ‘First’ deposits were discovered there.
(developed countries) and ‘Second’ (socialist countries) The Suez Canal is one of only four international passages
‘Worlds’. Later on, as a synonym of the ‘Third World’, the linking two seas. After the Egyptian revolution of 1952, the
term ‘the South’ (as opposed to ‘the North’) was introduced. British troops remained in the canal zone until July 1956.
During the 1960s and 1970s, attempts were made to use the By that time, Egypt’s relations with the West had grown
criteria of under-development and poverty for classifying rather tense. Among the factors that contributed to the
the countries of the Third World. However, with the West’s negative attitude towards Egypt was the independent
process of differentiation between developing countries course pursued by Nasser, his role as the undisputed leader
accelerating, all these attempts were doomed to failure. of the liberation movement in the Arab world, and Egypt’s
Within the United Nations and its agencies the term cooperation with socialist countries. In 1956, the United
‘Fourth World’ was coined. States and England refused to finance the construction of

60
 N a t i o n a l L i b e r a t i o n M o v e m e n t s a n d t h e C o ll a p s e o f C o l o n i a l i s m

Map 6  United Nations Partition Plan Map 7  The Armistice Agreements Map 8  Israel and the Occupied
(1947) (1949) Territories (1999)

Adapted from E. Barnavi, 1982, Israël au XXe siècle, PUF, Paris, pp. 318–19.

the Aswan High Dam, despite their earlier promises. In of Iraqi troops from Kuwait and acknowledged the latter’s
response, Nasser nationalized the canal, intending to use sovereignty. Moscow’s attempts to find a compromise
the revenue to finance the construction of the dam. England, political solution ended in failure. Operation Desert Storm,
France and Israel retaliated by occupying the canal zone. In launched on 24 February 1991, succeeded in defeating the
a statement issued 5 November 1956, the Government of Iraqi troops.
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics demanded that
military operations be stopped and foreign troops
withdrawn. The United States also decided not to support Palestine and the creation of Israel
their allies. As a result, foreign troops left Egypt in
March 1957. The Palestine issue is perhaps the oldest problem in the
Today, the Persian Gulf is considered the world’s most Middle East. In the Balfour Declaration, issued in November
critical sea route: two-thirds of the world’s oil exports travel 1917, Great Britain committed to support the establishment
through the Gulf en route to consumers. For the past two of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. Subsequently,
decades, at least two major conflicts of global importance Jewish immigration rapidly increased, especially between
have broken out in the Gulf region. 1932 and 1938 owing to the persecution of Jews by Nazi
The Iran-Iraq War lasted eight years (September 1980– Germany. Indeed, the Holocaust contributed tremendously
August 1988), and many problems resulting from it to Jewish immigration to Palestine: by 1945, some
remained unresolved in the early twenty-first century. The 564,000 Jews were living in Palestine. In 1947, the United
rivalry between Iran and Iraq in the Gulf has a very long Nations General Assembly adopted the Partition
history. The dispute over Iran’s right to use Shatt al-Arab Resolution, which provided for the division of Palestine
waterway had been settled in 1975 in favour of Iran. After into two states: one Arab and the other Jewish (the
Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Iraq decided to break the accords resolution was supported by the United States and the
of 1975 by attempting to win back oil-rich Khuzistan, Soviet Union) (Map 6). The Arab state was never
conquered by Iran in 1925. In September 1980, Iraqi troops established, while the creation of the State of Israel was
invaded Iranian territory, making it clear that the war would proclaimed in May 1948 and was immediately followed by
be protracted. A cease-fire signed by both sides in August the first Arab-Israeli War (1948–1949) (Map 7). As a result
1988 put an end to the fighting. of that conflict, Israel not only retained all of its territory
The second war in the Gulf began in August 1990, soon but also seized part of the territory that had been apportioned
after the previous conflict, when Saddam Hussein invaded to the Arab state. The remaining part of the territory was
Kuwait and proclaimed it Iraq’s nineteenth province. The annexed by Jordan (the West Bank and East Jerusalem)
Soviet Union joined the international community in and Egypt (the Gaza Strip). In 1964, the Palestine Liberation
strongly condemning this act of aggression. The United Organization (PLO) was established. In October 1974, the
States initiated the creation of a multinational Allied United Nations General Assembly voted to officially
coalition, which consisted primarily of Americans recognize the PLO as the sole representative of the
(532,000 soldiers). Palestinian people by an overwhelming majority (105
The United Nations Security Council condemned the against 4).
invasion and adopted a resolution to impose economic Soon after the Camp David Accords (1978) and the
sanctions on Iraq. It demanded unconditional withdrawal Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty (1979) were signed, the Israeli

61
 thematic section

Parliament (Knesset) officially legitimized the annexation Graciarena, J. 1967. Poder y clases sociales en el desarrollo de América
of East Jerusalem, and in the summer of 1982, Israel invaded Latina. Piados, Buenos Aires.
Lebanon to drive out PLO leaders and its armed forces. Hardoy, J. and Satterthwaite, D. (eds). 1986. Small and
Only in September 1993 did both sides finally sign the Oslo Intermediate Urban Centres: Their Role in Regional and National
Accords, which called for the transfer of power over the Development in the Third World. Hodder and Stoughton,
West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. For London.
various reasons however, the Oslo Accords failed, and by Hourani, A. 1991. A History of the Arab Peoples. Harvard University
the century’s end, no solution appeared in sight (Map 8). Press, Cambridge, MA.
Hunter, G. 1969. Modernizing Peasant Societies: A Comparative Study
in Asia and Africa. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Jackson, R. H. and Rosberg, C. G. 1982. Personal Rule in Black Africa:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant. University of California Press,
(Chapters 4, 5 and 6) Berkley and Los Angeles.
Jaguaribe, H. 1968. Economic and Political Development: A Theoretical
Abdel-Malek, A., BLUE, G. and PECUJLIC, M. (eds). 1982. Science and Approach and a Brazilian Case Study. Harvard University Press,
Technology in the Transformation of the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cambridge, MA.
London.  1973. Political Development. A General Theory and a Latin American
Ake, C. 1978. Revolutionary Pressures in Africa. Zed Books, London. Case Study. Harper and Row, New York.
Alatas, H. S. 1977. Intellectuals in Developing Societies. Frank Cass & Lentner, H. H. 1993. State Formation in Central America: The Struggle
Co., London. for Autonomy, Development, and Democracy. Greenwood Press,
AmiN, S. 1990. Maldevelopment: Anatomy of a Global Failure. Zed Westport, CT.
Books, London. Mazrui, A. A. 1978. Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa.
 1973. Neo-colonialism in West Africa. Penguin Books, London. Heinemann, London.
Asante, M. K. 1987. The Afrocentric Idea. Temple University Press,  and Tidy, M. 1984. Nationalism and New States in Africa.
Philadelphia, PA. Heinemann, London.
Bairoch, P. and LÉvy-Leboyer, M. (eds). 1981. Disparities in Economic Odetola, T. O. 1982. Military Regimes and Development: A
Development Since the Industrial Revolution. The Macmillan Press Comparative Analysis in African Societies. George Allen and
Ltd., London. Unwin, London.
Cardoso, F. H. and Faletto, E. 1979. Dependency and Development , Oloruntimehin, B. O. and Aweda, D. A. 1983. Man and Society
in Latin America. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los in Africa: An Introduction to Sociology. Longman, London and
Angeles. New York.
Chazan, N., Mortimer, R., Ravenhill, J. and Rothchild, D. 1999. Rotberg, R. I. (ed.). 1983. Imperialism, Colonialism, and Hunger: East
Politics and Society in Contemporary Africa. (3rd ed.). Lynne and Central Africa. Lexington Books. Lexington, MA.
Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO. Sandbrook, R. 1982. The Politics of Basic Needs: Urban Aspects of
Collier, D. (ed.). 1979. The New Authoritarianism in Latin America. Assaulting Poverty in Africa. University of Toronto Press, Buffalo,
Princeton University Press, Princeton. Toronto.
Dasgupta, A. K. 1974. Economic Theory and the Developing Countries. SHAFER, B. C. 1972. Faces of Nationalism: New Realities and Old Myths.
St. Martin’s Press, New York. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York.
Dawisha, A. 1986. The Arab Radicals. Council on Foreign Relations, TAYLOR, R. H. (ed.). 1991. Asia and the Pacific. (Series: Handbooks to
New York. the Modern World. Vols. 1 and 2.). Facts on File, New York.
Ergas, Z. (ed.). 1987. The African State in Transition. Macmillan, THIAM, A. 1987. Continents noirs. Editions Tierce, Paris.
Basingstoke, UK. THIAM, D. 1965. The Foreign Policy of African States: Ideological Bases,
Fishlow, A., DÍaz-Alejandro, C., Fagen, R. and Hansen, R. 1978. Present Realities, Future Prospects. Phoenix House, Orion
Rich and Poor Nations in the World Economy. McGraw-Hill, New Publishing Group, London.
York. TIBI, B. 1990. Arab Nationalism: A Critical Enquiry. Translated by
Furtado, C. 1967. Development and Underdevelopment. University of Farouk-Sluglett, M. and Sluglett, P. (2nd ed.). St. Martin’s Press,
California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. New York.

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 5
P o s t - C o l o n i a l P r o bl e m s
Former Colonial Powers
and New States

Nodari A. Simonia

R acism , C olonialism and T H E I R radicalism, with landmarks events such as the Sharperville
C onsequences massacre (1960) and the Soweto uprising (1976). Beginning
in the mid 1980s, the country was in a state of a civil war. In
Colonialism destroyed the integrity of traditional life and the end, the ruling regime had to begin negotiations with the
the natural interplay between people and nature, and slavery main opposition force – the African National Congress and
was revived in order to provide plantations and mines with its leader Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela who had served over 27
inexpensive manpower. Up to 10 million black people from years in jail. After the first free and general elections in
Africa were resettled in the West Indies, the Americas, May 1994, the regime of apartheid collapsed.
thereby generating a number of serious problems, some of
which have yet to be solved. Africa itself was divided into
three zones (Samir Amin): (a) Africa of the labour reserves; Fragmentation
(b) Africa of the colonial trade economy; and (c) Africa of
the concession-owning companies. One of the extremely negative consequences of colonialism
In fact, European expansion resulted in the formation of was political, social, ethnic, religious, economic and cultural
three types of colonies: (1) colonies governed by European fragmentation of developing societies. Among the principal
countries, (2) ‘colonies’ inside the mother countries (the factors of fragmentation were artificial borders drawn by the
United States and a few Latin American countries), and colonialists. Even when they were withdrawing from
(3) colonies with fragments of mother countries within colonies, Western powers tried to change the borders to
(South Africa, South Rhodesia). their own advantage as exemplified by the division of the
In all cases, colonialism gave rise to racism, racial Indian subcontinent on the basis of the region’s prevailing
discrimination and segregation. The first type of colonies religious differences, the United States of Indonesia imposed
solved this problem upon gaining independence. The United by Holland (1949–51), the Malayan Federation, and
States, which started the process of combating racism attempts to form various federations in Africa. African
during the Civil War (1861–65), became the scene of race territories were divided without regard for the ethnic groups
riots and disorders in the decades following the and the emerging state entities. As a result, the new political
Second World War. (The murder of the Nobel Peace Prize entities brought together fragments of different ethnic
winner Martin Luther King [Plate 43] in 1968 provoked groups (Bacongo, Ewe, Masai, Yoruba in Central, West and
racial unrest in some 125 towns across 29 US states.) East Africa and many others), thus setting the stage for both
However, the struggle against racism was the most fierce conflicts between neighbouring states (between Chad and
and bloody in the Republic of South Africa. Legalization of Libya, Zaire and Angola, Burkina Faso and Mali, Somalia
racism, which formed the basis of the state system of apartheid, and Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, etc.) as well as internal
actually began with the establishment of the Union of South clashes that sometimes developed into civil wars (Nigeria,
Africa (1910) and continued after it joined the British Ivory Coast, Sudan, Zaire, Ethiopia). In a number of cases,
Commonwealth (1931). When the coalition of Afrikaner they even escalated into veritable genocide, as occurred
nationalists came to power in 1948 and the National Party between the ethnic groups of Tutsi and Hutu in Rwanda
was formed in 1951, the regime, based on the Afrikaner (1959 and 1994) and Burundi (1972 and 1993–94).
peoples’ belief in their ‘god-given mission’, was finally and Ethnic diversity leads to political fragmentation: the
totally legitimized (Plate 44). After the adoption of the Bill on struggle between different ethnic groups for power, status,
Bantustans (1959), 73 per cent of the black population became possession of economic resources, etc. The existence of
citizens of 10 Bantustans (reservations), to which 13 per cent multiple loyalties (family, clan, tribal, state) complicates
of the most barren land was allotted. Since that time, the political processes, impedes the process of governing and
African peoples’ struggle for liberation acquired greater destabilizes society. The above-mentioned factors also

63
 thematic section

account for social fragmentation and for the fact that the developing countries. Generally speaking, colonialism
formation of classes and civil society will be a long process. destroyed the integrity of their economies. Certain local
Ethnic fragmentation is often combined with religious structures maintained the colonial division of labour in
fragmentation, which creates additional difficulties. These collaboration with the mother country, while others
contradictions are also aggravated by the fact that during perpetuated a stagnating farming tradition. Plantation
the colonial period, many peoples and ethnic groups in farming, peasant commercial production and mining
Africa lived in the sphere of influence of different European enterprises continue to be export-oriented up to the present
cultures (English, French or Spanish is spoken in most day. The entire infrastructure was created in such a way that
former colonies). In addition, the formation of modern the colony’s economy was more closely connected with the
society in the former colonial countries also encounters mother country than with the other regions of the colony.
economic fragmentation, the absence or weakness of the One of the most vivid manifestations of economic
domestic market, enclave economic development, causing dependence is the monocultural character of production. In
social tension and at times regional separatism. the 1960s, about 70 independent states relied on the export
of one to three primary commodities or minerals (oil,
copper, bauxite, etc.), agricultural commodities (cotton,
T H E P roblem of M inorities jute, rubber, copra, etc.) or foodstuffs (coffee beans, peanuts,
cocoa beans, tea, bananas, rice, citrus fruits). This policy laid
Ethnic fragmentation poses a particularly serious problem the foundation for the subsequent marginalization of certain
whenever minorities reach a comparatively high level of self- countries and was responsible for the crises from the 1970s
identification and political consciousness. As a rule, their to the 1990s, which were aggravated by a slump in raw
assimilation by the dominant nation becomes rather materials prices and a rise in the prices of industrial imports.
difficult, and in some cases impossible. Almost from the The technological revolution passed those countries by, and
outset of independence, such minorities wage an unrelenting Western countries made investments mainly in their own
struggle for self-determination. As a rule, their struggle economies or in a small number of developing countries. As
begins with demands for cultural and administrative a result, from 1980 to 1991, the 42 least-developed countries
autonomy, but having met with opposition from the central registered a negative average annual growth of the GNP per
power, they radicalize their struggle and begin to demand capita (-5.4 per cent), while 10 low-income and 20 medium-
secession (separatism). income countries also had negative or zero growth. The
The problem of minorities sometimes involves exclusively efforts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
internal affairs of the concerned state. In other cases, the World Bank to apply ‘structural adjustment’ measures to
minority is scattered across two or even several neighbouring such countries were unsuccessful because these organizations
states, adding a regional dimension to the problem. An did not envisage the overall restructuring of production, the
example of the former case is the Sudan, where Nilot tribes elimination of their economies’ dualism and their conversion
in the southern part of the country waged an armed struggle into national economies based on the domestic market.
from 1955 to 1972 and finally achieved autonomy and self- However, even those countries that had taken the path
government (Plate 45). Another example is the Igbo’s of industrialization for many decades remained
attempt to secede from Nigeria (1967–70) to create an technologically dependent (on the importing of equipment,
independent Biafra. The resistance was repressed, but in technical assistance, capital investment, patent and license
order to prevent new attempts of separatism, federalism was purchases). Moreover, the number of scientists and
instituted in Nigeria. The only example of separatism engineers in the Third World engaged in research and
brought to completion in Africa is Eritrea, which seceded development ranged from 4 to 16 per 100,000 people from
from Ethiopia in 1991, as a result of an armed struggle 1970 to 1976 (compared to 124 to 240 in developed
waged since the early 1960s. countries). In the mid-1970s, developing countries
More complex is the problem of fragmented minorities. accounted for only 2 to 3 per cent of the world expenditures
The governments of the region usually manipulate such for research and development.
minorities. A classical example is the destiny of the Kurds, Developing countries are also dependent on wealthier
who live primarily in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria and nations in the military-political sphere. Here we can observe
Azerbaijan. After the First World War, the Western the logic of the ‘vicious circle’: a difficult economic situation,
powers decided to establish a Kurdish state (Sevres Treaty, political instability, local and regional conflicts lead to a
1920), but this promise was never fulfilled. The destiny of substantial increase in military spending and the import of
the Bengalese people is also noteworthy. After the division armaments, which, in turn, drastically reduces the potential
of colonial India, the majority of the Muslim population for investment in production and further deteriorates the
found itself in Pakistan, while the Hindus were economic situation. The value of armaments imported from
predominantly settled in India. Since the first days of developed countries to the Third World totalled
independence, the Bengalese in Pakistan had been slighted us$4.2 billion in 1960 and rose to us$16.5 billion in 1991.
and exploited by the Urdu-speaking population of the
western part of the country. This eventually led to a civil war
and the establishment of the Republic of Bangladesh. Poverty

Although destitution and poverty occurs in highly developed

Dependence Western countries, the nature of these phenomena is
fundamentally different in developing countries. As a result
Political liberation by no means eliminated economic, of the socio-economic dualism imposed by colonialism, up to
technological and military-political dependence of the 70 to 75 per cent of the population has remained in the

64
 P o s t - C o l o n i a l P r o bl e m s

traditional agricultural sector, which has been traditionally Available data indicate that, at least in absolute terms,
exploited (taxes, supplies of low-price foodstuffs, forced poverty in the ‘Third World’ is not decreasing but growing
labour at the construction of public project, etc.). During the (in a few countries, poverty has also increased in relative
first decades of independence, this state of affairs changed terms). In 1971, when the United Nations published the
very little, partly owing to the Western concept of promoting list of the least-developed countries, it included 25 countries;
industrialization at the expense of the agricultural sector. 10 years later there were already 31 such countries, and in
Therefore, it is hardly surprising that many rural areas fell 1990, the ‘Fourth World’ comprised 42 states with a
into a state of degradation and per capita output of foodstuffs combined population of 400 million people. The number of
drastically decreased. From 1952 to 1962, the average annual poor people in the other countries of the ‘Third World’ was
growth of foodstuffs output amounted to 0.7 per cent; by comparable. Half of all poor people live in South Asia:
contrast, from 1962 to 1972, it decreased to a mere 0.2 per cent. 560 million people or 49 per cent of the total population in
According to the World Bank, in the mid 1970s, about 1990. In Central America, about 60 per cent of the
85 per cent of the poor were concentrated in rural areas. population live in poverty. The situation is particularly
Pauperization of the rural population has contributed to critical in sub-Saharan Africa, the only region in the world
large-scale migration to urban areas, a process that can be where the growth of agricultural production lags behind the
defined as ‘galloping urbanization’. Numerous slums are population growth and where the Overseas Development
emerging in cities and their surrounding suburbs. According Administration (ODA) meets not only its basic foreign
to the United Nations, the urban population of Africa in exchange needs but also most domestic investment
1950 totalled 33 million people (14.5 per cent of the total requirements and, increasingly, recurrent costs. On the
population); by 1985, it had risen to 174 million people whole, according to the World Bank’s estimates, the number
(31.1 per cent). In Latin America, the urban population of people that are not able to satisfy their essential needs
numbered 69 million people (41.5 per cent) in 1950 and (food, drinking water, sanitation, health care and education)
279 million people (62.2 per cent) in 1985; in Asia, 226 exceeded 1.1 billion in the early 1990s.
million (16.4 per cent) and 797 million (28.1 per cent)
during the same years. In the mid-1980s, over a dozen
megalopolises emerged: ten of them with a population of Displacement of Peoples
more than 3 million people while the four largest comprised
over 10 million. Thus, in the ‘Third World’ poverty has All the factors listed above gave rise to the phenomenon of
become an urban problem as well (Plate 46). large-scale migration in the twentieth century. Two types of

Map 9  Principal migratory movements at the end of the Twentieth Century

Adapted from G. Chaliand et al., 1998, Atlas du millénaire: La mort des empires 1900–2015, Hachette, Paris.

65
 thematic section

causes can be singled out: military-political violence and regions because of the Soviet Union’s armed intervention in
socio-economic needs. Violence gave rise to a problem of Afghanistan. In the 1990s, Africa accounted for about a
refugees and internally displaced people. During the past quarter of the total number of migrants: about 1 million
decade, the number of such people has grown drastically, people fled from Ethiopia and another million were
and the problem has acquired a global character. According internally displaced; in Mozambique, 1.4 million emigrated
to the data furnished by the Office of the United Nations and 2 million were internally displaced. In 1994, 2 million
High Commissioner for Refugees, in the mid-1980s, the refugees fled from Rwanda. In Sierra Leone, there were
total number of refugees worldwide was 10 million. In 1991, 400,000 internally displaced, and an additional 380,000 were
World Refugee Survey estimated that there were at least forced to seek shelter in Guinea and Liberia. In their turn,
20 million internally displaced and 16 million refugees. This 400,000 Liberians settled in Sierra Leone, 600,000 in Guinea
process began with decolonization. Mass flows of forced and 250,000 in the Côte d’Ivoire.
migrants could be observed during the division of colonial
India (Plate 47) or the period of the British mandate over
Palestine. The war in Indochina brought about a new wave
of refugees (about 1.3 million people emigrated from Viet
Nam alone). Up to 6 million Afghan people left their BIBLIOGRAPHY
country, and another 2 million were forced to move to other See Chapter 4

66
 6
R ES P ONSE s t o
p o s t - c o l o n i a l pr o bl e m s

Nodari A. Simonia and Sophie Le Callennec

G arveyism , ‘ negritude ’ and the Africans contrasts with the cold rationalism of
blac k power Westerners. After the Second World War, the concept
became popular among the writers of Africa, Europe and
Awakening of racial self-consciousness of black people the Caribbean.
was a natural response to centuries of colonial oppression Negritude had a marked effect on numerous movements
and white peoples’ belief in the universality and superiority advocating black nationalism and black consciousness that
of their culture. One of the earliest manifestations of such were widespread in the 1960s and 1970s. In Haiti, black
a response in the twentieth century was Garveyism. intellectuals waged a successful campaign for the
Marcus Garvey, a native of Jamaica, where he is considered recognition of Creole, the language of the masses, as an
a national hero, founded the Universal Negro official national language (1969), on equal footing with
Improvement Association (1914). In 1917, Garvey moved French, the language of the elite. In the United States, a
to Harlem in New York City, where he became a political number of moderate and radical movements coined the
activitist and launched the ‘Back to Africa’ movement. ‘Black Power’ slogan. It was also used by the Nation of
Garveyism represented radical anti-colonialism and anti- Islam (also known as the Black Muslim movement),
racism. It maintained the dignity of the Negro race, founded in the 1930s and led by Elijah Muhammad from
without idealizing its history and culture. Garvey 1934 to his death in 1975, at which time the supporters of
advocated racial purity and considered mulattoes as the movement numbered some 150,000 to 200,000.
‘traitors of the Negro race’. His vision was to encourage Another proponent of ‘black power’ was Stokeley
black people to ‘buy black’ by supporting the business of Carmichael, the leader of an extremist students’ organization
black entrepreneurs. Eventually, he founded the Black who alleged that ‘black power’ was the movement that
Star Shipping Line to foster trade and black emigration would destroy everything created by white civilization.
from North America to Liberia and Ethiopia in the hope Another leader of a radical movement – Floyd B. McKissick
of creating an independent African state as a base for the – considered the seizure of power as the only way to bring
continent’s liberation. about serious changes in society.
Whereas Garveyism was widespread in English-
speaking Africa (Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone), the
concept of négritude (blackness) was popular mainly in the A frican socialism
former French possessions. The concept was advocated by
Aimé Césaire, from Martinique, but the figure who greatly African socialism was widespread on the continent after
contributed to the theoretical content of negritude was independence. African leaders of the first generation such
Leopold S. Senghor, who eventually became president of as Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keita,
Senegal and a prominent International Socialist. Initially A. Sekou Touré and Kenneth Kaunda viewed
negritude was an intellectual reaction to France’s independence as an opportunity to build a new society,
assimilation policy. Senghor defined the concept as follows: free from the colonial legacy. They associated capitalism
‘Négritude is the whole complex of civilized values – with colonialism and believed that traditional African
cultural, economic, social and political – that characterize society possessed socialist features, including communal
the black people’.1 According to negritude, black Africans, land-tenure, large families, kinship ties, a conviction that
by virtue of their racial origin and the particularities of nobody should starve if others have food, precedence of
their culture, perceive the world in their own unique way cooperation over competition and group interests over
and subconsciously communicate to each other the individual ones. They considered that there were objective
psychological experience of the black people. According to prerequisites for the spreading of such a concept: for
Senghor’s concept, the innate intuition and sensuality of example they noted that capitalism practically did not take

67
 thematic section

root in Africa, the bourgeoisie and the working class were revolution. It was also necessary to find a ‘golden mean’
‘in embryo’ and vast strata of traditional society still between the previous economic nationalism that
remained in rural areas. Under such conditions many characterized the ‘catching-up’ industrialization on the one
leaders, striving to achieve their egalitarian goals and ideas, hand and the transnational cosmopolitism of the
relied on the state as the only serious force capable of technological revolution’s productive forces on the other.
managing the economy and the process of socio-economic Hence the suppression of liberalism and the distancing of
decolonization, as well as moulding the self-consciousness the masses from active political life.
of the people and securing the integrity of the nation-state.
African socialism differs both from socialism of the
Western social-democratic type (L. Senghor, J. Kenyatta) R eligious and secular
and from ‘Marxist-Leninist’ regimes (S. Machel and movements in A frica
J. Chissano in Mozambique, Mengistu Haile Mariam in
Ethiopia, A. Neto and E. dos Santos in Angola, Political-religious movements were an initial form of protest
M. Kerekou in Benin), since it does not recognize class and organization of African masses. The largest of such
struggle, the ideology of Marxism, atheism, etc. movements – Kimbanguism – emerged in 1921 in Belgian
Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) in the form of a
Protestant heresy. Named in honour of its founder, the
P opulist movements and priest Simon Kimbangu, the movement advocated passive
dictatorial regimes disobedience, but when its followers began to refuse to
in L atin A merica work and to pay taxes the authorities put Kimbangu in
jail, where he spent 30 years until his death in 1951.
During the first decades of the twentieth-century, socio- Consequently, Kimbangu acquired martyr status and was
economic changes in Latin American countries led to an considered the ‘saviour of the black people’ by his followers,
enhanced role of urban areas, industry, the bourgeoisie and who associate him with Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and
the working class. This undermined the dominating Buddha. Kimbanguism contributed to the emergence of
position of latifundistas (large land-owners), broke the another, more active anti-colonial movement in Belgian
traditional social consensus and led to political Congo named Kitawaia, which clearly voiced political
destabilization. In the 1930s and the 1940s, in such protest. Both movements were to a certain extent influenced
countries as Brazil or Argentina, a grave structural crisis by the ‘Watch Tower’ movement, which had originated in
developed, giving rise to populist regimes and movements. the United States and transferred at the beginning of the
In Brazil, the parliamentary oligarchy of latifundistas was twentieth century to Nyasaland (Malawi) before spreading
undermined by the revolution from above in 1930, and to Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
during the subsequent 15 years, the country was ruled There also existed secular anti-colonial movements. In
by the populist leader, Getulio Vargas. General the Republic of South Africa, Robert Sobukwe, founder of
Juan Domingo Peron, having ousted the military junta, the Pan-Africanist Congress (1959), in 1960 put forward
became the absolute dictator of Argentina (1946–55). Both the concept of ‘black consciousness’. He placed emphasis on
of the populist regimes relied on the support of the middle ‘black’ instead of multi-racial solidarity, insisted on the ‘Pan-
classes, trade unions and migrants from rural areas and African’ rather than ‘South African’ nation, and took a more
performed two principal social functions: (a) mobilization militant position than that of the African National Congress
of the masses against the domination of the traditional from which he had seceded. After his arrest, the concept of
oligarchy and clearing the way for national capitalism and ‘black consciousness’ was adopted by the South African
(b) opposition to and suppression of extremist political Students Organization (1969) headed by Steve Biko. The
trends (Vargas, for instance, crushed the leftist uprising in latter developed the concept and brought it to the level of
1935 and the fascist putsch in 1938). Hegelian dialectics: ‘black racism’ should be counterposed
After the Second World War, populism tried to carry to ‘white racism’, and only the conflict-confluence interplay
out import-substitute industrialization in Latin America. of these two opposites can produce a viable synthesis of
However, this strategy did not fulfil expectations. While ideas and modus vivendi.
Latin American countries were trying to catch up with the On the whole, liberation movements, thanks to which
industrialized countries, the technological revolution in the developing countries gained independence, were led by
developed countries propelled them to a post-industrial nationalists. However, independence did not automatically
level. In other words, the dependency remained. At the lead to social and economic self-sufficiency and, in the
same time that industrialization gave birth to new social sphere of culture, foreign influence became even greater.
contradictions, mass disappointment, caused by unrealistic Traditional foundations were destroyed before the new
expectations, put those countries on the brink of a new ones were set in place. Beginning in the 1970s, these
structural crisis. In response to the latter, military coups transformations stirred up a new wave of religious revival.
were carried out and bureaucratic authoritarian regimes In Senegal, for instance, Murid marabouts expressed the
established in Brazil (1964), Argentina (1966), Peru (1968), peasants’ discontent. In West Africa and the Sahel,
Chile and Uruguay (1973). These regimes were different numerous religious sects hostile to the ruling elites emerged.
from both traditional caudillo-type and populist In the cities, the principal social base of religious revival was
dictatorships, and not only because the army came to power formed by migrants from rural areas, and particularly
as an institution rather than for the sake of installing a new unemployed youth. New religious-political movements
dictator. The principal distinction lies in the fact that these reflected the search for alternative survival strategies. Some
regimes had to solve the complex task of combining ordinary of them have seriously challenged the existing regimes (e.g.,
industrialization with post-industrial technological the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria).

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 R ES P ONSE s t o p o s t - c o l o n i a l pr o bl e m s

P ost - colonial regional and (SADCC), an organization set up in 1980 by Angola,

continental integration Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania,
Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, was much more
For a number of understandable historical reasons, Latin effective. The collapse of the apartheid regime in South
America was the first to undergo the integration processes. Africa will facilitate the integration of South Africa and
However, soon after the Second World War, the United Namibia into the southern African development
States attempted to conserve its dominant position in the community.
region as well as the existing neo-colonial division of labour The first attempt at integration in Asia was not very
by initiating the establishment of the Organization of successful. In 1964, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan formed the
American States (OAS) in 1948. This, however, did not Regional Cooperation for Development. The revolution in
suit most Latin American countries, and they began to Iran blocked the organization’s activities, and, it was finally
strive for integration without the participation of Western revived in 1985 as the Economic Cooperation Organization.
states. In 1960, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, In November 1992, the membership of the organization
Peru and Uruguay established the Latin American Free increased owing to the admission of Afghanistan and the
Trade Association (LAFTA) and were subsequently joined former Soviet republics (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
by Bolivia (1966) and Venezuela (1967). As the more Kirghizstan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenia, Uzbekistan). In
developed countries reaped the greatest advantages from 1967, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the
LAFTA, the sub-regional Andean pact (Bolivia, Chile, Philippines founded the Association of South-East Asian
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela) was formed Nations (ASEAN), but real cooperation started in 1970
within the framework of the Association in 1969. (Brunei joined in 1984). Today it is the most effective and
In 1968, 11 Caribbean countries created the Caribbean dynamically developing community in Asia, and it is likely
Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). In 1973, they signed to increase its membership at the expense of Indochina and
an agreement on the Organization of the Caribbean Burma. In 1985, seven countries officially founded the
Community and Common Market (CARICOM). This South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
event was significant because it marked the first time the (SAARC). However, political differences between its
process of integration evolved from a free-trade zone into a principal participants constitute a significant hindrance to
customs union (according to the model of the European its successful activity. Nonetheless, the general framework
Community) in the Third World. In the early 1990s, the of the Agreement on Preferential Trade Areas in South
Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) was Asia was drawn up in March 1993.
also proclaimed. Its members intend to set up the Common
Market and the Customs Union. At the same time, in
recent years the concept of ‘open regionalism’ has become O ld and new forms of violence
quite popular in Latin America. This was reflected in the
results of the ‘All-Americas’ summit (34 participating states), Violence has always been a part of everyday life in
which took place in Miami (USA) in December 1994. Third World countries. Colonialism itself was a synonym
Participants reached full agreement on setting up a zone of of violence, and liberation often began with revolutionary
free trade in the Western hemisphere by 2005 and violence. During the first decades after the Second World
progressively joining the North American Free Trade War, violence was most often provoked ‘from above’ by
Agreement (NAFTA). belligerent leaders and organizations. For instance, the civil
The processes of integration in Africa were even more war in Colombia (1948–53), in which about 2 per cent of
complex. In 1963, 32 independent African states met in the population perished (mostly from the rural areas), was
Addis Ababa to approve the Charter of the Organization of provoked by the clashes between the conservatives and the
African Unity (OAU). This organization made an liberals in Bogotá, which, in their turn, were triggered by the
outstanding contribution to the processes of decolonization, assassination of the leader of the liberals. In 1965, clashes
the struggle against apartheid and neo-colonialism and between the leftist forces and the right-wing generals in
African economic development. It went through periods of Indonesia escalated into a massacre that took the lives of
crisis in its development (particularly in the early 1980s) but about one million people. In Kampuchea, factional struggles
managed to overcome them successfully and to remain the between its leaders resulted in the genocide of entire social
main exponent of African solidarity (Plate 48). strata and groups of the population. In Rwanda and
As to sub-regional integration processes, they were rather Burundi, ethnic conflicts between the Hutu and the Tutsi
unstable until recently. Two noteworthy examples are the were often provoked by radical nationalist groups belonging
Central African Customs and Economic Union (UDEAC), to both sides. From 1993 to 1995 alone, approximately a
established in 1966, and the East African Community (1967), million people were massacred in those clashes.
which existed for only ten years. Attempts to consolidate However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the phenomenon of
the Economic Community of West African mass violence resulted for first time from socio-economic,
States (ECOWAS), which was formed in 1975 by demographic and ecological considerations rather than
16 English- and French-speaking countries, were factors related to ethnic, confessional and political
unsuccessful. Seven French-speaking countries (Burkina fragmentation. The pauperization of the peasantry, the
Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and massive migration to the cities and the emergence of vast
Dahomey, present-day Benin) set up their own Economic urban zones of poverty, high unemployment rates, the
Community of West Africa within the framework of the marginalization of entire social strata, the growing number
ECOWAS. Recently the Economic and Monetary Union of drug addicts, the spreading of numerous epidemics –
of Western Africa was finally established, however the these are some of the causes of new forms of violence, such
Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference as the formation of street gangs, drug rings, gambling groups

69
 thematic section

and organized crime networks, killing and the destruction because of an inflow of migrants and refugees from
of property. Such violence reigns in the streets and highways Afghanistan to the cities (especially Karachi).
of Nigeria, Uganda, Zaire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia Today, unsolved national-ethnic, national-state and other
and Somalia. The major social base of such forms of violence problems are projected onto the world community in the
is constituted by the destitute masses of migrants who lost form of international terrorism (hijacking of planes, capturing
their traditional way of life and were not able to adjust to of ships and other transportation vehicles, hostage-taking,
the environment of quasi-modernized cities. They consider assaults on embassies and diplomats, bombings in the cities
their involvement in criminal violence not as a step down to of Western countries, etc.). Moreover, today violence has
the ‘bottom’ of society but as a rise in their status. They reached a qualitatively new technological level. Terrorists are
perceive violence as the only attainable form of freedom. equipped not only with Kalashnikov sub-machine guns but
New forms of violence are particularly dangerous because with chemical weapons and electronic devices as well. World
of their spontaneity and unpredictability. They do not have powers, which uncontrollably stockpiled arms in the
slogans or programmes. Violence in such cases is not a Third World countries during the Cold War, also bear
means but an end in itself and leads to criminal anarchy. In responsibility for this new level of violence.
many cases, old and new forms of violence are superimposed
and intertwined thereby further increasing violence. This
phenomenon occurred on a large scale in Iran for the first
time in the course of struggle against the monarchy. In NOTE
Algeria, traditional confrontation between the Islamic
fundamentalists and the authorities was reinforced in recent 1. L. S. Senghor, ‘What is Negritude?’, Negro Digest,
years by new social forces (migrants and unemployed young April 1962, p. 4.
people from urban areas) and became the source of everyday
mass violence and killings. In Pakistan, traditional
contradictions between the Muhajirs (immigrants from
India) and the local population, as well as between the B ibliography
Sunnites and the Shi’ites, became particularly explosive See Chapter 4

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 7
NE W CO U NT R IES AN D W O R L D P O L ITICS

Iba Der Thiam, coordinator

i n t r o du c t i o n

Iba Der Thiam

The twentieth century has been marked by a series of events, and the birth of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the
deeds and changes whose scale, scope and consequences will Non-Aligned Movement all represent undeniable and
surely be considered impressive by any standards. Not only significant advances, progress was curtailed by the division
did the first half of the century witness two world wars – of the world into the two blocs of East and West and the
with the resulting lost lives, physical destruction, ensuing Cold War, the Berlin Blockade, wars in Korea and
psychological trauma and moral damage – in which Indochina, the armed national liberation movements in
humankind reached an unprecedented degree of barbarity Asia and the Arab world, the institution of apartheid, the
(poison gas, the Holocaust, nuclear bombs on Hiroshima Thiaroye Massacre in Senegal, and the incidents with
and Nagasaki), it also saw the world’s first communist French colonial power in Dimbokro and Seguela in West
regime, whose birth was symbolized by the 1917 October Africa, the Mau-Mau Insurrection in Kenya, and the
Revolution and followed by a worldwide communist Algerian War of Independence.
movement culminating not only in the triumph of Marxism- The tensions of this new phase were to prove all the
Leninism in China after the war against the Kuomintang harder to manage as ideas travelled faster with innovations
and the Long March of Mao Zedong, but also in the in communication (radio, television, press). Science was
New Deal in America and the Popular Front in France. making unprecedented strides: the conquest of space;
The period was also marked by the roaring twenties, the progress in medicine, biology, physics and chemistry; a
beginnings of radio broadcasting, advances in motor and revolution in land, sea and air transport; improvements in
aircraft design, a proliferation of the press, the vote for living standards (televisions, refrigerators, automobiles);
women and progress, exemplified by the creation of the and the flourishing of the consumer society.
League of Nations and the building of a world order founded Agriculture, industry, the arts and crafts, literature,
on peace, security, democracy, and justice – all of which music, records, cinema, sports, leisure, work, social life, and
fostered the rise of nationalism in the Arab, Asian and Latin urban development all underwent changes of an
American countries. extraordinary scope and variety, radically altering practices,
The impact of these changes would inevitably affect traditions, customs, the way people thought and behaved,
science, technology, education, culture, lifestyles and values. and their aspirations and expectations. The arrival of the
In the course of this period, after the years of economic new independent African states on the international scene
recovery immediately following the First World War and upset the existing international order and brought new
the empire-building projects launched by the colonial challenges to the relationship between North and South:
powers, the world moved into a phase of deep economic unequal exchanges, unfavourable terms of trade, debt,
depression resulting in widespread bankruptcy, poverty, and demands for a new, fairer international
unemployment, the development of Fascism in Italy, economic order, the democratization of international
Nazism in Germany, militarism in Japan, and nationalism relations, a new world information and communication
in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. order, and the creation of mechanisms to regulate trade,
From this general climate arose some of the most potent commerce, and tariffs (e.g., GATT).
causes of the Second World War; and the deeds and Under the impact of successive oil shocks related to
consequences of that war weighed so heavily on the course conflicts in the Middle East, the world crisis that followed
of events in every way that they radically transformed the the rise in the price of crude oil, American interest-rate
existing order and marked a clear break with the past. policies, and erratic swings in the value of the international
Although the birth of the United Nations Organization currencies, the economies of the poorer countries, which
(UN), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the had experienced a euphoric growth phase in the 1960s,
Bretton Woods institutions, the Marshall Plan, the began to show signs of weakness by the late 1970s and were
Brazzaville and Bandung conferences, Indian independence, finally overwhelmed by the burden of their debts and forced

71
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to adopt structural adjustment plans whose social rearrangement. In the field of science, the information
consequences were dreadful. revolution, progress in the conquest of space, advances in
The 1980s have come to be regarded as a lost decade, medicine and genetics, and increasing concerns about the
especially for Africa where growth ebbed and outright environment (ozone layer, inadequate water resources) have
poverty increased. All macro-economic indicators showed opened up new fields of research and activity. International
downward trends: education, health, and employment relations have become more and more unbalanced, and the
underwent deep and lasting structural crises. North has increased its technological, scientific and
It was not until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the economic lead over the South.
world communist movement, and the absolute supremacy Although new centres of growth have appeared in Asia,
of the United States that new energies were released by a new states are emerging in Latin America, and Africa has
new world order based on market economics and pluralism experienced growth again in the 1990s, these signs are still
in democratic government and in the media. Nationalism, too fragile for us to claim they constitute a strong or lasting
terrorism, and tribal, ethnic, and religious wars erupted trend as revealed by the Mexican crisis and the Asian stock-
within national borders; and as the world entered the market crisis.
twenty-first century, it began a new stage of fundamental

72
 7.1
Relations between IndustrialIZed
and Industrializing countries

Nodari A. Simonia

Among the most urgent tasks facing Asian, African and of the Cold War. The adoption of market-based, export-
Latin American countries after independence were achieving oriented economic development strategies by a wide range
economic independence and becoming integral and equal of developing countries represents a fundamental shift in
participants in the world economy. However, attaining their thinking about development and about the basis for
these objectives proved to be a rather long, difficult and participating in the world economy. The commitment of an
uneven process. A wide range of exceptions to free-trade even wider range of countries (including not only Eastern
principles were agreed upon between the old colonial powers and Central Europe, Russia and the other former Soviet
and the newly independent countries, but this favoured Republics, but also the more dynamic Asian and Latin
treatment and the high hopes it generated were gradually American economies) to full participation in the global
eroded as illustrated by the Lomé Convention, a partnership economy, and the impact of this globalization, will bring
between 70 ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries new opportunities and new relationships to the international
and the European Union. The most important aspect of the division of labour.
Lomé ‘aid and trade’ pillar was the provision for preferential In the 1990s, the developing countries registered a
access to European markets for ACP exports. Despite this noticeably higher economic growth rate (6 per cent in 1995)
advantage, most ACP countries have not be able to make than the industrial ones; and their exports and imports
progress in economic terms, and their market share actually grew faster than world trade as a whole. Yet, there were
declined from 6.7 per cent in 1976 to 3.4 per cent in 1993. growing disparities both within and among these countries.
Within the framework of the confrontation between What appeared to be a relatively homogeneous Third
two systems (and two superpowers), the majority of World in the early 1960s is now a highly diverse group of
developing countries chose to join the Non-Aligned countries and regions. Some developing countries are now
Movement to resolve their problems of political sovereignty achieving considerable rates of growth and impressive
and achieve self-sustaining economies. Many countries reductions in poverty; many have advanced so rapidly
went through a stage of ‘revolutionary romanticism’ hoping during recent decades that they are on the point of
that radical political action could solve economic problems ‘graduating’ to the ranks of high-income industrial countries.
and create a ‘New World Economic Order’. This phase was While the majority of developing countries have grown
characterized by import-substitution strategies, as well as more slowly, they have still done well compared with
outbreaks of isolationism in some parts of the Third World. developed countries at a similar stage in their growth, and
Although a number of ‘oil shocks’ in the 1970s and the their standards of living have greatly improved.
early 1980s marked significant achievements in this struggle, In Asia, particularly, the emergence of China and India
they also revealed the limits of such successes and an onto world capital markets has been a major new factor.
undeniable interdependence between industrial and Once again, their development has been based on a
developing countries. Since then, a succession of commitment to outward-looking, market-oriented policies,
challenges – debt shocks, threats to the world financial and on the prospects investors now see in these potentially
system – has reinforced our awareness that the welfare of giant economies. Both economies have enormous resources
all countries, whatever their level of development, is of human capital, but they also have large groups of people
evermore closely interlinked. However, this interdependence living in poverty or sub-standard conditions, and they face
was asymmetrical, and in essence, remains so since major social and environmental challenges.
developing countries are more dependent than industrial Other developing countries have been increasingly
countries. marginalized from the global system and suffer continuing
Since the 1980s, there has been a serious shift towards deterioration in already deplorable living standards: they
pragmatism in the economic strategies of developing include much of sub-Saharan Africa and certain countries
countries, which have considerably intensified since the end in Latin America and South Asia. For many years, these

73
 thematic section

poorer countries will continue to be dependent on aid, rationale for development cooperation. Increased
reproducing dangerous patterns of aid dependency. In 1965, opportunities for productive collaboration have been
the average per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa was threatened by a reduced sense of urgency manifested by a
60 per cent of the average in developing countries. By the diminished political commitment and related financial
late 1990s, the figure was less than 35 per cent, despite the resources. The so-called ‘peace dividend’ has not
many high-profile efforts launched repeatedly since the materialized.
1960s to support African development. Of course, there is no guarantee that state intervention
Tremendous changes have taken place in the geopolitical will benefit society. Some developing countries do not meet
scene since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989: the even the most basic requirements for sound economic
disintegration of the USSR and of the former Yugoslavia, management. The major obstacles to development are
ethnic strife in these territories, widespread suffering and arbitrary government action, bureaucratic corruption
dislocation of populations have made it evident that ethnic (bribes, abuse of patronage, etc.) and inefficiency. Some
violence, a need for humanitarian relief, and formidable developing countries still lack the most basic underpinnings
challenges of reconciliation and reconstruction are by no of a professional, rule-based bureaucracy, and the
means confined to the developing world. Today, there opportunities for sinecures and corruption are considerable.
remain significant challenges such as more comprehensive According to a large-scale survey, the World Development
reforms, the maintenance of stability, and the reform of Report prepared by the World Bank in 1997, almost 80 per
institutions and behaviour in Eastern and Central Europe cent of entrepreneurs in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa,
and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). the CIS, and Eastern and Central Europe reported a lack of
So far, only the ‘fast-track’ reforming Central European and confidence in the authorities’ readiness or capacity to protect
Baltic States have reached – or almost reached – the steady their persons or property. Another survey confirmed that
4 to 6 per cent annual growth needed to reduce the gap in corruption remains a widespread problem for investors. A
living standards that separates them from other industrial corrupt bureaucracy that is allowed too much discretion
countries. Only Poland has recovered its pre-1989 gross creates incentives that divert capital towards rentier
output levels. In the Central Asian republics of the former investments rather than productive activity. Overall,
Soviet Union, now regarded as belonging to the group of problems associated with uncertain property rights and
developing countries, the Soviet-era economic and political dealing with arbitrary power (corruption and crime) rank
system has created a legacy of serious environmental among the top three obstacles in developing countries and
problems that will not be quickly or easily rectified and will emerging market economies.
adversely affect future development and public health. Recent years have witnessed a growing convergence in
thinking about the new rationale and objectives for
development cooperation. The emerging framework for this
I nterdependence and cooperation is that development partners should try to help
I nternational C ooperation countries improve their capacity to participate in the global
economy and should assist people in improving their
Official Development Aid (ODA) capacity to overcome poverty and to participate fully in
their societies. In 1996, the Development Ministers and
Development is not an isolated objective, and development Heads of Aid Agencies of the OECD’s Development
cooperation through financial and technical assistance is Assistance Committee (DAC) decided to consolidate this
only one of many factors that substantially affect relations broad conceptual agreement. They adopted a new strategy
between developed and developing countries and that may for the twenty-first century that included a bold proposal
significantly improve the economic, institutional and for global partnership for locally owned, people-centred
human development capacities of the latter group. sustainable development. However, effective implementation
Cooperation within the United Nations, the international proved to be fraught with obstacles. After remaining at
financial institutions, the OECD (Organisation for around 0.35 per cent of DAC members’ GNP for well over
Economic Co-operation and Development) and other 20 years, DAC countries’ collective ODA effort has fallen
global and regional organizations has greatly enhanced to just 0.27 per cent, its lowest level since the United Nations
these efforts and shaped an evolving multilateralism in adopted a 0.7 per cent target in 1970. In 1995, only Denmark,
which all countries hold a vital stake. In those countries the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden achieved the United
where aid has coincided with an adequate, constructive Nations goal, and only Denmark and Japan had increased
national strategy for development, the impact on growth their ODA expenditure since 1992. Between 1992 and 1995,
has been positive. Overall, however, foreign aid to developing net ODA fell by 14 per cent in real terms – the sharpest
countries since 1970 has had no net impact on either the three-year drop since the early 1970s.
recipients’ growth rate or the quality of their economic
policies, according to an internal World Bank study
(Financial Times, 14 April 1997). Positive reform has largely Private financial flows
been the result of domestic forces.
Clearly, the shared objective of human security, combined In the mid-1990s, the overall picture of financial flows to
with respect and concern for others, has not yet brought developing countries was radically transformed: private
sustainable development to a position of central importance flows to the larger and more dynamic economies began
on the international agenda. Budgets have been much growing most rapidly, while the volume of official flows to
tighter in the donor countries, resulting in many cases in the smaller and poorer countries – the ones most in need of
cuts in appropriations for development assistance. The end financial aid if they are to attain the capacity for sustainable
of the Cold War has removed the traditional security development – is declining. These diverging trends cast a

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 NE W CO U NT R IES AN D W O R L D P O L ITICS

shadow on the credibility of a development partnership of the Committee of International Development Institutions
strategy and their continuation could have grave on the Environment, UNEP (the United Nations
consequences. Environment Programme) provides a link between the
Measured in constant dollars, total net flows of ODA DAC Working Party and most major international
received by developing countries have remained stable in the organizations concerned with environmental matters. In
range of us$55–60 billion since 1986. In current dollars, addition, three international NGOs – the International
ODA increased from us$56.7 billion in 1987 to Institute for Environment and Development (London), the
us$69.4 billion in 1995, but as a percentage of the total net International Union for Conservation of Nature (Gland,
flow of resources to developing countries, ODA declined Switzerland), and the World Resources Institute
over the same period from 66.1 per cent to 28.3 per cent, (Washington, DC) – have been invited to participate
while private flows increased from us$30.7 billion (35.8 per regularly as observers.
cent) to us$158.9 billion (67.4 per cent). Net private capital
flows increased in 1996 for the sixth year running, surging
to a record us$243.8 billion; but most of the money ‘NEGATIVE INTERDEPENDENCE’:
bypassed the poorest countries. These private flows are GLOBAL PROBLEMS
highly concentrated: among the top twelve destinations for
private capital were four from East Asia (China, Malaysia, Along with the increasing trend towards economic
Indonesia, Thailand) and four from Latin America (Mexico, interdependence and integration, the world community is
Brazil, Argentina, Chile). The top twelve recipients together confronted by the challenge of growing ‘negative
accounted for 72.5 per cent of overall private inflows. No interdependence’ caused by various global problems
wonder, then, that the World Bank recently admitted threatening developed and developing countries alike.
(Annual Global Development: Financial Report, March 1997) Problems related to the quality of water, soil and air; acid
that private capital is not a substitute for ODA targeted at rain; climate change caused by the greenhouse effect; loss of
programmes aimed at promoting health, education and biodiversity; depletion of fish stocks; current patterns of
environmental protection. production and consumption – all raise questions about the
future capacity of the Earth’s natural resource base to feed
and sustain a growing and increasingly urbanized population.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Industrial countries increasingly recognize that the solution
to such problems is no longer solely in their hands and that
In some developing countries, especially in Africa, one of the the management of global issues in the twenty-first century
major changes has been the recognition that in development will require the active participation of all members of the
issues the state does not have to be the donor agencies’ only international community.
interlocutor. However, if a strengthening of capacities does
not support the decentralization which is flowering in many
Third World countries, it will soon perish. NGOs from Energy problems
developing and industrialized countries can play a key role in
this process. In general, NGOs are flexible and efficient; Availability of sufficient low-cost energy is indispensable for
they work at grass-roots level and are familiar with the needs growth in developing countries as well as in industrialized
of local populations. They may help to set and monitor countries. Reconciling the energy needs of different groups of
standards and inform the world community of social or countries may generate particularly difficult policy challenges
environmental damage. There is general agreement that in the very near future. Fossil fuels now account for 80 per
NGOs must play larger and more prominent roles in cent of the world’s drastically increased energy consumption.
education: they can be of assistance as advocates, sources of The geographical distribution of energy sources is very
funding, intermediaries for managing assistance, and local uneven. In 1995, OPEC countries possessed 778.2 billion
programme implementers. Many of the most responsive barrels of known oil reserves; 103.9 billion barrels were in the
local organizations and programme initiatives have features OECD group, 57 billion in the territory of the former Soviet
promoting health, nutrition, or other benefits in addition to Union and 77.8 billion in other countries. On the demand
educational ones. Programmes initiated or managed by side, OECD countries consumed 50 per cent of world energy
NGOs appear to have significant advantages, both in their in 1986, all developing countries 27 per cent, and the centrally
responsiveness to local needs and in reduced administration planned economies 23 per cent.
and other overhead costs. One major development is the Two acute problems are already evident today:
growing maturity of developing countries’ own NGOs, (1) demand is growing faster than expected; and (2) the
which tend to play a more important role in articulating the centre of gravity of the world’s oil markets is shifting rapidly
needs of the poor in their communities. eastwards, to the fast-growing economies of China and
NGOs have emerged as prominent partners in the South-East Asia. Recent studies indicate that every Asian
development field. By the early 1980s, virtually all DAC country except Brunei will be a net oil importer by 2015.
members had adopted some system for co-financing projects (China, one of the biggest energy consumers in Asia, has
implemented by their national NGOs. Net grants by recently turned the corner and become a net oil-importing
NGOs (net disbursements, at current prices and exchange county). In India, another major energy-consuming country,
rates) have risen from us$2.39 million (3 per cent of total economists estimate that power shortages cost Indian
financial inflows) in 1980 to us$5.97 million (4 per cent) in industries us$2.7 billion annually, equivalent to 1.5 per cent
1999. However, some NGOs feel that they are being used of the country’s GDP.
only as cheap delivery systems. Rather than simply filling A crucial issue for developing countries is the future of
gaps, they want to sit at the table. In its capacity as Secretariat nuclear power, which may conceivably become a major

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supplier of energy. Today, Argentina, Brazil, India, Pakistan health hazards (skin cancer and eye diseases), the Montreal
and South Korea already have nuclear capacity, which Protocol of 1987 was strengthened in May 1989 by an
accounts for a significant part of their electricity production. agreement, supported by 80 countries at the Helsinki UNEP
However, this subject raises an important question: Can Conference, to end all production and consumption of
energy sufficiency be achieved safely, without environmental CFCs by the year 2000. The 1992 Rio Summit gave
contamination and without the danger of nuclear war or momentum to consideration of the problem of the global
nuclear terrorism? Some experts argue that 70 years will be environment in all its complexity and provided an
needed before the Chernobyl ‘tomb’ is safe. In any case, opportunity to review the many initiatives already
wind, solar, tidal energy and other clean and safe alternative undertaken as part of a global strategy. Under a Climate
sources must be seriously considered. Change Convention adopted at the Rio Summit, developed
countries were to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to
1990 levels by 2000. To avoid a loophole in this convention,
Ecology a crucial conference held at Kyoto (Japan) in December
1997 set legally binding targets for industrialized countries
There is growing concern about a number of global-scale to cut their emissions of these gases after 2000. However,
types of environmental degradation. The build-up of the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol was seriously
greenhouse gases creating a one-way thermal barrier with undermined when United States President George W. Bush
the risk of global climate change is one of the most serious refused to sign the agreement in 2001.
potential threats. It is largely related to the use of fossil In the case of the developing countries, it is generally
fuels. As a result, carbon dioxide concentrations in the air recognized that uniform environmental standards may not
have increased by some 30 per cent over the past two be practical, economical, or politically viable for many of
centuries, and the average temperature has risen by 0.3– them. Agenda 21, the comprehensive plan of action adopted
6 °C over the past century. Industrial countries have been a at the Rio Summit recognized that environmental standards
major source of greenhouse gases: in 1985, OECD countries valid for developed countries might bring unwarranted
were responsible for approximately 46 per cent of global social and economic consequences in the developing world.
carbon dioxide emissions (North America accounts for The North should do more to help the South in using
25 per cent, Europe 15 per cent, Japan and the Pacific region environmentally sound technologies, practices, and
6 per cent). The centrally planned economies’ share was products, for example those that incorporate energy
26 per cent, and that of all developing countries together efficiency and pollution-control criteria. Developed
was 27 per cent. Despite the work accomplished at the countries could make a great contribution through
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the treaties to cooperation and partnership with developing countries in
protect the atmosphere were still foundering by the end of the field of environment-friendly technology.
the century, and annual emissions of carbon dioxide from Environmentally sustainable ODA must become the
fossil fuels have climbed to an all-time high, altering the very norm.
composition of the atmosphere.
Developing countries are also concerned by this situation,
both as sources of global environmental degradation and as The population explosion
potential victims. According to a World Watch Institute
report (January 1997), the United States’ share of world In many developing countries, combating poverty and
carbon emissions today is 23 per cent. China comes second solving environmental problems are made more difficult by
with 13 per cent, Russia produces 7 per cent, Japan 5 per continuingly rapid population growth. In some cases,
cent, Germany and India 4 per cent each, and Indonesia population growth rates are too high to permit sustainable
and Brazil each generate 1 per cent. development. It is estimated that population growth in the
Tree felling and burning, and deforestation in general, developing countries will account for virtually all the increase
are other sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Burning in the world’s population from 5 billion in 1990 to about
forests produces carbon dioxide as a one-off effect, but in 7.5 billion in 2015. This increase over 25 years is roughly
addition the burned forests stop absorbing carbon dioxide equal to the total human population in 1950. The population
and acting as ‘lungs’ for the Earth. According to an FAO explosion is therefore one of the enormous challenges to be
study (March 1997), our planet lost an average of 15.5 million faced by the developing countries: the prospect carries
hectares of forest each year between 1980 and 1990. Only severe economic, environmental, social, and political
20 per cent of the world’s major virgin forests remain, almost implications. Many developing countries will have
all in the far north of Russia and Canada, and in Brazil’s tremendous problems coping with the doubling or even
Amazon region (World Resources Institute, March 1997). tripling of their populations over the next few decades.
Another negative result of deforestation is desertification, Acute situations are projected in sub-Saharan Africa, where
which has reached disaster proportions in Africa. population growth will be greatest and the capacity to cope
Major national and international actions and initiatives is weakest. Most Islamic countries face a population
have been launched to address global environmental issues. explosion, which will greatly exacerbate the challenges of
The United Nations Environment Programme, together political and economic modernization. The population of
with other international institutions, has an important role India is projected to increase by over 600 million by 2025
to play in organizing action in this field. UNEP coordinates (to 1.45 billion), while Pakistan and Bangladesh could more
the United Nations Plan of Action to Combat than double in size to well over 250 million each. Even
Desertification: the countries of the Sahel have elaborate advanced developing countries such as Brazil and Mexico
plans forming a framework for these actions. In an effort to face the task of absorbing huge population increases, and an
protect the ozone layer, whose depletion is causing serious increasing number of mega-cities are appearing in all parts

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of the developing world, with their attendant social, political, increasingly prominent political issue. In North Africa,
and environmental challenges (Plate 49). where urbanization is drawing most of the population to
In its early years, ‘development’ was discussed and the coastal regions, and in the Middle East, where
planned with little reference to demographic factors. At the competition is intensifying for what is mainly a single,
1974 World Population Conference in Bucharest, the world interconnected water system, water is the key resource issue
community first acknowledged the determinant role of and is fast becoming a crucial point on the region’s political
population factors in development and the need to curb agenda. Water can therefore either become a cause of
population growth rates. According to WHO estimates in conflict or a catalyst for regional economic and political
the late 1980s, about 300 million couples who did not want cooperation.
more children were not using any method of birth control.
As discussions at the Rio Summit underlined, any delay in
adopting appropriate population policies will exacerbate the OBSTACLES TO THE SEARCH FOR
situation. The 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and A NEW WORLD ORDER
Development resulted in effective action towards making
voluntary family planning available to more couples. Now that the Cold War is over, confusion seems to reign
Along with high population growth in the poorer concerning what happens next in the new millennium. The
countries come rapid urbanization and increased pressures world is clearly in transition since the collapse of the
on soil, water, forests, and air. These pressures are evident in Berlin Wall, but the following question inevitably arises:
all regions, but their specific manifestations vary, as do the how might the fabric of the world economy be woven in
capacities of countries and regions to cope. These negative new ways? Too many in the West assume that the answer
tendencies are also reflected in the growing problem of lies in the ongoing process of globalization: they believe that
international migration: as wealthy countries around the economic globalization is inevitable and that nothing can be
world face a growing influx of illegal immigrants and done to shape its social consequences. On the basis of these
refugees, many are turning to military force to stem the assumptions, they insist that developing countries must
flow. dismantle their protectionist barriers to accelerate
liberalization and allow foreign institutions to compete
more freely for business within their borders. They assume
Water supplies that globalization of the economy is leading to increased
wealth; but that is only one side of the story. The other side
According to United Nations reports (March 1997), water is that we are now witnessing greater divisions and
shortages – which currently affect about 40 per cent of the inequalities within and between societies, accompanied by
world’s population – will become increasingly frequent in uncertainty and even scepticism about the present models
the twenty-first century and can be expected to reach crisis of international cooperation. Today the 350 wealthiest
proportions by about 2030, due to a combination of moguls have as much money as the poorest 3 billion people.
population growth and pollution. Today, some 80 countries The UNDP 1996 Human Development Report from the
experience serious shortages. About one-fifth of the world’s notes that the poorest fifth of the world’s population saw its
population has no access to safe drinking water, and share of global income decline from 2.3 per cent to 1.4 per
approximately one out of every two people lacks adequate cent in the past 30 years, while the share of the richest fifth
sanitation. Even in relatively wealthy Europe, there are some rose from 70 per cent to 85 per cent. So, the following
110 million people without access to safe drinking water. question arises: does globalization hold the best answer to
Water-borne diseases that had been considered eradicated, the problems arising from the process of transition to the
such as cholera, have reappeared in some former Soviet new world economic and social order?
republics. The Aral Sea in Central Asia – once the world’s
fourth largest lake – is shrinking: four decades ago, about
60 cubic km of fresh water flowed into the Aral every year; Globalization
now only 1–5 cubic km trickles through annually, depending
on the rainfall. Experts describe water supplies as one of the It is undeniable that globalization can lead to numerous
main challenges of the twenty-first century, a view echoed economic and scientific achievements. But even in some
by the World Water Council, which organized the World highly developed Western countries, there is unease and
Water Forums attended by scientists, bankers, United anxiety that the economic and cultural price of globalization
Nations and other officials from five continents. Speaking may be too high. The most painful dilemma involves the
at the First World Water Forum in Marrakech (Morocco) manner in which their national identity can be protected.
in 1997, UNESCO’s Director-General, Federico Mayor, In the case of most developing countries, globalization has
said: ‘To provide for foreseeable future needs, water resource been met with fiercer resistance because it puts much more
development and management must be placed at the top of severe pressure on local institutions and traditions in their
national and international agendas as part of a global societies. While it has been generally acknowledged that
strategy’. globalization has had a certain positive impact on some
With some 300 major river basins extending across developing countries, especially advanced ones, certain
national boundaries, future conflicts over their water aspects must be viewed with alarm. The developing
constitute a serious potential risk. Some United Nations countries generally are conscious of being at the receiving
officials believe that over the next 50 years water could end of globalization. They are concerned that it may
replace oil as a principal cause of major conflicts between become a Western-dominated process and dilute efforts
countries and peoples. Indeed, as water supply emerges as a towards nation-state building – a process that most
key factor in many regions of the world, it is becoming an developing countries have not yet completed. It is also

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feared that globalization may prove incompatible with commerce, and its existence has fundamentally altered the
efforts to strengthen regional groupings, which has proven way in which countries address their concerns about the
very useful for small countries. Furthermore, it cannot be practices of their trading partners. Developing countries
denied that there are certain sectors of society and certain have been among the most active in shaping these new
countries that have been marginalized: this was norms for expanding trade: their participation in global
acknowledged in the final communiqué of the G-7 negotiations and the market-opening reforms that many are
Economic Summit in 1996. Given the swift pace of adopting have given them new international influence and a
globalization and the speed with which products and new stake in a functioning world economic system.
markets now evolve, countries and groups that are slow to The creation of the WTO is hardly an end in itself, but
integrate will find it increasingly difficult to catch up with only the beginning of a long and controversial process. At
the rest of the industrialized world, and so globalization present, the WTO needs to make real progress in setting
clearly involves a risk that entire countries and regions may clear priorities for the global trading system. Developing
be left behind. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the and developed countries try to set different agendas and
United Nations, speaking in February 1997, at the World priorities. The difficulty in striking the right balance is
Economic Forum in Davos said: ‘Globalization in itself highlighted by the unresolved controversy over proposals to
cannot be seen as a magical panacea. The benefits of extend the WTO’s role well beyond the assault on trade
globalization are not always apparent to the poor, the barriers at national borders to include the harmonization of
hungry and the illiterate.’ domestic regulatory policies. Such controversies surfaced
Even the newly emerging and rapidly developing during the WTO Conference in Singapore (December
countries are worried in the face of evidence that Western 1996), attended by 128 member states and 30 observers.
industry is primarily focused on gaining better access to The WTO’s twin concerns – free trade and sustainable
high-flying economies in Asia and Latin America, and development – had given rise to disagreement on how to
although these countries have lowered barriers to imports strike the proper balance between them. Although
and foreign investment in manufacturing and infrastructure, industrialized and developing countries shared the view
they have been much more reluctant to liberalize their that cross-border investment is a vital source of future
financial services. Even some countries that accept the economic growth, the two sides remained far apart over the
economic case for liberalization are unwilling to be seen to drafting of rules to promote such investment. There were
yield to external pressure – all the more so when much of it also fierce disputes over human rights and the extension of
is generated by powerful foreign institutions eager to muscle standards for labour protection. Opposition to these
in on their markets. Furthermore, some developing countries reforms was led by Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Tanzania,
are asking why they should go along with a deal that offers Brazil, India and Pakistan. Developing countries consider
them no advantages in terms of their exports. They doubt these Western proposals a thinly veiled form of
that the major industrialized countries are really willing to protectionism, fearing that such proposals, if accepted,
fully open their markets to the exports of the developing would undermine their main comparative advantage in
world, as required of members of the World Trade world trade: cheap labour. They argue that their economies –
Organization. Is business in the developed countries really and their workers – would be worse off under such rules.
prepared to accept the structural changes brought by Of course, the tug-of-war over the WTO’s future
liberalization? It is clear, then, that there are many sensitive direction is due in large measure to its membership, which
questions connected with globalization, and their answers includes developing countries and already-developed ones
will determine the nature and quality of society in the with different national policies. Nevertheless, there is an
twenty-first century. extremely pressing need to halt the international frictions
that arise from the spread of industrialization and its
technical advances. A certain degree of protectionism for
The World Trade Organization (WTO) developing countries during the takeoff period is inevitable
and justifiable, for similar measures were once widely
The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (1986–94) resorted to by today’s developed countries in the early stages
involved a difficult struggle to balance different interests of their own process of industrialization. Efforts should be
across a wide range of issues. Its successful completion and made, therefore, to build a liberal economic order that
the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in makes possible the coexistence of different types of market
1995 marked another important step towards launching a economies. This is admittedly a formidable task, but the
‘New World Order’ in trade. While the WTO has inherited alternative is trade wars.
many characteristics from the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), it also features some
innovations. Unlike GATT, the WTO was set up as a The new world order in information and
permanent international agency with a reinforced capability communication
for handling trade disputes. The WTO’s dispute-resolution
mechanism has been strengthened so that the process can With the invention of transistors in the 1940s, the modern
be triggered automatically, and no country, however big, era of solid-state electronics was born, thus paving the way
can veto adverse rulings. Since WTO began its work in for our portable radios and phones, pocket calculators,
1995, internationally agreed regulations have been extended computers, CD players and a plethora of other handy
for the first time to agriculture, trade in services, textiles, gadgets that we now take for granted in the Information
and the protection of patents, copyright and trademarks. Age. In the past, a country’s competitiveness was determined
The WTO now provides a multilateral forum for primarily by the productivity of its industries. But in this
negotiations on these vitally important sectors of global era of computer networks and advanced information

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technology, national competitiveness will be decided by was launched in the middle of 1998, followed by AsiaStar
easy access to high-quality information. The accelerating in 2000.
trend towards a more integrated, competitive and The future turned a little brighter in February 1997,
interdependent global economy is receiving further impetus when 68 members of the WTO agreed to lower
from a veritable revolution in the efficiency of communication, telecommunications barriers. By opening these traditional
i.e., the spreading of information and technology at state preserves to international competition, the agreement
progressively lower cost and greater speed. At the beginning will radically restructure the global market. The developed
of the twentieth-first century, an information revolution is countries will naturally get the lion’s share of that market,
in progress, prompted mainly by computer technology and but the agreement’s benefits for the people of all countries
genetic engineering – the so-called third Industrial are clear. Although many developing countries felt left out
Revolution. Even an advanced industrial country can be of the deliberations, they appeared to agree that a step
driven into an inferior position within a short time if it forward had been achieved, if not the leap they had hoped
allows its technological inventiveness to fall seriously behind. for. It is estimated that if the new agreement promotes
Computer-controlled production and processing will genuine competition, the cost of an international phone call
inevitably, by its wide diffusion and ever-advancing could be cut by almost 80 per cent. Over the following
technology, bind more and more countries into close decade, total savings to consumers are estimated at about
relationship. As a result of new developments in information us$1 trillion. All this could mean a telephone in every
processing, communications, and transport, there has been village, which for many could be a matter of life and death.
a progressive expansion and intensification of mobility and In March 1997, an agreement was reached to eliminate
knowledge and, with these, a greater mutual economic tariffs on some 200 information technology articles such as
penetration among countries. computers, chips, chip-making equipment, software and
One of the results of the information revolution is that telecommunications equipment by January 2000.
we now have the means of knowing far more about people Developing countries have increasingly realized that they
in other countries. Of course, the number of people who have more to lose than to gain by keeping their markets
make active use of the information revolution is still fairly closed. Traditionally, these countries have been concerned
limited. Like the new forces of global economics, the about the threat to their own national operators from the
globalization of knowledge is geographically restricted, and large international carriers. They are aware, however, that
even the simpler benefits are not available in many parts of they need us$60 billion annually simply to maintain their
the Third World. Two-thirds of the world’s population has existing telecommunications services – and much more if
never made a phone call, and about one out of every two they are to catch up with the more advanced countries.
persons has no access to a telephone. In October 1996, Foreign investment is the only way they can hope to find the
International Data Corp. (United States) compiled an capital. For the poorest countries, the two above-mentioned
‘Information Imperative Index’, intended to rank countries agreements offer an opportunity to use the ‘latecomer’s
by their ability to access, absorb and effectively take advantage’, catching up with the rest of world by accelerating
advantage of information and information technology. their development through more rapid and less costly
According to this document, the top 20 include the United implementation of new technologies such as cellular
States, Sweden, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the networks.
United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Singapore,
Japan and France. South Korea ranks 22 and China and
India between 45 and50. Genetic engineering
Of course there are some encouraging signs. For example,
doctors in 23 African countries use the Internet to obtain It is clear that scientific research and technological innovation
assistance in diagnosing and treating patients by applying are essential for sustaining and accelerating development in
directly to colleagues at some of the best medical centres in Third World countries, but at present the countries’
the world for advice. There are computer programmers in capacities for absorbing and applying modern science and
India working for large United States corporations, writing technology are often very limited and require strengthening.
programs and sending their work via the Internet. Yet in While research and development (R&D) capacity in most
many parts of the developing countries, the Internet – for developing countries is still underdeveloped and
those who have even heard of it – is still largely inaccessible. underfunded, OECD countries devote only a small fraction
In the case of microelectronics and information technology, of their R&D efforts to problems that are specific to the
few noteworthy initiatives have been launched by research Third World. Areas of R&D in which improved
laboratories in OECD countries towards developing international cooperation would be desirable include
applications that would benefit developing countries – with biological research and biotechnology. More R&D should
perhaps one outstanding exception: in 1997 it was be directed towards improving production levels of crops in
announced that four of the world’s largest radio the Third World. A recent step in this direction was the
manufacturers would begin mass-producing a revolutionary establishment of the United Nations International Centre
new radio. This will be a hand-held portable radio capable for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. The work of
of receiving hundreds of high-quality digital radio channels, the Centre – carried out at its branches in Trieste, Italy, and
text and even photographs broadcast by satellite. The in New Delhi, India – together with that of the CGIAR
specially designed radios are the chief element in an research network (Consultative Group on International
ambitious plan developed by Ethiopian-American Agricultural Research) will benefit agriculture and health in
Noah Samara to launch digital satellite radio services aimed developing countries.
at more than 4.6 billion people in the developing world. The Biotechnology in OECD countries has experienced
first satellite, AfriStar, constructed by Alcatel of France, ‘explosive growth’ over recent years. By the end of 1996,

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Europe alone had 716 entrepreneurial biotech companies, Scientists also hope to breed animals with special
employing 27,500 people. Research in biotechnology has characteristics, such as organs that will not be rejected by
already produced some outstanding successes: discovering a immune systems when transplanted into humans. The
way to modify a cell’s identity by reprogramming its genes is successful animal-cloning experiment carried out in 1996
an achievement with tremendous scientific and medical (‘Dolly’ the sheep) (Plate 50) constitutes another milestone
implications. Just recently, scientists genetically engineered in science, but it also reminds us once again that our reach
bacteria that may one day prevent kissing bugs from continues to exceed our grasp. The ultimate effect on
spreading Chagas disease, which has infected about humanity of endless technological innovation has not yet
18 million people in Latin America and kills 45,000 annually. been fully understood. Having succeeded in artificially
The importance of biotechnology for solving food problems producing materials that do not exist in the natural world,
cannot be overestimated. Today in OECD countries, a the human species is on the verge of entering a yet-unknown
burgeoning industry produces a variety of genetically realm: the creation of new life forms. In many OECD
modified food. There are grounds for hoping that in some countries today, there is consumer concern over possible
not-so-distant future genetic engineering will allow side effects (nutritional, toxic or allergenic) of artificially
developing countries to breed super-productive livestock – introducing genes in food products. But these concerns,
cows that can produce five or ten times the normal amount while perfectly legitimate, appear less critical when compared
of milk, or larger chickens, pigs or fish – and plants that with the immense ethical and moral issues raised by the
grow faster or are especially hardy or disease-resistant. prospect of human cloning.

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 7.2
AFRICA AND THE NEW INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC ORDER

Edmond Kwam Kouassi

‘One of the most complex problems facing humanity today The most striking development of this era was
is that of development, defined as a process involving the undoubtedly the United Nations Extraordinary Session on
dynamic and cumulative liberation as well as transformation raw materials and development, which took place in 1974.
of the mental, political, economic, cultural and social Although the session did not pave the way for any general
structures of any human group according to their particular agreement between the industrial and developing countries,
values and pace.’1 three important texts were adopted by consensus (i.e.,
Thus, the political and economic aspects of the relations without formal voting since consensus was defined at the
between rich and poor countries have, for a long time, Helsinki Conference on Security, Stability and Cooperation
remained at the core of international debates. During the in Europe as ‘the absence of an objection raised by a
colonial period, the relations between the colonizing ‘North’ delegation, which can stall decision-making’): a declaration
and the territories of the ‘South’ were often of the sovereign- concerning the establishment of a new international
to-subjects, ‘horseman and horse’, ‘fox in the henhouse’ economic order; a ‘programme of action’ to operationalize
variety. However, since gaining political independence, the the principles of the declaration; and a special assistance
countries of the South fostered more complex and programme to Third World countries facing severe
ambiguous relations with the countries of the North. With economic crisis and natural disasters.2 However, serious
the advent of a new era – namely that of bargaining and reservations expressed by the industrialized countries on a
negotiation – one could no longer speak of the balance of number of provisions in these texts, coupled with the
‘forces’ of ‘subjection.’ In most cases, the respective attempt by the Group of 77, a coalition of over 100 countries,
negotiation positions of the North and the South are to have its proposed assistance programme adopted instead
fundamentally asymmetrical given that, in general, the states of the American proposal, showed that the ideological,
of the North are significantly more powerful than their economic and political gap between the rich and the poor
partners of the South. Generally, the North-South bargain countries had not yet been bridged.
concurrently involves a number of problems that not only Nonetheless, the session marked a serious turning point
complicate the negotiations but also provide them with in international relations. In the context of the energy crisis,
greater substance. it conferred credibility to the political force and economic
During the 1950s and 1960s, most North-South power of the developing countries. For the first time in the
meetings had taken place under the aegis of the political history of the United Nations, the General Assembly
independence of the former colonized countries since the worked on the basis of documents prepared by Third World
focus was put on the standard issues of ‘security’ and countries. The development problem, taken as a whole, and
economic assistance. By the end of the 1960s, many realized not solely the processing of raw materials, was highlighted
that political independence only existed in the legal sense at the highest international level by the concerned parties
and that it had also failed to culminate in the economic themselves. Considered one of the world’s priorities by all
growth and development expected by the leaders of the nations of the world for some twenty-five years, the
liberation movements. It is for this reason that, towards the development problem has in fact been exacerbated. The
late 1960s and early 1970s, attention was focused on failure of the international development strategy has been
economic issues such as improved terms of trade, market acknowledged by all.
access, lending conditions and monetary relations. These Algerian President Boumediene highlighted the problem
issues concerned all the countries of the South and with greater pertinence in his address to the General
particularly Africa, which, working through the Non- Assembly: ‘The commodities markets – coupled with the
Aligned Movement, made a significant contribution virtual monopoly of manufactured and capital goods, and
towards urging the international community to address the monopoly over capital and services – enabled the
them. developed countries to fix, in their own way, both the prices

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of raw materials, which they procure from the developing technology transfer, the regulation and control of
countries, and the prices of the goods and services they transnational corporations, and promoting cooperation
deliver to the developing countries. Thus, they are in a among the developing countries
position of obtaining for their own advantage the resources Since the main thrust of these texts concerns the
of the Third World countries through a multitude of redistribution of economic power on the world scale rather
channels’. 3 Indeed, according to the United Nations than the transfer of resources emanating from international
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the assistance, the developing countries have set three
market economy industrialized countries, which are four objectives:
times less populated than the poor countries, consume 1. the effective control of wealth, natural resources and
nine-tenths of the total non-ferrous metals supplied, four- economic activity;
fifths of the world’s oil and natural rubber production and 2. commercializing resources and activities at stable,
half of all unprocessed cotton, vegetable oils and sugar. This equitable and remunerative prices;
consumption, which is sometimes wasteful, was spurred by 3. establishing a common front for international
the relatively low prices of these agricultural commodities. negotiations.
This situation has persisted to the present day because Relying on the experience of OPEC (Organization of the
the Third World does not have the necessary leverage in Petroleum Exporting Countries) and working within the
international affairs. The increased number of independent structures of the United Nations in which they would be
states, instead of leading to an equitable and commensurate assured a majority, they aimed to enable developing
involvement in the responsibilities of managing world countries to exert a three-fold control over their products:
affairs, has resulted in a greater concentration of decision- control of ownership, control of the market, control of the
making powers in the hands of a closed circle of privileged group’s solidarity by maintaining a common front. It is for
powers, which wield virtually discretionary powers in this reason that Mario Bettati affirmed that the Third
handling major problems. The same applies to the World’s demands for a New Economic Order were
international finance structures. In concrete terms, the formulated to achieve the following three objectives:
issues at stake are a more equitable distribution of the fruits 1. consolidating the economic sovereignty of developing
of economic growth, the bridging of the income gap, greater countries;
participation in responsibilities and dignity. 2. searching for institutional changes in trade;
The proposed New International Economic Order thus 3. promoting endogenous development.
aims at establishing a new system calling for not only ‘the Africa has contributed extensively to the conception of such
abolition of privileges’ of the industrialized countries, but a programme. Nonetheless, its success depended on the
also an economic constitution that will guarantee the rights reality and the consistency of the political will of the
of the peoples of the Third World to establish a new type of protagonists, and the cohesion of the entire group of
international economic relations based on mutual benefit, developing countries.
complementarity and common development.
The demands of the developing world are intended to
bring about a solidarity-driven, international-based, more ORIGIN OF THE EXISTING
harmonious community where the inhabitant of the Third INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER
World – the person wrongly seen by Professor Gonidec as
having ‘the eyes of a child and bare hands’ – ceases to be the In describing the current world economic situation, strictly
prey of the strong and the rich. The developing world looks speaking it is inappropriate to refer to an international
forward to a responsible and balanced community in which economic ‘order’ as what is referred to is more precisely
it ceases to be the ‘the child who lies prostrate beyond the an ‘interaction’ at the global level, which is the result of
light of History’ as was wrongly claimed by Hegel in his economic forces (and the actions of national powers) and of
ideas about the African continent. a particular historical situation.
Through a number of resolutions, declarations and During the nineteenth century and the first half of the
action programmes, Third World countries have formulated twentieth century, a large number of countries now called
strategies, development decades and model societies backed ‘developing’ were in fact territories dependent on European
by a coherent ideology, thereby giving some meaning to the powers. The latter determined the destiny of their territories
New International Economic Order. The central thrust of and dictated the types of economic policy they should
the New International Economic Order is to review existing pursue and their role in international economic relations.
structures in the fields of international economic relations During this period, those who lived under the tutelage of
to enable Third World countries to begin or accelerate an colonial powers did not enjoy full political and economic
internal and relatively autonomous process of growth, freedom. They had no control over their natural resources
diversification and integration. This process must be and did not receive equitable payment for their produce.
conducted in such a way as to ensure that Third World This mode of economic and trade relations benefited only
countries are in a position to deal efficiently with the the colonial powers, and the dominated territories were
looming internal crises affecting them today, namely, mass given the minimum necessary to ensure the functioning of
poverty, widespread unemployment and the glaring food an administration compelled to impose the type of public
deficit. The focus was placed on the means of providing the order deemed suitable by the European countries.
developing countries with increased net resource flows The current economic order was therefore instituted at a
primarily through trade and assistance. time when the vast majority of developing countries were
Other important issues involve the raw materials dependent territories. This economic order, which did not
problem, the reform of the international monetary system involve the active participation of these countries, is very
and funding development in poor countries, industrialization, unfavourable to them. It is generally accepted that economic

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and monetary relations are based on three principles: The declaration condemns the current situation and sets
freedom, equality and reciprocity. However, these principles out the principles that should govern the New International
cannot ensure general prosperity unless all the countries have Economic Order. The highlights of this document, as set
equal resources. In the present world, where powerful states forth in the introductory paragraphs, are as follows:
border poor and weak ones, they can only work to the – Point 5 presents the principle of full sovereignty of
advantage of the strong and to the detriment of the weak. states over their natural resources and economic
Indeed, freedom favours exploitation, legal equality generates activities, the right to exercise effective control over
material inequality and reciprocity in concessions deepens them and their exploitation with means appropriate to
the already wide gap between rich and poor countries. their own situation including the right to nationalize
One should therefore see in the existing order a veritable or transfer ownership to its nationals. This article also
‘disorder’; one can refer to a new order only if any order had stipulates that no state may be subject to any economic,
indeed ever existed, and this is not the case. The current political or any other type of coercion aimed at
order is a great obstacle to the enjoyment of the human hampering the free and complete exercise of this
rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the inalienable right.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly – Point 6 states that all states, territories and peoples
Article 25, according to which ‘Everyone has the right to a under alien and colonial domination or apartheid shall
standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of be entitled to restitution and total compensation for
himself and of his family’. The international economic order the exploitation, reduction and degradation of the
is unjust mainly because the developing countries were not natural resources and any other resources of those
involved in its establishment and must nevertheless endure states, territories and peoples.
all the consequences. It is therefore necessary to change the – Point 10 calls for a just and fair relationship between
situation in the interest of the international community as the prices of raw materials, primary commodities,
a whole. The call for this change was inspired by a number manufactured and semi-manufactured goods exported
of political and legal texts, which are analysed in the by developing countries and the prices of raw materials,
following section. primary commodities, manufactured goods, capital
goods and equipment imported by developing
countries with the aim of fostering sustained
ARGUMENTS FOR A NEW improvement in the terms of trade as well as the
I N T E R N A T I O N A L E C O N O M I C order broadening of world economic cooperation.
– Point 17 states the need to put an end to the waste of
In the quest for a new international economic order, there natural resources including food products.
are two categories of arguments, namely, political and – Encouraging the creation of OPEC-model cartels,
legal. Point 20 recommends facilitating the role played by
producers’ associations in international cooperation,
and, with a view to attaining their objectives inter alia,
The political argument and the declaration for the contributing towards the sustained growth of the
establishment of a new international economic order international economy and accelerating the
development of developing countries.
In order to break out of the crisis besetting the international It is obvious that the operationalization of this declaration
economy since 1973, it was necessary to embark on action at requires a legal basis.
the international level. The opportunity was provided by
the initiative of OPEC, which decided to increase oil prices
on 16 October 1973. The legal basis of a new international economic order
On 31 January 1974, Boumediene, in his capacity as
chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement, requested that Pursuant to the operationalization of the principles of the
an Extraordinary United Nations General Assembly be NIEO declaration, the General Assembly also adopted a
convened to consider the issue of raw materials of the poor programme of action. This notwithstanding, a Charter of
countries. Following the acceptance of this proposal, the the Economic Rights and Duties of States was adopted a
United Nations General Assembly met from 9 April to few months later.
2 May in New York in an extraordinary session and adopted
Resolution 3201 ‘Declaration concerning the establishment
of a New International Economic Order’ (NIEO). This Programme of action
declaration stated inter alia: ‘We, the Members of the
United Nations… Solemnly proclaim our united The programme of action outlines measures aimed at
determination to work urgently for the establishment of a ensuring balance in the commodities market, the
New International Economic Order based on equity, international monetary system and funding of economic
sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and development. It also spells out the measures to promote
cooperation among all States, irrespective of their economic industrialization, technology exchange procedures and the
and social systems, which shall correct inequalities and monitoring of the activities of transnational corporations.
redress existing injustices, make it possible to eliminate the The programme provides for support to cooperation
widening gap between the developed and developing among developing countries, assistance to states in ensuring
countries and ensure steadily accelerating economic and their permanent sovereignty over their natural resources,
social development and peace and justice for present and the strengthening of the role of the United Nations in the
future generations.’ field of international economic relations and the special

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 thematic section

emergency measures in favour of the developing countries nature of its resolutions. One of the major representatives
most severely affected by the economic crisis. Resolution of this opinion, Judge Lautherpact, argued that it could be
3202 added that ‘the relevant subsidiary United Nations inconsistent with the principles of sound interpretation to
organisations, institutions and agencies shall all submit to downplay the values of General Assembly resolutions, one
the Economic and Social Council, as often as may be of the main instruments for expressing the collective will
necessary, but at least once in a year, interim reports on the and judgment of the community of nations, and to consider
implementation of this Programme of Action in their them theoretic, insignificant and incapable of exerting
respective fields of competence.’ influence on the conduct of Member States.5
The programme of action also calls for the adoption of a Based on this second opinion, all the norms outlined by
Charter of the Economic Rights and Duties of States the General Assembly for the creation of the New
International Economic Order or the development of the
states must be considered as legal rules within the branch of
The Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States public international law known as international development
law. However, this is obviously not the position of the
The Charter of the Economic Rights and Duties of States countries of the North, which, in their relations with Africa
was adopted by the 29th session of the United Nations and the Third World, hardly ceased to trample on these
General Assembly in December 1974. Enshrined in regulations.
Resolution 3281, this charter spells out the principles that
should govern the economic relations between states. In its
preliminary articles, the charter deals with the sovereign T he resurgence of the old order
and inalienable right of each state to chose its economic
system in the same manner as its political, social and cultural Africa’s debt accounted for 50 per cent of GNP in 1983 and
systems in accordance with the will of its people, without its annual debt-servicing currently represents 45 per cent of
any interference, pressure or external threat whatsoever. export earnings. This tremendous debt burden eventually
The charter also outlines the principle of the right of each overshadowed the signs of recovery observed in the
state to regulate and supervise the activities of transnational economies of many African countries in the mid-1970s. The
corporations. It further underscores the right of all states to structural adjustment programmes initiated by the World
participate fully and effectively in the adoption, at the Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which have
international level, of the decisions aimed at resolving global encumbered debt overhang, bear witness to an ailing
economic, financial and monetary problems and to access economy, to the extent that the social costs of these reforms
equitably the benefits accruing therefrom. It also emphasizes have seriously compromised the states’ development efforts
the duty of all states to cooperate individually and collectively in priority sectors such as education or health, which have
in order to remove obstacles impeding the mobilization and been neglected by national budgets.
full utilization of their resources for the promotion of the If the New International Economic Order was aimed at
economic, social and cultural progress of their people. establishing a new type of international economic relations,
The legal basis of the New International Economic it was an undeniable failure, and this process seems to have
Order raises the problem of the legality of the norms been permanently compromised. Since the end of the
outlined by the United Nations General Assembly. While nineteenth century ‘we have witnessed the epiphany of an
it is generally agreed that the legal basis of a norm is economic liberalism’ relayed by the World Bank and the
dependent on the competence of the organ that conceives it, IMF, which pressured African states into accepting the
the following questions arise: Are norms such as the conditionality resulting from globalization, ‘thus succumbing
Programme of Action and the Charter on the Economic haplessly to the will of these institutions, abdicating all
Rights and Duties of States declaratory norms of an existing sovereignty, forsaking any effort to design for themselves …
law or constituent norms of a new law in gestation? And do their development project.’6
they have a compelling force? Such a problem, in the final In fact, ‘globalization has undermined the sovereignty of
analysis, boils down to the competence of the General states’7 in an unprecedented manner. ‘The money markets
Assembly. The issue is complex and controversial. reign supreme … with rules which only they themselves are
Advocates of a restrictive interpretation of the masters of and can hence dictate their laws to states’.8 Even if
competence of the General Assembly challenge the validity we consider these reforms simply in terms of sound
and compelling character of the General Assembly management and efficiency, crucial questions arise: Which
resolutions. In fact, the latter contend that the source of development project should be implemented? Who defines
international law is solely rooted in the practice of states, the development project? If care is not taken in the future,
international treaties and judicial decisions. Objectively, the the principal role of the state will be limited to creating the
General Assembly resolutions do not fall under any of these conditions suitable for the effective functioning of market
categories. They further argue that under Articles 10 forces. In the meantime, the development of Africa cannot
through 14 of the United Nations Charter, the General accommodate the creation of an additional or residual
Assembly has limited competence, namely, that of making state.9
discussions and submitting recommendations but not to Even the sovereignty of states was undermined cunningly
legislate for the international community. This was when American law sought to extend beyond its borders.10
particularly argued by Professor Georges Fisher in an article Two clear examples of this are the Helms-Burton Act and
entitled: ‘The Sovereignty of States over their Natural the Amato-Kennedy Act of 1996. The former bans imports
Resources.’4 or exports and the financing of goods and services originating
On the other hand, advocates of liberal integration affirm from Cuba. It also provides for the suspension of financial
the competence the General Assembly and the binding assistance to states or international organizations extending

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assistance to Cuba. The Amato-Kennedy Act imposes Resolution A45/1999 of 21 December 1990, concerning

severe sanctions on any company investing over the fourth United Nations Development Decade, marked a
us$40 million in the oil and gas sectors in Iran and Libya. decisive political turning point in that it abandoned the
The United States therefore passes legislation to penalize terminology of the New International Economic Order.
non-American nationals for their activities outside American The decline of the New International Economic Order as
territory, thereby ignoring the most elementary rules of advocated in the historic resolutions of 1974 has been
international law in the field of territoriality, responsibility, accompanied by the ascendancy of globalization, whose
non-retroactivity and the rights of the peoples to their institutional expression is illustrated by the creation of the
national wealth and resources. The denunciation of this WTO on 10 January 1995. Unlike the New International
claim to extraterritoriality of American law by the United Economic Order, globalization presents an alternative
Nations General Assembly (the resolution passed on because it does not require any reform other than that of
2 November 1995 and the complaint submitted to the trade liberalization. It is based on the model successfully
World Trade Organization by the European Union in showcased by the Western world, and, more precisely, the
1996) were to no avail, which is an eloquent testimony of United States.
the effectiveness of the WTO. In the spirit of the New International Economic Order,
the analysis of the equality of states, for instance, was not
limited to the call for the curtailment of the inequality of
I nto the twenty - first century power but incorporated the equality of development and
justified the acknowledgement of a specific category of
The call for a New Economic Order, expressed in a developing countries. This analysis is no longer consistent
particularly clear, firm and responsible manner, was based with the fundamental laws of a worldwide market, based on
on simple principles such as bridging the enormous gap a strict compliance with competition, which implies the
between the countries of the North and the South by the relinquishment of discriminatory rules, preferential regimes,
elimination of inequalities and injustices. and double standards.
After over three decades of struggle for the creation of a Undoubtedly, the WTO does not ignore developing
new, solidarity-based and equitable order, the efforts have countries. From this viewpoint, it entails neither a rupture
resulted in failure, since none of the proclaimed principles nor major innovation as regards the North-South gap. The
has been applied. It has also been a failure both for Africa spirit of the constituent text is different, however, owing to
and the rest of the Group of 77, as evidenced by the the liberal context, and if the developing countries can hope
worsening terms of trade, the persistent collapse in to receive special treatment, such a status no longer appears
commodity prices, the disappointing results of the Cancun as a temporary favour justified by the objective of rapid
Summit in 2003 on the issue of ‘equitable cotton’, capital market access.
flight, the relatively weak industrial activity in the states Should one also cancel what has been previously achieved
of the South, which confirms the reluctance of the under the influence of the New International Economic
industrialized countries to effectively transfer technology. Order? Not at all. Most of the texts are mere recommendations,
Proposed alternative solutions have taken the form of and it will suffice to forget them. With regard to the rules of
bilateral cooperation agreements, which unfortunately fail positive law establishing preferences, there is little doubt that
to provide the same promises, benefits and prospects as these will systematically become irrelevant. One could simply
those contained in the Programme of the New International conclude that it is necessary to revert to the neutrality of
Economic Order because such cooperation is often positivism. One can legitimately wonder, however, whether
motivated by strategic interests rather than by the concern this reversion to ‘political realism’ and to ‘a greater normative
for the establishment of a solidarity-based, harmonious, orthodoxy’ is not due to the will of the most powerful to
equitable and responsible development. accede to new markets rather than to the demands of
For its part, Africa began the twenty-first century by formalism and to any legal neutrality.
adopting initiatives crucial to the continent’s progress: the What remains certain, however, is that the search for a
Organization of African Unity has paved the way for the New International Economic Order can be seen as an
African Union, whose constituent act was signed in Lomé outdated issue as far as its initial interventionist and conflict-
on 11 July 2000. Consequently Africa now has a continental prone orientation is concerned; yet it remains an
organization organically diversified and with a more indispensable historical necessity regardless of the form it
markedly ‘integrationist’ agenda. Launched in 2000, the New may eventually take.
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which
reflects the will of Africans to assume responsibility for their
destiny, aims to prevent Africa from depending exclusively
on international assistance and to make it attractive to NOTES
investors. These advances have contrasted paradoxically with
the perceptible mark of regression in the ideological and 1. Kamitatu (Massemba) in A. Pellet, Le droit international
legal substrates from which the New International Economic du développement, ‘Que sais-je ?’, Paris, 1980, p. 7.
Order has drawn for its promotion. 2. United Nations General Assembly Official Documents,
The departure of the countries of Central and Eastern 3872, June 1974.
Europe from the Soviet Union’s orbit that began in 1990 3. Revue Europe – Outremer, no. 5, avril 1974, pp. 9–10
marked not only the end of the Cold War and the triumph 4. Annuaire Africain de Droit International (AZFDI),
of the market economy, but also the questioning of 1962, pp. 516 and 555.
alternatives that have been tried without any tangible 5. Opinion dissidente dans l’Affaire du Sud-Ouest Africain,
results. CIJ Recueils des arrêts, ordonnances et avis, 1950, pp. 126 and 55.

85
 thematic section

6. P. Hountodji, ‘Processus démocratique et enseignement CHARVIN, R. 2000. Relations internationales, droit et mondialisation :
philosophique en Afrique’, in R. Pol, Droit, Philosophie et Un monde à sens unique. Editions L’Harmattan, Paris.
Démocratie dans le monde, Ed. Librairie générale française, COMELIAU, C. 1991. Les relations Nord-Sud. (Collection Repères No.
Paris, 1995, pp. 125. 101). La Découverte, Paris.
7. Cf. R. Charvin, Relations internationales, Droit et commission sud. 1990. Défis au Sud. Rapport de la Commission-Sud,
Mondialisation, un monde à sens unique, Paris, 2000, Economica, Paris.
pp. 154. DUPUY, C., MELLELI, C. and SAVARY, J. 1991. Atlas des multinationales.
8. B. Hima, Mondialisation et démocratie : les termes d’un Vol. II : Stratégies des multinationales. (Collection Dynamiques du
double challenge pour l’Afrique, Revue Nord-Sud, XXI, territoire). La Documentation française, Paris.
n° 12, 1998, pp .112. FLORY, M. 1988. Droit international du développement. PUF, Paris.
9. Cf. Y. Vignon, Reflexions sur la privatisation des FOTTORINO, E. 1988. Les années folles des matières premières. Hatier,
entreprises publiques en Afrique, annales de l’Université de Paris.
Lomé, Série Droit-Economie-Gestion, Tome 16, 1996, HUGON, P. 1993. L’Europe et le Tiers-Monde: entre le mondialisation
pp. 221. et la régionalisation. In : Revue du Tiers-Monde, no. 136, October-
10. Cf. R. Charvin, Relations Internationales, Droit et December 1993, pp. 721–959.
Mondialisation, op. cit., pp. 163. KOUASSI, K. E. Une contribution africaine au nouvel ordre économique
international: Le Plan d’action de Lagos pour le développement
économique de l’Afrique, Mélanges offerts à P. M. Gonidec, LGDJ,
Paris, pp. 492 and following.
BIBLIOGRAPHY LAFAY, G. and HERZOG, C. 1989. Commerce International: la fin des
avantages acquis. Economica, Paris.
AUVERNY-BENNETOT, P. 1991. La dette du Tiers-Monde : mécanismes LELART, M. 1991. Le Fonds Monétaire International. (Collection ‘Que
et enjeux. La Documentation française, Paris. sais-je ?’). PUF, Paris.
BEAUD, M. 1989. L’Economie mondiale dans les années 80. La Découverte, le Monde diplomatique . 1993. Les frontières de l’économie
Paris. globale. (Série : Manière de voir, no. 1018). May 1993, Paris.
BEDJAOUI, M. 1979. Pour un nouvel ordre économique international. MERLOZ, G. 1980. La CNUCED. Droit international et développement.
UNESCO, Paris. Bruylant, Bruxelles.
BENCHIKH, M. 1983. Droit international du sous-développement. Nouvel PELLET, A. 1987. Droit international du développement. (Collection
ordre dans la dépendance. (Collection ‘Mondes en devenir’). ‘Que sais-je ?’ No. 1731). PUF, Paris.
Editions Berger-Levrault, Paris. Quelle Afrique en l’an 2000 ? Rapport du Colloque de Monrovia sur les
BENNOUNA, M. 1983. Droit international du développement. Editions perspectives du développement de l’Afrique à l’horizon 2000. 1980,
Berger-Levrault, Paris. Genève, IIES.
BETTATI, M. 1983. Le Nouvel ordre économique international. SAINT-GEOURS, J. 1981. L’impératif de coopération Nord-Sud, la synérgie
(Collection ‘Que sais-je ?’). PUF, Paris. des mondes. Dunod, Paris.
CARFANTAN, J. Y. 1993. Le grand désordre du monde. Seuil, Paris. STERN, B. 1983. Un nouvel ordre économique international? Economica,
CARREAU, D. 1977. Le Nouvel ordre économique international. Clunet, Paris. Paris.

86
 conclusion

Iba Der Thiam

After years of war and international tension, as well as with the edifying signals of progress in the struggle against
economic, scientific and technological progress, the world corruption and conflict (both internal and external) must be
has undergone unprecedented upheaval during the twentieth recognized. Yet, we must also acknowledge that a great deal
century. still remains to be done in developing countries. Day by day,
New hopes have arisen since 1994: with the wave of poverty’s grip grows a little tighter, while unemployment,
independence in the 1960s, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the underemployment and malnutrition are on the rise.
disappearance of the world communist movement, the end Diseases, such as tuberculosis, that were once in decline are
of the Cold War and the arms race, the world is now returning with a vengeance, and AIDS continues to be a
evolving towards a new era of peace, even though domestic major worry. Illiteracy is still widespread. Investment,
crises of an ethnic, tribal or religious nature still threaten though considerable, is still desperately inadequate in
certain countries. Colonialism has been defeated, apartheid certain developing countries, especially in Africa, and debt,
put down, the balance of terror abolished. We are witnessing which remains a heavy burden on their economies, is
the genisis of a new international order founded on the constantly sapping their capacity for growth. Peace – the
promotion of human rights, democracy, a free press, market missing link between development and democracy – is still
economies, the protection of women’s, children’s and unknown to many regions, and this compromises the
minorities’ rights and the right to a better quality of life prospects for ecologically viable and sustainable development.
through respect for the environment. This new international The sense of solidarity embracing all of humanity is on the
order must help to bring about certain changes needed in ebb as evidenced by the disturbing drop in development aid.
the international relationships established in the wake of The growing support of right-wing movements in the West
the Second World War and to create mutually advantageous is accentuating fears of exclusion, selfishness and covert
and more equitable economic and commercial relations racism, and the conditions for a new and better-balanced
between North and South. It must also facilitate the opening partnership between rich countries and poor still appear
of Western markets to the products of the developing far off.
countries, and the reduction of the ever-increasing There are therefore many challenges still to be met, the
inequalities in science and technology, communications, greatest being the free circulation of knowledge and people
computer use and culture. (the essential counterpart to that of capital, goods and
Indeed, the United Nations and the FAO are now services, and ideas), the democratization of international
headed by Africans, growth has returned with the relations and the setting of fair prices for raw materials
improvement in the main macro-economic indicators, and supplied by developing countries. In the new century, peace
an African contributed to the success of the American and the future of the planet will depend on the resolution of
mission to Mars. Clearly, these fine accomplishments, along these crucial issues.

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 8
Women

Françoise Thébaud

The first edition of the History of Humanity was published both the chronology and the variety of situations existing in
under the auspices of UNESCO in 1965. Since then, the the different continental, national, or regional contexts.
world and our knowledge of it have changed considerably. Written by a French woman, it must as far as possible avoid
This is especially true of the status and social position of giving a Eurocentric perspective and should not give priority
women, who, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, to Western examples. Rather, it should place equal emphasis
number three billion individuals and constitute roughly half on points of international convergence, and on national and
of the human race. This is even truer in regard to sociological, group identities. In line with the rest of the collection, it will
anthropological and historical studies of women and focus on structures rather than events. However, the latter
relations between the sexes (now commonly known as cannot be omitted from a historical analysis of the twentieth
genders). Prior to the end of the 1960s, these studies were century, a century marked by numerous wars, dictatorships,
few and far between, or limited to static and picturesque revolutions, scientific discoveries, and technological
descriptions of an immutable feminine status. They transformations. Although there is such a thing as a
developed on the initiative of feminist movements and have biological female sex, there is no condition of women
grown in number over the last three decades, initially in existing outside time and space. As research on women has
North America and Europe, then on other continents, emphasized, at times so trenchantly as to appear provocative,
especially in fledgling democracies (for example, in Latin ‘Woman’ does not exist.
America), where they are regarded as a factor of A brief presentation of the debates that have recurred in
democratization and social progress. In denouncing women’s studies, and especially in women’s history, over the
discourses centred on myth or tradition, in criticizing the last 30 years is a useful preliminary to any attempt at
blindness of the social sciences to the presence of women providing an overview and choosing an outline to follow. In
and to differences between the sexes, they made gender an its early days, women’s history developed by declaring that
essential category of analysis, alongside other more the condition of women is not the product of a female
established categories such as national, ethnic or social nature that supposedly induces an intangible status and
affiliation. Today, at any level, it is difficult to refer to human roles that are repeated from one generation to the next, but
beings neutrally. Differences between men and women now is the product of a historically determined social and cultural
rank highly among the differences which have been construct. It preferred the concept of the position of women
perceived, or exposed. Following a long lack of interest on in society, and later, of sex- or gender-related social relations,
the part of the community of historians, women’s history to the over-essentialist concept of the condition of women,
and gender issues have featured prominently at the last and at times, particularly in African history,2 it has defined
three International Congresses of Historical Science itself in opposition to anthropology, seen as a ‘colonial
(Madrid 1990, Montreal 1995, Oslo 2000).1 science’ describing societies called ‘traditional’ or ‘immobile’.
Although the developments outlined above explain the Today, in Europe at least, the relationship between the two
need for this chapter on women, it is neither straightforward disciplines is less conflictual. However, although a study of
nor simple to write. As part of this extensive publication the construct and various meanings of femininity may be
chiefly concerned with the scientific and cultural justified, the approach developed here will be primarily
development of humanity, the present study must first of all historical, favouring processes and evolutions.
take into consideration the philosophy and structure of the Evolution does not denote linear progress achieved by
whole. As with the issues relating to young, elderly or the tireless campaigning of women activists. Without
handicapped people, those concerning woman cut across denying that, for millions of women, improvement can be
the entire range of approaches, whether chronological, measured by the acquisition of new rights or better living
thematic or regional. This chapter – a potentially conditions, today women’s history is conscious of backsliding
inexhaustible thematic summary – will need to consider and the displacement and reconstitution of inequalities. For

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this reason, it is no simple task to suggest a chronology of issues relating to social affiliation, race, age or religion, and
the twentieth century based on women and gender. In by the persistence of ancient hierarchies between peoples
Europe and North America,3 the 1960s and 1970s – marked (Africa, former white colonies), or of castes (India). Without
by peace and prosperity, by technological innovations such a map to show the situation today (see The State of Women
as the invention of the contraceptive pill, by the growing in the World Atlas by the Canadian Joni Seager in the
participation of women in the labour force, by the rise of bibliography), this global panorama must avoid any
more and more anti-establishment movements and the generalization or at least, where information is available and
emergence of a new kind of feminism – heralded the start of relevant work has been produced in the field of women’s
a fundamental shift in relations between men and women. history, any generalization must be qualified by contrasting
This shift advanced the individual rights of women, and examples. Despite the litany of women’s woes over the last
gradually granted them economic, legal and symbolic century and in the world today, our overview must ultimately
autonomy in relation to their fathers and husbands. present women, not solely as victims of the established
However, what is the situation like on other continents, order, but also as people directly involved with their own
where family pressures, poverty and often war, all have an lives and histories, not just well-known personalities, but
impact upon women? According to the context under anonymous women too. This is the latest lesson to emerge
consideration, the answer often varies with each continent, from recent debates and from development policies.
country and village, where the construction of a well or a These preliminaries, to be borne in mind when reading
school may transform daily life. Most international reports the pages that follow, lead me to the following choice: after
highlight improvement in the situation of women from the focusing on the constant burden of war, and in counterpoint,
1970s onwards as well as its deterioration in places during the gradual affirmation of women’s rights, the chapter will
the 1990s, due to the world crisis, the development of tackle the themes of the family, motherhood, work, and
liberalism and economic globalization, the rise of access to knowledge and power, from a combined
fundamentalism, the ravages of AIDS, or the increase in chronological and geographical point of view.
local conflicts. This deterioration led to the United Nations
decision to hold an additional World Conference on
Women (Beijing, 1995) as a follow-up to the three that T he constant burden of war
took place during the ‘Decade for Women’ (1975–85).
The concept of progress also presupposes agreement The twentieth century was one of the bloodiest in the
about a particular development model. Today, Western history of humanity. War in all its forms was omnipresent
feminists – separated into an egalitarian branch, and a throughout: two world wars, colonial and post-colonial
differentiating branch based on according greater value to wars, wars of national liberation, not to mention the civil
what is feminine – recognize that difference is not the wars that destroyed the fabric of many societies. The issue
opposite of equality (but of similitude) and that the two of the relationship between war and social change, and in
concepts can coexist. In the 1980s, national minority women particular of its impact on gender and the status of women,
activists and Third-World feminists criticized the has often been raised by both contemporary commentators
imperialism of the Western model (that of a wealthy white and historians. Does war lead to the emancipation of
woman), in the name of different cultural traditions and women? Before considering the involvement of women in
other social and political realities. As emphasized by the conflict and giving a qualified response to this question, it
title of an American book published in the 1990s, on the should be emphasized that war is synonymous with violence,
history of women in the United States,4 this legitimate and that first and foremost, women are its victims.
criticism led to greater awareness-raising of inequalities Nine million military personnel were killed between
between women in the same country and in the world, and 1914 and 1919. There were 50 million deaths between 1939
reoriented women’s studies towards an approach more and 1945, of which 20 million were Soviet and half of those
inclusive of difference. However, recognition of diversity were Soviet civilians, and there have been millions more
should not disguise the existence of laws, which can be since. War claims the lives of men (husbands, sons,
liberating or oppressive for women, of situations of brothers), who may never come home, or who return
autonomy or minority status, or of significant indicators of injured and traumatized. Universally present – although
their condition (for example, the literacy rate or the rate of experienced in various ways according to place and culture
mortality in childbirth). Liberty, dignity, and equality are – solitude, distress and mourning are the lot of women.
universal values, endorsed by the international community, Women have sometimes organized peace movements in
but challenged by the world’s most conservative states. the name of life and motherhood, only to then be denounced
During the most recent international conferences (on as traitors to their communities (most recently to date, the
population in Cairo, 1994, or in Beijing), these states ‘Women in Black’ of Israel or Serbia). War, and its
attempted to counter such values with the concepts of accompanying loss of income and pillage of industrial or
complementarity of the sexes, or equity. agricultural wealth, also exacerbates the difficulties in
‘Unequal sisters’: the world of women is made up of material living conditions and weighs particularly heavily
common ground (motherhood, ensuring the cohesion and on women, who are responsible for feeding their families.
care of the family, vulnerability to violence), of solidarities In Europe, drastic shortages were prevalent only in parts of
which may be partial and temporary, and of differences Central Europe during the First World War, but 25 years
which, on a world scale, are often greater than the level of later, the whole of German-occupied Europe was affected.
sexual inequality measured in each country. Being the result People were forced to return to a way of life associated with
of inequalities between societies, inequalities between a subsistence economy, and the shortages ultimately led to
women from one place to another (a state can be ‘ahead’ in hunger riots. Elsewhere, in rural economies, the destruction
one aspect and ‘behind’ in another) may be accentuated by of crops by armies or bombardment could be catastrophic.

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The exacerbation of poverty beyond endurable limits, or Women also took part in resistance against occupying
the lack of separation between the front and rear lines, forces and in wars of decolonization and national liberation.
increasingly common in contemporary warfare, frequently Among female members of resistance groups who earned a
led to the exodus of women, children and the elderly, place in history this way are: in France, Berthie Albrecht
struggling to escape conflict and famine. In the world today, (co-founder of the ‘Combat’ movement, executed by the
over 80 per cent of refugees are women and children, Germans in 1943), or the communist Danielle Casanova,
fleeing countries such as Afghanistan, Rwanda, Sudan who died as a deportee; in Algeria, Hassiba ben Bouali
and Serbia. (planter of bombs, killed in 1957 during the Battle of
Increasingly, war has a direct physical impact on women, Algiers), or Djamila Boupacha, the FLN (Front de libération
and the ‘rules of war’ have tried in vain to make their bodies nationale) liaison officer whose arrest, torture and trial
sacrosanct. Although, the majority of totalitarian regimes became an international affair in 1960. However, this
enforced the appalling concept of family guilt, the Nazis’ phenomenon extended worldwide. While a minority joined
policy of extermination of Jews and Gypsies, and the the guerrillas, courageously transgressing behaviour codes, a
barbarities that took place in the occupied territories (in greater number supported fighters behind the scenes
particular against the Slavs and the resistance), pushed back (hiding, supplying, feeding, healing) or rebelled against the
the boundaries of abomination. The names of the death repercussions of occupation. The decades-long struggle by
camps (such as Auschwitz, Sobibor and Belzec) and of the black South African women for freedom of movement
civilian massacres (such as Guernica in Spain, Baby Yar in (against apartheid and the carrying of passes) has similarities
the USSR, Oradour-sur-Glane in France) will remain with the fight of West African women against the poll tax.
indelibly printed on the collective memory. Perpetrators of This fight, conducted with daring to secure their economic
genocide (the term is also used in reference to the Khmer survival, drew them into the political struggle despite and
Rouge in Cambodia, to Rwanda and former Yugoslavia) because of repression. Although they were subjugated to
show no particular pity for the female sex, but quite the patriarchal authority, Kikuyu peasant women joined the
opposite since women are mothers or potential mothers of Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya for similar reasons. The
future generations. In all wars, women, seen as part of the British, who termed their lengthy resistance ‘passive’,
spoils and as the ‘warrior’s well-earned rest’, have been raped responded to it with a forced return to the villages and the
(at Nanjing sacked by the Japanese in 1937; in Spain during establishment of women’s progress clubs. However, they
the Civil War from 1936 to 1939; in Germany during misunderstood the commitment of these women, 35,000 of
liberation by Russian soldiers, 1945; in Bangladesh in 1971; whom were imprisoned between 1952 and 1958, and whose
and elsewhere). Others, seen as traitors to their nation, had mental and social environment was profoundly changed as
their heads shaved.5 But the systematic practice of rape a result. Among those imprisoned was the rebellion’s most
(notably perpetrated by the Serbs against Bosnian Muslim famous nationalist woman activist, Rebecca Njeri.7 In 1919,
women),6 recently made it a weapon of war and ‘ethnic Chinese women played an active role in the 4 May
cleansing’, recognized as a war crime thanks to campaigning Movement (against foreign imperialism and the
by international women’s networks, and punishable by the Confucianism of the traditional elites) and raised the issue
International Criminal Tribunals of The Hague, established of women’s rights; and many Indian women took part in
in 1993. Although a certain proportion of men are brutally Gandhi’s Non-Violent Resistance and, in doing so, gained
tortured and massacred in war, rape has the specific aim of legal and political equality in independent India.
humiliating the enemy and publicly desecrating the values it War, however, was rarely propitious to the evolution of
holds sacred to conquer ‘ethnically’ (via an interposed womb gender relations, even though the awareness and individual
representing the homeland, or mother earth) and to destroy behaviour of some women was changed by it and some
the blood ties of the other culture. As victims of this ground was gained – for example, in many Western states,
violation, defiled and dishonoured, raped women have often the right to vote, or the incorporation of the principle of
been rejected by their families. equality in their constitutions. In such states, the
Twentieth-century conflicts were wars of men and mobilization of women was seen as an interim measure
material. They required the support and assistance of (Plate 51). Once the armistice was signed, they were
women behind the lines, mobilized in the war effort to requested to step down in favour of male ex-combatants
bolster the morale of troops and civilian populations, called and to repopulate the country. Decolonized states, wishing
upon (and often compelled by necessity) to replace men in to assert their national identity, have often given women the
fields, factories or offices to keep the country alive and the role of guardians of traditional values or have emphasized
war machine moving. This led to a complete subversion of priorities other than their emancipation. After 1962,
traditional gender roles. The number of women in Algerian women were obliged to conform to Arab-Muslim
employment increased (from 20 to 50 per cent among the values, to stay at home and wear the veil, while today,
belligerents in the First World War, and still further in the Palestinian women activists find it difficult to marry after
United States and United Kingdom between 1939 and imprisonment, which stains the family honour. Despite the
1945). Women broke into traditionally masculine trades increasing volume of women’s war literature, few women
(e.g., lathe operators producing shells or engine drivers), have been or are able to give collective meaning to their
and, in increasingly varied roles, into the armed forces. The experiences and above all, to impose their view of things.
USSR recruited women combatants as early as 1943, Nationalism and women’s rights have often been
including heroic fighter or bomber pilots. In this way, incompatible. The lesson to be learned from the twentieth
women in countries at war took on new social and family century is that peace and democracy, open to the circulation
responsibilities, tested their abilities, demonstrated the full of ideas and people and to the constitution of feminist and
range of their skills, and conquered the public sphere women’s organizations, are more favourable to the
previously occupied by men. promotion of women’s rights than war.

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T he emergence and affirmation of Women was set up in 1888 on the initiative of American
of women ’ s rights women, and possessed 17 European sections in 1914.
Travel, correspondence and international congresses
Structuralist anthropologists 8 set as an invariant the enabled the emergence of a transnational feminist culture,
existence of a ‘differential valency of the sexes’ characterized and the concept of the ‘new woman’ (independent and
by the dominance of the masculine principle over the creative) gradually crossed frontiers, reaching the colonies
feminine principle and connoting the binary system of and other continents. This was the title of an essay published
opposites that we use in order to think. According to them, by the Japanese writer Hiratsuka Raicho, who founded the
on a historical and world scale, no societies, even those that review Seito (‘Bluestocking’ 1911–16), in order to liberate
are matrilineal, exist without masculine domination. This women’s talents. She went on to obtain political rights for
can be explained by the will of men to overturn the privilege Japanese women from the American authorities in 1945,
of women and to appropriate their reproductive capacity to and later devoted herself to the anti-nuclear movement.10
engender sons. The resilience and longevity of this system of This was also the title given to a Saigon-based review in
representation – and only too often, of real violence – 1930s Viet Nam, while in Egypt the interwar period saw
explains why the concept of sexual equality and of the the launching of the feminist journal L’Egyptienne
autonomy and rights of women had difficulty emerging. In (‘The Egyptian Woman’). Constrained by the inequality of
the West, this concept, which made fleeting appearances in relations between nations, this international movement
various places and at various times, gradually asserted itself twice came to grief on account of war, while after 1945,
in the nineteenth century, stimulated by the challenges to feminism appeared to lose impetus in the West despite the
other hierarchies and forms of oppression such as slavery, long-term impact of Simone de Beauvoir’s work The Second
religious persecution, feudal relationships or class relations. Sex (1949).
The concepts of reason and progress derived from the However, during the second half of the twentieth
philosophy of the Enlightenment, then the movement century, intergovernmental organizations (mainly the
towards democracy, swelled an egalitarian movement calling United Nations, and to a lesser degree the Council of
for the equality of all individuals and extended the Europe and the European Economic Community) played
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789 to an important role in the development of equality between
include women. Utopian socialism took this further, adding men and women.11 This role evolved and became more
enhancement of the status of motherhood and belief in the prominent in the final decades of the century, after the
moral superiority of women. Marxist socialism tended to United Nations had responded to issues raised by new
subordinate the issue to the triumph of the revolution, prior feminists in Western countries (condemnation of patriarchy,
to its manifestation (post-1917) in states where, despite the the politicization of private life, demands for sexual
fact that the reality was more complicated, the issue of autonomy and the right to family planning), by proclaiming
sexual inequality was considered as settled. 1975 International Women’s Year, and by organizing, in
In the nineteenth century, religious dissidence, especially Mexico City, the first conference on the situation of women
Protestant, was also a breeding ground for feminism (the in the world, as the prelude to a decade on the themes of
term took on its current meaning at the end of that century), ‘equality, development and peace’. Taking its cue from
particularly in its dualist form, which demanded rights in feminist and women’s organizations (whose numbers grew
the name of the difference between the sexes. In the longer outside the Western world), from women experts from the
term, it raised the inescapable issue of the sexism of the ‘Southern’ countries, and from non-governmental
major religions, condemned by numerous contemporary organizations, the merit of the United Nations, whose
feminists such as the Indian Chandra Rami Chopra, who member states were also increasing, was also to promote
after the Cairo and Beijing conferences recently stated that discussion in the decolonized world on the relationship
the common ground of all religious laws is their between women, gender and development and to undertake
discrimination against women. Is Taoism, which attributes action along those lines.
equal power to the female and male principles of yin and The San Francisco Charter and the Universal Declaration
yang, more egalitarian than Confucianism, Buddhism, of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 both prohibit
Judaism, Christianity or Islam, which appear more sexual discrimination, along with any distinction on the
concerned about women’s duties than their rights? In any basis of race, colour, language, religion, opinion, national or
case, if one takes into account the evolution of doctrine social origin, in the enjoyment of human rights (extended to
(recent years have even seen the development of a feminist include economic and social rights), and fundamental
theology, mainly in the Protestant world) and distinguishes freedom. This was thanks to campaigning by women’s
reference texts from practices rooted in tradition and organizations united under the umbrella of the Inter-
determined by state policies or ecclesiastical authorities, the American Commission on the Status of Women and to the
influence of religion appears to have been decisive9 and the action of energetic women such as Eleanor Roosevelt
secularization of states and societies is seen as a condition (1884–1962), the widow of the American President, a
favourable to the assertion of women’s rights like education, tireless activist on all fronts, who went on to chair the
legal and economic autonomy, political citizenship, and United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The
later, contraception. Charter and the Declaration constituted benchmark texts
The conquest and codification of these rights have a for the promotion of women’s rights in the world, but their
history whose thread, interrupted by the previous point, I effectiveness was limited because they followed the legal
will now pick up again. Feminist associations existed in tradition of speaking of the beneficiaries of rights abstractly
Europe and the United States at the beginning of the and with no reference to their sex. Without sexual and
twentieth century and were organized as federations at the procreative self-determination, the rights to life, liberty,
national and international levels. The International Council dignity and security of person are not effectively guaranteed

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for the female half of the human race (any more than is inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human
equality in marriage). Moreover, the transformation of the rights’, opening the way for the identification of specific
Declaration into covenants able to bind states parties was forms of violation (particularly the forms of sexual violence
slow in coming (two covenants adopted in 1966 did not included in the December 1993 Declaration on the
come into effect until 1976), and monitoring procedures Elimination of Violence against Women) and for the
lacked teeth. The United Nations Commission on the recognition of a new generation of human rights, which
Status of Women had a limited mandate and no powers of included reproductive and sexual rights. Despite opposition
investigation; it nonetheless gave an impetus to the from many quarters, the entitlement of every individual to
ratification of specific treaties (on the political rights of reproductive rights was recognized by the Cairo conference
women, the nationality rights of wives, marriage and the on ‘Population and Development’, and the entitlement of
question of consent), and prompted by communist countries women to sexual rights was recognized in Beijing, although
in the 1960s, it advanced the project of an instrument able without imposing abortion legislation on states parties.
to deal with women’s rights as a whole. This huge victory for feminists throughout the world
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of heralded a new era. However, for these rights to become
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an effective, their full implications for civil, political, social and
amalgamation of the policies elaborated over a period of cultural rights needed to be followed through and
thirty years, was adopted in 1979. It was the first international appropriated by women.
treaty to view discrimination against women as distinct Throughout the world today, all socio-economic
from other forms of discrimination and to give sexual indicators, with the exception of life expectancy, are less
difference legal status. In its 30 articles, the convention favourable for women than for men, and the development
defines this type of discrimination in broad terms (including index needs to be adjusted to take into account the disparities
all limitations, such as family and sexual, on the equal between the sexes, as proposed by the United Nations
exercise of individual rights) and makes provision for Development Programme in 1995. As measured by the
temporary special measures (legally binding) in order to GDI (Gender-related Development Index), sub-Saharan
promote de facto equality. The most important document Africa, Afghanistan, and a large part of South-East Asia are
to come out of the ‘Decade for Women’, CEDAW also had extremely low-ranking, and post-communist Eastern
limited application. It had been ratified in 1995 by only Europe has fallen back sharply, since sexual equality depends
137 states, which were committed to the submission of as much on the policies a state implements as on a society’s
national progress reports every four years. Over 40 states income. Formal equality has progressed almost everywhere,
parties had entered substantive reservations as to its but legal discrimination is still extremely widespread, mainly
content. with regard to civil rights in developing countries. The
Mexico City 1975, Copenhagen 1980, Nairobi 1985 and family and its traditions are still at the hard core of female
Beijing 1995 combined with the parallel NGO forums that dependence, providing a backdrop to the gender division of
brought together 6,000 women in Mexico and 30,000 in labour, the overworking and physical coercion of women.
Beijing. These four conferences gave rise to a body of gender
statistics, which raised the profile of the women and gender
issues, shaped world public opinion on the themes of F amilies : the decline of
equality and development, and laid down guidelines, in patriarchy
declarations and action programmes, for international
organizations and national governments. Without doubt, Patriarchy may be defined as a system in which men (fathers
the most important outcome was the recognition of women’s or husbands) dominate women, utilizing their labour
work (paid or unpaid), and the need for their active (mainly domestic) and controlling their sexuality and
participation in development projects, which were often reproductive capacity. It manifests itself in both the
planned from a neutral perspective without any analysis of formation and composition of the family, in intra-family
the effects on women and gender. In Nairobi, following a relationships (legal and everyday), and in the gender division
decade of specific programmes with disappointing results, of labour. At the start of the twentieth century, it existed
emphasis was placed on the central role of equality (in terms throughout the world in varying degrees (in Africa,
of opportunity and legal rights) as the ultimate aim and as colonization wiped out the prestige of women chieftains
an instrument of peace and development. Two concepts and queen mothers along with the existence of women’s
and strategies that had been forcefully reasserted in Beijing associations). It is gradually disintegrating in places, but on
also emerged: ‘mainstreaming’, or the incorporation of a a world scale, the family scene generally remains highly
gender perspective and of equality of opportunity between contrasted.
men and women in general programmes and policies;12 and Depending on the level of education and urbanization,
‘empowerment’, designating both the strategy of giving age at marriage generally rose in the twentieth century.
power to women at all decision-making levels and the However, the proportion of girls already married at a very
process by which they individually and collectively increase young age (15–19) remains high, particularly in Africa (over
their power over their own lives and in society. 50 per cent in Mali and in Niger), and in Asia. In India, the
The changes that had come about in half a century of legal system is experiencing difficulty combating the age-old
international legislation were clearly apparent in a radically custom of child marriage, while in Pakistan many young
new approach to women’s rights in the 1990s, which girls are married to men within their families, which
emerged in response to the previously mentioned upsurge increases their dependence. Pakistan is a Muslim country
in violence and violation. The second World Conference on where there is little polygamy, unlike Muslim West Africa.
Human Rights (held in Vienna in 1993) affirmed that ‘the In Nigeria, Mali or Senegal today, polygamy affects over
human rights of women and of the girl-child are an 40 per cent of married women, but the lack of previous

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surveys makes it difficult to measure the situation’s evolution. from its beginnings in the United States in the 1920s and
Pakistan also practises the highly restrictive dowry system, 1930s, invaded Europe post-1945, and today is spreading
in contrast to the bride-price still paid by the majority of throughout former Eastern-bloc countries and starting to
African men to their wife’s family to ‘compensate’ the loss of take hold in Asia.
a source of labour and reproduction. For a long time, this Domestic violence is universal and remains a major cause
was paid in goods (especially in head of cattle) or in labour, of injuries inflicted on women and of female mortality in the
then increasingly in money with the monetization of the world. Long shrouded in secrecy, this phenomenon has left
economy, but although recently some governments have few traces, mainly in the form of police or court records,
occasionally prohibited the practice, it remains socially which are only just beginning to be examined from the angle
embedded. In both cases, marriage for a young woman very of women’s rights. Its history has not yet been written, but
frequently means going to live with her husband’s family, a start has been made on raising awareness of its multiform
where several generations, and sometimes all the brothers reality. In Sweden, the ban on husbands beating their wives
and sisters, live together. dates back to 1858, but in the rest of Europe, in the United
In Europe, North America and Australia, the institution States, or in Latin America, where domestic violence is
of marriage at first grew stronger in the twentieth century, rooted in a very macho culture, domestic violence mainly
with cohabitation and illegitimate births declining among takes the form of battering, marital rape (a recent concept
the working classes and the nuclear family becoming more and an act which has been made a criminal offence in some
widespread. It was called into question from the 1970s democracies), and sometimes murder, committed by a
onwards (in particular by the feminist movement), and this drunken husband or partner. In many developing countries,
was reflected by the proliferation of often-prolonged violent acts may also be committed by members of the
cohabitation among young people (especially in Sweden extended family (for example, mother-in-law) and may take
and France), an increase in celibacy, and a rise in the divorce extreme forms; such as the honour killings that often go
rate, although strictly Catholic Ireland did not legalize unpunished in Pakistan, or bride-burning in India resulting
divorce until 1996. This challenge to established ideas gave from dowry-related conflicts. It is accompanied by social
rise to, and accompanied, a wave of reform that led to the violence carried out by men against single women, those
incorporation into the private law of Napoleonic code whose behaviour is considered unconventional, or women
countries, belatedly, after their common law counterparts, classed as prostitutes. There is also violence fostered by
of the idea of equality between husband and wife and to the many governments in a general political atmosphere of
elimination of the concept of head of the family. Civil law repression.
henceforth authorized a multiplicity of female roles and Primarily controlled by men, prostitution is an activity
family models, but the freedom won has sometimes been at that survives by violence, and its existence tends to perpetuate
the cost of solitude (divorced men remarry more frequently patriarchal family structures. It is an extremely ancient and
and more quickly than women) and relative poverty, widespread practice, which has existed in various forms on
especially in the case of single-parent families. Similarly, all continents (prior to 1949, China was the largest market
tolerance towards homosexuality, whether female or male, of human beings in the world), and it endures today. It is a
has considerably increased in the West over the last 20 years, means of survival for women at the local level, but increasingly
although homosexual unions have been recognized by only supplies an international sex market, which prospers due to
a few countries (here again, the Scandinavians led the way), economic disparities between regions of the world (Eastern
but the WHO did not remove homosexuality from the Europe, impoverished in the 1990s, supplied its contingent,
International Classification of Diseases until 1992, and in alongside Asia, Brazil and Nigeria) and to sex tourism. The
numerous states, it is ignored as a social reality or is a female body is a commodity. It is also subjected to a quite
punishable offence (even by the death penalty). specific form of violence, i.e. the genital mutilation carried
The idea that a married woman belongs to her husband out on 40 per cent of African women in around 30 states
governs social relations, and, in a number of countries, the stretching from Mauritania to Egypt and Somalia. Excision
law itself. The most extreme expression of this is the custom (removal of the clitoris and the labia minora) and infibulation
of suttee (whereby the wife commits suicide after the death (in addition, the removal of a section of the labia majora and
of her husband), still practised at times in India despite the the stitching up of a large part of the vaginal orifice) are
fact that it is prohibited. In Arab countries, modern law, extremely damaging both mentally and physically. Such
which for the most part carries more weight than Muslim mutilation is associated with ethnic or religious traditions
law stricto sensu, does not apply to the domestic citadel of about whose origin little is known, and it is intended to
the family and to women, pawns in the battle between diminish the sexual appetite of the woman and ‘cleanse’ her
modernists and traditionalists. Women remain subject to body, which is subordinated to the sexual pleasure of the
codes of personal status directly inspired by sharia (Muslim man alone, and to guarantee virginity until marriage. These
law), sometimes in its most regressive interpretation (Plate practices are carried out by women on girl infants or girl
52). In these countries, as in other states in Africa and Asia, children whom they wish to incorporate into their
women suffer constraints on their freedom of movement (to communities (two million victims every year at the present
the extent of being confined to the home) and must submit time). They were condemned from time to time by
to dress codes which emphasize their enclosure (veil or missionaries or colonial powers, along with other initiation
chador). Constraints of this kind, the history of which still rituals, but have more often than not been tolerated in the
has to be charted (the current upsurge in religious name of ‘respect for tradition’ or ignored altogether. For a
fundamentalism shows clearly that political climate is just long time, the independent states did nothing and the
as important as cultural tradition), are in no way comparable WHO (World Health Organization) invoked the social
to those associated with ‘beauty culture’, even though this and cultural context before taking a stand in 1982. The
was partly brought about by the cosmetics industry which, condemnation of these practices by Western feminists in

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the 1970s irritated some African women’s movements, but and the average number of births per woman is less
other African women, such as the Senegalese Awa Thiam, than 1.5.
worked and are still working towards their eradication. Major changes also took place on other continents, and
Since the 1980s, many states have adopted legislation to often more quickly, especially as far as the fertility rate was
counter these practices and some, such as Burkina Faso, concerned. On the urbanized continent of Latin America,
have been carrying out effective campaigns even down to the the transition occurred early in predominantly white
village level, out of consideration for the health of young countries and became widespread after the
girls and future mothers. Second World War. The level of fertility (2.7 children per
woman at present) decreased throughout the continent
from the 1960s onwards through a combination of the
M otherhood and women ’ s wor k : modernization of the wealthy sectors of society and of a
towards autonomy ‘Malthusian’ approach to poverty, which made use of the
pill and, even more frequently, of female sterilization. Brazil
All societies have valued and continue to value motherhood, is a case in point. The spread of Malthusianism, which
which confers dignity on women. At the beginning of the enabled women to escape the risk and burden of repeated
twentieth century, Western feminists demanded rights and pregnancies and to feed their children better, was encouraged
social protection in consideration of this special status. by the authorities and by the United States, fearing the
Other women used it to resist oppression, such as the social tensions of a ‘demographic bomb’. The issue of the
Argentinean mothers who demonstrated every Thursday consent of women and couples to national and international
on the Plaza de Mayo, wearing babies’ white flannel nappies family planning policies should be raised, in fact, especially
as headscarves, to condemn General Videla’s dictatorship with regard to Asia, which has seen a sharp fall in the birth
(1976–83), and demand news of their 30,000 missing rate per woman over the last four decades (the present
(‘disappeared’) children.13 But the place of motherhood in average is 2.6 children per woman), and renewed attempts
the lives and identities of women became extremely varied to impose a one-child policy in China. There, as in India,
in the twentieth century with contrasting situations in Pakistan, or South Korea, the lower birth rate has sharply
developed and developing countries, from continent to highlighted the time-honoured preference for male children
continent, and from country to country. (shared to a varying degree by many societies). It would
Europe had virtually come to the end of its long appear that around 100 million females have been eliminated
demographic transition14 by the beginning of the twentieth due to the abortion of female fetuses (detected by
century, and the birth rate remained low throughout the amniocentesis, and over the last two decades, by ultrasound
century – except for the baby boom following the scan), the infanticide of female babies, mistreatment, or
Second World War. The low birth rate was nevertheless neglect.
fought against by dictatorial regimes, and by one democracy – Sub-Saharan Africa has long been presented by
France, which brought in policies that were a mixture of demographers as an exception. Here, the fertility rate still
controls and incentives in order to encourage births. In exceeds five children per woman due to early and widespread
North America, the birth rate was also low, and it remained marriage, little recourse to contraception (even in urban
a land of immigration. During those decades in both Europe areas, where middle-class women can find cheap domestic
and North America, however, motherhood underwent three staff or call on the free labour of young female relations
major changes that promoted the autonomy of women vis- from rural areas), and a value system that favours births.
à-vis their biological determination and conjugal ties. First, However, the recent example of Kenya, where new property
the improvement in medical care and social protection set and inheritance laws have considerably increased women’s
up by welfare states (although less protective in the United rights and information campaigns and new services have
States) led to a sharp decline in maternal and infant mortality been expanding in rural areas, has shown that the fertility
rates (respectively, from 5 per 1,000 to less than 10 per rate can fall sharply in Africa too. Even so, this is where
100,000 births, and from over 10 per cent to less than 10 per maternity-related risks have been highest, due to a very low
1,000), and provided social assistance for the function of level of medical care, serious consequences such as vesico-
reproduction (paediatricians, psychologists, nurseries and vaginal fistulae, which leave women incontinent and
primary schools). Secondly, the development of the ashamed (sometimes repudiated), a particularly high
consumer society (from the 1950s and 1960s onwards in maternal mortality rate (from 0.5 per cent to over 1 per
Europe, and earlier in the United States) considerably cent15), and only too often, the grief of losing a sick or
alleviated household tasks and intellectualized what is undernourished child. AIDS, the scourge of the final
sometimes described as the ‘the profession’ of mother, so decades of the twentieth century, has caused great ravages
complex had the activities of motherhood become. Finally, among men but also increasingly among women, who are
the adoption – often slow and difficult in Catholic countries not in a sufficiently strong position to refuse sexual relations
(1960s and 1970s) – of laws authorizing contraception and or to force men to wear condoms. However, throughout the
abortion, a major revolution, gave them control over their world, improvement in the health and health education of
fertility and their own bodies and undermined the old system women – the ones who provide care and the instruments of
of domination and mental representations. However, one modernity – has contributed to an improvement in the
needs to be aware of social and racial disparities in maternal health of entire populations.
status (especially in the United States), of the deterioration Childbirth increases the domestic workload of women.
of social systems in former Eastern-bloc Europe over the last In rural areas, this work is traditionally carried out in
ten years, and of the difficulties encountered in having addition to work in the fields (especially in Africa) and is
children in some countries like Germany and Japan, where time- and energy-consuming: fetching water or wood,
little is done to make work compatible with motherhood grinding grain, and cooking. As happened in Africa, where

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colonization and development of crops for export increased A ccess to k nowledge and power :
the burden on women and deprived them of the fruit of a constructive pattern of
their labours (monetized by men), the situation of peasant change
women tended in the twentieth century to deteriorate in
poor countries, even in independent states, and conventional Historically, access to learning has been based on segregation
forms of forced labour (to repay debt, for example, in by class and sex: why teach the poorest individuals
Pakistan or India) persisted. Towns and cities everywhere (condemned to the hardest manual labour) or girls destined
attracted and continue to attract people, owing to the to perform the domestic tasks learned from the women of
opportunities they offer, even as they destroy previous the family? Why give them the same teaching in the same
social links and ways of life and reveal stark inequalities. To schools? In Europe and North America, illiteracy had been
a greater extent than domestic service – which became overcome – earlier in some places, later in others – by the
feminized in Africa in the twentieth century (from end of the nineteenth century, as primary education became
houseboy to ayah), and frequently led to the gross widespread. However, for a long time, there were fewer girls
exploitation of younger and older girls from rural areas or in secondary or higher education, where the doors of certain
distant countries (Filipino maids in the Middle East, for establishments were closed to them, or they were confined
example) – it has been the so-called ‘informal’ labour to specific courses that did not provide the same employment
activities that have enabled women, many as heads of opportunities. Over the last thirty years in Europe, North
household (up to 35 per cent of households in the America and the southern part of Latin America, women
Caribbean), to subsist and to achieve a certain level of have become more numerous and successful in education
independence. This has long been the case in certain towns and less prone to functional illiteracy. However, in developing
in West Africa, where women sell at market what they countries, the ‘education revolution’ has been slow in coming
produce, make or collect, or run the trade in food or craft and was very unevenly spread, except in socialist states such
items, locally and at times further afield. Today, many as Maoist China or Cuba under Castro, which rapidly and
African cities survive thanks to unflagging and pitifully extensively provided both sexes with schooling. Girls,
remunerated female labour. In the more urbanized and shunned by colonial schools, which often superimposed
industrialized Latin America, as in South-East Asia, their own interpretation of female dependence, for a long
women are also employed as manual workers, supplying time received less schooling than boys. The illiteracy rate
textiles or electronics industries ‘relocated’ from wealthy among women (who today make up two-thirds of the
countries with cheap and dexterous labour, and sometimes world’s billion illiterate adults) is still extremely high in the
taking up modern occupations in the tertiary sector. The majority of African states (at times, as high as 90 per cent),
well-known brands of clothing or sports goods brands sub- and in countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
contract the manufacture of their products, which are made Laos. However, there is a widespread consensus in favour of
by young women or children for a pittance (less than one education among the international community, which
hundredth of the selling price), particularly in Indonesia, provides aid to states at their request. This situation is
China, and Mexico, to the general indifference of most changing rapidly for the younger generations. With a few
consumers in wealthy countries. exceptions – such as Afghanistan, where the Taliban closed
In developed countries, where women today make up girls’ schools when they came to power in 1996, or African
41 per cent of the working population (or occasionally states affected by war or plagued by severe economic
more, as in France), work was and is a necessity for many. recession – an increasing number of girls (including in rural
Although, women have always worked in agricultural zones) are receiving a few years of schooling. This will have
societies and the poorest of them played a part in the an impact on the future in many different ways, including an
industrial revolution, paid work outside the home as a improvement in family health, decline in the fertility rate,
source of independence represents a conquest of the last and greater independence for women.
three decades of the twentieth century. This occurred after The issue of the gender bias and, even more importantly,
the slow democratization of the middle-class stereotype of the sexist content of textbooks and school curricula was
the mother in the home, which reached its high point after first raised by feminists 30 years ago and was not solely the
the Second World War – an exception to this being the concern of wealthy countries. At every level, women’s issues
communist countries which always fostered women’s work. were rarely considered and their achievements (artistic,
At the same time, working women, who at the beginning of cultural and political) were ignored. This hampered the
the century were mainly land and manual workers, for the growth of awareness by girls of gender inequalities and
most part became employees in the highly diversified and stood as an obstacle to their identification with female role
rapidly expanding tertiary sector. Like men, women models. In all societies, the voices of women – painters,
benefited from the social gains of the century (labour musicians, writers, discoverers, activists, female politicians –
legislation and protection against risks to life), but equality have always had more difficulty in making themselves
at work, constantly called for, was not achieved. At the end heard, claiming universality, and being acknowledged.
of the 1970s, the economic crisis that brought to an end the Since the foundation of the Nobel Prize in 1901, fewer
30-year boom period begun in the wake of the than 30 women have won prizes, out of more than
Second World War maintained, reinstated or accentuated 600 individual awards. However, Nobel Peace Prizes were
the disparities in employment and wages (women being awarded to the Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi (Plate 53), in
most vulnerable to unemployment and the demands of 1991, and to the Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú, in 1992,
flexibility), with the exception of the most highly educated, and these recent nominations along with the cultural
who benefited from a tendency towards egalitarianism, affirmation of women in wealthy countries and elsewhere,
only to come up against what is known as the ‘glass reflect the current pattern of change. A similar situation
ceiling’. has also been noted in politics.

95
 thematic section

In traditional societies as in organized states, politics, the minister from 1969 to 1974 (Plate 56); and Margaret
public domain par excellence, has traditionally been a male Thatcher, the ‘Iron Lady’, who governed the United
concern. In West Africa, where women, such as Ibo peasant Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
women or tradeswomen in towns, enjoyed a certain level of In reality, only deliberate quota policies have made it
autonomy through the management of their own business, possible to bring about any significant increase in the
politics became even more of a male preserve with the advent representation of women in parliaments. Such a policy was
of colonization, which destroyed their unity and way of life introduced in the 1980s by the Scandinavian nations, where
and provoked revolts. In North America and Europe, the women also rose to the highest executive offices (the former
phenomenon was also exacerbated by the establishment of Norwegian prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland,
democracies that refused to grant to all women the privileges became Director-General of WHO in 1998). Their
enjoyed by some. However, at the same time, this gave rise example was followed over the next ten years by several
to suffragist organizations, which called for the right to vote states in Africa and Asia, including India, where one-third
and to be elected, in the name of the equality of all individuals of seats on village or town councils were henceforth reserved
and the qualities specific to women (Plate 54). The first for women, and by France, which committed itself to a
state in the world to give women the status of citizens was strategy of parité (equal access by men and women). This is
New Zealand, in 1893, and the first European state to do so a positive pattern of change. However, looking beyond
was Finland, in 1906. Almost everywhere, and particularly electoral politics, it is the ‘empowerment’ of women (the
in France, where women acquired political rights in 1944, way in which they take charge over their lives) that will
almost one century later than men (1848), resistance from build the world of the twenty-first century. An uncertain
male and political spheres was extremely strong – stronger world, but perhaps one in which there is more equality
than the resistance to the integration of the poorest sectors between the sexes, more sensitivity to wealth sharing, and
of society, although usually weaker than opposition to the more openness to the intermingling of spaces, powers and
integration of people of other ethnic origins. There were cultures. The twentieth century blazed the trail and showed
also numerous expedients, such as introducing the right to that nothing can ever be taken for granted. It is now for
vote in stages, granting suffrage to some (such as soldiers’ tomorrow’s women and men to press on tenaciously and
widows, female military personnel, mothers with several with vigilance.
children) and barring others from it.
It was at the end of the 1950s, in the wake of
decolonization, that the right of both men and women to
vote and to be elected became widespread throughout the
world (Plate 55). In 1959, Aoua Keita, a midwife and NOTES
activist in Mali’s Women’s Democratic Assembly, became
the first woman in French-speaking Africa to be elected to 1. See the proceedings of the 17th (Madrid), 18th
the Constituent assembly of her country. 16 With the (Montreal) and 19th (Oslo) International Congresses of
exception of Kuwait, and on a world scale, going beyond Historical Sciences.
the scope of T. H. Marshall’s chronological model,17 2. Illustrated, e.g., by Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch,
political equality was achieved from the 1970s onwards, author of numerous works on Africa, in French and
before civil equality and before the acquisition of social English.
rights. But this equality was limited, not only by the 3. I presented this thesis in the volume devoted to the
absence of real democracy in many countries, but also by twentieth century in the collection entitled Histoire des
the use women made of their rights and the difficulty they femmes en Occident, Plon, Paris, 1992.
experienced in rising to positions of power within legislative 4. E. C. Dubois and V. L. Ruiz (eds), Unequal Sisters: A
or executive authorities. On the one hand, women, who Multicultural Reader in United States Women’s History,
for a long time were more inclined to abstain from voting Routledge, New York and London, 1990 and 1994.
and were more conservative than men, or who followed 5. In France, e.g., at the time of the Liberation in 1945.
family opinion, needed time (sometimes several decades) See F. Virgili, La France ‘virile’: Des femmes tondues à la
before they voted in a truly autonomous way. Since the libération, Payot, Paris, 2000.
1980s, in Germany, France and the United States, women 6. Numerous reports have been compiled by NGOs,
have proven to be more progressive and hostile to any form UNESCO and the United Nations. See articles by
of extremism. On the other hand, despite the success of V. Nahum-Grappe (in French).
outstanding female politicians, who, incidentally, have 7. See C. A. Presley, Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau
rarely supported the cause of women, executive or elected Rebellion and Social Change in Kenya, Westview Press,
offices have remained male bastions. Nonetheless, we Boulder, CO, 1992.
should mention certain women who were the political 8. See F. Héritier, Masculin/féminin, la pensée de la
heirs of their fathers or husbands: Sirimavo différence, Odile Jacob, Paris, 1996.
R. D. Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, the world’s first female 9. For example, from the point of view of the general
prime minister (1965–70 and 1971–77); Indira Gandhi, population and particularly of the situation of women,
prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 Indonesia is very different from Iran or Afghanistan, despite
until her assassination in 1984; Corazón Aquino, the the fact that these three countries are Muslim. Similarly,
‘Madonna of the Philippines’, who held office from 1986 to the situation in Catholic countries varies.
1992; and Benazir Bhutto, the ‘Queen of Pakistan’, prime 10. H. Fukumoto, Femmes à l’aube du Japon moderne, Des
minister from 1988 to 1990 and then from 1993 to 1996. femmes, Paris, 1997.
Moreover, there are also noteworthy self-made women: 11. Many articles were published in journals at the time of
Golda Meir, the ‘Grandmother of Israel’ and prime the international conferences on women. The following

96
 Women

article in French gives an overall picture: G. Procacci and COQUERY-VIDROVITCH, C. 1994. Les Africaines. Histoire des femmes
M. G. Rossili, ‘La construction de l’égalité dans l’action des d’Afrique noire du xixe au xxe siècle. Editions Desjonquères,
organisations internationals’, in C. Fauré (ed.), Encyclopédie Paris.
politique historique et historique des femmes, PUF, Paris, 1997, DEFOSSEZ, A. C., fASSIN, D. and VIVEROS, M. (eds.). 1992. Mujeres de
pp. 827–59. los Andes. Condiciones de vida y salud. Universidad Externado de
12. European institutions have also implemented the Colombia/IFEA, Bogota.
principle of ‘mainstreaming’. FAURE, C. (ed.). 1998. Encyclopédie politique et historique des femmes.
13. See J. Fischer, Mothers of the Disappeared, Zed Books, PUF, Paris.
London, 1989, or E. Sarner, Mères et ‘folles’ sur la place de GREENSPAN, K. 1994. The Timetables of Women’s History: A
Mai: Argentine 1976–2000, Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 2000. Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in Women’s
14. Demographic transition is defined by demographers History. Simon and Schuster, New York.
as a pivotal period between the traditional demographic KARL, M. 1995. Women and Empowerment: Participation and Decision-
regime (high birth and death rate) and the modern Making. Zed Books, London.
demographic regime (both rates are low); during this period, LANEYRIE-DAGEN, N. and MARSEILLE, J. (eds). 1993. Les grands
the death rate falls before the birth rate and population événements de l’histoire des femmes. Larousse, Paris.
growth is strong. MONTREYNAUD, F. (ed.). 1995. Le xxe siècle des femmes. Nathan,
15. Every year throughout the world, over 500,000 women, Paris.
of which 30 per cent are adolescent, die as a result of NANDA, B. R. (ed.). 1976. Indian Women: From Purdah to Modernity.
pregnancy or childbirth, over 100,000 as a result of abortions Vikas, New Delhi.
carried out in poor conditions. SEAGER, J. 1997. The State of Women in the World Atlas. Penguin
16. See her memoirs: A. Keita, La vie d’Aoua Keita Books, London.
racontée par elle-même, Présence Africaine, Paris, 1975. THEBAUD, F. (ed.). 1994. Toward a Cultural Identity in the Twentieth
17. T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class, Cambridge Century. Vol. 5. (Series edited by DUBY, G. and PERROT, M. trans.
University Press, 1950. According to Marshall’s model, by GOLDHAMMER, A.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
which corresponds to the British situation, rights are MA.
obtained in the following order: civil, political, social. United Nations. 1955. From Nairobi to Beijing: Report of the
Secretary-General. United Nations, New York.
United Nations. 1996. The United Nations and the Advancement of
Women, 1945–1995. United Nations, New York.
United Nations. 1995. The World’s Women 1995: Trends and
BIBLIOGRAPHY Statistics. United Nations, New York.
United Nations Development Programme. 1995. Human
BARRAK, A. and MULLER, B. 1996. Femmes et guerres. In : Confluences Development Report, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Mediterranée, no. 17. L’Harmattan, Paris. VERON, J. 1997. Le monde des femmes. Inégalité des sexes, inégalité des
BISILLIAT, J. and VERSCHUUR, C. (eds). 2000. Le Genre : un outil sociétés. Seuil, Paris.
nécessaire. Introduction à une problématique. (Cahiers genre et WANG, Z. 1999. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and
développement, no. 1.). L’Harmattan, Paris. Textual Histories. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los
BURGUIERE, A., KLAPISCH-ZUBER, C., SEGALEN, M., and ZONABEND, F. Angeles.
(eds). 1986. Histoire de la famille. Vol. 2. Le choc des modernités. YOUNG, M. B. (ed.). 1973. Women in China. Studies in Social Change and
Armand Colin, Paris. Feminism. (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies, Vol 15.).
CHARBIT, Y. (ed.). 2001. La population des pays en développement. La Centre for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann
documentation française, Paris. Arbor, MI.

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 9
Y O U TH

François Dubet

INTRODUCTION terms, this stage of life is considered to correspond to an

‘Oedipal reactivation’ that disrupts identity and self-image.
The way in which youth is experienced varies considerably In most traditional societies, adolescence is therefore
according to the historical and social context. The new delimited and punctuated by rites of passage marking the
manner of perceiving and understanding youth that has transition into adulthood. Rites of passage are ceremonies
evolved in recent years is closely associated with a longer that transform adolescent boys and girls into adults. The
period of education, the weakening of social structures and aim of such traditions as the medieval ceremonies associated
the increased interaction between the mass youth culture with chivalry, the changing of family names, and female
and the mass youth market. Paradoxically, young people are initiation rites that reveal adult secrets, is to reduce and
most independent and most highly thought of in Western control the period of adolescence and to ensure a harmonious
societies, precisely where they are the least numerous. passage to a pre-defined adult state with distinct sexual and
The advent of the modern era has given particular work roles. Quite often, traditional societies tolerate some
significance to youth. In societies dominated by social excesses by young people when they are reassured they will
change, young people have been identified not only with a not destabilize the social order.
better future but with decadence as well. The way youth is The notion of youth, in the strict sense of the term, comes
defined often owes more to ideology and the imagination to the fore when the intermediary stage between childhood
than to reality. As most of the fears and aspirations of a and adulthood is drawn-out and dissociated from adolescence
society are projected on its youth, young people as a category proper. In modern societies, where one is considered a young
must be considered in a historical perspective, and their person up to the age of about 25, the concept of youth is
conduct and behaviour patterns studied in light of the quite extensive because individuals are no longer considered
phases and stages of social development. in terms of their psychobiological situation but in terms of
their social situation. A young adult of one hundred years
ago, for example, would today be considered a young person.
Adolescence and youth The age at which a person starts to work or marries is thus
advancing as societies develop. Youth is a function of
Youth is both a bio-psychological concept – in which case it modernity because this lengthening of an intermediary age in
is preferable to speak of adolescence – and a social fact the life cycle is due to economic and social factors. In modern
(youth proper). societies, the period of formal education has grown longer
Adolescence is a period of physical, psychological, and longer, and in many societies, half the population pursues
emotional and cognitive maturation. It is the transitional an education beyond the age of 20. In fact, in many countries,
stage between childhood and adulthood, between the age of anyone below 30 years of age is considered to be ‘young’.
dependence and that of the entry into an autonomous and Furthermore, societies of ‘ascription’ have given way to
responsible adult state. Children in all known societies have societies of ‘achievement’, the status of individuals being no
to face adolescence, and most societies consider it a period longer wholly inherited, and mapped out by a strict destiny,
of uncertainty and unease during which individuals but acquired by the individual during that long formative
experience an identity crisis, often stemming from the period called youth. In modern societies, people do not
contrast between their intellectual and physical abilities, on become doctors or workers because they are sons or daughters
the one hand, and their status in society as minors, on the of doctors or workers, but because they have acquired the
other. Adolescents naturally sever their ties of loyalty and necessary qualifications. Even though opportunities for
obedience to their elders and begin claiming a new degree of acquiring a particular status are largely inegalitarian, it is
autonomy. Through attachment to their peers, they discover nonetheless true that an individual constructs his or her own
their power and their independence. In psychoanalytical adult status. The same applies to the choice of husband or

98
 Y O U TH

wife. With the decline of arranged marriages, each person integration within industrial societies and their institutions
forms his or her family within objective social determinations. is evaluated with respect to young people. It is also in
There are thus two contrasting dimensions that characterize connection with youth that questions arise as to how one
youth – uncertainty and the need to project oneself into the becomes English, American, Canadian, or French or
future. For demographic and social reasons, today’s youth is whether modern societies are civilizations of integration or
constantly evolving in those societies engaged in a process of classes of minorities. In the first case, the gang is considered
development, as can be seen in the internationalization of to be a step towards integration; in the second, it is perceived
youth culture and the student demonstrations in China, as the expression of a community that lives outside of the
Korea, Japan and Latin America. Youth is thus beginning to predominant society.
extend beyond the bounds of its modern Western In general, sociologists observe a conflict between the
framework. high potential for cultural assimilation resulting from the
The history of the sociology of youth coincides with the pressure of mass culture and the low level of economic
evolution of youth itself. Indeed, this branch of sociology integration due to practices of segregation. In poor inner
has grown and changed as the period of youth and city areas of English-speaking countries or in destitute Latin
preparation for adult life has grown longer, with the American neighbourhoods, revolt is growing among young
postponement and growing uncertainty of entry into active people who want to integrate but who cannot be absorbed
life and with the proliferation of youth and training policies. by the economies of Western societies.
The sociology of youth is, however, very often linked with Many of the problems of youth are related to development.
related topics, such as youth and delinquency, youth and Youth involved in urban violence and drugs are often seen
education, youth and work, youth and culture, youth and as victims of unemployment and other social problems. In
politics, youth and the family, or youth and mobility. most developed societies, youth policies have evolved into
The general survey by O. Galland,1 which offers a very social and training programmes that attempt to demonstrate
clear and well-documented account of the sociology of how young people can be productively integrated and
youth, follows this principle, thereby reflecting the trained where previous methods have proven obsolete.
multifarious experience of youth. With the exception of the However fascinating the study of post-modernity in post-
anthropological problem of adolescence, the sociology of industrial societies may be, it should not be forgotten that
youth encompasses all the branches of sociology that deal much of humanity is still experiencing problems related to
with youth. The subject of youth sociology, i.e. relationships their entry into urban industrial society.
between the generations, accounts for only a fraction of the
studies. Youth is perceived rather as a ‘condition’ defined by
the nature of the fields, institutions and policies through Y outh , mass society and youth
which it can be studied. culture
Several problems and images of youth can be portrayed,
depending on the general context in which they develop. In Youth only really came to the fore as a specific field of
as much as youth is associated with modernity and sociological study in the 1950s and 1960s, an era marked by
development, we must consider those stages. the ‘rise of youth’ and by the appearance, in all Western
countries, of a new type of young people from the educated
middle classes. During this period, several phenomena
The advent of industrial societies emerged such as the lengthening of the period of youth and
the youth culture as a sign of cultural modernity. In fact, to
For a long time, youth was a privilege of the dominant be modern was to be ‘young’. The work of T. Parsons,
classes, which had the luxury of deferring entry into the S. N. Eisenstadt and E. H. Erikson illustrates the thinking
work world and indulging in a long period of education and at that time.3 These specialists stressed the importance of a
training. Youth-related problems emerged with the advent period of life in which one’s personality becomes more
of industrial society and modern nations. The 1930s were autonomous and more detached from old values. That is
marked, in the United States in particular, by some major why youth is always perceived as ‘dangerous’ in varying
studies relating to gangs and urban marginality. Youth degrees by broad sectors of society. Once again, youth was
emerged as one of the subjects of urban sociology, that is, identified with modernity, that of the middle classes, who
the sociology of the processes of crisis and change triggered were exposed to the mass media, upheld the values of
by modernization. Youth provided the litmus test for those personal independence and self-fulfilment and devoted
mechanisms because the immigrant groups that started to many years to their education. Youth culture appeared to
penetrate American culture and society were often quite define the ‘adolescent society’4 and imposed its own collective
young. Many famous surveys2 constructed models for the identity, distinct from that of adults, during a period fraught
interpretation of young people’s behaviour in terms of social with intergenerational conflict. Youth culture was
disorganization, migratory changes and urban life. Gangs considered to be a form of socialization at an age of life
and the sociability of youth in big cities were forms of marked by ambivalence towards the law and the
solidarity and provided resources that enabled young people postponement of adult commitments. It was a way of
to survive and to adopt an identity when caught between managing the strains and ‘crises’ of prolonged youth in the
traditional cultures and modern societies. Many studies on modern world. In countries with shrinking populations,
immigrant youth often unwittingly reflect this tradition and however, the image of youth remained globally positive.
perspective. It must be borne in mind that many young Since the release of the first rock and roll recordings,
people today are faced with the ordeals of social acculturation, youth culture has become one of the essential features of the
particularly the young Arabs, Africans, Caribbeans, and cultural landscape. The vast majority of young people form
Latinos in Europe and North America. The capacity of a part of this culture, which distinguishes individuals

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according to their styles, tastes, clothing, etc. To belong to a adulating the consumer society was replaced by that of the
specific generation is an essential element of identity. To a critical, pugnacious youth of the great demonstrations
large extent, modern youth culture constitutes the first against the Vietnam War, the youth of the Woodstock
world culture. Elvis Presley, the Beatles (Plate 57), the counter-culture appealing for brotherhood and a return to
Rolling Stones, among others, became the stars of a universal nature (Plate 59), and the politicized radical youth of
culture widespread in Western countries but also Germany, France and Italy who dominated the universities,
throughout the former communist countries of Eastern the cradles of the new social movements of the 1980s. The
Europe and the Third World. Of course, this culture is not rock concerts and rallies that sometimes served to express
homogeneous because it is adapted to local contexts leading opposition to authoritarian regimes are noteworthy. For a
to the creation of specific musical styles, like raï in Arab few years, the sociology of youth was the sociology of
countries. It is also highly diversified from one social group counter-culture and the sociology of student movements.
to another, each group being distinguished by its particular Scholars such as Margaret Mead, K. Keniston, A. Touraine
tastes and passions. Not all young people dress in the same and G. Vincent engaged in these types of inquiry.6 Two
way, but a general style of dress and consumption has major theories predominated in Western societies: youth
become the rule among youth worldwide. In just a few as a social force able to transform the culture of industrial
decades, youth fashion has developed into a large economic societies, and youth as a new player on the political stage,
and cultural market. Tens of millions of young people listen capable of taking up the torch of protest abandoned by the
to rock, hundreds of thousands play it themselves in some worker’s movement, as suggested by Marcuse. The first
capacity, and this mass culture has become a means of hypothesis was advanced by Margaret Mead, who claimed
expression associated with the sentiments and experiences that because of youth’s uncertainty and low level of
of those actively involved in society. It is a culture that was integration, it was building new utopias distinct from the
optimistic and hedonistic in the 1960s, marked by protest in values of capitalist industrial societies that would eventually
the 1970s, and desperate and violent in the 1980s. Youth lead to post-materialist values. The second theory was
culture is not only the result of the commercial strategies of embraced by many left wing movements, some of which
large corporations, but also a form of autonomous slid into terrorism, particularly in Germany and Italy.
expression, which explains why authoritarian regimes have However, we must point out the following paradox:
always viewed it with distrust. Youth culture has been while youth has become an essential element of contemporary
associated with all the major events of the last 40 years. societies, the youth movement seems to be relatively
The sociology of juvenile delinquency also changed as unorganized. The major cultural, religious or political youth
youth was becoming established as a collective mass movements that carried great weight until the 1950s are
experience. The theory of deviance developed by Robert now unable to attract great numbers of young people.
Merton greatly influenced sociologists of the period. Merton Should we regret or welcome this evolution? On the one
considered juvenile delinquency the outcome of tension hand, it can be viewed as a positive development, because
between a mass democratic culture, which required each many youth movements used to be associated with
person to be fulfilled and to succeed, and a social structure dictatorial parties, making them not so much youth
that locked individuals into their existing affiliations and movements as manipulated masses of youth. Today’s young
offered them no opportunity to change their lives. Youth people feel both the weight and attraction of modernity,
problems were thus one of the most striking manifestations and solitude is perhaps the price to be paid for individual
of the conflict between social inequality and the democratic autonomy. On the other hand, this evolution may be
ideal. Therefore, the sociology of youth could be defined as regrettable because contemporary societies allow one to be
the analysis of the encounters between youth and social ‘alone in a crowd’, and many young people suffer from
structures related to opportunity.5 Juvenile delinquency, as isolation and the absence of moral standards. Suicide is a
epitomized by Hell’s Angels, Rockers, Soviet ‘hooligans’ and major cause of death among young people.
Teddy Boys, was not seen as an effect of social disorganization
but as the outcome of contact between a rigid social structure,
especially for the working class, and a mass culture that T he crisis years
aspired to middle-class lifestyles. In France, the advent of
youth as a mass phenomenon in the 1960s led to a number After the years of consumerism and protest came the crisis
of studies, including E. Morin’s well-known articles (1966), years, which primarily affected young people in the rapidly
on youth culture. Morin’s work must be compared with changing systems of education and the work market.
more structural approaches that challenged the image of a The time frame of youth has continued to grow longer in
mass youth culture from the point of view of class differences. all Western societies in degrees that vary mainly according
This debate lay at the heart of the sociology of youth during to the importance attached to higher education. For positive
the period of cultural modernization, as embodied by the reasons associated with the recognition of young people’s
‘teenager’. autonomy, and for negative reasons linked to the difficulty
of starting work in a stable way, youth nowadays extends
well beyond the period of adolescence. In this connection, it
Can youth be considered a social movement? is possible to speak of the ‘juvenilization’ of modern societies,
and a longer period of youth has ceased to be the preserve of
May 1968 in Paris (Plate 58) and the protest movements the middle classes and of students alone. Youth has been
on American campuses gave a new twist to the study of constantly accorded increasing value, and this has affected
youth by associating it with the sociology of social the definitions of the various stages of life. The growing
movements and change. Were young people new players ascendancy of the education system is largely associated
on the cultural and social scene? The image of young people with this phenomenon. The historical perspective highlights

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 Y O U TH

the growth of youth as a mass phenomenon and the of immigrant origin. In collective representations, they
weakening of rites of passage or the emergence of substitute embody the principal difficulties engendered by economic
rites that can no longer be considered fully genuine. Youth crises, urban transformations, and the effects of mass
is valued. It is a time of personal experimentation, of living education. Generally speaking, there are two main views on
together as a couple, of having several jobs and a measure of the subject. The anthropological approach emphasizes the
freedom associated with the ‘irresponsibility’ of youth. processes of acculturation and cultural crisis encountered
However, owing to unemployment, job instability, and the by young people from immigrant families. This has given
declining value of a university degree in terms of earning- rise to the theme of ‘ethnicity’ and the assertion of
power, youth has also become extended. Indeed, it is community-based cultural and social identities in the very
increasingly difficult to become an adult in the modern heart of modern societies. As these young people cannot
world. In recent years, the study of youth has focused on become part of society, they retreat into a subculture of
examining the ways and means of entering adulthood and identity and conflict, as exemplified by rap and reggae. The
finding one’s first job. The studies have often been associated opposing view emphasizes the strains engendered by the
with the evaluation of social policies on youth and in ‘conflicts’ between the considerable cultural assimilation of
particular with the following up of cohorts of young people the young immigrants and the high level of social exclusion
who have been through various training or qualifying to which they are subjected. This view stresses the aspects of
courses. Many studies have highlighted the new stages of anger and revolt among the young people of immigrant
this adolescent moratorium, with the new phases of family origin and the formation of ‘marginality’, which is appearing
cohabitation and frequent job change.7 Other phenomena as a new form of popular awareness as the traditional
revealed by studies are late marriages and postponement of working-class world declines.
births. Dependence on institutions and the family has also
increased, contributing to the ‘blurring’ of relations between
generations. Many young people are in fact adults who Y outh around the world
cannot reach adulthood. In countries with greatly developed
higher education such as the United States and France, the The situation outlined above only arises in industrial or
time spent studying is increasingly extended so that the level post-industrial developed societies. In other regions of the
of academic qualification will afford protection from world, young people make up the majority of the population.
unemployment or guarantee a status that is considered Yet youth does not have the same implications for all of
respectable. In certain cases, a sort of student proletariat is them. Some young people, who belong to the middle and
developing that enrols in a university to prepare for a place upper classes, identify with Western youth; they try to look
in the unemployment queues. In that regard, national and behave like them and often experience identical
situations vary greatly, but unemployment rates for young problems, notably those associated with longer schooling.
people (like for women and even more so for girls) are However, the vast majority have a completely different
extremely high. Many young people feel that their society is experience of youth. They must work from an early age and
closing the door on them and forcing them to stay young. are cramped by structures and traditions that severely limit
The sociology of youth cannot be reviewed without their autonomy, particularly regarding the choice of a
reference to work on the political socialization of young spouse, cultural freedom, and the ability to innovate. These
people.8 Political affiliation hardly occurs automatically. young people are actually deprived of their youth. They
The nature of youth experience itself affects political often constitute a proletariat within the proletariat
choices. It has been noted that young people change their (Plate 60); increasingly subject to unbridled economic
electoral choices frequently before adopting a stabile exploitation, they struggle for survival and sometimes find
political position. Clearly there is no homogeneous youth themselves in a situation of such dependence and poverty
vote since young people are a mass of individuals. that they have only their bodies to sell.
Withdrawal from politics does not necessarily imply a Let us not lose sight of the fact that the emergence of
decline in group action, as evidenced by studies of youth as an independent experience remains largely the
movements among high school students in France, who are ‘privilege’ of sufficiently developed societies. For other young
still very highly motivated to act but whose commitment people, youth is either only a short stage in their lives or a
seems to be based more on values than on ideology.9 While time when their exclusion from society is accentuated.
youth commitment is fleeting and no longer seems to be
controlled by a hyper-politicized youth intelligentsia, other
forms of involvement in collective action seem to be C onclusion
developing on the basis of more personal moral problems.
The sociology of youth is associated with the study of post- The last two decades of the twentieth century have therefore
materialist cultures as evidenced by young people’s witnessed a reversal in the optimism of the years of growth
sensitivity to humanitarian and ecological causes, and to and of personal and collective liberation. The ‘modern’
combating AIDS. On the other hand, young people can be youth of the 1960s and the ‘critical’ youth of the subsequent
violent in expressing their fear of traditional and national period of revolt are being replaced by youth in crisis. The
communities being destroyed by modernization and the sociology of youth is associated with the sociology of
globalization of trade and communication. They can deviance and urban sociology and is becoming the sociology
become skinheads and adopt far-right ideologies to varying of social problems much more than the sociology of cultural
degrees. and social change.
The rise in the problems of marginalization has led to a The sociology of youth has developed considerably and
wealth of research on the most disadvantaged young people, no brief review can do justice to the work published in this
those belonging to the underclass, especially young people field. The mechanics of entry into active life and the sociology

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of the various age groups are of great interest to researchers; CHAMBOREDON, J. C. 1966. La société française et sa jeunesse. In:
our understanding of these subjects is being built up DARRAS, J. P. Le partage des bénéfices. pp. 156–75. Les Editions de
gradually. Age and gender divisions and cultural definitions Minuit, Paris.
of identity will assume greater significance as traditional  1985. Adolescence et post-adolescence: la ‘juvénisation’. Remarques
legal barriers rapidly become unstable and as the period of sur les transformations récentes des limites et de la définition
youth continues to grow longer. At the same time, however, sociale de la jeunesse. In: ALLEON, A. M., MORVAN, O. and LEBOVICI.
youth is becoming a sort of central figure in the social S. (eds). Adolescence terminée, adolescence interminable. Presse
experience, for, as its borders become blurred, the Universitaire de France, Paris.
characteristics of legal uncertainty and the characteristics of CLOWARD, R. A. and OHLIN, L. E. L. 1960. Delinquency and Opportunity.
‘passage’ are extending beyond the youth experience itself. The Free Press, New York.
Adulthood is ceasing to be the only benchmark. COLEMAN, J. S. 1961. The Adolescent Society. The Free Press, New
York.
DUBET, F. 1987. La galère, jeunes en survie. Fayard, Paris.
 1991. Les lycéens. Edition du Seuil, Paris.
EISENSTADT, S. N. 1956. From Generation to Generation. The Free
NOTES Press, Glencoe, IL.
ERIKSON, E. H. 1972. Adolescence et crise. Flammarion, Paris.
1. O. Galland, Sociologie de la jeunesse: L’entrée dans la GALLAND, O. 1983. Représentations du devenir et reproduction
vie, Paris, 2001. sociale: le cas des lycéens d’Elbeuf. In: Sociologie du travail, No. 3,
2. F. Thrasher, The Gang, Chicago, IL, 1927; W. F. pp. 399–417. Elsevier, France
Whyte, Street Corner Society, Chicago, IL, 1943.  1984. Précarité et entrées dans la vie. In: Revue française de sociologie,
3. T. Parsons, ‘Youth in the Context of American XXV, pp. 49–66.
Society’, in E. H. Erikson (ed.), Youth: Change and Challenge,  2001. Sociologie de la jeunesse: L’entrée dans la vie. (Série : Sociologie.)
London and New York, 1963, pp. 96–119; S. N. Eisenstadt, Armand Colin, Paris.
From Generation to Generation, Glencoe, IL, 1956; E. H. GRIGNON, C. 1971. L’ordre des choses. Les Editions de Minuit. Paris.
Erikson, Adolescence et crise, Paris, 1972. KENISTON, K. 1965. The Uncommitted: Alienated Youth in American
4. J. S. Coleman, The Adolescent Society, New York, Society. Harcourt Brace, New York.
1961.  1968. Young Radicals. Harcourt Brace, New York.
5. R. A. Cloward and L. E. L. Ohlin, Delinquency and LAPASSADE, G. 1965. L’entrée dans la vie. Les Editions de Minuit,
Opportunity, New York, 1960. Paris.
6. M. Mead, Le fossé des générations, Paris, 1971; K. LAPEYRONNIE, D. 1987. Assimilation, mobilisation et action collective
Keniston, The Uncommitted: Alienated Youth in American chez les jeunes de la seconde génération de l’immigration
Society, New York, 1965; K. Keniston, Young Radicals, maghrébine. In: Revue française de sociologie, XXVIII, No. 2.
New York, 1968; A. Touraine, Le Mouvement de Mai ou le pp. 287–318.
communisme utopique, Paris, 1968 ; G. Vincent, Le peuple  and MARIE, J. L. 1992. Campus blues. Edition du Seuil, Paris.
lycéen, Paris, 1974. MANNHEIM, K. 1990. Le problème des générations. Nathan, Paris.
7. O. Galland, ‘Précarité et entrées dans la vie’, in Revue MEAD, M. 1971. Le fossé des générations. Denoël, Paris.
française de sociologie, Vol. XXV, 1984, pp. 49–66. MONOD, J. 1971. Les barjots. UGE, Paris.
8. A. Percheron, ‘Peut-on encore parler d’héritage MUXEL, A. 1992. L’âge des choix politiques: une enquête longitudinale
politique en 1989?’, in Y. Meny (ed.), Idéologies, partis auprès des 18–25 ans. In: Revue française de sociologie, XXXIII,
politiques et groupes sociaux, Paris, 1989, pp. 157–74. No. 2. pp. 233–63.
9. F. Dubet, Les lycéens, Paris, 1991; D. Lapeyronnie and PARSONS, T. (ed.). 1963. Youth in the Context of American Society.
J. L. Marie, Campus blues, Paris, 1992. In: ERIKSON, E. H. (ed.). Youth: Change and Challenge. pp. 96–119.
Basic Books, London and New York.
PERCHERON, A. 1989. Peut-on encore parler d’héritage politique en
1989? In: MENY, Y. (ed.). Idéologies, partis politiques et groupes
BIBLIOGRAPHY sociaux, pp. 157–74. PUF, Paris.
PROST, A. 1987. Jeunesse et société dans la France de l’entre-deux
BAUDELOT, C. La jeunesse n’est plus ce qu’elle était: les difficultés guerres. In: Vingtième siècle. Revue d’histoire, No. 13, pp 35–43.
d’une description. In: Revue Economique, Vol. 39, No. 1, January THRASHER, F. 1927. The Gang. University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
1988, pp. 189–224. Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences IL.
Politiques, Paris. TOURAINE, A. 1968. Le Mouvement de Mai ou le communisme utopique.
BAUDELOT, C. and ESTABLET, R. 1992. Allez les filles! Edition du Seuil, Edition du Seuil, Paris.
Paris. VINCENT, G. 1974. Le peuple lycéen. Gallimard, Paris.
BOURDIEU, P. et al. 1993. La misère du monde. Edition du Seuil, WHYTE, W. F. 1943. Street Corner Society. University of Chicago Press,
Paris. Chicago, IL.

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Tampalawela Dhammaratana

I ntroduction five Europeans, in comparison to one out of every

twenty Africans, is at least 60 years old. One million men
With two world wars and numerous regional wars and and women reach the age of 60 every month, and 80 per
internal armed conflicts, the twentieth century witnessed cent are from developing nations. Approximately 53 per
unprecedented human misery, deprivation, displacement of cent live in Asia, 25 per cent in Europe and 22 per cent in
people, economic disaster and increased poverty. In Europe the rest of the world. Japan has recorded phenomenal
and Japan, the loss of several millions of youth created a growth. In general, 55 per cent of the aged population are
serious imbalance in the work force. As the dependency women. Moreover, 65 per cent of the oldest segment of the
ratio (an indicator of the age composition of the active vs. senior population are women.1 In industrialized countries,
the ageing population) increased, Western countries 74 per cent of ageing people live in urban areas, while in
encouraged massive immigration of an active labour force developing countries the majority live in villages or remote
from the developing world. By the mid-1960s and 1970s, areas with only 37 per cent in urban areas. One per cent of
however, the increase in agricultural productivity, the the total human population is over 80 years of age. Recent
improvement of transportation, the development of national United Nations research reveals that six countries – China,
political stability, social and economic change, and the United States, India, Japan, Germany, and the Russian
extraordinary achievements of science and technology Federation – account for 54 per cent of the total number of
ushered in a period of economic and social consolidation. those aged 80 years or over.2 The third category of the ageing
Resulting improvements in nutrition and health care populations, i.e., people over 101 years, also registered an
increased the life expectancy and decreased the death rate overall increase. The quality of life of older persons has
throughout the world. Simultaneously, progress in deteriorated in many parts of the world over the past
education, improvements in the position of women, as well 15 years. This situation is worse in the developing countries.
as factors such as modernization, increasing family cost, Several millions of elderly people lack economic and social
urbanization and industrialization, dramatically reduced support to afford their basic human needs. The majority of
fertility. The world faced a spectacular increase in the ‘third elderly people live below the poverty level. Many have been
age’ or senior population. Ageing and the elderly became excluded from society and neglected by their families.
matters of universal concern. Beginning in the 1950s, the age structure of industrialized
Three specific areas regarding older persons are dealt countries became younger, and the substantial decline in
with in this chapter: ageing as a global social phenomenon; fertility reversed the trend of population growth. Public
older persons and value systems; a new perspective of the policies aimed to increase the birth rate have failed to bring
international community. about marked change. The dependency rate has increased to
a considerable level. The member countries of the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
A global social phenomenon Development) as well as other European countries provide
elderly people with substantial advantages and services after
In 1950, there were 200 million people over the age of 60 in retirement. These include pension benefits, social security,
the world. By 1975, the number had increased to 350 million, health care and housing. Yet elderly people in these countries
and reached 600 million in 2002. Today, one out of every suffer from psychological problems resulting from isolation
ten people is over sixty. The rapid growth of the older and lack of emotional support from their families. The
generations had significant consequences in economic, number of suicides committed by elderly persons seems to
social, cultural and political spheres. The older generations be higher than in developing countries. Newly industrialized
proliferated both in the poorest as well as the richest countries and areas such as Hong Kong, Singapore, the
countries of the planet, but not evenly. One out of every Republic of Korea and Taiwan, parts of Latin America and

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the Caribbean region, and the oil exporting nations such as people spend a longer period in education, begin their
the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and professional careers later in life, work for a shorter time and
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya have witnessed a considerable receive retirement benefits for a longer period. The main
increase in the ageing population.3 In many respects, the economic and social implications of an ageing population
situation is similar to that of industrialized countries. Life are the burdens of economic dependency and the non-
expectancy has increased as a result of modern services, recognition of its potential as a resource for development.
health care and other support systems. In such countries, The twentieth century has witnessed a marked improvement
economic support from pension benefits, provident funds in mobilizing the elderly people as a social asset.
and other social security programmes is available to only a The experience of ancient cultures in which the ageing
very small proportion of the older population. Yet the population had a significant educational, cultural and
elderly still have to contribute to their families by way of spiritual role to play in society has been evaluated in a
babysitting and housekeeping, while the younger generation favourable light. Many societies have also clearly recognized
goes to work. Such tasks carried out by older people are not the desirable involvement of grandparents in early childhood
considered to be of any economic value, but the older care and education, thus relieving the economically active
generations are nonetheless regarded as an asset to the parents to pursue productive enterprises. Such a
family. transformation of roles has been advocated not merely for
The situation of elderly people in developing countries is economic effectiveness but also for the invaluable ethical
considerably worse than in developed regions. As no pension and spiritual considerations in favour of transgenerational
or social security benefits are available to them, despite their transmission of wisdom and values. If one wishes to call the
long involvement in agricultural production, older persons twentieth century the era of the recognition of older
often become a burden to their families. However, increasing generations, it is because of the awareness of the important
urbanization and inter-migration have changed traditional role that the elderly population can play in overall social
family life. As young married women and men migrate to development. In traditional society, the family, recognized
urban areas for employment, the elderly parents are as a basic social unit, lived together, and was composed of
compelled to live alone with no one to care for them. grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and great-
Conditions vary in different cultures. In spite of rapid grandchildren. The members of the family maintained
modernization in Latin American countries, the family respect, duties, and obedience towards elders. The ties
relationship with elderly people still remains very strong, between the old and new generations constituted the cement
even though contact between different generations in the that held the social edifice together. Like other faiths,
same household leads to a low level of satisfaction for the Buddhism teaches us that ‘for one who frequently honours
elderly.4 In Asia, India is unique in that the joint family and respects elders, four worldly rewards (age, beauty,
system wherein families of male children continue to live happiness and strength) increase’. Chinese culture –
with the aged parents, treating the father as patriarch, influenced by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism –
enables the elderly parents to exercise control over family assigns a position of great veneration to the elderly (Plate
resources. The newly independent countries, especially 61). In the third century bc, the preservation of ethical,
those of the former Soviet Union, encounter considerable cultural, and religious values and respecting aged people was
problems in matters related to the economy, social welfare, highly praised by the Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India.
politics, inflation, immigration and population, including a The Edicts of Asoka highlight the duties of children towards
rapid increase in the number of older persons. In such their parents. For example, Rock Edict (Girnar) III states:
situations of transition, job seekers move from rural areas to ‘meritorious is obedience to mother and father’, (sādhu
large urban centres. Many others immigrate to developed mātari ca pitari ca sūsūsa), and Edict XIII advises: ‘develop
countries, legally or illegally, to find economic security in obedience to elders’ (gurunā suśrusā). The Aguttaranikāya
order to help their families, including older parents.5 This records that families in which the parents are highly
internal and external migration has created considerable respected deserve approval; such families are declared to
problems as regards accommodation and other facilities be of the Brahman rank sabrahmakāni, together with the
especially in main cities. More older people in transition early great teachers, sapubbacariyakāni, and worthy of
countries live with their families, than those from offerings (āhuneyya). In recent times, due to modernism,
industrialized countries. Yet they also encounter problems globalization, urbanization and immigration, family ethics
of loneliness, abandonment and dissatisfaction with have deteriorated, resulting in an inevitable generation gap
economic conditions. They also have very limited access to between the old and younger generations. Throughout the
social security and other benefits of social well-being. world, there is a growing awareness that the ancient value
Unprecedented longevity is a sign of prosperity of world systems, which promote the mobilization of the ageing
nations. It has repercussions, however, firstly as regards population into active participation, should be revived in
economic growth, savings, investment and labour force, society.
secondly, social affairs, and thirdly, political affairs such as
migration and refugee problems. Ageing populations
constitute a burden on the active labour force. According to O lder generations and
the International Labour Organization (ILO), the ageing value systems
labour force’s participation rate is much higher in developing
countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Elderly people have been honoured by generations as
Caribbean than in the developed countries of Europe and transmitters of a universal cultural heritage for the benefit
North America. The decline in participation affects national of humanity in the form of popular and traditional
per capita income, while increasing expenditure on social expression, performance, language, customs, music, ritual
security and other social benefits. In developed countries, and traditional knowledge, art, craftwork and wisdom

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(Plate 62). Deference to elders is in many instances attributed ancestors for the benefit of humanity. Apart from ethical
not only to respect for old age, but also for recognition of and religious lore, such knowledge includes hitherto
their valuable accomplishment in preserving different unrecorded information on medicine, forgotten technologies
cultural values and experiences over the centuries. Conscious and many other kinds of know-how. As custodians of such
efforts have been made to preserve the knowledge and skills rare knowledge and skills, elderly people have made
transmitted by the elderly. In the latter part of the twentieth significant contributions. The older generations have also
century, UNESCO launched an important programme played an important role in the evolution of social values in
pertaining to the study and recording of the so-called the process of transformation from traditional to modern
intangible heritage in countries with deeply rooted oral societies. The experience, knowledge and guidance of older
traditions. The stirring and often-used quote ‘when an old people have always been great assets in this process. Their
man dies an entire library is lost forever’ effectively illustrated indisputable authority has been exercised in the traditional
the importance of such activities. family structure, especially in Asia, Africa and some other
Older generations of the Semeiskie people in the countries as regards important internal and external family
Transbaikal region of Russia, for example, possess a cultural affairs. They have been respected by the family members for
tradition derived from a pre-seventeenth-century orthodox their wise guidance. Moreover, the elderly have always
cult. The Semeiskie culture maintains moral principles, participated in religious, cultural or social celebrations as
traditional dress, songs and traditional oral practices with guests of honour and they continue to play an important
the direct involvement of the elderly population. In Africa, role as leaders in communal life. As those who attempted to
there are many ethnic communities that have preserved foster modern development have realized, no progress in
extremely important cultural activities. In Benin a well- modernization could be made without the participation of
known performance called Gelede by the Yoruba-nago and the older generations. This factor largely accounts for the
other communities has been revived and takes place every success of many development initiatives in Asia, Africa and
year just after the harvest season and during droughts and Latin America.
epidemics. The Gelede performance combines the use of
masks and songs in native languages, to recall the myths and
the history of the Yoruba-nago culture and its people. The A new perspective of
awareness of the role of the older generations contributed to the international community
its revival.
The well-known Nātya Sāstra of India, which has been The international community has been in the forefront in
transmitted by older generations over many centuries, is a raising awareness of the importance of older generations. In
vehicle of incomparable cultural, social, educational and 1948, as the first step, the United Nations General Assembly
religious values. The Rāma Līlā, a famous classical drama, is adopted a resolution concerning a draft declaration on the
annually performed in practically every village in northern rights and position of older persons. In December 1969, the
India. Elderly people preserve the tradition. The same is General Assembly included in the Universal Declaration of
true of the Kutiyattam, a Sanskrit drama performed in Human Rights the need to protect and assure the rights
Kerala in southern India. and social welfare of the aged. In 1973, the United Nations
In Ecuador and Peru, the Zápara people have developed General Assembly adopted Resolution 3137 (XXVIII)
an oral culture that reflects a particularly rich understanding entitled: ‘Questions of the elderly and the aged’. On this
of their natural environment. This distinctive cultural occasion, the subject was studied by the United Nations
tradition is expressed through their cosmology and specialized agencies, in particular by ILO, WHO,
mythology as well as their rituals, artistic practices and UNESCO and the United Nations Food and Agricultural
language. Organization (FAO). In 1974, the World Population Plan
The Korean Royal Ancestral Rite represents an of Action adopted by the World Population Conference
outstanding component of the world’s cultural diversity. urged member states to take into account the problem of
During the performance of this cultural and ritual practice, the aged in elaborating their national development policies.
an important place is given to songs, dance, and traditional In 1977, the United Nations Economic and Social Council
ritual music. and the General Assembly dealt with the subject of the
The Mystery Play of Elche in Spain is a sacred musical elderly, and a resolution was adopted inviting the member
drama that commemorates the death, the assumption and states to a ‘World Assembly on Ageing’. One year later, in
the crowning of the Virgin Mary. This unique religious the course of the thirty-third session of the General
celebration from the mid-fifteenth century offers living Assembly, Resolution 33/52 of 14 December 1978 paved
testimony to the religious performances of the Middle Ages the way for the Vienna World Assembly on Ageing in
in Europe and to a Christian cult of extraordinary cultural 1982. This very successful convention launched an
value. International Action Plan aiming at creating opportunities
The Kandy Perahara in Sri Lanka recalls the island’s for the elderly in the fields of economics, culture, education,
2,000-year-old Buddhist and Hindu cultural heritage. This health care and security. The Vienna Plan of Action
celebration is a unique pageant in which several hundred contributed to making member states aware of the challenges
elephants and thousands of traditional dancers participate and issues related to the elderly and demonstrated the
and showcase Sri Lankan artistic heritage. In all these international community’s commitment to the ageing
cultural activities, older generations, with leisure to pursue problem: ‘The Plan of Action should … be considered an
cultural activities, have acted as the principal proponents integral component of the major international, regional and
and promoters. The twentieth century has also seen the national strategies and programmes formulated in response
recognition of the role of the elderly in the preservation and to important world problems and needs. Its primary aims
transmission of indigenous knowledge, safeguarded by our are to strengthen the capacities of countries to deal effectively

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with the ageing of their populations and with the special the other hand, lifelong education will facilitate the creation
concerns and needs of their elderly, and to promote an of a dynamic society, which could benefit, support and
appropriate international response to the issues of ageing maintain a positive social order, promote productivity and
through action for the establishment of the new international enhance a society for all without discrimination on the basis
economic order and increased international technical co- of one’s age.
operation, particularly among the developing countries
themselves’.6
Since the Vienna Convention, the world has seen a
dramatic change for the better in national programmes for notes
elderly people. In 2002, on the occasion of the twentieth
anniversary of the Vienna Plan of Action, the second 1. United Nations, The World Ageing Situation: Exploring
Convention on Ageing in Madrid adopted a new a Society for All Ages, New York, 2001.
International Plan of Action on Ageing. After a very 2. United Nations Department of Economic and Social
successful five-day convention, the member states agreed on Affairs, Population Division, World Population Ageing
a political declaration comprising 17 articles. The 1950–2050, New York, 2002.
commitment of the member states on the ageing problem is 3. United Nations, Madrid International Plan of Action
stated as follows: ‘We, the representatives of Governments on Ageing, New York, 2002.
meeting at this second World Assembly on Ageing in 4. L. M. Gutierrez Robledo, ‘The Ageing Situation in
Madrid, Spain, have decided to adopt an International Plan Latin America’, in Impact of Science on Society, Vol. 153,
of Action on Ageing 2002, to respond to the opportunities 1989, pp. 65–80.
and challenges of population ageing in the twenty-first 5. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
century and promote the development of a society for all Development, Tendances des migrations internationales:
ages. In the context of this Plan of Action, we are committed Système d’observation permanente des migration, Paris, 2001.
to actions at all levels, including national and international 6. United Nations, Vienna International Plan of Action
levels, on three priority directions: older persons and on Ageing, New York, 1983, p. 6.
development; advancing health and well-being into old age; 7. United Nations, ‘Political Declaration’, Article 1,
and, ensuring enabling and supportive environments’.7 The Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, 2002.
International Plan of Action on Ageing in 2002 reiterates
the need for Member States to change policies, attitudes
and practices regarding ageing in their respective countries
in all sectors to enable older persons to contribute to BIBLIOGRAPHY
development and to participate within their families and
communities in a respectful and secure environment. It is CISSOKO, S. M. 2000. Societies and Political Structures. In: AL-BAKHIT,
hoped that the implementation of these decisions will result M. A. , BAZIN, L. , CISSOKO, S. M. , GIEYSZTOR, A. , HABIB, I. ,
in meeting all challenges of the older generations and KARAYANNOPOULOS, Y., LITVAK KING, J. and SCHMIDT, P. (eds).
establishing a society where older persons are enabled to age History of Humanity: Scientific and Cultural Development. Vol. 4.
with dignity and participate in development activities as full From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century. UNESCO, Paris/
citizens at the dawn of the new millennium. Routledge, London.
GURUGE ANANDA, W. P. 1993. Asoka, The Righteous: A Definitive
Biography. The Central Cultural Fund, Ministry of Cultural
C onclusion Affairs and Information, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
GUTIERREZ ROBLEDO, L. M. 1989. The Ageing Situation in Latin
The ageing generations occupy a considerable place in America. In: Impact of Science on Society, Vol. 153, pp. 65–80,
modern society and government and international agencies. UNESCO, Paris.
They are engaged in politics, interacting in the globalization HUGENOT-DIENER, L. 1989. Ageing and the Evolution of Old Age.
of education, culture, communication, technology and the In: Impact of Science on Society, Vol. 153, pp. 1–98, UNESCO,
economy. The increasing dependency ratio would appear to Paris.
contribute to the perception of the elderly as a burden to MORRIS, R. (ed.). 1961. Anguttara-Nikkaaya. Pali Text Society,
the working society. Since 1982, the situation has begun to London.
change in a positive way. Governments and people in general o rg a n i s a t i o n f o r e c o n o m i c c o - o p e r a t i o n a n d
have become increasingly aware of elderly people as a social development. 2001. Tendances des migrations internationales:
asset. Their knowledge and experience are recognized as Système d’observation permanente des migration. OECD, Paris.
potentially valuable towards developing various activities. SURIGODA-SUMANGALA, S. (ed.). 1914. Dhammapada. Pali Text
The situation still remains unsatisfactory in the developing Society, London.
and the least-developed countries as related to health care, TOFFLER, A. 1971. Future Shock. Bantam Books, New York.
food and lodging, security and maintaining a minimum level united nations. 1982. Report of the World Assembly on Ageing.
of dignity for elderly people. The rapid ageing of the world (Vienna, 26 July to 6 August 1982). United Nations, New York.
population encounters two powerful forces: globalization  2001. The World Ageing Situation: Exploring a Society for All Ages.
and urbanization. Older persons live longer and leave the United Nations, New York.
working place earlier. Their accumulating knowledge and  2002. Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing. New York.
practical experience may not fully contribute to development United Nations Department of Economic and Social
activities. As emphasized by the United Nations catch Affairs, POPULATION DIVISION. 2002. World Population Ageing
phrase ‘a society for all ages’, older persons could contribute 1950–2050. United Nations, New York.
to society as mentors, advisors, teachers and creators. On

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P e o pl e w i t h d i s a b i l i t i e s

Seamus Hegarty

INTRODUCTION It is clear, however, that the number of people with

disabilities worldwide is extremely large.
In the sweep of history, the twentieth century will stand out
as a time when people with disabilities began to come into
their own. It was increasingly recognized that society had a S ocietal attitudes and
civic responsibility to people with disabilities, as to any other provision
disadvantaged group. Provision of all sorts – education,
medicine, rehabilitation, housing and employment – was The history of societal attitudes to people with disabilities,
elaborated, in many cases for the first time. While there is and of the resulting provision, can be schematized in five
still much to achieve, and access to ordinary social goods is stages: rejection, neglect, care, elaboration of provision, and
extremely uneven, people with disabilities have progressed inclusion. This schema is not intended to offer a precise,
from a situation of widespread marginalization to one in linear account; the stages overlap and are manifested in
which their rights to social goods are at least acknowledged. different ways according to the countries. Its purpose is
Moreover, in some countries, considerable help is available rather to provide an explanatory framework for a diverse set
to enable them to live as full members of their communities. of phenomena.
Despite the progress made, significant problems persist.
These fall into two broad groups: limited availability of
provision, and the inappropriateness of some of it. In Rejection
developing countries and in rural communities more
generally, many people with disabilities who could benefit In ancient Sparta, deformed infants were left to die of
from support do not receive it. This can be explained by a exposure. Other societies too have sanctioned the killing of
lack of technical resources or expert staff or by the fact that children who were perceived as imposing an excessive
services originally developed in a technocratic, urban context burden on the community. This ultimate rejection had
have failed to adapt to markedly different situations in other generally disappeared by the beginning of the twentieth
communities. The second set of problems derives from the century, but people with disabilities experienced – and
inappropriateness of some models of provision and, in continue to experience – rejection in a variety of other ways,
particular, their failure either to respect individuals’ ranging from social rejection to the denial of legal rights.
autonomy or to challenge segregative attitudes and social Within disability politics, there is a radical viewpoint that
arrangements. certain medical interventions such as amniocentesis (a
Estimates of the number of people with disabilities at a process that screens for abnormalities in the developing
given time are complicated by problems of definition and fetus) and cochlear implants (surgically inserted electronic
limitations in the available statistics. Whether or not an devises that restore some sound to totally deaf persons)
individual is regarded as disabled depends on attitudes to constitute a rejection of disability; amniocentesis, because it
individual differences, the extent to which structured is used to identify and abort damaged fetuses, and implants
definitions are in use and the availability of provision. The because they devalue and even threaten the existence of
collection of statistics on disability is extremely variable and natural sign languages.
is based on different category systems.
E. Helander reviewed the available statistics and
concluded that the global average for the prevalence of Neglect
moderate and severe disability was about 5.2 per cent.1
Estimates across countries varied from 0.2 per cent to 21 per Education and social services have advanced through the
cent, illustrating the difficulty in obtaining sound statistics. twentieth century, in terms of both sophistication and

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coverage. However, those with disabilities have regularly took into account individuals’ capacities as well as job
been ignored in these developments or have had services requirements. Rehabilitation services developed especially
extended to them much later than their peers. As access to in the second half of the century, driven by medical and
schooling spread, for instance, children with disabilities surgical advances and drawing on rehabilitation techniques
were often overlooked, and in many countries they were developed for war-wounded people. As a result, people with
considered ineducable. Where education was provided, the disabilities in some countries have access to a range of
ministry of education was often not involved; educational medical interventions and therapy services and are better
arrangements for these children were routinely entrusted to equipped both for employment and daily living.
ministries devoted to health or social affairs (this situation A significant factor in the above-mentioned developments
has changed in recent years; most, though by no means all, was the acknowledgement of the rights of individuals, as
countries now manage education for all children and young reflected in much national legislation but also in international
people within a single administrative framework). Similar declarations. Two important United Nations instruments –
neglect can be seen in relation to employment, housing and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the
leisure: people with disabilities were widely ignored or Declaration of the Rights of Disabled Persons (1975) –
marginalized in these essential areas of human experience. represented important symbolic steps. More concrete action
followed from the International Year of Disabled People
proclaimed by the United Nations in 1981, which marked a
Care turning point in promoting issues relating to disability. This
initiative stimulated activities within United Nations
Early improvements in the condition of the disabled arose agencies, such as the International Labour Organisation
from benevolence, whether fed by humanitarian concern, and UNESCO, as well as at the regional level (the European
religious belief, or direct contact with people with disabilities. Community) and national levels. In particular, it led to the
The centuries-old tradition of caring for the disadvantaged United Nations World Programme of Action concerning
was extended intermittently from the eighteenth century to Disabled Persons in 1982, and the subsequent Decade of
the disabled. Charitable initiatives initially led to schools for Disabled Persons (1983–1992). In 1993, the United
the blind and the deaf, followed, during the nineteenth and Nations adopted the Standard Rules on the Equalization of
early-twentieth centuries, by schools and other institutions Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, which urge
for children and adults with a variety of disabilities. Many governments to take the necessary steps to make systems
institutions for adults with a mental handicap had little or and social structures accessible to people with disabilities.
no orientation to human development, and residents lived
very restricted lives. Humanitarian concern remains a potent
stimulus for educational, employment and rehabilitation Inclusion
initiatives concerning people with disabilities. Making
adequate provision for the disabled entails additional costs, Towards the end of the twentieth century, the inadequacy
and very often the required resources are funded by voluntary of provision based on either benevolence or technocratic
bodies, charitable foundations or aid agencies (Plate 63). expertise began to be recognized. Several brands of social
While some outstanding provision has been established ideology fed into this: the Scandinavian belief that people
in this way, its origins in benevolence define people with with disabilities should live as normal a life as possible; the
disabilities as objects of kindness rather than recipients of notion, elaborated by the anti-psychiatry movement in Italy,
entitlements. A more radical critique construes benevolence that large institutions provided an unsatisfactory living
as a form of social control and highlights the negative environment; the insistence on the civil rights of the disabled
features of provision associated with it. Thus, institutional prevalent in the United States; and the growing demands
provision is seen to serve professionals’ self-interest and for self-advocacy, whereby people with disabilities are
society’s economic concerns rather than clients’ well-being. expected to have a significant say on all matters affecting
them. These developments were associated with a radical
critique of existing provision which, when not marginalizing
Elaboration of provision people with disabilities, was seen as reinforcing their
minority status.
The outstanding feature of the twentieth century as regards In the classroom, these developments led to a movement
people with disabilities was the elaboration of provision and away from mainstreaming and towards inclusion. From the
specialist services. These developments drew from a wide 1970s onward, a great deal of campaigning, research and
range of sources: a general expansion in medical and social innovation had centred on mainstreaming or integration in
services, new understanding of disabilities, campaigning by the sense of placing pupils with disabilities or learning
pressure groups, research inputs, technical advances, difficulties in regular schools. While this led to more
increased prosperity, and legislation. Progress was uneven appropriate education in many instances, it was not enough,
across and within countries, and developing countries had and more radical changes in regular schools were sought.
only a limited share in it, but the achievement was These entailed creating new kinds of school that were
nonetheless significant (Plate 64). defined and resourced in terms of meeting the particular
Developments in education, a critical determinant of an needs of every pupil as an integral part of the school’s
individual’s chances in life, included extending schooling to provision, regardless of the individual pupil’s disabilities or
many previously excluded from it, targeting teaching learning difficulties.
approaches on individual need, reforming regular schools so Community-based rehabilitation also challenges
that they provided appropriate, high-quality education for traditional models of practice with their excessive reliance
many more pupils and devising vocational training that on institutions and specialist expertise. People with

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disabilities come from families, and the goal must be to deploying available resources more effectively, partly from
locate rehabilitation measures within their families and the securing commitment to action from governments and
communities. This approach does not to reject expertise but social institutions, and partly from changing attitudes
recommends that it be deployed at the local level so that ensure that people with disabilities are regarded as full
people with disabilities can live unrestricted lives within members of their communities. All of this must be
their communities. accomplished in a suitable context, that is, one in which the
These are examples of the general demand for people voice of the disabled is heard, the disabled set the agenda
with disabilities to be included in everyday life and for action and shape decisions that affect them, and disability is seen
to focus on removing the social and institutional barriers as part of the normal pattern of differences between
that prevent integration. Given that these barriers exist in people.
society and its segregative institutions and not in individuals
with disabilities, action should be directed to the former
rather than the latter. By the close of the century, these
views were gaining ground but were far from widespread. note
There was a great deal of rhetoric in their favour, but much
provision continued to be couched in terms of enabling 1. E. Helander, Prejudice and Dignity: An Introduction to
people with disabilities to fit into society rather than Community-based Rehabilitation, New York, 1993.
reshaping social institutions so that they included all people,
regardless of their disabilities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

C onclusion DAUNT, P. 1991. Meeting Disability: A European Response. Cassell,

London.
The twentieth century has seen major advances in the HELANDER, E. 1993. Prejudice and Dignity: An Introduction to
understanding of disability issues, in the legal status ascribed Community-based Rehabilitation. United Nations Development
to people with disabilities, and in the range and sophistication Programme, New York.
of provision available to them. However, these advances are PRITCHARD, D. G. 1963. Education and the Handicapped 1760–1960.
spread unevenly. While the situation of some people with Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
disabilities has improved greatly, many others, particularly SARASON, S. B. and DORIS, J. 1979. Educational Handicap, Public Policy,
in developing countries, continue to be marginalized in and Social History: A Broadened Perspective on Mental Retardation.
their societies and to live extremely impoverished lives. The Free Press, New York.
The challenge for the years ahead is twofold: to extend United Nations . 1993. Standard Rules on the Equalisation of
the best of current provision, and to ensure that people Opportunities for People with Disabilities. United Nations, New
with disabilities can participate in decisions that affect York.
them. Many people with disabilities continue to be UNESCO. 1995. World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access
neglected and marginalized in their societies. Improvement and Quality: Final Report. UNESCO, Paris. (Doc. ED.95/
will come partly from obtaining more resources and WS/2.)

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T R A D ITIONA L SCIENCE AN D
K NO W L E D G E IN EAST A F R ICA

Judith Mbula Bahemuka and Wellington N. Ekaya

I ntroduction knowledge in order to induce change. This recognition of

the variation in cultural approaches to resources ensures
In Africa, the potential role of traditional knowledge systems sustainable development.
in the arena of sustainable development began gaining This chapter deals with traditional technical knowledge
prominence in the 1970s. Scholars started voicing concern within the East African region. It draws examples from
over the failure of development efforts to improve the living some of the ethnic communities which have developed the
standards of local communities, thus underlining the need art of herbal medicine and sustainable livelihoods through
to review development strategies and alternatives. The major traditional irrigation systems for small-scale farming.
focus was placed on the advancement of indigenous peoples The term traditional knowledge conceptually brings into
in the context of prevailing physical conditions. More sharp focus and underscores the originality of the knowledge
specifically, the idea of preserving the indigenous as perceived and practised by communities in a specific
communities’ resource base, while at the same time locale. The term knowledge as used in this context refers to
incorporating their knowledge within planned development collective perceptions, traditions, lore, and other associated
packages, became imperative and topical. Thus, identification knowledge and practices, whether intentional or unintended.
of local constraints and viable development efforts responsive Traditional knowledge consists of a large body of collective
to the social and environmental impacts of change required perceptions, traditions, lore, and practices generated by
assessment. rural communities over time for various purposes. It is
Within this context, it must be noted that local ideological unique to a culture or society and believed to be consistent
and institutional structures are important springboards with coherent sets of cognitive techniques. It has been
acting to minimize the adverse effects of development variously known as indigenous knowledge, traditional
packages. The underlying logic is that local people have wisdom, indigenous technical knowledge, traditional
their own ways of sustaining their own development. It knowledge, and community knowledge. This system of
follows that any development effort will fail if it is culturally knowledge includes concepts, beliefs, perceptions, the stock
offensive, socially insensitive, and ecologically incongruent of knowledge and the processes through which it is acquired,
with local knowledge. enriched, stored and transmitted. Traditional knowledge
The principle underpinning traditional knowledge and develops over generations as a product of human–
science is that between the physical environment and human environmental system interactions. Through indigenous
activities there is always a mediating factor, a collection of creativity and innovation, traditional knowledge remains
specific objectives and values, and a body of knowledge and dynamic and often borrows from other knowledge systems
beliefs constituting the dominant cultural patterns. This through contact.
knowledge is specific to certain societies and localities. It is Ethnoscientists do not agree with the assumption that
created by one generation and passed on to succeeding society can live in ambiguous and non-defined relationships
generations through socialization. Traditional knowledge with its socio-cultural, physical, and technical environment.
and science therefore constitutes an important component This position is clearly defined by works of different scholars
of culture. Culture itself is subject to change, but from several perspectives. On the one hand, learning can
communities tend to cling to certain cultural elements, take place only when an individual wants something (value-
which generally persist even amidst sweeping changes. Early aspirational base) or notices something (awareness governed
studies of African traditional knowledge systems were by selective perception derived from existing knowledge).
conducted on agricultural practices, for example among the On the other hand, human beings are constantly defining
Sandawe and Nyiha of the United Republic of Tanzania their environment so as to derive meaning and a format for
(Plate 65). Contemporary studies in traditional knowledge action. These two arguments can be taken to imply that
systems aim at adapting modern innovations to local communities are constantly reviewing and arranging all

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 T R A D ITIONA L SCIENCE AN D K NO W L E D G E IN EAST A F R ICA

signals emanating from the environment to present a unified often unfamiliar with such knowledge owing to its oral
definition of the situation. It is this act of defining each nature. It appears clear that the use of such knowledge to
situation that gives communities a frame of reference for foster sustainable natural resource management and
decision-making. development is vital.
The work of ethnoscientists can be evaluated in light of
earlier arguments on learning theory. In the works of
McClelland, there is a fundamental assumption that Traditional knowledge and science in sustainable
learning and evaluation of new ideas and technologies are development
related to existing and accepted arrangement of
relationships, ideas and technologies. Traditional Natural resource management in African pastoral systems
knowledge acts as the catalyst, which influences modern has tended to emphasize the international scientific value of
scientific innovations, partly by communication, interaction resource conservation and biological diversity, which has
or environmental stress. dictated the ‘what, where and how’ in relation to conservation
In spite of the differences in terminology used by different efforts in Africa. For instance, IUCN (International Union
communities, societies and professions, there is evidence for Conservation of Nature) noted that many biodiversity
that ethnic communities possess immense knowledge of the conservation strategies have failed to effectively address
systems in which they live, together with the system African values, priorities and practices. Africa’s dependence
components with which they come into contact. on biological resources for economic and natural purposes
Furthermore, they have developed effective ways of utilizing has not been given adequate recognition.
the knowledge to sustainably and wisely interact with their For a long time, there has been some antagonism between
total space. the wide range of traditional resource management systems
Traditional knowledge is passed from one generation to practised by African farmers and the conventional or
another by word of mouth through an elaborate system. mainstream range management, which has been advocated by
This education technology is codified in the language development institutions, academicians and modern society
structure and social interactions between members of the in general. On the one hand, conventional range management
ethnic group. This kind of structure leads to a shared dismisses traditional resource systems as primitive, self-
knowledge, a kind of science. destructive, and thus too unproductive to provide goods for
In essence, traditional knowledge is interactively derived the increasing human demands. It has since imposed its de
and embedded in the cultures of communities. It is facto authority in matters pertaining to pastoral development.
adaptable, appropriate, and technical (the technical side On the other hand, farmers have interacted and, at times,
being embedded in its practical nature and capacity) so as to accepted – albeit with suspicion – this approach to survival
provide sustainable utilities. It is therefore a practical type and development that often conflicts with tradition and
of knowledge based on intimate experience accumulated culture. This accounts for the numerous failures characteristic
over many generations. This ultimately forms the core of of development interventions in rural Africa.
the process of community development. Debate on sustainable development stresses the
importance of harmonizing traditional knowledge and
Western science. Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action
T raditional Knowledge adopted by the United Nations at the 1992 Rio Summit,
for example, notes that governments should provide local
Traditional knowledge possesses a number of unique communities and resource users with the information and
distinguishing properties: know-how they need to manage their environment and
resources sustainably, applying traditional and indigenous
a) It is generated within specific communities wherein it knowledge and approaches when appropriate (Plate 66).
forms the basis for, inter alia, decision-making and However, the challenge consists of determining the manner
livelihood strategies. in which such integration can be achieved, considering the
b) It is location – and culture – specific but allows for differences between the two epistemologies. A general
some degree of overlap due to contact between overview of the two systems of knowledge is presented in
communities or cultures. Table 1.
c) It concerns critical issues related to humans, their From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that traditional
environment and resource management. knowledge can be used to complement modern science. The
d) It is oral in nature and not systematically following two examples are derived from the experiences of
documented. communities in East Africa.
e) It is dynamic and based on innovation, adaptation and
experimentation.
Case study: range management among the Masai
Prior to the general awareness of the value of traditional of East Africa
knowledge, certain practices were considered to be
associated with superstition and witchcraft. Within the Conventional range management is a multidisciplinary field
past quarter of a century, the applicability and usefulness of bringing together scientists in biological sciences, social
traditional knowledge has been gradually recognized by sciences and policy-makers. It depends on basic sciences,
professionals and practitioners in various fields. Traditional concerns grazing animals and forage in uncultivated lands
knowledge is less expensive, readily available, in sub-humid, semi-arid and arid regions and focuses on the
environmentally sound, and most importantly, it has a production of animal products, water, timber, wildlife and
proven record of effectiveness. However, professionals are recreation that are useful to humankind.

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 thematic section

Table 1  Traditional ecological knowledge and Western production in these countries have enticed African policy-
science makers to readily accept the implementation of livestock
development in pastoral Africa.
Traditional Ecological Commercial livestock production as practised in Europe
Western Science
Knowledge and North America is primarily intended to increase beef
Oral tradition Written tradition production. The economic objectives of commercial beef
production emphasize such parameters as optimum
Learned through observation Taught and learned (abstracted
stocking rate and carrying capacity, weight gain, weaning
and hands-on experience from the applied context)
weight and meat off-take in order to maximize livestock
Holistic approach Reductionist production per head. It is capital intensive in practice and
confined in space. Livestock production is first and foremost
Intuitive mode of thinking Analytic and abstract reasoning
geared towards the improvement of livestock and livestock
Mainly qualitative Mainly quantitative products and their availability for market consumption. Its
application in rural areas, as exemplified by group ranches
Data generated by resource Data collected by specialists
across Africa, translated into the establishment of
users and experts (exclusive)
production units complete with disease control, water
Diachronic data (long-time Synchronic data (short-time development, extension and marketing services to supply
series on one location) series over a large area) the larger domestic economy, increased off-take of pastoral
animals for fattening and the strengthening of and support
Environment as part of social Hierarchical and
to livestock marketing services.
and spiritual relations compartmentalized
Livestock production programmes failed in pastoral
organization
Africa primarily because they took narrow conceptual and
Based on cumulative, collective Based on general laws and technical approaches to pastoralism, which wrongly equated
experience theories livestock production and pastoral development. The
Adapted from Johnson, 1992.
programmes focused on animals and range lands rather
than herders, people and institutions, thereby literally
neglecting the social, cultural and ecological particularities
of pastoral production systems. In addition, they failed to
Unlike the mainstream range management, traditional take into account the complexities and the development
pastoral resource management is based entirely on potentials and constraints of traditional pastoral
traditional knowledge that has evolved over generations as a organizations and production systems.
product of man-environment interactions. Like other It has been stressed that pastoral development involves,
sciences, ethnoscience has a variety of knowledge systems to in addition to livestock production, the recognition and
deal with biological and physical environments (indigenous genuine support of a pastoral entity within a wider national
climatology and weather forecast, botany, medicine, development programme. Pastoral development involves
conservation, etc.), with cognitive and ideational management of people. As such, it integrates anthropological
environments (value systems), and others that deal with the aspects, cultural and sociological beliefs and practices of a
social environment. In essence, local knowledge differs from people into a comprehensive development plan. This is in
modern scientific knowledge in that it allows a greater accordance with the nature of pastoral production systems
understanding of the heterogeneity of local conditions as where there is a strong interdependence between humans,
opposed to scientific knowledge, which may be developed livestock and land resources, leading to a true collaboration
into universal generalization for a wide range of situations. with nature rather than a control over nature, which is less
The exploitation of indigenous plants and animals using painful and destructive.
rudimentary technology requires knowledge of the local Each culture has its own ethnomedicine, which is part of
ecological conditions. its indigenous knowledge. Knowledge of ethnomedicine
Despite the apparent differences and dissimilarities provides insights into the diseases and the available medical
between the two systems of resource management as care in a given community as a basis for considering
conceived and practised for a long time in the African contemporary health problems in that society. Every
pastoral system, there are a number of unrecognized or culture has its worldview, traditions, values and institutions,
ignored similarities that can be combined to improve and which have developed over time to handle disease and
strengthen pastoral development. illness. Furthermore, each culture has its own disease
All along, development agencies have designed and aetiologies, medical terminologies and classification,
implemented livestock production rather than pastoral medical practitioners and medicinal substances. Of course,
development in Africa. This misinterpretation of pastoral a group’s beliefs and response to disease and illness are
development has its genesis in the background of the hardly static; indeed, they change with time and as a result
development agents responsible for the design and of interaction with the medical systems of other cultures.
implementation of pastoral projects, especially following In this sense, the terms traditional medicine and ethnomedicine
the Sahelian droughts of the 1970s. Firstly, these are somewhat misleading. The goal of the study of
development technicians were either from Europe or North ethnomedicine is to understand how a society’s system of
America, where livestock production and conventional medicine functions, to distinguish different types of
range management originated and evolved. Secondly, their systems, and arrive at theories concerning how these
African counterparts, who were largely educated in the operate and change. All medical systems, including those
West, tried to replicate their learning experience in their with such labels as ‘traditional’ and ‘ethno’, are ever-
home countries. Thirdly, the successes recorded in animal changing, highly adaptable and adaptive. What appear to

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differentiate medical systems are the key concepts and and on indigenous knowledge of the diseases’ course and
philosophical foundations of each system. known vectors.
Traditional medicine is highly developed in Masai Some traditional skills in the treatment and/or control
culture. It is based on the Masai’s deep knowledge of of livestock diseases have been noted. For diseases like the
ethnobotany (or ethnosystematics), that is, folk knowledge East Coast Fever, the Masai’s cauterize the inflamed
of botanical classification and the capacity to identify their lymphatic glands with a hot iron. The effectiveness of this
natural environments. In traditional Masai society, herbal ‘cure’ may depend on the mode of application. In addition,
medicines were widely used for the treatment of both special herbal concoctions are used. The Masai are not
humans and livestock. Drugs are derived from trees and entirely helpless in containing East Coast Fever.
shrubs. The bark or roots are then mixed with water or fatty The Masai withhold water from cattle that have
soup to make medicine, which is taken as soup, or mixed contracted anthrax. Although it is not known exactly why
with milk, porridge, honey, blood and/or beer. Traditional this is done, experts speculate that withholding water from
Masai medicine is used to treat gonorrhoea, stomach upsets, cattle in the semi-arid zone leads to an increase in body
throat infections, chest pains, dental problems, pregnancy temperature and the delay of the onset of the disease. The
disorders, infertility, eye diseases, fever, colds, swollen legs, virulence of Bacillus anthraces could be influenced by changes
painful joints, worms, and nervous disorders. It is also used in temperature. A dramatic experiment by the famous
to quench thirst and to give courage and strength, to treat chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur demonstrated
anger or melancholy, and as a purgative or a poison. that lowering the body temperature of fowl (chickens) by
Trees and shrubs hold ritual significance for the Masai. dipping the animal in ice-cold water increases the probability
Only tree wood, bark and leaves may be used in ‘purification’ of its contracting anthrax. Due to their high body
ceremonies to avert supernatural misfortune (Plate 67). temperature, chickens are normally resistant to anthrax.
The special ritual value of trees and shrubs is closely related Withholding water does not ‘cure’ the disease, but the
to certain notions of Masai creation myths. The Masai Masai believe that it does give them enough time to trek
believe that ‘sky’ and ‘earth’ were once one, and that it was long distances to buy the antibiotic.
only at the time of their separation and permanent division The Masai have no effective cure for malignant catarrhal
that rural Masai acquired their cattle, which, according to fever and other viral diseases. Through diagnostic skills
the various versions, were brought to them from enkai however, they have known for centuries that the gnu
(which means ‘God’ and ‘rain’ as well as ‘sky’) via a rope (wildebeest) is a silent reservoir for this disease. This
made from the bark of a ficus tree, Ficus natalensis, or via a knowledge has enabled them to develop an elaborate disease
‘firestick’ made from the same tree. control procedure involving strict separation of cattle from
Perhaps the extensive Masai knowledge of ethnobotany the gnu and avoidance of surface water as watering sources
is linked to these cosmological beliefs about their origins for the animals during the gnu-breeding season. Only recently
and their central economic resource, cattle. If so, this can did modern scientists realize that malignant catarrhal fever,
help to explain the Masai repertoire of plant uses for which was described by an Egyptian nomadic cattle healer as
myriad everyday tasks such as fodder for goats and early as 3600 bc, was transmitted to cattle by the gnu.
medicine. But there are other reasons for the well-
developed indigenous medical knowledge of the Masai,
including the spatial and seasonal availability of pastures Case study: The Perkerra irrigation scheme
and water: the Masai’s traditional migratory lifestyle
forced them to inhabit multiple ecologic environments, The Perkerra River flows through the Koibatek District of
varying from low to high altitude. On the face of it, these Kenya. The traditional inhabitants of the area were the
movements were intended to exploit resources, which Ilchamus Masai, more widely known as the Njemps. In the
were found at different places at different times of the nineteenth century the British explorer Joseph Thompson
year. The Maisai needed detailed local knowledge on the and his caravan reputedly stopped by the Perkerra to
plants and grasses that grew in one place or another. This purchase grain from the Ilchamus. How did the local
inventory of each habitat’s flora had to be accompanied by pastoral-oriented community manage to obtain grain? The
their uses. Beyond this, the movements made it possible answer can be found in the Masai’s capacity to understand
not to overuse any part of the range and so avoid the their environment. In order to survive, the community
development of certain unpalatable grasses and the developed an elaborate irrigation system based on traditional
colonization of excellent grazing land by certain diseases water management and basin irrigation. They constructed
and pests, especially ticks and the associated East Coast rectangular-shaped basins, with an area of 6 to 9 sq. yards,
Fever. The spread of East Coast Fever is a function of the that were flooded via an opening. Once the canal was full,
ecology of the tick vectors. the opening was sealed and another opening was made in
These conditions required that the Masai become the next row of canals. The Njemps community has
skilled in epidemiology, that is, the spatial and temporal maintained its knowledge of water use, control and
occurrence of diseases. This knowledge heavily influences distribution to the present day. This knowledge can be
the patterns of pastoralists’ use and avoidance of certain tapped to enable other communities to respond to their
areas until the signs of a disease dissipate. In addition, they developmental needs.
would use medicinal plants both for prophylaxis and for
treatment. The Masai are capable of making differential
diagnosis of diseases such as foot-and-mouth, contagious Challenges to indigenous knowledge
bovine/caprine pleuropneumonia, malignant catarrhal
fever, lumpy skin disease, anthrax and East Coast Fever. The spatial and ecological design of traditional Masai life
They base their diagnoses on the manifested symptoms provided a stable foundation for their economy and

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welfare. Traditional medicine flourished. Occasionally, note

such as occurved in the late nineteenth century, the risks of
drought and disease can overwhelm traditional 1. I. Sindiga, ‘Land and Population Problems in Kajiado
arrangements, placing severely strains on their system of and Narok’, in African Studies Review, No. 27 (1), pp. 23–
medicine. During such times, appropriate interventions 39, Amherst, MA, 1984.
using their know-how, in irrigation systems for example,
become crucial.
British colonial intervention in the land of the Masai
dealt a blow to traditional ecosystems. Large chunks of BIBLIOGRAPHY
land around Lakes Naivasha, Elmenteita, Nakuru and
Baringo in Kenya and the rivers flowing into them were Farah, K. O.  1995. Management and Development of the Arid
adversely affected. Such lands were always crucial to the Communal Rangelands in North-Eastern Kenya: A Critical Analysis
proper management of the Masai pastoral system by of the Past and the Present. (Series: African Pastoral Forum
providing dry season herding resources. Native reserves Working Papers, No. 7.). Pastoral Information Network
were created in the drier areas of their territory. Programme, University of Nairobi, Kabete, Kenya.
As populations of livestock and humans increased, Goffman, E. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday,
natural resource degradation set in. In Masai territory, New York.
there has been a dramatic reduction of vegetation diversity IUCN, UNEP, WWF. 1991. Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable
over the past several decades. The evidence for this includes Living. Gland, Switzerland.
the further colonization by the Tarchonanthus camphorates Jacobs, A. H. 1963. The Pastoral Maasai of Kenya: Report of
bush 1 and the destruction of forest vegetation and Anthropological Field Research. Ministry of Overseas Development,
grassland, which began during the colonial period. This London.
process has left occasional patches of trees and bushes. Johnson, M. (ed.). 1992. Lore: Capturing Traditional Environmental
With this destruction, indigenous medicinal plants have Knowledge. International Development Research Centre, Ottawa,
disappeared, thereby affecting the supply of Masai ON.
traditional medecines and, with it, precious indigenous Knight, C. G. 1974. Ecology and Change: Rural Modernization in an
medical knowledge. African Community. Academic Press, New York.
There is little systematic recording of this rapidly Kofi-Tsekpo, W. M. 1995. Drug Research Priorities in Kenya with
disappearing knowledge because the older members of the Special Emphasis on Traditional Medicines. In: SINDIGA, I.,
community have been the traditional repositories of this NYAIGOTTI-CHACHA, C. and KANUNAH, M. P. (eds). Traditional
knowledge. Leading scholars have called for a thorough Medicine in Africa. East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi.
and systematic survey, collection, identification and proper Last, M. 1986. The Professionalisation of African Medicine:
documentation of medicinal herbs with a view to building Ambiguities and Definitions. In: LAST, M. and CHAW NDULA, G. L.
a germ plasm collection. In order to do this, ethnomedical (eds). The Professionalisation of African Medicine. pp. 1–19.
information is required to create proper standards for Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK.
traditional medicine, thereby enabling its use in the general Mbula, J. 1977. The Impact of Christianity on Family Structure and
context of health care. Such information may be obtained Stability: The Case of the Akamba of Eastern Kenya. Ph.D.
from traditional medical practitioners, published literature Dissertation, University of Nairobi, Kabete, Nairobi.
and oral sources within the community concerned. The McClelland, D. 1996. The Achieving Society. Van Nostrand,
data will make it possible to extract natural drugs from Princeton, NJ.
plants and then isolate their known active ingredients. In Newman, J. L. 1970. The Ecological Basis of Subsistence Change among
the case of irrigation systems, the Njemps have the Sandawe of Tanzania. National Academy of Science,
demonstrated that traditional knowledge can be refined Washington, DC.
and augmented by modern science to provide communities Niamir, M. 1990. Herders’ Decision-Making in Natural Resources
with sustainable livelihoods. Such is one of the challenges Management in Arid and Semi-Arid Africa. (Community Forestry
facing scientists in the twenty-first century. Note 4.). FAO, Rome.
Ogburn, W. F. 1964. On Culture and Social Change: Selected Papers.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Pillsbury, B. L. K. 1979. Reaching the Rural Poor: Indigenous Health
Practitioners Are There Already. In: AID Program Evaluation
Discussion Paper No. 1. (PN-AAG-685). Center for Development
Information and Evaluation, United States Agency for
International Development, Washington DC.
Sankan, S. S. 1971. The Maasai. East African Literature Bureau,
Nairobi.
Sindiga, I. 1984. Land and Population Problems in Kajiado and
Narok. In: African Studies Review, No. 27 (1), pp. 23–39.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
 1994. Indigenous (Medical) Knowledge of the Maasai. In:
Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, Vol. 2, No. 1,
pp. 16–18. Nuffic, The Hague.
 and Burnett G. W. 1988. Geography and Development in Kenya.
In: The Professional Geographer, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 232–37.
Blackwell Publishing, London.

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Thomas, W. I., Znaniecki, F. and ZARETSKY, E. (eds). 1995. The Toloumbaye, T. 1994. Pastoral Development in Sub-Saharan
Polish Peasant in Europe and America: A Classic Work in Africa: The Role and Significance of Indigenous Technical
Immigration History. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Knowledge. In: The African Pastoral Forum Working Paper No. 2.
Chicago, IL. PINEP, University of Nairobi, Kabete, Kenya. 

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 13
thematic section

Modern Science and Changing

N o t i o n s o f T i m e , Sp a c e a n d M a t t e r

Michel Paty, coordinator

in collaboration with Michel Morange and Christian Houzel

I ntroduction number of scientists, working on the findings of Henri

Poincaré, explored the mathematical theory of dynamic
As the First World War was raging, providing yet more systems. This theory produced concepts of ‘deterministic
evidence of human folly, new scientific knowledge that would chaos’, starting in the 1960s.
revolutionize our perception of the world was taking shape at All other areas of science, and specifically other exact
a speed quite unprecedented in the history of humankind. sciences or natural sciences, underwent considerable change
This expanded vision would also revolutionize our perception during this period. The so-called formal sciences, such as
of ourselves and our basic concepts of knowledge. Once the the different branches of mathematics and logic, saw changes
smoke from the epic confrontation finally cleared, the that brought into question their very foundations, while
landscape that emerged was nearly unrecognizable, so great operational calculus and computer science were also
were the intellectual and scientific transformations affecting beginning to emerge. Like physics and chemistry, the natural
our understanding of the natural world. sciences, and especially biology, felt the aftershock of the
The most ambitious and surprising change, which gave quantum revolution, which altered interpretations of
rise to heated debate and was a source of fascination for Darwin’s theory of evolution, and gave rise to immunology
many, concerned the new vision of the physical world and and genetics and the biomolecular approach that would
the Universe. In May 1919, the astronomer Arthur prevail in the 1950s. Neurophysiology, supported by the
Eddington led a scientific expedition commissioned by the latest techniques of physics and chemistry, expanded greatly
Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of from the 1980s on, bringing with it the growth of cognitive
London to the Gulf of Guinea and Brazil to observe a solar sciences. In geology, pioneering work on continental drift
eclipse on the equator; the expedition was a symbol in itself. begun by Alfred Wegener in 1912 was confirmed by the
The challenge extended far beyond the bounds of astrophysics theory of plate tectonics. Although rejected at the time,
and knowledge of the Sun’s corona and solar eruptions; these breakthroughs turned out, fifty years later, to totally
indeed, the main purpose was to see if any curvature could alter our perception of the world. Wegener’s findings were
be observed in light rays from stars as they passed close to consistent with work in other disciplines (e.g. the evolution
the Sun. Any such observation would prove that space was of the Universe, the ‘life and death’ of stars involving
bent by the large masses of matter it contained and thus chemical elements and the evolution of life). These showed
support the general theory of relativity presented by Albert that constant change is the cosmic, physical and biological
Einstein at the Berlin Academy of Sciences in late 1915. world, that matter and the Universe are one, and that all
Einstein’s theory of relativity radically changed our these processes are interconnected.
physical notions of space and time, and with it the kind of Thus new borderline sciences emerged and, like the
intuitive assumptions about physics that had prevailed for shifting and thrusting of continental plates forged over
more than two hundred years. Over the same period, thousands and millions of years, they too gave rise to new
cosmology almost literally brought the entire Universe within and different perspectives of the world we live in.
the scope of scientists, who were realizing how immense it
was and would soon discover that it was expanding. The
final years of the First World War had been decisive, paving n E W concepts O F mat T E R , space
the way for another, and perhaps even more radical, AND TIME
revolution. This concerned a new understanding of what
constituted ‘common’ matter in its innermost structure: The theory of relativity
first the atom, then the subatomic structure that emerged
during the 1930s and 1940s following the impact of quantum The theory of relativity was developed in two stages in the
physics. Off in a quite different direction, during the 1930s a early twentieth century.The first stage, special relativity,

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arose from the need to reconcile two well-established theory stated that laws of physical phenomena did not
sciences: the mechanics of physical bodies and the dynamics depend on the motion (i.e. in a straight line and uniform, or
of electromagnetic fields. By expressing the invariance of the ‘inertia’) of the bodies which were the focus of these
laws of physics in uniform motion in a straight line (i.e. phenomena. To do this, Einstein actually embarked on a
inertia), the concepts of space and time as defined and much wider change, going beyond the initial project and
accepted since Newton had to be changed: they were no producing what is known as the (special) theory of relativity,
longer independent and absolute, but merely relative, as was stating an invariance condition (or more accurately, one of
the concept of simultaneity in the frame of reference of covariance, i.e. not linked to any specific dynamics, but
spatial coordinates and the time related to them. Their close required of all dynamics).1
relationship was then expressed as a new physico- It seemed to Einstein that the validity of the principle of
mathematical concept: four-dimensional space-time. Mass is relativity, used previously for mechanics, should be extended
a form of energy, as expressed by the formula E=mc2, which to optics and electromagnetism for both empirical and
became famous when it was later tested and applied in theoretical reasons. The empirical reasons were actually
nuclear reactions. generalizations of the findings of experiments on groups of
The second stage, the general theory of relativity, arose proven phenomena rather than isolated observations; they
from two key considerations: the arbitrariness of physical were related to optical and electromagnetic phenomena
invariance being restricted solely to inertial motions, which remained unchanged in systems at rest or in relative
suggesting it might be extended to the most general motion: it was therefore impossible, for example, to
accelerated motions; and equal local acceleration of bodies extrapolate the absolute motion of the Earth in relation to
in a gravitational field (Galileo’s law of falling bodies) – the ‘ether’ (the medium assumed to transmit waves) on the
stated by Einstein as a principle of equivalence, between a basis of these findings. However, electromagnetic theory (as
gravitational field and accelerated motion. The theory, as formulated by James Clerk Maxwell some decades earlier)
developed on these bases using the mathematical formalism used the reference system of the ether, assumed to be at rest
of space-time and absolute differential calculus (tensor in the absolute space of Newton’s mechanics, making its
calculus), meant a new generalized theory of relativity of role too important and skewing it in relation to the set of
gravitation could be expressed producing the space-time systems in uniform motion and in straight lines.
structure for physical spaces that were no longer Euclidean, This skew was not consistent with the principle of
and for non-uniform times: in other words, the curvature of relativity, which the phenomena seemed to fit in other
space is determined by the masses contained in it and the respects. Einstein noted this contradiction and ascribed it
gravitational fields they generate. to a fault in electromagnetic theory (which did not comply
These two stages in the theory of relativity were originally with the principle of relativity), and also to the inadequacy
the work of Albert Einstein. He pursued a line of thought of mechanics, laying down definitions and general laws on
based on the idea of the invariance of the laws of physics in motion and relating them to absolute space and time,
transformations due to relative movements, and, from that independent of physical phenomena. Einstein went on to
perspective, he criticized existing theories of physics. The change these two interrelated theories, yet retaining their
special theory of relativity emerged (retrospectively) as a most fundamental properties as a universally valid principle
prelude to the general theory of relativity. The fundamental of physics: the principle of relativity for mechanics and the
originality of the second theory, which developed solely in principle of the constant speed of light in a vacuum 2 for
the brain of Albert Einstein, confirmed the clear idea already electromagnetic theory. The two principles appeared to be
present in the first theory, making it more radical still. It incompatible: if the speed of light was constant in the ether
was his idea to change the concepts of space and time and to (absolute rest), it had to be different in any system in motion
endow them with physical content dictated by general with reference to it, and this was contrary to the conditions
properties of matter, such as those expressed in the statement of the principle of relativity. Yet (as Einstein realized), the
of the physical principles of the theories. incompatibility arose from the implicit assumption that the
speeds of the two motions (here, the speed of light and the
speed of the frame of reference) were calculated according
Special relativity to Galileo’s law of the addition of velocities.3
But this rule could and indeed had to be abandoned,
Certain aspects of special relativity had, however, already provided a new definition could be given of the velocity
been explored in other studies preceding or concurrent with parameter, i.e. the distance and time interval to which it is
Einstein’s research; the most prominent were by Hendrik related, imposing on these the two principles of physics so
A. Lorentz and Henri Poincaré, who had presented the as to give them a physical value. Einstein, working on ideas
properties of electromagnetic dynamics, formulating equations previously expounded by Ernst Mach and Poincaré, began
similar to Einstein’s, yet working on quite different by pondering simultaneity, which was absolute for
conceptual content. In their view, the formulae for instantaneous actions (in Newton’s physics), but only
transforming the coordinates of space and time (referred to relative (to a specific frame of reference and not to all) for
by Poincaré as ‘Lorentz’s transformations’) – which, they actions propagated at a finite speed. A new definition of the
argued, were needed for electromagnetic dynamics – could physical concepts of space and time, i.e. concepts given in
still be reconciled with the concept of absolute physical relationships with phenomena, would then follow. The
space (the ether at rest) and absolute, physical time, shift from one point in space to another and from one
consistent with Newton’s classical mechanics. instant in time to another requires consideration of physical
Einstein’s theory, published in 1905, originally covered phenomena (e.g. the transmission of a light signal) operating
the ‘electrodynamics of moving bodies’, a theory he tried to between these spaces and times, and applying the two
refashion so that it would fit the ‘principle of relativity’. His principles chosen.

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On the basis of these considerations Einstein directly General relativity

deduced transformation formulae that allowed a shift from
one system of coordinates and time to another system in The general theory of relativity extended the scope of critical
relative motion (Lorentz’s transformations), showing there study of the concepts and formulation of physical theories
was mutual dependency of the time and space coordinates. related to the question of the relativity of motion by generally
These formulae then led to a new (relativistic) law of the applying the invariance of the laws of physics to any
composition of velocities for the constant speed of light (accelerated) motions. With this requirement, Einstein had
when combined with any other speed, thereby making it an the idea of expressing the basic fact of gravity (i.e. Galileo’s
absolute limit.4 This also led to the symmetry of relative law of falling bodies stating that all bodies falling from the
motions and the end of the choice of ether at rest as the same height have the same acceleration) as a ‘principle of
frame of reference: the very idea of ether, seen as a sort of equivalence’ (located at a given point in space-time) between
half-way medium between matter and space, then became a homogeneous gravitational field and a uniform acceleration
redundant. force. A person inside a free-falling elevator is not conscious
The special theory of relativity that arose from these of falling, the fall being cancelled by the drift of the
considerations led to new kinetics that could be applied to accelerated motion. This was consistent with the argument
all systems of physics regardless of their dynamics, and of there being a fundamental property in every gravitational
which complied with the dynamics of Newton’s mechanics field, related to accelerated motion. It was then possible to
in the approximation of low velocities.5 In relativistic produce the (relativistic) theory of the gravitational field
kinetics, relative distances are shortened in the direction of solely by considering general covariance (the same form of
the motion, and relative time intervals get longer. This the law on transformations of coordinates for any
relativity of time and space means that a body in rapid movements). The mathematical representation of
motion seems shorter when seen from a system at rest in Minkowski’s space-time diagram made it possible to
relation to it, and that the ticking of clocks there is slower. formulate this statement, using non-Euclidean curvature of
Paul Langevin later used this idea in arguing his ‘thought space (Riemann’s geometry).9 The form of space-time (given
experiment’ on two twins being reunited after a cosmic by the metric) is physically determined by the gravitational
voyage and having different ages. The same reasoning fields involved, according to the equations Einstein had
applies to a short-lived particle in its own system,6 produced formulated by late 1915.10 The existence of the general
in the upper atmosphere through the interaction of cosmic theory of relativity demanded even more radical changes to
rays, and able to reach Earth before it disintegrates: its thinking about the physics of space and time than did special
lifetime in the laboratory frame of reference is extended relativity: space and time were not only interrelated, but
because of the high speed of its motion. Similarly, high- were related to matter itself; space-time no longer stood as a
energy particles produced in accelerators have a longer life framework outside the phenomena occurring within it, but
in the relative system at rest where they are detected. Such was physically affected by them; relations of distance and
experiments were not conducted until a long time after the time interval at any and every point were subject to the
special theory of relativity was first propounded, but they gravitational field at that point.
provide a direct illustration of it. They are commonly used Three physical consequences arose directly from
today and have helped physicists become familiar with Einstein’s theory: the perihelion shift of the planet Mercury,
these concepts, which they now intuitively take for the fastest planet in the solar system, as observed in the
granted. mid-nineteenth century by Urbain Le Verrier but
The relationship between mass and energy is a consequence unexplained by Newton’s theory of gravitation; 11 the
of new kinetics and applies to any element of matter. It is bending of light rays in a gravitational field, which is
more apparent with high levels of energy or exchanges of equivalent to the curvature of space near large masses, as
energy, as with radioactive decay and nuclear reactions, but reported in 1919 when observing the solar eclipse mentioned
applies generally. It has even been observed over recent above; and the red shift of the wavelength of light in a
years in certain chemical reactions of elements high in gravitational field, observed some time later. The extension
the periodic table with high binding energy in the inner of time, which is the parallel phenomenon, was later
atomic layers. observed with accurate measurements on atomic clocks
The main part of Einstein’s special theory of relativity is positioned near mountain ranges.
in these properties: they concern new ‘kinetics’, i.e. a new Other deductions arising from the general theory of
way of conceiving and formulating the general properties of relativity subsequently proved to be of great importance, for
the motion of bodies in space and time, and having effects example, the existence (as posited by Einstein as early as
restricting the form of dynamics, because of the requirement 1916) of gravitational waves (variations in the gravitational
of covariance, i.e. the principle of relativity mathematically field conveyed in space, such as space-time ripples); these
transcribed on the form of the quantities in the physical ripples are to Einstein’s relativistic theory of gravitation
theory and its equations. Hermann Minkowski presented a what electromagnetic waves are to Maxwell’s theory.
mathematical theory of space-time soon after this, basing it Indirect proof of the existence of these waves was found by
directly on Einstein’s special theory of relativity. He took R. A. Hulse and J. H. Taylor observing the oscillations of a
the idea originally stated by Poincaré that time should be binary pulsar (the ‘1916+17’ system). It is extremely difficult
entered as a fourth, but imaginary, space coordinate.7 Spatial to verify these findings because of the tiny level of the
coordinates and time were then replaced by space-time, a gravitational constant and the large masses of matter
four-dimensional continuum with three dimensions for required. Projects like ‘Virgo’ in Europe and ‘Ligo’ in the
space and one for time, bound together by a space-time United States are constructing giant antennae to detect
structure constant, which was none other than the speed of gravitational waves coming from the cosmos (explosions of
light, an invariant in all transformations.8 supernovae), and may provide the verification needed.

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Other major consequences of the general theory of electrons moving in orbit around a core nucleus carrying
relativity concern very high-density celestial objects such as almost all the atomic mass and having a positive charge),
‘black holes’ and even the emergence of cosmology as a quantizing the electron orbits and thus accounting for the
science (see below). The general theory of relativity was stability of the atom and for the energy exchanges in the
remarkably fruitful for describing the physical universe, but emission and absorption of radiation14 by the core nucleus.
this did not become apparent until the 1960s, with Soon after, in 1916, Einstein brought together data on
developments in astrophysics and observational cosmology. quantum phenomena to form a synthetic theory, but which
Prior to this, the theory had attracted the interest of a small still featured classical concepts; this was the ‘first theory of
number of researchers (mostly mathematicians), who quanta’, and the starting point for theoretical developments
worked on it for its formal beauty. It is now considered to that led to quantum mechanics. Einstein calculated the
be one of the principal theories of physics, along with transition amplitude between atomic levels and showed
quantum physics, and is seen as the theory of gravitation that radiation emitted or absorbed in these transitions had
and cosmology. dual behaviour, as both waves and particles (a quantity of
motion being the wavelength, and energy being the
frequency).15 These two features were retained in quantum
Q uantum physics mechanics and in fact provided the basis for its further
development. In 1923, Louis de Broglie extended the wave-
Quantum physics is a subject of considerable scope, covering particle duality of radiation to cover all elements of matter16
the deepest structure of matter in general, from cosmic (the property being verified subsequently by the observation
objects to the bodies in our environment and the very atoms of the diffraction of electrons and then of other particles).
of which we are made. It provides an explanation for the In 1924, Satyendra N. Bose and Einstein noticed that
unity of matter in the diversity of its organizational forms, the quantum properties of physical systems for radiation
from molecular combinations of atoms to the properties of and for certain single-atom gases17 were intrinsically linked
the atomic nuclei and the elementary particles contained, to the ‘indiscernibility of identical particles’. This means
actually or ‘virtually’, inside the nuclei. The tool for the that the physical state remains unchanged if two of the
theoretical understanding of this field is built around quanta particles are interchanged (being symmetrical in mutual
applied to specific theoretical models (atomic or nuclear exchange), corresponding to a specific statistical behaviour
models) and extended, from a fundamental viewpoint, as pattern:18 any number of particles in a system can be found
the quantum field theory. As quantum electrodynamics, the in the same physical state and are therefore phase coherent.
theory can accurately describe the properties of atoms, This produced a certain number of effects that did not exist
determined by the electromagnetic interacting field. The in classical physics, and which will be discussed below:
most recent extensions of the quantum field theory, and Bose-Einstein condensation (Einstein, 1925), the first
covering other interactions operating at the level of the example of a description of phase transition, superfluidity
nucleus, include ‘gauge fields’. They have been done in the and superconductivity.
conceptual framework of quantum mechanics, providing Parallel to these findings, Enrico Fermi and Paul A. M.
confirmation of its heuristic potential. Dirac discovered other non-classical statistics for another
While the conceptual framework adopted in the late class of particles, which were indiscernible and anti-
1920s broke away from a number of features previously symmetric when mutually exchanged. When these statistics
ascribed to the description of physical phenomena, it has (Fermi-Dirac statistics) were applied to particles dubbed
given rise to problems of interpretation, for questions both ‘fermions’,19 they described a general property called the
physical and philosophical. Heated discussion among ‘exclusion principle’. This principle had been formulated
leading physicists of the age contributed to the founding of some time earlier by Wolfgang Pauli working on an
the theory. empirical basis: he noted that, in a physical system, two
identical electrons cannot be in the same quantum state
(e.g. a given atomic level). This rule accounts for the way
The quantization of radiation and atoms energy levels in atoms are composed and therefore explains
the organization of the periodic table of elements.
The introduction of quanta to physics goes back to research Quantum mechanics integrated these basic properties
on radiation conducted in 1900 by Max Planck. He into the formalism of the wave ‘function’ (or state vector) to
developed a hypothesis on the discontinuity or ‘quantization’ describe a physical system, either symmetric or anti-
of the energy exchange in the emission and absorption of a symmetric, for the exchange of identical particles
light ray at a given frequency.12 Planck’s ideas were taken (respectively, bosons and fermions): these properties
further by Einstein’s initial research in this field from 1905 comprise one of the features of the ‘principle of
to 1909 (on the quantization of light energy itself,13 this superposition’.
being an extension of the quantum hypothesis on specific
heats of atoms, the first form of the particle-wave duality of
light) (Plate 68). This discontinuity, which became a Quantum mechanics
fundamental feature of physical phenomena involved in
atoms and radiation, meant the entire theory of physics had The foundations for what was to become quantum
to be rethought, as it was based on the continuous approach mechanics had thus been laid. Quantum mechanics was
of differential equations in mechanics as with established in 1925–26, using two different approaches
electromagnetism. but producing equivalent results: wave mechanics, developed
In 1913, Niels Bohr presented a theoretical model of the by Erwin Schrödinger working on the concept of matter
atom, changing Rutherford’s planetary model (with waves (equations from mechanics are applied to a ‘wave

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function’ in the system), and quantum mechanics, as quantum mechanics first emerged and for a long time after,
developed by Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Pascual it also included a ‘philosophical interpretation’. In the minds
Jordan and Paul Dirac, calculating transition amplitudes of its proponents, this interpretation was designed for
between atomic levels without the use of any classical rational use, even though the principal statements were
image such as electron trajectories. This calculation of unusual, differing from concepts previously accepted in
‘observable quantities’ was equivalent to matrix calculations physics, e.g. the reality of described systems being
in linear equation systems. The formalism of quantum independent of the action of the observer, and the
mechanics was developed on this basis, the physical determinism of the variables involved in the description.
quantities being depicted by linear operators (which, unlike
numbers, do not commute when multiplied in pairs),20
and the state of a system by a ‘state vector’ on which these Quantum field theory
quantities operate.
Schrödinger showed the equivalence between wave Quantum mechanics was then seen as a conceptual
mechanics and quantum mechanics, and in the same year framework for describing physical systems, their
(1926), Max Born (Plate 69) presented his probabilistic development and interactions. But these same systems
interpretation of the wave function or state vector depicting required that dynamics be developed to account for this
the physical system: this function, ψ, produced by a causal behaviour, for example, to actually calculate the amplitude
equation (Schrödinger’s equation), gives the probability so of atomic transitions instead of entering this factor on the
that the system it describes is in the state characterized by basis of observational data. One direction that favoured
physical quantities at given values.21 The function ψ in development of the dynamics of quantum systems was the
physics therefore means a ‘probability amplitude’, and quantum field theory. During the late 1920s pioneering
Schrödinger’s wave is not a physical wave in the usual sense, work was being done by eminent scientists such as Paul
but an abstract entity, a ‘probability wave’. The quantity Dirac (Plate 70), Oskar Klein, Pascual Jordan and Eugene
depicting a physical system, the state function ψ, has the Wigner. In 1927, Dirac had devised a relativistic quantum
‘superposition’ property specific to such amplitudes: any equation of the electron, predicting the existence of
linear superposition of functions, which are solutions to the antiparticles associated with known particles (identical
equation of the physical system, is also a solution and can except for opposite charges). This provided the foundation
therefore describe the system. for developing the quantum field theory (at the time only in
This property proved to be one of the most fundamental the electromagnetic field), based on a ‘second quantization’
in quantum mechanics, accounting for its most specific approach whereby the state function was replaced by an
features such as wave-particle duality and the diffraction of operator that itself acted on the state. This meant that the
quantum particles (e.g. electrons and neutrons), the creation or destruction of particles or antiparticles in a
indiscernibility of identical particles, as well as the local physical system could then be described, and it was therefore
non-separability of systems of particles (see below), and the possible, in theory at least, to deal directly with interactions
‘oscillations’ of various electrically neutral systems of between atoms, nuclei, particles and fields.
particles (e.g. of neutrinos). This path and others were explored over the ensuing
In 1927, Heisenberg showed that ‘conjugated quantities’ decades, with varying degrees of success. Efforts proved
operators that did not commute (e.g. position x and extremely fruitful in the field of electromagnetic interaction,
momentum p) featured relations of inequality in their with the development of quantum electrodynamics emerging
spectral width, such as: ∆x.∆p ≥ ¯h (Heisenberg’s around 1947; but it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that
inequalities). Such quantities, known as ‘incompatible’ or this perspective also became the path for other interacting
‘conjugated’ quantities, therefore cannot be studied together fields discovered in the intervening period: the strong field
to make a joint determination of absolute accuracy. of nuclear binding and the weak field of ß decay of nuclei
Quantum mechanics at the time was expressed with and particles. Through these transformations, the conceptual
appropriate mathematical formalism; the state function of a framework of quantum mechanics remained intact, and
physical system, with its (vectorial) property of linear physicists became accustomed to working with this
superposition and physical value of probability amplitude, intellectual tool, which is still essential for exploring
is defined in Hilbert’s Space (the elements, or vectors, of quantum phenomena, from the atomic level to the level of
this abstract space being the space of square integrable elementary particles.
functions). The physical quantities were no longer expressed
as numbers or numerical functions, but as mathematical,
linear operators, acting on the state function of the system. U N C E R T A I N T I es about accuracy
The state of a physical system is determined by using a A N D probl E ms O F interpr E tation
‘complete set of (observable) quantities which commute’.22
Quantum mechanics as developed this way (with the While quantum mechanics gave physical theory great
term generally including wave mechanics) was then able to potential for describing and forecasting phenomena in the
account for the properties of matter and radiation, as well as atomic field, it also raised problems of interpretation quite
their interaction. It constituted a body of doctrine, and unusual in the world of physics. First, the mathematical
from 1927, when presented at the Solvay Physics Conference formalism of quantum physics, which had made it so fertile,
in Brussels, it was recognized as a physical theory with seemed far removed from any ‘intuitive physical meaning’;
mathematical formalism (more abstract than before), the mathematical properties of the quantities used (e.g. the
complete with interpretations capable of describing physical state function as ‘probability amplitude’ and the principle of
systems. In addition to physical interpretations, such as the superposition) had only an apparently indirect link with the
probabilistic interpretation of the state function, when physical properties, despite being so accurately described

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and forecast. Quantum theory seemed to mark the beginning physics, and notably Einstein, Schrödinger and Broglie.
of a new type of physical theory, comprised of abstract One of the important moments in the Einstein-Bohr ‘debate
formalism extended by a physical interpretation of its of the century’ – the now famous argument referred to as
elements, whereas in previous theories of physics, the ‘EPR’24 – stands as the starting point in proof of a previously
mathematical form of the quantities was directly involved in unnoticed quantum property: local non-separability.
the constitution of the theoretical relationships that Quantum theory, through the principle of superposition,
provided the ‘physical content’. cannot provide separate descriptions of two physical systems
Most importantly, quantum mechanics seemed to cast (of particles) previously joined in a single system, regardless
doubt not only on determinism, through its solely of the distance currently separating them and despite the
probabilistic forecasts and Heisenberg’s ‘indeterminacy’ lack of any physical interaction between them. For Einstein,
relations, but also on causality with the ‘postulate of this absence of local separability, which he showed to be
reduction of the wave packet’, supposed to account for the inherent in quantum theory, indicated that the theory was
fact that one specific physical state was observed in unable to describe individual systems and was therefore
superposition. Superposition was often seen as the result of ‘incomplete’. He believed the apparent non-separability of
random interaction between the measuring instrument and quantum systems did not concern individual systems, and
the quantum system studied. One unresolved question was was simply the effect of the statistical description using the
of direct philosophical import: do material quantum systems state function ψ.
exist as an independent reality? It subsequently became apparent,25 following theoretical
research by John S. Bell and high-precision experiments on
correlations at a distance conducted by, among others, Alain
A philosophy of observation and complementarity Aspect, that local non-separability was indeed an effective
property of individual quantum systems. In general terms,
In a bid to justify the unusual procedures of quantum quantum physics describes individual systems, albeit in a
mechanics, Niels Bohr developed a philosophical probabilistic way, as has been shown by experiments to
interpretation known as the Copenhagen interpretation isolate these particles in a beam without perturbing them.26
which was considered the ‘orthodox line’ for almost two A photon, or any other quantum particle (electron, neutron
generations of physicists. According to this observationalist or even an atom), interferes with nothing but itself. Non-
philosophy, the properties of a physical system can only be locality, which is the reason for this, seems to suggest that
contemplated independently of the conditions of quantum systems cannot be depicted by proper spatial
observation. In the microphysical domain of quanta, this representation.
position required continued use of classical concepts, i.e. the These conceptual and experimental advances cast light
concepts of the measuring instruments. The interaction of on the nature of the quantities specific to the quantum
the measuring instrument with the quantum system domain and helped make them directly intelligible despite
perturbs the quantum system, and, because of the their ‘counter-intuitive’ quality when compared to the more
irreducibility of the quantum of action, the impact cannot tangible quantities characteristic of classical physics.
be countered and corrected or overlooked, as would be the However, familiarization and adaptation to a world of
case in classical physics. 23 This perturbation in the quantum phenomena and objects still leaves open the
observation process is apparently the underlying reason for philosophical question of the possible existence of an
Heisenberg’s inequalities. These inequalities express the ‘independent physical reality’.
conditions of use (and limits of validity) of the conjugated
quantities classically used in the field of quantum studies,
and for that reason are often referred to as ‘relations of Measurement and reduction
uncertainty’ or the ‘principle of indeterminacy’. These
relations are said to express a limit to the principle of One of the most puzzling of the different problems in
omniscience, because even omniscience cannot avoid interpreting quantum mechanics was still the problem of
classical quantities and must at least use complementary measurement or ‘reduction’; this was also the problem of
viewpoints as an alternative so as to gain a complete view. the relationship between quantum systems and the classical
By placing the first reference of knowledge within the and macroscopic physical systems, and of the transfer of
sphere of observation, thought concerning any physical information from the former to the latter. The literature
reality is then subjected to the conditions of observation, devoted to the subject is extensive and all sorts of solutions
and ultimately the concept of independent reality has to be have been proposed, ranging from actual reduction caused
abandoned. Heisenberg, for example, stated that physics did by the interaction of the quantum system with a
not concern ‘real objects’ but the ‘inseparable object-subject microsystemic part of the measurement device, to the
partnership’, that it did not concern nature but our way of absence of any reduction in physical terms, as with Hugh
finding out about nature. Under these conditions, the state Everett’s ‘interpretation of the relative state’.
function, ψ, would be understood not as depicting the Recent experiments on the ‘decoherence’ of quantum
physical system as such, but as collecting or cataloguing the states seem to have had a crucial effect, suddenly making it
knowledge acquired through observation and measurement. possible to ‘visualize’ an initial stage of quantum
superposition in the measurement process, this being
transferred to the measurement device, after which the state
The reality of an individual physical system very quickly loses its phase coherence through the many
interactions with objects in the environment in the
While this notion prevailed for a long time with physicists, macroscopic device. The measured quantum state ends up
it was not accepted by all the ‘founding fathers’ of quantum being randomly transferred to one of the basic states of the

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preparation, according to the statistical distribution for the Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the atomic nucleus in
probability of that state. What remains important, 1911 led to a planetary model with a central, positively
ultimately, is the total state function of the system, in its charged nucleus of tiny dimensions (a few 10–13 cm), in
superposition form; it is found by reconstituting the which nearly all the mass was concentrated. The nucleus
coefficients on the basis of statistical observations. Essentially was surrounded by a cloud of orbital electrons. But this
then, as had already been suspected by a number of scholars, mechanical model was not consistent with the atom’s being
reduction might be simply a practical rule for expressing stable (because of the classical law on electromagnetic
this set of operations. radiation requiring electrons to lose energy continuously,
If that is the case, a large part of the ad hoc philosophical radiating on their orbits). Niels Bohr modified this model
arguments devised in order to rationalize our knowledge on in 1913, with his hypothesis of quantization of energies of
quantum theory will have become redundant. electronic orbits; the only electron transitions allowed were
discontinuous leaps from one orbit to another, with
emission or absorption of radiation making the difference in
T he A tomic S tructure of M atter orbital energies.
Bohr’s theory of the atom, modified to take into account
Such was the influence of positivist ideas and doctrines of relativistic effects, explained the simplest atomic spectra.
energy that physicists in the late nineteenth century were The characteristic quantities for the levels of the atom were
scarcely interested in the atomic structure of matter. Atomic subsequently specified by quantum mechanics in terms of
physics came into its own in the early twentieth century four ‘quantum numbers’ describing energy, the kinetic
when the physical reality of atoms was established by moment, the magnetic moment and the ‘spin’ or intrinsic
counting them and determining their dimensions. angular momentum. 28 According to Pauli’s exclusion
Theoretical predictions in the theory of molecular principle (1925), no two electrons can occupy the same
movements presented by Einstein in 1905, were tested in state, and this determines the arrangement of the atomic
experiments conducted by Jean Perrin (between 1908 and electrons and explains the periodic classification of the
1913); this made it possible to determine Avogadro’s elements (by successive levels of energy). It was later
constant (the number of molecules in a mole of substance) observed that the atom lines could be broken down into a
and also molecular dimensions, to 10–8 cm. These findings, ‘hyperfine structure’ ascribed to the spin effect of the
together with others, clearly endorsed the physical nature of nucleus; this discovery led to major applications in physics
the molecular hypothesis and the reality of atoms.27 (nuclear magnetic resonance, first observed in 1937 by Isidor
Atomic physics’ first concern is the properties of atoms Rabi, and the MASER quantum oscillator, invented in
at the microscopic level of the individual atom or of aggregates 1954, measuring atomic frequencies with very high relative
of atoms as molecules, thus forming the first level of the accuracy to the magnitude of 5.10–12), as well as applications
physics of the ‘infinitely small’. The discipline emerged early in chemistry and medicine.
in the twentieth century from the study of molecular
properties, the electronic constitution of matter and of
radiation phenomena (X-rays, radioactivity, energy quanta Solid-state physics and condensed matter
and atomic spectra), first developing as the physics of the
atom and its internal make-up. It also concerns the Solid-state physics emerged in the early twentieth century
macroscopic properties of matter involved in this underlying with the quantization of the energy of atoms and the study
quantum and atomic structure, and constitutes the focus of of the crystal structure (in particular of metals), using X-ray
solid-state physics and the physics of condensed matter. crystallography discovered by Max von Laue and developed
The properties of atoms and the possibilities they have of by William Henry Bragg and his son, William Lawrence
forming molecular structures, or even as complex chains of Bragg.29 Thanks to their efforts the configuration of atoms
molecules, are also relevant to chemistry. in all types of solids, both organic and inorganic could be
determined.
The atomic theory of matter and later, quantum theory,
Radiation and atomic structure could also be used to describe the magnetic properties of
bodies in terms of directions of magnetic moments of
A number of major discoveries in the late nineteenth and elementary atoms, thus giving an explanation for
early twentieth century – the discovery of the electron, paramagnetism (moments aligned in a magnetic field),
X‑rays, the splitting of spectral lines in a magnetic field diamagnetism (lack of direction, the alignment being
(the Zeeman effect) and radioactivity – corroborated the countered by thermal agitation), and ferromagnetism
atomic theory of matter. The discoveries also provided (ordered magnetic states of paramagnetic bodies above what
indications of the composite nature of the atom, making it is referred to as Curie temperature). Paul Langevin, Pierre
possible at the same time to gradually penetrate the atom’s Weiss, Léon Brillouin and Louis Néel are the names of
internal structure. From a theoretical point of view, an some of the pioneers in this field. Quantum statistics on
initial and decisive step was made with Einstein’s work on electrons in solids, established by Dirac, Fermi and Pauli,
the specific heat of bodies (1907), where he extended the made it possible to develop a quantum theory of free
hypothesis of the quantization of energy exchanges to electrons in metals (Félix Bloch, 1928). In a crystalline solid,
cover atoms. Specific heats were cancelled out at absolute electronic states are divided into bands of energy in
zero, as predicted by his calculations and confirmed in accordance with quantum rules, and the arrangement (in
experiments conducted by Walter Nernst (c. 1914); this completely or partially occupied states, determining the
result stood as a crucial argument for accepting the mobility of the electrons) is what distinguishes insulators,
quantum of action. conductors and semi-conductors (insulators at absolute

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zero temperature, semi-conductors behaving as conductors and have no interaction, having lost their individuality
at a non-zero temperature, and with conductivity increasing within the collective physical system (and there may be a
with the temperature).­ large number of them, from a few thousand to a significant
The establishment in 1933 of a quantum theory of solids30 fraction of Avogadro’s constant), they form a condensate, a
boosted the development of solid-state physics and many sort of super atom in the same state: this state of
new technical and industrial applications during the Second ‘condensation’ occurs at the macroscopic level and is
World War. The transistor, for example, was designed in observed as a perfectly homogeneous liquid with no
the late 1940s in connection with advances in radar viscosity, ready to fill immediately any space made available
technology, and went on to produce the next generations of to it. A Bose-Einstein condensate was made for the first
electronics and computer technology.31 time under experimental conditions in 1995: a few thousand
The Mössbauer effect, a phenomenon of resonance identical atoms of an alkaline metal were cooled to
produced by the absorption or emission of gamma radiation 0.4 ×10−6 K, and accumulated in the same individual atomic
in a crystalline network at a very low temperature (Rudolf state of ‘zero point energy’ for approximately ten seconds.35
Mössbauer, 1958), proved to be of fundamental importance Other experiments have been successfully carried out since
for studying the properties of solids, and also for applications then.
in many other areas, ranging from atomic physics to Absolute zero temperature is a threshold value which,
astrophysics: it can be used to detect extremely small strictly speaking, can never be reached. The increasing
differences in frequency, such as the shifts produced by difficulty of getting closer to it is expressed in the ‘third
gravitational fields, accelerated movements and variations in principle of thermodynamics’, as formulated by Nernst and
a magnetic field. Planck, which states that the entropy of any physical system
The laser (acronym for light amplification by stimulated goes to zero as the temperature tends towards absolute
emission of radiation), developed in 1968, was behind many zero. This principle also defines an absolute scale for entropy
innovations in both quantum optics and solid-state physics. (determined differently in a relative way, through differences
Many of its applications have changed our everyday life. in entropy).
The laser is based on the properties of semi-conductors and These developments and others that cannot be included
on ‘stimulated emission’ of light, a process predicted by the here concern macroscopic properties of atomic matter that
semi-classical quantum theory presented by Einstein in are quantum in origin, and go beyond the bounds of solid-
1916, and which led to Alfred Kastler and Jean Brossel state physics and concern all ‘collective phenomena’. This
developing ‘optical pumping’ of atomic electrons by branch of physics is now more commonly referred to as the
accumulating atoms in the excited state (1950). Lasers physics of condensed matter.
produce intense beams of coherent light of a specific
wavelength from stimulated excitation of semi-conductors.
Beginning in the 1970s, major advances in low- Quantum chemistry
temperature physics, and particularly the access to
temperatures close to absolute zero,32 opened the way for Over the past 50 years our understanding of the way atoms
studying collective quantum phenomena that can be bind to form molecules, in particular on the tetrahedral
observed at a macroscopic level, such as superconductivity, structure of the valences of the carbon atom in three-dimensional
superfluidity and Bose-Einstein condensation. space (providing the explanation of optical isomerism observed
Superconductivity, or the lack of any damping of electric by Louis Pasteur), has been confirmed and expanded using X-
currents through the Joule effect in a given solid that cancels ray crystallography. With this technology it is possible to
out the electrical resistance, occurs in certain metals when determine the positions of the atoms in a large number of
their temperature is below what is referred to as ‘critical’ crystals, including complex molecules such as proteins (e.g.
temperature).33 Superfluidity is a ‘phase change’ from a gas penicillin, discovered in 1944).
or liquid state, e.g. helium, to a ‘superfluid’ state, with The first proteins were synthesized in 1907 and comprised
almost zero viscosity, perfectly homogeneous and without chains of a large number of amino acids (polypeptides). This
boiling; this occurs at a very low temperature (2K for He-4) development opened a whole new field leading to the
by Bose condensation of part of the liquid, according to the chemistry of macromolecules, whose existence was first
model which Fritz London and Laszlo Tisza devised for proved in 1922 by Hermann Staudinger. It also revolutionized
He-4 in 1938. It was also observed (in 1972) for the isotope industrial chemistry (e.g. with fibre-form ‘superpolymers’
He-3. and plastics such as nylon, produced on an industrial scale
Einstein had formulated a theory of Bose-Einstein from 1938 on) and biochemistry, and gave rise to the new
condensation as early as 1925, seeing it as a consequence of discipline of molecular biology.
the indiscernibility of quantum particles, 34 but for many On the theoretical side, the electronic structure of matter
years it had simply seemed to be an intellectual stance. It meant that atoms bonding to form a molecule could also be
was not until the end of the twentieth century that the effect represented as a particle comprising shared electrons.
was observed under experimental conditions. This was Quantum physics offered prospects for studying chemical
because the temperatures needed had to be lower than one bonding, understood in terms of covalence and electrovalence,
millionth of a kelvin, extremely close to absolute zero. The the terms coined by Irving Langmuir in 1919. In 1927,
gas or liquid atoms, being physically identical and in phase, Walter Heitler and Fritz London presented a theoretical
described by the same state function, can accumulate in an description of the diatomic hydrogen molecule (H2) as a
individual state of minimum energy, ‘zero point energy’, resonance of the electronic waves for both atoms and applied
equivalent to a mean temperature of absolute zero, provided this finding to the theory of chemical valence. Working
it is possible to stop the atoms from combining to form along the same lines in the 1930s, Linus Pauling and John C.
molecules and becoming solid. Once the atoms are shifted Slater found an explanation in quantum mechanics for the

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chemical bonding of many molecules and, specifically, for European scientists who had emigrated for political
the tetrahedral arrangement of the hydrogen bond of the reasons. This was the beginning of atomic energy’s dual
carbon atom. Theoretical chemistry, considered equivalent history – as a weapon in the Cold War arms race, and as a
to physical chemistry, then became quantum chemistry. peacetime instrument for the development of nuclear
Experimental study of the structure of molecules reactors and power stations. A path for producing nuclear
benefited from all the resources of spectroscopy and, as of energy other than by fission was also opened with
the 1920s, infrared and Raman spectroscopy. By the 1950s thermonuclear fusion; it became a reality with the making
there were nuclear magnetic resonance and mass of the hydrogen bomb. The search continues for ‘controlled
spectroscopy, which was important in determining fusion’, i.e. exothermic synthesis of light nuclei such as
molecular structures and looking inside them. Starting in deuterium, tritium or helium, from hydrogen. If achieved,
1937, work done by Pauling to determine the molecular this peaceful pursuit would offer the promise of an
structure of proteins using X-ray and electron diffraction inexhaustible source of energy.40
techniques paved the way for molecular biology. There were For scientists to be able to explore the atomic nucleus,
also pioneering but more speculative contributions by whether or not for these applications, they needed great
physicists such as Schrödinger. Following in Pauling’s penetration power: at least a few million electron-volts
footsteps came Francis Crick and James Watson who, in (MeV) of energy radiation,41 i.e. the degree of magnitude of
1953, discovered the double helix structure of the DNA nuclear binding energies, 42 first supplied by radioactive
molecule. bodies and by the acceleration of protons and light nuclei in
electrostatic machines (accelerators: Cockroft-Walton,
1930, and Van de Graaff, 1931). Later, higher energy proton
N uclear P hysics and E lementary and electron accelerators made it possible to obtain
P articles elementary particles.

Looking inside the nucleus of the atom

Elementary particles
The second structural level of atomic matter is buried deep
within its nucleus. The two levels, atomic and nuclear, are Nuclear physics and the study of cosmic radiation
clearly separated by five orders of magnitude,36 and research (discovered in 1912 by Victor Hess) gradually gave rise to
into the very tiny dimensions of matter opened up the new the physics of elementary particles and discovery of a whole
domain of nuclear physics. In the 1930s, nuclear physics series of naturally accelerated particles, from 1930 on. After
truly emerged with the discovery of the neutron (the the electron, proton and photon came the neutron and the
electrically neutral partner of the proton in the nucleus – positron, the anti-particle of the electron as postulated by
James Chadwick, 1932),37 artificial radioactivity (Irène and Dirac’s theory;43 then from 1936 to the late 1940s, the muon
Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 1934), the production and systematic (a sort of heavy electron) and the p meson (predicted in
study of artificial transmutations and the new radioactive 1935 by Hideki Yukawa in his theory of nuclear forces and
isotopes that could then be made38 (e.g. Enrico Fermi who finally observed in 1947). Next came ‘strange particles’ and
produced the first atomic pile in 1942), and exploration of the first ‘resonances’. After this, accelerators reaching ever-
the properties of nuclei. higher energies (cyclotron, synchrotron and even
Guided by theoretical models this investigation was done supersynchrotrons and large electron and positron colliding
along two paths: one based on the classical thermodynamic rings) produced a large number of new particles by
‘water-drop’ model proposed by Bohr, the other a quantum penetrating ever further into the fine structure of nuclear
model ‘in layers’ that described the nucleus in terms of levels matter.
of energy, like the atom, with the different states being As a result, nuclear physics and elementary particle
occupied by protons and neutrons. This path opened up the physics then became two quite distinct disciplines: the first
major chapter of nuclear spectroscopy, while the first path focused on the structure of nuclei and their binding forces
explained the behaviour of heavy nuclei with their large in a field where energy levels are relatively modest,44 while
number of nucleons; when these heavy nuclei split they the second targeted research into the elementary constituents
cause nuclear fission, an effect discovered in 1939 by Otto of matter, to identify them and analyse the dynamics of
Hahn and Fritz Strassmann for uranium. their interaction. From an experimental viewpoint, particle
Once the heavy nucleus of uranium has absorbed a physics featured a constant increase to ever-higher energies.45
neutron, it splits into lighter nuclei, releasing energy: Lise By the 1950s, the field was being referred to as high energy
Meitner and Otto Frisch explained this phenomenon physics and ranked on the same level as subnuclear or
using the water-drop model. The emission of neutrons elementary particle physics.
during fission, observed by Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Hans
Halban and Lev Kowarski, introduced the possibility of
chain reactions, thus launching the idea of an atomic pile, The three interacting fields of subatomic particles
for controlled reactions, but also that of a bomb, fulfilling
the prediction of the special theory of relativity that ‘matter The study of nuclear reactions of nuclei and particles
is a reservoir of energy’. 39 Nuclear energy was released demonstrated a set of dynamic interactions different from
during the Second World War in the Los Alamos those observed in an electromagnetic field:46 the ‘strong
laboratory in the United States as part of the secret interaction’ force, or more accurately nuclear force, is
Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb before the responsible, inter alia, for the cohesion of the nucleus,
Nazi regime developed one in Germany; it combined the binding the protons and neutrons together, while the ‘weak
skills of a large number of physicists, including many interaction’ force is responsible for ß decay. These force

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fields were the subject of major theoretical studies starting and vπ (these being electrically neutral states). The neutrino-
in the mid-1930s. Fermi took an hypothesis formulated by electron conjectured by Pauli in 1930 had been detected
Pauli on the existence of a neutral particle with zero (or through its interactions by Frederick Reines and Clyde L.
virtually zero) mass – the ‘neutrino’ – released in ß decay, Cowan in 1953–56, working with a nuclear reactor. The
and developed a theory of radioactivity. Subsequently a part independent existence of the neutrino-muon was confirmed
of this theory was integrated into the theory of weak in 1962 in a particle accelerator. A third pair of leptons
interactions, based on the quantum field theory developed appeared later, in 1977, with the identification of a charged
for quantum electrodynamics.47 However, in 1935, Hideki ‘heavy lepton’ τ (together with its tau neutrino vπ). The
Yukawa submitted his theory of nuclear forces postulating photon (γ, zero-mass boson) was the quantum exchanged
that a particle of mass, intermediate between the electron between charged particles interacting electromagnetically.
and the proton, i.e. the meson, is exchanged between Before long it was joined by other ‘exchange bosons’ from
nucleons: the discovery of the π meson in 1947 (a particle other interacting fields.
which exists in three states of charge) confirmed the validity Experiments in scattering leptons (electrons, muons and
of this approach.48 neutrinos) and photons (all particles with no strong
The properties of elementary particles concealed in interaction, for which hadronic matter is relatively
nuclear matter were characterized by their behaviour in transparent) on protons and neutrons showed (between
these three fundamental interactions. The quantum 1967 and 1973) that these nucleons had an internal structure
numbers that defined the states corresponding to these shaped like hard seeds or partons, seen as the equivalent of
particles are in transitions between the different states, the quarks in the symmetry groups. These quarks were
covered by conservation or selection rules depending on the therefore the elementary physical constituents of hadrons,
type of interaction involved. In the degree of intensity which meant considerable simplification of hadronic
(measuring force) and invariance (or conservation), being physics, reduced to the properties of quarks, either bound
higher or lower, the interacting fields follow a hierarchy: or in interaction. But it was still impossible to extract and
strong, electromagnetic and weak, which means that a isolate them from the nuclear matter (to date no fractional
distinction can be made between stable (and relatively charged particles have ever been observed): when excited,
stable) particles and metastable particles or ‘resonances’. they recombine among themselves within the nuclear matter
Resonances decay very quickly through strong interaction:49 and produce ordinary hadronic particles.
these are the excited states of hadrons, the term used for any The spatial dimensions of particles covered by particle
particle subjected to a strong interacting field. physics range from the size of nucleons (a few 10–13 cm) to
The discovery in 1957 of the ‘non-conservation of parity’50 the upper limit of particles considered to be ‘punctual’,
(left-right asymmetry) in ß decay, and also the decay of i.e. quarks and leptons (10–18 cm), and the mass spectrum of
particles in a weak interaction, led to Fermi’s theory being elementary particles is spread quite evenly from zero (for
modified and generalized, while still retaining the validity of the photon, and for a long time accepted as the threshold
its structure: further work elucidated the concept of for the neutrino ve) and 0.5 MeV (the electron), through a
‘currents’ (particles being transformed in interaction) and few GeV (for particles known in the 1960s), right up to
paved the way for later work done on symmetries. hundreds of GeV since the 1980s.
Between the late 1940s and the late 1960s, hundreds of
hadronic particles were discovered, both fermions (e.g.
nucleons, known generically as baryons) and bosons The structure of atomic nuclei
(generically mesons). 51 The establishment of their
spectroscopy as a function of characteristic quantum Throughout this whole period nuclear physics was
numbers (spin and parity, isospin, ‘strangeness’) uncovered continuing its investigations into the properties of atomic
regular features in their properties, making it possible to nuclei using two complementary approaches.The first
rank them as state multiplets, characteristic of a rule of analysed the overall behaviour of the set of nucleons, and
symmetry for hadrons: SU(3) symmetry. The theory of the second focused on the properties of the nucleus seen as
groups of representations meant that by studying the the sum total of the individual behaviour patterns of each of
mathematical properties of the phase changes they could be its component parts. The connection between collective
considered as combinations of other more elementary states, motion and individual motion in the nucleus of the atom,
called ‘quarks’. 52 Each of these quarks had its own which had been studied both experimentally and
characteristic quantity (high isospin, low isospin, strangeness), theoretically, had made it possible, inter alia, to describe the
later generally referred to as flavour.53 By 1962 three quark non-symmetrical configuration of the nucleus.56
flavours were needed to cover all known hadronic particles; The use of the first accelerated beams of heavy ions
three decades later the discovery of families of particles of (starting in 1966) expanded the scope for studying nuclear
different flavours54 meant the number had grown to six.55 reactions by providing access to levels of high angular
These representations still only corresponded to the momentum, and increasing possibilities for synthesising
mathematical properties of the quantum states of the new and remarkable isotopes known as exotic nuclei, as well
particles, which alone could not make them physical particles. as super-heavy elements with atomic numbers higher than
However they did provide a simple theoretical understanding any previously known on the periodic table (extended to
of the particles’ properties of ‘internal symmetry’. Z=112 in 1996). Heavy nuclei possess a large number of
After hadrons in the classification of elementary particles, tightly packed energy levels with some even overlapping for
came leptons and photons, both without strong interaction. high energies: the elimination of discontinuities meant (as
Leptons (fermions with spin ½) included the electron (e) with the water-drop model) that statistical mechanics and
and the muon (µ, a sort of heavy electron, first observed in classical thermodynamics could be applied to them. This
1937 in cosmic radiation), and their respective neutrinos, ve global analysis for collective phenomena, such as fission or

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the formation of a compound nucleus, originally developed hadron currents in interaction, and generically referred to as
in nuclear chemistry. It was then generalized as nuclear flavours. For strong interaction, the role seemed to be played
macrophysics, with the study of collisions between two by a quantity called colour,59 which appeared as a constituent
complex nuclei. Collisions of heavy ions also opened the of quarks, and seemed able to bind them together.
way to another state of nuclear matter, where borders The basic idea of gauge field theories is that the dynamics
between individual nucleons were broken down, and where of particle interactions are determined by a property of
nuclear matter is seen as being comprised of free quarks and invariance or symmetry of the quantities characterizing
gluons, forming a plasma confined within the dimensions of them: for weak interaction, the symmetry is related to weak
the range of the strong interaction. charges or flavours. The electroweak gauge theory of
Certain aspects of recent developments on this and the Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg
concept of nuclear matter will be discussed below. (1967–68) sees electromagnetic and weak fields as simply
components of a single field, described as ‘electroweak’; it is
symmetrical (or invariant) at very high energy with respect
Gauge symmetry fields and the ‘Standard Model’ to ‘local’ gauge transformations viewed as an extension of
the ‘global’ gauge of the electromagnetic field. Four field
Another area of greatly expanded knowledge concerns the quanta (or bosons) are needed, two charged and two neutral,
interactions of elementary particles. By the 1970s it was the neutral ones being mixed (as in quantum superposition);
clear that the three force fields could be understood within all of them in this state of exact symmetry, must have zero
the general framework of quantum field theory, previously mass.
thought to be restricted solely to the electromagnetic field. However, in weak interactions at the energies studied,
The theory of quantum electrodynamics, as proposed in this was impossible because the weak bosons, which had
1947 by Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Shin Itiro not yet been observed then, had to be of very high mass.
Tomonaga and Juan José Giambiaggi, made it possible to Work then turned to a mechanism for breaking exact
determine the quantities involved in electromagnetic symmetry, known as the Higgs mechanism. 60 While
phenomena by a calculation of ‘perturbations’ reduced to separating weak and electromagnetic interactions, it assigned
convergent series, measured using the approximation high mass to the three weak interaction bosons while
required.57 The greatest difficulty, which was the appearance retaining the zero mass of the photon. It was shown that
of infinite quantities in the series development, had been renormalization of the component parts of the weak
resolved by a ‘renormalization’ procedure. This procedure interacting field ultimately remained intact in this process,
was able to eliminate these quantities by an appropriate making it possible to make finite calculations of physical
transformation related to the ‘gauge symmetry’ of the quantities.
electromagnetic field, that symmetry itself being related to The theory made a number of predictions, the two main
the zero mass of the photon, the quantum responsible for ones being the existence of previously unobserved weak
the electromagnetic coupling. The electrodynamic theory neutral currents (which are, as it were, the weak counterpart
could then be used not only to calculate the value of the of the neutral, electromagnetic currents between the
physical quantities, such as the mass and electric charge of particles61), and the existence of three intermediate high
the electron, and to do so with great accuracy, but also to mass bosons. The theory introduces a ‘mixing’ parameter
explain new phenomena such as the Lamb effect.58 The between weak and electromagnetic fields, which is factored
degree of theoretical and experimental accuracy also into theoretical predictions. Neutral currents were observed
provided a limit to the spatial extension of the electron and under experimental conditions in 1973, in the giant
of other ‘punctual’ charged particles such as leptons and Gargamelle bubble chamber placed in a beam of neutrinos
quarks. at CERN (Plate 71).62 Their rate, linked to the electroweak
For a long time the properties of the other two types of parameter, suggested very high masses for the intermediate
interaction were an obstacle to any prospect for study by a bosons, in the vicinity of 80 GeV (more than 80 times the
similar theoretical approach. The punctual nature of the mass of the proton). The three weak intermediate bosons,
weak interaction required a quantum propagating the field two charged (W±) and one neutral (z0), were produced and
to have mass too large for renormalization to be possible, identified in 1982 with proton-antiproton colliding rings
and the high ‘coupling constant’ of strong interaction specially developed for this purpose at CERN.
meant there was no hope of limited series developments. After the success of the electroweak gauge theory, strong
For a long time, both types of dynamic interactions interaction was then studied in terms of gauge fields, which
between nuclear or elementary particles remained the gave rise to the theory of quantum chromodynamics,
subject of phenomenological studies, both theoretical and developed from 1974 on. The punctual nature of quarks and
experimental. This debate thus paved the way for new their known properties shed new light on the structure of
syntheses developed since the 1970s, which would attempt the strong interacting field: as the distances got tinier, their
to integrate and unify the fundamental forces within a single ability to interact faded to the point of disappearing. This
overarching theoretical framework. asymptotic freedom provided the possibility for calculating
This new approach was made possible first with the series of perturbations. But their ‘confinement’, i.e. the
theoretical work being done on gauge symmetry fields, and impossibility of extracting them, was interpreted in quantum
secondly with the reduction of strong interacting particles terms by a superposition of states which could not be
into more elementary constituents – namely quarks, or dissociated or escaped from, and assigned to a quantum
punctual particles; this simplified the couplings of particles number, referred to as colour, which had to be introduced.
with the interacting fields. The role played by the electric Each (q) flavour quark63 is itself a superposition of three
charge in weak interaction appeared to be played by the different colour states, q1, q2 and q3. Colour only plays a role
quantities of weak charges characteristic of lepton and in strong interaction, which is, however, invariant for

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flavours. In fact, ‘colour’ can be understood as the ‘strong form into another; the findings have combined data from
charge’ in the field carried by intermediate zero mass bosons, experiments conducted in both domains. The neutral currents
eight in number and electrically neutral, the gluons, colour of the weak interaction also exist in the nuclear domain and,
field quanta exchanged between two quarks in their indeed, also in atomic physics. The physics of hadrons is part
interaction.64 Chromodynamics has proved very useful for of both nuclear physics and particle physics. These common
conducting experiments in high-energy hadronic physics.65 concerns and the overlapping of subjects offer an incentive to
see nuclear physics and particle physics as basically comprising
the same discipline, i.e. subatomic physics. In their most
Prospects for further unification differentiated parts, one focuses on research into the
elementary and fundamental – as seen with the reduction of
The larger body formed by the electroweak theory and elementary particles and gauge fields – whereas the other
chromodynamics includes most of the theory of elementary focuses on nuclear matter in its complexity.
particle physics and has been accepted as a standard model. In nuclear physics, the concept of the nucleus (with its
Each of these theories has considerably simplified discrete levels of energy and the individual behaviour of the
representations in its own domain, with one single nucleons) has been replaced by the more general concept of
explanation covering previously separate phenomena. But nuclear matter with a diversity of structures, bound or
the theories do introduce ‘free’ parameters, i.e. produced unrelated, in ground state or excited, and covering not only
solely through experimentation. What’s more, while there nuclei and fragments of nuclei studied on Earth, but also
is a relation between the two theories, they do remain compact celestial objects as big as neutron stars. The
fundamentally independent of one another. Ideas involving thermodynamics of ordinary matter (adapted to quantum
field symmetry have raised hopes of also being able to extend conditions) has been applied to nuclear matter so as to
or unify ideas in greater symmetry, making it possible to go account for properties at equilibrium or far from equilibrium.
beyond these limits and reach a rational understanding of The theory shows two phase transitions: the first, similar to
facts simply observed to date, such as the parallelism transformation from liquid to gas, has the atomic nucleus
between the three families of quarks and leptons,66 or the losing its identity by simultaneously emitting the nucleons
values of their masses. comprising it; in the second, at very high energy, the
In this way, work on unifying the three interactions has nucleons themselves lose their identity in a plasma of quarks
proceeded. The gauge symmetry that governs field equations and gluons analogous to the ion and electron plasma of
is valid from a fundamental viewpoint, even though it atom gases at high temperature.
remains hidden because it is not displayed directly in the Another highly significant convergence of disciplines to
phenomena observed (e.g. particles have masses which are be discussed is that of nuclear and particle physics with
all different, whereas the perfect symmetry joining them astrophysics and cosmology.
requires zero mass). Exact symmetries are only confirmed
when masses (the result of symmetry breaking) can be
overlooked: theoretical thought has therefore moved A strophysics and C osmology
towards the domain of higher energies. The goal is a ‘grand
unification theory’ where the three fields mentioned here Astrophysics first emerged in the nineteenth century when
converge, for example, merging quarks and leptons. This observation of the visible spectra of stars made it possible to
could mean coming back to the idea of a gravitational field, identify their chemical elements. In the twentieth century
which has been sidelined, but will nonetheless have to be the description was expanded, bringing new knowledge
taken into account. The general theory of relativity would about the structure of matter. The equivalence of mass and
then give way to a quantized theory. An important first step energy quickly pointed to the idea that atoms might have
in this direction has come from ‘supersymmetry’ theories. arisen through a genesis process originating with the very
These mix fermions and bosons, or super strings with simplest one – the hydrogen atom. Nuclear physics and
particles no longer seen as discrete points but as objects in knowledge of the properties of nuclei provided support for
space having more than four dimensions, and with the this idea, and the apparently inexhaustible source of energy
additional dimensions being folded in on one another. in the Sun and stars was soon identified: it was, quite simply,
nuclear reactions with light nuclei fusing into heavier nuclei.
It could be said that the stars were ovens where the cosmos
New trends in subatomic physics synthesized chemical elements that underwent changes in
the course of time: the life and death of stars is directly
By the 1980s, nuclear physics and particle physics, the two attributable to competition between their tendency to
previously diverging branches that grew out of atomic physics, collapse under gravitational force and the centrifugal
had begun to move back towards one another, not only in pressure from the energy released in nucleosynthesis
terms of their techniques and methods (producing reactions. Advances in radioastronomy (radio, infrared,
differentiated beams at high energies, detecting complex X‑rays and gamma rays) have taught us still more about the
interactions), but also through the nature of the subjects properties of the stars and identified new celestial objects of
studied. If we think of the quark structure of matter, for various kinds, from radiogalaxies (discovered in 1953), to
example, the distinct borderline between the constituents of quasars, pulsars (in the 1960s) and intense sources of
nuclei and particles has obviously become blurred. Nuclei and radiation.
particles undergo the same fundamental interactions in In parallel, over the first decades of the twentieth century,
systems, which are not always very different. Both fields astronomical observations provided more accurate
include the study of neutrinos and are attempting to detect knowledge of the galaxies, measured their luminosity,
any ‘oscillations’ or spontaneous transformation from one estimated distances and calculated the number of stars – an

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average of 100 billion per galaxy. Cosmology, drawing on in the different cosmic phenomena. The ability of neutrinos
both the general theory of relativity and observation of to penetrate matter make them ideal for probing opaque
distant regions of the Universe, had developed as a science in objects in the Universe. Neutrinos emitted by the Sun are
its own right; its main focus was the Universe, seen as a detected on Earth but found at a level that falls short of
whole with its own structural make-up and evolution. While predictions. One explanation could be the spontaneous
the vast structures of cosmology are concerned with the transformation of these neutrinos (Ve) on their path to
gravitational field, the elements and local sub-structures are Earth, forming a neutrino of a different family that may not
the focus of astrophysics. The two have moved closer be able to produce the corresponding lepton (which is
together over recent decades with the establishment of a heavier than the electron) and would remain ‘sterile’ instead
standard model for matter and the Universe. It combines of interacting in the detector.
the model for the physics of fundamental interacting fields Other outstanding celestial objects of a quite different
discussed above, and the model for evolutionary cosmology, nature are the extra-solar planets that are difficult to detect
known as the big bang. because of their distance, although towards the end of the
twentieth century a number of these were finally detected
both by direct means (visibility) and indirect means (effects
Astrophysics, stellar matter and new cosmic objects of gravity on their star); and quasars, which are very intense,
but very distant sources of light and more directly related to
As a consequence of their mutual gravitational fields, atoms cosmology.
in the same area of space gather together and ‘fall’ on top of
one another: this is how stars and planets are formed. For a
mass of matter in sufficient quantity (from slightly below The cosmology of an expanding universe
one solar mass), the strong gravitational field compresses
the atoms. They lose their electrons, forming a plasma where When developing his concept of general relativity, Einstein
colliding nuclei (of hydrogen or helium for first generation focused on the link between inertial mass and other masses
stars) start a series of nuclear reactions forming heavier in the Universe (Mach’s principle); he then established the
nuclei, which then, in turn, collide. In 1939, Hans Bethe dependence of the metric structure of space as a function of
submitted his theory of the fusion cycle; in it hydrogen is the masses and energies it contained (sources of gravitational
converted into helium, also producing neutrinos in the stars, fields). In doing so, Einstein linked the idea of cosmology to
and ultimately synthesizing carbon and then oxygen (Bethe- the foundations of his physical theory. It was the general
Salpeter cycles). theory of relativity that determined the beginning of
Stellar cycles include stable phases where combustion cosmology as a science: in 1917, Einstein raised the question
energy counters the gravitational force and gravitational of the conditions of the limits for relativistic space-time, i.e.
compression phases when the stars cool down after they the nature of space beyond the domain determined by
have exhausted their fuel: the density of the nuclei triggers gravitational fields. To avoid reintroducing absolute space
new nuclear reactions producing heavier nuclei, and so it in regions devoid of matter and extending infinitely, he had
goes on until iron is synthesized. The lifetime of a star and to accept – or so he thought – that the curved space of the
its final state depends on its mass and density. Observation Universe as a whole was closed. In geometry, Riemann had
of new objects in cosmic space has provided a greater already dissociated the finiteness of space from its limits:
understanding of the different stages in the evolution of the finite spaces can be considered as having no limits, e.g. the
stars: when compressed to extremely high densities, they two-dimensional space of the surface of a sphere.
are white dwarfs (gravity is balanced by the degeneracy Einstein then came up with the idea of applying his
pressure of the electrons, a directly quantum effect), brown theory to the entire Universe, and of looking for solutions
dwarfs67 (very dense but with mass too low to trigger using simplifying hypotheses according to ‘models’ of the
combustion reactions), pulsars or neutron stars (observed Universe. He devised the hypothesis of a ‘cosmological
for the first time in 1967, and with 400 now identified in our principle’, featuring homogeneity and isotropy in the
galaxy68), novae (a sharp, temporary increase in brightness), distribution of the density of matter in the Universe;
supernovae or extremely violent explosions with luminous assuming that the radius of the Universe does not change
flashes some ten billion times brighter than the Sun69 (e.g. with time, he introduced a ‘cosmological term’ that
‘1987A’, which could be seen with the naked eye in 1987 in counterbalanced the impact of gravity. Alongside this
the Large Magellanic Cloud and emitted neutrinos detected cylindrical model of the Universe devised by Einstein,
on Earth), and black holes, so massive and dense that no Willem de Sitter proposed a spherical model. Then in 1922
light or radiation can escape from them. Alexander Friedman came up with the idea of a non-static
Stars explode across space sowing nuclei of heavy and universe, which was confirmed some time later with
medium-weight elements. When they re-form, they, in observations of the recession of the galaxies, and which
turn, produce second-generation stars, and so it goes on and Einstein eventually had to accept.
on. Space also contains cosmic rays (protons or nuclei) and From an observational viewpoint, cosmology gradually
gamma rays from sources that can be situated: these particles established itself: by producing accurate calculations of
are usually the result of violent phenomena in the Universe, astronomical distances, by realizing there were other galaxies
such as the activity of galactic centres or the explosion of well beyond the Milky Way, by observing the red shift of
supernovae. their spectral lines (Slipher, 1920), by calculating their
Observational astronomy using optical and radio distances (Edwin Hubble, 1920–30) and the proportional
telescopes was recently strengthened by neutrino- relationship between the spectral shift and distance, as
astronomy, which uses neutrino detectors 70 to catch formulated by Hubble in 1929 (Plate 72). Hubble’s law (or
neutrinos produced in the stars (primarily in the Sun) and the Slipher-Hubble relationship) indicated a mutual moving

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away or recession of the galaxies.71 Arthur Eddington missing matter may be quite diverse in nature: massive black
interpreted it in the context of general relativity as holes of non-zero mass of ‘fossil’ neutrinos in the cosmic
observational proof of the Universe expanding, while background, produced at virtually the same time and in the
Georges Lemaître, in 1930, presented his model of the same quantities77 as the isotropic electromagnetic radiation
primitive atom. In his view, the atom had exploded, giving or ‘exotic’ particles78 created at the very beginning of the
birth to the Universe as we know it today and thus causing cosmos’ expansion and in sufficient numbers and with
the galaxies to recede. enough mass to constitute a predominant share of the
The theory of the expanding Universe was given energy and mass in the Universe.
spectacular confirmation in 1965 when Arno Penzias and This cosmology, backed by its fundamental theory
Robert W. Wilson made the chance discovery of radiation (general relativity) and observational data which generally
at centimetre wavelengths in the cosmic background: supports the hypotheses of expansion and the big bang, is
isotropic radiation corresponding to the radiation of a black today quite well established and has been endorsed and
body at a temperature of 3 Kelvins. Such radiation had recognized as a standard cosmological model.
actually been predicted, in qualitative terms, by George
Gamow in his hypothesis of a very hot Universe at the
beginning of its expansion (the model now referred to as the The origin of the Universe
big bang or ‘primordial explosion’).
In addition to these two major ‘cosmological facts’ – the In its very early phases (‘the first instants’) evolutionary
recession of the galaxies and residual radiation – there was a cosmology includes conditions that greatly restrict spatial
third one concerning the abundance of light elements (De, dimensions and require extremely high energy density and
He-3, He-4, Li) in the Universe that were stored in the temperature, equivalent to the conditions studied in research
stars. Their abundance was relative to the quantity of into subatomic physics (nuclear and particle physics). It
hydrogen.72 Stellar nucleosynthesis alone could not explain pays special attention to that region where symmetries of
the values observed, although they did tally with the interacting fields are increasingly close and where there is
predictions deduced from a state of great heat in the effective unification. Symmetries have been broken, fields
primordial Universe (primordial nucleosynthesis). The differentiated and masses of particles have appeared as we
corresponding period had to have been very short because move down the cosmogenesis timeline, with each period
of the extremely fast cooling of matter as it scattered across featuring a type of unification or differentiation of fields and
the expanding Universe, for lower density meant that of plasma of matter and radiation. 79 Next, continuing
heavier elements could not be synthesized. through time towards the present, we discover organizational
The general theory of relativity constitutes the framework forms emerging that are more familiar to us, forms such as
needed to support cosmological theory; however, the exact galaxies (appearing around one billion years ago) of gas,
form of the equations and the values of the solutions depend dust, stars which form and fade, and other cosmic objects.
first on the simplifying but reasonable hypotheses used (e.g. Cosmology thus offers an all-encompassing and coherent
the cosmological principle), and secondly on the parameters version of the genesis of the Universe and the objects it
based solely on observation. Friedman’s simplified contains. It is reasonable to think that the Universe – in line
cosmological equations, expressing the radius of global with the implications of the general theory of relativity, of
curvature of the Universe as a function of time, have three relativist and quantum cosmologies, as well as astronomical
types of solution depending on the average value of the and astrophysical observations – has deployed its space and
density (ρ) in relation to a ‘critical density’ (ρc).73 The critical time in the movement of its own expansion, as space and
density is an exact compensation between the expansion time are not defined outside the matter comprising them.
and gravitational attraction of the constituent parts of the One of the most striking aspects of this theoretical
Universe. For any density less than critical density, the representation is the intersection of the cosmology of the
Universe is ‘open’ and expanding indefinitely; for any density first instants and unified gauge field physics, and their
greater than critical density, at a certain moment gravitational convergence. This convergence began in the 1960s when it
attraction will prevail over the expansion and the closed was realized that the two disciplines – one focusing on the
Universe will re-form, after reaching a maximum radius, distant cosmic background and the other on the innermost
moving towards a ‘singularity’ 74 symmetrical to the depths of the microcosm – were in fact one and the same.
singularity of the primordial Universe. This convergence has continued to grow and the standard
Data from observational cosmology has provided us with model discussed by cosmologists and physicists is now the
information about the age of the Universe. This input can juxtaposition of the model of unified gauge symmetry fields
help make the theoretical model more accurate, with the in particle physics and the big bang model in cosmology.
prospect of forecasting the future evolution of the Universe. What then remains at the furthest point going back in
The value of Hubble’s constant, depending on the value time? It could be a mathematical singularity (a point with
chosen,75 sets the age of the Universe at between 10 and no dimensions, of infinite density), if arguing by extrapolation
17 billion years.76 While the value of the average density from the model developed from the general theory of
estimated from the visible Universe is much less than the relativity. But that theory is not the only one in these areas,
critical density (by a factor of approximately ten), it is also where the other fields expressing the quantum structure of
known that it is less than the real value that can be observed matter were actually dominant. Yet looking beyond the
through the effects of gravitational force (the interaction of phase where the grand unification field dominates, i.e.
galaxies). In other words, the Universe contains ‘dark times below a specific value known as ‘Planck’s time’
matter’ that is not visible, and the problem of determining (tP = 10–43 s), the gravitational field then recovers its value,
this ‘missing mass’ is now one of the most important playing a role as important as others, i.e. quantum matter
challenges for modern cosmology and astrophysics. This fields, and it is thought that the gravitational field could be

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unified with these. But the theory of the gravitational field complexity of biological phenomena, breaking them down
under these conditions of space and energy needs to be to their simplest elements. In parallel, the movement
transformed to comply with quantum conditions. Such a contributed to the discovery of the hierarchical organization
theory of quantum gravitation still defies efforts in theoretical of the structures that comprise living beings. In the
research. This means we do not know the laws of physics for seventeenth and eighteenth centuries physics had set the
the period beyond Planck’s time, and therefore that the example. By the middle of the nineteenth century,
concept of time has no physical meaning for us below that encountering difficulties associated with an excessively
value. To persist in discussing time as if it were a continuous mechanistic description of living organisms, biologists had
quantity, indefinitely divisible, is then nothing more than chosen chemistry as the indispensable partner in their
convention; and there is no proof that this same concept of work. At the same time, the invention of more powerful
time would be retained in a quantum theory of gravitation microscopes in the nineteenth century led to the
should it be achieved. In these circumstances, any reference development of cell theory. But biologists did not stop at
to zero time is quite meaningless, for here we are grappling that level of complexity: they went beyond the cell to
with the limits of our ability to even conceive of an origin of discover the remarkable properties of the cell nucleus and
the Universe. then of the chromosomes inside. And in the meantime, the
catalytic properties of enzymes had been slowly uncovered,
explaining the amazing chemical properties of the
molecular biology cytoplasm.
The twentieth century simply took this characterization of
Redefining the nature of living systems the fundamental components of living organisms a step
further. Chromosomes proved to be gene containers, and the
The twentieth century witnessed three major scientific young science of genetics showed the fundamental role they
revolutions. In physics, the classical paradigm was questioned played in determining heredity. This branch of science, which
and two new schools of physics were established at opposite should be credited to Gregor Mendel, the nineteenth-century
ends of the scale of magnitude: quantum physics and Russian monk, was not understood and used until it was
relativistic physics. The second revolution occurred in ‘rediscovered’ in the early twentieth century. Genetics
biology and led to the nature of living systems being benefited from the dynamic impetus of Thomas Hunt
redefined. The third revolution was the invention of the Morgan’s research team at Columbia University in New York
computer and the birth of information technology (Plate City. Using just one organism as a model, the fruitfly
73). The three revolutions were not independent: the (Drosophila), Morgan and his team showed that genes were
revolution in physics provided inspiration for upheavals in located on chromosomes (Plate 74). This observation allowed
biology; information technology (IT) and molecular biology them to create the first genetic maps. Other groups extended
emerged at the same time; and molecular biology adopted these findings to different organisms, both animal and
the metaphors of IT. vegetable. Genetic analysis was becoming increasingly
The development of life sciences in the twentieth century accurate, and the localization of genes on chromosomes was
proceeded by stages: the early decades saw the development becoming ever more reliable; however there remained much
of two new disciplines, genetics and biochemistry, which to learn about the nature and functioning of genes. At the
laid the foundations for the new biology that first emerged same time, the characteristics of enzymes were being
in the 1940s. As was the case for physics, the revolution documented; they were identified as proteins, and painstaking
brought greater control over certain aspects of the world – work to determine their structure began. Molecular biology
especially towards the end of the century with its application emerged in the 1940s when these two experimental approaches
to biotechnologies, molecular medicine and gene therapy. combined both their techniques and questions, and when the
This new vision of the living world was named ‘molecular chemical nature of genes and their role in protein synthesis
biology’. were determined.
For anyone who believes that the development of science
is mostly a response to external forces, the boom in molecular
The Birth of Molecular Biology biology would appear as a response to problems affecting
industrial society in the early twentieth century. On the one
Many and varied are the arguments presented to explain the hand, advancement of science, particularly physics, gave us
spectacular development of biology in the twentieth century, technology and its control of the inanimate world; and with
and many and varied are the models presented to account it there is continuing economic growth (at least in
for the scientific ‘phenomena’. industrialized countries). Yet on the other hand there are
An inward-looking view of scientific development based social and health problems associated with mental illness,
on the interaction between models devised by scientists crime, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases –
and observations obtained through advances in technology afflictions often passed on from one generation to the next.
– constantly shifting and going deeper (or more accurately Faced with these challenges, it was tempting for some (the
to ever more elementary levels of organization) – sees the eugenicists) to take the findings of studies into hereditary
boom of molecular biology as simply the completion of a conditions and apply them in full to reverse the supposed
movement first begun in the Renaissance, at the dawn of deterioration of human germ plasma. Another response
the scientific revolution. In this worldview, life sciences was advocated by members of the Rockefeller Foundation,
were established in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries liberals determined to combine industrial progress and
(although the term ‘biology’ was not coined until the social progress. These enlightened minds believed biological
nineteenth century); their goal at the time was to explain sciences should catch up with the physical sciences. Deeper
the properties of living beings. This meant analysing the knowledge of living organisms, they claimed, would

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inevitably enable us to more successfully control problems proteins, highlighting how the composition and structure
affecting the biological foundations of human society. play an essential role. Nuclear physics contributed by
The role of the Rockefeller Foundation in the rise of the providing the isotopes of the main atoms that make up the
new biology has been the subject of lengthy debate. Some macromolecules in living organisms and offering options for
believe it was fundamental, combining pro-active work with tracking transformations of these molecules, either in
financial incentives that attracted physicists to molecular samples or inside the cells and living organisms.
biology – encouraging them to devise new techniques and The combined use of models and techniques between
technologies to study living organisms, and helping them 1940 and 1965 helped illuminate the basic molecular
equip their laboratories accordingly. mechanisms that control the functioning and reproduction
This view is no doubt far too geographically limited, for of living organisms. In 1940, unequivocal proof was given of
the same trend is found in all countries where biological the clear relationship between a gene and a corresponding
research had reached a similar level of development (e.g. enzyme (a protein): the relationship had been inferred since
the USA, France and the UK). Surely the Rockefeller the early twentieth century, but by using one micro-
Foundation was not so much the driving force as simply organism (a fungus, Neurospora crassa) it could be
supportive and attentive to those who saw the future generalized. In 1944, O. T. Avery et al. showed that genes
development of biology in using both the concepts and tools were made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This finding
of physics. was in direct opposition to previously accepted ideas. The
Whether through its own development or through a structural and functional diversity of proteins were already
deliberate choice made by political and economic decision- well known, so proteins were chosen for investigating the
makers, it is clear that everyone saw how future advances in chemical nature of genes. Eight years after Avery’s
biological knowledge could be achieved through the experiment, a second experiment was conducted on the
application of physical theories and techniques, by focusing bacteriophage to show that the genetic material did indeed
on the elementary constituents of living organisms and their contain DNA; then in 1953, J. D. Watson and F. Crick
complex macromolecules. discovered the double helix structure of DNA. This was
Molecular biology emerged triumphant from the meeting immediately acclaimed for the ‘beauty’ of the structure and
of such diverse disciplines as biochemistry and Morgan’s because it provided a simple explanation for the self-
genetics. No one today would challenge the molecular view, replicating properties of genes. The code was deciphered
but that was certainly not always the case. In neither the between 1960 and 1965, when scientists finally understood
Soviet Union nor Eastern Europe was genetics accepted that a protein corresponds to one specific fragment of the
until after the Stalin era. Lyssenko (1898–1976), a fanatic DNA molecule, called the gene. Over the same period,
anti-geneticist, even succeeded in having genetics dismissed regulatory mechanisms controlling enzymes, proteins and
as a ‘bourgeois science’, promoting instead a vague pseudo- genes were identified. Once these regulatory models had
scientific theory influenced by Lamarckian ideas. been constructed, molecular biologists could, with complete
Domestic and foreign political considerations in the faith in their explanatory diagrams, move away from the
Soviet Union explain much of Lyssenko’s success. Morgan’s study of micro-organisms and embark on the study of
genetics also faced opposition in many countries, including complex multicellular organisms and their development,
the United States, France and Germany. Genetics stood in i.e. their gradual formation from a single cell.
opposition to other biological disciplines such as embryology,
yet gave no explanation of the role of the genes in the
development of the embryo. It was not until the 1960s that Moving towards the study of complex organisms
molecular biology began to produce models able to meet the
demands of developmental biologists. Over the next ten years, molecular biologists studied the
complexity of these multicellular organisms, but with little
success. The period between 1940 and 1965 had provided
Stages in the molecular revolution biologists with a fine framework for interpreting basic
phenomena in the living world. However the tools developed
The main discoveries that helped establish the new view of to study micro-organisms proved unsuitable for complex
living organisms occurred in the period between 1940 and organisms. With research at a standstill, existing models
1965. They arose from the choice and construction of model were discarded and other, more complex models were
systems for studying the fundamental relationships among devised, but again without success. This period of doubt
the constituents of living organisms. In the first half of the and questioning must have been necessary for molecular
twentieth century, the fruitfly had contributed to the growth biologists to realize just how complex the levels of
of genetics, but micro-organisms, and in particular the organization were inside living organisms – molecules,
common intestinal bacteria named Escherichia coli, provided organelles, cells, tissues, organs and organisms.
the optimal test organism for molecular biologists. For a Doubts and questioning of models continued until the
long time doubt had persisted as to whether these elementary tools of genetic engineering eventually provided the long-
organisms possessed genes, but this was dispelled when the awaited resources. The discovery of restriction enzymes
mechanisms of genetic action and their role in coding that can cut the DNA (genes) at specific points has often
proteins were uncovered thanks to these micro-organisms. been cited as marking the birth of genetic engineering.
The molecular revolution was also built on the use of new Genetic engineering is, in fact, a complex range of techniques
tools: while there were electronic microscopes, the images used to: (a) isolate genes; (b) make fine characterization
they captured were often difficult to interpret; the techniques (determining the sequence of proteins they code for); (c)
of physical and organic chemistry could be used to isolate make transfers from one organism to another (with the
the macromolecules in living organisms, and specifically in possibility of producing transgenic animals and plants, i.e.

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with new genes integrated); and (d) modify or mutate them biological disciplines, including population genetics,
to change their function or regulation. taxonomy and even palaeontology and ecology.
The advent of these new tools was greeted with The new molecular view exposed the deep-seated unity
apprehension, first by biologists and then by the general of the living world: unity in the nature of the constituents
public. There were questions concerning the risk of and also in the rules of the correspondence between the
spreading pathogenic genes in the wild and to the human structure of genes and the structure of proteins, rules
species, and whether a natural barrier, which had previously respected by all living forms known today. This fundamental
separated the species, might be broken down. The decision unity highlights the single origin of all living beings, yet goes
was for a moratorium on research that was only lifted once beyond the basic constituents behind all primary living
very strict measures had been adopted to restrict any danger forms. What do the structure of a fly and the structure of a
arising from genetic manipulation. The measures did not human body have in common? Or the compound eye of the
put an end to the controversy, however, although favourable fly and the human eye? Yet the same genes are used for
reports came in and no accidents occurred. Gradually, the both. To explain this strange phenomenon, the French
storm settled down and precautions adopted were eased. biologist François Jacob chose the metaphor of DIY –
With these new tools, information could be collected at do‑it‑yourself – work. With the passage of time, evolution
great speed which, when presented as findings, would has worked using the tools available, i.e. the genes ready at
sometimes cast doubt on dogmas in the new discipline. hand, using them again and again to build either analogous
There was the discovery that genes of higher organisms structures or, the opposite, to build structures that are
were split into many different pieces; this explained the different but perform new functions. These findings show
substantial increase in size of genomes in the course of that to understand the workings of living beings, biologists
evolution, although it was difficult to see what advantage should not just focus on the structures they discover, but
had been gained from such genetic complexity. This period should look to their evolutionary origin. The intention is
of questioning was short-lived, for the mass of data and not to discredit Darwin’s model of the evolution of living
findings that accumulated using the tools of genetic beings, but the DIY view does provide a counterweight to
engineering produced strong backing for the molecular view an excessively ‘Pangloss-like’ view of evolution, whereby the
of living organisms developed between 1940 and 1965. presence of any structure might be explained in terms of its
By 1986, with the volume of findings and the speed at having some selective advantage. Through its corrective
which they were obtained, biologists were contemplating lens, the DIY interpretation shows just how many
the possibility of determining the complete structure of the constraints were involved in the creation of living forms.
human genome. This mammoth task, which could be The unification that came about with molecular biology
compared to the Apollo programme to conquer space and has sometimes been held against it, with allegations that it
put a man on the Moon, raised fears (or hopes) that biology was achieved by downgrading – or reducing – the description
was moving into the ‘Big Science’ arena. Since the time of the functioning of living beings to its most elementary
when the basic concepts were first formed, the programme level. It is true that in the 1970s certain molecular biologists
had changed substantially, not in terms of the ultimate might have overlooked the organizational complexity of
objective, but in terms of organization. Sequencing of the living beings, seeing nothing more than molecular exchanges
genome had become a final stage, following the mapping of and interactions. It was thought that individual facts could
the human genome, offering the possibility of quickly be memorized and stored in the brain as molecules, just as
localizing and identifying the genes involved in diseases. the genetic memory is stored as DNA. This is no longer the
More important was the extension, after sequencing the case today, and contemporary biologists have explained
human genome, to sequencing simpler genomes, such as living phenomena at the molecular level, after first describing
bacteria and single-celled nucleate organisms like yeasts. them at a supra-molecular level, as a cell or organism. The
The first complete genome sequences were determined in ‘reductionism’ of molecular biology is in fact only partial.
1995 and 1996, no doubt heralding a new stage for biology Molecular biologists do not set out to produce descriptions
(Plate 75). at the atomic or electronic level when reporting on
interactions between macromolecules, or between proteins
and DNA. In most cases, a rough description in terms of
Biology today mechanisms is sufficient and can even be more relevant.
Physics provides another counterpart to the reductionism
While molecular biology was developing, it was also of molecular biology. This is particularly surprising for, as
‘redefining’ life. Definitions of living organisms that had we have seen, physics played a major role in the emergence
been accepted since ancient times gradually receded. The of molecular biology: it provided a model, it contributed
borderline between things living and non-living faded. The both techniques and the scientists who were instrumental
distinguishing feature of a living organism was no longer the in its growth and who, in many cases, had been trained in
nature of its constituents or properties, but simply the physics. In the 1940s and 1950s, these scientists dreamed of
complexity of its macromolecules comprising it. Aside from electronic biochemistry, a biological science as fundamental
the redefinition of life itself, the most characteristic feature as its senior discipline. It was thought that cybernetics, the
of the molecular revolution is the profound unification science of controlled systems, based on simultaneous
achieved in the biological sciences. While biochemistry, observation of living beings and machines, would inevitably
genetics, development biology and cell biology have retained forge the way to designing theoretical models able to account
their own specific features, they all have the same molecular for the physiological properties of cells or organisms. While
interpretation of the phenomena observed and also share a molecular biologists today still use the concepts of
large number of technologies. The techniques of molecular information theory and cybernetics to account for
biology have become indispensable tools for the many other relationships between genes and proteins, it is merely a

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metaphor; the complex concepts drawn from information be understood and which may only be uncovered at a
theory (IT) have never found a place in molecular biology. different level of complexity.
Why, to this day, do biologists still attempt to describe The discovery of ‘development genes’ will no doubt lead
the most complex regulatory mechanisms using to radical change in prevailing theories of evolution. Darwin’s
approximate mechanical models without any formalism or theory must no longer stop with natural selection and the
equations? Surely there is a weakness in this new biology, complex interplay of the variation of multiple and non-
which must be corrected if the doors of complexity are to identified genes. Surely the only genes with variations that
be opened for researchers. In addition to this enduring are relevant to evolution are precisely these development
absence of theoretical biology, there is the disconcerting genes. Surely these are the genes which, when they appeared
development of techniques that biologists had temporarily or were modified, were part of or even the reason for the
borrowed from physicists. The techniques have now been main branches growing out from the evolutionary tree, as
simplified and made ‘democratic’; they can be used without for example, with the explosion of living forms observed in
any theoretical or practical expertise in physics. This trend the Cambrian period. When defining an animal, instead of
in modern biology stands as a formidable enigma attempting to describe properties (e.g. motor skills) as
challenging philosophers of science and epistemologists points of reference in relation to organisms that do not have
who had built their model by studying physics and had the properties in question, surely it would be more accurate
used the historic developments of physics to adopt its to characterize all the development genes the animal
evolution as a paradigm for the evolution of all the sciences. possesses; given their role in the structure of the organism,
Perhaps new biology has simply lagged behind in this they are what defines the ‘zootype’.
evolution, in which case it is high time for it to catch up. There is, however, one last area of research, which has so
Modelling will probably arise ‘naturally’ with the very rapid far stood up to the attacks of biologists and also artificial
acquisition of knowledge achieved through genome intelligence experts, and that is the workings of our brain
sequencing programmes and the ever-increasing use of the and cognitive faculties. In the 1960s, after the basic
IT tools required for this. But it may also be that in a few mechanisms involved in the function and operation of living
years’ time, developments in physics will appear as applying organisms had been established, many molecular biologists
to that field only (or to a few other disciplines), and that saw a new frontier in brain research where they might use
the history of biology may present a different kind of some of this recently acquired knowledge. Indeed, Max
scientific evolution. Delbrück, a founding figure in molecular biology, had set
While modern biology has not followed the path of the example when he abandoned his study of bacteriophages
physics, it has adopted one of its specific qualities – to work on a phototrophic fungus, in the hope that he
efficiency. In the past, biologists could only observe living would uncover the elementary principles of sensitivity and
organisms, but today’s biologists can act on the organism, nerve function.
and change it. At present the applications may seem trivial: Years have gone by. Molecular biologists have been
enabling bacteria to produce human hormones, producing a instrumental in laying bare the extraordinary complexity of
parasite-resistant plant, or mice as big as rats; these are mere nerve cells and the brain. It is believed that a large part of the
curiosities. Quite obviously biologists have not yet mastered human genome (70–80 per cent) is made up of genes
all the complexity of living organisms, but their knowledge specifically expressed in the nervous system. The small
has already been put to use and small advances may lead to molecules, which transmit signals between cells and the
a substantial expansion of the means of action available. membrane receptors they bind to, have been characterized.
Some of the enzymes involved in stabilizing these signal
transduction paths, and therefore in memory, have also
Molecular biology and beyond been characterized. Using the technique of homologous
recombination (once a gene has been identified and
The development of any science is always dependent on characterized, it is replaced by a non-functional copy),
other factors. In rational terms, two paths seem to be neurobiologists have been able to show that the genetic
opening up for molecular biology: one is heading towards coding for these receptors or enzymes is clearly also involved
an increasingly elementary level of living matter, while the in the workings of the brain and memory. However, there is
other is returning to complexity by integrating molecular no guarantee that the greatest advances in neurobiology will
observations. Both developments have been expected for a come from these molecular studies, for they uncover the
number of years, and some researchers are waiting eagerly. nature of the materials used to build the central nervous
However, the recent development of molecular biology system, but do not explain the functional organization. Nor
(which could also be seen as its non-development) is research into artificial intelligence or the work (of variable
demonstrates that caution is required. quality) covered by the term ‘cognitive sciences’ likely to
Molecular biology has not abandoned its current advance studies on the brain; while they are important for
paradigm, but is still undergoing change. Two related fields progress in information technology and systems, only rarely
of research are expanding rapidly: development biology and do they give consideration to existing knowledge about the
evolutionary biology. Development biology has characterized structure of the central nervous system. In most cases, the
essential genes involved in constructing multicellular key objective is not to describe what happens in the brain,
organisms and has shown how these genes have been but to provide new tools for developing ‘smart’ machines
conserved over the course of evolution. The question now achieving ever-greater performance levels. New technologies,
raised is whether analysis of these genes will uncover a logic however (magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, and positron
behind the make-up of complex living organisms, or whether emission tomography, PET) have made it possible to ‘see’
these genes are only ‘tools’ that higher organisms have used the brain at work and thus describe the structures involved
to construct themselves, according to rules and logic yet to in each type of behaviour. For a number of years now, these

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have been revolutionizing our knowledge of the central linear differential equation with given singularities and a
nervous system. They have provided convincing arguments given monodromic group, (22) the uniformization of
that support the existence of mental images as postulated by analytical relations by means of automorphic functions, and
psychologists for so many years. Progress over years to come (23) the development of methods in the calculus of
in our knowledge of the human brain may not be, therefore, variations.
at the most fundamental level. It could be that the While some of these problems, for example the third
development and expansion of these studies may well signal and fourth, were solved quite quickly, others have kept
the end of the golden age of molecular biology. research going for many years and have led to new theories
which, in turn, have left their mark on twentieth-century
mathematics. Hilbert’s problems 8 and 12 remain beyond
F undamental C hanges in our reach.
T H E N atural S cience S and Problems 1, 2 and 10 have been the subject of research
M athematics in mathematical logic. The discipline emerged from a
programme on proof theory formulated by Hilbert in the
At the second International Congress of Mathematicians 1920s in an attempt to solve problem 2. The programme
held in Paris in 1900, the German mathematician David institutes a formal method where the mathematical
Hilbert gave a remarkable lecture presenting twenty-three theories studied are codified using a set of symbols
problems, which he believed could keep research occupied assembled according to explicit rules of syntax to write up
for years to come. His goal was to show just how vital the the propositions and proof of the theory; the meaning of
mathematics of his time was and to note that advances in the statements is set aside to focus study solely on the
mathematics result from research into problems. groups of signs, using rigorously finite reasoning. In 1931,
Hilbert’s first six problems concerned fundamental the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel succeeded in
questions on set theory, arithmetic, geometry and demonstrating the impossibility of proving the consistency
probability: (1) the continuum problem, posed by Georg of a formalized theory containing Peano arithmetic
Cantor, on possible cardinal numbers for the infinite subsets without using more powerful resources than those found
of the straight line, (2) the consistency of arithmetic in the theory being considered; such a theory by definition
axiomatized by Giuseppe Peano, (3) the need for contains undecidable statements, i.e. while they cannot be
infinitesimal methods to calculate the volume of a pyramid, proved, they cannot be disproved either. In 1938 Gödel
(4) the classification of geometries where a straight line is proved that while the axiomatized set theory is consistent,
defined as the shortest path between two points, (5) analysis it can be associated with the continuum hypothesis
of transformation groups with continuity being the only (whereby one infinite part non-countable on the right has
assumption, and (6) the axiomatization of calculations of the power of the continuum) without introducing
probability and mechanics. inconsistency. It was not until 1963 that the American
The next six problems concerned the theory of numbers: mathematician Paul Cohen showed it is possible to
(7) transcendence of numbers in the form αβ where α and associate the negation of the continuum hypothesis
β are algebraic, α ≠ 0, 1 and β is irrational, (8) Riemann’s without introducing inconsistency; and therefore the
hypothesis on zeros in the function ζ (s) and the distribution continuum hypothesis is undecidable in set theory. These
of prime numbers, (9) general reciprocity laws for ℓ-th proofs of relative consistency are based on the concept of a
power modulo residues an ideal prime of a number field, model for formal theory, and theoretical work on this had
(10) a decision algorithm for the existence of integral started in the 1930s with research by the Polish logician,
solutions to Diophantine equations, (11) the theory of Alfred Tarski. The symbols and propositions in a formal
quadratic forms with any number of variables and with theory were assigned to subjects and statements of a theory
coefficients in a number field, and (12) construction of believed to be known (e.g. set theory), in such a way that
Abelian extensions of a number field using special function the axioms of the formal theory correspond to the true
values. statements in the model; a formal theory that accepts a
The next two problems were algebraic: (13) is it possible model will not be inconsistent if the theory used to provide
to solve the general equation of the 7th degree by formulae the model is not inconsistent.
using functions of only two variables? (14) the existence of a In 1970, the tenth problem was solved by Yuri
finite number of generators for certain sub-rings of a field of Matiyasevich; the solution is negative, i.e. the algorithm in
rational functions. Then problems number 15 (a rigorous Hilbert’s question does not exist. Work by logicians in the
foundation for Schubert’s enumerative geometry) and 1930s had helped specify what had to be understood by
number 16 (the number and arrangement of the connected algorithm and computable function; reference can be made
components of a real plane algebraic curve, the number of to the notion of recursive function devised by Gödel and the
limit cycles for a differential equation) concern algebraic Turing machine concept of the English logician Alan
geometry, while problem 17 (can any positive definite form Turing. According to Gödel, there are sets of natural
be expressed as the sum of squares?) is another algebra numbers that are recursively enumerable (sets of recursive
problem. Problem 18 concerns Euclidean geometry of a function values) but not decidable, i.e. there is no algorithm
higher dimension; basically it involves classification of for deciding whether a number belongs to it or not. It is also
crystallographic groups. noted that a set of natural numbers is Diophantine when it
The last five problems deal with the theory of functions is the projection of the set of the solutions to a Diophantine
and differential equations: (19) the analysability of solutions equation, i.e. a polynomial equation with integral numerical
to regular variational problems, (20) the existence of a coefficients where the unknown quantities must be whole
solution for boundary value problems arising from regular numbers. In 1952, the American logician Julia Robinson
variational problems, (21) the existence of a Fuchs type established that, to prove that any recursively enumerable

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set is Diophantine, a Diophantine predicate of ‘exponential dimensional compact group or a locally compact
growth’ was all that had to be constructed; a Diophantine commutative group, using the linear representation theory
predicate expresses belonging to a Diophantine set. This is of groups. The key tool is the Haar measure which is
exactly the construction devised by Matiyasevich: he proved invariant for translations (e.g. right translations) on the
that the property ‘n is the 2m-th Fibonacci number’ is an group; the existence of such a measure, which is virtually
exponential Diophantine predicate. self-evident in the case of Lie groups, was proven by A.
The axiomatization of probability calculus was the Haar in 1933. A complete family of finite-dimensional
subject of a great deal of research in the first thirty years of irreducible linear representations in a given compact group
the twentieth century. In 1933, the Russian mathematician can then be constructed; the spaces of these representations
Andrei Kolmogorov published a monograph detailing the are formed by the intrinsic functions of certain integral
fundamental axioms for calculating probability; it links up operators on the group. As a result, any neighbourhood of
with the theory of measurement and integration developed the neutral element in the group contains a sub-group
earlier in the century by Émile Borel and Henri Lebesgue. distinguished so that the corresponding quotient is a Lie
The basic concepts are event, probability and random variable. group; in particular, a connected finite-dimensional locally
The events are certain parts of a set Ω; these parts form a compact group is a Lie group. Irreducible representations of
sigma-field, i.e. that the complement of an event is an event a locally compact commutative G group are all of dimension
and that the union of a series of events is an event. The 1; these are continuous G homomorphisms in the
probability of each event A is assigned a number p(A) multiplicative group U of complex numbers with the
between 0 and 1; the probability p(Ω) of the certain event Ω absolute value 1, known as G characters. The G* set of
is equal to 1 and, where (An) is a series of two-by-two characters of G has a natural group structure, arising from
disjointed events, the probability of them being reunited is the structure of U, and a topology which makes it a locally
equal to the sum of the p(An). This definition needs to be compact group referred to as the dual group of G; the G
completed by including the definition of conditional group naturally identifies with the dual group of G*. The
probability: let B be an event with non-zero probability, dual of a compact group is discrete; for example, the dual of
then the probability p(A|B) of A, given that B is occurring, U identifies with the additive group Z of integers, its
is defined as the quotient characters being in the form χn(eiθ) = einθ (n ∈ Z), but the
p(A∩B) dual of the additive group R of real numbers identifies with
;
p(B) R, the characters being in the form χλ(x) = eiλx. This theory
where it is equal to p(A), i.e. where p(A∩B) = p(A).p(B), meant Pontryagin was able to prove that a locally compact
events A and B are said to be independent. A random commutative group generated by a compact neighbourhood
numerical variable is a function X over Ω with real values of its neutral element is a finite product of groups of one of
and so that, for any interval I in real numbers, the set {ω | the types U, R, Z, Z/nZ. It should be noted that Pontryagin
X(ω) ∈ I} of elements ω of Ω where the range X belongs to duality provides the natural framework for commutative
I is an event. The law of probability of X is the measurement harmonic analysis, covering the study of the Fourier
which assigns p({ω | X(ω) ∈ I}) to the interval I; the transformation between the functions over G and the
expected value of X is defined as the integral of X with functions over G*.
respect to probability p or the integral of the function x with The general case required other methods, for there are
respect to the law of X. A theory of stochastic processes was locally compact topological groups without any complete
successfully developed, similar to Brownian motion. Such a system of linear representations; this was done in 1952 by
process is defined by the datum of a family (Xt)t of random A. Gleason, Deane Montgo­mery and Leo Zippin, who
variables; interpreting the index t as a time, X is the random proved that a locally compact group that operates in an
result of a physical measurement at the point of time t. In effective and transitive way on a finite-dimensional locally
the 1950s, the American mathematicians Joseph Doob and connected and locally compact space X is a Lie group and
G. Hunt interpreted potential theory in terms of stochastic that X is a homo­g enous space in it (and therefore an
processes. Subsequently, numerous applications for analytical variety). The central finding is that a locally
calculating probabilities in analysis and differential geometry compact group G where there is a neighbourhood of the
were developed. One example is ergodic theory, which neutral element e not containing any sub-group other than
emerged from Boltzmann’s ideas on statistical mechanics {e} is a Lie group. The tangent space e is formed for this
and involves the study of dynamical systems from the point group using sub-groups with one of the G parameters, i.e.
of view of measurement. Probabilities are also present in continuous homomorphisms of R in G; if x and y are two
many applications in the world of physics, through such one parameter sub-groups, their sum is defined as the
mathematical statistics. limit, for infinite m, of
The solution to Hilbert’s fifth problem comes from the
( ( ) ( )) (t Î R ).
m
theory of topological groups, such a group being a topological x t y t
space with a law of continuous internal composition, which m m
makes a group where the inverse of an element depends An ‘associated’ representation of G can then be defined in
constantly on that element. A Lie group is an analytical this tangent space and the kernel of this representation is
variety with a law of analytical composition, which makes it essentially commutative.
a group. The theory of topological groups was devised in the The linear representation theory of Lie groups was a
twentieth century, starting in the 1930s; over the same years, subject for a great deal of research, in particular because of
Elie Cartan and Hermann Weyl tackled the global theory its role in quantum mechanics (representation of the
of Lie groups (Lie theory being a purely local theory). In Lorentz group). In 1939, the physicist E. Wigner discovered
1935, the positive solution to Hilbert’s problem was found that irreducible unitary representations could be infinite-
by John von Neumann and Lev Pontryagin for a finite- dimensional. To this day little is known about the more

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general case and the theory has only been properly developed simpler as these functions are rational in relation to the
for real reductive groups (Harish Chandra) and for nilpotent variable q-s, where q is the number of elements in the base
groups (A. Kirillov). Coefficients of linear representations field. These functions are found in evaluating the number
are special functions and this theory has been greatly of polynomial congruence solutions; the first were
elucidated by the theory of groups. submitted by Emil Artin (1924) for congruences expressed
Algebraic numbers are complex numbers that satisfy an as y 2 ≡ P(x) (mod.p) (P being a polynomial of whole
algebraic equation of whole coefficients; the others are called coefficients, p a prime number), defining a hyperelliptic
transcendental numbers. Joseph Liouville proved the curve over the field with p elements. In 1935, Helmut Hasse
existence of transcendental numbers in the nineteenth proved Riemann’s hypothesis for the ζ function of type 1
century; excluding Liouville’s numbers (which are somewhat curves (elliptic curves) over a finite field, then André Weil
artificial), the only transcendental numbers known prior to (1940, 1948) proved it for any curve. To do so, he had to
1900 were e (Charles Hermite, 1873) and π (F. Lindemann, devise abstract algebraic geometry (1946), where the
1882). General methods for proving that certain numbers coordinates could be in any commutative field and no
were transcen­dental were developed in the twentieth century longer in the field of complex numbers. In 1949, Weil
and helped solve Hilbert’s seventh problem in 1934 developed his famous conjectures on the zeta function of
(Aleksandr Gelfond and Theodor Schneider). These an any-dimensional algebraic variety over a finite field
methods related to the properties of certain transcendental (rationality, functional equation, Riemann’s hypothesis).
functions; it was shown that their values are transcendental These conjectures, interpreted in terms of cohomology of
numbers when the variable has an algebraic value. They are algebraic varieties, boosted algebraic geometry, in parti­cular
also based on the approximation properties of irrational from 1957 on, with Alexandre Grothendieck, who
numbers using rational numbers (‘Diophantine successfully developed the cohomological theory that was
approximations’); the idea is that if the number is considered to lead on to the proof of Weil’s conjectures by Pierre
as algebraic, the approximation cannot be very fast. After Deligne in 1973.
the theorems devised by Axel Thue (1909) and Carl Ludwig According to the law of quadratic reciprocity, if p and q
Siegel (1921, 1929), the best finding of this kind was by K. are odd prime numbers which are not both in the form
Roth (1955), stating that where a is algebraic and ε > 0, 4n+3, the properties ‘p is congruent to a square mod.q’ and
there can only be a finite number of couples (p,q) of whole ‘q is congruent to a square mod.p’ are equivalent; where p
prime numbers between them, so that and q are in the form 4n+3, if one of the two properties is
true, the other is false. In the nineteenth century, ana­logous
|α − pq |≤q −2−ε
. laws for residues of the powers of 4 and 3 (Jacobi, Eisenstein)
then ℓ odd prime (Kummer) were found. In his ninth
Such findings have applications for Diophantine equations; problem, Hilbert calls for a more general law, where the
Siegel was thus able to prove that an equation ƒ(x,y) = 0 of field of rational numbers is replaced by a field of algebraic
the kind ≥ 1 can have only a finite number of solutions in numbers, prime numbers being replaced by ideal primes.
whole numbers. Interest in transcendental numbers was This law was proven by T. Takagi (1920), Hasse (1926,
revived after Alan Baker (1966) succeeded in lowering the 1930) and Artin (1928) as part class field theory, studying
bounds of linear combinations with algebraic coefficients of the structure of finite Abelian extensions of a given number
logarithms of algebraic numbers. field k and the decomposition of ideal primes in k in such an
Riemann’s hypothesis, which is Hilbert’s eighth problem, extension. Hilbert himself had transposed the law of
states that the zeta function, defined for quadratic reciprocity using ‘local’ symbols

Res > 1 as z (s) = Σ n≥1 n

1 ,
s (a,bp),
does not vanish for Res > 0, when on the ‘critical’ right Ims equal to 1 or −1 depending on whether the congruences
= ; if this property is true, it can be used to show, as Riemann x2-ay2 ≡ b (mod.pk) have or do not have a solution for any k;
had observed, the order of magnitude of the difference a symbol has to be added
between the function of distribution of prime numbers and
the integral logarithm function equivalent to it. In 1942, the
Norwegian mathematician Atle Selberg showed that,
(a,b∞ )
whenever T > 0, the proportion of zeros s of ζ so that |Ims| equal to 1 unless a and b are negative, in which case it is
≤ T which are on the critical right remains higher at a certain equal to −1. The reciprocity law is then expressed by stating
number slightly smaller than 1; if Riemann’s hypothesis is that the product of
true, this proportion must be equal to 1. It is also known
that for any zero s = σ+it with t > 0, σ ≤ 1−A(logt)−2/3 when
A is a positive constant (I. M. Vinogradov and N. M.
(a,bp)
Korobov, 1958). Computer calculations, which can be used for all prime numbers p and for the ‘point at infinity’ p = ∞
to reach a very large number of zeros of ζ, still confirm is equal to 1. Generalization consists of defining symbols
Riemann’s hypothesis, but no path has been found for
attacking the proof and the Clay Foundation has acclaimed
it as one of the seven great mathematical problems for the
(a,bp )
ℓ

twenty-first century. for all the ‘points’ p of a number field k; these points are the
However, proof has been given of the analogy with embeddings of k as a sub-field in a non-discrete complete
Riemann’s hypothesis for zeta functions attached to valued field: there is an infinite number of these assigned to
algebraic varieties over finite fields. The situation is then the ideal primes of k and a finite number of them which

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embed k into R or C. Unfortunately there is no complete Langlands conjectured that this could be used to calculate
knowledge explaining these local symbols. all the Dirichlet series occurring in number theory and
The eleventh problem again makes use of these local algebraic geometry. Where G is the multiplicative group
methods, for the theory of quadratic forms over a number GL1, Langlands’ conjecture is equivalent to Artin’s law of
field k is based on the Hasse-Minkowski principle which reciprocity. The general case was recently proved by Laurent
states that, for a form ƒ to be transformed into a form g with Lafforgue for the case of a function field. For a number field,
variables introduced by linear substitution (representing g we are still a long way from having complete results, which
by ƒ), it is enough for it to be on each local completion kp of would extend the theory of class fields to non-Abelian cases.
k. But, for forms with whole coefficients, local conditions The proof of Fermat’s last theorem by Andrew Wiles (1994)
are not sufficient for concluding that the transformation can consists of proving a Taniyama-Weil conjecture on elliptic
be done from ƒ to g by linear substitution with whole curves as a consequence of Langlands’ conjecture.
coefficients. Two forms, ƒ and ƒ’, are said to belong to the In a sample of some ten cases, it has been seen that the
same type if, at every point p, it is possible to go from one to solving of Hilbert’s problems inspired research throughout
the other by invertible linear substitution with coefficients the twentieth century. But some theories developed
in the ring of whole numbers of kp; each type contains a independently of these problems, for example algebraic
finite number of classes of forms equivalent on the ring of topology, the theory of partial derivative equations, the
whole numbers of k. Siegel (1935, 1937) showed how to theory of dynamical systems and differential geometry. In
calculate the average of the number of representations of a these, as in previous cases, the mid-1930s can be seen as a
form g by the forms of the type to which ƒ belongs as a turning point; this was a time when difficulties had built up,
product of relative local factors at different points. forcing mathematicians to devise new theoretical tools for
Subsequently, T. Tamagawa and M. Kneser (1961) general application, reviving work on the very foundations
interpreted these formulae using the adele ring of the of a number of sectors.
orthogonal group G. This is the sub-group GA of the This was the case for logic, with the theory of models and
product the specific notion of computability, and for probability
Π p
G(kp) with Kolmogorov’s axiomatics and the theory of stochastic
processes. The theory of linear representations of groups
formed by the elements for which all the components, and the theory of partial derivative equations led to the
except for a finite number of them, are whole; this sub- development of functional analysis, where objects are infinite-
group has a topology which makes it a locally compact dimensional spaces of functions, which may conceivably be
group into which G(k) is embedded as a discrete sub-group. generalized. In particular, the study of hyperbolic equations
The quotient GA/G(k) is finite in volume for an invariant imposed the idea of generalized solutions, no longer seen
measure, and Siegel’s formula is equivalent to the calculation necessarily as functions (Sergei Sobolev, 1936, Laurent
of this volume. Schwartz 1951); this was how the theory of distributions
In the mid-nineteenth century, Leopold Kronecker was developed. Algebraic topology, which endeavours to
realized that any Abelian extension of the field Q of rational classify topological spaces using invariants that are algebraic
numbers is contained in an extension generated by the roots in nature, was one of the dominant theories in the twentieth
of the unit of the form e2πi/n. He had conjectured an century; it became increasingly algebraic in the 1930s and
analogous expression for the Abelian extensions of an developed to the point of devising auxiliary techniques such
imaginary quadratic field k, these being contained within as homological algebra (a type of extension of linear algebra),
extensions generated by values of elliptic functions with the theory of categories (Samuel Eilenberg and S. MacLane,
complex multiplication in k and by the corresponding values 1942) and sheaf theory (Jean Leray, 1945–46). Sheaf theory
of the modular invariant. This conjecture was proven by provided the basis for the revival of algebraic geometry led
Takagi (1920). Hilbert’s twelfth problem was to find by Jean-Pierre Serre (1955) and Grothendieck. Algebraic
functions able to give a similar description of Abelian geometry and number theory also stimulated the
extensions for any number field. Certain extensions of an development of commutative algebra.
imaginary quadratic field over a totally real number field can This period of renewed interest ended by the mid-1960s,
be described using complex multiplication of Abelian by which time a certain number of problems previously
varieties, these being analogs, on a higher dimension, of beyond reach could be successfully tackled. The years from
elliptic curves (Goro Shimura and Yutaka Taniyama), but 1935 to 1965 were marked by the activity of N. Bourbaki (a
there is no hope of finding all Abelian extensions this way. collective name for a group of French mathematicians)
A more interesting path seems to be in the programme working on the most fundamental aspects of mathematics
devised by R. Langlands in 1967. This was a generalization in a unified approach, based on Hilbert’s axiomatic method
of the work by E. Hecke showing a correspondence between and the concept of mathematical structure. The period was
automorphic forms (one variable) and the Dirichlet series. also a time when mathematics and physics moved apart, in
Langlands defined generalized automorphic forms contrast with the 1920s when physicists and mathematicians
associated with a reductive linear algebraic group G defined joined forces, working closely together on general relativity
over a number field k considering the space E of square and quantum mechanics. The theory of general relativity
integrable functions on the quotient of GA by G(k). A revived interest in research into differential geometry, while
parallel theory exists where k is an algebraic function field in quantum mechanics provided an opportunity for developing
one variable over a finite field. The subject is the natural the theory of the algebra of operators on a Hilbert space; in
representation of G in the subspace E0 of ‘parabolic forms’, fact, mathematicians such as Weyl and von Neumann did
and each irreducible representation ρ of G occurring in this the work of physicists. The symbiosis between physics and
representation is associated with a function L(ρ,s), an mathematics returned in the 1970s and 1980s with the
infinite product of local factors associated with points in k; development of the quantum theory of fields, gauge theories,

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supersymmetry, non-commutative geometry and quantum magnitude and of a physical system in general. These
groups. One example can be seen with the 1990 Fields concepts and quantities were then beyond the grasp of
medal, awarded to the American physicist Edgar Witten. previous ‘intuitive’ or absolute representations, and their
Outside of fundamental physics, mathematics can also form (expressed in mathematical terms) and content were
be found in such applications as celestial mechanics, constituted as functions of phenomena expressed in physical
elasticity, hydrodynamics, medical imaging, oil exploration, principles governing their relations. These principles are
cryptography, telephone transmission and information often presented as conditions of invariance applying to the
technology. But groups of mathematicians focusing on these transformations of these quantities, being characteristic of
applications often see themselves as apart from other the dynamic laws governing a given domain.
mathematicians, thus creating a sociological divide between These conceptual and theoretical changes simultaneously
‘pure mathematics’ and ‘applied mathematics’, which is not transformed our general views on physics, on the definition
based on any fundamental difference in methods. Perhaps of its subject area and the development of its theories. One
the reasons behind this divide should be looked for in the of the most striking features of current conceptions is the
vast expansion of new applications over the war years. increasingly close relationship between physical theories
and mathematical formalisms. This interweaving simply
highlights a feature in the logical path of previous
N ew S ub j ects and M ethods developments where theoretical physics was built through
in physics analysis, with differential and integral calculus for the
mechanics of material points and solid state mechanics, and
Many of the major technical achievements and changes to was then extended to partial derivative equations for fluid
our knowledge of physics have not been mentioned in mechanics and field theory.80
previous chapters, even though they have helped transform With general relativity and quantum theory, mathematical
our everyday lives. Take, for example, plasma physics, or formalization became a particularly powerful tool for
our hopes of finding a way of controlling and using theoretical work in physics, making it possible to express
thermonuclear fusion, or developments in statistical known or recognized physical properties, both general
mechanics and thermodynamics, relevant not only to phase properties or physical principles and quantitative relationships
transitions and critical phenomena, but also to phenomena between quantities. The principles (spatio-temporal or
far from equilibrium. There are numerous applications in internal invariances) had been laid down, and the quantities
chemistry, with illustrations provided by the work of Ilya or magnitudes used to describe the physical systems (e.g.
Prigogine and his school. Another enriching field of study is atomic or nuclear states, particles or fields) were already
found in ‘everyday’ physics, where problems that seem as known or had been formulated, so the theory connecting
ordinary as the equilibrium of a pile of sand or the contact these quantities and guided by the principles was almost
between a drop of boiling liquid and a hotplate require entirely deductive.
ingenious and erudite theoretical explanations. In the field Theoretical representations of the (quantum) structure
of chemistry, mention should be made of the complex of matter have taken this feature to quite an extreme degree.
architecture of molecules which, to cite one example, Jean- They involve physical magnitudes derived from abstract
Marie Lehn shaped to fit multiple applications. And there formulation, devised on the basis of properties of invariance;
are many other illustrations of how physics has contributed this is the case, for example, of quantum numbers such as
to our understanding of everyday events. spin, fermion charges or baryonic and leptonic numbers,
In the following section we will simply point out some of and the flavours and colours of quarks. The relationships
the problems raised by the new ideas arising from physics: between these quantities determine the more general
first there is the basically philosophical question of the symmetry properties, which are then raised to the rank of
relationship between physics and mathematical abstractions, principles and adopted to govern the form of the dynamic
which extends to the issue of the dialectics of simplicity and theory. This was how gauge invariant theories were
complexity; then there are the changes in the conception of formulated for fundamental matter, electroweak and
the nature of physical theory arising from the theory of chromodynamic fields. The idea of invariance or symmetry
dynamical systems, commonly referred to as the theory of required these to also be unified at the same time, as
deterministic chaos; and lastly there are various aspects developments leading to these theories have shown with
concerning experimental techniques and developments that great eloquence. So it is that a large part of fundamental
have occurred in what is now called ‘big science’. physics, the most mathematically formulated part, seems to
be moving towards a unified theory.
Underlying this observation is a new version of the idea
Abstract subjects, mathematically formalized theories, that mathematics can be used as the most accurate means of
simplicity and complexity expressing the hidden, deep-seated structural link between
elements that are part of the same reality. This is no doubt
Physics underwent major theoretical changes in the course the basic reason for the preferred relationship (although it is
of the twentieth century, affecting both the definition of the actually a relationship in constitution) between physical
subject of study and the nature of the founding theories and thought and mathematical thought.
experimental procedures. It should be noted, however, that this trend in theoretical
From a conceptual and theoretical point of view, physics physics towards more abstract and mathematical expression
went through both the relativistic and quantum revolutions, has not, despite its fundamental nature, exhausted the
forcing it to rebuild, or rather acquire a different representations of matter in its different structural levels.
understanding of the concepts of time, space and energy, of The complexity of these levels, even when reduced in
the material particle and even of the idea of quantity or principle to elementary simplicity, does not vanish, but

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requires intermediate theoretical concepts and models. machines and radio techniques (with electromagnetic
Knowledge of the basic constitution of matter (fields and waves) focused interest on non-linear oscillations, working
particles), while reconstructing combinations of elements, on systems of conservation and their qualitative behaviour,
cannot produce a representation for direct use depicting the and also on dissipative systems.
complex levels of organization (e.g. nuclear matter inside A. A. Andronov, one of the pioneers of the Russian
atomic nuclei, atoms and chemical properties, large sets of school of mathematics in dynamic systems, studied the
molecules and macromolecules, or macroscopic behaviour findings of Poincaré and Lyapunov and applied them to
of matter). Specific theories or models, which can be physical situations in the domain of dissipative physical
appropriately handled and are relatively simple, are needed systems, developing a general theory of non-linear
for each level, where the relevant physical quantities are only oscillations based on the idea of a self-oscillating system and
connected in an increasingly remote way to the quantities at bifurcations. His first paper on ‘Poincaré’s limit cycles and
the most ‘fundamental’ level. This observation applies for self-sustained oscillations’ was published in 1929 by the
both conceptual and practical reasons. Académie des Sciences in Paris. Applications were relevant
The connection between the representations of the to many fields, including acoustics, radiophysics, reaction
different levels is the task for research in the diverse branches chemistry and even biology. In 1937, with his fellow authors
of physics, chemistry and other disciplines. But the A. A. Vitt and S. E. Khaïkin, he published his landmark
epistemological questions it raises are related to the general work, Theory of Vibration.
issue of reducing something to its elementary level and of Other prominent members of this school were
constituting ‘complex’ levels, or ‘emerging’ levels. When L. I. Mandelstam, N. S. Krylov and N. N. Bogoliubov, who
moving from the level seen as fundamental to a structural or developed non-linear physics, and the great mathematician
organizational level of greater complexity, consideration Andrei N. Kolmogorov, who was also known for his
must be given to properties which appear only at this level outstanding work on the theory and applications of
and are expressed by specific ‘emerging’ quantities (e.g. the probability. In 1940, he had also tackled turbulence
concept of valence in chemistry). Here it is more a case of phenomena and later, in 1950, dynamic systems.
tension developing between two approaches, each with a In the United States, George David Birkhoff, author of
different orientation, yet each one essential, rather than a Dynamical Systems (1927), and his student G. M. Morse,
case of inherent duality. New interdisciplinary approaches worked on the development of ‘topological dynamics’,
are needed to explore the dynamics of knowledge in these while Salomon Lifschitz explored the findings of the
bordering regions. pioneers in the Russian school and, in the late 1940s,
pursued his study of differential equations in dynamics.
In the course of the 1960s, work by Stephen Smale and
Dynamic systems and deterministic chaos Valentin I. Arnold investigating differentiable dynamical
systems drew attention to the findings of the Soviet school
Since the 1970s, the study of dynamic systems, previously and marked the beginning of international interest in these
relegated to a relatively minor branch of mathematics, has problems. In 1963, the meteorologist Edward Lorenz used
developed into a discipline that now stands as one of the a computer to calculate predictions with a simplified
most important, not only in mathematical physics but also mathematical model of convection currents in the
in theoretical and experimental physics. The central idea atmosphere and found the same considerable effect
goes back to the mathematical research of Henri Poincaré amplifying small differences in the initial condition that had
in dynamics, working on the qualitative theory of been noted by Poincaré: small causes, such as localized
differential equations that developed from his study of the storms or the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, can produce
three-body problem in astronomy (1889). One of the substantial effects on weather on the scale of the hemisphere,
solutions to these totally deterministic equations was so or of the entire planet. The sensitivity of such totally
complicated and unusual for a certain configuration that it deterministic systems to tiny changes in the initial conditions
seemed to be random. Yet it was possible, without writing meant it was impossible to predict their ultimate behaviour:
out exact solutions, to describe the nature of the solutions, the term ‘chaos’ was suggested soon after to describe this
i.e. their structural behaviour, with stable or unstable situation, which is in fact extremely frequent. In the 1970s,
equilibrium. Poincaré then introduced the ‘limit cycle’ Lorenz applied his ideas to the biology of populations and it
concept. was subsequently noted that chaotic behaviour patterns
Considering therefore that the fundamental problem for were to be found in the most diverse areas, e.g. the behaviour
dynamics was to find quasi-periodic solutions of systems of the solar system, the operation of lasers, the evolution of
and to discover how they behaved, Poincaré devised, to ecosystems and the kinetics of chemical reactions.
quote the Swedish Academy, ‘a new way of thinking’. He In 1971, David Ruelle and Floris Takens showed that
had shown for the first time that, in perfectly determined chaotic behaviour is not intrinsically linked to a large
events, ‘a very small cause, which escapes us, determines a number of parameters, and introduced the concept of the
considerable effect’. At a certain point in time, a tiny ‘strange attractor’ to describe the characteristic curve of the
element of uncertainty on the initial conditions makes it parameter of a chaotic system that is actually the final stages
impossible to produce any accurate prediction. possible in dissipative systems. This concept was then
Around 1892, Alexander M. Lyapunov had been moved to the centre of the theory as a substitute for the
conducting work with a similar focus on the stability of parameters: the attractor is the hidden structure concealed
motion. Between 1930 and 1960, a school of applied by the apparent chaos of the trajectories. In doing so, the
mathematics and mathematical physics developed in the local focus becomes global, details give way to generic
Soviet Union. Its focus was non-linear dynamic systems considerations and to the type of stability of the
and stochastic processes. Problems in the regulation of configurations. Proof could be found for these attractors,

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first through digital simulation, then in laboratory conditions technology and the cooling of atoms, for Bose-Einstein
with, for example, hydrodynamic phenomena (Pierre Bergé, condensation, plus in overcoming the challenges in the
one of the pioneers in the physics of chaos as studied from planned use of devices for detecting gravity waves. Generally,
the phenomenological viewpoint). in order to find proof of phenomena of a new kind deduced
For a dynamic system to be chaotic, it must comply with from the theoretical advances of physics, it is necessary to
certain conditions: complex systems with a large number of make the corresponding experimental and technical
parameters need to be described using well-established advances.
equations (e.g. the future orbit of the Earth), or otherwise to Another noteworthy feature is the ‘plasticity’ of the
have a small number of parameters (e.g. certain chemical applications of modern physics, with equipment developed
reactions). In biology and economics, it is more difficult to to gain knowledge of fundamental physical phenomena
establish whether the systems are genuinely chaotic because subsequently being used for research or applications in quite
of the uncertain nature of their mathematical modelling. different domains, in physics, biology and medicine. One
Whatever the case may be, chaos can be a powerful theoretical example is synchrotron radiation, with electron accelerator
tool for studying new properties and behaviour patterns. rings producing beams as intense and finely defined as lasers,
covering a broad range from gamma and X-rays to visible
light, and used both to study solid-state structure and for
Experimental methods and techniques in the era applications in biology and medicine. A parallel can be seen
of  ‘big science’ with X-rays and radioactivity, which were used almost
immediately after they were discovered to observe the inside
In certain areas of physics, such as nuclear and solid-state of the human body and provide medical treatment.
physics, a close link was established between the development A very long list of the uses and applications could be
of scientific research and the development of industry after drawn up, but here only a few examples will be highlighted:
the Second World War. The Manhattan Project for NMR spectroscopy in chemistry; dating techniques using
building the first atomic bomb is a good example.81 This radioactive elements, first with radiocarbon or carbon-14;
seems to have been the signal for change in research in these the cobalt bomb, with induced radioactivity, used to treat
and other disciplines. The change has affected the way cancerous tumours; advances in brain imaging using
researchers work, the methods and techniques used for radioactive elements, and most importantly the positron
experimentation, relations with public authorities, and the camera for extremely accurate localization of damaged areas,
organization of research, which is now performed by groups which has recently led to great steps forward in
and teams working in large laboratories where researchers neurophysiology; and proportional multi-wire chambers
and engineers collaborate closely, inventing and using with highly accurate localization capacity, with prospects
original, complex, high-precision instruments. for diverse applications beyond the simple detection of
These are large and costly machines that have been built elementary particles, ranging from medicine to fraud
using the most advanced techniques, such as high vacuums, detection for customs officers inspecting goods.
superconductivity, electronics and computer processing, Large telescopes must also be cited. Astronomy and
often developed in research laboratories well before being astrophysics are now rivalling subatomic physics with the
adopted for industrial use, and providing just as many large machines used for fundamental research. In this field,
offshoots for use in other domains. They are increasingly astronomy already had the experience and a long tradition
being used by groups built around international of large, classical science observatories (e.g. Maragha in
partnerships; this is the case of large particle accelerators, Iran, dating from the twelfth century, and the larger-scale
major observatories and space laboratories. copy built in Jaipur, India, in the eighteenth century; the
Subatomic physics and astrophysics are two typical Uranienburg observatory in Denmark built by Tycho
examples of this form of science that originated in the second Brahe in the seventeenth century; observation using
half of the twentieth century and which has been dubbed telescopes, and the huge mirror telescopes made by
‘big science’. The term refers to science requiring ‘big’ William Herschel towards the end of the eighteenth
resources – financial, material, technological and century). In the late twentieth century large land and space
organizational – and which is considerably different from telescopes were constructed, with resolution capacity for
scientific research in the past, which was conducted more on viewing celestial bodies in remote systems and the very
an individual basis. In research nowadays, there is a close furthest galaxies – those first formed on the bounds of the
link between the development of theoretical ideas and the visible universe at approximately 15 billion light years.
conducting of experiments related to technical advances it Of the different land telescopes, special mention should
has often helped bring about; this is the case for the be made of the 10-meter double telescope in Hawaii, named
technology used in accelerators for nuclear physics82 and Keck. It is positioned on the top of Mauna Kea volcano,
particle physics.83 These are needed to generate and accelerate where it can observe the sky of the northern hemisphere. In
intense beams of nuclei and particles or radiation of all 1997 and 1998 it spotted two very primitive galaxies on the
kinds,84 to develop various detectors for precision analysis of bounds of the Universe, at some 13 billion light years. There
reaction products,85 and for on-line processing of complex is also the European Southern Observatory (ESO) for the
data and fine statistics using huge calculators, and for shape southern hemisphere. Located in the Andes in Chile, it
recognition and high-definition tracking. These analytical offers outstanding visual acuity with an array of four
techniques originally devised for particle physics have also 8.2 metre telescopes, and a Very Large Telescope (VLT)
been adapted for collecting data in the field of astrophysics. installed in 2001. 86 Of the different satellite-borne
Interaction between leading-edge technology and instruments, the Hubble Space Telescope will go down in
experimental research is also common practice in domains history, and rightly so, for the extraordinary contribution it
other than those cited above: e.g. in very low-temperature has made to our knowledge of celestial objects, distant

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galaxies and extra-solar planets. Freed from the constraints confirming the link between genes and chromosomes,
in the Earth’s atmosphere, it was able to explore regions and making it possible to draw up the first genetic maps. But
phenomena inaccessible to land observatories (e.g. almost twenty years more were needed for these genetic
phenomena which can only be seen using infrared light87). maps to merge with the physical maps of chromosomes.
Many other observatories have giant telescopes, either on The slow process of objectification – of ‘reification’ of
land or satellite-borne, and will, over the early years of the genes – was only fully achieved when the genes were
twenty-first century, continue this observational exploration identified with the DNA molecule, whose structure (the
of the Universe. (Hubble’s successor, NGST,88 will not double helix) was discovered in 1953 by J. D. Watson and
orbit around the Earth, but around the Sun.) F. Crick. This was the beginning of molecular genetics,
which in the following years detailed the mechanisms of
genetic action. By the end of the twentieth century, genetics
biology had become a powerful science. Thanks in particular to the
techniques of genetic engineering, it had all the tools needed
Fundamental changes in biology to move from the genetic trait to the gene, to the DNA
molecule, and then back to the traits, and to modify them.
Biology is seen today as a group of different disciplines, with Genetics is an important science with an increasing number
quite distinct subjects and levels of observation. One of medical applications, but it is also a science that triggers
approach classifies these disciplines according to the scale anxiety in the face of apparent threats to individual freedom.
used to study phenomena in living organisms. Can the predictive medicine of tomorrow both define our
An initial group is composed of molecular genetics, genetic limits and predict our future?
biochemistry and cell biology. These three disciplines analyse Since 1914, biochemistry has also seen far-reaching
the complexity of living organisms at the macromolecular changes. The only molecules of living organisms available to
level. Each one has its specificity: genetics studies genes and biologists in 1914 were small metabolism molecules.
their mechanisms of action; biochemistry focuses on a Proteins were still poorly characterized and their structure
structural study of DNA and more importantly of proteins, was unknown. The development of such technologies as X-
the second essential constituent of living organisms; while ray diffraction and nuclear magnetic resonance has permitted
cell biology investigates intra-cellular organization and biochemistry to determine, with great accuracy, the structure
movements of macromolecules within that structure. The of essential biological macromolecules, proteins and nucleic
term ‘molecular biology’ is often used to refer to part or all of acids. Cell biology reached its peak by the 1950s with
the experiments conducted in these three disciplines (as well electronic microscopes, which gradually revealed the
as other biological disciplines, as mentioned below) and complexity of living cells. This advance was only achieved
which do not fit into any established discipline, but are through close cooperation with biochemistry and later,
related to a certain view of living phenomena and the desire from the 1970s on, with molecular biology. Today, cell
to explain all the properties and functioning of living beings biology is one of the most active disciplines as biologists
by studying their macromolecules. increasingly integrate the cell level into all molecular
The second group of disciplines studies the organism as a observations of living organisms.
whole, either describing its properties and classifying it on Other disciplines have also changed, first with the
the scale of living organisms (zoology and botany), or biochemical revolution, then with the molecular revolution.
describing the way it functions (physiology). Physiology also One example is endocrinology, which examines the
encompasses a number of specialized fields dealing with one mechanisms by which hormones act; the mechanism can
or another of the major functions of living organisms (e.g. only by grasped by determining the structure of hormones
endocrinology, immunology and neurophysiology). There themselves, and characterizing the receptors they bind to
are obvious links between physiology and medicine, and the and the paths that transmit the information from the
same applies to other disciplines dealing with micro- receptor to the cell nucleus. In most cases any fluctuation in
organisms, many of which are pathogens affecting humans the amount of hormone causes a change in the activity of
(bacteriology, virology and parasitology). the genes; this activity can only be understood using the
The third group of biological disciplines includes areas tools and knowledge provided by molecular genetics.
covering all living beings, to study either their social All branches of physiology have also been ‘molecularized’
behaviour (ethology), their complex interactions with the to varying degrees, e.g. immunology and neurophysiology.
environment (ecology), or the evolution of their genetic Nevertheless, physiology has retained both its specific level
make-up (population genetics). for describing living phenomena and its own techniques,
This discipline-based presentation does not reflect the such as medical imaging. Both have contributed greatly to
major changes that each of these disciplines has experienced advances in our understanding of the brain. Bacteriology
over the past century, nor the successive waves of unification and virology have been as molecularized as physiology (or
which have recognized the special significance of biology in perhaps even more so). The molecule is the level targeted to
the early twenty-first century (see the above section on characterize the interaction between the pathogenic
Molecular Biology for the description of these changes). organism and the host; by using molecular tools, we gain an
understanding of the nature of pathogenic micro-
organisms.
A far-reaching development in biological disciplines Those sciences – like zoology and botany – that describe
and classify organisms, have also changed considerably. In
In 1914, with Thomas H. Morgan’s first studies of the 1960s, their fate seemed threatened by the ‘modern
Drosophila, genetics discovered the organism that would not biology’ boom that included genetics, biochemistry and
only establish the discipline, but also produce findings molecular biology. Yet it gradually became apparent that no

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study, not even molecular studies, could disregard the layers. The twentieth century contributed to our knowledge
findings of these other disciplines, and they too have gained about the chronology of various periods (the ‘ages of the
from the contributions of biochemistry and molecular Earth’) and saw, by the 1960s, the development of a genuine
biology. Ever since Darwin, the description and classification theory of dynamics for the movements of the Earth’s crust
of living beings has been based on the establishment of and mantle, called plate tectonics.
polygenic relationships between these living organisms,
following the pattern of evolutionary trees. Morphological
criteria were replaced by biochemical criteria, then molecular The age of the Earth
criteria, which were more neutral but infinitely more
fertile. In the late nineteenth century, estimates of the Earth’s age
Certain biological disciplines in the third group also use were based on conventional physics measuring heat exchanges
molecular tools, for example, population genetics, which and heat losses (see the calculations by the physicist, William
has followed and used the advances of the parent discipline, Thomson-Kelvin): considering that the crust of the Earth
or ecology. had been cooling down from a point of initial heat, the
The most characteristic feature of contemporary biology estimate was only around 100 million years. New data about
is the deep-seated unity that has developed around the tools radioactivity led to revisions of these under-estimates,
and concepts of molecular biology. The first stage occurred suggesting the idea of a source of energy within the Earth in
in the 1930s when zoology embraced Darwin’s theory of the natural radioactivity of rocks. A more realistic evaluation
evolution and population genetics. It was not an easy of geological times was made in 1917, by studying the quantity
marriage, as was seen in the thirty years needed for the full of helium released as a product of uranium decay. Radio-
merger, which was given the name of neo-Darwinism. dating techniques were then improved using various
Darwinians initially believed that the variations on which radioisotopes such as argon, potassium-40 and, after the
natural selection operated were small in amplitude, while Second World War, carbon-14.
geneticists, who dubbed these variations mutations, Generally speaking, developments in geology have always
considered them, from the very earliest stages of the been highly dependent on advances in related fields, such as
discipline, to be large and important. Only the mathematical the chemical analysis of rocks, mineralogy, palaeontology,
tools of population geneticists managed to convince plus geophysics and geochemistry, which all made great
geneticists that tiny variations could, under constant and strides in the course of the twentieth century.
long-lasting pressure, produce major modifications. Neo-
Darwinism has changed enormously since it first appeared,
although, for many years, the growth of molecular biology From continental drift to the theory of plate tectonics
had little effect on it. Very slowly, molecular biology
provided the tools needed to track the molecular evolution The greatest step forward in Earth sciences has been the
of living beings; and it has only been in recent years, with advent of plate tectonics. This was a revolutionary discovery
the isolation of development genes (homeotic genes being because it showed a mobile instead of a fixed Earth, while
the first ones discovered and still the most famous) that providing a mechanism for its movements and reorganizing
molecular biologists have ‘handed over’ to evolutionary the most diverse elements of knowledge around the
specialists the genes presenting variations in structure and dynamics of transformations in the Earth’s crust – with
function so essential to the understanding of the evolution continental shifts, seismic activity and new mountain ranges
of living beings. With additional influence from the forming.
neutralist theory put forth by the Japanese geneticist This theoretical revolution, backed by many observations
Kimura, neo-Darwinism is changing greatly, although its including exploration of the ocean floor, substantiated the
basic principles have not been challenged. It is losing the ‘old’ hypothesis of the continental drift already formulated by
‘Pangloss’ element, by which an adaptive value is attributed Alfred Wegener in 1912. Wegener suggested that the
to every variation surviving throughout evolution, and is continents we know today originally came from a single,
becoming more attentive to genetic (or other) constraints southern pro-continent, Pangaea, that split into parts that
restricting the diversity of living organisms. Neo-Darwinism migrated across the mantle over a period of hundreds of
takes into consideration recently discovered mechanisms, millions of years.89 Substantiating his theory, Wegener
which, in living beings, modulate genetic variability as a argued that there were morphological properties such as the
function of environmental conditions. The synthesis of coastal profiles of the continents that seemed to fit together,
theories of evolution, development biology, molecular e.g. the Brazilian and West African coasts, and that even
biology and cell biology will probably be one of the objectives though the ocean extends for 4,000 kilometres between the
and the success stories for biology in the twenty-first two, they share numerous geological, palaeontological and
century. palaeoclimatic features.
Because no dynamic cause could be found to account for
the drift, and given the conservative attitude of most
T H E S tructure A N D dynami C S O F geologists of the time, who were unwilling to abandon the
THE EARTH idea of a fixed Earth, Wegener’s theory attracted only
marginal interest before 1960.
This section looks at the different advances in geology and However, topographic and geological studies of the
geophysics, and focuses on points related to the structure oceans conducted in the 1950s showed that their
and dynamics of the internal movements of the Earth. By sedimentation was recent and that they shared an underwater
the late nineteenth century, scientists had come to accept mountain range, i.e. ridges or mid-ocean rifts. Around 1960,
that the Earth was configured in successive concentric Harry Hess proposed the idea that the ocean floors were

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spreading with convection currents and changing the and its satellite, the Moon). Earth sciences were thus
mantle. Seismology, measurements of magnetic anomalies extended to include planetology. Recently acquired
caused by the appearance of lava beneath sedimentary layers, understanding about the impact of celestial bodies in
plus palaeomagnetic data (studying time-related variations collision has shown how important planetary dynamics is.
in the magnetism of rocks) showed there had been inversions These sciences and planetology in turn now belong to the
in terrestrial magnetism and magnetic poles. All these much broader group of disciplines referred to as earth
findings changed views and perspectives on the dynamics of sciences and sciences of the Universe.
the Earth’s crust and led back to the continental drift The history of the Earth’s formation also falls within the
hypothesis. The idea was revived and transformed into the scope of astronomy, which has provided data on the age of
now universally accepted theory of plate tectonics for ocean rocks and calculated that the Earth and other bodies in the
and continental plates. solar system are the same age, i.e. 4.5 billion years. The
J. Tuzo Wilson presented the concepts of plates and Earth and the other bodies in the solar system were formed
transform faults in 1963, while Jason W. Organ, Dan from the sole impact of universal gravitation, starting from
MacKenzie and Xavier Le Pichon described the a cloud of gas and dust released from the explosion of a star
mechanism of plate tectonics (1967–68). They argued (supernova), and ending up as part of a process that
that the Earth’s crust comprises rigid plates shifting in generated everything from the nuclei of the atoms in
relation to one another, and that new plates, forming as a chemical elements, right down to the heaviest elements
result of volcanic activity along the ridges, eventually take such as iron and uranium.
the place of the old ones. Ocean plates go down deep As for the astronomic and geological histories of the
beneath the continental plates where they collide with one Earth, these disciplines have evolved into a different kind of
another, causing mountains to rise up; the Himalayas natural history, the history of the biosphere, discussed
emerged when the plates of India and Asia collided, and below.
the Alps were formed from the collision of the African
and European plates. This theory, which accounted so
coherently for changing geological and geophysical research O N T H E origins O F L I F E
phenomena, produced predictions that could be verified
by observation. While the human race, with its diverse cultures, has always
Plate tectonics therefore enabled scientists to reconstitute been interested in its origins and in the creation of the
the past movements of the Earth’s crust as a vast series of surrounding cosmos, the tale has usually been recounted in
fragmentations, slides, shifts, turnings and collisions of legends and myths in poetic and supernatural terms. The
continental masses occurring from the force of the spreading question of origins has only gradually become a subject for
oceans. A primitive supercontinent named Rodinia may scientific exploration, and even this has occurred in quite
have been the beginning of today’s continents: it formed different forms, depending on whether it deals with the
some 1,200 million years ago (mya), then broke up into origins of the human species (human palaeontology), the
fragments that gathered to form two megacontinents, origins of the Universe (a very recent focus for science,
Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south. Gondwana dating from the cosmology of the expanding Universe), or
was formed 600 million years ago, and between 390 mya the origins of life. For the origins of life, a problem arises in
and 210 mya merged with the Pangaea supercontinent the formulation and indeed the definition of the term ‘life’.
which formed as an aggregate of all the continents and was No scientifically satisfactory definition existed until
surrounded by a single ocean named Panthalassa. After molecular biology advanced one during the second half of
Pangaea split up, Gondwana broke up again, circa 170 mya, the twentieth century. The science of the origins of life has
with the opening up of the Atlantic, Indian and Antarctic now achieved legitimacy and been given its own name:
oceans, producing the southern sub-continents: Africa, exobiology. The notion of a ‘fixed Earth’ has been abandoned,
South America, India, Australia and Antarctica. and new issues are becoming the subject of modern scientific
research.
By objectifying nature, humans have grasped both their
Earth sciences and planetology distance from nature and the inclusion of humans in this
world as an element of nature. The twentieth century has
All sciences related to the properties of the Earth, such as thus completed the movement away from the single centre
meteorology, oceanography, geology, geochemistry and that characterized the beginnings of modern science: not
geophysics, seismology, volcanology and terrestrial only were humans and their habitat no longer the centre of
magnetism, have gradually moved closer together over the the Universe, but nothing in the Universe remained fixed
twentieth century to form a synthetic perspective that and established once and for all, be it living forms, the
views phenomena in a coherent relationship governed by Earth, or the cosmos. Everything was movement and
the dynamics of the planet Earth. These disciplines have change.
been grouped together in the field now known as earth Human beings have reached an unprecedented degree of
sciences. awareness that life on Earth is merely ‘a flash in the night of
Another development occurring in the final decades of the Universe’; yet despite their precarious natural situation,
the twentieth century was the interaction of the Earth with they continue their questionings, seeking answers and
space. Knowledge of other planets in the solar system plus meanings that may help them transcend the situation.
systematic exploration through space missions meant While many of these questions have moved into the realms
comparisons could be made; it became possible to study the of science, they have nonetheless retained some of their
composition of other planets (particularly the rocky planets metaphysical force, and here they may also coincide with
such as Mars, Venus and Mercury, not to mention Earth the very why and wherefore of science itself.

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The history of life on Earth and the origins of the in the early Upper Palaeolithic (circa 200,000 years ago),
human species left Homo sapiens sapiens, identified through fossil remains
of Cro-Magnon man, who decorated caves, was similar to
The history of life on Earth has now been given its timeline: modern humans and lived in the Magdalenian period, the
the oldest fossil evidence sets the beginning shortly after the time of the gradual glacial recession of the last Würm ice
formation of the Earth and solar system 4.5 billion years cap and the slow migration of cold fauna (35,000–10,000
ago. The first bacteria appeared approximately 3.5 billion years ago). Human settlement then spread to the five
years ago, the first eukaryotes (cells with a true nucleus) continents, and differentiations between humans became
approximately 1.5 billion years ago, and the colonization of cultural rather than morphological: humans today comprise
continents by plants and animals, with animals acquiring a single species and, strictly speaking, a single human race,
lungs and limbs, began 500 million years ago (the first with different groups and crosses. The question of the origin
terrestrial plants circa 435 mya, the first reptiles 345 mya of the human species encompasses both the issue of
and the first mammals 225 mya). Mammals became morphological changes and the question of the growth of
dominant once dinosaurs had become extinct after the the human brain and its capacities, and specifically the
sudden and dramatic climate changes that started circa development of the power of speech.
60 mya.90 Placental mammals first appeared circa 100 mya,
then primates circa 70 mya (with, inter alia, a larger brain
and smaller face, opposable thumb and developed eyesight), The question of the origins of life
and apes in Africa and South America circa 40 mya.
Oreopithecus, circa 15 mya, walked on two legs, having The question of the origins of life has been addressed in
acquired the biped gait in response to ecological pressure. science with Darwin’s theory of evolution as the
Ramapithecus, a small primate that may have used tools, was breakthrough point on species and their evolution in time.
present from 20 mya to 7 mya in the Old World (Europe, The uniqueness of matter suggests there is continuity in the
Africa, Asia), and is possibly an ancestor of the hominid shift from minerals to living organisms and that life is a
lineage. property that ‘emerges’ from the organization of matter.
The human species appeared more recently, although This also raises the question of how to define living
much earlier than was believed at the turn of the twentieth organisms, which has only now found an answer through
century: approximately 3 million years ago. Many discoveries molecular biology. Nevertheless, very fertile and stimulating
in the field of palaeontology have been decisive and enquiries were being made well before the ‘true’ nature of
contributed to the considerable progress made in improving the phenomenon of life was understood.
our understanding of the origins of the human race; these It was accepted that the origins of life on Earth were
advances came about with the transdisciplinary approach in connected to the history and origins of the planet. The
the different fields of natural human sciences: i.e. human atoms making up the planet, including those that provide
palaeontology (or palaeoanthropology), anthropology, the basic material for living molecules (the main chemical
ethnology, prehistory, and the use of techniques developed elements: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, sulphur, phosphorous
by exact sciences such as physics and chemistry. With and also the heavier metals, calcium and iron), were
improvements in methods used to conduct archaeological synthesized in a star and subsequently scattered throughout
digs, better dating techniques,91 and in particular advances space with the supernova eruption, before reforming as a
in geology and stratigraphy, plus the discovery of many planet (Earth) in the solar system due to the effects of
human fossil remains, estimates on past human history gravitational pull. The primitive atmosphere of the Earth
have been pushed back in time and have revealed links in that later formed with the release of gases from the Earth’s
the family of primates and, even further back, in the series of mantle also resulted from the bombardment of meteorites,
animal species. Animal palaeontology and palynology (the ultraviolet radiation, high natural radioactivity releasing
study of spores and pollen) were extended and applied to energy, intense earthquake activity, volcanic eruptions and
learning more about climatic and ecological contexts, and the greenhouse effect resulting from carbon dioxide. These
have led to a better understanding of the lifestyle of the first processes also led to the formation of the first oceans. There
human beings. are doubts as to whether the Earth’s first atmosphere was a
The discovery of Australopithecus in southern Africa reducing (methane) or oxidizing one (carbon dioxide),
(Kenya) in 1934 prompted scientists to date the first however Earth’s present atmosphere is largely the result of
hominid at one million years ago, but this estimate was the action of living organisms; it can be supposed that,
revised in 1974 to 3.5 mya, following the discovery of the through chlorophyll photosynthesis, microscopic primitive
remains of the slender Australopithecus ‘Lucy’ in the Omo algae produced an abundance of atmospheric oxygen.
region of the Ethiopian Afar geological basin. Homo habilis Given the openness of living systems, they are subjected
lived in society, manufactured tools, went from a vegetarian in both their constitution and development to the influence
to an omnivorous diet, and was the first species to build of the physical conditions in the outside environment. These
dwellings built as proper structures; these are approximately conditions have been determining factors in the origins of
1.6 million years old. From 1.9 mya to 1.5 mya, Homo erectus life itself. It is quite likely that the first living structures
spread throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. Pithecanthropus developed from interactions between complex molecules in
(with one group, the Sinanthropus, discovered in China in certain chemical and thermodynamic conditions, which
the 1930s, and 500,000 years old) was the first to use fire. polymerized them to form protein chains.
Neanderthal man, first identified in the nineteenth century Hypotheses and models were formulated and scenarios
(1864), buried his dead; he first appeared around devised – using physico-chemical processes starting with
400,000 years ago and disappeared 40,000 years ago, but left inanimate mineral matter – to account for the formation of
no direct descendents, while Homo sapiens, who was present organic matter and elementary living organisms. Prebiotic

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chemistry focuses on the conditions of the primitive mineral hearts of today’s scientists, methodological caution is still
Earth, and particularly its oceans and atmospheres, whose required (scientific noblesse oblige), and any moves they have
chemical constituents were instrumental in the synthesis of accepted in coming together are invariably imposed by the
increasingly complex organic molecules that eventually gave logic applying to their work or to the subjects of their
rise to living micro-organisms.92 study.
Efforts to provide physical and chemical explanations to Another lesson science has taught us through its very
the origins of life prior to breakthroughs on genes and the existence and its constantly changing nature is that science
mechanisms of heredity have given us certain elements that cannot be reduced to its achievements at any given point of
have also been integrated into recent genetic theories on the time in history. It is first and foremost thought, but it is also
formation of life.93 These theories are built on the trilogy of practice and work, both intellectual and tangible, plus the
DNA (genetic code), messenger RNA and protein potential for practical application. The problems raised by
synthesis. science range from internal questions related to the content
In the 1930s, Alexander Oparin presented a pioneering of knowledge to issues of social responsibility, ethics and
theory on the natural synthesis of amino acids. He suggested political implications. To be properly addressed, these
that through ‘biochemical metabolism’ these would provide general questions must be considered in the same spirit of
an explanation of how life could have appeared in the discernment and critical reason required in science, but
absence of oxygen, in an atmosphere composed without being reduced to the level of science subjects, for
predominantly of methane. The theory was adopted, with a they are issues of a different kind, linked to systems of values
number of variants, by John Haldane (CO2 atmosphere) which are not to be found in nature. These vary depending
and John D. Bernal (life produced in oceans or coastal on the science in question and, for some, like mathematics
clays). and the so-called ‘exact’ sciences reviewed here, reference
Genetic theory and molecular biology have given us the can be made to an ‘epistemological fence’ which, starting
means for going beyond a purely physical and chemical from a threshold of ‘guaranteed’ knowledge, can be used as
framework, by formulating dynamic theories able to account a conceptual approach to content that appear unaffected by
for the formation of hereditary material and a primitive other circumstances.
genetic system. This is now the way origins of life are Science as thought (considered on a regional basis for
expressed. The question involves quite diverse disciplines, each discipline, as well as on a more general basis) is part of
ranging from astrophysics and geology to physics and a movement developed not only by the problems posed but
chemistry, from molecular biology to the theory of evolution. also by the questioning of the content and meaning of the
This borderline issue provides an opportune reminder that knowledge acquired. By focusing on description and
divisions separating disciplines are primarily the result of explanation, science has invented new forms of
conventions and that fundamental unity does prevail at the understanding; it has revealed positive elements, describing
heart of the subjects studied in science. phenomena and explaining the reason for their existence.
With its own impetus, science strives to understand the
relationships between these phenomena and to relate them
C onclusion to another deeper structural link derived from the subjects,
by setting them into an intelligible pattern. These elements
The subjects addressed in this chapter, despite inevitable often have substantial implications for the general level of
omissions, have covered some of the significant directions ideas, such as our concepts of space and time, or the
taken by science in the twentieth century. We have noted principles underlying the laws of physical or biological
the gradual changes or complete breaks with the past, as phenomena.
well as links and lines of continuity between the different But science also implies a representation of the world,
domains of science and between past and present knowledge. going beyond mere reporting on relations and phenomena.
In conclusion, we can emphasize some general lessons that This means creating new ways of thinking and conceptual
may reveal the general direction of future scientific advances innovations: science is then seen as work involving thinking
and the promises they hold for us. and the sum total of acts of creative intellectual effort. While
The unity of matter is a principle at the very foundations science is constructed (in the sense of constructing symbolic
of all contemporary science and is illustrated in a particularly representations), it is also a critical thought process, raising
striking way in the corpus of modern scientific knowledge problems of interpretation that are sometimes directly
with its interconnections and mutual dependencies. This philosophical in nature. Proofs can be found, for example,
knowledge is organized into disciplines according to choices, for the curvature of space and the general theory of relativity,
attitudes and thoughts, and human decisions made in or concerning the question of ‘physical reality’, a subject of
response to intellectual or practical requirements. They allow great debate in quantum mechanics. There are even proofs
problems to be arranged in series, defining affinities among for certain aspects of cosmology and life sciences, such as
different subjects, and making it easy for us to approach the the relationship between minerals and living organisms,
material world according to different levels of formal evolution and the question of origins, or indeed, extending
organization. The very concepts of levels and organization are to a more general context, concerning the question of the
part of the general frameworks or categories of thought on nature of theoretical thought and its relationship to
which knowledge and understanding are built. observation and experimentation.
Any definition and demarcation of disciplinary borders Experimentation has been shown to be increasingly based
are eminently mobile: disciplines come together or diversify on prior theoretical developments. The role of mathematics in
and new disciplinary fields are established; this appears as a physics is not for simple applications; mathematics is seen as
general law applying to the organization of sciences. But a constituent of physical thought, being particularly well
while the ‘total’ category may no longer strike fear into the suited to displaying the structural aspect of the real physical

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world, because of the qualitative approach and focus on 14. These negatively charged particles had been detected
relations, which is not solely concerned with quantity in the by Joseph J. Thomson in 1896.
narrow sense of magnitude. The growing importance of 15. The relationship between momentum or the quantity
topology in theoretical physics, along with metrics, may be of motion and the wavelength is:
significant here. p = h.
Deeper study of the nature of scientific work as an λ
intellectual activity will inevitably reveal the close relationship Arthur Compton proved this in experiments in 1923,
with the philosophical attitude, alongside the huge studying the collision of a photon with an atomic electron
technological resources needed for this work today. Looking (‘the Compton effect’). The radiation particles were named
beyond the formal changes over the past century in activities ‘photons’.
related to scientific knowledge, this dimension of science is 16. This means that every particle has a characteristic
probably the aspect most likely to ensure its ongoing frequency related to its energy
sustainability and relevance, through its inability to settle h
(v = )
for a closed representation and its irrepressible urge to E
doubt, criticize and start all over again. and a wavelength related to the quantity of motion
h
(λ = p ),
in accordance with relationships previously established for
NOTES radiation.
17. Their intrinsic angular momentum or ‘spin’ is integral
1. Dynamics: the effect of a particular type of force (e.g. or zero (as a unit of the quantum of action h or rather
electromagnetic dynamics or gravitational dynamics). h = h ),
2. Independently of the motion of its source. The speed 2π
of light in a vacuum is usually denoted by the symbol c, used the spin of light (the photon) being 1: this feature has since
hereunder. been used to define one of the classes of quantum particles,
3. Vectorial addition, using the three space coordinates. the ‘bosons’.
4. For two collinear speeds, u and v, their composition is 18. In conventional statistical mechanics, particles, even
u+v
V = 1+ uv . when identical, are discernable.
c2 19. Fermions are half- integer ‘spin’ particles (units of the
If one is the speed of light u = c and V = 0). quantum of action): e.g. electrons have spin
5. Low compared to the speed of light. 1 h,
6. An unstable particle known as a muon decays, having 2
a life lasting 1 microsecond (10-6 s), and has to cover a few with two possible directions in a magnetic field.
kilometres (10-6 m) before reaching Earth. 20. Two numbers, x and y, commute: xy − yx = 0. Two
7. x4 = ict, with i = √•−1. matrices, A and B, do not commute: AB − BA = 0. ψ. A
8. In this four-dimensional universe, Lorentz’s matrix, or any appropriate linear operator, operating on the
transformations are rotations of the four coordinates, state function, produces an ‘eigenvalue equation’, such as
leaving ‘distances’ as invariants. The metric for this hyper- Aψ = aψ, A being the operator (e.g. the Hamiltonian H
space (or Minkowski’s universe) then featured an invariant being energy), and a the eigenvalue (a real or complex
element for ‘distance’, ds2 = dx12 + dx22 + dx32 − c2dt2, with number).
the signature (+,+,+,−) being the signature of a quasi- 21. This probability is calculated as the square of the
Euclidean space. In space-time, any action propagated at the module (or absolute value) of the state function (|ψ|2).
speed of light covers spatial distance x in time interval t so 22. The same state can be determined independently
that x = ±ct. This equation defines the ‘light cone’. The using another set of this type with quantities that do not
space-time region inside the light cone (known as ‘timelike’) commute with the first ones (incompatible or
is the area of physical actions between two of its points; the complementary systems). It was also shown that these
area outside (known as ‘spacelike’) is non-physical, as no operators could be constructed using equivalent classical
pair of its ‘four-points’ can have a causal relationship. numerical quantities as generators of infinitesimal
9. The quasi-Euclidean space-time metric of special transformations.
relativity (see above) was then replaced by the most general 23. h being finite (non nil).
form of metric, ds2 = Σgμνdxμdxν. Here xμ and xν are the 24. EPR being the initials of the authors of an article
generalized coordinates of space-time, and the functions gμν published in 1935 in the Physical Review: Einstein and his
(such magnitudes with a number of indices are tensors) are colleagues, Boris Podolski and Nathan Rosen.
the metric at each point. 25. Over the period 1964–1981.
10. Einstein’s equation links the metric tensor to the 26. All that is needed, for example, is a highly rarefied
energy-momentum tensor of matter. beam with well-defined temporal distribution: it is known
11. An extra 43’ of arc per century. that, in a given time interval, one single particle goes through
12. Energy exchanged (ΔE) is proportional to the an interferometer.
frequency (ν): ΔE = nhv, n being a whole number, and h a 27. The exact value today for Avogadro’s number is N =
constant of very small numerical value (h = 6.55 × 10-27 erg. 6,022 × 1023.
sec), is the ‘quantum of action’ or ‘Planck’s constant’. 28. The corresponding quantum numbers being denoted,
13. Radiation energy is proportional to its frequency: respectively, by n, l, m and s; their possible values are
E = hv. This relationship was verified with observations of determined by specific quantum rules. The spin of the
the photoelectric effect. electron can be aligned in one of two directions.

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29. X-rays have very short wavelengths of the magnitude produce a particle-antiparticle pair. The antiproton (with
of atomic distances and produce interferences in crystalline mass close to 1 GeV) was produced and identified this way
networks. in 1955 by Owen Chamberlain, on the Bevatron at Berkeley
30. With Hans Bethe, Eugen Wigner, John Slater, Nevill (6 GeV energy).
Mott and Harry Jones. 44. From a few MeV to a few hundred MeV.
31. Transistors are used in integrated circuits; with 45. One GeV and above (TeV by the late twentieth
continuing miniaturization, they have now shrunk to a few century).
tenths of a micrometer (chips). 46. Gravitational force plays no role in atomic and
32. The absolute temperature scale has zero at t = subatomic physics because of the tiny scale of the
−273.16 degrees Celsius, i.e. the temperature of 0 °C gravitational constant. It does, however, come into play in a
corresponds to T = 273.16 K. highly specific area, with very high energies in the first
33. Superconductivity was discovered in the early instants of cosmology, to be discussed below.
twentieth century by Kamerlingh Onnes, working with 47. β− radioactivity is expressed as an elementary process,
−
mercury, and has since been explained by quantum theory. in a nucleus: n → p + e− + υe. (A neutron decays into a
It is of considerable practical use: when used in proton, an electron and an antineutrino). The basic idea is
electromagnetic circuits, it can produce intense magnetic that the transformation of a neutron into a proton goes
fields without any loss of current, and is now used in large with the transformation of a neutrino into an electron
particle accelerators. Critical temperatures currently used (according to Dirac’s theory and quantum field theory, a
are relatively low. But the possibility of finding materials neutrino destroyed is the same as an antineutrino
which could be superconductors at temperatures closer to created).
ordinary temperatures would open the path for an ever 48. The p meson, which is present in a ‘virtual state’ in the
more prodigious range of applications, for example, magnetic nucleus, can be created in nuclear interactions by introducing
levitation trains moving without any friction. mass, i.e. energy, according to the mass-energy relation
34. In his theoretical work on monoatomic gas atoms E = mc2. The concept of a ‘virtual particle’ comes from the
(‘boson gases’), based originally on an idea proposed by Bose. quantum field theory which states that a physical vacuum is
35. To achieve extreme cold, lasers are used, their light comprised of virtual particle-antiparticle pairs, having two
trapping the atoms in a magnetic field so that they cannot physical consequences: vacuum polarization, as proven by
retrieve their kinetic energy. the Lamb effect, and endothermic production of particles,
36. The dimensions of the nucleus are of the magnitude of confirmed by the possibility of producing particles providing
10-13 cm (1 fermi), while the distances at the atomic level are sufficient energy.
of the magnitude of 10-8 cm. 49. These resonances have an extremely short lifetime:
37. The structure of the nucleus was then explained in approx. 10-22 s. Electromagnetic decay means a lifetime from
terms of atomic masses (A) and atomic numbers (Z): a 10-16 s to 10-18 s, while for a weak force it is 10-13 s and
nucleus contains Z protons and A-Z neutrons, and its mass above.
is equal to the sum of the masses of the constituents minus 50. Formulated by Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Nin Yang
their binding energy and confirmed in experiments conducted by Chien Shiung
(mN = Z.mp + (A − Z).mn − ∆E ). Wu.
c2 51. Baryons have spin 21 and 23 , mesons have spin 0, 1, 2
It was then possible to simply draw up the balance of (in h̄ units).
energies expended or released in nuclear reactions. 52. SU(3) symmetry was postulated in 1962 by Murray
38. Isotopes are atoms with the same chemical properties Gell-Mann and Abraham Pais, and the idea of three quarks
and atomic number, but a different mass number: their is the work of Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig.
nucleus has the same number of protons and a different 53. The flavours of the three quarks are isospin ‘up’, ‘down’
number of neutrons. For one given stable element, there can and ‘strange’, giving the symbols u, d and s. Quarks have
be radioactive isotopes, which are unstable (because of the spin 21 and fractional electric and baryonic charges ( 13 , 23 ). In
excess of neutrons): hydrogen, deuterium (both being this representation, mesons are quark-antiquark
stable) and tritium (radioactive) are isotopes. Carbon-14 combinations, baryons are three-quark combinations (uud
(6 protons and 8 neutrons) is a radioactive isotope of stable for the proton, udd for the neutron, etc.).
carbon-12 (6 p and 6 n). 54. Each flavour, corresponding to a distinct quark,
39. In these reactions where the total mass of the products determines a family of particles with a characteristic flavour:
is smaller than the initial mass, the difference in mass is in addition to nucleons and p mesons and their excited
turned into released energy. states (distributed as electrically charged multiplets reduced
40. Thermonuclear fusion would still raise problems, as is to the isospin and comprised solely of u and d quarks), are
the case with fission in today’s nuclear power stations, for the strange hadrons (with at least one s quark), discovered
safety and the disposal of highly radioactive waste. and studied in the 1950s and 1960s, the charmed hadrons
41. In atomic and subatomic physics, energies are (with one c quark) of the 1970s, then the B and T hadrons
expressed in multiples of electron-volts (eV): keV (kilo eV, (incorporating respectively b and t quarks), identified in the
i.e. 1 thousand keV), MeV (1 million eV), GeV (G for giga, 1980s and 1990s. These hadrons are ranked higher up the
billion, 109 eV), TeV (1 thousand GeV, i.e. 1012 eV). mass scale, and correspond to masses that could be assigned
42. Binding energies at the atomic level range in magnitude to elementary quarks: small for u and d, and increasingly
from the electron-volt (eV) to the keV. higher for s, c, b and t.
43. For each particle there is potentially a corresponding 55. The six quarks have been given the following names: u
anti-particle of the same mass and opposite in charge. The (isospin up), d (isospin down), s (strange), c (charmed), b
excitation of nuclear matter, by using sufficient energy, can (beauty or bottom), t (truth or top).

147
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56. Research by Aage Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson and Supernovae also emit gravitational waves which, in theory,
L. James Rainwater. should be detectable and will no doubt be observed in the
57. The development of series perturbations occurs first years of the 21st century (see above, on general
following the increasing power of the ‘coupling constant’ relativity). Once the iron core goes beyond a certain limit
measuring the intensity, which is small compared to unity: (‘Chandrasekhar limit’), it collapses in on itself, and the
the series decreases quickly. outer matter is violently ejected.
58. The ‘Lamb effect’ or ‘Lamb shift’ is the difference in 70. Because of the weak interaction capacity of neutrinos,
certain fine structure levels of the hydrogen atom in relation these are huge and positioned under thick layers of matter
to the values calculated (using Dirac’s equation): the effect (in mountain tunnels, at the bottom of mine shafts, or even
is actually caused by a ‘cloud of virtual photons’ or ‘vacuum in submarines), for maximum filtering of background
polarization’ which quantum electrodynamics deals with by noise.
renormalization. 71. Hubble’s relation is z = ∆λ λ
= H0L , λ being the
59. This term is purely metaphorical: the superposition of wavelength, Δλ the wave shift, and H0 Hubble’s constant
the three colours is neutral and colourless. (re-evaluated in the 1980s and set at 100 kms per s and per
60. The idea of the mechanism, which was then generally megaparsec (1 pc, parsec = 3.26 light-years). The spectral
adopted for studying symmetry, was actually the work of shift is interpreted as a Doppler-Fizeau effect caused by a
Brout, Englert and Higgs, who presented it in 1971. movement away at speed v, z = νc .
61. A ‘current’ of particles expresses the transition from 72. The proportion of deuterium is 25 per cent.
one state to another at the time of the interaction with the 73. The cosmological principle involves a special form of
field: an electron interacting with an electromagnetic field metric known as the Robertson-Walker metric.
emerges with no charge exchange (neutral current); but a 74. These models are mathematical and the term
neutrino turning into an electron in its coupling with the ‘singularity’ is used with that meaning.
weak field, produces a charged current. 75. Between 50 and 100 kms per s per megaparsec.
62. CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research, 76. The most commonly accepted value is in the vicinity of
near Geneva. The first reaction observed, a rare occurrence 15 billion years. In 1998, observers using high-resolution
given the low probability, was: νμ + e− → νμ + e−. Another telescopes detected two very primitive galaxies on the
and more frequent reaction is: ν μ + p → νμ + p (the ‘bounds’ of the Universe, at 12 billion years or more.
corresponding charged-current reaction is νμ + n → e− + p). 77. That is, 109 times the number of baryons (neutrons
63. q denoting quarks u, d, s, c, b and t. and protons) which comprise observable matter.
64. Two colour quarks qi et qj exchange a gluon gij (i, j = 1, 78. These particles should differ from known particles
2, 3). Studies of nuclear matter and the properties of parton- which had interactions that determined the formation of
quarks had previously shown particles other than quarks the Universe as described in the ‘cosmology of the first
present inside hadrons, suggesting that they may ‘stick’ the instants’.
quarks together, hence their name, ‘gluons’. 79. The grand unification field from 10-43 s to 10-35 s, the
65. Among the most interesting phenomena revealed by dissociated chromodynamic and electroweak fields from
quantum chromodynamics (which now uses them to test 10-35 s to 10-32 s with a predominance of quarks and leptons,
predictions) are ‘jets’ of quarks and gluons, the effect of the then the three separate fields (strong, electromagnetic and
kinetic drift of particles emitted in collisions by interacting weak) from 10-32 to 10-12 s with a ‘soup’ of particles and
elementary particles: quark-antiquark fusion. These antiparticles; next, from 10-12 to 10-6 s (one microsecond),
processes and others of a similar kind show that valence matter is a broth of particles and radiation; on cooling, after
quarks are present and indicate the underlying presence of approximately three minutes, matter is converted into
the ocean of virtual quark-antiquark pairs and also of hydrogen, deuterium and helium nuclei (this is the radiation
gluons. era when matter and radiation uncouple, with the
66. If the leptonic numbers are linked to the ‘flavours’ of cosmogenesis of light elements); around 100,000 years, the
quarks, each doublet of leptons matches a doublet of quarks nuclei attract electrons, forming atoms, emitting isotropic
(e, νe with u, d; μ, νμ with s, c; τ, ντ with b, t). This structure electromagnetic radiation.
of elementary fermions divided into three families with 80. Starting in the late 17th century with the mechanics in
universal coupling with interacting fields is probably due to Isaac Newton’s Principia, until the late 19th century with
an underlying and as yet unknown fundamental property. James Clerk Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, and covering
The number of these families is limited to three because of the 18th century with work on fluid mechanics by Jean
certain constraints: all quarks and leptons are now known. d’Alembert and Leonhard Euler, and Joseph-Louis
67. Initially ‘massive compact objects’. Lagrange’s Analytical Mechanics.
68. These astronomical beacons emit radiation at radio 81. The bomb was developed in the Los Alamos
frequencies with a periodicity of a few tenths of a millisecond, Laboratory, in the United States, between 1942 and 1945.
produced by the extremely fast rotation of the star around At the same time scientists learned how to control the
its axis: when the star collapses in on itself, the initial kinetic production of nuclear energy, with the first atomic pile used
moment is retained, the effect being, as when skaters spin, a to enrich uranium with fissile matter and transform it into
considerable increase in the speed of rotation. One of the plutonium: nuclear piles and reactors were subsequently
best-known pulsars is the Crab Nebula, a remnant of the designed to generate electricity. Nuclear physics and
supernova seen in 1054 and recorded at the time by Chinese elementary particle physics as we know them today are the
astronomers. direct result of this history so closely bound up with the
69. At the end of its life, a star produces a supernova if its political situation. The paradox is that today, with the
mass is approximately ten times the mass of the Sun. One establishment and operation of CERN (the European
supernova is produced in each galaxy about once a century. Organization for Nuclear Research) near Geneva, on the

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border between France and Switzerland, they provide a 92. This synthesis may have occurred in other
model for international scientific cooperation and environments, e.g. meteorites in space, these being the
partnership, conducted in a spirit of peace, but also with fossils of the primitive matter in the solar system, with
direct involvement of the different states. However, as many organic molecules, or even other planets and their
research into subatomic physics has gone deeper, knowledge satellites, which can help determine the physicochemical
has moved away from practical applications, which are now conditions of the primitive Earth.
mainly seen as the domain of industrial technology. 93. See, e.g., Graham Cairns-Smith’s theory of genetic
82. Ranging from electrostatic accelerators with protons take-over, i.e. that a clay (mineral), playing the role of a
and light nuclei to heavy ion accelerators first developed in primitive enzyme, may have catalysed the polymerization of
the late 1960s. the molecules absorbed on the clay surfaces in the form of
83. Ranging from cyclotrons and linear electron laminae, at the point where earth and water meet; the
accelerators to proton synchrotrons and proton-antiproton polymer chains thus formed could have then acquired a
and electron-positron collider rings. permanent capacity to reproduce autonomously.
84. One of the great advances in this field in recent times
was the achievement of the technique known as stochastic
cooling developed by Simon van der Meer, which made it
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S c i e n c e a s a Sy s t e m o f Id e a s
F i r s t H a lf o f t h e Tw e n t i e t h C e n t ury

Ludmila A. Markova

In the twentieth century, there emerged a veritable interpretation of scientific knowledge, which, in the mid-
confraternity of scholars – sociologists, philosophers and twentieth century, lay at the basis of the two opposing
historians – engaged in specific areas of research in the schools of thought in the historiography of science, namely
social sciences. This confraternity was based not only on a internalism and externalism.
shared object of study, but also on a wide range of social If science is studied as a social institution (universities,
factors. The latter include a common language (the academies, research institutes and groups) existing within
overwhelming majority of works are written in English), a society, this presupposes a study of the characteristic
common territory (mainly Western Europe and North features of this institution, which has its own hierarchy,
America), and the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas personal ethical norms of conduct, individual stimuli and
at conferences, seminars, by student and professor exchanges distinctive system of motivation and censure. The social
and the preparation of joint publications, etc. Thus, we can institution of science can exert no more direct influence on
speak of the existence of an integrated community of the content of scientific ideas than can society in general.
researchers who, through their combined efforts, reflect the The main contribution to the elaboration of this view of
state of twentieth-century study. Naturally, this community science in the twentieth century was made by R. Merton,
does not exist in isolation. The discussion of any serious the founder of the sociology of science.
issue can prompt the members of this community to Until the mid-twentieth century, the philosophy of
examine the history of their own or outside disciplines or to science was dominated by the positivist school, whose
engage in ideological disputes. followers reduced the analysis of science mainly to an
Consequently, research also reflects the opinions of non- analysis of scientific language. According to the positivists,
professionals. Natural scientists, writers, politicians, the essential concept is that of demarcation, that is, the
economists, etc., express their views on science. Their rigorous separation of science from metaphysics and history.
viewpoint is often of considerable interest, but we shall Moreover, they believe that science should be studied by
focus our attention on professional research. scientists using strictly logical methods and that the most
As a rule, the arguments of researchers are conducted fruitful line of research is the analysis of modern scientific
along one of two axes. Science may be understood as: systems without reference to metaphysics. These ideas were
1) a system of ideas within society, given their clearest formulation in the works of R. Carnap,
2) activities undertaken to acquire knowledge. C. Hempel, E. Nagel, and other researchers, the majority of
Up to the mid-twentieth century, primarily the first axis whom were members of the Vienna Circle of logical
was developed, eclipsing activity undertaken to acquire positivism, which emerged from a seminar organized by
knowledge. M. Schlick at the Department of the Philosophy of the
When science is seen as a system of ideas, it is assumed Inductive Sciences at the University of Vienna. The circle
that in their development, these scientific ideas are influenced ceased its activities following the annexation of Austria by
to some degree by aspects that are external to the ideas Germany (Anschluss) in the late 1930s.
themselves (production, politics, religion, etc.). When In the history of science, the concept of gradual advance
analysing the way in which science functions within society, in the development of scientific knowledge has held a central
the main role is accorded to the outcome of scientific place. In such a cumulative process, each new achievement
research and its uses by society. Little importance is attached provides a fuller and more adequate picture of the natural
to examining how these ideas emerged as a result of the world and more accurate knowledge. A new idea emerges
creative activity of the scientist. Yet, any analysis of the from the preceding idea and becomes the basis for the next
logical structure of scientific knowledge itself is conducted advance. The most striking proponent of this view of the
exclusively on the basis of its internal logic, independently history of science was the French historian of science
of the social or cultural milieu. It was precisely this P. Duhem at the beginning of the century.

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S cience and E xperimental knowledge from experience cannot be logically understood.

Knowledge – T he P rinciple of There is a ‘gap’ separating practical activity from scientific
the  E conomy of T hought activity.

When, in the early twentieth century, scholars discussed

the relationship between science and society, they usually C onventionalism in the
had in mind not the political, social or economic structure C onstruction of P hysical
of society, but the experience acquired by men in the course T heory
of their everyday activities. How does such experience
correlate with scientific knowledge? To what extent are This gap separating practical and scientific activity is
their systems related? Which comes first? How do they carefully explained in the work of P. Duhem, who
relate to each other in the history of humankind and in the distinguishes science from common sense, from the
life of the individual? Answers to these and other similar experience acquired in the course of practical activity, from
questions had been sought in the nineteenth century by the manufacture and production, from civil and political
founders of positivism (A. Comte, H. Spencer), and these history,2 thereby placing the emphasis on the logical aspect
issues were at the core of the work of E. Mach. All these of scientific knowledge, that is, on one of the characteristics
scholars attempted to identify the shared characteristics of that distinguish it from everyday knowledge.
scientific thought and common sense and the link between Duhem follows Mach in recognizing the principle of the
science and practical experience. economy of thought, and suggests that physical theory is
Mach noted that, in the course of our everyday activity, constructed in accordance with this principle. Experimental
we establish a link between natural processes and our own law replaces an enormous number of concrete facts by
needs.1 The satisfaction of needs leads to the emergence of abstraction, which ignores the specific or individual aspects
instinctive, involuntary knowledge of the processes of nature in each of these facts in order to extract from them that
that apparently always preceded scientific, deliberately which they have in common and which is of general
acquired knowledge. Science developed out of manufacturing significance. Theory is precisely the economic presentation
as a result of the need to pass on the results of the experience of physical laws and their classification.
acquired in the process of manufacturing to others. This The principles or hypotheses, which we formulate in
was how science emerged historically, but in the course of order to systematize facts concentrated in physical laws, are
its subsequent development, logical, scientific knowledge formulated arbitrarily and independently of experience.
has always been based on experimental knowledge. Mathematical operations are carried out on the basis of
Mach argues that the partly instinctive, partly conscious these principles independently of any link with experience.
accumulation of experimental data preceded its scientific If, as a result, the physical theory corresponds to reality, it is
systematization. Usually, when we wish to introduce quite fortuitous, quite involuntary. To believe that our
someone to natural phenomena or processes, we do not theory corresponds to the natural order is an act of faith.
oblige the person to observe them directly, but we describe According to Duhem, physical theory is not an
this natural process in some way so that the person does not explanation but rather an image of the natural order. The
have to undergo the experience. According to Mach, this physicist is unable to prove this, but he ‘cannot free himself
economy of thought and understanding constitutes the of the idea’ that this is so. Thus an ‘irrepressible conviction’
essence of science. of the truth of this view is aroused within him, and he ‘is not
Historically, science emerged as a consequence of the aware’ of this conviction even though he ‘senses’ that it is
desire to pass on to future generations as economically as correct. The fact that we believe in the predictive power of
possible the knowledge accumulated in the course of physical theories is seen by Duhem as the most convincing
practical activities such as to make clothing, weapons, evidence of our belief that theoretical classification is part of
shelter, etc. This economy was achieved by systematizing the natural order. According to Duhem, the result of a
knowledge, and thus it was gradually given logical, scientific physical experiment is not an observation of facts, but an
formulation. Scientific knowledge becomes logical and interpretation of those facts that are transferred into the
rational only after emerging from experience. The process of ideal, abstract, symbolic world created by theories the
the emergence of knowledge is excluded from the rational, physicist believes to be correct.
logical sphere. It is above all the symbolic nature of physical laws that
Mach introduced the concept of conditionality and distinguishes them from the laws of common sense, which
conventionality into scientific knowledge, an area on which may be true or false. The laws of physics, on the other hand,
Duhem was later to focus his attention. It is precisely these expressed in mathematical form, are always symbolic, and a
elements of conventionalism in Mach’s theory that symbol can be neither correct nor erroneous.
undermine his initial postulate on the identical nature of In the course of its construction, a physical theory may
everyday and scientific knowledge. Everyday knowledge is select any route, provided it does not lead to logical
something we acquire in our practical activity, which does contradiction. For example, Duhem asserts that a theory
not obey the logical laws of the development of scientific may completely ignore facts acquired experimentally.
knowledge but has its own laws of development. The specific However, when the construction of the theory is complete,
characteristics of the development of science do not in any the group of mathematical propositions derived from these
way determine which natural phenomena will interest us in deductions must be compared with the group of experimental
the course of our practical activity. The link between practice facts. This comparison, which is conducted by measurement,
and science emerges fortuitously, arbitrarily and reveals whether or not the experimental facts are adequately
unpredictably. Although experience and practical knowledge reflected in the mathematical symbols. If no such
are the source of scientific knowledge, the genesis of scientific correspondence between the conclusions of the theory and

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the experimental facts is found, then the theory must be not exist. Duhem sees a problem, but also its solution. All
rejected, even if its construction is perfectly logical, since it his arguments lead him to believe in the continuous,
contradicts observation, and is physically false. Only the progressive development of science. The basic postulate
conclusions of a theory are seen as the reflection of reality. upon which Duhem bases his arguments on this issue is
The moment an old theory has to give way to a more that, although there can be no doubt that the history of
promising, new theory is not determined by logic. This science reveals the phenomenon of major leaps, revolutions,
moment is determined by common sense, and therefore, nonetheless they must be brought within continuity and
according to Duhem, it is very important for the physicist to included within some rational, historico-scientific
completely retain common sense. When speaking of the reconstruction, in order to be comprehensible. It was in
emergence of new ideas in the mind of the scientist, or about developing this idea that Duhem arrived at the ‘rehabilitation’
his decision to reject an old theory and adopt a new one, of the Middle Ages. He was the first historian of science to
Duhem wishes to emphasize that any creative process steps show, convincingly, and on the basis of facts, that medieval
outside the boundaries of the logical, deductive development science has been of tremendous importance in shaping the
of scientific concepts and is determined by non-logical natural science of the modern age. In his works, the Middle
factors. All logical operations are carried out conventionally Ages ceased to be a dark age, a period in which no rational
on the sole basis of agreement among scientists. scientific thought existed. Duhem scrupulously traced the
delicate intellectual threads linking the thinkers of various
generations and ages. From this point of view, his research
T he P rinciple of C ontinuity into the legacy of Leonardo da Vinci is particularly
interesting.3 The subtitle of this work speaks for itself:
The positivist tradition of the nineteenth century, which ‘Those whom he read, and those who read him.’ That is,
viewed the development of science as a continuous, Duhem studies Leonardo’s predecessors and those who
cumulative process, was carried over into the twentieth then used his ideas in their research.
century and continued into the 1950s. The history of science In Duhem’s opinion, the history of science is distorted
reveals more clearly than any other human activity the by two prejudices: it is usually thought that scientific
process of the accumulation of knowledge, and this factor progress occurs as a result of sudden and unexpected
became the objective basis for formulating the cumulative discoveries; it is assumed that such progress is the fruit of
model of scientific development. The basic postulates of this the labour of genius, who has no predecessors. In fact,
theory are as follows: however, the history of science adheres rigorously to the law
Each advance in science is made only on the basis of of continuity. Great discoveries are almost always the fruit
previous achievements; new knowledge is always more of slow and complex preparatory work conducted
complete and an improvement on previous knowledge. As throughout the centuries. Even those who are traditionally
it is more accurate and a better reflection of reality, the considered to be creative scientists, such as Galileo,
entire course of development up to this point can be seen as Descartes, Newton, did not formulate theses that were
a preparation for the present situation. In this sense the unrelated to the teaching of their predecessors. An
history of science is progressive. oversimplified account of history obliges us to admire them
Only those elements of past scientific knowledge that and see them as colossi having no roots in the past and
correspond to current scientific theories have any incomprehensible in their isolation. However, more detailed
significance. Ideas and principles that have not become part investigations enable us to trace the long line of development
of current scientific knowledge are erroneous and, historically that culminates with these geniuses. According to Duhem,
speaking, represent misunderstanding and deviations from science, like nature, does not make abrupt leaps.
the highway of scientific development. Duhem refers to the concept of continuity and to the
The ideas of cumulativism were given their most complete cumulative nature of scientific development in all his
and developed elaboration by Mach and Duhem. Mach saw historical works, including the monumental multi-volume
the extension of an existing method of understanding to work entitled Le système du monde,4 in which he follows the
include a new group of facts as the main element in the genesis and development of cosmogonic concepts from
thinking of the natural scientist. He termed this element ancient times to Copernicus. Duhem believes that there is
the principle of continuity, the essence of which was to no absolute principle in the genesis of a scientific thesis.
identify uniformity in natural phenomena and to present However far back into the past we trace the chain of thought
new facts in such a way as to bring them under known laws. that preceded and prepared the way for this thesis, we
A scientific discovery consists in presenting an unknown, always encounter ideas that resulted in their turn from
inexplicable phenomenon or real fact as similar to something earlier ones. If this tracking of successive ideas comes to an
already known and obeying the same rule or law as the end, it is not because we have discovered the first link, but
known phenomena. According to Mach, a scientific because the chain has disappeared into the depths of
discovery is not a break in continuity, a revolution, but, on history.
the contrary, is possible only when the natural scientist Writing about physical theory as such, Duhem states
operates according to the principle of continuity. that it is not the product of a moment of creativity but, on
the contrary, it is always the result of a slow and progressively
developing evolutionary process.
S cience , L i k e N ature , D oes N ot Duhem shifts the emphasis in the interpretation of the
M a k e A brupt L eaps ( P .   D uhem ) cumulative nature of the history of science to the
development of scientific ideas by not only separating
For Mach, the problem of scientific discovery as a deviation science from metaphysics more clearly than his positivist
from the continuous advance of scientific knowledge does predecessors, but also by separating it from social and

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political history, common sense and from experience –  externalism, whose adherents view the history of
acquired in the course of practical activity. As for the scientific ideas as being determined by social context.
problem of the relationship between science and metaphysics, The mid-twentieth century was marked by stormy debates
Duhem relies on the assertion common to all positivists, between these two schools, whose representatives met at
namely that natural science does not have to strive to explain international congresses and conferences. There were many
reality, that is, to reveal that which is concealed behind the publications in the form of journal articles, books and
phenomenon as if behind a smoke screen. When the natural documents resulting from conferences and symposia.5
scientist nonetheless attempts to offer an explanation, that Among the more active participants in these debates were
is, when he engages in metaphysical argumentation, he is in A. Koyré, R. Hall and J. Agassi, who consistently supported
no way furthering scientific thought. Metaphysical internalism, and R. Merton, A. Crombie, G. Guerlac,
arguments on the essence of phenomena are not only E. Zilsel, J. Needham and S. Lilley, who defended the
unnecessary for the physicist, but even impede him, and if sociological interpretation of the history of science.
they serve to provide some external stimulus in achieving An analysis of these historians’ comments on each other’s
any significant results in science, it is purely fortuitous. views reveals that the supporters of the sociological
According to Duhem, in order to arrive at a physical interpretation of the history of science criticize their
explanation, it is essential to determine the nature of those opponents for paying too little attention to the social aspects
elements making up material reality and not directly of the development of science.
accessible to the human senses. This raises two questions: is Crombie claims that historians of the internalist school
there in fact such a thing as material reality apart from fail to study the motives and aims of science, the spread and
sensorial phenomena? If so, what is the nature of that application of scientific discoveries, etc. Guerlac accuses
reality? However, answering these questions is the task of internalist historians of ignoring the link between the
metaphysics, not physics. Physics uses the experimental genesis and history of science and the rise of technology,
method, which deals only with sensorial phenomena, and although it is obvious that science is deeply indebted to
which cannot discover anything outside of them. Duhem practical activities and to the arts. Similarly, Needham is of
warns that to attribute an explanatory function to physical the opinion that scientists are constantly coming up against
theory is to subordinate physics to metaphysics and to practical problems and cannot avoid them.
deprive physics of its autonomy. For their part, the internalist historians see their
Thus, Duhem arrives at the cumulative nature and opponents’ weakness as lying in their failure to take into
continuity of the development of physical ideas by including account the main content of science, that is, the development
within the history of natural science only the descriptive of scientific ideas, which takes place autonomously,
part of the theory. All the revolutionary elements are according to Koyré.
attributed to the history of metaphysics. Hall believes that the history of science is above all an
intellectual history, and that it can in no way be explained
by external factors. He particularly stresses the enormous
I nternalist and E xternalist difference between the two approaches to the study of the
I nterpretations of S cience history of science and has spoken publicly more than once
about the fundamental difference between them.
If science is understood as the totality of scientific ideas, Yet, in a number of cases, if the debate continues (for
then the researcher who undertakes the study of science is example, the dispute between Merton and Hall on the
faced with the discipline’s dual nature. On the one hand, origins of European science), it finally appears that there
scientific ideas exist independently of the individual and of was nothing to argue about because this is not a case of two
the historical period from which they emerge. They depend opposing and incompatible approaches, but of different
above all on the specific nature of the object of study (the subjects of research. It therefore should be possible for each
natural world); scientific ideas follow and support one side to carry on with its work without hindering the other.
another thereby forming an integrated system of knowledge.
On the other hand, one cannot ignore the fact that scientific
ideas emerge in the mind of a given scientist and that their M ethodological O pponents
appearance is assisted or impeded by various events and S hare the S ame C oncept of
factors which, at first glance, have no relationship whatsoever S ocial C ontext
to the rigorously logical structure of scientific knowledge.
Such factors may be related to social, cultural or political Both internalists and externalists agree that the social
circumstances or they may relate directly to the life of the context of science derives exclusively from the influence of
scientist. external social factors (hence the name ‘externalism’) –
Science can be divided into two categories: objective economic, military, political, legal, etc. – on the development
science, or the sum of ideas existing independently of the of scientific knowledge, which possesses its own ‘internal’
subject, and personalized science, which is linked to the laws that determine the logical link between scientific
scientist’s activity of generating knowledge and its social, concepts and between all the elements of the theoretical
political and religious aspects. content of science. All researchers recognize that scientific
This duality gave rise to the emergence of two knowledge, with its own internal logic, is relatively free from
methodological schools in the historiography of science in the influence of external social factors.
the mid-twentieth century: Social factors may accelerate or impede the development
–  internalism, whose proponents view the history of of scientific knowledge, change its direction, but they cannot
science as the history of scientific ideas whose development exert direct influence on the internal logic and content of
is governed by its own internal laws; scientific ideas. This fact is generally recognized by both

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schools: internalists, who reconstruct the logic of the T he C oncept of S ocial C ontext
development of scientific ideas, do not feel the need to study and N atural S cientific T hought
external social factors, while externalists, who conduct
sociological research into the history of science, do not claim The type of social context that predominates in the modern
to analyse scientific knowledge per se. There exists, as it age (above all, with regard to material production), and is
were, a ‘division of labour’ between science historians. based on the division of labour and the exchange of the
The concept of social context to be found in the works of results of activity, also corresponds to certain features of
both internalists and externalists as something accepted theorization in classical natural science.
axiomatically and beyond all doubt presupposes the division The dominant tendency in man’s cognitive attitude
of labour within society and an exchange of the results of towards nature is to view it as something alien and opposed
the various types of activity. The scholar, the industrialist, to him. However, when cognition of the external world,
the military commander, the administrator pursue their existing independently of man as an object of study,
tasks, and specific social relationships exist between them assimilation and use, is understood only as a process directed
and representatives of other spheres of activity. When the outwardly, leading potentially into infinity and not restricted
process of discovery or invention is complete, the scientist’s to man, then there is no longer any need to refer to social
task is to present his or her results in a practical form to be factors in order to explain the nature of scientific knowledge
‘used’ (in the broadest sense of the term) by other scientists as such. The scalpel of natural science uncovers ever-deeper
and those involved in other types of activity (economics, layers of nature, and it is possible to forget the fact that the
politics, culture, etc.). This gives rise to a corresponding set scalpel itself (the technical equipment of science, its material
of relationships. A scientist who has made a breakthrough resources, experimental apparatus, and the intellectual,
in science is of interest and value to society as someone logical capacities of the scientist) changes and improves. The
possessing certain information that can be transferred to internal content and structure of knowledge depends on the
others. The history of the discovery, that is, the scientist as nature of the revealed layers, and not on the characteristics
an individual, is of no importance to society as regards the of the scalpel. The history of human relations – indeed the
successful use of scientific results. history of human society – is the prerequisite for the
Similar demands are made on the person who receives emergence of scientific knowledge. Yet, however intensely
the information. Qualities that might help decode the one may study social history, one will never draw any closer
information and understand its genesis are not required. to understanding the structure and content of the knowledge
Such qualities might even hinder the successful exploitation in question, which reflects and reproduces a natural world
of the newly obtained information. Indeed, if the scientist existing objectively and independently of man.
began to view each mathematical formula needed for his Scientific knowledge cannot be conceived distinct from
work in terms of the ‘history’ of this formula – its genesis or human society. It is created by men but, ideally, the closer it
discovery – he would scarcely make any progress. The comes to absolute truth, the more it is cleansed and freed
assimilation of the history of science in the form of the from all that is ‘human’, that is, subjective, transient, illogical
acquisition of ready-made information requiring no further or fortuitous. However, if the subject is deprived of all its
verification is an essential element of all scientific work. This distinguishing features, the subject as the ‘cognizer’ becomes
method of assimilating history is even more necessary and invariable, always one and the same. The phenomenological
inevitable in material production, in everyday life, particularly fact that humankind is developing, and that the personal
when the results of scientific activity are being used. characteristics of the scientist change accordingly, should be
In order to be able to make use of a television or taken into account only for the purpose of understanding
refrigerator effectively, it is quite sufficient to be able to turn what needs to be excluded from the process of cognition,
and press the appropriate buttons and switches. This the objective being to acquire truly objective scientific
equipment is made to be used by those who know nothing knowledge of the real world.
of its construction. If we follow this line of thought, the social relations
In order to make use of scientific discoveries in the manner involved in the process of obtaining knowledge about the
described above, simple customary practices are quite natural world lose their historical character. Communication
sufficient, and personal qualities are irrelevant and can even among scientists does not depend on whether they belong
be an impediment. Hence the wide possibilities of interchange: to different periods or are contemporaries but occurs quasi-
the same functions within society can ideally be performed simultaneously. As it develops, science gradually frees itself
by anyone, that is, the activity is constant and invariable. In from errors and mistakes linked to the subjective aspect of
the same way, in the history of science, scientific knowledge cognition, and carefully preserves the pieces of objective
is impartial as regards the personality of the scientist, and truth about the world that are not influenced by fortuitous
also the social and cultural characteristics of the period in historical events and factors.
which this knowledge was brought to light. The most detailed The opposite point of view, which involves recognizing
and careful study of the social conditions accompanying the that the content of scientific knowledge is influenced by
appearance of new scientific ideas will not lead the historian changing social factors is described as ‘relativist’ and justifies
to the content and logic of scientific knowledge (externalism), the arbitrary and chaotic nature of the history of scientific
while a scrupulous analysis of the internal logic of a scientific ideas. Ideally, the subject should be freed from all historical
theory does not require any reference to the social context of associations to avoid ‘sullying’ the logical flawlessness of
scientific activity (internalism). objective scientific thought. In this sense, social aspects are
Activity to produce scientific knowledge in all its forms is entirely excluded from the development of scientific ideas.
separated from the result obtained. This interpretation of This interpretation of the social context, applied
the social context of science would appear to be flawless. axiomatically, represents the basis of both the internalist and
However, it has its limits. externalist methodological trends in scientific historiography.

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Scientific ideas develop according to their own laws. While of the internalists and believed in the autonomous nature of
social factors may accelerate or hinder their development as the development of scientific ideas. On the other hand, he
an external cause, they can in no way invade the content or was the main opponent of Duhem, disagreeing with the
the inner, logical structure of knowledge. latter’s concept of the continuous development of scientific
knowledge. Duhem and Koyré differed fundamentally in
their interpretation of the scientific revolution of the
T he M odus O perandi of S ocial seventeenth century, and it was precisely this analysis of the
D emand seventeenth-century scientific revolution that honed their
views of the development of the natural sciences. The mid-
Social demand is a powerful stimulus regulating scientific twentieth-century reassessment of the interpretation of the
progress. Certain requirements emerge within society as a history of science based on cumulativism, continuity and
result of political, military and economic development, and progress was linked to a general crisis in positivist philosophy,
these requirements can be satisfied by science. For example, which was then reflected in the historiography of science via
the development of agriculture gives rise to a need for new the introduction of the concepts of discontinuous
types of fertilizers, and society places such an order with development, particularity, uniqueness, and revolutionary
science. Society is quite unconcerned about the scientific change. The first major shift in this direction came in the
methods used to satisfy this order. What matters is to works of Koyré, who views the sixteenth and seventeenth
obtain results of scientific research that can be exploited. centuries as an era of fundamental, revolutionary changes in
The scientist, for his part, does not need to know how this the history of scientific thought. While studying this period,
order came to be formulated within society in order to carry Koyré came to the conclusion that the European mind had
out his work successfully. The priority is placed on social achieved a profound intellectual revolution that modified
development. the very foundations and structure of our thinking. This
In the case described above, social influences on science revolution occurred not only in science but also in
function as external forces to stimulate action, but they are philosophy.
not responsible for the laws governing this action: a crop Koyré opposed any attempt to minimize or even simply
failure obliging researchers to intensify their work in a deny the originality and revolutionary nature of Galileo’s
particular area of chemistry does not determine the methods thinking. Koyré showed that the seeming continuity in the
of scientific thinking. The internal nature of the external development of medieval and modern physics – the
force is not important in terms of understanding the laws continuity so persistently emphasized by Duhem – is
that govern the action generated. The result of scientific merely an illusion. Koyré did not deny the existence of a
activity transmitted to society for exploitation also acts as a tradition encompassing the works of medieval scholars and
force that generates certain activity (for example, the use of those of Giordano Bruno, Galileo, and Descartes, yet held
fertilizers accelerates plant growth). However, the laws of that the conclusion reached by Duhem is mistaken. A well-
this activity are not determined by the applied force (a plant prepared revolution is nonetheless a revolution.
may grow more quickly or more slowly, but it grows Koyré describes the essence of this scientific revolution
according to its own biological laws, which cannot be as follows: first and foremost, it led to the collapse of the
determined by new chemical fertilizers). cosmos, and also to the geometrization of space. Prior to
A correspondence can be demonstrated between social this revolution, the cosmos had been seen as a perfect and
relationships and the logic of reasoning in contemporary ordered world in which the spatial structure embodied a
natural science. In Newtonian mechanics, the nature of the hierarchy of values and degrees of perfection and the
forces causing motion is not known. These forces are heavenly spheres ‘rose above’ a heavy and impenetrable
characterized exclusively by the motion they cause. Kinetic earth. This was replaced with an infinite universe that did
laws of motion do not depend on the nature of the force not incorporate any natural hierarchy and was held together
that causes the motion. The motion of material bodies in only by identical laws. The second feature of this revolution,
this theory is reduced to the motion of material points. This the geometrization of space, was closely bound up with the
means that kinetic laws of motion do not take into account first. The Aristotelian concept of space as the differentiated
the internal structure, the content of the moving bodies, nor totality of locations within space gave way to a Euclidean
those changes that take place in them as a result of the geometrical concept of space as a homogeneous and infinite
movement. extension.
Scientific knowledge as a result concentrated within a All of this caused scientific thought to reject all
mathematical point (the content of knowledge has a considerations based on concepts of value, perfection,
significance revealed only in its action on something else; as harmony, emotion and aims, and eventually led to the
an operating force, it can be equated with a point) exerts a complete devaluation of God, to a complete rupture between
certain influence on processes within society, and similarly, the world of values and the world of facts. The most
the results of social development exert their influence on fundamental work by Koyré, where he developed and
scientific progress. argued his concept of scientific revolution, is his Etudes
galiléennes (1939).6 For a long time thereafter, Koyré’s
research became the banner of the opponents of positivism
T he E ssence of the seventeenth - in the history and philosophy of science.
C entury S C I E N T I F I C R E V O L U T I O N

In the historiography of science in the mid-twentieth

century, French science historian Alexandre Koyré appears
in two guises. On the one hand, he was an energetic supporter

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NOTES bibliography

1. E. Mach, La mécanique: exposé historique et critique de CLAGGETT, M. 1955. Critical Problems in the History of Science.
son développement, Paris 1925, 498 pp. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI.
2. P. Duhem, The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, CROMBIE, A. C. 1963. Scientific Change: Historical Studies in the
New York, 1962. Intellectual, Social and Technical Conditions for Scientific Discovery
3. Idem, Etudes sur Léonard de Vinci, Paris, 2 vols, 1955. and Technical Invention. Heinemann, London.
4. Idem, Le système du monde, Paris, 1954. DUHEM, P. M. M. 1962. The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory.
5. A. Crombie (ed.), Scientific Change, London, 1963, Atheneum, New York.
896 pp.; M. Claggett (ed.), Critical Problems in the History of  1906–1913 (rev. edn 1955). Etudes sur Léonard de Vinci. (2 vols.).
Science, Madison, 1959, 555 pp. A. Hermann, Paris
6. A. Koyré, Etudes galiléennes, Paris, 1966, 341 pp.  1913–1957. Le système du monde. A. Hermann, Paris.
KOYRE, A. 1966. Etudes galiléennes. A. Hermann, Paris.
MACH, E. 1925. La mécanique: exposé historique et critique de son
développement. Payot, Paris.

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 15
Science as the Activity of
A c qu i r i n g K n o wl e dg e
S e c o n d H a lf o f t h e Tw e n t i e t h c e n t ury

Ludmila A. Markova

I ntroduction In the mid-twentieth century, the external causal

influences, which were determined by the way in which
In the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of scientific activity functions within society, came to occupy
researchers sought to isolate the content of scientific the dominant position in the study of science as a social
knowledge from social influence. Over recent decades, phenomenon. If certain phenomena or events did not fit in
emphasis has been placed on the fact that knowledge does with the traditional sociological analysis, almost
not exist independently but is shaped and determined by automatically they were declared inherently non-social. If
society. One reason for this shift is the attention focused on we are not dealing with external determination, then we are
the process of acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is not a not talking about social context.
ready-made result independent of the process that produced Towards the end of the twentieth century, the picture
it; rather, the means of acquiring knowledge can be found changed considerably. External causal determination is now
within knowledge itself. receding into the background, and attention is focusing on
During distinct periods in history, different methodologies those personal relations that take shape in the course of
have been used in the natural sciences. Similarly, methods acquiring new knowledge. But real difficulties arise. Can
of cognition vary according to the particularities of the social one call such relations ‘social’? Should we reject the
structure and culture. However, different methods traditional concept of social context, and what consequences
presuppose diverse results, and the content of scientific might such a rejection entail? Are we changing the very
knowledge changes from one epoch to another, since concept of social context too radically?
nothing is stable or constant. This content loses its objective The source of all these difficulties in the interpretation of
character, and the question of truth loses its significance. If scientific knowledge was the prime role accorded to scientific
such a viewpoint is taken to its logical conclusion, it would revolution as the most significant, essential aspect in the
appear that the structure and content of scientific knowledge development of science. This led to a revision of the
merges with the act of acquiring it and that this activity is cumulative model of the history of science, a model in which
determined by society. One can therefore conclude that society and scientific knowledge develop in parallel, each in
scientific knowledge is shaped by society, and its content in accordance with its own laws.
no way depends on the natural world as cognized via science.
Moreover, it is supposed that the scheme of scientific
theorizing is transferred directly from society to science. No S cientific R evolution as the
allowance is made for the fact that the internal social content D eterminant in the S ubsequent
of science itself integrates and idealizes the ways of thinking D evelopment of S cience
of a given age, and only then do the norms of thought pass
from science and philosophy and spread into society. It would be a mistake to think that historians who supported
It is of course true that various methodologies, different evolutionist views denied that revolutions occurred in the
types of thinking in various epochs, give rise to different history of science. Phenomenologically, they recognized
forms of knowledge, but distinctive types of thinking realize revolutionary situations, but assumed that they could be
or give substance to various aspects, leading to many understood only by including them within the continuous
possibilities within reality – that same natural reality that flow of development and considering them part of the
always remains the object of scientific study. The logical evolutionary process.
structure of a scientific theory is examined in light of its Usually, scientific revolutions were viewed as accelerated
ability to compete with opposing points of views and its evolutionary development or as periods in the development
development into a new theory defended by other of the natural sciences characterized by the fact that a
representatives of the scientific community. particularly large number of major discoveries by

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outstanding scientists were made in a fairly short period In the history of science, perhaps the most vivid illustration
of time. of this kind of development is the Ptolemaic theory, with its
Another way of understanding scientific revolutions as ever-increasing number of epicycles introduced to explain
part of the evolutionary process is to push the revolution newly discovered facts, which render the structure of the
itself further into the past during the analysis of the theory excessively complex. As regards excessively
revolutionary situation by discovering an endless chain of formalized, virtually algorithmic activity along the lines of a
predecessors preparing the way for the great scientists who, given paradigm, this is a fact, and the strong point of Kuhn’s
phenomenologically, then appear as the revolutionaries. In theory is that he analysed such activity, linking it to a
this case, revolution is understood as being not a transition particular interpretation of scientific revolution. Everyday
from truth to truth, but from falsehood to truth, from pre- scientific research is not conducted in isolation, but is
scientific concepts to scientific concepts, i.e. as an absolute shaped by scientific revolution.
principle. On the other hand, Kuhn’s theory reveals a weakness: in
In the second half of the twentieth century, the following directing his attention to precisely these aspects of scientific
important factor was brought to the fore in the interpretation activity, he has unwittingly gone some way to returning us
of scientific revolutions: inter-revolutionary periods in the to the previous line of reasoning as regards the history of
development of science, the study of which had seemed to science, which argued that the development of science one
yield such good results, are difficult to understand without way or another excludes moments of creativity, which are
a corresponding interpretation of scientific revolutions, either moved to the periphery of science or even placed
since understanding the cumulative periods depends on this outside its boundaries. Kuhn’s concept reveals a clear
interpretation. It is presupposed that the new theory, which tendency to view scientific creativity as a vivid, exclusive and
emerges in the course of a scientific revolution, differs rare spark rigorously determining the subsequent
radically from the old theory and that this means a transition development of science, in the course of which the previously
to an essentially new type of activity. After the revolution, acquired knowledge is substantiated in the form of an
the development of science begins, as it were, from zero. expanded and confirmed paradigm.
However, if a theory (or paradigm or research Here Kuhn opposes K. Popper, who places particular
programme) emerges immediately in its integral, complete emphasis on the ongoing nature of scientific revolutions.
and perfected form as a model and instrument of activity in Popper views the history of science as an unending chain of
the post-revolutionary period, then during this period the revolutions. The sooner any new theory can be proved false
scientist will not need to engage in any essential improvement and overturned, the more scientific it is, and the more
of the new theory, since it is already perfected. It is only frequently this happens, the more successful is the
necessary to polish the details by successfully resolving development of science.2
questions emerging lawfully within the framework of the Despite the fact that Kuhn’s work undoubtedly contains
new theory. This is precisely the point of view expressed in different aspects of this idea, the basic postulate is
the concept of T. Kuhn.1 nonetheless as follows: the development of science takes
In the inter-revolutionary periods, the scientist constantly place primarily via the normal activity of scientists, whose
perfects the superior qualities of the new theory, or slightly main aim is to use the paradigm that emerged triumphant
transforms that theory, adapting it to explain additional from the latest revolution in order to resolve current
facts. In this case, the work of the scientist after the problems and thus confirm the validity of that paradigm
revolution is focused on the past, on a revolution that has and its advantages in relation to the previous paradigm.
already occurred, and the resulting theory. Science develops Activity in the course of scientific revolutions is
by constantly glancing backwards. This approach to extraordinary, whereas the work of scientists in the post-
scientific revolutions presupposes that all creativity, all effort revolutionary period is ordinary, normal, and it is precisely
to discover something new, is concentrated in revolutionary this work that enables us to distinguish science from other
situations. spheres of intellectual activity.
As for activity in the periods between revolutions, here
activity consists exclusively in confirming and polishing
existing knowledge and in using this ability as an instrument T he P rogramme ( P aradigm ) as
and a means of resolving problems whose significance is a  P ro j ect for F urther R esearch
found within the framework of the new theory. The
inevitable result is the excessively automated, algorithmic Another possible interpretation of cumulative periods is
nature of scientific activity during the inter-revolutionary one in which, when interpreting scientific theories, we
period. proceed on the assumption that the theory that emerges
in the course of a revolution is still incomplete. This point
of view is developed with detailed consistency by
T he S trong and W ea k A spects I. Lakatos, particularly in his article ‘Proofs and
of Kuhn ’ s I nterpretation Refutations’.3
of S cientific R evolutions Unlike Kuhn, Lakatos does not believe that the scientific
research programme that emerges in the course of a
Kuhn’s position has both a strength and a weakness. On the revolution is complete and fully formed. The continuity of
one hand, he has identified an existing aspect of scientific scientific research in the post-revolutionary period emerges,
development. Indeed, the new paradigm or theory is in Lakatos’ view, out of the lack of clarity in the initial
confirmed within the structure of scientific knowledge by research programme, which appears as a hazy indication
subsequent work along the lines of that new theory (and its for the future. The programme functions as a project for
adaptation) in order to explain a range of new phenomena. further research and as a project for its own further

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 thematic section

development and final formulation. While the research If one analyses a situation linked to the development of
programme is being perfected, Lakatos refers to its scientific ideas (for example, the situation of a scientific
progressive development, which ends at some ‘saturation revolution), then in their debates with one another the
point’, after which regression sets in. scientists, as it were, personify various methods of logical
In the 1960s and 1970s, there were heated debates about interpretation. Here the test of whether or not a given
the definition of a scientific revolution and its role in the scientist is expressing in his scientific argument what is
history of science.4 For all their differences, the ideas of indeed a logical position, and not subjective features of his
Kuhn, Popper and Lakatos concerning scientific revolution own personality irrelevant to the development of science, is
had one thing in common: they were a reaction to the crisis the possibility of replacing the scientist with a fictional
of positivism and positivist concepts in the history of character, as in the ‘Dialogues’ of Galileo, or the ‘Proofs and
science. Refutations’ of Lakatos.
If there is no serious consideration of these distinctions,
it will hardly be possible to arrive at a solution to the central
T he S cientific C ommunity problem that appears in the work of Kuhn and his
supporters, namely how to avoid relativism, that is, changes
The fact that Kuhn pointed to scientific revolutions as in scientific knowledge when moving from one scientific
moments in the history of science when fundamentally community to another, from one set of social conditions to
new knowledge is forged inevitably evoked increased another.
interest in the subject of scientific activity, be it relating to
the individual scientist, the scientific community, or a
research laboratory. The concept of the scientific M icro - S ociological R esearch
community was of particular importance to Kuhn. It was
the inclusion of this concept into his theory of the history The sociological science of the 1970s and 1980s absorbed
of science that provoked sharp criticism from his many of Kuhn’s ideas, and above all this meant rejecting
opponents. He was accused of irrationalism on the rigorous demarcation lines between society and knowledge.
grounds that, instead of providing a logical explanation as Supporters of externalism, in particular R. Merton and his
to why the scientific community rejects an old theory and school, were of the opinion that the science historian and
espouses a new one, he had advanced social and sociologist should not and cannot analyse scientific ideas.
psychological arguments. They recognized the need for a philosophy of science, whose
Indeed, his work contains assertions to the effect that the object of study differs from that of sociology.
transition to a new theory may be based only on faith in its The new generation of sociologists, however, believes
future fruitfulness, or on some undefined aesthetic sense, that only sociological methods can be used to study scientific
that the main component of the convictions held by the knowledge in all its aspects and that sociology embraces all
scientific community at any given moment are personal and the issues of the philosophy and logic of science. These ideas
historical factors, apparently fortuitous and arbitrary are supported most consistently by representatives of micro-
elements. sociology. In their view, the products of scientific activity
The criticism launched against Kuhn over this issue is no should not be seen as grasping and reproducing something
accident. Here there is indeed the hidden danger of finding that exists in the natural world. In fact they are forged,
oneself beyond the boundaries of logic and rationality. The constructed and transformed in the laboratory out of
main difficulty confronting anyone who conducts research whatever is at hand.
on the scientific community is that there emerges time and K. Knorr-Cetina, one of the most striking representatives
again an insurmountable demarcation line between the of the concept of micro-sociology,5 describes the relationship
social relations within the scientific community and the nature–scientific knowledge as external for science and
content of scientific ideas. unimportant in terms of understanding it, while social
As a rule, researchers fail to take into account the fact relations within the laboratory are internal for science and
that very diverse forms of social relationships exist within express its essence. In the opinion of Knorr-Cetina, theory
the scientific community. These relationships may be as a product of scientific activity is a specific construction
those of superior and subordinate, of scholar and non- bearing the stamp of situational fortuity and the structure
scholar, financier and manager, etc. The behaviour of of interests involved in the process that gave birth to it.
scientists, the motivations behind their activity, the goals The products of science cannot be adequately understood
that guided their choice of profession and work, are the without analysing the process of their construction. This
subject of detailed analysis. means that what happens in the process of their construction
It is important to note that this group of social is relevant to the results obtained. It also means that the
relationships, although specific to the scientific community products of science should be seen as internally constructed
as one type of social structure, is nonetheless only very in the process of production, independently of the question
indirectly linked to the content of scientific ideas. Alongside of their external structuring via verification of their
relationships of this type, there is also the method of correspondence to reality.
communication among scientists while discussing and This initial postulate immediately excludes from Knorr-
resolving purely scientific problems. Here the scientist Cetina’s discussion of science the cognitive relationship
functions not as someone occupying a particular position in between man and reality. The activity of scientists in the
the hierarchy, nor as someone guided by non-scientific laboratory, which for Knorr-Cetina is the embodiment of
goals, but as someone representing a specific logical position all science, forms a closed circle with no exit into the external
in a given scientific dispute, as a supporter of some scientific world as an object of cognition. Scientific results, including
theory or paradigm. empirical data, are described as being above all the result of

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the production process, which includes chains of decisions In the title of a collection of articles that includes the
and discussions and presuppose the need for selection. Each article by Mendelsohn, we find the concept of ‘case studies’
selection is made on the basis of the previous group of (Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and
procedures for selection and, in its turn, becomes the basis Closure of Disputes in Science and Technology). This concept
for subsequent selections. is very important in understanding the nature of the
The complexity of the scientific constructions, which development of science at the end of the twentieth century.
appear as a result of the various selections made by scientists By the 1970s, research in the form of case studies has become
in a particular laboratory, prompts us, argues Knorr-Cetina, fairly widespread. In 1971, P. Forman published a long
to consider it highly unlikely that the products of scientific article entitled ‘Weimar Culture, Causality and Quantum
activity were obtained by the same method used in diverse Theory’,7 which can be considered fairly typical of this kind
circumstances. This means that it is highly unlikely that the of research. In 1979, M. Mulkay published the book Science
process of production of the result could be repeated. This and the Sociology of Knowledge, 8 in which he devoted
would become possible only if most of the procedures of considerable space to a description of case studies. During
selection were rigorously fixed or implemented in a similar the 1980s and 1990s, case studies became a fairly common
fashion. Any novelty in science is seen by Knorr-Cetina as form of research.
the result of social interaction and discussion. Innovation
and its acceptance, according to Knorr-Cetina, are moments
of temporary stabilization within the process of constructing N ew F orms of R esearch into the
knowledge, a process which is basically social. In contrast to H istory of S cience and F uture
Merton, Knorr-Cetina does not recognize that gnoseological P rospects
issues have any right to exist outside the laboratory. In her
opinion, her sociological analysis comprehensively covers all In case studies, the aim is to understand a past event not as
aspects of science, and is self-sufficient. something incorporated within a single line of development
and possessing certain features in common with other
events, but as something unique that could not be reproduced
‘ M iniaturi Z ation ’ in R esearch in different conditions. In the earlier type of historical work,
into S cience scholars sought to study as many facts as possible, in order
to discover something in common, and on this basis, to
The tendency on the part of sociology to absorb the subject identify common laws of development. At present, the
matter of the philosophy, gnoseology and logic of science historian studies a fact as an occurrence and as the
was strikingly apparent at the end of the twentieth century. concurrence of many specific features of the development of
Moreover, the consolidation of this tendency is linked to science coming together at one point in order to distinguish
the ‘miniaturization’ of the object of research. As we have it from others.
seen above in the case of Knorr-Cetina, the object of research This raises the question of what is to become of the
is not relationships between, for example, science and the theoretical aspect of historical studies. Can we speak of the
culture of a given epoch, its production, its social system, logical nature of a historical reconstruction if the result of
but relationships between the scientists themselves in a the historian’s work is the reconstruction of a unique event?
given laboratory. If it is a question of disputes and arguments, How are we to understand the concept of the universal in
the researcher is interested not in fundamental scientific history? Can we speak of the universal nature of historical
revolutions dealing with the problem of changing the research of this kind? Insofar as the individual and specific
manner of thinking and the picture of the world but in fairly has always been understood to be the opposite of the
mundane situations involving the solution of immediate logically universal, case studies were generally seen as
questions in a given branch of science. The related discussions empirical, and all the more so since, as a rule, case study
embrace the entire range of possible relations within the authors themselves give little thought to the specifics of
scientific community. their own work. Case studies have spread somewhat
In his article ‘The Political Anatomy of Controversy in spontaneously and not as the result of a deliberate
the Sciences’, 6 the American historian E. Mendelsohn methodological reorientation on the part of historians.
attempts to substantiate the sociologization of scientific One cannot ignore the fact, however, that the historical
controversy. Here, in his opinion, it is not a question of reconstruction of a past event as something unique
social arbitrariness invading the sphere of purely scientific presupposes complex theoretical work of generalization in
rationality in the study of contradictions and disputes, but order to construct an integrated, three-dimensional event
a question of normal scientific activity and the procedure of that brings together all its most diverse aspects. A mere
selection, which is structured and organized by a fortuitous photograph can in no way be a substitute for such a
goal orientation. In a situation of dispute or conflict, the reconstruction: both logically and theoretically, this is no
characteristics of the most ordinary behavioural procedures less complex a task than the universalization of historical
of scientific activity become more noticeable. In facts and the identification of their common characteristics.
Mendelsohn’s opinion, the authors of the reconstruction of The aim should be to elaborate the principles to be used to
many scientific debates reduce them to abstract content identify the universal in history via the study of unique,
and make only occasional references to the personalities particular events.
drawn into the disputes. For the most part, only the Nonetheless, case studies should not be considered a
cognitive structures remain the focus of attention. In reality, completely novel form of historical reconstruction, for
however, the nature of the ending of the dispute, if closure research of this kind has always existed. Here we are
in fact occurs, is shaped within the context of competing speaking of the predominance of a certain type of research
interests. and the fact that case studies have now come to the fore.

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Research of the cumulative kind will also continue, for it P hilosophy and R eligion and
reflects such important features of the development of T heir R elation to S cience
science as the dependence of each new step forward on the
previous level of development and the increasing volume of In elaborating the concept of scientific revolution in the
knowledge. It is simply that these features of the historical historiography of science (A. Koyré or T. Kuhn), emphasis
process are gradually losing their prime significance and are was placed on the fact that, if the scientific revolution is
today slipping into second place as a result of changes in the indeed radical (such as the scientific revolutions of the
type of theorization. seventeenth and twentieth centuries), then its basic meaning
Let us look at some of the methodologically significant lies in the elaboration of the philosophical basis of science.
features of case studies. The philosophy of the seventeenth century formulated that
First, such research concentrates not so much on a certain basis of thought which made scientific research possible: the
fact, some final result of scientific discovery, but rather on corresponding concepts of cause, motion, time, space, etc.
the event itself and, as far as possible, on its unique and Philosophical thought constantly asks how science is possible
integrated nature. Whether the researchers themselves and seeks to find grounds for this possibility. Science of itself
realize this or not, these easily visualized events are clearly (‘normal science’, to use Kuhn’s terminology) does not deal
defined crossroads at which different lines of research into with questions relating to its own justification. The natural
the history of science intersect, be it the analysis of the scientist puts aside philosophical disputes regarding the
creative process, of social conditions, the correlation of founding principles of science and seeks solutions to his or
society in general or the structure of scientific knowledge. her professional questions. The solution of strictly scientific
Case studies are syntheses of the general and the particular, questions is possible because the basic conditions of scientific
and the easily imaginable, concrete nature of the event under activity as elaborated by philosophy are accepted without
examination. question. Thus philosophy provides the inner impulse to
Second, it is very important for case studies to be a very scientific development, and its principles are invisibly present
delimited event; it is not, as a rule, the culture of some in scientific ideas and theories, becoming an object of
lengthy period in history or the culture of a large region. discussion only when they cease to function and when they
The objects of study are localized events, such as an become an obstacle along the path of further scientific
individual text, a scientific dispute, conference materials or a development. And this is precisely what occurred in the early
scientific discovery by a particular team of scientists. twentieth century. Science philosophized: major natural
Third, it is particularly significant that case studies can be scientists immersed themselves in philosophical disputes
described as being a kind of a funnel drawing in both over the nature of causality, time, space and the elemental.
previous and subsequent events, although the object of Thus, science in its ‘pure form’ does not wish to be involved
study is contemporary science, is ‘now’, even if this ‘now’ with philosophy, which is an impediment. Yet at the same
relates chronologically to past ages. time, scientific activity is only possible because philosophy
Science historians have always wanted to know how has done preparatory work to elaborate the principles of
individual creativity – the unique situation in which a new scientific activity. However, scientific activity itself, as it
theory emerges – can be integrated within the general laws develops, leads to a situation in which the initial philosophical
of the development of scientific knowledge. The previous principles cease to function and require renewal, and scientific
chapter looked at how this question was resolved in research requires philosophical thought. In this way, science
cumulative concepts of the history of science. However, the reveals its philosophical interior.
use of general theoretical postulates always proves far from In those moments of scientific activity when the scientist
simple in practice. puts philosophy aside, when philosophy impedes him, he
The mid-twentieth-century crisis in the positivist often relies on religion or a religious attitude to the world.
methodology of science led to the formulation of the concept Religion serves as a support in such cases and helps him to
of ‘system of thought’ or the type of thinking of a given orient himself in the world and justify his existence as a
epoch (especially in the works of A. Koyré and T. Kuhn). scientist. Religion does not provide an answer to the
Here the historian makes use of such concepts as particular question of the truth or falsehood of given scientific theories
and unique. Scientific thought is integrated into the context seeking to explain the construction of the world. If science
of culture in, for example, Antiquity, the Middle Ages or sees the world as something eternal and invariable, without
modern times. Moreover, the Middle Ages are no longer having any interest in the question of its purpose, religion is
seen as a preparatory stage for modern times or as its pre- interested in how the world was created, and for what
history or cause, but as an epoch having its own historical purpose. This is the dividing line between religion and
significance. science. One might say that they are ‘uninterested’ in each
It is here that the single line of development breaks down. other’s questions.
Different cultures are correlated to each other as coexisting However, the scientist is not simply uninterested in
at the same time, each illustrating its uniqueness. The fact religion. He needs religion, and here one may note several
that Shakespeare lived after Aeschylus gives him no points.
advantages as regards the evaluation of his work. In science,
it is more difficult to use this approach, since advance and 1)  Philosophy questions the original principles,
progress in development, and its cumulative nature, are discussing them endlessly. Philosophy is a risky
particularly evident. However, such a methodology of occupation that puts the mind in doubt. The scientist,
research is possible if science is viewed in a cultural context. however, cannot work on the basis of such uncertainty.
Research into science of the kind conducted in case studies He needs stability, and it is precisely religion that
is a serious attempt to advance the study of science in enables him to believe in eternal principles. For normal
precisely this direction. scientific research, such faith is essential.

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2)  The scientist treats the world as something pre- Protestantism was by no means the only possible social
existing. The world is perceived by the scientist via his institution capable of assisting the emergence of modern
senses, and it is important for him to be sure that this science. It so happened that Protestantism was science’s
is not an illusion or a mirage and that the world exists greatest, though not its only, support at that particular time
not only for him and his human perception. Religious and place. However, it might well have been that, in some
truth lies in the creation of the world and the purpose other case, another social institution could have played the
of that creation. The world has been created, therefore same role; it is a question of a particular combination of
it exists. This kind of religious belief in the existence of circumstances.
the world as a created phenomenon assists the scientist The social values characteristic of Protestantism meant
in his activity. The world exists not only for him, but that it approved of science by virtue of its deeply utilitarian
also for God; that is, the world exists in reality. orientation, concealed behind religious terminology and
3) Man cognizes the world with his intellect, and it is approved by religious authority. It validates those who have
important for him that the world not be chaotic. He glorified themselves in ‘good works’ based on the desire to
needs intuitive confidence in the harmony of the be useful to one’s neighbour and to society as a whole. The
world. The world not only exists, but is also organized utilitarian principle governed practical activity, and this
on the basis of laws. Such a cosmic religious faith brought Protestantism close to the rest of culture. Of
facilitates the work of the scientist. Confidence in the particular importance in the social evaluation of science
existence of the world, its harmony and the stability of and technology was the Protestant tendency to praise the
its founding principles is important for the very faculty of reason. Reason is worthy of praise as man, who is
existence of science. alone in possessing this quality, is made in the image of his
maker. Reason is a means of bringing sensuousness and
This, in general terms, is the attitude towards religion that sinfulness under control. Reason enables men to praise
predominated in the twentieth-century both among science God by perceiving the greatness of his creation.
historians, and natural scientists. The notion of the hostility Protestantism as it were demonstrated the absence of any
between science and religion does not enjoy popularity, and incompatibility between these two great values – reason
this is true both as regards R. Merton and S. Jaki, who have and faith.
undertaken particularly extensive research into the role of The main prerequisite of modern science, in Merton’s
religion in the history of science. view, is the widespread instinctive conviction in the existence
of a ‘natural order.’ For Galileo and Newton, the ultimate
criterion of the truth in science is experiment, but the very
Protestantism and science in seventeenth-century concept of experiment proves untenable without the original
England postulate that there is a natural order and that if one asks
the appropriate questions, nature will supply the answers.
Merton analyses the historical situation in England in the This postulate is definitive and absolute, and expresses faith
seventeenth century, when the development of science was in the possibility of the existence of science as such. However,
promoted both by industry and the new religious movement this kind of conviction, although it is an essential prerequisite
of Protestantism. In the preface to the second edition of his of the emergence of modern science, cannot bring about
book,9 Merton expresses a certain perplexity over the fact scientific development. This requires a permanent interest
that it is precisely the relationship between science and in seeking to discover this natural order by not only rational
religion, and not science and industry, that attracted the but also empirical methods, that is, an active interest in the
greatest attention on the part of the critics. Merton explains world together with a specifically empirical approach. In the
this as the result of the fact that his method of interpreting form of Protestantism, religion created the conditions for
the relationship between science and religion differs the emergence of this interest. Protestantism insisted on
considerably from the positivist explanation. The positivists active secular activity, with an emphasis on experience and
(Merton refers in this regard to J. Draper and A. White) intellect as the basis of action and faith.
believed unquestioningly that this relationship could only
be one of conflict and that a state of war between science
and religion was inevitable. T he R ational L in k B etween
Such conclusions were usually made on the basis of two C hristianity and S cience
kinds of facts. In the first place, there are historical facts that
time and again confirm the hostility between science and In his analysis of the significance of religion for science,
religion, for example, the burning of Giordano Bruno, or S. Jaki, a Benedictine monk and science historian,
openly hostile statements by religious leaders directed at emphasizes in particular that Christianity is linked to belief
science. The second type of facts involves the opposing in the individual, the rational, and the absolutely
nature of the dogmatic postulates of theological knowledge transcendental lawgiver or creator.10 This is the Christian
and the tendency of scientific research to bring everything concept of God, which generated faith in the rationality of
into question. Merton does not deny either historical facts the world, in progress, and in the quantitative method, all of
or the opposing nature of the theological and the scientific which are the component elements of scientific inquiry. In
approach to the world. The possibility of contact between Jaki’s thinking, a major role is played by the concept of
science and religion is based, according to Merton, on the ‘natural theology’, which he understands as following the
nature of ethical norms. Protestantism unwittingly path along which the human mind is confirmed in its
promoted the consolidation of science as a social institution knowledge of God. Science, historically and philosophically,
despite its theology as a particular way of perceiving the provides a logical basis for understanding the work of God.
world and despite the views of its leaders. Science deals with a basic issue: what kind of world is

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needed if man is to be able to cognize it? Or, what should social aspects of scientific revolution, and the dominant
nature, including man, be like, if science is to be at all object of study – the consistency and continuity of scientific
possible? development – appeared in a different perspective. Indeed,
When Jaki writes of the need to give our utmost attention never had the progressive and cumulative nature of scientific
to the principles of science, he means that these principles development been subjected to such detailed discussion and
cannot be understood outside the context of philosophy analysis. There are few researchers who would venture to
and religion. On its own, science is not able to answer the deny that modern science possesses these qualities. However,
question of why science is possible. Closest to Jaki’s concept certain problems arise. For example, how is the continuity
is Duhem’s theory that the origins of modern science derive of science to be combined with the inevitability of scientific
from the Middle Ages. For Jaki, it is important to stress the revolutions, when scientific knowledge undergoes a radical
fact that science did not begin with Galileo, and that change? How is the transition from pre-revolutionary to
‘medieval’ means ‘Christian.’ In the Middle Ages it was post-revolutionary knowledge achieved? Can this transition
considered beyond all doubt that the universe had been be explained rationally, or is the single thread of scientific
created freely and rationally, and it is only such a universe development in fact divided, each period in the history of
that is open to scientific investigation. science having its piece, in no way connected to the others?
Delimiting fairly rigorously the sphere of the ‘positable’ How are we then to explain the vectorial nature of the
in science (the scientist should not doubt the reality of the development of scientific knowledge?
universe, its causality and rational organization, its creation Or let us take the question of the social context of science.
by God), Jaki examines all scientific discoveries from the One can scarcely doubt (and virtually no one does) the
same viewpoint, that is, the extent to which they go beyond massive influence that external social factors have on the
the positable within science. As a result, Jaki often finds development of scientific ideas. However, can it be viewed
himself in an ambiguous position: on the one hand, he as decisive during periods of scientific revolutions? Can the
praises science as being divinely blessed, while on the other, process of the emergence of a new scientific theory be
he is obliged to reject a whole series of scientific ideas and determined by external economic, political, military or other
theories comprised quite organically within the structure of factors? The answer given by most researchers, whether
scientific knowledge, such as the idea of infinity, Darwin’s directly or indirectly, is ‘no.’ The very idea that we can ignore
theory, the uncertainty principle, the theory of the tunnelling external social factors when analysing scientific revolutions
of alpha particles, and the anthropy principle, among and such factors as the appearance of anomalies in theoretical
others. knowledge, or the emergence of a competing theory and its
The theological views of Jaki are extremely rationalized. conflict with the old one, force us to respond negatively to
He constantly emphasizes that the rational paths offered by this question.
science lead to God. Moreover, he believes that God gave Thus the previous concept of the basic mechanisms of
man his intellectual faculties so that he might secure his the social influences operating during scientific revolutions
conviction of the existence of God by purely rational means. no longer holds, and this obliges us to look at them from a
Therefore, Jaki looks at all scientific achievements primarily new angle, to ponder the specific features of their operation
in terms of the extent to which they testify to the existence within society and to define the boundaries of their
of ‘God the Creator’. The central question in science effectiveness in the development of scientific knowledge.
concerns the relationship of scientific knowledge to God, Moreover, a clearer and, one might also say, more profound
and it is difficult to say which line of thought dominates in interpretation of external social factors in science inevitably
Jaki: is it the scientist created by God in his own image and follows from any comparison with other forms of the social
likeness, or is God, as imagined by Jaki, in the image and context within science. These factors have become a direct
likeness of the scientist? object of investigation together with scientific revolutions,
In Jaki’s thinking, religion becomes so rationalized that leading to particular interest in the study of the scientific
the concept of faith virtually disappears. The existence of community engaged in producing new knowledge and the
‘God the Creator’ is not something one has faith in, but appearance of a new type of research known as case
rather it is something to be proven logically with the aid of studies.
science. To the extent that, in the twentieth century, science is
one of the most important components of the social, public
and cultural life of all the regions of the world, the problems
C onclusion addressed above are being actively discussed by scholars
around the world. However, it should also be remembered
The main changes in the philosophy, sociology and history that science has its own specific features in the context of,
of science in the twentieth century were linked to the crisis for example, Oriental cultures, where philosophy, religion
in positivist philosophy in the mid-twentieth century. The and social order have shaped the traditional development of
very founding principles of knowledge about science, which natural science through the centuries. Moreover, these
until then had been accepted axiomatically, as not requiring traditions live on and now require special analysis. In this
discussion, appeared in a new light. In certain areas these connection, we must mention the British science historian
principles were clarified and formulated more precisely, and J. Needham, who devoted many years to studying science in
certain features became even more convincing when seen China.
from this new angle. Other features were reappraised and In Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the twentieth
questioned, and some foundered, leading to a sense of century, the social, political and ideological conditions were
disorientation and confusion. such that direct contact with Western scientists was very
During the period of crisis, many things came to be difficult. Soviet research into science continued energetically,
viewed differently following a study of the theoretical and but to a large extent it functioned in isolation, and contacts

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with Western colleagues were often of a purely official 5. K. D. Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge,
nature. Both the issues and the lines of research were often Oxford, 1981.
determined by various ideological considerations. Soviet 6. E. Mendelsohn, ‘The Political Anatomy of Controversy
scholars were unable to join the Western confraternity of in the Sciences,’ in: A. Kaplan (ed.), Scientific Controversies:
sociologists, philosophers and historians of science. Their Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes in
work should now become a special object of study. Let it Science and Technology, New York, 1987, pp. 93–124.
suffice to say that in the Soviet Union there was a strong 7. P. Forman, ‘Weimar Culture, Causality and Quantum
school of philosophical interpretation of science and its Theory, 1918–1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and
history as represented by the works of V. S. Bibler, Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment’, in:
P. P. Gaidenko, and M. K. Mamardashvili. Research into R. McCormach (ed.), Historical Studies in the Physical
the internal logic and system of science was undertaken by Sciences, Vol. 3, Philadelphia, 1971, pp. 1–116.
V. N. Sadovsky, V. A. Smirnov and others, while the 8. M. Mulkay, Science and the Sociology of Knowledge,
methodology of science and its history were explored by London, 1979.
V. A. Lektorsky, S. R. Mikulinsky, V. S. Styopin, and 9. R. Merton, Science, Technology and Society in
many others. Seventeenth-Century England, New York, 1970.
The tendency to identify unique features of science, 10. S. Jaki, The Savior of Science, WA, 1988; S. Jaki, The
which appeared towards the end of the twentieth century, Road of Science and the Ways to God, Edinburgh, 1980.
obliges us to avoid seeking to standardize the enormous and
diverse worldwide range of approaches to understanding
science as a social and cultural phenomenon.
The improvement of methods of communication among bibliography
scholars, thanks to technological developments and the
computerization of all spheres of life, is leading to the FORMAN, P. 1971. Weimar Culture, Causality and Quantum Theory,
creation of larger teams of scholars from different countries 1918–1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians
and continents. The corresponding terminology has also to a Hostile Intellectual Environment. In: McCormach, R. (ed.).
appeared: now we speak not of schools, which are usually Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 5. University of
associated with particular universities, institutes or Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, pp. 1–116.
laboratories, but about worldwide colleges, problem groups, KNORR-CETINA, K. D. 1981. The Manufacture of Knowledge. Pergamon
scientific communities. Scholars are united by a given issue Press, Oxford.
and common research interests. Science is being KUHN, T. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of
internationalized. Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
LAKATOS, I. 1963–64. Proofs and Refutations. In: The British Journal
for the Philosophy of Science, No. 14.
 and MUSGRAVE, A. 1970. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge.
notes Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
MENDELSOHN, E. 1987. The Political Anatomy of Controversy in the
1. T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Sciences. In: ENGELHARDT, T. and CAPLAN, A. (eds). Scientific
Chicago, 1970. Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes
2. K. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Harper in Science and Technology. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Torchbooks, New York, 1965. MERTON, R. K. 1970. Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-
3. I. Lakatos, ‘Proofs and Refutations’ in The British Century England. Howard Fertig, New York.
Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 1963–1964, pp. 1–25, MULKAY, M. 1979. Science and the Sociology of Knowledge. Allen &
120–39, 221–43, 296–342. Unwin, London.
4. I. Lakatos, A. Musgrave (eds), Criticism and the Growth POPPER, K. 1965. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Harper Torchbooks,
of Knowledge, New York, 1970. Harper & Row Publishers, New York.

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 16
ME D ICINE AN D P U B L IC HEA L TH

Jean-Charles Sournia

The spectacular progress achieved during the twentieth troops moving from one place to another: the Allied armies
century in many branches of medicine, in terms of diagnostic received reinforcements from North Africa, sub-Saharan
and therapeutic tools and pharmaceutical and surgical Africa, India, Indochina, Canada and Australia, and
strategies, should not lead us to underestimate the extent to American troops were also sent to France. Secondly, whole
which attitudes towards the health of nations have also populations migrated from northern to southern Europe
changed. The concepts of public health and social medicine and from east to west. And lastly, in times of war,
developed during the first half of the nineteenth century administrative structures are relaxed, and the regulations
first in Britain, and subsequently in France, but it took a relating to matters of health are not applied strictly. For
long time for these ideas to be put into practice. None of the practical reasons, it is difficult for the population to apply
doctrines devised ever led to the immediate establishment the basic rules of hygiene. This explains how typhoid fever
of a system to protect the population from various health devastated the Austro-Hungarian army and spread
risks. The few rather partial measures taken focused mainly throughout the Balkans. The French and German
on the cities (since the countryside was thought to be a contingents were better vaccinated. The Eastern European
healthy place) and on collective groups such as the army (in countries were ravaged by typhus until the 1920s, just as
France, in 1852). they had been one century earlier at the time of the
Despite the findings of Pasteur and Koch, it was only Napoleonic invasion. They were also swept by epidemics of
after the turn of the century that European governments typhoid, cholera, dysentery and malaria.
actually recognized that infectious diseases were contagious. No doubt due to the arrival of the North American
The inauguration of the Office International d’Hygiène troops in France, a wave of what the French called ‘Spanish
Publique (OIHP) in Paris in 1908 was a long-awaited event flu’ began to work its way through Western Europe at the
that took fifty years to materialize. This meant, however, end of 1917. It spread among the armies and all levels of
that it was at last possible to set up international cooperation civilian society, probably causing up to a million deaths.
between the various gradually developing national health Those who caught the disease either died of pleuro-
services. pulmonary complications or continued to suffer from
We propose to outline in the present article the complex secondary purulent pleurisy up to the end of the 1930s.
history of public health in the world (except Asia). Technical When the troops were demobilized at the 1919 Armistice,
developments in the field of medicine will be alluded to as the influenza was transported to the southern shores of the
briefly as possible, since their story has been told elsewhere. Mediterranean. The virus is now known to have been related
to the porcine influenza virus, which is still endemic in the
Western world.
1914–1940: A PERIOD OF The state of war made it possible for public authorities to
CONTINUATION take increasingly firm public health measures. The efforts
made by administrations in Britain, Germany and France
The effects of the First World War during the previous century to promote public health had
come up against some resistance from those who claimed
Many countries took part in the global conflict of 1914–18, that it was contrary to individual human freedom and the
which split the world into two. The spirit of international right to self-determination. These arguments tended to
solidarity did not disappear completely, however, since the seem less convincing under wartime conditions. The public
countries engaged in the hostilities continued to submit health laws voted in France in 1902 and 1905 were vigorously
public health reports to the OIHP throughout the war. enforced, and even the most recalcitrant town councils were
As commonly occurs in times of war, epidemics were rife eventually obliged to open a public health office. The state
during this period, for several reasons. First, there were the asserted its authority at the end of the war both in Britain,

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where a Ministry of Health was set up, and in France, where Germany beginning in the nineteenth century, many towns
an independent Under-Secretary of State was appointed in elsewhere were not equipped with properly organized
1920. general water supply systems. The town councils were
In the various countries, a multitude of private charitable providing workers’ tenement blocks with only outdoor
organizations were created for the benefit of wounded drinking fountains.
soldiers, civilian populations, refugees from places badly As the number of public pipelines laid down by either
damaged by the war, women who had been working in the public or private agencies increased, the bacteriological
factories, orphans in distress and other groups. The Red quality of the water was improved by the water companies
Cross Societies were busier than ever before. responsible, under the control of the administrations. The
The amount of mutual aid from which the Allies number of uninspected privately owned wells decreased.
benefited made spectacular strides. In the Balkan countries, In addition to the progress achieved in the distribution
the work of the expeditionary forces’ medical services of healthy drinking water, the problem of sewage disposal
consisted largely of helping the civilian populations suffering arose. Many improvements needed to be made, and too
from epidemics and food shortages: these countries had many built-up areas were using their own neighbouring
become only recently independent and were too rivers as sewers. In this respect, the situation took longer to
impoverished to be able to quickly set up the requisite improve, and in 1940, many European and American cities
administrative and medical structures on their own. were still not properly equipped: this was so in the case of
The United States, for its part, was helping the invaded Lyon, the second-largest French city, for example, which is
countries. On the French front, the United States financed situated on the banks of two large waterways with fast,
the equipping of ambulances, one of which was manned by regular rates of flow.
the Nobel Prize winner Alexis Carrel, who developed new The second vaccine to have decisive effects, particularly
methods of treating infected war wounds. As soon as the on the infant mortality and morbidity rates, was the
hostilities came to an end, the Rockefeller Foundation diphtheria vaccine. This type of vaccination was widely
distinguished itself in Europe in the campaign against adopted by families, even in the absence of any legal
tuberculosis and participated actively in informing the obligation, and the incidence of this disease decreased
public about hygiene. conspicuously in places where children gathered.
The decline of this disease went hand in hand with a
sharp increase in the numbers of public and private
Fighting infectious disease institutions devoted to protecting children. This trend
reflected a change in the public’s attitude, which began at
Since the relative success of the battle against infection the end of the previous century and showed an upsurge
within the contending armies was quite encouraging, the after the First World War. The war had led to the expansion
early measures designed to protect the civilian population of the industrial suburbs, along with the attendant
before the conflict were further extended during and after insalubrious, overcrowded housing conditions; despite the
the war. As previously occurred in France in 1902, lists of increasing numbers of nursery schools and dispensaries and
diseases that had to be declared were disseminated in several the intense activity of charitable organizations, new-born
countries, and medical inspectors were made responsible infants and young children were particularly hard hit by the
for collating the numbers declared, so that the Western food shortage that occurred in Germany in the 1920s and
nations were gradually able to publish coherent health by the famine that ravaged the Soviet Union.
statistics. Systems of public health administration began to Much attention was also beginning to be paid to maternal
be set up under the aegis of specialized ministries. health care. Contrary to the general rule, according to which
These measures were more drastic in France than in women gave birth in their own homes, many maternity
most other countries however, since the entire French homes were built at that time in the form of either small
population was vaccinated against smallpox. Most other private establishments or public hospital wards. Childbirth
countries refused to make vaccination compulsory for the was becoming safer in the hands of experienced medical
sake of individual freedom of choice, but nevertheless used staff. Since the introduction of sterile conditions and
persuasive methods to ensure that vaccination was widely antiseptics, epidemics of puerperal fever were no longer to
adopted or made it mandatory for some collective groups, be feared. Maternity homes were opened for women in need
such as the armed forces and school systems. and unmarried mothers, and the improved level of family
Vaccines of several other types were also used at that hygiene made it possible for bottle-feeding to be widely
time: the tetanus vaccine was not much in vogue, but adopted. Despite the intensive propaganda circulating in
vaccines of two other kinds, which were widely used in both favour of breast-feeding, newly delivered mothers were not
the more backward and the more modern parts of the world, always able to provide their babies with their full nutritional
were to have decisive effects on public health. The first of requirements. Clean bottles and high-quality manufactured
these was the anti-typhoid and paratyphoid vaccine. It was milk substitutes would soon be taken for granted. During
widely recognized by that time that these diseases were the period between the two wars, infants no longer died of
transmitted by drinking water, and vast public campaigns malnutrition in most European countries, and the profession
were launched to encourage people to be vaccinated, but of wet nurses and its promoting organizations were phased
something also had to be done to improve the quality of the out. Many efforts were made to protect women and children.
water supply. City water supplies began to be chlorinated In the framework of compulsory school attendance and the
(this method had actually been tested during the war by the development of schools, school health departments were
city of Verdun). The main improvement consisted, however, created.
of extending the water supply networks. Despite the The hardships of the war increased the incidence of
outstanding examples of innovations made in Britain and tuberculosis. Many people caught the disease, with a mainly

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pulmonary focus, and in the towns, people at all levels of any controversies or squabbling among various schools of
society were struck. It is generally held that the epidemic thought, but consistently arousing admiration and
reached its peak in Britain, followed by France and Germany enthusiasm for its many possible applications. It was
in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and that henceforth possible to explore all the organs in the body
tuberculosis was spontaneously in decline by mid-century. from the outside.
Whether or not that is an accurate picture, contagion was In the field of chemistry, new and never-imagined
still running rife at that time in all European and North vitamins and hormones were discovered, which led to the
American countries. identification of human diseases resulting from the
A vast international campaign was launched to promote insufficiency or excess of these indispensable substances. It
the elementary rules of hygiene as a means of preventing was not until the end of the 1930s, however, that some
contagion. The populations were informed via many original therapeutic molecules were discovered, thanks to
channels: at school, by means of bills posted on walls and the fact that the main aim of the research workers at that
billboards on public transport vehicles, and in public talks time was to find means of fighting infectious diseases: the
given by itinerant charitable associations. first sulfonamides capable of destroying dangerous germs in
In some countries, the strategy adopted was vaccination humans were manufactured in Germany and France. At the
for all with the Calmette-Guérin bacillus (BCG), while same time, A. Fleming had discovered that penicillin, which
others were more wary or refused to follow suit on the is produced by a living organism, was capable of preventing
legitimate grounds that vaccination did not afford absolute other organisms from developing; some time went by,
protection. The scientific debate on the issue became even however, before this discovery reached the practical
more heated when several children died in the 1930 Lübeck application stage.
accident, due to the use of an improperly prepared vaccine. Steps were taken by surgeons and mainly private
Open-air sanatoriums and preventoriums were instituted companies to set up medical establishments, maternity
for children from insalubrious areas and those already homes and surgical clinics, such as the cancer clinics at
showing alarming signs of primary infection. X-ray methods which famous surgeons received visitors and treated patients
were by then available for detecting pulmonary lesions at an from all over the world. Only the poor frequented the public
early stage, and intensive screening campaigns were hospitals: a sharp distinction was also made in every country
organized on the theme ‘early screening is the key to a quick between those who could be tended in their own homes and
cure’. Some sectors of the population were made to undergo the others. Poor people went to public establishments,
systematic lung X-ray examinations, and specially equipped while the more better off tended to seek treatment at private
vans tested people at places of work and schools. This was ones, which tended to be more comfortable and better
the first time in the history of public health that medical equipped.
testing had been carried out on groups of people, regardless To combat this segregative tendency, efforts were made
of their state of health. in some countries to develop various social welfare systems
Lastly, for the sake of those whose expectoration was to protect the least privileged members of society. The first
found to contain tubercular bacilli, special establishments steps on these lines were taken by Bismarck in Imperial
were opened in places where the fresh air was reputed to Germany back in the 1880s, when a sickness insurance fund
favour recovery, at high or medium altitudes, by the sea or was created for industrial workers, along with special
in pine forests, so as to reduce the risk of contagion. Patients occupational accident risk coverage. Although these
with tuberculosis were therefore moved to these sanatoriums regulations involved only some categories of workers, they
from their usual surroundings so that they would not were subsequently adopted in many European countries
contaminate other people; they were treated with restorative and gradually extended in the 1930s to include other
drugs, by inducing intra- or extra-pleural pneumothorax, categories of beneficiaries, whereas the United States was
and by performing thoracoplasty. Such medical and surgical quite opposed to social welfare of this kind. The period also
methods were designed to give the affected lung a rest. witnessed the opening of dispensaries, where needy citizens
could be screened or treated for tuberculosis, venereal
disease, etc.
Health care and social welfare The Soviet Union adopted a different strategy not
involving health insurance. Based on an ambitious
The principle on which the above-mentioned techniques programme, free health care was dispensed to all the
were based was not new, since it had been invented by populations within the Union, including the inhabitants of
Forlanini before the First World War. The lack of the destitute Central Asian republics. Other aspects dealt
appropriate therapeutic innovations was actually one of the with in the USSR included hygiene campaigns, various
hallmarks of this period in the history of medicine. occupational health initiatives and efforts to eradicate
Surgeons certainly had plenty of scope for showing their tuberculosis.
dexterity and technical know-how, especially when operating Another form of family aid came into being. Since many
on the limbs and the abdomen, thanks to asepsis and young men had died during the war – in France, one and a
anaesthesia. They were less adventurous when it came to half million men of procreative age had been killed – some
performing intra-thoracic and brain surgery, however. governments, starting with France, followed by Italy and
Physicians, on the other hand, recorded relatively little Germany, implemented policies encouraging childbirth.
progress. Families with several children were provided with financial
The one outstanding event was Roentgen’s 1899 discovery aid in the form of family allowances. This system, which has
of X-rays, which made possible spectacular strides in the meanwhile been adopted and maintained in many countries
field of medical diagnosis. Never has any scientific discovery in the world, is designed to incite people to have larger
spread so quickly throughout the world without causing families. Whether this aim is always achieved still remains

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to be proved, but in any case, these cash allowances are of the OIHP. Not all countries joined the League of
always welcome in needy households. Nations, and the Soviet Union took part in its activities
only episodically. After gaining membership with some
difficulty, Germany left in 1933, and Italy was practically
International efforts expelled after occupying Ethiopia, the only African member
country. As for the United States, which failed to follow
The previous century showed how effective international President Woodrow Wilson’s principles, it never became a
cooperation could be in combating severe contagious member at all. It continued its membership in the OIHP,
diseases. The global conflict did not lessen the truth of this and continued to run the Pan-American Health Office in
statement. The countries involved in the First World War Washington, which it controlled.
were not affected by any of the three terrible diseases with The League of Nations then began to undertake missions
which the nineteenth century had been so obsessed: the on a larger scale than those of the OIHP. The original
plague, cholera and yellow fever. ‘Epidemics Commission’ became the ‘Health Organization’,
The first few decades of the twentieth century were which gradually acquired international responsibilities. It
marked, however, by a plague epidemic, which did not was decided that the regional offices in Constantinople and
spread beyond Eastern Asia. Several medical teams fighting Tehran and the Danube Commission, which had served
the disease met up in Manchuria. Europe was hardly affected before the war as lookout posts for the Eastern Mediterranean
at all by the plague epidemic, apart from twenty or so region, were henceforth to be managed by their respective
isolated cases contained within a Paris suburb, which came governments, but France remained in charge of the Tangier
to be known as ‘the rag-trade epidemic’, and never spread office. The maritime and quarantine health council in
elsewhere. On the other hand, cholera was still endemic in Alexandria continued to be responsible for the medical
the Indian subcontinent. supervision of pilgrims travelling to Mecca.
In medical circles, the terms ‘hygiene’ and ‘public health’ The League of Nations set up malaria and cancer
were considered synonymous. Ensuring the health of the commissions and dealt with matters such as nutrition and
population meant abolishing epidemic diseases. Future harmonizing pharmacopoeia. Since the fear of epidemics
doctors had to be trained in this new discipline, and two did not disappear, it worked at improving the medical
different solutions were adopted for this purpose. In Italy, regulations relating to sea transport, air transport, quarantine
Germany and France, university chairs were created for the and the bills of health required for access to harbours, the
study of hygiene at the medical faculties. The Anglo-Saxon eradication of rats from shipping vessels, etc. The League of
countries opted rather for setting up specialized institutions: Nations also cooperated with the recently created
the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene was founded in International Labour Office (ILO) on matters concerning
Baltimore in 1918, and the London School of Hygiene and the prevention of occupational accidents and disease. Both
Tropical Medicine in 1929. organizations had their headquarters in Geneva.
The war also proved the solidity of the colonial empires The Red Cross Societies had played an important role
founded by Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and during the war, aiding both the armed forces and the civilian
the Netherlands (the German dependencies were populations. The five Societies set up in the main Allied
redistributed when the peace treaty was signed). The countries held a meeting at which it was decided to set up a
colonial medical services were not only good observers of permanent organization, the League of Red Cross Societies,
the state of health of the countries they occupied (which also based in Geneva. In some countries, the Red Cross had
contributed to promoting the worldwide communication a monopoly on blood transfusion, a practice that had
of medical information); they also took an extremely active undergone some technical improvements and was still being
part in improving the health of the inhabitants of these widely used after developing during the war. It continued to
rather backward countries. They made use of all the combat tuberculosis, cancer, and alcoholism and to work
preventive measures at their disposal: vaccination and for the protection of children (Plate 76).
public information campaigns, reducing the incidence of In addition to all these already long-established
parasitoses and improving hygiene in towns and organizations, innumerable private associations were
encampments. springing up, resulting in increasingly international contacts
At the instigation of the countries concerned, schools of and exchanges of information and researchers. It would be
medicine were often founded in Africa, India and the Far impossible to list them all, but those that did the most for
East, thereby resulting in fully trained doctors or health the health of the populations were no doubt those specialized
officers who were in close touch with the native population in the study of tuberculosis (already underway for several
and familiar with the traditional local customs. decades) and cancer.
It was largely thanks to the colonial regimes that several Two international health conferences organized in Paris
dozen institutes were created throughout the world for the in 1926 and 1938 by the governments involved led to some
purpose of carrying out research on the identification and interesting comparisons on the state of health of the
prevention of bacterial and parasitic diseases. In Latin countries participating, but the atmosphere was not the
America, Africa, the Far East, and the Soviet Union, some same on both occasions. In 1926, the League of Nations was
of these institutes were dignified with the name Pasteur and setting up its structures, but in 1938, political divergences
some of them were actually placed under the aegis of the made concrete achievements impossible. Although the
Institut Pasteur in Paris. 12‑year interval between the two conferences was much
The OIHP continued to collect and disseminate shorter than that which had elapsed between similar events
epidemiological information through the two world wars during the previous century, there was definitely a loss of
up to 1946. The creation of the League of Nations, despite interest due to the existence of permanent organizations
its ‘Health Organization’, did not detract from the usefulness such as the OIHP in Paris, the League of Nations in Geneva

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and the Pan-American Organization in Washington. The main victims were young infants and the elderly. Among
secretariats of the organizations were able to draw up an the civilian population and prison camp inmates, there was
approximate picture of the world health situation on their a recurrence of hormonal and vitamin deficiency diseases
own, and their efficiency was ensured by the permanent that had been eradicated in Europe for several decades such
participation of the governments. as nutritional oedema, rickets, and amenorrhoea.
Just as the First World War had ended in a huge
influenza epidemic, the Second World War culminated in
1940–1950: A DIFFICULT PERIOD FOR the proliferation of the poliomyelitis virus, although its
THE WORLD victims were less numerous. These circumstances led to
improved rehabilitation techniques and equipment (for
The ailments of war treating functional respiratory deficits, for example), and
the efficacious Salk (Plate 78) and Sabin vaccines were soon
The League of Nations turned out to be incapable of developed (Table 2). A sizeable epidemic of viral hepatitis
carrying out the mission it had been set in 1919: to settle also broke out.
any dissension between nations, so as to prevent the In occupied Europe, the military health services and
situation from degenerating into war. The conflict triggered public health administrations were still working with pre-
in Europe in 1939, after the preliminary rounds in Ethiopia war techniques, whereas Anglo-Saxon industrialists and
and Spain, degenerated into global warfare in 1941. As research scientists were constantly perfecting their
always in the history of humanity, the war degraded the therapeutic methods. This meant that their soldiers
state of health of millions of people, and epidemics raged benefited quite early on from penicillin, which was invented
in many places. The most original feature of this war was before the war by A. Fleming and manufactured in the
that the losses incurred among non-combatant civilian United States. The American and British medical specialists
populations were similar to those of the armed forces. developed closed circuit anaesthesia, a whole range of
Once again, the movements of the troops and the shifting surgical instruments, and methods of treating limb artery
populations resulted in a typhus epidemic in Eastern wounds and packing and transporting blood supplies for
Europe. This disease was endemic in the German prison transfusion. The civilian population in Europe had to wait a
camps, whose occupants were crowded together and few years before they were able to take advantage of these
undernourished and where the basic rules of hygiene were innovations.
neglected. The benefits of the industrial research and development
Armies travelling around the globe were exposed to very carried out during this period were to be felt for several
different and unfamiliar climatic and environmental years. In response to the worldwide poliomyelitis epidemic,
conditions, and many soldiers contracted malaria. The new emergency techniques, especially respiratory ones, and
Australian units in Romania and the Balkans caught the new types of orthopaedic aids and replacements were
disease, which was lethal in many cases. The Germans in developed during the immediate post-war period. When
Tripoli were less severely afflicted by it than the Americans biocompatible metallic and synthetic materials were made
on the Pacific Islands. In the Near East, the passage of available, it became possible to implant vascular and articular
troops between Asia and the North African and European endoprostheses.
battlefields, along with the relaxation of public health The advent of peace led to the discovery that some quite
supervision, led to a cholera epidemic, which persisted in unprecedented forms of human cruelty had been perpetrated
Egypt during the 1940s, even after the end of the war in several of the countries involved in the war, where millions
(Plate 77). of people had died in concentration and extermination
Rationing and food restrictions favoured the spread of camps. Nazi and Japanese physicians had been performing
tuberculosis. Those living in closed communities, such as surgical experiments on healthy people without any scientific
camps, ghettos, psychiatric asylums, and other institutions, justification and with mostly fatal results. These atrocities
suffered from famine. The death rate among tubercular gave rise in international law to new concepts such as ‘war
patients at sanatoriums was strikingly high. As usual, the crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’.

Table 2  Cases of poliomyelitis morbidity in Europe and Oceania (Annual Mean)

1941–1945 1946–1950 1951–1955 1956–1960 1961–1965 1966–1970 1971–1975
Austria 334 1,191 607 644 70 1 1
Belgium 225 164 475 395 79 3 1
Denmark 984 703 1,614 72 77 1 0
Finland 302 227 342 306 7 0 0
Ireland 1,750 2,527 3,342 4,796 2,121 93 11
Norway 743 574 981 140 36 8 5
Sweden 1,766 1,432 1,526 213 28 1 1
England and Wales 824 5,843 4,381 2,706 317 24 2
Australia 336 1,201 2,187 331 151 1 2
New Zealand 54 313 413 225 44 1 0
Source: M. Paccaud, 1979, Poliomyelitis Morbidity in Europe and Oceania.

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Convalescence Health Organization (WHO) was approved at the 1946

International Health Conference in New York.
Governments everywhere, whether or not they had been WHO’s headquarters was to be in Geneva, and its first
involved in the war and whether or not they had been managing director was a Canadian, Brock Chisholm.
occupied by foreign powers, had taken various authoritarian Regional offices were opened in several places during the
measures during the conflict to safeguard their nations’ next few years to facilitate the collection of information and
health, and when peace was restored, they did not relinquish to ensure that local conditions were taken into account:
their efforts. However, a change of attitude had occurred Copenhagen was chosen for Europe, Brazzaville for Africa,
since the pre-war period. The population’s health was no Alexandria for the Eastern Mediterranean region, Delhi
longer thought of as the sum of all the individual inhabitants’ for South-East Asia, Manila for the West Pacific, and
health, for which each one was responsible; by now, it had Washington for the Americas.
become a matter for the state. To provide for the welfare of The member states found the health conditions in the
all, from both the medical and social points of view, was world so disturbing that the United Nations, not content
henceforth a state obligation and a citizen’s right. On the with having created WHO, set up the International
other hand, the fact that the civilian populations had Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The precarious
suffered as badly from bombing and deprivation as the state of health of the ‘displaced persons’ uprooted by the
members of the armed forces gave rise everywhere to a spirit shifting European frontiers and of the prisoners of war
of national solidarity favourable to the concept of collective released from concentration camps suggested that a health
health. Accordingly, the structures responsible for managing section should be set up within the United Nations
the health of the population were renovated at this time in Administration to deal with relief and rehabilitation
many countries and gained a new lease of life. The (UNRRA). For similar reasons, the creation of the State of
reconstruction of ruined towns, equipment and collective Israel gave rise to the need for aid to the displaced
establishments required firm administrative control, and Palestinians to be organized (UNRWA).
the inhabitants of the Western world readily recognized a During the war, the colonial powers had continued to
degree of authority they might not have tolerated one pursue their efforts to promote health in the countries they
century earlier. occupied, but they were no longer able to meet all the
The British Government had drawn up a vast social requirements in terms of numbers of personnel, equipment,
security project during the war, which was almost completely and financial support. They therefore applied for means to
implemented in peacetime and taken as a model by the be made available locally. Qualified local doctors and
governments of France and other countries. Nearly all administrators were trained and engaged who were to form
health care services became available free of charge to all the backbone of all these countries’ health departments
social and professional classes, and sick people were not to when they gained their independence.
be allowed to go without treatment because they could not
afford it. A legally binding pact of solidarity brought
together rich and poor, sick and healthy, young and old. 1950–1978: A PERIOD OF ENTHUSIASM
Each country devised its own system of financial support,
administration, and management for dealing with social The Second World War, which few countries in the world
protection. A single body dependent on the state was escaped, was followed by three decades with two distinctive
instituted in Britain; Belgium opted for multiple mutual features. On the one hand, the industrialized countries
societies; Germany updated the system of funding based on underwent a period of economic expansion, which led to
the sectors of activity, which had already acquired years of the growth of towns and industrial potential. On the other
experience; and France kept the system based on membership hand, many nations which had been colonized gained
of the trades and professions. These systems were financed independence. Events of these kinds might well be expected
in most cases by contributions deducted from the citizens’ to lead to a magnificent improvement in people’s health,
wages. The coverage offered by most of these organizations and possibly also to the disappearance of some diseases.
included sickness and maternity insurance, occupational This period ends in 1978 because it was during the
safety and health insurance, and a retirement pension summer of that year that the annual World Health Assembly
scheme. organized by WHO sent the world a spectacular message,
None of these systems was provided right from the start which was to inspire even greater hope and enthusiasm.
with the funds necessary to cover the expenses of the whole
population and protect all its members equally, or with a
coherent administration or an irreproachable management. Contagious diseases
Readjustments were necessary everywhere and continued to
be made up to the end of the century. Penicillin began to be manufactured by chemical synthesis
During the war, the Allies had also defined the founding in many countries, and within a few years, it became available
principles of the United Nations, which was to replace the all over the world at little cost. This drug was soon
defunct League of Nations. This time, however, Roosevelt, accompanied by other substances belonging to the same
unlike Wilson, who had not been supported by the family, and by other antibiotics (Plate 79). Since penicillin
American Congress, drew up the rules of his own personal destroys the most common microbes, a whole class of
United Nations, of which the United States was to take suppurating lesions of various kinds were eliminated in
control. The word ‘health’ was slipped almost surreptitiously hospitals, such as the pulmonary and pleural infections
into the United Nations Charter, but it meant that the idea which had been so common in the past, and staphylococcal
of a health organization was accepted at the 1945 San osteo-articular infections, which had had such devastating
Francisco Conference, and the structure of the World effects on children.

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Table 3  The eradication of smallpox in selected countries (number of cases per year)
1939 1955 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977–1978
Africa
Benin 58 16 165 490 815 367 58 – – – – – – – –
Botswana 3 – – – 1 – – – 36 1,059 27 – – – –
Ethiopia 201 2,662 124 358 466 426 197 722 26,329 16,999 5,414 4,439 3,935 915 –
Uganda – 101 1,351 614 365 55 9 2 19 16 – – – – –

South America
Brazil 86 2,580 3,417 3,623 4,514 4,372 7,407 1,771 19 – – – – – –

Asia
Afghanistan …. 1,411 72 66 334 739 250 1,044 736 236 25 – – – –
Bangladesh …. 1,926 316 3,207 6,648 9,039 1,925 1,473 – 10,754 32,711 16,485 13,798 – –
India 133,616 41,837 33,402 32,616 84,902 35,179 19,281 12,773 16,190 27,407 88,114 188,003 1,436 – –
Nepal …. …. 70 164 110 249 163 76 215 399 277 1,549 95 – –
Pakistan …. 3,330 1,285 2,936 6,084 1,836 3,520 3,192 5,808 7,053 9,258 7,859 – – –
No cases: –
Not available: ….
Source: WHO, 1980, The Global Eradication of Smallpox, Final Report of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication, Geneva.

The systematic prescription of penicillin for streptococcal countries adopted it on a large scale. Tuberculosis can
throat infections transformed scarlet fever into a benign spread easily among people of all ages living in overcrowded
disease. Not only did school epidemics of scarlet fever conditions, which is often the case in country huts, favelas
become a thing of the past, but the dreaded outbursts of and shantytowns. This period was characterized by the
acute rheumatic fever also became rare. uncontrolled growth of towns, along with all the medical,
This sharp decrease in the incidence of the most common social and moral risks which accompany crowded housing
infectious diseases obviously occurred only in countries able conditions and a lack of proper regard for hygiene.
to afford antibiotics, which are difficult to manufacture and Although cholera and the plague were still endemic in
therefore relatively expensive. During the Cold War, the some African and Asian countries, the world was no longer
Non-Aligned Countries were collectively denoted the threatened by smallpox. Smallpox vaccination, which was
‘Third World’. The immediately apparent differences easy to perform and inexpensive, was generalized. WHO,
between the financial resources of the above two groups of which had been responsible for promoting this procedure,
countries had health repercussions, which will be frequently predicted that smallpox would be completely wiped out for
referred to below. humans. It is certainly true that, since the last case was
Penicillin turned out to be an efficacious means of recorded in Somalia, nothing more has been heard of the
combating gonorrhoea, but its effectiveness against the disease. Convinced that there was no risk, WHO offered to
syphilis bacterium Treponema pallidum was surprising, as pay a prize to anyone who could provide authentic proof of
these two infectious agents do not belong to the same family. a new outbreak.
Therapeutic approaches which had been in use for centuries This was the first known case of a human epidemic
suddenly became obsolete, and one of the branches of disease that had disappeared thanks to human efforts
venereology was completely transformed. In particular, the (Table 3), but unfortunately, it has remained the only case
dreadful neural and mental complications of syphilis were so far. For a long time, researchers hoped to achieve equal
eliminated, and theories about the hereditary nature of success with poliomyelitis, but here the difficulties to be
syphilis had to be revised. overcome were different. The disease is spread by viruses of
During the immediate post-war period, the use of several different types, the vaccines do not keep well, and
another antibiotic produced on an industrial scale, unlike the smallpox virus, which is transmitted from
streptomycin, spread rapidly among all the Western person to person, the poliomyelitis viruses abound in
countries. Thanks to the prescription of streptomycin in freshwater everywhere.
association with other drugs, tuberculosis – whether its During these years of high scientific hopes, malaria was
focus was pulmonary, osteo-articular, or meningeal – could expected to be stamped out like smallpox. Research in the
now be quickly cured. Patients with tuberculosis needed to chemical industry, which had been stimulated by the war,
be admitted to hospital only during the infectious stage, and led to the development of DDT, a powerful insecticide.
the treatment could then be continued in their own homes. DDT was therefore lavishly applied in the many swampy
The many establishments which had been opened in every areas throughout the world where the disease was endemic,
country both between and immediately after the two with encouraging results. It soon turned out, however, that
world wars to deal with tuberculosis suddenly became it did not suffice to eradicate the adult mosquitoes, and that
redundant, and were either closed down or used for other the insects began acquiring resistance to DDT. After
purposes. working so hard for three decades, people began to realize
Publicity campaigns were launched to promote that it was not possible to interfere with ecosystems without
vaccination with the BCG vaccine. Some newly independent causing some harm.

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Other methods of fighting malaria were found to be partly or entirely free of charge for as large a proportion of
possible, and they were all used simultaneously. In tropical the population as possible. There were several possible ways
countries, care was taken to eliminate even the smallest of achieving this.
expanses of stagnant water in which anopheles larvae were Britain adopted the type of state system used in the
liable to develop, and intensive public information campaigns Soviet Union since the 1920s, which was subsequently
were gradually organized. The larvae were again targeted by copied in the socialist states created after 1945, as well as in
spreading a layer of oil on the surface of still waters whenever Australia and some of the Canadian provinces. The state
possible. Many efforts were made to drain and dry out financed and managed all the medical structures required by
marshlands. the population, regardless of the illness involved and the
By combining all these methods, progress was definitely type of care required. This all-embracing system looked
made (Table 4). The northern and southern shores of the quite satisfactory, since it abolished the inequalities due to a
Mediterranean are by now devoid of malaria, as is the whole person’s place of residence, income bracket, or walk of life.
of Western Europe, whereas one century ago the disease The idea of free medical care for all seemed most appealing.
was present in every country in the world. The last cases to
be reported occurred in Greece in 1963. Nature has also
lent a hand: in Scandinavian Lapland, there are far too
many lakes for it to be possible to dry them out, and Table 4  Malaria morbidity in selected countries
mosquitoes are widespread. Nonetheless, local populations (Before and after the Eradication Programme)
no longer suffer from malaria, probably because the
endogenous anopheles have been replaced by another Number of
Country and Stage *
variety, which does not carry the haematozoon responsible Region Year Cases of
of Programme
for transmitting malaria to humans. Malaria
Vaccines affording protection against two other
contagious diseases, measles and German measles, also The Americas Dominican Republic, 1950 17,310
became available to the public. These are mainly childhood M+C 1973 418
diseases, but when contracted by pregnant women, they can
lead to embryonic malformations. Since measles vaccination Jamaica, M. 1954 4,417
has become a common practice, infantile bronchopneumonia 1969 0
no longer occurs as frequently as in the past.
Within a thirty-year period, the incidence of infectious Venezuela, M + C + A 1943 817,115
diseases has thus completely changed among most of the 1958 800
world’s inhabitants. It would not be fair, however, to
attribute this improvement to medical progress alone. In Africa Mauritius, M 1948 46,400
both the towns and the countryside, housing conditions 1968 14 †
have improved with the expanding economy. In Europe, the
water mains have been extended to rural communities, Asia Taiwan, M 1954 1,000,000
thereby ending their reliance on traditional wells, which 1969 9†
could easily escape the health inspectors’ notice and were
often placed in the vicinity of animal droppings. Iraq, M + C + A 1950 537,286
Urban housing built after the war was equipped with 1973 3,783
bathrooms and sanitation, and the annual per capita water
consumption increased ten-fold in the newly built-up areas. Turkey, M + C + A 1950 1,888,000
The construction of modern apartment blocks, regardless of 1973 9,828
whether this was the cause or the outcome of social change,
meant that the older buildings no longer tended to become Europe Bulgaria, M 1946 144,631
overcrowded by several generations living together. The 1969 10 †
acquisition of washing machines (Plate 80) by most
households made underwear more hygienic and abolished Romania, M 1948 388,200
body parasites, while the use of refrigerators and dishwashers 1969 4†
improved the level of food hygiene. Of course, these
improvements did not immediately reach all layers of Spain, M 1950 19,644
society, even in the industrialized countries, but they played 1969 28 †
an important role in that they served to prevent the
transmission of common microbial disorders. Yugoslavia, M 1937 169,545
1969 15 †

Sickness insurance schemes *Stage of programme is the last quoted.

M = Maintenance phase; C = Consolidation phase; A = Attack phase.
Health care, or at least some state contribution towards the † All cases reported in countries in maintenance phase were imported or
cost of medical attention in the event of illness, seemed induced.
quite a realistic aim in the post-war period, since the nations Source: P. Yekutiel, 1980, Eradication of Infectious Diseases: A Critical Study,
were becoming prosperous. The generous projects nurtured Basel, S. Karger, p. 71 (Reprinted with permission from S. Karger AG,
by the governments at that time could now be put into Basel).
practice. The principle was that medical care should be

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France, Spain and Germany, some Canadian provinces The limited financial resources of the newly independent
and Israel continued in the tradition established by developing countries did not enable them to extend the
Bismarck. Insurance funds set up by the various professional benefits of health insurance to the whole nation, except for
organizations managed the sums deducted for this purpose a few countries with a socialist economy, such as Cuba, and
from the employees’ wages. In the case of the first model some African countries. The latter were attracted by the
cited above, the state acquired its resources from the tax idea of free medical care for the whole nation. In other
system, and in the latter case, the special funds acted as places, where prosperity was expected to arrive quite soon,
insurance companies, with the risks involved in all some categories of employees were given social coverage
insurance, but with some important differences: the immediately, and the number of beneficiaries was planned
subscriptions had to be paid up by the employers, and to increase gradually.
employees were mandatorily insured and could not choose Foreign companies were obliged by the host countries to
the amount of their insurance contributions, which was protect their employees by insuring them against
set by the state. occupational accidents and disease. The profits made by
In both cases, the feasibility of sickness insurance these companies were assumed to be such that they could
depended on the prosperity of the nation. In those countries afford to be generous. The state then followed suit by
where the coverage was initially restricted to only a few insuring its own army, police force, treasury staff, and
categories, it was gradually extended to others (such as craft eventually, members of the teaching profession. The
workers and farm workers), and types of care and therapeutic country’s own firms were then required to participate, since
methods not initially included were gradually covered. In their employees were increasing in number.
any case, the number of employees was increasing at this The expansion of the hospital system in the more affluent
period of full employment, and larger sums could be spent countries was also taken by the poorer ones to be a sign of
on health: old-fashioned hospitals were renovated, and prestige. Some of them set up modern hospitals, which
establishments were equipped with the latest and most although not always adapted to the local customs or to the
expensive equipment invented by medical technology. country’s administrative and technical possibilities (how
Since the egalitarian spirit underlying sickness insurance were they to ensure the maintenance of sophisticated
meant that hospital expenses were also covered, members of equipment, for instance?), dispensed the latest in medical
all social classes chose to attend the public hospitals, which and surgical care.
had previously been frequented only by the poor. Since The gradually expanding economy attracted
establishments were sure to obtain financial support, they underemployed inhabitants from the country to the towns.
proliferated in order to satisfy the popular demand for easily The capital cities of these countries soon housed one-third
accessible local medical facilities. As a result, the number of of the whole population, and this situation soon became the
hospitals actually required was sometimes overestimated. sign of a poor country. The new arrivals were often able to
It would have been contrary to American tradition to set find only temporary, poorly paid employment, and the
up a system of this kind, which in some respects might seem numbers inhabiting wretched, insalubrious quarters grew
to resemble assistance based on a collective management alarmingly.
system rather than insurance. The ideal of free enterprise The new health policies may have benefited city dwellers
and a rather puritanical conception of poverty as divine with steady jobs, but they did nothing for country folk, and
retribution prevented this type of insurance from being despite the tendency towards urbanization, the developing
institutionalized in the United States on a national scale. countries were still predominantly rural. Rather than
The federal structure of the United States constituted a growing food crops, the rural population tended to produce
further barrier. The example of some Canadian provinces cash crops or minerals for export, which made them
which, as early as 1947, had adopted various schemes, particularly vulnerable because the price of these
showed that the states could each adopt the mode of welfare commodities was subject to the fluctuations of the world
that suited them, rich states tending to behave differently market.
from poor ones, and industrial states differently from
agricultural ones, for example. The large industrial firms
that were forming at that time designed their own systems The structure of public health systems
of insurance for their employees. One can imagine the
extreme diversity in the cost of the insurance premiums, the The most obvious aspect of a public health system’s activities,
amounts deducted from wages and the benefits accruing to the provision of care, is of utmost importance to the public.
the beneficiaries. There still existed social inequalities Governments are also concerned with this issue, primarily
between whites and blacks, and the latest immigrants, for reasons related to political policy and prestige. In the
mostly of Hispanic origin, enjoyed neither regular income Eastern European socialist countries and in countries where
nor social welfare. The federal government therefore took health insurance had been ‘socialized’, such as the United
steps whereby it became mandatory for all the states to aid Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries, the state and
the elderly and the destitute. Medicare and Medicaid came the local authorities generally made all the decisions
to the rescue of millions of people. concerning matters such as where the sick inhabitants of a
This description of what has been achieved in the United given area should preferentially (if not compulsorily)
States and the gaps that remain to be filled illustrates the consult, how the members of the medical profession should
difficulties faced by any system of health insurance, whether be distributed and how much they should be paid, the
the country involved subscribes to a free trade or socialist location, equipment and management of hospitals, the
system, and whether it is industrialized, developing, or production and distribution of pharmaceutical products. A
semi-developed, as in the case of some European and Latin reliable administrative structure was necessary to deal with
American countries. all these aspects.

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Those countries with free trade economies were not medicine, which aims to prevent occupational accidents and
attracted by this type of highly simplified management, disease by having all those in employment systematically
which in fact gave the government complete financial, examined, has been widely adopted. Preventive medical
geographical and technical control over health care provision. departments almost everywhere were operated at the
In the name of free enterprise, they ended up with a two- expense of employers, who attempted to limit their scope,
tiered health system. Governments first had to sustain and and thus to save money. In theory, company doctors were
develop public health administration at both central and paid to ensure that wage earners were suitable for the
regional levels. The technicians engaged for this purpose positions they occupied. They were not allowed to go any
had to supervise the application of health laws, the smooth further, however, or to give the persons they were dealing
running of the local health offices, the management of the with an overall check-up.
regulated health professions, and the functioning of public The same could be said of the medical departments in
health establishments, and to report any human or animal charge of supervising the health of young people attending
epidemics constituting a risk to public health, organize schools and universities. Even in the most advanced
emergency aid in the event of catastrophes and inform the countries, these departments were understaffed and
central authorities. A professional corps of this kind requires underequipped, their scope was too restricted, and they
people with training in various relevant fields such as were badly paid. Sports medical departments, responsible
economists, managers, and members of the health for checking whether a person was fit for a particular type of
professions and epidemiologists. Many countries set up sport or the competitive event, were generally more efficient
schools of public health. These representatives of the central because they were financed by athletes’ voluntary
government working all over the national territory were contributions and by sporting associations.
invested at the local level with the authority and decision- Countries with complex administrative systems had
making powers of the national officials themselves. These plenty of opportunities for promoting preventive medicine.
usually competent, devoted and poorly paid people were so The quality of the home-grown and imported agricultural
attentive to the state of health of the populations they were products available on the market needed to be controlled to
dealing with that they contributed greatly to improving the ensure that they were safe to eat. Customs authorities had
health of the world. to check that articles manufactured in other countries were
Alongside this public health network, private health risk-free, including domestic and industrial equipment,
practitioners and establishments were also developing. toys, clothes, and fabric and building materials. The health
Although they were subject to administrative control, they of immigrants crossing the borders was sometimes checked
and their clientele enjoyed several kinds of freedom: the to prevent contagious diseases from being introduced. Even
freedom to set themselves up wherever they chose, to the chemical composition of beverages manufactured at
prescribe whatever treatment seemed most appropriate, to home and abroad had to be tested.
set their own fees, as long as these were compatible with the The damage done to health by uncontrolled urban
patients’ private insurance schemes, and freedom for the expansion is well known. Only a few countries have managed
patients to choose the physicians they consulted and the to control the living conditions of the new arrivals in large
place of consultation. In this way, two sets of requirements cities by building special accommodation in advance on
were satisfied: on the one hand, the public health sites already provided with amenities such as roads, running
organization was there to look after the well-being of the water and sewage systems. This rather authoritarian method
community and to protect it from various health risks, and of preventive medicine was not compatible with all national
on the other hand, there were the free practitioners of cultures, however, nor could all countries afford it.
medicine who did not need to worry about collective health Although consumers were not always aware of it, every
issues, but were able to concentrate (quite rightly) on article they were using had been checked by the public
restoring the health of the individual patient. authorities to protect them from innumerable risks. It is not
In the poor countries, this dual system led to striking possible to estimate the resulting health benefits, since only
discrepancies. While public health structures were rather the cost of running these departments can be calculated.
flimsy and lacked resources in terms of both staff and Intensive hygiene campaigns were launched, using
funding, physicians trained in Western methods opened various media, depending on the cultural background of the
private practices in the cities, leaving the countryside to fend country involved. The wording of a message and the
for itself. These physicians earned a good living by treating objectives declared can produce different reactions in
patients with steady jobs, who were therefore insured. Thus, different places. The approaches varied (school lessons,
inequalities among those in need of treatment became slogans, the media, films, cartoon strips, etc.), but the
gradually more marked. themes were usually the same everywhere: teaching the
Prevention, in comparison with these health care systems, appropriate procedures and the precautions to be taken
had less visible effects, since the accidents and diseases when handling kitchen utensils, heating equipment and
effectively avoided and the costs thus economized are more tool kits to avoid domestic accidents (these are responsible
difficult to demonstrate statistically. How can one show the for more serious accidents than are caused by transport),
importance of events that never occurred? Prevention is informing people about the effects of alcohol on drivers of
therefore of less value politically, since it is less spectacular motor vehicles, how to observe the rules of hygiene in
than curing diseases and building fine hospitals. And yet everyday life, what a balanced diet should consist of, and
few nations have failed to avail themselves of the advantages precautions to be taken when engaging in sexual
of preventive medicine, as the following few examples are intercourse.
intended to show. As far as preventing smoking and drinking is concerned,
The increasing use of vaccination has already been however, no government in the world has solved the
mentioned above. In most advanced countries, occupational contradictions involved in educating their citizens. Although

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the toxic effects of tobacco and alcohol have been clearly The governments of most countries, however highly
established for a long time, they are a source of profit to the developed, paid growing attention to their public health
state. Most of the countries that gained independence systems because of the economic implications and the
during this period either set up state monopolies on these interest shown by the electorate in health systems and in the
products or taxed them heavily, which did not prevent their savings they entailed. Health systems were never given top
consumption from increasing everywhere. Since fashions priority, however, and ministers of health were never
are often imitated, recently independent poor countries granted complete freedom of decision, but their proposals
tended to copy the behaviour of the wealthy countries, even were always considered on the basis of cost and not in terms
when it came to their bad habits. Since they are incapable of of their value to the nation’s health. Throughout the world,
making more reasonable decisions, states still prefer to incur preventive medicine and the quality of health care were
the expense of caring for those who have been intoxicating seldom judged from the point of view of the benefits to the
themselves for years, rather than to reduce their immediate community, and health always came second to economic
revenue by taking measures to prevent the damage. None of considerations.
the states is in the least ashamed of playing the role of In view of the demands of the public and those of the
drug dealer. medical profession for hospitals to be built everywhere, all
Birth control was a highly controversial public health equipped with expensive materials (e.g., scanners), some
issue during the period under study here. Family planning efforts were made to introduce some rational thinking. Thus
set up factions within religious circles, opposing strict a new concept of public health planning emerged: from
adherents to those with a more pragmatic outlook. Once then on, everything had to be planned in advance – the
some of the poorer countries that had succeeded in distribution of doctors and hospitals within the country,
increasing their national revenue thanks to the efforts of the acquisition of sophisticated and expensive equipment,
agriculture, industry and commerce realized that the profits the renovation of out-dated hospitals, the amortization of
were dwindling because of the high birth rate, they decided radiological diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, and the
to take measures to bring it down. In other countries, transition to computer processing in the management of
numbers were thought of as being the only real source of health insurance funds. The ‘Planning-programming-
wealth for the people. In many cultures, the degree of pride budgeting system’ (PPBS) in vogue in business management
a father and a mother are entitled to feel depends on the in the 1960s was also applied in the field of health
number of children they produce. This issue is also related administration. A fine example of its application in France
to the role of women in a civilization: are they destined to be is provided by the decision on where the maternity homes
forever the inferior sex, or are they allowed to control their should be located. There was a choice between either having
own bodies and their own fertility? Birth control therefore a large number of small maternity homes so that pregnant
raises medical, social, cultural, religious, economic and other women would easily find one in the vicinity, or making
questions (Plate 81). exact calculations so that there would be a smaller number
For the first time in the history of humanity, birth of maternity hospitals, permanently staffed and equipped
control was discussed openly throughout the world owing with the latest and safest obstetrical devices. Taking the
to two completely new methods of contraception: oral budgetary constraints into account, several measures were
female contraception, which requires some self-discipline taken simultaneously that led to a conspicuous decrease in
and is relatively expensive; and intra-uterine devices, which the morbidity and mortality of newborn infants and their
have to be installed by an experienced specialist. Both mothers in France.
methods require regular medical supervision, and their cost Public health planning required new ways of looking at
made them unsuitable for large-scale use in the medical issues, led to the training of statisticians,
underprivileged countries, where they were the most epidemiologists and medical computer technicians, and
urgently needed. introduced into the field of medicine the idea of looking at
It is therefore easy to understand why governments large numbers. This was a real innovation, since medicine
aware of the risks associated with overpopulation have for thousands of years had always focused on finding the
sometimes taken authoritarian measures, for example in solution to individual problems. Those who were too naive
China, where fertile couples were fined, or lost their jobs or or enthusiastic about planning at the start were also obliged
homes. Although the full impact of these measures cannot to recognize its limitations. Public health problems are not
be assessed yet, the national pattern of demographic growth all reducible to quantifiable data, and there is necessarily
certainly slowed down as a result. some degree of uncertainty. Lastly, plans were often made
In India, the male members of the population were for a five-year period, during which everything is liable to
targeted, since men can easily be sterilized by performing a change, namely, the wishes and needs to be satisfied, the
brief surgical intervention requiring only local anaesthesia. medical techniques available, the political context, etc. All
Information campaigns were run in which cash bonuses these changes might make it necessary to modify the initial
were offered as an incitement, but had to be stopped because plan. Experience soon taught the new public health
of public protest. Several thousands of men were sterilized, managers that plans are necessary but that they are seldom
but in a country with a population of more than 950 million actually carried out as expected.
individuals, these effects were barely perceptible. These efforts at planning also revealed how intricately
The consequences of birth control were quite limited in health phenomena were bound up with social ones. Over
fact during this period, even in the most needy and the centuries, the distinction had developed between the
overpopulated countries: too many interests were at stake, medical profession with its long-standing history, its
and the opinions voiced about birth control were too techniques, and its scientifically based view of the world,
contradictory to have led to anything but very short-term and social workers with their closer experience of human
policies. situations and behaviour and the training in uncertainty

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they had acquired in studying the relatively new discipline as to who was to represent China, and a similar situation
of sociology. Efforts were made to have the two professions arose between the opposing governments in Cambodia. The
work hand in hand in the context of ‘community medicine’. Cold War between the communists in the East and the
The idea here was to bring together the social and medical free-trade economists in the West encouraged both camps
approaches to a population, so that the problems to acquire a clientele among the newly independent
encountered by groups and by individuals would be countries.
systematically approached from both points of view. WHO was financed, like most of the other United
University chairs and institutes of community medicine Nations organizations, by the contributions of its member
were created all over the world. This concept was particularly states, which were proportional to their wealth. It managed
popular in Quebec; and in specially created local community to draw further resources from special funds set up for
service centres (known locally as CLSCs), the public could specific public health purposes, such as controlling
find all the necessary services and professionals under one parasitoses or helping the victims of natural disasters in a
roof: experienced social workers, medical dispensaries of given country or part of the world, which were voluntarily
several kinds, outpatient consultations, and practical and financed by some states. This initiative was not appreciated
administrative advice about all aspects of everyday life. by all, since the reputedly rich countries were not all equally
This was a good idea that was successfully applied in a rich, and also because the former colonizers, for economic
number of developing countries. The older European and linguistic reasons, had maintained their influence in
nations were too set in their traditional ways to show much some regions and wanted to continue doing so. Worldwide
enthusiasm for this new concept. They preferred to be public health cannot be attended to without coming up
treated by their familiar family doctor, who was progressively against political rivalries.
given a more dynamic role to play. For similar reasons, the scientific thinking of those in
After the war, the United Nations created WHO charge of WHO was not to the liking of all its members.
specifically for the purpose of dealing with the world’s health For example, they quite justifiably attempted to explain to
problems, with particular emphasis on improving the poor member states that organizing preventive medicine would
state of health care in the former colonies (Plate 82). Not have broader and more long-term effects than simply curing
only were these new countries short of the resources and a list of diseases. WHO created a special terminology in
qualified staff needed to run an efficient administration, but this context, which the medical profession had difficulty
they were also riddled with food shortages, poorly balanced understanding. For example, ‘primary prevention’ included
diets, vitamin deficiencies, and uncontrollable parasitoses. vaccination and the destruction of vermin (such as rats and
The efforts made by industrialized countries to aid the mosquitoes), which seems quite logical. The systematic
developing ones increased constantly between 1950 and the screening of diseases such as cancer or high blood pressure
late 1970s. The wealthy countries stepped up their bilateral at such an early stage that no symptoms had yet appeared
aid programmes. As WHO was not able to cope on its own, was designated, however, ‘secondary prevention’, although
numerous other bodies had to step in for various reasons. In this was surely no longer prevention, since the disease had
the field, special missions dealt with specific diseases such as already been developed in some cases. Lastly, the term
malaria, river blindness, and bilharzia, to mention only a ‘tertiary prevention’ was used for treating diseases
few. Administrators helped to set up the structures necessary appropriately in order to ‘prevent’ the after-effects, but it
for projects to be properly planned, and managers made was not very clear how this form of prevention differed from
sure that funds were put to good use. Aid gradually began therapy. WHO, which brought together almost 200 nations
to be provided by organizations such as the United Nations speaking nearly as many languages, working on scientific
Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the topics in certain cases not yet completely elucidated,
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development sometimes encountered difficult linguistic and terminological
(IBRD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), problems in the course of its activities.
which gave these countries new seeds for their crops and Be that as it may, WHO has made a unique contribution
improved their agricultural techniques, UNICEF, and the to the health of nations. It took over successfully from its
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to mention predecessors in the battle against contagious disease, drew
only the most well known. The activities of these numerous up international health regulations, and collected
organizations overlapped, causing a certain degree of waste, epidemiological information from all over the world. To
but the specific nature of each one made it impossible to make descriptions of disease more accurate, the organization
organize mergers between them: the poor profited from the drew up and revised an international system of classification
disorder sown by the rich, and in their diversity, all forms of of diseases. It founded a universally recognized
aid provided were beneficial to the health of the local pharmacopoeia. In its efforts to improve the nourishment
populations in the long run. of underfed children, it succeeded in regulating sales of
The most active organization in the field, however, was artificial milk. WHO also launched numerous field
always WHO. In the course of time, its structures and the missions and trained local people in several medical
number of member states changed. Some countries switched professions in countries where no vocational training
from the regional office to which they were initially affiliated structures were yet available.
to another. Tunisia, after being assigned to the European International public health cooperation did not consist
office, joined the Eastern Mediterranean one. Israel also merely of the assistance granted to the poor by the rich. No
associated itself with Europe as soon as it became a member doubt because the two world wars had provided dramatic
of the United Nations. The USSR, along with a few other examples of deadly conflicts that might have been avoided,
Soviet Republics, briefly left the organization and some countries made noteworthy efforts from 1950
subsequently returned. Heated debate occurred between onwards to collaborate by pooling their common economic,
the People’s Republic of China and the Taiwan authorities scientific, political and cultural interests. The increase in

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international communications and trading and the decision. Acting in favour of one group of humans may be
relaxation of cross-frontier restrictions facilitated the detrimental to another group, and destroying a living species
conclusion of new alliances between nations, depending on that is harmful to humanity may have detrimental effects on
their geographical situation. other more useful species.
Europe set the main example with its numerous Millions of people all over the world suffer from metabolic
institutions created for various purposes, but similar trends and nutritional anomalies, which can lead to various types
could be observed in other regions, such as North and of cardiovascular disease. In this context, epidemiological
South America, the Arab countries, and South-East Asia. surveys have been carried out for several years on specific
In Africa, especially the French-speaking parts, the former populations in the United States and Finland. The results
colonies benefited from the assistance of the pre-existing have shown that many people have neglected their high
colonial health departments in the war on endemic disease, blood pressure, thereby exposing themselves to vascular
and the central African countries set up their own brain damage, vascular occlusion (infarct) in the brain or
coordinating structures. In Europe, the European Union other organs.
(formerly known as the European Community) was set up The results of these and other studies have attracted
for purely economic reasons. But the Council of Europe, attention to the harmful effects of a dietary imbalance
which had a larger membership than the Union, has created between the lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins ingested. In
a Health Committee to deal with health-related issues. It the past, the knowledge available in this field focused mainly
carries out investigations and reports findings, which are on malnutrition of weaning infants in underdeveloped
not subject to the approval or the vote of all the member countries, and on some particularly well-documented
states, some of which can express qualified support by deficiencies, but after these decades of prosperity, the pitfalls
signing partial agreements. Among the points dealt with in of over-rich diets began to become apparent. Excessively
this framework, we should note the European agreement high cholesterol levels in the blood or other body fluids can
concerning blood transfusions and the exchange and sale of cause cardiovascular diseases that can be prevented by
blood supplies among Union member states. keeping to more reasonably balanced diets.
It is not possible in the present article to examine in detail Without wanting to draw an exaggerated picture of the
the strides made in medicine during this period, mainly contrast between over-fed industrialized countries and
thanks to progress in biochemistry, the study of living under-nourished developing countries, it should nevertheless
organisms and the changes they undergo in the event of be emphasized that this contrast does exist. To be obsessed
disease. The discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), an with cholesterol has become fashionable, but millions of
essential component of living tissues that transmits genetically people have actually improved their health by applying
inherited characteristics, was of decisive importance in the simple preventive measures and adopting more sensible
field of life sciences. We will briefly mention only a few of the eating habits. Compare this with the cost of the spectacular
innovations that improved public health. cardiovascular and brain surgery carried out at magnificently
The progress achieved in the field of infectious disease, equipped hospital centres, or with the heart transplants
thanks to the intensive use of preventive programmes and now possible thanks to the discovery of HLA tissue groups,
the increasing number of antibiotics available, has already which render grafted organs compatible with the host
been mentioned. The unfortunate arrival of thalidomide on organism. All these achievements have saved the lives of
the antibiotics market illustrates the difficulties associated only a few thousand patients, at great expense.
with a universal pharmacopoeia. Since none of the Similarly, the lives of people with chronic diseases such
international authorities is capable of guaranteeing that a as diabetes have been improved. The distinction has been
diagnostic, preventive or therapeutic pharmaceutical made between those with congenital sugar assimilation
substance is both harmless and efficacious, each country is deficits, who have to endure regular insulin injections all
free to authorize or prohibit the marketing of a drug within their lives, and those with less serious and less permanent
its territory. A scientific consensus has been reached over forms of diabetes, for whom an appropriate diet and drugs
the last three decades, however, as to what tests a medicinal such as sulfamides can be prescribed. Diabetics, who
product should pass before it is allowed to be marketed. Its number several tens of thousands, are thus spared the usual
effects on the organism must be tolerated by human beings, complications, lead normal lives, and live longer than they
according to its composition and the results of experiments did previously.
on several animal species, healthy humans and patients with The considerable progress made in the field of electronics
specific diseases. Most countries have agreed to adopt has provided medicine with some useful tools. Ultrasound
standard test procedures along these lines. After satisfying recording methods are used to explore the various ducts and
these tests, thalidomide was duly authorized and distributed organs, and to examine embryos and fetuses with a view to
in several Western countries, where it was used to treat detecting any anatomical anomalies and predicting any
pregnant women with complaints of certain kinds. In 1959, obstetrical problems liable to arise. Ultrasound scanning is
however, it was observed in Germany and Australia that a painless, inexpensive means of exploring the human body
women who had been given this treatment were giving birth with no ionizing effects. In many cases, it has replaced X-
to children with limb malformations, and the existence of a ray methods. Although this method requires highly trained
causal link was definitely confirmed in 1961. The sale of this staff to interpret the results, it is appreciated in many poor
drug was henceforth prohibited. A few years later, however, countries. However, an international survey carried out by
the same medicinal product turned out to be a useful means WHO showed that a great deal of expensive radiological
of treating non-pregnant women and men suffering from equipment lay idle in these countries because of mechanical
leprosy, a disease on which thalidomide had not even been failures that could have been quite easily repaired.
tested. This devastating accident underlines the scientific Research on biochemical and cellular mechanisms made
uncertainty surrounding any innovation and public health possible the prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal anomalies

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(affecting either the shape or the number of chromosomes, previous decades. The implied criticism had to do mainly
as in the case of trisomy 21, otherwise known as Down’s with the way in which ‘primary health care’ was organized
syndrome or mongolism), functional anomalies (such as throughout the world, i.e., the care dispensed to patients by
pancreatic fibrosis, also known as mucoviscidosis), and members of the medical profession, or possibly by the most
blood anomalies (such as haemoglobin problems). Methods appropriate substitutes available, if there were any such
of in utero investigation, along with the tests carried out at within reach. The Alma-Ata slogan was therefore aimed
birth, have made it possible to apply corrective treatment at primarily at the developing countries, but the advanced
a very early age, and they sometimes lead to termination of nations were rather puzzled about the meaning of ‘primary
pregnancy. health care’, which was part of the WHO jargon. These
The increasing use of multidisciplinary approaches to countries had not waited for Alma-Ata before giving some
disease has resulted in traditional ideas about the causes of thought to their health policies. They had provided those in
disease being completely revised. In East Africa, for example, poor health with a sufficiently large number of physicians (if
epidemiologists discovered that the incidence of a not with more than were required), and anybody in need of
mandibular tumour was particularly high. Subsequent care could simply call in the doctor or go to a hospital.
studies showed that several factors were responsible for the Primary health care was therefore being well attended to,
occurrence of this malignant growth: it only occurred when and so they wondered what ‘secondary health care’ might
a specific virus (the Epstein-Barr virus) was caught by a mean.
patient with malaria suffering from malnutrition. It was generally agreed, however, that the criticism of
Many illnesses seem in fact to result from a combination Third World health policies was justified. Since the
of several factors. The recognition of interconnected causes underdeveloped countries lacked both resources and
certainly revolutionized the simplistic type of reasoning authority, all they could do was to follow the public health
based on bacteriological models, according to which one and administrative principles they had inherited from their
cause leads to one result and one germ to one disease. These former colonizers: in other words, to imitate the affluent
three decades of progress in most of the branches of medicine countries. Physicians trained in Western methods were in
have shown living organisms to be increasingly complex in short supply, and were established in the towns. Expensive
both their healthy and diseased states. Increasing the new hospitals able to perform heart surgery had been built.
number of biological investigations was hardly the best way Meanwhile, no provision had been made for those living in
to solve many problems, and in certain cases it actually the bush and in the mountains, and the villages were
delayed the discovery of proper solutions. suffering from food shortages and lack of sanitation. There
Another new medical discovery was the fact that the was a growing need for all countries, especially the least
pathological problems are intertwined with the moral, privileged, to develop a new system of vocational training in
religious, cultural and economic particularities of each public health, catering for all population groups. The idea of
society. The more heterogeneous human groups become, training health officers who were not necessarily qualified
the more difficult these problems are to solve. For this doctors was put forward. Training a lower category of staff
reason, ‘ethics committees’ (where the term ‘ethics’ has for with a good basic education to teach the basic principles of
some reason been substituted for ‘moral’) have been set up hygiene in the villages might be better than an inevitably
in hospitals and universities, sometimes on a national scale. poor level of medical care.
The innumerable topics they deal with have sometimes WHO emphasized the need to make better use of village
required creating new legislation; however, the slowness storytellers and ‘witch doctors’ to train experts in the field –
with which this is achieved underscores the great difficulties rather than calling on highly trained physicians unfamiliar
involved. with the public health background in their country – to
increase the numbers of nurses and midwives, and to
dispense elementary instruction to volunteers and village
1 9 7 8 : ‘ G ood health for all by chiefs on how to filter river and marsh water and how to
the year 2 0 0 0 ’ build latrines.
The Alma-Ata Declaration was therefore a call to the
In 1978, the World Health Assembly, which was attended representatives of both rich and poor countries to question
by nearly five hundred participants, launched this slogan, their own consciences and to revise their policies on a
like a battle cry in the war on disease, which was to be the worldwide scale. Since so many nations were prospering,
programme for the next two decades. This event took place the state of health of all humankind really could be improved
in Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union. if all concerned decided to commit themselves to making
To many, this laudable aim announced on the dais in every possible effort.
biblical, melodramatic tones by the Director-General of In 1978, it was indeed possible to be optimistic about the
WHO appeared to be wishful thinking or an incantation three decades ahead, as far as the health of humanity was
against death, since to overcome disease is to abolish death. concerned. The main causes of epidemics had been stamped
Those who were more sceptical or cautious might have out. The mechanization of production processes had turned
preferred the statement ‘Health care for all by the year factories into less dangerous workplaces. Agriculture had
2000’, which would have been a less ambitious, but still become more productive, making famines less frequent and
difficult, goal. less disastrous. The members of the medical profession
The Alma-Ata Declaration, which naturally obtained were so clever that they were always achieving better results,
the unanimous approval of all the participants, was designed and there was no reason to imagine that this would not
to cause a psychological shock among the heads of the continue to be the case.
member states by forcing them to take a critical look at their Some countries that gained independence after the war
public health systems and the policies adopted over the were beginning to launch on the world market products

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they would never have been thought capable of and the failures (which, it is hoped, will prove to be only
manufacturing, which enriched them to such an extent that temporary).
the economic gap between the wealthy countries in the The successful battle against the epidemics of the previous
Northern hemisphere and the poorer Southern countries century continued. Smallpox never reappeared. Yellow fever
seemed destined to decrease. Life expectancy was increasing, attempted to do so once in West Africa but was vanquished.
infant mortality was decreasing, and the population was Cholera was still endemic in Asia, and after crossing the
growing even in the most deserted, destitute corners of the Pacific, resurfaced in Peru and Brazil before crossing over to
globe. West Africa and finally disappearing altogether. The plague,
Of course, many people realized that the Alma-Ata which was still endemic in Asia, occurred only in a few East
Declaration would not bring about the hoped-for health African foci.
revolution, but everything seemed to indicate that human New hope sprang up in the fight against leprosy, which
beings were progressing towards a more healthy life involving in 1995 affected one million people in South-East Asia,
less suffering, since the state of economic prosperity was especially India. A promising new drug, dapsone, was being
expected to persist. used, and because Mycobacterium leprae, like the former
smallpox virus, affects only humans, researchers hoped to
eradicate it in the same way. The solution in the most serious
1978–1997: A PERIOD OF cases turned out to consist of prescribing a combination of
DISAPPOINTMENT chemical drugs, and total victory may now be within reach.
Despite all the efforts made throughout the world, two
The outcome of the Alma-Ata resolutions was not as dreadful diseases still exist, the first of which is malaria. This
successful as expected for several reasons. The industrialized is still the main cause of death in the world, especially among
Northern countries felt that these proposals, reasonable as children. The use of DDT to destroy mosquitoes had been
they were, once again made calls on their generosity, and the prohibited in many places, and the Plasmodium species,
developing Southern countries did not make all the efforts which are most resistant to antimalarial drugs, seemed to be
necessary for the appropriate changes to be made. The proliferating at the expense of the more sensitive species.
difficulties encountered on all sides were exacerbated by the Early in 1980, a deadly epidemic broke out in Madagascar.
fact that economic expansion was slowing down In terms of the number of deaths it causes every year, malaria
considerably, resulting in cuts in national budgets. During remains humanity’s greatest epidemiological challenge.
such crises, health expenditure is always curbed. Never The war on tuberculosis has also come to a standstill.
before in the course of history had the health of humanity Although it was extremely successful in the industrialized
been so inexorably subjected to the power of money. countries throughout the twentieth century, too many small
Moreover, some diseases unexpectedly appeared or pockets of resistance still exist. In every country, there are
reappeared, calling for new public health measures and still places where needy people live in overcrowded homes
occupying a growing place on the epidemiological map of and quarters with no sanitation, contaminating one another
the world. The enthusiasm of the previous decades therefore and forming centres of infection; and the situation is
gave way to disappointment, although the earlier sometimes exacerbated by AIDS. For various immunological
achievements were not really seriously threatened. reasons, the BCG vaccination campaigns have slowed down
in Africa and India.
Even the fight against infectious agents, which are
Infections and parasitoses amenable to vaccination (meningococci, measles) has
slackened: vaccines are expensive, and their widespread use
Once the international organizations had been properly set requires the existence of roads and means of conservation
up and statistical methods developed, fairly reliable, and transport not available everywhere. The causes of
worldwide epidemiological data were becoming available. diarrhoea, which can be so deadly to children, are various
These, however, were only the sum of the individual national and include malnutrition, poor hygiene and epidemics.
data, and the degree of accuracy of the figures reported by the The disappointment felt as we reached the end of the
various countries varied in consistency. Quality was century is mainly due to the fact that humankind is still
improving, however, and the classifications published were relatively powerless in the face of pathogenic viruses. The
increasingly recognized and used, so that a more accurate great medical victories of the past were won against microbes
picture of disease in the world was beginning to emerge. by means of appropriate drugs, whereas viruses are naturally
It was observed that diseases were showing a greater unstable organisms: the influenza viruses mutate, for
tendency to spread internationally, owing to the increased example, from one flu epidemic to another.
amount of trading and travelling worldwide. Diseases do The most spectacular event in recent times has been the
not tend to become identical when spreading from one invasion of the human immunodeficiency virus (the HIV
place to another, however, since, although germs ignore virus responsible for AIDS) (Plate 83). After being first
borders, the modes of human contagion vary from one suspected in the early 1980s and then identified in 1985, this
culture to another, and the insects which carry some diseases virus spread throughout the world via two pathways, blood
do not adapt to all climates and ecosystems. For the same and sexual transmission. It caused considerable mortality
reasons, it seems unlikely that the level of health of the during the first decade of its existence, but HIV-positive
world’s entire population will ever be completely uniform. patients are surviving longer every year thanks to new
It is not within the scope of this article to draw up a list therapies. The African continent has been the hardest hit.
of the main diseases threatening humanity during the Thanks to the improved laboratory methods of
period under consideration. All that can be done here is identification, viruses can now be more accurately detected
briefly to outline the main successes, the lesser successes and classified. The most formidable are the hepatitis B

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and C viruses responsible for severe cirrhosis and (HMOs). It is in the interests of both health care providers
hepatocarcinomas. An increase has also been observed in and consumers that the best possible care should be
the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. Although dispensed at the lowest possible cost. The risks covered have
penicillin almost eradicated syphilis and gonorrhoea, at been strictly defined, however, and the most expensive
least in the more advanced countries, viral infections such as ailments have been ruled out. The federal government has
herpes, condyloma and papilloma have by now become been attempting to reduce the cost of health via Medicare
quite commonplace. and Medicaid, as described above. In the long run, however,
One of the latest threats to human health involves even the number of people with no medical coverage is on the
more elementary living particles than viruses, namely prions. increase, while those who are insured must pay increasingly
After being named in 1982, they were identified in bovines, expensive premiums.
where they are responsible for the fatal bovine spongiform The developing countries are even less in a position to
encephalitis (BSE) known as mad cow disease. The exact extend health insurance to further categories of people. The
mode of transmission at work in cattle is not yet known, nor ideals adopted by the governments in 1945, i.e., extending
do we know to what extent this disease can be transmitted health insurance coverage to the whole population and
to other species, including humans. providing everybody with the same coverage free of charge,
Since worrying comes naturally to human beings, they are now beyond their reach. Those countries where these
hope past victories will continue to be valid forever, but, goals were almost achieved have had to take a few cautious
actually, this is no longer certain. Most of the viral diseases steps backwards, calling on the civic loyalty of the members
occurring nowadays existed previously but had not been of the public who, after years of large-scale state assistance,
properly identified, and their present-day occurrence has had come to believe that the rights to which they were
generated a wave of panic, especially as it is impossible to entitled were limitless. They have been asking the members
control them because too little is known about their of the medical professions, who prescribe too many
composition and means of transmission. treatments, tests and superfluous drugs regardless of cost,
to take a more responsible attitude.
Every country has had to look for solutions that are both
The cost of health care the least risky, politically speaking, and the most likely to
maintain the nation’s health at its present level. It seems
Research on the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases is probable that, in the present context, the proportion of the
extremely expensive and has added to the cost of health total national budgets devoted to public health will continue
care. Moreover, it is worth noting that, for political and to decrease, although the actual amounts spent increase.
demagogic reasons, governments are more willing to The causal links between economic prosperity, public
invest heavily in research on new diseases than on older expenditure on health, and the state of health of the
ones. population are still rather unclear.
For several reasons, countries everywhere are spending It can certainly be said that in terms of the morbidity and
more on health. Diagnostic tests are made with sophisticated mortality and the life expectancy of the population at birth,
electronic, magnetic and computer-controlled equipment; the wealthy countries are in good health, and good health
drug therapy requires years of research and development; depends on economic development. On the other hand, one
and surgical procedures are becoming more ambitious and can hardly expect unhealthy people in poor countries to
precisely controlled. Children are treated at increasingly make strenuous efforts to step up productivity, although
early ages, and growing numbers of elderly people suffer favourable health statistics do exist in the case of some
from several ailments simultaneously requiring a countries and regions with low incomes and a small
correspondingly large number of treatments, all of which population, such as Cuba, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and Kerala
incur costs. Provision was not made for financing such (India).
additional expenditures when the health insurance systems
were instituted.
Social welfare of all kinds has reached a dead end. State- Industry and health
run health insurance systems seem to be resisting inflation
with recommendable efficiency, if one compares their The industrialization of modern societies was bound to
morbidity and mortality rates with those of other countries, affect people’s health, for two reasons: first, the equipment
but the strictly regulated way in which health care is necessary for dispensing health care is manufactured
dispensed in those countries with such systems would not industrially, and second, access to certain types of
be found acceptable elsewhere and meets with a degree of instruments tends to become the prerogative of consortiums,
dissatisfaction even among their own inhabitants. although the efficiency and the quality of the health care to
Industrial countries’ health insurance systems, financed which these two processes led have not yet actually been
by subscriptions or wage deductions, have swollen the costs proved. It became apparent in recent decades that some
of industrial production (owing to the inevitable repeated industries can actually be harmful to the population’s
increases in insurance premiums) and have thus led to a health.
drop in consumption. To compensate for this process, Industrial mergers began to occur in the health industry
public funds have had to be deployed. during the 1970s because the first scanners were so expensive
In the United States, where, as we have seen, other to produce. (Even the firm that invented the procedure
options were chosen after the Second World War, a spirit went out of business.) The situation worsened when the
of solidarity was created between the medical professions, early models were updated, radiological equipment was
health administrators and potential patients who share automated, magnetic methods were introduced for
vested interests in health maintenance organizations abolishing kidney and gall bladder stones, automatic

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analysers were developed for making biochemical diagnoses, and some have even become exporters. The fluctuating price
and ultrasound recording, magnetic resonance imagery and of cocoa and coffee on the world market has led some
ionizing radiation equipment became available for diagnostic countries partly to abandon these crops in favour of produce
and therapeutic purposes. Such innovations were consistent of greater use to their own inhabitants.
with medical progress, but owing to their increasing cost There still exist, however, regions suffering from food
and the limited scope of the market, industrial firms were shortages and even famine. The affluent countries have
forced to merge and combine their production and hoarded up such vast quantities of cereals, meat and dairy
marketing activities. By the end of the century, there were products (carbohydrates, proteins and lipids) that they have
only about half a dozen companies selling expensive acquired surplus stocks they cannot use and cannot (or do
equipment of this kind, which means that in some countries, not wish to) sell to those unlikely to pay their bills, even at
they have monopolized the market and industrialists are low prices, given the cost of transport involved. As in the
able to exert pressure on the medical profession. case of the drugs mentioned above, it might be appropriate
A similar process has occurred in the case of the here to refer to ‘orphan food’. A few large firms are the main
pharmaceutical industry, which expanded rapidly during decision-makers in the food processing industry.
the late twentieth century. The cost of research and Anarchy is not the proper word for this situation, since
development is certainly on the increase, for it takes at least those who produce food are entitled to expect fair returns
ten years and a great deal of money for a promising new for their work, but surely it might have been possible for the
molecule to be launched on the market. food industry to do something about the vitamin deficiencies
The pooling of industrial activities has had various effects. that are particularly harmful to children, for example by
The increasing production costs have led to higher sale making compensatory financial payments under the aegis of
prices, and whenever a new truly efficacious substance international health organizations?
comes on the market, there is much heated debate between Health care establishments, like industrial firms, have
manufacturers and governments, which are interested in shown a tendency to amalgamate during the last few
buying it, but have to consider public opinion. It is therefore decades. A number of international companies have been
hardly surprising that states would prefer physicians created to set up and manage private, profit-making
prescribe generic drugs, which have become common establishments, especially in the developed countries.
property when the initial patents expired. Despite the supervision carried out by the regulatory
In addition, manufacturers are free to choose their own institutions, the medical professions are sometimes obliged
fields of research. There is little advantage to be gained, for in this context to pursue profit-making objectives. In
example, from supplying Southern countries incapable of addition, these private establishments are not obliged to
paying their bills with drugs designed to treat purely local admit all applicants, and can refuse ‘high risk’ patients, i.e.,
diseases such as parasitoses, for which there is no demand those who may become too expensive to treat. This attitude
elsewhere. And why should they bother trying to treat has been adopted by some HMOs in the United States.
diseases occurring only rarely in wealthy countries, since the This situation is a far cry from the ideals of public health
low demand would mean that the research investment and care available to all, regardless of class, wealth, and the
would take too long to pay off? These two examples of disease involved.
‘orphan drugs’ (although it would be more appropriate to Harmful industries have been attracting the attention of
speak of ‘orphan diseases’, since they have been deprived of Western governments for more than two centuries, and
specific drugs) clearly demonstrate the effects of industry on regulations have been introduced to protect both the public
world health. Fortunately, the commercial criteria used by and workers. By now, most countries have drawn up laws
manufacturers to select the fields in which their innovations on the prevention of occupational accidents and disease,
are to be produced are counterbalanced by the effects of and on victim compensation. Much still remains to be done,
competition, since a brand new discovery will always attract however, since many of these laws are not being strictly
considerable publicity. applied. The employers, who nearly always have to support
The underprivileged countries are defenceless against the cost of preventive measures, expensive safety devices and
economic forces of this kind. Neither their governments worker compensation, do all they can to deny the links
nor their individual inhabitants are able to acquire all the between causes and effects. The inspectors responsible for
medicines they need, the price of which is set without ensuring that the laws are obeyed are not encouraged to be
consulting them. To prevent fashionable trends from too painstaking. The most dramatic example is that of child
creating demands among the public and the undesirable workers, who continue to be exploited in many countries,
effects of having too many substances with the same effects including some with small areas and small populations
but different trademarks, WHO has drawn up a list of where the per capita income is fairly high. Employing
essential drugs to guide those in charge of developing minors means exposing a non-negligible proportion of
countries’ internal markets. Unfortunately, these reasonable humanity to disease, accidents, over-exertion during periods
suggestions have had little effect on these countries’ import on physical growth, illiteracy, etc. As regards occupational
policies. accidents in agriculture, although the populations of the
Human nutrition has also been affected by the changes Southern countries are rural dwellers, very little attention is
in the world economy. It is true that more rational paid to these inhabitants by the countries concerned.
agricultural practices have been substituted for the less During the last few decades, people have become
profitable traditional methods and that crossbreeding has enthusiastic about the idea of preserving a ‘natural
improved the yields of both cereals and livestock. The environment’, in which a constant balance will presumably
number of countries able to draw their sustenance from be maintained between the species and their habitats. This
their own soil has increased year by year. Previously zeal has mainly occurred in the affluent countries, since the
importing nations are now producing their own requirements poor ones are far too busy trying to ensure their own

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survival. The war on noxious pollution has been going on France, thirty thousand deaths occurred in 1995 as the
for some time, but will not be over for a long time to come, result of either alcoholism alone or drinking and smoking
since it is difficult to identify long-term intoxication combined, which is ten times more than the number who
processes, and it can take several decades for the exact died of AIDS.
pathological effects of some toxic substances to be The consumption of alcohol and tobacco has increased
determined. in developing countries after acquiring independence, either
All industrial waste, liquid effluent and waste gas can be because the inhabitants have sought to imitate the habits of
detrimental to rivers, groundwater, and the atmosphere. their former colonizers or because these countries have
The list of all known pollutants still remains to be completed, succumbed to a kind of industrial colonialism that has
but the fuss made about industrial disasters is out of persisted in some areas. Judging from the amounts
proportion with the damage actually caused. Although consumed over the last few decades, this trend seems
nuclear power plants have sprung up all over the world since unlikely to be curbed in the near future.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only accident to have In comparison with the damage caused by smoking and
international repercussions so far has been the one at drinking, the damage resulting both from drug abuse
Chernobyl. In view of the type of power plant involved, involving either coca, opium or cannabis derivatives and
other catastrophes on similar lines are to be feared. from road accidents caused by driving at immoderate speeds
The chemical industry has probably produced more has scarcely affected the history of humanity at all,
pollution accidents and accounted for more victims than quantitatively speaking. In taking these risks, people are not
the nuclear industry, but its effects are felt more quickly, as obeying a death instinct (which is not a very common
in the case of the Bhopal explosion in India. phenomenon, whatever the psychoanalysts may say) but are
The obsession with pollution and the exploitation of rather expressing the need to be free to make their own
environmental issues by politicians and the media should decisions, even if they are dangerous ones. It would therefore
not, however, be allowed to generate a state of universal no doubt be both pointless and risky to take coercive
panic, which might prevent research on health-promoting measures in order to restrict this particular kind of
innovations from continuing. The pollution of the Rhine by freedom.
the chemical industries in Basel had no harmful effects on It would be difficult to list all the unnatural habits
human beings. The explosion that occurred at Seveso in adopted by some groups of people, regardless of what the
Italy had lethal effects only on some of the local sheep; but effects on their health may be. This can be illustrated by
it gave the word ‘dioxin’ fearful connotations, although looking at some kinds of eating habits: errors by default can
some dioxins are both useful and harmless. It is to be hoped be committed, for example, by following vegetarian diets
that in the twenty-first century, the naive, irrational attitude too strictly, since this can lead to severe vitamin deficiencies
towards ecology will be succeeded by a more scientific- in new-born infants and children, especially in developing
minded approach. countries.
The errors of excess committed in some advanced
countries can be just as dangerous as the risks to which the
Human failings poor undernourished countries are exposed. The habit of
eating without any regard for regularity or reasonable
Despite the existence of well-meaning resolutions to quantities has led in the United States, for example, to as
preserve or restore good health in the human race, strict many as 58 million overweight people who expose themselves
laws and regulations, and sincere and disinterested to the risk of cardiovascular disease and high blood
intentions, the outcome will be successful only if these pressure.
regulations are properly implemented, which is not always Other behavioural mores harmful to health include social
the case. The main obstacle is human nature, which is traditions involving maiming the body. Although tattooing,
characterized by a propensity for pleasure, a weakness for scarification, and the circumcision of boys are of little
risks and a lack of willpower. consequence as far as public health is concerned, the sexual
People sometimes do not hesitate to take unreasonable mutilation of girls can have far-reaching effects. Every year
risks with their own health by consuming dangerous in Africa, more than 2 million young girls are subjected to
substances, which, although they may temporarily brighten excision, clitoridectomy, infibulation, and other cruel
one’s perception of life, in the long run are detrimental to operations, which can cause infection, sterility, obstetrical
health. Even though the dangers of alcohol have been known complications, and death. There is no particular hygienic or
for centuries, millions of people consume it in excessively religious reason for these mutilations. They are simply part
large quantities. The human craving for alcohol is such that of the social tradition of some one dozen countries, whose
no single nation has ever managed to become completely womenfolk are badly oppressed. The governments in
abstinent, whatever administrative or religious restrictions question know how harmful these practices are, and the fact
might have been applied. that they do nothing about them reflects either a lack of will
The same can be said of smoking, since the medical corps or inefficient administrative structures.
has been proclaiming for more than a century that tobacco
is detrimental to health. Although in the wealthy countries
there has been a slight decrease in male tobacco consumption Administrative shortcomings
rates, females tend to smoke more, starting in their early
adolescence. Moreover, lung cancer, which used to affect There have in fact been many examples of failures by
primarily men, is now spreading among women. The governments in attempts to improve their population’s
combined effects of these two toxins are highly lethal: even physical well-being. The explanation for a lack of efficiency
in a particularly well-informed population such as that of may be purely administrative, since it is impossible to apply

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health regulations in many countries for demagogic reasons compensate for the failures of hesitant states. Thanks to
or for lack of funds, or, as it is sometimes quite rightly their devoted efforts to aid destitute populations, and
stated, it is impossible to do good within a community despite the risks they face because of the many local wars,
where ‘nobody cares, nobody feels it is necessary and nobody they are rendering services official organizations cannot
participates’. Economically weak nations do not yet have provide. But the resources at their disposal are too small
the means of developing their health administrations. This, and too irregular, and the positive results of their work
as we have seen, was one of the reasons health insurance seems insignificant in comparison with the desperate needs
developed so slowly in some places. confronting them.
On the other hand, experience has shown that the effects Given the history of the difficulties encountered in the
of health regulations cannot be fully felt unless the field of health, the member countries of the European
administration functions efficiently and is respected. As Union are aware that international cooperation is very hard
soon as a country’s structures become shaky and inefficient, to achieve. Since the EU was created for purely economic
its state of health deteriorates: this occurred during each purposes, the ministers of health had no legal grounds for
European conflict, and again more recently in the former meeting one another. It was only at the end of the 1980s
Soviet Union countries, where the fall in life expectancy at that this was achieved, and even then, the meeting could
birth is the result of the confusion besetting the old system barely be considered an official one.
of management and the delay in appointing new For a long time, the guidelines imposed by the European
administrators. During the last few years, more than Union on its member states focused on subsidiary issues,
100,000 cases of diphtheria have been reported in the such as harmonizing vocational training and diplomas in
countries previously ruled by the Soviet Union. some of the medical professions. This undoubtedly enabled
Once again, the newly independent countries are members of these professions to circulate more freely and
unfortunate. Political instability is a barrier to an efficiently work wherever it suited them, but the health of patients was
managed state, and governmental upheavals can only worsen not the central issue. In the early 1990s, the member states
economic and social crises. In such a context poor health managed with great difficulty to harmonize the formalities
conditions cannot be improved. Despite the difference which had to be accomplished before new medicinal
between the state of health of the Northern and Southern products could be launched on the market. The sensitivity
countries, the wealthy countries cannot restore the poor of various nations and the distrust between European
ones to good health if there is no self-help. nations were further increased by the rejection of the
International shortcomings are also to blame. In view of ambitions of non-European countries. It was in 1993, in
its efforts to aid the developing countries, the hopes raised Maastricht, that the twelve member states first introduced
for the health of humanity when WHO was founded into their legal instruments the concept of ‘protecting
continued to grow for the first few decades of the human health’, especially ‘the safety and health of workers’,
organization’s existence. But as time went by, the donating although this aim was not expressed in forthright terms.
countries began to express their disappointment. Although There is certainly no shortage of issues on which the
the quarrelling between free trade and socialist countries European Union might have taken an authoritative stand to
quietened down, contributions were reduced and the improve health in Europe. The Council of Europe has put
deadlines for their payment were extended. The staffs of the forward proposals, for example, as to how blood transfusion
various WHO departments were reduced, and the should be organized and which biochemical and
organization was criticized for becoming less efficient. Since immunological safety standards should be met by stable and
staff recruitment at WHO was subject to national quota labile blood products. Regulations of this kind have come to
rules, those engaged were not necessarily the most competent, seem even more indispensable since many people undergoing
the most experienced and the most capable of working in blood transfusion were accidentally contaminated with
unfamiliar countries. This situation generated additional AIDS and hepatitis, and yet the European Union has not
criticism. The organization was also blamed for the fact that even adopted them in the form of guidelines. Nor has the
recipients did not always use the aid received from WHO EU done anything to simplify and harmonize the
for the purposes initially intended by the donors (training mechanisms whereby the price of medicinal products is set.
health executives, for example). The affluent countries In addition, the member states have reached no agreement
expressed their displeasure by sometimes entrusting other on how to improve occupational medicine as a means of
international bodies with health missions. World health did monitoring workers’ health.
not benefit from all these national particularities and In some industrialized and wealthy countries, the
colonialist (not to say imperialist) designs, both past and citizens are still not as fully protected as elsewhere, and it is
present, which were continually changing with the evolving not by imposing isolated measures on these countries that
economic and political situation. one can extend to them the full benefits of preventive
Cooperative international efforts to promote the health medicine. Since their representatives are obsessed with
of the needy countries eventually came up against obstacles their independence and their own economic problems,
such as rivalry between the financing countries and between international organizations are powerless to provide these
the distributing organizations, and the sensitivity of the populations with the expected level of health protection.
beneficiaries. The rift between the socialist Eastern European
countries and the capitalist Western nations gave way to
competition between Europe, the Far East and the United Medicine for the rich, medicine for the poor
States.
In this unfavourable climate created by grasping nations, Never before in its history has Western medicine undergone
some disinterested non-governmental bodies have so many conceptual and technical upheavals as during the
developed during the last few decades of the century to last few decades. New vaccines have been developed against

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hepatitis, and a combined anti-measles, mumps and German health insurance funds, whereas other countries forbid
measles vaccine now exists. Medical research on the chemical them and prosecute unauthorized practitioners of medicine
basis of genetic transmission has shed new light on the laws for carrying out illegal activities. Medicine of this kind will
involved in heredity and in parentally transmitted diseases always exist, even among the most meticulous and
and risks. The latest findings in molecular biology have pragmatic of nations, as long as what has been called
helped to explain how germs may destroy an organism’s scientific medicine continues to deal only with organic
defence mechanisms, as well as how a drug is able to kill lesions, erecting an unscientific barrier between the body
those germs. Research in this field has also helped to explain and the mind.
the processes involved in ageing and in degenerative diseases Unable to afford all the techniques, instruments and
such as rheumatism, cancer and cardiovascular disease. pharmaceutical resources available to Western medicine,
Medicine continues to find new scope: resuscitating developing countries have had to rely on other methods.
fragile new-born babies and people injured in accidents, Traditional medicine exists everywhere, and is as old as
operating on the very elderly, removing and grafting vital Western medicine, since human beings throughout the ages
organs, treating sterility, correcting abnormal pregnancies, have always assisted one another (Plate 84). Scientific
and experimenting on human beings, whether healthy or medicine has developed on the basis of original principles
sick. Laws, traditional social principles, religious precepts and concepts perfected over centuries thanks to a thorough
and the practitioners’ individual conscience cannot guide knowledge of human anatomy and physiology.
the case-by-case decisions on matters of great urgency. Ancient practices based on traditions handed down from
Ethics committees have therefore sprung up at an even one generation to the next have never disappeared completely
faster rate since 1980, and some countries, after several years despite the advent of modern medicine. In addition to the
of study, have even gone so far as to promulgate ‘medical doctors of medicine with state-approved qualifications,
ethics laws’. However, no single law can make provision for every Western country has its bone-setters, self-appointed
all the possible cases in which a moral issue is likely to arise. healers and gurus, not to mention those who practise the
In any serious personal or family situation, there exist forms of ‘alternative medicine’ referred to above, who are
perfectly good reasons for adopting either of two equally the equivalent of the shamans found in many developing
drastic solutions, just as law courts are liable to make either countries.
of two quite contradictory judgements, based in each case The traditional practitioners in underprivileged countries
on perfectly sound arguments. know how to view their patients in the context of their
Ethics committees, apart from those in some Anglo- natural social and physical environment. They are familiar
Saxon countries, generally take collective decisions without with the cultural background and the ancestral myths.
being made collectively responsible in return. Physicians are Contrary to the materialist school of medicine, which makes
always face to face with their patients. They alone are a distinction between mind and matter and often attends
responsible for diagnosis and therapeutic decisions, and any only to the body and the diseased organs, the shaman
advice they may seek will never in any way detract from the considers humans as part of a whole coherent universe
importance or the magnificence of their task. peopled with plants and animals, and possibly with invisible
Given the existence of these new technical, moral and powers, where each element exerts sometimes beneficial and
social problems, present-day medicine cannot be infallible, sometimes harmful effects on the others. In this context,
despite the rational and scientific basis on which it is so disease is assumed to result from a lack of balance between
firmly founded. People can find these complex principles these impenetrable forces. The treatment, intended to
worrying, and even in the so-called industrialized countries, restore the previous state of harmony, must include the
some members of the population do not altogether approve whole natural range of animal, vegetable and mineral
of them. This explains why some people still resort, except components as well as the realm of the spirits.
in emergencies, to those forms of medicine known under For thousands of years, the local vegetation provided
various names such as non-aggressive, alternative, human beings with most of their medicinal requirements.
complementary or parallel, natural. None of these adjectives The empirical experience acquired by generations has shown
has any real justification, since scientific medicine is often which plants can be used in such circumstances – how to
gentle, and no forms of medicine are ever ‘natural’, since prepare them by boiling, infusing, macerating and fermenting
they all require human intervention. Whatever label they go them; which part of the plant was the most useful, whether
under, their one common feature is that they have no the stems, flowers, fruit, buds or roots; at what season it had
experimental, rational or scientific justification. the most potent effects; and at what doses its effects became
To give just a few examples, one might mention in this toxic. This traditional lore is irreplaceable. Western
context iridodiagnosis, psychopuncture, magnetism, medicine would be wrong to do without it, and the present
auriculotherapy, the pendulum, homeopathy, reflexology, pharmacopoeia includes a large number of phyto-
organotherapy, naturopathy, osteopathy, mesotherapy, pharmaceutical products.
and oneirology: some of these labels are actually an affront It is clear that we still are unfamiliar with all the possible
to etymological common sense. A patient with cancer who medicinal resources offered by the world’s flora – including
has been treated both at a specialized cancer centre and by both the commonplace plants from the European plains
a charlatan will attribute the cure to the mysterious potion and the rare, fragile tropical essences – despite the fact that
he ingested at full moon rather than to the therapeutic this ancestral know-how was readily available. Indeed,
methods developed in the course of a whole century of ethno-botany still holds many secrets yet to be elucidated.
scientific research. People need mystery and are afraid of Unfortunately, the necessary studies are becoming
having everything too cut and dried. Some governments go increasingly expensive and therefore do not interest the
along with these fears, accepting uncontrolled practices pharmacological industry, which prefers to develop new
and allowing them to be taught and their cost covered by methods of synthesizing molecules.

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It is quite natural that traditional medicine should make treatment, they hope to increase their chances of being
considerable use of familiar plants. The patients realize that cured, but forget that they are also increasing the risk of
they are part of their natural surroundings, and that by failure.
ingesting them, they will participate in the life of the Other people do things the other way around. Not
universe, and therefore gain an advantageous position. Since wanting to bother their doctor, they go to see the local
the spirits of the forest are helping to heal them, they bone-setter who cured their parents so well, and it is only
participate wholeheartedly in the treatment prescribed by when the results turn out to be disappointing that they
the medicine man. Every nation has its own phyto- decide to turn to a qualified practitioner. These attitudes
pharmacopoeia and its practitioners, whose competence in can be observed everywhere.
terms of Western medical qualifications may cause sceptics In wealthy countries where properly trained doctors and
some irritation. Nobody can deny, however, that these fully equipped hospitals abound, the consequences are not
purportedly empirical therapists are at least familiar with too serious; it is a great pity, however, to see patients with a
the toxicity of their remedies and know the threshold doses serious condition diagnosed too late because they wasted
at which they become dangerous. their time by first trying a more ‘gentle’ type of treatment.
In other cultures, the focus has been more on the It is a different matter in poor countries where the local
resources of the human spirit, and other more mental or medical traditions are familiar to all, practised everywhere
spiritual techniques have been used, such as suggestion and at very little cost, and trusted by the patients. Ethnic medical
magic, associated with conjuring and incantation. Many practices should not be criticized, still less abolished, but
mental disorders have been cured by bushman should be put to good use. The men and women who apply
psychotherapists. All religions encourage belief in myths of them are highly respected; they are strongly committed to
‘possession’. loving their fellow human beings, often disinterested and
Practices such as relaxation, sophrology, physical and rarely dangerous. These people should be trained in the
mental release from stress, self-persuasion, meditation of a sound principles of Western medicine, for they would
religious kind, and yoga, undeniably relieve many patients contribute greatly to improving their people’s health if they
in many ways. Not only is the patients’ physical suffering were taught how to keep dwellings clean, why breast-feeding
alleviated, but functional disorders can be successfully is to be recommended, the need for food to be clean and
treated and in some particularly receptive cases (whose varied, the principles of hygienic childbirth, and possibly
characteristics still remain to be defined), autonomic what can be done about contraception, for example.
functional disorders resisting conventional drugs (changes It will require a complete integration of the two
in blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, evacuative approaches to medicine – two distinct ways of looking at
functions, etc.) respond to treatment of this kind. It is not disease and humanity’s place in the environment – before
always possible to find a rational scientific explanation for many of the world’s ailments can be healed. But the
these results in terms of medical graphs and doses. economic constraints weighing on the developing countries
The existence of traditional forms of medicine cannot be do not leave their authorities much room for choice as far as
denied, since they are to be found all over the world and suit their health policies are concerned.
millions of patients. No authority would be able to replace Over the centuries, people in African and Asian countries
these practices by any other type of medicine, which may have built up quite a different picture of disease from that
not be successful in all cases and presents its own commonly held in Western countries. Since their
disadvantages. However, neither their traditional basis pharmacopoeia is very ancient, people have much less
(which has made them so fashionable nowadays) nor their esteem for the medicinal products that are manufactured at
long history guarantees that these empirical methods are great expense by a scientific industry that is completely alien
bound to be efficacious. They have cured innumerable to them. Some of them think vaccination is an illusory,
psychosomatic disorders, but no direct causal relations have dangerous attempt to oppose nature’s designs. Likewise,
ever been established so far between the imbibing of herbal many consider being confined to hospital to be more
tea and developments in visible, material organic lesions. It harmful than remaining in the comfort of one’s own home.
should not be forgotten, moreover, that the vast majority of It has been claimed that nations have gone through a
those who consult the local doctor or the tribal doctor suffer period of ‘epidemiological transition’ over the centuries. In
from diseases that are liable to be cured spontaneously. This the poor countries, the so-called ‘age of mortality’ was
fact should be kept in mind whenever a therapeutic method expected to come to an end in the twentieth century,
is being critically evaluated. whereas the wealthy countries were said to be about to
Patients are therefore free to choose for themselves, enter an ‘age of morbidity’. The situation is indeed changing
which is precisely what they do. Both in industrialized, rapidly. The causes of mortality are disappearing in the
supposedly educated and cultivated countries and in developing Southern countries, and morbidity is increasing
backward, illiterate ones, two types of behaviour can be as more newborn infants survive and people tend to live
observed, which shows that when confronted with illness longer. The desire and the need for medical care are bound
and the fear of death, humanity is the same everywhere. to continue to grow, and increasing demands will be placed
When a worrying or painful symptom or a functional on medicine, no matter which tradition it belongs to and
anomaly occurs, some people first consult a so-called ‘official’ whatever its resources may be.
medical practitioner, providing that he or she lives nearby
and is not too expensive. If they are still worried or the
problem has not cleared up quickly enough, they wonder Taking stock: the world’s population
whether they have been taking the right medicine and
consulting the right person, and they call on a practitioner Since the public health organizations have continued to
of alternative medicine. By combining the two types of develop throughout the twentieth century, one might be

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tempted to take stock of their achievements so as to be able the world had slightly more than 6 billion inhabitants,
to improve them further and adjust them in the course of which is less than the ominous numbers previously
the new century. Such an overall assessment is not possible, predicted.
however, for several reasons. Life expectancy at birth is rising everywhere, even in the
First of all, even assuming that it might be possible to least-developed countries. One might be tempted to conclude
define universal health indicators (i.e., indicators accounting that, since people are living longer, humanity is in good
for all the aspects of a population’s life), it would be difficult health, and that the health authorities have grounds for self-
to establish causal relations between the activity of a health satisfaction. This attitude would be quite justified if it were
service and a population-based phenomenon because the not for the shocking inequalities that have subsisted.
existence of human groups and the quality of life they enjoy Every country has its poor people, and the rich benefit
depend on a set of complex factors yet to be elucidated. more than others from health services and sickness insurance
Secondly, it would be necessary to establish a set of schemes. Progress in medicine has done more for the well-
health criteria with which the two hundred or so member being of the affluent and healthy than that of the poor and
states of WHO unanimously agree, as well as health data unhealthy. No public health or health care system has ever
collected by means of a completely reliable method designed succeeded in abolishing the health-related inequalities
for universal use, which for the moment is quite out of the between the nations, and within national frontiers the gaps
question. All over the world, the performances of the are widening from one social category to another.
statistical tools available are considered unsatisfactory The situation is even more deplorable in the developing
because the differences between the various public health countries, where the increasing GNP is improving the
systems are too great. Even in reputedly well-equipped health and the quality of life of the wealthy to the detriment
countries, the quality of the statistics varies from one region, of the poor, and where the gaps are even more conspicuous
province or country to another, and even more so, from one than in the industrialized countries. In this respect, the
social sector to another. situation of the Southern countries resembles that of the
All that we can do, therefore, is to make a few general Northern countries during the nineteenth century: the
comments, which may be regarded as either encouraging or mean life expectancy at birth is around 75 years in the
disturbing, depending both on how they are interpreted Northern countries, and barely 50 years in the Southern
and on which governments are attempting to draw ones.
conclusions with a view to reforming their public health There also exist striking differences between town and
structures. country. Since the mid-twentieth century, towns have
The world’s population is increasing, despite epidemics, continued to develop much faster than rural areas. All over
civil wars, famine, omnipresent poverty, and the fears the world, cities began to mushroom between the two world
generated by the latest viruses. The tragedies that have wars, and in Africa and Asia, urban sprawl worsened after
occurred in some places – for example, in Cambodia at the the Second World War. Contrary to earlier trends,
end of the Khmer Rouge regime, and in the Soviet Union however, health tends to be better in the towns, where there
during its dissolution – were only temporary and had is improved hygiene and sanitation, and high concentration
human rather than extraneous causes. of wealth. In Britain, 90 per cent of the population are town
The world’s population explosion is slowing down. dwellers. In Third World countries, one-third or more
Couples are having fewer children, either in response to (50 per cent in Gabon) of the population lives in the capital
governmental incitements, or thanks to the spread of city, except in Kenya, where only 28 per cent of the country’s
voluntary contraception in some countries and among social population live in Nairobi.
classes that ignored the techniques a few decades ago. Since The tendency of populations to concentrate in this way is
infant mortality is declining, families no longer need to have not without risks. Congested housing conditions and the
six or seven children to ensure that there will be two or lack of amenities favour the spread of tuberculosis by
three survivors. It is hard to tell, however, whether this contagion. Promiscuity and poverty are factors conducive
apparently rational tendency is the result of a spontaneous to prostitution and the spreading of sexually transmitted
process or that of a deliberate decision made by those diseases such as AIDS. Circumstances of this kind tend to
procreating. In some regions where endemic viral diseases, favour addiction to alcohol, tobacco, and psychotropic
such as AIDS (particularly in Africa), are taking their toll, substances of all sorts.
the fact that the disease is most prevalent among the The sight of African slums and Latin American favelas
procreative age groups is liable to have serious effects. Little and the living conditions to be found there quite rightly
is known as to whether householders’ income affects their inspire indignation. But is this indignation really justified?
fertility. But poor countries are known to produce more There are plenty of explanations for the attraction the towns
children than rich ones. Since the gross national product have exerted on hungry, ill-nourished, under-employed
(GNP) is increasing even in the most destitute countries, rural inhabitants for over half a century. They come to join
the per capita income is presumably increasing. This members of their clan or tribe already living there; however
reasoning would be valid if the GNP were distributed irregular and badly paid the work may be, it is still work.
equally among all the citizens, which is not the case. Moreover, much money circulates in the towns. The trade
The reduction in the growth of the world’s population and industry that enrich the country leave a few crumbs for
should therefore reassure alarmists who imagined that the poor; such is not the case in the countryside. As time
humanity was expanding too fast and about to starve to goes by, rough tin and cardboard shacks are reinforced with
death. Agricultural production is also on the increase, and breeze blocks and cement, and the water in the drinking
too much produce is being grown, resulting in fertile land fountains is eventually rendered fit for human consumption,
being left fallow for lack of a better system of market since more attention is paid in developing countries to the
distribution for farm produce. By the turn of the century, health of the towns than that of the country, no doubt

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because, contrary to what occurred in previous centuries, have come to be more widely observed has contributed as
indignation and revolt tend to be expressed more vehemently much to this improvement as the numerous medical
in urban areas than in villages. innovations, but preventive vaccination from which tens of
Whatever the case may be, although the most populous millions of people have benefited has been the main medical
countries such as China, India and Indonesia have seen to it achievement. Improved standards of living, better nutrition,
that their teeming numbers continue to live mostly in the the development of tools for making both industrial work
country, it seems hardly likely that people will begin and humble household tasks easier to perform have also
deserting the towns. In fact, the world’s large cities are made a difference to one-quarter of the world’s population:
expected to become even more densely populated over the those living in the industrialized countries.
next few decades. One cannot but regret, however, that human know-how
and the resources of the planet have not been devoted more
specifically to improving the health of humanity. We have
attempted to provide a few partial explanations for this state
CONCLUSION of affairs, which are not intended as excuses or grounds for
justifying the shortcomings. The human race, including
It will be possible to take stock of public health activity during both individuals and governments, could do better.
the twentieth century only with hindsight. At present, it can Economic factors are bound to influence the world for a
be stated, however, that humanity was in better health at the long time to come. Public health will continue to be
dawn of the twentieth-first century than at the beginning of neglected until it is recognized that the health of people and
the previous one. The fact that the simple rules of hygiene nations is a calculable asset.

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TEC h NO L O G Y AN D A P P L IE D SCIENCES

17.1
Knowledge and Practice

Eriabu Lugujjo

INTRODUCTION In ‘The Ontological Dimension: The Individual vs.

Collective’, Lam argues that knowledge within an organization
A glance at the dictionary shows that the verb ‘to know’ can can reside at the level of the individual, or be shared among
be used in a variety of ways. We speak of ‘knowing’ in the members of the organization.3 Tacit knowledge moves with
sense of ‘being familiar with something’, to be ‘aware of the individual. However, collective knowledge is distributed
something’ or to apprehend or comprehend as fact or truth. and shared among members of the community through rules,
In his arguments about knowledge and in response to the procedures and routines known by all.
question, ‘What is knowledge?’, the English philosopher From the explicit-tacit and individual-collective
Alfred Jules Ayer put forward the following questions: dimensions of knowledge there emerge four categories of
–  Do the different cases in which we speak of knowing knowledge: ‘embrained’, ‘embodied’, ‘encoded’ and
have any one thing in common? ‘embedded’ knowledge, as shown in Table 5:
–  Is there any difference between knowing and believing? 1. Embrained knowledge (individual and explicit) is
–  Does knowing make any difference to what is known? dependent on the individual’s conceptual skills and
–  Does knowing constitute truth? cognitive abilities. It is formal, abstract, or theoretical
The verb ‘to know’ is dispositional, and the dispositions knowledge. It is typically learnt through reading and in
taken to constitute knowing must be revised.1 Knowledge is formal education. Embrained knowledge enjoys a
a multifaceted concept with multilayered meanings. The privileged social status within Western culture.
history of philosophy since the classical Greek period can be 2. Embodied knowledge (individual and tacit) is action-
regarded as a never-ending search for the meaning of oriented; it is the practical, individual type of
knowledge. In this chapter, we will follow traditional knowledge on which Polanyi focused. It is learnt
epistemology and adopt a definition of knowledge as through experience and in training based on
‘justified true belief ’. Knowledge is a dynamic human apprenticeship relations. Embodied knowledge is also
process of justifying personal beliefs as part of an aspiration context-specific; it is particular knowledge, which
for the ‘truth’. Knowledge is created and organized by the becomes relevant in light of the practical problem-
flow of information anchored on the commitment and solving experience. Embodied knowledge has
beliefs of its holder. This statement emphasizes the essential contributed greatly to the development of the so-called
aspect of knowledge that relates to human activity. Third World.
The formal features of knowledge can be analysed in two 3. Encoded knowledge (collective and explicit) is shared
dimensions: the epistemological and ontological. The former within organizations through written rules and
concerns the modes of expression of knowledge. The procedures and formal information systems. It is formed
epistemological dimensions are explicit vs. tacit knowledge. by making tacit knowledge as explicit as possible. This is
Human knowledge exists in different forms; it can be articulated well illustrated by the principles of scientific management,
explicitly or manifested implicitly (tacit). Polanyi argues that a which attempt to codify worker experiences and skills
large part of human knowledge is tacit.2 This is particularly into objective scientific knowledge.
true of operational skills and know-how acquired through 4. Embedded knowledge (collective and tacit) is built into
practical skills. Knowledge of this type is action-oriented. routines, habits, and norms that cannot easily be
Explicit knowledge can be generated through logical transformed into information systems. It is produced
deduction and acquired by formal study. It can be easily through social interaction and supported by its shared
transferred across time and space. However, tacit knowledge cultural norms. Embedded knowledge is relation-
can be transferred when there is close interaction and a specific and dispersed. It is an emergent form of
harmonious relationship between learner and instructor. It knowledge capable of supporting complex patterns of
can be acquired through vocational instruction in any given interaction in the absence of written rules. This form is
context. a replica of traditional knowledge.

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The traditional form of knowledge combines types 2 and 4, Western knowledge and innovation. Early indigenous
while the modern form of knowledge follows 1 and 3. innovations have been suffocated, and new generations in
Table 5  Four categories of knowledge developing countries have been indoctrinated to the point of
not believing in these products of their own culture.
Individual Collective There are however exceptions to the above statement.
India has progressed quite well in both modern scientific
Explicit Embrained knowledge Encoded knowledge
research and indigenous knowledge. Between the 1920s and
Tacit Embodied knowledge Embedded knowledge 1940s, a truly Indian scientific community emerged in
parallel with colonial science. Moreover, the Indian scientific
community acquired a distinct identity in the international
T H E E volution of Knowledge as sphere of science through applying knowledge from the
a C atalyst for D evelopment laboratory to national needs.
As regards China, it had played an important role in the
Although the First World War disrupted the steady history of ancient world civilization and made many
scientific and technological progress of the West, it outstanding discoveries and inventions in the realm of science
demonstrated the role and power of science, innovation and and technology. However, owing to many socio-economic
technology. At that time, research was being undertaken in and political factors, China’s science and technology lagged
major universities in Europe, the United States and Russia. behind up to the birth of the People’s Republic of China in
Scientists and engineers enjoyed affiliations with recognized 1949. Even after this period, the Cultural Revolution
associations and societies, such as the American disrupted most of the intellectual activities of the country.
Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Real economic construction and programming started in
Sciences, Verein Deutscher Ingenieure in Germany, the 1978, when science, technology and innovation to solve
Royal Society in London, the Russian Academy of Sciences, people-centred problems were emphasized.
the Académie royale des sciences in France, the Accademia Innovative programmes in Europe were affected in 1933
dei Lincei in Italy, the Akademie der Wissenschaften in when Hitler came to power. Scientific workers either
Berlin, the Kungliga Ventenska Psakademien in Sweden, devoted all their efforts to war armaments or left their
just to mention a few. These organizations provided forums countries of origin. It has been noted that active research in
and the impetus for the exchange of ideas and the Europe not directly linked to defence resumed after the end
transformation of scientific research into usable products. of the Second World War. This clearly demonstrates that
The first twenty years of the twentieth century were innovation requires an enabling environment of peace,
eventful, for they marked the emergence of a new world with optimism and hope, recognition and financial support.
the discovery of the electron, Einstein’s theory of relativity and
Bohr and Rutherford’s research on the atomic structure,
Broglie’s wavelength, Max Planck’s work on radiation, Knowledge, necessity and innovation
Schrödinger’s new characterization of the electron and
Max Born’s research on statistical mechanics. Basic research of Technology and inventions are intimately associated with a
this nature had a profound impact on the scientific community, broad spectrum of human needs, whether these are dictated
prompting it to search for further meaning and truth. by the physical conditions of existence or by ‘cultural’ factors
The world, however, longed for both basic research and derived from the historical specificities of different social
product innovation. By 1900, General Electric Research groups. These cultural or acquired needs can be ‘natural’
Laboratory (GE) had been established and formally and organic, or they can be induced and manufactured
institutionalized industrial research. The GE laboratory, the either through advertising or by centrally planned
first of its kind in the world, served as a model for industrial manipulation of needs.
research in other high-technology fields.4 The issue of knowledge, invention and necessity
It is interesting to note that while inventions were being sometimes poses a dilemma. There have been cases where
made in highly organized establishments, some non-academic inventors were neither driven to create by necessity nor
inventors also appeared on the scene. Examples include R. directly linked to the immediate uses of their inventions.
Ruedenberg, a German who patented an electron microscope Innovation requires a free mind uncluttered by preconceived
in 1931; Laszlo Biro, a Hungarian who invented the ballpoint ideas and arises from independent thought. For example,
pen in 1938; Frank Whittle who invented the first jet engine the inventors of Kodachrome were musicians, the inventor
in 1937; and German inventor Karl Zuse, who patented a of the Xerox photocopier was a patent lawyer, and the
calculator in the same year. Some of these innovations did inventor of the ballpoint pen mentioned above worked as a
not arise out of societal needs. They were the product of painter, journalist and even a sculptor.
talented minds working freely without restriction. The last century has also witnessed inventions made by
While the West was occupied in intense scientific and independent workers unaffiliated to big corporations.
innovative activities, inhabitants of the Third World (at the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright (Plate 85)
time still colonies) were living and sustained through patented their aeroplane early in 1904; Juliot-Curie patented
application of inventions based on indigenous knowledge nuclear fission applications in 1934; and Robert Watson-
and practices and through exploiting their resources. Such Watt patented radar in 1947.
local knowledge is still unique to particular cultures and In developed countries, inventions have long been
highly valued, even though the West does not seem to agree registered and recognized through a secure patent system
with its practice and results. It is therefore not surprising that by which the inventor and the entrepreneur/industry can
the last century has witnessed a systematic denial and safely negotiate appropriate terms to translate the invention
abandonment of indigenous knowledge and a preference for into a product. The process of transforming an invention

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into a profitable product has always been complex as it institutions are encouraged and able to put that knowledge
involves many actors. Technical and socio-economic issues to effective use. To a great extent, the capability to do so is
have to be studied and a margin of profitability established. closely related to people’s education and skills. But even
In the developing world, many innovations arising out of more important are the roles of incentives and the
indigenous knowledge have been made, although no institutional structure of the economy.
international patents have been issued. Innovations in
agriculture, medicinal plants, traditional hydrology, and
herbicides, just to mention a few areas, are well documented C onclusion
at the local level. However, the transformation of these
inventions into products has been and remains a major Knowledge and practice has spurred revolutions in human
problem owing to a number of reasons, particularly the history. The revolutions based on materials and production
restricted size of domestic markets, the comparatively high of the first half of the twentieth century have been replaced
cost, the scarcity of foreign exchange, lack of financial resources with a knowledge-based revolution. The knowledge
and the limited number of industrial entrepreneurs. revolution was born with the invention of the transistor and
the subsequent improvement of manufactured integrated
circuits, which led to the new technologies that enable us to
Cultural dimension in technical change and development process and access information remotely.
The way nations utilize knowledge to innovate has greatly
At the turn of the twentieth century, the Western world determined their progress and socio-economic well-being,
had built up a scientific and inquisitive culture based on while also creating a new form of knowledge imbalance
political will, intellectual capacity, and an organized between developed and developing countries. The future of
institutional base. The political will manifested through a humanity demands careful planning of institutional
political culture framed coherent science policies, which structures that are flexible enough to access, organize and
embodied all the aspirations of the various countries in the apply knowledge. This is the present challenge for all of us.
region. These science policies constituted ‘White Papers’
for scientific development. It is therefore not surprising that
the United Kingdom, the United States, France and other NOTES
countries have continued to allocate sizable financial
resources to science and technology. 1. The following discussion relies upon ‘What is Knowledge?’,
Developed nations have always valued intellectual capacity as National University of Singapore (NUS), University
a resource and indeed encouraged collaboration among scientific Scholars Programme (USP): http://www.scholars.nus.edu.
workers. The degree of recognition has markedly changed, as sg/cpace/ht/thonglipfei/data_info.html#referenceA
knowledge has become increasingly market orientated. 2. M. Polanyi, Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-
Developing countries that recognized the role of science Critical Philosophy, New York, 1962.
and technology as an engine of development and embraced 3. A. Lam, ‘Alternative Societal Models of Learning and
it at policy and technical levels have made remarkable Innovation in the Knowledge Economy’, CBS, University
progress in the last thirty years. India, Argentina, Taiwan, of Kent, Paper presented at the DRUID Summer
Singapore and the Republic of Korea spend greater than Conference on ‘Industrial Dynamics of the New and Old
0.5 per cent of their GNP on science and technology Economy – Who Is Embracing Whom?’, Copenhagen/
development. Essentially they have embraced the science Elsinore 6–8 June 2002.
and technology culture through importation and adaptation 4. W. B. Carlson, Elihu Thomson: Man of Many Facets,
coupled with collaborative research and development. New York, 1983.
Other regions, especially the least developed countries, have 5. N. Rosenberg, Perspective on Technology, Cambridge,
remained backward in science and technology, prompting UK, 1976.
Rosenberg to observe the following:

Many of the major innovations in Western technology BIBLIOGRAPHY

have emerged in the capital goods sector of the economy.
But under-developed countries with little or no organized ASIMOV, I. 1969. Understanding Physics: The Electron, Proton, and
domestic capital goods sector simply have not had the Neutron. The New American Library, New York.
opportunity to make capital-saving innovations because AYER, A. J. 1956. The Problem of Knowledge. Penguin, Middlesex, England.
they lacked the necessary capital goods industry. Under CARLSON, W. B. 1983. Elihu Thomson: Man of Many Facets. IEEE
these circumstances, such countries have typically Spectrum, New York.
imported their capital goods from abroad, but this has GOONATILAKES, S. 1987. Inventions and the Developing Countries.
meant that they have not developed the technological Impact of Science on Society. UNESCO Publishing, Paris.
base of skills, knowledge, facilities, and organization upon MACIOTI, M. 1987. Inventions and the Developing Countries. Impact
which further technical progress so largely depends.5 of Science on Society. UNESCO Publishing, Paris.
NONAKA, I. and TAKEUCHI, H. 1995. The Knowledge Creating
As we begin the twenty-first century with the knowledge Company. Oxford University Press, New York.
revolution, the least developed countries have a chance to POLANYI, M. 1962. Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical
participate in world affairs through information and Philosophy. Harper Torch Books, New York.
communication technology. However, merely having access ROSENBERG, N. 1976. Perspective on Technology. Cambridge University
to knowledge will not significantly impact their development Press, Cambridge.
unless people, governments, industries and educational RYLE, G. 2000. The Concept of Mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

193
 17.2
AGRICULTURE

Eriabu Lugujjo

E arly A gricultural P ractices availability, and interactions with herders have not always
and Knowledge been conflict-free. Hazard agriculture involves the
manipulation of soil by tillage, reduced water loss (from
Most of the agricultural practices in the early part of the weeds, etc.), the proper choice of plants (breeding),
twentieth century were inherited from the research, traditional cropping until the yield declines, and abandoning
techniques and developments of the Industrial Revolution. fields periodically. Moreover, water input is controlled
Some of the notable innovations, practices and knowledge solely through the timing of planting. Concerned areas
are briefly discussed in the present article. include: the Sahel, parts of Angola, Tanzania, Northern
Popularized by Charles Townsend in the eighteenth Africa, Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
century, four-field crop rotation of turnips, wheat, barley
and clover was a common practice in the twentieth century.
This rotation produced both fodder for livestock and cereal Early agricultural equipment
grain, and helped to control weeds and to maintain soil
fertility. Nicholas Appert, a Frenchman, developed the In the 1800s, farmers and blacksmiths introduced various
technique of canning food by preserving products in sealed modifications to the plow that provided a sharper and
jars and heating to high temperatures to kill bacteria. In stronger cutting edge (share) and smoother surfaces so
Leicestershire, England, Robert Bakewell pioneered the that soil did not stick to either the plowshare or the
selective breeding of cattle and sheep to produce leaner moldboard. John Deere’s plows became a standard of
animals. In the early 1800s, a new kind of agriculture, known excellence in the 1850s, but Deere was neither the inventor
as plantation agriculture, was developed in Tennessee nor the only manufacturer of steel plows. Deere’s
(USA), where cotton was the predominant crop. contribution to the plow consisted of manufacturing a
In the 1880s, Austrian scientist and monk Gregor large number of high-quality plows at a competitive price.
Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity through Steel plows, however, were expensive, and both Deere and
carefully controlled experiments in cross-breeding. His other manufacturers sold many cheaper iron plows that
work paved the way for improving crops through genetics. were manufactured by various processes for strength and
Hybrids are the offspring of parents from different breeds, smoothness for the benefit of the growing number of
varieties or closely related species and are often superior in prairie farmers.
many ways to their parents – a phenomenon called hybrid The western frontier moved through Illinois in North
vigour. For example, hybrid pigs grow faster, and their meat America. Many of the early immigrants to Illinois brought
is leaner. In the 1920s and 1930s, scientists improved many relatively simple equipment that they had used in the east:
crops such as corn (maize) by hybridization. the wagon, plow, harrow, axe, rake, scythe, fork and shovel.
In addition to corn, important local crops in the early Most of the equipment used in the early 1900s was the
1900s were wheat, oats, rye, barley, onions and potatoes, result of ideas developed in the preceding decades. Many of
while important livestock were hogs and dairy and beef cattle, the techniques and methods that were discovered in the
sheep and laying hens. In the early 1900s, notable nineteenth century continued to be applied in the 1900s.
improvements were being made with crops and livestock, The seed drill, invented by Jethro Tull, was the first
and new practices were introduced such as the liming of soil agricultural machine. It cut furrows, sowed and covered
to reduce acidity, terracing hillsides, building better drainage seed. Delivering increasing yields and enabling more
systems and installing erosion check dams. Irrigation systems, efficient use of seed, the seed drill showed how farming
mixed farming and stock raising practices were improved. could be made more productive through the use of
Rain-fed agriculture was practised in arid lands. This is machinery to replace hand labour. James Watt patented an
sometimes called ‘hazard agriculture’. The productivity of improved steam engine, and steam technology later led to
farming in semi-arid environments is limited by water the development of powered farm machinery.

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The combined harvester, which cut and threshed grain twentieth century. The bunds (lines of stones) were built up
crops, came into widespread use in the western United over the years and reached one metre in height, effectively
States in the early part of the twentieth century. It reduced terracing the slopes for relatively little labour input, most of
the amount of labour needed to harvest a field of wheat by it during the dry season. In later periods of political turmoil
more than 80 per cent. More efficient and less cumbersome and land alienation, the bunds were abandoned. However,
than steam-powered tractors, gasoline- and diesel-powered after a series of droughts in the 1970s, the stone bunds were
tractors gradually became the principal agricultural spontaneously revived and combined with ‘zay’ or pits which
workhorses in many parts of the world. The tractor, first conserve water and in which organic material is placed to
introduced in the 1920s, is to the farmer of today what the increase soil fertility. Because of the further developments
horse was to the farmer of 1900. Mechanization has also in this technique, sorghum yields have risen by up to about
produced more specialized pieces of equipment such as 40 per cent in fields with bunds.
combines and planters, which in some cases incorporate The tin can for food preservation, through the canning
the latest advances in computer and satellite technology. process, and the first practical reaper of grain or grain
harvesting machine were invented in the early 1900s. A
pioneering German chemist, Justus von Liebig, made many
Early developments in agriculture important contributions to organic chemistry and to the
basic principles of agricultural chemistry. He was one of the
In parts of the United States, a minimal crop response to first to propose the use of chemical fertilizers. The
manures and commercial fertilizers with soils that had been development of the chemical fertilizer industry in the 1840s,
used for continuous corn production for 15 years was following the work of von Liebig, in Germany, and early
reported in early 1900s. More research was done on the use agricultural scientists such as Lawes and Gilbert, in England,
of fertilizers, and crop yields increased in subsequent years. had a major impact on agricultural productivity in the early
Growers started planting a mixture of crops both for home part of the last century.
consumption and for the market. Wheat, corn, oats, barley, The railway and steamship lines expanded, opening up
rye, flax, and potatoes could be commonly found on farms new markets. Improved methods of refrigeration and
in addition to vegetables and fruit grown for home canning made possible the long-distance marketing of
consumption. Some attempted to redress limited availability perishable agricultural products. French microbiologist and
of lumber by planting trees, and such initiatives led to a chemist Louis Pasteur pioneered the study of microbes in
slight expansion of the forested area. The emergence of the late 1880s. He showed the role of micro-organisms in
railroads meant that people could bring lumber and fuel fermentation, devised pasteurization as a way of preventing
from other parts of the country in exchange for agricultural beer and milk from souring, popularized sterilization and
commodities. developed a vaccine.
Horsepower had replaced oxen power, some commercial Introduced by the Swiss in 1939 as a synthetic chemical
fertilizer was used as well as livestock manure to maintain insecticide, DDT virtually wiped out many insect-borne
soil fertility, and crop rotation with legumes had become a diseases. Before its harmful effects were discovered, it was
common practice in some parts of the world. Horses and heavily used in agriculture around the world. DDT was still
mules were used for draft power, and a good portion of the being used in the developing countries in the 1980s. In the
oats that farmers grew went to feed the horses, although a 1940s, through scientific advances and improved
considerable amount of it was sold for human consumption management techniques, farmers produced more food than
as well. Land that was too wet to cultivate was initially used ever before using less land and labour, but more chemicals,
for livestock grazing. energy and capital.
A distinctive system of agricultural manufacturing that Francis Crick and James Watson in 1953 discovered the
emphasized mass production, low cost, and interchangeability structure of DNA – the genetic basis of all living things.
of parts was developed in the Americas and soon spread to This made possible genetic engineering, which, for
many European countries. This system of manufacturing agriculture, could mean genetically improved plants and
created many products, some of which were used on farms animals, more resistant to disease, and more productive.
to increase the productivity of each labourer, in harvesting, The late 1950s saw the introduction and widespread use of
planting and cultivating fields. Advances in textile artificial insemination for breeding livestock. Thanks to
manufacturing equipment increased the demand for cotton. this technique many offspring from selected males can
Manufacturing also created a demand for labour. An be produced.
increasing percentage of the population would find
employment in the manufacturing sector and fewer in
agricultural production. A gricultural D evelopment
As farms became increasingly mechanized, one family
could farm more acres. For example in Illinois (United Scientific and technological developments in
States) in 1900, the number of farms reached 260,000, each agriculture
averaging about 125 acres in size. The number of farms
declined gradually at first to 200,000 in 1950, and then The global agricultural system relies heavily on
dropped precipitously to 82,000 in 1990. Correspondingly, mechanization, in the processes of clearing, planting and
the average size of a farm increased from 150 acres in 1950 harvesting. The aim in today’s technologically advanced
to 340 acres in 1990. agricultural system is to reduce labour inputs and
It should be noted again that development was not productions costs.
restricted to the Western world. The Mossi people of In developing countries, especially in the early 1980s,
Burkina Faso developed stone bounding early in the farmers began using computers to keep farm accounts, to

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monitor crop prices and weather conditions, and to assist in Modern agriculture
farm management.
Presently, scientists working in agriculture have delved Until about four decades ago, crop yields in agricultural
into other fields, including medicine, biochemistry, systems depended on internal resources, recycling of organic
biophysics, computer science, and the social sciences. As matter, built-in biological control mechanisms and rainfall
new scientific discoveries and developments take place, patterns. Agricultural yields were modest, but stable.
many of them have direct and indirect effects on agriculture Production was safeguarded by growing more than one
and our lives. crop or variety in space and time in a field as insurance
Biotechnology came into the limelight in the last century, against pest outbreaks or severe weather. Inputs of nitrogen
and the possibilities for its agricultural applications are only were ensured by rotating major field crops with legumes.
beginning to unfold. The role of biotechnology in agriculture These rotations suppressed insects, weeds and diseases by
has been described as a precursor to another Green effectively breaking the life cycles of these pests. A typical
Revolution that would be a boom for eliminating world US Corn Belt farmer grew corn rotated with several crops
hunger. including soybeans, and small grain production was
Biotechnology finds agricultural applications through its necessary to maintain livestock. The family with occasional
awesome potential to manipulate single genes at the hired help carried out most of the labour, and no specialized
molecular level. It has virtually eroded all biological barriers equipment or services were purchased from off-farm
that prohibited inter-specific crossing. Genes can be sources. In this type of farming system, the link between
transplanted from one organism to another to carry out agriculture and ecology was quite strong, and signs of
special biological functions; micro-organisms can be environmental degradation were seldom evident. Modern
engineered by alterations in their genetic structures and agriculture uses scientific and technological advances to
introduced into a given plant species to change the genetic improve on these practices and methods.
regulation in the host; genes may be selectively eliminated A noteworthy example of modern agriculture in Africa
or added. Biotechnology has resulted in increased disease- can be found in Zimbabwe, where both cropping and
resistance in plants, and enhanced environmental tolerance, animal husbandry are practised extensively in the suburbs.
such as the ability to grow in salty land or endure long Current projects call for informing local policy-makers on
periods of water deficiency. key urban agriculture issues, providing relevant training,
In the area of livestock and animal husbandry, researchers facilitating dialogue with urban farmers and recommending
are looking for ways to increase production of vitamins and key changes for improved urban agriculture management in
amino acids for animal feeds. Similarly, research is underway the country. Expected results include a computerized
to exploit the animal growth hormone to stimulate meat mapping system, a planning manual on urban agriculture
production and develop vaccines against animal diseases. and support documents, as well as control measures by local
Therefore biotechnology gives total control over the authorities.
production and reproduction of agricultural products and
other biologically active micro-organisms.
Social, economic, and environmental effects of
agricultural development
Effects of scientific and technological developments
on agriculture Agriculture constitutes the economic base in many regions
of the world. For some nations, agriculture is the most
The technological advances, along with an abundance of important industry, providing a high percentage of the gross
inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, have made it possible, domestic product (GDP), employing directly or indirectly a
and indeed cost-effective, for farms to expand. Moreover, large part of the total work force. In addition, agriculture is
indigenous knowledge (IK) techniques have been introduced an important source of raw materials for many manufacturing
in agricultural practices, because in most developing industries, and in turn is an important market for
countries, the overwhelming majority of the population is manufactured goods. Measuring the effects of technology
involved in small-scale farming of less than two hectares of choices on productivity is crucial to understanding the
land. These farmers represent hundreds of distinct languages determinants of agricultural growth. Investments in
and ethnic groups. In most instances, the knowledge systems technology have yielded large gains for agriculture, and the
of these farmers have never been recorded systematically in benefits have been passed on to consumers in the form of
written form; hence they are not easily accessible to lower prices. In this way, public spending on agricultural
agricultural researchers, extension workers, and development research has been justified. Agricultural expansion brought
practitioners. While they remain invisible to the development ‘unproductive’ land into production, and yields per hectare
community, many indigenous organizations are operating even increased. As a large amount of land is used for cash
in rural communities to search for solutions to community crop production, the number of absentee owners has
problems. Indigenous knowledge is unique to a given culture increased.
or society and constitutes the information base for a society However, as agricultural modernization progressed, the
that facilitates communication and decision-making. IK is ecology-farming link was often broken as ecological
the systematic body of knowledge acquired by local people principles were ignored and/or overridden. In fact, several
through the accumulation of experiences, informal agricultural scientists have arrived at the general consensus
experiments, and intimate understanding of the environment that modern agriculture entails environmental crises. A
in a given culture. Results of the incorporation of science growing number of people have become concerned about
and technology in agriculture have made it very productive the long-term sustainability of existing food production
and competitive. systems. Certain evidence seems to indicate that whereas

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the present capital- and technology-intensive farming There appears to be a need for greater selectivity in
systems have been extremely productive and competitive, biotechnology research to avoid the risk of ‘reinventing the
they also give rise to a variety of economic, environmental wheel’. Research effort is highly concentrated in the public
and social problems. sector, sometimes in newly established biotechnology
Conventional agriculture has caused economic problems institutes, with very little involvement on the part of the
associated with the over-production of crops, increased private sector, although efforts are being made to strengthen
costs of energy-based inputs and decreasing farm revenues. public/private sector collaboration in many countries.
It has also produced problems such as insufficient ecological Recent advances in biotechnology have led to the cloning
diversity, soil and water pollution and soil erosion. era, which brings to the fore new threats and ethical
The plowing up of mollisols has led to massive soil implications.
erosion in many places around the world. Dry farming In the developing countries, efforts should be made to
methods aggravated this problem in the 1900s. The use of increase and diversify agriculture by introducing new crops,
fertilizers also masks the loss of soil nutrients. Additional expanding livestock, poultry and dairy production, and
problems include soil salinity and rising ground water. The developing local industries to process agricultural products.
erosion threat remains serious, even if some soil conservation Institutions of higher education should also promote
measures reduce crop yield. agricultural training and development through more
practical-oriented programmes. At the policy level, the
agricultural sector should be given more resources to
C onclusion support programmes at all stages of development.

There have been many developments in the field of

agriculture in the twentieth century; particularly significant
has been the increase in land and labour productivity. A bibliography
comprehensive examination of data from many countries
shows that during the period from 1967 to 1992, some Altieri, M. A. 1996. Agroecology: The Science of Sustainable Agriculture.
81 per cent of the world’s population lived in countries Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
where agricultural growth exceeded population growth. Bentley, C. F. 1990. World Agriculture in the 1990s. Iowa State
However, it must be added that this average figure masks University, Ames, IA.
the situation in developing countries. Bowdin, K. 1997. Socio-Economic and Ecological Impacts of Urban
The major question facing us today concerns the types of Agriculture. IDRC Projects, Harare.
environmental and resource-related agricultural policy Brenner, C. 1995. Biotechnology and Technological Change in
adjustments that can properly deal with the costs of resource Developing-Country Agriculture. An Overview of OECD Development
degradation and increase long-term prospects for sustainable Centre Research. OECD, Paris.
development. Various public policy approaches have been Durning, A. B. and Brough, H. B . 1991. Taking Stock: Animal
proposed, discussed and analysed with regard to their Farming and the Environment. Worldwatch Paper No. 103.
environmental and resource impacts in both industrialized Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC.
and developing nations. Edwards, C. A. 1989. The Importance of Integration in Sustainable
A growing number of countries and research institutions Agricultural Systems. In: Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment,
are undertaking biotechnology research. This is often, No. 27, pp. 25–35.
however, more a consequence of ‘science-push’ than Lutz, E. and YOUNG, M. 1992. Integration of Environmental Concerns
‘demand-pull.’ Individual research projects and programmes into Agricultural Policies of Industrial and Developing Countries.
are often undertaken in the absence of clearly defined In: World Development, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 241–253.
national priorities for biotechnology. In addition, Warren, D. M. and Rjasekaran, B. 1993. Putting Local Knowledge
biotechnology is not generally integrated within the to Good Use. In: International Agricultural Development, Vol. 13,
broader national policies and institutional frameworks. No. 4, pp. 8–10.

197
 17.3
The Oceans
Resources and Mariculture

Eriabu Lugujjo

I ntroduction − The sunlit zone: This top layer nearest the surface
also called the euphotic zone is about 180 metres deep.
Mariculture is the cultivation of food organisms, e.g. fish, In this zone, there is enough light penetrating the
shellfish, and algae, under controlled conditions to be water to support photosynthesis, which accounts for
commercially harvested for human consumption. While the fact that more than 90 per cent of all marine life
mariculture is a growing industry, it is an expensive process lives here. The sunlit zone is the habitat of most fish
and results in a product that is not affordable by the world’s and plankton, microscopic organisms that form the
poor. basis of the food chain in the ocean.
Extensive mariculture has a relatively long history. For − The twilight zone: Also known as the disphotic zone,
example, the ancient Romans were familiar with oyster this is a murky part of the ocean beginning at about
culture. However, commercial production of seafood or 180 metres and extending to some 900 metres. Only a
industrial chemicals by mariculture is a recent development. small amount of light can penetrate the water at this
Mariculture is a competitor for space in the near shore depth. As the water becomes deeper, the pressure
coastal zone, and it is generally considered that its increases. Plants do not grow here and only those animals
development and daily operations should be compatible that have adapted to little light can survive in this zone.
with existing coastal zone uses. These animals include lantern fish, rattalk fish, hatchet
fish, viperfish, and mid-water jellyfish. This zone is
also home to some squid and fish that can use their
T he O ceans bodies to make light (bioluminescence).
− The midnight or aphotic zone: Ninety per cent of the
The oceans are believed to have formed in the process of the ocean lies in this entirely dark zone where the pressure
Earth’s cooling. The most popular theory is that our planet is extreme and the temperature near freezing. The
was originally a molten mass drawn off from the sun by the living things found here are found close to cracks in
attraction of a passing star. As its outer portion cooled, a the Earth’s crust, which emit mineral-rich materials.
crust formed. This cooling crust contracted, and the thermal Special forms of bacteria utilize hydrogen sulphide
pressures of the gases and boiling mass within shattered the from the cracks for energy to make food. These
thin shell. Boiling lava broke through, consuming the crust, bacteria nourish all other living things in the midnight
but reducing the temperature of the molten mass so that the zone. Animals in the midnight zone include anglerfish,
surface of the globe could once more solidify. After this had tripod fish, sea cucumber, snipe eel, opposom shrimp,
occurred numerous times, the heat of the melted rock was black swallower and vampire squid.
sufficiently reduced for the relatively hard shell to form. The oceans may also be viewed as having both a horizontal
While the Earth was still almost as hot as flowing lava, and vertical dimension. The vertical dimension is the water
heated gases condensed into water to fill pockets. Perhaps column. The horizontal dimension has two aspects: the
this water was turned to liquid vapour many times during high seas and the coastal margin, a complex system where
the cooling of the Earth. Eventually, however, the crust land, sea, freshwater and atmosphere interact. Coastal ocean
hardened and held the water in the permanent basins, which waters are characterized by a high degree of variability in
eventually gave rise to the oceans.1 biochemical and biological properties.
The marine microlayer (the boundary between ocean
water and the atmosphere) is responsible for biological,
Ocean zones chemical and physical processes that affect nutrient
distribution in ocean water, the uptake of greenhouse gases
The ocean can be divided from its surface to its depth into from the atmosphere and the exchange processes for
three zones based on the amount of light received. They are: provision of oxygen to marine organisms. The marine

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microlayer is destructively affected by oil released through period of approximately 120 years. This is related to the
slick formation. remoteness of the deep sea and the resulting difficulties in
Oceans may be considered giant heat ponds collecting studying this environment: the methods of study are
and storing solar energy in a warm subsurface layer beneath restricted by the need for instrumentation and observation
the marine microlayer. This subsurface layer varies in depth chambers to be encapsulated in the atmosphere of the
depending on geographic location, currents and other surface, and strengthened against the crushing pressure of a
physical factors but rarely exceeds 20 metres. Because of its water column several kilometres high.
nature, this layer supports many species and humans favour In the mid-nineteenth century, investigations for life on
it for recreational activities. the bottom of oceans were conducted by Norwegian pastor/
The thermocline is the layer separating the surface layer naturalist Michael Sars, who listed nearly 100 species of
from deeper waters marking a temperature drop of 5 °C or invertebrate living at depths greater than 600 metres, and
more. Marine plants useful to mariculture have their roots British explorer John Ross, who discovered the many-armed
in deeper, cooler waters. basket star. On the basis of these explorations, Irish
The abyssal depth is the lowest part of the ocean, with naturalist Wyville Thomson was convinced that life could
temperatures between 4o °C and 6o °C. It is rich in nutrients be found at the ocean’s greatest depths. Thomson’s work
and virtually free of pathogens. A profusion of life forms, laid the foundation for our present knowledge of the life of
known as extremophiles, inhabit this region, and they have the deep sea floor and represented a quantum leap for the
evolved unique mechanisms to survive in their inhospitable infant science of oceanography.2
environment. They reside near the numerous hydrothermal
vents that break through the seabed and release heat from
the Earth’s inner core. E arly F ishing and O cean F arming
P ractices

Marine life Ocean farming is not new to the world. Many countries
have been interested in this area for a long time and have
The oceans provide a safe haven for biologically diverse life developed various techniques of harvesting ocean products.
forms ranging from the smallest known, the virus, to the Some of the regions with a long ocean farming history are
largest, the blue whale. Marine animals may be divided into discussed below.
those that are warm blooded and those that are cold
blooded. All the marine air-breathing mammals such as
whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals, walruses, etc., belong to Aquaculture in China
the warm-blooded class. Tropical and subtropical marine
waters support a greater diversity of life than colder waters. Freshwater fish culture in China has been recorded for over
The least developed countries possess the most potentially 3,100 years. Mariculture of certain molluscs existed some
valuable marine resources since most of the tropical waters 1,700 to 2,000 years ago. Modern aquaculture started in the
are situated within the territories of the developing nations. early 1950s as a result of technological advances and
Animal life on the surface depends on oxygen for energy organized government efforts, and the Chinese aquaculture
and carbon as a building material. industry grew steadily between the 1950s and late 1970s, and
In the abyssal depths, animals thrive on the methane- major advances in hatchery production technology were
sulphide- and hydrogen-sulphide-rich waters produced by made during that period. However these technical advances
the hydrothermal vents. An interesting survival mechanism did not lead to rapid increases in production in China for
is the unique symbiosis between micro-organisms, clams, social and economic reasons. Starting in 1978, China began
and mussels (tube worms). implementing a series of economic policy changes, gradually
replacing central planning with a market economy. As a
result, the Chinese aquaculture industry began its rapid
Ocean farming expansion in the early 1980s.
The most important species are silver carp, grass carp,
The oceans cover about 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface and common carp, bream and black carp. Chinese carps are mainly
thus receive more than twice the solar energy received by the farmed in polyculture systems in earthen ponds. In a typical
land. This would lead us to conclude that the oceans’ potential polyculture system, carps with different feeding requirements
productivity greatly exceeds that of land. Ocean areas are stocked together at certain ratios to fully utilize food
considered fertile are found where runoff from the land or resources in the system. As their name indicates, grass carps
the upwelling of nutrient rich deep water fertilizes the surface are herbivores and fed with grass. Solid waste from grass
water. This stimulates growth of marine plants, photosynthetic carps supports phytoplankton and zooplankton blooms,
organisms on which all other marine life depends. Instead of which are utilized by filter feeders such as silver and bighead
devising efficient fishing means, man needs to learn to develop carps. The Chinese also raise high-value species such as the
the potential of oceans by farming them. Oyster farming is river crab, shrimp, crawfish, eel, trout, frogs, and turtles.
one of the earliest types of marine farming. Molluscan culture in China started to expand beyond the
four traditional species in the 1970s. Mussel culture was the
first new industry to emerge, followed by scallop and abalone
Ocean resources aquaculture in the 1980s. Shrimp culture has been a major
cash industry since the 1980s, and has greatly benefited
The history of exploitation of the interface of the floor of many coastal regions. Major advances in marine fish culture
the ocean with the overlying water spans the relatively short occurred in the 1990s.

199
 thematic section

Seaweed culture, which is now a major mariculture The Industrial Revolution caught up with the fishing
industry, was developed in the 1950s as a result of industry around the beginning of the twentieth century.
breakthroughs in breeding technology. Hatchery-produced The introduction of the steam-powered trawler from
seaweed seedlings are set on rope and cultured on suspended England heralded a major change in the way ground fish
long lines, which are also used for the culture of kelp, were caught, and rapidly replaced the schooner fleets. At
scallops, abalone, mussel and oysters. In China, these long the time, there was concern that the powerful new
lines often cover most of the bays or stretch for large technology would threaten the productivity of the stocks.
distances along the coast. Scientific investigations of the time warned that the new
Flounder, sea bream, mullet, and puffer fish are some of technology should be applied with care.
the marine fish cultured in China. Land-based intensive By 1930, the fleet had grown too efficient in relation to
systems and floating net cages are common, and large shrimp the stocks’ capacity to sustain growth. A new round of
ponds are also used for fish culture. scientific investigation begun in 1930 at Harvard University
revealed the consequences of the new technology.
Prior to the Second World War, the fleet was large, but
History of whaling profitability was low. Consumption of fish in America had
nose-dived as the descendants of immigrants abandoned
Whaling started in the first few centuries of the first Old World traditions of fish consumption. With the
millennium bc by the Japanese, and between about 800 and outbreak of war, the fleet was further reduced as many of
1000 ad by the Norwegians and by the Basque people living the largest trawlers were requisitioned for war duty as mine
in France and Spain. The Dutch, British and Americans sweepers. When these vessels returned from war, the
developed whaling in the seventeenth century. industry continued to suffer owing to a continued reduced
Whaling involved approaching a whale in small boats and demand for seafood. Fortunately, the development of new
driving flint-tipped spears attached to sealskin floats into the marketing strategies, such as selling ocean perch in the
animal. Each time the whale rose to blow, more spears were Midwest as a substitute for Great Lakes yellow perch,
driven into its body until it was so exhausted by the struggle to sustained the offshore fleet.
force its body down against the buoyant drag of many floats The beginning of the 1960s saw the development of the
that it ceased submerging. Remaining on the surface, the most serious threat yet to the sustainability of the fishery.
weakened whale could be killed more easily.3 Ocean-going fish factories of the distant water fleets began
Entire canoe fleets of Pacific Coast Indians hunted by depleting the cod, haddock, hake and herring resources of
driving many spears into the whale when it came up for air. the once-rich Georges Bank fishing ground extending from
When the assaulted whale finally died, it sank, but within a New England to Newfoundland. Soon fleets from East
day or so, the gases emitted from the decomposition process Germany, Poland, Spain, Japan and others joined those
would cause the carcass to float to the surface, at which point from the Soviet Union. Not until the early 1970s could an
it could be towed ashore. international commission settle on fishing restrictions, too
Most of the whalers hunted the slow and docile northern late to avoid the virtual collapse of most ground fish stocks.
right whale. The whales were sought for their oil and baleen There was much pressure particularly from the fishing
(whalebone). The Japanese ate the meat and found uses for industry to establish American jurisdiction over a 320 km
many other parts of the whale. A species related to the right fishing limit. Congress enacted the Magnuson Act of 1976,
and bowhead whale was hunted to extinction in the Atlantic taking control of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and
Ocean. setting up a system of regulation of the domestic industry.
The American whalers also hunted the sperm whale, Fuelled by great expectations and aided by subsidy
first in the Atlantic from New England ports and later in programmes in place since the 1950s, the United States
the Pacific from bases in Hawaii. Sperm whales feed on began to build new, modern fishing boats. The fleet, once
giant squid deep in the ocean, including species that have dominated by wooden side-trawlers, was quickly replaced
never been seen alive. with steel stern-trawlers, miniature versions of the factory
The baleen whale known as the California grey whale trawlers used by the distant water fleets.
was hunted in the lagoons of Baja California, where they Now the cry for regulation comes not just from the
breed, and from 16 shore stations along the California coast. fishermen, but also from environmental groups, the general
It sucks mud from the ocean bottom through one side of public and elected officials. Years of supporting industry
the mouth and filters crustaceans called amphipods from growth have left the federal government vulnerable to
the mud using short baleen plates. Hunted to near extinction charges that its policies helped collapse the fish stocks and
in the late 1800s, the California grey whale recovered only harmed the environment.
to once again be threatened with extinction in the 1930s and
1940s by factory ships. Today the species is up to pre-
exploitation levels (about 26,000) and has been removed Period synopses
from the endangered species list (Plate 86).
Following the New England example, the history of
twentieth-century ground fishing can be divided into six
Development of ground fishing in New England time periods, based on a combination of factors including
technological development, changes in species abundance,
For over 400 years, the New England fishing industry has development of markets for new species, or improved
been associated both economically and culturally with marketing of existing fishes, and major changes in the
ground fishing for such bottom-dwelling species as cod, regulatory regime. Some of these factors relate to more
haddock, redfish and flounder.4 than one time period, whereas others were isolated events

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that so greatly dominated the scene that they clearly marked by the United States off Canada, and vice versa. However,
new eras. with the change in administration in 1980, and opposition
from some sections of the industry, the draft treaty was
not approved.
1. Sail to steam (1900–1920)
Prior to the introduction of steam trawling in 1906, ground
fish were caught exclusively with baited lines, fished from F ishing and M ariculture
schooners and their dories. Owing to the length of their P ractices
journeys and the lack of refrigeration and freezing, most of
the cod catch was salted at sea. Salmon aquaculture is now undertaken in two main ways:
freshwater rearing and sea-cage rearing.5 Both methods
involve first collecting eggs and milt from captive brood
2. Cod to haddock (1920–1930) stock, incubating the fertilized eggs in a freshwater hatchery
Along with the transition from schooners to trawlers, the (usually at 10–12 ºC), and rearing the newly hatched fry for
targets of the fishery changed as well. Developments in cold an additional 6–12 months. In freshwater and sea-cage
storage, marketing and distribution allowed fresh fish to be operations, the young fish (or smolt) are then transferred to
available in areas far from the fishing ports. Rather than salt larger cages or ponds, where they are reared for the
cod, the industry switched to haddock. Landings of haddock remainder of their lives. Fish remain in captivity for two to
shot up rapidly as demand grew. This period witnessed the three years, and are typically harvested at weights of between
development of the fresh fish industry and the consequences 2 and 4 kg.
of the shift in target species to the utilization of the ground In ocean ranching, large numbers of smolts are released
fish resource. to sea to fend for themselves before reaching adulthood,
then rely on their legendary homing ability to guide them
back to their point of release to be harvested. Many
3. Fishing troubles (1930–1960) companies attempted this potentially efficient style of
The sudden rise in popularity of haddock resulted in early farming during the 1980s, but abandoned it when marine
signs of stress in the stocks, and landings plummeted. survival rates proved too low and inconsistent to sustain a
Scientists were asked to study causes of the drop in landings commercially viable return.
and to recommend conservation measures. Biologists of the
period recommended increasing net mesh sizes. Profitability
of the fishing industry declined significantly through the Handlining and jigging
Great Depression. The outbreak of the Second World War
resulted in prosperity as wartime protein demands increased, Handlining and jigging are two of the oldest forms of
while there was a shortage of large fishing vessels owing to fishing and are still common;6 indeed, single-line methods
the conscription of a large part of the fleet for military are still used by many inshore fishermen on the Atlantic
activities. After the war, lower demand and more vessels Coast. Handlining utilizes a line to which a weight and
resulted in very low profitability. baited hook is attached. Jigging operations involve the use
of lure-like hooks attached to a line, which is ‘jigged’, or
moved up and down in a series of short movements in the
4. Distant water fleets (1960–1976) water at a level where fish are present. The motion attracts
The presence of distant water fleets was universally the fish, which are hooked as they go for the lure. The line
denounced by the domestic industry, especially off the coast is then hauled onboard and the fish removed. Handlining
of the United States. The industry supported research and jigging are mainly used to catch ground fish, although
showing the harmful effects of over-exploitation. At this pelagic organisms and other species are sometimes caught.
time, both the American and Canadian fishing industries Jigging machines have recently become widely used for
and scientists were united against the non-North American catching ground fish and squid. These machines work on
factions to protect local interests. But the Magnuson Act the same principle as jigging by hand but are made less
contained provisions more sweeping than just curtailing labour intensive by the use of electric or hydraulic motors,
international fishing; it also stipulated for the first time that which automatically move the line up and down in a jigging
United States fisheries would be managed for maximum motion and retrieve the line when fish are hooked.
benefits to society.

Longlining
5. The Second Industrial Revolution (1977–1984)
Following the passage of the Magnuson Act, there was Longlining, as the name implies, involves the use of a
great optimism in the fishing industry. New modern ‘longline’ with a series of baited hooks spread along the
vessels were constructed, some using financing available at ocean floor. Initially practised manually, this method has
low rates through existing government loan programmes. now become mechanized and uses automatic hauling,
The Canadians also had extended their territorial baiting and shooting machines. These improvements have
jurisdiction 320 km seaward, excluding United States made longlining an increasingly popular form of fishing, for
vessels, which had fished off the Scotian Shelf and the it enables fishermen be more selective, yields a higher quality
southern Grand Banks for generations. In 1979, a draft of fish, and also require less fuel. Longlining is practised
treaty on reciprocal fishing rights was agreed to at the primarily in the Atlantic provinces to catch ground fish
ministerial level. The treaty recognized historical fisheries such as hake, haddock and halibut.

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 thematic section

Bluefin tuna fishing Offshore lobster traps

Bluefin tuna are caught in both commercial and sport Offshore lobster traps are constructed of metal or heavy
fisheries. Bluefins are primarily a by-catch for fishermen wooden frames covered with wire mesh, and are considerably
engaged in operations such as mackerel trapping. When larger and sturdier than inshore traps. Vessels of the
captured alive, the tuna are placed in corral-like pens and offshore fleet measure between 18 and 34 metres in length
fed mackerel and other fish until a desired weight and fat and are based in southwestern Nova Scotia. These offshore
content is reached, in preparation for sale. Fishing for vessels are not permitted to harvest lobster closer than
bluefins is also conducted in big-game style, employing rod 80 kilometres from shore.
and reel manipulated by a fisherman strapped to a chair
fixed to the rear deck. Fishing line of breaking strength no
greater than 60 kg is required. Inshore lobster fishing

Inshore lobster fishing is practised by inshore fishermen

Gillnetting using traps set on the ocean floor, either individually or in
groups on a line. The size and design of these traps differ
Gillnets are used on the Atlantic coast to catch many somewhat in various localities, but they are usually
species of fish, especially ground fish and pelagic organisms constructed of curved pieces of wood, laths, and cotton or
and such anadromous species as salmon, smelt and nylon twine, and often weigh in excess of 40 kg. Every trap
gaspereau. They are principally made of monofilament has one or more funnel-shaped openings fashioned from
netting and may be either secured to the bottom of the sea twine, which allow the lobster to enter the trap but prevent
with the use of weights or left to drift. Fish are caught as it from escaping. They are baited with either fresh or salted
they attempt to swim through the webbing, entangling fish, commonly herring, and mackerel. Traps are set in
their gills. Nets are anchored to the seabed to keep the gear waters of varying depths, but usually near the rocky bottoms
stationary and the buoys that float on each end indicate preferred by lobsters. In recent years, fishermen have begun
the location, the owner of the gear, and provide a line from to make greater use of electronic equipment to determine
which the gear can be raised to the surface to harvest the water depth and bottom type. Traps are ballasted with flat
catch. The nets may be positioned in varying depths, stones or concrete slabs to sink them and reduce their
depending on the location of the species. It is common for movement on the ocean floor. Marked buoys allow the gear
fishermen to attach a number of nets to increase the to be easily located and identified. The traps are hauled up
efficiency of the operation. The size of the mesh used in on the boats using winches. Smaller, illegal-sized lobsters
gillnets differs depending on the species and size of the are returned to the water along with any unwanted species.
fish sought. The harvested lobsters are kept alive in boxes or tanks
containing circulating water.

Weir fishing
Crab traps
The weir method of fishing is used in the Bay of Fundy,
where the extraordinary height of the tides prevents the use Crab traps differ considerably from those used in the lobster
of other types of traps. Weirs are also used on both sides of fishery. They are framed with iron rods, covered with
the St Lawrence River in Quebec. Rigid poles are driven polyethylene rope webbing and may be either cone-shaped
into the mud bottom in a heart-shaped configuration. A or rectangular. Crab traps are much more expensive than
straight line of poles is then placed from the shoreline to the lobster traps because of the material used, and are somewhat
weir. This line acts as a barrier to the fish, which follow it larger. Usually only one trap is placed on each line. While
into the weir. Once inside, they become disoriented and the main species caught in the Atlantic area is the snow
swim in circles. crab, exploratory fishing is being conducted for rock crab,
Jonah crab and red crab.

Cod traps
Purse seining
Practised primarily in Newfoundland, cod trap fishing
is similar to weir fishing. The traps resemble open-topped A seine is a wall of webbing used to encircle fish. Its
box nets, with a perimeter of 11–22 metres and a effectiveness in catching fish results from its encircling
vertical opening or ‘door’ on one side. The trap is set on action, rather than towing. As with the gillnet, the purse
the ocean bottom, usually close to the shore, with the seine has floats on the top and weights on the bottom to
door facing shallow water. It is buoyed on the top and maintain its vertical position in the water. A purse seine,
anchored on each corner to maintain its position. A long however, has a wire rope passing through rings on the
net fence or ‘leader’ extends from shallow water into the bottom of the net, thereby enabling the net to be drawn
mouth of the trap. When the cod, feeding on fish such as together to entrap fish. While purse seines are used to catch
capelin along the seashore, confront the leader, they many species of fish, they are most effective when used to
instinctively shift direction, swimming through the open capture fish schooling near the ocean bottom. When a
doors into the trap. Once inside, they tend to swim in school of fish is detected, one end of the seine is taken by a
circles, trying to avoid the leader, and so fail to locate small boat or ‘skiff’. The vessel and skiff then encircle the
the doors. fish with the net. After receiving the end of the line from the

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skiff, the vessel begins to winch in the wire cable, closing the varying the length of the cable or ‘warp’ between the vessel
bottom of the seine and forming a bag-like net around the and the net.
fish. The other lines are then also winched in, reducing the
space inside the net, which is then brought alongside the
vessel. The fish are dipped out and put in penned-off Atlantic side trawling
sections, boxes, or in the hold of the vessel.
Atlantic side trawlers belong to the older series of ground
fish trawlers, which are declining in numbers due to the
Eel traps preference for more modern stern trawlers. They are referred
to as side trawlers since the gear (trawl) is towed from
The principal commercial device used to harvest eels is the gallows attached to one side of the vessel.
flume or ‘hoop net.’ The name comes from the hoop used to
frame the net. The hoops are set in rivers, trapping the eels
as they move in. A leader set in front of the net directs the Stern trawling
eels into the funnel-shaped sections of the trap, from which
they cannot easily escape. Stern trawlers are the main components of Canada’s
Atlantic offshore fishing fleet and are modern vessels of steel
construction, averaging in size from 30–50 m. Atlantic stern
Canadian pair trawlers harvest traditional ground fish species such as cod,
haddock, flounder and hake. The gear (trawl) is hauled into
Canadian pair seining is a recently developed method of the vessel over a large ramp through an opening at the back
fishing used by relatively few fishermen. Two vessels sweep or ‘stern’ of the ship. Stern trawlers can operate in almost
an area of smooth seabed with cables and ropes, corralling any waters or weather conditions and often range as far as
fish into a net, and winching the net in. The net resembles an 450 km off the Canadian east coast, fishing at depths of up
otter trawl net with a much wider vertical opening. It is set to 100 m. These vessels can contain up to 2.7 tonnes of fish
and hauled by the two vessels, which maintain coordinated within their holds. They carry a crew of about 15 and can
positions through regular radio contact. The success of the fish for 10 days to two weeks each trip.
operation relies on the ‘heading’ effect of the ‘warps’ or cables.
When the vessels come together, the cables are brought
together, and the net is winched in from both boats. Oyster tonging

Tonging is the main method used to harvest oysters. It is

Otter trawling used on natural oyster beds and small leased areas where
regulations prevent the use of other equipment. Tongs
Otter trawls are cone-shaped nets towed along the ocean consist of a pair of rakes attached to long, wooden scissor-
bottom to catch many species of ground fish. They take like handles. The handles are joined together approximately
their name from the rectangular doors, or ‘otterboards’, one-third of the way from the end of the rakes. The teeth of
attached to cables between the boat and the net. These the rakes point inward, and some tongs have baskets
doors keep the mouth of the net open horizontally while attached on both ends. The handles vary from three to eight
the net is making its tow. A vertical opening is maintained metres in length. With a series of short lifting movements,
by the combined effect of the weights on the bottom, the the oysters are scraped off the bottom and gathered up into
floats on the top and the water pressure generated from the the boat. The vessels used in the operation are usually small
towing. The net traps fish in the end of the bag-like section because of their versatility. Harvesting oysters with tongs is
or ‘cod-end’, which has a mesh size that permits only the a very time-consuming operation because tongs can be used
smaller fish to escape. The net rolls along close to the bottom only when the water is calm, and tongs are inefficient in
with the aid of bobbins, which are similar in appearance to water over five meters deep.
wheels. After a period of towing, the trawl is winched up One of the new scientific methods applied to mariculture
beside the vessel. In a side trawling operation, the cod-end is to increase production is marine biotechnology.7 This term
raised and suspended over the vessel. The cod-end is untied, encompasses any scientific investigation that focuses on
and the catch released onto the vessel’s deck, where the fish marine organisms and utilizes new cell, protein and nucleic
are bled, gutted and stored in the hold. In a stern trawling acid technologies such as recombinant DNA (rDNA),
operation, the gear is hauled up the ‘stern ramp’ and the protein engineering, DNA hybridization, etc. Biotechnology
cod-end opened. techniques are included under the rubric of marine
biotechnology if they are used in certain applied fields like
aquaculture, fisheries and natural marine products.
Mid-water trawling

Mid-water trawls can be used to catch many species of fish, E ffects of O cean F ishing
most commonly herring, mackerel, redfish, pollock, capeline and M ariculture on
and shrimp. Mid-water trawls resemble otter trawls in that the E nvironment
they are cone-shaped and constructed of webbing. Unlike
otter trawls, however, they have fewer weights, and thus Mariculture has two effects on the coastal environment:8
can be adjusted for towing at various depths. This some types of mariculture improve the coastal environment
adjustment is made by increasing the vessel’s speed or by and increase food supply, while others deplete wild fisheries

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 thematic section

stocks and damage the coastal environment. According to algal blooms die, they settle to the bottom where their
the driving factors of systems, aquaculture ecosystems can decomposition depletes the oxygen. Before they die,
be divided into two groups: autotrophic or natural trophic however, there is the possibility that algal toxins are
systems such as kelp culture systems and raft culture systems produced.
for scallops, which obtain energy from solar radiation and
nutrients from water; and heterotrophic or artificial trophic
systems, such as net culture systems for feeding fish and The effect of intensive fish rearing
pond culture systems for shrimp, which obtain energy
mainly from artificial feeds. There are many features of The method of intensive fish rearing in dense, cage farms in
ecological mutual compensation between the two types of protected marine areas has an environmental price attached.
aquaculture systems. For example, in China, most Uneaten fish food, together with the fish excretions, may
mariculture production is produced from autotrophic accumulate on the seafloor under the cages, in conditions of
systems. However, we should not neglect the negative effects low water exchange. This accumulation may have a negative
of some types of mariculture on the coastal environment in effect on the marine environment. The organic matter, as it
our aim to achieve sustainable mariculture. Some of these accumulates, may undergo biochemical and microbial
are as follows. changes. High levels of hydrogen sulphide may be produced
in the marine substrates, followed by deterioration in the
oxygen level of this environment. These changes can cause
The spread of antibiotics the death of immovable organisms and repel mobile forms
of life from the damaged habitat.
Antibiotics and other therapeutic chemicals added to feeds
can affect organisms for which they were not intended when
the drugs are released as the uneaten pellets decompose.9 The effect of sedimentation
Nonetheless, many drugs used in fish farms have been
found to have minimal (if any) deleterious effects on the The structures used during cultivation processes can cause
aquatic environment. Feed additives, however, are not the environmental change.10 For example, the use of netting to
only source of potentially toxic compounds in culture protect clams from crab predators leads to siltation and
operations. A variety of chemicals are used to inhibit the accumulation of sediment. Parks of trestles can drastically
growth of organisms. alter the water flow regime leading to changes in
sedimentation rate and oxygen exchange within the system.
Extensive intertidal cultivation plots could deprive birds of
The aquaculture effluent: pollution of inland and feeding habitats, and the associated husbandry practices
coastal waters may disturb roosting birds.
The final stage of cultivation involves harvesting. In many
Although a link between fish farming and the decline of cases, this entails little more than emptying the bivalves
natural stocks cannot always be established, some from lifting ropes. However, in the case of species cultivated
environmental effects are clear. Unlike mollusc farming, within sediment, or relayed on the seabed, the use of
many species of fish depend on a diet of artificial feed in intrusive techniques is required. Both dredgers and suction
pellet form. This feed is spread onto the surface of the water devices cause disruption of the sediment and kill or directly
and consumed by the fish as it settles through the water remove non-target species.
column. Because not all the feed is eaten, a great deal of feed
can reach the bottom where it is decomposed by micro-
organisms. This alteration of the natural food web structure Marine animal health
can significantly impact the local environment.
Bacterial, fungal, protozoan and viral infectious diseases are
widespread among natural fish populations. Animals raised
Eutrophication in aquaculture are especially vulnerable to damage by
disease. Polluted waters favour the development of fungal
An increasingly significant effect of intensive fish culture is diseases, the most common agent being Saprolegnia. There
eutrophication (increase of mineral and organic nutrients in are also positive aspects to coastal shellfish cultivation, such
a water body, thus reducing dissolved oxygen and producing as the provision of hard substrata and shelter in otherwise
an environment that favours plants over animals) of the barren sites and the possibilities of using the cultured
water surrounding rearing pens or the rivers receiving organisms as environmental sentinels or guards.
aquaculture effluent. Fish excretion and faecal wastes
combine with nutrients released from the breakdown of
excess feed to raise nutrient levels well above normal, CONCLUSION
creating an ideal environment for the formation of algal
blooms. To compound the problem, most feed is formulated Our knowledge of the oceans has been progressively
to contain more nutrients than necessary for most enriched by the development of oceanographic research
applications. In Scotland, for example, an estimated during the last century. The potential of mariculture has
50,000 tonnes of untreated and contaminated waste been mapped out and characterized by modern techniques.
generated from cage salmon farming goes directly into the Scientific and technical methods, which may vary according
sea, equivalent to the sewage waste of a population of up to to the region, have been developed and applied to harness
three-quarters of Scotland’s population. Once the resulting and exploit marine culture commercially. Humankind now

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realizes that the ocean is a source of food if properly 7. R. A. Zilinskas and G. G. Lundin, Marine Biotechnology
maintained and utilized. Fish farming has yet to reach its and Developing Countries, Washington DC, 1993.
maximum potential. Large areas of our planet remain to be 8. For the following, see: Dong Shuanglin, ‘Mariculture’s
developed into highly productive marine farms. However, Two Side Effects on Environment and Their Utilization in
advances in the technological exploitation of mariculture Practice’, Aquaculture Ecology Laboratory, Fisheries
generate threats to the environment, and we must work to College, Ocean University of Qingdao, China: http://www.
combat them. aquachallenge.org/abstracts/shuanglin.html.
9. The following discussion relies upon C. Emerson’s
‘Aquaculture Impacts on the Environment’: http://www.
csa.com/discoveryguides/aquacult/overview.php.
NOTES 10. For the following, see the Sea Web abstract of the
article by M. J. Kaiser et al., ‘Environmental Impacts of
1. J. S. Douglas, The Story of the Oceans, Westport, CT, Bivalve Mariculture’, Journal of Shellfish Research, Vol. 17,
1953. No. 1, 1998: http://www.seaweb.org/resources/citations/
2. J. D. Gage and P. A. Tyler, Deep Sea Biology: A Natural aqua/1998/98aqua.1.php.
History of Organisms at the Deep Sea Floor, Cambridge, UK,
1991.
3. J. S. Douglas, The Story of the Oceans, Westport, CT,
1953. bibliography
4. The following discussion relies upon Parts 1 and 2 of
the ‘Brief History of the Groundfishing Industry of New Douglas, J. S. 1953. The Story of the Oceans. Greenwood Press,
England’, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Westport, CT.
Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Gage, J. D. and TYLER, P. A. 1991. Deep Sea Biology: A Natural History
Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center: http://www. of Organisms at the Deep Sea Floor. Cambridge University Press,
nefsc.noaa.gov/history/stories/groundfish/grndfsh1.html. Cambridge, UK.
5. For the following, see ‘Salmon Aquaculture in New Zilinskas, R. A. and LUNDIN, G. G. 1993. Marine Biotechnology and
Zealand’, New Zealand Salmon Farmers Association: Developing Countries. The World Bank, Washington DC.
http://www.salmon.org.nz/aboutsalmon.shtml.
6. The following relies upon ‘Offshore/Inshore Fisheries
Development: Fishing Methods’, Marine Institute of http://www.aquachallenge.org/abstracts/shuanglin.html
Memorial University of Newfoundland: http://www.mi. http://www.mi.mun.ca/mi-net/fishdeve/methods.htm
mun.ca/mi-net/fishdeve/methods.htm. http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/library/groundfish/grndfsh1.html

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 17.4
Electronics

Eriabu Lugujjo

T he E lectronic A ge – E arly have energy in electron volts greater than the amount of
R esearch and D evelopment the potential depression. What this means in practice is
that electrons emitted from the cathode have a distribution
By the turn of the last century, it was known that electrons of velocities. Electrons with insufficient energy to surmount
existed and that many metals would emit electrons if the potential barrier are returned to the cathode. As the
exposed to radiation. However, no electron device based on temperature increases the emitted number of electrons
this phenomenon existed. The Fleming Diode, introduced increases – and a negative potential region surrounds the
in 1904, is usually considered to be the prototype electron cathode. More electrons are repelled by this negative
device. This diode had two electrodes – one a thin filament region. At higher temperatures, the fraction of electrons
of wire (the cathode) and the other a metal plate (the anode). overcoming the potential barrier decreases in such a way
The cathode could be heated by an electric current and the that the net current reaching the anode does not change
electrodes were enclosed in an evacuated glass envelope. The appreciably. Operation under these conditions is classified
diode acted as an electrical conductor when the anode was as space-charge-limited. Indeed diodes are operated in this
kept at a positive potential with respect to the cathode. region.
Upon radiation the electrons emitted by the cathode were After triodes, other multi-electrode devices were
captured by the positive anode, thus forming a current flow. discovered, such as tetrodes. The tetrode was improved by
When the polarity was reversed, there was no current flow addition of a third or suppressor grid between the screen
and the diode acted as an insulator. This non-linear grid and the anode. The resulting five-electrode tube was
behaviour was eventually exploited in the development and named the pentode.
perfection of other electron devices. From roughly 1907 to 1912, radiotelephony developed
In 1906 and 1907, De Forest invented what is now called slowly in Europe. However in 1915, the engineers of the
a ‘triode’. He put a third electrode in the form of a wire grid American Telephone and Telegraph Company succeeded
between the cathode and anode of the diode. In this in talking by radio from the huge naval station at Arlington,
arrangement of three electrodes, the current flowing to any Virginia, to Paris (France) and, in the opposite direction, to
electrode depends on the potential of all three electrodes. It Honolulu. This great experimental feat was accomplished
is interesting to note also that under certain circumstances by using vacuum tubes as oscillators and voice amplifiers.
the grid potential acts as an effective control of the current The years 1921–23 marked the beginning and
to the anode without taking much itself. The triode thus organization of broadcast radiotelephone, a service for
became a practical way of transmitting radio waves and subscribers to listen to scheduled programmes of music,
contributed significantly to the growth of radio lectures, news bulletins, educational and entertainment
broadcasting. content.
After the discovery of the triode, other multi-electrode By the 1920s, diodes were already operating in X-ray
valves with four, five and more electrodes were introduced. tubes and for rectification purposes. Indeed there were
Of course, these new electrodes gave additional advantages triodes for amplification, oscillation, switching and counting.
of various kinds. However, their operation depended on Multi-electrode tubes were developed for the same uses
their non-linearity or the amplifying property of the grid. It above, but in a more refined form.
should be emphasized that diodes worked under space- Other types of vacuum valves that work on the principle
charge conditions of secondary emission were developed. These included
At high temperatures the rate of emission of electrons electron multipliers and photo-multipliers. Photo-
from the cathode is so large that the potential in the vicinity multipliers working on the principle of photoemission were
of the cathode is lower than that of the cathode. For an discovered and used for measuring and amplifying light.
electron to reach the positive electrode (anode), it must Then followed photocells, which are still used for light

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measurement and control. The emission of electrons from germanium are indeed prototypes – ‘ideal’ semiconductors.
the cathode requires additional energy. In thermionic Their conductivities are intermediate between those of
emission – the emission of electrons into a vacuum – extra insulators and metals. However their conductivity is
energy is given to the electrons by heating the cathode. electronic, like that of metals.
Energy may also be supplied as radiation, when
photoemission occurs. Finally, the electrons may be knocked
out of the cathode by impact with other fast electrons or T he T ransistor R evolution
ions. This is called secondary emission. and its O F F - S H O O T S
Another important development was the introduction of
gas tubes. In this case conduction electrons are produced by In the late 1930s, a young physicist at Bell Laboratories
using radiation or fast particles to ionize gas atoms. These named William B. Shockley became interested in the
tubes include diodes, triodes and tetrodes. An example of possibility of developing a solid-state device of some kind to
such devices is the thyratron. This is a gas-filled triode with provide an electronic substitute for electrochemical switches
a thermionically heated cathode. The period 1920–30 saw that were universally used in telephone exchanges to connect
the development of devices that control the movement of one telephone with another.1 He and others believed that
electron beams between electrodes with both steady and electronic telephone switching would eventually be needed
alternative fields. Klystrons and magnetrons were developed and that vacuum tubes would probably be too costly and
on this principle. These are special valves used at the higher unreliable for the task.
frequencies. The klystron is very useful in the conversion of Shockley saw promise in a theory that had been proposed
direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). Magnetrons by Walter Schottky in studies of rectification at the interface
are vacuum-tube devices that generate or amplify high- between a metal and a semiconductor. Shockley foresaw the
frequency electromagnetic waves. possibility of an amplifying action in the region between the
The years 1920–30 also marked the beginning of metal and the semiconductor. He believed that the region
quantum mechanics, for which numerous important between the two structures (metal and semiconductor)
applications were found in other areas in the years to come. would constitute a kind of valve action. In 1939, he tried
By 1927 the basic concepts of the new quantum theory had building valve-like devices with a combination of copper
been ironed out, thus providing physicists of the time with oxide, but he was unsuccessful.
powerful tools to describe electronic and atomic systems After the Second World War, Shockley returned to Bell
and to explain the cohesion of atoms in solid crystals. Laboratories. He and Gerald L. Pearson observed field-
By 1931, Wilson had developed a theoretical model of effect behaviour in 1948 with the structure of silicon
quantum mechanics that related what had been learned called p-n junction. In the same year, John Bardeen and
about the motion of electrons in metals and also provided a Walter Brattain announced the development of a point-
fair explanation of insulators and semiconductors. The contact transistor. A year later William Shockley published
1931 publication of Wilson’s theoretical model of solid- a classic paper on junction diodes and transistors. The three
state semiconductors coincided with an increasing interest scientists were awarded a Nobel Prize in 1956 for discovering
in semiconductors for use in electrical communications. the junction transistor. In 1952, Shockley published the
Indeed, tubes had been in circulation and upgraded over theory of the field-effect transistors, and a practical form of
the years. However they were not useful for the short the device was built by George C. Dacey and Ian M. Ross in
wavelengths being studied in the 1930s, and thus the 1953. This device used an electric field to control conduction
rectifying properties (converting an alternating current into in a germanium semiconductor structure.
a direct current) of semiconductors attracted great In 1950, the first prototype of a junction transistor was
attention. One drawback was that the implications of constructed. The first practical alloy junction transistor that
Wilson’s theory were not very clear to the research workers provided a more economical manufacturing process came
of the time, as it had been described in wave-mechanical on the market the following year, in 1951. The surface
terms. barrier transistor of 1953 pushed the frequency range into
It was not easy to perform any experiments on the MHz region. The diffused base transistor unveiled in
semiconductors. For example, there had been uncertainty 1955 provided outstanding high-frequency performance.
whether the non-ohmic behaviour of a contact between a The first monolithic integrated circuit was built in 1958 by
metal and a semiconductor was a property of the Jack St. Clair Kilby, but it was not until 1961 that process
semiconductor alone – a ‘volume property’ – or of the and design advances made such circuits commercially
contact between it and the metal – a ‘surface property’. It viable.
was a real brain teaser for anybody to examine
experimentally the electrical properties of a semiconductor
without making contact with it. Fortunately, by 1935, Electronics and solid-state engineering
a series of experiments had made it clear that the non-
ohmic property belongs to the contact, not to the With the advent of transistors and research on
semiconductor itself. semiconductors, it seemed possible to imagine a solid
When research on such questions reappeared after the electronic block with no connecting wire. The block had to
war (1945), it was directed at an understanding of silicon consist of layers of insulating, conducting, rectifying and
and its neighbour germanium. Silicon and germanium are amplifying materials, the electrical functions being connected
single chemical elements, falling successively below carbon directly by cutting out areas from the various layers.
in Group IV of the periodic table. They crystallize with a Figure 1 shows the transistor family and the first
simple atomic arrangement. The atoms in these crystals integrated transistor of Resistor-Transistor Logic (RTL)
are bound together by pure covalent bonds. Silicon and and Diode Transistor Logic (DTL).

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 thematic section

Figure 1  Transistor family history

Source: Mayer, 1973.

The invention of transistors was a radically new departure size, weight and power requirements were serious
in electronics. But before it could be universally accepted as constraints. This revelation was timely because by the
the new basis for electronic circuitry, it was necessary to mid-1950s engineers had learned how to define the surface
develop new circuit theories, new engineering and technical configuration of transistors by means of photolithography
processes, and to establish new facilities for large-volume and developed the method of solid-state diffusion for
production. There was therefore a gradual acceptance and introducing the impurities that create the p and n regions.
penetration of solid-state electronics in the market place In fact, by this time batch processing of many transistors on
and society at large. a thin piece of silicon and germanium (wafer) sliced from a
In 1952, the junction transistor was four years old, the large crystal of germanium/silicon had begun to displace
Korean War was at its height and both the military and the earlier technique of processing individual transistors.
large corporations were emphasizing the need for greater In the integrated circuit, the separation and
reliability from existing components. The United States interconnection of transistors and other circuit elements is
Armed Forces was already considering what it loosely called accomplished electrically rather than physically. The
miniaturization or even micro-miniaturization. separation is achieved by introducing p-n diodes (rectifiers),
which allow current to flow in only one direction. A
conducting film of evaporated metal that is photoengraved
Large-scale integration and miniaturization to leave the appropriate pattern of connections interconnects
the circuit elements. An insulating layer is required to
Large-scale integration, which entails combining thousands separate the underlying semiconductor material from the
of circuit elements on a single chip, was prompted by various metal film except where contact is desired. In 1958,
missile and satellite programmes that called for complex researchers at Fairchild Semiconductors discovered the
electronic systems to be installed in equipment in which process that accomplishes this insulation when they

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invented the planar transistor. In this transistor, a thin layer E lectronics and S ome of its
of silicon dioxide, which is the best insulator known, is D iverse A pplications
formed on the surface of the wafer.
Large-scale integration, which is a basis for Early applications of electronics in the 1920s centred mainly
microelectronics, enables instruments not only to make on radio communications, rocketry, telephone, radar and
measurements but also to analyse them. Over the past the use of vacuum tubes in research and utility instruments.
twenty years, complex and powerful measuring instruments At that time, components were discrete in nature. Today,
and control devices have been designed and put on the with the advent of solid-state electronics and miniaturization,
market for the service of humankind. The use of electronics has become a ‘global culture’ that has permeated
microprocessor and digital technology has rapidly evolved every sector of our society.
and reading/testing errors have been minimized. Modern Developed countries are increasingly spending heavily on
information processing and control systems call for the semiconductor electronics. Fields enjoying hefty budgets
rapid storage and retrieval of digital information. The include computers, consumer electronics, solid state,
amount of information to be stored ranges from fewer than communications, power generation, industrial electronics,
several hundred bits for a pocket calculator to a trillion bits military and aerospace, medical diagnostics, railroads,
for a large computer. industrial electronics, and basic research. Table 6 illustrates

Table 6  Five generations of computers

Generation First Second Third Fourth Fifth
Years 1946–1956 1957–1963 1964–1981 1982–1989 1990 –

Example Eniac NCR 501 IBM 360, 370 Cray XMP

Computers Edvac IBM 7094 PDP-11 IBM 308
Univac CDC-6600 Spectra-70 Amdahi 580
IBM 650 Honeywell 200 – Extensive development of distributed
Cray 1 computing
IIIiac-IV
Cyber-205 – Merging of telecommunications and
Telecom- Telephone Digital Satellite Integrated computer technologies
  munications Teletype   transmission   communications   systems digital
  technology Pulse-Code Microwaves   network – Extensive modularity
Modulation Networking   (ISDN)
Optical fibres
Packet switching
Computer Vacuum tubes Transistors ICs Distributed – Advanced packaging and
  hardware Magnetic drum Magnetic-ore Semiconductor   computing interconnection techniques
Cathode ray   memories   memories   systems Ultra-large-scale integration
  tubes Magnet disks VLSI – Parallel architectures, 3-D integrated-
Minicomputers Bubble memories circuit design
Microcomputers Optical disks – Gallium arsenide technology-Josephson
Microcomputers junction
Technology-Optical components
Computer Stored High-level High-level languages Ada – Concurrent languages, Functional
  software   programs   languages Pascal operating Widespread programming, Symbolic processing
Machine code Cobol   systems   packaged (natural languages, vision, speech
Autocode Algol Structured   programs recognition, planning)
Fortran   programming Expert systems
Object-oriented
  languages
Timesharing
LISP
Computer graphics
Computer 2-kilobyte 32-kilobyte 2-megabyte memory 8-megabyte 1 giga-instruction per
  performance   memory   memory 5 mega-instructions   memory second
10 kilo- 200KIPS   per second 30 MIPS 1 tetra-instruction per second
  instructions
  per second
Source: Kahn, 1983.

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 thematic section

the different generations of computers since the end of the devices and transmission networks. The development of
Second World War. electronics during the last century has been marked by a
Countries like Japan and the United States, in particular, number of milestones: namely, the discovery of the triode
are continuing to develop circuits and systems based on (audion) in 1907 by De Forest, and its utilization in
Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), with the aim of amplification; the discovery of the negative feedback
competing favourably in world markets, but at the same amplifier by Harold Black in 1927, which played a major
time producing reliable products. part in long distance telephone and television networks
(Plate 87), military electronics, and industrial applications,
and also revolutionized the entire area of control; the
E lectronics , S ociety and discovery of the junction transistor in 1948 by W. Shockley,
I ndustry John Bardeen and Walter Brattain; the development of the
concept of integrated circuits by Kilby in 1958; and
The electronics industry has been heavily influenced by subsequent manufacturing of ICs, Large Scale Integration
research, development and demands in developed countries. (LSI) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) using the
Up to the early 1970s, manufacturing of electronics was planar process.
largely concentrated in Europe and North America.
However, because of competition and profit-making
incentives, the electronics industry has also been spreading C onclusion
into the developing world over the last twenty-five years.
Exports of electronic products from Taiwan, Hong The last century witnessed a revolutionary transformation
Kong, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Mexico of human activities by the electronics industry. This industry
constitute multibillion-dollar-a-year industries. In each of has brought a new paradigm to people’s thinking and work
these countries production has emerged and grown in habits. Instrumentation has opened up new frontiers in
response to external demand, and the industry is almost research – in medicine, biology, telecommunications,
entirely export-oriented. astronomy – all of which have provided new insights in the
Electronics manufacturers in Japan and the United nature and workings of the Universe.
States have played the role of primary financiers by
establishing their own production subsidiaries, or by
subcontracting with independent firms whose production NOTE
costs are low. Finished products carry the name and labels
of these backers. During the past twenty years or so, 1. For the following, see: G. L Pearson and W. H.
multinationals have transplanted their production activities Brattain, ‘History of Semiconductor Research’, in:
exclusively to developing countries in Asia, Central America Proceedings, IRE, Vol. 43, pp. 1795–1806, 1955.
and South America. The main and basic motivation has
been the quest for lower production costs and abundant,
trainable labour. All those products that require labour- BIBLIOGRAPHY
intensive inputs have been relocated to developing countries.
Also, countries with some developed transport and HOGAN, J. V. L. 1923. The Outline of Radio. Little, Brown & Co.,
communication, appropriate educational facilities, and a Boston, MA.
large, disciplined and highly motivated labour force have Kahn, R. 1983. A New Generation in Computing. In: IEEE Spectrum,
attracted multi-national electronic industries. With respect Vol. 20. No. 11, pp. 36–39.
to China, there was a lag in the electronics industry due to Kleen, W. J. 1958. Electronics of Microwave Tubes. Academic Press,
the Cultural Revolution of 1966. By 1978, China was about New York.
15 years behind the United States and Japan in the area of Pearson, G. L. and BRATTAIN, W. H. 1955. History of Semiconductor
integrated circuits, telecommunications, automobile Research. In: Proceedings, IRE, Vol. 43, pp. 1795–1806.
engineering, and computers and data communications. Pierce, J. R. 1954. Theory and Design of Electron Beams. D. Van
Establishing an electronics industry in Africa is quite Nostrand, New York.
possible and would be cost-competitive with Asian Tocci, R. J., WIDMER, N. S. and MOSS, G. L. 2003. Digital Systems:
electronics manufacturers if tariffs on imported components Principles and Applications. (9th ed.). Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
and materials were exempted and European duties on River, NJ.
imports of the completed products were eliminated under Vadasz, L. L., Grove, A. S., ROWE, T. A. and Moore, G. E. 1969. Silicon
preferential arrangements. It is true that a number of Gate Technology. In: IEEE Spectrum. pp. 27–35.
African countries have privatized their economies, but there
is still political uncertainty, high costs for training,
undeveloped transport and poor communications
infrastructure, all of which discourage investment in the
electronics industry.
As far as society is concerned, we should not overlook
the major contributions of electronics to human welfare.
Among those of major import during the past forty years
have been the use of satellites to extend education and health
services, ground sensors for peace keeping, microprocessors
in the development of generations of computers,
improvement in the design of more efficient energy storage

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 17.5
Applied Astronomy and Interplanetary
Space Exploration

Eriabu Lugujjo

T he H istory of A stronomy revolutionized all aspects of science and modern thought

through his theories of general and special relativity, and the
It is difficult to explain the development of astronomy idea of equivalence. However, he was only taken seriously
during the last century without referring to contributions after rigorous testing of his theories. One example is the
made by the early pioneers. Nicholas Copernicus (1473– famous advance of Mercury’s perihelion. Because Newton’s
1543), for example, spent time observing and making law did not correctly predict this, Einstein’s theory gained
calculations and reached the conclusion that the Earth was approval for a new revolution in science. With this revolution
just a planet orbiting the Sun. This theory matched all and the space age of the twentieth century, the world could
observations and was wonderfully simple – but the Church once again boast of having achieved scientific and
did not like it. Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), a Danish mathematical progress equal to that of the early Greeks.
astronomer, amassed huge amounts of data on planetary
motions. Unfortunately for him, he was a believer in the
geocentric theory and never looked at his work in another T he E xploration of S pace
light. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) started to analyse
Tycho’s data and realized that it only fit if applied within ‘The Earth is the cradle of mankind – one cannot remain in
the Copernican (heliocentric) theory. In 1609, he the cradle forever’. So said Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a
formulated the equations for orbiting planets and satellites. Russian schoolteacher.
In particular, he determined that the planets move in The pioneers of spacecraft design, who worked out
ellipses rather than circles. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) almost all theory of space flight over a period of nearly three
made many discoveries but also ran into conflict with the centuries – from 1600 to 1900 – were Johannes Kepler, Sir
Catholic Church. He used one of the first-ever telescopes Isaac Newton and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935).
to observe the Moon, Venus, the Sun and Jupiter. His Tsiolkovsky was a modest Russian schoolteacher who in
downfall came when he published works that agreed with 1903, without ever launching a single rocket himself, was
Copernicus’ heliocentric theory. He was tried by a religious the first to figure out all the basic equations for rocketry. He
tribunal and ordered not to publish any books about the anticipated and solved many of the problems associated
Copernican theory. Galileo never recanted, and today we with rocket-powered flight and drew up several rocket
also remember him for his quietly defiant words at the trial: designs. He determined that liquid fuel rockets would be
‘It still moves’. needed to get to space, and that the rockets would need to
Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) worked in many fields, be built in stages. He concluded that oxygen and hydrogen
but his chief contribution to astronomy was the discovery would be the best fuels to use.
of the laws of gravitation. These laws held true for four By contrast with Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard (1882–
hundred years until Einstein’s theory of relativity. He 1945) was the man who actually designed, built and flew
established the three fundamental laws of force, motion, the rockets. He was a university professor who also
and gravitation and invented a new branch of mathematics developed the theory of rocketry and, although he didn’t
in the process, called calculus. Newton did all this to show know about Tsiolkovsky’s work, he reached the same
how the force of gravity is the reason that planetary orbits conclusions. Goddard conducted practical experiments in
follow Kepler’s equations. By the late 1800s, scientists were rocketry early in the twentieth century. He was interested
becoming aware of the need to revise the old Newtonian- in achieving higher altitudes than were possible for lighter-
based physics and develop a new theory. The laws of than-air balloons, and in 1919 he published a pamphlet
Newtonian principles were beginning to show their limits; entitled A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. It was a
for example, the precession of Mercury’s orbit could not be mathematical analysis of what is today called a meteorological
completely accounted for. Albert Einstein (1879–1955) sounding rocket.

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 thematic section

In 1926, Goddard launched the world’s first liquid- a bombshell. As the world watched American rockets
fuelled rocket, and he is widely considered the foremost explode with embarrassing regularity, the Soviets launched
pioneer of rocket technology. Working independently, he Sputnik 2 on 3 November 1957. This satellite carried a dog
developed the same components and designs that took the that survived in space for seven days (i.e. until its oxygen
Germans hundreds of scientists and engineers and millions was exhausted). The United States succeeded in sending a
of dollars to develop during the Second World War. satellite into orbit on 31 January 1958, thus marking the
Goddard’s earliest experiments involved solid-propellant start of a ‘Space Race’ essentially to send a person into orbit.
rockets. In 1915, he tried to measure the exhaust velocities These scientific advancements were propelled by a desire for
of the burning gases using various types of solid fuels. While international prestige and national security, and they were a
working on solid-propellant rockets, Goddard became way of demonstrating to the entire world the advantage of a
convinced that a rocket could best be propelled by liquid particular political ideology.
fuel. He achieved the first successful flight with a liquid- The United States was so determined to explore space
propellant rocket on 16 March 1926. Fuelled by liquid that, on 1 October 1958, the National Aeronautics and
oxygen and gasoline, the rocket flew for only two and a half Space Administration (NASA) was created to take over the
seconds, climbed 12.5 metres, and landed 56 metres away. duties of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Goddard’s rockets became bigger and flew higher. He (NACA), which was founded in 1915. Within a few days of
developed a gyroscope system for flight control and a its creation, NASA initiated Project Mercury, whose stated
payload compartment for scientific instruments. Parachute objective was placing a man in space and returning him safely
recovery systems were employed to return rockets and to Earth. Meanwhile the USSR was making great strides in
instruments safely. launching satellites to orbit the Sun, and it succeeded in
Hermann Oberth (1894–1989),1 another great space January 1959 with Luna 1. In 1961, it launched Vostok 1
pioneer from Germany, published a book in 1923 about carrying cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin, the first person in
rocket travel into outer space. Because of the book, many space. He completed a single orbit of the Earth (Plate 88).
small rocket societies sprang up around the world. In Meanwhile, NASA was making long-term preparations
Germany, the formation of one such society, the Verein fur not only to orbit the Earth but also to explore space, starting
Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) led to the with the Moon and on to Mars. In January 1962, Friendship 7
development of the V-2 rocket, which was used against lifted off with John H. Glenn Jr., who orbited the Earth
London during the Second World War. In 1937, German three times and became the first American in orbit. In the
engineers and scientists, including Oberth, assembled in same year, the US Mariner 2, the first successful planetary
Peenemuende on the shores of the Baltic Sea to work in a spacecraft, flew past Venus and entered a solar orbit. More
rocket research facility built by Hitler. was to come from the Soviets, however. In 1963, cosmonaut
The V-2 rocket (in Germany called the A-4) was small Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited the
by comparison to today’s rockets. It achieved its great thrust Earth forty-eight times in Vostok 6.
by burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol at a rate Both the Soviets and Americans were determined to
of about one ton every seven seconds. Nevertheless, by the explore space using manned flights and by landing a person
end of the war, German rocket scientists and engineers had on the moon. Many flights and experiments were made, and
already laid plans for advanced missiles capable of spanning the period 1965–69 could be described as experimental,
the Atlantic Ocean and landing in the United States. With eventful and extremely trying years for both countries.
the fall of Germany, the Allies captured many unused V-2 These efforts were rewarded and culminated in the first
rockets and components, and many German rocket manned soft lunar landing, by Neil Armstrong and Edwin
scientists emigrated to the United States and the Soviet Aldrin on 20 July 1969, aboard Apollo 11. The success of the
Union. Both countries realized the potential of rocketry as Apollo programme triggered a wave of launches to the
a military weapon and began a variety of experimental Moon, Venus and Mars. The USSR’s Lunar 17 landed on
programmes. At first, the United States launched a the Moon with the first automatic robot, Lunokhod 1, on
programme with high-altitude atmospheric sounding 17 November 1970. In the same year, the Soviet’s Verena 7
rockets, one of Goddard’s early ideas. Later, a variety of was the first probe to achieve a soft landing on Venus. Ever
medium- and long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles since then there have been many launches and successes
were developed. These became the starting point of the US yielding invaluable knowledge about space and the planets.
Space programme. Missiles such as the Redstone, Atlas, An attempt to sequence these events has been made and is
and Titan would eventually launch astronauts into space. presented in an annex to this section.

Trends in Space Exploration R adio A stronomy

Sergei Korolev, earlier known anonymously in the USSR as Radio astronomy deals with the study of distant objects in
‘Chief Designer’, was inspired by the work and visions of the universe by collecting and analysing the radio waves
Tsiolkovsky. He informed the Soviet Union Council of they emit. It has been a major factor in revolutionizing our
Ministers in 1954 that an artificial Earth Satellite could be understanding of the universe and how it works. Radio
launched in a few years’ time, and he was as good as his observations have provided a whole new outlook on objects
word. On 4 October 1957, Sputnik 1 – the first man-made we thought we already knew, such as galaxies, while revealing
object to orbit the Earth – was launched by the USSR and the existence of other unexpected objects such as pulsars
remained in orbit until 4 January 1958. and quasars. Radio telescopes today are among the most
The news that the Soviets had launched Sputnik 1 hit the powerful tools available for astronomers studying nearly
Western countries, and in particular the United States, like every type of object known in the universe.

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Early radio astronomy in Arizona (USA) called Mount Graham, where there was
some concern about an endangered species of squirrel.
Following Marconi’s successful transatlantic communications
in 1901, commercial use of radio mushroomed. It was
thought that the only useful frequencies for long-range Radio interference
communication were the very low frequencies, or the very Radio astronomers search for ‘faint’ radio static from cosmic
long wavelengths. Thus, when the first government objects. Increasingly, the signals they search for are lost in
regulations were imposed on radio in 1912, the amateur the noise of terrestrial radio communications, particularly
operators, whose interest in the medium was personal and the requirements of cellular phones and other modern
experimental, rather than commercial, got the short end of communications using satellites.
the stick. They were given the use of wavelengths of
200 metres and shorter.
As we know today, short-wave communication is subject Preventing the contamination of Earth or other worlds
to much noise and static. Companies using short-wave As robotic probes travel to the other bodies in our solar
therefore sought to identify and find ways of mitigating this system, and even begin to return samples to Earth, the issue
noise. At AT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey, a young radio of planetary contamination must be confronted. How do
engineer named Karl Janksy was assigned the task of we keep our microbes from hitching a ride to other worlds,
identifying the sources of short-wave noise. He built a and how do we prevent any possible celestial microbes from
highly directional antenna to work at about 22 MHz, and getting to Earth and (possibly) harming life on our planet?
began to make systematic observations. Most of the noise
he found was due to thunderstorms and other terrestrial
causes. However, one source of static that seemed to appear I nfrared A stronomy
four minutes earlier every day was also found. What Jansky
had discovered was radio noise emitted from the centre of Infrared astronomy deals with the detection and study of
our Milky Way Galaxy. Janksy made his discovery in 1932, the infrared radiation (heat energy) emitted from objects in
and it was made public in 1933. the universe.3 Every object that has a non-zero temperature
In 1937, Grote Reber built a 32-foot-diameter parabolic radiates in the infrared. In the field of astronomy, the
dish antenna in his backyard, which enabled him to detect infrared region lies within the range of sensitivity of infrared
cosmic radio emissions by 1939. Two years later, he made detectors, which is between about 1 and 300 microns. The
his first survey of the sky at radio wavelengths. human eye detects only 1 per cent of light at 0.69 microns,
and 0.01 per cent at 0.75 microns, and so effectively cannot
see wavelengths longer than about 0.75 microns unless the
Astronomy and the environment light source is extremely bright. So infrared astronomy
provides us with a window through which we can view what
Like every other human endeavour, exploration of the would otherwise be invisible.
universe takes place in the context of our terrestrial The universe sends us a tremendous amount of
environment. As human activity changes that environment, information in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Only
issues are raised for both astronomers and those who enjoy a small amount of this infrared information reaches the
the fruits of their research.2 Earth’s surface, yet by studying this small range of infrared
Among these are problems caused by ‘light pollution’, wavelengths, astronomers are able to uncover a wealth of
the issue of reconciling the need for new observatory sites new information.
with the safeguarding of endangered species, the difficulty Only since the early 1980s have infrared telescopes been
of protecting the frequencies needed for radio astronomy sent into orbit around the Earth and above the atmosphere,
from the encroachment of cellular phones and other forms which hides most of the universe’s electromagnetic radiation
of radio communication on Earth, and the problem of how from us. The first of these satellites – IRAS (Infrared
we protect other planets from Earth’s micro-organisms and Astronomical Satellite) – detected about 350,000 infrared
the Earth from possible extraterrestrial microbes. sources, increasing the number of catalogued astronomical
sources by about 70 per cent.
Light pollution
Fewer and fewer places on Earth remain truly dark at night, Exploring the universe
as electric lights spread across the globe. For astronomers
trying to collect the faint light of distant objects, this ‘light In the infrared, astronomers can gather information about
pollution’ is a serious problem. Some lights are worse than the universe. Astronomers have discovered that all distant
others in terms of the number of wavelengths they block galaxies are moving away from us and that the farther away
from celestial objects. Steps have to be taken to balance the they are, the faster they are moving. When an object is
lighting needs of cities with the requirements of scientists moving away from us, the light that it emits is ‘redshifted’.
doing research. This means that the wavelengths get longer and are thus
shifted towards the red part of the spectrum. As a result of
this Doppler Effect, at large redshifts, all of the ultraviolet
Observatory sites and the environment and much of the visible light from distant sources is shifted
While many new observatories must now file an into the infrared part of the spectrum by the time it reaches
environmental impact statement, the most publicized clash our telescopes. Thus the only way to study this light is in the
between astronomers and environmentalists was over a site infrared itself.

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 thematic section

Infrared radiation virtually all molecules as well as numerous atoms and ions
This is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer lie. Spectrometers onboard infrared missions like the Kuiper
than that of visible light, extending from about 1 micrometer Airborne Observatory (KAO) and the Infrared Space
to 1 millimetre. The primary source of infrared radiation is Observatory (ISO), as well as near-infrared spectra from
heat or thermal radiation. Any object which has an above ground-based observatories, have led to the discovery of
absolute zero (-459.67 °F or -273.15 °C or 0 Kelvin), hundreds of atoms and molecules in many different regions
radiates in the infrared. of space.
In infrared observations, a telescope collects radiation,
just as in the optical region. The incoming radiation consists
of radiation from the object, from the background and from
the telescope itself. Both source and background must be C onclusion
continually measured, the difference giving the radiation
from the object. Since its inception, the science of astronomy had been
With infrared analysis, it is possible to determine the limited to the observation of objects in the visible light
average surface temperatures of the planets, which range spectrum. The detection of radio emissions added a new
from about -400 °C for Mars to below -1,750 °C for dimension to our perception. From Reber’s modest backyard
Saturn. antenna built in 1937, to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
with its state-of-the-art multi-feed receiver system, single-
dish radio telescopes have made great contributions to radio
The emission mechanism astronomy. The single-dish telescope has not been rendered
Objects in space are surrounded by dense clouds of very obsolete by interferometers; rather, they work together as a
cold material, circumstellar shells whose grains and dust complementary couple, with single-dishes giving an
particles absorb photons of higher energy and reradiate the overview of the large-scale structure of the cosmos, and
energy as large numbers of low energy infrared photons at interferometers revealing the fine details. The astronomical
infrared wavelengths corresponding to their temperatures. research programmes carried out by single-dish radio
Thermal radiation is of particular interest for extraterrestrial telescopes have expanded our skyview, thus enabling a
objects possessing extensive atmospheres, since it would be better understanding of the universe. Objects that can be
expected to originate in a deeper layer than optical light. In seen in visible light can also be studied in the infrared. In
space, there are many regions that are hidden from optical addition to discovering new objects and viewing previously
telescopes because they are embedded in dense regions of unseen areas of the universe, infrared astronomy can add to
gas and dust. However, infrared radiation, having what we already know about visible objects. To get a
wavelengths that are much longer than visible light, can complete picture of any object in the universe we need to
pass through dusty regions of space without being scattered. study all the radiation that it emits.
This means that we can study objects hidden by gas and
dust in the infrared, which we cannot see in visible light,
such as the centre of our galaxy and regions of newly
forming stars. Terrestrial infrared observatories need to be notes
built on high mountaintops, below which most of the
atmospheric water vapour remains. This is because the 1. For the following, see NASA’s ‘Brief History of Rockets’:
vapour absorbs infrared radiation significantly. For http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Rockets/
observations in the far infrared, mountains are not high history_of_rockets.html.
enough; observations are thus carried out on aeroplanes, 2. The following relies upon A. Fraknoi’s ‘Environmental
balloons and satellites. Issues and Astronomy: An Introductory Resource Guide’,
Foothill College and the Astronomical Society of the
Pacific: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/
Detecting cool objects environment.html.
Many objects in the universe that are much too cool and 3. The following discussion relies upon NASA’s Infrared
faint to be detected in visible light can be detected in the Processing and Analysis Center’s (IPAC) ‘IR Astronomy:
infrared. These include cool stars, infrared galaxies, nebulae, Overview’: http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/
interstellar molecules, planets, and clouds of particles importance.html.
around stars. For example, the visible light from a planet is 4. Timeline adapted from: ‘Time Line of Space Exploration’:
hidden by the brightness of the star that it orbits. In the http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/timeline.html.
infrared, where planets have their peak brightness, the
brightness of the star is reduced, making it possible to detect
a planet in the infrared.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Infrared spectroscopy BOND, P. 1987. Heroes in Space: from Gagarin to Challenger. Blackwell
Determining which atoms and molecules are present in Publishing, London.
space, what their distribution and abundance are, and in BRANDT, J. C. and MARAN, S. P. 1979. New Horizons in Astronomy.
what environments they exist is critical to our understanding W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, CA.
of the universe, the formation of stars, planets and galaxies, KARTTUNEN, H., KRÖGER, P., OJA, H., POUTANEN, M. and DONNER,
and the possibility of life beyond Earth. The infrared part of K. J. (eds.). 2003. Fundamental Astronomy. (4th ed.). Springer,
the spectrum is where the emission and absorption lines of Berlin.

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 TEC h NO L O G Y AN D A P P L IE D SCIENCES

OSTER, L. 1962. Modern Astronomy. Holden-Day, San Francisco, 1961 – Development of the germanium bolometer, which
CA. works best at an extremely low temperature.
STRUVE, O. and ZEBERGS, V. 1962. Astronomy of the 20th Century. 20 February 1962 – Mercury Friendship 7 lifts off with
Macmillan, New York. John H. Glenn, Jr., who orbits the Earth three times.
24 May 1962 – Mercury Aurora 7 is launched and completes
three orbits.
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/importance.html 10 July 1962 – US satellite Telstar 1 beams the first live
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/rocket.htm transatlantic telecast.
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/environment.html 14 December 1962 – US Mariner 2, the first successful
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/4515/ planetary spacecraft, flies past Venus and enters a solar
history.html orbit.
http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/history.html 16 June 1963 – Vostok 6 carries Soviet Cosmonaut
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and orbits
http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/timeline.html the Earth 48 times.
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/Spectra/irspec.html 31 July 1964 – US Ranger 7 relays the first close-range
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/intro/ham.connection.html photographs of the Moon.
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/orbit.html 18 March 1965 – Alexei A. Leonov makes the first space
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/irtech.html walk from Soviet Voskhod 2.
23 March 1965 – First manned flight of the Gemini
programme, Gemini 3.
24 March 1965 – Ranger 9 transmits high-quality images of
A nnex : a chronology of the Moon.
S pace E xploration 4 3 June 1965 – Edward White II makes the first US space
walk from Gemini 4.
1856 – Astronomers use thermocouples and thermopiles 14 July 1965 – US Mariner 4 returns the first close-range
to detect infrared radiation from the Moon. images of Mars.
Early 1900s, infrared radiation is detected from the planets 16 November 1965 – Soviet Venera 3 is launched and
Jupiter and Saturn and from some bright stars. impacts Venus on 1 March 1966.
4 October 1957 – Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to 4 December 4 1965 – Gemini 7 is launched carrying Frank
orbit the Earth, is launched by the USSR, and remains in Borman and James A. Lovell, Jr., making 206 orbits around
orbit until 4 January 1958. Earth and proving a trip to the Moon possible.
3 November 1957 – Sputnik 2, is launched by the USSR, 15 December 1965 – American astronauts Walter Schirra,
and remains in orbit until 13 April 1958. Jr. and Thomas Stafford in Gemini 6 make the first space
31 January 1958 – Explorer 1, the first US satellite in orbit, rendezvous with Gemini 7.
lifts off at Cape Canaveral using a modified ABMA-JPL 3 February 1966 – Soviet Luna 9 is the first spacecraft to
Jupiter-C rocket. soft-land on the Moon.
5 March 1958 – Explorer 2 is launched by a Jupiter-C 1 March 1966 – Soviet Venera 3 impacts on Venus, the
rocket, and fails to reach orbit. first spacecraft to reach another planet. It fails to return
17 March 1958 – Vanguard 1 satellite is launched into data.
orbit. March 1966 – Soviet Luna 10 is the first spacecraft to orbit
15 May 1958 – Sputnik 3 is launched by the USSR. the Moon.
1 October 1958 – NASA is founded, taking over the 2 June 1966 – Surveyor 1 is the first US spacecraft to soft-
existing National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. land on the Moon.
11 October 1958 – Pioneer 1, US-IGY space probe, is 14 August 1966 – US Lunar Orbiter 1 enters Moon orbit,
launched to a height of 70,700 miles. and takes the first picture of the Earth from the distance of
2 January 1959 – The USSR launches Luna 1, the first the Moon.
man-made satellite to orbit the Sun. 23 April 1967 – Soviet Soyuz 1 is launched, carrying
3 March 1959 – Pioneer 4, the fourth US-IGY space probe, Vladimir M. Komarov. On 24 April it crashes, killing
is launched by a Juno II rocket, and achieves an Earth- Komarov, the first spaceflight fatality.
Moon trajectory, passing within 37,000 miles of the Moon. 18 October 1967 – Venera 4 sends a descent capsule into
12 September 1959 – Luna 2, bearing the Soviet coat of the Venusian atmosphere, returning data about its
arms, is launched, hitting the Moon on September 13. composition.
4 October 1959 – Luna 3 translunar satellite is launched 15 September 1968 – Soviet Zond 5 is launched, the first
and orbits the Moon. spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return.
1 April 1960 – Tiros 1, the first successful weather satellite, 11 October 1968 – Apollo 7 is the first manned Apollo
is launched by the US. mission, with Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and
18 August 1960 – Discoverer XIV launches the first US Walter Cunningham. It orbits the Earth once.
camera-equipped Corona spy satellite. 21 December 1968 – Apollo 8 is launched using the Saturn
12 April 1961 – Vostok 1 is launched by the USSR, carrying V rocket, thus becoming the first manned spacecraft to
cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin, the first man in space, who orbit the Moon and making 10 orbits on its 6-day
orbits the Earth once. mission.
5 May 1961 – Mercury Freedom 7 carries Alan B. Shepard, January 1969 – Soyuz 4 and 5 perform the first Soviet
Jr., the first American in space, into a sub-orbital flight. spaceship docking, transferring cosmonauts between
6 August 1961 – The USSR launches Vostok 2. vehicles.

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 thematic section

20 July 1969 – Using Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong and Edwin It increases the number of catalogued astronomical
(Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., make the first manned soft landing on sources by about 70 per cent, detecting about 350,000
the Moon, and the first moonwalk. infrared sources. IRAS discoveries include a disk of dust
31 July 1969 – Mariner 6 returns high-resolution images of grains around the star Vega, six new comets, and very strong
the Martian surface, concentrating on the equatorial infrared emission from interacting galaxies.
region. Many of the new advances in infrared radiation arose
5 August 1969 – Mariner 7 returns high-resolution images from US Department of Defense research into infrared
of the Martian surface, concentrating on the southern array technology in the 1980s. Development of infrared
hemisphere. array detectors in this period causes another giant leap in
11 April 1970 – Apollo 13 is launched, suffering an explosion the sensitivity of infrared observations. These arrays allow
in its oxygen tanks. Its Moon landing is aborted, and the astronomers to produce images containing tens of thousands
crew returns safely. of pixels at the same time.
12 September 1970 – Soviet Luna 16 is launched, November 1978 – The Einstein Observatory begins its
conducting the first successful return of lunar soil samples thirty-day mission.
by an automatic spacecraft. December 1978 – Two Pioneer spacecraft reach Venus,
17 November 1970 - Luna 17 lands on the Moon, with the which is 38.2 million km, at its closest, from Earth.
first automatic robot, Lunokhod 1. Driven from Earth by a 1 September 1979 – Pioneer 11 reaches Saturn, flying to within
five-person team, it travels over the surface for 11 days. 13,000 miles and taking the first close-up photographs.
15 December 1970 – Soviet Venera 7 is the first probe to 12 April 1981 – The first manned mission of the Space
soft-land on Venus. Transportation System (STS-1), Columbia, is launched.
1970s – Astronomers around the world begin to consider 19 June 1981 – The European Space Agency launches its
the possibility of placing an infrared telescope on a satellite third Ariane rocket.
in orbit around the Earth. 1 March 1982 – Venera 13 lands on Venus, and provides
31 January 1971 – The US launches Apollo 14 (Moon the first Venusian soil analysis.
mission). 19 April 1982 – Soviet Salyut 7 space station is launched.
19 April 1971 – Salyut 1 space station is launched by the 13 May 1982 – Soviet cosmonauts are launched in
USSR. It remains in orbit until 28 May 1973. Soyuz‑T 5 to rendezvous with Salyut 7. They return to Earth
30 May 1971 – The United States launches Mariner 9, which in Soyuz-T 7.
becomes the first spacecraft to survey Mars from orbit. August 1982 – Voyager 2 completes its flyby of Saturn.
13 November 1971 – US Mariner 9 (launched 30 May 11 November 1982 – The space shuttle Columbia’s fifth
1971) is the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, Mars. mission deploys two satellites.
2 March 1972 – Pioneer 10 is launched on an Atlas/ 4 April 1983 – The space shuttle Challenger lifts off for its
Centaur/TE364-4 towards Jupiter by the US, designed to first mission (STS-6).
familiarize alien life with humans. 19 June 1983 – Sally Ride is first US woman in space, on
15 July 1972 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made Challenger mission STS-7.
object to travel through the asteroid belt. 10 October 1983 – Soviet Venera 15 returns images of
5 April 1973 – Pioneer 11 is launched on an Atlas/Centaur/ Venus’ polar area.
TE364-4, flying past Jupiter in 1974, and Saturn in 1979, 28 November 1983 – The space shuttle Columbia carries
where it discovers new rings. the European Space Agency (ESA) Spacelab-1 into orbit
14 May 1973 – Skylab Workshop is launched by the US (STS-9). Its crew includes Ulf Merbold, a German and first
and maintained by three crews. ESA member in space.
25 May 1973 – First crew to Skylab 2 is launched, repairing January–November 1983 – The Infrared Astronomical
damage incurred to Skylab during its launch. Satellite finds new comets, asteroids, galaxies, and a dust
3 November 1973 – American Mariner 10 is launched, on ring around the star Vega that may be new planets.
the first dual-planet mission. 3 February 1984 – Bruce McCandless takes the first
17 May 1974 – NASA launches the first Synchronous untethered space walk from the space shuttle Challenger
Meteorological Satellite, SMS-1. (STS-41B) (Plate 89).
24 June 1974 – Soviet Salyut 3, their first military space 30 August 1984 – The third space shuttle, Discovery, lifts
station, is launched. off on its maiden voyage (STS-41D).
26 December 1974 – Soviet Salyut 4, a civilian space station, 5 October 1984 – Launch of space shuttle Challenger
is launched. mission STS-41G carrying the first crew with two women
22 June 1976 – Soviet military space station Salyut 5 is aboard – Sally Ride and Katherine Sullivan.
launched. December 1984 – Soviet/International Vega 1 and 2 are
August–September 1977 – Voyagers 1 and 2 leave Earth to launched, dropping probes into Venus’ atmosphere before
reach Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980. continuing to Halley’s comet.
3 September 1976 – Viking 2 lands on Mars on the Plain of 8 January 1985 – Japan’s Institute of Space and Aeronautical
Utopia. Science launches the Sakigake probe.
29 September 1977 – Soviet Salyut 6 space station is 29 April 1985 – The Challenger carries the ESA Spacelab-3
launched. into orbit (STS-51B).
1977 – An international collaboration is formed by the 2 July 1985 – The European Space Agency launches the
Netherlands, United States and Great Britain to develop Giotto spacecraft from an Ariane rocket.
IRAS, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. July–August 1985 – An infrared telescope is flown onboard
IRAS is launched on 25 January 1983 with an array of the Space Shuttle’s Spacelab 2 to complement observations
62 detectors. made by the IRAS mission. This mission produces a high-

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quality map of about 60 per cent of the plane of our galaxy. 26 June 1995 – Space Shuttle Atlantis rendezvous with
3 October 1985 – The fourth shuttle Atlantis takes off on Russian space station Mir during a ten-day mission on
its first mission (STS-51J). STS-71.
October 1985 – Spacelab D1, the first joint German/ESA September 1995 – Pioneer 11 ceases making scientific
mission, is flown. observations, its power source nearly depleted.
January 1986 – Voyager 2 flies past Uranus. 12 November 1995 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on
20 February 1986 – The core unit of Soviet space station mission STS-74, making the second docking with Russian
Mir is launched. space station Mir.
March 1986 – Astronomers discover an invisible gravity November 1995 – The European Space Agency launched
source that splits a quasar’s light. the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), which observes at
April 1986 – Astronomers find that our galaxy is smaller wavelengths between 2.5 and 240 microns.
than they thought and the Sun is 23,000 light-years from its 7 December 1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter.
centre. 8 February, 1996 – Thomas Reiter becomes the first
December 1987 – Cosmonaut Yuri V. Romanenko returns European Space Agency astronaut to make two space walks
from space station Mir, having arrived there from Soyuz- (both from the Russian Mir space station).
TM 2. 17 February 1996 – NASA launches the first in the
4 May 1989 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched (STS-30), Discovery series of spacecraft, the Near-Earth Asteroid
deploying the spacecraft Magellan. Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, aboard a Delta II-7925-8
18 October 1989 – US launches the Galileo spacecraft rocket.
from Shuttle Atlantis flight STS-34, which takes infrared April 1996 – The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) is
images of Venus and asteroid Ida, before continuing to launched and lasts until its liquid helium coolant runs out in
Jupiter. Feb. 1997, gathering a vast amount of data at 4.2–
November 1989 – NASA launches the COBE satellite to 26 microns.
study both infrared and microwave characteristics of the 19 November 1996 – Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on
cosmic background radiation. COBE maps the brightness of its twenty-first space flight, setting a new shuttle in-space
the entire sky at several infrared wavelengths and discovers endurance record of almost 18 days.
that the cosmic background radiation is not entirely smooth. 12 January 1997 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for the
5 April 1990 – US Pegasus rocket is deployed from a B-52 fifth docking with the Mir space station.
bomber, and launches the Pegsat satellite in the first 31 March 1997 – After 25 years of operation, routine
demonstration of the Pegasus launch vehicle. telemetry and ground control with Pioneer 10 are terminated.
24 April 1990 – Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS- The probe at that moment is 6.7 billion miles from Earth,
31, deploying the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) travelling at 28,000 miles per hour. In two million years, it will
astronomical observatory. reach the red giant Aldeberan in the constellation of Taurus.
August 1990 – US spacecraft Magellan arrives at Venus. 1 July 1997 – Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off again to
6 October 1990 – Space Shuttle Discovery launches the complete the flight aborted in April. The shuttle is outfitted
Ulysses spacecraft with two upper stages, on mission STS-41. with Spacelab, set up as a microgravity science laboratory.
7 February 1991 – Salyut 7 falls from orbit and burns up 4 July 1997 – Mars Pathfinder becomes the first probe to
over Argentina. successfully land on Mars since Viking 2 in 1976.
5 April 1991 – Space Shuttle Atlantis carries the Compton 7 August 1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for a 12-
Gamma Ray Observatory into orbit. day mission to deploy and retrieve the Crista-Spas 2 satellite,
5 June 1991 – Shuttle Columbia carries the Spacelab SLS-1 which studied the Earth’s middle atmosphere.
into orbit, to conduct investigations into the effects of 27 September 1997 – Space Shuttle Atlantis performs its
weightlessness on humans. seventh docking with Mir to support the repair and upgrade
2 May 1992 – Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on its first process.
mission (STS-49), repairing the Intelsat VI satellite. 19 November 1997 – Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off with
25 September 1992 – Mars Observer lifts off, the first three American astronauts, one Japanese, and the first
American probe to Mars since Viking 2 in 1976. Ukrainian astronaut, Leonid Kadenyuk.
2 December 1993 – Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on 7 January 1998 – Lunar Prospector is the first NASA
STS-61, making the first on-orbit service of the Hubble mission to the Moon in 25 years, and the first dedicated to
Space Telescope (HST). lunar research since Apollo 17 in 1972.
25 January 1994 – US launches Clementine, a new DOD 22 January 1998 – Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off to
satellite that performs a lunar mapping mission using rendezvous with Mir, the eighth US docking with the Russian
advanced ballistic missile defence technologies. space station and the first by a shuttle other than Atlantis.
February 1994 – A Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, 17 April 1998 – Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on a 16-
flies on board the US space shuttle Discovery for the first day mission, its 25th.
time (STS-60). 2 June 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on a 10-day
12 October 1994 – Spacecraft Magellan enters the mission, its 24th and the last shuttle docking with Mir.
atmosphere of Venus, burning up following the completion 3 July 1998 – Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars.
of its mapping mission. 3 October 1998 – Launched by the US National
6 February 1995 – Space shuttle Discovery manoeuvres to Reconnaissance Office, the Space Technology Experiment
within 37 feet of Russian space station Mir, in preparation (STEX) satellite tests 29 new spacecraft designs.
for a shuttle-Mir docking (STS-63) (Plate 90). 24 October 1998 – NASA launches Deep Space 1, a
March 1995 – Japan launches the Infrared Telescope in technology test spacecraft that evaluates a dozen advanced
Space (IRTS). spacecraft engineering designs.

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20 November 1998 – The first component of the International 19 May 2000 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for the
Space Station, Zarya, is launched on a Russian rocket. International Space Station (ISS) for maintenance work on
4 December 1998 – Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on its the crane and a faulty antenna; a Russian boom arm is
thirteenth space flight, with the International Space installed.
Station’s second module, Unity. 31 October 2000 – The Expedition One crew is launched on
11 December, 1998 – NASA launches Mars Climate a Soyuz transport to become the first crew of the ISS.
Orbiter, with the objective of studying Martian weather. 1 December 2000 – Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on a
The probe is lost as it approaches Mars on 23 September 12-day mission to the ISS.
1999, due to an error in propulsion software, using English 9 January 2001 – The first launch of the true millennium is
instead of metric units. Chinese, with the second test flight of the manned Shenshou
3 January 1999 – Mars Polar Lander lifts off on its ill-fated spaceship.
mission to Mars. This NASA probe is to land within about 8 March 2001 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a
600 miles of the Martian South Pole. Contact with the probe 14-day ISS construction mission.
is lost on 3 December 1999, and it is never heard from again. 23 March 2001 – Fifteen years after its first launch, and
7 February 1999 – The NASA satellite Stardust lifts off for after nearly 10 years of continuous occupation by astronauts,
a rendezvous with the Comet Wild-2 in January of 2004. the Mir space station is de-orbited, breaking up in the
27 May 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for the atmosphere and crashing in the Pacific Ocean.
International Space Station. 7 April 2001 – The 2001 Mars Odyssey probe is
19 November 1999 – China launches Shenzhou, the first launched on a trajectory for Mars orbit to be achieved in
unmanned test of their manned capsule. October 2001.
19 December 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for 28 April 2001 – Soyuz spacecraft TM-32 lifts off for the ISS
the third maintenance mission to the Hubble Space with the first space tourist, business executive Dennis Tito,
Telescope. who pays the Russians $20 million for the ride.
3 January 2000 – The Galileo space probe safely completes 30 June 2001 – NASA’s Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP)
its encounter with Jupiter’s ice moon, Europa, at an altitude is launched on a trajectory for a gravity boost past the Moon
of 343 km. to a position 1.5 million km outside Earth’s orbit.
11 February 2000 – Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off to carry 12 July 2001 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for the ISS
out the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, cosponsored by with the Joint Airlock, which will enable space walks to be
NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. performed directly from the space station itself.
14 February 2000 – NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid 10 August 2001 – Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for the
Rendezvous) probe settles into orbit around the asteroid 433 ISS with the Leonardo laboratory module and Simple Sat, an
Eros, producing a series of stunning close-up images. experimental low-cost astronomical telescope.

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 17.6
MATERIALS

Eriabu Lugujjo

Materials can be defined as substances possessing properties are quite strong but malleable and tend to have a lustrous or
that make them useful in machines, structures, devices, and shiny look when polished.
products. Materials are omnipresent and number in the The category of non-metals includes plastics,
thousands. Table 7 shows some materials that are of great semiconductors, ceramics, and composites. Plastics (or
interest to society. polymers) are generally organic compounds based upon
Most products are made from many different kinds of carbon and hydrogen; they are very large molecular
materials to satisfy the needs of a product. Since there are so structures. Usually they are of low density and are not stable
many different types of materials, one way to look at at high temperatures. Ceramics are generally compounds
materials is to classify them as metals and non-metals. between metallic and non-metallic elements and are made
from metal oxides, nitrides, silicates and carbides. Typically
they are good insulators and resistant to high temperatures
METALS AND NON-METALS and harsh environments. Semiconductors have electrical
properties intermediate between metallic conductors and
Metals are materials that are normally combinations of ceramic insulators. In addition, the electrical properties are
‘metallic elements’. 1 These elements, when combined, strongly dependent upon small amounts of impurities.
usually have electrons that are non-localized and as a Composites consist of more than one material type;
consequence have generic types of properties. Metals are fibreglass, a combination of glass and a polymer, is an
usually good conductors of heat and electricity. Also, they example. Concrete and plywood are other familiar

Table 7  Commonly used metals

Classes Examples Principal Characteristics Application
Metals and alloys Steels, super-alloys, light alloys Strength, toughness Automobiles, aircraft, pressure
vessels
Ceramics and Alumina, silicon nitride, metal Temperature and corrosion resistance, Furnace refractories, engine
cermets carbides high hardness components
Plastics and Polymers, rubbers, polyurethanes Strength, corrosion resistance, low density Pipes, panels, process plant
elastomers
Composites Fibre-reinforced plastics, metals, Extremely tough, high strength/weight Aircraft and other transport
or ceramics components
Construction Building stone, cement Durable, plentiful supply, cheap Buildings, habitations, roads,
materials bridges
Timber Wood, wood composites Ease of fabrication, strength Furniture, buildings
Fibre Cotton, nylon, glass Diverse, manufacturing and handling ease Textiles, fibre/plastic composites
Paper Paper, paperboard Diverse Printing, decorating
Source: Hondros, 1988.

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 thematic section

composites. Many new combinations include ceramic fibres development of specialized instruments providing access to
in a metal or polymer matrix. These metal and non-metal the microstructure of materials. X-ray diffraction was the
materials can also be characterized distinctly by their first of the new techniques for imaging the micro-world that
different physical and chemical properties. fostered the development of materials science and
technology. Light transmission microscopes were also used.
In 1931, Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska in Germany developed
T rends in M aterials S cience and the first type of electron microscope – the transmission
E ngineering electron microscope (TEM). The TEM is patterned exactly
on the light transmission microscope except that a focused
Whereas in 1900 it was taken for granted that there were beam of electrons is used instead of light to ‘see through’ the
two kinds of sciences, the pure or basic, on the one hand, specimen. Electron microscopes are scientific instruments
and the applied, on the other, this is no longer the case.2 By that use a beam of highly energetic electrons to examine
pursuing simultaneously both cognitive and practical objects on a very fine scale. The first scanning electron
interests, emerging disciplines such as materials science microscope (SEM) was created in 1942, and the first
overthrew this clear-cut distinction. commercial instruments became available around 1965. The
Materials science is a hybrid entity coupling fundamental SEM’s late development was due to the electronic difficulties
research with engineering application of the end product. involved in ‘scanning’ the beam of electrons across the
The generic concept of materials presupposes that such sample. In the SEM, the beam of high-energy electrons is
diverse substances as metals, polymers, glass, or scanned across the specimen, and the current created by the
semiconductors share certain characteristics. secondary electrons is converted into a signal displayed on a
The dramatic role of iron throughout the ages is not cathode ray tube (CRT). Each new technique opened up
really the result of its being ‘strong’, as one might imagine. new windows on the microstructures within.
In reality, iron has been important because heating and The key stage in the evolution of plastics occurred in
cooling can modify its properties; this is just one area of 1939, which marked the commercial development of nylon.
materials science and engineering. Zone refining, a purification process critical to the
One major objective of materials science and engineering development of silicon technology, also emerged in the
is to create materials by design, that is, structures tailored 1940s. The silicon chip is an innovation that launched the
for specific purposes, whose properties are adapted to a set information revolution, for it is the basis of radio, television,
of specific tasks. This goal was achieved only after the telecommunications of many kinds, computers, the Internet,

Figure 2  Philosophy of research and development in materials science and engineering

STRUCTURAL
DESIGN

MATERIALS MATERIALS MATERIALS FINAL

MICROSTRUCTURE PROPERTIES PERFORMANCE APPLICATION

MECHANICS, EVALUATION,
KINETICS & THERMO-SURFACE
PHYSICS

MATERIALS
PROCESSING COST
& SYNTHESIS

SCIENCE ENGINEERING
Source:
Source:Rohatgi,
Rohatgi,1988.
1988

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intelligent monitoring and control systems, and a host of tissues and organs for humans. Researchers are developing
other services. multi-functional materials that provide both structure and
Another prominent development was the introduction function or possess different properties, enabling new
of aluminium, both for simple but extensively used domestic applications and capabilities. For example, polymers with a
utensils and, in a much more demanding role, for aircraft hydrophilic shell around a hydrophobic core (biomimetic of
structures, which has made the era of inexpensive mass air micelles) can be used for timed release of hydrophobic drug
transport possible. The main materials development molecules, as carriers for gene therapy or immobilized
underlying this has been the large-scale electrolytic reduction enzymes, or as artificial tissues. Polymers stabilized by
of aluminium ore using low cost electricity, but improvement sterilizing could also be used for drug delivery. Ceramics
of the metal by alloying was also a contributing factor. such as bioactive calcia-phosphate-silica glasses (gel-glasses),
The 1950s saw the development of high temperature hydroxyapetite, and calcium phosphates can serve as
alloys. Nickel-based alloy developments impacted on jet templates for bone growth and regeneration. Biomimetics is
engine development. In 1955, polymerization catalysts were the design of systems, materials, and their functionality to
discovered for polymers, and this opened a way for a new mimic nature. Current examples include layering of
range of plastics, polymers, and synthetic fabrics and also materials to achieve the hardness of an abalone shell or
led to phenomenal growth in engineering applications. The trying to understand why spider silk is stronger than steel.
development of technology capable of producing smaller
and smaller silicon wafers was the major science and
engineering achievement of the 1960s. Buildings
The 1970s were marked by the emergence of new
industries based upon materials processing of recycled scrap Research on composite materials, waste management, and
iron; mini-mills were developed. Less spectacular, but recycling has reached the stage where it is now feasible to
perhaps even more important, has been the massive construct buildings using materials fabricated from
production and widespread use of structural steel, again the significant amounts of indigenous waste or recycled material
result of inexpensive production on a truly grand scale. In content. These approaches are finding an increasing number
fact, steel remains to this day the cheapest means of buying of cost-effective applications, especially in developing
sheer tensile strength. Sintering techniques (forming shapes countries. Examples include the Petronas Twin Towers in
using metal powder) also improved many manufacturing Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Plate 91). These towers are the
processes. Rapid evolution coupled with the ability to make tallest buildings on earth and are made with reinforced
ceramic materials characterized a good part of the 1980s. concrete rather than steel. A roofing material used in India
Important to note during this time was the development of is made of natural fibres and agro-industrial waste. Table 8
high-temperature ceramic superconductors. shows raw materials used in the making of cement – a
Another significant development that influenced the major component of construction works.
future direction of material science and technology was the Prefabricated composite materials for home construction
broad movement towards creating materials that would have also been developed in the United States, and a firm in
have greater ‘knowledge input’ per unit weight. This reflected the Netherlands is developing a potentially ubiquitous,
a strong historical trend among competing industrial inexpensive housing approach targeted for developing countries
countries to develop products with a high added value. that uses spray-on material over an inflatable air shell.
Recent advances in materials engineering have been made in
such areas as photonic devices for optical computing,
forming sheet metal using numerical simulation, explosion- Transportation
proof electromechanical equipment for anti-terrorism
purposes, and nanotechnology – the science of design of Millions of cars, trucks and other transportation equipment
materials at a nanometre (10–9 m) level. produced every year consume huge quantities of materials.
Therefore the development of lightweight materials for
automobiles that increase energy efficiency while reducing
A dvances and A pplications in emissions is a welcome innovation. Here the key issue is the
D iverse F ields strength-to-weight ratio vs. cost. Advanced composites

Advances in materials science have occurred in many fields:

medicine, energy utilization, transportation, and information Table 8  Raw materials in Portland cement
and communication. Most of these developments have
(percentage of total composition)
resulted from interdisciplinary research. The following
section gives some examples of different materials and their Iron
application in diverse fields. Raw material Lime Silica Alumina Magnesia
oxide
Limestone 52 3 1 0.5 0.5
Materials for medicine Chalk 54 1 0.3 0.2 0.3
Cement rock 43 11 3 1 2
Advances in tissue and organ engineering and repair are
likely to result in the development of organic and artificial Clay 1 57 16 7 1
replacement parts for humans. The field of tissue engineering
Slag 42 34 15 1 4
was born in the 1990s. In addition to organic structures,
advances are likely to continue in engineering artificial Source: Tegart, 1988.

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 thematic section

with polymer, metal, or a ceramic matrix and ceramic have long been used to provide energy in different parts of
reinforcement are already in use in space systems and the world. An important objective is to lower the cost of
aircraft. These composites are too expensive for automobile energy. Materials advances have contributed significantly in
applications, so aluminium alloys are being developed and improving efficiency in energy use – for instance in the
have been introduced in cars like the Honda Insight, the heating or cooling of buildings, improving reliability and
Audi A8 and AL2, and General Motors’ EV1. Although safety and also enabling alteration in the mixtures of the
innovation in both design and manufacturing is needed sources of available energy.
before such all-aluminium structures can become Along with investments in solar energy, current
widespread, aluminium content in luxury cars and light investments in battery technology and fuel cells could enable
trucks has increased in recent years. Polymer matrix, carbon continued trends in more portable devices and systems
fibre (C-fibre) reinforced composites could enable high while extending operating times. Advances in fusion and
mileage cars, but C-fibre is currently several times more fission of materials have also led to use of nuclear energy.
expensive than steel. Spurred by California’s regulations
concerning ultra-low-emission vehicles, both Honda and
Toyota have introduced gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles. Magnetic refrigeration and other advances

The discovery in the late 1990s of a new class of materials

Information and communication represented a significant advance in the cooling power of
materials currently used for magnetic refrigeration. The
Integrated chips are at the heart of modern information and new materials are made of a gadolinium-silicon-germanium
communications systems. From vacuum tubes to transistors alloy and have two advantages over existing magnetic
to integrated circuits and optical fibres, the dramatic rise in coolants: they exhibit a giant magneto-caloric effect – the
power systems that process and transmit information has ability of certain materials to heat up when placed in a
resulted from advances in materials science. The research in magnetic field, then to cool when taken back out again –
nanoscale materials – materials with properties that can and when used they provide a wide range of operating
be controlled at sub-micrometre (<10–6 m) or nanometre temperatures.
level – has improved the field of information and Advances in glazing materials for windows have led to
communication. The properties of some materials in these windows’ being more energy efficient while offering
size regimes are often fundamentally different from those of increased comfort; these techniques include the use of
ordinary materials. Examples include carbon nanotubes, spectrally selective coatings, absorbing glazing, and reflective
quantum dots, and biological molecules. These materials coatings.
can be prepared either by purification techniques or by Other materials advances are being applied in areas such
tailored fabrication methods. as hot roll laminations in printed circuit materials, passive
components (for non-energy generators) in electronics and
other mobile components, computer chip-based assets,
Self-assembly technology which enhance security and reliability, and non-destructive
testing – a technique that led to safety of products and
Self-assembly refers to the tendency of some materials to reduced risk of failure of materials or functions.
organize themselves into ordered arrays such as colloidal
suspensions.3 Examples of self-assembling materials include
colloidal crystal arrays with mesoscale (50–500 nm) lattice Materials and socio-economic development
constants that form optical diffraction gratings, a light-
emitting diode (nanoscale), a porous metal array (by A better life and an improved standard of living are the
deposition followed by removal of the colloidal substrate), fundamental aspirations of the 70 per cent of humanity
and a molecular computer switch. living in the poor countries of Africa, Latin America, the
Middle East, and South-East Asia, and socio-economic
development is a means to achieve these goals. It is estimated
Rapid prototyping technology that 2 billion people live below the poverty line worldwide.
This situation is fertile ground for political unrest.
This manufacturing approach integrates computer-aided Hopelessness and despair also lead people to immigrate to
design (CAD) with rapid forming techniques to quickly the industrialized countries in search of a better future.
create a prototype (sometimes with embedded sensors) that Materials in the form of mineral resources can generate
can be used to visualize or test the part before making the substantial wealth, but they can be depleted and are non-
investment in tools required for a production run. Originally, renewable. For sustainable development, these resources
prototypes were made of plastic or ceramic materials and need to be managed in such a way that the wealth they
were not functional models, but now it is possible to make a generate can effectively compensate for the depleted mineral
functional part, out of materials such as titanium. assets. Such management is especially important in those
countries that are largely dependent on minerals for their
economic development. Millions of people are employed in
Energy systems the production of primary materials and many more in the
research and development of these materials. Materials are
Materials provide particular properties that are required for used in energy generation that is very crucial for sustainable
the conversion, transmission, and consumption of energy. development energy. Poverty and living conditions are
Wood, water, coal, oil and gas are some of the materials that linked to the way energy is used. Even though there is a

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difference in energy use between industrialized and competition. The demand for new products with unique
developing countries, the relationship between energy and performance requirements can be seen in the aircraft industry,
sustainable development can be seen. Mining activities in which focuses on the need to enhance basic capabilities
different parts of the world where there are mineral reserves including range, payload, speed, and operating cost. New
consisting of metals like manganese and iron, or non-metal manufacturing methods are needed in the automobile
construction materials such as ceramics and refractory industry, especially because of regulations and competition.
minerals, have helped lift the economic status of the people The mining industry causes immense environmental
involved in them. pollution worldwide. Mining operations shift 28 billion
Ceramic manufacturing has become an important tons of material yearly, that is, more than the quantity
industry because of the unlimited supply of clay in some moved by all the rivers in the world. Mining generates
parts of the world. An example is the Užice region of Serbia, 2.7 billion tons of waste, in part hazardous; an amount that
where rich deposits of architecture stone and black and far exceeds the world’s total accumulated municipal garbage.
dark limestone exist. Biomedical advances (combined with Every year mines and smelters account for up to one-tenth
other health improvements) using specialized materials are of all the energy used by mankind and pump out into the
already increasing human life span in countries where they atmosphere six million tons of sulphur dioxide, a major
are applied. This affects issues such as population age cause of acid rain. The mining industry also adds to land
demographics, financial support for retired persons, and degradation and can be a heavy burden on women and
increased healthcare costs for individuals. Advanced children.
materials, which are normally not the end products, can
lead to direct employment of members of society in the
production of the primary commodities. A concern about exhaustible mineral resources
The twentieth century has seen incredible change in
industrial countries brought about by the information The increasing use of mineral raw materials since the
revolution, based on radio, television, telecommunications beginning of the industrial era, and the unprecedented high
of many kinds, and the ubiquitous computer and the rate of mineral production development especially after the
Internet. One materials development has made all this Second World War, have led to great concern that we shall
possible: the silicon chip. The triumphal outcome of intense run out of non-renewable resources. This concern often
research and development of semiconductors means that translates into rapid price increases, along with growing
silicon chips are now made by the millions and constitute awareness of the need for recycling. In energy production,
the heart of all these information systems. The idea that one of the most difficult challenges in fusion reaction is
computers are simple machines only useful for computation dealing with neutron radiation for nuclear energy production.
has given way to the use of computers for personal Neutrons produced during fusion can travel tens of
productivity with the advent of the microprocessor, thanks centimetres out into the containment structure, causing
to material advances. As the power of these microprocessors damage to the constituent materials. Also very serious are the
has grown exponentially, so have has their usefulness as a health hazards due to inhaling the smoke from biomass fuels
vehicle for new media and socialization. Our current used for cooking, especially in the poorer countries of the
technological revolution is often mistakenly characterized world. This problem is a major challenge for materials
as one limited to progress in information technologies. scientists and engineers working in the field of renewable
However, the role played by new materials is now becoming energy. There has been criticism in the press about the use of
increasingly clear – and extends far beyond electronic nickel in some of the new European euro coins. Many people
components and computer hardware. Accordingly, suffer from allergic dermatitis when they come into contact
numerous governments have undertaken to define strategies with nickel. Clearly the nickel industry faces a challenge too.
and priority lines of action in order to stimulate materials In many cases, one could argue that material developments
research and to more efficiently exploit the potential together with associated computerization and installation
economic benefits of the advanced materials. In many of  ‘smart’ manufacturing systems, have contributed to large-
countries these efforts have taken the form of research and scale unemployment. These socio-economic effects also
development incentives, large research programmes partially need to be addressed. The great challenge for materials
financed from public funds, or specific market procurements. science as far as international development is concerned,
Authorities are also creating competitive environments by will be to increase the availability of materials required for
giving attention to the standard-setting processes, and housing, water, food, energy and healthcare by as much as
reducing obstacles to materials diffusion with initiatives 10 to 100 times in the decades to come, without increasing
that encourage information dissemination, education and pressure on resources, energy requirements, the environment
training, for example. and employment. The population of many developing
countries will have more than doubled in 50 years’ time, and
these countries will be trying to attain the standards enjoyed
C hallenges in M aterials in the rich countries today.
D evelopment and A pplications –
A G lobal P erspective
NOTES
The materials sector faces multiple challenges that arise from
demand for new products with unique performance 1. For the following, see ‘What are Materials?’, Materials
requirements, demand for improved performance or extended Science & Engineering Resource Center, The Minerals,
life of existing products, the availability of new manufacturing Metals & Materials Society (TMS) Foundation: http://
methods, cost reduction requirements, and international www.crc4mse.org/what/Index.html.

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2. The following discussion relies upon Materials Science Applications. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA.
and Engineering: Forging Stronger Links to Users, National Goldemberg, J., JOHANSON, T. B., REDDY, A. K. N. and WILLIAMS,
Research Council, Washington, DC, 1999, pp. 8–10. R. H. 1988. Energy for a Sustainable World. Wiley-Eastern, New
3. P. S. Antón, R. Silberglitt, and J. Schneider, The Delhi.
Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends GRANET, I. 1979. Modern Materials Science. Prentice Hall, Upper
and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015, Saddle River, NJ.
Santa Monica, CA, 2001. Higgins, R. A. 1983. Engineering Metallurgy. Part I: Applied Physical
Metallurgy. Hodder & Stoughton, London.
MAYO, J. S. 1986. Materials for Information and Communication. In:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Scientific American, Vol. 255, No. 4, pp. 59–65.
McLean, M. 1995. Nickel-based Alloys: Recent Developments for the
Antón, P. S., silberglitt, r. and schneider, j. 2001. The Global Aero-gas Turbine. In: FLOWER, H. M. (ed.). High Performance
Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Materials in Aerospace. Chapman & Hall, London, pp. 135–54.
Synergies with Information Technology by 2015. Rand Publications, RAYMOND, R. 1984. Out of the Fiery Furnace: The Impact of Metals on
Santa Monica, CA. the History of Mankind. Pennsylvania State University Press,
Brophy, J. H., ROSE, R.M., and WULFF, J. 1964. Thermodynamics of University Park, PA.
Structure. John Wiley and Sons, New York. Smith, C. O. 1977. The Science of Engineering Materials. Prentice Hall,
CLAASSEN, R. S. and Girifalco, l. a. 1986. Materials for Energy Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Utilization. In: Scientific American, Vol. 255, No. 4, pp. 103–17. Starke, E. A. Jr. and Williams, J. C. 1999. Structural Materials:
Compton, D. and Gjostein, N. A. 1986. Materials for Ground Challenges and Opportunities. In: The Bridge, Vol. 29, No. 3.
Transportation. In: Scientific American, Vol. 255, No. 4, pp. 93–100. Wert, C. A. 1973. Opportunities in Materials Science and Engineering:
COTTRELL, A. 2000. A Centennial Report. In: MRS Bulletin. Vol. 25, Metallurgy, Ceramics, Plastics, Solid State Sciences. Educational
No. 2. pp. 125–132. Books Division, Universal Publishing, New York.
Flinn, R. A. and TROJAN, P. K. 1981. Engineering Materials and their

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 17.7
Energy Sources and Applications
Eriabu Lugujjo

Since the beginning of human existence, energy has been Wind energy
one of our greatest needs. All our daily activities require
energy. This same energy has been harnessed to foster Humans have harnessed the energy of the wind for over
political, economic and social development. The role of 2,000 years. The first windmills were built in Persia and
energy in determining the economic well-being of a society converted wind energy into mechanical power. Until the
is often inadequately understood. In terms of total energy, Industrial Revolution, windmills were used extensively to
the main energy source for any society is the Sun, which provide power for many purposes such as pumping water
through the cycle of photosynthesis produces the food that and grinding grain. Wind was second only to wood as a
fuels and sustains both individuals and populations. source of energy. Wind turbines are now being used to
Energy sources are generally grouped into two classes – convert wind energy into electricity. Winds are caused by
renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Renewable the differential heating of the Earth’s surface by the Sun.
energy sources are those that are likely to continue to exist Wind is thus an indirect form of solar energy, and is
so far into the future that they are thought to be unending, therefore ‘renewable’. Every location on Earth experiences
e.g. solar energy from the Sun, wind energy, hydro-electric wind, but the absolute amount of wind in any one area is
power, energy from biomass and hydrogen, and – in theory, highly variable. The average wind speed of a site is a very
at least – wood. Non-renewable energy sources are those important factor in determining the cost of electricity
sources that are being depleted, e.g. coal, petroleum, natural generated from wind turbines. This is because the amount
gas and nuclear energy from radioactive elements. of energy that can be captured by a wind turbine increases
as the cube of wind velocity (Plate 93).

R enewable E nergy S ources

Biomass
Solar energy
Biomass is a renewable energy source derived from the
The Earth is bathed in huge amounts of solar energy. The carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities.
Sun, a typical star, is a fusion reactor that has been burning It is derived from numerous sources, including by-products
for over 4 billion years. Solar energy is our oldest energy from the timber industry, agricultural crop residues,
source, and all life is maintained by this solar energy that is municipal and industrial wastes. Biomass is an important
converted into chemical energy by plants. Humans have source of energy and the most important fuel worldwide
always used the Sun’s energy directly (e.g. for drying clothes after coal, oil and natural gas.
and foodstuffs) as well as indirectly to power the agriculture
that supplies us with food. The history of solar energy
technology takes us back to 1839, when Edmund Becquerel Wood
observed that ‘electrical currents arose from certain light-
induced chemical reactions’. This was later explained by the For thousands of years since the Stone Age, when our
quantum theory in the beginning of the twentieth century. ancestors started the first intentional fire, wood has been
The development of the first solid-state devices in the late the world’s most common source of energy for cooking,
1940s paved the way for the first usable silicon solar cell heating and manufacturing. In fact, it has only been in the
with 6 per cent efficiency. This solar cell had its first last few hundred years – since the Industrial Revolution –
application on Vanguard 1, the first satellite to use electricity that humans have used other sources of energy such as fossil
from the Sun. Today solar energy is being used for heating fuels. Many countries in the developing world still use wood
purposes, in homes and industries, and for generating as their primary energy source. Half of the energy used on
electricity (Plate 92). the African continent is in the form of fuel wood. Wood is

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a ‘ligno-cellulosic’ material ultimately formed by This is not strictly true, because human uses of geothermal
photosynthetic reactions within the leaves or needles of energy generally remove the heat from a location faster than
trees. Photosynthesis uses the energy of the Sun to take it is replaced. The magnitude of the geothermal resource is
carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and convert it into so large, however, on a human time scale, that it may be
organic material, releasing oxygen in the process. As the considered as a renewable energy source.
Sun is the source of wood energy (and all other biomass),
wood is essentially a ‘renewable’ source of energy, which will
be available as long as the sun shines. Nonetheless, Hydrogen
environmentalists warn us that we may be depleting the
Earth’s wood reserves faster than nature can replenish this Hydrogen is the third most abundant element on the
precious resource. There are three basic sources of wood, Earth’s surface, where it is found primarily in water (H2O)
which can be used for the production of energy, namely the and organic compounds. It is generally produced from
existing forests, wastes from forest products industry, and hydrocarbons or water; and when burned as an energy
fuel wood plantations. source, or converted to electricity, it joins with oxygen to
again form water. Hydrogen is produced from sources such
as natural gas, coal, gasoline, methanol, or biomass through
Hydroelectric energy the application of heat; from bacteria or algae through
photosynthesis; or by using electricity or sunlight to split
Hydroelectric power plants convert the kinetic energy water into hydrogen and oxygen.
contained in falling water into electricity. The energy in
flowing water is ultimately derived from the Sun, and is
therefore constantly being renewed. Energy contained in N on - R enewable E nergy S ources
sunlight evaporates water from the oceans and deposits it
on land in the form of rain. Differences in land elevation Coal
result in rainfall runoff and allow some of the original solar
energy to be captured as hydroelectric energy. Coal has been used as a fuel since about 1000 bc. Although
Hydroelectric power is currently the world’s largest coal is abundant in most parts of the world, it was not used
renewable source of electricity, accounting for 6 per cent of extensively for fuel until the Industrial Revolution. The
worldwide energy supply or about 15 per cent of the world’s transition from wood as the main source of fuel to coal,
electricity. Traditionally thought of as a cheap and clean which occurred at this time, was a result of dwindling fuel-
source of electricity, most large hydroelectric schemes being wood supplies and the superior energy content of coal.
planned today are coming up against a great deal of From that point until the end of the nineteenth century,
opposition from environmental groups and indigenous when oil and natural gas came on the scene, coal was the
peoples. fuel that drove the Industrial Revolution. Coal was burned
Hydroelectric power plants capture the energy released for a variety of different purposes, which included heating
by water falling through a vertical distance, and transform for manufacturing processes, cooking, mechanical power
this energy into useful electricity. In general, falling water is and transportation (steam trains and ships). Coal is a
channelled through a turbine, which converts the water’s combustible, black sedimentary rock composed
energy into mechanical energy. The rotation of the water predominantly of carbon. It is formed out of plant matter
turbines is transferred to a generator, which produces that accumulated at the bottom of swamps millions of years
electricity. The amount of generated electricity is dependant ago, during the Carboniferous Period. The mining of coal is
upon two factors, i.e. the vertical distance through which carried out using a variety of different methods depending
the water falls, called the ‘head’, and the flow rate, measured upon how close the coal is to the ground surface. The United
as volume per unit time. The electricity produced is States, the former Soviet Union, China and India have the
proportional to the product of the head and the rate of largest reserves of coal.
flow.

Petroleum
Geothermal energy
Crude oil, also called petroleum, has become the world’s
Geothermal energy is energy recovered from the heat of the foremost source of energy, and the backbone of our
Earth’s core. In nature, geothermal heat shows up in the industrial society since its discovery near Titusville,
form of volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. For thousands Pennsylvania, in 1859, by a man drilling for water. Oil
of years, humans have used naturally occurring hot springs accounts for 38 per cent of energy use worldwide (Plate 94).
for bathing. More recently, geothermal energy has been Oil’s liquid form, high energy density, and relatively clean
used to generate electricity and to provide heat for homes burning nature make it the most versatile of all fuels. When
and industries. Geothermal energy is a versatile and reliable oil was first discovered, it was primarily used in the form of
source of heat and electricity, which generally produces kerosene for lamps and stoves. Since that time, inventors
none of the greenhouse gases associated with the combustion have developed hundreds of new uses for oil, the most
of fossil fuels. The high temperatures in the Earth’s core are prominent being the internal combustion engine. Crude oil
a result of heat trapped during the formation of the Earth is a complex mixture of carbon and hydrogen (hydrocarbons),
approximately 4.7 billion years ago, as well as the decay of which exist as a liquid in the Earth’s crust. On average,
naturally occurring radioactive elements. Geothermal crude oil is made up of 83 per cent carbon and 12 per cent
energy is often considered a renewable source of energy. hydrogen, the remainder being sulphur, oxygen and

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nitrogen. The carbon and hydrogen in crude oil are thought provides the energy for over 95 per cent of the world’s
to have originated from the remains of microscopic marine transportation needs. When oil was cheap, it was often
organisms deposited at the bottom of seas and oceans. used to generate electricity, especially in remote locations
Crude oil is ‘mined’ by drilling a hole into the reservoir rock such as islands, which did not have access to hydroelectric
(sandstone, limestone etc.). Often, the oil is under pressure power or coal. Oil was well suited for electricity generation
and will emerge from the hole on its own. Once crude oil is in such applications because it is easy to transport and store.
extracted from the ground, it is ‘refined’ into many different Today, oil is still used to generate electricity in many of
products, e.g. gasoline, fuel oil and lubricants. these places, simply because the power plants are already in
place. Oil-fired power plants operate in the same way as
those fuelled by coal. Oil is burned, producing heat, the heat
Natural gas boils water, and the steam produced is used to spin a turbine.
In this type of power plant only about 35 per cent of the
This gaseous mixture of light hydrocarbons (including energy originally in the oil is converted into electrical energy.
methane, ethane, propane, butanes and pentanes) is found The rest is lost to the environment as heat.
underground in sedimentary rock formations, often in the Oil was plentiful and cheap throughout most of the
same location as crude oil. Natural gas, the cleanest burning twentieth century, resulting in patterns of transportation
fossil fuel, is now widely used for space heating and electricity and land use based upon the private automobile. Oil was
generation. Until the past few decades, natural gas also extensively used for heating homes and generating
encountered while drilling for oil was often simply burnt electricity; and since oil was so cheap, it was not used very
off, because the infrastructure necessary to capture the gas efficiently. The world’s romance with oil came to a crashing
and transport it to potential users was not available. Today, halt in 1973, when OPEC (Organization of Petroleum
natural gas pipelines are in place to serve a large portion of Exporting Countries) unilaterally raised prices and cut
the industrialized world; they supply 20 per cent of the production. Oil prices skyrocketed, there were huge lines
world’s commercial energy needs. for gasoline in the United States, and oil suddenly became a
political issue. More recently, dwindling supplies in the
industrial world and concerns over global warming are also
Nuclear energy beginning to change the world’s oil consumption patterns.
Renewable energy sources are rapidly becoming superior
Although initially developed for use in weapons, nuclear to non-renewable energy sources due to their continuing
fission has mostly been harnessed to produce electricity in existence and environmental friendliness. Greenhouse gases
the second half of the twentieth century. In 1956, in the like carbon dioxide are not produced by renewable energy
United Kingdom, the world’s first nuclear power station sources, but they are removed from the atmosphere.
began functioning on an industrial scale, and the first- Renewable energy sources are readily available at a
generation reactors are still operating successfully. These relatively low cost. Thanks to technological inventions like
nuclear power plants can be seen as a ‘clean’ source of the photovoltaic cells, wind and steam turbines, energy
electricity because they do not emit the atmospheric from these sources can be converted into other forms, e.g.
pollutants given off by fossil fuel-fired power plants (Plate electric power. The operation and maintenance costs of
95). The nuclear industry has also spawned many different such equipment are usually low. A non-renewable energy
technologies used in medical procedures and industrial source like petroleum is the most versatile of all fuels and
applications. Although the benefits from the nuclear has found widespread application in the transportation
industry are great, they are not without risk, for any use of sector because of its liquid form, high energy density, and
nuclear energy produces some waste that is radioactive and relatively clean-burning nature. This use of oil in the
harmful to living creatures. The damage to living tissue transportation sector was precipitated by Otto’s invention
caused by the radiation depends on which parts of an of the internal combustion engine.
organism are exposed and the intensity and duration of the
radiation.
E nergy , E nvironment and
D evelopment – A global
P atterns of E nergy C onsumption perspective

Energy consumption patterns show a general shift from the The current efficient use of energy from the various sources
consumption of energy from scarce resources to those that has led to the rapid industrialization and eventual
show continuity in existence, i.e. renewable sources. The development of many parts of the world. However, energy
increase in energy demand has also precipitated the need for produced from the various sources has had both positive
additional renewable sources of energy. Prior to the and negative impacts on the environment: energy from
invention of the internal combustion engine by August renewable sources (e.g. biomass and wood) results in no net
Otto in 1876, mechanized transportation was provided by increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a
the steam engine. Steam engines using coal or wood as a fuel greenhouse gas. This is based on the assumption that all the
were used to power ships and trains; but they were too large CO2 given off by the use of biomass and/or wood was
and cumbersome for use in smaller applications. The recently taken in from the atmosphere by photosynthesis.
gasoline powered internal combustion engine was able to Increased substitution of fossil fuels with biomass and
deliver much more power from a compact design, making it wood-based fuels would therefore help reduce the potential
an ideal match for many types of vehicles, including the for global warming, caused by increased atmospheric
automobile and later the airplane. At the present time, oil concentrations of CO2. The current worldwide production

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 thematic section

of wood and crop residues for biomass is very large, thus A N N E X – E nergy T echnologies
leading to increased use of biomass and wood for fuel. This and A pplications
has led to significant environmental impacts, the most
serious being those of lost soil fertility, soil erosion and The development of energy technologies was precipitated
desertification of the deforested areas. Wood-burning by the fear of exhaustion of the present energy sources and
stoves can be a cause of health concerns in both indoor and need to increase the efficiency of energy use.1 Solar energy
outdoor environments due to emissions of particulates and technology started in 1839 with the discovery of the
carbon monoxide (CO). Elevated levels of CO are associated photovoltaic effect; below is a chronology of developments
with a number of adverse health effects including decreased in this technology:
ability to concentrate, aggravation of heart and lung diseases 1839 – Becquerel discovers photovoltaic effect
and retardation of fetal growth. The use of fossil fuels has 1876 – Adams and Day observe photovoltaic effect in
two distinct types of environmental impact. The first occurs selenium
during production, while the second occurs at the point of 1900 – Planck postulates the quantum nature of light
end use. Exploration for oil, oil production and oil 1930 – Quantum theory of solids proposed byWilson
transportation all have negative impact on the environment. 1940 – Mott and Schottky develop the theory of solid-state
The heavy equipment required often damages ecosystems in rectifier (diode)
areas of oil exploration and production. The combustion of 1949 – Bardeen, Brattain and Schottky invent the
fossil fuels releases CO2, as well as sulphur dioxide (SO2) transistor
and nitrous oxides (NO x), which result in acid rain. 1954 – Chapin, Fuller and Pearson announce 6 per cent
Currently, oil directly used for transportation is responsible efficient silicon solar cell
for about 25 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Also 1954 – Reynolds et al. report solar cell based on cadmium
the incomplete combustion of oil, coal and wood results in sulphide
increased levels of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons 1958 – First use of solar cells on an orbiting satellite,
and ultimately ground level ozone. All these affect human Vanguard 1.
health and the environment. The final environmental impact Solar energy has found widespread applications in rural
related to the production of oil is indirect, and related to the electrification, electric power generation in satellites,
important role oil plays in the world economy. It is an telecommunication and remote monitoring. Energy from
undeniable fact that one of the reasons for high tensions in other sources like wind, biomass, petroleum, natural gas,
the Middle East is the value of the oil reserves in that region. and hydrogen is largely being used for the generation of
It is believed that the main motivation behind the 1991 Gulf electricity using wind, water and steam turbines, and
War was the world’s need for reliable and inexpensive generators. This generated electricity is then distributed to
sources of oil. The Gulf War resulted in damage to the the different consumers using grid networks.
marine environment of the Persian Gulf, atmospheric
pollution from burning oil wells, and damage to desert
ecosystems by tanks and other heavy equipment. note

1. The following relies upon T. Markvart’s Solar Electricity,

C onclusion West Sussex, UK, 2000.

The dilemma of developing energy while protecting the

environment may, in the long run, provide human beings BIBLIOGRAPHY
with their best chance to reassess some old assumptions and
to reorder their priorities for a safer and more pleasant life. Gough, W. C. and Eastlund, B. J. 1971. The Prospects of Fusion
Even before these environmental and health problems reach Power. In: Scientific American, February, pp. 50–54.
crisis proportions, technology is being developed that would Kaplan, G. 1976. Europe: Tilting Toward Fusion. In: IEEE Spectrum,
help ensure both environmental integrity and efficient December, pp. 37–40.
energy production and utilization. However, technology Markvart, T. (ed.). 2000. Solar Electricity. John Wiley & Sons,
alone cannot be expected to solve problems that may also London.
require political will and a shift in society’s values and
behaviour. A multi-pronged approach combing new
strategies, innovative technology and a desire to ensure
sustainable development will be needed.

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 17.8
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION
Traditional Modes and New Technologies

Judith Mbula Bahemuka

INTRODUCTION technology. A discussion of the controversies that have

arisen as to what is African and what is universal in the area
At the dawn of the twentieth century, Africa was caught up of both culture and technology is highlighted.
in rapid cultural change that found expression in different
forms of communication. Traditional modes of self-
expression, self-identities and cultural images were immersed T heoretical argument
in new ways of self-actualization, new communication
channels, and a new search for technology, which would Models of cultural change, communication, and technology
respond to the everyday needs of the African people. The adoption are in agreement that there is no clear distinction
traditional image of a young Masai long-distance runner, between the ‘African way of life’ and the ‘modern world’.3
delivering a telegraphic message to a distant village, became Studies by Van Tate, Mbula, and Gyekye4 show that there
a powerful tool for bringing together the old and the new. are different levels of cultural interaction, and that each of
The latter was the new way of communication, the Masai these interaction levels calls for a distinct mode of
runner depicted the traditional mode of communication communication and expression. The argument is that
systems. communication is at the core of the African ‘persona’.
‘Culture and communication’, just like ‘tradition and Cultural change, at its best, is to be experienced at the
modernity’, are vast areas of research. The four key concepts periphery, where communication is by word of mouth, a
in this chapter, namely: culture, communication, technology song, a dance, art, or simple gesturing. This level of
and modernity, are contested in social and human sciences. cultural change occurs without far-reaching ramifications.
For the sake of focus, we shall restrict ourselves to a Communication, however, is more complex when one is
discussion that critically analyzes the concepts as they relate dealing with African themes and institutions. Mbiti argues
to contemporary social and human science theory as well as that the African individual is the personification of the past
socio-cultural practice in Africa and East Africa, in (the ancestors), the present, and the future (children yet to
particular. be born) and that these three dimensions are in constant
Kress1 sees a persistent tendency to separate the study of communication.5 He gives the example of the cultural
communication from that of culture. He contends that it is practice of pouring out a libation when Africans perform
difficult to talk about communication independent of cultural rituals. This form of communication touches on
cultural settings. For him, ‘culture is the domain of the philosophy and the belief systems of African
meaningful human activity and of its effects and resultant communities, and the individuals who are involved in this
objects; communication is the domain of the intended or intra-communication.
unintended exchange of meanings between social/cultural A further argument is the role of zamani (receding past)
agents’. The processes of communication produce meanings, in African understanding of culture and communication.
whereas cultural production brings in meaningful objects; Ngugi-wa-Thiong’o walks the thin line between that which
the concept of meaning, Kress asserts, inextricably links is traditional and the modern.6 This dichotomy of the past
these two concepts. and the sasa (now) belies the deep-rooted search for an
Another relevant argument is from Bradford,2 who understanding of the two dimensions in technology
reiterates that communication is the ‘foundation of all transfer.
communities’. This appears to put communication on a par Similar observations were made in 1973 by Bretton, who
with culture, for one can convincingly say that culture is also presented African rural villages and the urban centres as
the foundation of all communities. The twin themes of two different worlds that had no connection. It is now
culture and communication are discussed in the context of widely accepted that one cannot draw a clear distinction
that which is traditional, and the question of modern between tradition and modernity. Among the indigenous

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 thematic section

groups like the Masai of East Africa or the Sun of the school and religious institutions step in to augment the
Kalahari Desert, contemporary lifestyle is a hybrid of work of the family in transmitting skills. Delanty argues
traditional cultural practices communicated across that although schools and universities are seen as agents of
generations and ‘modern’ forms of life, for example schooling modernity, they also nurture the dominant and emergent
and public transport systems. culture models of society. This has been powerfully
expressed during the annual music festivals in Africa,
where schools, colleges and universities participate to
C ommunication and culture in articulate cultural values through modern music. Through
A frica music, dance and poetry, powerful messages are
communicated on how the past is always present in
Kunczik defines culture as ‘that complex whole which everyday African life.
include knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs and Sutton argues that since each individual has a different
any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a past, the interpretation of the present is also different.9 This
member of society’.7 This definition, however, omits the fact is what makes agents of communication crucial in helping
that culture is largely a function of technology and social to understand and interpret each changing situation.
change. It is a dynamic way of life whose constancy is that it
never ceases to change, picking up certain social aspects,
while at the same time shedding others. A diagnosis of P ersisting T endencies
African societies from the 1950s to the present shows that
although cultural boundaries and distinctions among The theory of cultural lag is often utilized to explain why
various groups still exist, there have been rigorous processes people hold on to old practices. The lag is rooted in the
of exchange at different levels. tendency of societies to encourage each new generation to
Culture and communication are crucial to Africa as it is remain loyal to values and behavioural patterns that
mainly in these two processes that human development is previously served the societies. Other arguments show that
embedded. Socio-economic and political development is a a cultural lag also exists within the moral and emotional
result of social change, which is an outcome of diffusion of domains, thus necessitating a delay in the techno-scientific,
information and technology. There are, however, some socio-economic development. This lag can have a negative
negative aspects through which African cultures are impact on a community’s attempt to modernize
distorted. The glorification of Western values has tended to communications systems.
dispossess Africans of their cultures, thus disempowering Related to cultural lag is the reflectionist argument that a
them. This is due to the fact that in communication, there is society’s institutions reflect its culture. This means that the
power. Whoever has the knowledge, he/she has power over type and level of communication should be a reflection of
the person to whom the message is being communicated. the dominant culture. At times, a combination of cultural
African scholars, poets and statesmen have responded to elements may exist which, if utilized systematically, could
the power game with vehemence. The very variety and force bring about cultural evolution.10
embodied in the following ideas demonstrate clearly that Lerner and Schramm brought to the fore the complexities
African culture can respond to any power game from any of culture and technology communications.11 Using a simple
part of the globe: African Personality (Leopold Sedor model to depict the different channels of communication,
Senghor), Humanism (Kenneth Kaunda), Ujamaa (Julius they argued that the source, the message and the effect of
Nyerere), Common Man’s Charter (Milton Obote), communication are critical. What core values does the
Harambee (Jomo Kenyatta), Pan-Africanism (Kwame source of the message hold and do the values tally with
Nkrumah). The writings of Africanists Chinua Achebe, those of the receiver of the communication? In case of a
Okot p’Bitek, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Bolaji Idowu all point conflict of interest within the source and the receiver, what
out that both communication and culture in Africa can be outcome does the community anticipate?
traced to the core African values. Lerner’s model of communication helped communication
Culture and communication in Africa are faced with strategists to argue for technology transfer from
another problem. While scholars argue that African culture industrialized countries to Africa, especially to rural
has been a barrier to faster economic, socio-political communities. This model, however, can only be applied if
development, there is a counter argument that it is the public attitudes towards support for and understanding of
ignoring of African values and belief systems and wholly the importance of communication and technology are
adopting modernization paradigms in their place which has positive and independent of outside influence. The cultural
led to failures in socio-economic development. A critical legitimacy of communication, the value the community
analysis of Africa’s economic and political problems reveals places on self-actualization, the reward for individual
that African cultural practices are hardly to blame. Whereas initiatives and self-reliance all play a critical role.
Fraser and Restrepo-Estrada argue that for any form of Cultural lag and communication models will not suffice
development to be realized there has to be behavioural and unless they are seen against the backdrop of technology
attitudinal changes which are attainable through adoption and the diffusion of ideas. The diffusionist school
communication, they underscore that ignoring a peoples’ argues that adoption of technology is achieved in different
cultural practices and values is a sure way of failing in stages. Individuals and communities who have been exposed
development initiatives.8 through media or other communication channels tend to be
Closely related to communication and culture are the the early adopters. These are individuals who are high
agents through which communication takes place. The achievers, often driven by ego needs. The late adopters, who
primary agents of communication are the parents and in most cases are the majority, lag behind due to lack of
extended family. As one grows older, the peer group, the information, the complexity of the technology in question,

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its affordability and applicability or the method used to Improvement of communication infrastructure would
present the technology. lead to the free movement of goods and services/persons.
A number of theories about how innovations are diffused For communication to play its role and have the desired
have been utilized over the years to explain why Africa has impact on the development of Africa there is a need for:
lagged behind in technology adoption. What seems to have physical and operational integration of networks,
escaped people’s attention is that communication and convergence of regulatory policies, harmonization of
innovation have to be seen within a cultural context. The standards and measures, cross border operations and
African adopters of technology tend to respond to their investments and the political will of African leadership.
immediate needs. They have values, norms, aspirations, The quasi-government enterprises, established at
expectations and priorities. These drive their perceptions independence to run communication infrastructure, have
and give them leverage in the choices they make. been an obstacle to development. They are, in most cases,
The impact of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, political suffering from severe financial constraints and corrupt
conflicts, ethnic animosities, international terrorism, mismanagement, and lack the necessary strategic planning
extreme poverty, cannot be ignored when dealing with and human resources. To surmount these impediments to
culture and communication. The main dimensions of developing the communication infrastructure, more is
culture are distance from power, avoidance of uncertainty, required and especially financial resources, and the
and collectivism. These dimensions are, however, exploration of new and innovative initiatives. These could
problematic. In the case of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the include private sector and community participation, the
whole plethora of beliefs, the question of stigma, are promotion of intra-Africa trade and contacts through
embedded in culture. These are critical to both inter- and regional integration, and the adoption of business oriented
intra-personal communication on the different ways of management of infrastructure.
dealing with the pandemic in Africa. In recent years, progress has been made in enhancing the
Risk-taking is another aspect of culture, communication communication infrastructure in the framework of regional
and technology adoption. Schouten argues that uncertainty integration. Examples of initiatives include cooperation in
avoidance is a complex phenomenon.12 It is a dimension road and rail network systems, regulations and standards,
that indicates people’s need for predictability, and shows the creation of regional telecommunications entities, and
the extent to which people and communities are willing to liberalization of air transport. However, the achievements
take risks. made are still modest and more will be required to meet the
For an individual to take the risk of adopting a new necessary standards. In addition, the initiatives taken
technology, such motivating factors as the presence of a through sub-regional integration risk creating isolated and
conducive environment, tangible benefits and upward social unsupported infrastructure networks in Africa unless there
mobility must be in place. The argument that Africans are is a continent-wide push for inter-connectivity. Previous
not risk takers finds no support in the social realities of Africa efforts of the Organization of African Unity (OAU)
and African behaviour. Communication technology, through the various Plans of Action have not been fruitful.
however, goes beyond these obvious benefits and reaches However, there is hope, with the launching of the African
levels where the intrinsic value of information comes into Union (AU) and the New Partnership for African
play. Development (NEPAD), that both communication and
new models of technology will be enhanced.

T ransport and C ommunication 1 3

T he G lobal D imension
The transportation systems in sub-Saharan Africa are
plagued by cumbersome administrative and structural Globalization is seen as an irreversible socio-economic,
impediments, lack of appropriate maintenance and political and cultural reality that does not create a unified
inappropriate policies for managing and regulating services. global culture, but rather sets the stage for global differences.14
These problems hamper the efficiency of the systems as well However, the irreversibility of the globalization process has
as their economic productivity and the flow of goods and an impact on the relationship between communication and
services. As a result, transport costs and delays are the culture at the local level, shrinking the world and promoting
highest in the world. For land-locked countries in Africa, the emergence of a ‘global village’.15 Globalization implies a
the costs are even higher and are estimated at over 70 per departure from a traditional local way of understanding
cent of the cost of transit goods. issues through a national perspective to a more
Another characteristic of transport and communication accommodating global view. In orthodox anthropology and
is the poor inter-connectivity between and among African rural sociology, a traditional worldview is characterized by
countries. This is due to the absence of trans-border archaic ideas, indigenization of knowledge, narrow-
infrastructure, the existence of different structural and mindedness, and adherence to customs and cultural norms.
regulatory systems, low inter-country contacts and perceived Based on this thinking, Robert Redfield came up with the
differences arising out of Africa’s colonial history. folk–urban dichotomy.16 This distinction would signify
The structural gap in infrastructure constitutes a serious that globalization is a shift from the traditional village
handicap to economic growth and poverty reduction. In communication mentality to global thinking.
East Africa, the colonial powers built the infrastructure to The polarization of traditional and new communication
facilitate the exploitation and exportation of raw materials technologies is not tenable since many features of traditional
and the importation of consumer products into the channels of communication are carried on via the new
countries. Therefore, some of these systems do not meet the channels. What seems apt is that a shift from traditional to
current conditions and aspirations of the African people. global produces a continuum where individuals, communities

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 thematic section

and nations are placed at different levels along the technology herbalists who come up with new medicines but who find
path. As such, African countries may be seen as ranking on few people to adopt them; and those who do, usually do so
the lower end of the technology continuum than the new due to inability to afford what is perceived as better
industrialized countries while the developed countries rank alternatives dispensed by chemists.
highest. Within this differentiation there is interdependence
among the different actors as is evident in the world system
theory where it is inevitable that the core cannot do without A dopting T echnology
the periphery.
A closer look at African societies over the last 50 years
shows that as society progresses and new technologies
N ew T echnologies and emerge, there has been a change in the way people
C ommunication for C hange communicate and pass on information. Many urbanized
Africans today have an email account, and cyber cafes are
The question of whether or not Africans can participate in found in many urban neighbourhoods. Communication
the generation of knowledge and in applying it to solve through email within Africa and without has become an
Africa’s technological needs is not only critical, it is urgent. everyday occurrence so that sending fax messages has been
However, the talk of ‘new technologies’ raises fundamental reduced drastically and, as in the West, fax machines are
issues – notably the question of time and space/context. almost obsolete. Despite the fact that only a few Africans
Some technologies considered ‘new’ in Africa are old or enjoy these services, it would be naive to argue that only a
irrelevant elsewhere. Furthermore, Africans have not been small proportion of Africans lead a culture of technology.
mere consumers of foreign technology. They also reject what To a large extent, Africans have not simply switched
is new or modify it to suit their own needs. Africa’s ‘informal from traditional modes of communication and technologies
sector’, where all manner of affordable metal gadgets are to new ones. Apart from the disparities in the level of
made, attests to an entrenched culture of technology. Like adoption, most actors are at certain points of transition;
the blacksmiths of the past, the contemporary African there are no pure traditionalists or modernists. And in many
artisans are innovative. They operate their Kiosks in the jua cases, modernity enhances tradition and by extension,
Kali (hot sun) and produce communication tools which are indigenous knowledge. For instance, public transport
accessible and affordable to local communities. Where systems and mobile telephones have become useful among
necessary, they modify mechanical and electrical equipment Africa’s pastoral groups, assisting them to identify sources
or use it as a model to produce what suits local needs and of water and pasture as well as locating stolen or missing
levels of income. In other cases, some of Africa’s indigenous livestock. External interventions have often adopted existing
technologies like the artistic ‘Makonde’ woodcarvings from practices to enhance effectiveness and sustainability of
the United Republic of Tanzania, and arts and crafts from implemented projects. Micro-finance enterprises in Africa
Kenya and Benin, have found space on many shelves around which enjoy the support of the World Bank and bilateral
the world. agencies often prefer giving credit to groups where each
The emerging knowledge societies are not a new member acts as the other’s guarantor, thus providing a social
phenomenon. Indigenous technical knowledge in Africa control mechanism (a good example would be the Kenya
has served local communities over the years. The provision Rural Enterprise Programme, which has been transformed
of distance education through the Internet to the Masai of into a bank). This kind of arrangement, which works
Kenya or the rural populations of Senegal (University of relatively well, is rooted in traditional values of reciprocity,
Massachusetts Project 2002) is a response to a need for mutual social responsibility and accountability.
lifelong learning. The Internet is providing people an Another case where the traditional blends with the
opportunity to reach out to the global village. Responding modern is the Rehabilitation of Earth Dams in Eastern
to the Internet explosion is the challenge facing rural Kenya, a programme funded by UNESCO. Local
communities. The infrastructure is inadequate, and yet communities are being given information on international
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan argues that standards of water and sanitation. However, the local
it is indeed in places where infrastructure does not exist that women’s groups continue to believe that the female water
Wi-Fi can be particularly effective helping countries to goddess Kathambi preserves the hills that supply the
leapfrog generations of telecommunications technology and streams with water when it rains. In addition, the leaders of
infrastructure and empower their people. Kathambi demand that the impermeable wall of the sand
The sentiments expresses by Kofi Annan highlight the dam should provide a small hole to allow water to trickle
centrality of information technology for the construction of downstream. The argument is that if there is no hole to
knowledge societies. New technologies have, however, to be allow water to trickle down, the people, animals and
flexible so as to be utilized hand in hand with traditional environment downstream will suffer.
knowledge. Thus while modern technology in the construction of
In the area of technology communication, sub-Saharan water dams is concerned with lateral and backward recharge
Africa consists of countries in transition. Economically, in the river channel, the indigenous people are concerned
they aspire to industrialize, while politically, more with the community values of sharing both water and
democratic institutions and practices are evolving. These technology. The dichotomies of new and old, traditional and
countries are at a crossroads, caught between ‘Western modern, global and local are tools for theoretical arguments.
culture’ and what is branded ‘African’ perspectives.17 Due to The reality in most of Africa is that the continuum is
the deep-rooted notion that what is foreign or Western is enriched by the interaction between the organization and
best, many Africans often do not regard indigenous the source of information, the communication channel, and
innovations as new. An example would be the African the adoption of the technology.

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R e - E ngineering A frican technologies or innovate their own. What is at stake is the

T echnologies combining of traditional and new communication strategies
to support the emerging initiatives and create a synergy that
This chapter is an argument for communication of allows Africans to participate in the global arena.
technology in Africa. This is discussed along a continuum
running from traditional communication to modern
systems. The nagging question is whether there is any
technology that can be termed modern and how long it
maintains its newness. In the early 1950s, when most of
Africa was struggling with political independence,
communication of technologies was localized but was found
to be effective and efficient. During this period, Africa
achieved, against all odds, major strides in democratic NOTES
development, and political independence attests to this. The
simple technologies, the infrastructure, the channels of 1. G. Kress (ed.), Communication and Culture: An
communication, worked in harmony for the common good. Introduction, Sydney, 1988.
New technologies, though far advanced and faster than 2. L. B. Bradford et al., ‘Cultural and Parental
traditional systems, have neither relieved Africans of Communicative Influences on the Career Success of White
poverty, nor responded adequately to development needs. and Black Women’, in: Women’s Studies in Communication,
This explains why there is an urgent need to re-engineer Vol. 24, 2001.
traditional technologies that have served the people well 3. J. H. Greenberg, Language, Culture and Communication,
over the centuries. One positive move came towards the Stanford, CA, 1971, p. 137.
close of the twentieth century, when African leaders, led by 4. F. V. Tate, ‘Kangemi: The Impact of Rapid Culture
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, started arguing for Change on Community and Family’, Ph.D. thesis, Nairobi,
an African Renaissance. The move to reclaim African values, 1973; J. Mbula, ‘The Impact of Christianity on the Structure
to rediscover the values of the people, their artistic and Stability of the African Family’, Ph.D. thesis, Nairobi,
contributions, the resilience of communities and the people’s 1977; K. Gyekye, An Essay on African Philosophical Thought:
capacity to respond to harsh environments is not only The Akan Conceptual Scheme, Philadelphia, PA, 1995.
challenging but heart-warming for Africanists. The radio, 5. J. S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, London,
the fax and now wireless communications have taken Africa 1969.
by storm, but they are no longer new. Radio is one mode of 6. N. wa Thiong’o, The River Between, London, 1965; N.
communication that has permeated life in rural communities wa Thiong’o, Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural
in Africa. It is the medium through which governments Freedoms, London, 1993.
communicate with the citizenry. In a rural African village 7. M. Kunczik, Communication and Social Change: A
any ‘news’ is likely to have been transmitted by radio and Summary of Theories, Policies and Experiences for Media
then spread across the ridges and valleys through word of Practitioners in the Third World, Bonn, 1993.
mouth, marking again the interaction between the ‘new’ and 8. C. Fraser and S. Restrepo-Estrada, Communicating for
the ‘old’. Development: Human Change for Survival, London and New
The re-engineering of technologies means that Africa has York, 1998.
to look at what has best served the African communities. 9. D. E. Sutton, Memories Cast in Stone: The Relevance of
An example concerning village banks, given earlier in this the Past in Everyday Life, Oxford, UK, 1998.
paper, can be used to show how international banking could 10. M. F. Nimkoff, Technology and the Changing Family,
set down roots in African wealth-saving systems, and the Boston, MA, 1955; J. Mbula, ‘The Impact of Christianity
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The global landscape presents a challenge to efforts at 1995, pp. 21–31.
re-engineering. Africa does not act in isolation. Whatever 13. The author wishes to acknowledge the input given by
happens in East Africa will impact on the rest of Africa. Patrick Nzusi (United Nations, New York) to the following
This interconnectedness of countries means that there must section.
be sensitivity in the way that one deals with externalities. 14. M. Featherstone, Undoing Culture: Globalization, Post-
The market transactions between the producer, the seller Modernism and Identity, London, 1995.
and the buyer of farm products have to be situated, the level 15. P. D. Reynolds, ‘Entrepreneurship and Development’,
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presented has to be affordable. Governance and Sustainable Development in Tourism-driven
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priorities of the people. These priorities will help the the Coexistence between the Kamba and the Masai Peoples
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 18
t h e s o c i a l c o n s e qu e n c e s
o f  s c i e n t i f i c a n d t e c h n o l o g i c a l
k n o wl e dg e a n d pr a c t i c e

Dominique Ngoïe-Ngalla

The relentless efforts of the West – with its roots deep in frightening pace, the twentieth century seems to have
the eighteenth century and its unquenchable thirst for fulfilled Descartes’ prophecy: ‘Man as master and possessor
knowledge and discovery – to know and transform nature of nature’. There is, in fact, not a single field of human
have not been in vain. It is fair to say that these efforts, made knowledge and practice that has not been explored by
in all fields of knowledge, have been amply rewarded over science and technology, and as a result of this scientific
the past 200 years (indeed increasingly with each generation) scrutiny, our ideologies and our old representations of the
and particularly in the astounding twentieth century. In world and our relation to it have been overturned. The
certain areas of research such as genetics, transport and epistemological revolution of the twentieth century, which
information, progress has been breathtakingly rapid. concerned every field of knowledge – physics, chemistry,
Researchers and scientists have recapitulated the theories mathematics, the agricultural sciences, the life sciences,
and findings of the preceding two centuries and subjected transport and communications – brought about social and
them to the requirements of a new epistemology and a new sociological changes on an unimagined scale.
rationality. This has opened up an era of unprecedented Let us take the example of politics, said to be the most
scientific progress and technological innovation with effective means of changing our lives. Politics entered the
tremendous social consequences in the fields of economics, twentieth century on a fast-moving current of profound
politics and culture. All aspects of social life are being change, responding to the economic and social upheavals
affected by an irreversible drive to destroy and restructure brought about by science and its technological applications.
from top to bottom. Quite clearly, a civilization is dying and The most striking example certainly remains the terrible
a new one is rising from its ashes and developing with such confrontation of capitalism and communism, ending with
speed that, in a few decades, our current civilization will the collapse of the latter under the growing pressure of
seem to belong to a bygone age. And there is every reason to liberal economics and democracy. Even in the countries
believe that the transformations taking place – be they where liberal democracy was already present, it was
magnificent and precisely as we had hoped or obscure and continually being redefined and restructured in response to
disquieting – are only just beginning. the demands of an ever more enlightened public and a
This future, which is almost upon us, this age-old dream better-organized populace. Liberal democracy was
of humanity, will probably be perilously complex, since the continually searching for a new political, economic, cultural
sciences and the technologies that embody them are raising and social rationale capable of responding to the ever-
very disturbing questions, for which we often have no growing demands of modernity. Its impact on the entire
reassuring answers at present. In a world of unprecedented world has been undeniable. Under its impetus a true wind
political instability, will we be able to come to grips with of freedom is blowing around the world, which, despite
and control such a future? Given the uncertainties of a differences of political regime, is more and more being
world that is wholly in the power of a science that seems to caught up in the mesh of the economic system of the liberal
raise more problems than it solves, both calm optimism and democracies.
deep pessimism would be irresponsible attitudes. Science is The pressure and the demands of the new economic and
the only weapon with which we can confront our future in commercial forces have gradually broken down the resistance
all of its diverse forms – demographic, economic, political, of states, even totalitarian ones, and led to the interconnection
cultural and social. It can be our salvation or it can lead us to of economic and commercial interests the world over.
our doom. And for as long as the history of humanity Known by the simple term ‘globalization’, this extremely
continues, this is how things will be. complex phenomenon has resulted inevitably from the
With such an accumulation of extraordinary scientific advances in the field of communication. It is the economy of
knowledge and know-how, and prodigious technological the global village, which is not without international political
innovations introduced at an increasingly faster and implications, since economics is never unaffected by politics.

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The multinational companies, which seem to abide by their between people is continually growing. With distances so
own laws and can stand up to any government on political remarkably shrunk, the Earth is being reduced to the size of
issues, have brought all their weight to bear here. Soviet a big village where everybody knows each other. When all is
perestroika and the collapse of the Berlin Wall would be said and done, people are clearly leading incomparably easier
inexplicable without the pressure brought to bear by the lives than their ancestors did for thousands of years. With
capitalist regimes of the West and the multinationals. increasingly powerful means, what limits are there to what
Economics is the driving force behind everything. The we could achieve or how far we could go? The exploration of
sovereignty of states (the exercise of authority on their space and the Moon landing confirm the boundless power
territory and the right to the monopoly of that authority) of human genius and foreshadow still greater exploits to
is challenged by the fact that there now exists a World come. This is what lies ahead for the countries known as
Trade Organization (WTO), which has wide powers over those of the North, the most highly industrialized and thus
states in the area of trade. In addition to the WTO, the richest in the world – the United States, Western
international law and international justice, whose decisions European countries, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, China and
prevail over those of local courts, further limit the Singapore. These countries’ human development indicators
sovereignty of states. (HDI), gross national products (GNP) and gross domestic
And let us not forget international legislation on human products (GDP) are incomparably higher than those of the
rights! International treaties and the United Nations largely unindustrialized countries of the South, or the Third
prohibit states from doing what they please with the lives of World. A study by continent shows, for instance, that
their nationals, prohibiting genocide, torture and massacres. 92 per cent of the world’s GDP is concentrated in Europe,
Thus the globalization of the world’s economic interests, the United States and certain Asian countries such as
unimaginable without the progress of science and China, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore.
technology, is compelling all states in the world – over and The contrasts between the two extremes of civilization
above their ideological and political divergences – to are no less striking when average purchasing power and per
maintain relations based on a consensus about non- capita income are taken as criteria. It is clear that at the
negotiable, universal values such as equality of the sexes and present time, only a small portion of the globe has benefited
racial equality, a need justified by the brotherhood of all from science and technology, which are thus still a long way
men, born equal and facing a shared future. The old order, from having solved all the problems facing humanity (in
as we can see, has entered upon a process of drastic change fact, they appear to be raising many more). There is a reverse
unlikely to be halted by the attendant identity crisis in the side to progress, which requires people to show greater
cultural and political spheres. In this general commotion, wisdom and to make better use of science and technology if
which reflects a fierce desire for a better life, the return to they wish to avoid disaster. If we want nothing but amazing
identity is merely a weapon, the signal that justice has often development tools, science and technology could become a
been sacrificed in the name of the law. terrifying Pandora’s box.

the strictly social field the O ther side of progress

The changes that have occurred in the strictly political field Such a sudden concentration of tremendous power and
are simply the consequence of the upheavals in the economic means in the hands of people who are ill-prepared and
system and the social order brought about by science. If liberated from discredited moral and religious taboos does
society is regarded as the way of life of an organized body of not occur without serious risks, since the sense of duty
individuals, economic transformations have drawn it into a required to cope with the new social codes has not kept pace
process of change on such a scale that one has to call it a with science and technological innovation. Having become
revolution. This revolution marks a complete break with the a true demiurge (and very much aware of it), humanity has
preceding age in regard to standards and systems of values, begun to show that it will not always keep to the boundaries,
morals and attitudes, with increasing importance attached especially since it must now define what is licit and illicit as
to comfort and pleasure. A new civilization is coming into pertains to ethics and morals.
being, a civilization celebrating the body and striving to In the field of biology, for example, the discovery of
improve the social and material environment. DNA, while contributing in a beneficial way to medicine,
In the countries and regions of the world that have given criminal investigation, justice, etc., tempts the scientist, who
themselves the means, development has become a reality, is freed from metaphysical or religious taboos and
enabling them to realize the age-old dream of humanity. prohibitions, to proceed with a certain kind of genetic
Civilization, defined as an environment of technical facilities engineering that could have dire social and human
in which people can meet all their needs in respect of health, consequences. To confine ourselves to a sector in which
housing, clothing, food and leisure activities, has become far genetic engineering is on the face of it unlikely to raise
more accessible to people of the developed world. In a few philosophical or ethical problems, the genetic modification
decades, the social scene, particularly in the West, has of foodstuffs, the genetic modification of foodstuffs and
undergone a metamorphosis. In an increasingly urbanized living organisms, including transgenic plants and animals
society, people are better fed, better housed, enjoy better (those modified by recombinant DNA methods) has
health care, have improved access to education and culture, already become, in many quarters, a controversial issue with
especially as the authorities endeavour to give opportunities far-reaching economic, social and political repercussions.
to all, rich and poor, city and country dwellers. This contentious issue demonstrates that genetically
As a result of the fantastic development of communications modified organisms expose humanity to many aberrations
and the media, the volume of exchanges and of interaction and many risks if barriers are not raised.

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However, now that science has become a kind of divinity people from this rigorous ethical principle and leading to a
or an absolute domain pursued for its own sake rather than disorderly and hedonistic consumer society. Today’s
a means of action, its fascination and attraction is such that consumer society is striving to achieve a veritable subversion
it is hard for people not to break religious and moral taboos, of the established order. The slogan of the new ethic is:
the justification for which they alone can establish now that ‘Down with boredom! Enjoy life unfettered!’ When it
many believe that God is dead. With just the light of reason comes to eating or drinking, everything has become
to guide them, who will now forbid scientists to pursue a immediately accessible providing that one can pay.
discovery unlikely to be of benefit to humanity? With Similarly, in the field of the libido, there are no prohibitions
omniscience, or the arrogant illusion of it, there is a very or taboos. Humans are in a way reinventing the world as a
great temptation to stop at nothing, the limits of what is world for which they are entirely responsible, thereby
possible now being defined by the scientist alone, with God lending credence to the notion held by some Westerners
or morality no longer in the picture to set limits. ‘Aspire not that God is dead.
to the eternal, oh man, but exhaust the field of the possible.’ Growth is the reference point of the new economic and
This invitation to excel oneself by an atheist poet freed of all social system. Its prime objective being to achieve a steady
taboos is the only counsel heeded by some modern increase at all costs in production, incomes, employment
scientists. and investments, it gives rise to a hedonistic society in which
However, new knowledge and technological innovations the requirement to continually create new needs is met by
are continually appearing to exhaust the field of the possible the obsession to enjoy and to consume. A spend-and-waste
and stimulate the obsessive pursuit of knowledge and know- type of capitalism is replacing the work and thrift capitalism
how towards an ever-receding horizon of unknowns. At the of the nineteenth-century middle class. The result is an
present increasing rate of scientific progress, the most incapacity to act in accordance with one’s values – abhorrence
revolutionary technological innovation remains so only for of slavery, emancipation of the whole of humanity, and
the short space of time it takes for another to supplant it. solidarity with the most deprived. The aid provided by the
Consider the explosion of communication technologies wealthy countries is insufficient. Some of these same
between the 1970s and the 1990s, with the computer, the countries provide support for Third World despots who
microchip, then the Internet. It all happened so quickly! This sometimes end up as their henchmen in the exploitation of
endless and constantly accelerating progress is giving rise to barely subsisting populations. Nearly 1.3 billion people are
new forces, new rationales and new frames of reference in the living in absolute poverty, and every year 40 million die
economic, social, cultural and political spheres. Nothing is from hunger-related illnesses, which could quickly be
stable any more. Today, humanity is facing an unprecedented eradicated with good will. At the global level, it is not a
crisis of civilization, which is systematically challenging the question of insufficient production, but of poor distribution
principles and standards on which the world of the past of food resources. Malnutrition in the world is thus one of
relied. Our survival thus now depends on our capacity to the least excusable injustices, and the assistance provided by
devise other principles and other standards, other rites of wealthy countries is clearly insufficient.
passage, for a transition that is likely to be turbulent.
If humanity does not hold on to some kind of wisdom
value system (yet to be devised) to protect itself from the THE WIDENING GAP BETWEEN NORTH
threats and dangers to which its own industries expose it, AND SOUTH
this may constitute a threat to its survival in a world made
dubious about its future direction by the headlong progress A comparison of the HDI, GNP and GDP of developed
of science and technology. Many natural disasters such as and Third World countries reveals differences that leave
droughts and floods have occurred. Many disastrous one perplexed. Given the recurrent disorder in which most
ecological disturbances have also occurred (the famous hole Third World countries are mired, together with their
in the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect), and the heavy indebtedness (the total they owe to the countries of
atmosphere is said now to contain 25 per cent more carbon the North exceeds the value of the aid that the North
dioxide than it did before the industrial era. In the absence grants to them), the gap will probably never be closed. At
of any realistic answers or effective countermeasures, such present, it is widening and will not be narrowed by the
changes could have far-reaching consequences in the short current growth patterns and constraints of the economies
term, e.g. climate change with 1–4 ºC temperature increase of the North. For things to be otherwise, the Third World
and a rise in sea levels. These are all nature’s brutal response countries would have to receive steady, better-conceived
to the failure of humanity to conform to the standards that and more generous assistance from the countries of the
link it to nature. They are a response to the sluggishness of North by means of a kind of Marshall Plan. Unfortunately,
humanity to fully comprehend the dangers that modern owing to the egoism of the affluent countries, it will not be
science enables it to foresee. Crises, with their characteristic easy to set up such a plan for a long time to come. The
instability and rift, are to be dreaded since they can lead to countries of the North already find it hard to keep up with
regression if people do not take carefully thought-out action. the United Nations, which asks them to set aside just
With the increased means for action at our disposal, the 0.7 per cent of their GNP for development aid for the
wise course in the case of a crisis such as we are experiencing poor countries.
would be to awaken to our human vocation and act Moreover the HDI, GNP and GDP of rich countries
accordingly, moderation in all things remaining the great would probably not be at their current level if the poor
normative principle on which individuals must set their countries did not supply their industries with raw materials
lives and their action. at such low cost. For this reason, rich countries keep a
Unfortunately, the flood and clutter of the material watchful eye on the poor countries that possess strategic
aspects of post-modern industrial society are distancing raw materials such as gas, oil, manganese or uranium.

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Table 9  The gap between rich and poor countries Individualism

(per capita GNP expressed in US$)
On a strictly individual and personal level, by establishing
Country per capita GNP a society with strong hedonistic tendencies, the new
Luxembourg 41,866 economic transformations stimulate a perfectly legitimate
desire for personal fulfilment, which threatens to lead to
Ethiopia 105 individualism. Far from being subjected to external laws or
Switzerland 41,411 standards, individuals constitute their own standard and
purpose in life. The rise of individualistic values that
Mozambique 100 emphasize the freedom and autonomy of all people is
Denmark 29,890 demolishing the barriers of rigid standards. The rise of
individualism is clearly a threat to the traditional family,
Sudan 270 the very foundation of social order. The pressure of
Norway 31,250 combined economic, demographic, scientific and cultural
transformations is fragmenting its traditional framework
Chad 179 and patterns. Emerging at the end of a long history of
France 24,990 social, moral, religious and legal victories, the individual is
at last savouring the pleasure of ‘self-possession’. However,
Burundi 160 this autonomy comes at a price – solitude and the loss of
United States 27,647 the meaningful horizons that used to govern life. As
everyone knows, when there are no bonds with other
Malawi 189 people, life loses all meaning. There is no life without
connectedness as Durkheim demonstrated in his thesis on
suicide.
The development and the comfort produced by science
and technology have not really uplifted the human mind to
a more humane attitude. There is extreme poverty in the The family – break-up of the traditional patterns
world, and it is growing even within the Western world,
where the existence of pockets of wealth and unprecedented The democratization of the family, the demand for
material abundance does not prevent more than 10 per cent autonomy and its corollary, the general freeing of morals,
of the population from suffering from poverty. It is also in are leading to the redefining and restructuring of traditional
the West that some persons who have become unemployed family ties. The shadow cast by the patriarch is gradually
as a result of the increasing robotization of some sectors of receding, and more room is being left for each individual’s
industry or the decline of agriculture in favour of the choice and self-expression. The direct consequences are a
industrial sector, end up homeless, abandoned to their own high divorce rate, the prevalence of unmarried couples, late
resources, and find themselves in a situation of physical and marriages, and the advent of the limping, reconstituted
moral degradation unknown to even the poorest inhabitants family. Issues concerning the family are becoming
of Third World shanty towns. All things considered, increasingly complex owing to scientific advances in areas
poverty in the rich countries is negligible and not so alarming such as intervention of science, medically assisted
compared with that of the developing world. In Third reproduction, and sperm donation. In all these instances,
World countries given over to unregulated exploitation by the biological bond no longer coincides with the affective
the wealthy and major powers, poverty and destitution, bond. Owing to their obscuring of affiliation, genetic
glaring and unending, are incommensurably worse. None of manipulations may lead to a large number of lawsuits.
this is new, of course, but with the advent of globalization Further down the line, this break-up of traditional family
and mass tourism it has assumed an extraordinary worldwide patterns could have repercussions on the exercise of
dimension. Drug trafficking and prostitution, taken over by authority in the school, in business and in all centralized
powerful networks of organized crime, are born of poverty institutions, thereby sounding the death knell for rigid,
and destitution. The countries concerned are naturally the established hierarchies.
poor countries of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the former
Soviet republics in Europe.
The loosening of the bonds of solidarity that are a Morality and religion – the collapse of the foundations
hallmark of well-integrated, hierarchized and ordered
societies is a manifestation of modern society’s rejection of In a society given over to frivolous expenditure and waste, in
the values that it has considered fundamental until the which the pursuit of pleasure has become a priority, moral
present time. Modern egalitarian society, with its faith in convictions can weaken and, under the pressure of scientific
work, material well-being and freeing people from the bonds progress, belief in the supernatural, in another world with
that tied them to restrictive moral codes, is centred on self- which we can communicate, is shaken. Faith begins to
assertion and self-interest. The social repercussions of such waver. Church attendance falls off against a background of
a choice are considerable – growing individualism, the growing religious indifference, offset, however, by the
break-up of the traditional family, and the search for a new proliferation of sects in which freedom of expression,
ethical code and morals consistent with the new socio- fervour and exuberant rites help to drive out the anxiety
economic context. These changes are unnerving for many generated by the questions that science has left unanswered.
people because the traditionally reassuring landmarks have It is against this backdrop of the collapse of Christianity
disappeared. and the metaphysics derived from it that the New Age

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of self-destruction inherent in the uncontrolled use of Development Report 1998. Oxford University Press, New York/
technology, enduring anxiety. Oxford.

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Valadier, P. 2002. La morale après l’individualisme. In: Projet, World Resources Institute. 1998. 1998–99 World Resources: A
No. 271, pp. 63-70. Guide to the Global Environment: Environmental Change and
world health organiZation. 1998. The World Health Report Human Health. Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford.
1998: Life in the 21st Century, a Vision for All. WHO, Geneva. World Trade Organization. 1997. 1998. WTO Annual Report.
WTO, Geneva.

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 19
T h e d i s c i pl i n e s o f t h e s c i e n c e s
o f  s o c i e t y

Peter Wagner and Björn Wittrock, coordinators

Introduction

Peter Wagner and Björn Wittrock

T he emergence of twentieth - greatly developed during the nineteenth century, partly
century disciplines responding to broader transformations of the university
system, which re-emerged as the institutional locus of
The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed a major systematic research, social scientists devoted much energy
restructuring in the social sciences – or rather, what is now to developing a scholarly definition and demarcation of
known as the social sciences, since at the time, the term did their fields, be it through disciplinary treatises, such as for
not yet refer to the disciplines dealt with in this chapter. In history and geography, or through the choice of theoretical
some cases, fundamental transformations of approaches foundations such as legal positivism in law or the theorem
gave rise to the contemporary state of the disciplines. The of the optimum population in demography. Significantly,
marginalized revolution set the theoretical agenda for much despite the attempts made, state/political scientists did not
of twentieth-century economics as the structural approach achieve a recognized degree of disciplinary consolidation in
did for linguistics. In anthropology, the introduction of similar form (except in the United States), and the area lost
participant observation gave the field its methodological influence in relation to other disciplines, notably economics
distinctness – comparable to stratigraphic excavation in and history, but also sociology, until it re-emerged after the
archaeology, which was introduced in the nineteenth Second World War.
century. In sociology, the turn of the century, known as the It is possible to state (with some significant reservations)
‘classical’ period, was characterized by a set of epistemological, that the set of disciplines of the social sciences, as we knew
methodological and political reflections which, taken them at the end of the twentieth century, had barely emerged
together, constituted a discipline barely recognized by the at the beginning of the century. However, at that time, it
period’s academic institutions. displayed a number of characteristics that should come
Such transformations, however, did not leave the other under critical review in the course of the present century.
fields of inquiry untouched. Often, these transformations First, the organization of the social sciences occurred as a
entailed a specialization or a more precise delineation of the ‘local’ model developed predominantly in Europe and North
area of expertise, which then demanded a new way of America. Second, it emerged as a set of academic disciplines,
dividing up the entire intellectual space devoted to the study i.e. with an intrinsic idea of a cognitive order for the
of social life. comprehensive study of the social world. Third, it was
Some of the older disciplines had been rather clearly and conceived as a set of ‘sciences’ in response to the period’s
easily defined by their relation to social practices and prevailing crisis of science. In the present introduction, we
institutions during the nineteenth century. Historical shall briefly survey the development and transformation of
accounts of the development of national states commonly these three features through the twentieth century.
reflect a large dose of patriotism and nationalism. The field
of law interpreted, systematized and justified national legal
systems and trained their practitioners. The state sciences – R eluctant globalization and
now often considered the forerunner to current political pluralization
science – aimed at a comprehensive approach to problems
of governance and policymaking for the existing policies. In Around 1900, considerable efforts were made to establish
addition, geography and demography provided data on the the sciences of society as international intellectual projects.
state’s territory and population. An international institute for sociology was founded;
While such practice-related tasks persisted, scholars in historians started to convene international conferences; and
these fields felt the need to define their work more precisely in some areas such as economics or archaeology, the
in academic terms at the beginning of the twentieth century. scholarly debate had become truly transnational.
Partly following the example of the natural sciences, which Furthermore, national European traditions in the social

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sciences were spread across the globe through conscious societies a fundamental one, which hardly anybody in either
attempts at adaptation (in Japan, for instance) through field today would wish to uphold. Perhaps the distinguishing
colonial domination as well as through migration and quality of anthropology is its methodology involving
commercial encounters. extended participant observation. In that case, however,
However, all of these developments must be understood applying that method to political or economic phenomena
against the background of profoundly national structures of in post-industrial societies would expand the sphere of
scholarly work. During the nineteenth century, national anthropology at the expense of economics or political
intellectual traditions had consolidated like fortresses in science. Similar illustrations could be given for all disciplines
Europe, created and sustained by national university systems and all distinguishing criteria.
and ideologies of nationalism. Denominations such as the Today, in all fields of study interdisciplinary approaches
French school of sociology for Durkheimian thinking, or are adopted from the outset. There are sociological
the German school of economics for historical-institutional approaches to law, economic approaches to demography,
economic analysis were quite common. And the sincere linguistic approaches to history, etc. By the end of the
attempts at internationalization were largely thwarted by twentieth century, the strictly disciplinary structures were
the outbreak of the First World War. largely eroded; intellectuals focused primarily on questions
During the interwar period, the late-nineteenth century that could often not be addressed by means of disciplinary
situation of a plurality of competing national intellectual theories. Furthermore, there were increasing expectations
approaches, mostly confined to Europe and North America, for social research to solve social problems and, accordingly,
was restored. The main difference was that the prestige of new institutional elements were introduced within university
German academic institutions was gradually waning and systems. As a result, much research examined socio-political
that American social science started to emerge more problems, and often centred on state policy issues rather
strongly. These tendencies were strengthened by the advent than disciplinary theory. In some fields, most notably in
of fascism, totalitarianism and war. Many German and economics, this tendency led to marked distinctions between
Central European scholars, often of Jewish origin, fled, ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ social analysis, the former remaining
sometimes to France, the Soviet Union or Turkey, but disciplinary while the latter became either empirical or
more often they found a long-term, and often permanent oriented towards ad hoc theorization with little concern for
home in the United States or in the United Kingdom. As a disciplines per se.
result, the European limited diversity of social science was The current situation can probably be best described as
replaced by what appeared, at least superficially, as a hybrid: disciplinary traditions remain important at the
temporary American hegemony after the two world wars. universities for purposes of teaching and training, while
Following the Second World War, however, another there has been a shift of intellectual activity to areas where
immense shift in the global intellectual structure could be disciplinary approaches intermingle and are sometimes
observed. From the 1960s onwards, the then-dominant eliminated.
social science approaches – often regarded as ‘American’,
especially by non-Americans – were increasingly criticized, S ocial analysis as a S cience
and intellectual traditions from so-called non-Western
cultures asserted themselves more strongly in increasingly At the beginning of the twentieth century when many
global multicultural encounters. In addition, some European disciplines were taking shape, the issue of social analysis as a
traditions were also revived. The return of the anthropological science was much debated. The era was characterized by a
perspective on Western societies, the final farewell to racist reorientation – sometimes leading to open crisis – in the
theories of the development of humankind in archaeology, natural sciences, away from a realist-representational vision
the focus on linguistic pluralism, or the critique of legal of science towards a relativist-pragmatic perspective. Those
positivism by postcolonial theories of law are examples of involved in the emerging social sciences raised the question
such developments. of whether they should, and still could, follow the
nineteenth-century natural-science model or whether the
D isciplines and new characteristics of society called for a different but
interdisciplinarity equally scholarly approach.
Thoughts on those issues can be found in virtually all
The formation of the disciplines that accompanied the debates concerning the constitution of discipline around
revival of universities was generally a nineteenth-century the turn of the twentieth century. The ‘dispute over method’,
process. At the beginning of the twentieth century, which started in the 1880s, to give one prominent example,
universities were increasingly organized according to dealt directly with history, economics and sociology and
disciplines, and both universities and disciplines had included epistemological and ontological as much as
achieved some degree of institutional autonomy and methodological issues. Despite the fact that the debate
intellectual consolidation. The disciplinary structure, originated in Germany and Austria, it was widely followed
however, was unevenly and inconsistently constituted, in and taken up in other countries.
the social and natural sciences alike. For social analysis to be recognized as a science at that
It remained unclear whether social science disciplines time, it was important either to agree on some necessary
were defined by subject, methodology and theoretical philosophical foundations for those projects or to strongly
perspective or by reference to an area of practice or a limit, or eschew entirely, such concerns by focusing on
profession. Anthropology, for example, differs from methodology. It was evident that the social sciences shared
sociology by subject matter, i.e. the study of non-Western some characteristics with philosophies of history and
societies. This can be done, however, only at the cost of anthropologies of human social life. The question was
making the distinction between Western and non-Western whether they could be formalized to such an extent that

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they created theoretical research programmes (which nineteenth century. If nothing else, these most recent
occurred in the field of neoclassical economics) or whether developments demonstrate the liveliness and creativity of
they could be discarded in favour of empirical research the intellectual debates in the realm of social sciences, and
strategies. To some extent, the latter took place, for example, there is every reason to believe that they will continue.
in the field of history with the focus on archival research, in
anthropology with the invention of participant observation,
and in archaeology with the invention of radiocarbon
dating.
For most of the other social sciences, quantification of BIBLIOGRAPHY
social data appeared to provide the best solution for this
problematic. Quantifiable data, in a nearly ready-to-use Charle, C., Schriewer, J. and Wagner, P. (eds). 1998. Transnational
form, could be found in state-provided statistics or could be Intellectual Networks and the Cultural Logics of Nations. Berghahn
generated through surveys. Much methodological effort Books, London and New York.
was devoted to the development of increasingly sophisticated Deutsch, K. W., Markovits, A. S. and Platt, J. (eds). 1986. Advances
techniques for treating those data. Beginning in the interwar in the Social Sciences, 1900–1980: What, Who, Where, How?
period, quantitative social science reached its heyday during University Press of America, Lanham, MA.
the 1960s, by which time it was extended to virtually all DIERKES, M. and Biervert, B. (eds). 1992. European Social Science in
disciplines and sometimes equated, critically, with the Transition. Campus, Frankfurt, Germany/Westview, Boulder,
American approach to social science. CO.
By the end of the century, however, all of the once- Gibbons, M. , LIMOGES, C. and NOWOTNY, H. 1994. The New
pressing questions that appeared to have been answered Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in
returned to the fore. On the one hand, the implicit Contemporary Society. Sage, London.
anthropology of ‘modern’ social sciences was questioned Manicas, P. T. 1987. A History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences.
from a humanist perspective with a view to underlining Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
differences between the natural and the social world and Ross, D. (ed.). 1994. Modernist Impulses in the Human Sciences 1870–
advocating a renewal of interpretive approaches. On the 1930. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
other hand, the philosophy of the dominant social sciences Wagner, P., Hirschon Weiss, C., Wittrock, B. and Wollmann,
(and of the natural sciences as well) was criticized for H. (eds). 1991. Social Sciences and Modern States: National
pretending to work from secure foundations that can not be Experiences and Theoretical Crossroads. (IPSA Series: Advances in
validated. The outcome of this situation is not a denial of Political Science, Vol. 9). Cambridge University Press,
the validity of social science (or of science in general) – Cambridge.
though some current observers are worried about any such Wagner, P., Wittrock, B. and Whitley, R. (eds). 1991. Discourses
implications – but rather a renewal of the mixture of on Society: The Shaping of the Social Science Disciplines. Kluwer
scepticism and pluralism that marked the end of the Adademic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

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 19.1
History

Rolf Torstendahl

A N E volving global intellectual National perspectives before and after the

structure First World War

The legacy of the nineteenth century persisted beyond the

History writing First World War. In Europe, this heritage was reflected in
different ways. To begin with, history was one of the first
Few people would deny that the discipline of history is less disciplines in which professional researchers developed a
international in its internal structure than physics or even clear code among themselves. Hofstadter writes: ‘Up to
sociology. It is bound to languages, cultures and the past about 1890, when Henry Adams was finishing his history,
itself. In some respects it is more akin to legal studies than the major historians of the United States were still working
to natural science. in the tradition of the great amateurs. They were not
This does not imply, however, that history is necessarily formally trained to write history’.1 In this respect, the
less ‘objective’ than other scholarly activities. The fact that professionnalization of historians was at least one generation
we have to know the language and the customs of the actors ahead in many European countries. In France, early
of the past to understand their thoughts and acts does not standards were set for the study of documents. In the
imply that the historian has to view their activities nineteenth century Ranke, Waitz and Droysen had formed
subjectively. And yet many historians have confused a German standard for the training of scholars within the
historical perspective with self-assertion, group identity discipline. A ‘historical method’ was developed, and
formation and limited outlook, and in doing so, they have historians could agree on historical ‘facts’ established
fuelled animosity and anger. according to these methodological rules. In Japan and
From its very beginnings, the discipline of history has China, long traditions existed in the scholarly writing of
been a mixture of politics and scholarship and this is still the history. Yet, around the turn of the century, scholars in
case in the twentieth century. Many historians have accepted these countries consciously and explicitly merged domestic
that history cannot be impartial, but they have struggled to traditions with the most advanced European standards.
find rules to minimize the influences of subjectivity and Academic communities in many countries around the world
partiality. Consequently, the ‘objectivity question’ has been followed suit. History as an academic discipline has been
a central theme in the philosophy of history and the study firmly professionalized since around the turn of the
of historiography. nineteenth century. History has, however, continued to be
Within the academic community of social sciences and regarded as a subject of cultural entertainment that can be
humanities in the twentieth century, history is no longer on taken up by any interested person. Thus two partly
the forefront. Influences from other disciplines, including overlapping traditions of history writing have developed.
many new academic disciplines, have infused history with Another legacy of the nineteenth century is the thematic
new facets. The blending of economics, political science, content of history. History was regarded as primarily
sociology and anthropology has given birth to hybrids that dealing with the state and its conflicts. Consequently,
have fertilized history. nationalism or a milder variety of patriotism was a main
The discipline of history has thus become less focused on ingredient in the principal interpretations of history.
politics. Its current forms have given rise to new perspectives Political history might vary, but the theme was traditional
on interpreting society and its changes. Such new approaches in most parts of the world.
are not accepted by all, and in addition to their cultural and Sato underlined another change in scholarly history of
linguistic particularities, historians differ with respect to China and Japan. Historians were no longer the official
their fundamental theory of history, which pre-dates the spokespeople regarding imperial service. The European
twentieth century. Enlightenment sparked a change of perspective that

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continued to win ground in the new century; the learned were different from most Europeans, who tended to linger
were considered scholars with responsibility to the in epistemological idealism and were less inclined to regard
profession and the public only. history as a social science. The ‘objectivity question’ therefore
The European historical heritage of the nineteenth had a different ring in the United States than in Europe.
century was strongly national. It was most common to limit National study of African history, in the European sense
academic interest to the political history of one state only, of the term, did not exist in the colonial period in the sub-
and very often this national limitation led to a nationalist Saharan regions. The colonizers attempted to record their
interpretation of relations with other countries. Late- own activities and accomplishments, but written history by
nineteenth century radicalism and naturalism had domestic authors with a national perspective was lacking.
counterparts in the writing of history, but these were To a certain extent, national traditions were transmitted
undercurrents. The main paradigm was strictly national, with insufficient communication between colonizers and
only slightly more so in Germany (Sybel, Treitschke) and the colonized. Some recollections of slave experiences have
France (Lavisse) than in Britain or the smaller states of been recorded, and other oral traditions have been saved,
northern and central Europe. but these are limited primarily to the conditions of
The heirs to this ideological and scholarly stance reacted administrators and missionaries.
differently. Some developed the national theme further and In the interwar years, most Latin American historians
approached totalitarianism or became fascists. Others took were trained in a positivistic tradition with the modernization
up the challenge of formulating an alternative and of viewing of each country as the primary object of research. When
other aspects of history. From the interwar years, a national Europeans and North Americans started to take an interest
interpretation was no longer the only commonly accepted in the history of Latin America more extensively in the
academic conception of the history of any European period after the Second World War, one major problem
country. Social, economic and cultural factors competed emerged: Why had Latin America developed so comparatively
with national ideas for prominence in explanations of slowly in the period after the arrival of the Europeans?
historians. Underdevelopment and the theory of dependency, with
Historians helped politicians define a national heritage. André Gunder Franck as its most important advocate,
Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, the Siegessäule in underlay all explanations of the region’s economic fate for a
Berlin and numerous other monuments glorified historic long period. However, not all history of Latin American
national achievements. After the First World War, all countries has been tied to the theory of underdevelopment.
belligerent countries honoured their soldiers and The influence of the French Annales group and its distinctive
commemorated their national past. It was most common approaches to history has been great in many countries of
among historians in Europe to write about these recent Latin America, particularly in Brazil. Already in the 1930s,
events or to glorify earlier national wars, as illustrated by the Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch established a link between
revival of the myth of King Karl XII in Sweden.2 In the Brazil and France. After the Second World War, the
beginning of the century and in the interwar years, national Annales devoted special issues to Brazilian history, and
history in Europe was dominated by an aggressive form of Frédéric Mauro, a disciple of Fernand Braudel, became
competition between countries, closely related to the fascism professor of history in Sao Paolo, while other French
that developed in the same period. Although this is an historians working in Brazil helped to establish close
important aspect of European historical writing, it is historical connections between Brazilian and French
necessary to stress the elaboration of the national and culture.
political theme that also occurred at this time. Friedrich Regionalism and economic perspectives on the history of
Meinecke, with his significant evaluations of German Latin America easily blended with the influences from the
politics, the national state and state politics and power in Annales group and related French researchers. The
history, was noteworthy but hardly alone. Europeans working on Latin American history developed a
The stress on the nationalistic aspects of history could great anthropological interest in the indigenous peoples and
also appear in other ways. In Germany, the opposition their history.
against the Versailles Peace Treaty stimulated local research In contrast to most countries under the control of
combining history and anthropology in order to show the European colonial powers until the end of the Second
cultural heritage of the borderline provinces. This völkische World War, India had developed a flourishing group of
research became a breeding ground for Nazi ideology. domestic historical scholars. During the colonial period,
Historians in the United States in the early twentieth many historians, like Jadunath Sarkar and Govind
century were bearers of a different cultural heritage than S. Sardesai, researched periods preceding the establishment
that of their European counterparts. The most renowned of of British power in India. Other historians, including
the new historians reacted against the conservative state- Dadabhai Naroji and Romesh Chandra Dutt, held the
centred approach of the previous generation. These so-called British directly responsible for India’s poverty and its lack of
‘progressive’ historians were led by Frederick Jackson development. Thus the idea of a national history of India
Turner and Charles A. Beard. Turner, with his ‘frontier was voiced even before independence.
thesis’, which attempted to explain the American mind, and According to Ying-Shi Yü, the concept of national history
Beard, with his economic interpretation of the constitution was introduced to Chinese historiography in the early years
combined with an isolationist stand, and other historians of of the twentieth century. Until that time, China was
their generation viewed history in the light of social science. considered to be ‘All-under-Heaven’, which, according to
They started out from assumptions of ‘evidencing history’ Yü, best illustrates the Sinocentric world order.3 The history
and contemporary tendencies of the social sciences in the of China, which was thought to encompass all that was
interwar years and then supported these views. The worth knowing in the world, was not conceived as a whole:
paradigm was realistic. In this respect, American historians it was divided into dynasties and centred on the emperor.

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Through the activities of Chang Ping-lin and Liang Ch’i- assumed that some of the few historians from far-away
ch’ao, China developed a historical school emphasizing countries did not attend.
national essence, a term borrowed from Japan. According to Erdmann’s thorough analysis of all the congresses up to
this concept, China had a spirit of its own, which could not the Second World War provides a very clear picture of the
be copied but which should be preserved. The national dominant position of the Europeans, and particularly the
message acquired a moral tinge just as this group embarked Germans and French followed by the English, Italians,
upon the task of writing the nation’s history. Western Belgians, and Poles. The only other country to play a leading
influence was transmitted by Japanese scholars who had role at those early congresses was the United States.
already absorbed the national theme in their works. The congresses in Paris, Rome, Berlin and London,
From the beginning of the 1920s, the National Past which took place between 1900 and 1913, were more
movement appeared as a new intellectual force in China. In European in scope than international. When the congress
1922, Ku Chieh-kang began a critical study of Chinese meetings were resumed after the First World War in
historical traditions and their evolution as recorded in the Brussels in 1923, only a handful of non-European countries
classical novels. He demonstrated how the legends grew registered: Canada, Egypt, Japan, Lebanon, Rhodesia,
and new episodes were invented to enhance the prestige of South Africa, Turkey and the United States. Approximately
the past emperors. Fu Ssu-nien followed this critical line half of the registered participants actually attended the
still further by introducing a new element: he suggested that congress.
sources had to be penetrated in order to lay bare data that Hopes rose when a standing committee was formed in
then could be used by the historian to present a nation’s 1926. The Comité International des Sciences Historiques
past. He and the other members of the National Past group (CISH) was to bear the responsibility for organizing the
wanted to make history scientific and objective. Although congresses. An American, Waldo Leland, played a
they managed to discredit traditional conceptions, they prominent role in the formation of the organization, but the
failed to propose a viable alternative. CISH was barely more international than the preceding
Even though the national past group was based on a congresses. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Japan were the
conception of a national Chinese culture, its writings were only non-European countries beside the United States
mainly anti-nationalistic. When China was attacked by invited to participate in CISH from its inception. Beginning
Japan in 1937, nationalistic feelings surfaced more openly in in the 1930s, Soviet representatives were incorporated in
Chinese society and even Fu contributed with his historical the international committee and the smaller European
study. Others went further: for example, Ch’ien Mu wrote countries were better represented. Although the circle had
a narrative outline of Chinese history, which assured the been widened, it remained restricted to a small number of
reader of China’s illustrious past and future possibilities. countries.
Both Marxists and ‘dataists’ resented it even though its The first effort actively to involve the major Asian nations
nationalism was more cultural than militaristic. in the work of the CISH was made by the committee’s
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Japanese president, Harold Temperley. Travelling to Japan, China
historians often referred to European historiography. In the and India in 1937, Temperley managed to arouse interest
context of Japan’s rising military power, the national heritage for an active membership in the CISH from these countries
with the unbroken dynastic line of the imperial family was and requested the organization’s Bureau to quickly initiate
raised to a position of prominence. The nationalistic view of new forms of cooperation. At the following congress in
history known as Kokoku-shikan, depicting Japan as the 1938, Japan was not represented at all; China and India sent
country of Tenno (the imperial god-relation), was adopted one and five representatives, respectively. As this congress
by many historians in the first four decades of the twentieth was dominated by the political and ideological tensions
century. Contrasting views persisted however as illustrated within Europe, Temperley’s initiative had little lasting
by the fact that Marxist historians were numerous and effect.
often voiced their views during the interwar years. In fact, CISH has never become a truly international
After the Second World War, Marxism maintained a body. When, for the first time in 1995, a serious proposal
strong following among Japanese historians, but it was was made to hold the next congress outside the Europe-
adapted to the local context. Economic history, and more North America axis, a European location was ultimately
specifically business history, remains firmly implanted in selected. The Bureau elected in Montreal in 1995 consists
Japan, and social history of the variety associated with the of representatives from six European countries, the
Annales has become widely recognized and practiced. United States, Canada, India and Japan, and a Hungarian
president who resides in the United States. China and
South-East Asia, Africa and South America were not
World congresses represented. Problems formulated in Europe or the
United States are regarded as the main problems of
The world congresses of history began with the twentieth historical scholarship, and generally relate to questions
century. Indeed, the first so-called world congress of on a specific history or the theory of history. Some efforts
history – officially an ‘international congress’ – took place have been made to integrate scholars from Asia, Latin
in Paris in 1900. Among the non-European countries America and Africa in the discussions of the congresses,
attending the congress were Algeria, Argentina, Australia, especially from 1965 onwards. Individual scholars from
Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Iran, these regions of the world have been able to put forward
Libya, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and Venezuela. Each their interpretations of important themes. Often language
country, except Cuba and Mexico, sent one participant. has been an obstacle since the languages of oral
Considering that only 100 to 200 of the 864 pre-registered presentations are traditionally English, French or one or
participants actually attended the congresses, it can be two other European languages. Non-European languages

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have never been accepted as the basis for communication higher education in the country took place at the national
in this international community. University of Zaire in 1971, endowing Zairean history and
historians with established positions. After 1970, national
research mainly focused on themes related to the colonial
Post-Second World War developments period and earlier. Research carried out on Zaire’s diverse
communities transcends state borders. Particular emphasis
The national perspective on history has acquired new has been placed on ethnographic history and the use of
relevance in recent years. History is part of a new formation technology.
of national identities in Eastern Europe, Africa and extensive In the German Democratic Republic as in the Federal
regions of Asia. The Second World War and its Republic of Germany, historians endeavoured to deal with
consequences, and to an even larger extent, the decolonization their traumatic past. Although there were two German
process have contributed to changes in the world’s perception states, historians of both countries studied the same national
of history. National history has become not only history before 1945. Given its close relation to the Soviet
strengthened but also transformed through this process. Union, the GDR demanded a Marxist outlook from its
The political situation in much of the world was scholars, and in many respects historians of the GDR were
transformed after the Second World War. In China, more doctrinaire than those in other countries of the so-
communist historians made efforts to combine Marx’s views called Eastern Bloc. It seems, however, that this historical
on Asiatic societies with Chinese history as early as the orthodoxy diminished after 1970.
1930s. Much attention was devoted to the question of the Many important contributions to German and European
meaning of the ‘Asiatic mode of production’. The weakness history were made by East German historians adopting the
of capitalism in relation to the feudal system in China also perspective of historical materialism. Beginning in the
became a point of discussion among historians. After the 1970s, both older and younger historians took a freer
Chinese Revolution, many wondered whether the approach to material interpretation – the biographies of
Revolution could be regarded as a socialist revolution in Bismarck and Frederick the Great by Ernst Engelberg and
Marxist terms. Chinese historians in the period after 1949 Ingrid Mittenzwei, respectively, may serve as examples –
favoured an approach combining an evaluation of the but they used it to maintain a safe distance from the heritage
relatively progressive effects of events and social data with a of German historicism and research in West Germany. The
‘class viewpoint’ assessment of the Revolution. However, critics of East German history in the West were harsh, and
the Chinese showed a continuing interest in Western after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, they were joined by
historiography and, except during the Cultural Revolution, some historians from the former GDR.
the links with the development of the discipline in other In communist Hungary, historical materialism was not
countries was preserved. as rigid as in the GDR, and Hungarian historians were not
In India, independence meant a new start in many areas, as preoccupied as their German colleagues with their
including the discipline of history. Ancient and medieval national past. These two circumstances proved important
Indian history have made great advances, and D. D. Kosambi for the relatively flourishing state of Hungarian historical
and Romila Thapar among others have shed new light on scholarship after 1945. Led by György Ranki and Ivan
the agrarian structures resulting from relations between Berend, Hungarian historians have played an important
religion, caste and family in these periods. Economic and role in reconceiving European and international history by
social history have developed rapidly and become very combining economic and cultural data.
successful in independent India with analyses of social The history of the Russian Revolution has inspired many
consequences of major economic enterprises emerging as a thorough studies of the actors and events in that period of
major sub-field of inquiry. Politically, however, the main turmoil. Of course, political scientists were extremely
interest has focused on the struggle for independence. Bipan interested in the Soviet Union, but historians, both Russian
Chandra and others have shown how the anti-imperialist and Western, have also made important contributions to
struggle gave rise to a new national identity in a country the study of this overly centralized system. Yet, explaining a
deeply divided by ethnic, linguistic and religious problems. structure that is expected to last is different from explaining
As a nation, Nigeria was a colonial creation, but Britain structural change. Since perestroika the main problem has
was guided by ethnological, geographical and historical been to determine the causes of political and social change,
factors, contends Ade Ajayi. After liberation from the and a so-called civilization approach has been favoured by
British, national Nigerian historians sought to evaluate the Russian historians, who combine class analysis and
British rule. Marxist historians criticized the basis of economic organization with cultural phenomena. Again,
national historiography and urged reviewing Nigerian some explanations tend to focus on prominent actors, while
history in the light of development. Ajayi asserts that the others select theoretical models of economics.
criticism did not change the opinions of nationalist
historians, who unanimously rejected the theory of
underdevelopment as being more applicable to Latin The opening up of national boundaries
America and its long colonial history, than to Nigeria,
where colonialism lasted no more than 100 years. Nationalist Naturally, most historians choose to work on subjects
historiography stressed the continuity with the pre-colonial related to their own nations. This also holds true for Jewish
past. historians dealing with Jewish history, even though Max
In Zaire, European scholars and historians trained in Beloff’s observation on the difficulties of defining the object
Europe played an important role in the early stages. Only of Jewish history is pertinent. Researchers concentrating on
gradually were indigenous scholars trained to conduct national history normally know the language well and can
studies from a national perspective. A restructuring of rely on a great deal of tacit knowledge. In addition, national

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researchers can access source material more easily than their (e.g. Catherine Coqery-Vidrovich), Portuguese, American
foreign colleagues. One can therefore argue that it is logical and British researchers who have studied in the former
that historians give priority to the history they regard as Congo and Angola. In the former French colonies of West
‘theirs’. However, the mainly post-Second World War Africa, French researchers have done important work.
phenomenon of researchers studying their national history Dutch historians have played a leading role in Indonesia,
has been seriously challenged in recent years. and many American and British researchers have contributed
One of the positive effects of the international congresses to the historical knowledge of India.
of history is the establishment of a large number of
commissions and associations for specific fields of research.
Many of these commissions function independently of the T he discipline of history
congresses by organizing their own meetings and
conferences. Some commissions have existed for a long History – the continuation of a great tradition
time. Europeans and North Americans still play a major
role in these commissions, and in many cases their The tradition of writing and studying history predates the
participation has increased, while the involvement of development of higher education. Thus history, unlike
historians from other parts of the world remains low. many other disciplines, was not the fruit of opposition
Today’s scholars are much more mobile than ever before. against other predominant approaches to knowledge but
However, this does not mean that the labour market of has rather engendered many disciplines. Over the last
historians has become truly international, for most positions century, history like most other disciplines has undergone
are reserved for those scholars culturally linked to the an enormous degree of specialization. Nevertheless, the
country despite the fact that recruitment is officially open to field has proven remarkably cohesive as evidenced by the
all. Although it is true that the academic labour market was fact that most specialists prefer to be regarded as historians
more closed in the past, professional scholars of history are contributing to an overall historical discipline rather than
much more confined to a particular cultural milieu than belonging to an independent discipline.
their counterparts in all science disciplines and in many
social sciences and the arts.
Despite such restrictions, a change has taken place. In Specialization and anti-specialization in historical
Europe and North America, it is common to find academic perspective
historians who were not born in the country where they
work. In order to obtain their positions, they must adapt to The first great wave of specialization within the discipline of
the rules of the institution. Most have settled permanently history occurred at the turn of the twentieth century when
in the country and are quite familiar with its language. Some bitter fights erupted over economic history and cultural
come from countries within the Euro-American circle. history. It should be noted that when the world congresses
Those from the Third World are more likely to work in the of history were first created in 1898, they focused on
Unites States than in Europe. Europeans and Americans diplomatic history. The scope was widened in 1900 in
working in Third World countries often have temporary keeping with the belief that the ‘historical method’ rather
assignments from research or relief foundations. Even if they than a topic should decide the breadth of history, as
endeavour to establish contacts with the researchers in the expressed by Boissier, the president of the 1900 congress.
country where they work, they are less likely to succeed than A new wave of specialization appeared after the
those with tenured positions in universities or academies. Second World War. Scholars showed a great interest in
themes whose temporary nature ensured cohesion within
the field. Many themes died out, while others managed to
International research and the question of perspective survive, albeit less vigourously. Economic history underwent
great diversification in the twentieth century. In 1960, an
Scholars from Europe and the United States have shown independent international organization devoted specifically
much interest in investigating the history of former colonies, to economic history was established. Economic history
sometimes spreading this interest to other countries. At greatly overlaps with social history. One sub-branch of this
present, important centres for primary research work on field is the history of national economies, which is closely
the history of world cultures have been created in the United connected with economic theory. Its relevance is determined
States, Russia, France, Germany and Japan. Former colonial by theoretical perspective. Such studies take up questions
powers are particularly committed to studying the history regarding the history of industry and business and the
of their former colonies, as attested by the important conditions required for their change, including the role of
handbook series on several countries published by Oxford technology. Most of these studies concern the situation in
and Cambridge universities. This field of study, initiated the United States, though they have sometimes been applied
during the colonial period, has been carried on and even to other parts of the world.
extended to other countries. Industrial organization and the role of management have
Several historians from Europe worked on colonial been studied by a group of scholars, inspired primarily by
history during the colonial period. They did not restrict the American Alfred D. Chandler. Europeans from different
their research to themes related to the period of European countries have joined this field of research and contributed
domination, and some continued to be extremely respected new perspectives. This sub-branch of economic history is
in academic circles. The most devoted have undertaken closely related to the history of individual firms, which is in
widely esteemed research and educational work after the great demand among industrial and business concerns.
dissolution of colonial power, notably the US-based Belgian Other fields of research in economic history include
specialist Jan Vansina, and several other Belgian, French nutrition and food in history, agrarian development, the

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economic conditions of caravan trade and high-sea transport. Social mobility and migration have been widely
Thus, economic history has developed in different directions investigated in the context of Europe and the United States,
establishing itself as a discipline in its own right in many while the history of Chinese emigration, so pervasive in
countries and becoming almost as multi-faceted as history Asia and America, has been far less studied. The related
itself. topics of geographical and social mobility have often been
Very rapidly, social history also became multi-faceted treated together in the context of geographical and
and almost all-embracing. At an early stage, it acquired sociological theory. Political scientists have advanced the
political as well as sociological orientations. History of social study of institutions and bureaucracy and the relationship
policy received much attention in the early twentieth between state and society. Thus the boundary between
century, when different social policy measures were first social and political history is once again blurred.
compared systematically. This starting point led to thorough At the beginning of the twentieth century, a fierce
investigations of the welfare state and, in recent decades, to discussion sparked by Karl Lamprecht’s work on German
an analysis of the discipline of the well-ordered absolutist history and his ideas on political history arose in Germany
state and the social policy of earlier centuries. Crime, over the status of cultural history. In his writings, Lamprecht
violence and the judicial process have also come to the relegated political history to a secondary role, in favour of
foreground. economic history and the history of law, ideas and arts, all of
Historical materialism, as described by Marx and Engels, which he considered more fundamental. Lamprecht’s ideas
has provided valuable insights to many Western and Eastern spread mainly in France and in parts of northern Europe.
historians of this century towards the understanding of The status and scope of cultural history was ambiguous.
history. This field has long dominated economic and social Its advocates wanted, on the one hand, to encompass all of
history in many countries. Although several schools of history and, on the other hand, to emphasize those aspects
historical materialism have emerged, there is a dividing line of human life, such as customs, ideas, and art, that had been
between structural, and cultural and intellectual only marginally treated elsewhere. Such themes soon
interpretations. Georg Lukacs and E. P. Thompson are the developed into specialities of their own. Intellectual history,
main proponents of the latter approach, while the structural as the history of thoughts and ideas, had long been explored
interpretation has been advocated by theoreticians such as by historians, but its more specific sub-categories involving
Althusser and his followers. links to ancient philosophy or to modern science flourished
Class analysis, often derived from historical materialism, during the interwar years.
has been a vital branch of social history throughout the The relationship between scientific concepts and popular
twentieth century. This was officially adopted by the Soviet ideas became a main theme in history after the
Union in the wake of the Russian Revolution. After the Second World War and prompted an interest in pseudo-
domination of a dogmatic leftist interpretation under the science, as exemplified by Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and
leadership of Pokrovsky during the late 1920s, history was the Worms, or Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s paradigmatic
forced to submit to the will of Stalin in the early 1930s. Montaillou. Natalie Zemon Davies brought the genre into
Although Stalin’s terror was devastating for many scholarly the field of life-values and identities with the story of Martin
works on Russian history and other disciplines, it did not Guerre, and Robert Darnton, Jacques Le Goff and Aaron J.
seem to affect historical studies of the West, which were not Gurevich have analysed other aspects of popular
forced to include Stalin’s own views. This enabled some conceptualizations and their backgrounds. Peter Burke has
researchers to work rather freely from the basis of historical made similar contributions in the realm of political culture.
materialism. After the Second World War, a formal All these authors have worked within the genre commonly
Marxist perspective became compulsory in the communist referred to as the ‘history of mentalities’.
countries of Eastern Europe, China and North Korea. As a Another principal type of specialization deals with a
result, class analysis of society came to the fore as a main specific period in the history of a country. Historians who
current of historical research. concentrated on one king or one revolutionary sequence of
In the West, several leftist historians had devoted many events were following a paradigm that figured prominently
years of research on social history, and the Marxist revival in the first half of the century. Although this paradigm was
of the late 1960s and 1970s increased the contributions in called into question after the Second World War, it has
the field. Eric J. Hobsbawm, who undertook several neither disappeared nor been superseded. Few of these
substantial investigations of working-class movements in specialities were as successful as the study of the French
relation to social conditions and other wide-ranging Revolution, which led to the foundation of a specialized
studies, and E. P. Thompson, author of Making of the historical society with its own regularly published journal,
English Working Class (1963), represent different currents Annales historiques de la Révolution française. Most other
within the British tradition. The French Revolution, specialized periods of study only created informal networks
popular as a historic example among Russian Marxists, of researchers, who were familiar with each other’s works
especially Trotskyites, provided inspiration for Marxist- and sometimes met, but who were also competing for
orientated social historical analysis by Albert Mathiez, material and theories.
Albert Soboul and Georges Lefebvre. In Poland, Witold The theories of Marx and Weber can apply to all aspects
Kula’s new analyses of the European agrarian economy in of human life. Alternative comprehensive theories have
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries prompted Western been expounded, but they often only partially cover the
European historians to renew their investigations on this wide gamut of human activity. Although economic theories
subject. Eugene Genovese and Elizabeth Fox Genovese, have a different scope, they have most strongly impacted
working in the United States, fought econometricians for economic history in a restricted manner.
a more Marxist-inspired perspective in their analysis of Demography contrasts with the other fields because it has
slavery. been expanding in different directions and has attracted

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many historians. What started out as a history of populations, Center in North Carolina (USA), and the Swedish
migration and families, in general terms, has developed Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences –
among other things into a specific family history. Such historians have been invited to the Institute for Advanced
research was pioneered by Peter Laslett of Cambridge Study for a limited period to pursue their research. The
University, while more anthropological studies of past same holds true for the Indian Institute of Advanced Study
marriage patterns were inspired by the work of the Hungarian in Shimla.
researcher J. Hajnal. In these special environments, historians participate in
Women’s history developed as an offshoot of family research discussions and joint projects with scholars of the
history, a field that attracted many women. Louise Tilly and social sciences and arts. Another approach is taken by the
Joan Scott, both from the United States, wrote a well- ZIF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research) in Bielefeld,
known overview of women in history. Feminists of the early Germany, where guest historians participate in thematically
1980s proposed transforming the term history to ‘herstory’ organized research groups.
and to ensure more visibility for women in history, thus At the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences
leading to the creation of a new ideological system. (notably the institutes for Russian and world history in
Another area of research that grew out of women’s Moscow), historians collaborate with researchers from
studies in the late 1980s was gender theory. An important other disciplines, especially anthropology and archaeology.
branch of history in recent years, gender history encompasses Other former communist countries have founded similar
a variety of approaches, which are all based on the shared institutes, which are often specifically devoted to history
assumption that along with biological sex, there exists a but maintain professional contacts with other disciplines.
social construct of gender that provides a rule system for The growth of the interdisciplinary research institutes
men and women in society. As a social rule system, it is has taken place largely since the Second World War,
subject to change, and comparisons of gender history have though preliminary steps were taken in the interwar years.
proved fruitful. One of the most influential specialists of Through these institutes and many more loosely organized
gender history links it with postmodern linguistic relativism,4 university networks, historians have become part of a
but this is not a generally accepted assumption among growing worldwide interdisciplinary culture. In this regard,
gender historians. In terms of the number of historians the interrelation of findings from different disciplines has
recruited, the field of gender history seems to be the fastest- become an urgent problem.
growing branch of history over the last few years.

History as a basis for the formation of national

Research centres and interdisciplinarity identities

While the nineteenth century saw the birth of the historical In the early decades of the twentieth century, national
seminar characterized by the conscientious weighing of histories with a nationalist slant incited lively debate. New
interpretation of sources and of their validity, the twentieth fuel for the emotional fire was provided by the events of the
century witnessed the creation of advanced institutes of First World War, but a new scepticism in regard to
research with very broad or limited thematic scopes of nationalism in scholarly works also emerged. Many highly
interest. Institutional stability has increased. In most praised works on national history of the late nineteenth
countries, actual departments of history were rare at the century could not have been written after 1918. Another
beginning of the last century. The institutional growth that type of history, written by prominent scholars in the service
occurred over the course of the twentieth century has of state ideologies, eventually appeared. It is well known
created a congenial environment for scholars to test ideas that National Socialism in Germany placed demands on
informally and has ensured a future for new generations of scholars to produce such works, but Germany was not the
historians. The principal drawback of institutional structures only example. This genre has survived to the present day,
is a certain streamlining of academic research. In addition, taking the form, beginning in the 1990s, of ideologically
the role of individualism in historical scholarship has been biased history, which uses a theory of history (postmodernism
considerably diminished over the last century. or relativism) to proclaim utopian interpretations of history
Several major research institutes have been particularly for the sake of an ideology.
influential, especially in the period after the Second World Historical scholars, when not pressured to take up the
War. Founded in 1963, La Maison des sciences de l’homme state’s cause, have become more and more cautious in the
in Paris is an unusually broad research centre, and in this use of nationally loaded symbolism. Many have used their
respect, it is unique among French institutes. The institution talents to unveil the dangers and the emptiness of national
embraces almost all fields of social sciences, but is particularly symbols. German debate over the Holocaust
renowned in the fields of sociology and history. Since its (Historikerstreit), which broke out in 1986, demonstrates
creation, it has hosted the Annales group, which is well that not all scholars are pursuing the same goals. Some
suited to the Maison’s interdisciplinary environment, given wanted to restore a national interpretation of history for
its commitment to break down the limits of history and the sake of inspiring the people with national pride, while
uncover new fields for historical research. others hoped ‘enlightenment’ would replace such national
Despite differences in structure and objectives, the pride. ‘Making sense of history’ (Sinnstiftung) and ‘recreation
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton can be compared of identity’ (Identitätsstiftung) meant for the former group
to the prestigious Parisian research institute. As has been of scholars to give Germans a sense of pride in a heritage
the case in some other institutes of advanced study – the from the past in spite of ‘Kaiserism’ and Nazism. For their
Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, The Netherlands Institute opponents, the identity-formation associated with these
of Advanced Study in Wassenaar, the National Humanities terms was a dangerous exercise motivated by political

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considerations rather than by scholarship. A great corpus heritage for historians. This heritage has grown increasingly
of literature on this debate was published at the end of the international, as the historiography of the East has become
1980s. known in the West and as the ideals of research
To accept a historical past of sharp contradictions in professionalism have spread from Europe to the rest of the
values and ideals or to discriminate between them and take world.
a clear position is a choice which has become more and
more urgent for historians of all nationalities. Few countries
enjoyed a pacific existence in the twentieth century. For Growing unity and increasing diversity
most peoples, the past hundred years have been marked by
tremendous violence and turmoil, and their own nation has In the face of adverse odds, history as an academic discipline
not always sided with the forces of good, the harassed and and field of research has become increasingly similar over
the victims. A special case is Holocaust research and the the world. Strong forces have worked against the formation
European history of the Jews. Often atrocities constitute a of a single academic community. History can be created
part of the past of one’s country. To avoid both the Scylla of only through an intimate knowledge of the cultural and
racism and the Charybdis of nationalism and to give proper linguistic rules which have determined the material and
weight to biological heritage and identification are tests that constitute its foundations. Furthermore, history like many
have to be passed by historians in many countries. other academic disciplines has become increasingly
Establishing national identity through history is not an easy specialized in the twentieth century. Both of the above
achievement. conditions could theoretically prevent or diminish
understanding between historians.
The counterforces have also been strong. An international
A theory of history as a philosophical identity- assembly of historians has been successfully orchestrating
formation world congresses, which have gradually become more
international. Earlier specialization in national histories
Like historians of past centuries, few twentieth-century found competition from thematic specialities during the
historians have actively participated in the ongoing debate twentieth century, which means that there now exists a
on the philosophy of history. Some earlier historians did profusion of networks among historians from different
write on philosophical problems of history, but they were countries with a common interest in a particular field of
exceptional cases. In the Soviet Union, the theory of history historical study. Moreover, historians of the twentieth
played an important role, and differences in the interpretation century have become more used to seeking assistance from
of historical materialism were growing in the 1960s and other disciplines in the form of social theories or methods of
1980s. In recent decades, discussions on these topics were research. Interdisciplinary work by means of borderline
reported in the only specialized journal in the field, History research or organized teamwork has further linked historians
and Theory (inaugurated in 1960). It is striking that most of to a wider academic community. ‘Universal’ history,
the contributors are philosophers or professional historical attempting to embrace development in all its facets, has had
theorists. rather few advocates and practitioners. The ambition to
However, in recent world congresses and in the general write an all-embracing history (histoire globale) has led to the
debate, the theory of history attracts great interest from rise of new aspects and the continuous inclusion of new
general historians. Perhaps most historians have opinions fields into the realm of history, rather than to new overall
on the theory of history, the past per se and the nature of perspectives.
historical understanding. It seems that the ‘linguistic turn’ The theory of history and the history of historiography
of historical theory and ‘postmodernism’ have contributed are now specialities in their own right. For the general
to the widespread appeal. historian, however, they have another and more significant
However, this does not necessarily mean that historians importance: they are tools for the self-understanding of
have become more unified in their theoretical outlook. In historians as members of a scholarly community. The more
spite of differences of viewpoints and fundamental beliefs, historians from different countries meet, the more they
the theory of history seems to serve increasingly as a means need something beyond a speciality to clarify their identity
of identification for historians of different specialities. The as historians in order to prevent the community from
narrower specialities become, the greater the need for a splintering into a number of specialities. In the last
more general basis of identity, even though this does not half‑century, historians have recognized this need, and they
lead to a more unified community of historians. have been lucky to have the two possibilities mentioned to
canalize their growing uncertainty of history as a whole and
of the ‘historical community’. For this reason, these scholars
History of historiography can still consider themselves historians in spite of the
ongoing specialization.
In contrast to the theory of history, the history of Most striking is the rapid internationalization of these
historiography has generated widespread interest among developments. What was only a partial and slowly
historians. Many have written at least one contribution on developing community among historical researchers in the
the subject, but the degree of specialization is limited. Few first half of the twentieth century has rapidly grown in scope
of those working on problems of the history of historiography and intensity. Fundamental methodologies and rule systems
devote themselves exclusively or mainly to such themes. are acknowledged all over the academic world of historians,
Historians inevitably feel that they are either part of a and although failures to live up to the rules do occur, they
research tradition or revolting against one. The history of are not limited to certain countries. Paradoxically,
historiography in this way serves to provide a common postmodernist relativism facilitated the acceptance of

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common standards, at a time when the ideal of attaining an Fogel, R. W. and Engerman, S. L. (eds). 1971. The Reinterpretation of
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Sciences Historiques. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, Soviet Regime: The View from 1993. In: Journal of Contemporqry
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Marrus, M. 1994. Reflections on the Historiography of the Holocaust. Sarkar, S. 1991. The Construction of History in Modern India. In:
In: Journal of Modern History, No. 66, pp. 92–116. Storia Della Storiografia, No. 19, pp. 61–72.
Martinière, G. 1991. Problèmes du développement de Sato, M. 1991. Historiographical Encounters: The Chinese and
l’historiographie brésilienne. In: Storia Della Storiografia, No. 19, Western Traditions in Turn-of-the-Century Japan. In: Storia
pp. 117–46. Della Storiografia, No. 19, pp. 13–21.
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No. 65, pp. 771–82. Sharma, R. C. , SINGH, A. K. , ANAND, S. , CHATURVEDI, G. and
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Kritische Reflexionen. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Independence. M. G. Publishers, Agra, India.
Nos. 17–18, pp. 35–43. Veit-Brause, I. 1994. Werner Conze (1910–1986): The Measure of
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Grenzen der Universalgeschichtsschreibung. In: Saeculum, Vol. HORN MELTON, J. van. (eds). Paths of Continuity: Central European
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Press, Delhi. Formation of a Discipline, Proceedings of an International Conference,
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American Historical Profession. Cambridge University Press, Antiquities, Stockholm, pp. 7–29.
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Oberkrome, W. 1993. Volksgeschichte. Methodische Innovation und und die Geschichtsmethodologie Karl Lamprechts. Suomalainen
Völkische Ideologisierung in der Deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki.
1918–1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, Germany. Watanabe, H. 1994. Historiography as a Magic Mirror: The Image
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Routledge, London. schreibung: Studien zu Aufgaben und Traditionen deutscher
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London. Germany.
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19.2
Anthropology and ethnology

Heidrun Friese

Bronislaw Malinowski sailed towards the objects of his number of authors who are similarly claimed by the
future study, escaping the European battlegrounds in the sociological tradition (see sub-chapter 19.6 on sociology).
expectation of being received by the administrators of The criticism directed against the definition of the object of
colonial power in New Guinea (Plate 96). His mind was anthropological research that relied on the Eurocentric
filled with Conrad’s novels and morphine and ‘impure construction of a ‘modern’ self versus a ‘primitive-traditional’
thoughts’ and his luggage contained the research guidelines other has also led to the establishment of fields of study
of the ‘Notes and Queries’. His view of the ‘exotic’ world he labelled ‘sociology/comparative sociology’ in societies which
would soon encounter was interwoven with mythological used to be regarded as ‘other’ from a Western viewpoint.2
and culture-critical images of a closed unitary community In 1871, E. B. Tylor defined culture as ‘that complex
and resembled an estranged self-image of his own ‘Western whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals,
society’. Nevertheless, the brave Malinowski was one of the custom, and other capabilities and habits acquired by man
first ‘heroes’ of a new anthropology1 who said farewell to the as a member of society’. Thus, the perspectives of British
universalistic and evolutionist classification systems of the social anthropology, which placed special emphasis on
‘armchair anthropologists’ of the nineteenth century (e.g. ‘society’, and of American cultural anthropology, which
James Frazer and Edward Burnett Tylor) and – together underlined the historical-cultural aspects of human social
with Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, Margaret Mead and Marcel life, appear complementary rather than contradictory. 3
Griaule – established participant observation in field research Differentiation and pluralization of the discipline, on the
as a professional research methodology. Up to the present one hand, and transnational diffusion of theoretical concepts
day, extended field research is seen as a requirement of and research areas, on the other hand, as well as the opening
anthropological analysis; it thus provided a common, towards other disciplines (sociology, history, psychology,
scientifically acknowledged method and convention for literary theory, theory and history of art) have further
what otherwise remained a diverse variety of anthropological diminished the importance of these conceptual boundaries
perspectives. It was participant observation that allowed the during the twentieth century. The persistence of
discipline to distinguish itself in terms of methodology from terminological differences is nowadays due to the inertia of
Western sociology, itself an emerging discipline of that academic structures (which tend to eternalize traditional
period. terminologies) rather than to clear-cut theoretical
In terms of substantive orientation, anthropological boundaries.
discourse developed specific ways of setting boundaries of Instead of reiterating traditional distinctions, we shall try
exclusion and identity in the making of its objects by means to identify the points of convergence of the various
of segregating the ‘other’ from a ‘we’ that had to be approaches, their founding presuppositions, matrices of
constructed as well. The fact that anthropology and concepts and key topics, and we shall try to demonstrate
sociology developed as separate disciplines for the study of how they attempted to answer some of the key questions of
contemporary societies presupposed a strong distinction cultural and social thought such as the relation between the
between ‘us’ and the ‘others’. The mode of constructing the individual and the social space, and the temporality of
other therefore constitutes a persistent implicit problematic human social life and its representation.
of anthropology. It has become central and explicit in more
recent debates, when anthropology has focused on the
societies from which it originated and has played a key role I ntegration , norm and function
in epistemological debates common to all the human and
social sciences. These recent developments have also entailed The methodology of field research standardized since
a kind of dissolution of the boundary between anthropology Malinowski, which no longer relies on reports by travellers,
and sociology, which was never very stable and clear-cut in missionaries or colonial officers but on the anthropologist’s
theoretical terms. In this chapter, we will thus refer to a own experience of social life, was not merely to guarantee

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the authoritative status of the qualified scholar and her or D ivision , opposition and
his initiation into the academic corporation and its mediation
reputation. The thus-instituted dialectics of researching
subject and researched object, of privileged ‘view from These assumptions and analytical procedures of the
inside’ and ‘distance’ to the object, which regarded the structural-functional school and its mighty discourses –
direct and contemporaneous experience of the ‘other’ as a which also predominated in the academic institutions of the
precondition for valid analysis and interpretation, was also countries subjugated by colonialism such as the Rhodes-
meant to provide an objective and theoretically integrated Livingston Institute (northern Rhodesia), the East African
overall picture of the examined society and allow for Institute of Social Research (Uganda) and the West African
generalizations, i.e. the identification of regularities in Institute of Social and Economic Research (Nigeria5) –
social life, of its institutions, values and norms, rules and found their continuations in the episteme of French
laws. structuralism, which linked the Saussurean linguistic
However, the new genre of ethnography, with its heritage to anthropology (see Claude Lévi-Strauss’ four-
naturalistic-realistic mode of writing, was not only volume textual interpretation of the myths of both Americas,
characterized by its emphasis on the authority of its own Mythologiques). The variety of social and cultural phenomena
observations in the textual representation of the ‘other’. ‘could be rendered intelligible by demonstrating the shared
Being synchronically locked into the ethnographic present, relationships of those phenomena to a few simple underlying
the observed societies were constructed as static and ahistoric principles’ and by recourse to the universally valid binary
ensembles of characteristic forms of behaviour and collective oppositions of the human mind. Cultures were
representations, which formed a coherent and homogenous predominantly understood as systems of classification, and
whole (Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, Lucien Lévy- ‘one of the most secondary operations of culture in relation
Bruhl). Key research subjects in the traditions of both social to its own taxonomies is precisely to mediate or reconcile
and cultural anthropology accordingly involved the functional the oppositions, which are the bases of those taxonomies in
integration of a society governed by the analytical subdivision the first place’.6 Mythic structures paralleled social structures
of the societal whole into harmoniously related sociocultural according to Lévi-Strauss, but not because myth mirrors
realms – such as social organization, economy, religion and society, but because myth and society share the commonality
law. The North American ‘culture and personality’ studies, of an underlying structure.
which relied on the common assumption of ‘functional This perspective structured numerous works of social
interdependencies and value orientations that bring structure anthropology (Raymond Firth, Edmund Leach, Rodney
to a culture and regulate its systemic processes’4 regarded the Needham), which did not necessarily share Lévi-Strauss’
cultural integration of the individuals as being mediated by universalism, but analysed in many detailed studies the
‘basic emotional stylization’, ‘cultural patterns’ or ‘psychology processes of symbolic mediation of such fundamental
types’ (Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict), by ‘dominant divisions and oppositions as nature vs. culture, female vs.
culture interests’ (Ralph Linton) or ‘values and world view’ male, pure vs. impure, structure vs. anti-structure (Mary
(Clyde Kluckhohn, Robert Redfield). The European Douglas, Victor Turner). The mainstream approaches of
perspective, in contrast, saw stability being achieved by the cultural anthropology, in contrast, were less influenced by
integration of partial societal realms and institutions (Emile the structuralist paradigms, since they were more interested
Durkheim) and accordingly emphasized the study of social in ethos and values and in the relation between form
relations and social structures (Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, and contents of cultural symbolizations.7
Edward Evans-Pritchard). In both cases, however, the Despite the emphasis on ‘scientificity’ and objectivity,
dominant theoretical paradigms were oriented towards the elements of cultural criticism were either explicitly or
categories of integration, norm and function despite all implicitly inherent in those anthropological perspectives.
differences between the concepts and intellectual genealogies Lévi-Strauss’ critique of the Hegelian postulate of a
of the schools. universally valid course of history and of the necessity of
This common theoretical programme was based on the development towards a ‘modern state’ as well as his
two basic underlying assumptions. First, the reality of distinction between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ societies, for instance,
society was conceived as lying somehow behind, under, or are well known in this respect. However, in the course of
outside of the notions and ‘self-explanations’ given by a the anti-colonial liberation movements and the Western
group or society. Its essence could therefore only be social movements of the 1960s, the colonialist
grasped by means of theoretical construction (Karl Marx, involvements of the discipline were made a topic of
Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons). Second, society could anthropological debate.8 On the one hand, this criticism
be seen as a somehow stable and harmonious whole, which led to anthropology’s turning to the ‘others’ in one’s own
gained an internal dynamic and social change societies, peripheral communities and marginalized
predominantly through exogenous factors, such as colonial groups in ‘Western societies’.9 On the other hand, critical
subjugation. Although, in exceptional cases, as Max inquiry in the form of questioning the political-ethical
Gluckman already pointed out, societies do not remain in implications of field research 10 and the position of
a harmonious state of equilibrium, but establish themselves anthropology in global power configurations, as well as
through conflict and contradiction. The procedure of the critique of one’s one society, found its theoretical
analysis and cross-cultural comparison, therefore, was the framework – not least under the influence of Louis
construction of segregated, homogeneous and well- Althusser – in structural Marxism.
integrated entities. It was based on the presuppositions of In contrast to the materialist approaches of cultural
an epistemological break between ‘subject’ and ‘object’ and ecology, which analysed the adaptation of cultures to their
of congruence between historical distance and cultural natural-material environment (Marvin Harris, Roy A.
difference. Rappaport, Elman R. Service), Marxist perspectives

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emphasized the analysis of social relations in terms of recourse in their actions. In contrast, for instance, to Victor
structure and sought hierarchies of causes determining the Turner’s symbolic anthropology, in which symbols function
functioning and the development of societies. Thus, the as operators in processes of social transformation (e.g. status
hierarchies of the anthropological viewpoint were displaced. passages), the acts of dissolving social contradictions and
Privileged explanatory value was no longer assigned to familiarizing the individuals with the categories and norms
kinship organization, but especially to economic structures of society, public symbols are seen as vehicles of meanings
and modes of production. Theories of under-development that form the respective culture, its gestures, actions, events,
(Frantz Fanon), politico-sociological analyses (Immanuel etc.
Wallerstein) and the discovery of the peasantry (Henri This shift to a type of hermeneutics oriented towards
Medras, Teodor Shanin, Eric Wolf) highlighted the theories of language and meaning required a redefinition of
relation between centre and periphery (Jane Schneider/ the anthropological method, which abandoned the
Peter Schneider), the linkages between politico-economic separation of ‘understanding’ and ‘explanation’, of ‘subjective
macrostructures and the local-regional microstructures, empathy’ and ‘objective analysis’ and united both moments
and the consequences of capitalist penetration of societies of the research process in ‘thick description’. To look at
and communities. A perspective in which the respective cultures from ‘the natives’ point of view’, a demand already
microcosms were regarded in isolation from the larger raised by Malinowski, calls for the interpretation of the
social context was thus abandoned. At the same time, it symbolic forms – concepts, institutions, actions, forms of
became evident that societies could hardly be seen as behaviour – through which human beings represent
isolated, homogeneous entities with bounded identities, for themselves and communicate with each other. According to
they were historically constituted in mutual interaction.11 the analogy between text and action, developed with
Despite all the differences between functionalism, reference to Paul Ricoeur, the activity of the researcher
structuralism and Marxism (Claude Meillassoux, for consists, on the one hand, of reading the respective cultural
instance, criticized the ‘idealism’ of Lévi-Strauss’ reduction text: ‘The culture of a people is an ensemble of texts,
of social reality to abstractions), these approaches shared themselves ensembles, which the anthropologist strains to
the principle of a construction of structures, which preceded read over the shoulders of those to whom they properly
the analysis, and the disregard of the origin and development belong’.14 Inscription, on the other hand, as the textualization
of those structures. The (dialectical-) analytical categories of of actions and speech-acts of human beings, becomes the
division, opposition and mediation governed these theoretical ethnographic procedure.
constellations. The critique of such structural models, in Another perspective developed alongside this focus on
which the individuals are inescapably locked into the key aspects of the understanding of culture – symbol,
objectified and insurmountable structures that determine meaning, interpretation. This perspective similarly rejected a
their actions, then developed into two directions which view of society that denied the existence of acting subjects.
aimed, on the one hand, at a hermeneutically guided
understanding of the other and the revival of interpretative
approaches and intended, and on the other hand, at making A ction , interaction and
the acting subject visible again. negotiation

The analysis of social action, the orientations of action and

S ymbol , meaning and its meaning, and of interactions and their motivations had
interpretation already been emphasized in the perspectives of symbolic
interactionism (George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer,
The interpretative-hermeneutical turn in the attempt to Erving Goffman) and of transactionalism (Bruce Kapferer)
understand different life-worlds – by Clifford Geertz, in and their critiques of the Durkheimian and Parsonian
particular – shifted the balances between the familiar paradigms of sociology. No longer the determining effect of
anthropological concepts. In a return to the notion of institutions, norms and values stood in the foreground of
‘culture’ – the diffuse use of which was nevertheless criticized the problematization conditioned by individual choice and
(by Kluckhohn, for instance) – the symbolic dimensions of decision-making on the part of the concretely acting human
social action and the interpretation of symbol systems, by beings in their respective networks of relationships (Jack
the means of which human beings perceive and define their Goody, Frederick George Bailey, Fredrik Barth, Jeremy
worlds, moved centre stage. Referring to Max Weber, Boissevain).
Geertz sees the human being as ‘suspended in webs of Similarly, the ‘theory of practice’, as developed by Pierre
meaning he himself has spun.’ Culture is such a web, and Bourdieu in the form of a critique of structuralism, no
the analysis of it is ‘therefore not an experimental science in longer focused on objectified structures but on human
search of law but an interpretative one in search of action and the strategic use of norms, values and relations,
meaning’.12 Thus, culture is not conceived of as a cognitively allowing for their manipulation and legitimation as well as
and abstractly ordered system of hidden structures, ‘its logic their reproduction, thus leading to a linkage of the
[...] rather derives from the logic of organization of action, microanalysis of interactions to the macroanalysis of
from people operating within certain institutional orders, societies (Plate 97). In Bourdieu’s view, social action is not
interpreting their situations in order to act coherently’. 13 undetermined, since experiences are inscribed into bodies
From this perspective, the world is always already and institutions such that a ‘habitus’ forms as a specific
interpreted, and the notion of web does not refer to disposition to act. However, the habitus provides no
structures or systems in the structural-functionalist sense, it blueprint for behaviour but rather a set of resources with
is not an autonomous, reality-determining sphere, but a which situations can be understood and the applicability of
system of symbolic meanings to which human beings take rules judged. There is thus always room for strategies of the

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individuals; the ‘logic of practice’, unlike a structural model, of knowledge is intrinsically tied to power. Feminist-
unfolds in time and works through the judgment of oriented gender studies19 contributed to the abandoning of
situations under conditions of uncertainty about rule epistemological certainties by showing that anthropological
application. discourses took their own – male-dominated –
The shift from systemic approaches and the postulate of presuppositions and representations for the characteristics
the atemporality of objectified structures towards theories of the respective society. Thus, those social relations,
of action requires a move from synchronic-static to institutions and relations of production in which power and
diachronic-processual analyses, and the emphasis on the influence are concentrated are often conceptualized as ‘the’
specific acting human being brought the question of the society, excluding and rendering invisible the female as the
temporal organization of actions, the temporal structuration other and locking it into a male ‘general’.
of the life-course and the social conceptions of time and In the course of such anthropology, it was also attempted
history into view. Or, in Bourdieu’s words, ‘Practice unfolds to clarify the processes of gaining knowledge and of writing
in time and it has all the correlative properties, such as in all their aspects and to problematize the web of relations
irreversibility. Its temporal structure, that is, its rhythm, its between the researcher and the other as members of
tempo, and above all its directionality, is constitutive of its different cultures. Following Michel Foucault, the relations
meaning.’ ‘To reintroduce uncertainty is to reintroduce between researchers, ‘research objects’ and addressees of
time ... substituting the dialectic of strategies for the the research are regarded as part of an encompassing
mechanics of the model.’15 relationship between forms of practices and the powerful
The emphasis on temporality demanded a reconsideration ‘politics of interpretation’ (Paul Rabinow) and ‘discursive
of historicity in anthropology. Up to this point, historical formations and discursive strategies’ (Michel Foucault).
contexts had largely not been conceptualized as internal The search for knowledge is understood as a specific
processes in anthropological considerations of ‘history’, but historical form of social practice, representing particular
as external factors. Thus, it was not the historical practices forces in society.
of the respective society, but the impact of Western/colonial In this context, attention is focused on the processes of
history on that society that was analysed. At the same time, making and marking the other in time and space, the passing
contemporaneous societies or social groups were often from coevality in fieldwork to the distancing in analysis,
located on a developmental scale and in a unilinear line of conceptualization and text,20 and on the various strategies
progress – as ‘people without history’, characterized as of establishing ethnographic authority as well as on the
‘tribal’, ‘feudal’, ‘early-capitalist’ or ‘traditional’. Thus, they literary procedures and tropes (Hayden White) in
were placed ‘in another time’ and distanced as not being ethnographic representations. This emphasis on the
coeval. More recent historical works have, however, construction of the other obviously reflects one of the core
emphasized the mutual interdependencies as well as the problems not only of anthropology, but of scientific practices
historical trajectories specific to the various societies, which in general: the division of subject and object considered as
can hardly be subjected to a universally valid model of the distinct, coherent, stable and homogeneous entities, and the
course of history in its Western conception.16 attempt to overcome this dichotomic separation by
Even though action, interaction and negotiation stood at emphasizing the dialogical character of interaction in the
the centre of the analysis of culture and society in these research process and the shared construction of reality. In
theoretical constellations, the opposition of objectivity and these perspectives, cultural interpretations and the
subjectivity, of researcher and ‘researched’, of ‘we’ and ‘other’ interpretations of culture are located in many sorts of
were hardly questioned at all. Nevertheless, has the reciprocal contexts, obliging writers to find diverse ways of
recognition of the other as a historical actor in the ‘theory of rendering negotiated realities as multisubjective, contested,
practice’ and the insight in the social construction of power-laden and incongruent. In these views, the writings
knowledge been a step in the direction of a critical reflection on culture and society are considered as relational, as
on the ethnographic constitution and representation of the inscriptions of performed interactions in communicative
other and the questioning of the privileged standpoint of processes that develop historically between subjects in
the researching subject towards the ‘object’? relations of power.
But even in these approaches, organized around the
topics of discourse, text and representation, anthropological
D iscourse , text and reflexion and the revision of its modes of knowledge
representation generation appear to be reserved to those who are part of
this discursive tradition. The world, or so it seems, continues
The movements for liberation and ‘the critique of colonialism to be ordered from the point of view of Western
in the post-war period, which undermined the West’s anthropologists, and particular systems of knowledge
authority to represent other societies, has been reinforced remain subordinated to the exigencies of critical
by an important process of epistemological questioning and metatheory.
reflexive theorizing about the limits of representation Members of various societies have long analysed their
itself ’.17 In the course of this reflexive movement since the ‘own’ culture.21 Although the epistemological paradigms
end of the 1960s, the anthropological research practices Lévi-Strauss once recommended in a hegemonic gesture –
themselves have been made a topic in hermeneutical- ‘wherever populations remain physically strong while their
interpretative and language-philosophical studies as well as culture rapidly veers towards our own, anthropology,
in post-structural critiques of discourse.18 progressively taken over by local scholars, should adopt
Edward Said’s critical study of Western knowledge aims and methods similar to those which, from the
about the representation of the exotic, about ‘Orientalism’, Renaissance on, have proved fruitful for the study of our
demonstrated that the recognition of the other as the object own culture’ 22 – are being questioned, the dominating

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 thematic section

influence of Western disciplines and their conceptual 8. T. Asad (ed.), Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter,
categories, which are considered as being universal tools for London, 1973.
cognition and explanation of social life, on the respective 9. A. Blok, ‘Anthropology in Western Europe: Recent
systems of knowledge has only recently become a subject of Trends and Perspectives’, in M. Dierkes and B. Biervert
interest to scholars. (eds), European Social Science in Transition: Assessment and
‘Other cultures gain legitimacy only as objects of Outlook, Frankfurt, Germany, and Boulder, CA, 1992,
thought – never as tools of thinking ... The conditions for pp. 123–42.
the participation of the non-Western anthropologist in the 10. G. Huizer and B. Mannheim (eds), The Politics of
sociological discourse is the active renunciation of the Anthropology: From Colonialism and Sexism toward a View
present potential of his or her culture’.23 ‘Why cannot from Below, The Hague, 1979.
African concepts of society, social groups, social processes, 11. E. R. Wolf, Europe and the People without History,
and the like, derived from African ways of codifying reality, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1982.
be used to draw our attention to other distinctive elements 12. C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, Selected
in the disciplinary matrix of sociology?’ 24 Does the Essays, New York, 1973, p. 5.
description of their ‘own culture’ demand of its members to 13. S. B. Ortner, op. cit., p. 130.
distance themselves from their ‘own’ traditions of knowledge 14. C. Geertz, op. cit., p. 452.
and to move solely within the representations and modes of 15. P. Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice, Cambridge, UK,
writings in which they have been written about? Thus, the 1990, pp. 81, 99.
fundamental question of anthropology of the relation 16. M. Sahlins, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities:
between ‘self’ and ‘other’ is posed anew, and the exploration Structure in the Early History of the Sandwich Islands
of this relation becomes a new challenge to a mode of Kingdom, Ann Arbor, MI, 1981; R. Price, First-Time: The
thought that refuses the construction of homogeneous Historical Vision of an Afro-American People, Baltimore,
identities and categorical differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’, MD, 1983; R. Rosaldo, Ilongot Headhunting, 1883–1974: A
‘the West and the rest’ as well as the incorporation and Study in Society and History, Palo Alto, CA, 1980.
annihilation of differences. Culture ‘is not an object to be 17. J. Clifford and G. Marcus (eds), Writing Culture: The
described, neither is it a unified corpus of symbols and Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, Berkeley and Los Angeles,
meaning that can be definitively interpreted. Culture is CA, 1986, p. 10.
contested, temporal and emergent. Representation and 18. J. Clifford and G. Marcus, op. cit.; M. Manganaro
explanation – both by insiders and outsiders – is implicated (ed.), Modernist Anthropology: From Fieldwork to Text,
in this emergence’.25 If anthropology, however, is at work at Princeton, NJ, 1990; G. E. Marcus and D. Cushmann,
the creation and conservation of interpretations, at building ‘Ethnographies as Texts’, in Annual Review of Anthropology,
an archive and a library of meanings, then it is high time for No. 11, 1982, pp. 25–69; J. Ruby (ed.), A Crack in
those meanings and interpretations to be no longer merely the Mirror: Reflexive Perspectives in Anthropology,
catalogued but also brought to use. Philadelphia, PA, 1982; B. Tedlock, ‘From Participant
Observation to the Observation of Participation: The
Emergence of Narrative Ethnography’, in Journal of
Anthropological Research, Vol. 47, No. 1, 1991, pp. 69–94;
S. Tylor, The Said and the Unsaid, New York, 1978;
S. Webster, ‘Realism and Reification in the Ethnographic
Genre’, in Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1986,
pp. 39–62.
NOTES 19. M. Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (eds), Women,
Culture and Society, Palo Alto, CA, 1974.
1. G. W. Stocking, ‘The Ethnographer’s Magic: 20. J. Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology
Fieldwork in British Anthropology from Tylor to Makes Its Object, New York, 1983.
Malinowski’, in G. W. Stocking (ed.), Oberservers Observed: 21. J. Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of
Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork, Madison, WI, 1983, the Gikuyu, London, 1979; M. C. Yang, A Chinese Village,
p. 109. Taitou, Shantung Province, New York, 1945; D. R. Arkush,
2. A. A. Akiwowo (ed.), ‘Sociology in Africa Today’, in Fei Xiaotong and Sociology in Revolutionary China,
Current Sociology, Vol. 28, pp. 23–77, 1980; T. K. Oommen Cambridge, MA, 1981; S. Altorki, Women in Saudi Arabia:
and P. N. Mukherji (eds), Indian Sociology-Reflections and Ideology and Behaviour among the Elite, New York, 1986.
Introspections, Bombay, 1986. 22. C. Lévi-Strauss, ‘Anthropology: Its Achievements
3. C. Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (trans. and Future’, in Current Anthropology, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr.),
C. Jacobson and B. Grundfest Schoepf), New York, 1967, 1966, p. 126.
p. 378–84. 23. V. Das, ‘Der anthropologische Diskurs über Indien:
4. F. W. Voget, A History of Ethnology, New York, 1975, Die Vernuft und ihr Anderes’, in E. Fuchs and M. Fuchs
p. 400. (eds), Kultur, soziale Praxis: Text Die Krise der
5. See L. Mair, ‘The Social Sciences in Africa South of ethnographischen Repräsentation, Frankfurt, Germany, 1993,
the Sahara: The British Contribution’, in Human pp. 410. See also T. K. Oommen, Alien Concepts and South
Organization, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1960, pp. 97–107. Asian Reality: Responses and Reformulations, Thousand
6. S. B. Ortner, ‘Theory in Anthropology since the Oaks, CA, and New Delhi, 1995.
Sixties’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 24. A. A. Akiwowo (ed.), ‘Sociology in Africa Today’, in
No. 26, 1984, p. 135. Current Sociology, Vol. 28, 1980, p. 5.
7. Ibid., p. 136. 25. J. Clifford and G. Marcus, op. cit., p. 19.

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B ibliography Mair, L. 1960. The Social Sciences in Africa South of the Sahara: The
British Contribution. In: Human Organization, Vol. 19, No. 3,
Akiwowo, A. A. (ed.). 1980. Sociology in Africa Today. In: Current pp. 97–107.
Sociology, Vol. 28, pp. 23–77. Malinowski, B. 1967. A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term.
Altorki, S. 1986. Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behaviour Routledge, London.
among the Elite. Columbia University Press, New York. Manganaro, M. (ed.). 1990. Modernist Anthropology: From Fieldwork
Arkush, D. R. 1981. Fei Xiaotong and Sociology in Revolutionary China. to Text. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Marcus, G. E. and Cushmann, D. 1982. Ethnographies as Texts. In:
Asad, T. (ed.). 1973. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. Ithaca Annual Review of Anthropology, No. 11, pp. 25–69.
Press, London. Oommen, T. K. 1995. Alien Concepts and South Asian Reality: Responses
Bloch, M. (ed.). 1975. Marxist Analyses and Social Anthropology and Reformulations. Sage ,Thousand Oaks, CA, New Delhi.
Malaby Press, London.  and Mukherji, P. N. (eds). 1986. Indian Sociology-Reflections and
Blok, A. 1992. Anthropology in Western Europe: Recent Trends and Introspections. Popular Prakashan, Bombay.
Perspectives. In: DIERKES, M. and BIERVERT, B. (eds). European Ortner, S. B. 1984. Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties.
Social Science in Transition: Assessment and Outlook. Campus, In: Comparative Studies in Society and History, No. 26,
Frankfurt, Germany/Westview, Boulder, CO, pp. 123–42. pp. 126–60.
Bourdieu, P. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Polity Press, Cambridge, Price, R. 1983. First-Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American
UK. People. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
Chu, D. S. K. (ed.). 1983–1984. Sociology and Society in Contemporary Rosaldo, M. Z. and Lamphere, L. (eds). 1974. Women, Culture and
China 1979–1989. In: Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 16, Society. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA.
Nos. 1–2. Rosaldo, R. 1980. Ilongot Headhunting, 1883–1974: A Study in Society
Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (eds). 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and History. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA.
and Politics of Ethnography. University of California Press, Berkeley Ruby, J. (ed.). 1982. A Crack in the Mirror: Reflexive Perspectives in
and Los Angeles, CA. Anthropology. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA.
Das, V. 1993. Der anthropologische Diskurs über Indien. Die Vernuft Sahlins, M. 1981. Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities:
und ihr Anderes. In: FUCHS, E. and FUCHS, M. (eds). Kultur, soziale Structure in the Early History of the Sandwich Islands Kingdom. The
Praxis, Text Die Krise der ethnographischen Repräsentation. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.
Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, pp. 402–25. Said, E. W. 1979. Orientalism. Vintage, New York.
Diamond, S. (ed.). 1979. Toward a Marxist Anthropology: Problems Stocking, G. W. (ed.). 1983. Observers Observed: Essays on
and Perspectives. Mouton, The Hague/Paris/New York. Ethnographic Fieldwork. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison,
Fabian, J. 1983. Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its WI.
Object. Columbia University Press, New York. Tedlock, B. 1991. From Participant Observation to the Observation
Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. Basic of Participation: The Emergence of Narrative Ethnography. In:
Books, New York. Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 69–94.
Gellner, E. (ed.). 1980. Soviet and Western Anthropology. Columbia Tylor, S. 1978. The Said and the Unsaid. Academic Press, New
University Press, New York. York.
Guha, R. (ed.). 1989. Subaltern Studies: Writings on South Asian Voget, F. W. 1975. A History of Ethnology. Holt, Rinehart and
History and Society. Vol. 6. Oxford University Press, Delhi. Winston, New York.
Huizer, G. and Mannheim, B. (eds). 1979. The Politics of Anthropology. Webster, S. 1986. Realism and Reification in the Ethnographic
From Colonialism and Sexism toward a View from Below. Mouton, Genre. In: Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 39–62.
The Hague. Wolf, E. R. 1982. Europe and the People without History. University of
Kenyatta, J. 1979. Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA.
Gikuyu. Heinemann, London. Yang, M. C. 1945. A Chinese Village, Taitou, Shantung Province.
lévi-strauss, c. Du miel aux cendres, PUF, Paris. Columbia University Press, New York.

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 19.3
Archaeology

Andrew Colin Renfrew

During the course of this century, it has at last become twentieth century. However, the most fundamental
possible to construct a coherent account of the history of technique – systematic stratigraphic excavation – was
humankind from its origins millions of years ago among the developed in the nineteenth century, so that by 1914
anthropoid apes to the present-day world. Over the greater significant archaeological research was underway in many
part of this period, the methods of archaeology offer the parts of the globe.2 Already in 1859, two fundamental
only source of information available to us, as written records principles had been established: the theory of evolution was
only go back to about 3000 bc. The development of the set out systematically by Charles Darwin in The Origin of
discipline of archaeology has of course been furthered by Species and was soon applied to human culture and society
the success of the important and dramatic excavations of as well as to the emergence of our species. The distant past
such sites as the royal graves at Ur in Iraq or the discovery of humankind was established the same year, when the flint
of the treasures in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh artifacts found in the gravel quarries of the River Somme in
Tutankhamun – both undertaken in the 1920s1 – or the France demonstrated that human history extended into the
discovery of the early hominid fossils in the Olduvai Gorge ice ages far beyond the traditional date of Creation, which
in Kenya and other sites in East Africa. biblical scholars had placed at 4004 bc.
Discovery through fieldwork is only one part of the
history of the discipline, however, and may ultimately be
considered less significant than theoretical and THE RISE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL
methodological advances. The application of new research SCIENCE
techniques, notably radiocarbon dating, has indeed
revolutionized the archaeological enterprise, allowing the The principal problem for archaeology has always centred
discovery and successful investigation of occupation sites in on dating. The method of stratigraphic excavation offers a
every part of the world. New intellectual approaches have means of arranging archaeological finds into a sequence,
transformed the way we think about the past and our what one may term ‘relative dating’, but the problem of
perception of our place in it as human beings. These advances assigning a date in calendar years – that is to say of ‘absolute
have permitted the emergence of what we may term a ‘global dating’ – was the crucial one for a long time. Various
view’, allowing contemporary changes and developments techniques, relying on solar radiation, the rate at which
around the world to be compared with one another. The sediments are deposited, and the supposed durations of
story of the peopling of the Earth can be told with increasing glacial and interglacial periods, were painstakingly developed.
precision, and the process by which significant developments, It was not until the advent of radiometric dating – with the
such as the origins of farming or the development of cities, use of methods based upon the constant rates of radioactive
have occurred at different places and times may be decay of suitable isotopes – that reliable methods became
considered. In 1961, the British archaeologist Grahame available. For distant time periods, measured in millions of
Clark published the first edition of his World Prehistory. years, slow decaying isotopes are appropriate, and the
This constituted a landmark, for it initiated an era in which potassium-argon method is one of the most important.
a worldwide vision, largely supported by radiocarbon dating, However, for artifacts or sites of the past 40,000 years,
became possible. All these achievements were established, radiocarbon dating, developed in 1949 by Willard Libby,3
however, upon the solid foundation laid in the early has pride of place. For the first time, it became possible to
development of archaeology during the nineteenth century. use a laboratory-based method, operating quite
independently of historical assumptions about the
archaeological samples in question, to assign dates to organic
the foundations materials found during excavations. Finds in the Americas
or in Australia could be dated on the same basis as finds in
Modern archaeology is based upon a range of techniques. the Old World. Reliable chronologies could now be
Some of these, like radiocarbon dating, are products of the established for areas for which no written records of any

260
 T h e d i s c i pl i n e s o f t h e s c i e n c e s o f s o c i e t y

kind existed until recent eras. Fundamental changes in our and turned to the philosophy of science for an intellectual
vision of world prehistory emerged during the 1960s and framework that was less subjective than what they sometimes
1970s as a result, and the ‘radiocarbon revolution’ enabled described as the ‘pseudo-history’ of their predecessors. More
researchers to date the striking ‘megalithic’ tombs of north- rigorous, often computer-aided, analysis was one of their
western Europe, for example, far earlier than the pyramids objectives, with an emphasis upon research design and the
of Egypt, which had previously been thought to have served testing of hypotheses. Although controversial, this was, in
as the model for the European tombs. many ways, a breath of fresh air, but the rather unimaginative
Prospecting methods, and in particular the use of aerial application of some of these principles12 led to objections
photography and satellite imaging, have allowed experts to that this approach was ‘scientific’ and undervalued the role
discover archaeological sites much more efficiently. A series of the human individual. 13 Certainly there was some
of techniques, some of which were developed in the justification to the criticism that the ‘New Archaeology’ had
nineteenth century, can be used to reconstruct the overlooked the importance of the symbolic aspects in human
environment and the diet of early populations. Since the thought and action, and the last two decades of the century
Second World War, the new discipline of archaeological have seen the development of ‘post-processual’ or interpretive
science has developed, with such sub-fields as environment archaeologies,14 which take a more subjective approach,
archaeology, geo-archaeology and archaeometallurgy. avoiding what they see as the false objectivity of science,
Research in these fields is now published in such specialized sometimes urging that archaeological research should have
periodicals as Archaeometry and The Journal of Archaeological a motivation that is overtly political.15
Science. Mention should also be made of the application of The ‘interpretive’ critique of processual archaeology has
molecular biology, which offers promising new opportunities certainly infused new life into the theoretical debates that
for archaeological science.4 have characterized archaeology over the last third of the
century. However, in the eyes of some,16 hostility towards
scientific method, and emphasis on the subjectivity of
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS interpretation can lead to a dangerous relativism where
‘anything goes’. Meanwhile several specialists, continuing
The great archaeological synthesizer of the twentieth to work within the traditions of what can be termed
century was undoubtedly the Australian-born Vere Gordon cognitive-processual archaeology, have sought to explore
Childe (1892–1957). His first contribution5 was to produce the symbolic and cognitive devices of early societies.17 One
an overview of the development of prehistoric Europe,6 of the most notable features of archaeology at the end of
building on the achievements of such predecessors as the the century is the lively nature of such discussions and the
Swede Oscar Montelius. In doing so, he formulated and emergence of varying new approaches, including feminist
defined the concept of the archaeological ‘culture’. He saw archaeology.
prehistoric Europe as fundamentally influenced by ancient While these debates have been most spirited in Britain
Western Asia, by a process which he termed ‘the irradiation and in the United States, it should be noted that the Marxist
of European barbarism by Oriental civilization’. His second tradition in archaeology was also inherently processual
great contribution was to achieve an unparalleled rather than diffusionist, and neo-Marxist thinkers in France,
understanding of farming, whose importance he was the Denmark and Mexico have conducted their own re-analysis
first to emphasize in his term ‘the Neolithic Revolution’. of traditional archaeologies.
Later referring to the rise of complex society and civilization,
he coined the term ‘Urban Revolution’.7
The first of these achievements, based upon a general THE EMERGENCE OF WORLD
view of the diffusion of culture from the Near East to ARCHAEOLOGY
Europe, has not stood the test of time, and more particularly
the radiocarbon revolution, although the importance of With the end of the colonial empires, the later part of the
Childe’s European synthesis remains considerable. The century has witnessed the development in many parts of the
second, Childe’s view as expressed in What Happened in world, along with a new national awareness, of a renewed
History (1942), marked a turning point. It helped to inspire interest in the past, and particularly in the past of indigenous
some of the major post-war fieldwork projects on the origins communities. In Africa, for instance, the artistic
of agriculture, such as that organized by Robert J. Braidwood achievements of the kingdoms of Ife and Benin, in what is
in Iraqi Kurdistan. Similarly, it helped to encourage research now Nigeria, are now more widely recognized as
into the origins of civilization not only in the Near East but sophisticated products well worth comparison with the
in the Americas as well.8 accomplished works of ancient western Asia or the classical
A radical re-assessment of the existing traditions of world. The nation of Zimbabwe today takes its name from
archaeological thought was undertaken in the 1960s by a major monument that dates back to before the time of
Lewis Binford in a series of papers published in American European influence. Prior to independence the origins of
Antiquity.9 The so-called ‘New Archaeology’ or ‘processual Zimbabwe, which had been documented by Gertrude
archaeology’, initiated by Binford and his colleagues10 in the Caton Thompson in 1931, were officially denied, and a
United States and by British and Scandinavian scholars,11 European origin was claimed on the basis of what can only
was critical of the diffusionist thought and of the emphasis be termed racist assumptions. With the passing of colonialist
upon classification favoured by traditional archaeologists. thought, the importance and interest of local archaeologies
They preferred to emphasize the processes of change is much more widely recognized, and areas formerly little-
operating within societies, including demographic, social and explored archaeologically, such as South-East Asia, or the
technological processes. They embraced the environmental islands of the Pacific, are now being more intensively
approach offered by developments in archaeological science investigated.

261
 thematic section

Other areas, such as China, have antiquarian traditions period, some 40,000 years ago, the picture is much clearer,
going back many centuries. Modern archaeology, however, and it is now possible to give a reliable outline of the human
based on systematic fieldwork using stratigraphic excavation, colonization of the globe.21 This new understanding of
began there with the research of Andersson in 1934 and has humankind’s past, which is continuously being corrected
since made significant strides. Archaeology in China and refined, and to which molecular biology is beginning to
flourished greatly under communist rule. Indeed it has make a contribution, is one of the principal achievements
generally been the case that Marxist regimes have followed of more than a century of archaeological research. It allows
the lead given by Marx and Engels themselves in emphasizing us to assert with great confidence the fundamental unity of
the importance of archaeology for an understanding of the the whole of humankind and to document in a detailed way
foundations of society. In the Soviet Union, there was the manner in which each continent and country of our
considerable investment of resources during and after the world came to be peopled.
Stalinist era, although it is fair to say that intellectual debate
was somewhat restricted. Fieldwork and archaeological
science, however, flourished.
Archaeology is also increasingly contributing to our
understanding of those periods for which written evidence
is available. This has always been the case for the ancient
civilizations of Egypt and Western Asia. But the archaeology
of the classical world (i.e. ancient Greece and Rome) is
developing to the extent that many conclusions are now NOTES
drawn as much from archaeological as from written evidence.
The same is true for the medieval period in Europe, and 1. G. E. Daniel, A Hundred and Fifty Years of Archaeology,
industrial archaeology is now a well-established field both London, 1975.
there and in the United States. 2. G. E. Daniel and C. Renfrew, The Idea of Prehistory,
Mention has been made of research into the agricultural Edinburgh, Scotland, 1988.
and urban revolutions, which we now know took place 3. W. F. Libby, Radiocarbon Dating, (2nd ed.), Chicago,
independently in several parts of the world. The problem of IL, 1955.
orientation arising from the new questions resulting from 4. L. L. Cavalli-Sforza et al., The History and Geography
theoretical considerations is as important as the new of Human Genes, Princeton, NJ, 1994.
research techniques made available by archaeological 5. S. Green, Prehistorian: A Biography of V. Gordon
science. Childe, Bradford-on-Avon, UK, 1981.
However, archaeology’s greatest contribution during 6. V. G. Childe, The Dawn of European Civilisation,
this century has been to expand our understanding of the London, 1925.
origins of humankind. Many of the earliest discoveries of 7. V. G. Childe, Man Makes Himself, London, 1936.
fossil humans were made in Europe in the nineteenth 8. R. M. Adams, The Evolution of Urban Society, London,
century: the distinction between the two Upper Palaeolithic 1966.
varieties, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man (our own 9. L. R. Binford, An Archaeological Perspective, New
species, Homo sapiens sapiens), were by then well established, York, 1972.
and their origins in Europe are now known to date back as 10. L. R. Binford and S. R. Binford (eds), New Perspectives
far as 40,000 years ago. However, the first examples of in Archaeology, Chicago, IL, 1968.
ancestral forms, initially termed Pithecanthropus (‘ape man’) 11. D. L. Clarke, Analytical Archaeology, London, 1968.
and now called Homo erectus, came to light at the turn of 12. P. J. Watson et al., Explanation in Archaeology: An
the century in Java, and were followed by the discovery of Explicitly Scientific Approach, New York, 1971.
‘Peking man’ in the 1930s through the excavations at 13. I. Hodder (ed.), Symbolic and Structural Archaeology,
Choukoutien in China. Homo erectus, which has since been Cambridge, UK, 1982.
further documented by discoveries in Africa, is now known 14. I. Hodder, Theory and Practice in Archaeology, London,
to have flourished between 1.5 million and 500,000 years 1992.
ago. In 1925, Raymond Dart announced the discovery in 15. M. Shanks and C. Tilley, Social Theory and Archaeology,
Southern Africa of fossilised remains of Australopithecus, Cambridge, UK, 1987.
which is now recognized as a still earlier and ancestral 16. J. A. Bell, Reconstructing Prehistory: Scientific Method in
hominid whose origins (in the form of the famous fossil Archaeology, Philadelphia, PA, 1994.
‘Lucy’) can be traced back 3.5 million years ago in Ethiopia.18 17. K. V. Flannery and J. Marcus (eds), The Cloud People:
The development from Australopithecus to Homo erectus Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilisations,
has been comprehensively documented in the important New York, 1983; C. Renfrew and E. B. W. Zubrow (eds.),
excavations of Louis and Mary Leakey in the Olduvai The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology,
Gorge in Kenya.19 It now appears clear that the earliest Cambridge, UK, 1994.
stages in human evolution took place in Africa, and it was 18. D. C. Johanson and M. Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of
from there that Homo erectus migrated to western Asia, to Humankind, London, 1981.
East and South-East Asia and to Europe. Our own species 19. R. E. Leakey, The Making of Mankind, London, 1981.
developed from Homo erectus, and this process also seems 20. P. A. Mellars, and C. Stringer (eds), The Human
to have taken place in Africa, about 100,000 years ago, Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the
although how far parallel and related developments may Origins of Modern Humans, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1989.
have been occurring in Europe and Asia is not yet fully 21. C. Gamble, Timewalkers, Harmondsworth, UK,
understood.20 With the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic 1995.

262
 T h e d i s c i pl i n e s o f t h e s c i e n c e s o f s o c i e t y

BIBLIOGRAPHY GALLAY, A. 1993. La conquête du passé: Aux origines de l’archéologie

[The Conquest of the Past: On the Origins of Archaeology].
ADAMS, R. M. 1966. The Evolution of Urban Society. Weidenfeld and Editions Carré, Paris.
Nicolson, London. GAMBLE, C. 1995. Timewalkers. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth,
ANDERSSON, J. G. 1934. Children of the Yellow Earth. Kegan Paul, UK.
London. GOWLETT, J. 1993. Ascent to Civilisation: the Archaeology of Early Man.
BAHN, P. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. GREEN, S. 1981. Prehistorian: A Biography of V. Gordon Childe.
BELL, J. A. 1994. Reconstructing Prehistory: Scientific Method in Moonraker Press, Bradford-on-Avon, UK.
Archaeology. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA. HODDER, I. (ed.). 1982. Symbolic and Structural Archaeology. Cambridge
BINFORD, L. R. 1972. An Archaeological Perspective. Academic Press, University Press, Cambridge, UK.
New York.  1992. Theory and Practice in Archaeology. Routledge, London.
 and BINFORD, S. R. (eds). 1968. New Perspectives in Archaeology. JOHANSON, D. C. and EDEY, M. 1981. Lucy: The Beginnings of
Aldine, Chicago, IL. Humankind. Granada Publishing, London.
CATON-THOMPSON, G. 1931. The Zimbabwe Culture. Clarendon KLEJN, A. 1977. A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology. In: Current
Press, Oxford. Anthropology, Vol. 18, p. 12.
CAVALLI-SFORZA, L. L., MENOZZI, P. and PIAZZA, A. 1994. The History LEAKEY, R. E. 1981. The Making of Mankind. Michael Joseph,
and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press, London.
Princeton, NJ. LIBBY, W. F. 1955. Radiocarbon Dating. (2nd ed.). Chicago University
CHILDE, V. G. 1925. The Dawn of European Civilisation. Routledge and Press, Chicago, IL.
Kegan Paul, London. MELLARS, P. A. and STRINGER, C. (eds). 1989. The Human
 1936. Man Makes Himself. Watts and Co., London. Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins
 1942. What Happened in History. Pelican Books, Harmondsworth, of Modern Humans. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh,
UK. Scotland.
CLARK, J. G. D. 1961. World Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, RENFREW, C. and BAHN, P. 1996. Archaeology, Theories, Methods and
Cambridge. Practice. Thames and Hudson, London.
CLARKE, D. L. 1968. Analytical Archaeology. Methuen, London.  and ZUBROW, E. B. W. (eds). 1994. The Ancient Mind: Elements of
DANIEL, G. E. 1975. A Hundred and Fifty Years of Archaeology. Cognitive Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Duckworth, London. UK.
 and RENFREW, C. 1988. The Idea of Prehistory. Edinburgh SHANKS, M. and TILLEY, C. 1987. Social Theory and Archaeology. Polity
University Press, Edinburgh, Scotland. Press, Cambridge, UK.
FAGAN, B. M. 1990. The Journey from Eden: The Peopling of Our World. TIGGER, B. G. 1989. A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge
Thames and Hudson, London. University Press, Cambridge, UK.
 1995. People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory. (8th WATSON, P. J., LEBLANC, S. A. and REDMAN, C. L. 1971. Explanation in
ed.). Harper Collins, New York. Archaeology: An Explicitly Scientific Approach. Columbia University
FLANNERY, K. V. and MARCUS, J. (eds). 1983. The Cloud People: Press, New York.
Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilisations. WILLEY, G. R. and SABLOFF, J. A. 1993. A History of American
Academic Press, New York. Archaeology. (3rd ed.). W. H. Freeman, New York.

263
 19.4
DemographicS

Tian Xueyuan

The history of demography dates back to John Graunt, who later, French scholar A. Landry explored population
is recognized as the ‘father of demography’ due to his transition in his discussion of three different stages of
publication Natural and Political Observations Made upon population development. Through a different method,
the Bills of Mortality of 1662. Since then, the subject of Warren Thompson in America reached similar results.
demography has developed as an independent discipline. Thompson grouped the world’s population into three
For the last 200 years, however, demographic specialists regional types with different fertility and mortality levels
have concentrated more on population studies from a corresponding to specific transitional stages.
sociological and economic perspective than on statistics. In
particular, the study of demographics has been greatly
influenced by Thomas Robert Malthus’ An Essay on the The theory of optimum population
Principle of Population, an immensely popular yet
controversial work first published in 1798 and reprinted six The debate over Malthusian population theory prompted
times over the following 28 years. Malthus’ principle of some economists and demographers to ponder the crucial
population nurtured debate between anti-Malthusianism question of the optimum size of population. Edwin Cannan’s
and neo-Malthusianism, whose proponents adapted the 1914 book entitled Wealth is generally regarded the first
principle to modern contexts. At the dawn of the twentieth publication to address the issue of optimum population.
century, the field of demographics was entering a new phase Cannan defined optimum population as the population size
not only because of the ongoing debate over Malthus’ capable of generating the maximum industrial and
principle but also due to successive breakthroughs in agricultural return. The notion of optimum population was
population studies. further developed by Carr-Saunders in his Population
The demographic developments in the twentieth century Problems. According to Carr-Saunders, the optimum
can be divided into two distinct periods: before and after population is determined by the maximum individual
the Second World War. The major demographic benefits or the highest living standard. Owing to the fact
breakthroughs that occurred in the first period gave rise to that it did not stress the issue of over- or underpopulation,
the interdisciplinary character in the field after the the theory of optimum population enjoyed popularity in
Second World War. the field of demography during the 1920s and 1930s.

E xtensive D emographic Economic school

B rea k throughs prior to
the  S E C O N D W orld W ar The demographic factors were generally dealt with as
dependent variables in the theories of classical economics
Malthus’ principle made such a great sensation when it was and ‘vulgar economics’. It was not until the early twentieth
formulated in the late eighteenth century largely because of century that some economists began to deal with demographic
the rapid growth of Europe’s population at that time. factors as independent variables of economic growth, which
However, this situation changed substantially at the represented great progress. John Maynard Keynes, author of
beginning of the twentieth century. Although world the landmark work The General Theory of Employment,
population was still growing in an unprecedented manner, Interest and Money (1936), was perhaps the most influential
the population birth rates and natural growth rates in figure in this period. Keynes argued that the economic crisis
Europe, and especially western and northern Europe, were and depression of 1929–33 was caused by insufficient
decreasing, thus resulting in low population growth. It was effective demand, which in turn was determined by such
in this context that the demographic transition theory was factors as population, consumption level and technological
formed. In his article on demographic theories published in composition of capital. Moreover, he believed that decreasing
1909 and in Demographic Revolution published 20 years population growth rates were critical to reach sufficient

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effective demand. Keynes thus explained the determinant theoretical model of population transition described in his
role of population factors in economic development, which publications Population: The Long View and Economic
also constituted a part of his ‘stagnant economy’. American Problems of Population Change. The population transition
and British economists A. B. Hansen and R. F. Harrod theory attained worldwide recognition through the
developed Keynesian ideas further within the influential Population Growth and Economic Development in Low Income
economic school of demography. Countries by A. J. Coale and E. Hoover, who applied the
theory to developing societies.

Sociological school
Progress in economics of demography
During this same period, population studies from a
sociological perspective also made great breakthroughs. In The relationship between population change and economic
his theory of ‘social capillarity’ (la capillarite sociale) proposed development has been a focus of demography since the
in the early twentieth century, French sociologist A. field’s inception. New advances in the economics of
Dumont explained that the individual’s pursuit of self- demography since the Second World War were made at
development was linked to his desire and that so-called both the macro and micro levels. At the macro level, the
social capillary action was conducive to the decline of outstanding contemporary demographic economist
fertility. During this period, the diverse approaches by J. J. Spengler analysed the relationship between population
sociologists in their analyses of demographic issues greatly and food supply in Economics and Demography, published in
encouraged studies on the themes of fertility, population the 1950s. He stressed the need for population growth
transition and optimum population. control by arguing that a population increase would lead to
serious problems related to food, land, water and mineral
resources given the increased demand for food resulting
Mathematical school from higher income. The introduction of development
economics opened up a new field in the economics of
For about 200 years, demography, as the study of statistics, demography. In his studies on the relationship between
had made no revolutionary breakthrough until the early population and economic growth in developing countries,
twentieth century, when A. J. Lotka formulated his stable Coale emphasized the influence of population on economic
population theory and Raymond Pearl and Lowell J. Reed growth by arguing that savings and investment must grow
rediscovered the logistic curve. By mathematical deduction, by an annual rate of 3 per cent if population growth rates
Lotka worked out a basic formula for a stable population remained 1 per cent, given a of capital input-output ratio of
model and demonstrated the need to achieve stable age 3:1. W. A. Lewis developed demographic macroeconomics
structure in a closed population in the case of constant age- by placing such factors as population and labour into a
specific fertility and residual death rates, providing the framework of modern development economics in his
reproductive term is sufficiently long. By explaining the S- analysis of the shift of labour from traditional to modern
shape curve of population change from low to high and industries.
back to low growth, Pearl and Reed resurrected the logistic At the micro level, H. Leibenstein constructed his theory
curve idea elaborated in the nineteenth century and thus of children’s costs and benefits by classifying the costs as
provided a new methodology for exploring population direct or indirect and by dividing the benefits into six
transition using mathematics and statistics. categories, e.g. labour-economic and consumption-
enjoyment benefits. In exploring children’s costs and benefits
among families of different social levels, Leibenstein
POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS – explained the process of the decision to reproduce. In his
INTERDISCIPLINARITY analysis, G. S. Becker introduced the concepts of invariable
or quantity costs and variable or quality costs. Moreover, he
Demographics in the period following the Second World attempted to prove that the substitution between the
War adopted an interdisciplinary approach on the basis of quantity and the quality costs and the general law of
breakthroughs made in the first half of the century. After increasing quality require flexibility. It was this law that
the war, world population growth accelerated due to the expressed the necessary shift of investment from quantity
baby boom. The problems of poverty, unemployment, to quality costs, which ultimately determined fertility
famine and pollution became so serious that Malthusian decline. Other noteworthy concepts in demographic
population theory was resurrected. Two proponents of microeconomics are R. A. Easterline’s theory of children’s
neo-Malthusianism, F. A. Pearson and F. A. Harber, supply and demand, the ‘inter-generation inflows of
published a series of works on the themes of world hunger property’ by  J. C. Caldwell, and ‘household economics’ by
and the global population crisis in the 1940s. In the 1970s, T. W. Schultz.
pessimistic population theory expounded in works such as
The Doomsday Book by G. Taylor and Limits to Growth by
D. H. Meadows et al. were influential. Formation and development of sociological
demography

‘Demographic transition theory’ The population studies from a sociological perspective such
as the ‘social capillarity theory’ did not result in the formation
On the basis of the work of A. Landry and W. Thompson, of sociological demography in the period after the
American demographer F. W. Notestein constructed the Second World War. At that time, many sociologists

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interested in the field of demography, such as K. Davis and BIBLIOGRAPHY

P. Hauser, tried to provide sociological explanations for
population size, quality and structure. In the 1960s and Becker, G. S. 1965. A Theory of the Allocation of Time. In: Economic
1970s, Davis addressed the issue of population and stability Journal, No. 75, pp. 493–517.
and the relationships between population and urbanization Cannan, E. 1920. Wealth: A Brief Explanation of the Causes of
in his analysis on the themes of ‘population urbanization’ Economic Welfare. King, London.
and ‘crisis in world population.’ Coale, A. J. and Hoover, E. M. 1958. Population Growth and Economic
Development in Low-Income Countries. Princeton University Press,
Princeton, NJ.
Development of mathematical demography Dumont, A. 1990. Dépopulation et civilisation: Etude démographique
[1890]. New edition presented by A. Béjin. Economica, Paris.
Owing to the extensive application of mathematical Easterlin, R. A. and CrimMINS, E. M. 1985. Fertility Revolution: A
methodology, demographers improved their traditional Supply-Demand Analysis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
methods by means of computer technology. As IL.
mathematicians and scientists in systematic dynamics began Hansen, A. H. 1939. Economic Progress and Declining Population
working or collaborating in the field of demography, Growth. In: The American Economic Review, Vol.  29.
mathematical demography as an interdisciplinary subject Hauser, P. M. and Duncan, O. D. 1959. The Study of Population. The
developed. Thanks to the methodological revolution in University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
demographic data collection and modification, population International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. 1982.
projection and demographic quantitative analysis, Multilingual Demographic Dictionary (2nd ed.). Ordina Editions,
mathematical demography greatly facilitated the overall Liege, France. [Chinese Edition. 1992. Shangwu Press, Beijing.]
development of demography and the formation of an overall Keynes, J. M. 1936. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and
demographic system. Money. Macmillan, London.
Landry, A. 1934. La Révolution Démographique. Recueil Sirey, Paris.
Leibenstein, H. P. 1975. The Economic Theory of Fertility Decline.
Studies on population and sustainable development In: Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 89, No. 1, pp. 1–31.
Li, J. 1992. Contemporary Demographic Theories in the West. Shanxi
Studies on population and sustainable development have a People’s Press, Xian, China.
long history. Many theoretical models on population, food, Lotka, A. J. 1907. Relation between Birth Rates and Death Rates. In:
resources, environment, and social and economic Science, New Series, Vol. 26, pp. 21–22.
development were constructed by quantitative methods of Maojie, Z. 1995. Optimum Population and Population Control. Shanxi
systematic dynamics in the second half of the twentieth People’s Press, Xian, China.
century. One noteworthy example is Limits to Growth by MEADOWS, D. H., MEADOWS, D. L., RANDERS, J. and BEHRENS, W. w.
D. H. Meadows, published in 1972, when the concept of 1972. Limits to Growth. Universe Books, New York. [Chinese
‘sustainable development’ was first put forward at the World Translation. 1984. Sichuan People’s Press, Chengdu, China.]
Conference on Environment held in Stockholm. A report Notestein, F.W. 1945. Population: The Long View, Food for the
of the World Commission on Environment and World. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Development, Our Common Future (1987), popularized the Overbeek, J. 1974. History of Population Theories. Rotterdam
notion that development is sustainable only if ‘it meets the University Press, Rotterdam. [Chinese Translation. 1988. Beijing
needs of the present generation without compromising the University Press, Beijing.]
interests of future generations’. Since the United Nations Pan, J. and Zhu, G. 1991. World Population. China Population Press,
Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Beijing.
Janeiro, 1992), the International Conference on Population Pearl, R. and Reed, L. J. 1920. On the Rate of Growth of the
in (Cairo, 1994) and the World Summit for Social Population of the United States since 1790 and its Mathematical
Development (Copenhagen, 1995), ‘sustainable Representation. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
development’ has become one of the most important topics Vol. 6, pp. 275–88.
at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Thanks to the Peng, S. 1987. Introduction to Demographic Economics. Beijing
critical role of population in sustainable development, University, Beijing.
studies on such topics are being undertaken in many SIMON, J . L. 1977. The Economics of Population Growth. Princeton
countries. University Press, Princeton, NJ. [Chinese Translation. 1984.
In the twentieth century, demography gradually became Beijing University Press, Beijing.]
a discipline with its own specific objects, methodology and Spengler, J. J. 1978. Facing Zero Population Growth. Duke University
scope. The current system of demography includes a range Press, Durham, NC.
of independent sub-disciplines such as demographic Thompson, W. S. 1929. Population. In: American Journal of Sociology,
statistics, the economics of demography, sociological Vol. 34, No. 6.
demography, population geography, development Tian, X. 1991. Selection of Works by Tian Xueyuan. China Economic
demography, and mathematical demography. Since Press, Beijing.
development is an ongoing process, there is no doubt that  1995. Selection of Works by Tian Xueyuan. China Economic Press,
demography will progress further alongside social and Beijing.
economic development and advances in science and
technology in the twenty-first century.

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 19.5
Sociology

Peter Wagner

S ociology struggling to be born implementing common rules as for political science or to

the workings of the soul in the case of psychology. As a
The unique status of sociology among the social sciences consequence, some sociologists, like Emile Durkheim,
can be attributed to the fact that there is no realm or aspect boasted that they provided the most comprehensive study
of social life in which sociologists can claim specific of all social relations, subordinating all other fields. More
competency. At the beginning of the twentieth century, modest sociologists endeavoured to complement the
when most of the other social science disciplines discussed substantive fields of inquiry by studying the actual form of
in this chapter were relatively well established, sociology social relations, as Leopold von Wiese in Germany. The
was still struggling to come into existence. former claim invariably aroused opposition from scholars of
L’Institut International de Sociologie (IIS) was founded more established disciplines, and the latter, while more
in Paris in 1893, and at about the same time Emile Durkheim acceptable, could hardly be considered very appealing.
set out his methodology in The Rules of the Sociological Both Durkheim’s and von Wiese’s characterizations of
Method (Plate 98). Similar but less successful treatises for sociology already addressed the issue in the terms of
the new discipline as well as overviews of its development academic institutions and disciplines, and they formulated
were published in many European languages in the closing proposals for entry into the universities. To fully understand
decades of the nineteenth century. Several national the contested nature of sociology as well as the expectations
associations were formed shortly after the turn of the and the fears that it provoked at the end of the nineteenth
century, e.g. the American Society for Sociology (1905), the century, we must examine sociology in broader terms.
German Society for Sociology (1909), the Society of Although the discipline appeared in the twentieth century,
Japanese Sociology (1912) and its more liberal counterpart, the formulation of its ambitions dates back to the early
the Japan Sociological Society (1923), and the first nineteenth century.
Petrograd-based Russian Sociological Society (1916). But
this flurry of new activity could not hide the fact that this
newcomer was often perceived as an upstart by academic The promise of sociology: understanding ‘modern
institutions. Consequently, its somewhat unwelcome arrival society’
on the scene was often obstructed. The University of
Oxford, for instance, considered the teaching of what came The emergence of sociology can be traced back to the period
to be known as the social sciences to be the exclusive domain immediately following the American and French revolutions.
of ‘philosophy, politics and economics’. And in Italy, This discipline is decisively marked by liberal thinking since
Benedetto Croce spoke for many philosophers when, in it does not take social order for granted and does not consider
1906, he called sociology a ‘chaotic mixture of natural and it endowed by some superior extra-human authority. At the
moral sciences ... a new science, which is unjustifiable as a same time, however, it breaks with the liberal political
philosophical science and nothing new as an empirical philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by
science or anything else. It is new only as “sociology”, that is insisting that there is a social reality between individuals and
as a barbaric positivistic incursion into the domains of the polity. From a sociological point of view, political order
“philosophy and history”’. cannot be understood as the result of some agreement
What was at issue when the field of sociology was between atomistic individuals; its form and substance rather
defined? Sociology studied contemporary Western society; is related to a structure of social relations; the task of
it did not claim special expertise concerning the past, as did sociology is to identify and analyse that structure.
history, or concerning other societies, as did anthropology. Thus, sociology marked its difference from economics
Moreover, sociology could not claim any field of analysis and psychology, on the one hand, and political science and
directly comparable to the relations of production and law, on the other, less by carving out a specific realm of
exchange as for economics, to the modes of setting and social life than by developing a distinctive perspective. It

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focused on sociality as a human characteristic and on the their lifetimes, and to some extent this period’s recognition
emergence of society, defined as a structured set of social as a classical phase occurred after the event, not least through
relations between human beings. This phenomenon was Talcott Parsons’ 1937 work The Structure of Social Action,
neither the inadvertent result of multiple independent which pointed out similarities between those scholars and
preferences nor identical to the formal set of common rules claimed that their theories actually converged – unknown
known as law and institutionalized in the state. to the authors themselves – on a sociological theory of
To frame the issue in such terms meant that sociology human action. Regardless of the validity of this particular
was ‘modern’ in the sense that it accepted the assumptions claim, the works of the ‘classical’ period were held together
and outcomes of the revolutions: human action, being by at least two common problematics: an epistemological
autonomous, could not be subjected to imposed laws. and political one.
Consequently, human social life developed along novel Around the turn of the century, academic debate was
paths and broke with earlier human societies. But this did marked by an acute awareness of a deep-rooted crisis of
not imply that the new situation was basically well grasped science – despite, or perhaps because of, the enormous
by individualist liberalism or that it was unknowable because development of the sciences during the nineteenth century.
of the unpredictable nature of autonomous action. In Ernst Mach’s logical positivism, Wilhelm Dilthey’s
contrast to both these views, sociology proposed to make separation of the models of the natural and the human
the new set of social relations intelligible through the study sciences, and Friedrich Nietzsche’s radical critique of science
of social relations and the emergent social order. In this were among the most profound European expressions of
sense, sociology posed as the science of ‘modern society’ these doubts. In the United States, William James and
per se, with its own very distinctive programme. Charles Peirce developed the pragmatist response to similar
At this point, it should also be noted that sociology, thus doubts, a response that appeared to lead the way to further
understood, is indeed a ‘Western’ discipline, at least in scientific activity. Regardless of the particular context and
historical perspective, for it originally emerged in Western position taken, the classical sociologists addressed the issue
Europe and the United States. Even the early followers of the possibility of social knowledge in their extensive
elsewhere, in Russia or Japan for instance, referred to writings on epistemology, ontology and methodology. The
Western examples. In some areas, however, forms of major sociological approaches that still exist today emerged
sociological thought emerged strongly and addressed the from these works. An early statistical-quantitative approach
liberal heritage in critical terms, by proposing organismic or to social causality can be traced to Durkheim’s study of
other holistic views of society. This was notably the case in suicide and the works of Durkheimians like François
Germany, the United States and in Japan, where authentic Simiand. Interactionist-qualitative analyses of social relations
responses to ‘Western’ modernity were sought. Furthermore, have their origins in Georg Simmel’s observations of social
the original programme itself was transformed during the life in Germany as well as in social psychology and theories
twentieth century, and in the process, sociology’s original of the self expressed by George Herbert Mead and the
problematic was mitigated. But even these developments Chicago School in its later works. Historical and comparative
cannot be understood if not placed in historical context. studies of institutional and cultural constellations and
Though not referred to under the name of sociology, a developments owe much to the work of Max Weber.
term coined by Auguste Comte in 1838, the outlines of this In this sense, the so-called founders can justifiably be
programme were identifiable early in the nineteenth century, seen as laying the groundwork for the development of
most clearly in Hegel’s Elements of a Philosophy of Right. sociology as a discipline in the social sciences. And their
During the first half of that century, however, it could efforts were also honoured by some, albeit modest,
hardly assert itself against the ‘old’ state sciences on the one institutional success in establishing sociology in the
hand, and the ‘new’ political economy on the other. During universities. In the United States, the early sociological
the second half of the nineteenth century, in contrast, under work took place in a context of university expansion and
the influence of evolutionist thinking, many of the questions creation. It was thus comparatively easy to secure a place for
sociology posed seemed to have already found answers in a a new field. In France, Durkheim’s very conscious efforts
broadly determinist perspective on historical progress. The resulted in a ‘halfway failure’. He succeeded in establishing
work of Herbert Spencer is the most important case in hegemony for his ‘French school of sociology’, as it was later
point. It was only towards the beginning of the twentieth called, among the competing social science approaches, but
century that the project of sociology as a research programme after his death the dominance of philosophy at French
and a discipline was revived. universities reasserted itself at the expense of sociology,
which had to wait until the 1950s to be recognized as a
degree subject. In Germany, authors, including Weber,
‘ C lassical sociology ’ – an were reluctant to use the term sociology with its taint of
epistemological , political and abstract Enlightenment thinking because it was often
institutional pro j ect considered alien to the German mind. The political upheaval
of the First World War and the end of imperial Germany,
The early twentieth century was not only marked by the however, paved the way for the introduction of the study of
creation of sociological associations and programmatic contemporary society and its problems – even if only
treatises: it is also now known as the period of classical peripherally as advocated by von Wiese – at universities,
sociology, the era of the discipline’s founders, most notably including those recently founded such as in Cologne and
Emile Durkheim and Max Weber (Plate 99), but also Hamburg. A similarly rapid institutionalization occurred in
Vilfredo Pareto, Georg Simmel, Charles Horton Cooley Poland during the interwar period.
and George Herbert Mead among others. Not all of these However, there is more to observe in this so-called
scholars were regarded as key advocates of the discipline in process of founding a discipline. As mentioned above, the

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early sociologists did not only share an intellectual context of sociology. Durkheim died in 1917, Weber in 1920 and
critical of science but also a political context that can broadly Pareto in 1923. Coincidental as these dates are, it is indicative
be defined as a crisis of liberal thought in an emergent of a broader intellectual shift that, even though these
industrial mass society. During most of the nineteenth ‘founders’ continued to be widely quoted after their deaths,
century, in the wake of the democratic revolutions in the their work did not leave a strong imprint on intellectual
United States and in France, liberalism and liberal theorizing debates between the two world wars. This fact can partly be
occupied centre stage in intellectual debates on politics. At interpreted in political terms since the classical sociological
the end of the century, however, intellectuals were generally reappraisals of the liberal tradition were no longer
well aware of the failure of liberal theory, in politics as well convincing. Within the larger crisis of the liberal utopia, the
as in economics, either to understand the changes in societal manner of understanding society by classical sociological
practices or to provide criteria for their regulation. means was seriously called into question. While the classical
In those fin-de-siècle debates, the classical sociologists period had been marked by a broadly parallel development
agreed that societal developments had superseded classical of sociology in Europe and North America, an intellectual
liberalism but insisted that revisions had to be made within divergence between those two regions occurred in the
that political tradition. They viewed the contemporary interwar period, and the temporary demise of the sociological
situation as one in which a major political restructuring was project as it was conceived by the founders developed only
occurring without a clear objective or guiding vision. They in Europe.
turned this into their major theme: incapable of adhering to In Europe, sociological discourse fell to pieces. The
the idea of a quasi-automatic regulation of social conflicts deliberations on a theory of action were taken up by highly
but unwilling to move completely away from the tenets of voluntarist philosophies of action, often referred to as
bourgeois liberalism, they devoted their analytical efforts to philosophy of the deed. What was later to be called empirical
searching for those phenomena that might provide for the social research developed a practical orientation towards the
sustainable development of society. use of information on people’s opinions and behaviour and
Theories of organic solidarity and the relationship between often remained on the fringes of or outside academia. These
religion and morality in Durkheim, between forms of aspects of the ‘broken’ discourse came to flourish under the
legitimate domination and charisma in Weber, between the fascist and totalitarian regimes. Philosophies of action
political class and the circulation of elites in Pareto were the underpinned the idea of a strong man and the will and
results of such attempts at redefining orderly relationships power to rejuvenate the nation. Empirical social research
between extended social practices, uprooted social identities, was often specifically organized to acquire strategically
and polities in need of adaptation. Classical sociology useful knowledge about the state of the population. But
provided important components of a possible diagnosis of both pieces flourished separately. Taken together they
the period’s major social transformations. might have formed an empirically supported social theory
It has also to be noted, however, that the emphasis on of collective action that could have been inscribed into a
sociology to make an intellectual contribution to a political normative theory of democracy.
restructuring was not to be had without a price. What came Elements of such discourse existed in the United States.
to be known as sociology was only one part of a broader If the political philosophy of John Dewey is linked to the
intellectual domain that addressed the crises of knowledge, social theory of George Herbert Mead and the empirical
self and politics in a variety of ways, and many sociologists sociology of the Chicago School, there emerges a body of
were well aware of the bridges between their emerging field theoretical and empirical knowledge that emphasizes the
and literary discourses and critical debates in philosophy human ability to create and recreate one’s own life
and psychology, in particular the theories about knowledge, individually and collectively. But such pragmatist and
history and the self expounded by Henri Bergson, Friedrich interactionist sociology also did not become the dominant
Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, to name only a few approach in the United States; American sociology
outstanding figures. experienced an intellectual divide similar to the European
Despite their familiarity with and appreciation of such one, though much less tumultuous.
related discourses, early sociologists were largely responsible The hegemony in American sociological research shifted
for isolating their emergent discipline from them. To from the Chicago School in the 1920s and 1930s, to the
varying degrees, they built barriers around their own work. Columbia School in the following decades, to social policy
Different explications can be advanced to explain why this research in the 1960s. This shift reflected the increasing
was done: in epistemological terms, to fend off strong influence of factors external to academia itself. The Chicago
doubts about the feasibility of social science; in political School’s urban sociology was oriented towards local social
terms, to focus on a possible restructuring of the polities problems, defined by the researchers themselves. During
rather than to open possible paths towards less desirable the 1940s, Columbia sociology was largely driven by a
political outcomes of the ongoing social transformations; demand for data by corporate actors, not least radio
and in institutional terms, to secure a place for the new field companies asking for listener’s surveys. The Bureau of
in the universities rather than to allow their own thinking to Applied Social Research at Columbia, created by the
merge with other approaches under broader headings such Austrian émigré Paul F. Lazarsfeld, brought major
as philosophy or history. institutional and scientific innovation. This institute devoted
to commissioned research, or ‘administrative research’ as
Lazarsfeld called it, focused on large-scale surveys to be
Divergence between the two world wars analysed by increasingly sophisticated statistical means.
Social policy research in the 1960s then transposed this
As in many other areas of social life in Europe, the research model into the realm of national science with the
First World War marked a major break in the development federal state acting as a powerful research instigator. The

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shift of criteria for research design and topics resulting from and a Parsonian social theory of societies as functionally
this move towards commissioned research has also become interrelated systems. During the 1950s and 1960s, many
known as epistemic drift. national sociological communities brought forth their own
Sociological theory in the United States, in contrast, quantitative methodologists and functionalist theorists.
developed somewhat on the sidelines of these research This conception of sociology demonstrated considerable
shifts. Talcott Parsons became the towering figure in the epistemological optimism as to the manner of apprehending
theoretical ‘modernization’ of the social sciences. After the social world and certainty in the well-ordered nature of
having tried to re-appropriate the classical European society. In this respect, it provided a strong conception of
heritage by showing the relevance of those works, Parsons sociology that would soon be criticized. At the same time,
gradually worked these selectively appropriated ideas into a this new approach made sociology enormously appealing in
theory of modern societies as systems differentiated into the wider intellectual environment as well as among political
functionally related sub-systems working as an integrated elites.
system. He thus claimed to have solved a key problem of The attractiveness of sociology had a double effect. First,
sociological theory, namely to be able to deal with entire the discipline was considerably expanded at universities,
social formations while at the same time accounting for the which in many countries underwent general rapid growth
rationales of human action. in the same period. Under the theoretical and methodological
In the United States, sociological theory and empirical umbrella described above, there emerged a great number of
sociological research had become distinct fields in much the sub-disciplines dealing with particular aspects of society,
same way as it had in Europe. However, in contrast to such as industrial sociology, sociology of the family,
Europe, where the institutionalization of sociology was very sociology of science and sociology of religion among others.
limited, in America, both fields continued to be considered Second, sociology’s perceived potential to contribute to
under the umbrella of sociology. It is within this context solving social problems led to a rapid increase of
that some sociologists proposed a new linkage between the commissioned research, often directed towards issues of
two. For example, in the 1950s, Robert Merton called for national policymaking.
middle-range theories that were less comprehensive than Critical theory has become a term for a type of social
Parsonian systems theory but compatible with it and philosophy broadly inspired by German idealism and which
capable of being refuted or underpinned by empirical rejects empiricism because it accepts the appearances of the
research. actual world as a totality without considering the possibility
of a wider realm. While this is a valid argument, critical
theorists appear to have inadvertently accepted the
G lobalization and mainstream sociological image as an adequate representation
A mericanization after the of the ‘administered society’ of that time. Similarly,
S econd W orld W ar structuralism and systems theory are in basic agreement
with functionalism about the well-ordered and intelligible
This divergence in the evolution of sociology in Europe vs. nature of society; they merely add the idea of contradictions
the United States formed the backdrop for the discipline’s and tensions within the structure to an otherwise pre-
revival after the Second World War under American established representation.
hegemony. Again, this situation cannot be understood After accepting sociology in the Soviet Union soon after
without considering the political context. The failure of the Revolution, the official viewpoint in socialist societies
Europeans to safeguard democracy could be linked to their (until the Communist Party congresses of 1956 and 1963)
lack of knowledge about the structures and problems of considered sociology a bourgeois ideology that hid the class
their societies. Their own social philosophies had proven to nature of capitalist societies and explained societal
be insufficient, and perhaps sounder knowledge based on developments less satisfactorily than Marxism-Leninism.
empirical sociological research could have helped to Beginning in the late 1950s, however, sociological institutes
recognize social tensions at an earlier stage. and departments were created in the USSR, the GDR and
Such had been the vision of American foundations such other socialist states. In Latin America and elsewhere,
as the Rockefeller and the Ford foundations, which had sociological work during the 1950s and 1960s was dominated
provided support for research between the wars. After the by theories of development as a sub-field of the sociology of
Second World War, the latter foundation stepped up its modernization. Consequently, the sociological theory and
activities, some of which involved émigrés such as Paul research as developed in the United States had no serious
Lazarsfeld in establishing a solid infrastructure and challenger around 1960.
receptivity for empirical research in their countries of origin.
With the support of UNESCO, raising public awareness of
the modern approach to sociology became an objective of P luralization , actor
global dimensions. The foundation of the International orientation and constructivism
Sociological Association (ISA) in 1949 marked an important after the 1 9 6 0 s
step towards this goal, as it became the second worldwide
association of sociologists. The IIS continued to exist but The 1960s marked the heyday of the quantitative expansion
had fallen into disrepute at the end of the war owing to the and social importance of sociology, but it was also a period
fascist leanings of some of its spokespersons. of major new changes. Given the structures of post-war
A loose but rather widespread consensus about the form sociology as described above, these changes appeared in the
and nature of the modern approach to sociology emerged in form of contestations, partly as outright rebellions, against
favour of Robert Merton’s synthesis of predominantly the prevailing intellectual, institutional and political
quantitative empirical research as developed by Lazarsfeld, hierarchies. Together they mark the end of any intellectual

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hegemony and the gradual emergence of a revised sociological but argue that any important conclusions drawn from them
project characterized by plurality and reflexivity. These would incapacitate sociology’s ability to conduct societal
developments can be grouped into three main categories. diagnosis.
First, the universality of the hegemonic structural- Nevertheless the overall consequence of the critical
functionalist theories were called into question. Arguably, approaches has been to increase legitimate doubts about the
this was a Western, if not specifically American, approach, very possibility of representing society by any straightforward
which could and should not be directly applied to other sociological means. This fact accounts in part for sociology’s
societies. Even though the goal of universal knowledge was having lost much of its intellectual appeal of the 1960s and
not necessarily doubted, sociological knowledge had to be 1970s. The understanding of human sociality and the
placed within the various cultural contexts from which it comprehension of society are in danger of getting lost amidst
emerged and to which it applied. Consequently, the cultural the competing approaches of political philosophy,
and intellectual diversity of the sociological project was individualist theorizing and cultural studies. We seem to be
underlined, even in some parts of Europe, where it witnessing a repetition of the situation that arose at the
originated. beginning of the twentieth century when emergent sociology
Secondly, a related criticism was directed against the strove for a legitimate intellectual place.
emphasis on order and systemic reproduction in the dominant At this point, we must recall sociology’s original goal of
school of sociology. Initially, this debate involved what was promoting the comprehensive study of contemporary
then called consensus and conflict-oriented approaches to society. This project resulted from a historical reality: its
sociological theory. By the late 1960s, some sociologists initial point of reference can be traced to the political
argued that growing unrest in society would prove the failure revolutions at the turn of the eighteenth century, and it
of functionalist theory and prefigure a crisis in sociology took its ‘classical’ shape when the nascent societal
(Alvin W. Gouldner, Franco Ferrarotti). During the 1970s, configurations were transformed into industrial societies
a number of alternative approaches were developed, the and nation-states. The recent emphasis on reflexivity and
most important of which focused on: communicative the linguistic nature of the sociological representations
interaction instead of systemic regulation (Jürgen Habermas); themselves should not be seen as an abdication of that
structuration in action instead of structural constraint project but rather as a critical scrutiny of the founding
(Anthony Giddens); logics of practice instead of structural assumptions of sociology, i.e., those dating from the period
models (Pierre Bourdieu); and social movements instead of around 1800 as well as those from the classical era at the
societies (Alain Touraine). In sum, they argued in favour of beginning of the twentieth century.
a renewed emphasis on action and communication instead In such a perspective, analyses of the discourses of the
of structure and function in sociology. human sciences and of the construction of categories,
Thirdly, there emerged a questioning of any a priori including key sociological categories, have been put forward.
assumption on the superiority of sociological knowledge Other works have explicitly focused on the nineteenth-
over ‘lay’ knowledge. From the argument that human beings century ‘invention of the social’ and the construction of the
construct the social world through interaction, it followed sociological viewpoint (Pierre Manent). Such works, rather
that sociological knowledge is also a social construction, than harmful to the sociological enterprise, are absolutely
created by reflexively drawing on ‘everyday’ knowledge that necessary, in particular during periods of major social
social actors themselves possess. A similar epistemological transformations. Just like the writings on the philosophy
stand on reflexivity or on the inevitable ‘double hermeneutics’ and methodology of sociology during the classical period,
can be found in all the major theoretical statements of the they are prolegomena to a reconstitution of the sociological
1970s and 1980s. Exerting hardly any strong direct influence project under contemporary conditions of sociality and
until recently, the philosophy of sociology went hand in structures of social relations.
hand with the ‘strong programme’ in the sociology of
scientific knowledge, which called for ‘symmetry’ in the
study of science and other social practices, and the ‘linguistic BIBLIOGRAPHY
turn’ in philosophy, which emphasized the analysis of
philosophy and science as language games that were not CarrolL, W. K., Christiansen-Rufftnan, L., Currie, R. F. and
a priori distinct from other social languages. Harrison, D. (eds). 1992. Fragile Truths: Twenty-five Years of
Sociology and Anthropology in Canada. Carleton University Press,
Ottawa.
The end of ‘the social’ and sociology Chekki, D. A. 1987. American Sociological Hegemony: Transnational
Explorations, University Press of America, New York and
At the end of the twentieth century, this period of London.
contestation seemed to have come to an end. The demands Coleman, J. 1980. The Structure of Society and the Nature of Social
of the challengers have not generally been accepted. Much Research, Knowledge, Vol. 1, pp. 333–50
empirical work in the disciplinary sub-fields proceeded as EIzinga, A. 1985. Research, Bureaucracy and the Drift of Epistemic
previously. Policy-orientated sociological research continued Criteria. In: WITTROCK, B. and EIZINGA, A. (eds). The University
to be commissioned, though the withdrawal of the state Research System. Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, pp. 191–220.
from a strongly interventionist self-understanding reduced Joas, H. 1993. Pragmatism in American Sociology. In: JOAS, H.
the demand for such social knowledge. In theoretical Pragmatism and Social Theory. The University of Chicago Press,
sociology, new perspectives were added to the existing set of Chicago, IL, pp. 14–51.
approaches rather than replacing them. Some advocates of Karady, V. 1976. Durkheim, les sciences sociales et l’Université:
the more conventional approaches remain unconvinced of bilan d’un semi-échec. In: Revue française de sociologie, Vol. 17,
the criticisms, whereas others accept at least some of them, pp. 267–311.

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Kawamura, N. 1994. Sociology and Society of Japan. Kegan Paul Seidman, S. 1983. Liberalism and the Origins of European Social
International, London and New York. Theory. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles,
Lepenies, W. 1988. Between Literature and Science: The Rise of CA.
Sociology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Shlapentokh, V. 1987. The Politics of Sociology in the Soviet Union.
Levine, D. N. 1995. Visions of the Sociological Tradition. University of Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
Chicago Press, Chicago, IL Simirenko, A. (ed.). 1967. Soviet Sociology: Historical Antecedents and
Manicas, P. T. 1987. A History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Current Appraisals. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Blackwell, Oxford, UK. Vilakazi, H. W. 1989. When Sociology Comes to Africa. An
Mires, F. 1993. El Discurso de la Miseria o la Crisis de la Sociologia en inaugural address delivered on 18 May 1989 at the University of
America Latina. Nueva Sociedad, Caracas. Zululand. In: Publication Series of the University of Zululand,
Nedelmann, B. and Sztompka, P. (eds). 1993. Sociology in Europe: No. 39.
In Search of Identity. Walter De Gruyter, Berlin. WAGNER, P. 1980. Sozialwissenschaften und Staat. Frankreich, Italien,
Pollak, M. 1979. Paul F. Lazarsfeld, 1979: fondateur d’une Deutschland 1870–1980. Campus, Frankfurt/New York.
multinationale scientifique. In: Actes de la recherche en sciences , HIRSCHON WEISS, C., WITTROCK, B. and WOLLMANN, H. (eds).
sociales, No. 25, pp. 45–59. 1991. Social Sciences and Modern States: National Experiences and
Porter, T. M. and Ross, D. (eds) 2003. The Cambridge History of Theoretical Crossroads. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Science: Vol. 7, The Modern Social Sciences. Cambridge University UK.
Press, Cambridge, UK. , WITTROCK, B. and WHITLEY, R. (eds.). 1991. Discourses on Society:
Ross, D. 1991. The Origins of American Social Science. Cambridge The Shaping of the Social Science Disciplines. Reidel, Dordrecht,
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 (ed.). 1994. Modernist Impulses in the Human Sciences 1870–1930. Weinberg, E. A. 1974. The Development of Sociology in the Soviet
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. Union. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.

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 19.6
ECONOMICS

Claudio Sardoni

The period from the mid-1920s to the outbreak of the The interest of the profession in the problem of market
Second World War was qualified as ‘the years of high forms in the 1930s was soon superseded by new concerns.
theory’ by British economist George Shackle owing to its After the war, economists renewed their investigation of
tremendous spirit of creativity and innovation. During this this problem, even though attention was now focused on
period, marginalist methodology was fully articulated by oligopoly rather than imperfect competition. Oligopolistic
L. Robbins in 1935 emphasizing the positive rather than industries are characterized by the existence of barriers
normative character of economics as a science. In addition, preventing the entry of new firms and by a significant degree
several significant analytical innovations took place. Such of strategic interdependency among the existing firms. One
was the richness and creativity of the inter-war period that line of research2 is concerned with the industrial structure
it can be said without exaggeration that almost all themes and the problem of barriers; others have concentrated on
and issues dealt with by economists during the second half strategic interdependency by using the technique of games
of the century were anticipated during this period. In this theory extensively.3 A number of economists including
chapter, we will examine the developments in a number of Steindl, influenced by Marxism and Kalecki, have argued
fields beginning with the initial significant contributions that oligopolistic industrial economies tend to stagnation as
before the Second World War. growth and technical progress are hindered by the lack of
competition.

F rom perfect competition to

oligopoly T he measurement of utility and
welfare economics
In the mid-1920s, P. Sraffa set out to develop a radical
critique of the foundations of the Marshallian theory of Marshall’s theory of consumption was based on the
value. However, the full implications of this critique were hypothesis that utility can be measured in cardinal terms.
not appreciated until the 1960s. At that time, the profession In the mid-1930s, this hypothesis was abandoned and a
was more interested in some considerations of Sraffa new approach to the analysis of consumer behaviour was
concerning the kind of markets in which firms are assumed provided. By drawing on earlier contributions by
to operate.1 Sraffa suggested that a realistic analysis of firms’ Edgeworth, Pareto and Slutsky, J. Hicks and R. Allen
behaviour had to be carried out by considering that they presented a new theory of consumption, which did not
operate in ‘imperfectly competitive’ markets. Each firm and require the measurability of utility in cardinal terms; it
the goods it produces differ owing to so-called suffices that individuals are able to rank different levels of
‘imperfections’. In this schema, each individual firm, though utility in ordinal terms. This hypothesis is sufficient to
small with respect to the size of the industry, is a sort of ensure the existence of a downward sloping demand curve
monopolistic producer and able to influence prices. Many for any good with respect to its price and for any given level
economists took up Sraffa’s suggestions and set out to of income.
develop the analysis of imperfect competition in a more Consumer theory deals with individuals who aim to
systematic and formalized way. Harrod, Robinson and maximize their welfare; it has, however, implications for the
Chamberlin were the principal protagonists of the debate notion of the welfare of the society as a whole. In so far as
on imperfect competition, which shifted analytical attention utility is assumed to be measurable in cardinal terms, the
from the industry as a whole to the individual firm in its problem of maximizing the social welfare is relatively simple.
process of decision-making. It also brought about an The sum of individual utilities is the social welfare that must
increase in the degree of formalization of economic be maximized. Once utility is measurable in ordinal terms,
analysis. the notion of social welfare becomes less obvious. Pareto,

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who had refused the notion of cardinal utility, offered an Keynes and the Keynesian
alternative notion of maximum social welfare: the economy revolution
attains this optimum position when, by moving from it, it is
impossible to make any single individual better off without All marginalist economists shared the faith in the ability of
making someone else worse off. Pareto also demonstrated the economy to ensure the full utilization of all available
the correspondence between the economy’s equilibrium resources through the free working of the market mechanism.
and the maximization of welfare. Unemployment could only be a temporary phenomenon
In the 1930s and 1940s, Pareto’s approach was further due to factors preventing the economy from employing all
developed by a number of economists such as Bergson, those who wished to work. Excessively high wages were
Hicks, Kaldor, Scitovsky, Lange and Allais. Some generally viewed as the typical cause of unemployment. The
introduced a more general definition of Pareto optimality: depression of the 1920s and 1930s showed that market
in order for an optimum position to be realized, it is not economies could experience mass unemployment without
necessary that any individual be made worse off; it suffices any apparent tendency to recover. In this context, Keynes
that those who are made better off have enough resources set out to develop a theory that broke radically with the past
to compensate those who have lost out. Others dealt with tradition (Plate 100).
social welfare by using a so-called social welfare function, Keynes’s A Treatise on Money (1930) marked an initial
which, in ordinal terms, specifies the society’s preferences. departure from the dominant paradigm. In this publication,
After the Second World War, the consumer theory was Keynes arrived at original results that gave a foretaste of The
further developed by introducing uncertainty in the General Theory. The analytical centre-stage of the book is
consideration of consumers’ decisions and also by adopting taken up by saving and investment decisions, which are
an approach no longer based on indifference curves but on made by different sets of agents and, hence, may diverge
the notion of revealed preferences that avoids concern for from one another. According to Keynes, it is the divergence
the psychological aspects of consumers’ decisions. between saving and investment, rather than changes in the
If Pareto-optimal equilibria are more than one, a quantity of money, that makes prices change. If an increase
problem of social choice arises: the society must decide in the economy’s propensity to defer consumption is not
which configuration it prefers. In democracy such accompanied by an equal increase in the entrepreneurs’
decisions are normally made through voting. However, it propensity to invest, the economy undergoes a process of
has been shown that the majority principle does not economic crisis and falling prices.
guarantee a unique definition of the society’s best-preferred After its publication, A Treatise on Money was widely
outcome. Arrow and Sen have made important criticized, in particular by some of the closest colleagues
contributions in this field by showing rigorously that there and disciples of Keynes in Cambridge. These criticisms
is no logical way to arrive at a univocal definition of sparked a period of intense discussion, which eventually
maximum social welfare. led to the publication of Keynes most influential work,
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in
1936. The group of people who regularly met in
P lanning and socialism Cambridge to discuss the issues related to Keynes’s work
was known as ‘the Circus’. Keynes’s principle of effective
Marxism claimed the superiority of socialism over demand can be expounded as follows. Any increase in
capitalism; the socialist experience in the Soviet Union employment creates an increase in aggregate output and,
was seen as an experiment to build a more efficient and hence, in income. The increase in consumption
just society based on socialist planning rather than on the engendered by the increase in income is less than
market. In the 1920s and 1930s, economists like Mises, proportional because people normally save a certain share
Hayek and Robbins argued that either a planned economy of their income. Therefore, in order for the whole output
performs irrationally because of the lack of the market or to be sold, an additional source of demand must be found.
planning is impossible because of the enormous amount of This additional demand is the amount of current
knowledge and accounting that it requires. Only free investment, which is equal to saving, so that the excess of
markets, through the price mechanism, can ensure the total output of what the community chooses to consume
rational and efficient working of the complex system by is absorbed. Thus, the equilibrium between aggregate
providing all the necessary information for the optimal use demand and supply crucially depends on investment.
of scarce resources. The amount of investment depends on what Keynes
Others responded to these criticisms by arguing either called the ‘inducement to invest’, which, in turn, is
that the problems connected to the determination of prices determined by two factors: the expected profitability of
for an optimal allocation of resources could in fact be solved investment and the current rate of interest. Investment is
by socialist economies4 or that the problem of rational pushed to the point at which the marginal efficiency of
allocation is not the crucial concern of planned economies, capital is equal to the rate of interest. The relationship
which mainly deal with the promotion of accumulation and between the level of aggregate investment and the level of
growth.5 aggregate output and employment was established by
The difficulties of planning have been the focus of Keynes through the use of the multiplier. A change in the
economic theory in socialist countries. In the early phases of level of investment determines a more than proportional
the socialist experiment, the main emphasis was placed on change in the level of output. There will be only one level
planned accumulation and growth. Subsequently, with of investment for which aggregate demand is equal to
attempts to reform socialist economies, more attention was aggregate supply.
paid to the problems of efficient allocation of resources by This equilibrium level of income cannot be larger than
allowing the market a greater role. that associated with full employment, but there is no reason

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why it should be equal to it. In other words, the economy of the economy, and it may remain below the level that
can find an equilibrium characterized by the existence of ensures full employment. Furthermore, Kalecki explicitly
unemployment. Unemployment results every time firms as abandoned the assumption of perfect competition and
a whole invest less than it is necessary to justify the carried out his analysis within an oligopolistic
employment of all those who wish to work at the current environment.
wage rate.
The two crucial factors that determine investment – the
marginal efficiency of capital and the rate of interest – are T he era of Keynesianism
both essentially affected by the fundamentally uncertain
environment in which the economy works. For Keynes, the From the end of the Second World War to the early 1970s,
uncertainty of the economic and social system cannot be Keynesian macroeconomics was the dominant paradigm in
dealt with by using the traditional tools of the theory of most universities and research centres of the Western
probability. world. In addition, the policies adopted by many European
In this context, according to Keynes, present decisions and North American governments were largely inspired by
concerning the future are based on conventions based on Keynesian macroeconomics. However, post-war
‘flimsy’ foundations and, hence, subject to ‘sudden and macroeconomics did not directly reflect Keynes’s original
violent changes’. Thus, investment – a decision made in the theory. Rather, it was a sort of compromise between a pre-
present and concerning events to take place in a relatively Keynesian vision of the working of the economy at the
distant future – gives rise to fluctuations in the aggregate micro level and the acknowledgment of the existence of
levels of output and employment. The rate of interest aggregate unemployment, which could be reduced through
depends on the supply of and the demand for money. In ‘Keynesian recipes’ – a version of Keynesianism called
Keynes’s world, money is not simply demanded as a means neoclassical synthesis.
of circulation but also as a store of value. To demand money In 1937, Hicks had written an article with the intention
as a store of value is a form of defence against the uncertain of presenting Keynes’s theory in a synthetic way and
future when people come to distrust the conventions on contrasting it with the classical doctrine.6 The thrust of
which they rely to make decisions. Thus, with a given Hicks’s interpretation was that Keynes’s theory was not so
quantity of money, the higher the desire to hold money the general as it claimed to be but, rather, a particular case of
higher the rate of interest and, hence, the lower the level of the classical theory. Unemployment depended on special
investment. factors and, in particular, on the rigidity of money wages.
Within this context, according to Keynes, it was very Although Keynes regarded his theory as a general
likely that the entrepreneurs’ propensity to invest and the alternative to the classics and pointed out that
public’s preference for liquidity worked to keep the economy unemployment did not depend on wage rigidity, he did
in a state of chronic unemployment. This was a radical not strongly oppose Hicks’s version of his theory and, in a
break with the past. As a direct consequence of Keynes’s few years, the latter became the standard representation
departure from the then prevailing paradigm, came the of Keynes’s macroeconomics under the name of IS-LM
conviction that the economy could be brought to full model.
employment only through an external intervention in the IS-LM models are a sort of general equilibrium model
form of government measures to raise the economy’s in which the interdependency between the goods and
propensity to spend. Keynes, however, did not contemplate the money sectors of the economy are analyzed. These
the creation of some form of socialist economy. He models are largely used to study the effects of monetary
repeatedly underlined his aversion to socialism and his and fiscal policies. Samuelson, Modigliani and Tobin
desire to reform rather than revolutionize the existent have provided important contributions to the
system. development of this version of Keynesianism. The
Around the same time, other economists representing application of Keynesianism to real economies required
other theoretical traditions obtained results somewhat a vast and rather detailed empirical knowledge to
similar to Keynes’s. Of particular importance in this respect implement and test effective fiscal and monetary policies.
are the contributions of certain Swedes and of the Polish This also favoured the development of national
economist M. Kalecki. The Swedish school of economics accounting and the construction of large econometric
developed from Wicksell, who had already determined a models. The management of war economies had already
shift toward aggregate demand and supply and the effects of given impetus to the development of modern national
monetary changes on the real sector of the economy. The accounting with the pioneering work of Meade and
younger generation took up this aspect of Wicksell’s theory Stone. The first large econometric models were mostly
and developed a new approach to economics characterized elaborated in the United States with the important
by its concern for the study of output as a whole and by the contribution of L. Klein. 7 Already in the 1930s,
emphasis on the role of expectations in the economic J. Tinbergen had significantly contributed to the
process. In this respect, Myrdal’s Monetary Equilibrium development of econometrics.
(published in Swedish in 1931 and in English in 1939) is The neoclassical synthesis was affected by a number of
particularly relevant. theoretical weaknesses, among which its uneasiness to deal
Keynes’s essential conclusion that the spontaneous satisfactorily with inflation and the largely unexplained
working of the economy may well give rise to chronic gap between the assumed optimizing behaviour of
unemployment was also reached independently, more or individuals and the non-optimal results achieved by the
less in the same years, by M. Kalecki, who was influenced by economy as a whole. These weaknesses became, in due
Marxist economics rather than Marshallian theory. Kalecki time, the factors that have contributed to the demise of the
showed that investment is the prime factor in the dynamics neoclassical synthesis.

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 thematic section

U nemployment and inflation quantity theory of money, contemporary monetarists, while

criticizing Keynesians for having paid little attention to
In the early 1970s, inflation became a very pressing world money, have argued in favour of the neutrality of money: in
problem but dominant macroeconomics could not provide the long term, changes in the quantity of money affect only
a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon. Inflation the general price level. The monetarist interpretation of the
was regarded as typical of economies in full employment, Phillips curve is an illustration of such neutrality. This
whereas the real world was affected simultaneously by high approach has been also applied to the theory of the balance
inflation and unemployment. of payments and the determination of exchange rates. Both
An attempt to give a more satisfactory explanation of the balance of payments and the exchange rates are
inflation was based on the work of A. W. Phillips, who had interpreted as monetary phenomena explained by the
established a functional relation between the rate of demand for and the supply of money.
unemployment and the rate of growth of money wages. As Monetarism marked a return to pre-Keynesian
unemployment decreases, the money wage rate tends to economics, a process which has been fully accomplished by
rise, but it remains stable only at a certain rate of the so-called new classical macroeconomics, whose major
unemployment. The neoclassical synthesis used Phillips’s representatives are R. E. Lucas Jr. and T. Sargent. New
results to explain inflation by establishing a direct relation classical macroeconomists are all characterized by their
between the rise in money wages and the rise in the general adoption of the hypothesis of rational expectations, initially
price level (even though wages were assumed to grow more introduced by J. Muth in microeconomics, according to
slowly) so that more employment was associated with lower which agents behave in a fully rational way and, in forming
real wages. their expectations, correctly use all available information.
In the scenario based on the Phillips curve, workers are This hypothesis underlies the new classical critique of the
constantly ‘cheated’. Higher money wages are only an Phillips curve.
‘illusion’ because the higher inflation makes real wage rate In the monetarist interpretation, workers, though taking
fall. Friedman objected that, in reality, workers care for inflation into account, do not anticipate it correctly, which
their real rather than the money wage rate and, therefore, in explains why expansionary monetary policies have positive
bargaining they take account of inflation, though temporary effects on unemployment. For new classical
imperfectly. macroeconomics, workers anticipate inflation correctly, so
Friedman’s alternative scenario went as follows. Let us that the economy immediately reaches a higher level of
assume that, initially, inflation is zero at a certain rate of inflation with unemployment remaining at its natural rate.
inflation and that the government increases aggregate The new classical policy implications are even stronger than
demand through a monetary policy to reduce unemployment. the monetarist: government interventions cannot even
As a consequence, firms set higher prices and are ready to temporarily alter real variables and, therefore, they are
pay higher money wages to hire the available work force. negative or useless.
Because workers do not anticipate inflation correctly, they The neoclassical synthesis put together Keynesian
think that their real wage rate has risen; the supply of labour macroeconomics and the marginalist approach to
increases and employment increases. However, when microeconomics. Thus, at the micro level, agents were
workers realize that their real wage has actually decreased, postulated to be rational and optimizing, and markets were
they demand higher money wages and this makes both to operate in a way that ensured equilibrium through
prices and unemployment increase. This process comes to changes in prices. But, if individuals act rationally and
an end when workers do not expect any inflation and, hence, optimize their objectives, how is it possible that the system
do not demand higher wages. There is only one point at does not achieve optimal results as well? This difficulty was
which zero inflation can be rationally expected: the point partly overcome by introducing obstacles that prevented the
associated with the initial rate of unemployment. Thus, in economy as a whole from realizing optimal results. Wage
the long period, despite the government’s attempts, the rigidities were regarded as the factor that caused
economy returns to this rate of unemployment that unemployment; if wages were flexible, the labour market
Friedman called ‘natural rate of unemployment’. The would always be in equilibrium with unemployment. New
economy, however, now experiences a higher rate of classical macroeconomics refused any hypothesis of rigidity
inflation. and assumed that all markets are continuously in equilibrium.
The policy implications of Friedman’s analysis were Deviations of the economy from its ‘natural position’ can
momentous: the government cannot permanently affect the only derive from random shocks, which, in turn, are caused
behaviour of the economy by modifying the level of by changes in policy that agents may fail to anticipate
unemployment. The government can reduce unemployment immediately because taken by surprise. Along these lines,
only temporarily during the period in which workers learn an ‘equilibrium business cycle theory’ has been developed.9
to fully anticipate inflation. New classical macroeconomics has also exerted a strong
influence on econometrics with its critique of Keynesian
econometric models. Lucas pointed out that those models
F rom monetarism to new could not provide good forecasts of the effects of policy
classical macroeconomics because of their inability to take account of how agents
modify their behaviour in consequence of the policy
Friedman’s criticism of the Phillips curve and the explanation measures themselves.
of inflation were part of a more general critique of Recently, a group of economists, usually called new
Keynesianism, which he had been developing since the Keynesians, have criticized new classical macroeconomics
1950s. 8 Friedman is the best-known representative of for the unrealism of some of their assumptions and policy
modern monetarism. Drawing on the pre-Keynesian indications. New Keynesians argue that actual economies

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are in fact affected by problems such as persistent characteristics of this school of thought. Other outstanding
unemployment, which cannot be explained and cured by figures among the post-Keynesians are Weintraub, Minsky,
new classical macroeconomics. New Keynesians take the Davidson, Pasinetti and Harcourt.
new classical analytical framework as their starting point Since the 1960s, some post-Keynesians have joined forces
and try to obtain ‘Keynesian results’ by introducing with another group of economists, led by Sraffa, in their
additional hypotheses into that context. Such hypotheses critique of the dominant paradigm. Sraffa’s research
involve market imperfections and imperfect knowledge and concentrated on two connected fields of research: the critical
information. In contrast with the adherents of neoclassical edition (with Dobb) of Ricardo’s works and his own book
synthesis, new Keynesians try to explain these imperfections entitled Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities
through microeconomic analysis. Many new Keynesians (1960). In his book, Sraffa solved some problems of the
have focused their attention on the working of the labour theory of value of classical political economy and offered an
market in searching for an explanation for the rigidity of alternative to marginalism based on an approach focusing
wages; others have concentrated on financial markets on the conditions under which the economy is able to give
characterized by imperfect information.10 rise to a process of reproduction and growth rather than on
individuals’ choices in the allocation of scarce resources.
Inspired by Sraffa, Robinson, Pasinetti, Garegnani,
G eneral economic equilibrium Harcourt and others criticized the marginalist theory of
and the formalization of distribution based on the use of aggregate production
economics functions and, in particular, the notion of aggregate capital,
which was regarded as a logically flawed concept. The
Walras had published his most important work, Elements of critique provoked a wide debate with Samuelson and Solow,
Pure Economics, in the 1870s, but his approach to economics, the main defenders of the marginalist camp.
based on the idea of general economic equilibrium, did not Among the other non-orthodox schools in economics,
gain a wide acceptance at that time. It was not until the the two oldest are institutionalist and Marxist economics.
1930s, that significant advances towards the modern Founded by T. Veblen, W. Mitchell and R. Common,
formalization of the model of general equilibrium were institutionalism is characterized by its more empirical and
made in continental Europe.11 After the First World War, historical approach to economics and by the important role
this approach was revived. Arrow and Debreu provided a played by institutions in the economic process. Modern
rigorous demonstration of the existence of a general institutionalism, while maintaining its focus on the role of
equilibrium position for an economy in which agents institutions, also adopts a more formalized and analytical
operate in perfectly competitive markets. Others, such as approach. R. Coase, J. Galbraith and G. Myrdal are
Hicks and Samuelson, concentrated on the problem of the generally regarded as institutionalist economists. While
stability of general equilibrium. Another important developing Marx’s critique of capitalism, modern Marxist
contribution in the field of general equilibrium economics economics has largely concentrated on the problems of the
was made by Arrow and Hahn. Third World, which we consider in the next section.
A refined version of the general equilibrium approach
has become standard and almost universally accepted by the
profession. The highly formalized nature of this approach G rowth and development
has naturally led to a growing use of mathematics in
economics. But the progressive formalization is not a Classical political economics of the nineteenth century had
phenomenon confined to the study of general equilibrium. been mainly concerned with the problems of accumulation
All fields of economic research have experienced an and economic growth. Marginalist economics, with its
increasing use of advanced mathematical techniques. insistence on the notion of scarcity, paid very little attention
Although the advent and dominance of marginalism had to growth. The most significant exception was J. Schumpeter,
already marked a significant increase in the degree of who, in this respect, was closer to classical thinking and
formalization of economics with respect to classical political Marx. In Schumpeter’s view,12 capitalist economies undergo
economy, it was after the Second World War that a process of cyclical growth driven by innovative
formalization gained momentum in economics. entrepreneurs who introduce new methods of production
in view of higher profits.
Schumpeter did not acquire a dominant position in the
A lternative schools of profession. A new interest in growth pioneered by R. F.
economics Harrod followed the Keynesian revolution. By using some
basic elements of Keynesian theory, he studied the
The neoclassical synthesis, monetarism and new classical conditions for a balanced process of growth and showed the
macroeconomics have largely dominated economics at extreme instability of such a process: if the economy deviates
different periods but not without opposition. A number of from its equilibrium path, there are no re-equilibrating
economists, known as post-Keynesians, have strongly forces at work. Domar achieved similar results working
opposed mainstream economics and proposed an alternative independently of Harrod. Other important contributions
approach more closely related to Keynes’s own ideas and, to the modern theory of growth came from Robinson,
sometimes, to Kalecki’s work. Among the founders of the Kaldor and Solow.
post-Keynesian school were some economists closest to Harrod was not concerned with income distribution;
Keynes, such as J. Robinson, R. Kahn, N. Kaldor. The Kaldor introduced this topic in a model of growth13 and
emphasis on the inherent instability of the economy and its started a wide debate on the relationship between growth
tendency towards chronic unemployment are essential and distribution, which brought in the debate on capital

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theory. Pasinetti improved Kaldor’s contribution and consequence of development itself. Industrial capitalist
analyzed the functional relation between aggregate countries derive, to a large extent, their richness from the
investment and profits. exploitation of poorer countries through international trade
Post-Keynesian models of economic growth, with some or from the availability of low-paid labour.17
exceptions14 are generally aggregate models. In the post-war In recent years, development economics has tended to be
period, by drawing on Leontief’s analysis of inter-industrial re-absorbed into economics in general, so that development
flows of goods and services15 and on von Neumann’s model is treated with the standard tools of the discipline, and the
of general equilibrium many multi-sectoral models of solution for the problems of less-developed countries are
economic growth have been built. In their 1964 publication, seen exclusively as policy problems. Unlike earlier economists,
The Theory of Economic Growth, Hahn and Matthews most specialists today advocate a declining role for the state
provide a useful survey of the literature on economic growth and more reliability on the virtues of free markets. Largely as
up to the early 1960s. a reaction to these tendencies, others concerned with
In more recent years, the problem of growth has been development have reacted by claiming that economics on its
mainly treated by the use of the so-called models of own is insufficient to cope with the problem of development,
endogenous growth. In this approach, many important which requires a much wider perspective taking account of
factors promoting economic growth, such as technical historical, social and cultural aspects.
progress and education, are considered to be dependent upon
the rate of growth – an old idea found in the works of Smith
and, more recently, Kaldor. In addition, Romer and Lucas
have presented well-known models of endogenous growth. NOTES
The concern for growth in the post-war period was also
revived by the practical problems raised by the economies of 1. P. Sraffa, ‘The Laws of Return under Competitive
many of the newly independent countries. For these Conditions’, in Economic Journal, Vol. 36, 1926, pp. 535–50.
countries at an early stage of development, the theories and 2. P. Sylos Labini, Oligopolio e progresso tecnico, Turin,
policies developed in the more industrialized Western Italy, 1967; J. S. Bain, Barriers to New Competition,
countries did not prove to be viable and immediately Cambridge, MA, 1956; W. J. Baumol, ‘Contestable Markets:
adaptable to their needs. Thus the autonomous branch of An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure’, in
development economics emerged with the aim of providing American Economic Review, Vol. 72, 1982, pp. 1–15.
an original approach to the problems of countries starting 3. M. Shubik, Market Structure and Behaviour,
their process of growth almost two centuries after the Cambridge, MA, 1980.
Industrial Revolution in Europe. 4. O. Lange, ‘On the Economic Theory of Socialism’, in
In the early phase, the prevailing conviction was that Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 4, 1936 and 1937, pp. 53–71,
developing countries could not possibly start a process of 123–42.
growth without significant external interventions and state 5. M. H. Dobb, On Economic Theory and Socialism,
and foreign aid. The state should provide the incentives for London, 1955.
investment and production that the domestic and international 6. J. R. Hicks, ‘Mr. Keynes and the Classics: A Suggested
markets could not produce spontaneously. In less-developed Interpretation’, in Econometrica, Vol. 5, 1937, pp. 147–59.
economies, growth was not hindered by labour scarcities; more 7. L. R. Klein and A. S. Goldberger, Econometric Model
serious obstacles were the scarcity of capital and aid from of the United States 1929–1952, New York, 1955.
developed countries. State intervention was generally seen as 8. M. Friedman, ‘The Quantity Theory of Money: A
aiming to engender a process of balanced growth, which could Restatement’, in M. Friedman (ed.), Studies in the Quantity
effectively exploit all the benefits of inter-industrial Theory of Money, Chicago, IL, 1956.
complementarities. An exception was Hirschman’s position, 9. R. E. Lucas, ‘An Equilibrium Model of the Business
which advocated unbalanced growth by favouring the more Cycle’, in Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 83, 1975,
dynamic sectors of the economy, which, in turn, would pp. 1113–44.
promote and drive a more general process of development. 10. For an overview of the main new Keynesian
The persistence and, sometimes, the widening of the gap contributions, see N. G. Mankiw and D. Romer (eds), New
between developed and less-developed countries also Keynesian Economics, Cambridge, MA, 1991.
produced rather pessimistic views about development. One 11. J. von Neumann, ‘A Model of General Economic
of the factors, which, for many, prevented or delayed Equilibrium’, in Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 13, 1945–46.
development, was the existence of unfavourable terms of 12. J. Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, New
trade between industrialized and developing countries. Brunswick, Canada, 1912; and Capitalism, Socialism and
Structural differences produce a tendency for the prices of Democracy, New York, 1942.
manufactured goods to remain higher than the prices of 13. N. Kaldor, ‘Alternative Theories of Distribution’, in
agricultural goods, so that developing countries’ Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 23, 1955–56, pp. 94–100.
indispensable imports for growth are increasingly more 14. L. L. Passinetti, Structural Change and Economic
expensive. But the existence of structural differences has Growth: A Theoretical Essay on the Dynamics of the Wealth of
not been invoked to explain terms of trade only. Several Nations, Cambridge, UK, 1981.
economists have elaborated analyses that explain the lack of 15. W. Leontief, The Structure of the American Economy,
development by the existence of a number of inflexible 1919–1929, Cambridge, MA, 1941.
structural features affecting less-developed economies.16 16. L. Taylor, Structuralist Macroeconomics, New York,
Marxist and radical economists have paid much attention 1983.
to developing countries. A basic feature of the Marxist 17. P. A. Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, New
approach has been the idea that the lack of development is a York, 1957.

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 19.7
Legal Sciences

Nicola Lacey

At the end of the twentieth century, any review of the the United Nations. During the first half of the twentieth
development of the legal sciences had to confront a number century, the pre-eminent position of modern, relatively
of challenges. Some of the most influential debates in social autonomous systems of law created the context within
theory that have developed during the latter part of the which the intellectual study of law would flourish and
century have questioned the very idea of law as a ‘science’: expand across the globe.
that is, as a discipline generating objectively validated It should be noted that the world of legal scholarship,
knowledge or truth. More specifically, legal sciences are and hence the intellectual field of legal science, has never
distinguished from most of the other disciplines addressed been confined to law schools. The study of rhetoric, theology,
in this chapter by their connection with a distinct set of history and philosophy, for example, has always been
professional institutions and practices. Indeed, this associated with the study of law. With the development of
connection and its consequences for the status of law as a the social sciences in the early part of the twentieth century,
discipline are unique among the ten disciplines explored in law also became a field of study within the newer disciplines
this chapter. of sociology, anthropology, political science and political
In considering the development of legal sciences, one is economy. During the twentieth century, this link between
therefore confronted with at least two conceptions: the law and the latter disciplines has brought about a re-
development of the legal sciences or legal theory; and evaluation of the study of law. No longer considered one of
practical ‘legal science’ a subject of study under the the humanities, law was regarded either as sub-discipline of
intellectual disciplines of law and legal pedagogy. In this social sciences or as a distinct field in its own right (this
review, we shall concentrate on the development of legal latter view being advocated by legal professionals). However,
scholarship during the twentieth century, but any such the appropriation of law by the social sciences has hardly
enterprise must also deal with the relationship between been complete, and at the end of the century there were
developments in legal science and the fields of legal education signs of a revival of the conception of law as belonging to the
and legal practice. humanities. This recent tendency results in part from the
At the beginning of the twentieth century, law was injection of various European philosophical traditions
already well established as a discipline in universities in within debates on the nature of law.
most parts of the world. The academic institutionalization The general tendency in the twentieth century towards
of law reflected the distinctive importance of law as a tool of fragmentation and a blurring of the boundaries between the
governance in modern societies. Of course, the specific disciplines found particularly fertile ground in the legal
articulation of the relationship between law and the nation establishment. In legal theory, as we shall see, this disciplinary
state varied enormously throughout the world. In the more context has generated successive attempts to delineate and
secular Western societies, law was regarded as relatively conceptualize the specificity of legal reasoning and legal
separate from politics, playing a special role in negotiating institutions. During the twentieth century, the uneasy
the relationship between citizen and polity. In more relationship between the academic study of law and
traditional societies, the relationship between law and vocational legal training both supported and threatened the
religious and political institutions is more intimate, and in emergence of law as an autonomous intellectual discipline.
the emerging socialist world, law is regarded as an explicit The status of law as a distinct discipline has been rendered
tool of state ideology. The modern Western ideal of the rule even more problematic by institutional changes in the forms,
of law, and its associated conception of the separation of variety and location of legal practices. Legal sciences’ greatest
legislative, executive, and judicial powers had an enormous claims to specificity derive from the practical existence of
global significance as it was exported via colonization and laws: legal sciences are concerned with the study of a specific
incorporated into the emerging international legal order set of social practices. During the twentieth century, the
represented by the League of Nations and, subsequently, fragility of law’s status at the disciplinary level was

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accompanied by significant changes at the institutional level, political analysis of those laws but rather with the exercise
which have fragmented the practice of law and have of legal rationality. The positivist tradition engenders a
generated numerous institutional changes. primary focus on dogmatic and doctrinal analysis: on the
At the practical level, the growth of state functions and complete, accurate (‘scientific’) and systematic description
the expanding sphere of legal regulation in the industrial of the contents of particular legal orders; on scientific
and post-industrial countries blurred the distinctions knowledge of particular legal systems and areas of legal
between public and private spheres but also between legal regulation such as commercial law, the law of contracts and
and political governance. As law developed as a primary tool criminal law. The notion of autonomous legal science and
for the realization of government policy, the distinction its accompanying academic institutions therefore find their
between policy and law began to blur, thus raising crucial most perfect expression in the concept of positivism.
questions about the integrity of legal interpretation and the In spite of its pre-eminence in the Western world in the
independence of the judicial function. At the same time, the early twentieth century, the positivist conception of law and
diversification of legal regulation took law well beyond its legal science has had by no means been the only approach.
traditional institutional framework, generating myriad new In particular, the continuing importance of the ancient
institutions with a mixture of juridical, administrative and tradition of natural law cannot be discounted. This naturalist
therapeutic functions. tradition, and its numerous variants, views the sources of
This expansion and diversification of the legal realm law’s authority and validity as lying within extra-legal norms
within the nation state was matched by the proliferation of that derive from ethical or religious doctrines. During the
non-state legal orders, which, with the increasing influence eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the increasing
of sociology and anthropology on legal theory, finally began secularization of nation states led to a decline of the
to claim the attention of legal science. The early impetus for naturalist tradition in the Western world. Yet it may be
this attention was probably provided by debate surrounding argued that the modern conception of human rights,
the relationship between indigenous and imperial legal institutionalized across the globe in diverse national and
systems in colonized countries. But the insights generated international declarations and charters, constitutes a
by scholars in developing countries, accelerated by the distinctive expression of the naturalist sentiment.
growing fields of anthropology and the sociology of law, Furthermore, even within secular polities, the latter part of
have been increasingly prominent in the advanced economies. the twentieth century witnessed an important revival of
This has generated a vision of multiple, co-existing legal natural law thinking. This may have been in part a response
systems within and across the boundaries of particular to a crisis in the authority and perceived legitimacy of nation
territories, complicating the strong modern association of states and in particular to the abuse of state law by
law with the nation state, and posing, in new wording, old totalitarian regimes such as that of the National Socialist
questions about the relationship between law and other government in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. It was
normative systems such as ethics, politics and religion. vividly expressed, for example, in the concept of crimes
Moreover, the development of a variety of technologies – against humanity retrospectively applied at the Nuremberg
electronic communications, air travel – as well as the War Crimes Tribunal after the Second World War (Plate
internationalization of markets, during the course of the 101). On an intellectual level, the revival of the concept of
century, has generated new legal phenomena, which are no natural law is related to the difficulties encountered by legal
longer compatible with traditional ideas of law as exclusively positivism in providing adequate justification for the
the product of the nation state. International and foundations of legal authority. If, as positivism implies, law
transnational legal orders are gradually developing with a is simply the institutionalization of power, how can the
variety of institutional frameworks more or less closely authority of law and its claim to its subjects’ allegiance and
articulated with nation states. Not only the system of public obedience be explained? The central problem, therefore,
international law but also regional structures such as the involves the very autonomy of the positivist conceptions of
European Union and private frameworks such as the law: if law’s authority and, hence, validity, can only be
commercial lex mercatoria are posing new questions, which understood in terms of its relation to extra-legal norms,
legal sciences are struggling to accommodate. how can the continuing relevance and influence of those
Four main theoretical approaches to law – each of which extra-legal standards (i.e. ethical or religious) be excluded
generates a different conception of legal science and a from the interpretation and administration of law and from
distinctive approach to the foundation of legal authority – the study of these practices? It follows that the naturalist
emerged during the course of the twentieth century. The tradition advocates a broader conception of the realm of
first is the doctrine of legal positivism. Positivism legal sciences than the positivist tradition, which focuses
conceptualizes law as the product of human decision: as a not only on the intricacies of legal doctrine and legal
distinctively institutionalized system of power, whose reasoning but also on the underlying principles informing
content is entirely determined by the legislative acts of and legitimating particular areas of law. The naturalist
political authorities. This engenders an essentially formal tradition regards legal science as markedly less distinct from
approach to the validity of laws: the validity and hence the disciplines of ethics and political theory than does its
existence of any law is to be understood in terms of its positivist counterpart.
pedigree and mode of enactment. In the Western world, For proponents of natural law, there is no clear division
legal positivism was undoubtedly the pre-eminent way of between valid law and extra-legal norms: law is identified in
understanding law at the turn of the twentieth century, and terms of its compatibility with ethical standards, and there
this understanding is intimately related to the modern is no clear distinction between what law is and what law
conception of legal science. The legal scientist is in command ought to be. While the term ‘natural law’ is associated with
of the technical skills required for the identification and a tradition reaching back to Aristotle and developed by
analysis of laws and is not concerned with the ethical or Catholic theologians such as St Thomas Aquinas, the broad

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framework of natural law thought can encompass any infuse mainstream legal education and the legal
system of legal science in which the question of legal validity establishment. Indeed, they attained a status roughly equal
is inextricable from questions of ethical, religious or other to that of doctrinal analysis only in a few parts of the world
authority. Consequently, Islamic systems, now in place in – notably North America – and only late in the century.
many regions of the world, and which view legal, political This situation can be explained by the tension within the
and religious authority as intertwined, may be regarded as legal establishment between legal science as the study of
expressing a version of the naturalist approach. In such legal phenomena and as practical knowledge with which law
systems, the idea of law as an independent science is students should be inculcated. It is important to note that
evidently less prevalent than in Western societies. sociological approaches to law have also grappled with the
Furthermore, in state socialist societies, the explicit question of the specific nature and autonomy of law. This
realization of a particular ideology in legal terms might also fact is perhaps best exemplified by the idea of law as an
be seen in terms of a natural law approach. Even in liberal ‘autopoetic’ or self-referential sub-system in a social world
democracies, the continuing power of the appeal to the role composed of many such systems – an approach that became
of law in upholding democracy and human rights might influential in European legal theory in the late twentieth
also be seen as consistent with the natural law tradition. century.
Indeed, one of the central claims of critical legal theory (see Towards the end of the century, the manner of
below) has been that the positivist outlook is itself confronting legal science was further fragmented by the
ideological, in that it conceals the problematic foundations development of a fourth, heterogeneous family of approaches
of legal authority by representing political decisions as to legal theory. These ‘critical’ approaches blend insights
scientific truths, and by subtly representing the political from the humanities and the social sciences. Examples
dominance of a particular conception of law as the result of include the development of feminist legal theories, critical
a historical process of evolution towards an ideal type. race theories, post-colonial theories of law, and
The positivist conception of autonomous, technical legal psychoanalytic and deconstructionist critical legal theory.
science has always had to contend with powerful criticism As in the social sciences, these approaches – which derive in
from the naturalist tradition. In the twentieth century, part from the development of new social movements such
however, it was also challenged by the phenomenal as feminist and anti-racist movements, but which also have
development of the social sciences, and hence with a third important roots in Marxist and socialist thought – analyse
conception of legal science as a social science. In some senses law in terms of standards and influences outside law. They
the positivist conception of legal science has been a victim of deal not only with legal rules, doctrines and institutions but
its own success. As law’s role as the pre-eminent tool of also with the specific effects of institutions and laws.
governance expanded with the broadening functions of the However, they differ significantly from standard social
nation state, law itself was subject to the increasing influence scientific approaches such as the sociology of law. To begin
of both politics and economics. If law was being used as a with, as they are more inclined to take the rational nature of
means to implement policy and economic regulation, law as law seriously, they tend to focus on the intricacies of legal
a discipline appeared to be increasingly formal, a void to be doctrine, while exploring what doctrinal frameworks may
filled by the imperatives of economic and political power. In systematically conceal, as well as the historical context of
several Western societies, the predominant pedagogic particular doctrinal frameworks. Secondly, they participate
practices of conceptual and doctrinal analysis began to be in an emerging scepticism about the very idea of objective
challenged by sociological approaches. Instead of accepting scientific knowledge, emphasizing instead the way in which
legal forms and institutions as a given, sociological techniques theories of law, and legal arguments themselves, are
were used to approach law as a social practice to be analysed constructed from particular points of view.
in extra-legal scientific terms. Questions began to be asked To a greater extent than in the social sciences, these
about law’s social, economic and political functions, the critical approaches have joined forces with humanistic
institutional, cultural and economic conditions of its practices such as analysing law as discourse or rhetoric, and
existence, its varying forms and the significance of these raising epistemological questions about the basis for
variations, and the patterns of law creation, interpretation assertions of legal knowledge or truth. Like the social science
and enforcement through a variety of agencies extending approaches to law, however, these critical approaches have
well beyond the orthodox terrain of legislatures and courts. been relatively slow to find a broad foothold in the legal
With the birth of the sociology of law came an increased establishment. Once again, the explanation has to do with
emphasis on comparative legal studies, in which legal the tension between that establishment as an intellectual
systems became the subject of comparative political, space open to ideas, which question its own status, and as a
sociological and cultural analysis in much the same way social institution whose existence is premised on the
political systems had been studied within the field of political development of a specific discipline.
science. In addition, a noteworthy ‘realist’ movement in Each of these four families of legal science finds expression
legal theory developed. This movement was distinguished in many parts of the world today. At the dawn of the
by its scepticism towards the substantive significance of twenty-first century, it is impossible to identify a dominant
legal doctrines and by the fact that it focused not on law’s conception of the legal sciences. Rather, we see a field which,
articulated standards but rather on its concrete effects and notwithstanding its particularities, is characterized by both
their underlying political causes. the globalizing influences and the gradual erosion of
In various fields, there was a prevailing tendency to disciplinary boundaries, which has also affected other
reduce the specificity of law and legal rationality and to branches of social sciences.
claim that legal phenomena and reasoning could be explained Today, as at the outset of the twentieth century, law is
scientifically in terms of the tools used by social scientists. one of the most important of the sciences of governance. In
Perhaps not surprisingly, such ideas were relatively slow to its future development, the tension between the imperatives

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of the reproduction of professional legal castes and the David, R. and Brierly, J. 1978. Major Legal Systems of the World
increasingly interdisciplinary tendencies in the humanities Today. Stevens & Sons, London.
and social sciences will undoubtedly create an increasingly Derrida, J. 1992. Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of
fragmented, yet vibrant, discipline whose hybrid nature is Authority. In: CORNELL, D., GRAY CARLSON, D. and ROSENFELD,
unlikely to substantially undermine its institutional power. M. (eds.). Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice. Routledge,
New York.
Finnis, J. 1980. Natural Law and Natural Rights. Clarendon Press,
Oxford, UK.
B ibliography Fitzpatrick, P. 1992. The Mythology of Modern Law. Routledge,
London.
Bartlett, K. and Kennedy, R. (eds). 1991. Feminist Legal Theory. Hart, H. L. A. 1961. The Concept of Law. Clarendon Press, Oxford,
Westview Press, Boulder, CO. UK.
Berman, H. J. 1963. Justice in the USSR. Vintage, New York. Kelsen, H. 1945. The General Theory of Law and State. Russell and
Chiba, M. 1989. Legal Pluralism: Toward a General Theory through Russell, NewYork.
Japanese Legal Culture. Tokai University Press, Tokyo. MacKinnon, C. 1989. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Harvard
Collins, H. 1983. Marxism and Law. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK. University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Comaroff, J. and Roberts, S. 1981. Rules and Processes: The Cultural Sousa Santos, B. DE. 1995. Toward a New Common Sense. Routledge,
Logic of Disputing in an African Context. University of Chicago London and New York.
Press, Chicago, IL. Sypnowich, C. 1990. The Concept of Socialist Law. Clarendon Press,
Cotterrell, R. 1992. The Sociology of Law: An Introduction. Oxford, UK.
Butterworths, London. Teubner, G. 1993. Law as an Autopoetic System. Blackwell, London.
Damaska, M. 1986. The Faces of Justice and State Authority: A Unger, R. M. 1976. Law in Modern Society. Free Press, New York.
Comparative Approach to the Legal Process. Yale University Press,  1983. The Critical Legal Studies Movement. In: Harvard Law
New Haven, CT. Review, Vol. 96, pp. 563–675.

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 19.8
POLITICAL SCIENCE

Björn Wittrock

I ntroduction : P olitical S cience from the onslaught of modernity. In other cases, the
in H istorical P erspective emergence of young nation states meant that the constitution
of a new political, administrative and legal order was an
Perhaps more than any other social science discipline, urgent item on the public agenda and some form of ‘state
political science involves the study of problems that may sciences’ was expected to provide some of the answers.
appear to be timeless. Political thinking and philosophy are
not limited to concerns of the contemporary era or of the
last two hundred years; rather, they tend to deal with – or E volution and consolidation
so we are led to believe – basic concerns inherent in any of political science : four
community forced to face major decisions regarding the traditions
means to attain the common good, the rulers to be chosen
and the type of rule to be exercised. It is therefore easy to The different developmental paths of political science
understand why proponents of the discipline so often invoke throughout history may be understood in terms of four
an Aristotelian notion of a science of politics as ‘a master- broad intellectual traditions that came to influence the
science’. discipline differently across countries and regions.
The social science disciplines, as we know them today, First, a realm of historical-philosophical discourse on
were institutionalized in the late nineteenth and early politics existed in eighteenth-century Europe and also
twentieth centuries and shaped by the political, intellectual included discourses on political economy. This historical-
and institutional contexts. The new social sciences were philosophical discursive field was clearly the cradle of a
forms of reflection on the broad societal processes of discipline of politics in Britain and in a number of its former
modernization and differentiation of working and everyday colonies. A series of scholars have argued that the notion of
life that fundamentally transformed nineteenth-century a science of politics emerged out of the concerns to constrain
societies in Europe and North America from rural, agrarian undue enthusiasm and passion. The key proponents of this
and localized into increasingly industrial, urban and nation new science were moral philosophers and political
state centred. These transformations, the coming of economists, including thinkers of the late-eighteenth
‘modernity’, deeply affected discourses not only on ‘the century Scottish Enlightenment.
social question’, i.e. the accommodation of the more or less Hume, Smith, Ferguson, Millar and Stewart all
uprooted masses of modern industrial society, but also on contributed to the outline of an inquiry into constitutions
the creation of cultural and national identity and on the and political institutions conducive to restraint and
modern nation state that were to serve as vehicles for these moderation in governance. Such a mode of inquiry was
processes. designed to go beyond the merely descriptively historical
The intellectual projects drafted to foster a better and to link historical examples to a scientific understanding
understanding of the role of state and politics in this new of human nature and of the propitious conditions for the
societal constellation varied greatly across nations. emergence of free commerce, markets and trade.
Sometimes they took the form of intellectual inquiry into This encompassing project of a historical and moral
those processes of state- and institution-building that were philosophical discourse on politics and governance may be
such a prominent part of the nineteenth-century societal seen as a continuation of the broad intellectual tradition of
strivings and beliefs. In some cases – as in the analyses by the so-called moral sciences. In British discourse on the
Andrews, Furner, Haskell, Ross, Silva and Slaughter, or study of politics, it may even be considered a root metaphor
Manicas – the professionalization of political scientists is for such discourse. In this perspective, perhaps the ‘tragedy
seen as an effort among former elites to prepare for reforms of political science’ – to borrow Ricci’s term – is that it has
designed to preserve the traditional aspects of the discipline divested itself of a serious concern for moral argument and

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its potential to shed light on crucial issues in order to preserve Administratively and legally oriented discourse on
wisdom and prudence in government. However, the concern politics and the state in continental Europe of the late
for normative theory as well as for institutional and nineteenth century in the tradition of the ‘sciences of the
intellectual history that was central to this tradition does not state’ tended to evolve in an increasingly abstract and
seem to have been weakened but rather ‘to have strengthened generalizing direction. It largely came to focus on the
its influence over time’.1 Nevertheless, a slow process of encompassing project of elaborating a coherent legal system
professional and technical specialization came to define that might serve both as a rationale and a guideline for the
standards of technical competence that gradually seemed to bureaucratic governance of the new or renewed nation states
impede dialogue between the representatives of these of Europe. This programme of so-called legal positivism
disciplines and academics lecturing and studying in the field became a central component of the modern version of state
of politics. However, the renaissance in recent decades, sciences, but it also served as a benchmark for critics who
propelled by scholars representing different branches of strove to expound a theory giving fuller weight to the actual
political science such as intellectual history and normative practices and power struggles in interventionist states.
political philosophy, now makes these fears seem exaggerated. This type of legal-administrative discourse came to exert
In fact, the broad historical-philosophical tradition, a powerful influence well beyond continental Europe. Thus
sometimes suspected to be superseded by the achievements it has been argued, particularly by Gunnell, that it also
of the so-called behavioural revolution of the 1950s and deeply affected early American political science and served
1960s, now stands out as more vital and important to the as a link between inquiry into empirical and normative
future of the discipline than ever before. It is also noticeable issues by way of a hypothesized entity representing an
that in recent years, the openness within the discipline of assumed societal consensus beyond the mere operations of
political science and outside of it has increased dramatically. a governmental apparatus or the strivings of diverse popular
However, ‘the tragedy of political science’ has another side factions. A theory of the state became an intellectual means
to it, namely the departure of other discourses from the to fill in the missing link between the idealized entity ‘We,
general realm which had once been shared by students of the people’ of the American Constitution and the
politics, history, moral philosophy, and political economy. bewildering multiplicity of diverse social, ethnic and
From this perspective, the study of politics is not so much a religious factions making up the population of the vast new
new discipline of political ‘science’ but rather something of a country. The legal-administrative tradition also proved
secondary discipline, i.e. that which remains of a once- critical to the development of political reasoning in Eastern
encompassing undertaking after other modes of systematic Europe, Latin America and in several Asian countries.
inquiry have branched off and established themselves as well- Aside from the purely legally oriented discourse and
entrenched and essentially self-contained modes of analysis. statistical studies, there was another line of research and
Political economy was the first specialized type of discourse practice of major importance for the emerging discipline of
within this broad constellation to distinguish itself political science: the efforts by entrepreneurial individuals
intellectually in disciplinary terms. Already in the early to modernize and professionalize the training of
nineteenth century, political economy constituted a clearly administrators while linking it up to a scholarly programme
delimited domain of discourse of its own, although it of research. This was essentially the project of Emile Boutmy
maintained strong links to history throughout that century. that led to the establishment of the École libres des sciences
Only much later did corresponding shifts towards technical politiques in Paris and similar efforts were made, though
specialization seriously erode the feasibility of history and with considerably less success, in other settings (e.g. in Italy)
philosophy serving as ‘the twin pillars’ – to use David Held’s at roughly the same time. As often is the case with
term – of an academic discourse on politics. Nevertheless, contemporary public administration and public policy
there always existed a practice of reasoning on politics that schools, many of these efforts were marked by conflict
draws on a tradition of rationalistic-deductive theorizing. The between the demands inherent in the professional training
renewed dialogue between contemporary economics and programme and the demands of a scholarly-driven
rational choice theory, on the one hand, and political science intellectual enterprise, and in such a struggle the latter
at large, on the other, has often been able to draw on this component easily tends to lose the upper hand.
tradition and to revive it significantly. The school at Columbia, established in 1880 and modelled
A third realm of discourse that deeply affected the partly on Boutmy’s school, was an exception in its emphasis
emerging discipline of politics and government may be on scholarship rather than on professional training, despite
termed legal-administrative. The old tradition of the princely the fact that it developed under the intellectual leadership of
states, e.g. Germany, Austria, but also Russia and German-trained scholars such as Burgess. In some ways, the
Scandinavia, of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth whole broad and highly consequential development of
centuries to underpin administration and governance by schools of public policy and public administration and
way of an array of so-called police and cameral sciences management draws on this older tradition of political science
could perhaps even be considered a precursor to modern and constitutes a continuation of this tradition even though
policy sciences. It would, however, be a gross simplification it was strongly influence by a more economic-rationalistic
to construe anything like a clear continuity in scholarly (micro-economic) type of reasoning.
terms between these early endeavours and the increasing In the continental European setting of the first half of
policy orientation in the modern social and political sciences. the twentieth century, the tradition of the ‘state sciences’
But in terms of administrative practices, state production of remained legalistic in its orientation, and after the
comprehensive statistics, as well as in the establishment of Second World War it was often perceived as a ‘blind alley’
institutions for the training of administrative personnel, by representatives of a more empiricist and behavioural
there are some lasting influences on the shaping of modern form of political science. It is interesting to note, however,
social science disciplines. that three broad areas of research, which are crucial today,

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advocate a renewal of a type of reasoning that had been of European nations in the wake of the First World War was
such importance to the older generation of scholars, namely sometimes perceived as a repudiation of abstract reasoning
those associated with the constitution of overarching premised on the assumed existence of an interest and
political orders such as the European Union, with the rationale of the state beyond the realm of critical reasoning.
establishment of constitutional foundations in new polities, Thus an intellectual rupture occurred in American
whether in Eastern Europe or in the Third World, and with political science in the interwar years. However, the later
the analysis of the nature of international regimes and order. US careers of European or European-trained scholars such
These new fields of research have witnessed a renewed as Kelsen and Morgenthau bear witness to the fact that
interest in legal-constitutional reasoning, often in fruitful parts of the earlier traditions of legal discourse came to exert
dialogue with rationalistic-deductive and historical- an indirect and sometimes inadvertent influence also on
philosophical reasoning, and require once-prominent forms American political and social science in later decades, albeit
of competence that were neglected to some extent within an influence largely taken out of the intellectual context in
the discipline of political science during part of the post- which these modes of theorizing had been shaped.
Second World War period.
A fourth major intellectual tradition known as the
sociological-behavioural exerted the greatest influence on the E xpansion and
evolution of political science in the twentieth century. Some internationalization of
of its roots may be traced back to the discourse on systematic professional political science
and societal constraints that emerged in the wake of the
French Revolution. However, whereas continental The modern discipline of political science is to a large extent
European thinking tended to be systemic and structural, in a post-Second World War phenomenon that occurred
the American setting it became linked to pragmatist both at the international and the national levels.2 Along
philosophy and an empiricist epistemology giving rise to a with the establishment of the International Political Science
new form of behavioural social and political science. It is the Association (IPSA) under the auspices of UNESCO in
breakthrough of this tradition in North America in the 1949, there began a gradual process whereby political science
interwar period that set the stage for the subsequent so- came to be introduced or fundamentally redefined in a
called behavioural revolution in international political science diversity of national settings, including the Netherlands,
in the decades following the Second World War. Norway and West Germany but also in Latin America,
The discipline’s key transitional figure is Charles Australia, India and Japan and several other Asian countries.
Merriam, who was entirely familiar with the early American These developments often meant that elements of the
tradition of state-centred political science – from Lieber, sociological-behavioural tradition came to affect research in
Burgess and Adams and Willoughby to his teacher Dunning political science but rarely to such an extent that other
– and also with European scholarship of the same period. earlier traditions were totally marginalized. A process of
In a remarkable way, Merriam represents continuity and professionalization was set in motion and came to exert a
innovation, disciplinary demarcation and interdisciplinarity. truly profound worldwide influence in the wake of the
Merriam is generally heralded as the progenitor of modern expansion of higher education systems in a many countries
empirically oriented political science, at least in the American in the 1960s and early 1970s.
context, but he is also an advocate of cross-disciplinary With the spectacular expansion of higher education
collaboration, as were many later behavioural social systems and the parallel processes of administrative reform,
scientists. political science became firmly entrenched as an academic
Also facilitating the rapid development of political discipline in the university systems. Moreover, in many
science in the United States was the fact that the linkage countries the rise to power of new political majorities and
between the different realms of discourse presented above the launching of major new public policy programmes
was established much earlier and more successfully than it across the board also fostered this evolution. In the age of
was in Europe, even though many of the most significant great public policy programmes, political science was able to
developments within all these realms continued to occur in secure a firm basis in a series of European countries, either
European universities. In Europe, however, few or no for the first time (e.g. Denmark) or in a renewed and greatly
settings existed that could serve as a catalyst for new types of expanded form (e.g. Britain, Germany and Sweden). This
inquiry into political matters, involving research of a mainly expansion was accompanied by the emergence of the
behavioural nature, as occurred at the universities of Chicago discipline on an international level, which endowed the
or Columbia. International Political Science Association with a truly
Already in 1924, Charles Merriam emphasized the international character.
relevance of the new development of behaviourally oriented On all continents, the full array of sub-disciplines
social and political science and pointed out the importance included institutional and behavioural studies devoted to a
of public opinion and voting behaviour, political parties and single country, comparative analysis, public administration
interest groups, and the possibility of an empirical study of and the related expanding fields of policy studies, local
these foundations and backgrounds to formally organized government, international relations, political sociology,
government. There were both intradisciplinary and political- constitutional history and law, political economy, and – no
societal reasons for the shift towards classificatory longer a core component but rather one of many specialties –
inductivism in the study of institutions. Thus it coincided political theory and philosophy.
with a strong aversion to strictly formalistic reasoning This impressive expansion has been accompanied by
expounding the rationale of the state in terms of a legal enhanced research methods. Thus a previously predominant
positivistic discourse. The belated and, as it turned out, concern for political institutions and processes on a national
often ephemeral triumph of parliamentary democracy in level (principally in Latin America, Europe, Australia, Japan

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and India rather than in the United States) was progressively identification cannot be easily upheld. In fact, American
enriched by a stronger research orientation towards political science may show signs of renewed dependence on
international relations and organizations and towards local theoretical discourse as it has evolved in other continents
and regional level government. In terms of research methods, over the last decades of the twentieth century.
the 1960s were the breakthrough years of the pending In the major sub-disciplines of political science,
behavioural revolution, which were partly the result of the substantial differences in terms of emphasis and major foci
efforts of European scholars in the interwar period. No longer continue to exist. Thus in political theory and philosophy,
could historical, juridical and philosophical reasoning, taken liberal individualism largely seems to serve as a tacit point of
alone or collectively, be considered sufficient for the analysis departure for much, if not most of, American political
of political phenomena. Methods and techniques previously philosophy. No doubt these types of theorizing, as
elaborated in statistics, sociology, psychology, and economics epitomized by rational choice theorizing, continue to exert
were now being utilized by political scientists on a vast scale. an important influence in Asia, Africa, Latin America and
This shift in research methodology coincided with the Europe as well. However, other equally influential modes of
expansion of the discipline. In Europe, it was often political philosophy are prevalent. One major development
complemented by the introduction of a more formalized has been the tendency to link previously separate fields of
graduate programme generally with compulsory courses in theoretical research, and particularly the linking of an
research methodology. A recurrent stimulus was the institutional analysis of the conditions for preparing and
European Consortium for Political Research, itself a implementing policies with a normatively oriented analysis
product of the 1960s, which through its annual workshops, of the implications of such policies for justice in society.
research groups and summer schools exerted a lasting In all countries, most political science activities continue
influence on several generations of young European political to focus on the actual workings of national political systems.
scientists by creating an informal ‘invisible college’ of Studies of legislatures, executives, political parties, interest
younger scholars. In those universities and countries where groups and electoral behaviour tend, almost by necessity, to
this shift was most actively pursued, there were certainly focus on the national context. This is most true of the purely
instances where pre-existing juridical, historical and institutional analysis. Thus, there has long existed a strong
philosophical competence was either partially lost or could international and comparatively oriented research community
not keep up with developments in related disciplines thus in fields such as electoral behaviour and the study of the role
becoming gradually antiquated and out of touch with the of mass media in the political process. The seemingly secular
initial rationale for the use of these traditional methods. erosion of traditional party identities and affiliations in
Apart from external political-societal reasons for the Western Europe and the dramatic transformations occurring
predominance of one particular mode of disciplinary identity, in Eastern Europe have also served as a powerful stimulus for
the defining factor of the early pre-war period was that the comparatively oriented studies.
only country in which the political science structures had Much the same holds true in another sub-field of political
sufficient size and scope to make widespread international science, namely the study of public administration and
impact was the United States. In the early 1950s, the American public policy. A strong and vital tradition in recent decades
disciplinary association had more than 5,000 members, has pushed this type of research far beyond a concern for
whereas European membership averaged less than 1 per cent only the formal workings of a government administration or
of that number. Today membership in America has tripled the comparative study of attitudes of bureaucrats and
and the combined enrolment of European political science politicians, whether at the national, regional or local level.
associations has yet to reach 5,000 members. Instead current research increasingly focuses on the actual
With the exception of Britain, France and possibly processes of policymaking and policy implementation. This
Germany and Sweden, the United States seemed to be the type of research was often stimulated by the expansion of
only country whose version of a science of politics clearly government activities and policies and by the perplexing
responded to the intellectual concerns of institutionally failures of government programmes in terms of
successful precursors of the late nineteenth and early ‘implementation deficits’. A large body of research has tried
twentieth centuries. As noted by Bernard Crick, at least from to examine to what extent and under what conditions
the time of the address by the then-president of the American political forces can affect not only government decisions but
Political Science Association, Charles Merriam, in 1923 to also actual policy outcomes. In an age of growing international
the address by Pendelton Herring thirty years later (and to interdependence, intractable long-term problems, such as
the one delivered by Samuel Huntington another quarter of the conditions of the human environment and the nature of
a century later), there has been a persistent notion that economic policy, have stimulated interest in such research.
political science is intimately linked to the intellectual and A significant development currently underway involves
institutional history of the United States and constitutes an efforts to associate an analysis of the workings of public and
American-conceived science that has successfully spread to a private organizations with the study of the conditions for
range of nations, whose effective, if belated, acceptance of a long-term institutional change.3 Clearly, the slowly changing
pluralistic political system has qualified them as proper fundamental role of national governments and the emergence
recipients of this intellectual heritage. of a new confederate political entity, such as the European
However understandable such a perspective may be, it is Union and its vast organizational structure, offers yet
based upon the misperception that political science is another major opportunity to analyse the development of
identified with a particular form of inquiry – related to political and administrative arrangements.
liberal individualism – that played a predominant role within In the sub-field of international relations, subjects such
the first professional political science community, which has as the East-West conflict, interaction between the developed
since become an international model. Nonetheless, from and developing countries and the functioning of large-scale
both a historical and contemporary perspective, this simple international organizations previously predominated. In

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recent years, however, a range of new research efforts the other hand, it is largely and essentially clustered around
designed to come to terms with the rapidly changing a set of key concerns about the legitimacy of rulers and the
international scene has emerged. This has occurred alongside making of the basic rules and societal institutions, i.e. the
interesting and fundamental restructuring within the study problems of constituting a political order. These concerns
of international relations itself, including questioning are not transient but recur with each successive generation.
analysis that takes a purely realpolitik approach more or less The foundational transformations of Eastern and Central
for granted. Thus, the study of international relations is Europe have once again forced these basic questions of
currently engaged in a fascinating process of change. political inquiry onto political and scholarly agendas.
It follows that a search for a solution to the most essential
problems of politics and order must be an in-depth inquiry
P olitical science in the present that draws on knowledge from diverse fields. Any truly
age : dialogue and diversity innovative political inquiry has to be contextually sensitive
and must rely on knowledge available in various social
The present situation might be summed up succinctly by science and cultural science disciplines. This position is
means of two observations. First, the advances in the widely recognized by most observers. However, to account
development of research methodology and knowledge about for this particular position of political science and inquiry,
the real world of politics in recent decades have been impressive. the analysis of the formation and development of the
In many ways, the history of political science in the twentieth discipline in different national contexts must be pursued
century must be seen in terms of developments before and not as a pastime for the sake of recording recent achievements
after the broad professional breakthrough of the discipline in but as a major component of intellectual advancement.
the 1950s and 1960s and the ways in which this breakthrough
produced focal points concerning debates about texts that
came to be regarded as ‘modern classics’ without the emergence P olitical S cience in the F uture
of any single strict methodological canon.
In this respect, the ‘post-behavioural’ phase of disciplinary Political science has to a large extent emerged and evolved as
development from the 1970s to the present has been marked a confederation of diverse practices held together by
by the co-existence of a strong empirical and survey research institutional consensus rather than by a common conception
tradition, of public policy analysis and systematic empirically of a theoretical research programme and scholarly tradition.
oriented comparative politics and international relations This may help safeguard a fair amount of intellectual
research alongside a renewed interest in normative political pluralism and guarantee scholarly vitality and growth.
philosophy, a rediscovery of institutions, including macro- However, it probably also leaves the field more open to
historical studies of state institutions and state systems but societal and administrative influences and less able
also the introduction of various types of linguistic and systematically to draw on theoretical advances in related
rhetorical analysis. In this later period as well, however, we intellectual fields. Just such an observation was a major
might ask whether the co-existence of different sub- premise of David Easton’s classic study, The Political System.
disciplines prevents consensus over which works deserve to Easton’s concerns are echoed in the words of David Held, a
serve as focal points for intellectual debates. scholar of a later generation who argues for the need for a
Secondly, differences in research interests and style in discipline that systematically confronts the abstract
political science persist and cannot realistically be expected normative reasoning of political philosophy with a keen
to disappear. As previously pointed out, such differences understanding of the actual constraints and potentials in
must be understood against the background of the terms of various social groups’ power resources and of the
substantial differences in the role and conception of state processes of distributing such resources. These optimal
and public activities in various parts of the world, not least conditions are more urgently needed when preferences are
between the United States and a number of European initially being formed rather than when these preferences
countries. These differences reflect the fact that the are assessed in terms of costs and benefits of courses of
development of the social sciences must be analysed against action. This position is consistent with the type of broadly
the backdrop of intellectual traditions as well as institutional historical comparative study of politics and society envisaged
legacies and broad societal concerns. in the writings of Weber and Durkheim, who sharply
It is important to recognize the foundational and reflexive criticized the emerging discipline of political science for
nature of political inquiry. Political scientists should ignoring this point.
emphasize the dual nature of the discipline’s history, on the Nowadays, when social scientists once again have to
one hand, grounded in issues centring on argumentation question the very form of political organization upon which
and power, talk and force, signification and domination and so much of their theorizing is premised, the archetypical
on the other hand, a relatively recent set of professional nation state, and its presuppositions concerning amply
practices. available natural resources and increasingly efficient
A roundtable of American political scientists in the early technology, Held’s warning against complacency and
1990s examining the nature of contemporary political disciplinary myopia should be interpreted as a scholarly
science came to a similar conclusion as to the present state challenge rather than a threat.
of the discipline. Thus one objective for an examination of The fact that the basic political and societal macro-
the development of political science must be to account for institutions that have been more or less taken for granted
the special nature of political science as a discipline. On the for at least a century and a half – i.e. the modern nation
one hand, it is one modern social science discipline among state, the modern large-scale corporation, the modern
others, and in this respect it has proven its mettle, even if its research-oriented university and modern science itself – are
modern guise remains relatively new in some countries. On currently undergoing fundamental transformations should

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make such scholarly flexibility seem not only natural but Graziano, L. 1987. The Development and Institutionalisation of
necessary. Clearly, a number of assumptions concerning our Political Science in Italy. In: International Political Science Review,
deepest cultural and national identities and their relationship Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 41–57.
to the basic forms of political and social organization have Gunnell, J. G. 1990. In Search of the State: Political Science as an
to be examined anew with the same readiness to undertake Emerging Discipline in the United States. In: Wagner, P.,
foundational inquiry as political philosophers and students Wittrock, B. and Whitley, R. (eds). Discourses on Society: The
have shown in earlier periods of fundamental change. Shaping of the Social Science Disciplines. Kluwer, Dordrecht, The
In this respect, the special nature of political science as a Netherlands, pp. 123–61.
field within a relatively modern profession dealing with Heilbron, J., Magnusson, L. and Wittrock, B. 1997. The Rise of
perennial questions about the nature of the political order the Social Sciences: Conceptual Change in Context, 1750–1850.
and the legitimacy of ruling and power should be seen as an Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
asset rather than a liability, but to do so, political scientists Held, D. 1989. Political Theory and the Modern State: Essays on State,
must first face up to their own history and its legacies. This Power and Democracy. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
is important not so much for the future of political science Karl, B. D. 1974. Charles E. Merriam and the Study of Politics. University
as a profession (the continuation of a lively confederation of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
centred on professional concerns seems reasonably secured), Lindblom, C. E. 1997. Political Science in the 1940s and 1950s. In:
but because an understanding of the position of modern Daedalus, Vol. 126, No. 1, pp. 225–52.
humankind requires facing some very difficult questions Lowi, T. J. 1992. The State in Political Science: How We Became
concerning our identity and the manner in which our words What We Study. In: American Political Science Review, Vol. 86,
and actions are linked to societal rules and resources. These No. 1, pp. 1–7.
are, indeed, the kind of questions with which the best kind Mackenzie, W. J. M. 1967. Politics and Social Science. Penguin Books,
of political inquiry has always been concerned, i.e. a political Harmondsworth, UK.
science with a focus on the problems of argumentation and Manicas, P. T. 1987. A History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences.
domination, discourse, institutions and history, and with a Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
great degree of openness towards other disciplines. Such March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P. 1989. Rediscovering Institutions: The
scholarship will be crucial to the civilized community of Organizational Basis of Politics. The Free Press, New York.
humankind in the face of greater demands for institutional Merriam, C. E. 1924/1935. Recent Tendencies in Political Thought.
learning and environmental and human sensitivity in the In: MERRIAM, C. E. and BARNES, H. E. (eds). A History of Political
future. Thus the prospects of such a political science are Theories: Recent Times; Essays on Contemporary Developments in
relevant far beyond the confines of the discipline itself. Political Theory. Macmillan, New York.
Norris, P. 1997. Towards a More Cosmopolitan Political Science?
In: European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 30, No. 1,
NOTES pp. 17–34.
Phillipson, N. Culture and Society in the Eighteenth Century: The
1. P. Norris, ‘Towards a More Cosmopolitan Political Case of Edinburgh and the Scottish Enlightenment. In: STONE, L.
Science?’, in: European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 30, (ed.). The University in Society: Europe, Scotland, and the United
No. 1, 1997, pp. 17–34. States from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, Vol. II. Princeton
2. J. E. Trent, ‘Institutional Development’, in: W. G. University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Andrews (ed.), International Handbook of Political Science, Raeff, M. 1983. The Well-Ordered Police State: Social and Institutional
Westport, CT, 1982, pp. 34–46. Changes through Law in the Germanies and Russia, 1600–1800. Yale
3. J. G. March and J. P. Olsen, Rediscovering Institutions: University Press, New Haven, CT.
The Organizational Basis of Politics, New York, 1989. Ricci, D. M. 1984. The Tragedy of Political Science: Politics, Scholarship,
and Democracy. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Ross, D. 1991. The Origins of American Social Science. Cambridge
BIBLIOGRAPHY University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Silva, E. T. and Slaughter, S. A. 1984. Serving Power: The Making of
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Blondel, J. 1981. The Discipline of Politics. Butterworths, London. Smith, R. M. 1997. Still Blowing in the Wind: The American Quest
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Oxford, UK, pp. 3–49. Netherlands.

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 19.9
Linguistics

Stephen A. Wurm

In the early twentieth century, the school of comparative- manifestations (parole), and his claim that linguistics should
historical linguistics that had dominated the nineteenth be studied within the wider context of the study of sign
century was increasingly overshadowed by structuralism systems in society, which he called ‘semiology’ and which
and other theoretical approaches. Nevertheless, comparative- later became known as semiotics. Another important view
historical linguistic work continued to have a following held by Saussure was that language is not a substance, but
among scholars studying less-known languages such as a form.
Austronesian (Dempwolff), South-East Asian (Benedict), Saussure’s ideas, and especially his concern with the
Uralian (Rédei), Altaic (Poppe), African (Greenberg), and abstract and systematic aspects of language, were challenged
American Indian (Campbell and Mithun). In recent by Louis Hjelmslev, the most important member of the
decades, the approach has delivered some spectacular results Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen, who developed the theory
in these previously neglected areas. A striking example is the of Glossematics. He argued that linguistics could only
postulation of the huge Papuan Trans-New Guinea Phylum describe relations, i.e. dependencies or functions between
by McElhanon and Voorhoeve and Wurm, which comprises items, not the items themselves. One of the important
about 500 of the approximately 750 Papuan languages, and features of glossematics was the study of content and form
whose existence is now being documented. Comparative in trying to arrive at a structural investigation of semantics.
work by Foley in some Papuan language families should Componential analysis has parallels to this and has influenced
also be mentioned. Another outstanding recent example is other schools of linguistics such as stratificational grammar
the wide-ranging comparative-historical work by Ross in a and, in dealing with general semiotic concepts, has had an
large number of Austronesian languages in Melanesia in the influence on semiotic theories.
south-west Pacific. Similar work is underway in some other Another leading school of linguistics in the mid-twentieth
parts of Australia, South-East Asia, and the Americas. At century was the Prague School. It was the first to recognize
the same time, T. Gamkrelidse and V. V. Ivanov, two the function of the phoneme as the basic unit of phonology,
linguists from the Republic of Georgia, arrived at important whose sound properties distinguish words of unlike meaning
new insights into the Indo-European language system. Also, in a language as defined by Roman Jakobson, a leading
a new trend in linguistics, paleolinguistics, appeared with member of the Prague School. They recognized the presence
the reconstruction of ancient phonetics and semantics, e.g. of binary oppositions of phonemic pairs whose members
in the works of B. Kalgren, G. Malmquist, E. Pulleyblank, differed in a single distinctive feature, calling the opposing
S. Egerod in Chinese; N. Marr in Caucasian languages; and members marked and unmarked. These concepts reappeared
J. Meshchaninov in Arctic languages. in other theoretical approaches in the latter part of the
Despite these important contributions, the main century. Binary phonemic oppositions were recognized as
linguistic stream in early-twentieth-century Europe and constituting the phonological system of a language.
America was a structuralist approach to language. The first Adherents of the Prague School, or Praguians, tried to
proponent of this theoretical approach in Europe was the formulate general universally valid phonological rules and
Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, whose contributions examined the degree to which phonemes were utilized in a
were published by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye in specific language; their work proved useful for language
1916, three years after his death. One of his lasting legacies teaching and was a precursor of later research in contrastive
to twentieth-century linguistics was the sharp distinction linguistics and language planning. The Praguians realized
between the synchronic and diachronic approaches in that the sound system was only one part of a language, with
linguistic study. Also very important for modern linguistics phonology and morphology being very close relations.
was his recognition of the opposition between the social and Nicolai Trubetzkoy, one of their members, introduced the
systematic side of language as an abstract model (called still valid concept of the morpheme. Linguistic diachrony
langue by him) and individual speech as concrete also attracted the Praguians’ interest, as did questions of

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written language, which was viewed as being systemically Boas’ students, brought the descriptive model close to
independent from spoken language. modern structuralism in his insights into the link between
The London School was another major twentieth-century form and meaning. Leonard Bloomfield exercised very
centre of linguistics research. Its founder and principal strong influence on American linguistics in the first decades
proponent was John Rupert Firth, who established linguistics of the twentieth century. He advocated that linguists should
as an academic discipline in British universities in the decade work without preconceptions and observe the forms of each
after the Second World War. Firth’s main interests lay in language in order to establish their language-specific
prosodic phonology, which challenged existing phonological functions. He rejected the traditional belief of linguists that
theories, and in semantic theory. Prosodic phonology did there were presumably some universal grammatical
not intend to produce the simplest overall description of the categories in every language. In their work, both Sapir and
phonology of a language but to give a clearer, more coherent Bloomfield emphasized the distinctive sounds and forms in
account especially suitable for studying data in terms of a languages and meaningful distributional patterns. This
polysystemic statement. In this prosodic phonology, termed focus on forms specific to each language was expanded after
prosodic analysis by Firth, no one-to-one relationship between 1940 by other American linguists such as Bernard Bloch,
phonetic and phonological items is assumed. Rather, it Charles Hockett, Zellig Harris and George Trager, whose
presupposed an interdependence of phonology and grammar, distributionalism largely avoided considerations of meaning
thereby rendering any intermediary morphophonemic level in linguistic analysis and relied on a solely distributional
unnecessary. The polysystemic approach allowed the setting analysis of a corpus, i.e. written linguistic data. Semantics
up of separate phonological systems for grammatical was considered too vague, and synonymy – in terms of
structures, and for special phonological systems for identity of distribution only – was regarded as non-existent.
loanwords. Another of Firth’s interests was the study of In their work, the contrastive and non-contrastive
linguistic meaning in terms of contextual semantics, called distribution of elements was central to analysis.
the theory of the context of situation. It was his belief that Generative grammar was introduced by Noam Chomsky
semantics was central to linguistics, a position that strongly (Plate 102) His theoretical approach was based on generative
contrasted with the views of many linguists of the day, syntax and the rejection of structuralist linguistics, though
especially in America. Firth took the view that every language Chomsky and his followers used distributionalist techniques
was embedded in the culture of its speakers. This view also in the tradition of American structuralism. Chomsky’s
led him to pay special attention to what he called restricted theory has moved in a number of different directions since
languages with their own vocabulary and grammatical and its inception, but they all share two main aims: to formally
even phonetic features, and used in specific contexts, such as describe the universal features of grammars of individual
professional technical language, rhetorical speeches, official languages and to describe the inherent knowledge, referred
correspondence and so on. Firth’s linguistic views later to as competence, which native speakers possess about
became influential in Halliday’s Systemic Grammar, which syntactic, phonological, morphological, and semantic
presented a comprehensive linguistic theory and analysis like patterns in their language. Both generativists and
the one Firth had intended to produce. Also, recent post- structuralists believe that a grammar is a description of the
phonemic phonological approaches such as autosegmental structural relationships between elements in a given language.
phonology are close to Firth’s views on phonology. This In fact, generative competence, and what is called performance,
autosegmental phonology developed from research into are modern reinterpretations of Saussure’s langue and parole.
generative phonology in the 1970s when some problems in One major difference between the generative and structuralist
that phonological theory became evident. Until then, the approach is found in the goal of linguistic theory.
prevalent view held that speech was linear and consisted of a Structuralists established lists of linguistic elements of a
single sequence of phonemes separated by discrete language and indicated their distribution, whereas Chomsky’s
boundaries. However, increasing evidence from descriptions theory aimed at defining what kind of grammatical processes
of Asian and African tone languages indicated that speech can occur in language in terms of a universal grammar which
sounds showed much overlap, with tonal features only he regarded as an innate faculty of the human mind, brought
loosely related to the segmental phonemes with which they into being by the child in the course of acquiring a language.
were connected. This and similar problems in the analysis of Generativists adopted the view of Bloomfield’s successors
complex segments convinced more and more linguists that that syntax could not be derived from the study of meaning
the segmental view of phonology needed revision, thus as the autonomy of syntax.
leading to the development of autosegmental phonology. The Prague School also influenced generative thinking,
A crucial chapter in the history of linguistics in the especially in phonology, but also in the search for linguistic
twentieth century is American structural linguistics. Its basic universals. Generative syntax has been influenced by Otto
tenet, held by many linguists, was that the discrete elements Jespersen’s views, and generative grammar has been aided
of language formed structures and patterns. Great both by studies in mathematical logic from the 1940s and
importance was attributed to spoken language, and 1950s, and changes in the views of philosophers of science and
intellectual ties between linguistics and anthropology were developments in cognitive psychology. Chomsky’s 1957
close. This current originated in to the late nineteenth theory relied on phrase structure rules and transformations. The
century in connection with work in Native American latter changed grammatical relations, and produced complex
languages. Anthropologist Franz Boas had observed that sentences from simple ones. In 1965 Chomsky presented the
inconsistencies in the transcription of words from these standard theory of generative syntax. In this, phrase structure
languages made it possible to guess the nationality of the rules made so-called embedding transformations superfluous,
transcriber, which in turn made it possible to place into a and introduced a separate lexicon. This made it possible to
cultural matrix structural views in language resulting from postulate a separate level of deep structure, which was also the
the observation of verbal interaction. Edward Sapir, one of seat of semantic interpretation, while transformational rules

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 T h e d i s c i pl i n e s o f t h e s c i e n c e s o f s o c i e t y

imposed deep structures onto surface structures. After 1965, language as a network of relations. The two-stratum model
one new development in syntactic theory was generative was expanded with the four-stratum one containing
semantics, which rejected the need for a separate deep structure sememes (semotactics), lexemes (lexotactics), morphemes
level on the grounds that transformational rules already (morphotactics), and phonemes (phonotactics). Influenced
present imposed semantic notions directly on surface in part by Halliday’s Systemic Grammar, a notation for the
structures. It moved away from many of the conceptions of representation of linguistic structure as a network of nodes
generative grammar, but eventually died out by the middle of and lines was devised. Stratificational grammar intends to
the 1970s. give a description of language, which can constitute a basis
After 1965, an Extended Standard Theory (EST) for a performance model.
developed, splitting into two theories following the demise A general theory of tagmemics was presented by Kenneth
of generative semantics, with both of them still pursued L. Pike. Tagmemics uses the concept of slots (positions) in
today. One of them, developed by Chomsky himself and a structure, filled by classes of items. The final development
called the Government Binding (GB) Theory, is of tagmemics is a four-cell tagmeme, which encompasses
characterized by the gradual replacement of language- the levels of the hierarchy from conversation to phonology
specific rules by general universal principles of extreme and reaches out to events and situations. Semantics is in all
abstractness and complexity of supporting arguments. The hierarchies, with the native informant part of the database.
other has two branches, the Generalized Phrase Structure Language is assumed to consist of form/meaning composites
Grammar (GPSG) and the Lexical-Functional Grammar within a culture or society. The concepts of Emic and Etic
(LFG), which are closely interrelated and used within (in analogy to phonetic) are used to describe native reaction
computational linguistics. They are much more directed to elements. Pattern is regarded as more basic than logic.
towards surface-structure and require more formal semantic Tagmemics is particularly significant because members of
interpretations of structures than GB. the Summer Institute of Linguistics have been using it in
An important parallel to generative grammar was many of their descriptions of exotic languages in the
generative phonology, which operated in a succession of Americas, Africa, continental and insular South-East Asia,
phonological rules. The presentation of phonological the Philippines and Taiwan, New Guinea, Australia and
processes was very abstract and segmental. There have been other parts of the Pacific; much of the extant material in
challenges to its abstractness and elaborations of more and studies of such languages is accessible only through
complex phonological representations than originally tagmemic descriptions.
presented. Of these, autosegmental phonology has already Outside the predominant preoccupations of twentieth-
been mentioned as also drawing on Firth’s views and those century linguistics with internal linguistic factors and
of the London School. Among other elaborations, lexical principles lies the 1986 study of pidgins and creoles by
phonology may be mentioned; it is concerned with the Mühlhäusler. No longer neglected, these languages are
relationship between phonology, morphology and lexicon proving significant to linguistics in general, to the study of
and claims that all morphological and many phonological language change and to the realization that there are greater
processes take place in the lexicon, with so-called lexical and numbers of mixed languages than was recognized before. In
post-lexical phonological rules operating. pidgin and creole languages, change has occurred very rapidly;
Morphology did not constitute a separate unit in this development constitutes a serious challenge to some
generative grammar until 1970, but was treated as a part of basic tenets of historical/comparative linguistics – namely
phonology and syntax. Chomsky gave it the first specific that all languages can be genetically classified and that
role in 1970, and in 1973 Halle produced the first model of language mixture is a limited and very rare phenomenon.
generative morphology, which is morpheme-based and works Pidgins and creoles owe their origins to non-genetic
inside the lexical component of the grammar. This model development, and they are not suitable for genetic classification
has since been elaborated on. and reconstruction. These languages show very clearly the
Among other linguistic theories current in the twentieth importance of social context in language change. Work
century, Halliday’s systemic grammar has already been during the last few years has been increasingly concerned
mentioned as expanding Firth’s work. It also draws on with the study of pidgins, creoles, and heavily mixed languages
Hjelmslev, the Prague School, and others. It constitutes a based on exotic languages, with interesting results.
type of functional grammar describing the manner in which The highlighting of social context brings sociolinguistics
grammar is organized to make meaning. Because of this, its into focus, and especially in highlighting the role language
use in educational, computational, and text linguistics has plays in communities where two or more languages are
been extensive. used, and in what Haugen terms language planning, which
Stratificational grammar, studied by Makkai and constitutes a systematic response to language problems.
Lockwood, was an approach developed by Sydney M. Lamb Sociolinguistics looks at the creation of new alphabets,
beginning in the late 1950s on the basis of post-Bloomfieldian standardization, codification of morphology, modernization,
theories and Hjelmslev’s glossematics, adopting from the language maintenance, and questions of the use of two or
former the notion of the distinction between (a) possible several languages side-by-side in a given country or area, or
combinations between morphemes and phonemes, and the role of minority languages. For instance, since the 1970s,
(b) the system, which described the realization of Australia has changed its policy on minority languages from
morphemes in terms of phonemes. This produced a two- assimilation to multiculturalism. There is increasing
stratum model dealing with morphemes and phonemes pressure in many industrialized societies for linguistic
(phonology) through a morpho-phonemic system. From pluralism and the emergence of new social functions for
glossematics came the concern with content and expression, minority group languages.
with texts rather than single sentences, with the relationship In recent decades, there has been an increasing interest in
between linguistics and semiotics, and with the concept of the study of exotic languages in many parts of the world. For

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instance, scholars of the former USSR such as CHOMSKY, N. 1957. Syntactic Structures. Mouton, The Hague.
B. Serebrennikov contributed many studies of minority  and HALLE, M. 1968. The Sound Pattern of English. Harper and
languages in that country. V. Solntsev studied eighteen Row, New York.
previously unknown minority languages in Viet Nam. In DEMPWOLFF, O. 1934-1938. Vergleichende Lautlehre des Austronesischen
their contributions to the Canberra series on Pacific Wortschatzes [Comparative Phonology of the Austronesian
Linguistics, linguists have published many detailed Vocabulary]. (3 vols.). Reimer, Berlin.
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research trend has received a strong boost as more and more Volume). Blackwell, Oxford, UK, pp. 1–52.
linguists come to regard language as an intrinsic part of the FISHMAN, J. A. 1972. The Sociology of Language: An Interdisciplinary
culture and society of its speakers and realize that each Social Science Approach to Language in Society. Newbury House,
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offering new insights. This realization has greatly increased GREENBERG, J. H. 1963. The Languages of Africa. Mouton, The
interest in the study of endangered languages,1 because with Hague.
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Disappearing. It sponsored the production of a small pilot HJELMSLEV, L. 1943. Omkring Sprogteoriens Grundlæggelse. Lunos,
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The simplification of many characters in the Chinese MÜHLHÄUSLER, P. 1986. Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Blackwell,
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CT. Prague. [English Translation 1969. C. A. M. Baltaxe, University
BLOOMFIELD, L. 1933. Language. Holt, New York. of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA.]
BRIGHT, W. (ed.). 1992. International Encyclopaedia of Linguistics. WURM, S. A. 1982. Papuan Languages of Oceania. Gunter Narr Verlag,
(4 vols.). Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford Tübingen, Germany.
CAMPBELL, L. and MITHUN, M. (eds). 1979. The Languages of Native , MÜHLHÄUSLER, P. and TRYON, D. T. (eds). 1996. Atlas of Languages
America: Historical and Comparative Assessment. University of of Intercultural Communication in Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas.
Texas Press, Austin. (3 vols.). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.

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 19.10
geography

Paul Claval

G eography in 1 9 1 4 structures as a starting point but associated them with

people/environment interactions, which it described in
Geography differs from other social sciences in the way in terms of life-styles. In the United States, where
which it became formally established as a discipline. Maps, institutionalization came rather late, Carl Sauer (1890–
censuses and information about environments being 1975) developed a school between the two world wars,
indispensable to the functioning of modern states, which used the analysis of landscapes to assess the links
cartographic, hydrographic and statistical services, cadastral forged by cultural groups with the environment they
surveys and weather observation stations appeared in inhabited and exploited.
Europe and the United States at the end of the eighteenth Other countries borrowed from Germany (Russia,
and the first half of the nineteenth century. Teaching did Eastern Europe), France (Great Britain, Netherlands,
not play a decisive role until the 1860s in Germany, the Hispanic countries) or from both of them (Romania, Italy,
1870s in France and the 1880s or 1890s in other European Scandinavian countries). Outside Europe and the United
countries, when, at a time of deepening nationalist tensions States, geography had only really reached Japan, which
and the scramble by the imperial powers to carve up the drew its inspiration principally from the German school.
world, it seemed vital to teach future citizens about their Geography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
country, its colonies and the state of the world. Geography centuries was equally involved in making an inventory of the
featured prominently in curricula from primary school to Earth. This task was particularly important for the countries
university. where the knowledge of natural resources and possibilities
Academic geography aimed at scientific rigour. It was remained incomplete – the United States, Canada,
modelled on the natural sciences even when dealing with Australia, Brazil, Russia, etc. This task went on after the
social realities. That tradition went back to the naturalist First World War, especially in the USSR. The results of
philosophies of the early nineteenth century, and the these researches were very important, particularly in the
popularity of evolutionary theory reinforced the trend. cold areas of the two hemispheres: exploration of the
Physical geography, encompassing the specialized fields Antarctic thanks to the efforts of international teams, and
of geomorphology, climatology, hydrology and the detailed surveys of the North Pole region in Canada,
geography of soils and plant life, occupied a prominent Greenland and Russia led to better understanding of life
place in many countries; in Germany and Russia the idea of under extreme conditions and the processes that shape
putting particular emphasis on the global study of these environments.
environments began to make headway.
Geographers who concentrated on social phenomena
sought to answer three questions: (a) What human T he development of geography
distributions can be observed on the Earth’s surface? up to the middle of the century
(b) How can the diversity of landscapes formed by social
groups be explained? (c) What are the interactions between The end of the First World War disposed of some of the
people and the environment? The emphasis on one or factors that had fostered the rapid rise of geography as a
another of these themes varied from country to country. formal discipline at the end of the nineteenth century.
German geography, the oldest and most prestigious school Nationalism in Europe had lost its virulence. The imperialist
thanks to the work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769– expansion was over, and many people sensed that
1859), Carl Ritter (1779–1859) and Friedrich Ratzel decolonization would soon proceed. The communist
(1844–1904), was more particularly concerned with movement, which had transformed the Russian Empire
landscapes and regional distributions. French geography, into the USSR, was hostile to nationalism until the 1930s.
which developed rapidly from the 1890s, under the impetus Academic geographers were less interested in current
of Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918), also took regional affairs than they had been before the First World War.

295
 thematic section

Their main concern was to ensure that the discipline materials. Geographers were keen to analyse these problems,
flourished. The geography that developed between 1920 but as they had no firm analytical foundations for their
and 1940 in Western Europe and between 1930 and 1940 in studies, the work they produced remained descriptive and
the United States gave pride of place to fieldwork; had little impact on political or economic decision-making.
geographers mustered the resources provided by official In the classical period of its development, then, geography
mapping and statistics services, made precise observations was undeniably enriched by new fields of study. It failed,
and carried out surveys and interviews. Their work was however, to respond to the most urgent needs of society. In
largely concerned with describing landscapes and identifying Great Britain and the other countries where coal had formed
regional structures. Publications tended to focus on small the basis of industrial development in the nineteenth
territories, urban areas or regions. Geographers were more century, whole sections of the economy began to collapse
inclined to study combinations of elements deriving from and restructuring was required. In the United States, the
detailed surveys from a synoptic regional standpoint than to over-brutal exploitation of resources led to ecological crises
carry out comparative studies. French geographers were so acute that the federal government had to intervene – as
widely admired and emulated because they were the in the case of the Tennessee Valley Authority, for instance.
undisputed masters of the art of describing and interpreting In the USSR, the emphasis was on the rapid development
regional patterns, as can be seen from the work of Emmanuel of new industrial centres further and further to the east in
de Martonne (1873–1955) and Albert Demangeon (1872– often-extreme living conditions.
1940); this was because they had been trained as historians, From the 1930s, geographers were in demand for regional
which taught them to be aware of the slow pace of change. planning and controlled land-use projects. They were called
They thus paved the way for the Annales school of history. upon for their expertise in spatial organization, but the
On the whole, academic geography had little contact talents of naturalists, economists, sociologists, architects
with the other social sciences, but its lines of inquiry were and town-planners were also sought. The need for land
not dissimilar to those of history or anthropology at the development became more pressing in the 1940s. With the
time: there was a parallel between the geographers’ regional war over, public opinion no longer accepted that certain
approach and the emphasis on the specific features of each regions of the industrialized countries should fail to benefit
period or each culture observed in other disciplines. from the overall prosperity and that in the Third World
New fields of interest emerged. Before the entire nations were sliding into poverty at a time when
First World War, studies of non-European countries technical production capacities were steadily improving.
assessed their potential for colonial penetration. Hardly any From 1914 to the middle of the century, geography
attention was paid to the problems arising from attempts to generally played a more modest role than in either the
exploit environments very different from those encountered previous or the following period. That does not mean that it
in Europe or the United States. did not enjoy some success. Major regional studies made
The perspective changed between the wars. The areas the discipline better known to the educated public. Everyone
under colonial domination were well established – the had heard of the geopolitical theories or resource analyses
problem was one of developing them. Planters discovered produced in great number by specialists in economic
that soil in hot, humid countries was often poor, and that it geography. The land-use register produced in Great Britain
eroded rapidly after clearing. The robustness of the natural between the wars under the direction of Dudley Stamp
vegetation was misleading: it thrived in what was virtually a (1898–1966) was to prove a valuable tool when it came to
closed circuit and could reproduce with practically no need planning the war economy.
for any additional mineral input. The methods devised by On the whole, however, a feeling of dissatisfaction spread
the local communities to make the most of such difficult among geographers. Their knowledge did not respond to
surroundings began to be understood. Tropical geography the land development needs of contemporary societies.
emerged. Traditional geography seemed more suited to the rurally
In the industrialized world, rural areas had been the focus based units, which pre-dated the industrial revolution, than
of attention until the First World War. Urban geography the complex industrialized societies.
then overtook rural geography. Towns were classified Geography remained a Western discipline: it was now
according to size and function, as were the areas under their established in all the European countries. It met with
sway. Walter Christaller (1893–1969) laid the foundations considerable success in the British dominions and reached
of central-place theory in Germany. The role of urban areas South America, in particular Brazil. Japan continued to
enabled the problems of regional spatial division to be draw inspiration largely from the German model, but
addressed from a new perspective: that of polarized areas. developed its own vision of the relations between human
The world between the wars was unstable. Germany groups and their environment. In the USSR, the crushing
considered the Treaty of Versailles to be unfair; Italy and influence of Marxist orthodoxy diverted many researchers
Japan felt ill-equipped for international competition because from human and economic problems; in the field of physical
they had arrived too late in the race for a colonial empire. geography, the emphasis on the study of environments,
These states questioned the international political and already apparent in tsarist Russia, was strengthened.
economic order. This explains the success of political
geography and the attempts in Germany to apply it in
practice under the name of geopolitics. R estructuring and expanding
Geography thus branched out into new fields of inquiry the discipline
in order to prove its usefulness to the societies where it was
taught. The main focus of interest was economic: the world This inward-looking phase was followed, from the 1950s
was concerned about the unequal distribution of resources onwards, by a movement of reconstruction and expansion,
since international tensions sprang from the contest for raw which brought about a radical change in the discipline. It

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 T h e d i s c i pl i n e s o f t h e s c i e n c e s o f s o c i e t y

was no longer modelled on the natural sciences, and became and inveighed against the discipline’s role in traditional and
a social science. new forms of imperialism.
Traditionally, the discipline had been concerned That geography was no longer concerned with the causes
primarily with describing and elaborating typologies rather of spatial diversity was regretted, and this spurred a new
than with formulating theoretical hypotheses, looking for interest in human experience as it related to the environment.
regularities and establishing a general corpus of knowledge. The new approaches were derived from phenomenology;
The studies on spatial economics and the research work geography became humanistic. Historical research
carried out by Walter Christaller in the 1930s attracted flourished, as did studies on the diversity of cultures and
attention for the first time. The new geography that their spatial associations.
developed from the mid-1950s in the United States assessed Criticism of the new geography stressed the social and
the impact of distance on the distribution of human human nature of the discipline, but the accent was not, as it
activities; it also drew on the research carried out before the had been in the previous generation, on the search for a
Second World War by the Chicago School of Urban unitary structure for the discipline. In the climate of
Ecology to explore the social structure of cities. The change scepticism prevalent in the post-modern era, contending
came lastly from systematic recourse to sophisticated with a large number of different paradigms is no longer
statistical methods. Factor analysis efficiently processed the considered a handicap.
large quantity of data often available to geographers; the There has been a revival of interest in the lines of
interpretation of distributions was no longer dependent on investigation neglected in the 1960s and 1970s, with a
mapping alone: maps were a powerful analytical tool, but growing body of research on the political future of the
reading them was too subjective. Remote sensing provided a world. The bipolar system which prevailed after 1945 has
direct view of the Earth. disappeared, but no one can be sure what shape the new
Although the new geographical research began in world order will take. States, which have increased in
continental Europe as early as it did in North America, the number as a result of decolonization, are unable to meet the
movement was perceived to be Anglo-Saxon and more needs of contemporary societies. Regions or cities have to
specifically American. The new goals set for geography were shoulder an increased burden of responsibility, and
too far removed from those of the German and French supranational organizations, such as the European Union,
schools for them to accept the new trends without some NAFTA and Mercosur are playing a decisive role in
resistance. economic life.
In the international field, the consideration with which Geographers are again actively concerned with the
geography has been held is evident in the prominence environment, studying the way in which traditional societies
accorded to it in settling various international disputes or used and managed resources, looking at the imbalances
problems. Geographers were much consulted during the caused by the modernization of agriculture and urbanization
negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles, in 1919. Later, they at the local level and drawing attention to environmental
intervened for settling borders in Asia, for the definition of damage affecting entire regions. They are increasingly
sea economic zones in South America and for the focusing on the global consequences of the destruction of
protection of the environment. Geographers have also the ozone layer, massive carbon emissions and the resultant
been consulted by their governments for the exact greenhouse effect.
coordinates of cities and strategically sensitive sites of These issues involve too varied a body of knowledge and
interest to the military. technology to be covered by any one discipline. While the
The new geography of the 1960s supplied satisfactory problems of natural geography are attracting more attention
answers to questions relating to urban and regional land than ever, it is not possible at present to define the parameters
development, and geographers were readily admitted into of a discipline specializing in these questions.
spatial planning teams. They worked a great deal in Geography has ceased to be essentially European, even
developing countries, where their commitment to fieldwork though most scientific research continues to be produced in
was much appreciated. Europe, North America and the former British dominions
The change geography was undergoing made it more of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Japanese geography
easily applicable to a number of topical issues. However, is among the most productive and covers all fields of
that success deflected researchers from such fields as inquiry.
historical geography, cultural geography and political Elsewhere, the predominant lines of investigation took
geography. The new emphasis on economics was considered their cue from various sources – French geography in the
by many to be a loss; all the more prejudicial as the public former French colonial empire, British geography in the
was discovering that nature needed protecting. Ecology was Commonwealth, and Soviet geography in the countries that
becoming firmly established, but physical geography, which had had socialist regimes. These differences in style explain
had presaged many of its developments, particularly in the difficulties encountered by the Arab world, for instance,
Germany and the Soviet Union, failed to take full advantage in unifying a discipline divided among these various
of the new trends. traditions.
The new geography movement was soon replaced by The influence of the United States was felt virtually
others. The importance accorded to economics in the work everywhere in the 1960s and 1970s as concepts and methods
of the 1960s was judged to be excessive, with its failure to were Americanized. The new geography, and the radical or
question even the most unjust social situations. A radical humanistic trends that followed it, affected the Soviet
current largely inspired by Marxism (David Harvey, born Union and Eastern as well as Western Europe.
1935) developed in the Anglo-Saxon countries and spread Geography was one of the first sciences to have been
to the rest of the world: it dealt with the geography of established as an independent discipline, but it did not
poverty, exclusion and marginality, neglected until then, appear in its modern guise until fairly late in the nineteenth

297
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century. Its success has often come more from the services it EISEL, U. 1980. Die Entwicklung der Antropogeographie von einer
has rendered to nationalism and imperialism than from its Raumwissenschaft zur Gesellschaftwissenschaft. Kasseler Schfriften
scientific content. The geography of the beginning of the zur Geographie und Plannung, Kassel, Germany.
century offered a rational, positive body of knowledge. The FREEMAN, T. W. 1980. A History of Modern British Geography.
geography practised today gives more room to people’s Longman, London.
experience of the places they inhabit. It speaks to us of roots GOMEZ MENDOZA, J. and ORTEGA CANTERO, N. (eds). 1992.
and the search for identity. It helps us to understand why Naturalismo y Geografia en Espana. Fundacion Banco Exterior,
conflicts arise from issues of language, ideology and territory Madrid.
as much as from access to resources. It enables us to grasp HOOSON, D. J. M. 1959. Some Recent Developments in the Content
some of the fundamental concerns of today’s world. and Theory of Soviet Geography. In: Annals of the Association of
The philosophies of progress, which dominated the American Geographers, Vol. 49, pp. 73–82.
West from the eighteenth century onwards, gave pride of JOHNSTON, R. J. 1979. Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American
place to history. Geography did not enjoy similar prestige. Human Geography since 1945. Edward Arnold, London.
The recent questioning of Western thinking has  and CLAVEL, P. (eds). 1984. Geography since the Second World War.
undermined the historicist philosophies: we have entered Croom Helm, London.
the post-modern era. In the disillusioned world in which we LIVINGSTONE, D. N. 1992. The Geographical Tradition. Blackwell,
live, we no longer dream of a better tomorrow. Each of us Oxford, UK.
strives to live as best as we can here and now. The emphasis MEYNIER, A. 1969. Histoire de la géographie humaine en France. PUF,
now is on the diversity of the world and of ways of living in Paris.
it and developing it. Geography is thus benefiting from the NOZAWA, H. (ed.). 1986. Cosmology, Epistemology and the History of
radical changes in dominant philosophies, and its status has Geography. Japanese Contributions to the History of Geographical
been enhanced in the process. Thought. (Vol. 3). Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
 1989. Indigenous and Foreign Influences in the Development of
Japanese Geographical Thought. Japanese Contributions to the
B ibliography History of Geographical Thought. (Vol. 4). Kyushu University,
Fukuoka, Japan.
ANTONSICH, M. 1996. Geografia Politica e Geopolitica in Italia dal 1945 RÖSSLER, M. 1990. ‘Wissenschaft und Lebensraum’: Geographische
ad Oggi. Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, University of Trieste, Ostforschung im National-Sozialismus: Ein Beitrag zur
Trieste, Italy. Disciplingeschichte der Geographie. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin
La Bibliothèque Nationale. (ed.). 1975. Les géographes français. and Hamburg, Germany
Bibliothèque nationale, Comité des travaux historiques, Bulletin SAUSHKIN, Y. G., KOSMACHEV, K. P., BYKOV, V. I. 1980. The Scientific
de la Section de Géographie, Paris. School of Baransky-Kolossovsky and its Role in the Development
BLOUET, B. W. (ed.). 1981. The Origins of Academic Geography in the of Soviet Geography. In: Organon, Vol. 14, pp. 83–89.
United States. The Shoe String Press, Archon Books, Hamden, SCHULTZ, H.-D. 1980. Die deutschsprachige Geographie von 1800 zu
CT. 1970. [Geography in the German Language from 1800 to 1970: A
BUTTIMER, A. 1983. The Practice of Geography. Longman, London and Contribution to the History of its Morphology.] Geographsichen
New York. Instituts der Freien Universität Berlin, Berlin.
CELANT, A. and VALLEGA, A. 1984. Il Pensiero Geografico in Italia. STORKEBAUM, W. (ed.). 1967. Zum Gegenstand und zur Methode der
Franco Angeli Editore, Milan, Italy. Geographie. Wissenschaflisches Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt,
CLAVAL, P. 1984. Géographie humaine et économique contemporaine. Germany.
PUF, Paris. TAKEUCHI, K. (ed.). 1984. Languages, Paradigms and Schools in
 and SANGUIN, A.-L. (ed.). 1996. La géographie française à l’époque Geography: Japanese Contributions to the History of Geographical
classique (1918–1968). L’Harmattan, Paris. Thought (Vol. 2). Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo.
CORNA-PELLEGRINI, G. and BRUSA, C. 1981. Italian Geography 1960–
1980. ASK Edizione, Varese, Rome.

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 20
Appl i e d S o c i a l S c i e n c e
D e v e l o p m e n t a n d C o n s e qu e n c e s

Hellmut Wollmann

In this chapter, we will use the term social science to refer to states and training their public servants. Under different,
a wide interdisciplinary field, encompassing economics and but largely synonymous terms – cameral sciences (Kameral­
psychology, as well as sociology and political science. In wissenschaften), policy sciences (Polizeywissenschaften) or
contrast with what is usually termed basic social science, ‘state sciences’ (Staatswissenschaften) – a body of knowledge
which deals with the quest for empirically and theoretically took shape encompassing economics, agriculture, finance,
valid statements about the social reality, the applied statistics, engineering, natural science, etc. Since the mid-
orientation of social science is primarily identified with eighteenth century, new professorships on cameral sciences
social science knowledge that is socially and politically were established at some state universities.2 Well into the
relevant and applicable. For the purposes of our study, last decades of the nineteenth century, the cameral sciences
applied and policy-oriented social science will be considered held a strong position at the universities. Academically, they
as being synonymous. While concentrating on the evolution constituted an attempt to systemize and empirically enrich
of applied social science since 1945, we will begin by briefly existing knowledge about the contemporary state and
summarizing its historical antecedents, since a cursory statecraft.3 At the same time, they had an acknowledged
review will enable the reader to understand more recent practical orientation. Towards the end of the nineteenth
developments in this field. century, however, state sciences abruptly disappeared from
In attempting to analyse and ‘explain’ the international the universities. Owing to the period’s prevailing liberalism
development of applied social science over time, we will not and its claim to push back the semi-authoritarian state to a
take up the debate in the field of the history of social science ‘law and order’ function and to tie it to the rule of law
examined in considerable length elsewhere.1 Instead, by (Rechtsstaat), legalism and legal positivism prevailed in the
focusing on the evolution and shifts of the epistemic, university training of the would-be public servants. Thus,
intellectual and methodological agenda of applied social the camaralist policy sciences, which in some way anticipated
science as well as on the factors that have shaped it, we will the ‘policy sciences’ heralded by Harold Lasswell more than
depart from a fairly simple conceptual scheme in which the a half-century later, fell into decay without leaving a
distinction is made between internal and external factors. noticeable imprint on the future development of the applied
While the former are seen as operating from within the social sciences.
social science community impinging upon its agenda-setting During the nineteenth century, the unprecedented
and on its ability to supply such applied knowledge, the misery of the urban working class in the wake of early
latter relate to factors outside the (social) science system, capitalist industrialization and urbanization prompted
that is, they remain in the societal and political sphere and bourgeois reformers, academics as well as practitioners
touch only peripherally on the agenda of social science. associating outside the universities, to conduct empirical
With this distinction in mind, we shall also speak of the investigations on social questions in order to persuade
supply and demand side of applied social science. governments and parliaments as well as the general public
to embark upon social policies. In Britain, reform-minded
individuals, often belonging to the Victorian establishment,
A pplied S ocial S cience before met in private reform societies, such as the famous and
the T wentieth C entury influential Fabian Society.4 In Germany, historically and
empirically oriented economists founded the Association
An early precursor of an applied social science stance can be for Social Policy (Verein für Socialpolitik) in 1873 with the
traced back to eighteenth-century continental Europe and reformist aim to induce the government to tackle social
particularly to Germany’s quasi-sovereign states under policies through empirical studies on the potentially
absolutist rulers eager to make use of the entire body of revolutionary social question. Since this association, in its
contemporary scientific knowledge in ruling their emergent early phase, included Germany’s most noted social scientists

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among its members (including Max Weber), a good many remained unaffected by the development of university-based
investigations carried out under its auspices turned out to social science owing to various internal and external factors
be studies that were explicitly policy-oriented and, at the that differed significantly from the American context. First,
same time, conceptually as well as methodologically on an institutional level, the social science disciplines
innovative and sound. Thus, the Verein für Socialpolitik was advanced very slowly. Few sociology professorships were
considered as a model by many foreign scholars, including created, since the field remained linked to the departments
early protagonists of the social sciences at American of philosophy or law.7 While the emergent European social
universities. science field produced pre-eminent scholars (e.g. Emile
In the United States, social science research was also Durkheim in France and Max Weber in Germany), the
distinguished by a reformist and ameliorative orientation, precarious institutional status of these specialists along with
and by the pioneering role played by the American Social their claim to scholarly recognition within the universities
Science Association, established in 1865. It embraced the and the science system at large induced the university social
notion that the social scientist was to be a model citizen scientists to promote ‘truly scientific’ (i.e. value-neutral and
helping to improve the life of the community, not a theory-driven) social science and to reject any applied
professional and disinterested researcher. orientation and co-called ‘non-scientific’ or ‘moralizing’
approach. The ‘value-neutrality’ debate triggered by Max
Weber and the creation of the German Sociological Society
T he first half of the twentieth in 1909 to counter the ‘moralizing’ Association for Social
century – the development of Policy are two cases in point. Except for the economists
applied social science in the whose analyses and advice European governments
U nited S tates and E urope increasingly turned to amidst the economic turbulences of
the inter-war years, European university-based social
In the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, science, by and large, abstained from an applied orientation
the applied orientation was adopted and integrated into the well into the 1930s.8
further development of the university-based social science
disciplines, owing to a number of internal as well as external
factors, which set the American social science disciplines on T he development of applied
a course conspicuously different from that of their European social science after the S E C O N D
peers. WORLD WAR
Internally, the social sciences disciplines, at an early stage,
attained a significant degree of institutional consolidation 1945 to the early 1960s: the applied orientation of
and recognition within the emergent American university social science in retreat?
system, undoubtedly owing to the fact that a growing
number of universities established distinct departments In the United States after 1945, the applied orientation of
devoted to social science disciplines (sociology, political social science seemed destined to further ascendancy.
science, etc.). This was probably the most important Indeed, already during the First World War, economists,
institutional development in the history of the American psychologists and sociologists were involved in the war
university system. Furthermore, very quickly, each social through their various analytic, logistic and morale-building
science discipline began publishing its own national and activities thereby enhancing the reputation of applied
professional journal. 5 Benefiting from institutional science. Explicitly alluding to this war experience in the
protection, specialists in these young disciplines saw no early 1950s, Harold Lasswell and his associates made a plea
need, in contrast with their European peers, to sever the for ‘policy sciences with a policy orientation’ and
link between the scientific and the applied orientation of recommended combining the study of policy process,
social sciences as a price for academic recognition. In conducted with the most advanced methods, and the
addition, the applied orientation was fostered by America’s accumulation of all pertinent interdisciplinarily knowledge,
prevalent philosophical pragmatism.6 on the one hand, with the application of this synthesized
In the 1920s, the applied orientation of social science was scientific expertise to the policymaking process, on the
further implanted in the American research tradition thanks other. Focusing on ‘the fundamental problems of man in
largely to the efforts of two professors at the University of society rather than ... the topical issues of the moment’, they
Chicago: Charles Merriam in political science and Robert hoped to develop a type of ‘policy sciences of democracy, in
Park in sociology. Merriam and Park contributed to which the ultimate goal is the realization of human dignity
instilling the highest methodological standards in social in theory and fact’.
sciences while retaining a policy orientation, their principal Yet shortly after this grand design was articulated, it was
goal being to introduce ‘more intelligent and scientific quickly submerged by the powerful current of the
technique into the study and practice of government’. ‘behaviouralist revolution’, which seized the American social
Beginning in the 1920s, the United States Government science scene in the 1950s. On the one hand, by calling for
increasingly sought advice in the fields of social science, and the use of quantitative methods based on new computer
in the early 1930s the Roosevelt administration, when techniques, the new behaviouralist creed subscribed to
embarking upon its New Deal reforms, brought social conducting social science research in a ‘truly scientific’
scientists into government on an unprecedented scale, thus manner consistent with the approaches of Charles Merriam
establishing a close relationship between government and and Harold Lasswell. On the other hand, the behaviouralist
the social science sector. revolution, which truly revolutionized the American social
The European situation was markedly different. The science research tradition, programmatically severed the
applied orientation of social science in European countries link between the scientific rigour of social science and its

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applied orientation. A virtual conceptual ‘bulwark against social scientists called for an end to the value-neutral policy-
the Lasswellian tide of policy science’ thus emerged. detached orthodoxy of behaviouralism and in favour of the
Consequently, throughout the 1950s, under the influence of societal and political ‘relevance’ of the research agenda.10 A
the dominant behaviourist creed, America’s mainstream broad range of research approaches ensued which, mostly
social science pursued an agenda based on value-neutral pursued by university-based researchers, focused on public
and, hence, non-applied research. policies from different conceptual perspectives,
Like the United States, the countries of Western Europe encompassing, e.g., (quantitative) policy-output research as
and Japan appeared to embrace the applied orientation well as (case-study type) implementation research. Before
approach to the social sciences after 1945. In what has been long, this cognitive reorientation of the social science
called a ‘mythical promise of societal renewal through the discourse and agenda was adopted by social science
social sciences’, social science was expected to make a decisive communities in Europe.
contribution to the intellectual and moral rebuilding and While the internal debates of the social science
revitalization of the war-stricken countries, including communities influenced by the American approach led to
Germany and Japan, where the role of social science was the ‘rediscovery’ of the applied and ‘relevant’ research agenda,
considered particularly crucial to the reconstruction of far-reaching changes were taking place in the political
democratic societies.9 environment and in policymaking, which in turn fostered
Institutionally, throughout Western Europe and Japan, the institutional as well as cognitive development of applied
the university-based social science disciplines expanded social science on an unprecedented scale.
markedly after 1945 by the establishment of new university The advent of a new policy model and its repercussions
positions. Yet, the new social science scholars and the on the social science agenda can be distinguished by two
financial resources remained limited, and studies in these interrelated characteristics. The first concerns the transition
fields continued to be based on the traditional ‘single chair’ from a laissez-faire type of state and policy model prevalent
principle and integrated into the traditional faculties of in the immediate post-war period to the full-blown
philosophy or law. interventionist welfare state model with its ambitious twin
Even more importantly, the university-based social goals of continuous growth of the economy and the common
science disciplines, while still in a formative and precarious wealth. Embedded in the context of economic growth and
institutional and disciplinary stage, remained under the fiscal abundance, the belief was widely shared that the two
influence of American behaviourialism and its ban on the goals should (and could) be achieved by implementing
applied orientation, thanks largely to an entire post-war Keynesian economic policy through demand management,
generation of European and Japanese social scientists on the one hand, and interventionist social (as well as
trained in America. Moreover, in the immediate post-war infrastructural) policies essentially based on planning and
period, European governments showed little interest in information tools, on the other.
seeking advice from social scientists (except as regards the This concept of interventionist policymaking went hand
field of economics). This can possibly be explained by the in hand with the belief that the proper use and involvement
amazing speed of post-war recovery, which did not create a of the (applied) social sciences would pave the way towards
need for such advice; or the fact that conservative a new rational model of policymaking in which the scientific
governments, such as in Japan, viewed university-based analysis of economic and social developments would lead to
social science with scepticism, and in certain cases a single, scientifically based policy choice and decision.
hostility. Proclaiming the ‘end of ideology’, it was assumed that the
In the course of the 1960s, the agenda of social science increasing scientific insight and enlightenment of political
was dramatically reversed towards the applied orientation and social actors (and stakeholders) into the ‘objective’
in an unprecedented process of institutional expansion and reality of society and its problems would induce them
cognitive reorientation. Again, several ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to renounce the hitherto prevalent political logic of
factors drove this development. First, we should note the policymaking based on ideological and interest-laden
dramatic expansion in terms of personnel and resources conflict resolution and would increase the chances of
experienced by many universities, and particularly in the reaching a non-ideological consensus founded on social
social sciences in the 1960s, when, in the wake of the 1957 scientific expertise and an underlying scientific logic. This
‘Sputnik shock’, Western countries embarked upon sweeping vision of a science-driven policy model and of an ensuing
educational and university reforms in order to catch up ‘scientificability’ of the policymaking process was epitomized
with the presumably more advanced Soviet Union in the by Donald Campbell’s famous call for a society with ‘reforms
fields of education and scientific research. Particularly in the as experiments’ with the intrinsic neo-positivist science
European countries, where the institutional expansion of model and Karl Popper’s vision of attaining societal progress
the social sciences after 1945 had been significant, albeit through piecemeal (social) engineering as its intrinsic
limited, the further boost beginning in the 1960s improved epistemic underpinning.
the institutional conditions for a favourable development of In the United States, its advent can be associated with
applied social science. the increasing range of federal social policy programmes
Among the most important ‘internal’ factors shaping the (such as the War on Poverty) created under President
international social science agenda was a shift in the Johnson from 1964 onward. Reform policies in such areas
mainstream discourse of the American social science as education, civil rights, and social policies were conceptually
disciplines. This dramatic switch away from the behaviouralist guided by social science theory. Evaluation research on the
value-neutrality back to the problem-oriented tradition of process and effects of social intervention programmes, often
American social science occurred in the 1960s, when, in mandated by federal legislation, became part and parcel of
view of an increasingly problem-fraught national agenda national policies, and massive government spending on the
(poverty, race riots, Vietnam War), a growing number of commissioning of such research and evaluation became a

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virtual growth industry. Large-scale social experimentation Systems (PPBS), which was introduced in the United
was initiated.11 States in the mid-1960s. This set of instruments,
Among the European countries, West Germany shifted which claims to provide analytical transparency, if not
to a full-blown welfare state and scientific policymaking certainty in making decisions and choices, was at the
model that bore the mark of the Social Democratic parties core of the rationalist revolution of the 1960s.
in the late 1960s. Social scientists participated in – Operations research (OR) is chiefly rooted in
policymaking and formed virtual ‘reform coalitions’ with mathematics and engineering and, being primarily an
reformist politicians and administrators on an unprecedented ex ante technique, uses sophisticated models and
scale. The West Germans developed evaluation research simulations to optimize solutions in complicated and
early in the process, and social experimentation was uncertain situations.
undertaken on a scale unparalleled anywhere outside the – Evaluation has become a mushrooming field of applied
United States, placing West Germany in the forefront in social science, as governments routinely turned to
Europe. 12 In some other European countries, the evaluating public policies and standard operational
development of policy-oriented social science was more procedure in policymaking. Backward-looking or ex
continuous. In Sweden, for instance, policymakers possessed post evaluation has been typically directed at analysing
much experience in interacting with social scientists. Yet, whether, and to what degree, the goal of a policy
Sweden, too, underwent a kind of rationalistic revolution. programme or measure was reached and whether the
New techniques of systems analysis, programme budgeting, observable change was causally related to the policy
social indicators, commissioned sectorial research, and even programme and measure under scrutiny. Ex post
future studies were applied to policy problems in all areas of evaluation is typically conducted after the programme’s
government activity.13 termination. As evaluation research, designed to
Governments’ new demand for applied social science measure effects and to identify causal relations, is
expertise was expressed in the following ways: essentially confronted with conceptual and
– The budgetary resources earmarked for commissioning methodological problems characteristic of empirical
and funding analytical work increased dramatically, social science at large, it has been conceptually and
thereby creating and sustaining a contractual research methodologically inspired largely by psychology and
money market on an unprecedented scale. At the same sociology, including their claim to methodological
time, traditional funding of university-housed basic rigour in a quasi-experimental and experimental vein.14
research began to encourage basic research to move Noteworthy examples are the large-scale social
more strongly towards an applied orientation (‘applied experiments and evaluations begun in the late 1960s
basic research’, angewandte Grundlagenforschung, to and early 1970s. By and large, evaluation research has
refer to a hybrid term used at that time in the official been carried out by research institutions of the
language of social science policy, for instance in entrepreneurial (for-profit) type outside the
Germany). universities.15
– In increasing numbers, advisory commissions and – Policy studies is used as a rather general term comprising
bodies were set up for involving social science expertise a broad range of studies focusing on policies, such as
in policymaking and policy-implementation. (internationally as well as intra-nationally) comparative
– Within governments and administrations, new units research on policy-outs and public policies as well as
and staffs were created to conduct, commission, research on single phases of the policy processes, such
monitor, and/or implement social science research. as budgeting and implementation.16 Such studies are
Similarly, governmental or quasi-governmental typically conducted by university-based political
research institutions were established or expanded to scientists and usually funded from university resources
strengthen the analytical capacities of government. or through research funding from such institutes as
Reflecting the consensus widely shared by the period’s the US National Science Foundation. Because of their
reformist political and administrative actors and social explicit policy orientation, policy studies may be
scientists, the policy-oriented social science research classified as perhaps the most important category of
undertaken at this stage can be described as largely accepting, university-based applied social sciences.
if not supporting, the policies under scrutiny and designed – Public administration (PA) or administrative science.
to optimize the performance of the given policies and In the United States, PA was originally seen as
programmes. centring on normative principles concerning the
In this period, a broad gamut of conceptual approaches management of public administration with few social
and analytical tools of applied social science were advocated science underpinnings. As a result of the behaviouralist
and employed. The following is a summary of some of the revolution of the 1950s, the development of PA was
most noteworthy: strongly shaped by the expansion and proliferation of
– Systems analysis uses decision-making criteria, graduate programmes in public policy at renowned
assumptions and models mainly derived from universities in response to a growing demand from
economic theory to prepare in advance (ex ante) the public as well as the private sector. In Europe, at
government decisions on complex policy measures least in those countries with a strong legal tradition,
and programmes. It falls mainly within the competence administrative science was seen, since the end of the
of economists. The umbrella term policy analysis is nineteenth century, essentially as subsidiary to
often used to designate these ‘forward-looking’, ex ante administrative law. As part of the upsurge of applied
approaches and techniques. System analysis typically social science, the 1960s witnessed a significant
employs cost-benefit analysis. The classical example is growth of social science-based administrative
the concept of Programming Planning Budgeting science.

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Development since the mid-1970s the emphasis on ‘value for money’ and managerialism have
become, as in the case of the United Kingdom after 1979,
The heyday of the interventionist welfare state policies guidelines for evaluation.
proved to be short-lived, when, following the rise in oil
prices in 1973, the world economy slid into a deepening
recession, and national budgets dwindled bringing most of C onclusion
the cost-intensive reform policies to a grinding halt. The
two key assumptions on which the (Social Democratic) After applied social science research emerged in the
interventionist welfare state and the upsurge of applied nineteenth century largely as a research commitment outside
social science had been premised seemed to be profoundly the sphere of universities, it became established as a
shattered: first, the belief that, through appropriate policy university-based activity in the early decades of the twentieth
instruments hinging on planning and information, the century in America. Since the 1960s, applied social science
policy corridor towards continuous economic growth could has experienced an enormous international expansion,
be secured, and secondly, that reaching and remaining in which has profoundly modified the institutional landscape
this policy corridor could essentially be achieved by the of social science, including the role of university-based
‘scientification’ of policymaking. research as the hitherto prime locus of social science
In the political arena, conservative and neo-liberal research. From the 1960s onward, four sectors can be
criticism of the so-called excesses and the crisis of the welfare distinguished in the field of social science research. First,
state quickly gathered momentum in the course of the universities remain the traditional centres of research; with
1970s, attracted electoral majorities and, in fast sequence, studies financed primarily by major funding institutions.
brought conservative governments into office, particularly Yet these institutions are limited in their capacity to draw
in the United Kingdom (1979), the United States (1980) on the new ‘government-commissioned research money
and West Germany (1982). In the face of such conservative market’. Second, in most countries private for-profit
‘regime shifts’ in key countries, the stage seemed to have (‘entrepreneurial’) research and consultant organizations
been set for not only pushing back the expansive Social have grabbed the lion’s share of the new commissioned
Democratic welfare state and replacing it with a neo-liberal research money market. In this context, we should also note
minimalist state, but also undoing the underlying the emergence of new hybrid-type research institutes
policymaking model, including the advances of applied established by researchers at the periphery of their academic
social sciences. institutions, in a somewhat precarious ‘shadow zone’
While leaving aside the question as to what extent key between non-profit and for-profit research. Third are
policies of the advanced welfare state of the 1960s have been governmental or quasi-governmental research institutes
dismantled under continuous budgetary pressures and conducting research on behalf of the government. Fourth,
replaced with a neo-liberal policy profile, it needs to be social science-trained personnel within government bodies
highlighted that, notwithstanding some early political are commissioned to monitor research or to conduct
irritations, 17 the incoming governments have largely analyses themselves, particularly in-house evaluations.
continued to draw on and fund social science expertise and While the applied social science community has expanded
applied social science research, regardless of their political on an unprecedented scale, it has undergone a differentiation
leanings and ‘regime shifts’.18 and specialization along institution-specific, analytical
Since the late 1970s, in some countries, including the focus-specific, and policy sector-specific lines. In the United
UK under the Thatcher government, spending on policy States, this ongoing process of professional specialization is
evaluation was even increased in what has been called the evidenced by the establishment of a wide spectrum of
‘second wave’ of evaluation.19 Since the late 1980s, the professional associations 21 and professional journals,
evaluation of the European Union’s structural funding in whereas in Europe the process has been lagging.22 As a
member countries has risen to an astounding degree. While consequence of this institution-, focus- and policy-specific
the underlying policy model, including its science-driven differentiation and sectorialization, the discourse within the
belief in and attempt at putting policymaking on a ‘scientific’ respective specialized communities tends to be largely
footing, has been certainly shattered since the mid-1970s, limited to their specific issues and approaches, conducted in
the governments continue to turn to social science advice their particular pertinent policy community or issue
and analysis, perhaps even more than ever before, under the community. Composed of the related researchers, research-
current difficult socio-economic and budgetary context. So, commissioning agencies and programme managers or
Edward Shils’ 1965 prediction that the integration of social beneficiaries, such policy communities may serve as ‘iron
science advice into the policy process was ‘unlikely to be triangles’ prone to conceptually and methodologically –
reversed’ still stands.20 including with regard to funding – ‘perpetuate’ a type of
The cognitive agenda, however, of applied social science research along a fixed line.
has changed significantly since the mid-1970s as illustrated Thus, the development of applied social science seems to
by evaluation research and related approaches. While, in have run into a paradox: while the potentially available
the reformist period of the 1960s, the mandate of evaluation research knowledge and ‘societal intelligence’ has been
research was chiefly to optimize the output and expanding at an unprecedented rate due to the continuously
performance of a given policy programme or measure, it increasing research findings, the social science community
now serves to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of has broken up into an increasing number of specialized and
a particular public policy with the implicit or explicit goal professional sub-communities reflecting a centrifugal rather
of reducing its costs, or terminating it altogether. As a than a centripetal tendency when synthesizing the
result of the attempt to introduce private sector interdisciplinary available body of social science knowledge.
managerialist principles into public sector modernization, Meanwhile, the potential of applied social science to

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significantly contribute to the theory building of the social analytically informing and educating on the long-term
science community at large tends to remain untapped. conditions, problems, and solutions of policymaking, thus
It should be recalled, at this point, that the policy sciences, contributing to the societal and political ‘intelligence’ at
as advocated in the early 1950s by Harold Lasswell and his large.
consorts,23 set out to achieve the Herculean task of compiling
the entire stock of available interdisciplinary social science
data and of exploiting it in political and societal practice. Applied social science and policymaking – a link
Notwithstanding the enormous progress, the applied social ‘unlikely to be reversed’
science community with its diversified sub-communities
and professional groupings has yet to realize Lasswell’s Leaving the important historical aspects of applied social
vision of integrating and synthesizing potentially progressive science and their interface with its societal and political
societal intelligence. environment aside, the dramatic upsurge of applied social
science in the 1960s was embedded in a science-driven
model of policymaking based on the assumption that social
‘Epistemic drift’ of (applied) social science towards the science-generated knowledge (being per se superior to other
politico-administrative perspective, to the detriment of societal sources of knowledge) was capable of guiding
the ‘societal intelligence’ political decision-making, while pushing back, if not
substituting, ideologies and interests at the core of the
University-based social science has been premised on three political logic of traditional policymaking. This belief in the
imperatives: first, academic autonomy in the selection of the ‘scientification’ of policymaking was most tellingly expressed
subject matter and the methods of its research; second, in Donald Campbell’s call for ‘reforms as experiments’. For
independent funding, be it from university sources or a brief period, it was apparently shared by significant
through peer-review-based funding; and third, the members of the political as well as academic elites.
presentation of the results of findings to open scientific This belief in the ‘scientification’ of policymaking was
debate and peer-review. shattered on two grounds. On the one hand, it was
Particularly when commissioned and funded by recognized that political logic, as distinct from scientific
government, applied social science research is liable to be logic, remains deeply rooted in the political process, not
challenged on all three premises: the subject matter, the only empirically in the real world of politics ‘as it is’ (which
leading questions and even the methods of its research is unlikely to be fundamentally changed because of the
pieces are often laid down by the governmental agency when innately political conflict between interests about ‘who gets
commissioning the research; the government also provides what, when, how’27), but also normatively, because replacing
the funding, thereby jeopardizing the researchers’ autonomy; the political logic by a scientific one would run counter to
finally, the findings of commissioned research are often kept basic normative principles of the democratic pluralist society
secret, or at least remain unpublished, thus bypassing open and lead to scientific technocracy. While the optimistic
public debate and peer examination. Consequently, applied belief in the ‘scientification’ of policymaking – epitomized
social science, particularly commissioned research, may in the temporary conduct of large-scale social
succumb to ‘a colonization process whereby the experimentation – disappeared, there was a growing
bureaucracies’ perspective and conceptual framework’, 24 conviction and expectation that the socio-economic and
may overtake it. political interests, when claiming to be considered in the
University-based social science research of applied policymaking process, need to publicly ‘explain’, if not
orientation has also been criticized, particularly from within empirically ‘prove’, their specific demands and expose them
the discipline, as undergoing such ‘colonization’, since, to the public debate and controversy.
especially in policy-related studies, the researcher may, On the other hand, it was understood that, apart from
perhaps unconsciously, be disposed to adopt the problem social science having been shown to be unable (vis-à-vis
definition, cognitive frame and time-horizon of the increasingly more complex and changing socio-economic,
researched subject in a political context and, thus, lose the social and political environments) to produce the expected
analytical distance indispensable for truly scholarly work.25 valid analyses and forecasts, the very epistemic foundation
The loss of cognitive autonomy and the absence of open of social science – in terms of the underlying positivist
debate on the methods and results of research entail the model – came to be questioned along with the claims of the
risk, from a normative social science perspective, of such science-driven policy model. Inasmuch as social science
research being conducted in a methodologically deficient research, however committed to objectivity and ‘value-
manner and of falling prey to research institutes – neutrality’, is liable to be premised on normative, value-bound
sometimes nicknamed ‘Beltway Bandits’26 – that seek to assumptions that guide the selection of research subject
extract a fast profit from research at the price of poor matter, hypotheses and methods, social scientists are bound
research standards and quality. But also seen from the to be mindful of their research findings being potentially
perspective of the society’s general interests and of biased by the normative framework of their research. In
enlightened political actors, methodologically sloppy and subscribing neither to the cognitive orthodoxy of positivism,
analytically policy-‘obedient’ research would seen of little on the one extreme, nor to cognitive relativism of
or no value, as it will, at best, reproduce what the political constructivism, on the other,28 but, instead, following the
actors already know. Instead, applied social science ‘realist scientificism’ proposed by Imre Lakatos, the scientific
research that is institutionally enabled and intrinsically inquiry, in its ‘quest for truth’, can be seen as an ongoing
disposed to go beyond the often short-term policy frame process of approximation and validation towards the
of the political actors and the ‘topical issues’ at hand (to attainment of ‘truth’ through academic debate and
use Harold Lasswell’s words) holds the promise of controversy.

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It is within this very controversy – in the world of politics, 6. As the noted contemporary German sociologist Karl
between rival actors and stakeholders, over the political Mannheim remarked, ‘the typical problems of American
legitimacy of their interests, and in the world of (social) sociology (arising) from the immediate necessities of
science, between scientists, over the merits and validity of everyday life. The American scholar is no bookish person;
their findings – that the ‘two worlds’ of politics and science he maintains contact with criminal courts and social welfare
and their ‘two logics’ touch common ground. Being admitted institutions, lives with gangs, in slums and ghettos’
to, or drawn into, the political and administrative arenas, (Mannheim 1932, p. 186 ff).
applied social science has come to play a crucial role in 7. In Germany, for instance, prior to 1914, no university
policymaking, particularly in two regards. First, it has been chairs in the sociology field existed and only few until 1933,
significantly contributing to the pluralization of the political while there was not a single chair in political science until
discourse and controversy in that social science-generated 1933 (Wagner and Wollmann 1991, p. 62 ff.). Similarly, in
knowledge contributes to the information derived from the United Kingdom before 1945, sociology hardly existed
other societal sources (such as interest groups) and competes as a distinct academic subject, while political science was
with them for being listened to in the political process. mainly philosophical and institutionalist (Bulmer 1991,
Second, in abandoning the earlier idea of science-driven p. 152).
policymaking and of a per se (‘epistemic’) superiority of 8. For a more detailed and a differentiating country-
social science-generated knowledge, the communicative specific account, see Wittrock et al. 1991, Wagner 1991.
interface of politics and social science may be best captured 9. For Germany see Wagner and Wollmann 1991, pp. 69
by Jürgen Habermas’ ‘pragmatic’ or ‘dialogue’ model in ff., for Japan, Watanuki 1991, p. 223 ff.
which politicians and social scientists talk and listen to each 10. See Ranney 1968. It should be noted that David
other in a mutual learning process. Inasmuch as the social Easton, who in the early 1950s had been a leading advocate
scientists can be confident that their ‘arguments’29 – of ‘purely scientific’, value-neutral behaviouralism, later
particularly those of the long-term, complex ‘contextual’ emphatically revoked and reverted this earlier position: ‘We
and not of the short-term, ‘topical’30 variety – find their way can no longer take the ideal scientific stance of behaviourism
into the political and societal learning process, this may that, because of the limitations of our understanding,
result in the ‘scientification’ of policymaking, in a process application is premature and must await basic further
that is ‘unlikely to be reversed’. research’ (Easton 1969, pp. 1055–56).
11. For the ‘New Jersey Negative Income Tax experiment’,
as an example, on which the research spending amounted to
NOTES $8 million see Rossi and Lyall 1978.
12. R. A. Levine, ‘Program, Evaluation, and Policy
1. For a detailed account of this debate, see Wittrock Analysis in Western Nations: An Overview’, in R. A. Levine
et al. 1991, p. 28 ff. et al. (eds.), Evaluation Research and Practice, Beverly Hills
2. See Maier 1965. The competency university students and London, 1981, p. 46.
were expected to acquire is revealed in an administrative 13. See Wittrock et al. 1991, p. 46 ff., Wagner and
instruction of 1808 in Prussia according to which a student Wollmann 1996b for further accounts on country-specific
of the cameral sciences ‘must have studied the state sciences developments.
and related disciplines, particularly policy sciences 14. The ‘classic’ methods book on evaluation was Campbell
(Polizeywissenschaften), technology, statistics, experimental and Stanley 1963, both psychologists.
physics and chemistry, botany and economics’ (quoted from 15. The literature on evaluation is virtually endless. For a
Friedrich 1970, p. 36). comparative analysis on the development of evaluation, see
3. The state sciences, incidentally, made a great impression Levine 1981, Levine et al. 1981, Wagner and Wollmann
on the young American social scientists who, during that 1986a, Derlien 1991, for its methodological grounding see,
period, studied in great numbers at German universities. as a ‘classic’, Campbell and Stanley 1968, for a recent brisk
‘For them (to quote from Somit and Tanenhaus 1982, p. 8) debate of the methodological problems of evaluation
Staatswissenschaft was like a breath of fresh, spring air (sic! research see Pawson and Tilley 1997.
HW). It was characterized by carefully defined concepts 16. W. Jann, ‘From policy analysis to political
and a comparative, systematic, and highly professional management: An outside look at public-policy training in
analysis of data. In stark contrast to the ethically oriented, the United States’, in P. Wagner et al. (eds), op. cit.,
didactic political science of their undergraduate experience, p. 114.
Staatswissenschaft encouraged their belief that inquiry akin 17. In the cases of the United Kingdom and of the United
to that of the natural sciences could ultimately uncover the States, where the regime shift was ideologically striking, the
laws underlying political evolution and development.’ Thatcher and Reagan governments, in perceiving the
4. M. Bulmer, ‘National Contexts for the Development (applied) social scientists as being closely linked with the
of Social-policy Research: British and American Research previous government, were at first set to ‘punish’ them by
on Poverty and Social Welfare Compared’, in P. Wagner et the reduction of funding. But these punitive steps turned
al. (eds), Social Science and Modern States, Cambridge, UK, out to be short-lived episodes.
1991, p. 161. 18. For a comparative analysis as to whether ‘regime shifts
5. American Historical Association (1884), American mattered’ in the development of evaluation, see Wagner and
Economic Association (1885), American Statistical Wollmann 1986a.
Association (1988), American Academy of Political and 19. Specifically, on United Kingdom see Jenkins and Gray
Social Science (1889), American Sociological Society 1991, on West Germany see Wollmann 1989.
(1903), American Political Science Association (1903) (see 20. E. Shils, ‘The Calling of Sociology’, in T. Parsons and
Somit and Tanenhaus 1982, p. 22 f.). E. Shils (eds.), Theories of Society, New York. 1965.

305
 thematic section

21. See Operations Research Society of America (1952), Dror, Y. 1971. Design for Policy Sciences. American Elsevier, New
Policy Studies Organization (1972), Association for Public York.
Policy Analysis and Management (1979), Evaluation Dye, T. 1978. Policy Analysis. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa,
Research Society (1977) and Evaluation Network (1979), AL.
the latter to merged in the American Evaluation Association Easton, D. 1991. The New Revolution in Political Science. In:
(1987). American Political Science Review, Vol. 63, pp. 1051–61.
22. In the field of evaluation, for instance, it was only Elzinga, A. 1985. Research, Bureaucracy and the Drift of Epistemic
recently that national associations were founded in the Criteria. In: WITTROCK, B. and ELZINGA, A. (eds). The University
United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. Research System. Almqvist and Wiksell, Stockholm, pp. 191–
23. H. D. Lasswell, ‘The Policy Orientation’, in D. Lerner 217.
and H. D. Lasswell (eds), The Policy Sciences, Stanford, CA, Friedrich, H.  1970. Staatliche Verwaltung und Wissenschaft.
1951, pp. 3–15. Eurpäische Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt, Germany.
24. A. Elzinga, ‘Research, Bureaucracy and the Drift of Habermas, J. 1968. Verwissenschaftliche Politik und öffentliche
Epistemic Criteria’, in B. Wittrock and A. Elzinga (eds), Meinung. In: HABERMAS, J. 1968. Technik und Wissenschaft als
The University Research System, Stockholm, 1985, p. 211. Ideologie. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, Germany.
25. For an example of such an intra-disciplinary debate Lakatos, I. 1970. Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific
between the ‘traditionalists’ and the policy researchers, see Research Programmes. In: LAKATOS, I. and MUSGRAVE, A. (eds).
Wagner and Wollmann 1991, pp. 85 ff., Hartwich 1985. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambrigde University
26. H. C. Weiss and B. Wittrock, ‘Summing Up: Social Press, Cambridge, UK.
Sciences and Modern States’, in P. Wagner et al. (eds), op. Lasswell, H. D. 1951. The Policy Orientation. In: LERNER, D. and
cit., p. 360. ‘Beltway Bandits’ refers to the highway around LASSWELL, H. D. (eds). The Policy Sciences. Stanford University
Washington, DC, where many of the private for-profit Press, Stanford, CA, pp. 3–15.
research organizations are located.  1970. The Emerging Conception of the Policy Sciences. In: Policy
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28. For this ‘philosophy of science’ debate see Wittrock Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
1991, pp. 344 ff., Pawson and Tilley 1997, pp. 17 ff., each Levine, R. A. 1981. Program Evaluation, and Policy Analysis
with references; for a ‘constructivist’ argument see Rein and in  Western Nations: An Overview. In: LEVINE, R. A. ,
Schon 1991. SOLOMON, M. A., HELLSTERN, G.-M. and WOLLMANN, H. (eds).
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 21
Philosophy

Ru Xin, coordinator
in collaboration with Ye Xiushan, Teng Shouyao, Jiang Yi, and Zhao Tingyang

INTRODUCTION at the beginning of the twentieth century and is related

historically to the philosophical traditions of Hume’s
Science, technology and society have experienced empiricism and positivism. Modern logic, which developed
tremendous changes in the twentieth century, a period in during the century, provided it with a powerful thinking tool.
which humankind has made brilliant achievements in The initial objective of analytic philosophy was the certitude
civilization and has been faced with multiple socio-cultural of science and knowledge and the explicitness of language. In
contradictions and crises. As a result, philosophy, which this respect, analytic philosophy benefited from the work of
mirrors the spirit of the era, has also undergone profound the German philosopher Gottlob Frege. He criticized
transformation. Many newly emerged philosophical schools psychologism, made distinctions between Sinn and Bedeutung
and theories offer a colourful panorama, reflecting the (sense and denoting), set up the prepositional and predicate
diversity of human culture. calculus system characterized by precise quantification of
In this chapter we will outline the basic patterns and thinking, and emphasized that logic is the starting point and
characteristics of philosophy in the twentieth century: (1) A primary tool of philosophical studies, thus promoting the
number of influential philosophical trends originating in ‘linguistic turn’ in modern philosophy. British philosophers
Europe and the United States have brought forward a variety Bertrand Russell (Plate 103), George Edward Moore and the
of distinctive philosophical doctrines and principal ideas by Austrian luminary Ludwig Wittgenstein were the actual
reflecting on science, culture and social life, while the various founders of the analytic philosophy movement. By using his
kinds of philosophy have also influenced one another to a own comprehensive symbolic logic, Russell created the
certain degree; (2) the age-old and diverse regional and analytic method of the ideal language school and was well
national philosophical traditions have maintained their known for ‘logical atomism.’ His ‘theory of description’ is
vitality and renewed themselves in an effort to adapt to praised as a model of analytic philosophy. Moore stood for
modern society and culture through contact with exotic the restoration of realism, which confirms ‘common sense’,
philosophies; in addition, they have made important and sharply attacked idealism. He created the method of
contributions to the development of world philosophy and conceptual analysis of ordinary language. Wittgenstein
culture; (3) the critical issues of universal significance posed advanced two different philosophical theories, which have
by contemporary philosophy have determined the current exerted direct influence on both the ideal language and
role of philosophy in cultural and social development and ordinary language schools. The representative work of his
foster an examination of the potential of philosophy and early philosophical theory is Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
human civilization at the beginning of the new century. (1921), in which he raised the ‘picture theory’, according to
which language and the world have the same logical structure,
and improved logical atomism with the truth function theory.
M a j or P hilosophical S chools of Contrary to his early doctrine, his posthumous work
the twentieth century Philosophical Investigations (1953) put forward the ‘language
game theory’ concerning usage and rules of ordinary language
Analytic philosophy and considered language as a ‘life form.’

Analytic philosophy investigates problems such as facts and

knowledge by means of linguistic and logical analyses. Its Logical empiricism and philosophy of ordinary
competition with the humanistic trend of the European languages
continent is a prominent feature of twentieth-century
philosophy. Analytic philosophy developed from realism’s In the 1920s, logical positivism (later called logical
criticism of the speculative philosophy of Neo-Hegelianism empiricism), as a representative ideal language school

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represented by the Vienna Circle, brought the analytic science by Reichenbach, Hempel, and others promoted the
philosophy movement to its climax. Principal members of development of the philosophy of science.
this school were Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Since the 1950s, logical empiricism has been gradually
Feigl, Otto Neurath, Friedrich Waismann, Hans Hahn, declining due to challenges from within and without analytic
and Kurt Godel. Its inaugural manifesto was Scientific philosophy and its intrinsic theoretic difficulties. In Britain,
Worldview: The Vienna Circle. The Berlin school with Hans it was attacked by Karl Raimund Popper’s critical rationalism
Reichenbach and Carl Gustav Hempel as the representatives and falsifiability doctrine. In the United States, Willard van
and the Warsaw School represented by Alfred Tarski held Orman Quine criticized the two dogmas of empiricism –
views similar to those of the Vienna Circle. The philosophy the strict distinction between analytic and synthetic truth
of the Vienna Circle was later introduced into Britain by and the reductionism of the verification of meaning – and
Alfred Jules Ayer, Frank Plumpton Ramsey and others, put forth the principle of ontological commitment and
thus enabling logical empiricism to spread widely in the naturalistic philosophy of language, thus turning analytic
English-speaking world. It exerted great influence in the philosophy towards logical pragmatism. He also established
Nordic countries as well. Its basic ideas are: (1) strict the holism of scientific knowledge and the doctrine of
distinctions should be drawn between analytic and synthetic ontological relativity. His breakthrough in the basic
propositions, and only these two propositions are meaningful theoretical framework of logical empiricism has led to the
and constitute scientific knowledge; therefore, all forms of advancement of American post-analytic philosophy and
metaphysics should be rejected; (2) the verifiability principle philosophy of science in diverse forms, including the theories
of prepositional meaning was set upon the basis of empirical concerning the meaning of truth and its interpretations and
reductionism; (3) philosophy is not science, but rather an anomalous monism by Donald Herbert Davidson,
activity of logical analysis of language that clarifies the essentialism and the possible world doctrine by Saul Kripke,
meaning of propositions; (4) the advocated principle of the speech act theory by John R. Searle, internal realism by
physicalism is aimed at establishing a unified science system Hilary Putnam, the historicism on structure of scientific
based on physical language. revolution and the paradigm theory by Thomas Samuel
The philosophy of ordinary languages was successively Kuhn, pluralism by Paul Karl Feyerabend and neo-
inspired by the thinking of Moore and later Wittgenstein; historicism by Dudley Shapere. Richard McKay Rorty’s
after the 1950s, the Cambridge and Oxford schools were its neo-pragmatism and the doctrine on culture of post-
leading proponents. It objects to the re-creation of ideal philosophy represent a radical rebellion against traditions of
artificial language and calls for removing confusion and analytic philosophy and an attempt to merge scientism and
misunderstanding in the use of language by traditional the humanistic trends on the European continent.
philosophies through careful analysis of the use of ordinary
language. The ‘theory of illocutionary force’ created by John
Langshaw Austin charted the developmental direction of Phenomenology and phenomenological movement
pragmatics. The philosophy of ordinary languages maintains
that analysis of languages is closely connected with human Phenomenology is an important philosophical trend that
behavioural experience, and it can be extended into the studies human acts of consciousness and stresses the analysis
ethical and socio-cultural fields without completely rejecting of consciousness, namely, the description of phenomena. It
metaphysics. Peter Frederick Strawson created ‘descriptive has had a far-reaching impact on the development of
metaphysics’ on the basis of his view of performative truth, philosophy on the European continent in the twentieth
and he emphasized the study of actual thinking structures century, and its methods of phenomenological description
in order to provide a conceptual framework for knowledge have been put to use in various degrees by other schools
and ethics. such as existentialism, philosophical hermeneutics, and
philosophical anthropology. Such applications are
collectively regarded as a broad-sense phenomenological
Development of analytic philosophy in the United movement, which lasted through the century.
States

On the eve of the Second World War, some principal Husserl’s phenomenology
members of the Vienna Circle immigrated to the United
States resulting in the rapid dissemination of logical The aim of phenomenology, founded by Edmund Husserl,
empiricism, which gradually replaced the predominating was to determine the definite, necessary and absolute
pragmatism in that country. American pragmatist foundation for knowledge. He called for the ‘return to
philosophy, founded by Charles Sanders Peirce and William things themselves’ and stood for an attitude of ‘epoché’ in
James at the end of last century, infused various fields of the making judgements on the existence of the world. This
humanities and social science by John Dewey in the early attitude involves describing and reflecting on every
part of the twentieth century and formed a complete phenomenon appearing in the consciousness of the empirical
theoretic system. Pragmatism emphasizes the continuity self by essential intuition; probing the meaning and structure
and entirety of experience and holds that pluralistic and of empirical knowledge; studying in depth the intentional
relative truth is a useful instrument for dealing with the structure of transcendental ego and its acts of constructing
environment. Its empiricism and behaviourism are different conscious objects by eidetic reduction and transcendental
from logical empiricism, but at the same time, both have reduction so as to establish a kind of strict theory of
infiltrated and interacted on each other. Moreover, logical knowledge; and obtaining phenomenological residuum in
empiricism significantly enriched logical analysis in the transcendental reduction, which is pure consciousness, i.e.
United States. The studies conducted on rationality of transcendental ego as the subject of transcendental

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phenomenology and the ultimate basis of all knowledge. In with existentialism. Sartre’s philosophical thought was
his later years, Husserl advanced the Lebenswelt (life-world) immensely influential because of his literary works and his
theory, which holds that according to a teleological participation in leftist political activities.
explanation of history and owing to the long-standing Psychoanalysis, pioneered by Sigmund Freud in the early
influential role of positivism and objectivism, European twentieth century, attempts to discover the secrets of human
science in the twentieth century lost human subjectivity and beings’ irrational mental state of unconsciousness. Freud
the meaning of life. This in turn enabled irrationalism to considered the human instincts of self-preservation and
penetrate science, contributing to an overall crisis of sexual desire to be the innate driving force behind human
humanity. He believed that philosophy should probe the behaviour and the suppression of ‘libido’ (sexual desire and
human life to re-establish a rational basis for the meaning love) as the root cause of mental illnesses. Moreover,
and value of science and life. This doctrine has exerted according to Freud, the creativity of human consciousness
profound influence on humanistic philosophy in is able to turn the suppressed instincts into a spiritual force,
contemporary Europe. which is the cornerstone of human evolution and civilization.
Neo-Freudians Carl Gustav Jung and others later conducted
studies on collective unconsciousness and used a kind of
Existentialism and psychoanalysis social psychoanalysis to explain social and cultural processes.
Psychoanalysis has had a considerable influence on the
Existentialism finds its theoretic source in the irrationalism phenomenological movement and other contemporary
of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard and Friedrich Wilhelm philosophical schools.
Nietzsche in the middle and late nineteenth century and
Husserl’s method of phenomenology. Its aim is to reveal
the authentic existence of human beings and to explore the Contemporary philosophical hermeneutics
structure and meaning of human existence. It originated in
Germany in the 1920s, became prevalent in France during The term hermeneutics, which probably derived from
and after the Second World War, and later spread to other Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods, originally
countries. Its main representatives are the German referred to the interpretation of divine commands, but
philosophers Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers and eventually came to refer to a methodology of the humanities.
French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (Plate 104). Heidegger’s expounding on understanding and language as
Heidegger, one of Husserl’s pupils, deviated from his the basic modes of human existence brought about a shift in
teacher’s theoretic orientation. He pioneered studies hermeneutics, which was henceforth considered in an
focusing on the existence of human beings and elaborated a ontological context. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Heidegger’s
completely new notion of Sein (being). In his most pupil, has since 1960 published a series of works including
important book, Being and Time (Sein und Zeit), published Truth and Method (Wahrheit und Methode), thus
in 1927, Heidegger criticized traditional ontology and establishing philosophical hermeneutics as existential
formulated his fundamental ontology, which probes into ontology. Among the main concepts: as the essential
the meaning of ‘being’ and ‘being-there’ (Dasein) by means attribute of being, understanding integrates judgement,
of phenomenology and emphasizes the realization of history and language, thus turning Heidegger’s truth as
human existence through understanding the meaning of ‘unconcealedness’ into the main thrust of hermeneutics;
‘being.’ He also pointed out that contemporary human understanding, in a historic sense, is considered the
beings are facing a crisis because they have lost the meaning dialectical interaction of prejudice and tradition, which have
of their own ‘being’ by conquering and controlling external evolved in creative activities to form a consciousness of
things. In his later works, such as Letter on Humanism history. Language is the central issue of philosophy, and by
(Über den Humanismus, 1947), Forest Trails (Holzwege, absorbing and transforming the ‘language game theory’, the
1949) and The Way to Language (Unterwegs zur Sprache, existential ontology maintains that the linguistic universality
1959), Heidegger expounded some key ideas: truth is the of world experience constitutes a form of life although it
‘unconcealedness’ of the meaning of ‘being’, language is the possesses ontological priority. French philosopher Paul
‘home of being’ and basic mode of human existence. He Ricoeur, in his works including Le conflit des interprétations,
also criticized cybernetic consciousness and technological 1969, and Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 1981,
civilization with a non-anthropocentric view. created phenomenological hermeneutics that merge with
Jaspers was a theological existentialist. In Philosophy structuralist semiology, psychoanalysis and the speech act
(Philosophie, 1932), Philosophical Faith and Revelation (Der theory. He maintains that the doctrine on the life-world,
philosophische Glaube angesichts der Offenbarung, 1962) and transcendental phenomenology and existential ontology
other works, he maintained that existence is freedom and can be connected, but cognitive links must be added, and
that having discovered the limits of their own marginal this can be achieved by the analysis of semantical structure
existence, human beings could approach the transcendental of text, which is the focus of hermeneutics. Contemporary
God. In Being and Nothingness (L’Etre et le Néant, 1943), philosophical hermeneutics has been widely circulated and
Critique of Dialectical Reason (Critique de la raison dialectique, studied in Europe, the United States, and other countries.
1960), and other works, Sartre stressed that the core of
existential philosophy is humanism and expounded the
principle of ‘being preceding essence’. He examined the Structuralism and post-structuralism
dialectical relationship between ‘being-in-itself’ and ‘being-
for-itself’ and between the individual and society and also Structuralism originated from the theory of structural
advocated free choice and assuming responsibility for one’s linguistics. It is a philosophical trend, which applies the
choices. He tried to replenish the human aspects of Marxism method of structural analysis to the study of social, historical

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and cultural phenomena and has been prevalent on the tradition of metaphysics. He held that it is necessary to
European continent since the 1950s alongside deconstruct all philosophical systems with structural centres
phenomenology and existentialism. Switzerland’s Ferdinand and remove all their socio-cultural sediments and
de Saussure was the pioneer of structuralism, and in the emphasized that the written language, namely the visual
1950s the renowned French cultural anthropologist Claude letter symbols in space, is superior to the spoken language.
Lévi-Strauss (Plate 105) used modes of structural analysis The difference between linguistic symbols, according to
to study socio-cultural phenomena. Derrida, should be a kind of diachronic ‘différance’ (temporal
difference) which is dynamically displayed in ‘the experience
of life’ described by phenomenology. The meaning of
Early structuralism language is a ‘trace’, which can be erased and renewed
incessantly, and all written language is the inscription of the
In his books, Structural Anthropology (Anthropologie trace. Derrida’s theory of deconstruction deals extensively
structurale, 1958), The Savage Mind (La pensée sauvage, with literature, art, and socio-cultural issues, and it has thus
1962) and the four-volume Mythologiques (1964–71), Lévi- exerted an impact particularly on literary and aesthetic
Strauss treats all forms of human social acts as cultural theories in Europe and the United States.
phenomena with the properties of linguistic codes. He uses
modes of linguistic structural analysis to investigate social
structures and cultures of the primitive society, and thus Diversity of structuralism
expounds the philosophical theory of structuralism. He
conducted studies on marriage and the family system of the Structuralism boasts some other influential and distinctive
primitive society and maintained that social structures and theories. French philosopher Jacques Lacan transformed
cultural phenomena result from the innate structuring psychoanalysis with structuralism and believed that
ability of the unconscious in the depths of the human mind. unconsciousness possesses a linguistic structure and that
The unconscious is not the irrational instinctive impulse Freud’s theory of unconsciousness can be re-described in
described by Freud, but an intellectual function that exists precise terms by the rule of signifier and applied to the
inherently in the entire human race for constructing humanities in a more flexible and effective way. He
conscious cultural phenomena and enables human beings to maintained that the unconscious is formed in exchanges
maintain structures at both the natural and cultural levels. between the subject and the other (others, and especially via
Lévi-Strauss advocated that the task of structural language). Therefore, the unconscious is the discourse of
anthropology is to investigate, through people’s conscious the other and its linguistic structure is the common psychic
activities, the integral structure of the unconscious playing a structure of people. Michel Foucault, another influential
role of conditionality in society and culture, thus rendering French philosopher, studied psychiatry, the history of ideas
studies of social sciences and the humanities as precise as and socio-cultural issues by unique methods in a number of
those of natural sciences. his books including The Order of Things (Les mots et les
In the 1950s, Swiss psychologist and philosopher Jean choses, 1966), thus setting up a theory of discourse and
Piaget began publishing his three-volume book Introduction ‘archaeology of knowledge’. He held the view that all things
to Genetic Epistemology (Introduction à l’épistémologie and human behaviours depend on the link between words
génétique), in which he studied the origins and the as the internal structure and things as the external
development process and structure of cognition by using phenomenon, their structure in the space of knowledge
structural analysis. He defined structure as a dynamic being ‘epitome.’ Although the three types of ‘epitome’
conservation system with integrality, which consists of a experienced by intelligence and culture in Europe since the
number of transformation rules and is capable of self- Renaissance have their respective principles for organizing
regulation. He explained that cognition originates from knowledge, they are all anthropocentric. The task of
interaction between the subject and object and is in itself a contemporary humanities is to create, by analysing human
creative constructive process encompassing simple low-level exploration into the nature of life and labour, an epitome
structure to complex high-level structure. Through the which does not take human beings as the central subject but
homeostasis action of assimilation and accommodation, the describes only the order of discourse, confirms the unity of
subject’s cognition patterns are able to gradually approach rationality and irrationality, and believes in accidental
the structure of the object. And such a constructing process sudden change in epitome and non-continuity of history,
is infinite. thus transforming studies on the history of civilization into
a kind of ‘archaeology of knowledge.’
Noam Chomsky in the United States produced the
Post-structuralism theory of transformational-generative grammar. He
expounded the surface and inner structures of language
Post-structuralism, while criticizing traditional metaphysics, and a whole set of rule systems for their creation and
opposes the ideas of fixed structures and structure centres. transformation. His theory is praised as a revolution of
As one of its representatives, French philosopher Jacques contemporary theoretical linguistics and can be applied to
Derrida established the theory of deconstruction in a series many fields. His universal or philosophical grammar is
of works including Of Grammatology (De la grammatologie, based on the philosophy of the mind, which combines
1967), Dissemination (La dissémination, 1972), and The rationalism and biologic naturalism. It holds that innate
Margins of Philosophy (Marges de la philosophie, 1972). He linguistic competence and structure are the mirrors
pointed out that the error of ‘logocentrism’ ran through reflecting the inherent capability and structure of the
various kinds of metaphysics and the fact that structuralism human mind, and they are thus genetically inherent in the
is centred on the phonetic actually also falls under the human brain.

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Marxist philosophy science-technology and culture while attaching importance

to dialogue with their counterparts in other countries in an
Born in the mid-nineteenth century, Marxist philosophy effort to enrich and develop Marxist philosophy in various
has been a developing current with enduring vitality and branches and fields of knowledge, thus making it a precise
extensive influence throughout the twentieth century. It and open theoretic system.
persists in the world views of dialectical materialism and
historical materialism, stresses practice as the source and
basis of knowledge and the criterion for testifying truth, Humanistic philosophy of praxis
asserts that social being determines social consciousness,
and explains all historical phenomena in the light of The Prison Notebooks (Appunti, 1929–35) written by Italian
economics and socio-political relationships. Marxist theory social theorist Antonio Gramsci during his incarceration by
has developed by continuously accumulating the the fascist regime deals extensively with numerous
achievements of natural and social knowledge. As a philosophical, historical, political and cultural issues. He
theoretical force of transforming the world, Marxist advanced the notion of praxis (action) and in accordance
philosophy has promoted the socialist revolution in a with historicism’s ‘principle of totality’, he maintained that
number of countries and become the leading theory in their the subject and object, and theory and practice are unified in
social ideology. Meanwhile, some thinkers in Europe and people’s social and spiritual activities. He objected to
the United States have studied, revised and ‘enriched’ mechanical determinism in economy and believed social
Marxist philosophy in various ways. They have merged it history to be a process in which the economic basis, social
with ideas from other philosophical schools and conducted politics, and ideology interact in a dialectical way. He
new critical studies on the social process of contemporary criticized capitalist society’s control over ideology and
capitalism, resulting in a number of doctrines of so-called culture, called for socialist democracy, stressed the important
‘Western Marxism’. role of ideology and social culture in the revolutionary
struggle and urged intellectuals to form a historic alliance
with the masses to establish a new cultural system leading
Development of Marxist philosophy in socialist to human liberation and a renewed morality.
countries In History and Class Consciousness (1923) and other
works, Hungarian philosopher György Lukacs stressed
G.V. Plekhanov effectively disseminated Marxist philosophy praxis as the central philosophical concept in conformity
in Russia and made a new contribution to studies on the with the principle of totality and regarded alienation as the
social structure with historical materialism. Lenin further main basis for criticizing capitalism. He maintained that the
developed the basic principles of Marxism. He studied the proletariat must acquire a class consciousness of the search
new discoveries and theoretic crisis of natural sciences at the for totality, overcome alienation and undertake its own (and
beginning of the century, advanced scientific materialism humankind’s) liberation through activities capable of
and reflectionism while expounding the fundamental reforming history. As a result, history also acquires self-
categories of matter, experience, truth and practice, and put consciousness. Lukacs also applied his philosophy to
forward the idea of unity between dialectics, logic and aesthetics and to art and literary theory. His philosophy has
epistemology in carrying out in-depth studies on the basic had tremendous influence on the theories of ‘Western
laws and categories of materialistic dialectics. He developed Marxism’ and the humanistic trends within the socialist
the Marxist doctrine on state, explored the socio-economic movement.
structure for the socialist transition period, including the
necessity to resort to means such as ‘state capitalism’, and
revealed the special law of the socialist cultural construction, Critical theory of society in the Frankfurt school
which he claimed must critically inherit and carry forward
the fine traditions and achievements of world culture. The Frankfurt school was the most influential and long-
However, Stalin made some dogmatic interpretations of lived of the diverse currents of ‘Western Marxism’.
Marxist philosophy and false assertions on the social reality, Established in 1923 as the Institute of Social Research, its
which exerted a negative influence upon the socialist cause. main advocates were Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse,
Taking into account the particularities of the Chinese Theodor W. Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, and Alfred
revolution and construction, Mao Zedong creatively Schmidt. In 1934, the Institute was relocated to the United
adapted Marxist philosophy to the Chinese context, by States and remained there until 1950, when it returned to
‘seeking truth from facts.’ In criticizing dogmatism, he Germany. After the 1970s, it ceased to exist as a unified
founded the doctrine based on practice and contradiction. school owing to major divergences among its members.
He stressed the utmost importance of practice in the active In its early days, its members denounced fascist
and dialectical epistemology, carried out in-depth studies dictatorship as the destruction of rationality. However,
on the law of unity of opposites, the core of materialistic they later conducted studies primarily on the characteristics
dialectics. His theory concerning the correct handling of and crises of the developed industrial society and
internal contradictions among the people explored basic contemporary capitalism, which led to their critical theory
contradictions in socialist society and the principles for of society. They claimed that they accepted some of Marx’s
dealing with different kinds of contradiction. His principles, including the doctrine on alienated labour, to
philosophical thinking continues to play a leading role in criticize capitalism. Moreover, certain ideas borrowed from
building a Chinese variety of socialism. Philosophers in existentialism, psychoanalysis, philosophy of ordinary
socialist countries have been working to absorb the new languages and philosophical hermeneutics infiltrated their
experience of social practice and new achievements of theory. They criticized technocracy, human alienation and

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extracted ideology from the fields of economics, politics and mechanical, but seeks to realize a particular goal. Therefore,
culture. Dialectics of Enlightenment by Horkheimer and repression of the corporeal nature would destroy the
Adorno presented the ‘traditional theory’ based on supreme spiritual reality. While trying to redefine Vedantic
instrumental rationality, which had led to the negative ideas, Ghose pointed out that only in corporeality can ego
effects of the technological civilization on human beings. develop and interrelate with ‘the universal beings’ or the ego
Marcuse pointed out that the developed industrial society is of all other individuals and can human consciousness and
a technocratic one-dimensional society, which produces existence continuously grow and develop until they
one-dimensional thinking to control ideology. According to eventually reveal their identity with the god. As a result of
Marcuse, one-dimensional man loses his ability to reason this change in their basic position, modern Indian
and is ultimately reduced to being a slave to material things. philosophers no longer pay attention only to the
Habermas advanced the theory of ‘communication transcendental field to the neglect of experience and rejection
rationality’ and attempted to eliminate the ‘legislation crisis’, of secular considerations. They reconcile the two and call
reform the social structure, and advocated a lifestyle based for training human beings, by means of philosophy and
on a free communication structure. According to the adopting a new attitude towards living and observing the
Frankfurt School, in the contemporary industrial society world. They believe that once people understand through
with its highly developed science and technology, class the acquisition of philosophical knowledge that they are
structure has undergone major changes and the state should unified with all other things, their disposition will
play a leading role in social intervention. It further maintains immediately change. They have given modern explanations
that the transformation of the society should focus primarily to a number of key concepts of Indian philosophy, such as
on the field of ideology. karma, rebirth, eternal life, and deliverance. Ghose and others
explain karma from an existentialist perspective: this
obstacle to our own freedom is created by ourselves and
N ational and C ultural although we are indeed restricted by karma, we are also able
P hilosophical T raditions to create a future and realize full freedom after the obstacle
is removed.
Indian philosophy Tagore and Radhakrishnan analysed various situations
in the realm of human existence – life’s suffering, anxieties
In the twentieth century, Indian philosophy converged with and fears – and asserted that human beings will obtain the
Western philosophy mainly in the areas of analytic true meaning of life if they live in them and do not complain
philosophy and the phenomenological and existential about them. Gandhi maintained a philosophy of non-
currents of thought. Many great philosophers in modern violence. He repudiated violence as the law of brutes,
India, including Rabindranath Tagore (Plate 106), because it causes pain to any life as a result of anger or
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Aurobindo Ghose, Krishnachandra selfishness. Gandhi praised non-violence as the law of our
Bhattacharya and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, were not only species because the basic principles of non-violence are
well versed in traditional Indian philosophy, but also based on the principle that what is good for oneself is good
possessed a good understanding of the philosophies and for the entire universe as well. He explained that non-
cultures of Europe and the United States. Most of them violence did not mean surrendering to evil; neither does it
were aware of the numerous ‘scientific facts’ and empirical mean compromising with violence. This activist
methods in the modern world and attempted to explain interpretation of non-violence greatly enriched the Indian
their own traditions from a new perspective. Some of them notions of quietism and negation. While ancient Indian
even returned to traditions after in-depth studies in Western philosophy concentrated solely on living to escape reality,
sciences, believing that the principles of traditional Indian modern Indian philosophers stress the connection between
philosophy are in some ways linked to those of the other philosophy and the secular life. Modern Indian philosophy
philosophical schools. maintains that philosophy is able to foster a world view, and
Traditional Indian philosophy has its roots in the ancient therefore, it contains both highly rational analysis and
religious ideas described in the Upanishads and seeks a positive inspirations for behaviour and lifestyle.
supernatural value or the value of the other world by In the epistemological field, modern Indian philosophers
adopting a meditative and superrational attitude. Influenced have been influenced by Western theories of knowledge as
by this Vedantic tradition, modern Indian philosophy is well as their own traditions. However, most of them are
basically monistic; however, under the impact of Western unable to totally accept methodology dominated by Western
thinking, Indian religious philosophy has acquired secular scientific reasoning, and they stress that we eventually must
aspects. Radhakrishnan, as the principal interpreter of a grasp reality by understanding the supermind and superself,
reconstructed Advaita, believed that when ‘reality’ relates to even though they admit that sensory experience and rational
itself or is regarded as an infinite possibility, it is the ‘absolute’ cognition can be useful as sources of knowledge about life.
objective sought after by philosophy, yet when ‘reality’ Radhakrishnan pointed out that rational thinking takes the
relates to creation or to the possibilities lying within forms duality of the subject and object as its premise and that to
of creation, the ‘absolute’ becomes the creator, wisdom, understand the monistic reality, this cognitive process
love, good and the god, as the goal of religion. Some Indian separating the subject and object of cognition cannot be
philosophers maintain that although the god can exist used. Bhattacharya noted however that ‘cognition’ has never
without the world, it is nonetheless real because it is been a passive state, but rather an activity displaying the
determined by the will of the god, thereby proving its subject’s free association with the object; it can thus be
existence. It follows that man and the empirical world of his inferred that science is not cognition because it always cuts
subsistence are closely related with the transcendental its ties with the subject and stresses only factuality and
reality, and the developmental order of corporeality is not objectivity. Some other modern philosophers, influenced by

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Henri Bergson, no longer regard intuition as a kind of Neo-Confucianism stresses that the Chinese ideal of the
mystical capability, but treat it as perfect types of mental ‘mean’ (the harmonizing of passions) contrasts markedly
activities, which are able to extend and deepen the process with Western and Indian philosophy. Xiong Shili founded
of perception to areas not accessible to sensory organs. In the ‘new doctrine of consciousness only’. In fact, his
intuitive comprehension, the difference between the subject philosophy is a combination of Buddhist idealism, Wang
and object disappears as their duality vanishes. Yangming’s mentalism, and Bergson’s theory. Many
philosophical terms he used came either from The Book of
Changes or the Buddhist ‘consciousness only’ school, while
Chinese philosophy some of his basic philosophical concepts, such as ‘the unity
of substance and function’ and ‘the primacy of the original
In 1911, the last Chinese feudal dynasty was overthrown, mind,’ originated from the Neo-Confucianism of the Song
and in February 1912 a republic was established. Philosophy and Ming dynasties. His philosophy avoids both Zhu Xi’s
in twentieth-century China has witnessed a process of dichotomy of the principle and material force as well as
fusion or dialogue between modern Western philosophy Wang Yangming’s subordination of material force to the
and China’s traditional philosophy. Western philosophy mind, thus injecting a view of dynamic change into Neo-
was first introduced to China in 1897 with the translation Confucianism. Feng Youlan, who studied philosophy at
of Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics, which was rapidly Columbia University in New York, set up the new
followed by the translation of the works of Spencer, rationalistic Confucianism, which converts Confucianist
Darwin and others. At the turn of the century, the writings philosophical concepts into formal logical ones. Merging
of Schopenhauer, Kant, Nietzsche and Rousseau appeared Western realism and logic, Taoist negativism and
in China. In the following decade, important works by transcendentalism, he claimed that the theoretic pillars of
Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, James, his philosophy are the four basic metaphysical categories:
Bergson, Russell, Dewey, Marx, Bakunin, and Kropotkin (1) ‘Principle’, which belongs in the realm of reality;
(the advocate of the philosophy of anarchism) were (2) Material force, the basis of the concept of existence;
available in China. As interest grew, Dewey was invited to (3) Tao, which is a universal operation and a regularly
lecture in 1919 and 1920 and Russell in the following year; improving and changing universe; and (4) the Great Whole,
each school had its champions and detractors among where one is all and all is one and which constitutes the
Chinese thinkers. transcendent supreme reality. He Lin made outstanding
Some of the Western thought heavily influenced the contributions to the spread and study of Western
1911 revolution and the New Culture Movement. For philosophy, particularly Hegelianism, in China. Between
example, Sun Yat-sen (Plate 107), the leader of the 1911 the 1930s and 1940s, he put forward a program of Neo-
revolution, was an exponent of Darwinism. His ideas of Confucianism in which he stressed the necessity to reform
Tienhsia Weigong (the world belongs to its people) and traditional Confucianism by absorbing the positive
Tienhsia Datong (the great unity of the world) were elements of Western philosophy and culture so as to meet
obviously a fusion of evolutionism and Confucianism. Hu the modern challenge of reviving the national culture. He
Shi, a pupil of Dewey and one of the initiators of the New advanced the theory of subject as the ‘logical mind’, called
Culture Movement, faithfully followed Dewey in the for the integration of cognition, morality, and aesthetic
conviction that truth is an instrument to cope with actual sentiment into the logical subject, and the dynamic
situations, and he advocated ‘more investigation of problems unification of knowing and practice.
and less talk about theories’. Li Dazhao, the co-founder of The above-mentioned modern Neo-Confucianism
the New Culture Movement, first introduced Marxism to displays the following three obvious theoretic characteristics:
the Chinese youth and greatly promoted the movement. (1) it persists in the theory of holism and monism in
Marx’s materialistic interpretation of history became a traditional Chinese philosophy in an effort to counter
fashion in the late 1920s, and after the mid-century it dualism in Western and Buddhist philosophy; (2) it
became the mainstream philosophy in China. As an open develops the intuitive cognition of traditional Chinese
system, Marxism has incorporated China’s local context philosophy and stresses the importance of intuition and
and the positive aspects of traditional Chinese philosophy cognition; (3) it views human nature and life as part of a
as well as certain great achievements of foreign civilizations. fluid and evolving reality, a flux. Therefore, the ethical codes
In the early twentieth century, traditional Chinese and moral principles in traditional Confucianism should
philosophy, comprising mainly Confucianism, Buddhism also be revised and adjusted to enable human beings to
and Taoism, also renewed its content and form through continuously improve their inner spiritual life to be
encounters with Western philosophy. After conducting prepared for the challenges from the outside world and
thorough comparative studies on Oriental and Occidental modern social life.
philosophies, a number of scholars well-versed in both In the latter half of the twentieth century, many Chinese
Confucianist and Western philosophy expressed the view philosophers have comprehensively and systematically
that since Western thinking had shortcomings, it should studied traditional Chinese philosophy including
not be adopted without making changes to it. They founded Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and other schools of
a variety of modern Neo-Confucianism based on traditional thought in accordance with Marxist views. Hou Wailu,
philosophy integrated with suitable aspects of Western who had largely contributed to the spread of Marxism in
culture and philosophy. China with his translation of Marx’s Das Kapital, published
Assimilating Bergson’s philosophy of life, Liang Suming his five-volume work The History of Chinese Ideas (in
established his own Neo-Confucianism. His lectures on collaboration with Du Guoyang), which is often praised as
‘the Civilization of the Orient and Occident and their an outstanding application of Marxism to Chinese
Philosophies’ drew widespread attention. His variety of philosophy. The authors have judiciously selected the

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essence of traditional philosophy. They have also which explored all of the movement’s proponents from
concentrated on studies in two important areas. Firstly, Heidegger and Jaspers to Sartre and Gabriel Marcel. Its
they have studied the relationships between traditional main representative, Goichi Miyake, is renowned for his
Chinese philosophy and modernity in an effort to explore studies on Heidegger. Pragmatism is the fourth active
the best way to advance traditional Chinese philosophy, philosophical school to develop after the war, owing to the
and to constructively integrate it into the modern socialist activities of the Association for the Study of American
cultural system. Secondly, they have conducted comparative Philosophy, its prominent exponent being Seiji Ueda, a
studies between traditional Chinese and foreign philosophy scholar of longstanding authority on Anglo-American
to explore the significance and value of Chinese philosophy thought in the early 1950s.
from the broad perspective of world civilization.

Islamic philosophy
Japanese philosophy
Islamic philosophy is actually the collective achievement of
Since 1914, Japanese philosophy has been developing in two a number of peoples including Arabs, Berbers, and Indians.
different but intertwined directions. The first tendency It developed with the rise of Islam, which endowed it with a
came from the attitude espoused by Tokyo University, highly coherent world view. Islamic philosophy took shape
which very early attempted to ponder over questions in the in the mid-eighth century and later witnessed rapid
context of the European experience. This school of thought development and dissemination under the influence of
was mainly represented by Tetsujiro Inoue. His successor, Greek thinking. The numerous studies on Greek philosophy
Genyoku Kuwaki, conducted numerous studies on Kant, and culture by Arab scholars greatly influenced the European
and under his encouragement, Neo-Kantianism spread Renaissance. According to Islamic philosophy, the status of
widely and exerted great influence during the rule of the humankind must be enhanced by its infinite power of
Taisho regime (1912–26). In addition, Husserl’s reason. Consequently humankind does not have to rely on
phenomenology was introduced in Japan as early as 1921. any supernatural force to find salvation. Islamic philosophy
The second tendency was advocated by Kyoto University recognizes the dual truth of reason and revelation and
under the guidance of Nishida Kitaro (Plate 108). It maintains that human beings live in both the spiritual and
attempted to develop a Japanese philosophy based on earthly spheres, and they may enjoy the right to secular life
Japan’s own experience rather than the European model. in accordance with the Koran. In the twentieth century,
The Tokyo school thoroughly studied the philosophic while influenced by Western philosophical and cultural
thought of the European continent as its primary task, traditions, Islamic philosophy has maintained its own
while the Kyoto school attempted to absorb European theoretic integrity, stability and critical capability and played
philosophy by referring to Japan’s own historical experience. an important role in religious and social life.
It is particularly worth noting that Nishida possessed a Indian Muslim philosopher Muhammed Iqbal studied
profound knowledge of Chinese culture particularly Western philosophy, especially the works of Hegel,
regarding pre-Qing Dynasty Confucianism, Zhuang Zi’s Whitehead and Bergson, and reinterpreted Islamic
thinking and Wang Yangming’s doctrine. In a study of the philosophy using modern philosophical concepts. He
good, Nishida strove for a ‘logic of field’. The Oriental logic considered religion the manifestation of human beings’
he created borrowed Wang Yangming’s idea of the ‘unity of integrity and a key component of the ‘reality’ on which the
knowing and doing’ and the Confucianist doctrine of the philosopher reflects. The concept of the concrete world
‘Mean’. According to this logic, ‘good’ means not only the embodied in the Koran refers to a created reality,
satisfaction of a certain need at a certain time, but also characterized by a rational mode of integrating truth and
harmony between various activities. Nishida’s theories idealization. However, the world is neither a stagnant
merge oriental and occidental philosophies to form the universe nor the ultimate product of Allah, but rather a
structure of the ‘Nishida philosophy’. universe achieving continual self-realization in time and
In addition to the two major philosophical schools space. And human beings, as the most active force in the
mentioned above, there also existed the Kyoto School led universe, serve as Allah’s main agent in the process of
by Hajime Tanabe. Tanabe was an outstanding expert in realizing the infinite potential of ‘reality’. Religious
the philosophy of mathematics and science and renowned experience has extrinsic, intrinsic and mystic characteristics,
for his studies on ‘logic of the species’. The species in thus enabling human beings to continuously reveal the
question refers to the nation, which lies between individuals complex facets of their own reality. Moreover, reality can be
and humankind and connects the two. After the verified not only through experience but also by philosophical
Second World War, Tanabe was the leader of a group of speculation. Iqbal incorporated some ideas from Western
intellectuals who urged a thorough housecleaning of theories philosophy and science. He rejected the hypotheses of
on ultra-nationalism. The second most active philosophical material reality and gave a new explanation to atomism by
school after the war has been Marxist philosophy, introduced using the term monadology or spiritual pluralism. He believed
to Japan by Sen Katayama in 1903, and by Hajime that every molecule or element is spiritual and possesses an
Kawakami in 1922. The most active advocates of Marxism ego and that the higher the level of ego or consciousness the
after the war were Kiyoshi Miki and Jun Tosaka. These greater its reality and the closer it is to Allah. The spiritual
Marxist thinkers had been the principal opponents of the ego, as an individual and eternal soul, is the core of the
tide of pre-war ultra-nationalism. But in the 10 years spiritual state or emotion, while a limited ego is only one
immediately after the war, the force of Marxist philosophy aspect of the ultimate ego inherent in nature.
burgeoned through academic publications and conferences. Like Iqbal, Muslim philosophers such as Al-Afghani,
The third major philosophical school is existentialism, M. ‘Abdu and Ameer Ali maintained Islamic views on life

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despite the fact that they were influenced by Western Keita described the main characteristics of African
philosophy. Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian thinker and activist philosophy as follows: African thought is essentially holistic
pointed out in Islam and the Problems of Civilization (1963) in the sense that it accepts the material world, thus making
that the comprehensive Islamic way of life can save modern possible empirical science, yet at the same time it recognizes
man. Muhammad Al-Bahi espoused even more radical that metaphysical elements constitute the ontological
views. In Islamic Thought and its Relation to Western support and motivational force for movement in the world.
Imperialism, he claimed that Western civilization has failed Another important specialist on African philosophy is
to solve contemporary problems primarily because of its H. Odera Oruka, who divided contemporary African
misuse of the medieval scientific spirit in the fields of philosophy into six schools of thought: (1) ethno-
industry, technology, economy and biology. Egyptian philosophy, which regards all ethnic African world views,
philosopher Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad took a relatively myths, folklores and folk wisdom as African philosophy;
moderate attitude and criticized those rationalists who (2) sagacity philosophy, which deals with the wisdom of
regard religious faith as superficial or illusory. certain respected African sages, whose thought and wisdom
Other modern Arab thinkers, such as the Egyptian derived from their innate insight and reason rather than
A. R. Badawi and the Lebanese René Habachi, are renowned communal consensus (the main representative of this
for their studies on existentialism in the contemporary Arab philosophy is Marcel Griaule); (3) nationalist-ideological
world. In Existential Time (1941), and Studies in Existential philosophy, which holds that genuine and meaningful
Philosophy (1961), Badawi stresses that human beings must freedom is inevitably accompanied by a true ideological
accept the brevity of life and must face their fate with the liberation and a return to traditional African humanism;
power of true freedom. Although Habachi rejected this philosophy has been mainly advocated by Kwame
existentialist atheism and illusory individualistic philosophy, Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere (Plate 109), and Leopold
he nevertheless urged people to transcend their individual S. Senghor, whose philosophy of ‘Négritude’ was popular
limitations and seek a reality on a higher level, which in the 1960s (according to this movement, reason is Hellenic
constitutes the existential experience of humankind. while emotion is characteristic of the black people, and
Egyptian philosopher Zaki Najib Mahmud, whose principal African thought, being intuitive, cannot be viewed in
works include Positivist Logic (1957) and Toward a Scientific terms of the rational, the irrational or the pre-rational);
Philosophy (1958), devoted himself to expounding Western (4) professional philosophy, which rejects the assumptions
positivism. of ethno-philosophy and takes a universalistic view, arguing
Philosopher Yusuf Karam was a pioneer of modern that true African philosophy is the domain of African
systematic philosophy in the Arab world. In Reason and professional philosophers; this tradition is critical and strict
Being (1956) and Physics and Metaphysics (1959), published and does not consist simply of interpretations and
not long before his death in 1959, he maintained that both descriptions of African traditions of thought (its main
empiricism and rationalism are untenable and that only by advocates are Kwasi Wiredu, Paulin Hountondji, Henry
consciously drawing on pagan ideas can Muslim and Oruka and Peter Odera Bodunrin); (5) hermeneutic
Christian philosophers developed a comprehensive world philosophy, which conducts analyses of specific concepts by
view. His philosophical methods were representative of the using existing African languages in an effort to clarify the
trend in contemporary Arab thought to attempt to reconcile general and logical meanings of these concepts (it is mainly
various conflicting philosophical and theological thought. represented by Kwami Gyekye, Barry Hallen and Olubi
Sodipo); (6) artistic or literary philosophy as adopted by
certain African writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole
African philosophy Soyinka, and Ngugiwa Thiongo, among others. Although
not a philosophy per se, it has been shaped by the profound
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the African philosophical thoughts expressed in the works of these
intelligentsia have been examining their own continent’s literary figures.
philosophical traditions and debating such issues as ‘Does
an African philosophy exist? And if so, how can it be
defined?’ In their discussions, they have obtained an Latin American philosophy
affirmative answer to the first question, but the debate on
the second one is ongoing. Many African philosophers Mainstream schools of philosophy in Latin America in the
believe that a sufficiently sound literary philosophical twentieth century have come into existence by way of
tradition has existed in Africa since ancient times. This opposition to the positivism of Auguste Comte and
view has mainly been expounded by Lancinay Keita, who Herbert Spencer. Generally speaking, Comte influenced
has divided African philosophical tradition into three thinkers in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile, while Spencer’s
stages: (1) classical philosophy, mainly ancient Egyptian following developed mainly in Argentina, Uruguay and
philosophical thought, which had a strong impact on the Cuba. Positivism claimed that its knowledge had been
Hellenic world before it influenced the Renaissance period verified, was logically strict, and could be easily applied to
in Europe; (2) medieval philosophy, mainly comprising actions and help solve existing social problems. The promises
African interpretations of Islamic thought and particularly it held out were fairly attractive to the Latin American
active under the medieval African states of Ghana, Mali intelligentsia. Indeed, many people hoped to find solutions
and Songhay; and (3) modern philosophy, which to the continent’s serious social ills, particularly poverty,
encompasses (a) the relatively undeveloped philosophy through this philosophy. However, reality did not measure
prevalant in Africa during the colonial period, which had up to positivism’s promises and aspirations. When progress
significant political and literary components owing to failed to materialize, Latin American intellectuals turned
Africa’s colonial past and (b) post-colonial philosophy. against positivism, beginning in Mexico. With the fall of

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the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz in 1911, positivism also integrate knowledge systems and to depict a general picture
fell. And its influence subsequently waned in other Latin of the world, have reached an unprecedented breadth and
American countries. depth in their exploration of the order of the macro-
Then, Latin American philosophy turned to the works universe, microworld properties and the relationships
of Bergson, Croce, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, who had between body and mind. Humanistic philosophies explain
criticized the narrow scientific emphasis of positivism. Since the world created by humankind and its culture in exploring
then, the continent has seen four generations of philosophers. self-consciousness and historical existence. Post-analytic
The first generation is that of the trail blazers: Antonio philosophy has begun to take a new approach towards the
Caso and José Vasconcelos (Plate 110) in Mexico, Alejandro study of the once-rejected metaphysics, which explains the
Korn in Argentina, Vaz Ferreira in Uruguay and Farias relationship between language and reality in terms of
Brito in Brazil, which had remained under the influence of integral experience or conceptual frameworks. Proponents
positivism for some time. These philosophers developed a of this school are therefore seeking new ways of
new philosophical thought in Latin America by borrowing ‘philosophizing’, and the ‘way of philosophizing’ itself has
heavily from European philosophers including Husserl, become a subject of great interest. Analytic philosophy
Dilthey, Heidegger and Jaspers. Although they did not along with other philosophies developed by Europeans
form an actual school of thought, they brought forth a new stress the prominent role of language.
philosophical attitude and method. The second generation The linguistic ontology of current analytic philosophy
was mainly represented by Francisco Romero, who carried undertakes in-depth studies on topics such as being, reality,
on the traditions of the older generation, but was freed from truth, nature and structure of mind, while European
the controversy over positivism that had influenced the continental philosophy regards language as the basic means
previous generation. Romero and his generation were of critically examining the meaning and value of modern
preoccupied with the problems of man and greatly influenced society, culture and life.
by historicism, phenomenology, and existentialism. Most of Various contemporary philosophies have greatly
the philosophers of the third generation, represented by contrasting objectives. Analytic philosophy views
García Maynez and Llambias de Acevedo, were born around philosophy as an activity for diagnosing and treating
1910 and studied philosophy in German universities. As a linguistic and conceptual ambiguities and seeks accuracy
result, they were more professional and their interest more of knowledge and scientific rationality. Some humanistic
wide-ranging, even though none of them had the intention philosophies aim at describing the transcendental structure
of creating a new philosophical system. The fourth of consciousness, explaining the truth and value of life,
generation is larger in number and more active. fostering a mechanism for the healthy development of man
Augusto Salazar Bony and Auturo Roig are the most and culture and overcoming the crisis of alienation in
prominent members of this generation and remain very modern society. Stressing a scientific worldview, Marxism
active in the Latin American philosophical circles at present. not only explains the world but also transforms its guiding
They have maintained their interest in German philosophy practice so as to enable human beings to attain freedom
and attach great importance to British and American from the realm of necessity, thus realizing the social ideal
philosophies, particularly new headway made in analytic of humankind’s overall development. However, despite
philosophy. Inspired by the enthusiasm of Mario Bunge, their different theoretic orientations, contemporary
the current generation has conducted studies on the philosophies have been pondering their common mission.
philosophy of science in collaboration with many Confronted with challenges to civilization and progress
professional scientists. Marxist philosophy has also been posed by the nuclear threat and ecological crisis, injustice
studied and spread on the continent. At present, Latin and inequality, disparity between rich and poor, ethnic and
American philosophy is taking root in the cultures of various regional conflicts, cultural contradictions and moral
nations and is expected to produce more fruitful results. confusion, philosophy should provide new meanings and
wisdom to the diversified development of culture and
society and the establishment of a reasonable world order
C ritical I S S U E S I N C ontemporary based on mutual cooperation. Philosophy must also
P hilosophies attempt to examine and solve major problems emerging in
scientific, cultural and social processes and to suggest viable
In the process of diversification, contemporary philosophies guidelines for values and criteria regarding means to attain
have raised issues of universal significance regarding world the good. Philosophy today, ‘as the owl of Minerva
peace, development and the future of philosophy and spreading her wings with the coming of the dusk’ of the
human civilization. twentieth century, should not only review its past journey,
but also use its historical insight to examine the various
contradictions to be faced at the beginning of the new
Objectives and mission of philosophy millennium of civilization and to conceive an ideal that
accurately reflects human nature.
Most of the principal contemporary philosophical schools
have criticized traditional philosophy for studying basic
problems. However, they differ greatly over the interpretation Scientific reason and humanistic consciousness
of philosophy’s meaning, subject matter and research
methods. In the transformation of science and social life, Theories of knowledge and methodology occupy a special
contemporary philosophies study and explain man and place in contemporary philosophy. Philosophy cannot only
reality from different perspectives. Philosophies based on contribute to the enhancement of rapidly evolving
materialism or scientific realism, which endeavour to contemporary knowledge, but can also enable knowledge to

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play an effective role in cultural and social development. criticize the fact that the Enlightenment considered abstract
Philosophical studies on knowledge and method in the past reason as the eternal human quality. Heidegger vehemently
century have demonstrated the divergence of scientism and attacked the notion of an abstract human nature and
humanism. Scientism places great value on analytic reason stressed the temporal, historical and mortal nature of
and applies the methods of natural sciences as paradigms human existence. The structuralist attitude of anti-
when studying all branches of knowledge. It attaches humanism actually denies the central position of subject in
importance to studies on the truth of facts or events by using cultural shortcomings, even though it derived from
precise linguistic and logical analysis, stresses the usefulness European humanism. The historical image of the human
and essential role of knowledge in social development and being has diverse facets and has changed constantly.
believes that rationalization of the social order and industrial Therefore, it is inevitable that differences in philosophers’
civilization can be achieved mainly by involving human conceptions of human beings will persist. However,
intellect. Humanism, on the other hand, maintains that all humankind must free itself of various kinds of bondages
knowledge results from humankind’s cultural creation and and suffering and achieve healthy development in order to
cultural foundations and that development should be fulfil its potential and build a place in the real world.
explored by describing and interpreting the constructive acts Truth and value are one of the same whole. In exploring
of man’s inner consciousness, and that all cultures, including truth, we also seek value, which constitutes a crucial issue in
scientific knowledge, are rooted in human existence and the understanding human beings and their activities. Because of
concrete world. Therefore, humanism stresses the social differences in national conditions, traditions and social
functions of cultural values and criticizes the varieties of systems, various societies have divergent value systems, and
social ills resulting from undue emphasis on reason in it is impossible to make all of them obey a single foreign
technological civilization. value system. Contemporary philosophers have increased
Scientific reason and humanistic consciousness are also their exploration of axiology. Starting from their own
embodied in the theories and methodologies of the natural philosophical principles and socio-cultural backgrounds,
sciences and socio-humanities, respectively. The former they naturally hold different positions on basic values such
stresses intellectual, logical analysis and proof, while the as the good, justice, equality, liberty and responsibility, right
latter focuses on the understanding and interpretation of and obligation, fairness and efficiency, and on the criteria
socio-cultural phenomena. Scientism and humanism have for choosing values. In view of the changes and contradictions
both significantly enhanced our knowledge by using their in social life and in order to reform or improve the social
specific methods, but they are also exploring some more far- system and moral life, contemporary philosophers attach
reaching subjects that involve interlinking scientific reason importance to reflecting on ways of adjusting existing value
and humanistic consciousness. The development of systems. In his influential book entitled A Theory of Justice
contemporary knowledge is characterized by a high degree (1971), American philosopher John Bordley Rawls criticized
of specialization and blending of disciplines and the the utilitarian value system prevailing in some industrialized
interpenetration of knowledge from the natural and social countries and the ills it has generated. He maintains that a
sciences. This also requires the integration of scientific reason just society with a sound moral value system should be
and humanistic consciousness, thus enabling various established according to the principle of equitable justice
branches of knowledge to interpenetrate and complement chosen by rational man, where individual freedom would
one another. For example, contemporary philosophies have exist alongside social cooperation and a relatively equal
been paying more attention to bringing the development distribution of wealth and rights.
and application of science and technology into the orbit of In their studies on human beings, contemporary
rational cultural values in an effort to avoid the misuse of philosophies have highlighted two other subjects of practical
these and to ensure sustainable development and security for significance:
humankind. The rapid development of ecological ethics and – Human beings and social development. The once-
bio-ethics in the past 30 years illustrates this point. prevalent theory according to which development is
merely a function of the linear growth of economic
quantity and material consumption has met with
Philosophical understanding of human beings criticism because it has led to social inequalities. The
new visions of development perceive the human being
Human beings are another important subject of study for as the goal of development and stress the need to
contemporary philosophers. However, great differences in achieve the overall physical and mental development
the understanding of human nature and the meaning of of human beings within comprehensive social progress.
human existence must be noted. Marxism holds that human This entails recognizing the crucial role of cultural
essence is the summation of social relations and calls for the value. Committed to this goal, UNESCO has since
emancipation of mankind’s essential power by eliminating the 1970s contributed greatly to promoting studies on
alienated labour, namely enslavement resulting from the role of culture in social development.
irrational social relations. Analytic philosophy usually – Man and the environment. The ecological crisis that
considers human nature through studies on the experience emerged in the industrialized world has prompted
of linguistic behaviour and the mind. Others explain human contemporary philosophers to once again reflect upon
nature in terms of irrational emotion, volition, or instinctive the relationship between humankind and nature.
passion. Some contemporary humanists highlight the Rejecting the idea that the rational power of human
central position of man as subject, probe into the beings is reflected in the conquest of nature, today’s
self‑consciousness of transcendental or practical subjects, thinkers point out that if human beings, driven purely
and endow human nature with attributes different from by practical considerations, excessively exploit Earth’s
those advanced by traditional humanism. Moreover, they natural resources, they will seriously jeopardize their

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own existence and development. From the 1920s to – Realizing complementarity between various philosophical
1940s, V. I. Vernadsky in Russia and Pierre Teilhard and cultural traditions: Indigenous traditions might be
de Chardin in France formulated the theory of enriched by absorbing the outstanding achievements of
noosphere, which emphasizes that human reason, foreign philosophies and cultures in the light of their
environment and universe constitute an organic and local contexts. However, such assimilation must not be
living unity and that society and nature, humankind mechanical and rigid, because it could result in social
and the biosphere should evolve in a coordinated and upheaval, stagnancy or the disintegration of indigenous
interconnected manner. This doctrine has fostered cultures. Contemporary philosophers value comparative
studies on the philosophy of environmental protection. studies on various philosophical traditions, which
Although they differ in theoretic orientation, enable them to learn from each other’s strong points
contemporary philosophies generally claim that and offset their respective weaknesses.
harmony between human beings and the natural – Promoting dialogue between different philosophical and
environment should be guided by values compatible cultural traditions to seek common points while preserving
with the interests of the whole of humankind and that and respecting differences in an effort to safeguard world
people should shoulder moral responsibilities with peace and development: The world today faces the
regard to the environment and ecology in order to challenge of multiculturalism, and if not dealt with
ensure the survival of humankind and social properly, collisions between different cultures, which
development for future generations (Plate 111). could become a pretext for local ethnic or regional
conflicts. The claim that in today’s post-Cold War world
clashes between different civilizations are inevitable and
Philosophical and cultural traditions and their will dominate the global politics is simply untenable. As
communication long as the cultures of the world communicate in a spirit
of equality and mutual understanding and well-being,
Philosophy as the theoretic core of cultural traditions is not they can undoubtedly make new contributions to world
divorced from history. The founding of a number of schools peace and human civilization.
of philosophy in the twentieth century reflected a critical
attitude towards traditions. Certain contemporary
philosophies tend to reflect on traditions in a constructive
manner, since they recognize their vitality and support the
renewal of traditions in an evolving process. According to B ibliography
the theory of virtue elaborated by American philosopher
Alasdair MacIntyre, in order to overcome the crises of moral Fakhry, M. 1970. A History of Islamic Philosophy. Columbia University
relativism and scepticism in modern society, it is necessary Press, New York.
to construct traditions to carry forward the essence of the Feng, Wen Rei Ren. 1947. The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy. [Trans.
Aristotelian tradition and to probe into the issue of E. R. Hughes] Kegan Paul, London.
‘rationality of modern practice’ in an effort to reconstruct Garvey, M. (ed.). 1986. The Course of African Philosophy. The
individual and social virtues. Philosophical circles in various Majority Press, Dover, MA.
countries, particularly developing ones, tend to emphasize Gracia, J. J. E. (ed.). 1986. Latin American Philosophy in the Twentieth
studies on indigenous philosophical and cultural traditions. Century. [Trans. W. Cooper] Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY.
Increasingly, philosophers are of the opinion that traditions GUY, A. 1989. Panorama de la philosophie Ibero-américaine, du XIV e
do not necessarily constitute roadblocks to historical siècle à nos jours. Editions Patino, Geneva.
progress and that those vital contents can take on new Hou Wai-lu. 1959. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. [Trans.
meanings and play a positive role in social development C. Wang] Foreign Languages Press, Peking.
today. For instance, contrary to the individualistic value Oruka, H. O. 1990. Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and Modern
system dominating some Western industrialized countries, Debate on African Philosophy. E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.
the collectivist value systems and other rational contents Passmore, J. 1984. A Hundred Years of Philosophy. Penguin Books,
implied in the philosophical and cultural traditions of some Harmondsworth, UK.
East Asian countries are related to these countries’ successful Radhakrishnan, S. and MUIRHEAD, J. H. (eds). 1952. Contemporary
socio-economic development. This subject has attracted Indian Philosophy. Allen and Unwin Ltd., London.
widespread attention in scholarly circles. RAY, B. G. 1947. Contemporary Indian Philosophers. Allahabad,
In the world today, global communication is increasing Kitabistan, India
daily, and exchanges between various philosophical and Ricoeur, P. 1979. Main Trends in Philosophy. Holmes and Meier
cultural traditions have reached an unprecedented Publishers, Inc., New York.
magnitude. Contemporary philosophers are concerned with Senghor, L. S. 1973. The Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth
understanding and dealing with such exchanges so as to Century. In: CHRISMAN, L. and WILLIAMS, P. (eds). 1973. Colonial
benefit indigenous socio-cultural development and world Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader. Harvester
peace and culture. Related studies have contributed to Wheatsheaf, London, pp. 27–35.
creating a growing consensus on a number of principles: Sharif, M. M. 1962. History of Muslim Philosophy. (2 vols.).
– Respecting the diversity of national philosophical and Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Germany.
cultural traditions: Because of differences in historical StegmÜler, W. (ed.). 1986. Hauptströmungen der Gegenwarts­philosophie.
conditions, nations naturally possess distinct traditions. [Mainstreams of Contemporary Philosophy.]. Alfred Kröner,
Each nation should therefore understand and respect other Stuttgart, Germany.
traditions and acknowledge their important role in Tsunoda, R., De Bary, W. T. and KEENE, D. (eds). 1964. Sources of
maintaining the identity of national culture. Japanese Tradition. Columbia University Press, New York.

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 22
R E L I G IO U S T R A D ITIONS

Jean Lambert

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF today’s sociologists have described. Modernity is in no way

RELIGIONS a ‘revival’ of religion, but by enabling us to gain a better
retrospective grasp of what the past concealed, it sheds light
Some twentieth-century thinkers have suggested that on the vigorous nature of the religious element that social
religions function like languages, and there is no other way groups seems to require.
of speaking than naturally. Faced with this irreducible This rich deployment of the social sciences to illuminate
plurality of ‘religious languages’, our only recourse is religious phenomena owes much to the development of
translation, since there is no single language that comparative anthropology, especially the anthropology of
predominates. There are only ‘regional accents’ and ‘new myths, which are useful for demonstrating how religions are
dialects’ that appear or disappear, and in which the word organized according to a coherent architectural structure,
god does not necessarily figure. ‘Hinduism’, for example, is and how the changes affecting them obey specific
an English invention of 1830; ‘Confucianism’ is a concept transformational rules. The French scholar Georges Dumézil
that does not exist in Chinese; in the Arabic language, the took the decisive step in the comparatist direction by linking
word jihad conveys the idea of endeavour or striving; and the comparative philology of Antoine Meillet and Emile
Buddhism is unaware of the self. These different variations Benveniste with the historic sociology of Marcel Mauss and
on a theme gave rise to the twentieth-century idea for the Marcel Granet. Meticulous collaboration between the two
study of comparative religion. disciplines made it possible to bring together the different
The comparative method is the only experimental religious systems of the Indo-European peoples in one and
approach that is able to shed light on the historical and the same area of study, in which the ideological fields, despite
anthropological study of religion. The history of religions is their significant divergences, show structural analogies based
not a field of knowledge in itself.1 Religious history, which on functional relations. The comparative method as a general
was originally confessional in approach or took the form of approach to studying religion was officially recognized in
apologetics, has given way to a more neutral kind of history. 1935 at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. The
This secularization of the study of religions derives from the tripartite functional model has intellectual significance.
crisis of dissent within the institutions themselves, leading Concordance between one religious system and another is
historians to seek the roots of these divergences and wonder not only linguistic or theological, nor does it concern only
at their meaning. rituals and myths; it also determines the order of discourse.
There are several currents of thought. The sociology of The comparatist seeks out the thought structures of this
religions observes the actual dynamic of the break-up and ideology by following the transformations and transpositions
re-forming of religious phenomena in the modern world.2 of a single model through all its historical variations. Dumézil
Ethnology, working alongside a history of religions uncoupled turns a religious corpus into an objective, transcultural
from the evolutionist hypothesis, determines the specific universe that must be studied in itself, without being reduced
function of religions within a particular social context. The to an order of realities external to it, such as affective urges,
semiotics of mythological narratives, rituals and pantheons ritual practices, historical facts, social structures or experience
covering broad linguistic areas helps to identify the of the absolute. The religious phenomenon in its structural
fundamental ideological configurations that each society invariance, reconsidered from a broad comparatist angle, can
reinterprets for itself. Religious history correlates deviant be a powerful instrument for interpreting the unforeseeable
forms and marginal religious attitudes with the social variations of societies, on the basis of that which unites
structures of particular periods. It is only over an extended them.
period of time that it becomes possible to create links By complementing structural analysis with study of the
between the long-forgotten rituals that ethno-history brings social and historical context in which myths emerge, we can
to light, and the seemingly random proliferations that arrive at a more precise knowledge of the diachronic

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processes affecting traditional societies, while a broad post- national protest against the brutal, secular modernization of
structural analysis of the traditional religions of historical the country, Iranian Shi’ism found a crucible from which
societies can give us a more systematic grasp of the coherence emerged the clerical power that was to revolutionize the
of their religions. It is by combining these two approaches Shi’ite tradition itself. The Ayatollah Khomeini, exercising
that we achieve a broadly comparative science of religions both religious and secular powers, revitalized a Muslim
capable of treating all religions on an equal basis while community both inside Iran and abroad; he drew upon the
respecting their differences. If, someday, the world religions great Islamic principles to combat a demonized West, using
seem likely to make peace among themselves, it will be partly military and other means. Saudi Arabia, officially custodian
due to this intellectual effort: respect for others is not a of Islam’s holy places, has long financed Muslim communities
conciliatory gesture reluctantly conceded, but must be in Arab countries, and immigrant Muslim populations
sought after and recognized as a fundamental principle. through the World Islamic League, but its leadership was
jeopardized by the rise of Iran and its ‘betrayal’ during the
Gulf War of 1990. Saudi Arabia’s subsequent eclipse has
MAIN TRENDS IN RELIGION hastened the radicalization of Islam and the destabilization
of the more moderate regimes, while Sudan, ravaged by civil
Islamic fundamentalism war and famine, has invoked Islamic law against animist
and Christian minorities. The revival of Islamism therefore
Fundamentalism is not specific to Islam. It is also present in took place in three phases. The rise of Iranian Shi’ism at the
Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Buddhism. The end of the 1970s, a populist uprising against an enemy
1970s and 1980s saw a general rise in the power of Islamism demonized by an intransigent Islam, marked the rise to
in the Muslim countries, as witnessed by the Pakistan power of a political form of Islam that sought to use that
National Alliance’s religious agenda in Pakistan in 1977, the power to establish an Islamic society. Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 (Plate 112), the Egypt, Syria and far-away Indonesia also adopted Islam as
assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat in Egypt in 1981, an instrument of resistance and opposition movements,
and the fragmentation of Lebanon under pressure from the while the established leaders in Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia
Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad. Everywhere, from Sudan and Morocco sought to use the name of Islam to legitimize
to Indonesia, Islam seemed to be diverted towards political their power and policies.
ends, right up to the frustrated victory of the Front Islamique The success of this form of Islamism depends, however,
du Salut in Algeria in 1990, and the armed struggle in Egypt on an unlikely alliance between intellectuals, young militants,
against the Mubarak regime. The challenges of modernity the clergy and the common people. But it did achieve results
to Islam – the advancement of education and science, the throughout the Muslim world, including among immigrant
development of independent reasoning, the desire for populations, by building up a network of associations, by
independence and political participation – were aggravated organizing religious activities centred on the mosques and
by the fact that most Muslim countries had been colonized by community development. Infiltrating civil society in
by a Western, self-styled ‘humanist’ culture that many order to occupy positions of influence and introducing a
considered an affront to their dignity; often it coincided moral dimension into educational and social activities, this
with people’s nostalgia for earlier days of glory and power. second phase found expression in the Algerian Front
At the same time, and despite their regained independence, Islamique du Salut, including the latter’s participation in
these states that are muzzled by strong regimes and the electoral process until it was halted by the authorities in
subjugated by world markets have not lived up to the 1992, thus leading to radicalization and bloodshed. Based
peoples’ expectations. People no longer tolerate the idea – on Islamic awareness-raising at the grass roots, this second
current from the 1950s to 1970 – of the superiority of the form is as undemocratic as the first. Its relative lack of
Western model of development, especially since their success has led to the established regimes being challenged
political authorities have sometimes demonstrated their by armed violence, whether ongoing as in Algeria or sporadic
ineptitude for democracy. as in Egypt, or in Palestine with the Hamas, in an alternating
The rise of different forms of Islamism is based on certain process of provocation and clampdown in which Islamism,
internal reform movements that emerged in modern times. now armed, is a cause of concern to neighbouring
The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in countries.
1929, seeks a complete return to the basic principles of Islam thus finds itself reduced through its own internal
Islam. Led by a supreme guide and systematically positioned tensions to an ideology of social liberation and political
in urban neighbourhoods, the Brotherhood devotes itself to conquest, underpinned by strict religious observance, and
the literal interpretation of the Koran, advocates the an Islamic organization of society, fragmented by
application of shari’a law, which alone is regarded as capable revolutionary guerrilla movements, which divide it internally
of solving problems of both individuals and society, and in direct opposition to its deepest objectives, that is unable
rejects any foreign ‘contamination’ of Islam. Spreading to offer anything but a puritanical neo-conservatism, as
rapidly beyond the boundaries of Egypt, in forms ranging restrictive as it is disappointing.
from pietism to extreme radicalism and terrorism, it has
moved away from its reformist base and urged the humiliated
umma, the community of believers, to put their trust only in The Vatican’s efforts to prevent the decline of
Islamic law. Catholicism
The Tabligh movement, founded in India and
subsequently known under the name of Faith and Works, The Catholicism of the Pope serves as a worldwide paradigm
trains teams of missionaries who reject violence and work of religion’s crisis at the end of the twentieth century. The
among the immigrant populations. During the social and previous century witnessed the loss of the Pope’s temporal

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power, and the twentieth century may confirm the loss of rules. Democracy is not the same thing as relativism and
his spiritual power,3 for the Pope’s strategy has been to does not regard all opinions as being of equal worth. It
counteract the dismantling of the institutional structure of makes the expression of all opinions possible and legitimate,
belief. John Paul II’s pontificate went through two phases. and refrains from prohibiting any of them, provided they
Until 1989, he was the Pope of human rights, the standard- are expressed within the forum it creates and of which it is
bearer of emergence from communism and the establishment the guarantor. Any system setting itself up as an arbiter of
of political democracy. It was thanks to him that, in Poland, the truth from which its legitimacy derives is one that rejects
the three components of the Solidarnosc resistance movement democracy: taken to its logical conclusion, this path would
– workers, intellectuals and the Church – came together, a mean subordinating civil law to moral law and replacing
pattern repeated throughout Eastern Europe. There is democratic legitimacy by that of a Christian state, in which
considerable ambiguity about the content of these ‘human the Church ensures that the state’s actions are in conformity
rights’, but religious freedom, which was unacceptable to with the truth and in which the place of non-Christians
the communist authorities, created a semblance of becomes problematical.
consensus. In 1995 alone, the 75-year old Pope John Paul II visited
However, John Paul II was increasingly disconcerted. all five continents, attending everything from the gigantic
The societies that were supposed to undergo evangelical world youth festival that brought three million people to
renewal soon displayed the same shortcomings as their Manila, to meetings in Sri Lanka to try to settle
Western counterparts. For John Paul II, the victory of the misunderstandings over Buddhism, which the Church
Church over atheistic communism represented the victory considered an atheistic and negative doctrine of salvation,
of religion over the modernity that had spawned communism. and the difficult dialogue with dissident Catholics in China.
The new evangelism he expressed in Crossing the Threshold After his journey, the Pope altered his approach, shifting
of Hope (1994) claims that, for three centuries, life and from open proselytism to a focus on ethics, which he
thought in the West was largely dominated by the combat believed would offer a unifying force that could transcend
waged against God, and that Marxist collectivism is only an cultural differences. He surprised the United Nations –
‘aggravated version’ of that programme to eradicate then celebrating its fiftieth anniversary – by proposing a
Christianity. The encyclicals Centesimus annus (May Day ‘Bill of Rights of Nations,’ or a ‘Charter of Nations,’ to
1991) and Veritatis splendour (1993) deplore this perverse clearly identify the rights and duties of all the nations of the
project of building a world without God, one which world, in order to contain aggressive nationalisms and to
relativism aids and abets by obscuring the sense of a strong promote the right to freedom of the peoples of the world.
moral anchor. The encyclical Evangelium vitae (1995) is a
sombre denunciation of ‘the culture of death’, with
apocalyptic overtones. The emergence of ecumenism
After 1989, public debate in Poland turned to such
questions as abortion, divorce and religious instruction in The Christian ecumenical movement was born in 1948,
schools, with the Concordat between the Roman Catholic merging two streams of thought. One represented the more
Church and the secular government enabling society to theologically inclined Faith and Order movement, whose
construct its own democratic pluralism. It was no longer primary goal was to bring together representative people
thanks to the Church, but rather despite its opposition, that from different Christian confessions to work towards the
Poland moved towards democracy. The Pope did not visible unity of the Church.
denounce democracy, but continued to inveigh against a The other, the more pastoral Life and Work movement,
modern world released from the Church’s grip. Freed from was an attempt by Protestant and Orthodox churches to
a system whereby meaning is collectively organized and reach consensus on the churches’ universal practical role in
imposed on the individual, post-communist society, and society and to relieve human suffering. These two currents,
perhaps other societies still more, became receptive to the bound together by their dependence on mutual
ideas of pluralism and relativism brought to the fore by understanding, were joined by a third, the International
globalization. The spiritual power of the Church saw this as Missionary Council, which proposed itself as a middle way
a negation of the universal. Its project for a universal between the abstract and the practical. This three-way
catechism that would offer a comprehensive account of collaboration has so far managed to surmount its various
Roman Catholic teaching came up against the expansion of crises. In 1961, at New Delhi, the International Missionary
the world, against individualization, rationalization and Council came together with the Orthodox Church and the
differentiation, as it did in the sixteenth century. Catholicism Moscow Patriarchate to form the World Council of
thus refused to accept that it was merely one option among Churches (WCC). However, because of its involvement in
a whole range of beliefs that may coexist in a democracy. the refugee question at the end of the war, the ecumenical
In the course of his many travels throughout the world, movement was seen by some as too political, whereas
John Paul II countered this trend by reaffirming Roman Catholicism, which took unity for granted, accorded
universalism, the maintenance of standards and continuity, priority to communion in faith rather than to charity,
unable to grasp that all the tragedies of the twentieth century thereby opening a Secretariat for Promoting Christian
had been tied to regimes professing a monopoly on truth. Unity at Vatican Council II. There are thus two Christian
This blind spot accounts for ensuing profound disagreement ecumenical movements: the Geneva-based WCC (in
over the link between ethical relativism, values and competition with the fundamentalist, Amsterdam-based
democracy. Democracy, however, is firmly situated outside International Council of Christian Churches) and the
the realm of values. It does not claim to arbitrate between Rome-based movement.
good and evil, but endeavours only to provide a space within The Life and Work faction within the ecumenical
which such arbitration may take place and to define its movement, with its concern for refugees, its sense of guilt

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for Christian anti-Semitism and its concern for the churches membership in a community, as in the affaire du foulard –
of Eastern Europe, was based on the Universal Declaration the controversy set off in France in 1989, over a state school’s
of Human Rights. The upheavals of May 1968 brought with refusal to allow Muslim girls to wear the traditional chador
them an increase in the influence of the Third World and or hijâb headscarf to school.
young people, who demanded more attention to issues of The goal today is to create a common ground for dialogue;
freedom, revolution, imperialism and racism. Responding but while progress has been made in bilateral ecumenism,
to their concerns the WCC became politicized and took a multilateral dialogue has run out of steam due to the
leftward swing. With the churches in Asia and Africa proliferation of new religious movements. Some hundred
gaining autonomy, a political and ecclesiastical ‘Third- international inter-faith organizations have emerged,
Worldism’ voiced the need to become more nationalist in bringing sectarian movements together in various ‘fronts’
character. Yet at the same time, criticism of the Soviet and creating a flourishing industry, in some cases concerned
regime was tempered by considerations of Realpolitik and only with the environment. The WCC has consequently
the desire to avoid harming the churches that were proposed a new ecumenical discourse: ecumenism is not
collaborating with the Communist parties. about churches, but represents a quest for human unity, like
In the 1970s three issues came to the fore: the anti- a service to be rendered to humankind. It therefore cannot
apartheid struggle which, together with support for Asia, continue as a para-federal organization of churches, but
absorbed a third of the WCC budget; support for liberation must become a network of energizing agents and revival
theology groups in Latin America; and the role of women – movements.
first as a political question of representation, then as a The Christian churches have modelled their organization
societal one of participation. The women’s issue eventually on the world of politics, if not actually on business and the
eclipsed that of the Third World struggle and, together multinationals, whereas it is civil society, with its prescriptive
with the youth question, became the overriding concern. power with regard to the state that needs rebuilding. This
After 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a involves putting politics in its proper place and re-creating
veritable ‘new left’ in the WCC became interested in a civil associations, as attempted by a new humanitarian
number of utopian and pacifist social ideas that could cool movement, which is highly interventionist in respect of the
national ardour, ecological ideas of respect for nature, and state’s legislative authority; or by feminist activism – allied
feminist ideas about achieving a better balance between the with the gay rights movement – denouncing violence and
sexes. These concerns, which originated in Germany and hostile messages. With Christianity in a stable situation,
the United States, aroused little interest in the South, where indeed with Pentecostalism gaining ground, Orthodox
human rights was a burning issue. churches tripling their numbers, and with Islam also
The third movement attempted unsuccessfully to achieve expanding, the WCC seeks to be a forum for testing the
a synthesis between political commitment and doctrinal ideas of the future. It no longer talks in terms of mobilization,
unity on the missionary question. It no longer focused on and its future would seem to lie more in serving as a fallback
destabilizing the churches, but sought to establish a dialogue organization – for rich Protestants perhaps – one which
with the other religions by focusing on divine action and has the advantage of being there in the absence of any
showing respect towards newly gained national alternative, playing much the same role as the United
independence. In the late 1970s, some wondered whether Nations does for the United States.
Christology should be abandoned in favour of the pluralism Since the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council
seen in political democracy, but they met resistance over the (Vatican II, 1962–65), the Catholic Church has resolved to
perceived status of other religions, including resistance in maintain an ongoing dialogue with the WCC. The
the form of Karl Barth’s view of the ‘theology of religions’ as ecumenical project has expanded to include a dialogue
a human quest. Islam was an additional problem because it between Christians and atheists, and subsequently into
seemed pre-modern, slower to develop than Christianity intra-faith dialogues, as at the Organization of the Islamic
and even resistant to modernizing. Conference (1969) or the Buddhist Council (1984); almost
For twenty years, those who advocated dialogue were out all the world’s religious leaders came together to pray for
of favour. They attempted to show there was a valid peace at Assisi in 1986.
alternative to the missionary approach, but first had to For Protestants and the Orthodox, as for Catholics, the
settle what was essentially an intra-Christian conflict. current movement towards unity means total reintegration
Consequently they had problems both with Faith and in a world undergoing total transformation. Such social
Order, which warned against the danger of religious changes were previously supposed to produce only sects,
syncretism, and with the political left over the recognition which reflect the effort on the part of an entire community
of other religions: what, for example, was to be done about to achieve reintegration. Ecumenism might now be
the caste question in the dialogue with Hindus, or women’s understood as total reintegration, even in its non-Christian,
equality in the dialogue with Islam? For the left, there could inter-faith forms, which are trying to steer clear of the
be no preconditions for human rights. difficult course set by the policy of maintaining a common
The question of human rights and Islam may serve as an front against atheism.
example here. The universal principles of human rights are A non-religious ecumenology provides for typologies of
derived from secular humanism and are often in direct more universal value than those offered by theology, and it
conflict with certain cultural traditions. While they may be can open up other possible routes for examining the dialogue
of concern to a Muslim, they do not derive from divine with atheism in a non-denominational perspective. A
revelation and God’s law. The believer regards them more as general ecumenology would make it possible to rethink
duties, with which human beings must comply, rather than some of the essential areas of religious studies. It would
as rights to be established for them. They also clash with the examine the overall problem of inter- and intra-faith
definition of the rights of individuals by virtue of people’s relations in space and time – that is, the relations of all

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religious bodies with one another, whether or not they 1980s, detached from the observance of liturgical obligations,
belong to larger groupings, and how the different tendencies which are left optional, but holding fast to reverence for
within each religious body relate to one another and to spiritual and moral values. Confucianism lobs back into the
those within other denominations. Those denominations Western court Max Weber’s ill-informed opinion that
which refuse such an ecumenology have their own without transcendence moral action lacks a powerful lever.
conception of what constitutes a desirable ecumenicity, The neo-Confucianists, who are admirers of Kant, believe
sometimes in the ideological form of the ‘cloud of witnesses’ – that precisely because it is free from theology (and therefore
mythic links in a chain between believers from different provides proof against rational criticisms), their meta-ethics
times and different places. might offer a source of a spirituality that respects human
Many sects, the Quakers for example, have set themselves rights and a particular form of democracy, against the
the task of reconstituting lost unity, but their thinking is as background of a natural, conservative social hierarchy. As a
much utopian as pragmatic. Whether religious, para- religion of humanist culture and a philosophical doctrine of
religious or anti-religious, as in the case of secular ecumenism, saintliness, neo-Confucianism may contain the seeds of a
which regards religions as an obstacle to the unity of the new China and South-East Asia, and, more broadly, hope
human race, the most diverse schools of thought and many for a new, non-Western humanism.
new religions are forms – secularized or otherwise – of an
ecumenical project that has sometimes been in gestation for
centuries. Both ideologies and institutions have their place The proliferation of sectarian movements
in this, and not only official institutions, but also congresses,
symposia and the countless groups in which internal and ‘Sectarian’ movements are movements that owe allegiance
external dissidents gather, producing new official, semi- to a leader or a doctrine. It might be argued that a major
official or clandestine liturgies, and the types of authority church is perhaps no more than a sect that has made the
which preside over religious divisions or encounters. Such grade and continues to produce sectarian offshoots. Since
ecumenism is also the source of new relations between the Second World War, for example, Protestantism in the
religions and non-religion. English-speaking world has provided fertile ground for
We now see how comparatism, which was originally sects particularly inclined towards proselytizing; but what is
historical and rather textual, ethnological and rather new is the worldwide proliferation of sects (180,000 in Japan
anthropological, opens up at the point where the observation alone), the current success in the West of these groups since
of lineages of belief and structural transformations intersect, the failure of the protest movements of May 1968, their
a wide field for an ecumenology aiming to modify our Oriental sources of inspiration and their transit via the
perception of religious phenomena. UNESCO’s own United States. The first sects issuing from within
concern that religious developments should be included in Protestantism recruited adult females from relatively
the present cultural history of humanity is itself an example deprived social backgrounds. The new sects recruit young
of ecumenology. people from the educated middle classes, exhibit extreme
anti-intellectualism, as in the case of Scientology or
Transcendental Meditation, and lay great emphasis on
The emergence of neo-Confucianism affectivity. They generally profess a total rejection of politics,
while developing, as in the case of the Children of God or
Since it merges imperceptibly with traditional Chinese the ‘Moonies’ (the followers of Sun Myung Moon and his
culture, and has no fixed beliefs or social structures other Unification Church), a specific vision of history or
than those that society generates for itself, it is even debatable salvation.
whether Confucianism should be considered a religion. The Such sects, or cults, have in common the practice of
last observance of the sacrifice to Heaven, the most meditation under the authority of a leader to attain ‘spiritual’
important ritual of the Imperial Cult in China dating from power, since they place individual self-improvement,
about 1300 to 1111 bc dates back to 1945; since then ideological conversion and transformation of behaviour
Confucianism has become a private affair without legal above collective action in the world. They may sometimes
authority. Most families nevertheless remain attached to aspire towards the union of religions and peoples, but this is
ancestor worship, to the cult of the dead and even to the not so much a matter of ecumenism as of proselytism, their
worship of a household god, and also to observance of the communal lifestyles being intended to demonstrate solutions
traditional festivals (Lunar New Year, the Lanterns and to human problems but with no direct connection to the
Dragon Boat Festivals, the Seventh Eve, and the Mid- outside world. The pyramidal organization of these sects,
Autumn Festival) that continue to provide a cosmological with the mass of the membership cut off from the leaders,
framework for social life. The neo-Confucianism of the and the followers’ wills subordinated to a totalitarian
1950s, whose aim was to reconcile scientific and democratic organization, provides a regulatory framework not so much
modernity with the values of Chinese tradition, was a for a life of asceticism as for one of uninterrupted activity and
rebirth of the religion and became established in Hong work; this work is done for the exclusive benefit of the sect.
Kong where it has flourished. Under cover of restoring authenticity, sects are often run as
Neo-Confucianism has gained new credibility because very well-structured businesses, exploiting the credulity of
so many Chinese-influenced countries (Japan, Taiwan, their members. In almost every case, they manipulate minds
South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore) have successfully in a manner contrary to human rights, or may even themselves
achieved modernization without sweeping away their be connected with dangerous criminal enterprises.
traditions. They prove the point that modernization does For example, the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo sect carried
not necessarily entail Westernization (Plate 113). China out a gas attack in the Tokyo underground in 1965, killing
has seen a positive re-evaluation of Confucianism since the ten people and poisoning 5,000. What becomes of an

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apocalyptic religious message in an affluent society when contacted directly through trance-states. The claim to
fear, disease and poverty are not sufficiently distressing to African authenticity, here extended to cover the Caribbean,
provide the normal intake of recruits? The sect calls for the is expressed through the assertion of kinship links with
reconstruction of this world, but only after the world it African ethnic groups. Umbanda, which has an impact
denounces as evil has first been destroyed by criminal acts. among the white urban middle classes, borrows the element
This same argument was used by the Solar Temple of collective trance from candomblé, and that of possession
Organization to lead a number of its Franco-Swiss disciples by the spirits of nature from the native Indian cults. Other
into collective ‘suicide’ in the Vercors area of France, and in borrowings from spiritism include communication with the
Canada. spirits of the dead, the idea of spiritual progress through
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, reincarnation, the duty to do charitable works and a certain
founded in the United States in 1966 to propagate a lifestyle idea of a historical reason governing the evolution of
based on Vedic principles, has had to dismiss several of its spirits.
leaders. It has a worldwide presence and its followers lead In 1992, the Assembly of the Council of Europe issued
austere lives, reciting the great prayer (mahānantra) an important statement on measures to counter abusive
1,728 times a day, and obeying a spiritual master in the activities on the part of sects. Rather than recommending
belief that the Vedic model of society can lead to spiritual new legislation – which would be very difficult to draw up
progress for all. at the international level while still respecting freedom of
Nichiren Shoshu, a branch of Japanese Buddhism, has conscience – it suggested that all available resources of
disavowed the Soka Gakkai sect, which also has its own existing local law be used to that end.
political party. In its desire to counterbalance a
communitarianism it regards as excessive, this movement,
like the Agonshu movement, declares legitimate the The renaissance of the Russian Orthodox Church
expression of personal desires, and it asserts that individuals
must find their own way, strengthen the personal element With 90 per cent of its members in the former communist
of their belief, and assume a certain degree of independent countries, the Orthodox Church went through a long
choice. struggle for survival before experiencing a genuine
The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of renaissance after 1988. Its autocephalous churches,
World Christianity was created by Sun Myung Moon in organized into five patriarchates, with that of Constantinople
1974. It was initially violently anti-communist, but after enjoying symbolic and historic pre-eminence, are
first scoring successes in Japan and the United States, has theologically federated and manage themselves collectively
now allied itself with North Korea. This messianic group through Councils. These churches, which are often defined
sees itself as the advance guard of a new humanity that will on territorial lines, are in some cases national churches, as in
one day govern the earth. It regards marriage as the second Greece, or exist within specific national boundaries, as in
birth of man and woman; and, as part of his aim of the case of Russia, Belarus or Ukraine.
establishing the kingdom of God on earth and the future The Russian church, persecuted by atheist propaganda
unity of nations and religions, Moon himself selects and after the 1917 revolution, but granted the right to exist
proposes spouses for his followers, who live in communes. under Stalin, acted in a relatively docile manner. This was
The Divine Light Mission of Guru Mahara Ji, founded the price to be paid for its survival at the international level
in India in 1960, offers its disciples spiritual knowledge while it underwent persecution and prosecution at home,
through meditation. Trust in the perfect Master is essential, particularly after the new atheism offensive of 1959. Though
whether the disciples live in ashrams or in their own homes. it had its own sources of income, it could function only
Transcendental Meditation, introduced into the West from liturgically, and thus encountered a serious problem of
India in 1960, uses concentration on a ritual formula to transmission, being unable to provide religious education
achieve a simple state of consciousness. The practice, which for its clergy and lay members.
is used as a relaxation technique in American institutions The collapse of the regime in 1989 left the Russian church
such as the army, universities and prisons and in some in a quite unprecedented situation. For the first time, it
monasteries, is said to have been scientifically tested. found itself free of state control and faced with a situation
The Church of Scientology, founded by the American more akin to the French style of ‘laicity’ than its own
L. Ron Hubbard, also offers a means of transcending the historical tradition. It has had churches restored to it, has
ordinary state of self-consciousness. To this end, it employs opened monasteries and theological schools, and has even
an explanatory theory of the world and techniques of been permitted to build new churches. Having had to assume
psychological contact, which the members learn on fee- responsibility for its patrimony, it is now impoverished and
paying training courses. Although often criticized by former has even called for its old property and revenues to be
members for using indoctrination methods at variance with restored in order to reduce the burden of debt. It has also
human rights, it is extending its influence while attempting begun to establish social and charitable organizations, but it
to gain legal recognition as a fully fledged church. is short of people, and its intellectual tradition needs
The various sects of Latin America have developed out of updating, having been isolated from religious scholarship for
their own syncretic religions, drawing on Afro-Indian, eighty years. For this task, it does not yet have the means to
Christian or spiritist components and the various Catholic introduce new ideas into its preaching, publications or youth
and Protestant revivals. The traditional candomblé of Brazil, activities, as does the Greek Church through its Zoë
which has practically disappeared, used the cult of the movement. It receives aid, often the subject of controversy,
Catholic saints as a cloak for the secret worship of the spirits from missions of the Uniate Churches (Eastern Rite
of Yoruba origin known as orixas. Animal sacrifices Catholic), which have places of worship they wish to recover,
conducted in the nagô language enabled spirits to be or from wealthy American Protestant missions.

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Patriarch Alexis II, elected in 1990, is faced with ultra- clearing a space for a civil, ethical and secular cosmopolitanism
nationalist, fundamentalist, anti-Semitic and anti-ecumenical of a quasi-Confucian kind, in which identity-related emotions
tendencies within his church. Ecumenism does, indeed, become purely personal concerns. It is in this context that
clash with the strong missionary stance of Orthodoxy; the reactive outpourings of all kinds can be understood.
latter has, for example, used its base in Alaska to develop an
American church, drawing on the strength of the Russian
diaspora, and has also built up a sizeable church in Uganda. Back to ‘true’ religion: fundamentalism in its various
The American Orthodox Church, which has been virtually forms
autocephalous since 1970, is the fourth-largest church group
in the country and driving a theological and liturgical revival; No definition quite fits all the forms of religious extremism
however, American Orthodoxy has not accepted the that are now omnipresent on the world stage, but what they
Patriarch’s expression of repentance for past ‘failings’. The do share is a vigorous reaction against modernity, rejection
Russian church, which is nationalistic, conservative and of an imposed secular model, and affirmation of transcendence
significantly influenced by its diaspora, is very active in the in a disenchanted world. They accord religious significance
WCC, particularly in the Faith and Order movement, to political action, direct their message at the younger people
where it provides a link with Catholicism, transcending who have been relocated to places not deserving of the name
divisions through its vigorous Trinitarian theology. of towns, and are led by middle-class elites who freely resort
to modern methods of communication.
All these movements dissociate themselves from three
W O R L D R E L I G I O N S and I N D I G E N O U S aspects of current society. Firstly, they display a common
b E L I ef hostility to modernity, which they see as ungodly and
inseparable from secularization or laicity; they challenge the
Could it be that we shall one day need to classify these Western model of civilization with its universalist
fragmented, fundamentalist, charismatic, syncretic and pretensions, and wish to reconstruct unadulterated
sectarian religious currents as global forms of religion while communal identities. Secondly, taking account of the failure
classifying the great institutional religious traditions as of the secular ideologies of liberation and progress, they
indigenous, localized religions? A twofold development – propose an alternative both to materialistic, neo-liberal
fragmentation of the great faiths accompanied by a development and to actual socialism, particularly of the
proliferation of new forms of religion – has indeed state-nation-party kind, the failure of which in Eastern
characterized the end of the twentieth century, with its Europe and the Arab countries has created tensions over
widespread attitude of believing without belonging. The questions of identity and made it necessary to find rapid
geographical contour lines of religions are also becoming remedies for economic failure. Lastly, the era of political
less distinct, since the resonances of the various religions are federations and blocs has come to an end, leaving behind a
felt far beyond their places of origin. Global religions are welter of nationalist and ethnic claims which had been kept
becoming indigenous, culturally specific religions, while for too long in deep freeze, while centuries-old conflicts are
indigenous religions are being exported worldwide. A also resurfacing to stoke up these tensions. These various
contemporary account of religion can no longer accord forms of resistance present a head-on challenge to tolerant
priority to the great traditions, such is the extent now of relativism, respectful of otherness, proposing in its place a
their fragmentation into scattered groups without a common mythologized version of the origins of religious society; they
credo. This fragmentation contrasts with the feverish are nevertheless perhaps laying the groundwork, despite all
ecumenism of the major organized religions, which, their excesses, for a non-Western way of modernization.
paradoxically, it reinforces. The established institutions find Within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or
mutual reassurance in their common defiance of divisions Shinto, we can see a definite upsurge of fundamentalist
or sects, without always understanding that these represent movements advocating the maintenance or restoration of
an effort on the part of an entire community to recover the religious system in its totality. Shinto, generally regarded
wholeness and provide itself with an overarching perspective, as the natural religion of Japanese tradition, is seeing new
so as to move beyond its contradictory relations with the tendencies emerge as it adapts to an urban milieu its notions
world.4 of purity, harmony between the gods, humans and nature,
The second half of the century saw all the world’s religions and protection with earthly benefits in view (Plate 114).
in a standoff with democratic modernity which, even though The Jewish Lubavitch movement proclaims that the coming
it has made little headway, is becoming the unchallengeable of the Messiah is imminent, and preaches strict observance
requirement. Religions are all trying, however falteringly, to of the 813 mitzvoth, or divine commandment, of the Torah.
follow or anticipate the slow but steady establishment of a This movement, which is influential in the United States
universal substrate of open, tolerant, fraternal, humanistic and France, criticizes what it regards as the excessively
secularism – this being the shared precondition for a secular Zionism of the State of Israel, which it wishes to see
coexistence respectful of the authenticity of different cultures turned into a purely Jewish state, without non-believers.
in the modern age. In this sense, and even though it is The Jama’ah Tabligh, the society for the propagation of
characterized more than other religious movements by a Islam created in India in 1927, to rid the Muslim minority
constitutional fragility and complexity, Protestantism – or of cultural contamination, has a widespread presence in all
rather that ‘reformed specificity of belief ’ – is becoming like European countries with Muslim minorities. It calls for
the common source of inspiration for the current believers to emulate the prophet in all areas of life and
developments, whereby a fuller inner life for each believer is organizes community support networks.
accompanied by a heightened sense of civic responsibility. In the United States, revivalist religion is spread by the
Religions, by shedding their institutional character, are preaching of tele-evangelists and at giant meetings where

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the audience are called upon to convert, bear testimony to than they contribute to the cause of brotherhood, as most
healing or be baptised. Within the framework of a of them claim to do; but today’s conflicts are more an
fundamentalist trend towards a literal reading of the Bible expression of the crisis provoked within religion by the need
as the direct expression of divine truth, the revivalist to accept the rule of law and religious pluralism. The
movement campaigns in favour of a ‘moral majority’ in question is whether or not their present divisions will
politics and against secular humanism and such ideas as ultimately lead to their integration into the democratic
Darwinism, abortion, divorce, and pornography. Influential model.
in the United States, the revivalists are also enjoying notable
success in Latin America, where they draw support from
conservative circles. Another movement, the charismatic FORMS OF BUDDHISM
revival, was born in the United States in 1967, spreading
shortly thereafter to Europe, particularly to France; it At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Buddhist
operates through communities characterized by a strong faith was losing its prestige and power in almost every part
assertion of identity, an invitation to inward conversion and of the world: in Korea, in Viet Nam, in Japan, where it was
a group life of an emotionally involving kind, dissociation losing ground to Shinto, and in China, where it was being
from the ambient secularization and a desire to rebuild a supplanted by Confucian studies. The situation was better
Christian sociality. In a similar vein, the Communion and in some regions of South-East Asia, such as Cambodia,
Liberation movement, which originated in Italy and includes Laos and Siam (now Thailand). The celebration of the
communities, associations and charities, and has a magazine 2,500th anniversary of the death of Buddha in 1956 showed
translated into six languages, radically challenges secularized that the religion had been revitalized by its association with
modernity, which is blamed for both totalitarianism and nationalist movements, as in Burma (now Myanmar) (Plate
Western imperialism. It argues that only a return to the all- 116), and through Western scholars’ research on the
embracing truth contained in Holy Scripture can provide a classical texts, which had come to them from the Japanese.
basis for the complete reorganization of society. Whereas In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), many young converts to
Jewish, Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists aspire to a Christianity returned to the faith of their ancestors. In
society governed by religious law, Christian fundamentalists India, Buddhism ceased to be regarded as a heretical sect.
seem to accept a de facto separation of the temporal and the There was a more vigorous revival in the countries of
spiritual. Mahāyāna tradition than in those of the Theravāda
persuasion. Mongolian Buddhism (Plate 117) was almost
wiped out, and the Democratic Republic of Korea also
‘Recourse’ to religion: Liberation theologies proclaimed that the religion had been successfully eradicated.
By the early 1970s, the history of Buddhism seemed at an
Gustavo Gutiérrez defines liberation theologies as end in Asia. In 1980, however, China attempted to make
‘discourses on faith in the Latin-American context’, a amends for its crimes in Tibet, although the problem of its
context characterized by the political instability of the relations with the Dalai Lama, now the uncontested leader
1960s, dependence on American capital, social structures of the Tibetan people, is far from being resolved. The Soviet
left over from colonial times, runaway population growth, regime’s collapse opened up new prospects for Mongolian
and poverty in the countryside and the urban shanty towns. Buddhism, and monasteries were re-established in 1990. In
The Latin-American church was both highly conservative China, institutes of Buddhist studies have been set up, and
and a church of the common people. Beginning with the popular practice of pilgrimage has revived, while an
grassroots communities established in the 1960s, a new increasing number of works of scholarship, popularization
ecclesial practice was inaugurated, involving mutual aid, and art are being issued. Generally speaking, the spread of
literacy teaching, vocational training and political Buddhist studies in other parts of the world, including the
participation. With that practice came a new reading of the West, where Japanese Zen and Tibetan Tantrism are
Bible. In 1968, the Latin American Episcopal Council of making converts, seemed to be playing a significant part in
Medellín (Colombia) denounced ‘institutional violence’ and its revival at the end of the twentieth century. However, the
advocated ‘the preferential option for the poor’. This movement towards syncretic forms of Buddhism, as in
interplay between the historical reality and the voices of the Japan (the Agonshu group or the Soka Gakkai sect), does
faith marked the birth of liberation theologies, which have show evidence of an adaptation to certain Western values
no hesitation in using Marxist analysis to denounce injustice. such as individualism and universalism.
The ruling and propertied classes clamped down violently
on this church of the poor, thousands of whose activists,
priests and nuns were killed, including Archbishop Romero FORMS OF HINDUISM
of San Salvador, in 1980 (Plate 115). The liberation
theologies were condemned in 1983 by the Congregation Poised between the chaos of sense impressions and the
for the Doctrine of the Faith and came under attack from abstract markers of rational metaphysics, the symbolic
the highly conservative bishops subsequently appointed in universe of the Hindus turns religion into a means of
Latin America. With the collapse of communism, liberation regulating affective tensions. As a symbolic halfway house
theology took a more environmental turn. Elsewhere, between the two, Hinduism has a self-protective function,
however, as in the case of Hinduism in the great Indian compensating for the necessary social repression of desire
cities, there has also been a liberatory religious commitment with an ideal projection of real life. Human life is at its
to the cause of the most deprived. fullest in a theatre, and all the festivals and rituals of
By virtue of their role as reservoirs of meaning in a world Hinduism play their part in the readjustment of levels of
in crisis, religions actually divide men and women more reward for one’s acts (Plate 118). The Indian Republic is a

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secular state, which is why partition – a betrayal of the enculturation. The ancestral practices relating to birth,
hope for unity – continues to be a bone of contention. The circumcision, marriage, soothsayers, protection against the
republic has developed its own brand of secularism, in evil eye, witchcraft and death have continued under cover of
which the functions of Brahman and king are embodied in the Five Pillars of Islam; but these practices have been
two distinct personages, but in which each community, confined within an individual life compatible with
sharing a certain number of often internalized norms and membership in the transnational confraternities (lay
codes, tends towards automatic defensive or aggressive religious movements), and have been reinvigorated by native
reactions. prophets – thereby according a seal of universality to black
This explains why non-violence is the ideal of this African authenticity.
multicultural society; yet the violence held in check within Membership in African independent churches has tripled,
this uneasy coexistence does at times break out, as in the using reinterpretation of the Bible as a kind of therapy, and
paradigmatic case of the Ayodhya mosque, where there prepared the ground for political reawakenings. The
were clashes in 1949 and again in 1992. The mosque stands preaching of black messiahs or prophets enables the faithful
on the ruins of an earlier temple that once marked the and their clergy to resolve problems of caring for the sick,
birthplace of Lord Rama, a monarch and one of the most predicting the future and protecting against evil, adversity
revered deities in the Hindu pantheon, whence its symbolic and witchcraft. The key component here is possession, for
importance as a focus of political and religious conflict. On the trance state in collective therapies affords powers of
the whole, however, the revival of Hinduism has turned a second sight which make it possible to diagnose the causes
doctrine of renunciation into a strong theory of social of sickness or misfortune, and to prescribe remedies and
reform that has been at the root of India’s twentieth-century patterns of behaviour, more or less in keeping with the
renaissance. In a society stifled by custom, the doctrine that Biblical message. Simon Kimbangu in Zaire5 began with
social upheavals form part of the divine plan when a society miracle-working and ended with thirty years in prison. He
is in decay comes as a reassuring revelation. Tilak, Gandhi foretold an apocalypse that would set black people free, and
and Aurobindo were all, in their various ways, interpreters an era of prosperity. The church structured by his disciples
of the Gita in terms of action in daily life. The West also was opposed to fetishism and witchcraft, but it gave fresh
made a significant contribution to this reform, and some impetus to ancestor worship and a certain moral order; its
English-language commentaries were influential throughout long and fervent services celebrated a faith in the future from
India. Together with political unification, the existence of which the leaders and popular supporters of the march
English as a national language was an essential element in towards independence would emerge. These independent
the Hindu renaissance. churches act as intermediaries between the traditional
A decline in sectarianism ensued, and some genuinely religions and Christianity. They transform the framework of
saintly figures have emerged. Drawing upon the exemplary ancestral beliefs and their message of salvation, adapting that
lives of these men and women, as well as the Bhagavad message to the upheavals following on from the achievement
Gita – an episode of the Mahābhārata, an authoritative holy of political independence, to the wind of freedom that
book interpreted in the light of modern social problems – touches all social strata, and to economic difficulties,
Hinduism has been able to keep pace with the major changes particularly those affecting the most deprived who, with
in the world and even to rid popular Hinduism of its formerly their aid, are enabled to survive increasing adversity.
conservative character. The end of the century did, however,
bring something of a revival of sectarian movements, such as
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the Shiv Sena, which FORMS OF JUDAISM
are reacting to the withdrawal of the religious sanction from
social institutions and are attempting to halt modern, In 1900, most centres of Jewish teaching and most leaders of
constitutionally based political reforms. These extremist the Jewish spiritual communities were found in Eastern
movements, reviving the old dream of the Hindu nation, the Europe. The Nazi programme of systematic extermination
Hindutva, use religion for ideological and nationalist ends, did away with almost all of them. By mid-century, the
thus posing a threat to the fragile model of the secular state. survivors had emigrated either to the United States, where
they became full members of a predominantly Christian
modern society, or to the new State of Israel, where the
BLACK AFRICAN RELIGIONS problem of the relationship between the state and the Jewish
religion arose. The Western European Jewish communities
The black African religions, with their insistence on were already partly secularized and integrated into modern
recounting the origins of everything except the Supreme society. This tendency was also seen in the United States in
Being, give the impression of having existed unchanged the Reform movement, which was opposed to Zionism;
from time immemorial. Yet having encountered Islam and and even orthodox congregations became increasingly
Christianity, they too have undertaken a complex process of Americanized. Jewish community unity was further
survival which, through resistance to colonization, has reinforced by the mutual aid services and networks
served to maintain the cohesion of African societies. established outside the synagogues. The attempt, around
Whereas in 1965, half of the African population was 1950, to give these mutual support networks a Jewish
animist, by 1985 one-third was Christian, one-third Muslim content came into conflict with the traditional stance that
and one-third followers of traditional beliefs. However this recognized the conscience as the sole authority in matters of
relative decline is deceptive, for it conceals a renewed vigour, moral responsibility. It also reinforced the wave of religious
linked no doubt to an exceptional population growth. enthusiasm after the Second World War, an enthusiasm
African beliefs overcame ‘Black Islam’ and put pressure directed not so much at integration and assimilation as at a
on Christianity, setting off a theological reaction of strengthening of community ties.

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The confrontation between Judaism and modern marginal work done by both Christians and Muslims,
industrial life also affects the State of Israel. The very diverse Koranic exegesis has remained isolated from comparative
religious conceptions in that country run the gamut from study. Reformers, both progressive and reactionary, have
strict orthodoxy to atheism. The influx of practising Jews called for a return to basics whereby the shari’a or Islamic
from the Arab countries swelled the ranks of pious families, law will inevitably conflict with the modern world.
but the transition to secular Israeli life brought a clash Whereas the tendency early in the twentieth century was
between Eastern and Western cultures. The conflict to incorporate Western ideas into Islamic thought, by the
between conservative orthodox tendencies and secular, left- end of the century it seemed as if the tendency was rather to
wing attitudes left the majority of the population somewhere impose Islamism and its reputed harmony of nature and
in between, neither religious nor atheist. The problem both science on Western thinking. In place of the modernist
in America and in Israel in mid-century was the extent to renaissance movement of the previous century, the end result
which the religious component was viewed as necessary for has mostly produced a popular expression of a radical Islam
the survival of the Jewish people. that seeks to outflank orthodoxy by a practical form of
The question itself reveals how important were the loyalty, by active solidarity and determined struggle.
problems of secularization. The conflict with Palestine was Reformist and modernist ideas are perceived as leading only
to reawaken the religious component in order to justify the to irreligion, and activist movements such as the Muslim
policy of settlements. After the Six Day War of 1967, the Brotherhood are prepared to go to any tragic lengths to free
annexation of East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria that people from alien ideas and Western domination. The anti-
released repressed religious sentiments both in Israel and in intellectualism of the reformers is partly responsible for this,
the diaspora, led to the rise of ultra-orthodox elements because it has not linked the political priority of social reforms
(Plate 119). A messianic and activist religious Zionism (the and spiritual reawakening with theological advances.
Gush Emunim of 1974), defended the occupation of The substantial increase in the number of pilgrims to
Palestinian territories by Jewish settlers in the face of Mecca as a result of mass transport has strengthened the
international opinion. The secular aim of its founders that hand of conservatives in all parts of the Islamic world. Faith
Israel should be a normal state runs up against the stress alone seems more liberating than considerations of its
laid upon the unique character of the Shoah. Although the content: doubt, discussion and questioning are treated as
religious parties play a role as arbiters in Israeli politics for signs of defection from the daily battle. Consequently, it is
demographic and social reasons, there is no reason to still ignorance that provides the breeding ground for
conclude that Jewish fundamentalism is taking over from virulence and extremism; yet, paradoxically, it is the
the time-honoured tolerance of Sephardic Judaism, which educated, even the university-educated circles who lend
is still the majority tradition. unexpected support to fundamentalism through their
argument that achieving independence is a religious act.
The fundamentalists have forced all other groups within
FORMS OF ISLAM Islam onto the defensive by arguing that the only choice is
between fundamentalism and secularization. In the
Twentieth-century Islam, because it determines both the nineteenth century, the shari’a was the official legal code only
law-making process and the mode of life of its followers, has in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen; everywhere else
become an essential factor in the liberation movements of Islamic principles were integrated into the modern state or,
the Muslim peoples, and also in the social upheavals within as in Turkey and India, were expressions of a minority voice
Muslim societies. Despite what is, in some cases, a marked being heard in a secularized society. In the twentieth century,
degree of secularization, the general trend has been towards however, the tide of secularization has turned: the family,
intensification of religious allegiance (Plate 120). As both a religion and human relations are once again seen as the
political and a cultural source of nationalism, Islam conferred cement of communities, to the detriment of the notion of
a religious character first on the struggle against Western citizenship. In the former USSR and China, those Muslim
domination and then on the combat against those domestic religious minorities that had been forced to integrate into the
authorities that were regarded as lacking legitimacy. The communist state have put up resistance in the form of
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of the liberation struggles, particularly since the collapse of
caliphate in 1924 contributed to the rise of Arab nationalism, communism.
and new nations, from Indonesia to Morocco, threw off Islam at the end of the twentieth century was a divided
colonial domination. While a number of Islamic states Islam, torn between the demands of a simplified faith – one
gained their independence, real religious power remained in not yet translated into contemporary terms – and the pressures
the hands of the ayatollahs. The fact is, however, that Islam of the modern world. All over the world, whether among
renews itself in the same way as it originally came into being, immigrant communities in the West, in the Arab countries or
namely, when a religious message challenging the in the Indonesian archipelago, the question is how a revealed
establishment rallies a mass following around a core of political and religious faith, albeit one of moderation, can
intellectuals. Fitna or dissidence, which is Islam’s besetting express itself within the framework and the mindsets and
fear, is also the source of its permanently revolutionary imperatives of modernity and internationalism.
character.
Arabs make up only one-fifth of the world’s Islamic
population, which is now dominated by India, Pakistan, FORMS OF CHRISTIANITY
Malaysia and Indonesia. Any sense of a world Islamic
community is at variance with the reality of the geographical Western forms of Christianity had sprung from rural
states, and with such forms as that practiced by the ‘Black societies, and were all affected by the changeover to a
Muslims’ in Africa and the United States. In spite of some predominantly urban, industrial society. In Europe, for

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example, there was initially a sense of religious decline, gradually from the description of social praxis and textual
whereas a certain revival occurred in the United States. The interpretations in the direction of anthropology. Religion is
churches attempted to adapt their language to what was for viewed less in terms of its messages or its relation to a
them an unfamiliar society, without really succeeding in transcendental reality, and more as a set of ritual observances
doing so. The new classes of blue-collar and clerical workers whereby society sorts things out with itself. It is as though
slipped through their nets. However, Christianity fought the analysis followed in the wake of the developing matter.
back, and even found a Protestant-type congruence between One of the major consequences of this development – and
the modern assertion of the individual and the Christian there are other reasons underlying it also – is the very novel
dignity of the human person. While Catholicism was chiefly situation of Christianity, which occupies an ordinary place
represented by the activity of its leader, the various branches among the world’s religions as one cultural fragment among
of Protestantism, which diversified yet further during this others. This progressive levelling of the religious field creates
period, were mainly affected by trends towards religious the conditions for a fairer cultural partnership between
renewal, ranging from extreme fundamentalism to loose peoples, in which non-Western ways of being modern and
groupings of vague beliefs; some other tendencies within of democratic citizenship are rehabilitated or invented.
Christianity retreated to aggressively traditionalist positions. A gradual decline in the output of theological writings is
becoming noticeable. The great voices of the first half of the
century fell silent in the second, except for the voices – the
Vatican II stifled voices – of liberation theologies, without any
ecumenically based theology really emerging. Is this perhaps
The Second Vatican Council, proposed by Pope John XXIII an effect of the return to peace, of Third World issues being
in 1959, took place between 1962 and 1965 under his rapidly forgotten, and then of the world economic crisis? Or
successor, Paul VI. There were three items on the agenda: is it maybe a consequence of the subtle spread of a reformed,
the biblical movement, seeking to build upon the advances secularized mode of belief, which hands institutions over to
in critical exegesis; the liturgical movement, seeking to offer civil society, while the spiritual bond becomes an inner one?
congregations an understanding of and greater participation The voices which do make themselves heard are more those
in it; and an ecumenical movement, expressing a common of human compassion or ecological concern, people
resolve to contribute to the unity of the universal Church. expressing a mystical inwardness or politico-religious
Behind all this, however, lay a much broader and deeper dissidence. Religious thought, especially that of the
drive to adapt the Church to changes in the modern world, monotheistic faiths, which is more linked to historical
a drive that had its origin before the war within the Catholic criticism, seems to be giving way to spiritualities that engage
Action movements; one important feature was the in the pursuit of inner happiness or an inchoate revolt, in a
assumption of responsibility by lay people. Vatican II world increasingly split between a small, rich minority
cannot be reduced merely to the documents adopted there, enjoying the benefits of modernity and, on the other hand,
since it generated much ferment. Some of the stands taken an immense impoverished majority that assembles fragments
do, however, represent a profound change, such as the of encysted memory to denounce injustice or find liberation
statement on religious freedom, the half-hearted recognition in the realm of the imagination.
that non-Catholic churches were genuinely Christian, The result has been a proliferation of observances in
recognition of the responsibility of lay people and Christian answer to the need to believe, which, for what are often
responsibility in determining the values of the human contradictory reasons, has grown more acute, as though
community, and the reform of the liturgy, with the move impoverishment, oppression and fear brought about a need
from Latin to vernacular languages. for liberation through emotion shared within a community.
With hindsight, it is clear the speed of the transformations Whether those communities are spontaneous, clusters of
help explain the ambiguous character of its results. The fears groups or sects, or institutional, developing within
engendered by the political, economic, technological and institutions or co-opted by them, they follow a particular
cultural crises of society seem to have proved the opponents path: traditional religions, unaffiliated believers, pick-and-
of the Council within the Church right. The controversy choose belief systems. In those instances where a strong
surrounding Mgr Marcel Lefebvre, the French traditionalist traditional religion prevails, these practices are disciplined
prelate who in the 1970s challenged Paul VI by setting up a or regulated with a firm hand, even if they make many
breakaway community, is a case in point; but this ambiguity concessions to the conditions of modern life. Otherwise,
is even more apparent in the paradoxical attitude of the whether apocalyptic, millenarian or merely health-
papacy under John Paul II (Plate 121): while supporting orientated, they often hide a fundamentalist conservatism
human rights and justice the world over, it nonetheless used beneath a cloak of authenticity.
the Vatican’s institutions to slow down development and Science and religion, those two great approaches to the
has aggressively retrieved lost authority by limiting the mystery of the world, are no longer competing in quite the
responsibility of the local bishoprics in matters of moral way they used to. Having revolutionized our lives in the last
theology and ecumenical relations. However, Rome’s decisive three centuries, science commands respect, and accordingly
resistance to modernity is most clearly revealed in its attitude gives up the claim to have the final word and to exhaust the
towards developments in Eastern Europe. mysteries of humanity and the universe. The flourishing
science of religions is no obstacle to the life of religious
forms, to which it brings instruction and enlightenment. It
CONCLUSION firmly shows that tolerance is not a concession wrung out of
religions, but ensues from their logical organization. It
The twentieth century has seen major growth in the secular points out that, given the differences between them, the
study of religions – non-theological in character and moving great religions of the world can only welcome and

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 23
ETHICS

Peter Singer

I ntroduction and Argentina – then the history of ethics in the twentieth

century would be the history of many different ethics, with
We can understand the term ‘ethics’ either broadly or no common pattern or mutual comprehension. But there
narrowly. In its broadest sense, ethics pertains to how we are common themes to ethics in different societies. These
ought to live. Any discussion of values, of right and wrong, themes draw on shared aspects of our nature, for example,
and of the resulting choices, can therefore be considered the fact that we are social animals, living in groups but
within the scope of the field of ethics. If we consider ethics especially concerned with the welfare of our own kin.
in this sense, the discipline’s history in the twentieth century This provides the background for the first theme of
is synonymous with the history of the century itself: that is, twentieth-century ethics, the endemic conflict between self-
the development of the major political, religious and cultural interest and the interests of the group or of others. This
ideas of the century, including the rise and ultimate fall of conflict has come to the fore as society stresses the ideal of
both fascism and communism, as well as the struggles over the individual who achieves his or her goals in open
religious belief and secularism and over traditional village competition with others. Thus throughout the history of
life vs. modern urban society. ethics, some thinkers have sought to show that the good of
There is also, however, a narrower sense of the term the individual can only be furthered by doing what is also
‘ethics’, which refers to the attempt to gain a better good in some larger sense, good for the community; while
understanding of the phenomena referred to in the previous thinkers of a more sceptical frame of mind have doubted
paragraph. In other words, ethics in this narrow sense is not that this can be shown and have even charged morality with
just any assertion or opinion about how we ought to live, fraud for purporting to oversee the interests of the individual.
but rather the systematic study of values and of theories The breakdown of traditional cultures in the twentieth
about right and wrong, or of what is of ultimate value. century and the replacement of such cultures by an
Moreover, this systematic study is usually understood in a individualist society focused on consumption have made
philosophical sense. It is not the work of the anthropologist these debates all the more urgent. The twentieth century
or sociologist, documenting the way in which people in fact has produced larger and more anonymous urban societies
make moral choices. Rather it is the work of the philosopher than ever before, and in many countries, unbridled individual
attempting to justify a principle or set of principles that can acquisition of wealth has become an acceptable ambition, if
guide our actions; or else perhaps – for there is no lack of not the only one. In these circumstances, while the difficulties
sceptics about ethics – to argue why it is impossible to find of living in such a society have shown how urgently a more
any justification for choosing one way rather than another. ethical approach is needed, the very ability of any ethical
In this chapter, we will consider ethics in both senses, standards to survive has been doubted.
focusing primarily on the way in which the twentieth Another perennial theme in the history of ethics that has
century has seen the emergence of new global ethical issues, emerged with new force in the twentieth century is whether
but also examining the development of the systematic study ethics can be regarded as objective or subjective. These terms
of values and theories about right and wrong. These two are used in different ways, but it is roughly accurate to
threads converge, because in the final quarter of the century, characterize them as follows: objectivists hold that ethics is
philosophers and others studying ethics paid increasing a matter of knowledge and some ethical judgments can be
attention to the practical ethical issues that we face, both as shown to be true, or in accordance with reason; subjectivists,
individuals and as a global community. on the other hand, see ethics as merely a matter of attitudes,
Ethics has a long history. It is to be found in every culture, or feelings, which can no more be true or false, or rational or
and it is sometimes said that ethics is always related to irrational, than a preference.
culture. If this were so – if there were really no common Historically, religious belief has been a support for one
ground between the ethics of China and France, or Nigeria form of objectivism, namely the view that the correct ethical

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rules are laid down by God or the gods. With religion under the great English utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart
more open challenge than ever before, and an increasing Mill and Henry Sidgwick, all believed in the objective truth
number of people for whom it has become irrelevant, it is of the principle of maximizing pleasure or happiness and
not surprising that the twentieth century has seen a minimizing suffering. Darwin’s theory of evolution also
considerable rise in subjectivist ways of thinking. contributed to this sense of progress, for although Darwin
Nevertheless, defenders of objectivity in ethics are not himself declared the course of evolution to be ethically
lacking, even among those who are not religious, and the neutral, most of those who popularized his theories were
debate has been a vigorous one. not as scrupulous. Social Darwinism thrived especially in
A third theme is that of technological development and the United States, where it was used to show that the
the challenge it poses to some approaches to ethics. In the unrestrained competition unleashed by capitalism was a
twentieth century, science and technology have raised a natural process that, cruel as it might seem, would ultimately
multitude of new issues. Should we accept new reproductive lead to the evolution of a higher form of human existence.
technologies that make it possible for infertile couples to The machine guns of the First World War killed
have children? Is it right to transfer an embryo to the womb European society’s confidence in progress and objectivity in
of a surrogate, who will give birth to a child to whom she ethics, as surely as they killed the young men sent to the
has no genetic connection? Is it ethically permissible to alter trenches. When the carnage was over, people rethought
the genetic code of living organisms? If so, does it apply only their ethical attitudes. In philosophical circles in Europe,
to alterations to the genetic code of non-human organisms logical positivism emerged from the Vienna Circle as the
or to our own genetic code as well? Must we use all the most influential new way of thinking about the world.
technological resources at our disposal to maintain the life Logical positivists accepted as meaningful only those
of a human being who we know will never recover propositions that could be verified by observation or were
consciousness? Thus, science and technology challenge our logical tautologies. Ethical judgments, it was immediately
old beliefs in the link between reproduction and sexual clear, were neither verifiable nor tautological. Hence they
intercourse, in the randomness of natural reproduction, and were rejected, either as nonsense, or as mere exclamations,
ultimately in the sanctity of all human life. or expressions of subjective feelings. Ludwig Wittgenstein,
The fourth and last theme is the expansion of the moral perhaps the leading philosopher of his generation, was
community. The nineteenth-century British historian linked with this view, although he sought to disassociate
W. E. H. Lecky described how ethics was previously limited himself from the logical positivists and made clear his
to the family or tribe, but gradually expanded to include ‘a abiding respect for ethics. Yet at the same time, he insisted
class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all that we could not speak about ethics for whenever we try to
humanity, and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of do so, we run up against the limits of language.
man with the animal world’. There were times in the Both this view of Wittgenstein and the influence of
twentieth century when this idea has seemed naively positivism supported the belief that ethics cannot be
optimistic. Opponents of any idea of moral equality beyond approached by reason. The ominous rise of fascism in
their own race fought a bitter struggle to maintain their Europe seemed to have confirmed this, for the fascists were
superiority. But in the second half of the twentieth century, quite open in their contempt for intellectuals and their
the defeat of explicitly racist governments has allowed this preference for the instincts of the Volk, backed up if
‘expanding circle’ of ethics to resume something like the necessary by raw force. But by the 1930s, as conflicting
kind of progress that Lecky described. As the global ideologies confronted each other in Europe, those on the
community becomes more closely interconnected, and race political left and centre who formed a common front against
and class cease to be accepted grounds for excluding fascism developed a sense of commitment that made the
someone from the sphere of morality, we appear to be closer academic arguments for or against subjectivism seem
to Lecky’s penultimate step: a morality that is truly inclusive irrelevant. Although fascism had its coterie of intellectual
of all human beings. We are even taking the first tentative supporters, including in Germany the philosopher Martin
forays towards a wider ethic that includes non-human Heidegger, it had no body of theory that could compare
animals and the natural environment, as we will examine with the writings of Marx and other socialists. Even political
below. leaders like Lenin and Stalin wrote extensively and were
presented by the communist movement as major thinkers.
In Europe, North America and Asia, many intellectuals
F rom 1 9 1 4 to 1 9 4 5 : scepticism and gravitated towards the left, and quite a few to communism.
commitment The attitude of communism to ethics was paradoxical,
and the roots of the paradox lie in Marx’s own writings. On
As the nineteenth century closed, it was possible to believe the one hand, Marx’s materialist conception of history
that industrialization and the spread of education and meant that ethics was part of the ‘superstructure’ of society,
science were bound to lead to steady progress not only in driven along by changes in the economic base. Hence
material prosperity and scientific understanding, but in ‘bourgeois ethics’ need not be taken seriously; it would
ethics as well. Many of those who thought philosophically disappear when capitalism collapsed, just as feudal ethics
about ethics were also believers in progress, and this meant had disappeared with the passing of the feudal economy.
that they had to be objectivists, at least in the sense of But what then of ‘communist ethics’? Was this just another
judging the direction of change as progressing towards ethic relative to a particular form of society, and not really
something better. Among these thinkers in the German superior to any other? If so, why should the workers struggle
tradition were Hegel and his followers, including even for the revolution that would bring about communism?
‘Leftist Hegelians’ like Karl Marx, for whom the transition Marx’s own approach to this paradox, at least in his later
to communism was a change to a better society. In Britain, writings, was to consider himself as a scientist describing

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the laws by which history works and able to discern that the put myself in the place of those affected by the decision to
collapse of capitalism and its replacement by communism go to war, both for better and for worse. In putting myself
was inevitable. On these grounds, both Marx and his in their position, I must take on their wants and desires.
twentieth-century followers castigated non-Marxist Then only if after having fully imagined the desires of all
socialists who extensively debated the issue of socialist those people and weighed their desires alongside my own
ethics; the Marxists considered irrelevant any discussion desires, I am still willing to prescribe the act of going to war,
about the ethical superiority of a communist society. But to can I claim to be making a moral judgment when I say that
most readers, the denunciation of capitalism in Marx’s we ought to go to war. Although there are many differences
Capital – especially in those chapters describing the in style and substance between Hare and other leading
exploitation of child factory-workers – was fuelled by a contemporary moral philosophers, it is remarkable to note
moral outrage at what the laws of the marketplace were how many other moral philosophers have come up with a
doing to human beings. And Marx himself had – admittedly device that constrains our moral judgments in similar ways
rather casually – remarked that the communist society of to Hare’s use of universalizability. Jean-Paul Sartre himself
the future would be based on the principle of ‘from each, in one lecture, ‘Existentialism and Humanism’ (1948),
according to his ability, to each, according to his need’, and backed away from his earlier subjectivism and drew on
this certainly sounded like a principle of justice. This Kant’s idea that moral judgments must be universal in
contradiction between deep moral commitment and an form.
official stance that communism was based on science, not In A Theory of Justice (1971), the most debated work of
ethics, continued throughout the 1930s and beyond. American ethics in the second half of the century, John
Rawls introduces a ‘veil of ignorance’ so that the principles
of justice can be chosen by people who do not know what
Equality and human rights position in society they will occupy. The German critical
theorist Jürgen Habermas believes that judgments must be
The defeat of Nazism led to a reassessment of subjectivism. acceptable to an ‘ideal speech community’. Utilitarians take
As journalists followed the Allied armies into the death it as axiomatic that each counts for one and none for more
camps, and the world began to realize the enormity of the than one. Common to all of these devices is the idea of
atrocities committed, the subjectivist implication that Nazi choosing, not just for yourself or for those close to you or
morality cannot be said to be worse than any other morality – like you in a certain way, but for everyone, no matter how
that all we can say, in effect, is that we do not like what they different or remote.
did – suddenly seemed hollow. Nevertheless, subjectivism It is not difficult to see how this approach to ethics is
of various kinds survived the Holocaust. On the European linked to the worldwide movement to combat racism (and
continent, and to some extent in the United States, later, other forms of discrimination too, for example against
existentialism flourished in both literary and philosophical women). Racists would not wish to put themselves in the
circles. Its leading figures were French writers like Jean-Paul position of those they exploit or discriminate against. The
Sartre. Much of Sartre’s thought is driven by the absence of whole point of racism (and sexism, and similar attempts to
God. Because there is no God, Sartre thought, we must assert group superiority) is to identify the group to which
abandon the idea that we human beings have been designed one belongs, and mark it out as morally superior or more
for some purpose. Therefore we have no essence: for significant. Putting yourself in the place of your victims
humans, existence precedes essence – hence the label does not allow you to do that.
‘existentialism’. Because we have not been conceived by These philosophical developments had their parallels at
anyone for any purpose, we are free to choose our own state and international levels. The defeat of Nazism and the
purposes, and the only constraint on us is that we must re-constituting of the League of Nations in the form of the
choose ‘authentically’. But what, many critics of the United Nations Organization gave an impetus to the
existentialists asked, if one makes an ‘authentic’ choice and human rights movement. In Nuremberg, the allied court
leaps into the arms of Nazism? As the example of Martin sitting in judgment on the German war criminals rejected
Heidegger indicated, this was no idle question. the argument that the Nazis had been acting lawfully, in
In order to try to show why an ethical choice had to be accordance with the laws that prevailed in Germany at the
more than merely an authentic choice, philosophers began time. Instead they appealed to a higher law, a universal or
to struggle with ways of reasoning in ethics that could natural law that could not be abrogated by any state or
demonstrate a real difference between those who acted like government. This made it urgent to say something about
Nazis and those who respected all humans equally. The what the requirements of this law were. The Universal
most promising attempts all seemed to respond, in some Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by
way, to an appeal for a universal aspect of moral judgments. the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948,
This is an ancient idea put forward in many cultures, though not legally binding on its member states, imposed a
including ancient China, and India, in Jewish and Christian moral obligation on all United Nations members to achieve
thought, among the Stoic philosophers of the Roman for their citizens the rights listed in the declaration.
Empire, and of course by the eighteenth-century German (Subsequently the International Covenant on Economic,
philosopher Immanuel Kant. In the twentieth century, it is Social and Cultural Rights, adopted in 1966 did attempt to
perhaps most closely associated with the British philosopher give legal force to more specific rights.)
R. M. Hare, who has argued that moral judgments are Perhaps the most widely accepted ethical standard was
‘universalizable’ prescriptions. the rejection of racism. In the aftermath of Nazism, the evil
In effect, Hare’s notion of universalizability means that I of racism was so apparent that it was relatively easy to obtain
can only say – for example – ‘We ought to go to war’, and almost universal agreement to the principle of non-
mean this as a sincere moral judgment, if I am prepared to discrimination on the grounds of race. National

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 thematic section

independence movements that led to the end of white liberty and protection from torture across the species
colonial rule over much of the developing world reinforced boundary, at least to our closest relatives, the great apes.
this opposition to racism. In India, the movement for
independence was led by Gandhi, whose concept of non-
violent resistance, based on traditional Hindu values, T he nuclear age
became a model for the American civil rights movement and
subsequently for many other protest movements. By the The use of the atom bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
end of the 1960s, only South Africa remained an overtly posed an obvious ethical question for all future generations
and officially racist society, and the exclusion of South (Plate 122). It is true that the bombing raids on Hamburg
Africa from international forums demonstrated the degree and Dresden, which did not involve nuclear weapons, killed
of consensus on this issue that prevailed in the rest of the more civilians than did the first two atom bombs. But
world. At least, this consensus prevailed on an official level. gradually the realization dawned that these first two bombs
In fact, racial problems did not go away, and even in were only the beginning and that nuclear weapons were
countries like the United States, it was not until the civil developing to the point of potentially annihilating all human
rights movement of the 1960s, that racially discriminatory civilization. Albert Einstein, who had initially supported
laws were removed from southern states. the development of the atom bomb because of his fear that
The demand for equality, which had been accepted by Hitler might obtain it first, subsequently became a strong
major national and international bodies in respect of opponent of nuclear weapons. Many other scientists
discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, proved supported the Pugwash movement, which in a series of
impossible to limit to those areas. During the 1960s, women international conferences on science and world affairs
like Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer began to point out warned of the threat of nuclear catastrophe. Never before
the extent to which every society, irrespective of its culture had human beings had such a power or lived under such a
or religious tradition, was dominated by men. Feminism, threat. The ethical question that had to be faced was: can it
which had been largely dormant since early in the century, be justifiable to use such terrible weapons of destruction?
when women obtained the vote in most democratic nations, The English philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe had a
underwent a major revival. In those societies in which clear answer to this question. To use the deaths of civilians
feminist ideas were able to make some headway, the equality as a means of forcing the enemy to surrender or to use any
of women became an ethical issue not only at the level of weapon intended to kill civilians, she said, was murder.
government policy, but also in everyday life, as women When President Truman was granted an honorary degree
increasingly questioned their assignment to domestic duties by Oxford University, Anscombe distributed an article
and their subordination to men. At the beginning of the denouncing him as a mass murderer. But her view gained
new century, the ramifications of these changes are still little support from the English-speaking philosophical
unfolding, as more women enter leading positions in community, perhaps because at that time philosophers
government and business, and a new generation of women were, under the influence of the later work of Ludwig
grows up with ideas of sex roles that are very different from Wittgenstein, focusing more on linguistic analysis than on
those with which their mothers grew up. substantive ethical questions. It is true that Bertrand
Other groups also made claims for equality and rights. Russell, a major philosophical figure, dedicated himself to
In the face of opposition from many religious groups and the anti-nuclear movement; but for most philosophers at
other conservative moralists, homosexual thinkers like the time this meant merely that Russell had abandoned
Dennis Altman made the case for gay liberation, insisting philosophy to become a political activist.
not only on the right to freedom from prosecution for Gradually the view came to prevail that the ‘first use’ of
sexual acts between consenting adults, but also demanding nuclear weapons, even in the midst of a war carried out by
that they not be discriminated against on the grounds of conventional weapons, would be wrong because no matter
their sexuality. The demand for human rights for the how limited it might be, it would carry the risk of escalation
intellectually disabled was taken up by the United Nations into a global nuclear exchange. Nevertheless it was not until
General Assembly in 1971, when it passed the Declaration the 1970s, when the NATO powers and the Soviet Union
on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons, and more broadly had built up huge arsenals of missiles with nuclear warheads,
in 1975, with the Declaration of the Rights of Disabled that a serious debate began about the entire strategy of basing
Persons. a nation’s defence on the threat of what was known as
Another question raised was whether it was not arbitrary ‘mutually assured destruction’. Granted that it would be
to insist on rights and equality for all human beings, but to wrong for any country to be the first to launch a nuclear
deny rights or equal consideration of interests to all those attack, the question still remained: what about a retaliatory
sentient beings outside our species, including animals in strike? Suppose, it was argued in America, that the Soviet
laboratories or intensive farms. From the late 1970s, through Union did in fact unleash its nuclear missiles in a surprise
the 1980s, there was an unprecedented growth in support attack, and this was detected by the American early warning
for the idea of animal liberation, or animal rights, especially system. There would still be no defence against the destruction
in Europe, North America, and Australia. This led to some of American cities and the loss of tens of millions of American
changes, particularly in the regulations governing experiments lives. Would this justify the detonating of American nuclear
on animals, and in some countries, to the prohibition of the weapons, with equally devastating consequences for Soviet
most restrictive forms of keeping animals. There was also a citizens, who had had no say in the firing of Soviet missiles?
marked rise in the number of vegetarians in the developed And even if one were to ignore the deaths of millions of
nations. In the last decade of the century, an international Soviet citizens, the additional nuclear radiation released by
group of distinguished scientists, philosophers and other firing American missiles would only worsen the global crisis,
scholars proposed that we should extend the rights to life, perhaps triggering the ‘nuclear winter’ that some scientists

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said would occur in any major nuclear exchange. The answer military and economic strength. This attitude was reversed
therefore seemed to be that the use of America’s nuclear in the last quarter of the century, when the world’s population
missiles could not be justified even if it were in retaliation for reached 5 billion, and many countries with high birth rates
a first strike by the other side. But if it would be wrong to use began actively to discourage population growth. The
these missiles, could it be right to base America’s strategy on strongest action was taken by the world’s most populous
the threat to use them? The opposing sides were still locked country, China, which adopted a ‘one child policy’. Attempts
in debate when the end of the Cold War came in the late to reduce population growth inevitably met with opposition
1980s. The preponderance of ethical opinion at the end of the from those who based their ethics on particular religious
century was perhaps sufficiently indicated by the award of beliefs. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, opposes
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 to the long-standing anti- the use of contraception or abortion. It recommends instead
nuclear campaigner Professor Joseph Rotblat, followed by the use of abstinence during the fertile period of a woman’s
the 1996 verdict of the World Court that the use of nuclear cycle. Some Islamic nations have taken a similar stance. For
weapons is contrary to international law. Despite this legal this reason, the 1994 International Conference on Population
judgment and the end of the Cold War, the arsenals retained and Development, held in Cairo, proved to be a forum for a
by the United States and Russia demonstrate that the threat significant confrontation between nations that favoured a
of nuclear annihilation has not disappeared. Its place at the secular, or liberal religious view, and those that formed their
centre of public attention has, however, been largely replaced views on the basis of traditional religious beliefs. Some Latin
by other global dangers, less terrifying but in the long run American Catholic nations and some Islamic nations united
perhaps no less threatening to the future of our planet, and to oppose the inclusion in the conference communiqué of
certainly no less demanding of a co-ordinated and ethically references to the termination of pregnancy, in particular; but
sensitive solution. the overwhelming majority of the nations of the world stood
firmly behind the need for strong measures to reduce global
population growth, and especially to educate women and to
Environmental ethics give them control over their fertility.
Whether it will be possible to reach equally broad
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring is usually credited agreement on measures to prevent global warming is, at the
with triggering the environmental or ‘green’ movement. time of writing, more difficult to say. The 1992 United
Carson focused attention especially on the pollution of soil Nations Conference on Environment and Development
and water by long-lasting insecticides, but environmentalists was informed by panels of scientists that the increasing
soon moved on to questions of wilderness and species production of carbon dioxide, associated with higher energy
preservation, population growth, the ozone hole, and the consumption, especially from the burning of coal and oil, is
human-induced global warming. Each of these issues raises bringing about global warming. This will cause widespread
significant ethical questions, which affect all of humanity changes in climate patterns, including droughts and famines
and cannot be solved without a global response. Thus they in some areas, and floods in others. It will also bring about a
take the different nations of the world a step closer to the rise in sea levels that could wipe out some low-lying Pacific
development of a global ethical community. island nations and inundate the delta regions of Bangladesh
In the discussion of the preservation of wilderness and and Egypt, which are home to more than 40 million people.
endangered species, there were many calls for a new This threat led to the signing of a Climate Change
environmental ethic. Traditional ethics, it was said, are Convention, which proposed a cutback in carbon dioxide
always human-centred. If we want to conserve a forest or a emissions. But some nations – the United States, Australia,
wetland then we must, if we are to make sense within a Canada, Russia and certain European countries – have per
traditional ethic, argue that it is valuable for humans perhaps capita emissions of greenhouse gases that are as much as six
because we may find plants there with special medicinal times higher than other nations, such as India and China.
properties or because we can go there and refresh our spirit So it would seem fair for those nations to roll back their
by communing with nature. But, the advocates of a new greenhouse gas emissions rapidly, while developing nations
environmental ethic urged, some things are of value in are allowed to continue to increase theirs. The developed
themselves, independently of whether human beings value nations are reluctant to embrace a solution that would cause
them or ever will value them. Our ethic should not be significant, if temporary, disruption to their economies.
human-centred and short-term, these environmentalists Here the need is apparent for the world to work out a just
argued; if our planet is to survive, we need an ethic that is solution to a novel problem. The ability of the atmosphere
eco-centred and long-term. It was from discussions like to absorb greenhouse gases while remaining climatically
these that a new sub-discipline of ethics, environmental stable is a common resource. The oceans, too, are another
ethics, was born, to grapple with, for example, questions common resource, subject to pollution from individuals and
about the value of preserving a species of fish that lives in a corporations from many different nations. If the world
free-flowing river that the government or some other community does not find and accept basic ethical standards
authority would like to dam, or the value of a forest for the use of these common resources, it is frightening to
wilderness as compared with the economic value of the contemplate the possible consequences.
timber that could be obtained by cutting it.
Although the threat of global overpopulation had been
noted by Thomas Malthus in the eighteenth century, it was Ethical issues raised by medicine and biological
only in the twentieth century that this threat began to be sciences
taken seriously by governments. Even then, in the first half
of the century, many countries sought to increase their The twentieth century has seen an extraordinary increase in
population in the belief that this would enhance their our knowledge of biological processes and in the ability of

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medicine to prolong life; but this has brought a host of new fertilizing a human egg outside the body, and transferring
ethical problems in its wake, and has caused serious the embryo to the womb of the infertile woman who
difficulties for traditional approaches to questions of life supplied the egg. The resulting ‘test-tube baby’ made world
and death. The study of these ethical issues, known as headlines. It was ethically controversial for several reasons:
bioethics, has grown rapidly. In the 1950s, there was almost it was based on experimentation on human embryos, which
no systematic study of new ethical issues in medicine or the some saw as having a right to life; there were fears that it
biological sciences, but by the 1990s, there were hundreds of would produce abnormal babies; it opened the way to
centres or departments of bioethics, not only in Europe and further new developments, such as the donation of eggs
North America, but throughout the world, especially East from one woman to another, and the long-term storage of
Asia, South America, and Australia. frozen embryos; and it could lead to the selection or genetic
One early example of the kind of issue that led to this manipulation of embryos and hence of human beings.
development was the definition of death. Traditionally, Many governments set up committees of inquiry into
death had been defined in terms of the cessation of heartbeat the ethical, social and legal aspects of in vitro fertilization,
and circulation; but during the 1960s it became common to as the technique was called (Plate 123). In general, these
use a mechanical respirator to maintain the breathing of official bodies approved the procedure, under certain
patients who would otherwise die. Some of these patients, conditions. Most allowed some experimentation on
of course, made good recoveries; but among them were human embryos, with some consensus on a limit of 14 days
some who had suffered such severe head injury that the after fertilization for such experiments. Within a decade,
brain had irreversibly ceased to function. Was it permissible, in vitro fertilization had become a standard clinical
doctors asked, to remove patients from the respirator? The procedure for assisting infertile couples. Fears about a
question developed a new urgency because of another high rate of abnormal babies receded, but controversy
medical innovation, the technique of transplanting an organ remained, especially when the technique was used to help
from one person to another. Organs such as the heart women in their fifties and even early sixties to have
became damaged if circulation ceased; but if death could be children.
redefined as the irreversible cessation of all brain function, Concerns about possible future uses of new reproductive
then these organs could be removed from patients while techniques for eugenic purposes also remained. The
circulation continued and used to save the lives of other celebrated discovery by Crick and Watson of the structure
patients. By the 1990s, most of the world’s nations accepted of DNA had led, within a 30-year period, to the capability
the new definition of death. of manipulating the genetic code of living organisms in
In a manner that is illustrative of the constantly shifting certain ways. This new control over the design of living
frontier of this field, questions were then raised about organisms was itself the subject of fierce ethical debate, even
patients who have irreversibly lost consciousness, but still when applied only to micro‑organisms. In the 1980s, the
retain some brain functions. In some hospitals, especially in first experiments on genetically engineered plants and
the United States, such patients may be kept alive for many animals were carried out (Plate 124), despite objections that
years, whereas in other countries infections are deliberately this could lead to new and environmentally damaging
left untreated, or feeding tubes are removed, and the patient organisms ‘escaping’ to the wild. There was also speculation
soon dies. This mode of treating a patient is based on a that genetic engineering techniques would eventually be
distinction between actively taking life and omitting to applied to human beings. This speculation was further
preserve life. Some ethicists consider that the latter is fuelled by the human genome project, an international
acceptable, whereas the former is not, but others deny that project, described as the biological equivalent of sending an
the distinction is ethically significant. astronaut to the moon, which set out to map and sequence
The absolute wrongness of taking human life has also the entire human genome, or genetic code. The resulting
been put in doubt by increasing support for the idea that knowledge, it was hoped, would provide a basis for treating
when a patient is terminally ill and asks a doctor for the cause, rather than the symptoms, of many diseases. But
assistance in dying, the doctor is justified in providing such critics insisted that while this may be so, it would be
assistance. Throughout the century, there have been impossible to prevent abuses of this knowledge, for example,
advocates of the legalization of voluntary euthanasia, but genetic intervention designed to produce ‘superior’ human
until the 1980s, this advocacy had met with no success. In beings. They also pointed to possible misuse by employers
that decade, however, courts in the Netherlands began to or insurance companies, who may wish to screen out
uphold the right of a doctor to provide assistance in dying prospective employees or clients with undesirable genetic
to a patient who is terminally ill, finds his or her condition traits.
unbearable, and makes a persistent, well-informed and
rational request for euthanasia. It has been reliably
estimated that about 2,300 deaths each year in the A global ethical community
Netherlands are the result of voluntary euthanasia.
Widespread popular and medical support for this practice As the twenty-first century begins, the ethical problems we
in the Netherlands has led to similar proposals being face seem far more daunting than those at the dawn of the
discussed elsewhere, and in 1995 the Legislative Assembly last century. War and poverty have not been abolished, and
of Australia’s Northern Territory became the first in addition the new powers we have developed pose
parliament in the world to vote for the legalization of previously undreamed of threats to the future of all life on
voluntary euthanasia. this planet.
At the other end of life, there have also been intense Yet at the same time there are hopeful signs. The nations
ethical debates about new reproductive technologies. In of the world are no longer divided into two opposing camps,
1978, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe succeeded in as were most of the leading powers for much of the twentieth

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century. The human rights movement remains strong, Friedan, B. 1963. The Feminine Mystique. Victor Gollancz, London.
although there continue to be cultural differences about the GANDHI, M. K. 1927. An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments
extent to which individual rights are to be placed above the with Truth [Trans. Mahadev Desai]. Beacon Press, Boston,
interests of the community. In the United States, for MA.
example, the Constitution is based on the Bill of Rights, GREER, G. 1970. The Female Eunuch. McGibbon and Kee, London.
which in turn derives from John Locke’s view that lawful GRUEN, L. and JAMIESON, D. (eds.). 1994. Reflecting on Nature:
government can only arise from a social contract in which Readings in Environmental Philosophy. Oxford University Press,
individuals give their consent to the form of a government, New York.
while retaining certain rights against that government. In HABERMAS, J. 1990. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action.
contrast, the Confucian ethic, which has influenced China, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Japan, Korea and Singapore, sees the individual as only a HARE, R. M. 1963. Freedom and Reason. Oxford University Press,
part of a larger unit: the family and, by extension, the whole Oxford, UK.
society.  1981. Moral Thinking: Its Levels, Method, and Point. Oxford
Most promising of all recent developments, perhaps, is University Press, Oxford, UK.
the growing willingness to address humanitarian issues, no LECKY, W. E. H. 1892. History of European Morals from Augustus to
matter where they occur. In the early 1990s, the developed Charlemagne. (1st ed.). Fisher Unwin, London.
nations attempted to provide humanitarian assistance in LOCKE, J. and LASLETT, P. (eds). 1960. Two Treatises of Government. A
Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda (Plate 125). Although none Critical Edition with an Introduction and Apparatus Criticus by Peter
of these attempts can be regarded as an unqualified success, Laslett. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
they showed a determination not to let large numbers of MARX, K. 1867. Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production.
people starve or die from epidemics when help can be (Vol. 1) [Trans. of 3rd German Ed., Edward Aveling and Samuel
provided. They can perhaps be seen as a response to the fact Moore. Swan, Sonnenschein, Lowrey and Co., London.]
that modern telecommunications have created a ‘global  1938. Critique of the Gotha Programme. International Publishers,
village’, bringing the plight of other human beings into the New York. [Written 1875, first published 1891.]
living rooms of the entire world. The challenge now is for PENCE, G. E. (ed.). 1995. Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of
the global village to evolve into the global ethical community, Cases that Have Shaped Medical Ethics, with Philosophical, Legal,
which will be required if we are to solve the global problems and Historical Backgrounds. McGraw-Hill, New York.
of the present century. RAWLS, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA.
SARTRE, J.-P. 1957. Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological
BIBLIOGRAPHY Ontology. [Trans. H. Barnes.] Methuen, London.
 1948. Existentialism and Humanism. [Trans. P. Mairet.] Methuen,
Altman, D. 1972. Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. Angus and London.
Robertson, Sydney, Australia. SCHELL, J. 1982. The Fate of the Earth. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Anscombe, G. E. M. 1939. Mr Truman‘s Degree. Published by the SINGER, P. 1994. Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our
author, Oxford, UK. Traditional Ethics. St Martin’s Press, New York.
Beauchamp, T. and Childress, J. 1994. Principles of Biomedical THOMPSON, J. 1992. Justice and World Order: A Philosophical Inquiry.
Ethics. Oxford University Press, New York. Routledge, London.
Carson, R. 1962. Silent Spring. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA. WITTGENSTEIN, L. 1965. A Lecture on Ethics. In: The Philosophical
Cavalieri, P. and Singer, P. (eds). 1993. The Great Ape Project: Review, Vol. 74, No. 1, pp. 3–12.
Equality Beyond Humanity. Fourth Estate, London.  1968. Philosophical Investigations. (3rd ed.). [Trans. G. E. M.
ELLIOT, R. 1995. Environmental Ethics. (Series: Oxford Readings in Anscombe.] Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
Philosophy). Oxford University Press, New York.

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 24
P S Y CHO L O G Y

Hans Pols

Psychology is the science of human nature. Nowadays, important than practical utility. German experimental
many individuals expect psychologists to provide guidelines psychology set the standard for the new discipline,
for normal and acceptable behaviour. A great number of particularly in North America. Experimental psychology
people make sense of their lives by referring to psychological was characterized more by an adherence to specific research
concepts. Many psychologists are convinced that their methodologies than to specific theories and models. This
discipline has supplanted philosophical, religious, and moral emphasis was due to the attempts of psychologists to
conceptions of human nature. In reality, however, differentiate their discipline from philosophy, from which
psychologists have always revised their theories. This has, at psychology originally evolved. Initially, psychologists
times, placed the discipline at the centre of controversy. attempted to answer philosophical questions with the
Psychological explanations tend to emphasize individual experimental methodology of science.
factors and marginalize social and cultural factors. Such
explanations are more acceptable in Western societies with
their high degree of individualism. They appear inappropriate Wilhelm Wundt’s physiological psychology
in societies whose individuals explain their behaviour in
terms of tradition, cultural heritage, or bonds to one’s Experimental psychology is generally considered to have
extended family or social group. been born in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)
Psychology is a fragmented discipline. It has a wide established his laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. In his
variety of historical roots, many different models of human textbook on psychology, Wundt summarized relevant
nature, and several research methods. In this chapter, three contemporary research on the subject. He published
main approaches within psychology are presented: Principles of Physiological Psychology, the first comprehensive
experimental psychology, mental testing, and psychotherapy. textbook of the new discipline, in 1874 and founded
The relationship between these approaches has always been Philosophische Studien, a journal devoted to psychological
contentious as they embody different perspectives on the research in 1881. Scientists from all over the world visited
nature of psychology as a scientific discipline, its social Wundt’s laboratory, which became the prototype for the
function, and the nature of its applications. Experimental psychological laboratories they established in their home
psychology is practised in university and industrial countries.
laboratories, mental testing generally takes place in schools, Wundt named his approach physiological psychology
while psychotherapy is conducted in clinical settings. The because he adapted research techniques from physiology to
fact that these three main approaches have been incorporated study the mind. The two basic elements of his programme
within one academic discipline is the result of historical were psychophysics and mental chronometry. Psychophysics
contingencies. investigated the relationship between the objective world of
physics and the subjective world of human experience.
Physicists in the nineteenth century had described light and
E xperimental psychology sound as wavelengths of specific frequencies. Physiologists
then investigated how the sensory system transformed
The roots of experimental psychology must be traced back external physical stimuli into conscious experience.
to the German universities of the second half of the Psychologists concluded that the transformative powers of
nineteenth century. During this period, pioneering the mind obeyed general laws. For example, experiments
psychologists were convinced that their discipline had to demonstrated that when the brightness of a light-flash
emulate the scientific standards of physics and chemistry increased in geometrical progression, its perception
and therefore conducted their research in laboratories. To increased in arithmetical progression. The same principle
these early psychologists, methodological rigour was more applied to the perception of sound and weight. Mental

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chronometry involved reaction-time experiments. In a human personality. Research in developmental psychology

typical experiment, a person was asked to press a button as was conducted by Granville Stanley Hall (1844–1924) and
soon as he or she observed a flashing light. Wundt assumed James Mark Baldwin (1861–1934) and later continued by
that the time lag between the appearance of the light and the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Within an
the person’s reaction constituted the time needed for the evolutionary framework, research on animals was considered
mental processes involved in acting upon a discrete relevant to psychology because certain animal species (such
perception. Wundt then complicated the task by adding as white rats, cats, dogs, pigeons) displayed elementary
discrimination and decision factors, which increased the characteristics of learning that were shared with human
reaction time. By presenting a great variety of mental tasks, beings. During the 1910s and 1920s, psychologists
Wundt hoped to determine the reaction times needed for increasingly focused their research on learning in human
the various mental processes involved in their execution. beings and animals.
Edward B. Titchener (1867–1927) considered himself
Wundt’s sole faithful disciple in North America even
though his approach was more limited. Titchener’s B ehaviourism
programme, known as structuralism, entailed the systematic
analysis of consciousness into its constitutive elements The school of behaviourism, initiated by John B. Watson
through introspection under rigidly controlled laboratory (1878–1958), dominated North American psychology from
conditions. According to both Wundt and Titchener, there 1920 to 1960. According to Watson, who had studied with
were strict limitations to what laboratory research could Dewey and Angell, psychology’s aim as a purely objective
accomplish because only relatively basic mental processes branch of natural science was the prediction and control of
were amenable to experimental research. behaviour, which he regarded as entirely determined by
A group of German psychologists unified in the Gestalt environmental factors. Because he was convinced that
School, inspired by holistic philosophical ideas, criticized psychologists could only study objectively observable
this atomistic approach to mental phenomena.1 They behaviour, Watson argued that the study of consciousness
disagreed with Titchener’s conception that human through introspection fell outside the scope of the discipline.
experience was assembled from thousands of basic elements Watson believed that the principles governing the behaviour
synthesized by the mind, arguing that experience is of humans and animals were essentially the same. He and
perceived as a whole. They demonstrated, for example, that his followers conducted most of their research on animals
when two lines were flashed in rapid succession, they were because fewer complicating factors were involved.
perceived as a single moving line. This phenomenon of Watson was influenced by the experiments on animal
apparent motion was fundamental for the perception of behaviour conducted by the Nobel-prize winning
films as continuous ‘moving pictures’. Other alternative physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) and made this work
approaches to Wundt’s experimental psychology were the foundation of his own theories. Pavlov had conditioned
developed to investigate higher mental processes such as laboratory dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by repeatedly
thinking, problem-solving, and memory. A number of sounding this bell just before presenting food (Plate 126).
North American psychologists also reacted against the Pavlov called the innate and automatic digestive response of
approaches of Wundt and Titchener as they considered its salivating the unconditioned reflex, and the response
parameters too narrow, providing no basis for practical acquired through repeated experience the conditioned
applications. reflex. He investigated the conditions necessary for
establishing conditioned reflexes, their strength, and the
period of time that elapsed before they disappeared
F unctionalism (extinction). According to Watson, conditioned reflexes
were the constitutive elements of habits, which, according
Around the turn of the twentieth century, functionalism, an to him, were the building blocks of human behaviour. In
alternative approach to psychological research, was this perspective, the formation of habits and the
formulated by a group of North American psychologists. establishment of conditioned reflexes could potentially
The main protagonists of this approach were John Dewey explain all human behaviour.
(1859–1952) and James Rowland Angell (1869–1949). Watson asserted that behaviour was based on three
Functionalist psychologists were not particularly concerned innate, primary emotions: fear, rage, and love. The subtleties
with the structure of the mind or the constitutive elements and variety of adult emotional expression were derived from
of consciousness. Inspired by the evolutionary theories of these basic emotions through elaborate conditioning
Charles Darwin (1809–1882), they endeavoured to processes. He became notorious for illustrating this theory
investigate the function of mental activity both in the by experiments involving an eleven-month-old boy, later
evolution of the human species and in the adaptive named Little Albert, in whom he conditioned a fear of white
relationship of individuals to their social environments. rats by striking a metal bar with a hammer when the boy
Strongly inspired by the American philosophy of showed an interest in the animal. By pairing the presentation
pragmatism, functionalists were deeply interested in the of the rat with a loud noise on successive occasions, Little
practical applications of psychological research, such as Albert became frightened upon seeing the rat even when the
mental testing and educational psychology. loud noise was absent. The child had developed a strong fear
Functionalist psychologists interested in child response to other white furry objects as well, including
development focused on how children learned to adjust to rabbits, dogs, cotton wool, and a seal coat.
their environment while growing up. This perspective The behaviourist school gave rise to several experimental
enabled investigators to study the origins of several mental traditions generally labelled neo-behaviourism. One of its
and behavioural characteristics in the development of the most influential protagonists following the Second

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World War was B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), who modified techniques to study the neurological processes underlying
Watson’s scheme of conditioned reflexes by introducing specific cognitive processes.
rewards as a motivating force for behaviour. According to
Skinner, Watson’s model assumed a passive organism
merely reacting to changes in its environment. Instead, S ocial psychology
Skinner claimed that organisms actively learn by seeking
rewards. To test his theories, he developed the ‘Skinner Social psychologists study how human beings function in
box’. Animals placed in these boxes learned by random small groups. Social psychologists have developed entirely
exploration that specific actions, such as pressing a bar or different methods for their research. Solomon Asch (1907–
pecking at a coloured spot on the wall, led to rewards (such 1996) devised several experiments to investigate the effects
as receiving a pellet of food). After they had learned the of peer pressure and social conformity. In what was
specific mechanism of the Skinner box in which they had presented to a group of individuals as a visual discrimination
been placed, animals repeated the response, which had task, Asch asked participants to identify the longer of two
previously been reinforced by a reward. Skinner called this lines presented on a screen. However, all participants except
procedure of shaping behaviour through rewards operant one were accomplices of the experimenter. When they
conditioning. In other experiments, he investigated the effects collectively gave the obviously wrong answer, most
of different reinforcement schedules on the speed of learning uninformed participants tended to vote with the group
and the persistence of acquired behaviour patterns. despite their awareness that the answer was incorrect. If
Behaviourism has been praised for its optimism in only one of the other individuals gave the right answer,
claiming that virtually all behaviour is learned and can most participants were able to uphold their own opinion.
therefore be modified by using appropriate training and On the basis of these experiments, Asch drew some
rewards. But it has also been criticized for inspiring the troublesome conclusions about the power of social pressure
manipulation of human beings and for excluding a great in, for instance, politically repressive regimes.
number of psychological phenomena, such as cognition and In what became a very influential experiment, Stanley
human experience, as appropriate topics for research. Milgram (1933–1985) asked individuals to participate in a
Although behaviourism dominated psychology for four behaviouristic learning experiment where they were told to
decades, alternatives remained viable. Gestalt psychologists, administer electric shocks to a student when he made
for example, conducted experiments demonstrating the mistakes during a straightforward learning task. The
importance of insight as a factor in learning. In the 1960s, student, who was located in another room so that subjects
experimental psychologists transcended some of the could only hear him, was an accomplice of the experimenter.
restrictions imposed on the discipline by behaviourism by In reality, no shocks were administered; the student only
investigating mental processes. acted as if there had been. Milgram reported that when he
ordered the research participants to administer increasingly
high electric shocks, most of them complied. Many
C ognitive psychology participants even administered lethal shocks when ordered
to do so. The implications of these experiments were
In the late 1950s, the linguist Noam Chomsky claimed that profoundly disturbing and led to extensive discussions
the linguistic abilities of human beings could not possibly be about the nature of human morality and responsibility.
explained by behaviourist principles such as reinforcement Experimental psychology originated in Germany but
and selective extinction. He proposed the theory of flourished in the United States. However, only a relatively
transformational generative grammar, which suggests the small number of psychologists have been and are currently
existence of innate rules and principles governing the way the involved in laboratory research. The majority of psychologists
mind operates. Chomsky’s assertions inspired the tradition specialize in the development and application of mental
of cognitive psychology, which investigates phenomena such tests and in psychotherapy.
as perception, attention, reasoning, problem-solving, language
processing, and the organization of memory.
Cognitive psychologists view human beings as M ental tests and the
information processing systems and investigate the analogies psychology of individual
between human cognition and computer technology.2 They differences
define thinking as the systematic manipulation of symbols.
Computers process information by transforming input The mental test is by far the most widely used tool developed
through processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval, by psychologists. Psychologists have designed tests that
providing a specific output. In their research, cognitive measure intelligence, personality characteristics, and specific
psychologists have differentiated between sensory memory, abilities and aptitudes. Many individuals encounter mental
short-term memory, and long-term memory, each operating tests while in primary school or as part of an application
according to its own principles. Encoding takes place in procedure. Psychologists interested in mental tests want to
humans via sensory memory as, for example, pattern measure individual differences instead of investigating the
recognition, while storage and retrieval are processes general laws governing human nature. Test psychologists
constituted by interactions between short- and long-term are generally practically oriented; they develop tests for use
memory. in vocational guidance, selecting and placing job applicants,
Cognitive psychologists have developed numerous and placing schoolchildren into appropriate educational
computer simulations of cognitive functioning. Recently, tracks. Given their interests in individual differences and
they have started to apply neurophysiological research practical applications, test psychologists form a sub-group
methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within the field of psychology.

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Intelligence tests have been highly controversial because intelligence of children in their charge and provide them
a number of test psychologists have claimed that intelligence with an education compatible with their ability. Burt
is a single, measurable, inherited, and stable quality that advocated placing of schoolchildren in different secondary
determines an individual’s potential for success in life. schools based on their scores on intelligence tests, a practice
Several psychologists have claimed that racial and ethnic which was institutionalized in Britain until the 1960s. In
groups other than those of European descent are, on average, order to support his views, Burt initiated an ambitious
less intelligent. Other test psychologists have made similar research project testing the intelligence of twins who had
claims about individuals from less privileged social been raised separately. Such twins, Burt argued, had been
backgrounds. Critics of intelligence tests have argued that raised in different environments but had exactly the same
these tests are culturally and racially biased. Instead of genetic endowment. The results of this study confirmed
measuring intelligence, they indicate level of education, Burt’s ideas. However, later inquiry revealed that some of
social privilege, and conformity to specifically Euro- his data were fabricated.
American standards. A number of American psychologists adapted intelligence
tests for use in the army when the United States entered the
First World War in 1917. Psychologists aided in the
Intelligence tests selection and placement of inductees by testing their mental
abilities. For this purpose they developed written tests that
Around the turn of the century, several countries in Europe could be administered to groups. Never before had such a
and North America passed universal primary education large number of individuals, about 1.75 million army
laws, mandating that all children attend school for a recruits, taken intelligence tests. Psychologists felt that this
minimum number of years. As a consequence, children project helped them to gain public recognition, although
from radically diverse social backgrounds and aptitudes army officers did not pay much attention to the test results.
were placed in the same classroom, giving greater visibility Moreover, it took several years to analyse the data, which
to pupils with learning disabilities or mental handicaps. In yielded rather controversial conclusions. According to
response to a request from the Paris Board of Education, psychologist Carl C. Brigham, the results proved that the
Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and his colleague Théodule great majority of American soldiers had the intelligence of
Simon (1873–1961) designed the first intelligence test in thirteen- or fourteen-year-old children. Additionally, the
1905 to identify pupils in need of remedial education. results showed that white, Anglo-Saxon men had the
This test, which was administered individually to pupils highest intelligence scores while recent immigrant groups
who could not keep up with the curriculum, provided a and African-Americans scored, on average, significantly
number corresponding to the mental age of schoolchildren lower. At the time these psychologists did not consider the
relative to their chronological age. Very soon, the concept of possibility that cultural and linguistic differences in addition
mental age was replaced by that of the intelligence quotient to the level of education attained were responsible for these
(IQ), which was defined as equal to a child’s mental age differences.
divided by his or her chronological age multiplied by one On the basis of his experience in the army project, Lewis
hundred. The average intelligence score was therefore M. Terman (1877–1956) further developed the intelligence
defined as 100. test for use within the American educational system.
Research into the nature of intelligence became the Terman was not particularly interested in diagnosing mental
lifework of Charles Spearman (1863–1945), the first retardation and developmental disabilities. Instead, he
psychologist to receive an appointment at a British recommended that whole school populations be tested and
university. Spearman analysed the test scores of a large individual pupils placed into different curricula according to
number of individuals on a variety of mental tests using his the results. Terman’s version of the intelligence test, the
statistical technique of factor analysis. According to him, all Stanford-Binet test, has become the most widely used
intelligence tests, despite the fact that they measured intelligence test in North America. It served as the prototype
different mental abilities, produced comparable results. for intelligence tests worldwide. Because Terman espoused
Individuals who scored high on one test tended to score the view that intelligence was inherited, he advocated
high on all other tests; conversely, those who scored low on immigration restrictions to limit the entrance of those
one test also tended to score low on all the others. On the ethnic groups which he considered to be of inferior
basis of these statistics, Spearman concluded that all intelligence to the United States.
intelligence tests measured an inherent quality of general Psychologists advocating the use of mental tests have
intelligence, which he conceived of as a single measurable argued that intelligence tests measure general cognitive
quality and equated with general mental energy. ability, which is largely innate. The use of mental tests in
Spearman’s approach was further developed by his schools purportedly reduced prejudice and made educational
successor Cyril Burt (1883–1971), who translated the administration more objective as pupils were placed in
Binet-Simon test into English and made it available for use schools based on ability rather than on social background.
in the British educational system. Burt defined intelligence However, the psychologist Louis Leon Thurstone (1887–
as innate general cognitive ability, a stable characteristic in 1955), using statistical techniques very similar to those
individuals explaining differences in social class, educational developed by Spearman and Burt, argued that there were
achievement, and income. Since he considered the level of several primary mental abilities instead of a singular general
intelligence in individuals virtually unalterable, the quality intelligence. Thurstone argued that the use of a single test
of education received did not influence their later success in score as an indication of intelligence was highly misleading.
life. In Burt’s views, a child’s innate capacity set definite Other psychologists have criticized the dubious nature
limits to what he or she could achieve. According to Burt, of some of the research that led to the more controversial
educational administrators only needed to measure the psychological theories of intelligence. Kamin, Lewontin

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Rose and Gould have argued that intelligence tests merely cognitive processes that lay behind the answers given to
measure social privilege and educational background. specific test questions. Piaget’s research demonstrated that
According to them, the widespread reliance on intelligence the way children think changes qualitatively as they mature.
tests has only reinforced unequal access to education. Piaget’s developmental epistemology described the
Mental tests generally consist of items familiar to those who unfolding of the cognitive abilities of children through four
have been educated by Western European or North major stages: sensory-motor, pre-operational, concrete
American standards and are often presented in English, operations, and formal operations.3 Each of these stages was
thus favouring English native speakers. Individuals of Euro- characterized by specific cognitive structures and could be
American descent have therefore consistently scored the defined by the tasks children were able to complete
highest. These results, however, do not suggest the racial successfully. Children move to the pre-operational stage
and ethnic inferiority of non-Euro-Americans but only around the age of two when they acquire a sense of object
indicate the way in which intelligence tests were devised. permanence, that is, when they recognize that an object still
The translation and use of intelligence tests in other exists even though they can no longer observe it. Around
countries without significant modifications often leads to the age of five, children progress to the stage of concrete
inappropriate results. Recently, some psychologists have operations when they recognize the conservation of quantity.
attempted to develop ‘culture-fair’ intelligence tests that do Prior to this, children generally assume that the amount of
not favour individuals from specific cultural or national liquid increased when it was poured into a taller and thinner
backgrounds. glass since the fluid rose higher. Around the age of eleven,
children are normally able to think logically without
referring to specific situations and events.
Personality tests Piaget’s work has been of great interest to educational
psychologists who have argued that school curricula should
Psychologists have also developed tests that measure be adapted to reflect the cognitive development of children.
personality characteristics. The work of the British Piaget’s work has been incorporated in teacher education
psychologist Hans J. Eysenck (1916–1997) has been programs worldwide. His theories have been tested in
particularly influential. Eysenck believed that most several cultural contexts, but such investigations have cast
personality characteristics were highly stable during the considerable doubt on the universality of the developmental
lifespan. Using the statistical techniques developed by stages outlined by Piaget.
Spearman and Thorndike to analyse the results of various
types of personality tests, Eysenck concluded that there are
four dimensions to the human personality: intelligence, C linical psychology and
introversion versus extroversion, neuroticism, and psychotherapy
psychoticism. Eysenck developed several personality tests
to measure these characteristics. Several other psychologists, Today, most psychologists work as clinical psychologists
using slightly different statistical techniques or employing providing psychotherapy to individuals, couples, and
different theoretical perspectives, have defined other families in need of expert guidance. Psychotherapists aid
dimensions of personality. individuals in gaining a clearer understanding of themselves,
In the United States, the Minnesota Multiphasic which equips them to better cope with the challenges of life.
Personality Inventory (MMPI) was published in 1943, after Clinical psychologists form the third group of practitioners
more then ten years of research. This test was developed within the discipline of psychology. Initially, psychotherapy
with the purpose of identifying the presence of psychological was practised only by physicians, many of whom were
disorders to aid clinical psychologists. It is still used as a inspired by the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud.
diagnostic tool today. The MMPI contains 550 test Only after the Second World War did psychologists begin
questions, which, after statistical analysis, yield scores on to provide psychotherapy.
scales measuring depression, paranoia, psychopathic
deviance, and other clinical syndromes as well as scales
measuring masculinity-femininity and social introversion. P athological psychology
Several variations of these clinical tests, each measuring
particular clinical syndromes, have subsequently been In France, the earliest psychologists were fascinated by
developed. Of particular interest due to its widespread use abnormal mental states, of which multiple personality was
and popularity is the Rorschach test, which consists of the most intriguing. In this country, psychology developed
pictures of ink-blots. Individuals are asked to report what alongside medicine, in particular psychiatry. Psychological
images they see in these ink-blots. Their responses are theories of the abnormal mind were modelled on medical
supposed to reveal unconscious mental processes, which views of mental disorder. Pierre Janet (1859–1947) called
have been projected onto the figures shown. his approach, which relied on clinical case studies of
individuals as examples of psychological abnormality,
pathological psychology. Janet defined psychology as the
D evelopmental psychology science of consciousness and its laws, and was particularly
interested in subliminal and altered states, among them
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980) started his hypnotic trance, hallucinations, somnambulism, hysteria,
career standardizing the French translation of one of Burt’s reveries, dreams, and delirium. He believed that altered
tests with Simon in Paris. Piaget found mental tests mental states provided a much more profound insight into
superficial because they measured intelligence quantitatively human nature than could the conscious individual on the
whereas he was far more interested in the qualities of the basis of self-reflection. According to Janet, unconscious

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aspects of the human psyche were far more important than Freud presented a structural model of the human
conscious ones. Janet is well known for his research in the personality. He named the irrational part of the human
repression of memories related to traumatic events. personality, seeking fulfilment of primal urges, the id, which
Hypnosis proved to be a successful means of accessing he thought was present at birth and ruled by the pleasure
memories which had become unconscious through the principle. The second component of the human personality,
process of dissociation. the ego, developed later and mediated between the id’s
desires and external reality. It could suspend the pleasure
principle temporarily by postponing gratification. The third
S igmund F reud and tier of the human personality, the superego, was the last to
psychoanalysis develop. It represented the norms and values of society as
instilled in the child by parental authority through praise or
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, punishment. The superego also instilled the drive for
is without question one of the most influential thinkers of perfection in the child. By the time the superego had fully
the twentieth century. Freud’s work has been said to developed, the ego mediated between its demands, the
represent the last of three intellectual revolutions that primal urges of the id, and external reality.
have irrevocably changed modern human thought. First, Freud also developed a model of human development.
Copernicus asserted that the Earth was not the centre of According to this model, the child passed through a number
the universe. Subsequently, Darwin placed human beings of developmental stages in which particular parts of the
at the end of the process of evolution, emphasizing the body were the dominant erogenous zone. Newborn babies
similarity of humans to animals. Finally, Freud debunked derived pleasure from the oral zone; their desires were
the prevailing belief in the superiority of reason by stating fulfilled when breast-fed. When toilet training commenced,
that human beings were driven by unconscious motives. the child derived pleasure from the conscious control of
Freud’s ideas have informed conceptions of selfhood and bodily functions and the anal zone gained particular
identity, and have been incorporated into popular emotional significance. At the age of five, stimulation of the
culture. genital zone became a source of sensual pleasure. During
When Freud opened his private practice in 1886 in this phase, according to Freud’s rather speculative ideas, the
Vienna, Austria, he specialized in treating patients suffering child developed an attraction to the parent of the opposite
from nervous disorders, of which hysteria was the most sex and felt strong rivalry towards the parent of its own sex.
pronounced. Hysteria had been treated without much Freud named this predicament the Oedipus complex. After
success by physicians because it was based on psychological the child identified with the same-sex parent, he or she
distress rather than physiological disturbance. In 1885, entered the latency phase, which at adolescence was
Freud visited Janet’s teacher, the French physician Jean- superseded by the genital phase. The culmination of
Martin Charcot, who had become famous for his efforts to personality development was the full development of sexual
study hysteria using hypnosis. Charcot considered hysteria identity and the ability to form lasting relationships with
to be a special pathological condition of the central nervous members of the opposite sex. If conflicts during any of these
system. When he returned home, Freud learned that it was phases were not successfully resolved, the adult personality
often possible to retrieve repressed memories of traumatic would suffer from neuroses.
events in his patients without the aid of hypnosis. Through From the 1910s, Freud attracted a group of loyal followers
this experience, he became convinced that hysterics suffer who met regularly and, eventually, established the
mainly from reminiscences. Soon, he replaced hypnosis psychoanalytic movement. Freud’s followers generated
with the method of free association during which patients a great variety of psychoanalytic theories and
were instructed to speak freely and refrain from self- psychotherapeutic treatment methods, often deviating from
censorship in order to uncover emotionally charged Freud’s ideas. Alfred Adler (1870–1937), for example,
memories. Freud then applied what has been called the emphasized the power of the ego over the unconscious. He
‘talking cure’: when his patients related and thereby re- thought that the ego compensated for feelings of inferiority
experienced previously repressed memories of traumatic by striving to realize idealistic goals in an attempt to restore
events, their symptoms subsided. personal balance. In Adler’s view, relationships with other
Freud developed an elaborate theory of the human human beings were essential to the growth of the ego.
personality on the basis of his clinical experience and refined Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), initially Freud’s close
it throughout his life. On the basis of his earliest experiences collaborator, eventually rejected his emphasis on the role of
with psychotherapy, he inferred the existence of the sexual desire in the origin of neuroses. Jung was interested
unconscious and the mechanism of repression, which were in spirituality, which he felt could not be reduced to the
essential elements of the dynamics of the human personality. need to fulfil unconscious wishes. He believed all human
Later, Freud claimed that most emotional conflicts were beings shared a collective unconscious containing memories
related to the desire to fulfil infantile wishes for sexual from the history of humanity that were common to all
gratification. Because such wishes were socially unacceptable cultures and societies. Through the analysis of the myths,
they provoked strong feelings of anxiety that were almost rituals, symbols, and folklore from a wide variety of cultures,
immediately repressed. As a consequence, such wishes could elements of the collective unconsciousness could be
be expressed only indirectly, in the form of dreams, neurotic investigated. Other neo-Freudians, among them Karen
symptoms, odd behaviour, or personality traits. Repressed Horney (1885–1952), Erich Fromm (1900–1980), Erik
emotions and wishes were uncovered through free H. Erikson (1902–1993) and Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–
association, dream analysis, and close attention to neurotic 1949), also emphasized the ego over the power of the
symptoms or slips of the tongue (also known in English as unconscious and the importance of social interaction in the
‘Freudian slips’). developing child and healthy adults. They called their

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approach ego psychology. Anthropologists (most notably (1915–1997) had conducted Pavlovian conditioning
Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict) have concluded from experiments with cats before he became interested in
their fieldwork that Freud’s theories have only limited psychotherapy. He pioneered behaviourist techniques to
applicability to other cultures. cure phobias (such as fear of heights or snakes) through a
process of systematic desensitization. He argued that
anxiety was aroused when an individual encountered a
H umanistic psychology situation similar to one that had previously induced anxiety.
This reaction could be overcome by a process of
Before the Second World War, very few psychologists reconditioning. First, Wolpe encouraged individuals to
practised psychotherapy. Physicians were generally opposed overcome their anxieties in situations that were just mildly
to laymen’s involvement in psychotherapy, which they anxiety-provoking, then proceeded in stages to successfully
considered a medical skill. This changed after the manage situations that caused greater anxiety until the
Second World War, when the demand for psychotherapeutic underlying problem had been resolved.
services, initially by returning veterans but later by the Inspired by developments in cognitive psychology, a
general public, far exceeded the supply of psychiatrists. This number of clinical psychologists have recently developed
led to psychologists being allowed to conduct psychotherapy, cognitive therapy. According to Albert Ellis (b. 1913) and
which, in due time, became the most visible branch of the Aaron T. Beck (b. 1921), emotional problems were the
discipline. result of faulty reasoning processes. By analysing these
Initially, clinical psychologists drew upon the theory and cognitive processes and learning alternative ones, emotional
practices of psychoanalysts and neo-Freudians. During the problems were alleviated. Beck has proposed cognitive
1960s, however, they formulated their own unique approach approaches to anxiety and depression.
to psychotherapy. Abraham H. Maslow (1908–1970) and Psychologists have conducted extensive studies on the
Carl Rogers (1902–1987) defined humanistic psychology as effects of psychotherapy. Eysenck reported that, on the basis
the third force in psychology. According to them, psychologists of numerous studies, hardly any measurable effect had been
had thus far been inspired by behaviourism, which they demonstrated. He suggested that being put on a waiting list
criticized for being too mechanistic, and by psychoanalysis, was equally effective as actually receiving psychotherapy.
which they found pessimistic and deterministic. Humanistic Only the effects of behaviour therapy appeared to be
psychologists emphasized the dignity and intrinsic worth of measurable to some extent. Eysenck’s challenge generated an
human beings and maintained that each individual contained enormous amount of research on the effectiveness of
the potential for healthy and creative growth within. In psychotherapy. Lester Luborsky summarized this research
Maslow’s optimistic view, human beings always strove to by concluding that most psychotherapy is moderately
realize their potential. Therefore, psychotherapy’s primary effective. In addition, he concluded that different styles of
purpose was not to cure disease or provide diagnoses but to psychotherapy differed only in non-significant ways. The
aid individuals in attaining a higher level of fulfilment and stark divisions between different psychotherapeutic
self-actualization. Maslow studied a number of highly approaches did not appear to be particularly important in
successful, self-actualizing individuals in his investigation of determining the success of psychotherapy. Currently,
the principles of growth and self-actualization. extensive research is being conducted on psychotherapeutic
Rogers’ client-centred psychotherapy became very processes. These studies generally indicate that the
influential within clinical psychology. According to Rogers, investigation of such processes is highly complicated.
human beings possessed an inherent tendency towards
growth, differentiation, and maturation that was realized
when they were involved in relationships characterized by C onclusion
openness, empathy, unconditional positive regard, and
genuineness. Rogers’ client-centred therapy supported the Psychology is a fragmented discipline. There is no consensus
creation of such a relationship between therapist and client. within psychology about the characteristics of human
Ideally, the therapeutic relationship was intensely personal nature, research methodology, the social function of the
and subjective, wherein therapists provided unconditional discipline, and the nature of its applications. Three
positive regard to their clients in order to stimulate them to components of the discipline have been described:
explore their own feelings. Therapists encouraged clients to experimental research, mental testing, and psychotherapy.
take charge of their own lives while refraining from offering The relationships between these three approaches have
advice, interpretations, and diagnoses. Rogers instructed always been tenuous. Experimental psychologists purport
therapists to listen carefully to their clients and summarize to investigate the laws underlying human nature.
the essence of what they had heard. Therapists were to Psychologists involved in the development and application
accept their clients’ feelings as entirely legitimate in order to of mental tests are interested in individual differences.
restore their self-confidence, the key to mental health and Clinical psychologists approach their clients as unique
the pursuit of greater fulfilment in life. human beings and provide help to them on an individualized
basis. These different orientations and practices impede the
unification of the discipline.
B ehaviour and cognitive
therapy
Psychology in developed countries
More recently, behaviouristic psychologists have proposed
methods of psychotherapy aimed at behaviour modification. Psychology is currently thriving in many countries around
The American experimental psychologist Joseph Wolpe the world. Psychology in the United States has produced a

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considerable amount of experimental research without direct After the Second World War, there were still only a very
practical applications. In many other countries, the small number of academic positions in psychology. As a
development of the discipline has been motivated by practical consequence, British psychology was characterized by its
concerns connected to the development of the educational applications, mostly in the educational system, in industry,
system and health care facilities. As a consequence, and in medicine. The same holds true for a number of
educational psychology, mental testing, and psychotherapy Commonwealth countries, among them Canada, Australia,
are the dominant forms of psychology outside of the United New Zealand, and South Africa, whose academic systems
States. National differences in psychology significantly are based on the United Kingdom model.
decreased towards the end of the twentieth century due to Psychology in France was initially characterized by the
an increase in international exchange among scholars. pathological psychology of Janet. After the Second World
Generally, psychologists in different countries have selectively War, Daniel Lagache (1903–1972), a philosopher, physician
incorporated elements of experimental research, mental and psychoanalyst, defined and inaugurated clinical
testing, and psychotherapy. The development of the psychology in universities and contributed to the professional
discipline has often been spearheaded by scholars who have establishment of psychologists in medicine. Psychology in
studied with leading psychologists, initially in Germany, the France has always leaned heavily towards psychotherapy
United Kingdom, and France and, currently, in the United and became strongly psychoanalytic in nature through the
States.4 influence of Jacques Lacan (1901–1981). Lacan’s version of
Psychology has become very influential in the United psychoanalysis was built around the entrance of the growing
States, having grown dramatically since the Second child into the symbolic order at the moment language was
World War because of extensive military funding and the acquired. Until the 1960s, there were also existentialist and
expansion of clinical psychology. Although clinical phenomenological currents in French psychology. At the
psychologists greatly outnumber experimental psychologists, same time, a small experimental tradition continued to
the latter group has been reluctant to release its position of grow.
power and influence within the American Psychological In Spain, psychology has always had a strong practical
Association. This has led to the peculiar situation where a emphasis and has developed in close relation with medicine
relatively small number of experimental psychologists and education. Its association with the educational system
control the profession even though it consists mostly of led to an interest in developmental psychology, in which the
practitioners engaged in psychotherapy and mental testing. theories of Piaget were particularly influential. An early
Since 1945, psychology throughout the world has been prominent figure was the physician Emilio Mira y Lopez
heavily dominated by developments in the United States, (1896–1964), who was instrumental in promoting
where an estimated 80 per cent of the world’s psychologists psychoanalysis in Spain. He was also interested in the
live and work. There is a rather asymmetrical relationship adaptation and creation of mental tests in aiding personnel
between American psychologists and practitioners in the selection, vocational guidance, and educational
rest of the world. In teaching, American textbooks are used administration. Like many other influential psychologists,
virtually everywhere. Psychologists all over the world read Mira was forced to leave Spain after the Civil War. He
American publications while their own work, even when settled in Brazil and has exerted a strong influence on the
published in English, is mostly ignored in the United States. development of the discipline in Latin America.
This state of affairs impedes progress within the discipline Psychology in Russia developed under the influence of
and makes it very difficult for American psychologists to the political organization of the Soviet Union. Under
correct cultural biases in their own work. Psychologists Communism, the discipline predominantly addressed
from several countries have applied American theories, educational and developmental issues and gained a strong
models, and techniques uncritically and without much theoretical orientation. From the early 1930s until the late
modification, which is inherently problematic. 1950s, psychoanalysis, mental testing, and approaches
The origins of experimental psychology are generally dealing with mental phenomena were banned as ‘bourgeois’
considered rooted in nineteenth-century Germany, when in nature while Pavlov’s reflexology was presented as the
university life flourished. Several approaches to the field official Marxist doctrine. One of the most interesting
have origins in the first three decades of the twentieth attempts to reconcile a psychology of consciousness with
century: Wundt’s physiological psychology, investigations the official doctrine of dialectical materialism was the
of higher mental processes (the Würzburg school), the cultural-historical school led by Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–
Gestalt school, and phenomenological psychology. With 1934), who was interested in the relationship between
the onset of National Socialism, many Jewish psychologists cultural and child development. Vygotsky’s ideas were
fled the country and continued their careers elsewhere. At further developed by his collaborator Alexei N. Leontiev
this time, psychology developed its practical side, in (1903–1979), who developed the theory of activity, which
particular its military applications. After the war American became the official Soviet psychological doctrine in the
approaches strongly influenced the growth of the discipline 1960s. Currently, Russian psychologists are redefining their
in the Federal Republic of Germany. The German identity in the post-Communist era.
Democratic Republic aligned itself with Russian psychology, In Japan, the discipline has evolved almost entirely along
which examined the effects of social arrangements on Euro-American lines with a strong emphasis on research.
individuals in order to aid the building of a socialist industrial Early in the twentieth century, Wundtian experimental
society.  psychology set the tone; after 1930 Gestalt psychology
Psychology in the United Kingdom has always had a predominated. In the wake of the Second World War, neo-
strong psychometric tradition and an emphasis on practical behaviourism became influential. Psychological research
applications. In particular, the application of mental tests has been generously funded by the Japanese government
within the educational system was extensively developed. and large industrial firms. A great number of mental tests

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have been imported, translated, and standardized on discipline commenced. Increasingly, scholars developed
Japanese samples. There is currently a strong interest in theories, concepts, and models that were relevant to the
artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. Some Indian context. Psychologists felt the need to orient their
research has been conducted in traditional Japanese discipline towards addressing the myriad socio-economic
psychology, especially Zen Buddhism. stresses characteristic of a rapidly developing country.
Research projects started to investigate rural life as well as
the consequences of poverty. Using ethnographic
Psychology in developing countries approaches, child development in different cultural and
religious groups has been studied. Clinical psychologists
The development of psychology in countries outside of study the collective and contextual features determining
Europe and North America has been slow and beset by personality and behaviour rather than rely on individualistic
difficulties. In most developing countries, psychology was models prevalent elsewhere. An interest in indigenous
imported by the colonial powers. When these nations modes of health care, such as Ayurveda, has led to specifically
gained independence, their universities had to redefine their Indian conceptions of psychotherapy.
programmes. Many industrialized nations held the view In many different countries in sub-Saharan Africa,
that developing nations must undergo the same processes of psychology is mainly part of teacher education programmes,
modernization that they themselves did. They assumed that where the focus is on human development, learning, and
socio-economic change should be guided by an academic educational applications. Africans have frequently been the
elite trained in Euro-American universities. Psychologists subjects of anthropological and psychological research
in developing countries who share this perspective have conducted by scholars from colonizing countries. Not
attempted to emulate Euro-American approaches, often by surprisingly, much of this research has had limited relevance
uncritically importing psychological theories and techniques. to Africans themselves. At present, serious attempts to
This has frequently caused psychology in these countries to make psychology an indigenously based discipline pertinent
be derivative, unoriginal, and irrelevant to national to national development are in progress. Unfortunately,
development. Often, the discipline has not evolved in language barriers still impede communication among
response to local needs but in opposition to national and African psychologists from neighbouring countries, which
cultural traditions. In some developing countries, slows the development of a unified African perspective on
psychologists have recently initiated a number of research the discipline.
projects that address local needs and are receptive to The research conducted during the last thirty years in
traditional practices. This does not diminish the dilemma countries outside of North America has challenged the
they face: either they conduct Euro-American style research, universality of Euro-American psychological theories. This
which is locally irrelevant, or they initiate locally relevant has resulted in the development of cross-cultural psychology,
research and are ignored by their colleagues internationally. which is concerned with interplay of culture, individual
Psychology in Latin America is highly developed and is behaviour, and modes of experience.5 Thus far, however,
characterized by educational, clinical, and industrial cross-cultural psychology has primarily been a Euro-
applications. Its development was stimulated by German American activity testing the universality of essentially
and Spanish émigrés who settled there in the 1930s. In Western concepts. Ideally, experts from developing countries
Brazil, psychology developed out of philosophy, education, would be considered equal partners in this research to be
and the medical sciences. Until the 1960s, it mainly followed conducted in a spirit of dialogue aimed at mutual enrichment.
European tendencies; thereafter, it became increasingly Psychologists throughout the world need to be sensitive to
oriented towards North American developments. There is a local conditions when they appropriate Euro-American
strong emphasis on educational, industrial, and clinical approaches. However, in addition to transforming
psychology, psychoanalysis being the most influential predominant models, theories, and techniques for use within
psychotherapeutic approach. Currently there is strong their own national context, they need to develop a psychology
interest in qualitative methods, which are better suited to informed by their own nation’s cultural norms and needs.
address specifically Brazilian issues. Some psychologists On the basis of such work, exchanges can be instigated
prefer research in natural settings rather than laboratory among psychologists from different countries and cultural
work. Psychology in Mexico has been influenced by the backgrounds. These could potentially rectify the insensitivity
approaches of James Mark Baldwin and Erich Fromm, both of Western psychological theories to sociocultural factors
of whom resided there. and thereby enhance the discipline in the future.
In India, psychology began at the turn of the twentieth
century as a series of imitations and replications of research
projects conducted in Germany and the United Kingdom,
where most psychologists had received their training. After NOTES
Indian independence in 1947, psychology rapidly expanded.
Psychological research was primarily undertaken to validate 1. M. G. Ash, Gestalt Psychology in German Culture,
mental tests for use in India and to address psychological 1890–1967: Holism and the Quest for Objectivity, New York,
problems related to industry, vocational guidance, education, 1995.
and community service. Initially, psychologists 2. H. Gardner, The Mind’s New Science: A History of the
indiscriminately imported Euro-American psychological Cognitive Revolution, New York, 1985.
theories, models, and tools without questioning their 3. J. Piaget and B. Inhelder, The Growth of Logical
relevance to the Indian context. This situation changed in Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence: An Essay on the
the 1960s, after it had been extensively criticized. In order to Construction of Formal Operational Structures [Trans.
outgrow the alien framework, a rapid indigenization of the A. Parsons and S. Milgram], New York, 1958.

348
 P S Y CHO L O G Y

4. For overviews of psychology in different countries see: JANET, P. 1919. Les médications psychologiques: études historiques,
V. S. Sexton and H. Misiak (eds), Psychology Around the psychologiques et cliniques sur les méthodes de la psychothérapie.
World, Monterey, CA, 1976; A. R. Gilgen and C. K. Gilgen F. Alcan, Paris. [JANET, P. 1925. Psychological Healing: A Historical
(eds.), International Handbook of Psychology, London, 1987; and Clinical Study. [Trans. E. and C. Paul.] (2 vols.). Allen &
V. S. Sexton and J. D. Hogan (eds.), International Psychology: Unwin, London.]
Views from Around the World, Lincoln, NB, 1992. JORAVSKY, D. 1989. Russian Psychology: A Critical History. Basil
5. H. C. Triandis and W. W. Lambert (eds.), Handbook Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
of Cross-Cultural Psychology, (6 vols.), Boston, MA, 1980. JUNG, C. G. 2001. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Routledge,
London.
KAMIN, L. J. 1974. The Science and Politics of IQ. Lawrence Erlbaum &
BIBLIOGRAPHy Associates, Potomac, MD.
KOZULIN, A. 1984. Psychology in Utopia: Toward a Social History of
ASCH, S. E. 1956. Studies of Independence and Conformity: A Soviet Psychology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Minority of One against a Unanimous Majority. In: Psychological LEWONTIN, R. C., ROSE, S. and KAMIN, L. J. 1984. Not in Our Genes:
Monographs: General and Applied. Vol. 70, No. 9, pp. 1–70. Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature. Pantheon, New York.
American Psychological Association, Washington DC. LUBORSKY, L. , SINGER, B. and LUBORSKY, L. 1975. Comparative
ASH, M. G. 1995. Gestalt Psychology in German Culture, 1890–1967: Studies of Psychotherapies: Is it True that ‘Everyone Has Won
Holism and the Quest for Objectivity. Cambridge University Press, and All Must Have Prizes’? In: Archives of General Psychiatry,
New York. Vol. 32, No. 8, pp. 995–1008.
BINET, A. and SIMON, T. 1908. Le développement de l’intelligence chez MASLOW, A. H. 1954. Motivation and Personality. Harper and Row,
les enfants. In: L’Année Psychologique, Paris, Vol. 14, pp. 1–94. New York.
[BINET, A. and SIMON, T. 1916. The Development of Intelligence in MILGRAM, S. 1974. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View.
Children (The Binet-Simon Scale). [Trans. E. S. Kite.] Wilkins & Harper and Row, New York.
Wilkins, Baltimore, MD.] NANDY, A. 1974. The Non-paradigmatic Crisis in Indian Psychology:
BRIGHAM, C. C. 1923. A Study of American Intelligence. Princeton Reflections on a Recipient Culture of Science. In: Indian Journal of
University Press, Princeton, NJ. Psychology, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 1–20.
BURT, C. L. 1937. The Backward Child. London University Press, PIAGET, J. and INHELDER, B. 1955. De la logique de l’enfant à la logique
London. de l’adolescent: Essai sur la construction des structures opératoires
CHOMSKY, N. 1957. Syntactic Structures. Mouton, The Hague, formelles. PUF, Paris. [PIAGET, J. and INHELDER, B. 1958. The
Netherlands. Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence: An
DANZIGER, K. 1991. Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Essay on the Construction of Formal Operational Structures. [Trans.
Psychological Research. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, A. Parsons and S. Milgram.] Basic Books, New York.]
UK. REISMAN, J. M. 1991. A History of Clinical Psychology. (2nd edn.).
EYSENCK, H. J. 1952. The Scientific Study of Personality. Routledge & Hemisphere Publishing, New York.
Kegan Paul, London. REUCHLIN, M. 1980. Histoire de la psychologie. PUF, Paris.
 1957. The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation. In: Journal of ROGERS, C. R. 1951. Client-centered Therapy: Its Current Practice,
Consulting Psychology, Vol. 16, pp. 319–324. International Science Implications, and Theory. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.
Press, New York. SCHOLNICK, E. K. (ed.). 1983. New Trends in Conceptual Representation:
FREUD, S. 1933. Neue Folge der Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Challenges to Piaget’s Theory? Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Psychoanalyse. Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 11, 15. Fisher Verlag, SEXTON, V. S. and HOGAN, J. D. (eds). 1992. International Psychology:
Frankfurt am Main, Germany. [FREUD, S. and STRACHEY, J. (ed.). Views from Around the World. University of Nebraska Press,
1953–74. The Standard Edition of the Psychological Works of Lincoln, NB.
Sigmund Freud. Hogarth Press, London.] SEXTON, V. S. and MISIAK, H. (eds). 1976. Psychology Around the
GARDNER, H. 1985. The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive World. Brooks/Cole, Monterey, CA.
Revolution. Basic Books, New York. SPEARMAN, C. 1923. The Nature of ‘Intelligence’ and the Principles of
GAY, P. 1988. Freud: A Life for Our Time. W. W. Norton & Co., New Cognition. Macmillan, London.
York. TERMAN, L. M. 1919. The Intelligence of School Children: How Children
GEUTER, U. 1984. Die Professionalisierung der Deutschen Psychologie im Differ in Ability. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.
Nationalsozialismus. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, Germany. [GEUTER, THURSTONE, L. L. 1924. The Nature of Intelligence. Kegan Paul,
U. 1992. The Professionalization of Psychology in Nazi Germany. Trench, Trubner, London.
[Trans. R. J. Holmes.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, TITCHENER, E. B. 1901-1905. Experimental Psychology: A Manual of
UK.] Laboratory Practice. (2 vols.). Macmillan, New York.
GILGEN, A. R. and GILGEN, C. K. (eds). 1987. International Handbook of TRIANDIS, H. C. and LAMBERT, W. W. (eds). 1980. Handbook of Cross-
Psychology. Aldwych Press, London. Cultural Psychology. (6 vols.). Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
GOULD, S. J. 1996. The Mismeasure of Man. (Revised and expanded WATSON, J. B. 1919. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist.
edn.). W. W. Norton & Co., New York. Lippincott, Philadelphia, PA.
HEARNSHAW, L. S. 1964. A Short History of British Psychology, 1840–  1930. Behaviourism. W. W. Norton & Co., New York.
1940. Methuen, London. WOLPE, J. and LAZARUS, A. A. 1966. Behaviour Therapy Techniques: A
 1979. Cyril Burt: Psychologist. Hodder and Stoughton, London. Guide to the Treatment of Neuroses. Pergamon Press, New York.
HERMAN, E. 1995. The Romance of American Psychology: Political WUNDT, W. 1896. Grundriss der Psychologie. Wilhelm Engelmann,
Culture in the Age of Experts. University of California Press, Leipzig, Germany. [ WUNDT, W. 1907. Outlines of Psychology.
Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA. [Trans. C. H. Judd.], Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, Germany.]

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INTE L L ECT U A L C U L T U R E

Anouar Abdel-Malek, coordinator

Introduction

Anouar Abdel-Malek

From the outset, the notion of intellectual culture gives rise In this context, any meaningful attempt to study
to a two-part query: Is the difference between intellectual intellectual culture in our times must take into account
culture and the more common notion of culture simply a three major considerations:
matter of terminology? Or is there a need to refine the – The major factors – science, technology, thought
substantive analysis of the field of culture towards a more processes – constitute major formative inputs of the
specific definition of the field under study? dominant sector of advanced societies. These general
The term ‘culture’ usually designates that level of social factors will be considered in their dialectical
life and activity that is distinct from the level of production interrelation with the endogenous dimension, i.e. the
of the necessities of life, traditionally based on agriculture, manifold specificities which constitute the real-
as in many under-developed areas around the world today. concrete world of contemporary societies. This
‘Culture’ is commonly used to designate the level above endogenous dimension is assuming a growing role in
material culture, i.e. the superstructure of social life and the more general sphere, at the very time of the rise of
activities. hegemonism of the central area.
Culture thus understood encompasses all formative – The proper study of ‘intellectual culture’ in our
component factors and processes of superstructure: ideas changing world should proceed along two paths,
and aesthetics, science and religion, philosophy and simultaneously. Major component formative factors
technology, power, the whole range of human or social and processes constitute the general exogenous
sciences. Hence the notion of intellectual culture comprises dimension, which can best reveal the global
the realm of ideas and thought, the natural and physical superstructural level. Hence, the validity of the study
sciences, and the field of aesthetics (art, literature, music, of the set of global factors in the thematic sections of
etc.). However, this distinction can only be used for the UNESCO project, including ‘intellectual culture’.
analytic purposes, since all component factors and The study of this exogenous level will become
processes of superstructure are simultaneously related to meaningful if it is engaged upon simultaneously with
each other and to the whole range of economic and social studies of the endogenous circles undertaken in the
structures. relevant area studies of this same project.
The study of intellectual culture can thus be understood – In the exploration of the exogenous dimension –
as the study of the Zeitgeist (‘the spirit of the times’) exemplified by ‘intellectual culture’, caution is required.
prevailing in the world at a given period of history. And yet, While the exogenous circle/level deals with the more
it is being used to this day to explore the spirit of the general universal dimension, it ought to be rooted in
dominant Western civilization, which has become equated the historical and living processes at work in the
with the civilization of the contemporary world, as evidenced different units of the endogenous circle, instead of
by the majority of general and specialized studies. being relegated to the area studies of the endogenous
A word of caution is thus in order. The study of the dimension. Field studies must always be given a central
spirit of the times can be accepted as a starting point place. Thus, the tonality of each section of the
towards the urgent task of taking stock of the whole range exogenous circle/level will express its composite nature
of civilizations, cultures and national specificities of our as both general ‘specialism’, and as output of the
changing world. manifold distinct areas of our changing world.

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HIGH CULTURES AND DOMINATED CULTURES

Gananath Obeyesekere

the emergence of other the bow and arrow and led to the older period of barbarism,
cultures and a new form which in turn began with the invention of pottery and so
of history writing forth. At the risk of oversimplifying, one might say that such
doctrines were by and large supported by nineteenth-century
One of the fascinating cultural phenomena of the early thinkers like James Frazer, Edward Tylor, Herbert Spencer,
twentieth century is the advent of a unique form of writing Auguste Comte and Lewis Henry Morgan.2 What made such
history involving societies that have never been recorded in systemic evolution possible, according to an interesting theory
the official history books. The great historians of Western formulated by Adolf Bastian, was the ‘psychic unity of
Europe, the Middle East, China and South Asia were mankind’, that is, that in spite of differences, human beings
interested primarily in dynastic histories and the histories of were psychically the same, a much more interesting and
wars and conquest that lead to the self-glorification of the productive notion than that of Levy-Bruhl, who postulated
nation or empire. The subalterns rarely emerged as actors on the idea of a primitive mentality, a sort of mystical thinking
the world stage, and their societies were at best only characteristic of preliterate peoples.3
peripherally mentioned. However, in the early twentieth The evolutionary paradigm and the simplistic views of
century, when ethnography appeared on the scene, there small-scale societies from colonial archives, themselves
emerged systematic descriptions and analyses of societies and mechanisms of domination (see Arjun Appadurai, Nicholas
cultures never before recorded. Had we accounts of such Dirks and the work of other scholars), received a severe blow
small-scale societies for earlier periods, our knowledge of as a consequence of the development of fieldwork in the
human history or culture would have been enormously United States by the German émigré Franz Boas.4 This
enriched, and a different world view would surely have arisen. produced a historical anthropology of mostly Amerindian
It is not that the knowledge of small-scale societies was and Inuit (Eskimo) cultures (Plate 127) and an elaborate
unknown prior to the twentieth century. The colonial archives taxonomy to classify cultures, in terms of such criteria as
provided much admittedly biased information on the cultures traits, patterns and complexes, which could then be grouped
dominated by colonial and imperial powers particularly after into larger cultural areas. 5 Two distinguished British
the so-called ‘discovery’ of the Americas and especially so after anthropologists, W. H. R. Rivers and C. G. Seligmann,
the later voyages of Captain Cook to Polynesia sponsored by conducted expeditions to New Guinea and Africa to
the Royal Society of Great Britain. In the nineteenth century, undertake sustained fieldwork in two now classic ‘primitive’
various scientific societies devoted to the study of ‘primitive’ societies, the Todas of South India and the Veddahs of Sri
societies sprang up in the major European capitals. The Lanka (Ceylon), in the first decade of the twentieth century.6
strategy for studying these groups was strongly influenced by Their students, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw
Darwinism, the period’s predominant scientific paradigm, Malinowski, began a tradition of sustained fieldwork that in
but began focusing on the evolution of a specific cultural turn led to a revolution in the description and analysis of
practice or human culture as a whole. Thus, early theorists in small-scale societies generally labelled as ‘tribes’.7 American
the human sciences were interested in such things as the cultural historians and British ethnographers and their
evolution of specific forms of marriage or kinship, and a followers throughout the world were interested in small-
common concern was the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy scale societies organized on the basis of kinship, lineage and
or the very opposite (both forms were perhaps antedated by clan organization. Kinship theory became one of the key
primitive promiscuity, which obsessed Victorians). Another paradigms for the study of small-scale societies, which were
concern was the sequential evolution of religion from (it was suggested) cut from larger trans-local forms of political
animatism (mana), animism, polytheism, and henotheism and social organization. Even when the emphasis later moved
and monotheism.1 Alternatively, it was hypothesized that to the study of villages located in complex civilizations, the
human societies developed from savagery to barbarism to analytical model remained the same. By the 1960s, the
civilization, and these broad stages were then supplemented scholarly world fully discovered the richness and diversity of
with early, middle or late phases, each phase heralded by a human societies and engaged in theoretical discussions
specific type of technological innovation. For example, the regarding the components that held each society together,
‘later’ or third period of savagery began with the invention of namely, the idea of culture.

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The attempts to understand ‘culture’ resulted in a culture. Consequently, they were said to be actually ‘animists’
multiplicity of contending definitions, but perhaps the most or those who possessed cultural beliefs with little or no
influential one was first formulated by Max Weber and doctrinal sanction. Redfield’s laudable attempt to solve this
subsequently developed by the sociologist Talcott Parsons dilemma probably led to the coining of the two terms.
and adapted to the field of anthropology by his heirs, Unfortunately, this solution, like previous ones, produced
especially Clifford Geertz.8 Weber made the point that its own dilemmas. Is the little tradition of the ‘ordinary folk’
reality in the natural world is essentially meaningless; human so different from the great tradition of the learned few, and
beings impose meaning on this intrinsically formless, are there not complex interconnections between the two,
meaningless reality of the world, and in this way culture such that the so-called great tradition might have influenced
becomes that segment of the world ‘on which human beings the little and vice versa? One has only to look at the doctrinal
confer meaning and significance’. When publicly shared corpus of early Buddhism to realize that it contained many
meanings are conferred in this manner, culture itself ends popular and folk elements together with lofty philosophical
up by becoming the reality through which the world is speculation. Further, the idea of great and little traditions is
perceived, defined and structured. It follows that if animal intrinsic to the Western social science preoccupation with
societies can be divided into species, human societies can be binary oppositions such as tradition vs. modernity, primitive
divided into cultures, and this led in turn to the more vs. civilized, class vs. classless, centre vs. periphery, and many
controversial thesis of cultural relativism. more that effectively obviate a middle ground or a blurring
The model of the ‘primitive’ or small-scale society of distinctions. Soon fieldwork in villages of so-called
contained within a frame of constructed values or culture civilizations and the study of doctrinal traditions themselves
received a severe blow with the creation of newly independent could no longer sustain the distinction between great and
states, after the Second World War. Equally significant little traditions. However, this erosion of binary conceptions
was the interconnecting of the world through global trade was not directly the result of fieldwork per se but also
and communications, which distorted the notion of the derived from the impact of the emerging theoretical
isolated primitive. In hindsight, one wondered whether that disciplines in the global cultural scene after the 1970s and in
model was supported by empirical evidence, because even the aftermath of the structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss.11
the most remote societies were directly and indirectly Especially significant was the post-structuralist thought of
interlocked through trade and other kinds of networks, as Foucault, which examined knowledge and its relation to
indeed the study of the kula ring (linking many New Guinea power, and Edward Said’s Orientalism (developing the work
societies through trade and gift exchange) demonstrated in of Anouar Abdel-Malek).12 Others dealt with the important
Melanesia by Bronislaw Malinowski.9 Although the model fact that some traditions are often considered ancient even
of the isolated community had a sort of heuristic validity, it though they can easily be proved to be recent.13 Not only
is also true that the ‘the primitive world and its are traditions being constantly invented, but old traditions
transformations’ had long been ongoing. However, this are being reinvented in terms of new values of modernity
process accelerated after the mid-nineteenth century. and post-modernity. This last issue was directly or indirectly
influenced by post-modern thought that seems to radically
question older ways of theorizing in the human sciences.
T he emergence of ‘ high culture ’ Foucault’s work in particular should make us consider
and its problematic nature whether the concepts used by early ethnographers to
describe other cultures were directly or indirectly involved
Robert Redfield was one of the pioneers that expanded the in the colonial domination of those same cultures. Finally,
model of the small-scale society, which was deemed one cannot ignore the emerging new research on globalization
inadequate to deal with complex societies and ‘civilizations’, that has focused on the possibility of a breakdown of the
namely, those societies with a high degree of cultural integrity of separate cultural forms that had preoccupied
development, a doctrinal religious corpus and a written earlier scholars.
literary tradition. 10 Here the older notion of ‘culture’ Nevertheless the idea of high culture will not simply go
encompassing literary and artistic achievement met the away, because there is the unmistakable historical
more socially grounded Weberian notion of culture. phenomenon of a written, literate culture of the great
Redfield argued that the primitive world was being civilizations of the sort historically typified by Karl Jaspers
transformed but also that there were multiple cultural as ‘axial age’ civilizations, such as that of ancient China,
traditions in past and contemporary civilizations in places Greece, the Near East, Iran and India.14 These civilizations
such as India and China. Focusing on his knowledge of the self-consciously claimed to be the heirs to a ‘great tradition’
cultures of India and the Americas, Redfield formulated a or a high culture and it seems futile to deny this self-image,
model for studying the small-scale society within a larger even though one ought to resist binary thought and not
civilization (which possesses what one might call a ‘high oppose high culture with a ‘low culture.’ Hence the title of
culture’) by suggesting two key distinctions, the ‘great Sherry Ortner’s book, High Religion, which effectively deals
tradition’ of the civilization and the ‘little tradition’ of the with the recent implantation among the Sherpas of Nepal
village. This model was followed by his colleagues and of the doctrinal traditions of Tibetan Buddhist monasticism
students at the University of Chicago, who became the as opposed to the popular or folk religion of the ordinary
leading researchers in the study of ‘complex societies’. people that prevailed until now.15 Although Ortner shuns
Though the terms ‘little and great traditions’ were opposing high with low, the problem of the epistemological
popularized by Redfield, similar ideas surely existed at the status of both high and folk religions still remains. How
turn of the century at least in the work of scholars of high is the new ‘high religion’ and how removed from the
Buddhist texts, who noted that ordinary people in Buddhist ‘high religion’ are the traditions of ordinary Sherpas? This
societies knew little of the doctrinal corpus or the high raises an additional question: does the high religion

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dominate the already existing popular traditions? oppositional view of the oral and literate is Jack Goody.18 It
Domination is always one of degree, and while there is no is certainly the case, according to Paul Ricoeur, that the
doubt that the doctrinal traditions of Buddhism have written text produces a kind of ‘distancing’ (distanciation) of
transformed local beliefs, including pre-Buddhist ones, the reader and an authoritativeness and fixity that the oral
there is little evidence that domination entailed the wilful tradition lacks.19 Ricoeur’s general point is basically correct,
elimination of the latter by the state. The intolerance but even this does not apply to all oral traditions as
regarding local beliefs is more a function of the great demonstrated by the Vedic texts that were memorized with
monotheistic cultures, which view the pre-existing remarkable accuracy and ‘fixed’ by Brahmin priests for over
traditions as the worship of sticks, stones and idols, thereby ten centuries before being recorded in writing. Further,
justifying their destruction if not with impunity, at least Goody and others claim that writing and literary cultures
with good conscience. In general, one could say that as far produce more complex forms of thought than oral ones.
as most pre-modern states were concerned, there was little This however can easily be disproved. Anyone will agree
or no attempt to force the local traditions, whether tribal or that the early Buddhist texts contained highly complex
village, into a mould set up by the state (regardless of the philosophical discourses yet it is almost certain that Buddha
state’s form). For example, in the Buddhist states of South did not put any of it in writing, as it is not known with
and South-East Asia, there was little ideological control certainty whether writing was known or practised in his
from the centre. Ordinary Buddhists were permitted to time. Further, until at least the first century bc these texts
continue a multiplicity of local practices as long as they did were transmitted orally. When Buddhist texts were recorded
not flagrantly violate the basic principles of Buddhist in writing, they then took on a textual fixity. Written texts
doctrine. Thus, over time most Theravāda Buddhist also facilitated the spread of the religion to China, a literary
societies managed to abolish animal sacrifices, though such culture par excellence. However, the distinction between
practices did continue on the local level out of reach or oral and written is complicated by the fact that Buddhist
sight of monastic centres,16 whereas in modern times, with writings operated, one might say, ‘in an oral field’.
the development of the nation state based on the European Until the development of modern printing techniques,
model, Buddhist nations have become more ideologically Buddhist texts were written on palm leaves or in print in
intolerant and have made widespread attempts to the regions under Chinese influence. Written texts
homogenize the nation in terms of the real or imagined facilitated memorization. In Sri Lanka, for example, monks
values of the ‘high’ religion. This is also true of the small- chanted written texts, even prose ones, because through
scale societies or ‘tribes’ as recent research has shown. chanting one could put punctuation marks that were not
Indeed, throughout the world, nation states have imposed conventionally found in these texts. Further, memorized
their ideologies on these societies. Thus, in his provocatively texts were recited at public gatherings and in sermons.
titled book Peasants into Frenchmen, Eugen Weber Sometimes ‘textual fetishism’ occurred. Thus the great
documents in great detail the manner in which local Buddhist chronicle of Sri Lanka, the Mahāvamsa, was not
languages and traditions were threatened by the state, not only read but, like the Bible in medieval Europe, was treated
necessarily through the use of direct force but rather with reverence and paraded in processions. This fact brings
through various means of what might be called symbolic into question whether written texts are really ‘distancing’ as
coercion. Examples are the imposition of Parisian French Ricoeur has suggested, though a certain degree of fixity is
as the national language to replace the various regional attached even to ancient texts. This was also true of
patois, and a national system of education that slowly but Buddhist texts, known as pāritta, recited for the purpose of
relentlessly reached virtually every region of the nation blessing people. They were carried in procession to a special
state.17 In the new states of Africa and Asia, the ideological place prior to being recited from memory by monks. One
role of the nation state has been completely adopted, must also recognize that doctrinal texts produced a whole
though the processes of domination of local regions, genre of edifying written literature in both Buddhism and
communities and cultures have by no means been fully Christianity that was modelled on their respective
achieved. In some instances, there are recent counter repertoires of folk tales. These ‘intermediate texts’, such as
ideological movements that put a premium on the value of the life stories of Buddha in his previous existences, were
local traditions and belief systems and the benefits of recited at public gatherings. The texts were then
cultural heterogeneity and pluralism. Once again, these appropriated by illiterate listeners who retransmitted them
ideological movements are not simply a resurrection of past via the oral tradition. Additionally, like other Buddhist
traditions by political and literary elites but a function of societies, Sri Lanka had a considerable number of literate
modern social theories mentioned earlier that place value people even in villages. We know that orally transmitted
on cultural difference and diversity and the impact of these songs and ritual texts used in communal thanksgiving
theories on public knowledge and government policies rituals and exorcisms were written down as early as the
through various direct and indirect channels. sixteenth century for the purpose of facilitating
memorization. In more remote parts of the country, outside
the orbit of Buddhist civilization, the very same texts and
H igh cultures , oral traditions , related ones persisted through oral transmission. Thus the
and literacy field of the oral often embraced the written and the field of
the written embraced the oral in complex processes of
One of the distinctions that some scholars believe are interpenetration. It was only with the advent of ‘print
applicable to high religions or cultures in contrast with the capitalism’ – i.e. the universal prevalence of printed texts in
‘little traditions’ deals with literate vs. oral cultures. If the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – that a radical
divested of its binary oppositional features, this distinction separation of the two fields resulted in the partial erosion of
might have some heuristic value. The major exponent of the oral expression in favour of the written word.

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N otes Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions, New

York, 1963; Weber’s classic definition of culture is found in
1. These writers are hardly read today. Some of the better ‘“Objectivity” in Social Science and Social Policy’, in M.
known are J. F. McLennan, Primitive Marriage: An Inquiry Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences (trans. E. A.
into the Origin of the Form of Capture in Marriage, Edinburgh, Shils and H. A. Finch), New York, 1949, p. 81. For the
1865; R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion, London, 1909; modern usage see the seminal essays by C. Geertz, The
A. C. Haddon, Evolution in Art: As Illustrated by the Life Interpretation of Cultures, New York, 1973.
Histories of Designs, London, 1895; and J. Bachofen, Das 9. For Malinowski see note 7.
Mutterrecht: Eine Untersuchung über die Gynaikokratie der 10. Robert Redfield’s seminal work is very readable. See
alten Welt nach ihrer religiösen und rechtlichen Natur, 1861. The Primitive World and Its Transformations, Ithaca, 1953;
2. The reader will get a sense for the approach of cultural and The Little Community, Chicago, 1955. For the early
evolutionism in the title of Lewis Henry Morgan’s book, application of these ideas to India read, M. Marriott (ed.),
Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Progress from Village India: Studies in the Little Community, Chicago,
Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization, New York, 1877. 1960.
Many of these ideas can be found in any good introductory 11. Claude Lévi-Strauss is not easy to understand but, as
text in anthropology. I suggest F. W. Voget, ‘The History with Foucault, there are good popular expositions of his
of Cultural Anthropology’, in J. J. Honigmann (ed.), work. The general reader however ought to read his The
Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Chicago, Savage Mind, Chicago, 1966. My suggestion for the
1973, pp. 1–88. inquisitive non-specialist reader is H. H. Penner, Teaching
3. Adolf Bastian, an ethnologist, whose most significant Lévi-Strauss, Atlanta, GA, 1998
work on primitive mentality was Ethnische Elementargedanken 12. Michel Foucault is a must for all interested in
in der Lehre von Menschen, Berlin, 1895; for Lucien Levy- contemporary thought though his extensive corpus is
Bruhl read, Primitive Mythology: The Mythic World of the perhaps somewhat forbidding. However, everyone ought
Australian and Papuan Natives (trans. Brian Elliott), St to read at least The Archaeology of Knowledge (trans.
Lucia and London, 1983 [1935]. A. M. Sheridan Smith), New York, 1972; and The Birth of
4. For criticisms of colonial classification in South Asia, the Clinic (trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith), New York, 1973.
see A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions For Edward Said, see note 4; and see Anouar Abdel-
of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN, 1997; and N. Dirks, Malek, ‘Orientalism in Crisis’, in Diogenes, Vol. 44, (winter)
Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, 1963.
Princeton, NJ, 2001. ‘Subaltern studies’ was initiated by 13. E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds), The Invention of
Indian scholars to draw attention to actors and events Tradition, New York, 1983.
neglected by mainstream history; it was strongly influenced 14. K. Jaspers, Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte,
by Edward Said, Orientalism, New York, 1978. Franz Boas Zurich, Artemiss-Verlag, 1949; and the development of his
wrote extensively on the Northwest Coast Indians and for thought by S. Eisenstadt, ‘The Axial Age: The Emergence
the general reader his work could best be understood by of Transcendental Visions and the Rise of Clerics’, European
looking at some of the secondary literature; however an easy Journal of Sociology, Vol. 23, 1982, pp. 294–314.
read would be his posthumous Kwakiutl Ethnography, edited 15. S. B. Ortner, High Religion: A Cultural and Political
by H. Cordere, Chicago, 1966. History of Sherpa Buddhism, Princeton, NJ, 1989.
5. For an overview of American historical ethnography, 16. For details read, G. Obeyesekere, Imagining Karma:
see A. L. Kroeber, The Nature of Culture, Chicago, 1952. Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist and Greek
6. W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas, London, 1906; C. G. and Rebirth, Berkeley and London, 2002.
Z. Seligmann, The Veddahs, Cambridge, 1911. 17. E. Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization
7. An easy and readable source for the development of of Rural France, 1870–1914, Stanford, CA, 1976.
fieldwork is G. W. Stocking (ed.), Observers Observed: 18. For convenience one could read J. Goody (ed.), Literacy
Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork, Madison, MI, 1985. For in Traditional Societies, Cambridge, 1968; for a critique of
A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, there is once again G. W. Stocking Goody and for the significance of oral traditions for history
(ed.), Functionalism Historicized: Essays on British Social read J. Vansina, Oral Tradition as History, Madison, WI,
Anthropology, Madison, 1984; for Malinowski read the 1975.
convenient collection edited by M. W. Young, The 19. Read especially P. Ricoeur, ‘The Hermeneutical
Ethnography of Malinowski, London, 1979 and the study by Function of Distanciation’, in: Hermeneutics and the
R. Firth, Man and Culture: An Evaluation of the Work of Human Sciences, (J. B. Thompson, ed.), Cambridge, 1981,
Malinowski, London, 1960. pp. 131–44; and his essay in the same volume, ‘The Model
8. For the multitude of definitions of ‘culture’ see the of the Text: Meaningful Action Considered as a Text’,
authoritative text by A. L. Kroeber and C. Kluckhohn, pp. 197–221.

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 25.2
Social conditioning and the ideological
trend in the historical-cultural process

Geoffrey Hawthorn

T he inheritance this effort, they found themselves united with the once-
despised nationalists. Liberals in Europe were dismayed by
In 1914, the prevailing self-consciously progressive ideologies the war, by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and by the
were nationalism, liberalism and socialism. Nationalism – resultant fragility of their economies. Adherents of all three
the conviction that peoples, defined by a common history, a ideologies were forced to reconsider their positions.
common homeland, or a common culture (and in certain Those active in the new movements for independence
cases, all three) should be free to govern themselves – from colonial rule in Asia and Africa, however, were
constituted a challenge to foreign rule. Liberalism, the encouraged by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and
conviction that individuals were bearers of common civil Ottoman empires, by the subsequent realization of
and political rights, challenged the precepts and practices of nationalist ambitions in Central and Eastern Europe, and
absolutism and, according to some, imperialism as well. by the United States’ refusal to allow the victorious imperial
Socialism, the conviction that all were entitled to live in powers to re-colonize German and Ottoman territories in
what was previously called a ‘commonwealth’, presented a Africa and the Arab lands. In India and South-East Asia, as
challenge to the first two ideologies. Nationalism, the in China after the end of imperial rule in 1911, they adopted
socialists argued, would undermine the cosmopolitan positions that were both nationalist and socialist. In the
promise of the eighteenth century, while liberalism would Arab lands, Islam was beginning to shape a specific identity
subvert the promise of equality. and provide a moral and constitutional charter for a less
Nationalists often referred to ‘authenticity’ in the locally defined brand of nationalism. Only in Latin America
language, customs and courage of ordinary people, especially were intellectuals unaffected by the upheavals of the war,
those drawn into what eighteenth-century commentators and even in Mexico, whose long revolution was influenced
had described as the new ‘commercial society’. Nationalists by ideas of agrarian socialism, debate continued on the
celebrated this notion in idealized histories and romantic familiar nineteenth-century ideological arguments and
art. The liberals stressed the freedom of individual notably concerning the virtues of ‘ancient’ vs. ‘modern’
judgement, which, they believed flourished best in a liberty.
commercial society. This line of thinking was celebrated in
histories of the triumph of freedom over oppression, and in
realistic artistic expressions. Socialists emphasized the need the years 1 9 1 8 – 1 9 3 9
to overcome the material constraints and social divisions of
commercial society. They embraced histories cast either in The changes were initially most manifest in Europe. This
an evolutionary mode or a dramatically revolutionary occurred for four reasons. It was in Europe that the most
manner. Their art also was realistic but directed more at far-reaching social transformations had been taking place,
ordinary people. the most painful of which was the transformation of millions
Some nationalists were liberal, others conservative. Some of peasants into industrial workers. It was in Europe that
liberals foresaw evolving towards socialism, and many people had suffered most directly from the war. It was at
socialists shared the liberals’ emphasis on economic change. Europe’s doorstep that the Bolsheviks had launched their
During the First World War, however, and in the war’s revolution. And it was in Europe (as well as in North
aftermath, these convictions intermingled in new ways. The America) that via print, radio, television and the development
collapse of the second Socialist International at the outbreak of other information technologies, there arose a popular
of the war and the failure of the Russian Bolsheviks, at the culture that would spread to every corner of the world by
end of the conflict, to spread the revolution across Europe century’s end.
to prompt the liberation of what Lenin called the colonized In politics, the old conservative ideologies, predicated on
‘peoples of the East’ from their imperial masters, led a settled agrarian order, began to fade. National liberals were
socialists to postpone their internationalist ambitions and now fighting alongside national socialists (and in the south,
concentrate on the project of ‘socialism in one country’. In with the Roman Catholic Church) for the allegiance and

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control of the new urban working classes. In those countries largely in Europe itself and in the United States. The scope
in which the transition to industrialization had been of the Second World War, by contrast, extended around
particularly brutal and the wounds of war most severe, there the world. The war had involved virtually all nations except
emerged what the Italians called ‘fascist’ alliances against those in Latin America, and its impact, even on the Arab
both liberals and the perceived threat of communism. In the societies, was correspondingly great. But it also served to
realm of culture, the more adventurous writers, painters and divide the world. The defeat of Germany, Italy and Japan by
composers turned away from romanticism and realism to the Allies led to the subsequent ‘Cold War’, characterized by
capture the movement and disruption of social and technical political and cultural antagonism on an unprecedented scale.
changes in self-consciously ‘modernist’ forms of aesthetic The previously colonial territories were also becoming
construction. In social and political thought, it became more sovereign states and connected to the divided new world, not
difficult to see a continuity between the present and the past, least through a United Nations Organization that was more
and except among the Marxists and a few diehard liberals, extensive and more ambitious and enduring than its
historical understanding gave way to a ‘logical positivism’ or precursor, the League of Nations. But even as the new nation
unhistorical ‘phenomenologies’ in philosophy, to historical states were drawn into this new world order, their material
social sciences, and to a renewed enthusiasm for the disadvantages gave rise to a division of a different kind.
achievements and methods of the natural sciences. The relations between ideology and culture thus changed
But these changes were not limited to Europe. In the again. In the industrial economies of the Americas, across
United States, where there was no strongly rooted Central and Eastern Europe and Soviet Asia, in Australasia
conservative tradition and European-style socialism had and East Asia, culture became more divorced from politics.
little appeal, politics remained liberal. But the culture in Most of the liberal democracies in the American sphere of
America was enthusiastically democratic. The new mass influence had opted for some type of social democracy,
culture – fuelled by extensive literacy, a lively popular music guided by precepts of a more moderate liberalism and
scene invigorated by the migration of black workers from socialism. This trend was accompanied by a discernibly new
the South to the cities of the East and the Midwest, and the detachment (except on the part of deliberately political
rapid development of radio and the commercial cinema – intellectuals) in their literature, visual arts and music. The
was sweeping the country. In American universities, which adventurous, and sometimes aggressive modernism of the
were more open than those in Europe and accordingly more interwar years was softened in the new political context.
responsive to social changes, the natural and social sciences This was not the case in the new Third World of post-
expanded even more rapidly. And the government’s colonial states. Having been freed from one set of
economic intervention in the 1930s, which also fostered the constraints, many intellectuals in these countries found
mobilization of writers and artists for the purposes of themselves faced by another. The world into which they
documenting American society, increased the nation’s had come was defined by the United States and the Soviet
awareness of the lives of ordinary people. In Latin America, Union. The influence of each, however, was different. In its
where the governments of the larger countries promoted an ideological liberalism, economic power, and popular
industrial economy, to combat the threat to their agrarian culture, the United States was seen by many to be the
exports posed by the Depression, there was renewed continuation of European imperialism under another flag.
enthusiasm for the new politics and culture of Europe, In its ideological socialism, its apparently proven capacity
particularly among the educated middle classes who to resist the power of international capital, and its open
embraced European tastes. In Japan, where the urban opposition to the United States, the Soviet Union seemed
population was expanding and the government had to offer an alternative.
embarked upon a programme of forced industrialization at Therefore, it was not surprising that in their desire to
the end of the nineteenth century, increased literacy and the assert their new independence and to offer a vision for a
new technologies were creating a popular culture that drew future that they could at last call their own, many Third
on increasingly stylized images from Japan’s past. World politicians and intellectuals, like those in many parts
By contrast, in colonial societies, industrialization and its of post-war Europe, combined nationalist enthusiasm with
concomitant urbanization (except in Japanese-occupied socialist conviction. These newer post-colonial societies,
Korea) progressed less rapidly, literacy was very restricted, however, were more diverse than those in Europe, and they
indigenous communities were not encouraged to celebrate embarked upon independence with a variety of metropolitan
their own past, and rule remained firmly in the hands of the influences. Their ideologies were correspondingly different.
imperial power. Only in the Arab countries did more than a In the formerly British territories in Africa and South Asia,
few Westernized intellectuals venture into a completely the dominant voices had received a legal and political
redefined form of modernity. education in Britain itself, and argued their case in the idiom
of reformist socialism. In the formerly French territories of
Africa, whose dominant voices had received a more broadly
from 1 9 4 5 – 1 9 9 1 humanist education in France and been affected by the
enthusiasm there for the music and dance of black America,
Wars cause societies to reconsider their past, often to break the idiom – as in the defence of negritude – was more
with it, and to create new possibilities and practices for the literary. The former French territories of South-East Asia,
future. The First World War had taken place principally in the former Spanish and Portuguese territories in Africa
Europe. It gave nationalists new hope, made liberals pause, that achieved independence somewhat later, and the former
and gave some confidence to socialists. Because it mobilized Dutch territory of Indonesia, were influenced by the
large numbers of workers, it also accelerated the cultural European communist parties’ sympathy with the anti-
consequences of social and technological change. With the colonial cause. In the larger countries of Latin America,
exception of the Arab world, however, its impact was felt where independence from Spain and Portugal had been

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achieved at the beginning of the nineteenth century, where in one country’ could no longer convincingly do so.
there was less anxiety to construct a new political and Internationally, and in the new enthusiasm for liberal
cultural identity, where European forms of socialism had democracy, domestically also, there seemed to be only one
not taken root, but where the influence of American popular possible course.
culture was more pervasive, intellectuals concentrated on However, in cultural matters the collapse of what had
lamenting what they described as the continent’s increasing been seen, outside Russia, as Moscow’s foreign rule, and the
cultural and economic ‘dependence’ on the United States. effects of the new international economy and its information
Only in the smaller countries of Central America, where a technology on even the most established nation states,
nationalist revolution in Cuba in 1959 attracted the interest released new vigour. In parts of south-east Europe and
and support of the Soviet Union, was this anger at western Asia, old nationalisms reappeared and several
dependence expressed in a more openly socialist manner. previously dormant ones began to surface. In the more
The situation was different in East-Asian societies and established nation states, there was renewed enthusiasm for
the Arab world. Notwithstanding their commitment to the cultural difference.
principles of Marxist-Leninism, the governments of the In insisting on newness, the ‘modernism’ of the early
People’s Republics of China and North Korea distanced twentieth century had remained connected to the past. The
themselves from the Soviet Union and promoted a movement that came to be known as ‘post-modernism’ by
syncretism of socialist principles and precepts drawn from the 1980s broke that connection. Post-modern intellectuals
Confucian tradition. In those Asian states politically aligned rejected the ‘grand narratives’ of progress that had inspired
with the West – Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the and guided their predecessors. The self-examination of the
Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia – the late twentieth century, they argued, had to be different. In
governments were hostile to communism and did not resist high culture (philosophy, literature, music, and the visual
the spread of American popular culture. In all the states of arts) and popular culture (styles of food and dress and
East Asia, whatever their political inclination, the intellectual leisure) the old and the new now co-existed in a kaleidoscope
community was marginalized. In the Arab world, by with no meaning beyond itself, indeed with no single
contrast, Islam, which had conferred a new pan-nationalist meaning. Post-modernism as a doctrine was a product of
identity after the end of Ottoman rule in 1919 and provided the North and West, i.e. of the intellectual culture of the
a foundation for law, produced a closer connection between United States and Western Europe. As a mood, however, it
the state, the intellectuals and the people. The adherence to also affected the societies of the South and East. At the
traditional Islamic principles also kept the secular liberalism beginning of the twentieth century, these societies had been
and socialism of the West at a distance and gave rise to a largely rural. By century’s end, they were fast becoming
remarkably powerful, pervasive and coherent culture. urban. The cities of Latin America, Africa, and Asia – parts
of which were as prosperous as anywhere in the cities of the
North, parts of which were also collections of urban villages,
AFTER 1945 and poor – were now also kaleidoscopes of styles. This new
metropolitan culture was fast becoming truly ‘global’ and
Between the two world wars and during the Cold War, ‘multi-cultural’.
intellectuals everywhere had assumed that there was a
political and cultural choice between the past and the
present. With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, C onclusion
however, one of the two great political choices of the
beginning of the century – the choice between a conservative In 1914, the concepts of the cultural and political future
and perhaps liberal past and a liberal or socialist future – were those formed in the self-examination of Western
seemed to have been pre-empted. The truly conservative Europe and the United States. To self-consciously
regimes had almost everywhere disappeared. Now socialism, progressive Europeans and Americans, despite the obvious
it appeared, had no future either. What remained was a tensions and even contradictions between them, the beliefs
liberal international economy, an enthusiasm (at least in on which these concepts rested were self-evident. To those,
principle) for democracy and nationalism. In the West, the elsewhere in the world, who were aware of them, they could
moment of the Soviet Union’s collapse was even proclaimed seem self-evident also. These people, who had been
as the ‘end of history’. The alternatives to liberalism had considered backward by Europe, were often inclined to
been tried and been found wanting. Democracy satisfies accept European criteria of advancement. By the 1990s, this
peoples’ desire for recognition, and science met their material situation had changed. Even though this fact was temporarily
needs. Although this might be an exaggeration, considerable overshadowed by the West’s triumph at the end of the Cold
changes were nonetheless underway. Transformations of a War, and despite the more enduring victory Western
technical as well as a political nature had freed international liberalism appeared to have secured, political and cultural
financial markets, and the United States had taken the lead intellectuals in the North were losing confidence in what
in urging a greater freedom of international trade. Other had once been considered the inevitable and universal
governments could only protect their currencies by reducing consequences of their own intellectual development. A new
inflation and its alleged causes, which included their own type of history was in the making in East Asia and an
expenditures, and had increasingly less control over their alternative history guided the Islamic world. Despite the
economies. Across Latin America and Africa and in parts of spread of a new and truly global popular culture, nowhere in
Asia, the difficulty had been compounded by accumulation the South did the future correspond to any of the ideals
of debt. The post-colonial project of constructing and imagined by the North. At the end of a century that had
defending a national economy was greatly weakened. Those been driven by war, there appeared to be no winner in
who had looked forward to one or another kind of ‘socialism matters of thought and feeling.

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 25.3
THE EFFECTS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ON INTELLECTUAL CULTURE AND ART

Oumar Dioume

To investigate the impact of science and technology on the peoples have invented original and different ways of
activities of the mind, we need to consider how they are being human. Each brings us an experience of the human
influenced by philosophy, culture and ethics in their turn. condition different from our own. If we do not try to
Our intention here is to shed light on the imprint left by understand it, we cannot understand ourselves.
science and technology on the development and the state of
culture and the arts in the twentieth century. Science and Lévi-Strauss’s observations represent an updated version in
technology affect our everyday lives and weigh on our future. the age of ICTs of the words of the ancient Roman poet
In contrast to nature, culture (and art in particular) includes Terence: ‘I am a human being, I count nothing human
everything that is the work of human beings. It is therefore foreign to me’ (‘Homo sum, nihil humanum a me alienum
legitimate to reflect on the paradigm of the interaction of puto’).
culture, cultures and progress in the realms of science and It is therefore natural to grant analytical priority (but not
technology. primacy) to the effects of the newest, most recent sciences
To varying degrees, scientific and technological progress and knowledge-based technologies. These current
has penetrated every corner of the world, irrespective of the technologies influence and enhance efficiency of the
level of development. This progress has resulted in a great traditional sciences and technologies of the first half of the
diversity of effects, quantitative and qualitative, negative or twentieth century. The prodigious development of the
positive, depending on the criteria adopted in our everyday cultural industries serves to illustrate this point.
lives. The economic and financial impact is not always Today, the globalization of the means of communication
compatible with the cultural consequences when it comes enables us to exchange knowledge, technology and values at
to ensuring the preservation and survival of the diversity of the speed of light. The exchanges generated by the cultural
cultures – diversity being the necessary counterweight to industries harbour both a potential for fruitful intercultural
the process of uniformization engendered by globalization, dialogue and a multicultural mercantilism that facilitates an
an irresistible movement of waves of prodigious power intermingling of cultures, previously unknown to one
sweeping through every sector of activity and thinking in another.
every country. Humanity today enjoys extraordinary access Cultural industries cover sectors of activity in which the
to other cultures, made possible by the phenomenal creation, production and exchange of goods and services
developments in air transport (tourism and organized interact. Their specificity is defined by the intangibility of
travel), telecommunications, television and all the new their culturally defined content, which is usually protected
information and communication technologies (ICTs). (especially in the countries of the North) by copyright law.
Despite this priceless treasure of ready access to other To be more precise, cultural industries include crafts,
cultures, we should bear in mind these words of Claude design, print publishing, multimedia and film, audiovisual
Lévi-Strauss: and phonographic production, in addition to the visual arts,
architecture, the performing arts (music, dance, theatre,
Every culture represents an asset of considerable human etc.), the production of musical instruments, sports,
richness. Every people has an asset of beliefs and advertising and cultural tourism. With such a wide range of
institutions which represents experience that is activities, it is possible to include under the umbrella of
irreplaceable in the whole of humanity. When humanity cultural industries virtually all activities practised by existing
feels threatened by standardization and monotony, it societies however disparate their levels of economic
becomes aware once again of the importance of differential development. Cultural industries promote the raw material
values. We would have to completely give up the idea of of creativity, which is in turn stimulated by imagination.
seeking to understand what it means to be human if we Einstein used to say that ‘imagination is more important
did not recognize that hundreds, or indeed thousands, of than knowledge’.

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One decisive impact of the cultural industries on every processing of information, major components of culture
society in the twentieth century is their capacity to increase and vectors of a new culture are subject to permanent
the economic value of intellectual work, which in turn upheavals and innovation. Computers and the other
generates new values, for both individuals and societies. The technical information tools have dramatically altered the
case of the United States offers a significant illustration of various types of interactions between the human race and
this assertion. The emergence of a ‘brown’ culture from the its environment. In numerous fields, such as biotechnology,
spread of hip-hop music, derived from the rap music of the telemedicine, distance teaching, robotics, electronic
black ghettos, to various categories of American youth is commerce, artificial intelligence, wireless interpersonal
currently shifting interracial relations towards a more shared communications and numerous types of exchanges
culture for future generations. dependent on electronics and IT, it is more the cost of
The main characteristic trait of cultural industries is progress that determines the value of our consumption than
their dual nature: cultural and economic. Cultural industries the actual cost of the goods exchanged. Such is the face of
contribute to the preservation and promotion of cultural the new economy, which emerged in the twentieth century,
diversity while expanding public access to culture, but they developed in the second half, and accelerated at even greater
also create employment, wealth and innovation in terms of speed in its last decade. This economy is based on the
production and distribution. An interesting illustration of production, distribution and consumption of intangible
this phenomenon is the market for electronic games, which goods, knowledge, know-how and information.
expanded astronomically over the last decade of the The most characteristic impact of this revolution may be
twentieth century. The result was an exponential growth in described as the:
job creation in the developed countries. That growth was
also the catalyst of the famous trade dispute over the issue re-appropriation of the knowledge of which
of the ‘cultural exception’, an issue involving not only industrialization has robbed us … After many centuries
hundreds of millions of dollars but also the sociocultural of divorce between highly specialized techniques and
impact of the globalization of all sorts of exchanges. non-specialized culture, the technopole now mediates
The notion of the ‘global village’ elaborated by Canadian between what some know and what others do. There is
sociologist Marshall McLuhan implicitly encapsulates the thus a return to the technical culture that has marked
intermingling of cultural industries and the new ICTs. each stage of human development … In this attempt at
These technologies raise the question of the interrelatedness re-appropriation, we are benefiting from a second-degree
of culture, technical skills, technology and philosophy, and technology whose goal is to make access more and more
the pervasiveness of technical skills and technologies in our simple to technologies that are more and more complex.
everyday experience. This ubiquitousness and omnipotence These are enabling technologies. They give us back
forces us to question the relevance of devising new concepts knowledge, but they also re-establish contact with other
to describe the increasingly present and obtrusive effects of people. These are the interceding technologies.
the so-called 'philosophy of technology'. Overcoming space, telecommunications enable us to talk
Such questions also pertain to the relationship between to anyone on earth. Overcoming time, recordings (audio
technology and culture. Technology is acknowledged to be and visual) provide us with a living memory of humanity
one of the most important factors of evolution in the history in the past and the future.1
of humanity. The twentieth century illustrates this more
clearly than ever before. Given the century’s unprecedented We should also note the obverse of the benefit gained from
scientific and technological progress, it seems therefore these technologies ‘whose goal is to make access more and
crucial to examine the links between technical skills and more simple to technologies that are more and more
philosophy and between technology and culture. Such an complex’. Referring to the atomic bomb, Albert Einstein
investigation raises questions more vast than the effects of said: ‘The release of atom power has changed everything
the products themselves. except our way of thinking ... the solution to this problem
In everyday life, we are immersed in a culture steeped in lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should
technology, which is omnipresent and powerfully affects have become a watchmaker.’ Beyond the moral impact of
our lives. The challenge then can be stated in the following the confusion between real and virtual killings and the
terms: what are the intangible effects of information subliminal incitement to violence peddled by many
technology (IT)? Today, IT influences every aspect of the electronic games among adolescents and adults, there is
processes of wealth creation, knowledge and information another problem that has to do with the perverse effects of
exchange, health-care innovation, distance learning, and these ‘enabling technologies’: what is the role of play within
overcoming the technological gap between developed and a culture that promotes the spirit of technological creation?
developing countries. By using the springboard of We need then to ask, in a more general context, about
innovation, developing countries are able to make similar the impact of the growing grip of technology on philosophy.
technological leaps as those made by the countries of the This grip is a permanent reality manifested by such extreme
North, more quickly and at lower cost. Two examples cases as the debate on human cloning, human reproduction
worth mentioning are Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, and through artificial insemination, euthanasia, and the creation
the impressive advance of teledensity in many poor countries. of databases containing information on individuals that
Concerning these ‘successes’, we must measure the impact limit their freedom. All these discoveries and achievements
of computer-dependent technologies. are occurring in a context of the headlong development of
Even those not versed in information technologies are genetic, protein and molecular engineering, and increasingly
affected by the omnipresence of the computer as a tool with sophisticated computer systems and equipment.
huge information processing power and unimagined Because of the multiple ethical and moral consequences
capacities to perform multiple tasks. The transmission and of these technologies, there are good reasons for engaging in

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 thematic section

a debate on the future of humankind. Culture’s dependence networks designed for national or regional use. Through
on technology threatens to become even greater in the images and sound, all information regardless of its relevance
future when we think of the advantages of the continual can be transmitted virtually instantaneously to any
development of ‘enabling technologies’. Considered community, however remote geographically, provided that
together, technology, science and engineering constitute an is connected to an adequate ICT network. Although still
instrument for constructing the future and especially the incomplete, the web into which ICTs have woven all
future of society and consciousness. More then ever, countries is perhaps the most complete reflection of the
technology today plays an existential role and is an integral globalization of intangible exchanges which has critically
part of general future trends. Today, the philosophical restructured entire sectors of the world economy.
character of technology becomes clearer with the growing This restructuring reflects a deregulation, which, from
interconnection between technology and information telecommunications to the audiovisual media, is in the
sciences and biology. process of shaping and altering the relationships between
Such a paradigm naturally raises questions about the the state, corporations and individuals.
ultimate purpose of the survival and preservation of those The Internet was born of the encounter between the
cultures currently most at risk, which are natural in the computer and telecommunications. Only a minority of
context of a debate on the relationship between philosophy countries, hence only a small portion of the world’s
and technology. But, in that case, is it relevant and population, has reliable access to a computer in case of need.
meaningful to refer to the notion of philosophy of Is the Internet a factor tending to deepen the gap between
technology? If technology is understood as a science of the rich and poor countries? With the capacity to transport a
most efficient possible concretization of the means required vast quantity of information in real time, the Internet is a
to perform the functions necessary to society, it should be decisive factor in the expansion of the exchange of goods
recalled that the evolution of technology is a socio-historical and information worldwide. The facilities for downloading
process, which cannot be apprehended separately from the files, sending emails and conducting e-business are concrete
sociocultural reality and philosophy of the given manifestations with decisive economic and cultural
environment. Even so formulated, it is not obvious that this consequences for the future.
vision of technology facilitates the emergence of a consensus Never in the history of humanity has information been
as to the meaning to be ascribed to the concept of philosophy exchanged so quickly and over such a vast area. The Internet
of technology. has also transformed the means of access to culture. José
Nor should we lose sight of the fact that the relationship Saramago, the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature,
between technology and philosophy was long seen through has written: ‘Information makes us wiser and more
the prism of classical technology based on mechanics, even knowledgeable only if it brings us closer to our fellow
after the emergence and diffusion of information humans. Now that we have long-distance access to all the
technologies. Such an approach, which neglects information documents we need, we run an increasing risk of
technologies and their impact on technology in general, is dehumanization, and of ignorance. Nowadays, the key to
certainly inappropriate today. That impact is determinant culture lies not in experience and knowledge, but in your
in the creation of our current world view. aptitude at hunting down information on the Net. You can
We are thus led to inquire still further into the ultimate be entirely ignorant of the world – the real social, economic,
aims of technology. The debates between environmentalists and political world you live in – yet accumulate every possible
and advocates of energy self-sufficiency – a form of economic kind of information. Communication is ceasing to be a form
development that intensively exploits natural resources even of communion. We are sadly seeing the ending of real
at the risk of threatening the survival of the planet – are person-to-person communication.’ 2 Thus one striking
fundamental debates about our society, way of life and impact of the Internet is to deprive communication of
general philosophy. The impact of such choices is not only its character as a friendly interpersonal exchange of
economic and cultural but also political since certain information.
influential countries in the North are now governed by According to Marc Augé, ‘new techniques of
majorities in which the Greens have a decisive voice. communication and image-making render the relation to
The existential questions about the survival of the human the Other more and more abstract; we become accustomed
species result directly from the possible consequences of to seeing everything but there is some doubt whether we are
humanity’s technological activity. Any number of perverse still looking. The substitution of media for mediations thus
effects such as a nuclear or ecological disaster might contains within it the possibility of violence.’ 3 If that is so,
annihilate humankind. On the other hand, preventive then what will become of art in light of these challenges
strategies to preserve the human species will also be based to from new technologies, nowadays affecting virtually all
a large extent on technological underpinnings. A major human activities?
impact in our paradigm is the spread in all present-day A correlation between art and technology becomes
societies, naturally to varying degrees, of the debate on the apparent through the needs of artistic research. Artistic
finality of technology and of the concrete implications of expression also reflects the scientific and technological
that debate. achievements of its time. It is obvious that it is no coincidence
To assess the impact of ICTs on culture requires a that the impressionists and their works appeared at the end
capacity to apprehend the intrinsic issues and challenges of of the nineteenth century rather than in Rembrandt’s time.
that culture in all their complexity. Thus culture would be Technology has long been one of the most important and
in the position of both judge and defendant. The first most durable factors influencing art. One has only to observe
challenge to grasp is inherent in the profound differences the prominence of the visual and audiovisual arts in the new
between ICTs and the communication networks. The realms of creation and communication opened up by the
former transcend borders, in contrast to traditional new technologies of the twentieth century.

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The demands of art and the modus operandi of artists have An economics of culture thus came into being as a result
always stimulated scientific research and technological of the effects of science and technology on culture and art in
innovation, and the arts feed education, leisure and the cultural the twentieth century. Moreover, this intermingling
industries with vast economic potential. The confrontation engendered an economic and technological culture based on
between demand and creative capacity, on the one hand, and the fetishism of efficiency for its own sake. Rich in
analytical and technical power, on the other, offers considerable extraordinary potential for cultural and artistic creativity,
potential for innovation. Examples from the field of music this intermingling can also entail, if we are not careful, the
illustrate the extent to which science and technology can seek risk of accelerating the process of uniformization of cultures,
their inspiration in the arts. The most recent example is the whose diversity should always remain one of the treasures
compact disc, the result of the extraordinary applications of of humanity. To preserve this balance of cultures requires
IT and electronics in the music industry. an ethical vision of the impact of the sophisticated tools that
This is one stage in the fantastic leap from the pre- we use to develop the intellectual culture and art of our
electronic age to the computer-generated music of our times.
times. Indeed, computer-synthesized sound, a collaborative
effort by scientists and musicians, has altered our conception
of musical sound. The development of microelectronics is
making digital techniques more accessible. Synthesizers, NOTES
mostly digital, are specialized computers dependent on
software that is the fruit of know-how brought about by 1. V. Scardigli, La Consommation, culture du quotidian,
hands-on experience and research. Paris, 1983.
In some case, only those musicians who are comfortable 2. J. Saramago, from a speech in Alicante, Spain, on
with IT have been able to fulfil the technical requirements 29 March 1995, at a seminar on ‘New technologies and
of music, as in the case of computer-assisted musical information of the future’, Cultural Foundation of the Caja
notation. This problem was solved by the composer and de Ahorros del Mediterraneo (CAM); from Le Monde
instrumentalist Leland Smith, by developing a specialized Diplomatique, English edition, December 1998.
computer language. In the field of robotics, US developers 3. M. Augé, La Guerre des rêves, Paris, 1997 [The War of
have collaborated with choreographers to give more grace to Dreams (trans. L. Heron), London, 1999].
robots designed to assist the disabled.
The progress and achievements of artistic works whose
sources of inspiration lie in science and technology are today BIBLIOGRAPHY
virtually taken for granted. Yet we should do well to
remember the importance of these processes in the Adorno, T. W. 1984. Modèles critiques: interventions, repliques. Payot,
development of the arts. In the field of painting and Paris.
sculpture, the computer has become a tool of creation Augé, M. 1997. La Guerre des rêves. Editions du Seuil, Paris. [1999.
through computer graphics and digital photography. We The War of Dreams. Trans. L. Heron, Pluto, London.]
should also note the role of the physical sciences (lithography Chirollet, J.-C. 1999. Philosophie et société de l’information: pour une
and electroplating). For architects, digital programmes are philosophie fractaliste. Ellipses, Paris.
replacing manual drawings. Even in the field of dance, the Couchot, E. 1998. La technologie dans l’art. Editions Jacqueline
computer is proving to be a powerful tool for stage Chambon, Nîmes.
technology. As for the theatre, the development of stage LANSDOWN, J. and EARNSHAW, R. A. (eds). 1989. Computers in Art,
lighting has allowed the development of sophisticated Design and Animation. Springer-Verlag, New York.
staging techniques. Cinema technology, with its spectacular Lévy, P. 1997. Cyberculture. Odile Jacob, Paris. [2001. Cyberculture.
special effects, exerts such an influence that nowadays we no Trans. R. Bononno. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,
longer look at a film or a play in the same way. MN.]

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 25.4
Culture and Mass Production
Cultural Industries

Elizabeth K. Jackson and Alemseghed Kebede

As noted by Karl Marx, ever since capitalism surfaced as a of capital accumulation intensified, via higher wages, the
viable socio-economic system, it has never ceased to purchasing capacity of the worker had to be augmented.
revolutionize the instruments of production. Despite his Furthermore, in order for this process to be facilitated, the
interest in post-capitalist society, Marx acknowledged that role of the state had to be recast. Accordingly, the state
capitalism is a highly dynamic and productive social system: became the ‘interventionist state’ whose responsibility,
‘The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarcely one hundred among other things, was to facilitate effective demand
years, has created more massive and more colossal productive among the populace. This was made possible by the
forces than have all preceding generations together’. 1 introduction of minimum wage and social security
However, the development of capitalism has taken place in benefits.
unprecedented fashion well beyond the predictions of the
author of Das Kapital. Capitalism has endured despite the
expectation of its imminent demise. The capitalist system T he C ulture I ndustry
has not fettered the development of the productive forces as
envisioned by Marx. Rather, tremendous advances in Fordism was not limited to the economic sphere, for it
technology have taken place. By and large, as a reaction to extended to the realm of culture as well. Theodor Adorno
new developments, capitalism has readjusted itself, giving and Max Horkheimer have described this process in their
rise to manifold alterations within the framework of the concept of the culture industry,3 referring to an industry-
capitalist system. And this readjustment has taken place culture formation in which everything social yields to the
without radically challenging the fundamental attributes of logic of capital. Consequently, products lose their intrinsic
the system. worth; they become significant only when they are
exchangeable. Under a state in which the culture industry
reigns supreme, the goals considered worth pursuing by the
F ordism powerful are sought by available means, without considering
the ethical repercussions of the latter. Even art, with its
Perhaps one of the most salient features of capitalism claims to the highest form of self-determination, falls prey
during the early twentieth century has been the development to this process.
of Fordism.2 Fordism was a mode of economic and social Debunking the idea that the arts were somehow pristine,
regulation that led to a series of interrelated outcomes. The original and independent of forces that would dictate both
semi-automatic assembly line technique, introduced by the nature and quantity of cultural material, Adorno and
Henry Ford and based on unskilled collective labour in Horkheimer argued instead that the so-called ‘traditional’
which each worker carries out a strictly defined task, led to arts have been pushed aside by a mass, industrialized and
mass production (Plate 128). But this development must capitalist profit-making machine. While appearing to offer
be accompanied by mass consumption, since the former unique artistic or cultural representations, culture industries
would be meaningless without the latter. In order to further instead produce items characterized by uniformity,
maintain the production-consumption continuum, two predictability, and assembly-line sameness designed to sell
conditions must be fulfilled. In the first place, workers had the maximum number of cultural units (goods) to the
to change certain aspects of their behaviour in accordance consumer. ‘What is new is not that it [art] is a commodity,
with the emergent productive processes. Every aspect of but that today it deliberately admits it is one; that art
the worker’s life had to be rationalized so as not to impede renounces its own autonomy and proudly takes its place
the dynamism of a cohesive course of action. Secondly, among consumption goods constitutes the charm of
workers had to consume given a certain level of income. To novelty.’4 In this context, the dictum that the purpose of art
the extent that the market was expanding and the rhythm is purposelessness, that it is valuable unto itself, loses its

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meaning. The market has declared its definitive triumph hoodwinked and exploited by capitalist corporations or
over the realm of purposelessness. autocratic systems of administration.
Two features, namely, standardization and pseudo-
individuality, specifically characterize the culture industry.5
Standardization refers to cultural production being carried N ew S ocial M ovements
out in accordance with rigidly defined sets of principles.
Adorno and Horkheimer imply that standardization It is clear that the culture industry has not achieved a total
eradicates the impromptu and unpremeditated, proliferating victory over society, as Adorno and Horkheimer would like
sameness: us to believe. One of the unforeseen consequences of the
culture industry has been the proliferation of collective
How formalized the procedure is can be seen when the actions that have emerged as a result of the conflicts within
mechanically differentiated products prove to be all alike the ‘domains of cultural reproduction, social integration
in the end. That the difference between the Chrysler and socialization.’ 9 These collective actions (including
range and General Motors products is basically illusory movements in favour of the environment, gay rights, and
strikes every child with a keen interest in varieties. What women’s rights) defy ‘colonization of the lived world’, the
connoisseurs discuss as good or bad points serve only to interventions exercised by formidable social structures, such
perpetuate the semblance of competition.6 as the state, in the operations of everyday life. Because the
loss of meaning and freedom is the fundamental concern of
Consequently, the implication is that culture is disentangled these collective actions, sociologists refer to them as ‘new
from its critical feature, that of spontaneity. This umbrella social movements’. ‘Old’ social movements, including the
of uniformity encompasses all aspects of the capitalistic labour movement, focused primarily on political and
corporation within the arts and culture industries. Radio, economic issues. Unlike ‘old’ social movements, new social
for example, is tightly linked to the concepts of various movements are conditioned by ‘post-materialist values’ that
formats: rhythm and blues, jazz, soul, rock, rap, classical, have come as a result of the structural changes engendered
and talk. Any configuration outside of this predetermined by both Fordism and later post-Fordism.10
construction fails. Likewise, film adheres doggedly to the
characteristics of certain genres (horror, comedy, etc.), a
formulaic blueprint that guides virtually every twist of the P ost - F ordism
story plot from the opening sequence to the last frame.
Indeed, film students are required to memorize the This term refers to a new regime of accumulation that has
particularities of each genre, encouraged to create products emerged as a result of the weaknesses of Fordism.11 The
that fall exactly within the specified guidelines. The culture mismatch between effective demand and mass production,
industry of Hollywood then rewards filmmakers best able the rising cost of labour, and changes in consumer behaviour
to play to the dictates of the genre with Oscars, a constituted some of the major problems that Fordism failed
reinforcement that further encourages the redundancy of to address. Accordingly, post-Fordism emerged as a system
filmic products. with distinct characteristics. In essence, in contrast to its
Pseudo-individuality is connected with the concept of predecessor, post-Fordism is highly flexible, owing to several
standardization. The idea suggests that there is nothing new factors. First, the new system is geared towards the
(or original) under the sun, despite the efforts of culture production of highly specialized products. The scheme of
industries to sell ‘freshness’ and a belief in the idiosyncratic mass production that focused on the manufacturing of
nature of a creative product or talent. Adorno charges that standardized products had to be transcended. This in turn
pseudo-individuality is just as applicable to the individual gave rise to a mode of organization that allowed the very
‘film star’. All virtually clones of the other: hair, eyes, voice, existence of different styles of production. Secondly, the
figure; anything even vaguely different about the self is flexibility in production is contingent upon flexibility in
mandated as a tightly controlled monopoly commodity labour, requiring workers to possess more skills than under
determined by society, with ‘every single person transformed the Fordist system. The post-Fordist worker is sufficiently
by the power of generality’.7 resourceful to make adjustments whenever and wherever
Pseudo-individuality entails what could be termed as the deemed necessary. Ultimately, as a result of the new
colonization of the artist. The artist, the creative individual, adjustments that have taken place, post-Fordism responded
succumbs to the forces of the powerful and loses his/her to the calls of the market. The proliferation of different
identity as a self-dependent producer. From a self-actualizing types of products met the needs of the new consumer
process, art turns into a mere means to an end, namely society, whose members’ behaviour is cultivated and
profit. In the final analysis, the ‘talented performer’ and ‘the regularly reinforced by advertising.
attitude of the public’ form a unified whole within the culture
industry. Thus culture loses its aesthetic significance.
The imprint of pseudo-individuality and standardization G lobalization and production
make for a complex psychological component: such
familiarity with form and content breeds a kind of dullness The heightened consumerism that resulted from post-
in the recipient, thus creating a passive and fairly uninspired Fordism was further buttressed by globalization in three
cultural consumer (reader, viewer, listener). This passivity, distinct ways.12 First, globalization has engendered the very
which Adorno called regressive listening 8 presumably lulls existence of transworld articles. Consumer articles, such as
people into a mind state that would allow them to accept Coca Cola and Sony electronic products, have penetrated
the status quo and succumb to authoritarianism. This almost every part of the planet. Secondly, contemporary
populace thus becomes an unmindful ‘mass’ capable of being technology has shaped international consumer behaviour.

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Air travel, electronic mass media, and online communications to and from the disenfranchised, and created by marginalized
have been instrumental in paving the way for consumer black American youth that viewed themselves as rejected by
consumption of colossal proportions. Lastly, the global and invisible to society at large, rap music serves as a
context has set the stage for the glorification of scathing, subversive, musical menace to society. Unapologetic
‘commodification’. Thanks to today’s transnational mass in its loathing of agents of authority – especially the police –
media, international events, such as the World Cup and the its sentiment flies in the face of everything that Adorno
Olympic Games, allow consumerism to flourish extensively. would hold dear. So poignant and far-reaching are the
By and large, globalization is a new phenomenon to the messages embodied in the acerbic lyrics, that rap has come
extent that the development of international capitalism has to be embraced as the global music of protest.
brought a qualitative change ‘in the trade and transfer of Especially in light of the worldwide proliferation of rap
capital, labour, production, consumption, information, and music, many scholars firmly reject Adorno’s views that
technology’.13 However, globalization has not changed the music pacifies and otherwise hypnotizes the listener into
fundamental characteristics of capitalism. Instead, its impact accepting authoritarianism. American essayist Cornel West
is limited to deepening supra-territorial interconnections to asserts that African-American music is first and foremost a
an extraordinary degree. David Harvey describes this process ‘countercultural’ practice with deep roots in political
as ‘time-space compression’ with ‘a disorienting and disruptive opposition. As such, it serves well to give voice to ‘rootless
impact upon political-economic practices, the balance of and alienated young people … dissatisfied with the status
class power, as well as upon cultural and social life.’14 quo.’22 Researchers Basu and Werbner echo West, and
reiterate that the initial roots of hip hop music as an art
form had more to do with the airing of black voices of
G lobalization and culture dissent. It was only later that the phenomena of the
international proliferation of the music made its creators
Scholars disagree on the impact of globalization on the successful entrepreneurs. They agree that for African-
cultural and social life of the peoples of the world. The two American youth, hip-hop was a protest art form, and as
opposing views on the effects of globalization on culture are such, ‘became a new form of expressive culture that was
centred on the notions of ‘cultural synchronization’ and tailored to the historical circumstances and existential
‘globalization’.15 The former refers to the universalizing desires of black ghetto dwellers.’23
impact of globalization. Globalization is believed to have By the end of the twentieth century, other scholars served
introduced ‘a single world culture centred on consumerism, up harsh criticism of Adorno’s ideology. Gendron argued
mass media, Americana, and the English language.’16 On that his analysis ignored the inherent differences between
the other hand, those who uphold globalization contest this text (written or oral) and functional artefacts (i.e. paper,
universalizing impact. According to this view, globalization, recordings, CDs). While text is ‘universal’, a functional
far from creating a uniform international social system, has artefact is a ‘particular,’ yet to be marketed and possessed,
paved the way for the enhancement of cultural pluralism. and every universal text must be embodied in some
Different societies have adapted to global processes in functional artefact. While he acknowledges that the
accordance with the specific conditions of their respective functional lends itself to assembly-line mass production,
situations. Certainly, ‘many groups have championed ‘one simply doesn’t mass produce universals … Thus,
national, religious and other particularisms as a reaction to whatever the technological state of the culture industry, the
and defence against a universalizing ‘McWorld’. 17 assembly-line is simply an inappropriate model for the
production of texts as universals.’24
New voices continue to debate Adorno and Horkheimer’s
V oices of discourse original premise, and this debate may well evolve over the next
several decades. For Protherough, an ardent detractor of
Jensen asserts that it is impossible to study culture as a Adorno, the ultimate question remains: ‘Is Culture an
product of non-interpretive forces. Rather, the forces which Industry?’ He insists that it is not. To be an artist is
make up the character and nature of cultural materials are idiosyncratic; most are underpaid transient workers on
determined by the assumptions, biases, and beliefs of the temporary or part-time contracts. Most are self-employed.
producers about their work, the audiences, the times, the What they do is essentially individual, not mass-produced.
genres. Cultural material is not ‘processed’ like soap by Works of art are not mechanically turned out and sold like
organizational, technical, and economic ‘factors’.18 In other manufactured goods, and art producers sell potential
addition, Collins rejects the critical theorists’ view that experiences rather than material ‘products.’ Finally, he writes:
culture is primarily produced by a power elite. Indeed, the
opposite seems to be true. The production and consumption Ten people who buy a particular brand of toothpaste all
of culture occurs in a decentralized and unforeseeable way get the same product at the same price; ten people who
as a result of a variety of cultural discourses.19 It is therefore see a play or a sculpture all receive distinct impressions
impossible, according to Bjorkegren, to achieve totalitarian and respond to them differently. Audiences are active
control over production and consumption of the arts.20 and selective in the way they react to and interpret
Hebdige sees music consumption as a site of creativity and books, music, and paintings. Art ‘goods’ therefore have
resistance to the dominant social order.21 no ‘value’ until personal reactions and critical debate
While it is true that the so-called New Age music of the create it.’25
last two decades was created for the exclusive purpose of
soothing and lulling the listener into a kind of a meditative
state, rap music, on the other hand, which was created
primarily to agitate, has radicalized the industry. Speaking

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notes BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Adorno, T. 1991. The Culture Industry. Routledge, London.
New York, 1988, p. 59.  and Horkheimer, M. 1979. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Verso,
2. A. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, New London.
York, 1971. Basu, D. and Werbner, P. 2001. Bootstrap Capitalism and the Culture
3. T. Adorno and M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Industries: A Critique of Invidious Comparisons in the Study of
Enlightenment, London, 1979 (first published 1947). Ethnic Entrepreneurship. In: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Routledge,
4. Ibid., p. 157. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 236–62.
5. K. Negus, ‘The Production of Culture’, in P. Du Gay Bjorkegren, D. 1996. The Culture Business. Routledge, New York.
(ed.), Production of Culture/Culture of Production, Thousand Buechler, S. M. 2000. Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism: The
Oaks, USA, 1997. Political Economy and Cultural Construction of Social Activism.
6. T. Adorno and M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Oxford University Press, New York.
Enlightenment, London, 1979, pp. 120–4. Clarke, S. 1990. The Crisis of Fordism or the Crisis of Social
7. Ibid., p. 154. Democracy? In: Telos, Vol. 83, pp. 71–98.
8. T. Adorno, The Culture Industry, London, 1991. Clegg, S. R. 1989. Frameworks of Power. Sage Publications, London.
9. J. Habermas, The Theory of Communication Action, Du Gay, P. 1997. Production of Culture/Culture of Production. Sage
Vol. 2, Life World and System: A Critique of Functionalist Publications, London.
Reason, Boston, 1987, p. 392. Frosh, P. 1999. Inside the Image Factory: Stock Photography and
10. S. M. Buechler, Social Movements in Advanced Cultural Production. In: Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 23,
Capitalism: The Political Economy and Cultural Construction No. 5, pp. 625–46.
of Social Activism, New York, 2000. Gendron, B. 1986. Theodore Adorno Meets the Cadillacs. In:
11. See S. Clarke, ‘The Crisis of Fordism or the Crisis of MODLESKI, T. 1986. Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to
Social Democracy?’, in Telos, Vol. 83, 1990. pp. 71–98; Mass Culture, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, pp. 18–38.
A. Wigfield, Post-Fordism, Gender and Work, Aldershot, Gramsci, A. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. International
UK, 2001. Publishers, New York.
12. J. A. Scholte, Globalization: A Critical Introduction, Habermas, J. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action. In: Life
New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2000, p. 115. World and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Vol. 2,
13. M. Miyoshi, ‘Globalization’ Culture, and the Beacon Press, Boston, MA.
University’, in F. Jameson and M. Miyoshi (eds), The Culture Harvey, D. 1989. The Conditions of Post-modernity: An Inquiry into
of Globalization, Durham and London, 1998, p. 248. the Origins of Cultural Change. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
14. D. Harvey, The Conditions of Post-modernity: An Hebdige, D. 1979. Subculture, the Meaning of Style. Methuen,
Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Oxford, 1989, London.
p. 284. Jensen, J. 1984. An Interpretive Approach to Culture Production. In:
15. J. A. Scholte, Globalization: A Critical Introduction, ROWLAND, W. D. Jr., and WATKINS, B. (eds). Interpreting Television:
London, 2000. Current Research Perspectives. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills,
16. Ibid., p. 23. CA, pp. 98–118.
17. Ibid., pp. 22–24. Marx, K. and EngELS, F. 1988. The Communist Manifesto. W. W.
18. J. Jensen, ‘An Interpretive Approach to Culture Norton and Co., New York.
Production’, in W. D. Rowland Jr. and B. Watkins (eds) Mills, C. W. 1956. The Power Elite. Oxford University Press, New
Interpreting Television: Current Research Perspectives, Beverly York.
Hills, Vol. 12, 1984, p. 110. Miyyoshi, M. 1998. Globalization, Culture, and the University. In:
19. J. Collins, Uncommon Cultures – Popular Cultures and JAMESON, F. and MIYYOSHI, M. (eds). The Culture of Globalization.
Post-Modernism, London, 1989. Duke University Press, Durham and London, pp. 247–70.
20. D. Bjorkegren, The Culture Business, New York, 1996, Negus, K. 1997. The Production of Culture. In: DU GAY, P. (ed.).
p. 42. Production of Culture/Culture of Production. Sage Publications,
21. D. Hebdige, Subculture, the Meaning of Style, London, London, pp. 68–106.
1979. Protherough, R. 1999. Is Culture an Industry? In: The Kenyon
22. C. West, The Cornel West Reader, New York, 1999, Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 135–47.
p. 474. Ryan, B. 1992. Making Capital from Culture. Walter de Gruyter, New
23. D. Basu and P. Werbner, ‘Bootstrap Capitalism and York.
the Culture Industries: a critique of invidious comparisons Scholte, J. A. 2000. Globalization: A Critical Introduction. Palgrave,
in the study of ethnic entrepreneurship’, Ethnic and Racial London.
Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2001, p. 243. UNESCO. 1982. Cultural Industries: A Challenge for the Future of
24. B. Gendron, ‘Theodore Adorno meets the Cadillacs’, Culture. UNESCO, Paris.
in T. Modleski, Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches West, C. 1999. The Cornel West Reader. Basic Civitas Books, New
to Mass Culture, Bloomington, IN, 1986, pp. 18–38. York.
25. R. Protherough, ‘Is Culture an Industry?’ Kenyon
Review, Vol. 21, Issue 4, 1999, p.3.

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 25.5
CULTURE AND POLITICS

Anne Legaré

In studying the links between culture and politics, several exteriority were the conditions on which the state’s relative
approaches may be adopted. Politics, in the modern sense, independence from society rested. Liberal countries drew on
primarily concerns the state and its action, although it is this autonomy when instituting the conditions for freedom
generally accepted that the state is the outcome of struggles and equality before the law. Relative autonomy was also
arising in the private sphere of life. Culture encompasses invoked in transforming the state into an instrument
two opposing domains: civil society, which is rooted in governed by class rationality or the logic of domination. A
diversity, and the state, which tends to seek cohesion. new culture of politics emerged among the states that
Culture may be incorporated in state reasoning through regarded the break with tradition as the hallmark of absolute
the legitimization of dominant cultures via direct action in faith in the power of the human mind.
the private domain (assistance, financial support and The dominant states, custodians of the new hegemonic
selective means of enhancing cultural productions) or, on culture, sought to extend its standards to all political,
the contrary, through refusal to grant recognition, exclusion cultural and social relations and to ensure that the break
from the scope of legitimacy, or even censorship, prohibition with the past made eighteenth-century Europeans spread
and all forms of repression. Accordingly, on the one hand, worldwide. Those states hoped to impose a conception of
‘culture’ designates representations expressed by structures, law that placed it in a position of exteriority overseeing
practices and codes or embodied in forms of behaviour that religion, culture and individual interests, which were
distinguish places, eras and peoples from each other as a regarded as private matters. The new philosophical culture
result of a series of socio-historical processes and, on the and that vision of domination pervaded relations between
other hand, it encompasses a range of practices that are state and society in the dominant countries, and attempts
outside the realm of politics and the state. In fact, art, being were made to incorporate them into all international
both creation and invention, is produced in an imaginary political relations. Existing tensions between the centre and
space, which definitely requires freedom and does not the periphery, caused by economic and political inequalities,
necessarily relate to reality. Politics and culture may then were exacerbated by efforts to impose a culture of reason
come into conflict. The links between the two may and state rationality from which all belief and tradition had
concomitantly be integrated, harmonious or conflictual. been expunged thereby placing the matter outside the
In the twentieth century, the primacy of reason in the political arena.
field of politics constituted the main link between culture Born of philosophical thought by the moderns,
and politics. The fundamental importance ascribed to reason particularly Kant, Hegel and Fichte, the primacy of reason
was based on the belief, advanced by the moderns in the was defined as will or action on a society viewed in a context
eighteenth century, that it was possible to extract from of relative independence and exteriority. Politics was
reality its inherent rationality. Science was used to regarded as the expression of power that could change
demonstrate that reality could be rationalized and thus society rather than as an internal force that recognizes,
transformed by the power that it derived from the exteriority either in the name of God or a higher authority, a community
of reason. State domination over society took the form of bound together by a belief or sense of belonging. In return,
belief in the inexhaustibility of the rationalization of reality. modern society broke with the unanimism sought by the
The twentieth century was marked by the conquest of reality community of the ancients and became a focus of division
through reason and of the social realm by the political sphere, and conflict between a variety of rationalities and a unifying
as formulated by the Rationalists during the Enlightenment, rationality, that of the state. The transcendency of reason, a
and by the corrosive power of capitalism and the increase in sign of its exteriority and critical position or ability to
inequalities. Relations among states and between states and transform reality, marked the twentieth century. This
cultures were influenced by the new dogma. The power of product of Western modernity had an effect on the rest of
reason over reality and the critical awareness derived from the world where, under cover of proclaimed liberalism, the

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will to master reality was closely linked to a balance of power countries, the struggle to gain recognition for cultural
between unequal forces. diversity pitted liberals against republicans – the former, as
The cultures of regions under such domination were defenders of world standardization through abstract
confronted with the need to reconcile their ways of equality established by law, and the latter, as champions of
organizing and conceptualizing reality with the the distinctive interests of groups claiming cultural specificity
predominance of the Western culture of rationality, firmly and relative differentiation. Both modernization and
rooted in the predominance of the law and in all the practices development characterized the twentieth century, as did a
of social management, which were dominated by deep-seated clash of civilizations that made cultural diversity
technological adaptability. Accordingly, Western systems a key issue at the heart of political conflict.
patterned on a liberal conception of politics increasingly Furthermore, for two-thirds of the century, attempts
turned to knowledge while political ties elsewhere continued were made to extend yet another conception of the role of
to be modelled on a religious community of beliefs. In those reason and of the state to regions of the world not yet
societies, culture took precedence over politics. The Arab touched by the liberal model of rationalization of politics
Muslim countries, for example, were isolated by the and which were the object of imperialist designs. Marx,
profound difference wrought by an order whose legitimacy Kant and Hegel all recognized, albeit in different ways, the
was based on a tradition that deferred to a superior source strength gained from the relative autonomy of the mind. A
of explanation through recourse to faith. This culture of vision derived from nineteenth-century Marxism was
obedience was confronted with the civilizational divide that imposed on Eastern Europe under an authoritarian and
occurred when people in the twentieth century became centralizing Marxist conception of the role of the state,
aware that the mind was independent of reality and its which stemmed from the break made by the Enlightenment
representations. There were different models of civilization and the rejection of tradition. That culture of domination,
in other parts of the world, such as Africa, Asia and Oceania, based on the will to ensure identity between the society and
but the culture of modernity established in the twentieth- the state, spread to South-East Asia, mainly China, and to
century West laid the foundations of a politico-cultural countries of the South during decolonization struggles. An
hegemony and sought to spread it to all regions and all entirely new culture of rationality was used in this way to
cultures, both Eastern and Western. promote the movement to revolutionize social relations by
The new political culture, widespread in the West, abolishing social classes and the class struggle. The
caused conflicts with and within other regions and greater rationalism of the Enlightenment found new expression
incomprehension between the centre and the periphery, through this form of totalitarianism. The principle of identity
between regions of the world separated by increasingly between reality (society) and reason (the state) vested a
divergent visions and between equally legitimate and higher principle of rationalization in the necessary
different civilizations. The unequal development of the dictatorship of the revolutionary class, the proletariat.
North and the South and of the East and the West, in Seeking to transform the world, historical materialism,
addition to deep cultural differences, exacerbated those which placed the class struggle over all other representations
inequalities and hampered the dialogue initiated between of reality, entailed dictatorship under this new theoretical
the different models of civilization. Attracted by the model. Democratic centralism in Europe therefore created
prosperity of the dominant countries and hoping to the ‘Gulag’, an extreme form of the culture of reason.
overcome inequalities, traditional states strove to reconcile The dictatorship of reason also culminated in the other
their practices with the demands of modernity, thereby form of totalitarianism known as fascism. The quest for
creating tensions within their own population. identity between the political nation and the actual society,
At the same time, the political culture of modern states leading to the fantasy of ‘national’ purity promoted under
was marked by various divisions. Such a society, capable of the regimes of Mussolini or Hitler, informed the ‘scientistic’
rationalizing its own will, was characterized by three forms excesses for rationalization and led to its destructive
of political culture that were evident in the growth of potential and its downfall. There exist several extreme
modern democracy in the dominant countries and its claims examples in the twentieth century, such as the concentration
to universality, which were clearly set out as a blueprint for camps, the extermination of the European Jews, Nazism,
civilization. The importance ascribed to human rights in acts of genocide, the repression of the Kurds by Turkey in
Britain, the institutionalization of citizenship in the United the name of the unity of the Turkish nation, the
States and republican equality in France, both universally imprisonment of opponents in Siberia, and the use of
and individually, marked these different models of political prisons and psychiatric hospitals purportedly to treat
culture that brought together the inseparable components various forms of mental illness. These abuses of ‘scientism’
of the same conception of politics as a means of rationalizing shattered the modern illusion of the general good. These
social relations. Each cultural form of rationality adopted by extremes, described by the Frankfurt school as the ‘eclipse
the liberal states reflected, in its own way and to varying of reason’, harbingered the crisis that would strike at the
degrees, the constituent elements of democracy, freedom, very foundations of modernity.
equality and solidarity. Modernization was not, however, The ultimate authority of the people (Argentina), the
confined only to countries permeated by the democratic proletariat (Russia) and the nation (Germany) were invoked
ideal from the outset. Other countries – Japan, Turkey, to impose repressive dictates on society or on different
Brazil and India, for example – drew on the state’s regulating cultural or social groups in the name of unity, national
role in their efforts to modernize and rationalize relations cohesion or the Revolution. Such abusive excesses of belief
with those societies. in the supremacy of will and reason ran counter to freedom
In the dominant countries, yet another form of of the individual and the pluralism of civil society vis-à-vis
differentiation in the political culture could be distinguished. the state. The rejection of all claims to the established truth,
With the independence of reason reigning supreme in these whether embodied by fascism, the Chinese Cultural

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Revolution or Soviet-style democratic centralism, As we have seen, totalitarianism usurped the principles
characterized this phase of modernity. of rationalism in the first half of the twentieth century. Yet,
The century was also marked, however, by cultural the positive values of freedom that had determined the
censorship, which illustrated the totalitarian trends autonomy of economic activity subsequently led to
underlying the unbridled recourse to the will to rationalize globalization, that is to say, the creation of a global economy
and master reality. Two main issues were identified. First, increasingly independent of states. Economic and social
cultural expression could be defined as a form of self- progress and confidence in political authorities committed
recognition in a context of immanent relations, in other to reinforcing social relations while ensuring respect for
words, free and independent of the institutional hierarchy. diversity guided efforts to bring in a new modern era. That
On another level, the primacy of reason over reality and of illusion notwithstanding, in the last third of the century, the
the state over society meant that knowledge and science gap widened between the logic of a globalized market in the
were separate from reality, which they could therefore form West and the cultural worlds demanding the recognition of
and inform. In certain cases, the subordination of art and individual and collective identities. A deep-seated cultural
artistic practices to the state’s designs led to action contrary crisis had begun.
to the principles of autonomy and pluralism of civil society. One of the first consequences of that development was
Whereas culture, the ideal form of expression of the the explosion of mass culture, caused by the general
principle of freedom, should have been protected from the overemphasis on freely satisfying needs and tastes.
authority of those in power, certain states sought to censor, Disillusioned by the inflated growth in trade and in the
control and ban creative imagination. resources available to cater to its insatiable appetite and
There were several examples of such excesses. The Nazi unbounded selfishness, society entered the first stage of the
regime was no doubt the one that deployed repressive state contemporary crisis of modern rationality by expressing
structures most systematically against culture and creation. deep disenchantment. That crisis was followed by anguish
The persecution of left-wing writers and composers and the over the loss of benchmarks, as technology gained the
destruction of books were but a few of the means of ascendancy to the detriment of human and social values.
oppression used against creators in the name of supreme Radical modernity led to absolute relativism. This latter
rationalization and the will to ethnically cleanse Germany form of Western counter-culture broke with the very idea
and exterminate the Jews, inspired by deep-seated, albeit of society as a unified whole. Society was merely a
irrational, anti-Semitism. In the last few decades of the combination of desires and interests, with no discernible
century, the emergence of Berufsverbot policies against East centre. Cultural parameters then broke down when all trace
German intellectuals and artists left them without work. In of triumphant unity was lost. As a result, the social forces
the former Soviet Union, repressive state action against that might have rebuilt modernity on new bases grew
thought and creation characterized a regime that sought to steadily weaker.
make all Soviet citizens no more than the cogs of the The increasingly frequent recourse to human nature and
revolutionary class, the proletariat. This pretext was used an emphasis on human impulses was portrayed, in art and
after the 1917 Revolution to expel large groups of intellectuals films in particular, both as excess or abuse and as somewhat
in 1922. The Communist Party of Leningrad persecuted inevitable. In the United States, religions were on offer as
writers such as Zoschenko and Akhmatova, and the literary market products, and everywhere, in France, Italy, the
journal Zvezda was banned. United Kingdom and the Netherlands, sexuality became a
In an opposing political view, the threat of communism commodity. This was accompanied by the reification of an
was used to justify the witch-hunt that characterized the unlimited conception of consumption because of the heavy
McCarthy era, named after the US Republican senator emphasis on the market as the new social regulator.
Joseph Raymond McCarthy, in the early 1950s. Hollywood Rationality was thus subordinated to consumer demands
actors, famous writers and directors such as Charlie Chaplin, for the symbolic attributes of individual and collective
suspected of communist sympathies, were banned or differentiation.
persecuted. Curiously enough, the protection of the values Culture and politics were founded on liberalization based
of freedom was one argument used to justify those acts of on market logic only. In the field of knowledge, organizational
censorship. In fact, security featured prominently in skills and private and public management science featured
discourse towards the end of the century culminating, after more and more prominently in scientific and social thought
the tragedy of 11 September 2001, in the adoption of in order to adapt to and master the new demands of a free-
measures to control and monitor thought and many forms trade society focused on meeting its needs. The workplace
of cultural expression (the Patriot Act). These measures and enterprise therefore came to be regarded as new centres
were evident or obvious to varying degrees and promoted of knowledge. Management science was first listed as a
the idealization of an exclusive political model. university subject in the United States before all Western
We must also mention the destruction of Afghanistan’s countries followed suit, thereby establishing business
Bamayan Buddhas, figures of alterity and of a religion management as an organizational model for the state and for
intolerable to the Taliban extremists. The temporal society as a whole. Compared to this managerial conception
demolition by human beings of purely symbolic human of universal matters, national and state sovereignty was an
works illustrated the extent of the absolutism of the will to empty reference. The twentieth century therefore tended to
subject the field of representation to prohibitions rationalized be the century of heterogeneity in which individual
by man. The case of the fatwa (death threat) pronounced by aspirations clashed more and more with all integrative
Iran’s religious authorities against writer Salman Rushdie in principles. Representation of the world as a whole unified by
the late 1980s was another example of the power that politics the market became the new symbolic construct, and it
attributes to culture and creation, fearing that they express obscured the increasingly profound and real social and
an uncontrolled and discernibly subversive freedom. cultural differences between people and identities.

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Attempts were made to establish new conditions of The various levels of opposition between the two main
differentiation and dialogue between the cultures of cultures of politics, one based on the transcendency of
hypermodernity and traditional cultures. The tragedy of reason under the liberal model and the other shaped by the
11 September 2001 showed that it was impossible for immanence of a community of belief and tradition,
certain forms of anti-modern culture to be expressed in the continued to be linked to highly unequal social development
language of modern democratic institutions. The forms of detrimental to the weakest. They needed to be addressed
fanaticism that burst onto the international scene as politically in the context of a new universalism based on
exemplified by Afghanistan’s Taliban, Saudi Arabia’s dialogue rather than to be reduced to power conflicts
Wahhabis (whose influence spread to the West), or suicide between models of civilizations. On the one hand, in the
bombers who believed in the idealization of certain verses of internal crisis of modernity, the various forms of rational
the Koran, were a means of expressing what was felt to be determinism were widely called into question. Doubt and
inexpressible in the language of modernity. Those extremist the reflective identity of the modern mind had fostered
movements in pre-modern cultures opted for violence, openness to critical awareness focused on changing
hatred and sacrifice rather than compromise, which they conditions rather than on veneration of a social order rooted
considered inconceivable. in immutability or revelation. On the other hand,
The latter phase of the twentieth century was marked by intersubjective dialogue between traditional cultures and
a new and deep rift between civilizations, signalling the cultures that had introduced secularization and the
retreat of the universal values of equality, liberty and separation of politics had to be initiated in order to end
solidarity. The extension of rights and freedoms in modern worldwide tension between culture and politics. Awareness
states was confronted with relativism, which trivialized all of cultural diversity, encompassing beliefs, religions,
democratic accomplishments. Owing to the tensions philosophical representations and the thirst for domination,
identified, a distinction could be drawn between modernity, stands out as the key issue in the social and political
whose basic premises failed to gain sway, and the limits of transformations of the twentieth century.
modernization imposed from outside on societies founded
on the ‘cult of the ancient’, in which rationality rested on the
coherence of revealed truths. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Freedom of thought, conscience and action, and respect
for the exercise of those values by others – in a world in Arendt, H. 1954. Between Past and Future – Eight Exercises in Political
which communications permitted unlimited contact – Thought. Viking Press, New York.
created conditions for mutual tolerance, which was vital for Barret-Kriegel, B. 1979. L’État et les esclaves. Calmann-Lévy, Paris.
the peaceful coexistence of dissimilar cultures. For such a Barth, F. (ed.). 1995. Les groupes ethniques et leurs frontières. PUF,
dialogue to be successful, freedom of conscience and action Paris.
could not be left to the atemporal order mediated by Bobbio, N. 1996. Libéralisme et démocratie. Editions du Cerf, Paris.
theologians, but had to be ensured increasingly by the Chebel, M. 2002. Le sujet en islam. Editions du Seuil, Paris.
political process. Followers of Islam, for whom subjectivity Delacampagne, C. 2003. Islam et Occident: les raisons d’un conflit.
inhered in obedience, which effectively barred them from PUF, Paris.
any subjectivity, drew closer to the culture of criticism Dumont, L. 1983. Essais sur l’individualisme: Une perspective
through modernization, literacy, birth control by women anthropologique sur l’idéologie moderne. Editions du Seuil, Paris.
and the general provision of education. The identity of Foucault, M. 1971. L’ordre du discours. Gallimard, Paris.
thought shared with the West on those matters restored a  2001. Omnes et singulatim: Vers une critique de la raison politique.
measure of authority to the power of reason over real-life In: Dits et Écrits, Vol. 4. Gallimard, Paris.
conditions. Such closer ties marked the end of the twentieth Furet, F. 1995. Le passé d’une illusion: Essai sur l’idée communiste au
century. xxie siècle. Robert Laffont/Calmann-Lévy, Paris.
The need to move forward from an incomplete liberal Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the
democracy was clearly identified in other parts of the world Late Modern Age. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
as well. Subjectivity therefore had to be viewed in relation to Lefort, C. 1981. L’invention démocratique: Les limites de la domination
a crisis that everyone faced in different ways. Westerners, totalitaire. Fayard, Paris.
who enjoyed freedom but were constrained by the reification Lipovetsky, G. 1987. L’empire de l’éphémère: La mode et son destin
of the imagination in the materialistic strength of supply dans les sociétés modernes. Gallimard, Paris.
and demand, had to regain freedom and awareness as the Renaut, A. 1989. L’ère de l’individu. Gallimard, Paris.
architects of the institutions that determined the way they Taylor, C. 1991. The Malaise of Modernity. Anansi Press, Concord,
related to freedom, equality and solidarity. Social Ontario.
movements, such as feminism and the promotion of cultural Todd, E. 2003. After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American
identities, and movements in defence of alternative world Order. Columbia University Press, New York.
views rallied to the cause of renewable freedom at the end of Touraine, A. 1992. Critique de la modernité. Fayard, Paris.
the twentieth century.  1997. Pourrons-nous vivre ensemble? Égaux et différents. Fayard,
Paris.

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 25.6
CULTURE, THE ARTS AND SOCIETY
Individual Freedom and Expression

Anisuzzaman

CENSORSHIP AND SOCIAL CONTROL The argument for intellectual freedom rests mainly on
the primacy of the individual, a concept on which there is
The issue of individual freedom and expression in the fields not universal agreement. A society is composed of individuals
of culture and the arts in relation to society is extremely and, in order to function as a society, it demands conformity
complex. First, it is intimately connected with the basic from the individuals. The individual, on the other hand,
political questions regarding freedom of the individual and may wish to free himself from any or all restraints imposed
freedom of speech. Secondly, special privilege has been by the society. While the society aims at self-preservation
claimed for the artist and cultural actors on the ground that and the protection of traditional values, the individual voices
art forms cannot flourish without freeing creators from all dissent. Ideally a balance should therefore be struck between
constraints. The state, however, has found it expedient to rights and duties of both parties. However, as history has
defend itself and its favoured institutions (such as the demonstrated, this is extremely difficult to achieve. In most
Church) from attacks by individuals and groups and to cases the conflict ends either in the destruction of the
protect its citizens from what it views as obscenity, violence individual or a gradual change in the standards of society.
and horror. The best one can hope for is that, ‘Out of this dichotomy of
For centuries, societies have attempted to impose society and the individual, the tension between the many
restrictions while at the same time freeing themselves from and the one, must come whatever success there really is,
such controls. A landmark in this struggle in Britain was what progress is possible in the future, as in the past.’1
the ruling of the parliament of Henry VIII in 1534 that Society has various ways of controlling recalcitrant
treason may be committed ‘by words or writing’. A quarter individuals or cultural expressions that challenge its
of a century later, the Catholic Church compiled a list of traditional values. Leaving aside the state that imposes
proscribed books, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum – a censorship of one kind or another, and the Church that
practice which has existed in various forms since the fifth prescribes or proscribes, private groups are often formed to
century. In 1642, the Lord Chamberlain took over as stage act as guardians of public morality. The broadcasting media
censor. Two years later, John Milton’s Areopagitica in the United States is particularly susceptible to private
appeared as a passionate defence of free speech and cogent pressures. Groups such as the Citizens for Decent Literature,
argument against censorship. In Britain, censorship was Daughters of the American Revolution, the General
abandoned in 1695. From the days of Milton, however, a Federation of Women’s Clubs, the John Birch Society and
succession of thinkers, notably many eighteenth-century the National Legion of Decency have assumed the role of
British and French philosophers, have voiced their concern community conscience-keepers in the United States. They
for freedom of thought and speech. It was in this context have demonstrated their disapproval by burning books and
that the First Amendment of the Constitution of the picketing movie houses. In Britain, there are such groups as
United States was enacted in 1791, guaranteeing Americans the Catholic Teachers’ Federation and the Public Morality
freedom of speech, based on the British parliamentary Council, but these are not as influential as their American
privilege, and freedom of the press. Although it was aimed counterparts. In many cases, individuals, such as Mary
at granting political freedom, the amendment’s scope has Whitehouse, have been more eloquent and successful.
been extended to all kinds of cultural forms by judicial Often crowds choose to publicly register their disagreement.
decisions in the last two centuries. Meanwhile the Universal In Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, crowds have angrily
Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United demonstrated against an author or publication of a book. In
Nations in 1948, succinctly grouped all such freedoms 1944, Pablo Picasso’s announcement of his decision to join
under the heading of ‘freedom of opinion and expression’ the Communist Party was greeted with unfavourable
and made it obligatory for the signatory-state to accord this demonstrations in Paris. Local authorities, both in the
freedom to all its citizens. United States and Britain, have used their powers to censor

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plays and films and to remove certain books from the public antagonistic to the desires and needs of the individual.
or school libraries. The authority to choose school textbooks Herbert Marcuse identifies freedom of expression as an
has been seen by many as a process of thought-control. ideological construct with specific functions in Western
There has been much advocacy for testing literature and democratic societies and cultures that can be effectively
other art forms by ‘contemporary community standards’ as countered by a form of censorship that is creative rather
distinct from ‘national’ ones. The judiciary in the United than repressive. Michel Foucault maintains that, in the
States, however, has defeated such claims. Opposed to the context of sexuality, censorship plays a more subtle and
attitude of these groups, the American Civil Liberties paradoxical role than the prohibitory one in that it can
Union, the American Library Association (particularly its incite more than prohibit. A recent study puts forward the
Office for Intellectual Freedom Committee) and the view that literature is the result, rather than simply the
Freedom to Read Foundation have forcefully campaigned target, of censorship pressure, and thus we are partly in debt
for unlimited freedom in the material Americans can read, to censorship for our concept of ‘literature’ as a kind of
hear and view. discourse with rules of its own. Another scholar has
The system features several kinds of built-in pressures observed that censorship makes the artist imply rather than
that might come into play. Publishers are capable of exerting state his message directly, instilling the work of art with a
economic pressures on the author. It is sometimes feared subtlety which, in turn, quickens the imagination of the
that the economic pressures faced by American authors ‘can reader or viewer. According to some other authors, three
seriously affect the contents of their writings’. Booksellers points need to be noted on censorship: (1) that it is present
and the Newsagents’ Federation in Britain are known to even in texts that seek to elude it, (2) that it is a notion of
have refused to distribute particular publications or to extraordinary potency, and (3) that we define ourselves as
launch a new newspaper. readers, writers and as citizens through it.4
The pressure on the media appears to be greater. Just as Support for censorship has come from some unusual
the owners of newspapers can exert economic pressure on quarters. A number of leftists, for instance, have supported
working journalists, the advertisers – be they private or the censorship of racist writings, while a plea has been made
government – are in a position to pressure the newspapers to purge racist and sexist ideas from children’s reading
in regard to content. Outside pressures, though informal, material. Many feminists favour the suppression of
have often influenced the media. Internal controls and self- pornography on the grounds that it degrades women. In
censorship may also operate. this case, some of them have joined hands with conservative
Among the pressures allegedly exerted by the BBC are anti-pornography campaigners who are anxious to protect
the ban on a record by Petula Clark for a veiled reference to ‘the family’ not only from pornography but also from the
God, the removal of Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord onslaughts of feminism.
Altrincham following their comments on the monarchy, Some hold that ‘in its regulation of obscenity, horror and
and the ban on Noel Coward’s records. The BBC is also violence, it [censorship] will have universal support, but not
believed to have periodically compiled lists of forbidden in an interpretation of ‘offensiveness’ which appears to be
subjects for the benefit of its producers. The Independent unduly deferential to monarchy, the Church, and similar
Television Authority (ITA) is on record for having refused institutions. 5 Similar expectations are nurtured for
advertisement of the Daily Worker and the telecasting of censorship of films: ‘The desire to protect the public – the
films by the Institute of Directors for political reasons.2 viewers – from depiction of excessive erotica or violence is a
It has been observed that ‘the dominant social ethos of concern held reasonably by many reasonable persons’.6
private enterprise creates its own constraint: if the British Others appear to be surer of their grounds for optimism
media are rooted in a broadly based social control, American and support for what some7 have designated as ‘censorship
media organizations are bound by powerful economic of enlightenment’: ‘there is a consensus in society that
control mechanisms which exert tremendous influence on displays of violence and sex, publication of personal attacks,
both the organizational context of media production and some information about government policies and so on
the nature of media output’.3 The most common impediment should be withheld from the general public’; there is also an
to freedom of expression comes in the form of government ‘agreement that laws which prevent people from inciting
censorship – not only in time of war, when truth is often violence through racist publications or speech are a good
sacrificed, but also in peacetime, when the dominant social, thing’.8
political and moral ideologies shape the mind of the censor. The fact remains, however, that there is a fairly strong
We can identify three basic patterns of censorship: opposing viewpoint holding that the ‘democratic philosophy
preventive censorship, punitive censorship and censorship is based on man’s ability to reason and decide for himself his
at the source. The most common form is preventive own best interests on his educability, and on his conscience’,
censorship, in which a piece is censored before dissemination. that ‘Obviously censorship denies each of these’, and that
Punitive censorship does not restrict dissemination, but the nothing should be withheld ‘no matter how hateful or
person responsible is liable to prosecution by an individual hurtful the idea may be to some individual or group’.9 The
or government in a court of law. The censorship at the Freedom to Read Statement, issued in 1972 by the American
source generally applies to the media and involves someone Library Association and the Association of American
with political or military authority making sure that the Publishers says: ‘Parents and teachers have a responsibility
facts are concealed for political or strategic purposes. to prepare the young to meet the diversity of experiences in
Interestingly, there is a wide spectrum of views with life to which they will be exposed, as they have a responsibility
regard to freedom of expression and censorship. The to help them learn to critically think for themselves’, and
Freudian approach, for instance, tends to find censorship as ‘These are affirmative responsibilities, not to be discharged
both immutable and implacable, rooted, as they are, deep in simply by preventing them from reading works for which
the human psyche even though they might be fundamentally they are not prepared. In these matters, taste differs, and

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taste cannot be legislated; nor can machinery be devised Hall’s novel The Well of Loneliness, which was described by
that will suit the demand of one group without limiting the the attorney-general as ‘lesbian propaganda’. Having refused
freedom of others’.10 to admit expert evidence, the magistrate ordered its
Perhaps it will not be out of place to end this debate by destruction. A gradual cessation of prosecution of literary
bringing in the controversy over the relation between the works was noticed in the next quarter of a century, but it
representation of violence and sex in the arts and the media was revived in 1954. Curiously enough, The Decameron, by
and crimes of similar nature in society. A British study the fourteenth-century Italian writer and scholar Boccaccio,
tends to show that ‘reporting of terrorist acts has engendered was ordered to be destroyed. The same year Julia by Margot
similar acts’ and ‘violent films’ have led to initiative acts of Bland, The Philanderer by Stanley Kauffmann, The Image
violence.11 On the other hand, the National Commission and the Search by Walter Baxter, and The Man in Control by
on Obscenity and Pornography, appointed by the President Hugh McGraw were among the works prosecuted with a
of the United States in 1967, found that the ‘analyses of varying measure of success.
United States crime and illegitimacy rates do not support The persistent attacks on literature led the Society of
the thesis of a causal connection between the availability of Authors to set up a committee, with Sir Alan Herbert as
erotica and either sex crimes or illegitimacy’.12 What both chairman. The committee produced a bill for reform of the
sides agree upon is that the matter is ‘probably impossible to law, which was introduced in the House of Commons, but
calculate’ and that ‘the data cannot, however, be said nothing came out of it. Two new laws – The Children and
absolutely to disprove such a connection.’ Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act and The
Obscene Publications Act – were adopted in 1955 and 1959
respectively. The latter made an attempt to distinguish
CENSORSHIP AND PERSECUTION OF literature from pornography.
PERSONAL CONVICTIONS Under the Post Office Act of 1953, postal authorities
seized copies of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence,
It is beyond the capacity of a single author in the present which had been banned in the United Kingdom since 1930.
chapter to trace the development of censorship on a global Under the new Obscene Publications Act, the first
basis from 1914 to century’s end. We thus propose in the prosecution was brought out against this book in 1960.
following pages to examine certain countries, at varying Having accepted the expert evidence, however, the jury
periods, to present a general notion of how authorities have acquitted the work. In 1964, the eighteenth-century novel
imposed restraints on an array of cultural forms and the Fanny Hill by John Cleland was banned. The government
media and their contributors and how the latter have made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the French
responded to such pressures. authorities to suppress the publication in France of the
We will begin with the case of the United Kingdom. original English version of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, a
During the First World War, the authorities possessed two novel first published in the United States, although the
weapons to ‘effectively restrain editors from publishing work was never prosecuted in the United Kingdom. A
materials bearing certain restrictive designation’. 13 These bookshop in London was prosecuted in 1988, under the
were the Official Secrets Act of 1911, updated and reinforced Customs and Excise Act of 1876, for catering obscene
in 1920, 1939 and 1988, and the system of ‘D’ notice. It has materials to the public, and the objectionable matters
been alleged that both means were used for matters that had included some medical books and works by Oscar Wilde
nothing to do with either leakage of official secrets or and Kate Millet. Similarly, customs authorities seized the
endangering national security. In 1935, the prestigious works of Jean Genet – the French petty-criminal-turned-
auction firm Sotheby’s was unable to sell original letters of great-literary-figure (and saint, according to Jean-Paul
Lord Nelson to the Duke of Wellington on the grounds Sartre) – in the original French. The second edition of
that they contained ‘official secrets’.14 By using these same Ulysses by James Joyce met a similar fate. Irish customs
provisions, a reporter of the Daily Dispatch was convicted in seized The Observer because it contained an article on family
1938, the Daily Worker was suppressed in 1941 and the planning, and the Australian customs seized copies of
Daily Mirror was officially threatened with suppression in J. P. Donleavy’s comic novel The Ginger Man.
1942. The censorship was removed once the war ended, but The 1988 publication of The Satanic Verses by the Indian-
the committee set up to deal with the press in wartime had born British author Salman Rushdie created a worldwide
survived the war. But then the Cold War had developed, furore. Considered by Islamic fundamentalists as
prompting the government to introduce special measures. blasphemous, particularly in its depiction of the Prophet
Such measures led to dismissal and suspension of civil Muhammad, the book was banned in a number of countries
servants and put tremendous pressure on a major firm to with significant Muslim communities and burned by
dispense with the services of its assistant solicitor because it Muslims in Britain and elsewhere. The sharpest reaction
was found that his wife had been a communist. came from the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, who immediately
It is worth mentioning here that the pacifist activities of condemned its author, editors and publishers to capital
Bertrand Russell in the First World War years led to his punishment and called on ‘all valiant Muslims wherever
being fined in 1916, his dismissal from lectureship at Trinity they may be in the world to execute this sentence without
College, Cambridge, six months’ imprisonment in 1918, delay’. Rushdie was forced to go into hiding, and abandoned
and incarceration again in 1961, for anti-nuclear protest. plans to bring out a paperback edition of his novel when its
In 1923, the United Kingdom signed an international Japanese translator was stabbed to death in 1991. There
convention for the suppression of the circulation of traffic in have been protests against banning the book but more so
obscene publications, which resulted in an increase in against Khomeini’s fatwa, which delivered the death
prosecutions for obscenity. The government moved the sentence to a citizen of another country and without the
court in 1928 for an order to destroy copies of Radclyffe due process of a proper trial. A collection of one

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hundred works by Arab and Muslim writers, entitled Pour Works of Walt Whitman, Theodore Dreiser, William
Rushdie, appeared in Paris in 1993, defending not necessarily Faulkner, Upton Sinclair, James Cabal, Erskine Caldwell,
the novel but the right of the author to free speech, and Lillian Hellman, Edmund Wilson and John O’Hara have
criticizing the inhuman and what some called the ‘anti- been subject to censure by United States authorities.
Islamic character’ of the fatwa. Between 1917 and 1925, Cabal, Dreiser, Henry Miller,
However we must also mention the noteworthy signs of Schnitzler and, of course, D. H. Lawrence, won victories in
progress in the struggle for freedom of expression. The their legal battles with the censors. Ulysses by James Joyce,
twentieth edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum – which was once burned by customs officials, was allowed to
which appeared in 1948, and which had proscribed, among be imported into United States in 1931. In the 1930s and
others: all works of Balzac, Stendhal and Emile Zola, the 1940s, a host of authors including James Farrell, William
novel Pamela by Richardson, the Prince by Machiavelli, and Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell and James Cain faced the
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by censor. Censorship trials of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Fanny
Gibbon (but no works by Marx, Lenin and Freud) – was Hill, Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, Memories of Hecate
abolished in 1966. The following year saw the end of theatre Country by Edmund Wilson, Ten North Frederick by John
censorship. And in 1984, Clive Ponting was acquitted from O’Hara, and End as a Man, a play by Calder Willingham,
the charge of violating the Official Secrets Act. were important landmarks cases.
In the United States, ‘for a great part of the twentieth During the First World War, a law barred ‘matter of a
century the federal government policed many of the most seditious, anarchistic, or treasonable character’ from being
revered American authors and playwrights and also watched handled by the United States Postal Service. Some
well-known writers from other countries who are read and considered that between 1917 and 1927, the Postmaster
admired here’. The authorities might suspect American General was given more power in any other period of
authors for a variety of reasons: the themes they chose for American history. The Second World War brought an
their books, their association with professional writers’ Office of Censorship, whose main target was material of
groups or meetings, signing petitions, publications they foreign origin that was ‘inimical to the war effort of the
subscribed to, and the places visited within the country and United States or contrary to the interests of the United
abroad. The FBI maintained dossiers on at least 150 such States or its Allies’. In the 1950s and 1960s many attempts
persons between 1911 and 1968. The list reads like a Who’s on the part of the Postal Service to censor were thwarted or
Who of American literati. Some of the names are given modified by court orders.
below in, more or less, the chronological order in which files Between 1948 and 1961, against the backdrop of the
were opened on them: Ezra Pound, Walter Lippman, Jack Cold War, post-publication cases were brought against
London, Archibald MacLeish, Eugene O’Neill, John Reed, Communist Party leaders. Attempts by the authorities to
Robert Sherwood, Carl Sandburg, Sinclair Lewis, Edna suppress such publications as the Pentagon Papers,
St.Vincent Millay, Lewis Mumford, Upton Sinclair, concerning the Vietnam War were defeated by the court. A
Langston Hughes, Theodore Dreiser, Dorothy Parker, greater victory came with the passage of the Freedom of
Edgar Snow, Erskine Caldwell, Howard Fast, Lillian Information Act (1966, 1974), which requires government
Hellman, Thornton Wilder, Van Wycke Brooks, Ernest officials to explain why some information should not be
Hemingway, Irwin Shaw, Dale Carnegie, John Steinbeck, released.
Lionel Trilling, Steven Vincent Benet, Moss Hart, Arthur Thanks to the efforts on the part of state and local censor
Miller, Quenton Reynolds, William Faulkner, Jessica boards and organized religious groups, combined with the
Mitford, John O’Hara, William Dean Howells, Ogden film industry’s own regulations, an entire generation of
Nash, Grace Paley, Robert Frost, Erle Stanley Gardner, Americans grew up with the ‘family film’, characterized by
Robert Lowell, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, Richard Wright, some as ‘an artistically immature, morally safe, and highly
Edmund Wilson, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, profitable entertainment’. During the Second World War,
T. S. Eliot, Norman Mailer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film industry enjoyed the same privilege as the press and
e. e. cummings, Truman Capote, Allen Tate and Allen radio and was not subject to war censorship. The advent of
Ginsberg. The notebooks and manuscripts of Carl Sandburg television in the 1950s, which affected the film industry
were confiscated by the authorities in 1918, and, in 1959, adversely, and the inclusion of films within the scope of the
they tried to prevent the 81-year-old poet from going to First Amendment, made films ‘freer in the law and
Russia as they considered such a visit ‘extremely undesirable’. provocative in the content’.15 But the post-war period was
Howard Fast, Jessica Mitford and Grace Paley were dominated by the Cold War, and the fear of communism
unanimous in their belief that the activities of the FBI was taken to new heights by the House Un-American
destroyed ‘social writing’ in America, which had been the Activities Committee (HUAC). Deciding to investigate
hallmark of all great American authors right up to and communist influence in the film industry, it called
immediately after the Second World War. 100 witnesses including many of Hollywood’s most talented
Others who attracted the authorities’ dubious attention and popular figures to testify on their alleged communist
included British luminary and sculptor Henry Moore and connections or those of their associates. A group of eight
the distinguished American publisher Alfred A. Knopf. screenwriters and two directors (Alvah Bessie, Herbert
The foreign authors that made the government Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr.,
uncomfortable included Thomas Mann, W. H. Auden, John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz,
Stephen Spender, Graham Greene and Aldous Huxley. Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo) refused to answer
Bertolt Brecht, who was forced to flee Germany as we shall questions and were sentenced to imprisonment. The
see later, left the United States (where he had lived six members of the Motion Pictures Association immediately
years) when he was required to testify before the House published the Waldorf Declaration, sacking the ten and
Un-American Activities Committee in 1948. expressing support for HUAC. Known as the ‘Hollywood

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Ten’, these courageous individuals were blacklisted by the After 1950, a series of new laws established an extensive
studios, and hundreds of others were fired from the industry. censorship and self-censorship structure. South Africa
Throughout this era, filmmakers mostly produced carried on the policy of apartheid and denied all freedoms to
conservative works, leading to a period of creative stagnation. the black majority. Under the Suppression of Communism
The blacklist disappeared in the 1960s. In 1965, the court Act of 1950, anybody suspected of non-compliance with the
decided that prior censorship of films was unconstitutional, regime’s policy could be prosecuted on various charges,
thus ending a long battle between the industry and the including sedition. In the early years following the
censors. The elimination of almost all censorial standards Second World War, when the judiciary was still
except obscenity, and the liberalization of the concept of independent, the acquittal of many accused of sedition
obscenity itself, have completely altered the condition of greatly embarrassed the government. In retaliation, the
filmmaking in the United States. parliament then removed certain cases involving sedition
The rise of Nazism in Germany brought about a period from the jurisdiction of the courts.
of persecution of the arts and artists. The ideology of Nazi Between 1950 and 1990, thousands of books, newspapers
racism was fully applied to the field of culture, excluding and other publications were banned on the orders of the
from it all ‘non-Aryan’ elements and attacking what was Ministry of Interior. This ban was later re-enforced by the
called ‘Negro culture’ as a whole. Censorship of all forms of Publications and Entertainments Act of 1963. The children’s
art, films and music was carried to the extreme. The works classic Black Beauty was seized by the customs authority,
of Igor Stravinsky, the celebrated Russian-born composer presumably because of its title. The Suppression of
who was then living in France, and those of Paul Hindemith, Communism Act, with its many subsequent amendments,
one of the leading German composers and musical theorists, and later, the Internal Security Act of 1982, authorized the
were banned. Wilhelm Furtwängler – who conducted an government to ban organizations and individuals. Such
orchestral version of what is considered Hindemith’s organizations included the African National Congress, the
greatest work, Mathis der Maler, with the Berlin Communist Party of South Africa and the Pan African
Philharmonic in 1934, and supported the opera in the Congress. Among the more than 2,000 individuals concerned
press – was barred from conducting it. As a result, by such legislation was Stephen Biko, banned for black
Hindemith eventually left Germany for Turkey. Nazis activism in 1973, at the age of 17, arrested four times between
threw a stink bomb into a Frankfurt theatre during the 1975 and 1977 and jailed in Port Elizabeth. Biko eventually
performance of Bertolt Brecht’s Mahagony, and Kurt Weill, died of brain lesions in captivity in 1977. Even such
who directed Brecht’s Die Dreigroschenoper (Three Penny brutalization could not undermine the fighting spirit of the
Opera), was also banned. For Brecht, whose books were black people. Their undisputed leader, Nelson Mandela,
burned and citizenship withdrawn, exile was the only viable convicted of treason in 1964, suffered imprisonment for 28
alternative. The film version of Erich Maria Remarque’s years (1962–90). In 1994, Mandela was overwhelmingly
novel, Im Western nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western elected as South Africa’s first black president.
Front) was banned for ‘reasons of national prestige’, and the The Russian Revolution of 1917 established the world’s
novelist himself was also forced to flee Germany. The art first socialist state, the USSR. Within days of the revolution,
works of Ernest Barlach, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee censorship was put in place to control a hostile press.
and Lyonel Feininger were removed from an exhibition in Intended as a temporary measure to be withdrawn after the
1930. Similarly Käthe Kollwitz’s works were removed from restoration of normalcy, censorship was institutionalized in
two exhibitions in 1934 and 1936, and the police destroyed 1922 with the creation of the Central Censorship Office,
engraving plates of George Grosz, who fled to the United empowered with final authority over printed matter and the
States in 1932. In 1934, the architect and educator Walter performing arts. The Office, which became one of the most
Gropius secretly sought exile in England, after the effective systems of censorship, endured until the demise of
government closed down the famous Bauhaus school for the communist regime in 1991. During Lenin’s lifetime, a
architecture and applied arts, which he had founded in certain degree of tolerance was allowed in cultural matters,
1919. The frescoes executed in the Bauhaus by Oskar but no political dissent was tolerated. The early days of
Schlemmer were ordered to be destroyed. Max Pechstein, Stalin’s rule were also less dogmatic in the cultural field. On
painter and printmaker, was forced to resign his teaching the contrary, the theory of Socialist Realism, which required
position at the Berlin Academy when the Nazis declared his all creative people to serve the cause of the proletariat
works ‘decadent’. After Hitler came to power, modern art revolution, was adopted in 1934, but strong censorship was
was virtually outlawed in Germany, and the function of art nevertheless enforced.
was reduced to the glorification of Nazism and the Führer. Soviet censorship required pre-publication supervision
As a consequence of Nazi racism, studies of race and of manuscripts. The censor was guided by the infamous
intelligence were outlawed in the German Democratic Perechen, a large volume listing all the types of information
Republic. to be banned in the media. The aim was to ensure that no
Formal censorship was introduced in South Africa in state secret was divulged and nothing against the communist
1937 to restrict attacks on Hitler and Mussolini in the ideology propagated. The censor did not directly prevent
foreign press. In doing so, the South African government information from appearing; instead when he noticed
hoped to eliminate ‘anti-national’ and ‘un-national’ members something incompatible with the ideological directives, he
of the press and ‘discipline’ the radio service. Prior to 1950, made a recommendation to the editor who had submitted
censorship in South Africa served three related purposes: the text. Only the editor was allowed to modify the
the continuation of the political economy of colonialism manuscript, but he invariably followed the censor’s
and its attendant social mores; the adoption of legislation recommendation, for it was common knowledge that non-
designed to control the areas inhabited by blacks; and the compliance would be reported to the relevant authorities of
repression of the trade union movement and communists. the Communist Party.

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The Soviet system not only empowered the censor but and foreign cultures, both ancient and modern’. Many
also led to a great deal of self-censorship on the part of the intellectuals were verbally abused and physically attacked by
authors themselves. Khrushchev sanctioned the suppression the Red Guards – the urban groups who enforce the
of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, which was published in principles of the revolution – and were subjected to forced
the West in 1957 (the novel was banned in the Soviet Union labour, imprisonment and, in some cases, abusive treatment
until 1980), and the author was prevented from accepting leading to death. Among those persecuted were the historian
the Nobel Prize for literature awarded to him in 1958. Wu Han, deputy mayor of Beijing, and esteemed creators
Khrushchev did however allow the publication of One Day like Peng Zhen, Lu Dingyi and Zhou Yang.
in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The end of the Cultural Revolution brought the return
But scores of other writers and artists were denied such to the old policy of ‘serving the people and socialism’. This
freedom and reprimanded or persecuted. To escape the implied serving ‘all those who support socialism’, ‘eulogizing
censor, a few authors, like Pasternak, arranged publication communist ideas and moral values’, bringing up a new
of their manuscripts abroad with the risk of its consequences. generation of socialist-minded young people and raising
In certain cases, uncensored versions of works were society’s ideological, cultural and moral levels’.16 The special
circulated privately. role of literature and the arts in achieving these goals is
In order to stifle all opposition, the Romanian acknowledged, and there are signs of some relaxation of the
Government’s denial of the freedom of expression took a rigid cultural atmosphere.
curious form. By a 1963 decree, the government was In British India, the press was never free, and only the
authorized to decide who could possess a typewriter. The extent of the restrictions varied from time to time. The
right to own a typewriter could be denied on grounds that a First World War coincided with a growing national
person had a police record or that his or her conduct posed aspiration in India and the intensified activities of the Indian
a threat to public security. In collaboration with the local revolutionaries in Germany and the United States. The
militia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs maintained records government, already armed with the Press Act of 1910, was
on the production, use and maintenance of typewriters, accorded more powers under the Defence of India Act of
typewriter ribbons, duplicators, ink and other materials for 1914, which imposed rigid censorship. The press was
the reproduction of printed matter. Even the repainting of expected to contribute to ensuring state security. Thus
typewriters could only be carried out in specific approximately 10 per cent of Indian newspapers and
workshops. printing presses were under fiscal control. Journalists were
In 1989, Israel, which has a rigid censorship system, harassed, muzzled or imprisoned, and the government
banned the use of fax machines in the Gaza strip, confiscated established a Central Publicity Bureau to inform the public
all such machines found in the possession of journalists and of events at home and abroad. During the war years, over a
made buying or operating a fax machine subject to obtaining thousand titles were banned.
a special license. The Israeli State bans anything that fosters As the political movement for freedom gathered
Palestinian nationalism or extols Palestinians’ history. In momentum after the end of the war, the government applied
1986, a Palestinian book exhibition was raided, some of its the numerous acts available in its legislative arsenal, but
organizers arrested and a thousand titles confiscated. shortly afterwards some concession to public opinion were
Thousands of books are banned in Israeli-occupied deemed necessary. In 1922, the Press Act of 1910 and the
territories. Journalists are placed under severe restrictions in Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act of 1908 were
Israel – from controlling their access to the West Bank and repealed.
the Gaza strip to placing them under house or town arrests With the launching of the Civil Disobedience Movement,
– while authors who do not conform to the government line the government sought a greater degree of authority to
are often held, with or without trial. suppress the press through the Indian Press (Emergency
Following the revolution in 1949, China took the same Powers) Act of 1931 and the Foreign Relations Bill of 1932,
path as the Soviet Union in the early years after its revolution. both of which were widely used. Between March and June,
The address that Mao Zedong delivered in Yemen in 1941 ‘the British had issued formal warnings to 150 publishers
was considered a manifesto for writers and artists. The and banned approximately 400 books and tracts, 40 posters
principle dictated that the creative individual should come and 50 newspapers.’ Nationalist writings were prosecuted,
closer to the people and reflect their revolutionary spirit in with their authors often jailed. The Indian newsmen
his works. In order to achieve this, he was required to abide founded the Free Press of India, an independent news
by the dictates of the Communist Party. Strict censorship agency, while clandestine presses operated and ‘potentially
imposed in the 1950s was somewhat relaxed in the early dangerous writings’ widely circulated.
1960s, but that was more than offset by the Cultural The Second World War years marked a step backward
Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976. At that time, in India’s struggle for freedom of expression. Expanded
the cultural system in China was seen as elitist and tending censorship was imposed in 1942 and continued until 1945;
towards ‘bourgeois values’, and Mao sought to correct the many newspapers and periodicals suspended publication,
situation. His wife, Jing Qing, who was later decried as the and the number of banned books had swelled. Indian and
leading figure of ‘the Gang of Four’, was anti-intellectual by Pakistan had inherited the legal and administrative system
conviction but gathered a band of radical intellectuals left by the British. Although India maintained stringent
to implement the new cultural policy. According to an press laws related to national or state security, sedition,
official statement, ‘They totally negated the cultural obscenity, heresy or blasphemy, the judiciary and the press
accomplishments achieved under the guidance of socialist associations have successfully countered these attempts to
cultural policies in the seventeen years since the founding of enforce censorship.
the People’s Republic, ruthlessly attacked and persecuted In Pakistan, power over the press and other published
literary and artistic workers, banned the splendid Chinese material was further strengthened by the Public Safety Act

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of 1949, the Security Act of 1953 and the Defence of BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pakistan Rules of 1965. ‘In a continuing atmosphere of
political turmoil newspapers were censored, forced out of ABDALLAH, A. 1993. For Rushdie: Essays by Arab and Muslim Writers
business and brought under stringent security provisions’. in Defence of Free Speech. George Braziller, New York.
Following the adoption of Pakistan’s first constitution in Article 19. International Centre on Censorship. 1991. In: Information,
1956, the situation appeared to have improved, but frequent Freedom and Censorship World Report 1991. Library Association
imposition of martial law led to further restrictions on the Publishing Ltd, London.
freedom of expression. The gradual Islamization of the BAI, L. 1983. Cultural Policy in the People’s Republic of China: Letting a
country since the 1970s fostered more severe restrictions Hundred Flowers Blossom. Series: Studies and Documents on
either by amending the old laws or introducing new ones Cultural Policies. UNESCO, Paris.
like the far-reaching Blasphemy Law. In a bid to control the BARNS, M. 1940. The Indian Press: A History of the Growth of Public
freedom of expression, the authorities have burned books, Opinion in India. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London.
subjected journalists to physical punishment and authors to BARRIER, N. G. 1974. Banned: Controversial Literature and Political
harassment and arrests. Control in British India, 1907–1947. University of Missouri Press,
Periodic long-time military rule in Bangladesh has Columbia, MO.
interfered with the freedom of expression in general, but an BRUCKER, H. 1949. Freedom of Information. Macmillan, New York.
attempt by conservative voters and legislators to pass a CARMILLY, M. W. 1986. Fear of Art: Censorship and Freedom of
Blasphemy Law similar to the one in Pakistan has failed. Expression in Art. R. R. Bowker, New York and London.
The history of censorship and the struggle for freedom of CHOLDIN, M. T. and FRIEDBERG, M. 1989. The Red Pencil: Artists,
expression in the twentieth century has been marked by Scholars and Censors in the USSR. Unwin Hyman, Boston, MA.
triumphs and setbacks. As we begin the twenty-first century GALLAGHER, M. 1982. Negotiation of Control in Media Organizations
we hope that it will portend a freer world for humanity. and Occupations. In: GUREVITCH, M., BENNETT, T., CURRAN, J.
and WOLLACOTT, J. (eds). Culture, Society and the Media.
Routledge, London.
NOTES HYLAND, P. and SAMMELLS, N. 1992. Writing and Censorship in
Britain. Routledge, London.
1. E. M. Oboler, Defending Intellectual Freedom: The MARCH, R. J. 1988. The Arts as Forces in Shaping Cultural Norms
Library and the Censor, Westport, CT, 1980, p. 8. Relating to War and the Environment. In: WESTING, A. H. (ed.).
2. H. Street, Freedom, the Intellectual and the Law, Cultural Norms, War and the Environment. Oxford University
Harmondsworth, UK, 1963, pp. 91–93. Press, Oxford, UK.
3. M. Gallagher, ‘Negotiation of Control in Media MERRETT, C. 1994. A Culture of Censorship: Secrecy and Intellectual
Organizations and Occupations’, in M. Gurevitch et al. Repression in South Africa. David Philip, Cape Town, South
(eds), Culture, Society and the Media, London, 1982, p. 159. Africa.
4. P. Hyland and N. Sammells, Writing and Censorship MITGANG, H. 1988. Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War
in Britain, London, 1992, pp. 3–12. against America’s Greatest Authors. Donald I. Fine Inc., New
5. H. Street, op. cit., p. 78. York.
6. R. S. Randall, Censorship of the Movies: The Social and OBOLER, E. M. 1980. Defending Intellectual Freedom: The Library and
Political Control of a Mass Medium, Madison, WI, 1968, the Censor. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.
p. 5. RANDALL, R. S. 1968. Censorship of the Movies: The Social and Political
7. P. Hyland and N. Sammells, op. cit., pp. 3. Control of a Mass Medium. The University of Wisconsin Press,
8. C. Wolmer, Censorship, Hove, UK, 1990. Madison, WI.
9. E. M. Oboler, op. cit., pp. 17, 51. ROBINS, N. 1992. Alien Ink: The FBI’s War on Freedom of Expression.
10. Ibid., p. 19. William Morrow and Company, Ltd, New York.
11. R. J. March, ‘The Arts as Forces in Shaping Cultural STREET, H. 1963. Freedom, the Intellectual and the Law. Penguin Books,
Norms Relating to War and the Environment’, in Ltd, Harmondsworth, UK.
A. H. Westing (ed.), Cultural Norms, War and the The New Encyclopaedia Britannica [NEB], 2003. 15th edition, 2003,
Environment, Oxford, UK, 1988. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, IL.
12. E. M. Oboler, op. cit., p. 133. WOLMER, C. 1990. Censorship. Wayland (Publishers) Ltd., Hove,
13. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, UK.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago, IL, 2003.
14. C. Wolmer, op. cit., p. 7.
15. R. S. Randall, op. cit., pp. 3–4.
16. L. Bai, Cultural Policy in the People’s Republic of China:
Letting a Hundred Flowers Blossom, Paris, 1983, pp. 17–18.

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 25.7
High Culture and Popular Culture

Theotônio dos Santos

The notion of ‘high or learned’ culture resulted from the rites that took on special importance in Europe during the
growing individualization of the cultural producer during Middle Ages. But that period also saw the development of a
the European Renaissance. The cultural producer new and distinctive urban culture that was no longer based
(craftsworker, scholar, member of a religious order, etc.) on folklore, which tends to rely on collective, non-evolving
generally belonged to the community and seldom acted as a and non-professional work.
separate, independent agent. During the sixteenth and Popular culture sprang from a number of innovations:
seventeenth centuries, the development of the royal courts the advent of the press and printing; the generalized use of
and the rise of a bourgeoisie enriched by the expansion of ink and canvas; the progress of acoustics and musical
world trade paved the way for the emergence of painters, instruments; the building of places for public entertainment
sculptors, singers, musicians, actors, playwrights, poets and and new techniques of communication. This new culture
writers, who became major individual figures recognized also developed from the formation of bourgeois tastes and
and lionized by their patrons or customers (the monarchical of an increasingly complex and differentiated civil society
state, churches and convents, wealthy individuals, etc.). which, in several revolutionary waves, took possession of
This increasingly professional activity gave rise to unique the gardens and parks of the nobility and the monarchy to
and inimitable works of art as part of a well-defined cultural establish its own cultural world in which entertainment,
world. emotion and sensuality had a much more prominent role
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that cultural than in the rationalistic ‘high culture’ of the
world was marked by the baroque and classical styles, Enlightenment.
interpreted by many creative geniuses who laid the The new bourgeois world often sought its roots in the
foundations of Western art and culture. Polyphonic music, tradition of ethnic groups, which seemed more adept at
the theatre, opera, dance, painting and sculpture (as developing lively arts, such as gypsy music that inspired the
disciplines independent of architecture), poetry and novel songs of Central Europe and Russia and the Spanish
writing, in addition to the development of science, which flamenco (just as it inspired the learned musicians of the
influenced these autonomous forms of cultural expression romantic and nationalist schools), the songs of southern
– all this gave rise to a cultural heritage in the West that was Italy or the Viennese waltz, which originated as popular
distinct from the cultural production of the past, and was expressions before reaching the salons and the public stage.
presented as ‘high culture’, deeply rooted in what was In America, the rich cultural tradition of African slaves gave
termed Greco-Roman antiquity. rise to Negro spirituals and jazz, whose subsequent
Access to high art required specific training and learning development often mingled with learned music. It is curious
through schools, universities, academies and conservatories. that this artistic world, which includes lyrics from both
Appreciation of that cultural output required a process of popular and learned sources, often became involved in the
initiation, since it was produced and consumed in these theatre, imitating the opera and ballet of the courts, and
specially designated contexts. This was the world of the subsequently of the national theatres, with lighter versions
Enlightenment: a philosophical, scientific, moral and such as vaudeville, the zarzuelas, North American musicals
aesthetic cultural model that was to conquer the whole of and several other similar forms of expression such as the
humanity, since it was a product of pure reason and of the Japanese kabuki theatre (Plate 129), which popularized the
match between the social order and the requirements of classical theatrical discipline of the Noh theatre or even
human nature. Such, at least, was the European vision from Beijing opera.
the eighteenth century until the Second World War. The bohemian world was also the setting for much
aesthetic production that broke with classical high culture
while not forsaking its elitist credo of ‘art for art’s sake’,
T raditional and popular that is, the pure, autonomous and independent artistic
culture work. Movements such as impressionism, art nouveau,
expressionism, futurism and other schools of abstraction,
High culture developed partly in contrast to a traditional dada and surrealism did not break completely with high
rural or popular culture, and to the cultural and religious culture, despite their search for broader and more accessible

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techniques that dispensed with the classical form and But the result was not initially encouraging. The aesthetic
content and the romanticism and realism of the nineteenth revolution of the Russian avant-garde did not win support
century. among the masses and was easily crushed by the Stalinist
Without breaking with classic techniques and forms of state. It must be remembered, however, that the USSR was
representation, they sought new artistic and aesthetic predominantly a country of peasants and that it was very
content closer to the common people (understood as the difficult for the rural population moving to the urban centres
European peasant, the American Indian or the Japanese to identify with the modern proposals that portrayed an
peasant, all idealized as the source of human purity and abstract and mechanical industrial world devoid of
spontaneity destroyed by civilization) or even, in the case of sensitivity. The same oppression and suppression occurred
the socialist states, of the modern working class. in Nazi Germany with the Bauhaus movement. In addition,
no governments were ready to accept the anarchist content
of the programme of the surrealist artists. It is interesting to
T he interaction of high culture note, however, that the Mexican Revolution remained
with popular culture faithful to its artists. Mexico’s mural artists, nationalist
musicians, ‘magical-realist’ writers and even surrealist
As the state cultivated high culture – particularly through production were maintained and supported by the
its system of education from the primary to the university revolutionary state. Of course, after the Second World War,
level, the religious schools and ideological associations, Mexico was unable to resist the pressures of the industrial
museums, art galleries and national theatres – the new culture of the United States.
structure of popular culture was gaining unprecedented From the Second World War onwards, the apparatus of
momentum. It entered the brothels, the popular theatres, learned culture came into stiff competition with the nascent
the newspapers and the popular publishing houses that cultural industry. The cinema, photography, radio and
were increasingly catering for a non-official readership. television were new activities based on mass production.
Among the new potential audiences were women, who, The cinema developed its own aesthetics, which conferred
being denied access to high culture (since they were debarred upon it the status of art (the so-called seventh art).
from formal education, above all secondary and university), Photography also received significant aesthetic recognition.
found instruction in novels, newspaper serials and women’s Radio and television never achieved a similar status but
magazines covering fashion and other pastimes. attracted novelists, playwrights, film directors, and several
The strongest impact was made by the advent of new other categories of professionals who flirted with high art.
techniques such as linotype typography (Plate 130), The novel and the theatre ultimately incorporated substantial
photography, radio and cinema and television. At the same aesthetic aspects of the cinema and mass media. Pure
time, industrial objects were influenced by new aesthetic scientists also approached these mass media. In some cases,
principles unrelated to the classical style. This far-reaching such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), major
revolution eventually affected high culture itself. Under the documentary schools were born.
pressure of the social conflicts of the late nineteenth and Alongside the new communication media, typography
early twentieth centuries, high culture was evolving, with was advancing very rapidly, with offset techniques, and
notable changes in the means of aesthetic production. The opening up opportunities for publications. Then came the
introduction of aesthetic considerations in mass production famous comic magazines with a new type of illustrated
and the capability of reproducing works of art for a much literature. Mass-reproduced drawing became highly
broader public led to dramatic possibilities for art. The sophisticated under the influence of expressionism and other
Russian Revolution and the revolutionary wave following aesthetic trends. Comics began as literature for young people
the First World War produced a rigorous quest to exploit but then progressed to an adult readership. The Japanese
mass production for art’s sake. The Russian avant-garde mangas offer an example of this changing pattern, which had
and subsequently the Bauhaus school (which offered a substantial precedents in the nineteenth century. Comics
refuge for some of those who were discontent with the were later to influence pop art of the 1960s and 1970s.
direction the Russian Revolution was taking) attempted to Popular music developed immensely in the period,
change the concept of art by subordinating it to relying on full orchestras and giving rise to jazz and the ‘big
functionality. band’ sound. Jazz had a very strong influence on traditional
The art object was becoming transformed into work of music in the 1920s and 1930s. Gershwin (Plate 131) and
intrinsic value increasingly integrated into the industrial Cole Porter brought jazz to the stage with highly acclaimed
revolution. It was the period of the advance of the scientific musicals. The progress of the new electronic instruments
management of production, referred to as Taylorism or cleared the way for more technically complex shows in the
Fordism: mass production based on the division of labour 1960s. The Beatles emerged from working-class areas and
executed by machines and by workers. It was a time of raised rock and roll (originally regarded as a white version of
increased productivity through the full development of jazz) to new heights. The great rock concerts were part and
mechanics and of electric and fossil-fuel energy. Artistic parcel of the movements contesting the Vietnam War or
production had to take into account the new materials, defending other causes and drew audiences in the hundreds
mechanization, mathematics and engineering. Art had to be of thousands. This new young public danced, demonstrated
reintegrated into daily life. A break was needed with the politically and, above all, indulged openly in new behaviour
traditional theatre scene, with museums and with any generally prohibited in other circumstances, particularly
notion of a performance, in order to take art to the streets. drug-taking. The way was open for youth gangs associated
A break was needed with the opposition between high with different versions of rock, rap and other expressions of
culture and popular culture, the latter being turned into an a new social and cultural phenomenon, as a by-product of
applied expression of the former. unemployment and social exclusion, while at the same time

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reflecting the development of technology and more leisure that high culture signified. The defence of reason, even
time in a demographic structure where young people though critical reason could question its elevation to an
achieved a pre-eminence. absolute by the Enlightenment, was the defence of
The appropriation of this cultural dynamism by the civilization against the totalitarian threat of Nazism,
communication media has sometimes been hesitant but, by Stalinist bureaucracy and, subsequently, of the culture
and large, they sought to exploit these phenomena. The industry dominated by the capitalist production system.
world of the young and of rock music influenced the The critique of Adorno and Horkheimer did not seek to
language of the audiovisual systems. The rapid cut, the understand the dialectic offered by this culture industry,
unfinished sentences, a specific vocabulary and the crude but they saw it as an expression of capitalist mercantilism or
jokes gave rise to the clips that take up more and more totalitarianism. They spoke out for a proper defence of high
television time, particularly on programmes conceived for culture – despite its class content – insofar as it allowed the
young people. There is growing perplexity in the fields of progress of human thought independent of the objectives
aesthetic, social and political thinking in the face of these purely geared to mercantilism, entertainment, utilitarianism
changes. Many believe there to be a growing opposition and the manipulation of emotions and feelings of mass
between the various elements of this technological culture converted into an industry. And while their criticism
revolution: high culture is said to be threatened by the was really directed against the Enlightenment itself (which
cultural industry; reading is reportedly threatened by the they sought to transcend in a positive version), the readers
audiovisual media, and the cinema is seen as facing extinction of their essay on the culture industry tended to completely
because of television and videos. The latter in turn are negate the culture industry, which they considered to be a
threatened by multimedia, and so on. There should be some monster spawning alienation. The notion developed by
scrutiny of these attempts to theorize about such Althusser, many years later, of the state ideological apparatus
phenomena. It is regrettable to note, however, that they bolstered this approach by adding to it a structuralist
often reflect more the authors’ prejudices than any in-depth methodology viewing capitalism as a self-sustaining system
study of humanity’s cultural evolution or revolution. whose components were always functional in terms of its
self-reproduction. Both mass culture and bourgeois high
culture were viewed as instrumental in constituting the
T heories on high culture and system and reproducing it. Marcuse accounted for this
popular culture discourse by perceiving modern capitalism as a one-
dimensional system. There was no longer any internal
While the Enlightenment was certain about the superiority contradiction between the components of the system, and it
of its cultural programme, Romanticism expressed doubts could only be negated by external factors. The dialectic no
when insisting on the thematic presence of the universe of longer existed, and Marxism became just one more modality
the peasants, indigenous inhabitants and others. However, of non-dialectical formalist thought. Many studies of the
the point was to incorporate these other realities as 1960s and 1970s embraced this approach.
ingredients of modernity. The clashes of the late nineteenth Without completely breaking with these methodological
century were already revealing alternative social movements. problems, we must highlight another line of criticism
The workers were pressing for a new economic, political represented by the studies on the domination exerted by the
and cultural order. During the Russian Revolution, the major economic groups and the imperialist states over the
cultural proletariat postulated the superiority of proletarian communication media. Authors such as Herbert I. Schiller,
culture, but saw themselves as the beneficiaries of high Armand Mattelart and Ariel Dorfman applied the
culture, insisting that it be opened up to the world of dependence theory of international domination to the field
industrial production. The Bauhaus also called for the of culture. In the 1970s, this line of thought reached
triumph of the useful and the functional created by mass UNESCO and gave rise to the proposed New World
production, but was bent on reforming high culture. Marxist Information Order. The aim in fact was to transform into a
authors like Walter Benjamin attempted a synthesis real process the historical reaffirmation of the peoples
between high culture and the nascent urban popular culture. subjugated by the expansion of European capitalism from
Bertolt Brecht attempted such a synthesis in the theatre. the sixteenth century up to the Second World War. The
But the Nazis seemed to have won this battle by turning the point was to show that the world system (which centred on
masses themselves into a spectacle, giving them a group European countries and subsequently the United States)
identity and dictatorial political power without any clear had given rise to a cultural Eurocentrism that took
limits. Brecht sought to educate the masses through the characteristics intrinsic to European societies and cultures
performing arts, while the Nazis succeeded in mobilizing and to the process of primitive accumulation of capitalist
them by the same means. On the other hand, authors like expansion and identified them more generally with
Gabriel Tarde in the late nineteenth century, and Ortega y civilization, modernity and humanity. Among these
Gasset in the 1920s and 1930s, regarded the emergence of idiosyncratic European elements was the racial superiority
the masses as a threat to high culture and to human values of the white peoples. European racism was the outcome of
in general. They feared the totalitarian force that derived the triumph of white peoples over other peoples, but in
from the political exploitation of the masses. particular, starting in the nineteenth century, the triumph
Adorno and Horkheimer were perhaps the first to of the Anglo-Saxon peoples who claimed to be identifiable
identify the new popular mass culture as a culture industry. by racial characteristics. This even entailed discriminating
This was not just an expression of the temperamental against the whites who had previously been hegemonic but
behaviour of the masses, but reflected a manipulation that were now decadent (perhaps on account of mixing with the
was both political and a blueprint for civilization, a African peoples). Slaves were also excluded, since their
totalitarian threat out to banish the rationalist modernity enslaved past ruled them out of Western civilization.

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The criticism of Eurocentrism and its view of modernity young people and other minorities can thrive through the
launched by the emerging peoples is compounded by the defence of the cultural heritage of humanity, environmental
complaints of the feminist movement, which revealed protection, and cultural policies in tune with the changes of
certain ethical and aesthetic values and the dominant and our time.
hegemonic position of the patriarchal system consolidated
in the West since Greco-Roman times. High culture thus
saw itself under attack from various flanks. While it was
previously branded as elitist and disdainful of the world of BIBLIOGRAPHY
the working class and the poor in general, its Eurocentric,
racist and sexist content was now also decried. But mass Adorno, T. W. and Horkheimer, M. 1981 (first published 1944).
culture and the culture industry were of no avail in Dialektik der Aufklärung: Philosophische Fragmente. Suhrkamp,
overcoming those ills questioned by the development of Frankfurt, Germany
new social forces originating in the late nineteenth century. Benjamin, W. 1969. (1949). Theses on the Philosophy of History. In:
The efforts to develop a counter-culture, an alternative or ARENDT, H. (ed.). Illuminations. Schocken Books, New York,
underground culture, in the 1960s and 1970s, or even a pp. 253–264.
New World Information Order, ended in the 1980s with Featherstone, M. (ed.). 1990. Global Culture: Nationalism,
the absorption of its myths and proposals by the Globalization and Modernity. Sage Publications, London.
Establishment’s culture industry or its forceful replacement HuysSeN, A. 1996. Memórias do Modernismo. Editora UFRJ, Rio de
by a process of cultural globalization dominated by the Janeiro, Brazil. [After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture,
major economic groups. Postmodernism. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.]
This prompted an enormous strengthening of the MATTELART, A. La communication-monde. Histoire des idées et des
structuralist and pessimistic approach through such authors strategies. 1999. Editions La Découverte, Paris.
as Derrida and Foucault, who led the way to the idea of a Santos, T. dos. 1984. Cultura y Dependencia en América Latina:
post-modernity in which the cultural forms are dissolved in Algunos Apuntes Metodológicos e Históricos. In: GONZÁLEZ
a flow of never-ending changes. In this new context, high CASANOVA, P. (ed.). Cultura y Creación Intelectual en América
culture and mass or popular culture and the culture industry Latina. Siglo xxi Editores, Mexico City.
all merge into an indeterminate dynamic process. In this Schiller, H. I. 1973. The Mind Managers. Beacon Press, Boston,
pessimistic context, UNESCO’s Report of the World MA.
Commission on Culture and Development is of great use in  1976. Communication and Cultural Domination, International Arts
that it has sought to redefine the role of culture, high or low, and Sciences Press, Inc., White Plains, NY.
in a globalizing world where pluralism, creativity and the UNESCO. 1996. Our Creative Diversity: Report of the World Commission
support for social movements and for women, children, on Culture and Development. UNESCO, Paris

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 25.8
Culture, national cultures,
cross-culturalization, acculturation
and inculturation

Henri Madelin

INTRODUCTION it propitious for those capable of nourishing themselves

from the fruits of the earth. This is the meaning of the word
According to the American anthropologist A. L. Kroeber, agriculture.
‘the most significant accomplishment of anthropology in In the words of Vatican II:
the first half of the twentieth century has been the extension
and clarification of the concept of culture’. 1 This terse The word culture in its general sense indicates everything
statement seems pertinent as far as the notion of extension is whereby man develops and perfects his many bodily and
concerned, but much more debatable as regards clarification. spiritual qualities; he strives by his knowledge and his
The concept of culture made great strides in the last century, labour to bring the world itself under his control. He
encompassed numerous fields and became ensconced at the renders social life more human, both in the family and
heart of several disciplines in the social sciences. But the the community, through improvement of customs and
gains in extension were often made at the expense of institutions. Throughout the course of time, he expresses,
clarification. By overusing the concept of culture, scholars communicates and conserves in his works great spiritual
became somewhat lost in the construction of a sort of experiences and desires so that they might be of advantage
colourful mosaic that misinterprets this complex reality to to the progress of many, even of the whole human
such an extent that there has been a growing scepticism family.2
towards what specialists tell us about ‘culture’.
Our aim in this chapter is therefore to attempt to bring Those who wrote these words for Vatican II were not
some order into the area generally called ‘culture’ and to content merely to enumerate the meanings of the word
make a number of necessary distinctions enabling us to culture in the life of each individual and in the origin of
refine our understanding of it in the context of our times. human societies. They noted that the word often has a
As the philosopher Jacques Maritain liked to say, it is sociological and even ethnological meaning that makes it
important to be able to ‘make distinctions in order to unite’, possible to speak of a plurality of cultures. It is like a ladder
to decompose in order to reassemble. The firmament of that enables us to pass from the level of the individual to the
culture has been shattered and lies scattered in a thousand collective level, and from cultures in the plural to a national
pieces. The task is to find these pieces and bring them culture, rising to the concept of a universal human heritage.
together in order to reconstruct a new fountain of light once
more able to play in the sunlight of understanding. We shall Different styles of life and multiple scales of values arise
thus address what should be understood by the terms from the diverse manner of using things, of labouring, of
culture, cultures, national cultures, enculturation, cross- expressing oneself, of practising religion, of forming
culturalization, acculturation and enculturation. customs, of establishing laws and legal institutions, of
cultivating the sciences, the arts and beauty. Thus the
customs handed down form the distinctive heritage of
C ulture : the portal of each human community. It is also in this way that there
humanization is formed the definite, the historical milieu which enfolds
people of every nation and age and from which they draw
To begin with the simplest notion, we may say that a the values that permit them to promote civilization.3
human being can truly accede to humanity only through
culture, that is, by putting nature’s resources or wealth to In all periods, lifestyles, value systems, legal codes, legislation,
good use. During the Neolithic period, technology made it work, science and technology, religion, art and aesthetics
possible to transform the soil and cultivate it so as to make form a cultural fabric. This can be seen in fundamental

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expressions, ethnic traditions and national customs. Our symbolic order of a nation, come to arrangements with state
own age is even witnessing the dawning of new aspirations institutions, bring pressure to bear on the leaders of
to rise to wholeness and to the search for a global civilization countries, and exert an appeal by offering new concepts to
encompassing all humanity. the imagination.
Likewise, no nation can now remain fixed in the culture
that it inherited. Education, travel and the new means of
N ational cultures and cross - communication cultivate a critical outlook and circumvent
culturalization the repetitive aspects of a national culture. The national
state, as Daniel Bell has stressed, is too large to spot and
The conclusion established by Max Weber in the wake of assess the networks that are spreading at the micro-cultural
the First World War remains valid: national culture takes level, and too weak to counter the pressure of the macro-
shape under the pressure of violence. The modern state in cultural forces now capable of crossing borders. Languages,
fact appropriates legitimate and legitimized violence for its different forms of music, films, trade, television and radio
own benefit, removing it from the intermediate groups, programmes, the weaving of new relationships across the
clans and social classes that had historically made use of it. Internet, groupings with a religious basis, and various other
If there existed only social structures from which all violence pairings are joining forces to encourage a process of cross-
had vanished, the concept of the state would have culturalization. This combines contributions from
disappeared and nothing would remain but ‘anarchy’ in the neighbours and from the world at large. The national culture
literal sense. There is an intimate relationship between the is expanding, changing its priorities in its system of values,
state and violence, and its manifestations can be seen all over and absorbing new contributions that one day will be the
the world, all the more so as a dark and centralized foundations of reconciliations, alliances and agreements
nationalism is taking shape at the internal level and is between nations that were once enemies. Interest is suddenly
aggressively seeking to spread to other nations. growing in searching for long-ignored treasures beyond
‘Today’, Max Weber explains, ‘we have to say that a state national borders. Thus the title of a book written by the
is a human community that (successfully) claims the Senegalese wise man, Hamidou Khane, is justified: Comme
monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a si nous nous étions donné rendez-vous (As If We Had
given territory. Note that “territory” is one of the Arranged to Meet). Cross-culturalization has come of age.
characteristics of the state’.4 The national state is not
completely encapsulated in the privileged use of violence,
but rather resorts to it in decisive moments as a ‘specific T he symbolic , the unconscious
means’. The more a country’s cultural nationalism attempts and enculturation
to be powerful, the more the politicization of the country
becomes necessary. Ethnologists tend to focus on past cultures. They decipher
In order to exist in space and time, a national culture texts and monuments and artistic work that preceded
needs an administrative tool, which requires financial present-day cultures. By contrast, anthropologists observe
resources, a specialized body of civil servants of all ranks, the present. They seek to grasp how people live in the here
and a bureaucracy at all levels. For a national culture to bear and now, understand each other and express themselves,
fruit, people with different views, organized opposition and give significance to their own lives and the lives of
groups, and specific ways of dealing with the minorities others. This is why the over-emphasized distinctions
scattered throughout the country and abroad have to be between the culture of ‘elites’ and ‘popular’ culture ignore
allowed to mingle. This implies a long-term effort concerning the cultural background that, from the beginning, nurtures
the myths that make up a collective history, the management all members of a society. Likewise, the separation between
of a system of symbols, openness towards a liberated world ‘primitive’ art and ‘modern’ art is unfortunate. A true work
of the imagination, and help from an ideology that affirms of art is valuable in its own right, regardless of the period
individual identity.5 that produced it.
Behind the collective screen, however, the rise of Unlike science, which is linked to progress, art is
individualism among ordinary citizens and within groups is independent. Thus works of art are free and innovative
being noted everywhere. It is promoting the advent and creations, produced under the circumstances made possible
intermixing of cross-cultural networks. It may promote the by the techniques of its time. As Max Weber stated, ‘A
emergence of counter-cultures that disagree or conflict with work of art which is genuine “fulfilment” is never surpassed;
the official tone or aggressive character of the national it will never be antiquated.’6
culture. This can be seen in all parts of the world. A person The American anthropologist Clifford Geertz has had a
is no longer identified with a single nation, a single system profound influence on the definition of the culture of a
or a single culture. British political scientist Derek Urwin given society. Geertz lays stress on the role of the symbolic
has rightly noted that in every individual, even if he or she is as the key to the cognitive dimension. He believes that
a migrant, there exist two conflicting rights: the ‘right to culture is ‘a historically transmitted pattern of meanings
roots’ and the ‘right to choose’. Rootedness constitutes the embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions
essence of identity since it helps us to answer these crucial expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men
questions: Who am I? What am I? Where am I? But other communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge
questions also arise: What will I become? How can I about and attitudes towards life’.7
progress? The right to choose and change is just as important However, we must avoid exaggerating the cognitive
since every person may wish not to remain enclosed within dimension. Symbols contribute to informing and structuring
a community that would limit his or her horizons. Individual human beings in a given society, but the role of values
or fragmentary cultures can therefore call into question the remains vital in order to provide goals for what is undertaken

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and to enable weighty decisions to be made. The absorption urbanization and rural society, and the demographic
of values by every individual involves a hidden aspect, in importance and size of the territory occupied by the groups
which the unconscious does as much work as the conscious in conflict. Despite muted opposition between indigenous
mind. This is brought to the fore by the concept of and conquering cultures, a process of selection and partial
enculturation. It is through enculturation that an individual acceptance of imported traits generally occurs. The clash
becomes a cultural being with well-defined features and between cultures can, however, lead to a reorganization of
follows processes that continually unfold in time. From the borrowing culture and a reinterpretation of the things
birth, individuals enter into possession of, internalize and that are accepted.8
develop those aspects of the culture that integrate them into
society: habits, values, reflexes, means of expression, and
norms. Enculturation is therefore a sort of long-drawn-out R eligiously based enculturation
and effective impregnation. It endows human beings, over
the years, with a wide variety of models that orient their According to the definition given by J. Scheuer, enculturation
lives in a specific direction while excluding other potential ‘is the process by which the Christian life and message
orientations. It is a conscious and unconscious process that become established within a cultural community or a given
invades an entire existence and subtly but profoundly affects society, and become so well rooted that they produce new
it. To begin with, it presupposes slow periods of learning treasures, new forms of thought, action and celebration’.9
and initiation in the family setting and the social and school Inculturation aims to naturalize the Church in each country
environment. Everyone adopts a cultural language and or social sector, with due regard for the inherent character
swims in a culture like a fish in water. Passivity is of each collective entity. This may be a region, an ethnic
complemented by activity, and things given are group, or a social group.
complemented by things acquired. In any event, it is not The term was coined in the theological context of the
until we are exposed to other cultural experiences that we Catholic Church at the time of Vatican II. By its root culture,
become more conscious of our own enculturation. the word enculturation lays stress on the consistency of
cultures and may appeal to recent findings in anthropology.
By its prefix in, the word spontaneously evokes the mystery
T otal or selective of ‘the Word made flesh’ referred to in the Prologue to the
acculturation Gospel according to Saint John. The term was coined
recently in order to describe the worldwide expansion of the
When a culture evolves and changes through contact with Church in a way that showed regard for the cultures being
another culture, we speak of acculturation. In the approached. It allows a reinterpretation of the shortcomings
contemporary world, few societies live in a state of cultural noted in past actions, so as to inaugurate a new way of relating
self-sufficiency. Acculturation frequently takes on an to the variety of cultures filling the earth. It is reinterpreted
aggressive quality since it is often a one-way process, from today as a key for understanding the history of Catholicism
dominant to dominated societies subjected to this excessively and its missionary expansion from the West. It opens up
one-sided kind of invasion. We speak of deculturalization new prospects for the future dialogue between different
when the long-term violence exercised by the most powerful cultures, especially those in Asia and Africa. Pope John Paul II
destroys the culture of the weakest. After the uprooting of spoke in new terms of the clash of present-day cultures on
those who suffer this prolonged pressure, collective death the religious level in an encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio,
may occur (cultural genocide or systematic ethnocide). To published on 15 October 1998, which inspired this paper.10
counter such destructive processes there are projects for A cultural tradition cannot seek to preserve its distinct
reculturalization or for counter-acculturation that seek to re- identity by withdrawing from any contact with others. It
establish the cultural identity of a group threatened by an would be contrary to the very nature of the human spirit to
outside cultural force. These phenomena of acculturation believe that one is able to grow by opposing other traditions.
and the reactions they provoke are now occurring through To speak of faith and reason thus leads to the connection
expanding worldwide communication as exemplified by between cultures and faith and to what is at stake in the
television and radio, intrusive music, dominant languages, contact between different cultures. The lesson is valid for
fascination with the Internet, advertisements, the exporting Europe as well.
of technologies that deceive by wearing a mask of neutrality, No future is possible if every culture withdraws into
the stimuli of new and outrageous forms of consumption splendid isolation. Preaching the faith, for its part, can only
and ostentatious lifestyles, the development of global wither if it arrogantly ignores the ‘reality’ of the soil in which
tourism, wars, etc. it is planted.
A number of variables generally temper the one-way It is important not to view too pessimistically the
processes of acculturation. According to sociologists, the globalization of the world that is a feature of our times and
magnitude of cultural changes should be gauged with is now influencing cultures and religions. The transversality,
reference to the groups in contact with each other. It is also or communication by osmosis, of cultural, religious, poetic,
necessary to observe the circumstances of the contacts, philosophical and theological values does not inevitably lead
depending on whether they are the result of an ideological to an intolerable uniformity. What is taking place in these
impregnation (the limited sovereignty of the socialist spheres rather contradicts the similar features to be found
countries in the time of the USSR); colonialism, with the in the global expansion of science and technology. In fact,
occupation of places and territories (Maghreb, Rhodesia); one option always remains open in the universal
tribal or international war; or migrations of workers. confrontation of cultures, and that is the possibility of
Actions and reactions vary according to the size and relative understanding each other through our respective
importance of the cultures under consideration, the type of differences.

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Herein is revealed the identical nature of the human BASTIDE, R. 1974. Applied Anthropology. Harper and Row, New
condition and the unity of that condition when faced by the York.
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1. A. L. Kroeber, ‘Anthropology’, Scientific American, BOURDIEU, P. 1990. Photography: A Middle-Brow Art. Stanford
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2. Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the  1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.
Church in the Modern World, Chapter 2, No. 53, para. 2, 1965. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
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4. M. Weber, ‘Politics as a Vocation’, in H. H. Gerth and CA.
C. Wright Mills (eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology BROWN, A. 1979. Introduction. In: BROWN, A. and GRAY, J. (eds).
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5. Y. Schemeil, ‘Les cultures politiques’, in M. Grawitz edition). Holmes & Meier, New York, pp. 1–24.
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Lumen Vitae, Vol. 39, 1984, p. 253. Anthropological Perspective. University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
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L ITE R A R Y AN D A R TISTIC C U L T U R E

26.1
LITERATURE

Marc Bensimon and Astrid Guillaume

While setting out the main trends in world literature from as work of significance by encompassing humanity: that is,
1914 to 1999, this chapter cannot claim to cover every by being relevant to all the inhabitants of the planet.
literary movement, author, language or country, and all of Early twentieth-century writers felt impelled to probe
their distinctive features. Space constraints have ruled out a beyond traditional limits in order to discover and explore
comprehensive account of every great writer and the both the self and its surrounding world. Links with the past
predominant themes in every nation. Any attempt to do so were deliberately cut in order to find new wholeness within.
would result in nothing more than a long list or a catalogue Even in the eyes of those authors still committed to religious
of sorts. Moreover, there will inevitably be omissions but transcendency, works of art were regarded as a means to
these should not be interpreted as a form of censorship. restore lost meaning to the self and the world.
Rather we hope to demonstrate that, despite the diversity The shock of the First World War toppled hitherto
and profusion of literary forms, the literatures of all five widely held assumptions of unquestionable European
continents share several fundamental aspirations. supremacy; the conflict precipitated a crisis whose full
consequences were felt in the West after the armistice. As if
by after-shock, writing in the Americas and in the East
INTRODUCTION either turned away from Western European models or
assimilated them to express their own view of modernity.
Recent discoveries by scientists concerning the atom led When coming to grips with reality, not all writers had
them to speculate about the nature of human beings shown particular enthusiasm for technical breakthroughs
comprising such atoms and in constant evolution. Human and the waning of traditional values; in fact, their works
consciousness is ever-changing and, within its limited rather expressed foreboding of catastrophe in apprehensive,
perspective, is constantly seeking to improve its perception anguished or nihilistic terms. Even before hostilities ceased,
of itself. horror and profound disgust with war led some authors to
Literature never ceases in its task of recording take up a provocative, iconoclastic attitude and to denounce
humanity’s endless questioning of its traditional self- the shortcomings of both reason and culture with their
image. It has reflected on human beings’ relations to various moral, ideological or aesthetic taboos. While many
themselves, one another, and the world at large, and has writers spoke out against the war and the societies
speculated on one of humanity’s chief means of expression: responsible for it, few actually took up the conflict as a
literature. Never has this been more true than in the subject in their works. They preferred to turn away from it,
twentieth century. as if to start a new chapter. The rejection of old values
In the nineteenth century, literature, like the other encouraged a cult of non-sense. However, the lifting of
humanities, sought to fix certain human beings in a particular Europe’s antiquated yoke also liberated fresh, dynamic
history and chronology; a national heritage would be claimed, idealism and sheer joy of life, a rejuvenated language, and
in the form of an idealized and deeply cherished past. By new ethical, cultural, social, and philosophical values.
contrast, twentieth-century literature looked rather to Economic crisis and political disillusion in the wake of the
synchronism and common space. Similar aspirations new totalitarian states soon darkened horizons for writers
simultaneously expressed in different countries caused again. Literary works became stages for conflict, with
traditional borders to dissolve. In addition, relations were characters placed on the brink. Convictions were shaken to
explored between various forms of art, and the outlook the core, and one’s identity, role, and very purpose in existence
became international. Even writing spawned by particular were now questioned in a world henceforth considered
revolutionary, national or regional causes (on behalf of a absurd. Many writers became involved in desperate struggles
given struggle waged against colonialism, racialism or some on behalf of peace or against fascist ideology in their works;
other form of oppression) could only hope to last and emerge some sacrificed their freedom and even their life.

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The Second World War tore the world apart, and its same year, Rolland continued to be accused of treason; but
demented atrocities and sadistic acts of cruelty defied all as a world citizen, he persisted in working towards universal
rational comprehension, further swelling intellectual and independence, generosity, and peace. The feeling of
emotional bewilderment. Anguish reached its peak with the catastrophe and the profound crisis engendered by the
threat of atomic apocalypse. Nevertheless, even in the horror of war left many writers in emotional disarray. In
darkest or most nihilistic novels, many protagonists 1916, in both Europe and America, a violent desire to break
experienced moments of wholeness, or peace, regardless of with all forms of traditional arts and beliefs arose. Springing
whether or not such characters were fated to die in tragic up from a deep-rooted unease felt throughout the world,
circumstances. Such a trend, even in the most anti-artistic this trend crystallized in the dada movement in Zurich
works, seemed to affirm that, beyond all the would-be (1916), where a number of young Europeans, led by
humanistic demagoguery with its attendant conflicts and Romanian poet Tristan Tzara, deliberately courted scandal.
despair, the faith in human worth consecrated through the This nihilistic movement found echoes in many lands.
aesthetic act could endure worldwide. This faith in the This was particularly true in Germany, where
individual also found its expression in the writings of expressionism offered fertile soil. While they do have their
women, who defended their rights, were listened to and differences, works of the expressionist school, inspired by
were recognized as equal by the intellectual community in Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of protest and by Sigmund
the world at large. Freud’s ideas on human psychology, were at one in aiming
The movement known as le nouveau roman (new novel) to strip off smug bourgeois masks and to revolt against
in France in the 1960s served as a blanket term for a whole father figures and other forms of social or hierarchical
host of literary experiments. While this vogue did not seem authority. Absurd or grotesque manifestations of reality
to extend equally to other countries, translations in many were often depicted in burlesque forms and language.
languages testify to the movement’s popularity. In the Gottfried Benn’s macabre poetry evoked urban rot and
nouveau roman, the central subject is banished, and the wretchedness. In one of his short stories, the main character
characters are devoid of memory. Although such an is a surgeon who loses his own lucidity after operating on
approach precludes any attempt to search for meaning, this the brains of more than two thousand corpses (Gehirne,
genre lent itself to explorations in form and language. 1916). Personally confronted with the spectacle of butchery,
Inviting the reader to participate in creating fictitious or the poet Georg Trakl sought to express the mayhem
gratuitous meanings, writers submitted various possibilities through apocalyptic imagery (Sebastian im Traum, 1914),
for staging a scene or concluding a novel. then committed suicide shortly afterwards. The
Over the last twenty years, representational works, and expressionists strove to give words to their deepest anxieties
particularly autobiographies, have proliferated. The value of regarding the threat posed by the modern world and to
such first-hand accounts lies in the coherence of the narrator their hopes for a better world. Most of their works were
as witness regardless of his or her standpoint or place of later consigned to the flames by the Nazis, who considered
origin. This demonstrated that the individual, as citizen of them degenerate. The novel, by Alfred Döblin, Berlin
this planet, was seeking to be recognized through literature. Alexanderplatz (1929), which broke with all conventions
Some new works have shed various constraints and the and seemed as incoherent as the reality it sought to portray
normal barriers between genres (prose, poetry, essays), while was another ‘degenerate’ work. A similar fate befell the
incorporating components inspired by less prestigious genres writings of Leon Feuchtwanger, whose novels on the fate of
such as detective or adventure novels, or science fiction. the Jewish people (Jud Süss, 1925, and Der jüdische Krieg,
Writers gave free rein to their imagination, roaming at will 1932) saw their original meaning completely distorted by
through literature related to everyday life, fantasy, myth, or Nazi propaganda. Franz Kafka would loom as a precursor if
parody. Periods and places may multiply and intermesh increasing familiarity with his work did not show it to be an
within the same text, with the purported narrators themselves outcome of the whole expressionist approach. Kafka, who
becoming manifold. But, even though such writing may examined the limits of traditional communication,
question all established meaning, or even claim to be purely attempted through new language to convey cries, gestures,
gratuitous, it can nevertheless disclose fresh truths at even conversion to a new faith, although such a conversion
unexpected turns. Furthermore, the development of planet- could only result in failure, since all writing, according to
wide means of communication offers writers and their readers Kafka, would ultimately yield only non-meaning. Kafka’s
new prospects, with the latter increasingly expected to take texts continue to exert influence throughout the world:
part in the act of creating and circulating literary works. ranging from Die Verwandlung (1912–15), whose
protagonist is suddenly changed into an enormous
cockroach, to Das Schloss (1921–22), where the castle is
EUROPE merely an illusion – just like the attempt to find any meaning
through writing.
Few authors took the First World War for their subject Tristan Tzara was welcomed in Paris like a messiah. The
matter, though English poet Isaac Rosenberg did try to dada movement’s destructiveness had its positive side: it
express the experience in an apocalyptic rendering, while opened fresh avenues of approach. Resorting to spontaneity
France’s Henri Barbusse made the unfamiliar life of the and free association opened the floodgates of the
trenches better known to the public in an unusual and unconscious, encouraging freer writing and the use of
harrowing journal (Le Feu, 1916). Barbusse joined novelist happenstance offered by life. Here was to be found the
Romain Rolland (1915*) as a member of the pacifist group, whole surrealist programme championed by André Breton
Clarté. Rolland published articles condemning the war (Au- in his Champs magnétiques (1920) and Manifestes du
dessus de la mêlée, 1915), drawing fire from German and surréalisme (1924): automatic writing, the use of the language
French circles alike. Despite a Nobel Prize awarded in the of dreams, and the search for objective happenstance in

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half-serious, half-playful collective creations (known as Plumed Serpent, 1926). In France, poet and dramatist Paul
exquisite corpses) (Plate 132). Later Breton embarked upon Claudel saw in nature, as a whole, something to be ‘rounded
a virtually mystic quest for a supreme point, where dreams off to a finish’, and believed that only through complete
and reality might no longer be mutually exclusive (Les Vases unfolding might the world acquire meaning (Le Soulier de
communicants, 1932). Several poets continued to experiment satin, 1924). Renunciation procured its own spiritual joy
in free verse forms along with Breton. Robert Desnos and a feeling of possessing the universe.
explored dreams (Deuil pour deuil, 1924; La Liberté ou With Siddhartha (1922), the Swiss writer Herman Hesse
l’amour, 1927). Pierre Reverdy’s sober surrealist imagery (1946*) turned towards Buddhist models in his quest for
could run the full gamut of readers’ emotions (Les Epaves du fusion with the cosmos. In 1943, he evoked a secular abbey
ciel, 1924; Main-d’oeuvre, 1949). The verse of Paul Eluard, of the year 2200 whose monks would indulge in gratuitous
the poet of surrealist love, expressed the universe as seen mystical play (Das Glasperlenspiel). By contrast, Austria’s
through the desire for women (La Vie immédiate, 1932). Robert Musil saw incestuous love and the quest for the One
During the Second World War, Eluard became a symbol dissolving in the failure of a disintegrating Austro-
of the Resistance with his Poésie et vérité (1942) and Au Hungarian Empire (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften,
Rendez-vous allemand (1944). 1930–42). Germany’s Thomas Mann (1929*) (Der
To return to the 1920s, if the term via negativa may be Zauberberg, 1924) turned a sanatorium into a symbolic
applied to a poet’s quest, then Paul Valéry’s work is the best home for the declining Western civilization; with ironic
example; the sparse result of a compelling drive to attain realism, he conjured up ‘the world’s feast of death’ from
perfection is purely an exercise, a game, the application of which he nevertheless hoped love might spring. In exile in
mental toil. It is the mind’s ability to be anything – its California, Mann continued his struggle against Nazism
exploration, the detached knowledge of the Great Work, as and pursued his work (Doktor Faustus, 1947).
he called the ways of the mind – that interests Valéry (La The American-turned-British poet, T. S. Eliot (1948*),
Jeune Parque, 1917; Le Cimetière marin, 1920; Variété, in a long, cryptic poem, The Waste Land (1922), diagnosed
1924–44). the illness of the modern world as a lack of religious
Marcel Proust’s A la Recherche du temps perdu (1913–22) consciousness. Among other things, the poem dismisses as
rose above the day’s political, ideological or literary disputes. vain the various attempts to find any kind of salvation. The
The writer caused buried memories to rise from the poets of the 1930s followed Eliot in his conversion, but
uttermost depths of the unconscious, reconstructing and W. H. Auden turned away from metaphysics to take an
capturing a mobile, fluid reality perceived with such art that angry look instead at the social conditions of the working
it came to seem more real than reality. The narrator thus class.
brought an entire society back to life, described, often not In the Soviet Union, writers expressed in their own way
without irony, with all its underpinnings and illusory values the prevailing unease felt by other authors of the time. The
and changes, in addition to the role played by imagination October Revolution sparked a proletarian-oriented
and desire through the intermittences of the heart. Proust’s literature that dwelt upon the exploitation of workers and
writing reached peaks of ecstasy where all the bonds of time the spirit of the homeland. But with censorship imposed in
seemed to come loose, the present was denied, and 1917, important writers became dissidents defending
timelessness affirmed. Proust’s work would profoundly creative freedom. Mikhail Bulgakov bitterly satirized the
mark the entire twentieth century. bureaucracy in his D’yavoliada (Devilry, 1925), a work that
So did the books of the Irish writer James Joyce, whose foreshadowed his masterpiece, Master i Margarita (The
novel Ulysses (1922) sought to weave twenty-four hours of a Master and Margarita). In this novel, finally published in
Homeric – but hardly heroic – existence, through inner 1966, Satan descends upon Moscow and sows discord and
monologue and stream of consciousness. His resulting text panic among the system’s Pontius Pilates and other toadies.
jumbled thoughts, sensations, desires, and dreams, while The author mingled two time periods by taking up the story
abandoning any traditional plot line. Nevertheless, in terms of Christ, thereby achieving the work that Dostoyevsky had
of artistic structure, this odyssey of the consciousness did hoped to write. On the subject of war, Stanislavsky’s 1926
faithfully follow its model, Homer’s Odyssey. But in staging of Bulgakov’s Beg (Flight) scandalized the literary
Finnegan’s Wake (1939), Joyce, like a Platonic creator-god, establishment. Boris Pasternak (1958*), considered one of
wrought a poem whose central Proteus-like character the greatest Russian poets, wrought lyrical, timeless,
constantly changed, while words shifted and took in imagistic verse, seeming to hover above present concerns –
additional letters and syllables, endlessly adopting new forms and this was held against him. Nevertheless, Pasternak did
according to the needs of the text. Even today, in the farthest compose verses on the horrors of the Second World War.
reaches of the earth, writers and poets are wringing extra His celebrated novel Doctor Zhivago angered the Soviet
meaning from language in the manner invented by Joyce. authorities, and had to be published in Italy (1957).
In England, John Galsworthy (1932*), who wrote in the Pasternak narrated the lives and passions of characters
traditional manner, continued to satirize Victorian and caught up in the chaotic whorls of Russian history around
Edwardian society, greed and hypocrisy, in his great ‘tale’ 1905. Only in 1987 was Pasternak’s work rehabilitated. By
The Forsyte Saga (1888–1922). The influence of Proust and contrast, Tikhii Don (And Quiet Flows the Don, 1928–40),
Joyce is evident in Virginia Woolf’s vibrantly poetic and by Mikhail Sholokhov, was warmly approved as a model of
musical writing, which sought to catch the most elusive Socialist realism, with its flowing narrative in the Tolstoyan
emotions (Mrs Dalloway, 1925; The Waves, 1931). D. H. manner evoking civil war between Reds and Whites in the
Lawrence attempted, for his part, to shake off the shackles Cossack region, along with depictions of the peasant world
of puritanical Christianity and the fetters of an alienating and a tender love story. A group of young writers known as
and absurd civilization, in order to recover a natural the Serapion Brethren, under the protective wing of Maxim
relationship with the cosmos (Women in Love, 1921; The Gorky tried to reform prose in the early 1920s by marking

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distance with conventional imitation and by yielding pride States, became as great a novelist in English as in his native
of place to the spoken language. Mikhail Zoschenko language. His masterpiece in Russian, Dar (The Gift, 1937–
resorted to skaz, a mixture of slang, ancient forms, and 38), shows his desire to evoke his Russian heritage to forge
ready-to-use modern expressions, to mould his tales (Koza, an identity, but not without observing a certain ironic
The Goat, 1924). Isaac Babel depicted the civil war with distance from his subject, if only through wit and a sharp
original imagery in his Konarmiya (Red Cavalry, 1926), critique of literature. Even in exile, Joseph Brodsky (1987*)
while describing the lower depths of the Odessa Ghetto penned works of a virtuosity that followed in the
through the story of an almost legendary bandit (Benja St Petersburg tradition of Mandelstam and Akhmatova,
Krik, 1927). exploring every possible avenue of poetic writing. Imprisoned
Poetry was modernized through the verse of revolutionary for ‘social parasitism’ in 1964, he was eventually released and
poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (Pro Eto/About This, 1923). immigrated to the United States in 1972. He is regarded as
Mayakovsky was soon crushed by the contradictions one of the greatest poets of his generation (Ostanovka v
between political constraints on the one hand (the method pustyne, A Halt in the Wasteland, 1970; Uraniia, Urania,
of dialectical materialism), and the search for formal liberty, 1987; Primechaniia k paportniku, The Fern’s Remarks,
on the other. No less torn by conflict was his domestic life, 1990).
and he committed suicide in 1930 shortly after completing In France, Catholic writer Georges Bernanos described
Vo Ves Golos (At the Top of My Voice), in which he carried characters symbolizing good pitted against evil, in almost
poetry to new heights. The remarkably erudite poet Osip Manichaean combat (Sous le Soleil de Satan, 1926). The
Mandelstam questioned the very essence of human beings in writer’s poetic and dramatic flair casts a supernatural pall
his Tristia (1922) and Voronejskie tetradi (Voronej Notebooks) over this sombre novel, as it does over Les Grands Cimetières
(1935–37). Criticized, hounded, and finally interned, sous la lune (1938), where the narrator, a witness to the
Mandelstam died in a concentration camp, and his Spanish Civil War, strives to understand the nature of evil.
contribution was only recognized much later. The great poet The failure of traditional values, economic crisis, and the rise
Anna Akhmatova, another victim of blistering attacks, was of totalitarian regimes left Western writers profoundly
never published after her collection Anno Domini MCMXXI unsettled; they became involved in social struggles or
(1921). Not until 1956 did the review Literary Moscow make desperately endeavoured, in solitude, either to bestow new
known her masterpieces like Rekviem (Requiem, 1935–40), meaning upon life, or to deny that it held any meaning at all.
in which the sufferings of a wife and mother mirror those of In Spain, among other poets to emerge from the so-
a whole people. Young poets like Yevgeny Yevtushenko, called Generation of 1898, Antonio Machado helped free
Andrey Voznesensky and B. Okujava then took up the same lyric poetry from pretentious rhetoric, and plumbed the
cause, expressing a desire for freedom and change in depths of the soul: through love, life, death, and time
passionately lyrical poems, while aspiring to a literary (Campos de Castilla, 1912–17). Machado thus blazed the
renaissance. Konstantin Fedin, in a highly wrought novel, trail for the starkly simple poetry of Federico García Lorca
depicted the tragic fate of a revolutionary intellectual caught (Romancero gitano, 1928), which revealed surrealist
in the vice of prevailing ideological blindness (Goroda i Gody, influences, as did the verse of Vicente Aleixandre (1977*)
Cities and Years, 1924). Rejecting psychologism and harking (La destrucción y el amor, 1935), where language appeared to
back to Tolstoy’s ‘living man’, Aleksandr Fadeyev (Razgrom, rise from the abyss of dreams. After a symbolist and
The Nineteen, 1927) also portrayed the anguish of intellectuals modernist period, Juan Ramón Jiménez (1956*) used poetry
trying to fight the system. In 1927, Andrei Platonov to look beyond the appearance of things in the search of
denounced forced labour in a collection of tales, Epifanovy their uniqueness and essence. His poetry then went on to
Slyuzy (Epiphan’s Sluices). Platonov’s novel Chevengur express an ecstatic joy (Animal de fondo, 1947), especially in
(1928–29) described a family of workers whose revolutionary his later work Dios deseado y deseante (1949). It was mainly
idealism is tempered by Stalinist reality. Only in 1980 was Lorca’s outspoken, liberating and innovative drama that
Platonov’s work seriously recognized in the Soviet Union as earned him an international reputation. His three tragedies,
one of the richest and most original literary creations of our Bodas de sangre (1933), Yerma (1934), and La casa de
time. The Soviet regime once again tightened its control on Bernarda Alba (1936), three powerful allegories whose roots
literature in 1946. In the name of peace, Ilya Ehrenburg was reached far down into Andalusian soil, expressed life’s revolt
able to denounce capitalist societies in such novels as Padenie against all forms of oppression. Lorca’s murderers, members
Parija (The Fall of Paris, 1941–42) and Ottepel (Thaw, 1947). of Franco’s forces, made no mistake about it: they killed the
But his Chernaja Kniga (Black Book), a document on the poet shortly after the appearance of his last drama in 1936.
Holocaust which he helped put together with a Jewish Anti- Miguel de Unamuno also died in 1936 while under house
Fascist Committee, was never allowed to see the light of day, arrest. His essentially philosophical works dwell on human
and the committee itself was dissolved in 1948 in an contradictions in the face of destiny. As early as 1914
atmosphere of persecution against anyone branded as a (Niebla) and throughout his writing career, he was
cosmopolite: and thus began party strictures against Jewish preoccupied by themes concerning the relationship between
authors, even those once admired, like Zoschenko or A. a character and its author and how these might lead to
Akhmatova. considerations of the worth of any revolt against fate. His
Among Russian writers in exile, Ivan Bunin (1933*) Tres novelas ejemplares (1920) used writing as a means of
published a great autobiographical novel in the Proustian speculating on the links between the different aspects of a
manner, known in English as The Life of Arsenev, a work single personality. Spanish novelists of the next generation
glowing with profound philosophical questionings and criticized society. In La familia de Pascal Duarte (1942) by
considered one of the masterpieces of Russian prose (Plate Camilo José Cela (1989*), a juvenile delinquent describes
133).Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian writer steeped in how, in yielding to his instincts, he committed crimes that
European culture, who eventually moved to the United neither his family nor his own conscience could ever

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condone. In new wording and through more than two concrete situations illustrated by a novel like La Nausée
hundred characters, Cela’s La Colmena (1951) brilliantly (1938), a collection of short stories like Le Mur (1939), and
captured the sordid atmosphere of post-war Madrid. The especially the play Huis clos (1944). This play, known as No
novels of Miguel Delibes, who depicts life in a Castilian Exit in English, confines three characters ‘to hell’. The
village in Las ratas (1962) through the monologue of a utterly empty consciousness of each one of these three ‘dead’
peasant woman at a wake, possess a universal dimension. creatures, all equally forgotten by those on earth, sinks to
Juan Goytisolo deconstructs the official version of historical such depths as only to exist in the viscous and baleful glare
events and satirizes modern youth in Juegos de manos (1954). of the other two inmates. Rather than risk walking out the
Luis Martin Santos recounts a single day in Madrid in 1949 door into the unknown or into sheer nothingness, the three
with corrosive wit (Tiempo de silencio). characters choose to face one another in complete bad faith,
In Portugal, Miguel Torga consistently opposed the the en-soi. Yet an alternative does exist: the freedom of the
Salazar dictatorship. Already famous by the 1930s for his pour soi – despite the happenstance, the meaninglessness, or
great biblically inspired work A Criaçâo do mundo, he was the absurdity of things. According to Sartre, each lucid
internationally recognized for his poetry by 1977. The human being should seek such an alternative, while
Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa was clearly influenced by remaining constantly on guard against any temptation to
French Symbolism, Walt Whitman and the English mythologize reality. Since every word is an act, the writer
language and its literature. His work, published in reviews put his or her entire responsibility on the line.
under many pen names, expressed different, sometimes In the view of Albert Camus (1957*), human beings may
contradictory, ideological viewpoints. This was Pessoa’s transcend their limitations through revolt (L’Homme révolté,
way of seeking a certain form of wisdom, untrammelled by 1951), despite a gnawing sense of the absurd, with acts
any religious constraints or metaphysical claims. His resembling those of Sisyphus, the mythological Greek hero
complete works fill eight volumes (Obras completas, 1942– eternally doomed to roll his heavy stone up a hill only to see
56). Extremely well known and influential among European it slip from his grasp and roll down again. Nevertheless, in
literary circles, his Poesias (1942) were published under the Camus’s L’Etranger (1942), as in the novels of Malraux and
pseudonym Álvaro de Campos. At a later date, numerous Sartre, the darkest moments, on the very threshold of death
very active younger poets became exposed to European or even suicide, can also yield a vision of ecstasy – however
influences (surrealism, existentialism, the nouveau roman, utterly negative and desperate the revealing experience
structuralism), but nevertheless kept an eye on Africa and might be. Moreover, even at their most pessimistic or anti-
also on Brazil, as was the case with Alexandre Cabral heroic moments, Camus’s works never allow humanity’s
(Historias do Zaire, 1956). José Saramago (1998*) is probably cause to sink to the lower depths.
the best-known Portuguese writer active today in theatre, Existentialism enjoyed a worldwide vogue. In Romania,
poetry, the novel, and journalism. From his first book poet Marin Sorescu saw revolt as the only way out from
published in 1925, Terra do Pecado, to his more recent fate’s absurdity (Don Quixote’s Youth, 1968). For Marin
novels like Memorial do Convento (1982) and Evangelho Preda, regarded as a first-rate novelist, the peasant is a
segundo Jesus Cristo (1991), probably his most controversial philosopher who cultivates his garden with humour
work, and the publication of the last part of his diary (Diario (Moromeţii, 1955); his satire of the regime and its institutions
III de Cadernos de Lanzarote, 1996), his reputation in resulted in the meditations of Cel mai iubit dintre pămînteni
international letters has never ceased to grow. (The Most Beloved of All Mortals, 1960). Preda’s ironic
In France, Céline’s anti-hero was a lucid but merciless detachment is also to be found in the works of the late
character who cultivated hatred of both self and others until philosopher Emile Cioran, who chose exile in France and
he cynically sank into his own moral quagmire (Voyage au regarded history as ‘cacophony’ and perceived self-deluding
bout de la nuit, 1932). In 1933, André Malraux juxtaposed agitation with cynical distaste but also humanistic empathy
dramatic and blood-soaked scenes in almost journalistic (L’inconvénient d’être né, 1974). The struggle on behalf of
depictions of a Communist insurrection in Shanghai, with human rights waged by Paul Goma, also in French exile, has
a vast and varied host of characters groping for the meaning become a symbol. Goma’s works evoke the absurd world of
of life, in La Condition humaine. In a gesture of fraternal and prisons, repression, and torture (Le Tremblement des
sacrificial communion, a young revolutionary helps one of hommes, 1979). The theatre of the absurd of yet another
his comrades, sentenced like himself to be burned alive, to Romanian exile, Eugène Ionesco, drawing on humour from
die more easily by giving him his own cyanide. On the his native land, scored considerable success on the French
threshold of death, the self could thus fuse with the real and and international stage.
even be projected into eternity. Such nearly ecstatic Czechoslovak literature was racked by the country’s
moments mark the apex of many contemporary works, even successive Nazi and Soviet occupations, and many
though these otherwise seek to exclude any totalitarian intellectuals went into exile. Before 1938, Karel Capek was
discourse or metaphysical purpose. Beyond despair and the famous for a work of science fiction (War of the
absurd, Malraux expressed his faith in humanity’s capacity Salamanders, 1935), and especially for a trilogy of novels:
continually to affirm its presence through art or action; Hordubal, The Meteor, and An Ordinary Life (1934–37). As
human beings must stay constantly attentive to life’s early as 1919, Capek was translating Apollinaire and blazing
message, perceived as an ‘infinite possibility as to their fates’ the trail of ‘poetism,’ a surrealist movement that found its
(L’Espoir, 1937). finest expression in the powerful imagery of Vitezslav
Novels increasingly concerned with rounding out their Nezval (Edison, 1928) and in the lyricism of Jaroslav Seifert
authors’ previous philosophical writings followed hard upon (1984*) (Garbed in Light, 1940). Seifert soon symbolized
Malraux’s existential anguish. Jean-Paul Sartre drove home resistance against the Nazi and Soviet occupations. As of
the philosophical theses contained in his essay L’Etre et le 1948, ‘official’ or at least ‘tolerated’ writers could remain on
néant (1943) by stretching them to the limit, as it were, in good terms with the regime, but others had to publish

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clandestinely or go into exile, especially after 1968. Thus Se questo è un uomo (1958), Primo Levi’s autobiography as a
Bohumil Hrabal, the best-known author to remain in survivor of the Nazi death camps, is one of the most gripping
Czechoslovakia, was forced to publish abroad (Too Loud a of all eyewitness accounts of the utterly degrading slavery of
Solitude, 1976). Milan Kundera, probably the most famous that daily horror, depicted with unusual courage, modesty,
of all contemporary Czech writers, first brought out, in his and grandeur of the soul. In the 1960s, Italian writers mainly
native tongue, Valcik na rozlouecenou (A Waltz of focused on the world of labour and industrialization, to the
Farewells, 1973), a tragic tale told in an ironic, deliberately extent that their work came to be labelled as a ‘literature of
banal tone, as if from a distance, thereby stripping the story industry’. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s hard neo-realism and
of the grandeur normally accorded to tragic themes. After political involvement melted into something approaching
moving to France in 1975, Kundera published, in French, hedonism in his final collection of poetry (Trasumanar e
the successful L’Insoutenable légèreté de l’être (1984) and organizzar, 1971). Dino Buzzati’s fantastic approach
L’Identité (1977). Kundera attempts to render the complexity resulted in reflections on love, the absurdity of fate, and
of the modern world while remaining clear, hypothetical, death, in such novels as Il Deserto dei Tartari (1940) and
playful and ironic, thereby conferring a post-modern stamp finally Il Bestiario (1991), where the author’s fable uses
on his work. animals to show our gradual slide into an absolutely
When not drawing on the resources of their folklore or unthinkable reality. The fantastic fables of Italo Calvino are
national history, Bulgaria’s pre-war writers were busy also noteworthy. One character in his major trilogy, an
attempting to free their poetry from its traditional fetters. eccentric nobleman in an imaginary eighteenth century,
After the Second World War, a love of life coupled with climbs up a tree and refuses to come down because of the
metaphysical disquiet haunted works that expressed the world’s absurdity (Il barone rampante, 1957). Calvino could
crisis in traditional values as well as the rejection of the new also show characters acting out sometimes-hilarious
values. Pavel Vezinov spoke out against the decadence of situations in more realistic tales, without revealing their
humanism, and in The White Lizard (1977) branded innermost thoughts but still reflecting considerable art
modern man as a ‘spiritual eunuch’. (Palomar, 1983). Dreams often blur reality in Elsa Morante’s
In Hungary, Lajos Kassak, in his eight-volume work cast novels; in La Storia (1979), war victims revolt against
in autobiographical form, A Man’s Life (1927–35), told the atrocities as old as the world. Umberto Eco first became
story of the rise of a self-taught mechanic. Pursuing the known in academic circles for his essays on semiotics, but
same socialist vein, Attila Jozsef’s verse, the most important then achieved international renown with a first historical-
Hungarian poetry written in the interwar period, expressed detective novel: Il Nome della rosa, 1981. Not without wit,
working-class views, mingling literary reminiscences with Eco described medieval monks seriously grappling with the
snatches of popular songs. After 1945, an intellectual elite limits to human knowledge in a fourteenth-century abbey,
persecuted under Nazi rule was hardly in a position to re- stressing the importance of wisdom, reason, and freedom
emerge under the Soviet regime. Tibor Dery (The Unfinished against folly and superstition.
Sentence, 1966) denounced dictatorship, and Jószef Lengyel, In Greece, the two writers who set the tone for
the concentration camps (Bitter Bread, 1966). Many post- contemporary literature were Nikos Kazantzakis and
modern writers chose for their model the sardonic novels of Konstantin Kavafis (more commonly known as Cavafy).
István Ôrkény (The Tót Family, 1968; and The Minimyths, Kazantzakis was open to every kind of literary, political and
1970), influenced by the works of Beckett and Ionesco. spiritual influence, and his novels were universally acclaimed.
Modern works of Polish literature mainly drew their They expressed a feeling of anguish and alienation, which
inspiration from the classical French novelists or from the the author struggled to surmount in such works as Alexis
two founding fathers of twentieth-century letters: Proust Zorba (Zorba the Greek, 1948), and Letter to El Greco (1961).
and Joyce. Witold Gombrowicz is considered one of the Cavafy, in his poetry, mingled popular and learned language,
greatest contemporary Polish writers (Ferdydurke, 1937; linking the ancient world to the modern in a mythical and
Journal, 1957–66). In the 1990s, the poetry of Wislawa ironical dimension. After 1945, a ‘generation of the defeated’,
Szymborska (1996*) was recognized as a major work by the committed to moral combat against political oppression,
literary world (Unexaggerated Death, 1997). emerged on the literary scene. Among these, George Seferis
In Italy, the futurist and modernist adventures of such (1963*) gave a voice to despair and suffering, but also to his
poets as F. Tommaso Marinetti caused some literary faith in humanity and its future (Three Secret Poems), while
upheaval during the First World War. The drama and Odysseus Elytis (1979*) (The Tree of Light, 1971) pegged
novels of Luigi Pirandello (1934*) expressed nihilism tinged his hopes on the sea, as the very symbol of Hellenism. In the
with irony through depiction of the disintegrating identities 1970s, sarcastic wit could blend with political opposition.
of their characters (Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore, 1923). Writing in poetic prose mingling Stendhalian inspiration
Pirandello’s theatre has influenced many modern with stylistic innovations, S. Tsirkas’s trilogy(Akybernates
playwrights. Alberto Moravia’s first novel, Gli Indifferenti politeias, Drifting Cities, 1960–65) is widely considered the
(1929), was interpreted as a condemnation of decadent greatest novel in modern Greek. The work follows ethnic
bourgeois. His later writings brought him closer to the Greek leftists through the Second World War in Jerusalem,
manner of the Surrealists. After the decline of literature Cairo and Alexandria. Taki Theodorakis tells of the quest
during the Fascist years, the neo-realistic novel returned to of a Greek painter searching for a landscape which he finally
the fore, and writers sought to exclude an ‘arcane’ approach discovers within himself – just as his native Greece contained
to literature, which was criticized for shunning social such a landscape within herself as a symbol of the country’s
realities. The novels of Carlo Cassona and Giorgio Bassani contemporary identity (Landscape of the Absolute, 1992).
(Le Storie ferraresi, 1960), profoundly influenced by Proust The Albanian writer Ismail Kadaré is quite prolific. His
and Joyce, evoked the grimness of exclusion and solitude in novel The Concert, 1988, at once tragic, burlesque, poetical,
themes related to the resistance, deportation and regionalism. and metaphysical, based on the relations between Beijing

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and Albania, is considered his masterpiece. Kadaré’s Three- (Amédée ou comment s’en débarrasser, 1954). Arthur Adamov
Arched Bridge, a medieval chronicle about the building of a also expressed the moral failures of his characters through
cursed bridge, met with international success in 1981. their physical activities: they might limp across the stage, for
Another symbolic bridge supported a blood-drenched tale example (La Parodie, 1952; Off Limits, 1969). Brecht wished
of clashing cultures at once linked and separated down the effectively to deprive his spectators of any possibility of
centuries in the 1945 novel by Bosnian writer Ivo Andrič catharsis, and his example was followed by the advocates of
(1961*), The Bridge on the Drina. ‘anti-theatre’. Thus Jean Genet basically drew his inspiration
In France, Louis Aragon’s work in both poetry and prose from this vein in such powerfully crafted plays as Le Balcon
extended over more than 60 years: from his surrealist novel (1957), and Les Nègres (1959). Armand Gatti cultivated the
Paysan de Paris (1926), through a cycle of Marxist novels in Brechtian notion of ‘epic theatre’ to wreak havoc with the
the 1930s, tirelessly denouncing the rising tide of fascism, to basic conceptions of drama, exploring every ‘possible me’ of
a less politicized autobiography in 1956, and down to his his characters (Chant public devant deux chaises électriques,
final poems, Les Adieux et autres poèmes (1982), in which he 1966). Irish-born Samuel Beckett (1969*), who wrote in
continued to stress that ‘love is absolute’. Mainly concerned English and French, peopled his stage with picturesque
with communicating experience, writers no longer restricted characters: human ragamuffins devoid of identity,
themselves to any particular genre. Michel Leiris, a former conviction, will, or any God to believe in (Plate 134). Indeed,
surrealist, used such forms as journalism, poetry and the in a sense Beckett’s ‘theatre of the void’ is filled with the
essay, to create a vast and complex autobiographical work absence of God as he dramatizes a world emptied of all
(La Règle du jeu, 1939–76). Georges Bataille, another ex- meaning (Waiting for Godot, 1953; Endgame, 1957). The
surrealist who wielded considerable influence, composed new theatre was really consecrated by Beckett’s ‘visible’ and
works difficult to classify, such as his Somme athéologique ‘literalist’ masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. Since this sort of
(1943–45) or ‘Mme Edwarda’ (1942), a short story whose drama pointed to no discernible reality which might lie
violent eroticism provoked a scandal. Bataille sought a sort beyond what was being shown on the stage itself, it
of illumination, even ‘consummation’, through the paradoxically opened the way to a whole new form of
contemplation of pain, enjoyment enhanced by fierce literature: the nouveau roman, which enjoyed an
eroticism, or transgression of taboos. Literature was only extraordinary vogue over the next 20 years.
acceptable to Bataille if it refused to accept itself: ‘Whoever Alain Robbe-Grillet, the chief exponent of the new novel,
does not die on account of being only a man’, Bataille used was imitated in many countries. The rather vague term
to say, ‘will never be anything but a man.’ Through the nouveau roman refers to self-built texts that eschew reference
poetry and prose of former surrealist René Char, odd to any reality in existence before the text, in so far as language
metaphors shoot forth like lightning bolts, lifting his work could allow. Readers are expected to decipher stories to
to the summits of modern poetry. Although difficult, Char’s which only the author holds the key. Obsessive fantasies
work endeavours to be ‘synonymous with truth’ and carries might be exploited, such as rape and other sexual crimes,
the reader to heights of enjoyment of nature and beauty in along with the imagery of delirium, thus whirling the
the name of peace and our brief life on this Earth (Retour puzzled reader in search of the work’s meaning into a vortex
amont, 1966; Dans la pluie giboyeuse, 1968). of speculation. Such a literary approach did undoubtedly
In the early twentieth century, theatre enjoyed less result in some successful achievements; but most works of
prominence than the novel, but succeeded in arousing this school remain word-centred and two-dimensional, and
renewed interest after the Second World War. By 1950, mark the abdication of art’s claim, at least in literature, to
Ionesco’s Cantatrice chauve (The Bald Prima Donna) was the right to uncover truths about the world outside or about
spouting nonsense on the stage, thus marking the birth of the human condition. Claude Simon (1985*), in his word-
the theatre of the absurd. Major sources of inspiration puzzles, jumbled fragments of various images with snippets
claimed by practitioners of the new theatre were Strindberg, from history or geography, injecting epithets of colour
Joyce, Brecht, and especially Antonin Artaud (Le Théâtre et (Triptyque, 1973; Les Géorgiques, 1981; L’Invitation, 1988).
son double). As early as 1930, Artaud wanted the stage to Simon once described his novels as works to be perceived as
become a space for the forces of good and evil – as a ‘a successfully prepared mayonnaise sauce’ (Orion aveugle,
metaphor for life. In his view, a ‘theatre of cruelty’ ought, as 1970).
for sufferers of the plague, ‘to be lancing boils’. Other poets and novelists experimented with language’s
In Belgium, between 1930 and 1939, Michel de arbitrary forms and constraints to turn them into tools for
Ghelderode developed a powerful dramatic style with Don infinitely varied creativity. In his Exercices de style, 1947,
Juan (1928), Magie rouge (1931), and Mademoiselle Jaïre Raymond Queneau, with his so-called ‘OuLiPo Group’
(1934). His aggressive and vivid plays pursued the tradition (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), developed this particular
of the old Flemish puppeteers, featuring buffoons, trend first initiated by the surrealists and such writers as
executioners and other characters seemingly straight out of Raymond Roussel (Les Nouvelles impressions d’Afrique,
the paintings of Bosch or Bruegel. Ghelderode’s plays were 1932). Georges Perec came to be one of the main
originally written in French, but were first performed in representatives of this school. In La Disparition (1969),
Flemish in the 1920s at the Vlaamse Volkstoneel, an Perec dropped the letter ‘e’ entirely from his text; and in La
avant‑garde theatre, before touring in Paris and other Vie, mode d’emploi (1978), he submitted a collection of
European cities after 1950. stories to be composed and combined by the reader in
Ionesco’s theatre of the absurd could show human beings different patterns.
turning into blindly egotistical, bestial and ferocious It may be inaccurate to consider Nathalie Sarraute and
rhinoceroses (Rhinocéros, 1960). His stage might fill up with Marguerite Duras as belonging to the nouveau roman school,
objects before becoming empty once again (Les Chaises, but they did much to renovate the novel as a genre. Sarraute
1952). Or a corpse might explode, and crash through panels exposed the little telltale signs that reveal life far more

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authentically than traditional discourse or the usual a desert island, with all its ensuing tragedy. The characters
representations of action. Hence, the underlying purpose of in Harold Pinter’s plays are significantly hard put to it to
her stories tend to disappear from view (Portrait d’un express their own thoughts, which stem from ambiguous
inconnu, 1948; Les Fruits d’or, 1963). In her starkly rendered motivations they scarcely understand (The Homecoming,
dialogues, Duras managed to suggest things unutterable 1965; Betrayal, 1980). More novels are offering variant
and inaccessible, like separation, loss, solitude, or flights possible endings (as with John Fowles) or actually self-
into madness, crime, amnesia. In Duras’s India Song (1976), deconstructing (as with Graham Swift); others are becoming
characters disappear altogether, leaving only voices to complex self-parodies, like the works of David Lodge (Nice
express the author’s words. In the 1980s, Duras incorporated Work, Parlour Games, 1988).
subject matter in more classically constructed texts (Agatha, During the Nazi period, German writers in exile were
1981; L’Amant, 1982), while Sarraute split her own politically active. Bertolt Brecht, first in Scandinavia and
personality in two in Enfance (1983), an autobiographical then in California, continued to apply his aesthetic theory
tale. Always one to mystify, Robbe-Grillet also wrote some of efficiency to his revolutionary plays, rejecting all notions
self-admittedly ‘indirect’ autobiographical works: Le miroir of catharsis (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, 1939; Der gute
qui revient (1985); and Angélique ou l’enchantement (1988). Mensch von Sezuan, 1938–40; Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des
Other novelists mirrored sometimes very bitter personal Arturo Ui, 1941). After the war, realistic-minded writers
experience indeed in their own works of fiction. Elie Wiesel, depicted a Germany raised from its ruins and sought to
a survivor of the Nazi death camps and recipient of the 1986 explain her drama from within, as with Heinrich Böll
Nobel Peace Prize, erected an ‘invisible monument’ to his (1972*) (Haus ohne Hüter, 1954; Ansichten eines Clowns,
people, whose agony he recounted through the ‘mystical 1963). Günter Grass (Plate 136) told the story of a child
power of memory’, and thereby commemorated the suffering symbolizing the entire German people, whose growth was
of all peoples deprived of freedom (Silence et mémoire stunted by its past (Die Blechtrommel, 1959). In Mein
d’homme, 1989; L’Oublié, 1989). Marguerite Yourcenar used Jahrhundert, 1999), a partly autobiographical work, Grass
the historical novel’s projection into a different period to stages his own life story, with his customary biting wit,
shed new light on fundamental questions. Her Mémoires summing up each year of ‘his century’ with a tapestry of
d’Hadrien (1951) pondered the meditations of a Roman events and characters.
emperor as death approached, while in her L’Oeuvre au noir In Switzerland, Max Frisch showed how mass prejudice
(1968), she related the philosophical quest of an imaginary and lies might entrap a whole society in the clutches of anti-
physician in the stormy period of the Renaissance (Plate Semitism (Andorra, 1961). Lying somewhere between the
135). Edmond Jabès (1965*), questioned existence and its dramas of Brecht and Ionesco, Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s plays
relation to God in short prose poems that were also staged grotesque characters bereft of certainties, cast adrift
philosophical essays (Le Livre des questions, 1963–73; Le in a world whose ideologies amounted merely to farce (Die
Livre de l’hospitalité, 1991). Physiker, 1962; Der Meteor, 1966). The 1970s and 1980s
Since 1980, an increasing number of writers have been gave rise to a more personal and autobiographic literature
trying to shake off the shackles of the novel, a genre now dwelling on suffering and death. Fritz Zorn perceived cancer
regarded with suspicion even though still recognized as one as the significant illness of a morbid environment, with
capable of handling anything that a writer may wish to pour Zurich’s bourgeoisie as the disease’s agent (Mars, 1981).
into it. More and more authors are turning to short stories East German writers who rejected their regime fled to
and other brief works, where fiction, musings, poetry and the West, or at least published there. Günter Kunert left
history are mingled so as to allow the narrator to capture East Germany in 1979. In 1980, Christa Wolf was the first
the unpredictable. East German writer to be appreciated in West Germany.
In England, writers like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the two German
and William Golding (1983*) denounced, in the blackest literatures fused. Increasingly, the involvement of German-
possible anti-Utopias, the shortcomings of individuals and language writers revolved around peace and ecological
society as a whole. In Brave New World (1932), Huxley threats to the planet. In 1984, Kunert called for self-
offered a pessimistic vision of a future dominated by knowledge through meditation ‘to bear with this world
Americanization and scientism. Under the cover of a Swift- which was constantly dissolving in nothingness’ (Zurück ins
like fable, Orwell satirized a world of animals rebelling Paradies). Even more intensely than many other post-
against exploitation by humans. The animals end up modern European writers, young German authors expressed
proclaiming the equality of all animals, but the triumph of a sense of depersonalization, disintegration of the self,
the exploited is short-lived: the pigs betray the revolution solitude, and fear, faced with the emptiness of modern life.
(an allusion to Stalinism) while the dogs (the police) impose In Peter Handke’s work, the individual’s alienation and
a reign of terror (Animal Farm, 1945). With his best-known pain found expression through novels, short stories (Versuch
novel, 1984 (1949), Orwell described a state waging a war far über die Jukebox, 1990) and plays which jolted audiences,
from its borders that brings it relative prosperity. But the deconstructed rhetorical models, and revealed the
state’s citizens are constantly watched by the eye of ‘Big constraints of language from which their author sought to
Brother’ and are banned from loving and even thinking. The break away. Handke even tried to undo the very gestures he
novel’s hero stages an unsuccessful attempt at triggering an regarded as hindering communication, going so far as to
uprising and narrates the outcome. William Golding harked stage a completely mute drama (Der Mündel und sein
back to the very source of conflicts where evil is seen almost Vormund, 1969.) The German-language autobiographical
metaphysically. Lord of the Flies (1954) took a hard look at works of Elias Canetti (1991*), born in Austria-Hungary
the beast lurking within human beings and drew pessimistic but a naturalized British subject, included the reflections
conclusions, illustrated through the strange political and aphorisms of an individual who, after experiencing a
organization concocted by a group of children stranded on tormented childhood and young adult life, still felt that life

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was a value to be treasured, wishing as he did ‘to live as if A. Sinyavsky (Gololëd, The Hoarfrost, 1962), who considered
death did not even exist’ (Die Provinz des Menschen, 1942– revolt, freedom and the renewal of literature as obvious
72; Aufzeichnungen, 1976–78). companions, looked to satirical realism, producing writings
As for post-Stalinist literature in Russia, Alexandr of a fantastic nature. In a similar vein, Erofeyev ripped
Solzhenitsyn (1970*) wrote realistic, classical works couched language apart in such works as Moskva-Petuski (Moscow-
in fresh language to bear witness to his experience as an Petushki, 1977). But after 1985, in the years following the
inmate of the Gulag and as a fighter against oppression. V restoration of freedom of expression, post-modernist prose
kruge pervom (The First Circle, 1955–58) related the spiritual invaded the world of the novel; reality and phantasmagoria
castration of intellectuals interned in a ‘luxury camp’, but mingled in a kind of ‘mythological realism’ leading to self-
also showed how the world of concentration camps could destruction, as in a short story by S. Kaledin whose
forge and temper the mind. The immense fresco of his intellectual hero turns into an undertaker (Smirennoe
Krasnoe koleso (The Red Wheel, 1971–83) dwelt on the kladbishche, Tranquil Cemetery, 1991).
causes of the Russian Revolution. His story Odin den iz Several Belgian authors staged avant-garde plays in
zhizni Ivana Denisovicha (One Day in the Life of Ivan Flemish, while humanist and expressionist aspirations were
Denisovich, 1962) imparts the horror of daily life in the summarized in Wies Moens’s Celbrieven, 1920, and Paul
Gulag, playing on the reader’s emotion and indignation, and Van Ostaijen sought ‘pure poetry’ in his Het eerste boek van
encouraging a nostalgia for traditional values. The Schmoll, 1928. Dutch literature strove to free itself from
countryside, natural beauty, and moral and religious values, moral and religious bonds. Gerard Walschap violently
even nationalism, were increasingly common themes in rejected Catholicism and expressed the wish to live as a
Soviet literature, giving rise to an abundance of ‘rural’ pagan with the greatest possible intensity in his novel
literature. V. Belov related how a peasant manages to Houtekiet (1940). Willem Elsschot wrote tales marked by
triumph over the trials and tribulations of the kolkhoz, disillusion and irony (Het Dwallicht, 1946). After 1950, a
thanks to his faith in those values, in Privychnoe delo (A brand of poetry claiming inspiration from Artaud and the
Matter of Habit, 1966). V. Rasputin told the story of an surrealists adopted the label ‘atonal’ and sought to express
elderly woman on her deathbed, surrounded by her four itself in ‘visceral’ language. Johan Daisne interjected ‘magic
children; in the highly successful Matushka (1970) he went realism’ into his prose, while Hugo Claus (Le Chagrin des
as far as to reject anything that belongs to the modern world. Belges, 1985) and other fiction writers reflected the influence
In V. Astafyev’s Pechal’nyi detektiv (Sad Detective Story, of experimental German and French novelists.
1986), nostalgia for the countryside is coupled with Indebted to German expressionism, Swedish literature
xenophobia, and even anti-Semitism. The crisis of the was, especially in the interwar period, tinged with religious
agrarian revolution, a thirst for freedom and opposition to feeling: Swedish writers either sought faith, or advocated a
the nuclear arms race were all subjects tackled by the popular secular and free-minded mysticism. In the 1930s, they
Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov (Proshchay, Gulsary!, expressed anxiety over threats of war and their country’s
Farewell, Gulsary!, 1966; I bol’she veka dlitcia den’, 1980, The neutrality. As early as 1915, Pär Lagerkvist (1951*) wrote
Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years). In the latter story, with anguish of the horrors of war (Steel and Men, 1915)
with shades of science fiction, the author wrote of a robot- and went on to condemn all forms of dictatorship (The
person suffering from amnesia amid the ruins of his country Executioner, 1933; Victory in Darkness, 1936). Eyvind
in a world of folly. The war, which enabled official literature Johnson (1974*) urged his contemporaries to oppose
to sing the praises of patriotism and Soviet heroism during Nazism (Krilon, 1941–43), and wrote many novels and
the Stalinist period, was bitterly and realistically described short stories (Of Rose and Fire, 1949; During the Time of His
by V. Nekrassov (Vokopakh Stalingrada, In the Stalingrad Grace, 1960). Harry Martinson (1974*) penned the poem
Trenches, 1946), by K. Simonov in his novels (Dni I nochi, Anaria, which served as the basis for a famous opera, and
Days and Nights, 1944; Jivye I Mertvye, The Living and the several novels including The Road to Klockrike (1948). After
Dead, 1960) and in his poetry. War and post-war realities the war, Stig Dagerman described the anxiety of ‘neutral’
were described by young novelists such as I. Bondarev, who Swedish soldiers in 1942 (The Serpent, 1945). In his play
denounced Stalinist repression of those who had fought for Sentenced to Death (1947), Dagerman revealed an existential
their country and their families (Poslednie zalpy, The Last anguish reminiscent of the works of Kafka and the French
Salvoes, 1959; Tichina, Silence, 1964). V. Bykov (Mertvym existentialists. The 1950s heralded a renewal of interest in
ne bolno, The Dead Do Not Feel Pain, 1966) showed how regional literature, with the novels of Sara Lidman, who
war pushes people to their limit and forces them to ask explored the poor and wild North in The Country of
fundamental questions about their condition. In 1961, Mulberries and Thorns (1955), while Lagerkvist turned his
V. Grossman completed Jizn i Sudba (Life and Fate), the attention to more religious subjects (Barabbas, 1950).
final part of a long, highly controversial tableau published in Torsten Ekböms’s Opening Gambits (1964) bears the
1952. His last novel, published abroad and only in 1980, influences of the nouveau roman.
deals with Soviet society after Stalingrad and compares In Norway, during the Nazi occupation, writers fled or
Nazism with Stalinism. went on strike, while the population buried themselves in
At the end of the 1950s, the Sputnik era, science fiction the classics in an attempt to protect themselves symbolically
became a very popular genre, enabling authors, whose works from Nazism. War poetry, ‘Krigslyrikken’, between 1940
very often circulated underground, to express their and 1945, was published both in Norway and in exile, but
condemnations of oppression more freely. For example, only after the war did most such material see the light of
I. Efremov’s Tumannost Andromedy (The Nebula of day. Two poets, Arnuf Overland and Nordahl Grieg, whose
Andromeda, 1957); or Lezvie britvy (The Razor’s Edge, 1963), works galvanized the Norwegian resistance, were regarded
and Ulitka na sklone (The Snail on the Slope, 1966) by as heroes. In the post-war years, novels recognized the
the brothers A. and B. Strugatsky. Other writers, like importance of the individual in making existential choices,

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as with Kare Holt’s The Great Crossroads. Tarjei Vesaas was pockets and power of the mobsters. The belief in a
renowned throughout Scandinavia for his expressionist democratic dream of opening doors to a new world was
works, which rejected the traditional realistic novel in order criticized by some and cultivated by others.
to describe the hidden and fundamental workings of James T. Farrell’s trilogy (Studs Lonigan, 1932–35) dealt
character. Vesaas’s finest works include a collection of short with the Irish Catholic urban poor living on the wrong side
stories, Winds (1952), and the novels House in Darkness of the tracks. On a spree from one bar to another, Farrell’s
(1945), and The Laundry Room (1946). main character here goes on a ‘nostalgic’ and useless personal
In Denmark, along with Martin Andersen Nexo’s and quest, if only to redeem himself in his own eyes. As with
Leck Fischer’s realistic novels written between the wars, the Dreiser’s writing, Farrell’s approach was naturalistic and
great historical romance by Nis Petersen won acclaim; it is precise with abundant detail. Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
regarded as one of the most outstanding works on ancient world was peopled with the wealthy and was perhaps more
Rome. Karen Blixen’s work, so fraught with literary allusions subtle, he nevertheless also described desperate social
and rich in mystery, won international acclaim (Anecdotes of climbers, caught in meanders of their own making (This
Fate, 1958). Klaus Rifbjerg’s plays (Evolutions) achieved Side of Paradise, 1920), corrupted by drink and incest or
significant success, but opinions vary regarding his lengthy utterly paralyzed with cowardice (The Great Gatsby, 1925)
and rather esoteric poem, Camouflage (1961). (Plate 137).
In Finland, on the heels of the surrealist-inspired Similar despair haunted the autobiographical novels of
movement Tulenkantaja (Fire-Bearer), came a ‘social’ novel, Thomas Wolfe, another realist in the Dreiser vein, whose
Holy Misery (1919), and a ‘vitalist’ novel, Human Beings on style also showed a strong lyric touch (Of Time and the
a Summer Night (1934), both by Frans Sillanpää (1939*). River, 1935). Sherwood Anderson scathingly described the
Post-war writer Väinö Linna earned international fame suffocation of youthful dreams of freedom in small-town
with a first novel, Unknown Soldiers (1954), and later with a life, as in Middle West and Winesburg, Ohio (1919). The
highly successful trilogy, Here Under the Polar Star (1959– anonymous, stereotyped small town with its cast of drab
62). Linna’s criticism of his country’s social and political characters also featured in the satirical novels of Sinclair
structures caused an uproar, but the work has enshrined the Lewis (1930*), such as Main Street (1920) and especially
author as a kind of spiritual leader in contemporary Babbit (1922), whose title character became a universal
Finland. symbol of the average American. Lewis also denounced
bogus preachers (Elmer Gantry, 1927), budding fascism (It
Can’t Happen Here, 1935), and racism (King’s Blood Royal,
THE AMERICAS 1947). The writing of Southern gentleman William Faulkner
(1949*) belonged to the tradition of realism, but with
The United States sombre allegory darkening his almost macabre fiction (The
Sound and the Fury, 1930). Faulkner denounced the legacy
American literature truly came into its own when writers of slavery and believed that the solution would have to come
began turning away from essentially bookish inspiration to from an act of love on the part of the South. Only suffering
consider their own immediate context, either to idealize might make up for past inflicted pain (Intruder in the Dust,
conservatism, or to seriously criticize it. At the turn of the 1948). Faulkner’s fiction won universal acclaim. Indeed, the
twentieth century, Henry James had already depicted, in multiplicity of its narrators, sites, time frames, and
remarkably minute detail, a rich and decadent American characters, would even come to influence the nouveau
leisure class that haunted the drawing rooms of European roman. Perhaps somewhat like Malraux in France, Ernest
high society. But James’s concern had been mainly aesthetic. Hemingway (1954*) cultivated a heroic male image through
With Theodore Dreiser, stories now became careful and war journalism: an image which might impart a meaning to
sometimes lengthy demonstrations of situations which life over and beyond existential despair. Again like Malraux,
inexorably determined their characters’ fates. Dreiser’s Hemingway portrayed Republican Spain and its struggle
works, The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914), described against fascism (For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940). In The Old
speculation and graft in high places, with no apparent Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway turned towards more
interjection of the author’s own opinions. In An American symbolic writing. In general, Hemingway aimed for the
Tragedy (1925), Dreiser allowed a protagonist to be driven purified ‘right phrase’, rising like the tip of an iceberg to
to murder by sheer solitude, a need to please, and social suggest the mass below, to borrow the writer’s own
circumstances, thus shifting blame for a crime on society metaphor.
itself. E. L. Masters, through a series of imaginary epitaphs The fictional trilogy by John Dos Passos, U.S.A. (1930–
in the Spoon River Anthology (1915), criticized life in a small 36), wove together newspaper clippings, snatches of popular
American town. Masters’s works mark the beginnings of song and snippets of biography and poetry. Dos Passos
modern poetry in a realistic vein similar to Dreiser’s sombre denounced war and its hidden cogs and wheels and generally
vision, bringing to the fore a sense of unease already evinced deplored modern society; his almost photographic eye
by Mark Twain and Henry James at the beginning of the depersonalized characters, nearly reducing them to
century. mechanical toys played upon by chaotic forces. His U.S.A.
After the First World War, American novelists noted later inspired a trilogy by Sartre, who considered Dos Passos
that nothing had changed for the better. Values crumbled ‘the most important writer of the century’. Henry Miller,
and money reigned supreme. Shallow-rooted religion another critic of modern society, and especially American
indulged in sterile hypocritical gestures to ensure social society, composed an expressionist, lyrical body of work
ascension. The prevailing puritanism hardly cloaked very different from the writings of Dos Passos. Miller
widespread soulless lust and unbridled violence. Prohibition attacked all Western values, whose hypocrisy and puritanism
merely whetted society’s thirst for alcohol and swelled the he condemned in the name of freedom. He denied, however,

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responsibility for the sexual revolution that later shook might bear witness to a particular condition, still, he or she
America. But the fact remains that his chief works, including was made to speak on behalf of a broader human vision, as
Tropic of Cancer (1934), The Air-Conditioned Nightmare in Ellison’s writings and, again, in the works of James
(1945), and The Rosy Crucifixion, (Sexus, Plexus, Nexus, Baldwin. Later writers, in works even more symbolic than
1949–60), were all banned in the United States until 1961. Ellison’s, explored the problems of literary art as such, or
Modern American verse experienced a sudden flowering issues with less overt links to political activism, as was the
in Chicago from 1912 onwards, with the literary journal case with Tar Baby (1981) by Toni Morrison (1993*),
Poetry, which for the next half-century published a wide which dealt with a black woman’s lot.
variety of works. Twentieth-century American poetry Such a shift has, indeed, been apparent in American
showed no homogeneity whatsoever. It refracted, at a literature in general. Social realism is everywhere being
distance, the influence of Ezra Pound, an expatriate in replaced with fantasy or the outright fantastic, with
Europe since 1908. Pound’s lessons included economy of symbolism, philosophical or moral reflections, or the quest
language, the ‘direct’ approach, and special attention to for love. An urban tradition tinged with Jewish humour is
rhythm. But these lessons might be combined with the very visible in such important novels by Saul Bellow (1976*)
most divergent tendencies: some poets broke with tradition, as The Adventures of Augie March (1953) and Herzog (1964),
others were keen to maintain it; and where some writers of or in the fiction of J. D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye, 1951;
verse evoked only a city or region, others sought to render Franny and Zooey, 1961). In this tradition again were the
the spirit of an entire nation, or themes of universal profoundly humane works of Isaac Bashevis Singer (1979*)
importance. Carl Sandburg spoke of Chicago, then of the written in Yiddish. Singer evoked the Jewish legends of the
United States (Chicago, 1916; The People, Yes, 1936), and Polish ghettoes, and the successive waves of Jewish
Robert Frost pondered the landscape of New England. immigration to the United States (Shosha, 1978). For his
Around 1955, there arose a new school of poetry, surrealist part, Nabokov, first a Russian writer, then an Anglo-
and even dadaist in inspiration, generally read aloud, with American one, but always with a distinct European flair,
jazz music in the background, in the San Francisco bars limned American realities with distant, ironic wit (Lolita,
frequented by the Beats. Allen Ginsberg’s incantations 1955; Pale Fire, 1962). In Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
(Howl, 1956) reproduced the slang, violence, and rawness of (1969), Nabokov related the amorous episodes of a couple
the drug culture. adrift in a world of dream and fantasy. Both William Gass
Eugene O’Neill (1936*) was arguably the most outstanding and John Barth (Lost in the Funhouse, 1968) ironically toyed
representative of twentieth-century American theatre. He with narrative patterns, breaking them up into bewildering
greatly contributed as of 1916 to free the stage from Broadway fragments with reflections on writing itself. American post-
‘commercialism’. Influenced by Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, modern trends were mostly spurred by distaste for realities
Strindberg, German expressionism, Nietzche, and Freud, falsified by politics and the media, which gave rise, by way of
O’Neill wrought highly original drama. His characters, weak reaction, to the ‘unreal’, surrealistic, and even dadaistic
creatures buffeted by a blind, cruel world, can neither reform, jeering of so many writers. Such discredit cast upon outside
nor communicate with one another (The Emperor Jones, ‘reality’ provoked authors such as Robert Coover to inveigle
1920; Anna Christie, 1921). Towards the end of his life, the reader into confronting different possible outcomes for
O’Neill revealed more of himself in plays in an autobiographical the same erotic scene. In one of his latest novels, Pinocchio in
vein (A Long Day’s Journey into Night, 1956). After the Venice (1991), the many levels of significance of Coover’s
Second World War, Tennessee Williams staged erotic and plot follow the adventures of the famous half-real, half-
violent neuroses (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947). Arthur fantastic puppet, as a tale of initiation where the strings and
Miller’s plays symbolize political persecution with characters temptations of society prevent the poor creature from
victimized by their convictions in a pitiless American fulfilling his total human potential. At the dawn of the
environment (Death of a Salesman, 1949; The Crucible, 1953) twenty-first century, a number of writers were using global
(Plate 138). In reaction against Broadway, then Off- electronic networks. Thus the poet and novelist John
Broadway, a new, Off-Off-Broadway theatre cropped up. Updike (Midprint, 1969; Hugging the Shore, 1983) opted for
This dramatic genre was a continuation of the Beat movement, interactive literature, and initiated an ‘exquisite corpse’ in
and revealed inspiration from Dada, Artaud, and even Zen partnership with 18,000 internauts.
Buddhism, traces of all of which can be detected in the plays
of Bob Wilson, which feature much music and dance (the
opera composed by Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach, 1976). Canada
David Mamet’s experimental theatre dwelt on the city of
Chicago, with two or three characters (Duck Variations, One of the distinctive characteristics of anglophone Canadian
1971; Edmund, 1983). Sam Shepard’s later plays, very much authors is their quest for identity against the backdrop of
in the American grain, devoted attention to family plights their vast and sometimes overwhelming natural environment.
(Curse of the Starving Class, 1976; True West, 1980; Fool for One of the most famous Canadian poets, E. J. Pratt,
Love 1983). transformed the construction of the transcontinental
The period after the Second World War saw the railway into a song with epic overtones (Towards the Last
appearance of many autobiographical novels. Black novelists Spike, 1952). The many poets who succeeded him (more
were eager to testify to the black experience in America. than a thousand collections were published in the 1960s
Richard Wright’s Black Boy (1945) showed crime as the alone) often expressed, in modern forms, their attachment
only choice available to a black youth in a white world (Plate to the region, the prairies in particular, and the great
139). In The Invisible Man (1952), Ralph Ellison traced the outdoors. In his autobiography, In Search of Myself (1921),
searing progress of an unnamed individual literally forced and in his novel Over Prairie Trails (1922), Frederick Grove
by society into the ground. But while a given black individual evoked the vast expanses of Saskatchewan, in his reflections

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on the human condition. Emily Carr wrote of her life among communication, and – like so many authors – death as
the Indians of the poverty-stricken villages of British often the only existential solution left (Une Saison dans la
Columbia (The House of Small, 1942), and then of her vie d’Emmanuel, 1965; Vision d’Anna ou le vertige, 1982).
Victorian childhood (The House of All Sorts, 1945). Sheila Michel Tremblay’s output includes more than forty works
Watson described the mountains of western Canada, (Chroniques du plateau Mont-Royal, 1989–95), and his plays
dealing with the same themes as Carr, but with an art that rank among the best on international stages today (Les
transcended regionalism (The Double Hook, 1959). Anciennes odeurs, 1981; Albertine en cinq temps, 1984). Much
Numerous writers, especially Michael Ondaatje, with his in the manner of Latin American authors, French- Canadian
poetic novel In the Skin of the Lion (1987), chose Ontario writers of novels and short stories have been going back to
and the city of Toronto as their subject. In Two Solitudes their cultural roots to add a ‘magic’ dimension to the realism
(1945), Hugh MacLennan deplored the divide between of their fiction.
French and English Canadians and, in a science fiction style,
suggested a brighter future in the form of a marriage (Voices
in Time, 1980). Margaret Lawrence’s characters tried to West Indies
take stock of their lives in an attempt to find some meaning
in them (The Stone Angel, 1964). Malcolm Lowry, in his Martinique’s Aimé Césaire raised a poetic cry in three ‘acts’
famous novel Under the Volcano (1947), set in Mexico, in Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939), denouncing both
evoked Canada (British Columbia) as an earthly paradise. the physical and moral wretchedness of the islands and the
In The Piano Man’s Daughter (1995), Timothy Findley boasted ‘reason’ of the West, which made the poet prefer
painted the portrait of a Canadian family in Ontario from the madness of the wretched. Haiti’s poet Jacques Roumain
the nineteenth century to the Second World War. He (Gouverneurs de la rosée, 1944) mourned the misery of
showed with the utmost sensitivity how its members were oppressed peasants on his island, but glorified blacks in
gradually sapped by hereditary madness. The author of general, a theme taken up by his countrymen Jacques-
many novels, including The Wars (1977) and Famous Last Stephen Alexis (Compère Général Soleil, 1955), who was
Words (1981), Findley is widely considered one of Canada’s assassinated by the Haitian regime, and René Depestre
finest writers. (Etincelles, 1945; Bonjour et adieu à la négritude, 1980). In
The lyrical poetry of Fernand Ouellette has been highly broken language, mingling dreams and fact, another poet of
praised in Canada and Europe alike (Tu regardais intensément Martinique, Edouard Glissant (La Lézarde, 1958; Malemort,
Geneviève, 1978). To this day, francophone Québécois 1975), told of slavery and aborted revolts. In the neighbouring
authors continue to feel kinship with three cultures – English-speaking Caribbean islands, Derek Walcott
French, Canadian, and North American, but with a sense (1992*), born in Saint Lucia, founded a theatre in Trinidad
of alienation from all three. Rina Lasnier’s poetry expressed which, until 1988, staged his plays, which were praised as
the stifling solitude she felt as an artistically gifted child brilliant reflections of the Caribbean’s cultural diversity
(Madonnes canadiennes, 1944; Les Gisants, 1963). The (Dream on Monkey Mountain, 1970; The Odyssey, 1992)
cultural revolution that swept Québec in the 1960s produced (Plate 140). Walcott’s widely known verse (In a Green
a great crop of writers, including many women who Night, 1962; The Arkansas Testament, 1987; Omeros, 1990)
denounced all forms of alienation, including those imposed skilfully blends English with Creole.
by a male-oriented language. Québécois authors claimed
full liberation of the body, perceived as the site of a daily
experience of the senses but one that could yield keys to Spanish-language literature in Latin America
metaphysical dimensions. Rejection of political and social
structures and confines found expression through a wide Nicaraguan poet Ruben Darío, the very soul of the Iberian
spectrum of literary activity in the crafting of novels-within- world’s modernist movement, renovated the expressive
the-novel, exploration of form, marginal writings, and sheer powers of the Spanish language and enhanced Latin
manipulations of language with spurts of parody and America’s contribution to world literature. After the
punning as with Jean Daunais’s Les Douze coups de mes nuits publication of Darío’s last work, Canto a la Argentina y otros
(1979) and especially works by Réjean Ducharme, who poemas (1914), Spanish-language literature addressed a
explodes language in his novels (Le Nez qui Voque, 1967; larger audience and dealt with social problems. With writers
Les Enfantômes, 1976). Ducharme’s last works (Dévadé, of the stature of Argentina’s Jorge Luis Borges, the
1990; Va savoir, 1994) confirmed him as one of Quebec’s reputation of Latin American letters became truly
finest novelists. A recurrent theme in all of his works is a international (Plate 141).
rejection of all constraints. A similar vein can be found in Still, as his lyrics on Buenos Aires and Argentina in
the work of many poets. Like their European counterparts, Cuadernos de San Martin (1929) showed, Borges’s work
Québécois authors in the 1980s paid closer attention to remained deeply rooted in its own paradoxically complex
problems of identity. The protagonist in Volkswagen Blues Latin American reality and culture. At the same time, the
(1989) by Jacques Poulin, for example, searches the length increasingly cosmopolitan and universal-minded Borges
and breadth of the United States for his roots. Revolt, relied on numerous foreign influences (Discussión, 1932),
violence and death are never far away in Anne Hébert’s notably Germanic mythology and literature. The lonely,
novels; and incest, symbolizing an oppressive Church and blind Argentine author who was incessantly solicited to give
an unacceptable colonization, is a major theme in her work lectures around the world after the Second World War,
as late as 1975. In Les Enfants du sabbat, a nun becomes the rejected all labels and religions, except that of literature. He
very incarnation of ecclesiastical witchcraft. Marie-Claire explored all literary genres and readily blended them.
Blais described the material poverty and spiritual emptiness Through his self-defined ‘polyphonic’ fiction, Borges set out
of human beings, the theme of love and impossible ‘to change the faculty of imagination.’ El Aleph (1949)

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earned him the reputation of a metaphysician. His freedom are the subjects of his Piedra de sol (1957) and
disquieting stories, laced with elements of the fantastic, Ladera Este (1962–68). The force of poetic imagery,
have never left readers indifferent (Ficciones, 1941–44; El according to Paz, should be able to leave its unsettling
libro de arena, 1975). His ironic distance and scepticism imprint in many contexts, even on social revolution: a point
regarding all systems have earned him the disapproval of stressed both in his poems (Libertad bajo palabra, 1949) and
some critics, but most recognized Borges as a committed in his essays (El arco y la lira, 1956; Las peras del olmo, 1965;
and authentic humanist. Conjunciónes y disyunciónes, 1969). Laberinto de Soledad
In neighbouring Chile, Gabriela Mistral (1945*) wrote (1950), with its meditations on the human condition and
compassionate verses on the condition of children in the world, established Paz’s international reputation. His
distress, while her countryman, Pablo Neruda (1975*), last collections of verse, such as Corriente alterna (1967) and
attained worldwide fame. In intimate texts inspired by El fuego de cada día, continued to reflect Paz’s concerns with
surrealism, Neruda expressed anguish and solitude (Veinte Mexican identity.
poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, 1924), probed While the Dominican priest Pedro Henríquez Ureña
the meaning of life (Residencia en la tierra, 1933–37) and helped capture one definition of Latin American identity
became involved in the struggle against Franco and (Ensayos en busca de nuestra expresión, 1928–52), Mexico
dictatorship in all its manifestations (España en el corazón, again, its spirit and people in the throes of poverty and
1938). His Canto general powerfully evoked the soil, its revolution, provided the main themes for the fiction of
human inhabitants and native animals, the very life of the Mariano Azuela (Los de abajo, 1916; Los caciques; Pedro
new continent, while denouncing the oppression and Moreno; El insurgente), the author, philosopher and
exploitation of its peoples by the conquerors. Cuba’s statesman José Vasconcelos (La raza cósmica, 1925), and
Nicolás Guillén also protested against the Franco regime, Juan Rulfo (El llano en llamas, 1953; Pedro Páramo, 1955).
returning to live in his homeland after the Castro revolution. Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes stripped off society’s hypocritical
Peruvian poet César Vallejo, in his Heraldos Negros (1918), mask (Los días enmascarados, 1954), trounced self-serving
dwelt on the confusion of blacks faced with a hostile world, revolutionaries who betrayed their cause (La muerte de
which both eluded and excluded them; in his Nada, a Artemio Cruz, 1962), and pondered the issue of identity in
disillusioned individual apprehends pantheism through yet another major novel, Terra nostra (1975). Attempting to
transcended pain. Vallejo’s Marxist- and surrealist-inspired uncover what history most often cloaks, Fuentes
Poemas humanos (1939) expressed his love for the animate experimented with language and the techniques of fiction,
and inanimate. Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro turned including the nouveau roman, often resorting to interior
away from imitations of nature to ‘create’ instead monologue. His essay ‘La nueva novela hispano-americana’
(Creacionismo). He also drew on European avant-garde explains his distinctive approach to literature
influences to blend with Latin American narrative material Peruvian national identity was examined by José Carlos
in his novel, Mio Cid Campeador (1929). In 1931, Huidobro Mariátegui in many works such as those collected in his
published his greatest poem, Altazor o el viaje en paracaidos. influential Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad
Mexico’s José Gorostiza pondered existential problems and peruana, first published in 1928 and still popular today. José
life and death in Muerte sin fin (1939), dislocating language María Arguedas described the gap between rich white
to the point of destruction. landowners and the Indians whose culture he lovingly
Latin American novelists turned their attention to the described (Yawar fiesta, 1941). Los ríos profundos (1958)
great indigenous myths and to pressing social issues. In La told of the Indian revolt and the ensuing white repression,
Vorágine (1924), Colombia’s José Eustacio Rivera described while modern Peru appeared overwhelmed by its problems
his homeland’s mighty, violent forests, with which human in Todos los sangres (1964): indeed, in despair over the
beings had constantly to contend. This work in turn inspired endless struggle between dominant whites and oppressed
the highly successful novel Doña Barbara (1929), by Rómulo Indians, Arguedas committed suicide in 1969. Mario Vargas
Gallegos, Venezuela’s president in 1948. Rich in local Llosa unveiled the secrets of smug Lima society under the
colour, Doña Barbara, set in the Venezuelan pampa, features Odria dictatorship in Conversación en la catedral (1970).
a ferocious individual who devours every corrupt After writing La Guerra del fin del mundo (1983), he turned
surrounding creature, a symbol of avenging justice over to Latin America’s most pressing issues as summarized in
barbarism. Guatemala’s Miguel Angel Asturias (1967*) his collection of essays, Contra viento y marea III (1990).
dealt with Mayan mythology or with individuals in search In Argentina, Julio Cortázar employed ‘magic realism’
of their identity, while satirically castigating dictators and with cosmopolitan adventures and daily happenings at once
denouncing exploitation by foreign firms (El señor presidente, disquieting, baffling, and fantastic, thus exploring the
1946; Hombres de maíz, 1949; El papa verde, 1954). Asturias’s mystery of human nature (Libro de Manuel, 1973).
Maladrón (1969) related in a style known as ‘magic writing’ Cortázar’s Rayuela (1963), a half-serious fictional labyrinth,
the ancient quest for an ocean passage between the Atlantic left the succession of chapters to the reader’s discretion,
and the Pacific: an exuberant pretext for religious or along with a medley of essays, poems, and short stories.
humanistic discourse, packed with passages of sheer Manuel Puig explored the yearnings and sensitivity of two
delirium. Cuba’s Alejo Carpentier, much like Asturias, homosexual prison inmates in El beso de la mujer arana
approached whatever ‘reality’ he described from multiple (1979).
perspectives and with many magical digressions – Colombia’s Gabriel García Márquez (1982*), in his
landscapes, characters, etc. – as in his masterpiece, El siglo extraordinary epic novel Cien anos de soledad (1967),
de las luces (1962). Carpentier also penned the mordant harnessed every trend in Latin American literature, coupling
character sketch of a dictator in El recurso del método (1974). ancestral myth with brutal present-day social reality:
Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1990*) first drew his inspiration through an individual’s solitary and magical quest for a lost
from the surrealists, then turned to the Far East. Love and paradise (Plate 142).

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Brazilian literature exile within our own souls’ (L’Exil et le désarroi, 1976) and
Rachid Mimouni condemned a ruling and corrupt
In Brazil, São Paulo’s Modern Art Week sparks off bourgeoisie and bureaucracy (Le Fleuve détourné, 1982).
effervescent literary activity. With a variety of formal Nouredine Aba’s plays staged a drama of protest, and Aïssa
innovations of European inspiration, poets and novelists Khelladi described an atmosphere of terror, suspicion, and
gradually developed a specifically Brazilian brand of secret informers in contemporary Algeria (Peur et mensonge,
literature. Leading writer Oswald de Andrade drew on the 1996). Dib’s latest work similarly depicted a country village
prose of the early Portuguese chroniclers for the subject with its groves, hills, memories, aspirations, and present
matter of his collection of poems Pau Brasil (1925). Another distress under siege by bloodthirsty, cut-throat ‘mad dogs’
modern poet, Mário de Andrade, depicted a multiracial (Si Diable veut, 1998). In addition, more than 34 Algerian
Brazil where Indian and African mythology mingled women writers have examined the question of women in
through the ages in a language as composite as the multi- their society since 1947. Like so many other literate North
cultural country itself (Macunaíma, 1928). This poem in African women, Assia Djebar regarded the French language
turn greatly influenced João Guimarães Rosa, whose as an instrument for liberation (Les Alouettes naïves, 1967;
regionalist evocations of the sertão or ‘interior’, the country’s Ombre sultane, 1985).
desiccated north-east region, through the poetic language of French-language Moroccan authors also addressed the
his Grande sertão: Veredas (1956), continued to stress a contrast between tradition and modernism, with various
major theme of Brazilian literature. In works by Guimarães claims, protests, and quests for identity. By 1954, Driss
Rosa, dwellers of the sertão – children, peasants, old blind Chraïbi was attacking paternal authority and an ossified
men – tell their life-stories to an invisible narrator. The Islamic tradition (Le Passé simple), but he also denounced
sertão was already the main feature of Garciliano Ramos’s the condition of migrant Moroccan workers in France (Les
Vidas secas (1938), where poverty-stricken families flee the Boucs, 1955) and further probed East/West or traditional/
arid interior for the beckoning mirage of the seemingly modern contrasts in his quest for absolute values (Naissance
opulent coast. Raul Bopp’s Cobra Norato (1928–31), a fable à l’aube, 1986). Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine’s novels are a
in free verse incorporating myth, further defined the fantastic medley of prose, verse, and theatre (Le Déterreur,
emerging Brazilian reality. Satire found its finest expression 1973), while Abdellatif Laâbi considered the past dead and
in the works of Alcântara Machado (Brás Bexiga e sought fresh identity and purpose (L’Oeil et la Nuit, 1969;
Barrafunda, 1927), and again with Ramos who condemned Le Chemin des Ordalies, 1975). Driss Chraïbi took up similar
the ‘cannibals’ of the new bourgeois class (Caetés, 1933). themes (Mort au Canada, 1975). Tahar Ben Jelloun’s very
After 1930, both fable and satire combined in Jorge Amado, poetic novels brought to light the ambiguous sexuality of
a poet deeply rooted in the past of his native north-east lost souls (La Nuit sacrée, 1987) and expressed the most
region, with its suffering mulatto population (Cacau, 1933; intimate thoughts of an old man abandoned by all (Jour de
Mar morto, 1936). Amado described his country with silence à Tanger, 1990).
humour but with great tenderness as well (Teresa Batista After 1950, Tunisia’s significant writing in French was
cansada de guerra, 1975; A America descoberta pelos Turcos, principally represented by the autobiographic works of
1992), while contemplating the future with optimism Jewish writer Albert Memmi. In Statue de sel (1953) and Le
(Camisola de dormir, 1980). Rapid urbanization has caused Scorpion (1969), Memmi pitted the colonized subject against
writers of fiction such as Rubem Fonseca (Zona sul; Feliz the colonizer, but also stressed the need for the colonized
Ano Novo, 1975) and Marcelo Rubens Paiva (Agosto, 1990; subject to undergo searching self-criticism as well: self-
O selvagem da Opera, 1994), to cast a rather baleful eye on satisfaction would never do because ‘rejection of self’ was
the possibilities of picaresque adventure in Rio de Janeiro’s also a requirement for liberation. In fact, many North
urban jungles. African authors, in a state of ‘abiding frustration’, concluded
that their enemy was not only the colonial ruler, but
themselves as well. This realization gave rise to the fresh
AFRICA AND THE NEAR EAST perspective of the new novelists, short-story writers and
poets of the 1980s on social upheavals, on themselves, and
North Africa on the Other, while searching farther a field to raise issues
of universal significance. The young Tunisian writer Emna
Many Algerian authors, such as Jean Amrouche and Kateb Bel Haj Yahia recounted the efforts of two women to find
Yacine (Nedjma, 1956), have written in French even though their place in a would-be modern society still ruled by the
the protagonist in Yacine’s novel symbolically rejects his laws of the Koran (Chronique frontalière, 1991). Like the
foreign spouse to search for an ancestral and virginal Algeria. literary output in French, the number of new novels in
Mohammed Dib’s distinguished work extends over half a Arabic in independent North Africa began to rise steadily,
century. Like the writing of Amrouche and Yacine, Dib’s despite what some perceived as a religious taboo on using
trilogy, Algérie (La Grande Maison, 1952; L’Incendie, 1954; the form ‘I’ in writing: hence the theoretical impossibility of
Le Métier à tisser, 1957), claimed the right to a ‘new soul’ on writing an autobiography in Arabic.
behalf of the many social classes making up Algeria’s In neighbouring Egypt, Arabic was certainly being used
colonized population. In 1962, Dib shifted his approach to for realistic fiction in the wake of Muhammad Husayn
fiction and wrote in poetic terms of the sea as a symbol of Haykal’s Zaynab (1914). In 1930, Haykal published his
renewal and permanence. Independence brought other autobiography, Al-Ayyâm (Days), in classical Arabic.
issues to the fore. By 1968, Dib was speaking out against Haykal is regarded as one of the greatest contemporary
official conformism and lies, while Rachid Boudjedra writers in the Arabic language. In his novel The Damned of
denounced the structure of the traditional North African the Earth (1949), he describes the plight of the unfortunate
family (La Répudiation, 1969). Nabile Farès deplored ‘the men who see the ‘tree of poverty’ grow in their fields. Tawfîq

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al-Hakîm wrote plays on themes inspired by ancient Greek themselves swept along by the leading international literary
mythology before turning to more modern themes without trends. David Grossman’s characters, maddened by sullied
eschewing dreams and the irrational; he became famous for and violence-ridden realities, escape into imaginary worlds
his novel Journals of a Rural Assistant District Commissioner, (The Smile of the Lamb, 1983). In Grossman’s See Under:
in 1937. By 1955, Haykal was championing women’s rights. Love, 1986, two survivors of the Nazi death camps refuse to
The novel as such, then emerging from under the shadow of discuss the matter while their son carries on an obsessive
European influences, took firm root in Egypt. Abdel investigation.
Rahman al-Sharqawi’s realistic tale The Earth (1954) In Turkey, after the liberation of the language by the
described the oppression and misery of Egypt’s children of poetry of Nazim Hikmet (who was in turn influenced by
the soil. Naguib Mahfouz (1988*) brought to life Egypt’s the works of Mayakovsky) from the 1950s onwards,
capital city in his Cairo trilogy (1956–67), which brought numerous writers of peasant origin related the evolution
him international fame and established the originality and and modernization of social structures in Anatolia. The
universal importance of contemporary Arabic literature. Lords of Akçasaz by Yasar Kemal is the best example. In
Mahfouz has written more than forty novels and short Kara Kitap (The Black Book, 1990), Orhan Pamuk used
stories. His most controversial novel, The Children of Joycean form to describe someone searching for his identity
Gebelawi (1959), stressed the link between the three great in Istanbul, a city of snow and slush, mysterious and laden
monotheistic faiths. Mahfouz explored fresh paths in with its past, and yet very close to Europe. In Iran, after
Miramar (1987). Young novelists who followed the literary Hejazi’s combative prose and novels of love and mores, and
trail blazed by Mahfouz, but with sensitivity for new forms the familiar stories of Jamalzade, the realist novellas of
all their own, included Edouard al-Kharrât, Sonallah Sadeq Hedayat describe the problems of Persia after 1941.
Ibrahim, and Nabeul Na’hum. Hedayat has strongly influenced all contemporary Persian
writers.

The Near East

Sub-Saharan Africa
In Lebanon, the poet Adonis (‘Ali Ahmad Sa’id) made a
clean break with the Near Eastern poetic tradition by As in the Maghreb, writers in sub-Saharan Africa have
composing verses in a surrealistic vein, drawing on a tradition focused on several themes: exorcizing the legacy of
partly inspired by Walt Whitman’s poetry. This highly colonialism and racialism, reasserting cultural identity
nostalgic poetry is known as poetry of exile (mahjar) as it is particularly in relation to the West, denouncing domestic
mainly written by Lebanese refugees in Egypt, like Mikha’il political or economic oppression, and seeking a new
Nu’aima and Gibran Kahlil. The renowned Iraqi poet language. All these elements might, quite simply, be taken
Nazik al-Mala’ika relies on classical Arabic metres for the to define Negritude, a blanket term covering the ethical and
rhythm and music of her verse, while addressing new cultural claims made by pioneer black francophone poets on
themes, such as her hopes for improving the condition of African soil, in the Caribbean and in the Indian Ocean
women. The Middle East conflict was central to the region. French Guyana’s Léon Damas published the first
politically engagé novel of the Palestinian writer Ghassan collection of verse of the Negritude movement, Pigments,
Kanafani (Men in the Sun, 1963), and The Secret Life of with a preface by Robert Desnos in 1937. Damas’s poetry
Saeed the Pessoptimist (1974) by Emile Habibi relates with celebrated black revolt against exploitation and humiliation,
bitter irony the life of an Arab living in Israel who finds with flashes of wit, profound tenderness and nostalgia for a
nobody to listen to him but beings from outer space. The mythical Africa. Madagascar’s Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in turn drew on oral sources to express his people’s anguish in
reflected present-day political concerns. In Why Have You modern terms (Traduit de la nuit, 1935), while his private
Left The Horse Alone? (1994), Darwish searches for a diary, Cahiers bleus, bore witness to Malagasy conditions on
national identity through writing. the eve of the Second World War.
In the region that would become the State of Israel, Senegal’s Léopold Sédar Senghor felt less bitterness
writers who published in Hebrew after the 1920s were for towards France than had Aimé Césaire and dwelt on
the most part immigrants. S. Y. Agnon (1966*) is considered childhood memories transfigured through a past of legends
the first great author of modern Israeli literature for his and magic (Chants d’ombre, 1945). Other Africans publishing
witty and bittersweet tales of Jerusalem, as well as for his in French included Birago Diop, who borrowed from the
evocation of the Holocaust. A new generation of authors traditional griots or storytellers to describe the realities and
rejuvenated writing styles to deal with the changes and values of village life in the West African Sudan (Les Contes
psychological, economic and political problems of Israeli d’Amadou Koumba, 1942); and Djibril Tamsir Niane, who
society. Avraham B. Yehoshua’s portrait of this society was did the same for the Mandingo people (Soundjata ou l’Epopée
both realistic and ironic in Molkho Five Seasons, 1989. In mandingue, 1960), while Amadou Hampaté Bâ safeguarded
Mr. Mani, 1990, Yehoshua invented a series of father-to- and transcribed the legacy of the Fulani or Peul people
son dialogues from 1880 to the present. Amos Oz showed (Amkoullel, l’enfant peul, 1991), and Sory Camara related
how proximity could engender conflict between neighbours, the tales of the Malinké griots (Gens de la parole, 1976).
but also created the needed links for peace (Voices of Israel, Nigeria’s John Pepper Clark proceeded along similar lines
1982). Oz’s Black Box (1987) explored the contrasting to render in English the mythic feats of the hero of the Ijo
feelings of love and hate between two human beings. The people, in The Ozidi Saga (1977).
country’s current crop of writers, sometimes called ‘the Senghor was succeeded by other poets of protest.
generation of normalization’, dwells on problems pertaining Senegal’s Sembene Ousmane described a strike against
to the issue of coexistence, while most Israeli authors find colonial racialism and administrative corruption (Les Bouts

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de bois de Dieu, 1960). Cameroon’s Ferdinand Oyono who denounced the shortcomings of their own new ruling
exploded the myth that a colonizing power felt any special social class, while failing to secure a large foreign readership.
gratitude towards colonized subjects (Le Vieux Nègre et la In Zimbabwe, Chenjerai Hove published Bones (1988) in
médaille, 1956). Also from Cameroon, Mongo Beti attacked English, but stressed ‘the power of the people’ in Masimba
the incurable gangrene of colonialism with corrosive wit, in Avanhu (1986), written in his own Shona tongue. David
Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (1956). He later went on to Yali-Manis presented texts (1977) in Xhosa, in order to
ridicule contemporary African power brokers (La Ruine transcribe the spontaneous oral poetry known as isibongo.
presque cocasse d’un polichinelle, 1979; Les Deux mères de Zulu poet B. W. Vilakazi mixed isibongo with Western-
Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama, 1983; La Revanche de inspired verse. After pioneering African novelist Thomas
Guillaume Ismaël, Dzewatama, 1984). Coming after Senghor Mofolo published Chaka in 1925, a work in the Suto
and Césaire, the brilliant Mauritian poet Edouard Maunick language, the conflict between the Zulu and the British was
panned ideas like gold dust through the sieve of the French again described in this same tongue by B. M. Khaketla.
Creole speech of his luxuriant island homeland (Paroles South Africa’s Nadine Gordimer (1991*) (Plate 136)
pour solder la mer, 1988; Anthologie personnelle, 1989). Very related the suffering of individuals caught up in the clashes
different verse was written by one of Africa’s leading poets, of apartheid. Gordimer chose to struggle against racialist
Congo-Brazzaville’s Tchicaya U’Tamsi (Mauvais sang, oppression and on behalf of reconciliation between her
1955; Le Ventre, 1978), in clashing syntax, with harsh music country’s ethnic groups (July’s People, 1981). Her novel
and violent imagery. L’Enfant noir (1953), by Guinea’s denounced the violence of a modern society where firearms
Camara Laye, a story of idealized childhood, might be might be procured at will. Deep-probing descriptions of
compared with Senghor’s Chants d’ombre. L’Aventure violence with J. M. Coetzee (2003*) became truly
ambiguë (1961), by Senegal’s Cheikh Hamidou Kane, is a nightmarish (Waiting for the Barbarians, 1980). D. M.
profound meditation on the successive phases of Zwelonke pondered the dichotomy between unavoidable
acculturation among his Diallobé people through the clash outside reality and the fiction intended to portray it. South
between two civilizations. On his return to his homeland, Africa’s favourite literary genre is the short story, and one of
Kane’s protagonist, torn between impossible choices, can its major proponents, Es’kia Mphalele, stressed that writing
no longer live. Kane further denounced the alienation of must create continuous music despite all external violence
contemporary human beings as a result of the consumer and chaos (The Unbroken Song, 1981).
society and prophesized the West’s self-destruction. In Soleil des indépendances (1968), Côte d’Ivoire’s
The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), by Nigeria’s Amos Ahmadou Kourouma pursued Achebe’s experimentations
Tutuola, played astonishingly with English. In the wake of in the French language, and shattered the illusions of those
Tutuola’s achievement, Chinua Achebe’s work skilfully who thought that independence would resolve all of the
showed how English might be fully put to African purposes country’s problems. Kourouma denounced the worship of
and thereafter enjoyed great influence. Achebe’s fiction French and introduced Malinké speech into his writings, in
(Things Fall Apart, 1958; No Longer at Ease, 1960; A Man of a tour de force of Africanization of vocabulary, which he
the People, 1966), and verse (Beware, Soul Brother, 1972) repeated in Monné, outrages et défis (1990). Congo-
described the destruction of village society by missionaries Brazzaville’s S. L. Tansi, however, captured the popular
and corrupt politicians. In Anthills of the Savannah (1987), French manner of speaking of the capital city Brazzaville
Achebe resumed his meditation of his country’s history by (Les Sept Solitudes de Lorsa Lopez, 1985).
setting the proverbs of the Igbo people against the slogans
of politicians. Wole Soyinka (1986*) (Plate 143) used
English in his verse, but in his drama mingled Yoruba with ASIA
the most polished English (Death and the King’s Horsemen,
1975). India
The novels by Kenya’s Ngugi wa Thiong’o (A Grain of
Wheat, 1967; Petals of Blood, 1977) attack corrupt Rabindranath Tagore (1913*), the Bengali-language
government officials and exploitative foreign investors in his novelist, playwright, poet, musician and painter, is one of
homeland. His works are written in English and interwoven the most revered and universally known figures of Indian
with chants in Gikuyu and Kiswahili. Ngugi’s spoken play literature. The verses of his Gītānjali (1912), translated into
in the Gikuyu language, Ngaahika Ndeenda (1982), was English and French, earned him the Nobel Prize. While his
banned by the authorities. In Somalia, when Nurudin immense body of work was created at the beginning of the
Farah’s novel in his mother tongue was banned, the author twentieth century, his humanism, optimism and message of
went into exile and began writing in English. Nigeria’s love have continued to exert an influence throughout the
leading human-rights activist Ken Saro-Wiva, who was century.
executed in 1995, resorted to a ‘rotten language’, mixing Sir Muhammad Iqbâl, heir to the two great writers in the
pidgin with English, the better to reflect the dislocated and Urdu language, A. K. Ghalib and A. H. Hali, and regarded
dissonant society of his protagonist (Sozaboy, 1987). The as the foremost poet of Muslim India, composed Urdu and
Kiswahili language completely replaced English in Shaaban Persian verse inspired by fervent Sufi mysticism. He believed
Robert’s Kusadikika (1951) and Insha ya Mashairi (1967). that, through writing, writers could achieve a personal
When Kiswahili became the official language of the United rebirth that they could then share with the rest of the
Republic of Tanzania, most writers, indeed, turned away community (Gabriel’s Wing). Iqbâl is also known for his
from English. Euphrase Kezilahabi deplored rural philosophical works and for conceiving of the idea that led
emigration, poverty and the problems of his country’s youth to the creation of Pakistan in 1947. M. K. Mahatma Gandhi,
(Dunya Uwanja wa Fujo, 1975). But such attempts to another emblematic figure, wrote numerous texts in his
recover their national language could turn against authors native Gujurati in addition to his memoirs and an

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autobiography translated into English (The Story of My After the romantic phase of the Chayavad school, Hindi
Experiments with Truth, 1929), which went largely unnoticed. literature turned to a more socialist and progressive vein,
His ideas later reached a wider readership thanks to Tamil influenced by Marx and Gandhi. Another, so-called
writer K. S. Venkataramani, in his novels (Murugan the experimental trend deals with individuals willing to evaluate
Tiller, 1927; Kandan, the Patriot, 1932) that examine the themselves critically to make existential commitments or to
traditions of Indian villages, initially published in English explore their ego in the light of psychoanalysis. As part of
and later translated into Tamil. Jawaharlal Nehru is best this trend, the novels of Jainendr Kumar, Tyag Patr, Sunita
known for his autobiography written in English while in and Parakh, are regarded as masterpieces.
prison and hailed as a masterpiece (An Autobiography, 1936). Most novels published after 1950 addressed the same
Dhan Gopal Mukerji, a friend of Nehru and a political subjects: social hardship, or the confrontation between
activist fighting for independence, also published an Western and Indian values. R. K. Narayan already enjoyed
autobiography (Caste and Outcast, 1923). Punjabi writer a considerable reputation as a writer with his portraits of
Mulk Raj Anand wrote a number of novels and Marxist- the middle classes in an imaginary South Indian town, when
inspired political works about the Punjab; his Untouchable he resumed these themes in Waiting for the Mahatma
(1935), relating a day in the life of a sweeper, was highly (1955). Other authors addressed the more sensitive subject
acclaimed. The novels of the left-wing writer Khwaja Ahmad of the partition of the Punjab. Attia Hosain told of her life
Abbas described a changing society and belong to the same as a Muslim in India during this period (Sunlight on a Broken
realist-progressive current. Like many others, Abbas Column, 1961). Nehru’s niece, Nayantara Saghal, also
recorded his personal perspective in an autobiography (I evoked the Punjab during partition in her autobiographical
Write as I Feel, 1948). The very popular novelist Krisan writings, as well as in Storm in Chandigarh (1969). The same
Candar also worked in the realist vein with a socialist flavour theme was pursued by Chaman Nahal with his story of the
and an occasional hint of poetic melancholy reminiscent of flight of a Hindu family (Azadi, 1975). Sikh writer
the work of Rajindar Singh Bedi, which captures Punjabi Khushwant Singh is famous for his tragic Train to Pakistan
village life. The Brahmin Raja Rao considered literature a (1956), as well as for many other works revealing his
‘religious act’ and painted a detailed portrait of an Indian irreverent, sardonic wit. Anita Desai enjoys an international
village as it metamorphosed thanks to the inspiration given reputation; her works mostly explore the solitude and
by Gandhi (Kanthapura, 1938); he often travelled abroad maladjustment of young women in conflict-ridden situations
and described the problems encountered in other countries (Bye-Bye Blackbird, 1968; Baumgartner’s Bombay, 1988).
by Indian intellectuals (The Chessmaster and His Moves, An ardent feminist, Mahadevi Varma is famous for her
1988). British author E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India role in transforming poetry but also for denouncing the
(1924) continued to be regarded as a classic even after injustices suffered by the dispossessed, children and women.
independence. Nirad C. Chaudhuri, born in 1897, in his In her memoirs (Sketches from My Past: Encounters with
Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951), recounted his India’s Oppressed, 1989), she drew portraits of the oppressed
daily experience of Bengal and retraced the history of India. whose sufferings she had witnessed first-hand. Lurking
In England from 1970 onwards, Chaudhuri harshly criticized beneath the surface, however, is a feeling of despair over the
both countries in the second part of his autobiography, Thy injustices she witnessed. Mahasveta Devi, one of the best-
Hand, Great Anarch (1990). known women novelists writing in Bengali and winner of the
In his eight-volume masterwork Mānasarovar (The Holy famous Sahitya Akademi prize in 1979 (Jhansir Rani, 1956;
Lake), Prem Chand (pseudonym of Dhanpat Rai Srivastava) The Son, 1986), described the plight of tribal communities.
wrote in a masterly styled Hindi influenced by the Farrakhan Hendy’s innovative post-modernism (Poona
nineteenth-century novel tradition. In his novels, especially Company, 1980; Bombay Duck, 1990) pursued the tradition
in The Gift of a Cow (1936) and in some three hundred of Anglo-Indian humour. Salman Rushdie (Plate 136), a
novellas, he focused on the common people rather than the Muslim settled in London, satirized Pakistan in Shame
elite. Although the Hindi poetic tradition is deeply rooted (1983), and attracted the wrath and death threats of Shi’ite
in literary and social revolt, it gave rise to a romantic and clerics and other Islamic fundamentalists, along with world
mystical school, known as Chayavad, characterized by free fame, on account of his novel The Satanic Verses (1989),
verse, musicality, and a more meaningful mode of expression. which mingled real and fantastic social and political elements
Of the four principal Chayavadi poets, Mahadevi Varma with ‘magic realism’. After Romesh Gunesekera recounted
stands out (Nihar, Rasmi and Dipsikha). A Time to Change recent Sri Lankan history in Reef (1994), he went into exile.
(1952) collects works by one of the finest English-language Shashi Thapoor confronted Hindus and Muslims in a
poets and playwrights in India, Nissim Ezekiel. humoristic post-modern parody of the Mahâbhârata (The
Writing in Urdu, Faïz Ahmed Faïz enriched his poetry Great Indian Novel, 1989). The novels of multilingual
with Western prosody, widening the register of traditional anthropologist Amitav Ghosh introduce the reader to a
images and techniques (Daste Saba, 1952). His poems have world filled with misshapen, grotesque creatures, where
been frequently reprinted and translated into several prosaic daily life mixes with magic, and the past with the
languages. One of the finest recent works in Tamil is future (The Shadow Lines, 1988; The Calcutta Chromosome,
U. V. Swaminatha Iyer’s autobiography (1950). Vati va cal 1996) (Plate 144).
by Cellapa explores new possibilities of writing while
depicting Tamil village life, whereas the short stories of
Jeyakantan described the dire poverty of huge cities. Among Indonesia
the poets writing in Malayalam, three authors stood out in
the years prior to 1970, considered the ‘golden age’ of The literary movement initiated in 1928 through the
Malayalam poetry: Vallathol Narayana Menon, Kumaran emergence of a common written language was suppressed
Asan and Ullor S. Parameshwar Iyer. by the Japanese invasion. Pramoedya Ananta Toer was the

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only significant author to emerge from what Indonesians of Shunkin) in 1929 and 1933, but had to wait until after the
refer to as the ‘Generation of ’45’. Toer fought on behalf of Second World War to see the ban lifted on the publication
independence and examined the themes of war and guerrilla of his apolitical masterpiece, Sasameyuki (The Makioka
activity (Partisan Family, 1950). One of his later works Sisters), in 1947–48. Tanizaki’s last novels, Kagi (The Key,
relates the moral lapse of a petty civil servant and his craving 1956), and Futen Rojin Nikki (Diary of a Mad Old Man,
for wealth and luxury (Korupsi, Corruption, 1961). Mingling 1961–62), analyzed in superb style the ambiguities and
reality and dreams, Putu Wijaya sketches the portrait of a manifestations of desire in odd situations. Another major
young Balinese who receives a telegram that completely novel to appear in 1948 was Yukiguni (Snow Country), in
disrupts his daily life (Telegram, 1973). which Yasunari Kawabata (Plate 145), in very pure and
poetic language, explored his characters’ feelings with
subtlety and depth. Evoking solitude and the cold of winter
Viet Nam at the onset of death, Kawabata describes a city-dweller’s
love for an imaginary woman in the Land of Snow, but the
Towards 1925, Hoang Ngoc Phach published the first spell dissolves at the end of the novel with a fire typifying
‘modern’ novel describing the attempts of an individual to despair. The aesthetics of this work, one of the pinnacles of
tear loose from traditional family bonds. By 1935, ideas of contemporary Japanese literature, stylizes realism and takes
independence and unity took root, allowing complete a story to the very limits of language’s expressive power,
artistic freedom to writers who generally drew their shedding masks to disclose the profoundest truths.
inspiration from the various currents in contemporary Kawabata’s Senbazuru (Thousand Cranes, 1949–51) is a
French literature. Individual liberation and a society in ‘miniature novel’ steeped in the atmosphere of the traditional
turmoil provided subjects for fiction by Hô Biêu Chánh (in tea ceremony, and written with intense psychological
the South) and Nhât Linh (in the North). Poetry, novels, realism. His Yama no Oto (The Sound of the Mountain,
and short stories have flourished over the last few years. In 1949–51) explores a dull everyday life and its gradual slide
Le Chagrin de la guerre (1992), Ninh Bao expressed the deep into catastrophe, while his strange Nemureru Bijo (The
pain of the protagonist returning from war. House of Sleeping Beauties, 1960–61) mirrors the feelings of
an old man gazing at the bodies of sleeping prostitutes.
Yoshiyuki Junnosuke’s Anshitsu (The Dark Room, 1969),
Japan follows a marginal character’s search for his own humanity
as he ponders homosexuality, life and death. Yukio Mishima
The Taisho era, which more or less coincided with the carefully explored various perversions, as in Kinkakuji (The
First World War, was marked by executions of ‘dangerous’ Temple of the Golden Pavilion, 1956), in which he describes
intellectuals. Writers like Ogai Mori abandoned naturalism, the descent into madness of a young monk who finally sets
went into retreat, and reflected on the values of their a famous temple on fire, or Utage no Ato (After the Banquet,
country’s lost traditions (Shibue Chusai, 1916). Soseki 1960), which relates the life and marital problems of a
Natsume’s autobiography (Michikusa, Grass on the Wayside, businesswoman. Kobo Abe revealed the identity problems
1915) dwelt on conflicts fed by passion and on the demands of his characters by putting them in unsettling situations; a
of traditional Japanese ethics. But wealthy young writers city-dweller falls into the hands of a savage tribe in Suna no
were open to European influences, such as Ibsen, or Onna (The Woman in the Dunes, 1962). Elsewhere, Kobo
Strindberg and various Russian novelists. Pessimism and resorted to science fiction, the adventure genre, or the
social concerns distinguished Takeo Arishima (Aru Onna, detective novel, to cast further psychological light.
A Certain Woman, 1919) from this group. With his Kenzaburo Oe (1994*) depicted in tones of grotesque
medieval tales, Ryunosuke Akutagawa seemed to be humour an anguished individual’s struggles against a hostile
standing on the sidelines, but his stories raised important environment (Manen Gannen no Futtoboru, The Silent Cry,
questions pertaining to the artist and, more generally, 1967). Jun Ishikawa established his reputation with short
human beings in the modern age (Rashomon, 1915; stories in the 1950s, but truly came into his own with a
Jigokuhen, The Hell Screen, 1918). Before committing suicide, post-modern novel of extraordinary fantasy, Kyofuki (Tales
he analyzed the madness threatening him, and his reasons of Crazy Winds, 1980), which blends slang with erudite
for putting an end to his life, in Haguruma (Gear Wheels, allusions and explores many facets of contemporary
1927). In the 1920s, young artists were tempted by the society.
various European political and literary ‘isms’: Among younger writers, Kenji Nakagami stands out for
internationalism, expressionism, dadaism, communism, the quality of his fiction with Sen-nen no Yuraku (A
surrealism, and so on. Proletariat-oriented works included Thousand Years of Pleasure, 1982), and Nichirin no Tsubasa
Kobayashi Takiji’s distinguished Kani Kosen (The Crab- (On the Wings of the Sun, 1984). Yuko Tsushima (Yoru no
Canning Boat, 1929), which denounced the wretched Hikari ni Owarete, Pursued by the Light of the Night, 1987)
conditions of fishermen. Subjected to torture by the and Eimi Yamada (Bedtime Eyes, 1985), are gaining a
authorities, the author died in 1933. Shimazaki Toson considerable reputation for their highly imaginative touch.
traced the effects of modern reforms on the provincial
gentry (Yoakemae, Before the Dawn, 1929–35). In 1937,
Naoya Shiga finished a long autobiographically inspired Korea
novel addressing the problems of a young artist coming to
grips with himself and his relationship to his family (An Ya After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, Yi Kwang-su
Koro, A Dark Night’s Passing). pursued his country’s new novel tradition with a didactic
Junichiro Tanizaki published his two great novels, Tade work on the theme of good vs. evil, Mujong (Heartlessness,
Kuu Mushi (Some Prefer Nettles), and Shunkinsho (A Portrait 1917). As the independence movement gained momentum,

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novels acquired a more naturalistic character. Yom Sang- described the plight of a student exiled in Japan and driven
sôp drew a sad and brutal picture of Korean society in to suicide through exclusion and despair (Sinking, 1921). Ye
P’yobonshilui ch’nonggaeguri (Green Frog in the Specimen Shengtao’s short novel Gemo (Barriers, 1922) tersely
Gallery, 1921). Throughout the 1920s, intellectuals took a narrated an ordinary young woman’s forced marriage, her
stand in favour of their country’s workers and peasants; in drudgery on a farm, her repudiation and subsequent
1930, Yi Ki-yong published a violent novel, Sô-hoa. More widowhood, and her being sold into bondage by her own
‘aesthetic’ authors turned their attention to nature again in in-laws. Another of Ye Shengtao’s novels, Ni Huanzhi
the 1930s, and, until 1945, harsh measures by Japanese (1928), traced a schoolteacher’s disillusionment with the
occupation forces effectively muzzled writers. In 1953, after behaviour of local notables and the violence of Nationalist
the Korean War, some denounced the country’s partition, repression in Shanghai. Mao Dun’s trilogy (1927–28) also
while others decried the northern expansionism. depicted disillusioned characters anxious for their future
Subsequently, writers tended to revolt against Syngman after the failure in Shanghai. Mao Dun’s Hong (Rainbow,
Rhee’s authoritarian regime. Poet Pak Tu-jin (Sa-wôl man- 1929), inspired by the intellectual vogue of Ibsen at the
bal, April Flowers, 1966) celebrated the renewal of a literature time, dwelt upon the difficult emancipation of a young
of revolt. As of 1980, younger writers in their short stories middle-class woman who finally joins a group of
described urban economic and social upheaval, jumbling Communists. His well-known novel Ziye (Midnight, 1933)
past traditions with modern conditions. In Mandala (1990), describes industrial blight, workers’ strikes, and social
Kim Sung-dong wittily recounts the adventures of two conditions in Shanghai during the crisis in 1930. But after
Buddhist monks in the modern world. Fushi (Putrefaction, 1941), the journal of a young woman
forced to spy for the Nationalists, Mao Dun disappeared
from the literary scene until the end of ‘deculturation’ in
China 1978. Ba Jin’s characters, faced with oppression and injustice,
either transcend their limitations through self-sacrifice for
Although political, social and economic upheavals of all their comrades, or struggle for freedom against their family
sorts overwhelmed twentieth-century China, considerable clans. In Anye (Frozen Night, 1947), a young woman flees in
literary production continued unabated. Hu Shi’s manifesto the midst of the Japanese invasion, leaving her husband
(1917) pleaded for honest expression of feeling in language behind to die slowly of tuberculosis.
closer to modern speech, while the literary world welcomed Lao She wrote satirical, humorous novels like Luotuo
foreign influences, especially Russian and French. Realism Xiangzi (Rickshaw Boy, 1936), then told the fable of a
and introspection dominated the novel and especially the peasant in Beijing thrice favoured by fortune and each time
short story, the most favoured genre. Poets and writers left poorer than before. Lao She’s Sishi Tong Tang (The
founded literary reviews, such as the celebrated magazine Yellow Storm, 1943) portrayed life in China’s capital under
Chuangzao (Creation) (1920s) whose two most famous Japanese occupation. In 1946, Lao She left China for the
contributors were poet Guo Moruo and playwright Tian United States but returned to her homeland in 1949.
Han. Guo Moruo dominated the literary field until his Another figure to leave for America was playwright Cao
death in 1978, publishing romantic and pantheistic poems Yu, well known for theatre ranging from his Leiyu (The
like The Goddesses, 1921, through which he expressed his Thunder Storm, 1933), reminiscent of Racine’s Phèdre, to
wish to see the world lit by a ‘new sun’, love poems (The his dramatization of humanity’s struggle against the forces
Vase, 1925), novels, short stories, and autobiographical of fate (Qiao, The Bridge, 1939). When Cao Yu returned to
fiction (Dead Leaves, 1936). Tian Han found it harder to China, he began an autobiography, but in 1966 was
attain widespread popularity with his European-inspired humiliated like so many other writers. Wu Zuguang’s
plays in the face of a vibrant traditional theatre. Nevertheless, refined and poetic language marked his plays as among the
Tian Han’s increasingly complex dramas, such as (Nangui, best in modern Chinese drama (Fengxue Yegui Ren, Return
Return to the South, 1929) made him a highly esteemed by Night in a Snowstorm 1942). Guo Moruo wrote various
playwright. historical tragedies (Hufu, The Tiger’s Seal, 1942; Kongque
Lu Xun is considered by many to be the father of modern Dan, Peacock’s Gall, 1942) and went on to produce popular
Chinese literature (Plate 146). His first major work, A drama in keeping with the dictates of the Maoist regime.
Madman’s Diary (Kuangren riji, 1918) – inspired by Gogol’s In 1961, Wu Han, a professor of history, wrote a play
tale – denounces a society trapped ‘in an iron cage’, doomed called Hai Rui Longuan (The Dismissal of Hai Rui),
to suffocation, where if there is a glimmer of hope it comes depicting a Mandarin concerned with justice and integrity;
from the tale’s children, who are not ‘cannibals’. His but because of its implications against the regime, the piece
undisputed masterpiece, the short story entitled ‘The True came under ferocious attack as a ‘poisonous weed’ by a
Story of Ah Q’ (‘Ah Q Zheng-Zhuan’), appears in his young Shanghai critic in 1965. Authors like Tian Han and
collection of novellas (Na-han, Call to Arms, 1923). A young Mao Dun were gradually permitted to write again, but
man rebelling against the customs of his village is tormented despite official pledges of liberalization, freedom of
by his fellow villagers and eventually cast out and executed. expression often remained curtailed, and the ‘Beijing
The village decides that their scapegoat must have been Spring’ of 1978–79 was short-lived. However, literary
guilty simply because he was punished. Lu Xun condemned criticism was somewhat open to foreign influences, and
the cowardice of both victims and executioners. He explored prose writers and poets continued to be heard. Zhang
the deeper recesses of his ego in prose poems with a Xinxin published an autobiography in 1981, and hundreds
Nietzschean ring (Ye Cao, Wild Grass, 1927), and both of interviews taped across the country were collected in his
criticized and deplored, in brief essays very much appreciated Beijingren (Sinanthropus, 1986). Novelist Wang Anyi was
at the time, the injustices of civil war and the turmoil of the applauded for her Huangshan Zhi Lian (Love on a Desert
intellectuals. Yu Dafu somewhat autobiographically Mountain, 1986), while Yu Hua showed how a sense of

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honour and dignity could help individuals to stubbornly New Zealand

survive poverty and the miseries inflicted by political
upheaval (Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji, Chronicle of a Blood Only in the mid-1930s did a truly New Zealander novel see
Merchant, 1996). the light of day with the publication of Alan Mulgan’s Spur
of the Morning (1934) and its ‘late colonial’ mentality. Only
five years later, however, his son John won distinction with
OCEANIA Man Alone, which marked the beginnings of a new so-
called ‘provincial’ sensitivity. Such a break found
Australia metaphorical expression in a theme taken up by a majority
of writers: an alienated child or adolescent pushed into
Ethel (Henry Handel) Richardson’s trilogy, a novel which violence, murder, or madness, under pressure from his or
relates the tribulations of a nineteenth-century immigrant her puritanical parents’ brutal or insidious family structure,
(The Fortunes of Richardson Mahony, 1930) is considered to as in Ian Cross’s novel The God Boy (1957). David
be the masterpiece of early twentieth-century Australian Ballantyne’s The Cunninghams (1947) portrayed a family in
literature. Judith Wright’s poetry, expressed in a modern the 1930s, secular but puritanical, hypocritical, uneducated,
voice using traditional forms, stressed her faith in life (The and devoid of any political awareness or future prospects.
Moving Image, 1946,) while A. D. Hope’s pessimistic verse Such confrontation reached its apex in Bill Pearson’s Coal
depicts listless individuals trapped in a meaningless world. Flat (1963). Playwright, poet and essayist Frank Sargeson
Preoccupation with the past and the countryside, along dealt with a similar subject in I Saw in My Dream (1949),
with metaphysical concerns, tended to overshadow urban but then moved on to other themes. While social problems
realism in such novels. Xavier Herbert opposed whites and remained very much the backdrop for all of Sargeson’s
aboriginals to evoke cosmic energies in Capricornia (1938). writing, the exploration of one’s inner life eventually took
Patrick White (1973*) retold the story of the explorer precedence, along with experimentations in form: his
Leichart, transforming him into an extraordinary character Memoirs of a Peon (1965) and Joy of the Worm (1969) broke
driven by a godlike urge to create and possess an entire up time and space by resorting to inner monologue, myths
continent (Voss, 1957). and symbols. Maurice Gee’s Plumb (1978) trilogy brought
After the Second World War, writers focused on social to life three narrators, each with a distinct perspective, as
problems: opposition between rich and poor, conflicts they progressed through an uncertain and absurd world.
between long-time settlers and recent immigrants, and the In recent decades, novels and verse by Maori writers have
gender gap. Peter Carey’s The Fat Man in History (1974) been published in increasing numbers. A number of fiction
mingled realism and fantasy, with some of the characters writers stressed their own identity aggressively, as in Robert
defeated and exploited by others. In Carey’s Bliss (1981), de Roo’s Through the Eye of the Thorn (1984) or Michael
H. Joy appears to ‘die’ of a heart attack, but returns from Henderson’s The Log of the Superfluous Son (1975). Keri
the beyond with his perceptions completely modified: he Hulme’s The Bone People (1983) was finally taken seriously,
eschews his former hypocritical way of life and takes to the after grudging acceptance in some quarters as a mere
jungle with a young woman in search of happiness. Gerard anthropological or sociological document. Unfortunately,
Lee’s True Love and How to Get It (1982) described this has been the fate of Maori poetry generally, despite its
Brisbane’s assorted communities of hippies, punks and great wealth.
lesbians, while Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip (1977)
depicted a bleak Melbourne suburb where drugs and * Indicates year in which a writer received the Nobel
poverty held sway. In The Children’s Bach (1984), Garner Prize for Literature.
took a look at the world of adolescents.
Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis retraced 150 years of
confrontation between his people and the whites in
Kullark (1972). This play included dance, music, BIBLIOGRAPHY
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while dwelling nostalgically on the past. Both Jeff Davis ALDRIDGE, A. O. 1986. The Re-emergence of World Literature: A Study
and the country’s most noteworthy aboriginal novelist, of Asia and the West. University of Delaware Press, Newark, DE;
Colin Johnson, criticized whites and aboriginal Associated University Press, London.
communities in equal measure. Johnson’s historical novel, ALGULIN, I. 1989. A History of Swedish Literature. Swedish Institute,
Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of Stockholm.
the World (1983), involves a Tasmanian aboriginal who, in ANDERSON IMBERT, E. 1974. Historia de la literatura hispano­
a trance, interprets the coming of the ghostly whites as a americana. Colección Brevarios del Fondo de Cultura
sign of the Apocalypse. With its protagonist who steals, Económica, México.
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Johnson’s Wild Cat Falling (1975), as it did indeed in the BIRKETT, J. and KEARNS, J. 1997. A Guide to French Literature: From
novels of many writers after him. Archie Weller’s partly Early Modern to Post-modern. Macmillan, London.
autobiographical The Day of the Dog (1981) described BISHOP, T. 1997. From the Left Bank: Reflections on the Modern
unemployment, apathy and despair among the police- French Theatre and the Novel. New York University Press, New
hounded aboriginals in Perth; the main character and his York.
companions eventually kill themselves to escape falling BLAGOI, D. D. 1967. Istorija russkoj sovietskoj literatury. (4 vols.).
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BONAMOUR, J. 1996. La Littérature russe. PUF, Paris. LEGOUIS, E. and CAZAMIAN, L. 1964. Histoire de la littérature anglaise.
BRADBURY, M. 1983. The Modern American Novel. Oxford University (Edition revue par R. Las Vergans). Hachette, Paris.
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BROWN, J. 1954. Panorama de la littérature contemporaine aux Etats- Brussels.
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CHANDLER, R. 1991. A New History of Spanish Literature. Louisiana Texas Press, Austin, TX.
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 26.2
Nationalism and Internationalism
in Modern Art

Caroline A. Jones and John Clark

N ations and O thers discourse of nationalism, yet modernism has also worked to
confound, displace, and destroy the common perception of
Some Demoiselles the concept of ‘nation’.
From the very beginning, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was
Sometime around 1907, the Spanish avant-garde artist perceived as a painting about the disruptions of modern
Pablo Ruiz Picasso fixed a canvas on a wooden stretcher times. The Spanish painter had transplanted himself in
and covered it with oil-based pigments in the traditional Paris, the cultural capital of the Western world. There he
manner of classic European paintings. But the particular produced images related to modernism’s recent European
arrangement of these pigments resembled nothing familiar, past as well as to the distant classical traditions from which
and many Europeans were shocked by the work. At first, it derived its legitimacy. Through Demoiselles, Picasso was
the title was little more than an informal phrase uttered also investigating the desires of modern European nations
among the artist’s friends and acquaintances. When Picasso to reach outside their own borders in order to become world
finally finished his large canvas, he merely propped it against powers by colonizing ‘others’. Fellow painters and critics
the wall of his Paris studio where it remained for decades considered this canvas a declaration of stylistic allegiances
virtually unexhibited. Yet no one who saw it could forget it. that were irrevocably split between the work of late-
Today, despite its somewhat secretive beginnings, the 2.5- nineteenth-century French painters such as Paul Cézanne,
metre-high painting hangs in New York’s Museum of on the one hand, and works of anonymous African sculptors,
Modern Art (MOMA), where millions of viewers can read on the other. At the time, African objects were gaining
the label identifying one of the most famous of all modern popularity among collectors in Paris. Cézanne’s canvases
paintings: ‘Pablo Picasso y Ruiz; (b. Malaga, 1881, d. Paris, had been newly canonized as masterpieces of French
1973): Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ (Plate 147). modern art. The ethnographic objects that found their echo
There is no better place to begin an investigation of the in Picasso’s painting were not considered art at all, but
tensions between nationalism and internationalism in rather representations of a ‘primitive,’ pre-modern past that
modern art than to imagine ourselves standing before this the Spanish painter had stumbled upon in the basement of
painting, by this particular artist, in this museum. New Le Trocadero (France’s colonial Musée d’Ethnographie du
York’s MOMA (founded in 1929) was one of the first Trocadéro, now known the Musée de l’Homme). Although
institutions to conceptualize and give concrete meaning to Picasso’s twin pole stars – Cézanne and Africa – occupied
‘modernism’ by collecting objects representing a wide range different conceptual universes, each would prove
of human activities in the twentieth century: not only indispensable for the course of modernism in the visual
painting and sculpture, prints and drawings, but also films, arts.
photographs, racing cars, chairs, propellers, and coffee mills. Taking Picasso’s Demoiselles as an acknowledged
In the implicit and explicit pedagogy of the museum’s monument of Western painting in the twentieth century,
collections, Picasso’s unprecedented Demoiselles marked a this chapter will first investigate the many claims for
defining moment in modernism – everything before modernism involving ideologies of ‘nation’ through
belonged to an earlier tradition, and everything after it had selected objects of visual art. We will examine modernism’s
to contend with a new universe of forms and meanings. This ambition to represent a neutral, value-free ideal of progress
painting also reveals the discourses of nationalism and (encompassing economic, scientific, technological and
internationalism of modernism – at least insofar as industrial development), while acknowledging that such
modernism has historically been defined by the nation- claims may be irretrievably Eurocentric. We will also,
making cultures of the European West. An analysis of however, critique simplistic views of modernism as the
Demoiselles will illustrate the theme of this chapter: namely, exclusive agent of a hegemonic Western capitalism,
that attempts to be ‘modern’ in the twentieth-century visual identifying alternative and hybrid forms of modernism
arts have been shaped and constrained by the pervasive found outside the Western or capitalist countries or

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within the very interstices of the Western art world. by ambition: Picasso’s principal competitor, the French
Specific art movements and works will be viewed as Fauve painter Henri Matisse, had also painted several
‘speaking of nation’, and others will be analysed in terms of versions of The Young Sailor just after returning from the
the ways they have worked to counteract nationalism French colonies in North Africa in the summer of 1906.
within the countries and cultures from which they On another level, the sailor stood for the transnational
emerged. Finally, we will address the late twentieth- status of Picasso himself. His studies for this figure show
century phenomenon of ‘post-modernism,’ and ask him rolling a cigarette (a quintessential New World vice)
whether the art forms produced under that label have and wearing the traditional sailor’s bib and a dark cap with
successfully escaped the nationalism vs. internationalism a white pom-pom. Beyond designating a lowly deckhand,
debate by striving to be ‘global’. the sailor’s costume cannot be easily identified as French or
From the outset, it must be acknowledged that the two Spanish (or English, Russian or American). Its very
terms in the chapter’s title – ‘nation’ and ‘modern’ – have undistinguishability and commonness cements the
been dissected by a variety of post-colonial thinkers. deckhand in a larger maritime system of power, to which he
Inherent in the concept ‘international’ is the assumption is subordinated, but which he also represents. Sailors are
that ‘nation’ is the unitary measure, the basic organizing mobile and serve as agents of their flags. They escape the
principle without which the people of the world cannot be centralized economy of the nation-state, but also play the
conceptualized or understood. Yet although these terms role of unofficial ambassadors. In addition, they embody
can be deconstructed to reveal the extent to which they are both the confrontation with native ‘others’ and the sexual
intertwined (both host to a cluster of socially determined, experience that can result from confrontation. The
culturally laden meanings), they remain indispensable. The iconography of the sailor is thus linked to the diffuse and
twin axes they present (embedded though they are in the expansive boundaries of the European nation, which was
very contexts we seek to understand) remained crucial involved at that very period in a global contest to control
nodes of discourse throughout the twentieth century, sub-Saharan Africa.
particularly in the visual arts. ‘Nation’ is merely the modern The sailor (for both Picasso and Matisse) is a transitional
term for centralized state power. Visual culture, at least figure. Buried in the Demoiselles, Picasso’s sailor represents
since ancient Egyptian times, has provided the most direct the international reach and ambition of the nation,
way of expressing that kind of power – the astonishingly incarnated in an erotically charged, restless, youthful male
changeless Egyptian canon powerfully demonstrated the form. The fact that this male was ultimately transformed
capacity of the Pharaoh to control the means of his own into a female in Picasso’s numerous preliminary studies
representation (and the constrained possibility of ‘the confirms the ambiguous status of the demoiselles. Crossing
people’ to have access to and negotiate with such gender borders, the figures eventually lost any clearly male
representations). In the modern period, of course, power attributes, and their potential maleness remained only in
can be distributed in less obvious ways, and artists have their confrontational stares and the painting’s implied male
been less and less dependent upon a centralized source for voyeurs. As we gaze at the women in this painting, we take
support and patronage. Yet perhaps because of this the place of those imaginary modern men.
independence (or abandonment, depending on one’s point Since the pictorial space of Western painting is generally
of view), which has produced the ‘alienated avant-garde read from left to right, there is an implied sequence in the
artist’ as a standard modernist conceit, the twentieth- five demoiselles and their surroundings (indeed, Picasso
century artwork illustrates all the more powerfully the painted and revised them in this left-to-right order). In this
ambivalent give and take between the concepts of nation, progression, the figure on the far left is depicted with an
subject, and modernity. expressionless, mask-like face similar to Oceanic-inspired
The five demoiselles of Picasso’s painting illustrate this works by the French painter Paul Gauguin, and her pose
ambivalent dynamic. These members of the world’s ‘oldest was described at the time as Egyptian. Like the two central
profession’ are anything but classically distant. They occupy figures, her face also evokes ancient Iberian sculpture (pre-
a ‘philosophical brothel’, as the painting was described, and Christian statuary from present-day Spain) similar to the
yet they confront us with their bodies rather than their two Picasso had recently purchased with the help of his
minds. The women’s hard-edged nudity and provocative dealer. The echo of Iberian sculpture is noteworthy, for this
poses surely contributed to the painting’s final title, which native Spanish style was merely a local variant of the classical
translates as ‘the young ladies of Avignon’ (a well-known sculptural traditions that characterized the prevailing
red-light district in Barcelona). Picasso sets this whorehouse ‘international’ mode. In the context of French painting,
in his native Spain, but paints it in Paris, where prostitution which was still dominated by academic Salons considered
proliferated. For Picasso, prostitution had personal as well the ‘true heirs’ of ancient Greece, such references to the
as intellectual significance. ‘primitive’ and the local (Oceania, Egypt, Iberia) were
Art historians have reconstructed in detail the genesis of intended, and indeed experienced, as a jolting shock. The
this work considered so important in Picasso’s career. ambitious young Picasso was eager to take his place in the
Picasso himself later described the canvas as an ‘exorcism’, Parisian art world, and what interests us here is that he did
and we know from sketches that he initially put himself in so by means of one of the oldest forms of Spanish and
the painting, either as a sailor entertained by the prostitutes classical Western art. The artist thus begins with an
or a medical student entering from the left (studies show acknowledgment of his own status in France as a ‘Spanish
that both sailor and medical student were veiled self- primitive’, but makes the simultaneous claim that ‘primitive’
portraits). The primary confrontation, then, was intended is a part of a tradition leading to a transnational modern
to be between sex and death, disease and knowledge, but world.
Picasso’s choice of a sailor to represent one aspect of his Picasso’s first Iberian demoiselle holds up a piece of dark
identity is significant. On one level, the choice was fuelled reddish-orange drapery, mirroring her counterpart on the

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right, who is enclosed by a pair of blue drapes. This interest odalisque does not coyly avert her head, as is the custom in
with cloth thus brackets the image, and extends throughout the genre. Instead, the painter violently rotates the head,
the whole painting (the entire painting being a kind of which is darker than her body (as with the Egyptian-Iberian
heraldic cloth). The room is claustrophobic and swathed in and other neo-African in the painting), until it meets our
fabric, atypical for France. It is somewhat overdone when gaze. In addition, the head is covered by a mask, which
compared with academic painters’ much-fantasized Moorish serves to intensify the confrontational stare.
harems and orientalizing baths. Each of the demoiselles It is hard to make the case that Picasso identified with
wraps herself in textiles of red, white, or blue. These very this scarified sibyl, whose face is as disconnected from her
colours are suggestive of a discourse on nations, and the body as a helmet-mask propped upon her strong, muscular
hues (patriotic within French, English, or American shoulders. The suggestive visual reference to helmet masks
contexts) are arranged in broad vertical bands, as in the recalls the female masks worn by the male members of the
French flag. Picasso’s painting, however, inverts the colours Gelede masked society of the Yoruba people in West Africa.
of the French tricolour. As if hung upside-down, or seen A typical example of one of the Gelede masks from the
from behind, the colours are reversed – leading to the Parisian museum that provided Picasso with the inspiration
speculation that, if he was conscious of this flag imagery at for his ‘exorcism’ painting shows the facial striations,
all, Picasso chose a bottoms-up, backside view against which forehead scarification, pinpoint-pupils in almond-shaped
to display his Spanish primitives. eyes, projecting ears, and thick neck ring that are also present
Concerning the two figures on the right, their faces are in the second of Picasso’s neo-African demoiselles. The
not based on Egyptian and Iberian models with their dark, head’s function as a mask invokes a complex system of criss-
jarring striations and aggressively twisted noses. As crossing associations (between wearer and depicted identity,
mentioned above, the compelling features of these or between painter and depicted mask) that reflects the
demoiselles derive from African sculpture (primarily masks transgender aspect of other demoiselles. The transgender
from the French Congo that Picasso’s friends owned or traditions of the particular masks Picasso appropriated
ones that he viewed in the Trocadero Museum). Sub- from the Trocadero Museum have gone largely unnoticed
Saharan Africa is thus the second theme on which Picasso by scholars who have studied primitivism in the work of
projected his vision of modernism – syncretically Picasso. Yet given the strong evidence in the Demoiselles’
amalgamated with European art. These are not depictions studies for Picasso’s own transgender investigations, such
of African masks or sculptures such as those that would traditions seem important for the painting’s modernism –
appear in contemporary works by other French painters reinforcing its purpose to shock, unsettle, and displace
such as Matisse or Derain. Nor are they the careful Western art by crossing boundaries of nation and sex.
representations of African art forms painted by members of Picasso was undoubtedly incapable of faithfully importing
the New Negro Movement in New York a few decades the social intentions of these masks (of which he and his
later (by African-American artist Lois Mailou Jones, among Parisian companions probably understood very little), but
others). Picasso’s masked demoiselles are neo-Africans, neither was he merely ‘copying’ exoticism within a Parisian
fused figures from Picasso’s imagination. Boldly thrusting milieu. Rather, the artist interjected admittedly foreign
through a slit in the blue section of the draperies, the forms to construct a hybrid identity, which he introduced
uppermost of these neo-Africans stares not at us, but at the in his painting by choice, and in a larger social context by
other women in the painting. Her frontal eye is black and accident, through his stigmatization as a foreigner among
blank (an unworn mask), and only the profile eye peers the French. Desire-through-identification is extremely
sideways at the others. Like the other demoiselles, who take complex, for it is the desire of the white male artist to
the places of Picasso’s vanished sailor and medical student, identify with a white female body, itself masked as a black
this angular creature also had a Picasso look-alike in her female African (via masks originally intended to be worn by
shadowy past, a male precursor with whom she is now African men). This complex relationship is expressed most
blended. In a sketchbook of preparatory studies for the powerfully in the last, most transgressive and modern
Demoiselles, Picasso drew this male figure over and over demoiselle, who is squatting at the lower right.
again, sometimes endowing it with his own features. Thus, The Demoiselles’ implications for the discourse of nation
like the Iberian-Egyptian figure, this mirroring African on are far-reaching. Picasso can place himself into a French
the right is a substitute for Picasso, both metaphorically and modernist tradition only by performing his Spanish
psychologically. If she stands as an African ‘other,’ she also stigmatization as Moorish and African, the hypothetical
functions as the projection of Picasso’s own desire, a magical subject of French colonial rule. His demoiselles perform
exorcist which will enable him to achieve his ambition to be their primitiveness on several levels: as Iberian, as Moorish
the great painter of the modern age. denizens of a contemporary harem, as naked sex workers in
The squatting demoiselle, by contrast, was always a the French national context (wrapped in that inverted flag).
female, although her ‘wrung’ neck appeared only in the last Picasso suggested this complex theme of oscillating national
violent stages of the painting’s execution. The body below and ethnic identities on a page of the sketchbook he used
her shockingly twisted head is reminiscent of the great during the completion of Demoiselles, on the verso of a study
tradition of odalisques, particularly the orientalizing harem for the final ‘neo-African’ figure. On this small sheet, Picasso
scenes painted by the great French neo-classicist Ingres has written in decorative script: ‘Barcelona... France...
(scholars have unearthed Picasso’s many studies of Ingres’ Malaga... Madrid... Ravignan’ and, below, the artist signed
odalisque paintings, which had been set in imaginary ‘Monsieur ARRRRRRR’ probably in homage to the French
settings appointed with Turkish or Moroccan furnishings). anarchist playwright Alfred Jarry.1 In this context, Spain
As in works by Ingres, the bodies of the odalisques in (Barcelona where he grew up, Malaga where he was born,
Picasso’s masterpiece are depicted with white skin. But in Madrid the home of the Prado Museum) becomes the
all other respects, Picasso mixes European tradition. His ‘other’ for France, where Picasso’s studio is located (on the

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Rue Ravignan). Spain here is nothing less than the Moorish goes to whoever is the first to stake a claim. Notwithstanding
portal to Africa, the dark gateway to the colonized, Picasso’s intense collaboration with French painter Georges
humiliated people of the sun. But in the eyes of imperial Braque, the Spaniard was notoriously leery of allowing too
power, the subjugated ‘other’ always threatens to become many clever aspiring artists to see what he was working on,
the future. Picasso’s Demoiselles claims that position. lest he jeopardize his leading position at the forefront of
The green and blue striations on the heads of these neo- modernism. Nonetheless, toward the end of 1913, Picasso
Africans demonstrated by their ‘coloured’ qualities that allowed the Lithuanian sculptor Jacques Lipchitz to bring
they were not, for Picasso, pictures of real African masks an unknown Russian, fresh out of art school, to Picasso’s
(coloured examples of which were not then available), but studio (relocated to the Boulevard Raspail). Recorded in
‘coloured’ peoples’ masks in general. Although they did not photographs taken at the time, the workspace was a
belong to any particular African culture (such as Kota, modernist ensemble – African masks jostled for space with
Baga, Fang, Bambara, Gelede, or Dahomean), the cubist canvases, paper collages and an entirely new genre of
demoiselles’ disjointed faces combined the styles of many cubist-constructed sculpture. Particularly striking were
different African cultures to attain a syncretic, pictorial (i.e. these paper, sheet metal, or wooden assembled sculptures in
Western) identity. But in doing so, Picasso’s great which representational three-dimensional models of objects
achievement was to critique Western figurative tradition were juxtaposed with radically abstracted three- and two-
from within, by having his figures burst like invaders from dimensional signs, all installed against the wall and hovering
behind the curtains, swivelling their heads to confront us dynamically between the formerly stable categories of ‘relief’
with a malefic and challenging stare. The Demoiselles and ‘picture.’ Guitar of 1912 (Plate 148) was perhaps the
d’Avignon exemplified a type of modernism designed to most important of such objects to emerge from Picasso’s
destabilize notions of national culture, while using the very studio (none of the other works has survived). Informed by
symbols (racial, ethnic, gender, political) of national identity the radical inversions typical of an African Grebo mask in
to fuel its critique. The fact that Picasso depicts his neo- which the sculptor transforms sunken eyes and mouths into
African as twisting and tearing the fabric of the tricolour geometric protuberances, Picasso constructed a
suggests that French culture must be conquered. African representation of a musical instrument, whose illusionism
culture, which represents the ‘other’ for Picasso in his own relies on the switching of a negative space (the guitar’s sound
country of origin, is presented here ostentatiously, as hole) into a positive geometric form (the projecting cylinder
violently different from France’s civilization – yet crucial to at the guitar’s centre). Cues from African art were crucial
it’s modern future. Picasso’s provocative mixing of nations for cubism’s genesis, and sculptures and paintings combined
and identities forces us to view the African contribution to these lessons with indigenous French traditions of caricature
modern art, not just formally (the much-praised sculptural and philosophies of experiential time (such as Henri
qualities of African forms were appropriated by cubism) Bergson’s notions of flux and simultaneity). In developing
but economically, politically, and erotically, as subjugated cubist painting and collage, Picasso and Braque had already
figures of desire. The Demoiselles breaks with the past, but mastered this hybrid approach to representation; in Guitar,
only to perpetuate the old subject of modernism and Picasso merely brought such discoveries into sculpture. The
nationhood: French tales of noble savages and revolutions, hermetic investigations of high analytic cubism, as this style
told as both national and available to universal man, would was called, achieved a crucial breakthrough in the formal
now become wilfully hybrid in the disconnected, syncretic language of modern art – a breakthrough dependent on a
crucible of this great ‘exorcism’ painting. rejection of mimetic ‘imitation’ (staple of the academic oil
painting tradition) in favour of ‘signification’ – a free
manipulation of the signs for the world’s objects and ideas.
The driving metaphor: avant-garde A mouth could be a cylinder, a slit, a line, a hole, or a word;
an object could reside in the same pictorial and conceptual
Developing within the context of French modernism and plane as a mathematical formula.
exemplified by paintings such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Overwhelmed by what he saw careening off the walls in
the cultural enhancement of the best modern art as avant- Picasso’s studio, Lipchitz’s young Russian friend begged
garde reached a peak in the first half of the twentieth century. Picasso to be hired as his assistant. When Picasso refused,
The military connotations of this French expression were the story goes, the would-be apprentice wandered outside,
appropriate, coming from a period marked by a succession ‘suddenly sat down on the pavement ... and mumbled,
of skirmishes and revolutions that culminated in the First “There’s something behind it ... I’ll break his neck.”’ thus
World War. Against the bulky reality of early twentieth- plotting the skirmish to foil his better-armed opponent. 2
century warfare – massed phalanxes of troops and machines Eventually abandoning dreams of violence after many more
moving in large formations – the avant-garde was visits, our avant-garde scout Vladimir Tatlin returned to
synonymous with those solitary scouts who moved ahead of his homeland, where he became the founder and most
the mass, scanning the horizon for danger and opportunities. important practitioner of his country’s national modern
But also suggested in the metaphor of the artist as ‘scout’ is style, Russian constructivism.
the certainty that the military avant-garde worked (like So begins the second emblematic moment of our
Picasso’s sailor) as the representative and agent of the king narrative of modernism, nationalism, and internationalism.
or state. Moving solitarily through the underbrush at the An Eastern European Jew takes a student of Russian icon
campaign’s ‘cutting edge,’ the scout’s advance knowledge was painting to meet a Spanish artist in his Paris studio, where
intended to facilitate victory – the triumph of the sponsoring forms from Iberian sculpture, African masks, French art
nation on the world’s political (and cultural) stage. and philosophy stimulated a new conception of space. If, as
Picasso was one of the first to understand the perils and we have argued, Picasso remained a conflicted player in the
pleasures of this vanguard structure – victory in modernism complex field of geo-political signs and symbols, Tatlin’s

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goals became clear after the Russian Revolution: ‘an labelled ‘futurist’, the Russians sought their own names for
opportunity emerges of uniting purely artistic forms with Tatlin’s work and for the new movement in Russia as a
utilitarian intentions ... which stimulate us to inventions in whole. Some fought for an etymologically Russian word,
our work of creating a new world’.3 Avant-garde proved the postroenie (built-up), rather than the foreign-based word
most powerful metaphor possible for the role Russian konstruktsiya (constructed). However, no name was adopted
artists sought. In Tatlin’s Promethean travels, the fire of universally until after the Revolution, when ‘constructivism’
modernism had been stolen, and it would be used to forge emerged as the Western label for the extraordinary
the new citizen-subject of the collective state. experiments in art and nation-building that were taking
Tatlin, of course, was not entirely unprepared for what place in the former Russian empire.
he encountered in Picasso’s studio – otherwise, why would The disasters and disruptions prompted by the First
he have attempted to go there? An unhappy and disrupted World War, which gave the metaphor of the avant-garde
childhood had led him to an early career as a sailor; his work its new international currency, also marked the destruction
as an icon painter and several aborted courses of formal art of the Russian empire along with many others. Replaced
study finally brought him to the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) initially by a democracy (the February Revolution),
Group, whose goal was to create ‘an art relevant to Russian leadership shifted violently once again with the October
reality [and] contemporary conditions’.4 The requisite Revolution and became reasonably stable only after the
restlessness and aspirations of modern artists to participate Bolshevik Party took power in November 1917. However,
in the production of a new national style were thus already civil war and counter-revolutionary insurgency was rife. In
in place when Tatlin was introduced to the ideas of cubism this unstable atmosphere, artists such as Tatlin were
by Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, then leaders burdened with heavy responsibilities: they were asked to
in Moscow’s contemporary art world. Cubist paintings use their art to build a new national and political
could be seen in the Shchukin Collection and in various consciousness, buttressed by new governmental culture
loan exhibitions that travelled to Russia before Tatlin left institutions such as the People’s Commissariat for
for Paris. Enlightenment (Narkompros). For a variety of reasons
Thus, before his revelation in the presence of Picasso’s (probably the most important being the enduring leftist
sculpture, Tatlin knew some of the experimental cubist leanings of most of the Russian artists who considered
techniques of collage and papier collé, in which disparate themselves part of the avant-garde), the young group of
materials (paper, cloth, wallpaper, tinfoil, rope) were fixed innovative artists (Larionov, Goncharova, Tatlin, and
to a flat support, with the resulting surface contradicting the others) seemed to have predicted the future, which they
imported semiotic bits. Tatlin’s self-portrait of 1911 – in were now invited to oversee. Avant-garde became more
which he depicts himself as a sailor – reveals none of these than a metaphor: the troops were looking directly for
techniques. It resembles more the graphic, curvilinear style leadership from those who seemed to have forged new
of Russian icons than it does of cubism’s innovations (Plate paths. Looking back at the developments leading up to that
149) and bears almost no relation to the radical constructions extraordinary moment, Kasimir Malevich could easily agree:
Tatlin would produce after his fateful visits to Picasso’s ‘cubism and futurism were revolutionary movements in art,
studio. Those later ‘corner reliefs’ and ‘counter-reliefs’ anticipating the revolution in the economic and political life
incorporated curved sheets of iron, wires, sections of glass, of 1917.’6 Some artists assumed the active role of leaders and
and planes of wood – all intersecting at angles, with the agitators (poet and dramatist Vladimir Mayakovsky
whole mounted to perch weightlessly in the corner of a declared, ‘The streets are our brushes, the squares our
room, like a flying machine in equilibrium. palettes’)7 while others sought the shelter of the new state
Just as Picasso had created a perceived heritage from bureaucracies to pursue a more classically modern art of
antiquity (Iberian sculpture) or primitive art (African easels and studios. The most ambitious young Moscow
masks) with the latest influences of ‘high’ culture (Cézanne, artists, the ones most fervently engaged in efforts to build a
French philosophy), so Tatlin and his proponents found new form of collectivist subjectivity, formed the journal
ways to connect these innovative modern constructions LEF (Left Front of the Arts). LEF’s programme called for a
with both the icon-painting of Tatlin’s past, and the focus on the nation, but others sought the dissolution of all
international future of Russian art. Describing the forms of petty nationalism through an international workers’
traditional icon – a devotional image of the Virgin Mary revolution. The following is an excerpt from LEF’s
painted on a wooden panel overlaid with precious metals, ‘Declaration: Comrades, Organizers of Life!’: ‘So-called
jewels, hinges and screws – a contemporary critic identified Artists! ... Exercise your artistic strength to engirdle cities
the links connecting such a sacred Russian object with the until you are able to take part in the whole of global
cubist art of collage: ‘The real world is introduced into [the construction! Give the world new colours and outlines! ...
icon’s] creation only through the assemblage and incrustation We summon the “leftists,” the revolutionary futurists, who
of real, tangible objects. And this seems to produce a combat have given the streets and squares their art; the productivists,
between two worlds, the inner ... and outer’.5 Nothing could who have relied on the inspiration of factory dynamos; the
be more urgent for young artists working in Russia than the constructivists, who have substituted the processing of
need to relate the traditional inner world of Russian material for the mysticism of creation ... Down with the
orthodox Christianity, the dominant source of a national boundaries of countries and of studios!’8
folk style, to an emerging outer world of modern urbanism But if LEF ’s poets, writers, dramaturges and visual artists
and political change, represented by French cubism. Tatlin were excited by the prospect of a transnational unity with
and his followers drew some of their ideas from (and other avant-gardists and ‘experimentalists’ in the arts (a
contributed others to) the Italian futurists, who were also dream that pervades modernism, with its roots in
struggling to modernize legacies of religious art by evoking Enlightenment notions of the ‘universal rights of man’),
technological innovation. Although occasionally also political leaders were more concerned with the pressing

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problems arising within the shaky boundaries of the new a biblical reference as well. In its slightly tilted, spiralling
union of republics. From the beginning, there was division form, there is a suggestion of earlier artists’ visions of the
along these lines: modernism, as a cluster of avant-garde tower of Babel, particularly the spiralling version painted by
styles, was associated with internationalism, and those who the sixteenth-century Netherlandish master Pieter Bruegel.
reached outside the Soviet Union’s borders; by contrast, The amalgamation between industrial forms and biblical
modernization could be accomplished with (indeed, seemed Babel is telling, for it summarizes European modernism’s
perhaps to necessitate) more traditional representational art aspirations for a global future and its inevitable ancient
that harkened back to the recognizable vocabulary of a pre- entanglement in multilingualism. In the biblical tale and in
revolutionary past, the vestiges of which might be useful for subsequent legends, Babel was the bustling home to a
forging a new national present. Whether modernism could, thousand incompatible tongues, an early metropolis whose
or should, be kept separate from modernization was at ambitious leaders aimed to rule through impressive
issue. But the avant-garde’s long-standing association with architecture – an act of hubris eventually punished by God.
bohemia, anarchism, socialism, and other avowedly ‘anti- Paris’s Eiffel Tower was regarded with a combination of
bourgeois’ beliefs and practices initially gave practicing envy and outrage by revolutionary Russians, who felt it
avant-garde artists an ideological edge when the tide turned demonstrated similar hubris. In a poem titled ‘Paris,’
against the czarist ancien régime. Mayakovsky urged the Eiffel Tower to relocate to the true
Thus, internationalists like Leon Trotsky (whom we home of revolution, for
might call ‘modernists’) looked to intellectuals and artists
for production of new art forms that might at first appear Here you are far much more needed.
shockingly new. At the same time, the reins of power were Steel-shining, Smoke piercing,
beginning to be placed in the hands of others (whom we can We would greet you.
call ‘modernizers’), such as Vladimir Lenin, who claimed
that that only a small number of Mayakovsky’s experimental Consequently, the appropriateness of Eiffel’s modern style
poems should be published ‘for libraries and eccentrics’. for the brand of international communism supported by
Already in LEF ’s call for the abolition of mysticism and the Tatlin was called into question. Both Babel and engineering
studio, demarcation lines were being drawn between the marvel, Tatlin’s tower teetered on the edge of a god-
respected but increasingly isolated (modernist) artist and provoking hubris (100 meters higher than Eiffel’s tower,
the new, collective, materialist, factory-oriented and more functional as well). Not surprisingly, Mayakovsky
(modernizing) artist of post-Revolutionary Russia. Avant- greeted Tatlin’s tower with exhilarated approval, as ‘the first
gardism was not enough (it was argued) as long as it monument without a beard’ and ‘the first object of
remained isolated in modernism’s traditional studio-based October’!9
l’art pour l’art programme. Artists such as Tatlin may have Tatlin’s aims for the tower shifted from a national to
been eager to lead, but not everyone was comfortable with international scope over time – from its beginnings as a
his studio-based visions of ‘creating a new world’. Tatlin planned monument to the Russian Revolution, it became a
himself was forced to present his experiments as ‘productive’ bold declaration of solidarity with the international goals of
and ‘material,’ not merely formal or aesthetic. Ironically, the the Communist party. Tatlin’s tower was commissioned as
most productive and material of his projects, his most part of Lenin’s 1918 Plan for Monumental Propaganda, in
famous and powerfully propagandistic work, was never which czarist monuments were to be destroyed and replaced
built. by revolutionary monuments. Hastily installed realistic
Tatlin’s famous project for the Monument to the Third monuments with plenty of beards were soon erected in
International (Plate 150) remains the artist’s most visionary squares throughout the union – but Tatlin, as head of the
articulation of modernism’s aspiration to create a new world Moscow division responsible for implementing Lenin’s
and its subjects (to ‘organize life,’ as LEF’s editors had put plan, submitted a very different proposal. Rather than abide
it). The models and sketches for this structure present all by the rules of the existing bureaucratic state jury system, he
the complex goals that characterize modernism and the advised adopting an ‘international review’ of outsiders to
split between its national and international goals. Designed choose among competitors to build ‘free monuments in a
to rise 400 metres above Moscow, Tatlin’s tower would socialist state’. He called for a buffer of foreigners to mediate
have been the tallest structure in Europe, serving as a highly between the ‘nation’ (or union of republics) and an
visible emblem of international communism and ‘international’ vanguard art community. According to
industrialization. It would have become a landmark and Tatlin’s vision, the resulting structures would not only
emblem of the young nation. Although it promised to be celebrate the Russian Revolution (as Lenin desired), but
the most significant monument of the ‘heroic’ period of would also serve as pioneering examples of a radically
Russian constructivism, the symbolic tensions in Tatlin’s international commission system. They would be
Tower, as it came to be known, could never be resolved, and ‘monuments to a relationship between the state and art that
it remains a ghost of modernism’s lost visionary past. has not existed until now’.10
The most obvious initial sources for Tatlin’s tower are This new relationship – which remained unrealized,
the period’s cutting-edge engineering technological advances, since neither tower nor international review panel
such as those employed by engineer Gustave Eiffel to materialized – would have reversed the customary power
commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution in relationship between patron (state) and commissioned
Paris some 20 years earlier. Indeed, when it was first artist (much as it reversed prevailing modernist idioms of a
displayed, Tatlin’s model bore a banner reading ‘Engineers, structure sheathed in a skin of glass). Loaded with broadcast
create new forms!’ But appropriately enough for a former technologies and outfitted with constantly rotating glass
icon-painter who would communicate to a nation formerly rooms for ‘agitation’ sessions and propaganda, Tatlin’s
unified (if only tenuously) by religion, Tatlin’s tower makes structure would indeed have opened a new path. Rather

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than a vehicle for the nation’s voice, the independent modern ambivalence in the USSR. This problem emerged
artist according to Tatlin’s vision spoke both to nation immediately after the Russian Revolution and was clearly
(through Russian-language propaganda) and to the world stated in nationalistic terms – how to modernize the Soviet
at large, through an international vocabulary of forms and Union without Americanizing it? The problem influenced
cutting-edge technologies. Choosing to emphasize the Tatlin’s choice of an engineering vocabulary. Particularly
future rather than to commemorate the past and to celebrate when tied to abstraction, issues of industrialization became
Russia’s significance for the world rather than its intrinsic divorced from the production lines and electrification
meaning, Tatlin reconceived his project sometime in 1920. programmes that Lenin endorsed (modernization) and
It would henceforth serve as a ‘Monument to the Third entered more symbolic realms (modernism). Thus one critic
Communist International,’ self-consciously rejecting Lenin’s derided Tatlin’s designs as ‘super-American urbanistic
plan for retrospective commemoration and proposing plans, in which all houses would give way to Tatlinian
instead a sign of the future, a dynamic transmitter of towers’.13 Mayakovsky struggled to save the symbols of
revolution whose form and programme would reach across modernization from such representations by ‘primitivizing’
the union’s borders to ignite the world. their perceived American sources (a classic modernist move,
Scaling his Babel to the universe, Tatlin designed the as we have seen). Just as Picasso incorporated ‘savagery’ and
tower’s separate levels to rotate at different cosmological and ‘exorcism’ from African art in order to minimize his aesthetic
historical speeds, with the top section, ‘which rotates at the and conceptual debt to their forms, so Mayakovsky mocked
speed of one revolution per day,’ reserved for projections onto American technological modernism in order to make it
clouds, the transmission of worldwide telegrams, possible for the more highly evolved communists to
radio broadcasts, and the production of ‘proclamations, appropriate it: ‘No, New York is not modern.... Mere
pamphlets and manifestos – in short, all the means for machinery, subways, skyscrapers and the like do not make a
informing the international proletariat’.11 It seemed obvious true industrial civilization … [New York] is a giant accident
to Tatlin and the other visionary members of those calling stumbled upon by children, not the full-grown, mature
themselves ‘avant-garde’ that the only truly international product of men who understand what they wanted and
formal language, the only sign system that could transcend planned it like artists. When our industrial age comes in
Babel’s curse of linguistic incommensurability, would be Russia it will be different – it will be planned – it will be
found not in oil paints and canvas, but in the impersonal hum conscious’.14
of a dynamo or an oil derrick tuned to a universal pitch. Perhaps the ‘mature’ use of industrial tools could be seen
The stamp of Euro-American sensibilities can be as scientific, progressive, and neutral, but clearly the use of
discerned in the tower’s struts and radio antennae, which symbolic industrial forms (even if ‘planned … like artists’)
undoubtedly echoed the particular ‘rotational hyperboloid’ still provoked some anxiety not only in Russia, but
ships’ masts that Tatlin would have seen when he served in throughout Europe. In France it was dubbed americanisme,
the merchant marine from 1902 to 1908 (these fashionable in Germany, Machinenkunst. Everywhere the appeal of this
American structures, with their twisting, conical openwork mechano-morphic vocabulary was tempered with a fear
for rigging and equipment, were incorporated with much that identities (national, cultural, ethnic, individual) might
fanfare onto two Russian dreadnoughts in 1911). At the simply disappear in the new technological blast furnace of
time, such engineering forms were thought to be free of (mostly American) engineering. Mayakovsky’s famous
‘national style’. Neutral, functional, and ‘scientific’, they had manifesto demanding that the Russian classics be ‘thrown
no apparent typologies of ornament that would have pinned overboard from the steamship of modernity’ echoed appeals
them to a provincial or national context. Yet lingering from other parts of the world where artists felt burdened by
anxiety about their ‘American’ origins would haunt artists European traditions. But each of these appeals
borrowing industrial forms. And even in the example of simultaneously revealed a growing nationalist anxiety.
Tatlin’s tower, it became clear that such forms were not Could metaphors of modernist steamships be dissociated
devoid of symbolism – national or otherwise. Their very from America’s growing dominance among the fleets of
‘stylelessness’ became symbolic. The techno-scientific ‘titanic’ luxury crafts? In throwing off the classics, would the
modernism inherent in engineering motifs, although not cultures in question simply be exchanging one local variety
sufficient to secure success for Tatlin’s vision of a ‘free art in for another (albeit a more technological one)? Italian
a socialist state’, was clear to Tatlin’s supporters, as suggested futurists, British vorticists, German Bauhaüsler, and
by Victor Shklovsky’s comment that Tatlin’s tower was international dadaists all looked to the machine to demolish
built of ‘iron, glass, and revolution’.12 a burdensome past and to jettison the worst of their national
When German avant-gardists celebrated Tatlin at the traditions. At the same time, those banned national
Berlin Dada Fair in 1920, they drew similar conclusions traditions often appeared as stowaways on ‘the steamship of
from the structure’s implications for art, holding up a poster modernity’ – vernaculars that seem to constitute the
that read: ‘Die Kunst is tot – Es lebe die neue Maschinenkunst discourse of nation underlying the Babel of modernism’s
TATLINS’ (‘Art is dead, Tatlin’s new machine art lives’). international speech.
But as dadaists themselves realized, this interpretation of
the revolutionary implications of the ‘art of the machine’
was a conscious attempt to impose the stamp of ‘revolution’ Techno-scientific modernism and the nation state
on forms that could also be perceived as the results of very
different types of economic governance (e.g. parliamentary As in the case of Tatlin’s Monument to the Third
democracy, or industrial capitalism). At the very least, International, the scores of movements that embraced
such industrial forms were already deeply associated different aspects of an industrial style in the 1910s and 1920s
with capitalism’s dynamic upstart, the United States and its sparked a great deal of anxiety over the appropriate role of
Taylorism and Fordism, which were viewed with this new style in the modernization of the nation state. Did

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the adoption of new technologies require a new type of from some rediscovered native German idiom. As the
subjectivity? Would a new form vocabulary and a new painter Emil Nolde speculated in 1912, ‘Absolute originality,
relationship to materials be needed to build a new the intense and often grotesque expression of power and life
industrialized society? Were the capitalist entrepreneurs of in very simple forms – that may be why we like these works
the United States, who expanded the technologies of of native art’.16 But maintaining their interest in African art
industrializing Europe, merely ignorant children (as forms (standard procedure for would-be-modernists in the
Mayakovsky had implied)? Or was there something early part of the twentieth century) would prove dangerous
dangerously sophisticated in their technological ‘play’, for modern artists in interwar Germany. The search for
something endemic and pernicious in the systematization, appropriate forms of cultural nationalism became politicized
routinization, and mechanization that Fordism and by the Nazis in the 1930s, and primitive modernism was
Taylorization required? excoriated and banned. In spite of his membership in the
Artists addressed these questions early on. Often living Nazi party, Nolde, like others in the German expressionist
quite literally in the social and geographical fringes of the movement, was among the artists whose works were
developing urban centres, the avant-garde cultivated a sort featured in the famous Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art)
of alienation resulting from a sensitivity to the boundaries exhibition of 1937. Although Nolde endured, others were
between nature and culture, city and country, human and forced to emigrate, perpetuating the nomadic character that
machine; such contrasts were particularly evident in the was seemingly endemic to modern art.
periphery of urban centres during and after the Industrial Those who took the route of a more technologically
Revolution. Clearly, not all artists welcomed the evident oriented modernism fared no better under the pervasive
inevitability of the Machine Age. Even those who sought to grip of German fascism. Artists of the progressive Bauhaus
participate in an international avant-garde did not agree on school for architecture and applied arts were also forced out
the ultimate benefits of modernity’s infatuation with by the Nazis. But the Bauhaüsler were condemned as
technology. ‘bolshevists’, whereas expressionists had been deemed
Artists outside France, in particular, developed avant- atavistic. Expressionists had been ridiculed, but the Bauhaus
garde movements that actively resisted technological artists were genuinely feared. The very internationalism of
modernism – but they nonetheless participated in the the Bauhaus drew the fascist leadership’s wrath and provided
radical formal experiments of their time. Non-objective a political entry point for the Nazis’ attacks. Modern
painting, for example, was developed by Tatlin’s engineering technology was not the problem; rather how to
contemporary, Russian-born Wassily Kandinsky, who apply it to nativist philosophy became the ideological
taught in Munich and developed a theory of ‘spiritual’ challenge.
resonance for certain forms and colours that were believed The Nazis’ use of machine imagery was complex. They
to take the soul to a higher plane of existence. Coming militarized bodies into machines, designing exercise
together under romantic titles such as Die Blaue Reiter (The regimens and marching formations that emphasized a
Blue Rider) and Die Brücke (The Bridge), other artists hardened and regulated masculine physique, arranged like
(known collectively as ‘German expressionists’) took the war material. Yet at the same time, the Nazi leadership
modern fascination with ‘primitive’ art to a new level, where derided Bauhaus artists’ stripped-down mechano-morphic
the art of children and Africans were both seen as signposts functionalism as ‘pan-Semitic’ and ‘non-Aryan’. Ultimately,
of a sought-after purity and antidotes to the technological a tenuous balance was achieved between the nationalist
city-system. ‘The African considers his idol the (racist) claim that Teutons were the first technicians, and
comprehensible form … of an abstract concept’ wrote the an aesthetic programme of old-fashioned representational
Munich painter August Macke, ‘Everywhere, forms speak art. Elsewhere in Europe, machine styles would be deployed
in a sublime language right in the face of European aesthetics. more consistently in navigating the national/international
...The joys, the sorrows of man, of nations, lie behind the currents of modernism, even if they often had to reckon
inscriptions, paintings, temples, cathedrals, and masks’.15 with the mass culture of the United States.
The ‘joys and sorrows … of nations’ were of great interest Machine-age New York fuelled many early twentieth-
to artists in Germany, a country whose status as a nation century machine styles, particularly as the dislocations of
was so recent, and apparently in desperate need of symbolic world war (and later fascism) made it a haven for foreign
reinforcement. Philosophical traditions of German idealism émigrés. Cuban-French painter Francis Picabia made the
permeated the German expressionist painters’ resistance to following statement on his first trip to New York (where he
techno-modernism and motivated their search for purity in ended up after defecting from the French Army): ‘Almost
nature and ‘the primitive’; such themes also resonated with immediately upon coming to America it hit me … The
the long drive towards cultural nationalism that had begun machine has become more than a mere adjunct of life. It is
in the eighteenth century in the writings of Johann Gottfried really a part of human life … perhaps the very soul … I have
von Herder. The intellectual dominance of France had for enlisted the machinery of the modern world, and introduced
centuries stimulated the various German-speaking nations’ it into my studio.’17
interest in Enlightenment rationalism. Intellectuals in the Together with French artist Marcel Duchamp (who had
young German nation correspondingly rejected the ‘top- given Picabia one of his own early machine-paintings: a
down’ rationality of technology and engineering (supposedly cubist-inspired work featuring mechanical and biomorphic
dominant in France), and artists celebrated the ‘bottom-up’ elements and dubbed Mariée [Bride]), Picabia defined a
primitivism of France’s colonial ‘others’ (Africans) and new and harsher modern sensibility via the machine.
Germany’s own ‘natives’ (das Volk). This of course created Initially, this new sensibility was perceived to be American,
considerable tension since the forms used by the German yet wittily erotic: one 1915 line drawing by Picabia depicts a
expressionists were occasionally borrowed from other sparkplug as a nude young American girl; Duchamp’s
peoples’ visual culture (particularly Africans’), rather than famous 1917 ‘statement’ was an up-ended piece of American

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plumbing, a urinal dubbed Fountain. Another object to already a tenuous Italian presence in the Anglo-Egyptian
emerge from the avant-garde was a collaboration between condominium over Sudan, through Roman Catholic priests
the expatriate Baroness Else von Freytag-Loringhoven and who had established missions in the southern region (where
an American painter named Morton Schamberg: a length tribal black Africans were the primary inhabitants, rather
of curving plumbing placed in a mitre box, titled God. In than the more urban Arab Muslims in the northern Sudan).
phase with anarchist artist groups in Zurich and Berlin, the These church missions maintained the few schools and
Manhattan clique were later celebrated as ‘New York dada,’ organizations that linked the south with Europe (otherwise
while European dada explored the ‘anti-art’ implications of closed by Britain from trade and communication), and it is
Machinenkunst. But as scholars have noted, most native- likely that Marinetti’s childhood nurse came to Italy thanks
born Americans eschewed these metaphoric manipulations to these missions. In his exhilarated narrative of ‘baptism’
of their machines, depicting industrial objects in a way that after his car crash, Marinetti smashes together mothers,
claimed the crisp lines and exaggerations of scale found in machines, and borders, combining the person of a ‘blessed’
commercial advertisements – but with less of the Europeans’ but colonized ‘other’ with the dark flux of Italy’s lurching
irony, gender play, or subversive intent. Inevitably, the modernization (waste in a factory ditch). Unlike the critical,
foreigners at the heart of ‘New York dada,’ and affiliated anti-state anarchism of the (northern) European dadaists,
dadaists elsewhere, would each present variations on the Marinetti and his futurist followers crusaded on behalf of
mechano-morphic theme that counteracted or echoed their Italy’s expansionist policies. Initially anarchists, they
national affiliations and anti-nationalist commitments. eventually became fascists. Yet even in that first epiphanic
Most pursued an ambivalent love affair with things (and anarchist) moment, national aspirations are mixed
mechano-morphic and American, but as in the subsequent with concerns about border dwellers (Italian or Sudanese)
surrealism movement, their works seemed largely to and dreams of transcendence (technological). As we have
neutralize any claims of ‘nation’ through an unremitting argued, modernism embraces varying impulses toward and
eroticism or direct and furious anarchist critique. Some away from national cohesiveness. Italian futurism brought
dada artists fused the primitivism of an earlier modernism these issues sharply into focus.
with more up-to-date technology. Note, for example, the The visual forms spurred by Marinetti’s futurism deeply
collages of Berlin dadaist Hannah Höch, who combined influenced Russian constructivism and even helped to
ethnographic photographs of African masks and corporate spread cubism. Marinetti wrote: ‘we will sing of the
logos in her montages. Rather than replace the government multicoloured, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern
or form its new citizens, the anarchist modernists who came capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervour of arsenals
together through dadasim sought to revolutionize the and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons … and
individual human imagination and to render it less the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the
vulnerable to the claims of the bureaucratic nation state. wind’.19 The works of futurist artists, such as Carlo Carrà
A less critical re-use of machine forms and of nation and Umberto Boccioni, illustrated Marinetti’s spirited
emerged from the Italian futurists, who adopted mechano- appeal by depicting urban scenes and objects with broken
morphic images and nationalist rhetoric with a vengeance. forms and surfaces that appeared whipped by wind or
Former symbolist poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti pierced by analytic rays. Often composed with predominantly
inaugurated the movement in his extraordinary Manifesto of curving, diagonal ‘force-lines,’ futurist paintings drew upon
Futurism, published in the Paris newspaper Le Figaro in the decorative arts’ preoccupation with streamlining and
1909. Fusing a celebration of the machine with a repudiation abstract repetitive forms. Dynamic forces and events were
of the classical legacy, Marinetti wrote: ‘We affirm that the expressed with brushstrokes divided into scintillating flecks
world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the of colour, and different moments of daily life were depicted
beauty of speed.… a roaring car that seems to ride on simultaneously. Both characteristics bore a French pedigree:
grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. the style borrowed elements of French divisionism and
...We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every pointillism, and the simultaneousness echoed French
kind … Museums: cemeteries!’18 Like Picasso, Marinetti philosopher Henri Bergson’s famous theories of flux and
staged his attack in France’s cultural capital, the very city becoming. In modernizing Italy, however, these artistic and
where the Hellenistic statue from Samothrace was enshrined philosophical commitments took on an enthusiastically
(at the Louvre in Paris). And like his Spanish predecessor technological and nationalist twist. ‘Who can still believe in
(Picasso) and German contemporaries (Nolde, Höch), the opacity of bodies,’ asked Boccioni and the other futurists,
Marinetti looked to Africa in his search for modernism’s ‘since our sharpened and multiplied sensitiveness has already
future. Describing the automobile excursion that propelled penetrated the obscure manifestations of the medium?’20
him toward revelation even as it landed him in a ditch, the This sharpened and multiplied sensibility was initially
presumptuous futurist merged a tribute to factory discharge mobilized for anarchist ends, although war was, from the
with a memory of his African wet nurse: ‘O maternal ditch, beginning, glorified as the ‘sole hygiene of the world’, and
almost full of muddy water! Fair factory drain! I gulped some of the futurists’ artistic activities included
down your nourishing sludge; and I remembered the blessed demonstrating against neutral alliances. When the futurists’
black breast of my Sudanese nurse.’ calls for intervention met with success, and Italy joined the
Italy, like Russia and to a certain extent Germany, was at war against Germany, futurist artists committed themselves
the fringes of the rapidly developing European centre, to profoundly nationalist ends – as became explicit in the
becoming ‘ethnic’ in comparison with the colonial ambitions futurist journal Lacerba, which concluded its last issue in
of a France or England (with none of the past imperial 1915 with the statement: ‘From this moment on, we are one
glories of Portugal, Spain, or the Netherlands), playing thing only: Italians’.
‘catch-up’ with its own imperialist forays into Libya and The new commitment to Italy’s role in an international
Ethiopia. At the time of Marinetti’s writing, there was theatre appears most notably in Carlo Carrà’s works of

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1914–1915, such as a line drawing he titled After the Marne, the 1912 war epic whose title was intended to evoke the
Joffre Visited the Front in an Automobile (published in March sound of exploding shells. Published in an innovative typeset
1915 as part of his bellicose book Guerrapittura), and the edition in 1914 and excerpted in Lacerba (whose title makes
complex composition known as Manifestazione interventista its own appearance at the upper left of Carrà’s composition),
(Interventionist Demonstration) (Plate 151). In the line the title of this work appears along the upper left diagonal
drawing from Guerrapittura, Carrà celebrates the victories of Carrà’s collage. Clearly, Carrà’s inflammatory collage was
of French Marshall Joseph Joffré, who had triumphed over inspired by Marinetti’s poetry. Like the Futurist Manifesto,
the Germans in the battle of the Marne in 1914 – a futurist- the text of Marinetti’s Zang Tumb Tuum was originally
looking cone (Joffré’s ‘penetrating angle’) aims at a pair of written in French, implicitly appealing to the French
dour-looking parallelepipeds, themselves connected by modernist tradition as exemplified by the poet Stéphane
dotted lines to a sinister black Iron Cross. The more complex Mallarmé. Marinetti had explicitly attacked Mallarmé in
and slightly larger work (also translated as Interventionist his 1913 broadside the ‘Destruction of Syntax’. In opposition
Manifesto), shows Carrà drawing heavily on the new to Mallarmé, Marinetti called for a dramatic public
technique of cubist collage, which he had observed that performance of poetry; indeed, after translating his noisy
spring after visiting Paris (and Picasso). Yet in place of poem into Italian, Marinetti performed portions of it in
analytic cubism’s stable triangular compositions that allude public no fewer than twenty times from 1913 to 1914.22 The
to the framing edge, Carrà’s small collage seems to explode themes we have examined in the struggle between modernism
outward from the centre (like Bernini’s great Roman and modernization were acted out yet again, in this movement
altarpiece, the Ecstasy of St Teresa), threatening to violate from private to public. Marinetti rejected what he saw as
the boundaries of its support. Indeed, other futurist works the intensely individualistic and internalized symbolist
follow exactly this formal strategy (notably, Giacomo Balla’s aesthetics of French modernism, seeking instead an
Abstract Speed + Sound, from 1913–1914, or Gino Severini’s immediate public impact upon his culture, as incontrovertible
Plastic Rhythm of July 14th from 1913) – the internal, painted as modernization, as direct as war. Marinetti attempted to
compositions of these futurist canvases are extended beyond duplicate the chaos and cacophony of his public readings in
the frame with diagonal lines and licks of paint. In his typographic form by using chaotic page design and a motley
Interventionist collage, Carrà stops short of moving beyond variety of typefaces. Following his own manifesto for the
the frame. But his image nonetheless produces all of the ‘Destruction of Syntax’, he used verbs only in the infinitive,
expanding, propulsive energy of the typical futurist canvas. isolated adjectives from nouns, mixed font sizes and
What few horizontal bits of text there are (i.e. ‘Piazza’ and scattered words and type across the page. Through these
‘Strada’, ‘geometriche città moderne’ and ‘Rumori’) seem lost disjunctions and affronts to the reader, Marinetti sought to
in a helical vortex that expands like a blast from a megaphone, deny what he called the ‘literary I’, and replace it with a new
a rapidly cycling airplane propeller, or an oncoming train. futurist subject, a ‘multiplied man’ of restless and mobile
Despite Carrà’s inspirational stay in Paris, after which he attention, not ego but ago (the Italian word for a mechanical
strongly suggested to his friend and fellow futurist Severini pointer or indicator needle on a measuring device).
that ‘We should … transfer our tents to this capital of the Carrà’s small collage did not lend itself to the same kind
world,’ he was also tempted to carry on his struggle in Italy, of performance as Marinetti’s poem, but its intent was
as the Interventionist Manifesto (completed in July after his similar. Like the Soviets, Carrà and the other futurists
return) attests. More futurist and nationalist than most of yearned to harness the growing power of the mass media:
his other works, Carrà’s collage seemingly anticipates newspapers, posters, and advertisements that would carry
Marinetti’s injunction later that year to ‘try to live the war more than mere advertisements. But the futurists as yet
pictorially’.21 The word Italia is at the very centre of the had no overall international politics to which they could
swirling collage, with ‘audacia’ directly above it; evviva attach their ambitious formal experiments – no Communist
(hurrah!) circles the centre in expanding rings of highly International offered to take their forms beyond the Babel
visible white lettering on a black ground. Italian flags crop of competing nations and foreign tongues, no skyward-
up, and a tricolour scheme is repeated throughout. reaching towers rose to take them to the global aerial
But the image is more than the sum of these celebratory perspective. The futurist model, then, remained a
nationalist bits. First of all, the overall tricolour scheme is Nietzschean one – a theatre on the ground (its actors
not that of the two small Italian flags, which lie flat in mired, perhaps, in Marinetti’s factory ditch) in which the
rectangles of requisite green, white and red. In the dynamic agonistic choices were, to quote Mussolini, to ‘march, or
composition around these small, somewhat subordinated rot.’ The nearly hopeless disparity in power between the
national icons, the dominant colours are black, yellow and aspiring Italian nationalists and their big brothers to the
red – a clear reference to the German flag. Supporting this northeast was signalled in Carrà’s own collage. It is the
reading, directly opposite one of the Italian flags is the large colours of the German flag that form the larger
German word ‘TOT.’ The other flag is associated with the compositional vortex within which the small Italian
English word ‘SPORTS.’ Small newsprint clippings of a tricolour must swim (or sink) – a sense of national doom
flower, a boot, a bowl of fruit, a marching drum appear to be that seemed prescient, in retrospect. For after
meaningless, yet they reinforce the visual rhythm of the enthusiastically signing up for that great ‘hygienic’
work, which constitutes a blast of contrapuntal letters, conflagration, scores of Italian futurist painters and poets
forms, and colours that defy a linear ‘reading.’ The verbal/ met their end in the ignominious trenches, including the
formal vortex is the visual equivalent of the bellicose poems great sculptor Umberto Boccioni, and the visionary
and manifestos of futurism’s literary production. architect Antonio Sant’Elia. The enthusiasm for Fascism
In the Interventionist Manifesto, Carrà explicitly refers to manifested by those who survived the Great War has
these poems and labours to establish a sort of visual rendered the legacy of Italian futurism troubling for most
onomatopoeia, particularly Marinetti’s Zang Tumb Tuum, historians of modern art.

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The Fascist leanings of the futurists should not surprise be identified, crowded in the one case by Germany and
us, however. Fascism in Italy, which preceded the rise of the ‘Autriche-Hongrie,’ in the other by Russia and Africa. The
Nazi regime in Germany by a decade, was both more African continent itself is surprisingly small in the surrealists’
tolerant of aesthetic diversity and more tolerated by map, considering its importance to the earlier cubist painters
intellectuals and artists of all varieties. As scholars of modern (and its appearance in the futurist Manifesto in the person
Italian art have argued, Fascist culture was Italian culture of Marinetti’s Sudanese nurse). Although the terms l’art
during the ventennio (the Fascist party’s two-decade rule), primitif and l’art negre were still used fairly interchangeably
dominating all public discourse and supporting styles as (neither making the distinction between objects originating
diverse as geometric abstraction, futurism, expressionism, from Africa and Oceania), the balance had clearly shifted in
and neoclassical academic painting. Even the still-life painter the tastes of Western artists. Henceforth Oceanic cultures
Giorgio Morandi, beloved by moderns for his ‘devout study assumed far greater importance. Surrealists disdained what
of slight yet critical shifts in the weight of counterbalancing the cubists had found in the largely monochromatic
forms,’ placed his unassuming art at the service of the sculptural traditions of Africa. Instead, the reigning artists
Strapaese (stra + paese, or ‘supercountry’) movement, one of and intellectuals of the 1920s conceived a passion for the
the most important rural branches of Fascism. Strapaese intensely symbolic, allegorical, and polychromatic
fought for the protection of the traditional ‘expressions of decorations from the Pacific Rim.
the race’, as Fascist Mino Maccari put it, preserving these Reflecting Europeans’ obsession for these so-called
racial traditions from corruption by ‘fashion, foreign fetishes (objects of trade, worship, and everyday use
thought, and modernist civilization’.23 The taint of Fascism produced in supposedly ‘primitive’ societies), the surrealist
cannot be used to condemn all Italian moderns and anti- map emphasizes the lands of these faraway people and
moderns. The point is to refuse once and for all the equation objects. The surrealists’ universe orbits around the
of modernism in the visual arts (or anti-modernism, for that Marquesas, the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, the
matter) with internationalism, progressivism, or left-wing Philippines, and New Guinea (all named not by the people
avant-gardism. Both modernism and its opposition have who lived there, but by the conquering colonials who
always depended on the political context and been mapped them); islands known by more exotic names are
interpreted on a local level. For the purposes of this chapter, also featured: Timor, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes.
we can simply assert once again that wherever it appears, Celebes is unfamiliar to the present-day reader. Better
modernism is permeated with the local and specific politics known to its inhabitants as Sulawesi, Celebes was the name
of nationalism, a dominant twentieth-century discourse Portuguese traders gave to this island in the eastern part of
with which all artists contended through the century, with the Malay Archipelago (now part of the Republic of
varying degrees of consciousness and/or success. Indonesia). The name was probably coined from a Latinate
Whether grounded in nationalism or aspiring to root (cele) meaning ‘secret,’ but it also evokes an obscure
internationalism, modern artists remained conflicted in Old English word (cele/ceil/seal) for ‘happiness’ as these
their hopes throughout this period. Tatlin, either consciously two attributes of tropical life were most appreciated by
or unconsciously, had inscribed Babel in the form of his modernist artists (from Paul Gauguin and Emil Nolde to
International monument, and Carrà, too, summoned the surrealists). Some actually came in person to such island
linguistic cacophony and played out the struggle of national sites, following droves of colonial soldiers and administrators,
wills in his visual manifesto. The only generalization that church missionaries, European anthropologists, adventurers
can be made to characterize the historical development and government trade officials. But most artists never
from the moment of Les Demoiselles to the First World War attempted to actually see such places firsthand. Their
period of Carrà’s Manifesto and Tatlin’s post-war monument, experience ended with the exotic flavour of names and
is that there seems to have been a movement from Picasso’s objects brought to ‘the centre’ (whether that centre was
individualized theatrics – his performance of alternately constructed as Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, or
gendered, racialized, and nationalized identities – to Tatlin’s Zurich) – objects such as masks, architectural and nautical
and Carrà’s more collective aspirations. Envisioning Babel ornaments, clubs, staffs, kitchen implements, and occasional
or a theatre of war presupposes a collection of voices, none free-standing figures surrounded by rumours,
of which can speak for the multiplied and assembled subjects anthropological treatises, and printed images of distant
of the modern urban city or the nation that proposes to people and beliefs. Celebes was typical, then, in being known
contain them. by most Europeans first as a faraway place, second as a
cluster of exotic people and rituals, and lastly as a particular
style captured by artists.
Internal exiles: surrealism and the public mind Certainly Max Ernst had never visited the actual island
of Celebes/Sulawesi, and probably had little sense of the
In 1929, a group of artists, writers, and intellectuals published objects it might have produced, when he titled a 1921
the ‘Surrealist Map of the World’ in the French revue painting Celebes (Der Elefant von Celebes) (Plate 152). At a
Variétés. Map-making is a quintessentially nationalist time when the anarchic energies of dada had begun to
project, but the surrealists attempted a critical inversion. subside but the goals of surrealism had yet to be formally
The equator, an imaginary line defined as the great circle articulated, and when the seemingly senseless destruction of
around the Earth’s circumference, is here a meandering path war had only barely given way to the exhausted despair
that curves below ‘Hawai’ (sic) and above ‘Archipel Bismarck.’ called peace, the painting presented an imaginary world that
While the northern hemisphere still dominates, the United turned away from politics toward a different, purely
States disappears entirely, squeezed between Mexico, psychological concept: the dream.
Labrador, and an oversized Alaska. Only two cities – Paris The dream acquired a special status at the time – not
and Constantinople – are visible, but their countries cannot merely among proto-surrealists such as Ernst, but among

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legions of anthropologists, psychologists, and philosophers inebriating, disorienting sea.25 Such sentiments could still
of the industrialized West (the ones writing about the resonate with Ernst’s old friend Hans Arp’s statement that
distant cultures they termed ‘primitive’). Writers such as dada hoped ‘to do away with fraudulent reasonableness and
James Frazer (The Golden Bough, 1890) and French substitute the natural, unreasonable order of things’26 – but
anthropologists such as Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (La mentalité Ernst’s unreasonableness aimed neither at visible nature,
primitif, How Natives Think, 1910) shared a conviction that nor at the ‘real’. Reality, in his post-Freudian view, was
dreams provided a window onto a spiritual universe that precisely the problem. Celebes aimed to make visual the
had once been common to all humans (the ‘primitive’ parapraxes and narrative disjunctions that the psychoanalyst
supposedly preserved a link to the spirit that had been lost uses to probe beneath the illusion of the real, to assist the
in the progression toward modernity). Sigmund Freud’s patient in arriving at the underlying pathology of his
Interpretation of Dreams (1905) and Totem and Taboo suffering. Ernst contributed by making the emerging
(1913) drew on Frazer and Lévy-Bruhl. Freud combined vocabulary of psychoanalysis a central part of what would
anthropological research with his own medical training, become the canon of surrealistic painting. Within the leap
positing relations between newly identified structures of the from private psychological significance to public art, the
individual mind (the unconscious and subconscious), which discourse of nation would return.
he linked to an earlier ‘primitive’ mindset revealed by dreams. Ernst painted Celebes three years before poet André
In the unauthorized extension of these theories by Freud’s Breton published his ‘official’ Surrealist Manifesto, and it
apostle (and later apostate) Carl Jung, the narratives played a key role in forming the sensibilities of the writers
constructed by the dreamer were linked to a ‘collective and thinkers who came to support the movement. (Indeed,
unconscious’ that could somehow be shared (and Ernst’s collages had been the subject of Breton’s first essay
understood) by all of humankind. The tension between on art in the spring of 1921.) In the 1924 manifesto, Breton
these two views of dreaming – as a deeply private affair or as called for ‘Psychic automatism in its pure state … Dictated
a universal image-based language – characterized surrealism by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by
from the beginning and underlined its ambivalence toward reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern’.27 Ernst
that other partial universalism: nation. never achieved the free-wheeling appearance of automatism
As a young German university student reading in his art (and is therefore consigned in the Manifesto to a
psychology and philosophy in Bonn before the outbreak of supporting role, one of the many precursors who retained ‘a
war, Ernst was familiar with these competing theories of certain number of preconceived ideas’ and failed to ‘[hear]
culture and mind. He was drawn to the sciences of the mind the Surrealist voice’).28 Nonetheless, his painting was so
because of their attempts to understand dreams, seeing resonant with the developing tenets of surrealism that when
them not (as the Romantics and symbolists had) as a source the young French poet Paul Eluard saw it during his first
of poetic imagery, but in a new and rational way. Perhaps meeting with Ernst, he bought it immediately. Eluard
the young Ernst also hoped to resolve some of his own became the first person to purchase a work by the ‘Dadamax’
problems, stemming from an unhappy childhood marred from Cologne, transporting tangible proof of Ernst’s
by an autocratic father and the death of a sister (in later private/public vision to Paris.
memoirs he acknowledged as much). Throughout his Despite Eluard’s endorsement of Ernst as a painter of
university career, Ernst the young rationalist also painted, the future, Celebes turns its back on the major innovations
wrote art reviews, and began to contact other young artists of modernism as developed by the cubo-futurists. The
publishing in the Berlin journal Der Sturm. Then his world painting resorts to the devices of academic realism to
suddenly collapsed. War was declared: ‘Max must enlist. construct a kind of landscape. This comes as a surprise in
Field artillery. Four months in [barracks] then out into this any progressive account of modern art. In such an account,
shit.’ Ernst’s sense of the total collapse of rationalism in the the cubists’ fragmented and flattened space became further
madness of world war is captured in such later pulverized by the Italian futurists, until, as we saw in Carrà’s
autobiographical musings as: ‘Max Ernst died on 1 August pasted-paper assemblage, the picture plane was an explosive,
1914. He returned to life on 11 November 1918, a young centrifugal metaphor for the theatre of war itself. Moving
man who wanted to become a magician and discover the up in a twisted spiral in Tatlin’s tower, or expanding
myths of his time.’24 For a former lieutenant promoted from outward from the compressed and flattened plane in
the ranks of the Totenhopt Husaren (Death’s Head futurism, modernist space before surrealism was shallow
Hussars), magic and myth came to seem far preferable to and dynamic. Suddenly, in Ernst’s paintings of 1921, it
reality – whether it be the remembered reality of war, or the became frozen and still. In the sombre quiet of this post-
post-war reality of British-occupied Cologne. war canvas, Ernst made no effort to resurrect a fallen hero,
The declared goal of magic and myth was close to dada, a or even nostalgically to mourn one. Indeed, the first look of
new movement with whose founders Ernst had been friends Celebes reveals an enormous and enigmatically obscene
before the war, and whom he now called ‘Dadafex Maximus’ rump. Whatever sense we may now make of it, in 1921 the
(‘Dadamax’ for short). Dada’s left-wing nihilism had ‘elephant’ Celebes clearly functioned for Paul Eluard as the
emerged in a neutral Switzerland in 1916. It then erupted in perfect emblem of whatever future remained for European
Berlin (where its members risked imprisonment and death culture – behind a figure of mockery (my ass!), the viewer
during the war) and had a brief New York episode. Although confronted an ambiguous and interior journey, seemingly to
initially quite political, the ex-soldier Ernst loosened Dada’s the heart of madness and darkness alike.
bulldog grip on the real world’s insanity, substituting a In the grotesque company of the Death’s Head Hussars,
more inner-directed search for another world. When he Ernst had faced off against Eluard across the lines at Verdun.
first exhibited the new paintings – including Celebes – in Yet in their subsequent meeting, there was no need for
Paris, he described his new strategy of interiority as ‘mise détente for a negotiated amelioration of conflict between
sous whisky marin,’ viewing the world as if from an Frosch and Boche. For both artists, the wartime confrontation

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stood as a token of the kinds of nationalism that dada, and doubt, Celebes marks the beginning of the end of Ernst’s
subsequently surrealism, yearned to destroy. As Ernst dada period. The turn in the direction of France (and
experienced it, the imagined unity of Wilhelmine Germany, internationalism), validated by Eluard’s purchase of the
best expressed by its military, was always already fractured painting, was confirmed by Ernst’s own move to Paris
by the cultural rifts between Prussians and Rhinelanders in shortly afterward.
the ranks, or later, between stay-at-home-patriots and In art history terms, Ernst’s return to academic modes of
freshly minted anarchists back from the trenches. In Eluard’s representation was a rejection of dadaism’s cubo-futurist
France, the imagined monolith of French modernism was heritage – a move away from the radical, anti-Renaissance
similarly riddled with social and rhetorical splits between flatness of cubism, and a return to modes of composition
the immigrant artists forming the supposedly déracinés and illusionism made comprehensible through centuries of
School of Paris, possessed by ‘crazy’ abstraction and Western classical perspective. Crucial in demonstrating the
expressionist brushwork, and the terroirs (native French) effectiveness of such a reversion, as noted above, was de
realist painters canonized as the true-blooded sons of the Chirico’s 1912–1918 work, which Ernst considered
Ecole Française.29 In many ways, Celebes bridged these gaps significant. De Chirico’s use of distorted perspective, his
on both sides. Its very anti-modernism may have helped depictions of strangely lit empty urban squares, were the
secure it a foothold in Eluard’s (and France’s) visual culture, product of an Italian interpretation of German thoughts on
for its air of sober realism (if only in service of an as-yet- classical Italian architecture – specifically, Friedrich
unnamed surrealism) fit the general ‘Return to Order’ of Nietzsche’s descriptions in Ecce Homo of the vast empty
post-war painting in Paris, a rejection of the immigrant- piazza of Turin. However, where de Chirico relied on the
fuelled styles of expressionistic abstraction that many pre-Renaissance cityscapes of Lorenzetti to capture
Frenchmen felt had ‘gone too far’. Similarly, Ernst’s stylistic Nietzsche’s mood, Ernst retained the narrative disjunctions
sobriety signalled a turn away from the politics that had characteristic of cubism – presumably to connect with a
characterized war-time dadaism, toward the Neue more modern reality. Steeped in dadaist techniques of
Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) emerging as Germany’s collage and photomontage, Ernst found the inspiration for
version of a return to order (albeit an order following only paintings such as Celebes in cut and reassembled images he
the logic of dreams). took from catalogues, scientific journals, and anthropology
The United States also witnessed a turn toward a cooler texts. Many of these sources filter into our subconscious
style, and Italy saw the emergence of a new ‘metaphysical associations with the picture, and indeed, they may be
realism’ in work by Giorgio de Chirico just after the war. Of rendered subconscious (that is, ‘invisible’) only by the
course, any more-than-cursory inspection of Celebes would completion of the painting – the smoothing over and
reveal its complication of the chillingly quotidian verism of erasures resulting from Ernst’s use of the traditional painting
Neue Sachlichkeit, its contradiction of the optimism of techniques.
American precisionism, and its rejection of the nationalist Just before Celebes, Ernst produced Fiat Modes, a suite
values of the Ecole Française (the de Chirico paintings Ernst of lithographs conceived as a homage to de Chirico. The
saw in 1919 were the only ‘realist’ works he acknowledged as German war veteran recycled the Italian painter’s
deeply influential). But on the surface (the veneer of the mannequins and triangulated perspectives, but decorated
painting’s smooth finish), Ernst’s painting fit the newly them with Freudian anxieties. The work poses a question –
hard-edged return to representational illusionism and ‘Let there be Fashions,’ or, by suggestion, What is the
encouraged the importing and transfer of its more subversive future of art? Like Walter Benjamin’s magisterial
intentions. ruminations on modernism in the nineteenth-century
Ernst’s path to the other world of Celebes (and to Paris’s shopping arcades of Paris, Ernst’s prints takes place in a
international stage) was paved with such stylistic dislocated cityscape of transparent shop windows and tilted
negotiations, reflecting the bitter experience of a disastrous floors. Mannish suits are measured on female dress forms,
military career defending Deutsche Kultur. Wounded twice, a symptom of the changing ‘mode’ of gender politics and
the artist miraculously avoided being killed in the slaughter; artistic fashions. The dress forms and couturiers cohabit
he made a number of small abstract watercolours referring with recombined segments of storefront mannequins (or
to the Great War (Battle of the Fish, and The Spindle’s artists’ figurines) and grotesque combinations of stumps
Victory, both from 1917). Disillusionment with the and nubs, resonating with Ernst’s contemporary works,
inadequacy of such art in addressing ‘reality’ (past or present) which appropriated medical images of braces and
led to Ernst’s few real-world political engagements – such prostheses. In what is perhaps the most telling page in the
as the moment in 1919 when he stood at the factory gates in Fiat Modes suite, a tiny silhouette, marked as female,
Cologne distributing copies of his socialist friend Johannes appears inside an enormous structure (a department store
Baargeld’s periodical Der Ventilator, or the time the two display window?) viewed from a distance by a clownishly
broke up a reactionary patriotic theatre production, or put fat figure with bare feet and exposed, drooping male
up an exhibition behind a urinal, where one of Ernst’s works genitals. The genitals appear again in place of the nose for
came equipped with an axe to facilitate its own destruction. this armless figure, referring to Freud’s famous study of a
The restrictions imposed by the British military occupying patient’s psychological associations between nose and
Cologne (which banned Der Ventilator), and the activities phallus in the context of castration anxiety. The man’s line
of local German police (who closed the exhibition), worked of vision is diagrammed, beginning with his limp phallus-
to silence such dada manifestations. Baargeld’s and Ernst’s nose and following a path set out by a pointing hand, under
provocations had been calculated to stir things up; not a banner (painted backwards as a shop sign seen from the
surprisingly, the lid came down, and Ernst turned to his inside) that reads: ‘zur neuenkunst? D D’.30
‘sous whisky marin’. Thus a certain amount of self-censorship Is this man speaking to wider issues, such as the future of
also lies behind the frozen silence of Celebes. Without a German (D) and possibly also dada (D) art? The defeat of

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German militarism in the war is suggested in this symbol of Scholars of Ernst and surrealism have gone farther,
deflated masculinity, and castration anxiety is seen as a crisis connecting the ‘elephant’ with the visual appearance of
for the nation’s culture. Critiques of nationalist revival French gasmasks, in which a rubbery breathing tube moves
(already raised, as we have seen, in Ernst’s and Baargeld’s down to a shiny chamber of steel for filtering air. 31 The
disruption of the monarchist play) appear on the cover page beast may also be a reference to the biblical figure of
of Fiat Modes, which features a tall mechanical tower topped Behemoth (illustrated in French tradition as an elephant):
with a flag. The theme of manipulated flags reappears here, ‘his bones are as tubes of brass; his limbs are like bars of
for this is not the German flag, but a banner bearing a star iron’ (Job 40.18). In contemporary accounts of Behemoth
and a crescent – reminiscent of Muslim symbols on the – specifically, one by French poet and critic Guillaume
national flags of Turkey, Pakistan, Tunisia, Singapore and Apollinaire, whom Eluard knew – Behemoth is self-
Malaysia. The fragile-looking industrial tower is converted, created: ‘I am the dictator. Here the voice of Behemoth,
symbolically, to a minaret. Far from some escape into the without origin … unique, immobile, and … immortal’.32 In
maternal-paternal colonialism of a Marinetti (who had this analysis, Ernst’s Behemoth looks ahead to the rise of
linked the black waste from an Italian factory to the breast Hitler, back to the abuses of the Kaiser, but also sideways
of his Sudanese nurse), Ernst seems merely to have been to the wartime chauvinism of Apollinaire himself.33 Yet
reaching for some different flag under which to muster the these internecine European conflicts are not the only ones
disaffected troops of the European avant-garde, something depicted in Celebes. It is significant that this cross-gendered,
other than the German-French-British and sometime self-created mechanical dictator should be so black that its
Italian and American heraldry so visible during the latest ridiculed yet still-terrifying power should be thrown into
cataclysmic conflict. Ernst’s choice of an Islamic other, like relief by the beckoning of a decapitated white female, her
his choice of elephants and Celebes, is not random, even if its ivory-skinned inducements reminiscent of many other
specific significance may be elusive. It is as if by evoking a works of European Orientalism (from Shakespeare’s
third reference, he can escape the return of cyclical history. Othello to Delacroix’s Sardanapalus and Ingres’s
But it remained an imaginary escape in 1919; the tower is a odalisques).
slender tracery of iron, seen from a distance. Before achieving The blackness of the beast reinforces the notion of the
a deeply desired displacement to Paris (and then a move to ‘other’, proclaimed by the painting’s title. Scholars eventually
the American Southwest during the Second World War), discovered that Ernst’s ‘elephant’ – besides making an
Ernst envisioned only internal exile. Confined to Cologne, allusion to a scurrilous bit of Germanic doggerel34 – was
he could just barely imagine a new (German? or international modelled on an enormous, two-legged communal corn bin,
Dada?) art. built of clay by the Konkombwa people of southern Sudan.
Although Eluard endorsed the internationalism of Ernst had found the image in an illustration for a British
Celebes, by the act of acquiring it for his Parisian apartment, anthropological journal, surrounded by scientific reports on
the painting merely presents the conflicts of nations, rather a colonial outpost. Many substitutions were effected in
than resolving or transcending them. The central, mechanical Ernst’s conversion from photo to painting: evocations of
‘elephant’ evokes a military spectre, an alien juggernaut metal to represent earth, steel for straw, shine for wattle,
nonetheless rendered German/Wagnerian by its Teutonic and black for pale clay. In the photograph, the earthen
horns. Its malevolent superstructure suggests a grimly Konkombwa corn bin merges seamlessly with the dusty,
engineered orchestra (a red piano, a harp, an organ pipe?) – pale ground, but in Ernst’s painted rendition, the structure
conflated with the parallel symbols of a watchtower. The is darkened and thrown into sharp relief against a desolate
monstrosity of the ‘elephant’ lies in the mixed military ochre ground. The ‘Africa’ of clay corn bins was not enough;
metaphor: through the seemingly ribbed and collapsible black Africa was needed. A smaller painting Ernst made just
nature of the creature’s phallic member, by the fleshy eye/ before Celebes may shed some light on the various readings.
breasts at the end of the proboscis, and finally, by the small The Emperor of Wahaua (Der Kaiser von Wahaua) was
piece of clothing worn by the horrific probe. finished in 1920, and now hangs in the Folkwang Museum
In the alchemy of paint, the serrated white appendage in Essen. This little-known painting has never been explicitly
near the lobed end of the phallic trunk is both skirt and/or linked with Celebes, yet it clearly forms a symbolic template
collar, cloth and/or steel, stiffened lace and/or functional for the more famous painting. The emperor (recall
metallic gear. As ‘skirt,’ it plays the role of the French maid’s Behemoth, ‘dictator … without origin’) is here a slight figure
apron taken from pornographic sources – the perky white with African features and mahogany-coloured skin, swathed
cloth that barely covers (and hence signifies) the forbidden in an enormous black garment fitted with stiff, gleaming
locus of desire and dread. As collar, it reverts to the golden white cuffs and a starched white collar reminiscent of the
age of Dutch portraiture, when dignitaries commissioned skirt/collar of Celebes. A tall crown or turban sits on his
portraits adorned with costly white lacy handiwork. As head, and he holds a staff with a golden orb. A larger bluish
metallic steel gear, it completes the conversion of this phallic ball is on the floor nearby. To the left of the figure teeters a
woman into the ultimate military spectre – an armoured, tricoloured (red, white and blue) platform that stands
hardened drill bit whose extending probe and blackness miraculously on one side. On the table stands a strange
only hints at the fearfully obvious hole at her very core. assemblage of biomechanical parts in red and greyish-blue,
We have worked within the limitations of what can be culminating in a lidless blue eye (a more organic version of
observed within the painting’s imagery and that which is Celebes’s ‘watchtower’). Far beyond this structure, on the
suggested by its title (both configured as being ‘on the horizon, a distant snow-covered mountain can be seen. Just
surface’) – scanning the way the canvas is painted, the above the elaborate headdress worn by the emperor,
placement of its imagery, the evocations of otherness in seemingly emerging from some vent in the tabletop structure
name and place – to find references to a particular (or emanating from the emperor’s head) is a bubble in which
configuration of the ‘real’ at the moment of its creation. a smiling white female applies powder to her face. The

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African emperor turns his back to all of this, fixing our gaze could become an internal exile and a commentator on the
with a calm and unreadable stare. relations between the psyche and the modernizing nations
This ‘Emperor’ is linked to the most famous of African of a shrinking world.
kings, the holy wise man (magus) whose bones were
supposedly preserved in the cathedral of Ernst’s native
Cologne. This ‘savage’ who saw the light of Christ and P olitics and A bstraction
turned his royal steps toward worship brings the black bulk
of Celebes into a full hermeneutic play of obscure meanings: Guerre and Guernica: paroxysms of nationalism
nature and culture, animal and divine, sexualized despot
and pious pilgrim, Orientalist ‘other’ and revered origin of As we have seen in the case of an individual (Ernst) and the
the local cult of the national church. Max Ernst, reborn in a larger stylistic shift from dadaism to surrealism, mechano-
grim post-war Germany, taking his inspiration from various morphic art and abstraction in general lost their appeal for
sources (de Chirico, medical journals, catalogues of European modernists after World War I. A kind of ‘return
prostheses, anthropology texts, poetry, dreams, religion, to order’ surfaced in France, Italy, Germany and England,
and dada collage), achieved the paradox of surrealism avant and the US ‘objectivity’ replaced expressionism as a valued
la lettre: an inner vision revealed to a public mind. Black term: Germany’s Neue Sachlichkeit painters produced
Africa and Indonesia are appropriated, on the one hand, for sober, realistic images of urban life, Italian Strapaese (‘super-
the stock role of the ‘other’ in Western European painting, country’) artists praised the reflections of peasant life that
creating a location (at once specific and ‘imaginary’) to appeared in Morandi’s paintings of simple bottles and bowls
Ernst’s vision of a desolate foreign nightmare populated by (held to materialize the ‘dust of Tuscany’ revered by rural
pale women and menacing military men. On the other hand, Fascists), and France – keeper of the flame for avant-gardes
as for Picasso earlier in the century, the exotic and powerful the world over – produced a form of reactionary modernism
other is also punishment and/or alternate identity for the in artists of the Ecole Française, who sought to distance
nation/self – particularly that self that begins the process of themselves from the productions of a ‘pan-Semitic’ school
making art by seeking a way out of the corrupted culture of of Paris and the nascent surrealistic movement. Surrealists
modernity, through a pilgrimage to another place. were attracted to this return to order (evidenced by Ernst’s
It is obvious from Ernst’s own paintings, that in post- return to the representational images of an imaginary
First World War Germany, an African king was world), but were never as flagrant as right-wing artists who
representative not only of the wise men supposedly interred openly touted the supposedly stable truths of ‘blood and
in Cologne’s cathedral: he was also the inhabitant of the soil’ in their various national schools. These conservative
colonies coveted by England, France, Italy, and Portugal. realists were celebrated as the culmination of a move to
Here we should recall that Germany’s bid for a tenuous preserve the glories of French painting for the native French,
hold on East Africa was curtailed, once and for all, by the or Teutonic/Aryan painting for the ‘true’ Germans, Tuscan
Treaty of Versailles. It is significant that the 1919 copy of verities for the ‘true’ Italians, heartland ‘Regionalism’ for
Der Ventilator that Ernst handed out at the factory gates Americans, and so forth. Tragically, the self-policing
with his friend Baargeld printed the following stream-of- required by these stringent forms of post-First World War
consciousness emission from a certain Macchab (the name nationalism turned into self-hatred for many; thus it was an
of a Biblical spirit who occasionally appeared to one of assimilated German Jew writing in a Paris newspaper
Ernst’s occultist friends in Cologne): ‘Caution advised, (Waldemar George) who articulated the 1930s nativist
sham corpse follows. Nubia’s highways, likewise programme in its most virulent form: ‘The moment has
caravanserais in western and eastern Sudan, already come for France to turn in upon herself and to find in her
polluted. Annual realization of Mecca questioned this own soil the seeds of her salvation.’ Such authors cited
year … Repeated auto-castration of the Negus, incredible Chancellor Hitler’s authority to articulate what had gone
effects: thousands of Christian lip-servers from all parts of wrong with French art, and to explain how it had ‘lost’ its
the Abyssinian Empire fanaticized’.35 power to communicate to a wide public.37
The same uncomfortable connection of ruled (African) In what scholars of this chilling confluence of nationalism
and ruler (Emperor) in the paintings, led one of the French and modern art call a ‘parenthesis’ in fascism’s rise, the
dadaists at the opening of Ernst’s second Parisian exhibition countervailing campaign for the Popular Front enabled
to conduct ‘mock tours’ of the installation ‘dressed in Léon Blum, an Alsatian of Jewish descent, to be elected the
blackface as the President of Liberia’.36 The subaltern is head of the French Government (the Popular Front would
summoned to terrify, to mock, to unsettle, to educate, to also win elections for the Republicans in Spain). It was
shame and even degrade those present. And in the process, under Blum’s leadership that the last of the great Paris
the notion of nation is also criticized. world fairs was organized, just as the Nazi’s Degenerate Art
The essential truths of nation as Heimat will not hold up, exhibition was travelling throughout Germany. As it turned
and efforts to subdue the colonized as a way of articulating out, the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris would be
national essence will be threatened by the return of the the final opportunity for the nations of the supposedly
repressed, the eruption of the ‘native’ into Kultur, the ‘civilized’ world to gather before the outbreak of the Second
discovery of the German Kurtz at the heart of darkness (to World War. Even at the time, the international fair’s
refer to Conrad’s influential novel). This return of the simulated universe was seen to stage the rising tensions of a
repressed ‘other’ could manifest itself in concrete political ‘war to end all wars’ all over again. The setting for the 1937
terms, or in a constantly troubled cultural imaginary – the Exposition Internationale was already studded with
latter being the field of inquiry chosen by the surrealists. architectural remnants of previous extravaganzas, dating
The lasting power of surrealism resulted from this back to Napoleon, who had appropriated the area for his
paradoxical position – a vantage point from which the artist son’s palace, converting the Champ de Mars from army

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training ground to territory for ritual displays of power. The every turn overshadowing the modest efforts of the more
site chosen for the Exposition also included the Palais du numerous democracies’.38
Trocadero, built for an 1878 exposition (and the site of the Months after the fair’s inauguration, one of the
1907 encounter between Picasso and the ‘dusty mannequins’ democracies’ ‘modest efforts’ opened, tucked into the
of African ritual art); this structure was modernized and shadow of the Nazi monolith and nearly invisible to the
renamed the Palais de Chaillot for the 1937 extravaganza. casual passer-by. The low-lying, inexpensive slab designed
Flanking the other end of the fairground terminus was the by Josep Lluís Sert for the struggling Spanish Republic was
grandiose eighteenth-century Ecole Militaire complex. The a glass-sheathed modernist structure; its open construction
centre was marked by the 1889 Exposition’s Eiffel Tower, of pre-fabricated structural steel (left exposed and painted
which had served to announce to the entire world France’s deep red or white) was fitted out with plywood, rough
new role as the capital of world modernism. Eiffel’s cement squares and straw matting. It seemed so blatantly
engineering marvel immediately succeeded in affirming anti-luxe that some visitors assumed it was unfinished.
France’s leadership of both civilization and modernism Guidebooks made no mention of the economic effects of
(and, as we have seen, it was an explicit stimulus for Tatlin’s the raging Spanish Civil War and did nothing to
tower). By design, it had loomed in aggressive technological acknowledge that the ‘nation’ in question was a besieged
contrast with the temporary mud-and-stick villages built faction of a country whose power had been seized by Nazi-
around its base by ‘natives’ brought in as part of the backed Spanish fascists. The Spanish Republicans were
nineteenth-century Exposition Universelle. socialists whose Popular Front had been democratically
By 1937, such blatant displays of colonial power relations elected only one year earlier, but they were struggling to
were muted. Colonies’ pavilions had been shunted to the survive against a military uprising supported by soldiers,
side (quite literally, in an outlying section of the Exposition landowners, clergy, and residual monarchists in Spain, as
that referred not to ‘empire’ but to overseas France). The well as Italian and German fascists abroad. Spain was
ruling socialists did not eliminate the colonial section, but divided and in dispute: Republicans remained strong only
simply miniaturized and marginalized it. The colonies were in the Mediterranean south and in the Basque region of the
no longer the bustling engines of French economic prosperity north. Even the ideology of ‘nation’ had been claimed by the
(although certainly the closed markets of her colonies fascist Nationalists (leaving the Republicans little option
helped France delay the effects of a global depression). By but to call themselves ‘Loyalists’ of the true Spain.) The
1937, they were merely tourist destinations. By contrast silence of the fair’s guidebooks reflected the period’s uneasy
with the nineteenth-century’s dramatic hierarchies, political climate – for Léon Blum’s socialist government had
skyscraping steel looming over mud architectures, in 1937 withdrawn French support for the Spanish socialists in the
one travelled to the overseas pavilions by crossing under the summer of 1936, thereby joining 25 other nations in signing
Eiffel Tower and moving laterally, through the ‘Centre a non-intervention pact. Official fair policy allowed the
Régional’ with its handicrafts from rural France, to a far- Spanish Republicans to sneak in with a pavilion, but very
flung France. The visitor passed physically from the crown little real estate or promotion accompanied that gesture.
and centre of French civilization to France péripherique. In Unofficially, however, leftist artists and intellectuals in
the other direction, visitors encountered displays of France spearheaded a campaign to win worldwide support
industrial products, while across the river they could view for the cause of Republican Spain. Even non-Spanish artists
the culmination of technological modernity – modern art. (such as the American sculptor Alexander Calder) came to
Many European pavilions were set up not along the edge adorn its empty pavilion, and other avant-garde modernists
of the river, but along an axis extending from the Trocadero attempted to make it the best-known icon of the fair.
down the esplanade; the remainder were accessed by Spanish artists who had long been working in France
crossing under the Eiffel Tower and proceeding southeast were the first to rally to Sert’s call for participation in setting
across the Champ de Mars toward the military academy. up the Spanish pavilion – to make a heroically modern
The most aggressive structures flanked the beginning of this Spain speak before the world. More than any other object
axis, facing off across the Trocadero gardens (near the street of the hundreds at the fair – regional crafts, technological
now known as the Avenue des Nations Unies). In the most inventions, oil paintings, photomurals, monumental
famous view of the fair (Plate 153), on one side loomed sculptures, and imposing architecture – the commission of
Albert Speer’s neoclassical skyscraper, topped with the Picasso’s Guernica came to be the emblem of the moment
emblem of Nazi Germany (aiming to link nation with (Plate 154). Guernica possessed the further trump card of
political party by means of an eagle perched on a giant surviving the fair, and so could assert itself throughout the
swastika). On the other side was the USSR’s pavilion: Boris remainder of the twentieth century, playing an active role in
Iofan’s vaguely art deco progression of ascending masses of geopolitics even as it retreated into a documented past.
stone, culminating in Vera Mukhina’s gleaming, stainless- Beyond its inherent artistic properties, Guernica’s immediate
steel sculpture of ‘Worker and Collective Farm Woman,’ and continuing fame resulted from the confluence of three
two figures joining their hammer and sickle in a triumphant circumstances: it was the largest painting to date by the
gesture. The obvious confrontation of the two buildings was world’s most famous modern artist, it addressed the world’s
planned by the French, who had determined the location of first act of aerial civilian firebombing, and it reflected a
all national pavilions, but an aesthetic battle was waged by groundswell of leftist outrage at the European abandonment
Speer, who had gotten his hands on the secret plan for the of the Spanish Republic. While the painting’s initial fame
Soviet pavilion and was determined to surpass it. The was secured by its profoundly political context, the painting’s
architectural and ideological battle was dismissed by cubist semi-abstract form and generalized themes ensured that the
painter André Lhote as a clash between ‘pretentious stone masterpiece transcended the historical circumstances of its
dragons’; one commentator in Architectural Record noted production in early June of 1937 to become an icon of ‘man’s
tersely: ‘It is this militant pair of pavilions that one sees at inhumanity to man.’ Depoliticized to a certain extent by its

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own creator, Guernica eventually transcended the strictly the crucial role of the viewer, who becomes the public subject
Spanish context to represent opposition to state violence of of an essentially private modern style.
any kind. The architects of the Spanish pavilion came to Picasso as
The fact that Guernica lends itself to diverse pilgrims in January 1937, appealing to him in his new
interpretations is an essential aspect of the painting and its capacity as director-designate of the Prado museum to
modernism. The painting’s message has always been accept their mural commission. He showed them a series of
unstable, oscillating productively between a frankly etchings he had begun after fascists attacked his hometown
propagandistic outcry against the bombing of a Basque of Málaga, titled Dream and Lie of Franco (Sueño y Mentira
village by foreign fascists, and a complex and ambiguous de Franco) and read his poem on the same theme. They
work of art that employs personal imagery dating back looked at the etchings and saw the bulls and horses that
decades in Picasso’s career (and centuries in the traditions would emerge in Guernica, but these farm animals were
he employed). What remains extraordinary for the purposes merely victims of an evil agent (Franco) who dominated
of this chapter is that more than any other work of almost every frame (but would completely disappear from
twentieth-century art, Guernica embodies the conflict the painting). Picasso’s surrealist, stream-of-consciousness
between international modernism that, by its very nature, poem reinforced this conflict between the nakedly phallic
must be ‘above politics,’ and a nationalist context that Franco: ‘fandango … of swords of evil-omened polyps …
determines meaning for the work of art in profoundly local his mouth full of chinch bug jelly of his words’ and the
ways. That ‘nationalist’ context for Guernica was displaced, innocent mass: ‘cries of children, cries of women, cries of
but doubly emphasized – firstly, by Picasso’s status as an birds, cries of flowers, cries of timbers and of stones cries of
expatriate and his corresponding eagerness to demonstrate bricks, cries of furniture’. Picasso read his poem ‘with such
loyalty to an ‘essential’ Spain, and secondly by the extraordinary enthusiasm and force and violence’ that the
eponymous ‘nationalism’ of Franco’s Falangists, whom commissioners and architects knew he would accept, and
Picasso and the Republicans opposed. To further they cherished hopes he would produce a rousing and
complicate matters, the ‘essential’ Spanishness of Picasso’s dramatic spectacle for their space. They even managed to
imagery was constructed in the lingua franca of international collect the money to pay him, rendering the final mural-
modernism, even as it was self-consciously posed against an sized canvas the property of the Spanish Republic; yet it
international encounter of fascists in three countries. was the painter who controlled the destiny of Guernica –
Finally, given the painting’s nearly total absence of signs even after the artist’s death, when Franco struggled to claim
that convey a specific twentieth-century time frame, the painting as proof of a ‘unified’ Spain.
Picasso’s commitment to modernism remains coded rather Clearly Franco would not have made such efforts if
than explicit, conveyed in style and form rather than Picasso had incorporated imagery of Dream and Lie of
content. Franco into Guernica. How and why did the figure of Franco
Given these complexities, it could be argued that Guernica disappear from Guernica? To a certain extent, the absence
merely redraws the lines of nationalism, seeking to contest of Franco reflects the skill with which the fascist leader
Franco’s artificial ‘Nationalism’ (which was, after all, deeply cunningly avoided being implicated in the bombing of
linked to ‘foreign’ fascist powers) by contrasting it with an Guernica itself. However, Picasso might have also decided
‘essential’ Spain – expressed in references to the bullfight, or to omit any direct representation of Franco based on the
the agrarian classicism of horses, oil lamps, and tiled roofs. demands of international modernism. When Picasso began
But it can also be argued that in choosing Picasso for their Dream and Lie of Franco, the junta leader was a petty isolated
principal commission, Republican Spain sought an and somewhat ludicrous figure. Like Hitler before the
international cosmopolitanism rather than a confirming putsch, Franco in January could be mocked as a goofy,
nationalist essence. The architect Sert, who was instrumental polyp-headed pretender, a foolish Don Quixote with his
in commissioning Picasso, intended Spain to be seen as pathetic little crowns, his archaic swords, his medieval
explicitly modern against the reactionary forces of Franco’s banners (held aloft in one frame by a tumescent phallus)
monarcho-fascist block. Whether Sert was satisfied by the and his ineffective steeds (horses that are gutted, exhausted,
result is another matter. Like the work by other nomads we mangled, or in one case transformed into an immobile pig).
have examined, Picasso’s painting exemplified the curious But this fool could not play the role of monumental,
hybrid blend that gives modernism its poignant appeal and transcendent, impersonal evil that inspired Guernica. In
conveys its persistent dream of internationalism. Part fact, the Franco imagery lost steam even before Dream and
‘primitive’ (seeking alternatives to modernity in Africa and Lie was completed. At the time of the commissioners’ visit
elsewhere) and part ‘advanced’ (following theories of space- in January, the final four plates of the etching remained
time elaborated by scientists and philosophers deeply unfinished. Through April Picasso made other works, read
affected by the regimentation and technological innovations newspapers, talked to friends, and retreated. Seemingly
of modern life), part ‘national’ (like Tatlin, Carrá and Ernst, immobilized by the weight of his commission, Picasso left
marked by a specific linguistic and political past) but also only a few surviving sketches from those first months – they
desperately seeking release from provincial origins (in the show plans for a large mural on the theme of the artist in his
‘internationale’ of communism, the Surrealist International, studio, hardly the stuff of modern history painting.
or ‘international style modernism’ as a whole), Picasso was a Then there was the galvanizing event – the bombing of
complex figure. Guernica revealed the fruits of his complexity the Basque village of Guernica by Nazi and Italian squadrons
and hybrid nature, and the coming-of-age of modernist on 26 April 1937. With this collusion of high-technology
painting. This historic mural marked a period in which the foes (a show of Axis power for the benefit of France as well
formal and intentional ambiguities of an image could be as Republican Spain), Franco’s evil was both magnified and
seen as fundamentally productive, and in which ambiguity diffused, beyond the control of a single despot. As newspaper
and abstraction (in a ‘public’ political painting) underscores reports trickled in on the 28 and 29 April, public outrage

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increased along with information, and disinformation. is both servant of Franco and humankind, bearing up under
Picasso drew his first study on May Day, and the painting Franco’s pretensions in the series’ first frame, nurturing a
Guernica was completed in a furious burst of activity over bearded poet in another, winged victim of Franco, and,
the next five weeks. finally, conflated with Franco himself in the last frame to be
The poetry and narratives that accompanied Picasso’s drawn.
painting once it was installed at the Spanish pavilion In Guernica these details are lost. The figures of horse
contributed to the ‘public relations problem’ that the fascists and bull play crucial roles, yet exactly what they signify
began to experience as a result of their tactical bombing of remains unclear. The horse occupies the painting’s central
civilians that sunny market day. Apparently unaware of commanding pyramid, together with the figure of the
Guernica’s symbolic importance as centre of ancient Basque woman reaching with her lamp (sometimes interpreted as
traditions of democracy and self-rule, the Germans of the ‘Truth,’ she is the only compositional element to remain
Condor Legion (with the help of one Italian plane) flew perfectly intact from Picasso’s first sketch). Intriguingly, the
their Junkers in a series of sweeps that began with low drops hair of the revolting Franco-polyp from the series of etchings
of heavy bombs and hand grenades, followed by a second has now been distributed across the surface of the painted
low pass for blasting escaping civilians, and ended with a horse’s skin, as if to perpetuate the horse-as-Franco that
number of high fly-overs for dropping incendiary bombs. Picasso etched in Dream and Lie. But the horse is also
Despite the fact that no military installations were destroyed depicted as universal victim. Sliced open with a gash that
(the railroad station and town bridge had been immediately extends beyond its body (appearing near the centre of the
obscured by the dust from the first wave of bombs; the small painting, it dominates the composition and reads as a slash
arms factory outside town was left untouched), Freiherr von in the canvas itself), the horse is also pierced by a spear that
Richthofen recorded in his diary that the raid had been a enters behind its neck and grotesquely extrudes through its
‘complete technical success’; Hermann Goering later testified sagging belly, echoed metaphorically by the animal’s
at Nuremberg that the German leadership was pleased, screaming, dagger-like tongue. The fear in the horse’s tiny-
since they had wanted primarily to test ‘experimental fighter circled eyes is echoed in the bird that squawks on a table
units, bombers, and anti-aircraft guns... under combat behind it (a kitchen table? a market stand? or a sacrificial
conditions’.39 A Basque priest who survived the attack by altar?) The young woman stumbling toward it bears
seeking shelter under trees recalled that ‘Even then I realized similarly dumbfounded eyes. Her legs are heavy and leaden
the terrible purpose [of the fire bombing.] They were in paralysis, her shawl and scarf are flapping open, and her
dropping incendiary bombs to try to convince the world that bottom is bare as if roused from the outhouse, evoking, ‘the
the Basques had fired their own city’.40 The witness came to commonest and most primitive effect of fear’ in the words of
this chilling realization when German squadrons came back Picasso.42
into the smoking ruins to pick up any pieces of aircraft and Framing the central pyramid and reinforcing the sense of
unexploded bombs that might link them to the attack. a triptych in the overall composition are two more women.
Franco in turn began to disseminate the Nationalist version The one on the right falls from a burning building, her back
of events: the Basques had set fire to their own ancient capital cut by flames; on the left, a mother grieves her dead child in
to drum up support for their cause, destroying their own a modern version of the pietà. Stretching across the canvas
town hall with its age-old documents and archives, gutting foreground are the dismembered parts of a warrior: one
the seat of free democracy long symbolized by their ancient muscular right arm (with a hand modelled on Picasso’s
oak, where royalty had stood for centuries to seek allegiance own), a head as bald and frozen as a classical statue’s, and
as ‘señors,’ not kings, of Vizcaya. another right arm clutching the remains of a shattered spear,
Picasso read the other side of the story in the French which sprouts a ghostly flower from its hilt. Above the
communist newspaper, L’Humanité. Typical of the paper’s monochrome, nightmarish tableau is a single twentieth-
sarcastic tone was this caption below a photograph of century detail – a light bulb – added in the final stages of
corpses in the charred town: ‘Nothing left to chance in the painting as if in mockery of the omniscient eye of God.
Fascists’ atrocious extermination of the non-combatant Unlike Dream and Lie of Franco, Guernica makes little
population.… Above, some women – mothers no doubt – reference to actual governments, or modern warfare (beyond
slaughtered during the bombardment’.41 The progression its title). In the various phases of execution, captured by
from Dream and Lie to Guernica suggests the complexity of photographer Dora Maar, we can observe Picasso’s
Picasso’s evolving moral judgments about the war; from the systematic elimination of explicit national and political
early emphasis on a grotesque leader, the artist shifts to a symbols. The light bulb replaced the warrior’s upraised fist,
more general narrative that appears to be entirely about bearing a handful of grain silhouetted against the solar disk
victims. The earlier depiction of Franco disappeared, but – the anarchist party salute. Red tears previously dotted the
the horse and bull also underwent subtle transformations. women’s faces, possibly a reference to the colour of the
In the ancient Mithraic cult of the bullfight engrained in republic (red) as opposed to the Fascist ‘white’. The victims
the national imagination in Spain, horse serves man, and that previously littered the floor were eliminated, and only
both can share the same fate if the bull turns. But the bull, an outline remains for each remaining figure (except horse
too, can be cast as a victim – the animal is sacrificial totem and fallen warrior, whose limbs tangle and intertwine). The
of man’s bestiality, as well as symbol of eternal life-force sole survivor of this systematic deletion is an arrow, symbol
(there is always another bull to come into the ring). In of Franco’s Falangist party, inserted between the horse’s
Dream and Lie of Franco, these roles are fairly stable – the hind legs, as if to preserve some faint reference to the
bull in every case is an avenging ‘spirit of Spain,’ confronting specifics of the conflict. But it is merely an outline, a ghostly
the hairy Franco and an equally polyp-headed horse in the fragment almost lost in the scuffle.
two of the last images of the series of etchings (drawn in The bull is essential to Picasso’s non-declarative statement
January before bombing, or painting, had begun). The horse and to the ambiguities of Guernica’s actors. As art historian

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William Rubin has noted, Guernica represents at least three which it interprets as it understands them. … It’s up to the
major themes in Picasso’s life and art: the Crucifixion, the public to see what it wants to see’.47 Picasso’s insistence on
national ritual of the bullfight, and the mythological making the reader determine the painting’s meaning was
tradition of the Minotaur.43 The Guernica bull connects characteristic of his modernism and a crucial component of
with the last two themes, but although it has always been Guernica’s fame. It was a complex strategy whose success
linked to the Minotaur myth (particularly by analogy with was compromised on artistic and geopolitical fronts.
Picasso’s similarly composed etching, Minotauromachy, Left-wing writers either sought to fix its meaning
from 1935), the Guernica bull’s lidded, almond eyes reveal (referring to the painting as The Massacre of Guernica) or
that Picasso evokes here the man-headed bull (rather than denounced its weird abstractions as ‘wholly inadequate for
the bestial Minotaur).44 The Minotaur was Picasso’s emblem the wholesome mentality of the proletariat’. In one of the
of his own satyr-like sexuality, but the man-headed bull few reviews in the mainstream press, the architect Le
refers to a different mythological theme – Zeus’s incarnation Corbusier stated ‘[Guernica] saw only the backs of the
as a white bull in the mythological founding of Europe. The visitors, for they were repelled by it.’ The German guidebook
Europa myth is no less sexual, but it is also divine – and its to the Exposition internationale described an unnamed
grand historical sweep is more appropriate to the scale of painting in the ‘Red’ pavilion of Spain that seemed ‘to
this painting. The white-headed, almond-eyed bull could represent the dream of a madman, a hodgepodge of parts of
well be an impregnating Picasso – but it is Picasso as bearer bodies that a four-year-old child could have painted’. 48
of a European future. He is present at Guernica but There was some discussion of removing the canvas and
untouched, forced to acknowledge his god-like detachment replacing it with a comprehensible social realist work – after
from this scene of senseless murder, illuminated only by a all, in the nearby French pavilion, fellow cubist Fernand
news-photographer’s flashbulb and the guttering flames of Léger had sought clarity in his cheerful tribute to the
war. Transmission of Energy, by combining photographs in a
Beyond his own literal removal from the conflict, Picasso’s utopian montage that brought city and country together
distance was rhetorical, as we have seen. He was wary of under the raised fist and rainbow of the Popular Front. The
organized politics in general (his famous post-war antagonism against the painting by both left and right
commitment to the Communist party notwithstanding). galvanized a group of artists and writers to come to
But the apolitical tenor of Guernica may have been endemic Guernica’s defence. They found support from Greek
to a nation struggling with civil war, where ‘nation’ is an expatriate Christian Zervos and his wife Yvonne, who
ideology that manifestly fails to alleviate the rage and hatred commandeered a double issue of the international
between neighbours. At the dedication of Guernica, one contemporary art journal, Cahiers d’Art (edited by M.
speaker cited the comment of the Republic’s President, Zervos), and devoted it to Picasso’s painting and to the
Manuel Azaña, who had referred to ‘a terrible people, the Republican cause during that summer of 1937. The stakes
Spanish people, terrible principally to themselves because it were very high, and Guernica became the new face of an
is the one people of Europe capable of pricking itself with its international modernist agenda.
own sting’.45 Picasso seems to have felt that it was too simple When the Spanish pavilion was dismantled in November,
merely to condemn Franco or rant at fascists. At the core of the Republic that had commissioned it was in desperate
Spanish identity, as he constructed it, was the cultural straits. Guernica had stayed with Picasso in Paris, and the
negotiation with violence, reflected in the fact (often collapse of the Republican government in March 1939
remarked upon by Picasso) that the national spectacle of rendered him the custodian of a painting he did not legally
the bullfight was always scheduled immediately after own. Even before the cause was lost, however, Picasso had
Catholic mass. Ruminating on the subject later, during the shown no compunction to ask anyone in the Republican
intense Allied bombing of Europe in April 1944, Picasso government what he should do with the painting; as
saw both sides as animated by bloodlust. But even then he honorary director of the Prado, he was in some sense acting
accorded a special status to the Spanish: ‘The Spaniards are as a government official when he agreed to send the enormous
alone in their love of violence and cruelty – they love to see canvas on a world tour. Throughout the war, Guernica was a
it flow, to run: the blood of the horses, the blood of the primary fund-raiser for Spanish war relief. Not incidentally,
bulls, the blood of men. Whether they are ‘whites’ or ‘reds’, it also proved its mettle as a proselytizing force for
whether priests or communists are tortured and burned international modernism and abstraction in public art.
there is always the same pleasure in seeing the flow of blood. The strangest chapter in Guernica’s very public life was
In that particular realm, no one can top the Spaniards’.46 the aged Franco’s decision to launch a campaign to obtain
Guernica’s bull was thus extremely complex: Picasso and the painting’s ‘return’ (even though it had always been
Zeus, unfeeling animal and god-like witness, distant abroad) to a Spain that it had always avoided. So convincing
European and tragic Spanish soul, Mithraic sacrifice and was Picasso’s Spanish identity (despite the fact that the
symbol of eternal life, peasant nobility and fascist darkness – majority of his life and artistic career was spent in France),
even the astrological symbol (Taurus, Hitler’s sign). By and so malleable was the aesthetic distance that Picasso had
1947, pressed to explicitly link the bull to the bestial constructed around the Guernica event and painting itself,
regression of fascism, Picasso protested: ‘But this bull is a that by the late 1960s Franco declared that the painting and
bull and this horse is a horse. There’s a sort of bird, too, a its maker were national treasures of Spain. The move for
chicken or a pigeon, I don’t remember now exactly what it Guernica’s ‘return’ also gathered force from international
is, on a table. And this chicken is a chicken. Sure, they’re modernists in Spain who sought to build bridges to
symbols. But it isn’t up to the painter to create symbols; counteract their isolation within the world. But the
otherwise, it would be better if he wrote them out in so campaign for the painting’s ‘return’ was no conversion on
many words instead of painting them. The public that looks Franco’s part to the beauties of surrealist modernism; it
at the picture must see in the horse and the bull symbols merely represented the slow momentum of a national state

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seeking to maximize its cultural capital. Not coincidentally, rubble of that war, and was celebrated at New York’s
it was also part of a plan to neutralize the poisons of the Museum of Modern Art in the depths of the Great
past – a past that Spanish art historians under fascism had Depression), but the second global conflict had seriously
already laboured to erase, by claiming that Picasso’s painting damaged that faith. There were strong victories by the left in
was ‘no longer an illustration of one specific bombardment, the political sphere, but in the arts, production seemed to
but the picture of all bombed cities’.49 The monumental tap into a deeper mood of despair and anti-rationalism.
complexities attending the transfer of Guernica to Spain Colonialist primitivism finally waned, but in its place
after Picasso’s death were slowly resolved after the ‘Caudillo,’ Northern Europeans sought works by children, art of the
Franco himself, died a few years later. In 1981, Picasso’s insane, and other absolute alternatives to civilization and
lawyer, Roland Dumas, finally agreed that the Spanish ‘fine art’. Similarly, young Spanish and Italian painters
Government, though not a republic but a constitutional sought one type of ‘ground zero’ in matter itself (a trend
monarchy, was sufficiently stable to satisfy the conditions that would also emerge forcefully in Japan). This engagement
Picasso himself had established: that the painting should go with inarticulate base material (dirt, sand, mud) was coupled
to the Prado when civil liberties had been returned to the with ‘wounds’ and signs of trauma in the body of the
Spanish people. Even ensconced behind thick plate glass painting itself: torn canvases, slits in the paint membrane,
and protected around the clock by an armed guard and surfaces glutted with grit. Both figurative and abstract
(defending it from capture by Basque nationalists), the productions spoke to the general state of abjection –
painting’s first installation in Madrid signified powerfully paintings were traumatized objects in need of either burial
that, as the newspaper El Pais announced in banner or repair.
headlines, ‘THE WAR HAS ENDED.’ The painting’s Some of the artists who gained prominence in this period
perceived internationalism was balm for the reconciliation were young non-combatants, growing up into what seemed
and healing of past wounds at Guernica’s opening in Madrid, to be a blasted theatre of rubble and defeat. Others had
as communist orator ‘La Passionata’ (Dolores Ibarruri) been painting in an anti-rational vein for decades, but
rubbed shoulders with the Duchess of Alba. But when the discovered that the world suddenly agreed with their
Minister of Culture announced: ‘Nobody should interpret pessimistic views. A self-referential morbidity dominated
the work as a flag for any sector – let us look at Guernica as Continental philosophy, crystallizing as Existentialism,
a pure and simple rejection of brutal force’,50 that choice of which predominated in Paris and New York in the 1950s.
phrasing (‘should’) revealed that people still needed to be Japanese artists sought alternatives to the state religion of
told what to think about it. Guernica’s ambiguities remain Shinto (corrupted into a nationalist emperor cult during
neither pure nor simple; they alone will prevail. the war), in part through an evolving Zen Buddhism that
negotiated with the aggressive individualism of the culture
of the occupying Americans. The nearly global aesthetic
Trauma and transcendence tendency toward agonistic expression, crusty surfaces, and
anti-fine art was packaged neatly in 1952 as ‘le mouvement
The figured gash in the Guernica horse’s body (and, by informel’ in Michel Tapié’s book Un art autre; in place of
implication, in the canvas) was only the beginning of a cubism and geometric order would be formlessness.
process that developed after the end of the Second World The work of Jean Fautrier, a minor figurative painter all
War. As part of a larger social body, art was wounded, in but forgotten in the wake of abstraction’s dominance after
some deep metaphorical sense. Fragmented bodies, slashed the 1950s, helps illuminate the complexities of modernism
canvases, and sculptures that looked like excrement or as it appeared in Paris immediately after the war. Fautrier’s
rubble – all enacted trauma in both Europe and Japan. best-known works date from the mid-1940s, when the
Heroic figurative painting had been urged by social realists artist’s dark vision of human depravity caught up with the
on the left and fascists on the right, and thus modernist public humiliation of Vichy (pro-German) France.
abstraction was the perceived antidote; still, it needed to Produced in relative isolation, Fautrier’s wartime paintings
evolve to a point where it could be felt as ‘expressive’ of the were not exhibited until after V-day in 1945, when they
post-war condition. Curious hybrids emerged in this served as templates for public renditions of France’s role as
evolutionary process, and the body (as art, or in art’s victim in fascism’s sweep.
production) had a major role to play. Flayed beef, hanging rabbit skins, and a dreaming corpse
Giuseppe Panza, an Italian art collector who began to whose intestines lie open to our fascinated gaze – these
purchase works in Paris in the mid-1950s, later commented were the morbid subjects that occupied Fautrier in the late
that ‘in some way the Second World War was the end of 1920s. The long Northern traditions of vanitas and memento
Europe’, and he addressed the pervasive feeling of crisis in mori, which had motivated artists since Rembrandt to
the post-war years: capture such raw food-chain realities, mingled in Fautrier’s
works with surrealism and the nocturnal vision of symbolists
I felt very deeply the changes taking place after the war. such as Odilon Redon. Paradoxically, Fautrier’s palette
The rationalist vision of life and the idealist philosophy lightened during the war, as he began the series that would
of culture had been popular in Italy. But [the war] was be retrospectively titled ‘Hostages’ (Otages). These heavily
deeply shocking to the belief in man’s rational capacities... impastoed paintings began in 1942 with renditions of barely
To see how reason failed totally during the war was a human heads surrounded by monochromatic deposits of
great crisis for European culture.51 plaster and pigmented mineral dust. The ‘hostages’ in
question were understood by Fautrier’s post-liberation
The First World War had perhaps left a striving for audience to be those French Resistance fighters (and
geometric, technocratic modernism intact (recall that the helpless bystanders) taken by German soldiers (most
‘International Style’ in architecture was born from the notably in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where Nazi

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troops killed more than 600 villagers on 10 June 1944). heroism does not come forth. If these are portraits, they are
Some of the imagery Fautrier used thus precedes the stripped to the bone of Being. No Renaissance hats, walking
politicized identity assigned to the paintings (as in Picasso’s sticks, or views of distant vineyards – we view only
Guernica). As we have seen, the ‘reading in’ of post-hoc disembodied heads, their eyes fixed open in perpetuity or
political subtexts was authorized by modernism’s increasing scratched into blindness. These are paintings that require us
demand that meaning be based within the viewer. It is as if to observe an individual whose social markers have been
the identity of these subjects as ‘hostages’ was called up peeled away (and thereby subsumed into the rafts of
when Parisian viewers found such imagery and associations ‘displaced persons’ massing in post-war Paris at the time
to be historically necessary – and not a minute before. they were exhibited). Fautrier’s endlessly repeated hostage
The horrifying seductiveness of Fautrier’s abject bodies heads are unsettling in their intimacy, like the nudes – but
and heads comes at us slowly and in waves established in their ethical address is radically different. Some would argue
part by the inevitable oscillation between word (in the title) that their reiteration merely renders banal Nazi murder;
and image (floating in the mind’s eye, yet also materially others believe that the heads evoke the technological horror
grounded). The sex and breasts of a semi-abstract nude he of those manufactured deaths.
painted in 1943, for example, appear as shimmering veils of Fautrier wanted people to believe he painted as a witness,
russet, rose, and lilac oxides dusted over crusty mounds of an outsider to the ‘other’s’ trauma; clearly the work of Jean
white (highly reflective) plaster. But then the monosyllabic Dubuffet and Wols (expatriate German Wolfgang Schultz,
Nu of the work’s title comes back into focus, and we struggle arguably the least known but most important of the informel
to read a nude body in the forms – our search connecting group) could be seen in similar terms. Still other, younger
these tinted calciferous undulations to the grand French artists seemed to have experienced the rupture of Europe on
tradition of lounging odalisques (Boucher, Fragonard, a more visceral level and worked with the canvas as an abject
Ingres, or Fautrier’s closest master Matisse). But the body body, or with sculpture as metaphorical excrement,
in question emerges as a horrifically amputated torso. unworthy of ‘art’. Immediately after the war (and before his
Connecting with Fautrier’s openly fetishistic works from better-known Concetto Spaziale slit canvases of the 1960s),
the 1920s, his nude in 1943 is little more than breasts, belly Lucio Fontana produced lumpy, vaguely cubic accretions of
and sex, without even the vestigial stumps that code for gnarled, somewhat repulsive iridescent black ceramic (such
‘classical Venus’ in the lexicon of aesthetic violence against as a 1949 work titled Ceramica spaziale). Around the same
the female form. The abjection of this body, its fragmentation, period, fellow Italian Alberto Burri exhibited torn shreds of
disorder, and stubbornly crude bassesse, recalled what rags, tenderly stitched together but always failing to cover
theorists such as Georges Bataille (Fautrier’s contemporary the painting’s ruptured surface, revealing red or brown areas
and one of his collaborators) had used to exemplify as ‘leaching through’ the gaps between shrouds. Piero
formlessness – that refusal to cohere into belle peinture Manzoni was the third member of this Italian group who
(bourgeois preference and great French academic tradition). had briefly banded together to form an artistic collective; he
Bataille saw bassesse and the formlessness in social and perfectly expressed the shift from this late-1940s aesthetics
psychological terms, ‘affirming that the universe resembles of abjection to the 1960s discourse of commodity culture, in
nothing and is only formless … something like a spider or his infamous mass-produced tins of Merda d’Artista
spit’.52 Rather than merely a pretext for ordered composition (Artist’s Shit) in 1961. Confirming this Southern European
(as André Breton would have it), formlessness was a radical emphasis on base materialism, Spaniard Antoni Tàpies
challenge to Cartesian rationalism and humanist subjectivity produced ‘matter’ paintings built up horizontally on the
(in place of the classically educated ‘cogito’ Bataille placed floor, out of layers of cement, oil, marble dust, latex, sand,
the mute animal ‘excreto’). Fautrier flirted with these gravel, hair, and/or pigment (which is traditionally, after all,
associations, but of course he did make Art: small cabinet only another form of pulverized earth). These dense tabla
pictures that were framed and sold. As Europeans came to were then scored, scratched, gouged and scoured like the
know these paintings, whether grouped as Otages, or vertical ‘walls’ with which they were associated as soon as
displayed with works such as the contemporaneous they were hung, vertically, on the gallery or museum wall.
Dépouille (whose title translates as ‘remains,’ as in a corpse), Begun shortly after he returned from a visit to post-war
their undeniable duality (between roseate veil of pigment Paris, Tàpies’s ‘wall’ paintings were his central revelation of
and crusty, excremental base) was seen as expressing the the 1950s, fulfilling what he came to believe was his destiny
unspeakable – and the war had brought home such a and identity (‘Tàpies’ being Catalan for ‘wall’): ‘Each canvas
dialectic. [had been] a battlefield on which the wounds were to
Are the famed ‘Otages’ any different? Perhaps they are multiply over and over again, to infinity. And then came the
not so cruel, because the sensuality of their surfaces is surprise. All that frenetic movement, all that gesticulation
neither advertised (as in Nu) nor sustained. It is immediately [suddenly] came together in a uniform mass. What had
cancelled by the violence of the mark – the gashes and been burning ebullition transformed itself on its own into
incisions performed on that most expressive of all images: static silence’. 53 Frenetic wounds into silence – this is
the human face. The mutilated faces of these heads something like the planned trajectory of Guernica (although
immediately invoke monsters: Cyclops, in whom the eyes silence has yet to be completely achieved); it is also analogous
(seat of the soul) are fused in monstrous singularity (Head to the quiet toil of healing, as platelets and skin cells work to
of a Hostage, No. 1, 1944), or apocalyptic lambs, where eyes repair the body’s integument, torn by violence and war.
multiply into visionary hordes (Head of a Hostage, No. 14, Tàpies’s approach to nationalism and internationalism
1944). Viewing these heads as anonymous portraits was even more complex than Picasso’s. He was living under
(portraits of individuals made anonymous through violence), Franco, and whatever patronage was available to him in
we are prepared to apprehend them in a heroic narrative of Spain conformed to the constricted circumstances of that
resistance, death, and immortality through art. But such regime. Yet he succeeded in being highly mobile, arranging

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exhibitions around the world to produce international home towns of Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam), in
contexts in which to show his art. Navigating the space their raging manifesto written in a Paris café in November
between his isolated country’s dour politics and an 1948, made their ideas materialize in figurative paintings
international modernism that would transcend regionalism, that ended up looking a great deal like the highly textured
for Tàpies abstraction was a logical choice – it ensured that graffiti figures of Jean Dubuffet’s l’art brut.
he would seem ‘safe’ to export. The ‘battlefield’ could be Dubuffet’s flattened 1950s corps de dame paintings,
neutralized, as Tàpies said – yet its silent politics could be together with an American speaking tour on what he called
played out in a ghostly version, through a discourse of his ‘Anti-Cultural Positions’ secured his reputation as a
international modernism and avant-gardism that swirled primary spokesman for abject, ‘low,’ unrefined art that could
vaguely around these abstract forms. As Picasso had never be placed in the service of nationalism, because it was
demonstrated, international fame could give leverage, considered outside the radar of civilization. But even this
something even a fascist despot might want – but acquiring fiery radical still operated in traditional figurative genres:
that fame required the most delicate rhetorical and artistic the nude, the portrait, the still life, and the landscape. And
skills. Typical of the necessary manoeuvring is the following curiously, the abstract/figurative split seemed to organize a
review, which opens with a grand tribute to Tàpies as master post-war European aesthetical and geographical split. Thus,
of the ‘school of Altamira’ (prehistoric, not modern Spain) an invisible border can be mapped between figurative informe
and quotes the painter’s incantatory prose: painters such as Dubuffet, Fautrier, Wols, and the Cobra
painters of the North, and the more abstract tendencies
For them, as they stated in their manifesto, the found in Southern European artists such as Tàpies,
Magdalenian cave of art of the northwest of their country Fontana, and Burri. An overarching analysis that views
was a symbol ‘of living art, of art outside historical time, these tendencies within the context of a former theatre of
of art above all nationalism, representative of painting war suggests that this may be more of a gap than a true
which fused forms and experience and revealed a great divide. The canvas may be an abstract form that stands for
capacity for synthesis’.54 an abject body (sutured in Burri, wounded but rendered
‘silent’ in Tàpies) or it may be a compulsive representation
We can imagine why it would be crucial for an artist working of an ‘other’ who must be simultaneously brought closer
in Franco’s Spain of the 1950s to achieve an ‘art above all and held at bay (flayed in Dubuffet, made anonymous in
nationalism,’ anchored in a chthonic art of the cave dwellers. Fautrier). In either case, the agenda is shared, although the
As with Guernica, abstraction and generalization could be a means are divergent. Trauma needed, above all, to be
way of avoiding the traps of specific ideologies and local recorded in the pictorial body.
politics. Not surprisingly, we find Tàpies articulating ideas As we have seen, most of these Europeans viewed trauma
very similar to Picasso’s in positing a transfer of meaning to from the tips of their brushes, keeping formlessness at a
the viewer – a viewer both outside the canvas and, increasingly, discreet distance and making works that could still be
outside the country. The modernist canvas was necessary, but framed and hung on a wall (or boxed under a showcase and
not sufficient cause: ‘The painting is simply a “support” that mounted on a pedestal).
invites the viewer to participate … So, the “theme” can be Asians had a profoundly different, much more visceral
found in the painting, or it can reside solely in the mind of response to the war’s aftermath, particularly in the formerly
the spectator’.55 imperial Axis power, Japan. Japanese reflections on the
For Northern Europeans, the path was similar, but the tumult and trauma of war culture was led by calligraphers
results were very different. The relay from meaning-located- as early as 1951 (which was appropriate given calligraphy’s
in-the-image to meaning-in-the-viewer was a principle for position at the pinnacle of Asian artistic and literary
Fautrier, as we have seen – but the reading of a 1942 Hostage culture). Just as Ernst had cast his post-war lot with
painting in terms of a 1944 event at Oradour did not Parisian surrealism, Japanese calligraphers turned to
necessitate the level of abstraction that Tàpies seemed to dissidents in the victor’s culture for legitimacy.
require. Nor was such thorough abstraction needed by the Consequently, calligraphers eagerly published images of
German painter Georg Kern, who experienced a new Franz Kline’s black-and-white abstractions in their new,
interest in the truncated heritage of German (figurative) avant-garde journal, and advocated a new international
Expressionism in 1958 as a result of seeing American modernism that would synthesize East and West (and, one
Abstract Expressionist works then touring in ‘The New presumes, neutralize the poisonous nationalisms that had
American Painting’ exhibition. Inspired by the surging, yet so recently divided them). An even more adventurous
totally non-representational brushstrokes of the paintings mixture of experimental approaches to art emerged in an
from New York, the young Kern changed his name to obscure outpost of Japan’s post-war art world, around a
Baselitz (anchoring himself back to his birthplace or group known as the ‘Gutai’ (or ‘Concrete’) art association
‘chthonic land’) and sought his ‘roots’ in a restored German that formed around Yoshihara Jiro, an art teacher near
past. German Expressionism had always been insistently Osaka. This sensei had moved through surrealism in the
representational (the non-objective painting of Kandinsky 1930s, so there was evidence that he was well tuned to the
was sometimes included into the movement, but currents of international (e.g. Western, at this point)
inappropriately so) – Baselitz’s neo-Expressionism thus modernism. Immediately after the war he painted childlike,
surfaced in paintings of the human figure, but like Fautrier’s figurative canvases that could be compared to Dubuffet.
they were abject bodies wholly vulnerable and full of wounds His students coming to form the Gutai group were much
(see Baselitz’s dishevelled, pathetic, half-naked Partisans more aggressive. They came to inhabit abjection, through
from the mid-1960s). Other Northern Europeans seemed their own bodily practices, and their art has only grown in
similarly committed to this figurative vein. Even the radical importance as art historians and critics of late-twentieth
ambitions of the Cobra group (named for the painters’ century art gain access to the documentation and theories

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behind this crucial chapter of post-war art. In a direct off my painting knife and shattered. In front of me lay an
response and challenge to what they were learning about austere road to originality.… Let me do it with my hands,
American avant-garde efforts, Gutai artists used their own with my fingers. Then … it occurred to me: why not feet?
experience of abjection (a national abjection, it should be Why don’t I paint with my feet?’58 Shiraga’s Challenging
noted) to produce their own ground zero (one of the avant- Clay had been one way to act on this imperative to ‘be
garde groups called itself ‘Group Zero,’ another, ‘Zero ‘naked’, quite literally, as the artist dressed only in underwear
Dimension’) for the building of a new, international, on that October day in 1955 when he wrestled with the
modern art. viscous earth. The untitled painting actions that he staged at
Yoshihara, master or sensei of the Gutai group, attracted the second Gutai exhibition the following year pursued the
a group of radical students whom he urged to generate ‘a second imperative. Like Jackson Pollock’s methods of
quite new, epoch-making idea … not imagined before the production (documented in 1951 by photographs of the
war’.56 When Yoshihara was joined by the members of American artist making his famous skein paintings) –
Group Zero in 1955 (Shiraga Kazuo, Murakami Saburo, methods with which the Gutai group were familiar, and to
Tanaka Atsuko and Kanayama Akira), the group became which they explicitly compared their activities – Shiraga
committed to ephemeral action, with exhibitable objects worked on an enormous horizontal surface, holding onto a
produced specifically for these events. Actions at the rope for balance and smearing earth-coloured pigment with
October 1955 ‘First Gutai Exhibition’ (staged in Tokyo) his bare feet. The horizontality (some say ‘baseness’) of this
included Murakami’s Paper Tearing, in which the artist method, enacted for the visitor, is significant – particularly
plunged through stacked frames of stretched paper (later since Shiraga produced them on the already implicitly
exhibited on their own), and Shiraga’s Challenging Mud, horizontal medium of paper (here one is reminded of
where visitors viewed the artist writhing in a ton of clay traditional Asian hand scrolls as well as newspapers, books,
that had been dumped in the courtyard of the exhibition letters and other reading material). When the results were
hall (the resulting tortured shapes were also to be exhibited alone, the horizontality of the image’s origin
considered works of art). Murakami’s action was would often be alluded to with a footprint – sometimes
particularly symbolic, since the nature-oriented Shinto registered in the painting’s upper right-hand corner where a
belief-system (which had been converted into a state title or calligrapher’s seal would appear in more traditional
religion during the war, with emperor-worship at its heart) objects of Asian art.
held each substance or form to possess a specific kami, or The footprints instantly enabled viewers to see that the
‘spirit of the material.’ (This reverence for the kami pictorial surface was horizontal, and at the same time,
expresses itself in the construction of traditional kimono, intimately related to the human element. But the footprint
for example, where bolts of fabric are cut as little as possible is also associated with blood-coloured, viscous material
in assembling the garment.) The experience of seeing (we begin to wonder, is it even paint?). A most powerful
Murakami’s body aggressively plunging through carefully comparison can be made with Jackson Pollock’s Number 1,
stretched screens of paper would provoke a strong sense of 1948 (Plate 156), which bears the painter’s handprints,
violation in a Japanese audience – an impact far greater, stamped on the upper right corner of the painting. Pollock’s
one expects, than the elegant incisions of a Fontana or the handprints, emerging from the apparently chaotic storm of
cruciform scratches of Tàpies. drips and lines of paint, assert the painter’s identity and
Japanese reviewers were frankly unprepared for Gutai’s volition, serving also as talismanic evocations of Palaeolithic
actions: ‘We were perplexed, as if we were confronting power. Had he known it (and it is very likely that he did),
aliens from Mars’.57 Indeed, although some of the artists Shiraga would have understood that Pollock’s painting was
pursued an elemental engagement with ‘concrete’ and basic executed through rhythmic movements around a horizontal
materials, others (Tanaka and Kanayama) used technology plane. The substitution of the foot for the hand is the mark
to make a mechanized art that did seem ‘Martian’ in the of abjection that connects Shiraga’s Gutai work to
context of Japanese hand-made art traditions (tea ceremony, Europeans such as Tàpies, Burri, and Dubuffet (who were
raku pottery, literati calligraphy, bamboo architecture, quickly enlisted in common cause with the Japanese
ikebana, garden design). Tanaka’s Electric Dress and through exhibitions and publications supervised by French
Kanayama’s ‘automatic’ paintings (made by little robots critics such as Michel Tapié). Yet rather than revealing the
drooling paint on a horizontal canvas) were typical of this regression into an abject or infantile state, photographs of
‘Martian’ aesthetic; non-Gutai artist Nakanishi Natsuyuki’s Gutai artists performing their actions show the artists
motorization of steel clothespins churning on burned cloth exhibiting enormous physical poise, stamina, and control.
was another. For all this frenzied innovation (1955 saw To the Westerner unfamiliar with these ‘body techniques,’
three separate action-exhibitions by the Gutai group), the they do not appear Martian at all, but martial – the
‘concreteness’ of Gutai’s achievement lingers primarily in discipline moulding Shiraga’s half-naked body is akin to
the residual paintings and objects, which remain after judo or Tai Chi, each force met by a counterforce, each
actions and viewers have moved on. Shiraga’s enormous limb’s movement balanced by a counter-movement.
canvases are particularly rich as emblems of the relationship Confirming its intention to assert an Eastern semiotic,
between abasement and transcendence in Gutai art. there is even a Buddhist reference in Shiraga’s footprint –
In his statement ‘Only Action’, Shiraga explains the an allusion to traditional renditions of the Buddha’s foot as
levelling of form he intended in the series of large abstractions he attained enlightenment, also referenced by Shiraga’s
he began around 1955, which continued through the 1960s mention of his ‘austere road’. In these ways the basesse of
(Plate 155); both paintings and statement illustrate the way Shiraga’s painting action is catapulted to transcendence: by
he conceived of body actions as inaugurating a new art: the grace and control he maintains over the prone image,
‘when I decided to be “naked”, to shed all conventional and by the act of re-orienting it to the vertical position for
ideas – forms flew out the window and techniques slipped the purposes of Art.

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The ‘triumph’ of American painting place of any aesthetic superiority, revisionist historians have
looked to the economic and geopolitical ascendancy of the
Fragments of the post-war histories narrated thus far have United States to explain the movement’s success. But even
mentioned the role played in Europe and Japan by the new within the limited context established thus far, we can see
painting coming out of New York in the late 1940s and that abstract expressionism offered post-war artists, viewers,
early 1950s, variously termed New York school painting (in and promoters a powerful synthesis. Like Guernica or the
explicit analogy to the Ecole de Paris) or abstract paintings of Tàpies and Shiraga, the style produced
expressionism (tapping into another legacy, that of early increasingly abstract and non-objective paintings that
twentieth-century German expressionism or its variant in nonetheless bore the marks of cathartic ‘expression’. Such a
the hands of the Russian abstractionist, Wassily Kandinsky). compromise was enormously appealing in the international
While it has been strategically important here to discuss the sphere of Cold War politics. There was nothing
painting of Europe and Japan before implying a prior programmatic about this (except after the fact). Individual
American avant-gardism, in fact the web of cross-cultural systems were hammered out by formerly left-wing artists
influences was very dense and all but simultaneous. During working in relative isolation in New York. They sought to
and after the Occupation, exchange of information took chart a noncommittal course for their production, free from
place through magazines, exhibitions, and artists’ travel. In the increasingly rigid demands of communism on the left,
terms of strict art-historical ‘priority’, Pollock is often and the horrifying rise of McCarthyism on the right.
credited with the primary breakthrough into abstraction, Recognizable subject matter was eliminated in their work,
his working methods documented (through artists’ in favour of individual symbolic systems and abstract
magazines as well as mass-media organs such as Time and form – but as with their European models (Pollock in
Life), transmitted throughout Europe and Japan, where particular was obsessed with the priority of Picasso), their
they had an immediate impact. (Of course abstraction chosen abstractions were nonetheless held to be universally
existed outside modern Western painting, and there were accessible through a variety of means that pulverized
precedents in early American modernists as well as in language and nation in favour of primitive models of
Russian art.) The priority claimed for Pollock stems from ‘collective unconsciousness’ (the concept of a universal and
his mural-sized ambitions, but these were fuelled in turn by innate system of symbolic forms promulgated by Swiss
Europeans such as Picasso (whose Guernica was on view in analyst Carl Jung) or intuitive emotional response. Such
Manhattan during the war). Pollock and his compatriots in modes had precedents in earlier modern art, but their
the New York school were more deeply connected to confluence in abstract expressionism resulted in a style of
European modernism than any generation before them. painting that seemed so unprecedented that few could
Disruptions and fascist persecutions in Europe had brought connect it to previous artistic movements. A certain anxiety
to New York Max Ernst, André Breton, Piet Mondrian, of influence may have been in play as New York supporters
Fernand Léger, leading surrealist André Masson (who had downplayed links with German expressionism (with its
experimented with ‘automatism’ in art as early as 1924), a search for the primitive roots of expression), on the one
host of other minor surrealists, and Mexican muralist David hand, and the utopian geometric abstraction of Russian
Siquieros (who railed against bourgeois easel painting and suprematists and de Stijl painters, (with their theories about
insisted on working on the floor, or directly on the wall). the intrinsic expressivity of colour and form), on the other.
Rather than simply ‘copying’ these powerful influences, Crucial to the formation of abstract expressionists’
however, New York painters anxiously negotiated with tenuous collective identity was the background of the US
them – desperately aspiring to international recognition Government’s surprisingly socialist response to global
even as they sought to appear uniquely ‘American’ and depression in the 1930s. The Federal Art Project had been
hence utterly unprecedented on the international stage. established as part of the Works Progress Administration
Jackson Pollock gave a pithy summary of abstract in 1935, and its administrators acknowledged that ‘artist’
expressionist aesthetics years before producing his was a profession worth supporting (a development
characteristic non-objective canvases of dripped enamel unprecedented in American culture). The WPA employed
paint. Pressed by German modernist Hans Hofmann in immigrant artists (Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning), as
1942 to work from nature, Pollock famously retorted, ‘I am well as American-born painters (Lee Krasner, Pollock, and
nature.’ His response reflects the complex mixture of Philip Guston) and even critics (Harold Rosenberg), all of
discourses characterizing the New York school: Jungian whom would contribute to the genesis and codification of
psychoanalysis, modernist primitivism, existentialism, the new abstract mode. Although most of the federally
nationalism, and the romantic sublime. Like most art funded murals fell in line with prevailing representational
movements, abstract expressionism had no hard historical styles (featuring heroic workers, churning assembly lines,
or stylistic boundaries, and was named largely after the fact and rolling farmland), there was room within the programme
by people other than the artists making the paintings. It for abstraction. Works by Europeans such as de Kooning
seemed to coalesce as an unnamed style only after the and Gorky already revealed a sophisticated hunger for
Second World War, when a small group of impoverished European modernism, from the cubists’ achievement of a
middle-aged artists came into view with an ‘obvious’ shallow, minimally illusionist space to surrealism’s innovative
alternative to provincial realism; their hard-won abstractions biomorphic abstractions. The living presence of expatriated
emerged as the victors in a complex struggle to find visual surrealists in New York further reinforced the importance
form for the post-war American presence in an international of the unconscious and the role of automatism in stimulating
world. At the time, the visibility of what came to be known creativity. But where the surrealists had used automatism as
after 1954 as abstract expressionism was taken as proof of a form of suggestion, to initiate the more conscious process
the formal and psychological superiority of the art (one of making poetry or drawings, as practised by the abstract
textbook was titled The Triumph of American Painting). In expressionists, automatism was valued as an end in itself

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(this is the sense of Pollock’s ‘I am nature’ statement). Throughout the 1940s, New York abstract painters had
Claims to work from the unconscious were predicated on a emphasized their works’ continuities with both archaic
continuum between id and organic expression, and Pollock’s Greek myth and Native American belief systems (continuities
first poured paintings (begun in 1947) proclaimed both clearly charted by Freud’s Oedipal narratives and Totem and
their natural and automatist origins with titles such as Taboo, reflected in the titles of paintings such as Pollock’s
Galaxy, Phosphorescence, and Vortex. Pollock’s radical two Totems from 1947). The long tradition of modernist
process, documented in photographs that purported to primitivism thus took a slightly different spin in the American
show the ‘frenzy of creation’ rather than the cliché of artist- context. New York painters felt themselves to be dwelling in
with-palette, showed him moving his whole body around a a barbarous age, and experienced their thinking as continuous
horizontal, unprimed canvas, flinging paint in loops and with the supposedly ‘primitive’ mind – particularly those
trails in a rhythmic, repetitive, trancelike dance. putatively ‘primitive’ minds that were not isolated in some
The abstract expressionist subject was thus constructed colonial periphery, but deeply woven into American beliefs
as a visionary, a solitary and possessed individual in a world (from the Algonquin-inspired US Constitution to African
of mass formations. But the repeating rhythms of Pollock’s diasporal jazz). The artists had only positive associations
skeins could also evoke regimes of automated labour (this with such Native American or African themes, but the
was how critic Clement Greenberg sensed its modernity). anthropological theories that they turned to were often
The much-boasted alienation and anguish of the artist was deeply racist. The supposedly subconscious process of
held to resist everything from fascist totalitarianism to an assimilation in which others’ ethnic traits became available
emerging consumer culture; yet the painting could nicely for a white-dominated national culture were propounded,
decorate a modern businessman’s apartment. The isolated for example, by Carl Jung, whose 1930 essay ‘Your Negroid
gestural painter was seen as male, white, and above all, free and Indian Behaviour: The Primitive Elements in the
(a subject position that proved problematic for non-males American Mind’ is only one example.59 The European-
such as Krasner, or non-whites such as Norman Lewis or derived method of automatism, taken in this context, was
Wilfredo Lam). The action painter’s volcanic productions thought to reveal to American painters a subconscious
could then be taken as both proof and guarantor of already formed by national substrates of African or Native
democratic liberalism and free speech. American forms. Picasso could ‘perform’ an identification
This heightened individualism meshed very well with free with Africa to defy the French artistic and colonial
market ideologies of global capital, serving the mass formations establishment, but the abstract expressionists’ tropism
it was imagined to inoculate itself against. This irony is toward the ‘primitive’ could be constructed as the very source
exemplified by the historical overlap of Michel Tapié’s 1958 of national identity. Thus the American abstract painter
exhibition ‘International Art of a New Era: Informel and Barnett Newman, passionately identifying with coastal tribes
Gutai,’ which juxtaposed works by Pollock, Yoshihara, and such as the Kwakiutl, wrote in 1947: ‘To [the Kwakiutl
Dubuffet and travelled to Paris, Osaka, and New York, and artist] a shape was a living thing, a vehicle for an abstract
the simultaneous appearance of a 1958 travelling exhibition thought-complex, a carrier of the awesome feelings he felt
‘New American Painting,’ which brought Pollock and other before the terror of the unknowable. [Now] a new force in
compatriots throughout European capitals to exemplify American painting … is the modern counterpart of the
American democratic values. Pollock was, in the former, an primitive art impulse.’ Insisting that their non-objective
explicit antagonist of bureaucratic regimentation; in the latter, paintings offered the accessible equivalent of these highly
he was a vivid emissary of democracy’s tolerance of expression complex ideographic signifiers, Newman continued, ‘For
during the cultural Cold War. In the Tapié exhibition, here is a group of artists who are not abstract painters,
Pollock was an international rebel (like the others, ostensibly); although working in what is known as the abstract style’.60
in the American exhibition, he was the national avatar of As Tàpies had bid for Spanishness with his Altamira school,
cowboy grit. As we have seen, this kind of slippage was the Newman’s international modernism would be American in
flip side of modern abstraction and its openness to the a constructed primordial sense.
viewer – even Picasso, whose Guernica retained both imagery Newman’s remark, consistent with the modernist
and geopolitical title, was not able to completely control the subjectivity we have referred to in this essay, emphasized
interpretations of his canvas or its potential value for opposing that readings of various kinds could be made by viewers –
ideologies. the paintings were non-objective, but had subjects. To
These fates could not have been anticipated by the artists ‘gesture’ painters such as Franz Kline or Jackson Pollock,
working in cultivated bohemian alienation in wartime New the subject of abstract expressionist painting was the grand
York. Automatism was predicated on the revelation of a narrative of the existential act – the subject, in other words,
deeply private interior world, and American artists was the modern self. Pollock’s hand prints in Number 1,
emphasized this in statements and through their jealously 1948 spell this out, relating both to the newly discovered
protected ‘signature styles’. The optimism of the 1930s smoke-outlined hands found in Palaeolithic caves, and to
vision of an art linked to its public (expressed both by the symbolic existentialist act of poet André Malraux, who
outsiders such as Mexican muralist Siquieros, and by the dove dramatically (was it to drown or to swim?) into the
US Government’s own WPA) had not entirely dissipated, Mediterranean Sea. Even the placement of Pollock’s
however. Both artists and critics forged connections between handprints is significant – at the upper right of the swirling
the private id and a wider sign system, predicated on popular mass of dripped skeins of paint, they would be read last
structural anthropologies (Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and (by Western viewers who customarily ‘read’ an image by
Sir James Frazer) as well as psychoanalysis (Freud and scanning it left to right). They recreate, quite literally, the
Jung). The romantic sublime would be key to these reintegration of self through representation, following a
connections, but primitivism came first. Pollock’s Number 1, harrowing journey of pictorial disintegration and chaos that
1948 united both. is part and parcel of the rhetoric of the sublime.

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Pollock spoke little, and wrote less. But Newman and viewing conditions designed to maximize the desired state
others were at great pains to explain the difference between of absorption: Rothko, by grouping canvases together in
what they described as the ‘meaningless’ geometric abstraction fugues of subdued colour; Newman by asking visitors to
of Northern European modernists such as Mondrian and his 1951 exhibition to stand so close to his enormous
Kandinsky and their own (American) project. Pursuing both canvases that the entire field of vision would be saturated
figurative and ‘non-objective’ modes of painting (the first by intense colour. Thus deprived of visual focal points,
known as ‘Action’ or ‘Gesture,’ the second as ‘Field’), viewers are engulfed by the overwhelming aesthetic
New York school artists shifted over time from an emphasis experience that eventually triggers an examination of their
on primitive totems, to a discourse of isolated existentialist own identity.
action, to this final stage of cultural mastery via the sublime. From the jumble of critical approaches to abstract
In artist-run periodicals of the time, they used Edmund expressionism during its peak, two divergent interpretations
Burke’s quintessentially eighteenth-century meditations to came to dominate, both emerging from the Marxist culture
develop a crucial contrast between the specious (supposedly of New York in the 1930s, but with markedly different
European) search for beauty and the noble (supposedly slants. The first was codified by Harold Rosenberg, who
American) quest for the sublime.61 Acting only from his coined the term ‘action painting’ to describe the risky,
agonized internal emotions, the American artist was supposed existential process captured in the 1951 photographs of
to create objects that provoked a trajectory of terror and ego Pollock in the process of painting. Describing the canvas as
dissolution, followed by an aesthetic integration of ego in the ‘an arena in which to act’ in 1952, Rosenberg concluded:
end. This sublime trajectory was predicated on the same ‘What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an
processes of mythologization, individuation, and personal event’.64 This existential position had clear resonance with
expression that had animated earlier phases of the movement. what the Gutai artists would initiate; it also profoundly
As Newman summarized it: ‘Instead of making cathedrals affected younger artists in the US. For example, Allan
out of Christ, man, or “life,” we are making it [sic] out of Kaprow, who was influenced by Pollock, probably aware of
ourselves, out of our own feelings.’ Gutai, and took classes from the avant-garde composer
As used by Newman, ‘man’ was not simply a neutral John Cage, introduced an action-oriented art that was
term. Newman (who quoted Kant on the subject) saw the known as ‘Happenings’ in 1958 and evolved into ‘performance
sublime as an exclusively masculine pursuit defined in art’, which persisted throughout the rest of the twentieth
opposition to the ‘feminine’ search for beauty. Newman’s century. Kaprow’s new genre emphasized what he articulated
thinking can be seen to culminate in the first of his large- as ‘The Legacy of Jackson Pollock:’ ‘Not satisfied with the
scale works, the 8 × 18 ft. ‘field’ painting Vir Heroicus suggestion through paint of our other senses, we shall utilize
Sublimis from 1950. A taut horizontal canvas with a the specific substances of sight, sound, movements, people,
smoothly brushed surface of saturated red, Vir is punctuated odors, touch’.65
by a few scant verticals of brushier pinks and browns, as well The second interpretation of Pollock’s painting emerged
as one narrow strip of unpainted canvas. Newman called as a reaction to this promiscuous mingling of sensuous
these ruptures in the chromatic field ‘zips’, and many experiences. In 1940, art critic Clement Greenberg had
scholars believe that they were stimulated by post-war New revisited Gotthold Lessing’s Laokoön, an eighteenth-century
York exhibitions of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s diatribe against confusion within the arts. Greenberg’s 1941
spindly and cadaverous figures – lone existential men response was ‘Towards a Newer Laokoön’, the first of many
standing isolated in the void. Like so many other abstract influential and controversial pieces in which he argued that
expressionists, Newman painted as a ‘sublime heroic man,’ modernism, too, was opposed to the confusion resulting
seeking to enact, rather than depict, (his) contemporary from a progressive, even teleological, purification of the arts.
existence. ‘The self, terrible and constant, is for me the In opposition to Rosenberg’s later celebration of existential
subject matter of painting and sculpture’.62 ‘action,’ Greenberg argued that modernism was responsible
Sublimity was invoked in these paintings not merely for producing appropriate modern subjects. Modernism
through their titles, nor solely through their forms (or had to accompany viewers into their experience of a largely
formlessness). It was produced in the viewer by implicit and urbanized and industrial society, not take them back to
explicit identification with the artists’ intense process of imaginary caves. Painting, in Greenberg’s formalist view,
creation, particularly in the case of Pollock. ‘Jackson broke had a job to do. That job was constrained and intensified by
the ice’ (as de Kooning had remarked), establishing through its uniquely visual nature – this was how he celebrated
his infrequent statements and even less-frequent interviews Pollock, whom he described as America’s ‘greatest living
that ‘On the floor … I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, artist’ in a British culture magazine in 1947.
since this way I can … literally be in the painting’, or ‘When Greenberg’s teleological view of modernism resonated
I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing’.63 with the post-war technocrats that managed the Cold War
Being lost in the act of painting was comparable to being on the American side. Modernism, like democracy,
lost in the act of viewing the painting, rescued, in the end, by represented progress. It moved in one direction, in pursuit
the tenuous civilizing effects of title, or the decorous culture of specific visual qualities including flatness, and in
of gallery and museum. Pollock’s dense skeins of enamel, recognition of its aesthetic status as intended for ‘eyesight
intermittently soaking into the canvas or standing slightly alone’. Greenberg’s theories bore curious fruit in the US,
off the surface in taut whipcords of paint, produced provoking the emergence of minimalists and conceptual
shimmering fields that seem to blur in depth (the soaked artists in the late 1960s. These artists took Greenberg’s
first layers) and come into sharp focus in the foreground views to a logical extreme, producing what has been termed
(the later, unabsorbed layers). an ‘aesthetic of administration’ – a bureaucratization of the
The ‘field’ painters chose a different route to sublimity. senses that resonated rather profoundly with the post-war
Mark Rothko and Newman both attempted to impose apparatus of the Pax Americana.66

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G lobal M odernism any particular Asian art culture or from without? If

modernity is not ‘owned’ by the West, does it follow that
Asian modernism the kinds of modernity found in some Asian art cultures are
radically different or new?
By the end of the 1990s, it was relatively easy – for someone The affiliation of such modernity may be constructed in
in Euramerica67 – to believe that various kinds of modern at least three ways, the full implications of which have yet
art work and artists from the non-Euramerican world had to be explored. One approach is to see it as a challenge to
been accepted by the art establishment. This seemed to be authority of the established order, that is, as a dialectical
the case for Asian artists featured in the Les Magiciens de la relation to the Western world that has imposed modernity.
Terre show,68 at the biennals of Venice and São Paulo, and This is the colonial/post-colonial dimension of modernity,
who were increasingly exhibited in country or area-specific according to which modernity is a product of subordination
regional shows.69 Such acceptance might also reflect the or rejection and revolt. At least theoretically, this implies a
incorporation of modern Asian art into the restricting lack of authenticity or absence of an internal demand
intellectual paradigms of modernity, which were purportedly driving Asian modernity since external stimulus is
invented in Euramerica: the position of the centre may have necessary.
moved, but it remains the centre. A second affiliation involves the grouping of modernities
We do not accept either of these premises. Other in a family of species derived from an ur-species. According
positions can be brought into focus if we consider two Asian to this model, the branches of a tree derive from common
artists of Indian origin and the intellectual musings ancestors whose different sub-branchings represent (in a
concerning them. Anish Kapoor is an artist of Indian origin Darwinian evolutionary model of development) the
residing in London who has been exhibited at the Venice adaptations of the species to various conditions in different
Biennale in the British pavilion and is the subject of ‘major’ localities. A variant of this model is to accept the notion of
critical studies by leading Euramerican curators and critics species branching but to view them (in Stephen J. Gould’s
who pride themselves in adopting a global approach. N. N. revisions) not in a hierarchical relationship but in various
Rimzon is an Indian artist residing in India who has been groupings of variation from the same original set of species
exhibited abroad but has received little attention from that exist in parallel and not in ‘root’ or ‘trunk’ form.72
Euramerican critics despite the fact that his work is related A third model of affiliation calls for perceiving modernity
to what is generally accepted as ‘Indian’.70 Yet Rimzon has in art along the lines of heteroglossia (as described by
been exhibited outside both India and Euramerica, in such Mikhail Bakhtin),73 that is different languages in dialogue.
places as Australia. This example illustrates the According to this model, the dialogistic relation of such art
differentiation between a vertical, uni-central model of art discourses – that is, their perpetual mutual relativization –
based on Euramerican canons, and a horizontal, multi- may be interpreted as a fundamental condition of modernity.
centred discourse between differently constituted centres, Affiliation results because of this common relativization,
none of which claim to constitute a canon. however such dialogue is achieved. Relativization can
The difference of position derives ultimately from operate through the modes provided by colonial domination
Euramerica’s claim to have invented, and therefore to (India), internal self-development (Japan), and various
retain ownership of, modernity. This claim, which could kinds of quasi-sovereignty, which seek to maintain the
only be valid in a simplistic developmental history, loses unitary identity of discourses even as they are broken down
its validity the moment we accept that modernity invents by contact from without (China).
itself wherever it is necessary to place the pasts of any In art history, it has been relatively easy to overlook
given culture or group of cultures into a new context. The the different implications of these models, because of the
principal condition is that these cultures need to – and presumed transfer of styles and their ideological
are capable of – carrying out this process. From this constructs from the West to Asia. The transfer and
position, it is easy to make the leap to the future-oriented overlaying of technical and symbolic values has diverted
‘relativization’ of modernism, or, further, to the attention from the meaning of these transfers (or
complicated and eclectic ‘re-relativization’ of modernity appropriations) from within, and from the way
that some call post-modernism. In the specific language authenticity has been created for a wholly new and
of fashion and the street, post-modernism is also called constructed ‘tradition’ at this interface. ‘Tradition’ has
‘retro’.71 Seen in this light, modernity belongs to Asian often been hermeneutically opposed to ‘modernity’ when
artists because they work in societies and cultural the ‘traditional’ has only been made possible by the
discourses that require it. Modernity does not operate by ‘modern’. But even as the ‘modern’ has been relativized by
the privilege of transfer from Euramerica or by the its transfer from the West, so the neo-traditional has
valuation of Asian modern art works and artists through been secondarily relativized by its constructed discursive
their being accepted in Euramerica. Even before we difference from the ‘modern’. Thus have modern Asian
examine the phenomenon of globalization, therefore, we art discourses been constructed: not along the lines of an
should consider this basic difference in the approach to ‘East-West’ split but by the process of primary and then
modernity. secondary relativization, which we will call ‘double
othering’. This process can act as a relativization or
‘othering’ between, as exemplified by the distancing of
Affiliation the neo-traditional Kannon the Compassionate Mother by
Kano Hôgai, 1888, from its ‘Japanese’ pasts, and further
But if modernity belongs to Asian art cultures because of by its separation from the position of near-contemporary
their own demands, what kind of modernity is it? How did Western-style work like Kannon Riding on a Dragon, by
it come into being? How is it to be recognized from inside Harada Naojirô, 1890.74

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Histories claimed dominance over the society and the many cultural
discourses within it, such states could legitimately claim to
Relativization of the past may seem to be the historical have founded the nation, to have unified its many discourses,
position of modernity most easily indicated by the caesura and in most cases to have provided the leader of the people.
in local discourses created by the complete adoption of The modernist striving for a desired future articulated
‘Western’ academy realism. In the discourse of interpretation, between a leader and a people became a frequent subject for
such a position has tended to make us perceive the onset of pictorial representation. This has historically been so much
modernity as a radically historical disjunction. But on closer the case that one might postulate the thematic of modern
examination of the discourse of the art works themselves, it Asian art to have been the allegorizing of the new nation
may easily be seen that modernity in several Asian art through representations of the new leader, and often of the
cultures such as Japan or India did not begin with the very people who supported him. There is no doubt that
transfer of Western-style realism, and indeed had a long these male figures (by male artists) seek to articulate the
prior history in many proto-modern features of local art masculinist privilege of serving the nation.77 Alongside them
discourses and structures of the art world.75 Neither can stands the female figure of the mother, or of multiple types
one ignore the longevity of the links between the pre- of women as repositories of a variety of national values, or of
histories of modernity in Asia and Euramerica. There is woman as a leader of the masses in the self-sacrificing figure
thus neither a caesura in cultural relations nor an absolute of a toiling intellectual. These counter-allegories act as
rupture in the way art discourses are related to their pasts. feminizing counterparts to the masculine nation-builders,
It seems that part of the reason why there is a tendency to even if such female allegorical figures can only rarely be
create such interpretive breaks is that they can be made to described as feminist in intention.78
duplicate or reflect dichotomies of the Euramerican world, Two conditions seem to have changed the possibility for
such as imperial/metropolitan and colonial/local. This this type of national allegory. One is the success of the
Manichean world has not been noted for its creation of movements under or against colonialism, where nationalism
discursive spaces defined by multiple centres and histories. (following, in most cases, colonial maps) survived as a
Furthermore, what one might call the pervasive strategy for creating a repertory of ideal figures in a national
Euramerican interpretive mode has tended to see academy imaginary in a rapidly de-colonizing world. This can result
realism in a linear series of internal stages such as transfer, in a kind of semantic exhaustion where the use and re-use of
assimilation, and transformation. This view has concealed a particular metaphor, like Chairman Mao as Great
or de-privileged the various kinds of relativization implicit Helmsman, turns into a saturated metonym, a kind of
in such processes for an Asian art world and masked the image coinage whose value resides in the currency system
dynamism of appropriation itself. It has concealed how rather than in any particular image. A second, and usually
many features of modern discursive change were present consecutive, condition occurs where the colonial or the
inside these transfers. Perhaps the largest shift in art reaction against it only survives as a dim echo in a national
historical interpretation is required by modern Asian art, imagination preoccupied with negotiating the post-colonial
which requires a move away from the notion of transfer terms of its relationship to a globalizing world. Thus stand
resulting from the dissemination of stylistic models. the agonized, repeated faces of Philippine peasants in works
Interpretation, whether exogenous or endogenous to any by Alvorado Nunelucio looking out of the frames of their
art discourse, should take into account the range of images.79 Through the slightly hallucinatory effect of their
relativization processes as they are imbricated within the black outlines and primary colours, they flicker like
complex terms: modernity, modernism, post-modernism. Any alternative TV pictures, working to subvert the very
particular stylistic model or congruence among styles is fractioning forces that place them in a world economy and
probably the least signifying element for the endogenous art separate them from their former lateral solidarity as part of
discourses involved. More often, there is a kind of co-option a Philippine ‘nation’.
by local expressions of international movements, and we
would argue that this often occurs very early in the transfer
of realism. The direction of this co-option is not principally Mediators
from the central to the local, which would be the most
widespread (and still colonial) perspective. The complexity Art history, or at least any history of modern art, cannot
of this exchange possibly accounts for the perverse late- or escape the possibility that it might serve as an unintentional
post-modernist pleasures to be derived both endogenously cultural critique. Any exogenous or endogenous construction
and exogenously from Chinese ‘popism’ of the 1990s such as of a modern, modernist, post-modernist or simply
in the work of Zhang Xiaogang, a discourse which cynically contemporary art in Asia will necessarily favour some kinds
manipulates a surface conventionality in order to sequester of art over others. But in a world promoting close
a subversive parody safely within.76 communication between art cultures, the figures who have
normally provided these kinds of assessments in various
functional domains – critics, curators, journalists, art
Nations historians – are always serving to re-position the ‘new’.
They have an exogenous mediating and consecrating
For most Asian cultural discourses, modernism began with function and are assisted in this task by new patterns of
the relativization of the past provided by the historical break international exchange and communication.
initiated through colonial or neo-colonial rule. Just as The endogenous role of a critic, curator or dealer in
important was the immediate formation of an anti-colonial mediating and sometimes forming a group of conceptual
movement, and corresponding independence struggles perspectives around a cohort of disparately arranged artists
toward the founding of a new state. However the new state is well known in Euramerica. It has also been a significant

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feature of Asian modernity, as illustrated by the role played see that the exportation of Western values did not terminate
at different times by Geeta Kapur in India, Li Xianting in with the break-up of colonies in the wake of the Second
China or Nakahara Yfsuke in Japan.80 The important World War; nor did hybridization cease. On the contrary,
feature of such critics, however well informed they may be US and European efforts to extend capitalist ‘spheres of
about international and exogenous art movements or by influence’ shifted from the military and political arenas to
their own personal experience, is that they work from within cultural and economic affairs. American abstract
a set of cultural discourses from which they construct their expressionism was the official face of liberal democratic
own centre. But the late twentieth century has also seen the tolerance; equally influential, though unofficial, were the
advent of more specifically ‘interface’ critics, curators, and brightly packaged commodities and attendant commodity-
dealers who help to transfer supposedly scarce knowledge based art that burgeoned in the pivotal decade of the 1960s.
and work from the endogenous to the exogenous levels. By 1958, when New York-based artist Robert
There is no doubt that these mediators have played a Rauschenberg used three trademarked beverage bottles in
significant role in presenting East Asian art cultures in his Coca-Cola Plan (Plate 157), their shape was known to a
international art exhibitions, and here the position of Nanjô large part of the world’s population. Flanked by silvery
Fumio (and more recently of Hou Hanru in China) is wings, they form a classical order of fluted commodity
noteworthy.81 But if such mediators play an important role caryatids coloured with drips of paint. Below the bottles,
in introducing different types of Asian art into Euramerican Rauschenberg placed a spherical wooden finial marked with
discourses, which otherwise might ignore them, such horizontal lines and tilted slightly to suggest a globe. Thus,
‘gatekeepers’ also reflect a minority opinion or a selective Coca-Cola Plan seems to target global fame by riding on the
representation against the very complexity of the endogenous crest of an increasingly worldwide commodity culture
discourses they purport to represent to the exogenous.82 In (national pride of the US post-war economy).
other words, for an art history of modernity that includes Rauschenberg’s global ambitions were almost immediately
Asian art as one type of non-Euramerican practices, it endorsed when this assemblage was acquired by Italian
would be fallacious to assume this could wholly or even Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. The cultural space
partially be based on the art introduced from such mediators mapped by such exchanges can be described as an ‘imagined
to the international level, even under the ambiguous label of community’ in which nations and indeed, the very notion of
‘contemporary practice’.83 The difficult but rewarding work the ‘inter-national’ might be produced. Particularly salient
of examining from within each endogenous discourse is the was the non-narrative iconic visual culture produced during
basis for an art history of other modernities, not the post- the decade of the 1960s, which opened a possibility, however
facto hypothesizing of such a history from such works as brief, for artists to navigate in a modern world without
have been articulated on exogenous levels. borders, beyond the limits of language, unified by fantasies
Some will argue that the global, exogenous level of of plenty emanating from the US and diffused throughout
practice, of the distribution of works and of the career- the capitalist ‘free world’.
cycling of artists has long ago penetrated the endogenous. There was an underlying shift in art-world systems that
Yet, many artists, some the most rooted in their endogenous facilitated such fantasies: the sudden emergence of a major
discourses such as Rabindranath Tagore, have continuously art market in New York. Typical of the global infrastructure
paid attention to the international scene, even though it was that this market represented was Italian-born art dealer Leo
previously organized by the same colonialism from which Castelli, whose New York gallery became a significant
they were attempting to escape. If modernism involves contributor to the local and international economy and who
relativization of the past and represents a kind of reflexivity served as a model for other dealers who wanted to establish
that elevates future orientations to the level of formal ties with European collectors. Castelli proved that a dealer
subjectivity, and if we were to attribute hermeneutic could produce an imagined international community when
sovereignty to the global level, then that relativization would he helped Rauschenberg, and the United States, take grand
disappear or become a mere imitation of itself. This would prize at the 1964 Venice Biennale (shortly after Panza had
entail reproducing – even from a supposedly progressive purchased the artist’s Coca-Cola Plan). The potential
position – the structure of central super-ordination over internationalism of Rauschenberg’s work was inserted into
the local (now abstracted onto a ‘global’ level), which the a theatre of nationalist politics and ideology (the national
rich variety of practice made possible by modernism had the pavilions at the Biennale). The European response to
potential to resist, subvert, or at least circumvent. Whatever Rauschenberg’s victory was little short of outrage, but this
we consider to be the role of globalizing forces in the late was undoubtedly encouraged by Castelli’s blatantly
twentieth century, an Asian history of modern art would provocative publicity campaign that appeared in art
first have to construct what conceptually and pragmatically magazines during the biennale year. Castelli’s advertisement
links its own discourses to the local. featured a map of Europe studded with names of his gallery’s
artists, clustered around various art capitols. Probably
intended to indicate cities where his artists’ works were on
C ommodity - based A rt and G lobal view, in the Cold War context, the map was interpreted as
C ulture a plan for the European ‘conquest’ of Castelli’s army of
American artists.
John Clark claims that the complex dialogue between Rauschenberg was a controversial choice to receive the
international modernity and local culture, as well as the biennale’s grand prize, because of his age (39) and the fact
process of self-relativization we call ‘modernism’, have their that he was relatively unknown in Europe. But as early as
temporal origin in colonialism. Much of this chapter has 1955, the recurrent themes found in his work had
alluded to that dynamic process. Returning to the sphere of foreshadowed his global ambitions. Against the
Euro-American modernism (as defined by Clark), we can uncompromising individualism and sublimity that

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characterized earlier generations of Euro-American painters, in the Cold War climate, the works of these artists’ were
Rauschenberg offered what was described as a ‘flatbed closely related to the nationalist discourses that were
aesthetic’ – the canvas serving as support to ephemeral occurring at the most subtle and sophisticated levels of the
objects, images, advertising fragments, and other flotsam United States’ embattled intellectual community. In trying
and jetsam from a restless world. Like the dada productions to define ‘the liberating quality of abstract art’ for a group of
to which it was compared, but incomparably more cheerful, art professionals in 1957, for example, the medieval art
Rauschenberg’s assemblages had the look of practical historian Meyer Schapiro produced a vision of abstraction
devices, a tinkerer’s bricolage. Perhaps it was the very closely associated with abstract expressionism (rather than
‘innocence’ of these combined works that appealed to collage, montage, geometry, etc.) – and he located its model
government officials eager to champion their country’s of heroic individualism in the paint itself:
culture. At the same time, Rauschenberg’s works were
accessible to a cosmopolitan international audience craving Hence the great importance of the mark, the stroke, the
humour. Rauschenberg’s ambiguous icon inaugurated a brush, the drip, the quality of the substance of the paint
commodity-based art that both mocked American business itself, and the surface of the canvas as a texture and field
and looked like friendly votives to its newly ‘global’ religion. of operation – all … means of affirming the individual in
Coca-Cola Plan had been preceded by works that depict opposition to the contrary qualities of the ordinary
global cultural conquest. In Small Rebus, for example (from experience of working and doing.84
1956), Rauschenberg placed two facing maps in the middle
of the canvas. The left-hand fragment showed a portion of Accordingly the Warsaw Pact artists trapped behind bars
the US (significantly, the ‘heartland’ so often ideologically within Rauschenberg’s map in Small Rebus would be
presented as the ‘true’ America), linked visually to a nearby perceived as imprisoned by such ‘ordinary experiences, of
smattering of grey drips and brushstrokes. Juxtaposed on working and doing’.
the right (or ‘to the East’) was a fragment of a map of However, heroic individualism was not the only exported
Europe: the Warsaw Pact countries, veiled under a square product of American culture: in the 1950s, commodity
of striped gauze fabric. Here, Rauschenberg offered a witty, culture emerged with great economic clout and fuelled
visual summary of wider arguments being produced in US passionate Cold War cultural debates. Abstract
cultural discourse: the abstract expressionist brushstrokes expressionism was regarded as demonstrating ‘the true
on the left do not obscure the heartland, but complement meaning of free democracy’ on the world stage, aligning
and frame it, guiding the gaze. The happy pairing of itself with ‘high art’ and aspiring to join the grand traditions
democracy and abstract art that politicians celebrated in of European painting. The movements that replaced it –
rhetoric found form in paint and collage, facing off against first neo-dada, then pop, appearing in England, Germany,
the dark regimentation of artists under the rule of the Soviet Italy and France as well as the US – troubled intellectuals
bloc (here expressed as a ‘block’ of fabric constructing a concerned about the homogenization of unique national
visual prison of black bars). With varying degrees of styles, not to mention the destabilization of high art by
sophistication, defenders of abstract expressionism had mass culture. (Except perhaps in the Soviet Union, where
long argued that the seemingly chaotic brushstrokes were American pop art could be enjoyed as final proof of
neither mad nor ‘communistic,’ but manly marks of a bourgeois decadence.) Even in the US, critics blasted pop
generously tolerated individualism. Rauschenberg’s art for echoing ‘the crassness, the vulgarity, [and] the
commentary in Small Rebus is more ambivalent – his depressing tawdriness of modern advertising art’.85 In such
‘national’ brushstrokes are random-looking drips, rendered strident critiques, observers voiced their true fears: that the
in an industrial battleship grey. commodity-based art emerging in the late 1950s would
Similarly, Rauschenberg’s fellow artist Jasper Johns (who draw unwanted attention to that other American export, the
was then making his ‘map’ paintings from a template provided commodity itself – now formulated as crucial to the post-
by Rauschenberg) produced an ambiguous reading of war global economy, but no basis for US aspirations to high
American freedom. The national style, abstract expressionism, culture. Rauschenberg was clearly one of the guilty parties
was wedded to the national territory in Johns’s seemingly in setting the stage for the turn from heroic (and nationally
simple transcriptions of a student’s map of the continental ‘American’) individualism to the low internationalist
US. Similarly, Johns’s flag paintings presented the pre-1950s impulses behind capitalist commodity culture. But from the
American flag – utterly frontal, it was a flag made of paint as perspective of many artists, the globalism embodied by the
much as a painting of a flag. These were clearly nationalist 1960s commodity was just the ticket – it was all part of the
pictures, and indeed, the masthead of the left-wing journal plan (the Coca-Cola Plan).
The Nation (where Greenberg published his modernist Rauschenberg had called his enigmatic objects ‘combine
criticism) is clearly visible under the encaustic paint. But paintings,’ as if (like Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and the later
Johns’s choice of this translucent medium also ‘freezes’ the combine harvester) he had taken French research (here
abstract expressionist brushstroke, that crucial element in the cubist collage and assemblage) and put it into production.
beloved national style. The free gesture becomes a tidy set of Precedents were clearly Braque’s and Picasso’s cubist
strokes – transportable, replicable, ‘canned’ pictorial units collages and assemblages like Guitar or the surrealists’
that can appear as packaged as the commodities Rauschenberg experiments with paintings and constructions that combined
was assembling into art. Johns’s repetition of these national images and objects in mysterious ways. Rauschenberg
subjects-turned-objects (in many painted and printed stripped these precedents of their poetic eroticism and their
versions) seemed to confirm the chilly emptiness of their evocations of the ‘primitive’. He left the aggressive
iconic nature. worldliness of his objects intact. Nothing in Rauschenberg’s
Ironic or affirmative? The modernist emphasis on assemblage is not pre-fabricated, except the drawing of the
meaning-in-the-viewer gave rise to multiple codes. Rooted ‘Plan’ itself, and that ‘blueprint’ or plan suggests merely a

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reproduction of some mass-produced image. Indeed, Coca- The point is not whether Coca-Cola culture is wiser and
Cola Plan announces the scale of its ambitions: the indicated nicer than wine culture: the point is that it is a culture – a
dimensions on the sketch at the top would produce a canvas set of tribal tastes and customs which implies certain
comparable in size to the monumental Pollocks, Rothkos values and attitudes and a conception of what life could
and Klines then touring Europe in the Modern’s ‘New ideally mean.... More people having a good time than
American Painting’ show. The intended image remains have ever had a good time before. A taste for vicarious
unknown (it might even have been empty, as in one of pleasure as well as vicarious cooking. Brand advertising
Rauschenberg’s earlier White paintings) – but we could everywhere … A Promethean faith that nature is
imagine satisfying this image with any of Warhol’s early conquerable … expendability … standardization.88
1960s Coca-Cola paintings, their semi-filled iconic bottle
forms silk-screened across the canvas in rank and file, like an In Rauschenberg’s evocation of the Promethean myth, there
army of commodities. is no Zeus to challenge his hubris. Rauschenberg’s Coca-
Coca-Cola (and its competitor, Pepsi) had conquered Cola Plan of the late 1950s was anticipatory and naive; by
the visual culture of Rauschenberg’s generation, and business the mid-1960s, artists such as Marisol or Shinohara were
news reports of the 1960s discussed how the two corporations more nuanced in their understanding of the double-edges of
had divided up the globe, one taking China and the other commodity imagery. Rauschenberg’s combine, with its
Russia. Warhol declaimed that Coca-Cola provided the wings unfurled, presents the moral equivalent of wars’
class leveller that communism never could: ‘It’s happening victory – an ironic ‘junk art’ allusion to the triumphant
here all by itself without being under a strict government, Hellenistic Victory of Samothrace, one of the highlights of
[so] why can’t it work without being communist?’, and later, the Louvre. It was logical to tie this ‘victory’ to Coca-Cola’s
‘the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and marketing icon. The bottle’s shape was patented in 1960, as
just think, you can drink Coke, too.’ 86 By 1961, Coca-Cola if in recognition of the increasingly visual and iconic form
was sold in 115 countries at the rate of more than 65 million necessitated for ‘corporate identity’ to function in a multi-
servings a day; Time magazine’s editors broke precedent to lingual world. In the 1960s, minimalist artists in the US had
feature Coke on their cover in 1951, reasoning that ‘[Coca- been drawn to this visual culture of the corporate logotype,
Cola provides] simpler, sharper evidence than the Marshall seeking the same instant recognition and ‘brand-name’
Plan or a Voice of America broadcast that the US [has] identity in their clear, crisp forms.
gone out into the world to stay’.87 Right after the war, Coca- What is interesting about the use of icons appropriated
Cola’s ad campaign had incorporated the slogan from American corporate culture throughout this period
‘Coca-Cola … along the highway to anywhere.’ Increasingly (and the widespread move toward icon status) was a feature
in the post-war frame, ‘anywhere’ meant anywhere on earth. that most artists (including Marisol, Shinohara, and Wang)
Clearly, other countries’ artists and critics were not so failed to address – increasingly, art obeyed the logic of
optimistic about the ‘Coca-Cola Plan.’ Marisol, a Venezuelan commodities as well. Modernism’s emphasis on individual
sculptor then living in New York, made her simple but originality and recognizable artistic ‘style’ ran parallel to
devastating critique in the form of a cast of a woman’s commodity culture’s imperative for market share; to be
mouth and nose, displayed with the top third of an up- successful, artists from Picasso on had to develop their
ended Coca-Cola bottle thrust deep into her mouth. The ‘brand.’
work’s title, Love, conveys considerable irony, given the In the efforts of American government officials to
explicit and unequal sexual power mapped onto this promote abstract expressionism, a very diverse group of
consumer/commodity exchange. Equally explicit is Japanese styles was promoted as national ‘brands.’ Rauschenberg
artist Ushio Shinohara’s 1964 assemblage Drink More (now had alluded to this dilemma by identifying abstract
in the Yokohama art museum). Here, the complementary expressionism as a commodity in its own right, just as
colours of an American flag (green stripes and orange stars exportable and potentially international as Coca-Cola. This
in place of red, white and blue) appear in the background as point is made deftly and succinctly by the brushstrokes on
a plaster hand thrusts a Coke bottle through the canvas. the bottles above the globe in Coca-Cola Plan: these strokes
Crude stencilled letters enjoining viewers to ‘drink more’ of primary colour on Coca-Cola’s advertising ingenuity are
reveal the nationalist economy working behind the ‘global’ themselves advertisements for a certain type of genius. By
facade of commodity culture. This form of critique continued the time Rauschenberg presented his ironic, quasi-
into the 1990s, specifically around the thematic globalization imperialistic plan, commodity and culture had fused more
of Coca-Cola, in works by artists such as Wang Guangyi, deeply than pop art’s worst critics had feared. The new
whose ‘Great Castigation Series’ from the early 1990s (in entity – commoditized culture – had come to play perhaps
particular Great Castigation Series: Coca-Cola, 1993) links the biggest role of all in the production of a new international
the ideology industry to the image factories of commodity imagination, as the Coca-Cola Plan’s owner, Giuseppe
culture. Wang’s canvas displays the icons of Red Chinese Panza, seemed to agree.
revolutionaries in a heroic pose between red revolutionary Panza’s acquisition of Coca-Cola Plan suggested that at
flag and the red background of the Coca-Cola logo. least one Italian lawyer and businessman could see himself
These obsessions in relation to a single global commodity in the aspiring internationalism of American commodity
icon can be multiplied many times over, forming the tips of culture and culture-as-commodity, even if he were only
many icebergs. But Coca-Cola was perhaps the dominant sharing the artist’s ambivalent irony about that situation.
emblem of global (US) capital. One British art critic, How Panza became convinced that his cultural future lay in
presenting Coke’s takeover in the standard terms of its the hands of American artists is a case study of the national
affront to European civilization (although, as we have seen, and international components of an ever-evolving corpus of
its reach spread much farther), wrote the following in a modern art. In weighing in with Rauschenberg’s work,
1964 London Times article titled ‘Art in a Coke Climate’: Panza turned his back on the austere struggles of European

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painting (he had early bought both Fautrier and Tàpies); by Rauschenberg outfitted that cultural imagination with its
believing Rauschenberg’s vision of global triumph, Panza icon, but the situation was very short-lived. On joint fronts,
contributed toward that goal. post-modern and post-colonial art and theory began to
As Panza well knew, the Italian futurists had announced empty ‘nation’ of its infusing power in modern art.
similar designs on European culture during and after the
first World War. After 1945, Italian modernism seemed in
even deeper stagnation. Seduced by a posturing imperial P ost - colonial , post - modern
Duce and ashamed of their failure to hold on to even the
most rudimentary colonial outposts, Italian modernists Many scholars and cultural critics have often viewed
seemed to have few legitimate pathways to an international Western values and commodity culture as if they blasted
future. Post-war Marxism offered no compelling artistic from the centre of the capitalist ‘free’ world out to its neo-
styles, and the sober pre-war realism of an artist such as colonial fringes. But nowadays, such dynamics are believed
Giorgio Morandi had been tainted by its exploitation by the to be far more complex. Images and objects began to assume
Fascist cause. Even the futurists ended up painting unusual mobility during the 1960s, and the ideologies
landscapes and madonnas. By leaning toward progress, supposedly inherent in such signs appeared malleable and
Panza had no affection for these rural pieties, and for independent of an instrumental economy. Some French
the view they seemed to propose of Italy’s future as a theorists found utopian significance in this shift: Guy
continuation of its rural past. Debord examined the ‘society of the spectacle’; Michel
Just how bleak cultural prospects appeared to this Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and others influenced by the
industrially progressive modern society can be intuited from revolutionary spirit of May 1968, theorized about dealing
the name given to the first post-war Italian movement that with power by manipulating its representations; and Frantz
aspired to international status: arte povera. Artists such as Fanon analysed the colonial mind. Artists were part of such
Giuseppe Penone, Jannis Kounellis, and Mario Merz attacks on ‘master narratives’ (as post-modern theorist Jean-
explicitly sought to work with simple everyday or natural François Lyotard called them), and the nationalism and
materials. Despite the success of this group of avant-garde internationalism embedded in modern art began to fragment
artists, their work reflected a refugee sensibility, more as well.
consonant with the abjection of an earlier generation (such Artists such as Robert Smithson (a ‘nomad’ from the
as Fautrier, Burri, or Tàpies). The humility of arte povera US) and Hélio Oiticica (a ‘nomad’ from Brazil) illustrate
works (carved potatoes, flayed trees, lettuce, mud igloos) this development. Such artists definitively disoriented
seemed directed at some imagined Italian primitive state modernism’s magisterial gaze and the nationalism it could
rather than the future envisioned by Italy’s new managerial fuel. These two artists, who worked in New York in the late
elite. Or at least that was Panza’s conclusion: ‘I saw a lot of 1960s unaware of each other’s existence, both addressed
work by the Arte Povera artists’, he recalls. ‘[They] were issues of nation, place, and global commodity culture that
interesting to me … they had an international value.… artists in Rauschenberg’s generation had identified a decade
But … I decided to remain concentrated on the Americans, earlier. The works Smithson called ‘mirror displacements’
not the Italians’.89 (Plate 158) are points of entry into this post-modernist’s
Encouraging Panza’s view of a more technocratic future reflections on space, place, and nation. That same year,
were erudite Italian industry magazines such as Civiltà delle Oiticica first transplanted his installation Tropicália to
Macchine (The Civilization of Machinery). Here Panza saw London’s Whitechapel Art Gallery and confronted the
his first example of American abstract expressionism, which challenge of making tropical culture readable without
he immediately bought. Recalling the shock of seeing tourism. Both these ‘transplantations’ intended to
reproductions of a Franz Kline painting and industrial disorientate viewers and turn them quite literally away from
engineering projects, Panza remarked that the work looked complacent ideés reçues and from the kinds of certainties
‘like a steel structure, only broken’. It is significant that the produced to secure notions of nation – against the cultural
essay on Kline explicitly connected this New York school ideas routinely produced by tourism, through the
painter to Japanese master calligraphers, declaring: ‘Perhaps consumption of commodities, and via art. Smithson and
it is too soon to say how far these images in black and white Oiticica participated in the late 1960s transformation in
can go, to what extent they can be symbols and modes of which artists abandoned what seemed the false promise of
our reality, but we can safely acknowledge them to be our internationalism, and sought a global universalism against
time, our life, our poetry’.90 The ‘our’ here is not the Italian language, against the stability of earth, and against
citizen per se, but the reader of Civiltà – an international constructed fundamental notions such as ethnicity, race,
businessman of the world, seeking a newly global cultural and even time.
imaginary rather than specifically ‘national’ forms. Born in rural New Jersey rather than the art capital of
The view of American commodity-based art and art-as- New York, Smithson used his knowledge of hinterlands to
commodity initiating the global ‘Coca-Cola Plan’ weakened stage hard-hitting critiques of the centre. Most famously,
the very substantial critique of US hegemony only touched his Earthworks, as he named them, initiated a movement in
upon in discussions of Marisol, Shinohara and others. which artists produced monumental or ephemeral incursions
Eventually, such critiques became impossible to ignore, in distant areas that could not be contained by the art
gathering force throughout the 1960s and focusing precisely world’s galleries and museums. Created in deserts,
on the twin fronts of commodity culture and military abandoned quarries, frozen rivers, and fallow fields, such
operations (particularly at a time when the US replaced site-specific works were part of the crucial late 1960s shift
French colonial administrators in Viet Nam). Panza could from object to discourse.
explain his Americanophilia by observing that ‘in some way As part of this increasing emphasis on conceptualization
the Second World War was the end of Europe’,91 and and documentation (rather than object), Smithson’s essays

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constituted an integral aspect of his art. His piece in the natural. When the conscious artist perceives ‘nature’
Yucatan bears images but also words that refer to the everywhere he starts detecting falsity in the apparent
colonial place names. The creation of names by the colonial thickets, in the appearance of the real.... [Art] sustains
power is presented as a false mirror, and juxtaposed with itself not on differentiation, but de-differentiation, not
Smithson’s own projects dealing with displacement and on creation but decreation, not on nature but
fiction. Concerning The Tourist Guide and Directory of denaturalisation.93
Yucatan-Campeche, Smithson writes:
In this quote, we could replace ‘nature’ with ‘nation.’
On its cover was a crude drawing depicting the Spaniards Smithson’s new vision was intended to examine the naming
initial encounter with the Mayans.... [with the words] process, traditionally used to designate national or colonial
‘UY U TAN A KIN PECH’ (‘listen how they talk’) subjects.
EXCLAIMED THE MAYANS ON HEARING In his ignorance of Central American languages and
THE SPANISH LANGUAGE,... ‘YUCATAN theologies, Smithson was very much an American tourist.
CAMPECHE,’ REPEATED THE SPANIARDS.92 Still, even a cursory reading of the Yucatan project suggests
how far the viewer has been taken from Rauschenberg’s
In the primary invocation of ‘Yucatan’ (a transliterated cocky, if ironic, certainties. From an America that imagined
Mayan phrase that also means ‘I don’t understand’), itself to be at the centre of a new world order, the master of
Smithson produces the same ambiguities that characterized its culture, the tamer of its wilderness, and the bearer of
his site/non-site works executed the previous year. The ‘good news’ for the world, Smithson’s work alludes to a
site/non-site series began in art magazine articles and gallery disoriented, displaced nation increasingly aware of the
shows that designated sites at a specific location (e.g. a slate ambiguities at its core. The mirrors here are ‘rectangles of
quarry near Bangor, Pennsylvania), and presented their uncertainty in the Yucatan,’ as Smithson put it, refractions
boxed, mapped, and photographic remnants as elements of of suburbs and ash heaps, not masterful representations of
a non-site that was described as ‘removed’ from the site and a pure yet colonized ‘nature’ that anchors utopian ‘nation’ in
relocated to the urban-based art gallery. The dialectic place. In a final globalizing reflection on his own wanderings,
between centre and periphery became a central issue in the artist notes that other sites in upstate New York and
Smithson’s work. Staged initially as discursive projects, the Florida could be connected to the Yucatan displacement
site/non-site works were recast by the Yucatan essay as sites by means of lines drawn on a map. This classic modern
elements in an imaginary geographical and transnational gesture of knowing and owning is immediately jarred by the
context, a globalization of conceptual acts. artist’s query:
Smithson’s descriptions of the mirror-displacements,
ephemeral installations photographed in Central America’s Are they totems of a rootless condition that relate to one
Yucatan peninsula and published in the prestigious another? Do they mark a dizzy path from one doubtful
American art journal Artforum, made it clear that all efforts point to another? Is this a mode of travel that does not in
at mapping and representation are doomed to fail. The the least try to establish a coherent coming and going
mirrors, as shimmering, evanescent inversions and between the here and the there? Perhaps they are
refractions of the surroundings, might seem to be explained dislocated ‘North and South poles’ marking peripheral
by Smithson’s magazine text, but that supplement is itself places, Polar Regions of the mind … that have slipped
riddled with mirrors and shadowy voices: Tezcatlipoca (not from the geographical moorings of the world’s axis.
Mayan, as Smithson asserts, but Aztec), introduced by Central points that evade being central.… If you visit the
Smithson as ‘demiurge of the smoking-mirror,’ appears in sites... you will find nothing but memory traces, for ... the
the rear-view mirror of Smithson’s rented Dodge Dart to mirrors are [now] somewhere in New York.… It is the
warn, ‘All those guide books are of no use … You must dimension of absence that remains to be found. Yucatan
travel at random … you risk getting lost in the thickets, but is elsewhere.94
that is the only way to make art.’
As such Delphic stagings suggest, Smithson’s ‘Incidents As Smithson’s works forced viewers to recognize, cherished
of Mirror-Travel’ can be read as a standard primitive notions of place, roots, race and nation are nothing more
pilgrimage to the primordial Other, much like John Lloyd than phantasmagorical projections on a map whose
Stephens’s 1843 volumes, Incidents of Travel in Yucatán coordinates are vague and blurry. ‘Listen how they talk’ and
(from which the well-read Smithson borrowed his title). ‘I don’t understand’ become names for the Other, but by the
But the Yucatan sites explored by Smithson are hardly late 1960s this artist already knew they could better be used
primordial Edens. As the artist/author relates, the first to describe his own uncertainty.
displacement was staged on land turned to ash for The Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica is equally intelligent,
agriculture; the second deployed in a shallow quarry found and complex. By 1965, when Smithson was still flirting
in ‘a suburb of Uxmal;’ the sixth described in conjunction with abstract minimal art, Oiticica was just beginning to
with a Mexican book of matches bearing the art commodity theorize his extraordinarily embodied, kinetic, and
Venus de Milo on one side and Breugel’s The Blind Leading ephemeral Parangolés, those reclamations of samba and
the Blind on the other. The last mirror displacement, in street performance where, as Oiticica described it, ‘the
which the square silver plates of glass are distributed around action is the pure expressive manifestation of the work’.95
the roots of a mangrove tree, reminds us of Smithson’s Son of an eminent scientist and grandson of an anarchist,
commentary on the subject of ‘nature:’ Oiticica had a rich and complex background, as well as a
distinctly critical relation to the colonial foundation of his
There are those who say ‘that’s getting close to nature.’ own nation. In his important performance works, and in
But what is meant by such ‘nature’ is anything but the periodically recreated installation Tropicália, Oiticica’s

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frame of reference was the uneven constructivism of the filmmaker Neville d’Almeida in the early 1970s. Images of
developing world (whose flaws he knew intimately). His Marilyn Monroe or African-American rock star Jimi
work was inspired by the African-Brazilian samba dancers, Hendrix were shown wearing ‘masks’ drawn in lines of
and the cast-off constructions of the favelas. Transformed cocaine; these images were projected in galleries strung with
by the samba school and the makeshift structures of the hammocks for the ‘cre-leisure’ of gallery visitors. For
Rio shantytown where he lived at the time, Oiticica Oiticica, issues of consumption and commodity were fully
produced the Tropicália installation and the Parangole addressed by this deeply personal, antropofagista
performance works against the myth of the melting pot of commingling of South American narcotics and masked
Brazilian culture and against the false stereotypes fabricated North American celebrity icons, commoditized image to be
by the Brazilian state. It was Oiticica’s aim to reveal, as contemplated and consumed along with the cocaine – both
Smithson had, the infinite differences beneath modernism’s eternally renewed for further consumption.
relations with its Others and the evolving nature of certain Other Central and South American artists were exploring
dichotomies (nation/other, modernist/primitive, First this kind of relationship at almost the same time: Colombian
World/Third World). Antonio Caro, who used a traditional painted canvas and
Renamed Eden, Oiticica’s Tropicália was installed in the Coca-Cola logo to paint his nation’s name – the
London a few years after its inauguration in São Paulo. Like vocabulary of pop used to reveal the illegal ‘coca’ sustaining
the spontaneous, anonymous constructions the artist his nation’s economy and linking it to the First World
photographed in Brazil’s urban centres, Tropicália was meant economy of the North. More conceptually intriguing was
to provide a site for what Oiticica called ‘Cre-leisure,’ (from the project of Cildo Meireles, another Brazilian, who chose
the Portuguese word meaning ‘belief,’ crer, as well as ‘to physical Coca-Cola bottles as objects in his 1970 project
create’). Visitors laughed as they travelled through Oiticica’s Insertes em circuitos ideológicos (Insertions into Ideological
fun house, moving in bared feet from straw to sand, from Circuits). Meireles’s important project was a powerful
black tents piped with bossa nova to translucent scrims, the example of post-modern appropriation, far earlier than
scent of humid air heavy with leafy plants. ‘COME AND such developments in the US, and a sophisticated piece of
GO, STOP, STAY, WANDER, PLAY’ were the artist’s conceptual art. Rather than simply take the messages,
instructions, but at the end of the visitors’ stay in Tropicália, objects, or icons of the US commodity culture as subjects
in the middle of Oiticica’s ‘labyrinth,’ a television was (as 1980s ‘appropriation artists’ working out of New York
installed, its screen described by the artist as a cannibal that would do), the artist here temporarily ‘inserts’ his silk-
‘devours the participant, because it is more active than his screened message onto the unopened cylinder of locally
sensory creating’. In the heart of darkness, then, Oiticica bottled but internationally sold Coca-Cola. Literally ‘re-
placed not the savage (noble or otherwise), but the sinister oriented’, the product and its message were then reinserted
light of First World commodity culture with its unequal into the circuits of commodity distribution – the cannibal
cultural exchange. What is crucial to the concept of the TV commodity was thus sent forth to ‘eat’ parts of the ideology
cannibal, however, is Oiticica’s theoretical framework: the in which it was otherwise embalmed.
extraordinary Brazilian response to colonialism known as Perhaps it is not surprising that Brazilians such as
antropofagia. This theory regards modernism in terms of Meireles and Oiticica should emerge as such important
‘hybridization’. But in Brazil in the 1920s, there was nothing figures for post-modern artists and theorists, because they
gentle or gradual about the process: antropofagia referred to were forced to respond to the breakdown of a rationalized
a process of cultural cannibalism in which the colonized urban modernism that had tenuously ruled their country
devour elements of the colonizers’ culture, both killing and from the 1950s to the early 1970s (the utopian capital of
literally incorporating them in a mysterious Dionysian Brasilia providing the public face of this modernity). Its
process of transubstantiation. intrusive politics made the US (and its commodities) an
Anthropophagic transubstantiation implied the obvious target, and post-modernism emerged to codify and
transnational as well. For if the nation defines itself through consolidate these critical approaches to hegemonic cultural
relation to its imagined Others – whether internal Indian forms.
savages or external barbarians at the gate – to consume and Post-modernism had its origin as a theoretical term in
be consumed in turn establishes a less controllable early theories of modern history elaborated by Federigo de
metabolism. Rather than the alloy envisioned by ‘the Onis and Arnold Toynbee (although a non-theoretical use
melting pot’, Oiticica and other late artists of the 1960s of the term appeared as early as 1870 to distinguish post-
created an ambiguous molecular dynamic of exchange. impressionism from the ‘modern’ styles before it). Implicit
When identifying a chunk of Brazilian asphalt as a in Onis’s and Toynbee’s writing was a view that
‘Manhattan Brutalist Object semi-trouvé,’ for example, or industrialization had achieved a certain saturation and had
when making line drawings of snortable cocaine on images entered a new phase, reflected in Daniel Bell’s formulation
of American mass culture icons (in Cosmococa), Oiticica of late-twentieth century United States as a post-industrial
shuffled entire decks of cultural signifiers and imaginary society. When literary theorist Frederic Jameson began
locales. ‘Manhattan, USA’, installed in his Rio bathroom using the term post-modernism, it became increasingly
along with ‘Kyoto, Japan’, formed Oiticica’s response to the associated with post-colonial politics. As Jameson pointed
nation-mongering then going on at the São Paulo Bienale, out, the critique of ‘master narratives’ expressed by post-
one of those periodic opportunities for chauvinism that modernism, echoed the collapse of the major colonial
Robert Smithson had also chosen to boycott some ten years outposts (in Franco-American Indochina, in French
earlier. The exchange of locations and the transvaluation of Algeria, and in scores of African republics). Arguably, it is
the commodity were addressed even more deeply by the emergence of post-colonial cultures that have created
Cosmococa, Oiticica’s quasi-cinematic participatory the greatest rupture in the Western paradigm of modern
performance piece, planned in collaboration with Brazilian art.

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V irtual L ocations sought, in short, a link with global, transnational, electronic

world culture, and they were unsettled when their artist of
Clearly the Internet has provided a new cultural platform choice insisted on weaving the local into what he called his
and a new forum for the circuits of exchange that have long ‘sensate environment’ of dancing creatures and coloured
fascinated modern artists. Crippled by the ‘digital divide’, lights.96
the Web’s ideology of interactivity and universality has not As in all the international biennials that have proliferated
yet been achieved. But there is surprising resonance between since the end of the Cold War, there is profound tension
the seeming breakdown of Cold War boundaries in between the semiotics of the local and the yearning to take
geopolitics (even if that breakdown has produced a myriad flight and escape into the global. This is the most recent
of other microborders), and the geocultural whirl of art manifestation of the dynamics between nationalism and
festivals, biennials, and feverish web-based activity. There is, internationalism in modern art – except the ‘local’ of post-
on the one hand, a distinct air of utopian possibility for the modern art practice is more likely to be sought at the scale
localized producers of visual culture and a sense that if their of minority urban communities rather than enormous
information is sufficiently compelling it may instantaneously federated states, and the ‘global’ is staged positively as a
find its way to billions of viewers via the Web. On the other productive fiction, or negatively as merely the latest guise of
hand, the empowered, moneyed elite that still dominates commodity capital. Increasingly, the most successful artists
the market for art and its information continue to seek the of the twenty-first century are those who navigate and
‘exotic’, which is still constructed in terms of the foreign, the problematize these borders aggressively, employing deeply
distantly local, the (other-) national. Visiting a website is layered references that can be interpreted one way in their
only part of a global art world experience, which increasingly countries of origin, and a different way altogether in the
requires travelling to Guadalajara or Singapore, Sydney or nomadic world of the biennial and the travelling
Seoul. This path to ‘acquire’ worldly experience, to capture exhibition.
that sense of an authentic Other outside modernism’s reach, To take one example: the Chinese artist Xu Bing (now
has always mobilized the restless and acquisitive culture of working in New York) was steeped in the rarefied, literati
modern art. world of calligraphy as a young man. His most extraordinary
Artists, in their dealings with new media, have become installation to date is the 1995 Book from the Sky (also
aware of the demands of site-specificity in new and intriguing translated as ‘Book of Heaven’), which refers to the Asian
ways. Perry Hoberman, a media artist who produces CD- culture of calligraphy and fills an enormous space with
ROMs as well as interactive electronic installations, has a books and unfurled paper printed with hand-carved
mailing address in New York, but his correspondence rarely ideograms in traditional woodblock forms. Viewers
comes from that city. He is more likely to be in Espoo unfamiliar with Chinese marvel at this display of erudition –
(Finland), Tokyo (Japan), Hull (England), Karlsruhe the stacks of hand-printed books and scrolls, which evoke
(Germany) or Barcelona (Spain), tweaking an installation’s so many of the ancient Chinese triumphs (e.g. the invention
hardware, software, and sculptural components, and trying of paper, the ideogram, and the woodblock). The experience
to find local technicians and helpers to keep it going. The for the Chinese reader is quite different. Drawn into the
commissioners of his works seek to place themselves in a texts, which fail to give way to meaningful words and
vibrant electronic community modelled on internationalism, sentences, the ‘native’ fails utterly to make sense of these
but sense a new transnational identity in the making. Like impressive, well-formed characters. The fake ideograms are
the ‘global village’ envisioned by 1960s media guru Marshall brilliantly done, requiring more erudition than if they were
McLuhan, venues for electronic art have more in common real (to avoid signifying anything, yet mimicking signification
with each other than with the local, business, or governmental so perfectly, is an unparalleled feat in a language of more
communities that fund them. than 5,000 characters composed of a limited number of
In Hoberman’s 1998 installation El Ball del Fanalet ‘brushstrokes’). The post-modern concept of ‘double-coding’
(Lightpool), for example, the artist arrived with little more operates here with a vengeance – native literates, and foreign
than a laptop, intending to work with local artists and illiterates, have incommensurable experiences of the same
computer scientists on a site-specific installation piece.
commissioned by the Fundaciò Joan Mirò. He knew he Wenda Gu, who announced his ambition in 1987 to
wanted to integrate music, a computer programme for ‘transcend the East and West’,97 works with the same
sensing motion via infrared signals, and a visual ‘virtual conflicted internationalism as Xu Bing. Gu’s installations of
ground-plane’ with which visitors could interact. The final ideograms and alphabetic sentences in his United Nations
concept and title for the piece came from a local Catalan Series, which has been ongoing since 1993, are made of
tradition: a dance competition (the ‘ball del fanalet’), in translucent gossamer screens in which apparently legible
which couples waltz holding tiny coloured lanterns. The letters and characters are woven with human hair. Western
participants remain on the dance floor until the candles in viewers seek recognizable words among the texts, where the
their lanterns go out, and the prize goes to the last couple proliferation of cursive Arabic writing and Eastern
dancing. Hoberman undoubtedly imagined that a local ideogrammatic systems highlight the relative insignificance
reference such as this would charm his Spanish audience of the Roman alphabet when compared with other languages
and gently invite them into an encounter with his work. of the world. Even where Roman characters appear, the
Before this could happen, however, his hosts experienced alphabet fails to form words (at least for the reader limited
acute anxiety – would the piece be perceived as supporting to English, German, and a few Romance languages). Gu
Catalan nationalism, hence inflaming the politics of and Bing, both included in recent exhibitions that speculate
contemporary Spain? (The flashy multinational venture of about the drive toward a ‘transnational modernity’,
the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao had already aggravated stubbornly materialize the texture of untranslatable locality
the testy Basque politics of the North.) Hoberman’s patrons to demonstrate the stubbornly non-universal aspects of the

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world. Invoking Babel just as Tatlin had at the dawn of the NOTES
last revolutionary century, these artists operate in the
transnational art world by calling attention to blindness and 1. Page 16 of sketchbook 14 in W. S. Rubin et al., Les
the failure to communicate across linguistic and cultural Demoiselles d’Avignon, New York, 1994, p. 295.
boundaries. Gu adds the simultaneously touching and 2. See C. Lodder Russian Constructivism, New Haven, CT,
somehow forbidden dimension of hair, ‘harvested’ from 1983, p. 268.
barber shop floors in the places hosting his installations. 3. Tatlin, ‘The Work Ahead of Us’ (1920), in J. Bowlt (ed.
The translucent scrims of ‘organic’ language speak only of an and trans.), Russian Art of the Avant-Garde, Theory and
essential grounding in the body – a ground that language Criticism 1902–1934, 1988, p. 207.
pretends to transcend, but may only in the end instantiate. 4. C. Lodder, op. cit., p. 8.
These post-modern artists, then, acknowledge the distance 5. V. Markov (pseud. for Waldemars Matveys) (1914), in
of the ‘other’, but ensure that the operation of ‘othering’ Lodder, op. cit., p. 13.
occurs on both sides of a shifting divide. 6. Malevich, quoted in Bowlt, op. cit., p. xxxiii.
There are many paradoxes in this performance or 7. V. Mayakovskii, ‘Art of the Commune’ (1918), in Lodder,
invocation of the ‘other’ and its imbrication in the nation, as op. cit., p. 48.
this essay has investigated. Like a hydra, engagements with 8. Lef, ‘Declaration: Comrades, Organizers of Life! ’
the ‘other’ form many heads that loom throughout the (1923), in Bowlt, op. cit., p. 199–202. Bold emphasis added.
history of modernism. To enumerate them is to summarize 9. V. Mayakovsky, ‘Parizh’ (1923), in G. H. Roman,
the arguments of this text: (1) internationalism is condemned ‘Tatlin’s Tower: Revolutionary Symbol and Aesthetic’, in
to rewrite (and so reinscribe) nationalism and nation, G. H. Roman and V. Hagelstein Marquardt (eds), The Avant-
defining Others as not international, but local (corollary: to Garde Frontier, Russia Meets the West, 1910-1930, Gainesville,
engage the other nation is to discover one’s own nationality, FL, 1992, p. 53; ‘Mayakovskii i Tatlin’, in Lodder, op. cit.,
and simultaneously to hybridize it); (2) modernist p. 61.
primitivism constructs its others from substrates that are 10. Tatlin (1918), in Lodder, op. cit., p. 55.
often already modern, as the sophisticated sculptural forms 11. N. Punin (1922), in Lodder, op. cit., p. 61.
of African masks already suggested; as John Clark notes, the 12. V. Shklovsky, in Roman, op. cit., p. 54.
relativizing of one’s own history that constitutes an 13. A. Lunacharsky (1927), in Roman, op. cit., p. 55.
apprehension of the modern can be found in most ‘primitive’ 14. V. Mayakovsky (1925), in Roman, op. cit., p. 53.
but colonized cultures; (3)the success of modernist objects Emphasis added.
in communicating across national boundaries is often 15. A. Macke, ‘Masks’ (1912), in C. Harrison and P. Wood,
purchased, paradoxically, by embedding them deeper in a Art in Theory 1900-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas,
nativist discourse (this was the case with Guernica, which Oxford, 1992, pp. 100–1.
succeeded in representing a nativist ‘Spain’ to an audience of 16. E. Nolde, ‘On Primitive Art’ (1912), in Harrison and
international Republican sympathizers); (4) the globalism Wood, op. cit., p. 102.
of commodity culture functions in specifically local ways (as 17. F. Picabia (1915), in C. A. Jones, ‘The Sex of the Machine:
seen with Coca-Cola Plan and its Italian collector, as well as Mechanomorphic Art, New Women, and Francis Picabia’s
Brazilian conceptualists’ understanding of their local Neurasthenic Cure’, in C. A. Jones and P. Galison (eds),
theoretical framework); (5) the global character of the Picturing Science, Producing Art, New York, 1998, pp. 145–80.
World Wide Web will change the discursive structures of 18. F. T. Marinetti (1909), in Harrison and Wood, op. cit.,
the art world, but probably not the material status of local p. 147–48.
artistic ‘capital’ (as the insistent proliferation of national 19. Ibid.
‘biennials’ suggests); (6) the unending dream of 20. U. Boccioni et al., ‘Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto’
internationalism (now ‘transnationalism’ or ‘global culture’) (1910), in Harrison and Wood, op. cit., p. 150.
creates new vocabularies and institutions for shared 21. See C. Tisdall and A. Bozzola, Futurism, London, 1978,
discourses (the travelling exhibition, the biennial, the post- pp. 182, 177.
modern, the post-colonial, the post-oriental), but those 22. See J. T. Schnapp, ‘Politics and Poetics’, in Stanford
discourses are always inflected and understood from within Italian Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1985, pp. 75–92.
the specific situations and subjects of local culture. 23. See E. Braun, ‘Speaking Volumes: Giorgio Morandi’s
Although we have moved from modernism to post- Still Lives and the Cultural Politics of Strapaese’, in Modernism/
modernism, there is no escaping paradox. Nation lurks Modernity, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1995, p. 92.
deep within international aspirations, and the global hovers 24. Ernst (1951), in U. M. Schneede, Max Ernst, 1972,
phantasmagorically above the local site where art is viewed. p. 16.
Post-modernism merely continues the modernist antinomies 25. See W. A. Camfield, Max Ernst, Dada and the Dawn of
with which we began. Perhaps the most intriguing Surrealism, Munich, Germany, 1993, p. 22
development is the hybrid and antropofagist relationships in 26. H. Arp (1939), in J. Russell, Max Ernst Life and Work,
art of the new millennium – art seeks to devour its others in New York, 1967, p. 42.
order to transform. We must wait until deep into the new 27. A. Breton (1924), in A. Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism,
millennium before we can evaluate the results of this Ann Arbor, MI, 1969, p. 26.
molecular exchange. What is certain is that artists will be 28. Ibid., note to p. 27. Emphasis in the original.
among the first to experience it. 29. See R. Golan, Modernity and Nostalgia: Art and Politics in
France between the Wars, New Haven, CT, 1995.
30. Schneede, op. cit., fig. 26.
31. E. M. Legge, Max Ernst: The Psychoanalytic Sources, Ann
Arbor, MI, 1989, pp. 52–53.

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32. Apollinaire’s L’Enchanteur pourrissant, in Legge, op. cit., 65. A. Kaprow, ‘The Legacy of Jackson Pollock’, in Art News,
p. 52. No. 57, 1958, p. 56.
33. Legge, op. cit., p. 56. 66. B. Buchloh, in A. Alberro and B. Stimson, Conceptual
34. Der Elefant von Celebes. The Elephant from Celebes. Hat Art: A Critical Anthology, Cambridge, MA, 1999, pp. 514–37;
hinten etwas gelebes – has sticky, yellow grease on his bottom. see also C. A. Jones, Eyesight Alone: Clement Greenberg’s
35. Der Ventilator (1919), cited in W. Spies, Max Ernst Modernism and the Bureaucratization of the Senses, Chicago, IL,
Collages: The Invention of the Surrealist Universe, London, 1991, 2004.
p. 281. 67. This terminology, although perhaps unfamiliar, is
36. See Camfield, op. cit., p. 99. necessary. Once the non-technological cultural products of ‘the
37. W. George (1931), in R. Golan, Modernity and Nostalgia: West’ were adopted, adapted, and transformed outside ‘the
Art and Politics in France between the Wars, New Haven, CT, West’, the location of their geographical origin no longer
1995, p. 153. constituted a privileged civilizational autonomy. One pernicious
38. E. Oppler, Picasso’s Guernica: Illustrations, Introductory legacy of direct colonialism is that the cultural products
Essay, Documents, Poetry, Criticism, Analysis, New York, 1988, transferred to the world from ‘the West’ are somehow always
pp. 58–59. to be denied their authenticity to those who adopted them
39. F. von Richthofen (1937), Goering testimony (1946), in under its duress in places not in ‘the West’, at least seen from
Oppler, op. cit., p. 166. the position which I shall now locate in Euramerica or
40. A. de Onaindía (1937), in Oppler, op. cit., p. 164. characterize as Euramerican. For fuller exemplification, see my
41. Oppler, op. cit., p. 57. Modern Asian Art, Sydney and Honolulu, 1998.
42. Ibid., pp. 202–3. 68. See J.-H. Martin (ed.), Les magiciens de la terre, Paris,
43. W. S. Rubin, Dada and Surrealist Art, New York, 1968, 1989.
pp. 290–309. 69. See, e.g., Gao Minglu (ed.), Inside Out, New Chinese
44. See Head of a Bull with Human Face, 10 May 1937, and Art, Berkeley, 1998, for country focus; for area-specific shows
Bull with Human Face, 11 May 1937, in Oppler, op. cit., figs. see A. Poshyananda et al., Traditions/Tensions: Contemporary
21, 23. Art In Asia, New York and Sydney, 1996; for exhibitions in
45. Cited by M. Aub (1937), in Oppler, op. cit., p. 204. which country or area foci are prominent see Hou Hanru
46. Picasso, in Oppler, op. cit., p. 102–03 and H. U. Olbrich, Cities on the Move, Ostfildern-Ruit,
47. Picasso (1947), in Oppler, op. cit., p. 102. Emphasis 1997.
added. 70. For early Rimzon material see A. Dube, catalogue essay
48. ‘Wholly inadequate’ in Oppler, op. cit., p. 74; Le for Seven Young Sculptors, New Delhi, 1985. See also V. Lynn,
Corbusier [Jean Jeanneret], 1937, and German pamphlet in ‘The Art of N. N. Rimzon’, Art & Asia Pacific, Vol. 3, No. 2,
H. B. Chipp, Picasso’s Guernica: History, Transformations, 1996.
Meanings, London, 1988, p. 152. 71. Art historically speaking, modernity, modernism, and
49. V. Marrero (1956), in Oppler, op. cit., p. 173. postmodernism do not form a series of clear-cut tripartite
50. Minister of Culture Cavero, in H. B. Chipp, op. cit., stages, but tend to overlap, particularly if there is a relative
p. 190. freedom to eclectically modify styles whose sources do not yet
51. G. Panza, in C. Knight et al., Art of the Fifties, Sixties and operate a bounding hegemony, such as the ‘syncretic’
Seventies: The Panza Collection, 1999, pp. 20–21. architecture of early Meiji Japan.
52. G. Bataille (1929), in G. Bataille, Visions of Excess: Selected 72. Darwin’s position was as follows: ‘Thus modern forms
Writings, 1927–1939, Minneapolis, MN, 1985, p.  31. ought, on the theory of natural selection, to stand higher than
53. A. Tàpies, in C. Giménez, Tápies, New York, 1995, p. 47. ancient forms. Is this the case? It seems that this answer must
54. Typescript manuscript in Tàpies correspondence, Getty be admitted as true, though difficult of proof ’, p. 174. in C.
Research Institute Special Collections, Panza Papers, Box 148, Darwin, The Illustrated Origin of Species, (abridged and
Folder 15. introduced by R. Leakey from 6th edition of 1872, including
55. Tàpies, in Giménez, op. cit., p. 46. comments which update Darwin’s theories or his evidence),
56. Y. Jiro (1967), in P. Schimmel et al., Out of Actions: London, 1979. For S. J. Gould, see his Wonderful Life: The
Between Performance and the Object, 1949‑1979, Los Angeles and Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, London, 1989, p. 47:
New York, 1998, pp. 121. ‘The maximum range of anatomical possibilities arises with the
57. H. Ichiro (1979), in Schimmel et al., op. cit., p. 126. first rush of diversification. Later history is a tale of restriction,
58. S. Kazuo (1955), in A. Munroe, Japanese Art after 1945: as most of these early experiments succumb and life settles
Scream Against the Sky, New York, 1994, p. 373. down to generating endless variants upon a few surviving
59. C. Jung (1930), in M. Leja, Reframing Abstract models’.
Expressionism, New Haven, CT, 1993, p. 104. 73. Since it seems so directly indicative of the problems
60. B. Newman, Selected Writings and Interviews, Berkeley/ raised here, please allow a somewhat lengthy citation from
Los Angeles, CA, 1992, pp. 107–8. Bakhtin’s ‘Discourse in the Novel’, found in M. M. Bakhtin,
61. See Newman and others in ‘What is Sublime’ (1948) in The Dialogic Imagination, (trans. C. Emerson and M. Holquist),
A. E. Gibson, Issues in Abstract Expressionism: The Artist-run Austin, TX, 1981, p. 284–5: ‘But internal dialogization can
Periodicals, Ann Arbor and London, 1990, pp. 159–69. become such a crucial force for creating form only where
62. Newman (1948), in Gibson, op. cit., pp. 173, 187. individual differences and contradictions are enriched by social
63. J. Pollock (1947), in C. A. Jones, Machine in the Studio: heteroglossia, where dialogic reverberations do not sound in the
Constructing the Post-war American Artist, Chicago, IL, 1996, semantic heights of the discourse (as happens in rhetorical
p. 47. genres) but penetrate the deep strata of discourse, dialogize
64. H. Rosenberg (1952), in H. Rosenberg, The Tradition of language itself and the world view a particular language has’
the New, Chicago, IL, 1959, p. 25. [my italics].

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74. For a discussion of ‘double othering’, see J. Clark, ‘Yôga 84. M. Schapiro (1957), in M. Schapiro, Modern Art:
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Vol. 18, No. 2, June 1995, pp. 253–85. For the relativization of 85. E. Loran (1963), in C. A. Jones et al., Panza: Legacy of a
‘othering’, see J. Clark, ‘Gendai Ajia no Bijutsu gensetsu ni Collection, 1999, p. 43.
okeru ‘Taka’ (‘Othering in Modern Asian Art Discourses’) 86. Warhol interviewed by G. Swenson, ‘What is Pop Art?’,
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Art, Sydney, 1998. 87. Cited in S. Stich, Made in U.S.A: An Americanization of
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Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (eds). 1992. Art in Theory 1900–1990: An Tradition of the New. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Anthology of Changing Ideas. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK. Rubin, W. S. 1968. Dada and Surrealist Art. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
Jones, C. A. 1996. Machine in the Studio: Constructing the Post-war  1989. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Harry N. Abrams, New
American Artist. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. York..
 1998. The Sex of the Machine: Mechanomorphic Art, New Women,  and SECKEL, H. and COUSINS, J. (eds). 1994. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
and Francis Picabia’s Neurasthenic Cure. In: JONES, C. A. and Series: Studies in Modern Art. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
GALISON, P. (eds.). 1998. Picturing Science, Producing Art. Routledge,  et al. 1984. ‘Primitivism’ in Twentieth Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal
New York, pp. 145–180. and the Modern. Museum of Modern Art, New York/New York
 2004. Eyesight Alone: Clement Greenberg’s Modernism and the Society Graphic books, Boston, MA.
Bureaucratization of the Senses. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Russell, J. 1967. Max Ernst Life and Work. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New
IL. York.
 et al. 1999. Panza: Legacy of a Collection. Museum of Contemporary Schapiro, M. 1978. Modern Art: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,
Art, Los Angeles, CA. Selected Papers. George Braziller, New York.
Kaprow, A. 1958. The Legacy of Jackson Pollock. In: Art News, No. 57, Schimmel, P. et al. 1998. Out of Actions: Between Performance and the
pp. 24–26; 55–57. Object, 1949–1979. Museum of Contemporary Art/Harry N. Abrams,
Kapur, G. 1978. Contemporary Indian Artists. Vikas Publishing House, Los Angeles and New York.
New Delhi. Schnapp, J. T. 1985. Politics and Poetics. In: MARINETTI, F. T. Zang
Knight, C. et al. 1999. Art of the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies: The Panza Tumb Tuuum, Stanford Italian Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 75–92.
Collection. Rizzoli and Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, Schneede, U. M. 1972. Max Ernst. Praeger, London.
New York and Los Angeles. Spies, W. 1991. Max Ernst Collages: The Invention of the Surrealist Universe.
Lafargue, J. et al. 1989. Fautrier 1898–1964. Musée d’art moderne de la Thames and Hudson, London.
Ville de Paris, Paris. Staller, N. 2001. A Sum of Destructions: Picasso’s Cultures and the
Legge, E. M. 1989. Max Ernst: The Psychoanalytic Sources. UMI Research Creation of Cubism. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Press, Ann Arbor, MI. Stich, S. 1987. Made in U.S.A: An Americanization of Modern Art.
Leighten, P. 1990. The White Peril and L’Art nègre: Picasso, Primitivism, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA.
and Anticolonialism. In: Art Bulletin, Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 609–30. Tapié, M. (ed.). 1952. Un art autre. Gabriel Giraud & Fils, Paris.
Leja, M. 1993. Reframing Abstract Expressionism. Yale University Press, TÀpies, A. 1970. La pràctica de l’art. Edicions Ariel, Barcelona, Spain.
New Haven, CT. Tisdall, C. and Bozzola, A. 1978. Futurism. Thames and Hudson,
Lemke, S. 1983. Primitivist Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of London.
Transatlantic Modernism. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Warhol, A. et al. 1975. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and
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Vol. 3, No. 2.

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P H Y SICA L C U L T U R E AN D S P O R T

Clarisse Pereira-Palhinhas

INTRODUCTION Nile Valley bas-reliefs depicting man in training – running,

jumping, swimming and horse-riding.’ 2
Physical culture, physical education, physical exercise, Many authors concur with Robert Parienté in believing
physical and sporting activities are all words that express that sport originated in antiquity and derived from rituals –
pursuits that are very closely allied, not to say inextricably chiefly funerary rituals, but also those used in initiation and
linked. Jean-Marie Brohm writes ‘the first difficulty that hierogamic ceremonies. Bernard Jeu, author of several books
arises in studying sport is pinning down the nature of the on the nature of sport, believes that from the earliest days of
subject. Just what is sport?’,1 and he observes that the usual society, sport was linked to tribal life which is thought to
meaning lends itself to a fairly broad definition. have exercised cultural control by the group over the three
The increase in the number of terms associated with major events of coming of age, marriage and death. ‘For
physical and sporting activities is the result of the frequently obvious socio-economic reasons, physical values then
complex progress and development of these activities become social values. For no less obvious reasons – we are
throughout the cultural history of humanity. Being an integral talking about undifferentiated societies with a universal
part of social life, they reflect society as a whole and play a part culture – social values are sacred values.’3
in its change and transformation. Their significance varies Taking ancient games, including Homeric sports, as
from one era or society to another. The essence and values their starting point, two eminent authors have dealt
that they convey depend on ideological, philosophical, brilliantly with the notion of play and sport. Johan Huizinga
anthropological, economic and technical implications, which in his book Homo ludens,4 and Roger Caillois in Man, play
vary from one historical period or cultural environment to and games,5 put forward ideas and analyses for understanding
another. According to some historians, physical activities and the phenomenon of sport. The two authors show how
sports originated in the distant past, and were linked to culture and play are linked. Caillois maintains that modern
activities needed for survival (hunting and battle). German civilization arose with the advent of agon (competition), and
sports historian Gerhard Lukas, for example, saw man that ordered competition established meritocracy. He also
essentially as a worker and therefore believed that ‘throwing maintains that, of the early civilizations based on the dual
the javelin’ was the first sport. concept ‘mimicry-ilinx’ (simulation and vertigo), Ancient
Because the history of physical culture determines that Greece made the transition to become a civilization based
of physical education, it cannot be separated from the on the pairing of agon-alea (competition and chance).
history of education, which is directly linked to philosophical Huizinga notes that there is a link between agon and agonia,
and pedagogical presuppositions. It seems that physical which initially meant ‘competition’ and later acquired the
culture has always been an integral part of the life of different additional meaning ‘struggle of the soul’ or ‘anguish’, an
peoples. Robert Parienté tells us: ‘The instinct for sport is important aspect of sport, given the uncertainty of victory.
no doubt as old as man’s first leisure activities and the origin Sport is said to help reduce the anguish inspired by everyday
of competition is lost in the mists of time. Rivalry between existence and questioning about the purpose of life and the
clans or tribes probably provided the original context meaning of death. Authors such as G. R. Luschen and
enabling a form of physical activity foreshadowing sport to P. Seppanen also consider that sport can reduce anguish in
arise. Sport appeared as soon as the idea of play entered into our modern societies as it did in ancient society.
daily life and it gradually freed itself from material constraints According to Raymond Thomas, ‘In ancient Greece,
and difficulties …Thousands of years actually had to go by many temples specialized in divination. Oracles were
before this state of limbo was left behind and the efforts that consulted. People sought to know the future and so reduce
were wholly devoted to military discipline, as practised by the role of chance.… In modern times, competitions are still
the Egyptians and Chinese, developed into participation in associated with gambling (horse racing and football pools).
an autonomous and individualized sporting activity … the The most popular sports are those that leave room for
oldest evidence available to archaeologists, apart from the chance, football in particular. On the other hand, the athlete
Lascaux hunters’ cave paintings, dates back to 3500 bc: the tries to reduce the role of chance in his performance by

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 thematic section

training.’6 Worry over the chance effects of imponderables person within a given cultural sphere through education
in any sporting event and fear of the unpredictable are all to and learning. There is therefore a ‘cultural basis for
be found in different cultures. personality’ or ‘basic personality’, which is the distinctive
In the view of Bernard Jeu, author of La vraie nature du psychological configuration of the members of a particular
sport, there is a line of continuity running through pagan society, manifesting itself in a certain life style. Because
ceremonies (worship of the Greek, Inca or Egyptian gods, physical culture is an integral part of the general culture of
for example), the popular games derived from them and the any given society, its specific features and mode of
practice of modern sports. Many of the rural games played development differ from one period or people to another.
in medieval Europe are regarded as relics of pagan Education is defined as ‘a set of measures intended to
ceremonies, and games such as soule or choule (in France) develop the physical, intellectual and moral faculties of the
and calcio in Italy are thought to be the forerunners of rugby child, adolescent and/or adult, in order to prepare them for
and football. Allen Guttmann, in his book From Ritual to social life … Educational institutions and practice are closely
Record, maintains that sport, beginning as a ritual in ancient related to social systems, their role being to hand down a
societies, became a competitive system with the advent of culture and a body of knowledge and also to provide for
modern societies based on efficiency. social and economic development’.9
There would thus appear to be some kinship between Not until we come to Ancient Greek civilization do we
ancient and modern sport, a line of continuity, a thread find the first concrete and theoretical evidence of a genuine
running through different ages. James Riordan, analysing educational system, one in which a pedagogical and
sport in the countries of the former Soviet bloc, makes the methodical approach was adopted. Ancient Greece attached
following comment: ‘Sport has the same function as religious great importance to a form of education that inculcated the
ritual in that it serves to develop what Durkheim calls ideals of society into the child: discipline and strength in
cohesion, solidarity, integration, discipline and emotional warlike Sparta, a sense of beauty and rhetorical style
euphoria.’ 7 required by the citizen in the democratic city of Athens.
For other theorists, this continuity is now being broken In the fourth century bc, the first educational institutions
by modern sport, which they consider to be linked to the were established: palestrae and gymnasia, where the
industrial system and the laws governing it; in that context adolescent trained his mind and body. He subsequently
it emerges as a category of its own. P. Laguillaumie, for undertook ephebic service, i.e. military service and civic
example, writes: ‘Not only is the emergence of modern education. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, the epic poet Homer
sport – i.e. sport practised in certain types of organized describes the martial and athletic feats of Ulysses with many
situation, radically different from those of antiquity – a interesting details, and Book XXIII of the Iliad depicts the
historical phenomenon dating from the advent of bourgeois games organized for the funeral of Patroclus. ‘The events
industrial mechanization during the ascendant phase of include chariot racing, boxing, pankration, running, fencing,
capitalism, not only did the global development of sport throwing the discus and archery. They clearly foreshadow
follow the global development of capitalism, but also, and the programme of Olympic events that developed from the
most important of all, its internal organization, structures, first Olympiad onwards’.10 The first Olympic Games were
forms and content are now essentially bourgeois.’8 They feel held in 776 bc, when the name of the Greek athlete
that the principle of productivity is triumphant in modern Koroebos was carved in stone after he had won the race
sport; measurement, quantification, setting of new records, from the stadium to Olympia; 776 bc is therefore the official
speed are its basic characteristics, mirroring those of the date for the birth of sport in Greece.
industrial system that produced it. The word athlete comes from athlon, a Greek word
On the other hand, some modern sports specialists refuse meaning both ‘contest’ and ‘what is to be won in the contest’,
to see anything more than a trans-historic phenomenon here; the original prize being a crown of wild olive leaves.11 It
in their view, physical exercise has always existed and they feel should be noted, however, that the sports athlon originated
that modern sport is no different from what went before. in the Mediterranean world around the sixteenth century
Allen Guttmann, however, spells out seven specific bc, and that the Cretans had been enjoying running,
characteristics of sport in modern society, as compared with pankration and bullfighting ever since that time. The bas-
sport in the ancient world: (a) secularism: sport is no longer reliefs of Knossos and the sculpted vases of Aghia Triada
associated with religious ceremonies; (b) equality of show many details of athletic life in Crete.12 Sport contests
opportunity: games are open to everybody; (c) specialization in Olympia were both religious and patriotic ceremonies.
of roles; (d) rationalization: sport is subject to strict rules; They were dedicated to the gods Zeus, Poseidon, Hercules
(e) bureaucratization; (f) quantification: modern sporting and Apollo, and to the goddess Hera. Bertrand During
performance is measured; and (g) setting of new records: explains: ‘The Greeks did not speak of “games” but of “things
there are winners, a new record is set. Olympian”, which touch upon the sacred and illustrate the
seriousness of competitions that are all about coming closer
to the perfection of the gods. The central value is that of
ORIGINS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES courage, which enables competitors to attain the heroic: if
FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE we cannot be eternal we can still be glorious.’13
nineteenth A N D twentieth
CENTURIES
The Roman Empire and the Middle Ages
Ancient Greece
In the Roman Empire, where all education had initially
The American school of cultural anthropology sees culture been provided by the family, the Greek model was adopted
as a pattern, which is impressed upon the mentality of every for the training of the mind: reading, writing, arithmetic,

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Greek and Latin literature, and initiation in the art of public and part of the long process of cultivating civilized behaviour
speaking. But physical education was somewhat neglected and controlling violence. However, the dispute between the
since the Romans preferred the barbaric games of the French and the English over the invention of the word
circuses where they cheered on the slaves as they slaughtered ‘sport’ continues to this day. Another tradition looks to the
each other. The Olympic Games were regarded as a source English word ‘sport’, in the sense of hunting, which dates
of paganism and were abolished by Emperor Theodosius, a back to the sixteenth century. The word in its modern sense
Christian convert. The new theocracy was therefore one was only recognized by the Académie française in 1878.
reason why the Olympic Games disappeared for many Michel Bouet describes the end of the medieval system of
centuries. martial games as follows: ‘However, what was lost in this
Medieval Europe, the successor to the Roman Empire, way were the knightly martial exercises. The popular games
perpetuated the old educational model while Christianizing wrestling, soule and crosse were still played, particularly by
its content, following the example of Saint Augustine, and the peasantry. And in the expanding towns, the need to
providing a systematic framework for the liberal arts of train citizens for defence gave rise to some form of archery
Hellenistic origin. militia. In addition, the jeu de paume was taken up by a large
But, ‘paradoxically, it was Christianity which, having dug number of city dwellers, as it provided the exercise they
the grave of ancient sport, was to invent modern sport … were beginning to feel the need for and could be practised
Indeed, the Middle Ages provided an essential boost … within a restricted space.’18
Admittedly, the great concern of the Middle Ages was not
so much to be learned as to be strong. The first priority was
self-defence; people died young and were less attached to The sixteenth to the eighteenth century and the schools
life than they are today. They risked their lives for pleasure, of gymnastics
for what was really at stake at tournaments were the lives of
the competitors. Kings and popes consequently issued The period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries
numerous decrees forbidding jousting on account of the includes the Renaissance, when people joined with
pointless deaths it caused … Games were like war and war Montaigne in stressing the necessary relationship between
was like a game. Jousting and fencing were practised on a training and pragmatism, in which travel was a way of
very wide scale by the nobility’.14 From the eleventh century educating. With the advent of the Jesuit colleges came the
onwards, the passion for violent games and exercises first educational ‘methods’. In Reformation countries, the
throughout medieval Europe lasted a very long time. The availability of the Bible in the vernacular meant that the
lance, the spear, the mace, the bow, the crossbow and the lower strata of society could be educated. In Catholic
halberd were all used in bloody contests. The numerous countries, the mission to educate the Christian people was
duels are described in epic narratives. In France in the taken up by John Baptist de la Salle and the Brothers of the
eleventh century, the game of soule, also known as choule, Christian Schools with the establishment of free elementary
became immensely popular. This was played with a ball schools (petites écoles).
made of wood or leather, filled with straw or bran or blown In Great Britain, the Protestant schools came to advocate
up with air, and was the forerunner of football and rugby. a form of education designed to produce the ‘muscular
Soule – a people’s game, although it was also very popular Christian’, one who was strong and in good physical health.
with the clergy and even with nobles and kings – pitted This trend continued to develop right up to the nineteenth
entire villages against each other for several days amid scenes century, when sporting practices born in British schools
of extreme violence. Many young people died during the spread to other countries. The eighteenth century, the age
game since no holds were barred. ‘Soule was thus the of the Enlightenment, saw a systematic review of education,
dominant sport in twelfth-century France. It was imported typified by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile, which extolled
from the continent to England, where it was soon to become the merits of a healthy childhood and adolescence resulting
known as football.’15 ‘The Middle Ages saw the development from physical exercise in the open air. Meanwhile, in
of other forerunners of modern games, such as the jeu de continental Europe, increasing emphasis was being given to
paume, whose relation to tennis is obvious in that it called the role of the school in developing the physical abilities of
for much the same sort of space. Paris had 250 jeu de paume future citizens. Physical exercise within the restricted and
courts at the end of the sixteenth century. Calcio was a often closed confines of the school encouraged the
Florentine ball game (calcio florentino).’16 Hence the name of institutionalization of ‘gymnastics’. The European armies
the Italian football federation, founded in 1898: Federazione considered gymnastics as an essential part of the training of
Italiana Gioco Calcio or Federcalcio. The transformation of the individual, who was regarded first and foremost as a
traditional games into modern sports highlights the close citizen, ready to defend his homeland, and the official status
link between the notion of play and that of sport. ‘The word they gave to gymnastics was in marked contrast to the
“sport” is thought to be derived from the old French word liberal, recreational and social character of British sport.
“desport” (disport or entertainment) and we know that in The reaction to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic
Rabelais the verb “desporter” means to disport or enjoy Empire gave a particular boost to gymnastics in Germany.
oneself … The word “sport” appears in French in 1820, and In 1793, Johann GutsMuth wrote the first treatise on
refers initially to such activities as racing and betting, fishing, gymnastics for young people. In 1811, Friedrich Ludwig
hunting, polo, fencing, golf, cricket, boating, i.e. the many Jahn founded a gymnastics club, the Turnplatz, with a view
fashionable leisure pursuits practised at seaside resorts, to combating the ‘degeneration of the race’ and developing a
many of them in imitation of Great Britain.’17 Hence the sense of patriotism.
widely held view, propounded notably by the sociologist There are many reasons why gymnastics found it difficult
Norbert Elias, that sport was born in the United Kingdom, to break free from the context of conscription, given that the
the result of the Industrial Revolution and urbanization, social climate in continental Europe was decidedly nationalistic

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and militaristic. At that time, the culture of gymnastics was Voyages en Zig-Zag. ‘School games are codified in English
dominated by two major schools of thought: schools by teachers like Thomas Arnold: football, rugby,
polo, boxing, swimming and athletics are the main ones
1. Swedish Gymnastics devised by Per Henrick Ling listed in this way and rugby is, in the words of J.P. Bodis,
(1776–1839), which were to contribute to the the great educational sport of Great Britain.’20 Legend has it
simultaneous development of mind and body and had that in 1823, a pupil at Rugby School, William Webb Ellis,
four objectives: educational, military, medical and pushed the ball into the opponent’s goal with his hand and
aesthetic. thus invented what was soon to be known as rugby football,
2. German Gymnastics passed down from Jahn, which after the name of the town where it originated.
placed great emphasis on the use of equipment. In 1850, the public schools, the universities and large
towns were equipped with gymnasiums. The first British
The debate over the relative merits of Swedish and German sports federations were established: the Rugby Football
gymnastics was to continue until 1920. Union (1871), the Scottish Football Union (1873), the
In France, gymnastics took a particular turn owing to the Amateur Athletic Association (1880) and the Northern
experiments of Colonel Francesco Amoros (a naturalized Rugby Union (1895). Other European countries decided to
Frenchman of Spanish origin), who was regarded as a follower follow Great Britain’s example and set up their own
of Pestalozzi (a Swiss) and Jahn (a German). His keen interest federations, and the Italian Football Federation or
in medicine and human mechanics led him to adopt scientific Federcalcio was set up in 1898, the Union des Sociétés
methods, including the physiological record cards of Françaises de Course à Pied in 1870, and the Deutscher
Dr Verdier and the dynamometer to measure muscular effort. Fussball-Bund in 1900.
He set up several gymnasiums, including the Grenelle ‘gymnase The English sporting vocabulary also gained ground:
normal’ – civil and military – in 1819, which was over-equipped jockey, turf, pedigree, running footmen, riding-coat and
with apparatus. The French army adopted the Amoros method sportsman (in the sense of horse-riding enthusiast). British
for the military gymnastics training school at Joinville-le-Pont, engineers working on the construction of railway lines and
which was established in 1852. A decree of 1869 made commercial employees were responsible for founding the
gymnastics compulsory in schools and teacher training colleges. first sports clubs in Europe and on the route to India. They
The 1902 military regulations introduced Swedish gymnastics were established in Mauritius as early as 1812, and between
into barracks. In this way the outlines of a standard and 1855 and 1892 in Belgium, the Netherlands, France,
normative form of gymnastics were established in France, Switzerland and Russia. The Juventus Club in Turin (Italy)
exemplified by school gymnastics which represented a was established in 1897. In France, the pupils at the Lycée
harmonious synthesis of the Swedish and German methods. Michelet in Vanves founded the Olympique in 1870, those
of the Lycée Condorcet established the Racing Club in
1882, and those at the Lycée Saint-Louis founded Le Stade
Great Britain and the sporting revolution of the in the Jardin des Tuileries in 1883. Modern sport was now
nineteenth century regarded as a means of instilling discipline and sound
morals; it reflected a resolve to ‘civilize’ traditional games by
The nineteenth century saw the general democratization of imposing rules and regulations in an attempt to rechannel
education in Western Europe. It was the century in which, at aggression and violence, bringing players together in
widely differing dates from country to country, state education federations and clubs, organizing regional and then
systems were introduced. In France, this democratization international competitions and championships. The year
dates from Jules Ferry’s law of 1882, which made education 1885 saw the birth of professional football in England.
compulsory and free throughout the Republic. The rapid
spread and democratization of sport throughout France then
followed as a result of the massive increase in schooling and Rise of American sports and birth of handball in Europe
the rise in the number of associations. The British played an
essential role in inventing modern sports, in making them The United States, a decolonized nation wishing to assert
known and getting them adopted in Western Europe, and in its individuality, created its own sports, such as American
changing attitudes towards physical culture. football and also baseball, which was to become the sport
In Great Britain and the United States in the mid- that symbolized the nation. In December 1891, James
nineteenth century, an entertainment industry grew up, Naismith, a physical education teacher at the Young Men’s
offering spectator sports and new leisure activities open to Christian Association (YMCA) in Springfield,
everybody. A taste for holidays, travel, leisure pursuits and Massachusetts, invented basketball, an indoor ball game, to
amateur sports developed. occupy students during the long winter months. The game
‘Between 1828 and 1842, the Headmaster of Rugby rapidly spread to other countries via the YMCA’s worldwide
School, Thomas Arnold, shaped the minds of young network, and young people were playing basketball as early
Englishmen. His originality consisted in making sport an as 1892 in Canada, 1893 in France, 1897 in Bohemia, 1904
element in character formation: the pupil learned to in Turkey and 1905 in Russia. In the United States, the first
appreciate the importance of self-discipline. Sport became a professional basketball league was formed in 1949. The
major plank in moral education and, closely associated with ‘Dream Team’, formed in 1992 with Michael Jordan as
study, it rapidly became the cornerstone of all British captain, comprised all the stars of American basketball and
education on which the power of the kingdom and the made a huge impact internationally.
empire was largely based.’ 19 In 1841, the Englishman At a YMCA event in 1895, the Reverend William
Thomas Cook organized his first trip, and the Swiss author G. Morgan, a former student of James Naismith and head
and cartoonist, Rudolph Töpffer, published his book of Physical Education at Holyoke College (Massachusetts),

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demonstrated a ball game involving volleying a ball back and including Marcellin Berthelot, Clémenceau, Pasteur and
forth, which therefore took the name volleyball. Having Jules Verne. Nevertheless in 1889, Coubertin was appointed
spread through the YMCA network, volleyball became very France’s representative to a congress on physical exercise
successful in the United States and other countries in the held in Boston, Massachusetts.
Americas, such as Canada, Brazil and Cuba, and even as far On his return, he worked with even greater determination
afield as Asia, where it was taken up in China, Japan and on his planned reform of the whole French education
India. These two ball games gained prominence in Europe system. Then, in the course of 1889, he sent a thesis on the
during the First World War. In the course of the twentieth moral dimension of athletics to the Association pour
century, basketball and volleyball gradually spread all over l’Avancement des Sciences. At the end of 1889, Georges de
the five continents. The FIBA (International Basketball Saint-Clair transformed the Union des Sociétés Françaises
Federation) and the FIVB (International Volleyball de Course à Pied into the Union des Sociétés Françaises de
Federation) were established in 1932 and 1947 respectively. Sports Athlétiques (USFSA), to which he wanted to
Baseball and American football have not really caught on affiliate the school associations inspired and in many cases
in other countries, apart from Cuba and Japan after 1945, actually established by Coubertin. In 1890, the reform of
following the spread of American culture to the Land of the French education was finally decreed and Physical Education
Rising Sun. Baseball, which was often played in military and Sport were incorporated into the curriculum.
camps during the American Civil War, ‘became the national In 1891, Pierre de Coubertin transformed the Jules
game because it perfectly mirrors the structure of American Simon Committee into the Conseil Supérieur de l’Education
civilization; it is an outdoor sport in which performance can Physique. Father Didon, principal of Arcueil College, and
be measured.’21 one of his admirers and disciples, had the words ‘Citius,
Handball was invented in Czechoslovakia in 1892 by Altius, Fortius’ (faster, higher, stronger) embroidered on
J. Klenker, who devised a ball game called Česka Hazena, the pennant of his school club. These words were to become
similar to modern seven-a-side handball, but played in the particularly famous, since they were chosen by Coubertin as
open air. In Denmark, in 1898, H. Nielsen promoted seven- the motto of the Olympic Games. On 25 November 1892,
a-side handball, which was played indoors because of the at an official ceremony presided over by the President of the
severe cold. Germany developed an eleven-a-side version, Republic and held in the Great Amphitheatre of the old
modelled on rugby and football. In 1919, Karl Schllenz laid Sorbonne in Paris, Coubertin launched the idea of
down rules: goal area barred to players other than establishing ‘the Olympic Games of the Modern Era’.
goalkeeper; movement with the ball limited; and some Admittedly, the idea was not a new one. As early as 1834
contact authorized. Adopted as a complementary sport by Gustav Schartau had supervised the organization of the
basketball and athletics federations, handball’s own amateur Scandinavian games, which were inspired by the Games of
international federation was established in 1928 when the Ancient Greece. In 1850, an unsuccessful attempt to revive
Olympic Games were held in Amsterdam. In 1946 the the games was made by a rich Greek tradesman, Evangelios
federation became the International Handball Federation Zappas. Inspired by the dream of a Greek renaissance, he
and set up its headquarters in Stockholm. organized an Olympic competition but lost a lot of money
and achieved very little. In 1869 in Great Britain, the Much
Wenlock ‘Olympic Games’ were held. None of these
THE REVIVAL OF THE OLYMPIC initiatives came to anything, however. Between 1874 and
GAMES 1881, archaeological excavations carried out in Olympia by
the German archaeologist Ernst Curtius had once again
Baron de Coubertin and internationalism in sport drawn attention to the ancient site of the Greek Games. A
series of articles by Philippe Daryl, the pseudonym of Pascal
At the end of the nineteenth century and in the twentieth Grousset, also helped promote the idea of a modern version
century, sport in France and subsequently throughout the of the Olympic Games.
world was marked by the fascinating and passionate figure International tension made Coubertin responsive to
of Pierre De Fredi, Baron de Coubertin (Plate 159), born pacifist ideas, and in Pédagogie Sportive he wrote: ‘Effort is
on 1 January 1863. In 1883, Pierre de Coubertin went to the supreme joy; success is not an end but an incitement to
England, having read many books on teaching methods aim higher; the individual has value only in relation to
being used across the Channel, particularly Taine’s Notes humanity as a whole.’23 Coubertin’s views would very soon
sur l’Angleterre. ‘There he visited many schools, met a lot of be heard well beyond the frontiers of France and his hopes
important people and returned to France dazzled by what were expressed in the following terms: ‘The time has come
he had seen. From then on, his whole mind was focused on for international sport to play a new role in the world.
the phenomenon of sport in education.’ 22 In 1886, totally Germany has dug up what remains of Olympia, why should
won over to English ways, he took up his pen to write La France not succeed in restoring its splendour?’24
réforme sociale, in which he proposed a reform of French
education. At the age of 25, as Secretary of the Committee
for the Preparation of Physical Exercises in Education, he The revival of the Olympic Games: Establishment of
was granted in 1888 an audience by President Sadi Carnot, the IOC
who listened carefully to his ideas. That same year a
journalist, Pascal Grousset, established the National League The revival of the Olympic Games was at last officially
of Physical Education, whose avowed goal was to combat pronounced on 23 June 1894 in the Great Amphitheatre of
the ‘Anglomania’ of Coubertin’s Committee, nicknamed the new Sorbonne by the international congress of
the Jules Simon Committee after the Minister of Education. universities and sporting bodies convened for the purpose.
Many eminent figures were members of the League, An International Olympic Committee (IOC) was set up

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comprising six members. Coubertin was its president from And so began the legend of the modern games, to which
1896 to 1925. He nominated the other members – a Greek, numerous new events were to be added in the course of the
a Swede, a Russian, a Hungarian and an Argentinian – and twentieth century. The very first champion of the modern
they drafted an Olympic Charter. Later, the make-up of the era, however, was the American James Connolly. He
IOC was to change. ‘Why did I revive the Olympic Games? covered 13.71 m in the triple jump, beating the Frenchman
To ennoble and strengthen sports, to ensure that they Alexandre Tuffere’s performance (12.7 m) by more than
would be independent and long-lasting, and thus to enable one metre.
them better to fulfil the educational role incumbent upon
them in the modern world. And for the glorification of the
individual athlete, whose existence is necessary for the THE OLYMPIC GAMES FROM 1900 TO
muscular activity of the community, and whose prowess is TODAY
necessary for the maintenance of a general spirit of
competition.’25 It was decided that the modern Olympic Games, like
Coubertin saw himself as one ‘rebelling’ against the those of Ancient Greece, should be held every four years.
‘worm-eaten philosophy’ of the social and educational order During the first games in Athens, the idea of making
and decided to create a new system of education for his own Greece the site of all future Olympic Games was widely
country and a new form of dialogue between all the countries mooted, but Coubertin was afraid that Athens would be
in the world through sport. He expressed the wish that the unable to bear such a financial and organizational burden
first of the genuinely international, modern Olympic Games every four years. ‘At the banquet given at the close of the
should be held in Paris in 1901. However, he gave way to Athens games of 1896, he therefore proposed that all
the Greek Government, which was accorded the honour of major cities throughout the world should host the games
hosting the first international games in Athens from 5 to 13 in turn.’30 But the organizers were frequently tempted to
April 1896 on the site of the ancient games. A Greek patron establish a permanent site for the games, owing to the
from Alexandria, Averoff, financed the reconstruction of exorbitant cost of providing facilities in keeping with
the stadium built in the fourth century bc, and other costs requirements. Hitler proposed Germany for this purpose
were subsidized by the Greek Government with the aid of a after the Berlin Olympics of 1936; then, after the Montreal
public subscription and sales of commemorative stamps. games of 1976, the idea of a permanent site close to
Built on the side of Mount Hymette, the stadium is entirely Olympia was again considered, though without any
of marble and is U-shaped. practical steps being taken to date. Given the scale of the
economic benefits and the prestige conferred by the games,
a great number of candidate cities continue to vie for this
First new event: the marathon privilege. Rome is the only city ever to have asked for the
games to be relocated. It gave up the task of hosting the
Two hundred and thirty Greek and 81 foreign athletes Fourth Olympiad owing to force of circumstances (the
competed at the Greek games. The programme comprised eruption of Vesuvius in 1906) and the 1908 Games were
nine disciplines and 43 events, including a new one: the reassigned to London.
marathon. This event was conceived and suggested by the The second Olympic Games were held in Paris in 1900,
French philologist, Michel Bréal, in honour of the valiant on the site of the Universal Exhibition, with the participation
soldier Philipides, who ran 42 kilometres from the town of of 24 Olympic Committees and 1,225 athletes, including for
Marathon to bring news of the victory over the Persians the first time 19 women. The first female gold medallist was
(490 bc) to Athens, and thus became the symbol of a nation the British tennis player Charlotte Cooper. The organizers
and of a supreme mission. In 1895, ‘Bréal wrote to Coubertin of the exhibition spread the competitions over five months,
to tell him he would be giving a silver cup to the runner who, an arrangement not in keeping with the Olympic character
having set off from Marathon, reached Athens the first’.26 of the events.
‘After the Frenchman Albin Lermusiaux and the The same mistake was made in the United States at the
Australian Edwin Flack had dropped out, having taken Third Olympiad of 1904 in Saint-Louis, where events were
turns to set the pace, Spiridon Louys, the “water-carrier spread over more than four and a half months and were lost
from Amaroussi”, a working-class district of Athens, won amid the chaos of the Universal Exhibition. These games
the marathon on 10 April, causing an explosion of nationalist were attended by only 11 nations and 496 athletes. The
feeling.’ 27 ‘A cannon shot boomed out and 60,000 hearts London Games of 1908 were truly international, with 2,059
beat as one. At first there was blank silence, and then a athletes from 22 nations. At these games, archers Willy
shout of joy. Louys entered the stadium. His final lap was and Lottie Dod became the first brother and sister
both agony and bliss. Two Greeks lifted him from the medallists, and for the first time an athlete – Dorando
ground, hoisted him onto their shoulders and carried him Pietri, a marathon runner from Capri – was disqualified for
to the King. Greece was reborn.’28 Coubertin, applying drug‑taking.
‘sports psychology’ before it had been invented, assessed the At the Stockholm Olympics of 1912, the growing appeal
hero’s success in the following terms: ‘Spirodon was a fine- of the games was confirmed as they were attended by 28
looking shepherd dressed in a common fustanella and a nations and 2,541 athletes (including 57 women), and there
complete stranger to scientific training methods. He were 102 events. These games were a model of efficiency,
prepared himself for the race by prayer and fasting and is since the Swedish hosts officially introduced the use of
said to have spent the previous night in front of icons lit electronic timing devices, as well as the first loudspeaker
with candles. From then on I was convinced that the mind system. Sweden refused to allow boxing matches on its
played a much more powerful role in sport than is normally territory, which prompted the International Olympic
believed.’29 Committee to limit the powers of the host country in

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relation to the preparation of the programme for the games. to the development of winter sports and the organization of
The most popular hero of the 1912 games was Jim Thorpe, championships. The nineteenth winter games in Salt Lake
a Native American from Oklahoma. Thorpe won the five City (Utah, United States) in February 2002, brought
pentathlon events and broke the world record in the 10 together more than 2,400 athletes competing in 78 events,
decathlon events. figures hitherto unequalled in the history of the Winter
Olympics. But the first games of the new millennium were
marred by a scandal leading to the resignation or dismissal
Olympic protocol becomes more elaborate of a number of members of the IOC who had been
denounced by the press for corruption in the vote to
The 1920 games in Antwerp, Belgium, were the first to fly designate Sydney (for the 2000 Olympics) and Salt Lake
the Olympic flag with its five rings (representing the five City for the Winter Olympics. This revealed the extent of
continents), and to require athletes to take an oath. At the one of the most undesirable aspects of the commercialization
age of 72, Swedish marksman Oscar Swahn won a silver of sport.
medal in the team double-shot at a moving target event,
becoming the oldest medallist in the history of the games.
The games were attended by 29 nations and 2,669 athletes, The Paralympic Games
including 78 women, and featured 154 events. Pierre de
Cubertin’s motto for the Olympic Games – Citius, Altius, The Paralympic Games were instituted to give thousands of
Fortius (faster, higher, stronger) – was first introduced at physically or mentally handicapped athletes in the world
the 1924 Olympics in Paris. The games were fast attracting the opportunity to take part in international competitions.
more nations and gaining more media attention. The With the introduction of these games, the twentieth century
number of participating countries rose from 29 in 1920 to gave sport a new dimension. The main initiator was Ludwig
44 in 1924 at the Paris games, which were covered by more Guttman, a neurosurgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
than a thousand journalists. The ceremonial aspects were near London, who had the remarkable idea of organizing
also becoming more marked with each successive Olympiad, games for his paraplegic patients, Royal Air Force veterans
and the Paris games saw the introduction of the ritual wounded in combat during the Second World War, to be
hoisting of three flags during the closing ceremony: the flag held in parallel with the London Olympic Games in 1948.
of the International Olympic Committee, that of the host On the first day of the London Olympics, just as the games
country, and that of the next country to host the games. began, he organized the first games for handicapped persons
The Olympic flame was lit for the first time at the in wheelchairs at his hospital. However, the first Paralympics
Amsterdam games in 1928, during the opening ceremony, were not held until 1960, when Rome was host to 300
and the Greek delegation led the march-past of athletes handicapped athletes.
with the delegation of the Netherlands, the host nation, The Paralympic Games are held after the summer
bringing up the rear. Greece at the front, host country at the Olympics and are now the second largest sporting event in
back, was henceforth part of the Olympic protocol. It is the world in terms of the number of participants – 5,000 at
thus easy to see how much more elaborate the Olympic the Sydney games – emphasizing the need to make better
ceremonial was becoming, and how it was becoming full of provision for everybody in modern society, since everyone
symbolism: official opening of the games by a head of state, has the same need for joy in life and for self-esteem derived
carrying of the Olympic flame and lighting of the Olympic from the appreciation of others. People with different
fire, Olympic oath sworn by an athlete chosen for his or her handicaps take part in the games: amputees (lower or upper
achievements, march-past of the National Olympic limbs), tetraplegics or paraplegics in wheelchairs, people
Committees with the flags of their countries, headed by with visual handicaps, learning difficulties or certain types
Greece, and for the first time, in Munich in 1972, the of motor deficiency. The sports are highly varied: shooting,
swearing of an oath by officials at the opening ceremony. archery, athletics, swimming, cycling, table tennis, judo,
weight-lifting, sailing, and more. Impressive feats are
performed, but they need to be more widely covered in the
The Winter Olympics media if further progress is to be made in breaking down
stereotypes and changing behaviour.
When the IOC instituted the Winter Olympics, the first
games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924 (Plate 160).
The Winter Olympics are devoted to sports involving Women’s participation in the Olympic Games
movement over snow and ice, the main ones being cross-
country skiing, downhill skiing and ski-jumping, the giant After the Amsterdam games (1928) the number of women
slalom (since Oslo, 1952), figure skating (single or in pairs), taking part steadily increased. They were finally authorized
speed skating, snowboarding (an American invention), to compete in the gymnastics and athletics events, having
bobsleigh, and (by way of team games) ice hockey. The first previously competed only in tennis, golf, figure skating,
ski factory was set up in Christiana, the old name for Oslo, sailing, swimming, fencing and archery. In Helsinki in 1952,
in 1886. In 1892 the International Skating Union was the Soviet Union took part for the first time and its female
established in Scheveningen, in the Netherlands, and the gymnasts turned out to be particularly impressive. They
first world figure skating championship was held in Saint succeeded in dominating the events for forty years until the
Petersburg, Russia, in 1896. From the beginning of the Soviet Union split up.
twentieth century, winter holiday resorts such as Saint The question of the role of women in sport was
Moritz (Switzerland), Briançon (Hautes Alpes, France), highlighted very early on by international organizations
and Chamonix (France) made a very important contribution such as the Socialist Workers’ Sports International (1913),

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the International Workers’ Association for Sport and the Sydney Games in 2000 was 4,069, compared with 6,582
Physical Culture (1920), more generally known as the men, an overall percentage of nearly 40 per cent
Lucerne Sports International or LSI, the Red Sport In May 1999, the former coach of France’s national
International (1921) and their national branches, and also football team, Aimé Jacquet, told a national conference in
by the vast network of sports and cultural associations Paris on women and sport: ‘In addition to participating and
linked with the non-Marxist left. Women won the right to competing, women still have to secure a place in the
vote in 1914 in the United States, in 1919 in Germany, and administrative field. Their sensitivity, intuition and sense of
in 1918 in Great Britain (at the age of 30, then at the age of responsibility should equip them to play a full part in the
majority in 1928). Women’s sports clubs were set up. In work of organizational and decision-making bodies. But
France, the Fédération Sportive et Gymnique du Travail they are not doing so at the moment’.31
(FSGT), founded in 1934, played an active part in a broad Table 10 and Figure 3 show how far women’s participation
movement to promote a rapid increase in the numbers in the Olympic Games has increased since the end of the
participating in sport, men as well as women. The combined nineteenth century.
effects of the democratization of public education, the
political emancipation of women and the work of the sports
associations and federations gave a tremendous boost to The first African Games: Brazzaville
women’s sport in the industrialized countries.
Only with the advent of decolonization and national The first African Games were held in Brazzaville (Congo)
independence did female athletes from Africa and the in 1965. An all-purpose stadium – among the first such
Middle East emerge to give such dazzling performances at architectural achievements to be built on this scale in Africa
the Olympic Games. Having been only 19 to compete in the (800 million CFA francs) – had been inaugurated in June
1900 Paris Olympics, the number of women competing in 1964 so that the games could be an all-Africa event.

Table 10  Male and female athletes participating in the Summer Olympics
Year City Nations Athletes Men Women Events
1896 Athens 14 245 245 0 43
1900 Paris 24 1,225 1,206 19 87
1904 Saint Louis 13 689 681 8 94
1908 London 22 2,035 1,999 36 109
1912 Stockholm 28 547 2,490 57 102
1920 Antwerp 29 2,669 2,591 78 154
1924 Paris 44 3,092 2,956 136 126
1928 Amsterdam 46 3,014 2,724 290 109
1932 Los Angeles 37 1,408 1,280 127 116
1936 Berlin 49 4,066 3,738 328 129
1948 London 59 4,099 3,714 385 136
1952 Helsinki 69 4,925 4,407 518 149
1956 Melbourne 67 3,184 2,813 371 145
1960 Rome 83 5,348 4,738 610 150
1964 Tokyo 93 5,140 4,457 683 163
1968 Mexico City 112 5,530 4,750 780 172
1972 Munich 121 7,123 6,065 1,058 195
1976 Montreal 92 6,028 4,781 1,247 198
1980 Moscow 80 5,217 4,093 1,124 203
1984 Los Angeles 140 6,797 5,230 1,567 221
1988 Seoul 159 8,465 6,279 2,186 237
1992 Barcelona 169 9,367 6,659 2,708 257
1996 Atlanta 197 10,320 6,797 3,523 271
2000 Sydney 199 10,651 6,582 4,069 300

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Figure 3  Women’s participation in the Olympic Games SPECIFIC SPORTS

Football

Regarded as the ‘king of sports’, football, also known as

‘soccer’ in the United States, is now the most popular sport
in the world and is played in all countries without exception,
on all five continents, by several million people. No event
arouses as much passion and excitement among the
population of the whole world as the World Cup. This
competition, held every four years, is the best known of all
international sporting events, with every country eager to
‘Brazzaville’ was a decisive step in African sport, and led to take part in the great ‘sporting festival’. This is confirmed by
the decision to found the Conseil Supérieur du Sport en Dominique Lejeune as follows: ‘Among the first official
Afrique (CSSA), even though it was impossible for steps taken by the new independent States, one of the
countries still under colonial rule (Mozambique, Angola, commonest was application for membership of FIFA
Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde; and South Africa under (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), which
apartheid, shunned by Africans), to take part in international is particularly important to the national self-assertion of
meetings. Its Secretary-General was the Congolese Jean- such States’.32
Claude Ganga, working under the patronage of the First held in Uruguay in 1930, the World Cup was the
President of the Republic, Alphonse Massambat Débat, starting point for a confrontation between South America’s
and Avery Brundage (IOC). The object of the CSSA was to stylistic virtuosity and Europe’s combination of power and
encourage the development and diversification of African method. Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina and Uruguay
sport, which was subsequently to enhance the Olympic have often been among the winners of the World Cup. In
Games by its participation, as if in answer to Pierre de 1960, the World Club Champions Cup was launched as a
Coubertin’s most fervent wishes. Unfortunately he did not competition between the best clubs of the different
live to see his hopes fulfilled (he died in 1937). continents. In Europe there are three separate cups: the
The first black Africans had already made an appearance European League Champions Cup, first organized in 1956;
at the Rome Olympics in 1960. The Ghanaian Ike Quartley the UEFA Cup established in 1957; and the Cup Winners
took the silver medal in light-welterweight boxing, and the Cup, established in 1960 for the winners of the national
Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, creating the legend of the ‘barefoot cups in each European country. The CAN, or African
runner’, outran the Moroccan Rhadi Ben Abdesselem, to Nations Cup for football, is a competition for national
become the first black African gold medallist. Then in teams established in 1957.
1964, in Tokyo, Abebe Bikila became the first athlete to South America has been particularly well represented in
win the marathon for a second time (Plate 161). The first the World Cup by Brazil, which is the only country to date
African games aroused great enthusiasm and gave a to have won the prestigious trophy five times (in 1958, 1962,
powerful impetus to sport in the young nations of the 1970, 1994 and 2002). The best scorers in the World Cup
continent. Athletes from North Africa fought off all have left their mark: Gerd Muller (Federal Republic of
contenders to win the swimming and tennis competitions. Germany), 14 goals in 1970 and 1974; Just Fontaine
The second African games were held in Lagos, Nigeria, (France), 13 goals in 1958; Pelé (Brazil), 12 goals from 1958
and in 2000 the seventh African games took place in to 1970; and Ronaldo (Brazil), 12 goals in 1998 and 2002.
Johannesburg, South Africa, no longer in the grip of The Women’s World Cup was first held in China in 1991,
apartheid. At those games, the Cameroon delegation alone where it was won by the United States. It was next held in
numbered 200 participants. Sweden in 1995 and won by Norway, and then in the

Table 11  Winners of the World Cup 1930-2002

Year Place Winner Year Place Winner
1930 Uruguay Uruguay 1974 Germany Germany
1934 Italy Italy 1978 Argentina Argentina
1938 France Italy 1982 Spain Italy
1950 Brazil Uruguay 1986 Mexico Argentina
1954 Switzerland Germany 1990 Italy Germany
1958 Sweden Brazil 1994 United States Brazil
1962 Chile Brazil 1998 France France
1966 England England 2002 Korea-Japan Brazil
1970 Mexico Brazil – – –

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United States in 1999, where it was won by the American quantities by the soccer fanatics … The Heysel massacre of
team, who thereby confirmed their world supremacy. The May 1985 … showed millions of television viewers
following Women’s World Cup was held in 2003 and was throughout Europe the barbarity lurking deep beneath the
won by Germany. Originally to be played in China, the surface of the sporting event.’36
competition was relocated to the United States due to the In Northern Ireland, the religious divide between
SARS scare at that time. Catholics and Protestants can be seen in the football
There are two other variants of football, which are also stadium as in the political arena. In Glasgow, there is more
very popular in the areas where they are played: American to football than sporting rivalry. A war of religion is fought
football and Australian football. Although the former has out between Catholic Celtics and Protestant Rangers and a
spread beyond the American frontier, the National Football permanent state of tension reigns between the two camps.37
League, with 30 professional teams, is still the most Violent supporters in different countries vie with each other
important championship. in ‘eccentricity’: British ‘hooligans’, German skinheads,
Italian tifosi. At the 1998 World Cup, the British hooligans
earned particular attention through their ability to ‘export’
Football, media coverage and violence gratuitous violence. But using football as a pretext for
settling the political differences that simmer beneath the
Football rapidly became professionalized because of its surface is common practice all over the world. Examples
urban base and the vast amount of media coverage it receives. include ‘the football war’ between El Salvador and Honduras
It has become one of the items of mass radio and television in 1969, and the upheavals in stadiums in Algeria, China
consumption; it is played by a minority of professionals and (1988), and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to
followed by a huge mass of listeners and viewers. The violent physical confrontation, expulsion and displacement
televising of a football match, nationally or internationally, of populations.
provides a real ‘spectacle’, highly colourful and staged using According to a Council of Europe table showing violence
the most sophisticated audiovisual techniques. Football is in football stadiums since the beginning of the century, there
an amplifier of nationalist, and often chauvinist, sentiment, have been 965 deaths and more than 5,600 injuries. ‘This
which rapidly spills over into violence. It causes mobs to figure covers every stadium in the world and, given the
gather and exacerbates passions and antagonisms. ‘Sport frequency of national and international competitions, it is not
seems to be like a mirror that gives a faithful or distorted very high although it is most regrettable. It bears no comparison
image of contemporary society, and there is every chance with the figure for victims of other forms of violence over the
that sports writing will demonstrate how this mirror works same period. Leaving aside wars and revolutions, we need only
… Sports contests bring into play passionate drives that cite criminality, accidents at work and road accidents.’38 It
are deeply embedded in a culture. They provide a should be noted that the number of deaths and injuries can
particularly effective release for feelings of local or national also be attributed to the dilapidated or unsafe condition of
patriotism.33 some stadiums, which has led to the collapse of terraces
Football hooliganism is a recent phenomenon and some (Glasgow in 1902 and Bastia in 1992), the collapse of barriers
sociological analyses suggest that it is often due to the and the breaking of railings (Cairo in 1974), the burning down
breakdown of the family unit, leading to loss of parental of a wooden grandstand in Bradford in 1985, and crowd
control over young people who then take up with others who stampedes in which a great many spectators have been
are also victims of unemployment and prone to urban trampled, as in Bukavu (Congo, Zaire) in 1974.
delinquency. In the view of Manuel Comeron and Serge However, despite these sporadic manifestations of
Govaert, football hooliganism is a phenomenon ‘characterised violence, football is still one of the sports that most brings
by aggressive behaviour on the part of an individual or about fellowship and friendship between individuals and
individuals, engendered within the context of a sporting peoples, causing racial barriers to fall.
event. The media began to report on the phenomenon in the
1960s with the increase in scenes of violence involving
spectators at football matches in Great Britain’.34 They note Cycling
that these hooligans are publicity-seekers who like the public
attention that they gain through the media. Cycling was on the programme of the Athens Olympics in
Christian Pociello believes that the excessive media 1896, although the women’s event was not approved until
coverage of football hooligans and skinheads is a contributory 1984. Cycling as a sport nevertheless has a long and
factor in the continuation and even the growth of the illustrious history, marked chiefly by the most famous
phenomenon: ‘By becoming, as it were, a spectacle within a cycling event of all, the Tour de France, which is held every
spectacle, football hooligans are able to give vent to this year in the summer. It draws teams of riders from all over
manic desire to show off, causing a commotion on the the world who compete over a space of three weeks in events
terraces, forming vast collective patterns “in order to be that range from 1,000 metre sprints to the race proper in
seen” or having violent fights with other supporters to feel stages. In 1900 the Frenchman Henri Desgrange, a cycling
that they are alive … Television, initially detached and champion during the 1890s, founded the daily publication
subsequently complicit, clearly caters to this desire by Auto-Vélo, which was well financed and published on yellow
providing a forum.’35 J. M. Brohm takes a more radical view paper (hence the practice, introduced after the First World
and feels that football as a spectator sport is by its nature War, of awarding a yellow jersey to the winner of each stage
responsible for the violence it engenders: ‘Today, it is no and to the final winner of the Tour). This publication
more possible to disassociate vandalism, “fan-aticism” and funded the launch in 1903 of a Tour de France covering
hooliganism from professional football matches than to 2,500 kilometres in six stages, which superseded the old
separate the foam from the beer imbibed in industrial Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Rouen races. The Italian papers

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created the Tour of Lombardy in 1905, the Milan-San reducing life expectancy, all of these factors ensure that
Remo in 1907 and the Tour of Italy (Giro d’Italia) in 1909. artifice prevails over nature. It would be good if we could
The Belgians launched the Tour de Belgique in 1907. manage to overcome the contradictions between theories
Cycling is the sport that has caused the most ink to flow that claim to be scientific and the dominant ideology of an
about the scandal of doping in sport, ever since the economic system that sets a premium on the quest for profit
physiotherapist of the Festina team, led by Richard through optimum performance.
Virenque, was taken in for questioning by customs officials
during the 1998 Tour de France. Willy Voet was carrying
large quantities of anabolic steroids (classified as Boxing
performance-enhancing drugs) in his car, as well as a flask of
liquid amphetamines. This incident prompted an argument Boxing is one of the oldest combat sports in the world.
and a huge outcry in the media on the subject of doping in Although it is governed by strict rules designed to protect
sport and revealed a surprising degree of hypocrisy on the the boxers, from time to time deaths still occur, giving
part of the journalists and experts who moved in the world boxing its reputation as the most violent sport of the
of high-profile sport, of which cycling is a part. The cyclists twentieth century. There are many who would like to see
protested their innocence, but by now it was common the sport banned. Sweden, for example, refused to have
knowledge that ‘100 per cent of the riders who finished a boxing on the programme of the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
Tour de France used illicit substances and the poor Boxing, in much the same way as football, is one of the great
innocents who did not take drugs at this level never saw the sports, among the most popular because it was originally
finishing line because they never arrived within the time regarded as the ‘sport of the poor’ and because it enjoys very
limits’.39 For a long time, doping remained out of sight, wide media coverage. American television began to promote
hidden behind a number of scapegoat sports like body- boxing galas as early as 1941, giving the sport a particular
building, weight-lifting and athletics in general, which made style by broadcasting matches as major entertainment to be
the other sports look blameless. What cost Ben Johnson so viewed on giant screens. But then satellites conquered the
dearly was that his muscular development was too obvious. world (Relay I in December 1962, Telstar, then Relay II).
But even in the 1970s, when the female swimmers of East Nowadays, through this power of the media, boxing has
Germany were dominant, swimming in particular gave rise taken its place among the sports that generate the most
to ‘the first suspicions that pharmaceuticals were being used lucrative transactions in the Western world, with the
to create veritable “athletic machines” in the laboratory’.40 United States in the lead. American television selects the
Nowadays, records are being beaten more and more best boxers at all weight classes and makes the public
frequently and, instead of scepticism being aroused, success particularly demanding.
is attributed to superior training techniques and equipment. At the Rome Olympics, an 18 year-old black American
Athletes trained to the level required for the increasingly boxer, Cassius Clay, first came to public attention by
difficult challenges are unable to keep pace because matches winning the gold medal in the light-heavyweight category.
and competitions are held too frequently, a problem ‘Of all boxers, Cassius Clay is certainly the most good-
compounded by jetlag and stress. looking.… His insults destroy the opponent’s ego, adding
The American sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner died on to the damage inflicted by his blows. At every boxing venue
21 September 1998 at the age of 38. She had been a triple in the world, “Muhammad Ali” is idolized.… His
gold medallist at the Seoul Olympics (100 m, 200 m, and opponents, black or white, are like barbarians compared
4 × 100 m), and at the time of her death she had been the with him. They merely fight for a title; Muhammad Ali
100 m and 200 m world-record holder. She had set out to defends a style associated with a cause. In this way he is
smash the existing women’s 100 m record of 10.5 seconds and eclipsing the dramatic rise of American boxers, a new
did so at the cost of her life. She gave up her career at the generation which is threatening to make the presence of
height of her glory, hoping to remain in good health after black American boxers in the ring, and the interests of their
years of doping, but the drugs had taken their toll. Drugs sponsors, part of the established order. Joe Louis was the
have a disastrous effect on health, causing strain-related idol of black American soldiers fighting in the Second
injuries in the short term and cancer and heart disease over a World War. Ali, the rebel, has come to be the expression
longer period. within the United States of the revolution of people in the
Nowadays we speak of cycling and doping as a particularly Third World, whom faith alone can save.’41 ‘Never has a
ill-fated ‘couple’, but all sports seem to be affected by the heavyweight boxer used his power to such devastating,
problem, now almost a routine feature of high-level total effect; never has a black boxer made such an event of
competition. Drugs provide a means of producing his reunion with the African continent.… A defender of
champions within a very short time. They also explain other the weak and the oppressed, a man who refused to fight in
phenomena, such as the reduction in the upper age limit for the Vietnam war, Clay had an amazing ability to take
a professional footballer from 36 to 32. The practice of punishment and could not fail to win in Kinshasa’42, where
doping is a flagrant violation of the stated objectives and he beat George Foreman.
ideals of the Olympic movement and is inconsistent with As a result of the system of broadcasting rights, the
the much-needed democratization of sport in society. It is financial stakes are higher in boxing than anywhere else in
also at odds with the way in which the image of the body is the world of sport. The match between Mike Tyson and
projected today, i.e. in would-be scientific terms, which world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis on 9 June 2002
pretend to ignore the harmful, toxic and destructive effects in Memphis, Tennessee, featured ringside seats at $2,400,
of the substances absorbed. Commercial pressures, the and hotels in Memphis, Shelby County and Tunica County
desire to set new records and to improve performance at all provided 24,000 overnight stays for visitors who had come
costs, even at the risk – supposedly a calculated one – of for the fight.

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SPORT AND POLITICS France in 1920, and the Red Sport International (RSI) in
Moscow in 1921. The founding of the RSI under the aegis of
Sport and social class the Communist International was part of the movement to
promote world revolution: it was necessary to ‘go to the
Politics has always had its place in the stadiums, ever since masses’, to strive towards winning over the working majority
the days of ancient Olympia. We need only observe that the in the long term in order to disengage it from the bourgeois
Panhellenic games provided a truce in the interminable organizations.
wars and served to unite the Hellenic peoples. Even at that ‘As early as 1920, the French Government adopted a
time the dominant ideology set the rules, since foreigners number of measures on top-level sport, which clearly
and slaves were banned from competing in the games. indicate that sport had become a matter of state concern.’44
Subsequently, and throughout the long history of sport, The USSR had very few sporting contacts with countries of
different social classes have had their own games: noblemen the capitalist world, particularly during the New Economic
would meet in tournaments and in knightly duels, and Policy (NEP) years, when proletarian physical culture – an
peasants from the countryside nearby would play each other aspect of ‘Proletkult’ (proletarian culture) – was supposed
at soule or calcio. to surpass bourgeois physical culture and sport, considered
British sport remained aristocratic and bourgeois until outdated and even degenerate. In Paris, in 1934, the RSI
the middle of the nineteenth century, when it began to organized an international meeting of athletes ‘opposed to
undergo rapid democratization. Sports nevertheless fascism and war’, a political/sporting event replacing the
continued to be divided up on a class basis: boxing and Moscow Spartakiade.
football were long left to the working class, whereas rugby, In the inter-war years, the Italian Fascists regarded
rowing, tennis and athletics were chiefly the preserve of athletic training as a preparation for war, and the athlete
university students. The politicization of sport has been was seen primarily as a combatant. Il Duce encouraged the
accentuated, however, by the wide attention given to it by development of boxing and wrestling and had a decided
the media. Today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, preference for the martial pursuits of aviation and fencing.
sport has rapidly become a perfect channel for the In 1931, shortly after the proclamation of the Spanish
transmission of political or even racial values, an object of Republic, Barcelona lost the right to organize the 1936
propaganda, the symbolic embodiment of a nation and its Olympics. ‘Berlin was [therefore] chosen as host city, before
economic, social or military power. Media coverage the Nazis came to power. As the fateful day approached, a
encourages further politicization of sport. Historically, the boycott campaign was organized by left-wing activists and
organization of major sporting events was a response to some Jewish communities on the grounds that the policy of
ideological presuppositions. Internationally, the years 1919- racial discrimination pursued in Germany was contrary to
1920 marked the beginning of the period in which sport was the principles of the Olympic Games. The influence of
used by the so-called democracies as a political instrument politics on sport was blatant.’45
of exclusion or boycott. The victors in the previous war
refused to meet the vanquished on the ‘neutral territory’ of
sport, and international sports meetings with defeated or Sport and racism
neutral countries were only resumed on condition that they
became members of the League of Nations. Hitler’s Nazi regime deliberately set out to use sport for
political purposes. It accordingly agreed to host the 1936
Olympics, and propaganda head Walther Funk himself
Sport and international relations stated that the games were an opportunity for propaganda
without equal in the entire history of the world. But then
In Europe, these international sports events were then the black American athlete Jesse Owens performed his
further transformed into instruments of foreign policy. ‘The legendary feat of winning four Olympic events: long jump,
resumption of the international sporting calendar was 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres, thereby cocking
inaugurated by the Interallied Games of 1919. The defeated a snoot at the racist theories of Nazism. In journalistic
nations and Bolshevist Russia (which became the Union of circles it was rumoured that Hitler had deliberately left the
Soviet Socialist Republics at the end of 1922 and was stand to avoid shaking Owens’ hand.
banished from the family of nations) were excluded from On the question of racism in physical education policy,
international competitions for several years. It is worth history tells us that colonialists were filled with ‘great fear at
noting that, of the former belligerents on the side of the the idea that native peoples might share the same physical
central European empires, Germany and Hungary were activities with them’. Racial segregation was explicitly
singled out for special treatment; Austria, Bulgaria and advocated by the French Government in the law of 1930 on
Turkey were admitted to the Paris Olympics in 1924, Physical Education in the Colonies. ‘The acknowledged fear
having been absent from the Antwerp games in 1920.’43 of seeing the master/servant relationship overturned was
A second fundamental feature of this period in the field of compounded by fear of contamination. Physical education
international relations was the establishment of a large in the colonies came with its own share of assumptions
number of separate socialist sports internationals, the about hygiene and it seemed advisable to keep European
October Revolution having led to a split in international and indigenous populations apart, especially as epidemics of
workers’ sport. The Socialist Workers’ Sports International plague, cholera, typhoid, etc. were rife in the colonies …This
had been in existence since 1913, having superseded an was a persuasive argument for segregating young people in
international socialist physical education association. Other particular.’46 Apartheid strategies of varying degrees of
movements were created subsequently: the International subtlety, adapted to each territory, were the characteristic
Workers’ Association for Sport and Physical Culture in upshot of colonial thinking.

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Bernadette Deville-Danthu refers to the unseemly many more surprises from the ‘sports industry’ in terms of
attempt by Marshal Lyautey, the French Resident-General globalization and output.
in Morocco, to get Moroccan nationals to take part in the In Europe, the first newspaper articles on sport appeared
1924 Olympics in an attempt to use sport to illustrate the around the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1733, The
policy of semi-autonomy he wished to pursue in the Boston Gazette described the professional boxing match
protectorate. ‘His request was never followed up by the between John Faulconer and Bob Russell. But the first
Metropolitan French authorities.’ 47 In 1925, again in specialized sports journal was not published until 1838,
Morocco, it was forbidden to organize boxing matches Bell’s Life, established in England by professional runners.
between Europeans and indigenous inhabitants, ‘the In France, the fortnightly magazine Le Sport, targeting an
Europeans having probably not come to terms with the idea aristocratic public, was first published in 1854. It was
that the Senegalese, Battling Siki, had succeeded in stripping followed by Le Vélo, founded in 1891 by Pierre Giffard and
the French light-heavyweight champion, Georges Carpentier, Paul Rousset, and by Henri Desgrange’s L’Auto-Vélo in
of his title in 1922.’48 1900, which was renamed L’Auto in 1903, following a trial
over breach of copyright. The former organized the first
Tour de France in 1903 on the initiative of Geo Lefèvre,
Terrorism and the Olympics Desgrange’s young collaborator, thereby establishing a new
relationship between the media and sports competitions.
The darkest time for the Olympics was nevertheless in The sports daily L’Equipe founded and organized the Le
Munich in 1972, when the Games were the target of a Mans 24-hour race in 1923. Since then, the sports press has
terrorist attack. On the morning of 5 September, eight experienced various changes and numerous upsets.
Palestinian terrorists got into the Olympic village, killed Specialized journals are found in increasing numbers in
two members of the Israeli team and took nine others kiosks, some of them being very short-lived, especially
hostage. These were subsequently killed, along with five of today.
the terrorists and one policeman. After a 24-hour pause
to mourn the victims, the Games were resumed, watched
by millions of dismayed television viewers still in a state of Media coverage and the internationalization
shock. The sporting event that was meant to be a of mass sport
celebration of human brotherhood caused the whole
world to weep, saddened and grief-stricken by what had ‘With the advent of radio, sporting events could be
happened. The ideals of peace and international solidarity, experienced live. Time and distance were eliminated and
which had underpinned the creation of the Olympic sport took full advantage of this means of mass
Games by Pierre de Coubertin, had been utterly communication. The use of radio developed in the course of
confounded. the 1920s, and boxing was one of the sports to benefit from
it. In 1921, the Dempsey-Carpentier fight, which brought
in more than a million dollars, was broadcast in the United
THE MEDIA AND THE States by KDKA, a station that also provided commentaries
COMMODIFICATION AND on baseball matches.’ 49 The invention of the transistor
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SPORT shortly afterwards increased the influence of radio tenfold,
and it was this that has since enabled millions of listeners in
Although, as we have seen, the first modern competitions rural Africa and most developing countries to listen to
date back to the nineteenth century, the move towards broadcasts of football matches. With radio came the art of
commodification, professionalization and inter­national­ live, multiplex broadcasting, which enabled listeners to
ization in sport quite clearly began in the twentieth century. follow several football matches or other sporting events live
The role of the media in these developments appears to be and at the same time. Then came television, which soon was
fundamental and the media-sport relationship is regarded to play a predominant role in the coverage of sport
both as a love-match (according to former IOC president throughout the world, accentuating the trend towards
Juan Antonio Samaranch) and a marriage of convenience. internationalization already begun by radio.

The media as the paymasters of sport The major sports as entertainment and commodities

Historically, media coverage of physical activities and sports Television took its first steps and grew up, developing its
got off to a fairly slow start in the eighteenth century, when technical capacities as it went, with and through sporting
it took the form of simple newspaper reports. Subsequently events. As early as 1948, television was on the spot to
it developed at a dizzying pace, first with the appearance of broadcast the finish of the Tour de France live from the
a multiplicity of specialized sports journals and magazines, Parc des Princes. Further developments followed, such as
then with radio and finally with television. Through its the use of the zoom lens in 1954, of the HF camera in 1957,
contribution in terms of organization, financing and the slow-motion replay in 1967, the split screen, cameras
multifaceted technology, television played an active role in mounted on cars, helicopters or motorcycles (cycle races),
the development of certain sports – the major sports of and colour and high definition (HDTV). All resources
today – by promoting their transformation into were marshalled to improve the entertainment value of
entertainment and their internationalization. The these major sports.
computerization of communications at the end of the Changes and developments in modern sports are often
twentieth century and the advent of the Internet promise attributable to the media that organize and promote their

459
 thematic section

competitions. Following the example set at the end of the on the kind of sports marketing tasks that the all-powerful
nineteenth century by Le Vélo and L’Equipe (organizers of private enterprise, the NBA, is able to perform internally.’
the first Tour de France and the Le Mans 24-hour race ‘Since 1982, the international football federations have
respectively), television has become involved in the entrusted their business management to ISL Worldwide.
organization and funding of sporting events. In the United This Swiss company, founded in 1982 and active throughout
States in 1986, Ted Turner (President and CEO of the the world, is 90 per cent owned by the powerful ISMM
multinational media conglomerate TBS) founded the (International Sport Media & Marketing) Group, a world
Goodwill Games. Sport has taken over television screens, leader in sports management with three hundred
the cost of broadcasting rights has soared and some sports international sporting events to its credit, including no less
bodies have become veritable businesses operating in the than five world cups, four European championships and six
industry of sport as entertainment. Olympic Games.’52
‘Many firms wish to have their name associated with a European television channels are investing more and
competition, a club or an athlete. Sport is of the utmost more in the major football clubs. In France, Canal+ owns
importance to standard television channels and there are PSG and M6 controls Girondins Bordeaux. In England,
specialized channels entirely devoted to sport. Television ‘British television and media groups are currently acquiring
broadcast rights account for the bulk of the income used to stakes in whole groups of clubs in the Premier League
fund the Olympic Games. They generated $907 million for (England’s Division 1), in the hope of obtaining broadcasting
the Atlanta games, of which only $559 million were received rights for their matches more easily in the twenty-first
by the Organizing Committee, the rest going to the IOC! century. The benefit to the clubs is obvious since the sale of
As a result, the cost of television rights rose further, a minor shareholding earns them millions of pounds,
accounting for 77 per cent of all income from the 1994 enables them to buy players and increases the price of their
Winter Olympics, and, of course, that provoked tough shares on the stock exchange’.53
competition between companies wanting access to the The professionalization of sports such as football and
Olympics market. Advertisers accounted for a large rugby is causing a large number of players from the
percentage of the organizers’ income: 38 per cent for the Los economically weaker countries to move to the more
Angeles Olympics, 31 per cent for the 1986 World Cup, advanced European countries where they can make
and 60 per cent for the 1988 Paris-Dakar rally.’50 magnificent careers for themselves and earn vastly better
Football spreads beyond the strict framework of incomes. Players from eastern Europe, Africa and South
competition, and matches are staged in a way so as to satisfy America are rushing to western Europe to offer their talents
a range of requirements – political, logistical, security, to different clubs, and in many cases they are simply being
aesthetic, moral and promotional – and also to convey the driven by pitiless market forces. Those with the good fortune
passion and emotion aroused. The game, the television and to be caught up in this new Eldorado can hope for
radio facilities and the spectators exist in a state of osmosis. outstanding careers. For many others, it will be just a dream
‘The sporting event and its reconstitution, the televised that does not come true. The 2002 World Cup (in the
show and its consumption, are all intimately connected; so Republic of Korea and Japan) featured a Senegal national
much so that any sense of spontaneity or independence squad of which 20 players out of 23 played professionally
seems quite impossible. We are trying to square a circle that for European clubs. Such are the paradoxes of the modern
is much more vicious than is imagined, since this long chain professional sports scene. The richest clubs have access to a
of interests, long thought to be conflicting, perpetuates itself vast global market of players, who are quite prepared to ‘sell
so obviously that readers of the sports pages no longer know themselves’ in exchange for the good life, since working and
today whether they are witnesses of, or active contributors living conditions in their own countries are so difficult.
to, the mild folly now taking hold.’51

PHYSICAL CULTURE AND SPORT AS

Television adapts sport to its own requirements A NEW WAY OF LIFE

Television refashions or tailors sport to suit its own The sport industry, globalization and cultural cross-
requirements. It has thus got the federations of many sports fertilization
to change their regulations and adapt the staging and
organization of events to get them to fit in with television’s Western Europe, starting from traditional, ritual and festive
technical, time and commercial requirements (inclusion of games, and passing through the sports revolution that
advertising breaks). stemmed from the Industrial Revolution, has arrived at
Television channels pay fortunes for the exclusive rights games in their modern form – spectacular shows, heavily
to broadcast the most prestigious events. Football and the promoted by the media and reaching every corner of the
Olympic Games have become important factors in the world.
marketing of television programmes, video recorders, Football and rugby emerged from the schools and
television rental services and sports clothing, especially universities of Great Britain, basketball and volleyball came
when the Olympic Games or the World Cup are being out of the distant lands of America, and these sports, having
held. first made their mark in Europe, gradually spread to the rest
The business management of clubs and federations is of the world. In today’s industrialized countries, caught up
sometimes transferred to outside sports marketing in the maelstrom of modern cultural trends, the relationship
organizations, as Philippe Bughin explains with reference with the body has changed enormously under the combined
to international football: ‘It is a curious but revealing fact effect of technical advances in training methods, the greater
that neither FIFA nor even UEFA have so far ever taken sophistication of today’s audiovisual media, and the

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relentless marketing of services in the sports sector and in Europe and Latin America, television broadcasts football,
body care in general. and in France cycling – especially with the Tour de France –
It must be acknowledged that sport is gradually invading is much promoted.
people’s everyday lives, both in the so-called ‘rich’ ‘Sport for all’ is almost becoming a reality. The twentieth
industrialized countries of the North and in the so-called century saw the rise and development of new forms of
‘poor’ developing countries of the South, and that society employment in physical education and sport. State
worldwide, with some exceptions, is quite clearly developing education authorities throughout the world, even in
into a society dominated by leisure sports. This is something Islamic countries, are the principal employers in this area
that has been fostered by the export of ‘cultural industries’. and are the biggest provider of training for teachers and
The change in outlook as many, varied cultures come into supervisors. There are thousands of physical education
contact with each other and interact, the growing influence teachers, trainers and instructors. A great diversification is
of the North on the South and East, in regard to taking place in the science and technology relating to
individualization, the role of the media, professionalization, physical activities, and there is no doubt about the
commercialization, and so on – all these factors are ushering enthusiasm that science and technology are generating in
in a new attitude towards oneself, greater attention to this area. There is a growing call for coaches and supervisors
personal well-being and health, a new healthy way of living, in many sports disciplines.
and a new ‘culture of the body’. The export of leisure sports The century also saw the rise of new fields of specialization
and the practices associated with them are aspects of a cross- such as sports journalism and sports medicine, the sociology,
fertilization of cultures observable across the world, an psychology and history of sport, as well as sports law, the
‘inexorable cross-fertilization’, as Senagalese writer and coaching and management of professional athletes, and the
President Léopold Sedar Senghor so clearly foresaw. For the organization of physical activity and sport in thousands of
influence is reciprocal. It is interesting to see how the sports centres and leisure parks.
industrialized countries, for all their economic and media
supremacy, have embraced the ‘body cultures’ of other
continents, such as their martial arts (judo and karate from Sports culture, body culture: a new way
Japan, kung-fu and t’ai chi from China, tae kwon do from of life
Korea, capoeira from Brazil). The industrialized world has
shown an impressive enthusiasm for oriental sports over the The way in which people relate to their body in industrial
past few decades (numerous martial arts federations have societies reflects a system of values resulting from a long
been founded), an interest increasingly shared by the rest of and complex economic and cultural history. The era of
the world. Judo was on the programme of the very first religious taboos, said to have oppressed the body, would
African Games in 1965, where many African judokas seem – contrary to all expectations – to have contributed
competed, even though judo had only just made its first to a growing interest in it, through a search for freedom.
appearance as an Olympic sport at the 1964 Tokyo games, For various reasons, the Church, followed by the military
the first Olympic Games to be held in Asia. The practice of and then doctors, teachers, those with a professional
martial arts is often accompanied by initiation in a philosophy, interest in physical activity and experts in various areas
in oriental ‘wisdom’, which would appear to be a significant (food, clothing, entertainment) have taken the body as an
benefit in an increasingly violent and selfish world. object for study. Nowadays it seems that everyday life is
We might still look forward to a future programme of built increasingly around this concern for the body.
Olympic events that includes the Brazilian martial art Bernard Xavier René makes the following observation:
capoeira, of African origin but already well known and ‘Among the phenomena that have marked the century we
widely practised in Europe and throughout the world. Its must include the exceptionally greater value placed on
originality lies in its being a traditional form of wrestling the bodily factor. Not only has it assumed an
that is practised like a dance to a musical accompaniment unprecedented status in our civilization, but we also have,
played on particular instruments. This traditional wrestling as it were, more body than we have ever had … The body’s
is held in very high esteem in sub-Saharan Africa and is new status arose from a many-sided concern, branching
becoming increasingly important as the number of out and increasing indefinitely, which has steadily
tournaments increases. extended to all strata of the population and increased
Genuine globalization of the sports culture will be achieved with each generation, sometimes to an exaggerated
if we allow disciplines from every continent their due place, degree, as the century has advanced. Having a body in
thereby creating an international sports culture that is the this context means caring for one’s body, attaching
result of cross-fertilization, many-sided and varied. importance to it, giving it a value that goes beyond its
material composition and changes its significance and its
existence’.54
Democratization of sport and new forms of From the psychological and individual standpoint, the
employment in sport body is both external and part of ourselves, and it is through
the body that our sensations, emotions, desires and
Since the Second World War, physical activities and sport pleasures come into play. Every individual perceives himself
have become a form of socialization. It is important to stress through his own eyes and through the eyes of others. As a
to what extent educational institutions have played an result, the obese, the clumsy, the lethargic, the ill can expect
important part in making sport more democratic; physical humiliation – intended or not – and possible
education is included on the school curriculum in most marginalization, since the perception of the body is more
countries. In the United States, intensive television coverage psychologically than biologically based and owes much to
is given to American football, baseball and boxing. In the hedonistic impulse.

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Highly complex relationships between the individual, 25. G. Lagorce and R. Parienté, op. cit., p. 35.
the body and the individual’s image of the body lie behind 26. Ibid., p. 44.
certain conflicting, pathological impulses. 27. D. Lejeune, op. cit., p. 94.
Individualism and narcissism rub shoulders. But it is a 28. G. Lagorce and R. Parienté, op. cit., p. 44.
curious fact that the countries where the body is most 29. Ibid., p. 45.
lauded are also the ones where it is most badly treated, 30. D. Lejeune, op. cit., p. 96.
where the contrasting phenomenon of obesity is gaining 31. R. Thomas, op. cit., p. 32.
ground with all its attendant risks. The United States, for 32. Comité Olympique. Association française femmes et
example, the world’s leading economic power, where the sport.
practice of individual or team sport is supposed to be most 33. J. Gritti, Sport à la une, Paris, 1975, p. 6.
widespread, is also the country with the highest level of 34. M. Comeron and S. Govaert, Foot et violence: Politiques,
obesity (three people out of 10). Obesity and health thus stades et hooligans – Heysel 85, Bruxelles, 1995, p. 126.
represent the two extremes of this most complex body 35. C. Pociello, Les cultures sportives: Pratiques,
culture. représentations et mythes sportifs, Paris, 1995. pp. 173–74.
Is the individual giving up in the face of the enormous 36. J.-M. Brohm, Les meutes sportives, Paris, 1993, p. 451.
diversity of offers and opportunities, which range from 37. Courrier International. Hors-série sport. May-June-
simple walking to the practice of yoga and zen and encompass July 2002. No. 22, pp. 20, 114 (taken from The Independent,
traditional gymnastics and all modern sports, mechanized London).
or not, practised in winter or summer? Will recourse to the 38. J.-Y. Lassalle, La violence dans le sport, Paris, 1997,
aesthetic surgeon’s knife, the insertion of rings to regulate pp. 73, 128.
appetite, become the new way of life, even though physical 39. N. Nadim, Le dopage dans le sport. www.tiscali.fr,
exercise is quite sufficient to ensure good health and a good 1 May 1998.
self-image? How then can we fail to ask whether we are 40. S. Pivato, Les enjeux du sport, Paris, 1994, p. 60.
making the right choices? How are we to ensure that our 41. A. Rauch, ‘Boxe: L’Amérique exporte sa violence’, in:
bodies are properly looked after? Sport-histoire, No. 2, 1992, p. 28.
42. D. Lejeune, op. cit., p. 173.
43. Ibid., p. 107.
44. P. Arnaud, Des jeux de la guerre aux jeux de la paix,
Sport et relations internationales, 1920–1924, Paris, 1994, p. 315.
NOTES 45. Ibid., p. 94.
46. J. Gleyse (ed.), L’éducation physique au xx e siècle:
1. J.-M. Brohm, Sociologie politique du sport, Paris, 1992, Approches historique et culturelle, Paris, 2001, p. 149.
p. 34. 47. Ibid., p. 150.
2. R. Parienté, Encyclopaedia Universalis, Vol. 21, Paris, 48. Ibid., p. 152.
1995, p. 499. 49. D. Lejeune, op. cit., p. 164.
3. B. Jeu, ‘Histoire du sport, histoire de la culture’, in 50. Ibid., p. 176.
R. Thomas (ed.), Sports et sciences, Paris, 1979, p. 36. 51. L’Equipe Magazine, No. 908, 18 September, 1999,
4. J. Huizinga, Homo ludens, Paris, 1951. p. 23.
5. R. Caillois, Les jeux et les hommes, Paris, 1958. 52. G. Dereze (quoted by), Société & Sport, Sports et
6. R. Thomas, Histoire du sport, 3rd ed., Paris, 1999, médias, Bruxelles, 2000, pp. 33, 72.
p. 7. 53. Ibid., p. 36.
7. J.  Riordan, ‘Soviet Muscular Socialism: A Durkheimian 54. J. Gleyse, op. cit., p. 278.
Analysis’, Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol. 4, 1987, p. 376.
8. P. Laguillaumie, ‘Pour une critique fondamentale du
sport’, Partisans sport, culture et répression, 1972, p. 40.
9. Nouvelle Encyclopédie Bordas, Paris, 1988, p. 1579. BIBLIOGRAPHY
10. R. Parienté, op. cit., p. 499.
11. Ibid., p. 500. Andrieu, G. 1993. L’éducation physique au xxe siècle: une histoire des
12. Ibid. pratiques. Collection Cahiers Actio. Actio, Paris.
13. B. During (ed.), Histoire culturelle des activités physiques, Arnaud, P. and ARNAUD, L. 1996. Le sport: Jeu et enjeu de société.
xixe et xxe siècles, Paris, 2000, p. 57. Collection: Problèmes politiques et sociaux. La Documentation
14. R. Parienté, op. cit., p. 502. française, Paris.
15. Ibid., p. 504. Atherton, J. and SibleY, R. (eds). 1988. Le sport en Grande-Bretagne
16. D. Lejeune, Histoire du sport, xixe – xxe siècles, Paris, et aux  Etats-Unis: Faits, signes et métamorphoses. Presses Universitaires
2001, p. 10. de Nancy, Nancy, France.
17. Ibid., pp. 12. Boniface, P. (ed.). 1998. Géopolitique du football. Editions Complexe,
18. M. Bouet, Signification du sport, Paris, 1968. p. 39. Paris.
19. R. Parienté, op. cit., p. 506. Bouet, M. 1995. Signification du sport. Collection: Espaces et temps du
20. D. Lejeune, op. cit., p. 16. sport. L’Harmattan, Paris.
21. Thomas, op. cit., p. 80. Bourg, J.-F. 1994. L’argent fou du sport. Editions de la table ronde,
22. G. Lagorce and R. Parienté, La fabuleuse histoire des Paris.
Jeux Olympiques, Paris, 1992, p. 29 and p. 765. Brohm, J.-M. 1992. Sociologie politique du sport. Presses Universitaires
23. R. Parienté, op. cit., p. 508. de Nancy, Nancy, France.
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Bromberger, C. 1998. Football, la bagatelle la plus sérieuse du monde. Huizinga, J. 1951. Homo ludens. Gallimard, Paris.
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internationale des Sports et des Jeux, No. 2. Privat, Toulouse, Editions du CRAC, Yaoundé.
pp. 9–26. Pivato, S. 1994. Les enjeux du sport. Casterman-Giunti, Paris.
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Vigot, Paris. Riordan, J. 1987. Soviet Muscular Socialism. A Durkheimian
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 28
e du c a t i o n

Lê Thành Khôi

The twentieth century has been marked by a number of 1928, the proportion of children receiving primary schooling
major political developments that have had a far-reaching in Mexico stood at 46 per cent compared with 27.4 per cent
impact upon education: the revolutions in Europe, Asia, in 1907. It was also at the instigation of Vasconcelos that a
Latin America and the Caribbean; the liberation of the ‘matrix of mythical images of the nation aimed at enlightening
former colonial countries; and the defeat of fascism in its social cadres’ came into being: the painters Jose Clemente
various guises. After 1945, the West enjoyed a quarter of a Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros decorated
century of unprecedented economic expansion, which schools and public buildings with murals addressed to the
enabled it to raise living standards in a lasting manner and people in a bid to educate them in the spirit of the revolution,
to democratize its education systems. However, the while at the same time enabling them to discover their
twentieth century is also the century of scientific and Indian roots. However, the ‘socialist education’ written into
technological developments that have revolutionized the the Constitution in 1934 came up against strong resistance
theories, contents, methods and media of education. from the Catholic Church and a number of intellectuals,
Inequalities nevertheless remain, and have even increased and was abandoned in 1946, at the same time that the official
since economic growth has given way to stagnation and political party assumed the name Institutional Revolutionary
even to regression in some parts of the world. Many Party, which signified the end of the revolution.
countries are burdened with unsuitable education systems The Marxist-Leninist revolutions have had a more lasting
which, accompanied by population growth, adversely affect impact. For many decades, the Russian Revolution of 1917
their potential for development. At the dawn of the third sustained the hopes of millions of men and women all over
millennium, the disintegration of moral, family, religious, the world, while inspiring other revolutions in both
and community values under the impact of so-called education and politics. These ‘revolutionary’ principles
modernization has ushered in a reign of confusion and included: mixed, polytechnic public education, continuing
uncertainty. uninterrupted from the primary to the higher levels; equality
of the sexes; and the right of people to use their own
language. Although already applied in the United States,
THE FACTORS OF CHANGE this was the first time in Europe. The Cultural Revolution
was an integral part of the political revolution. Lenin said
The political context that: ‘the victory of the revolution will be consummated
only through school … Our work in education consists in
The political sphere can never be dissociated from the social overthrowing the bourgeoisie and we state loud and clear
sphere, since it involves the interaction – often accompanied that school which is detached from life and politics is a lie
by conflict – of social, economic, religious and other groups and a hypocrisy.’ However, he set out to preserve those
which, depending on the nature of the power in place, aspects of bourgeois culture that were ‘good’, especially
favours particular classes over others. science and technology. Illiterate people were not going to
The twentieth century started with the Mexican develop agriculture and industry. ‘People can become
revolution (1910), which was basically an uprising of Communists only after they have enriched their minds with
millions of peasants who had been deprived of their land by all the wealth created by humanity.’ Workers’ universities
the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. José Vasconcelos, who (rabfak) were created for training young workers and
was Minister of Education from 1921 to 1924, launched a peasants. At the same time, a vast literacy campaign was
‘cultural crusade’ aimed at teaching young people and adults launched with the aim of teaching all people, aged 8 to 50, to
to read and write, spreading the Spanish language among read and write either in Russian or in their mother tongue.
the Indian population, publishing reading primers and Scripts were created for peoples whose languages were not
textbooks, and greatly increasing the number of libraries. In written and the illiteracy rate, which had stood at 66 per cent

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in 1917, fell to 43 per cent in 1926, and to 11 per cent in Venceremos. The 15 lessons in the primer also dealt with the
1939. Free compulsory education was introduced in 1930 problems of the revolution, illustrated by photographs,
for a minimum period of four years (seven years in cities and which helped learners to grasp the spirit and importance of
industrial regions). the lessons. The literacy effort was backed up by a propaganda
The first five-year plan (1928–32) linked economic drive that had three main objectives: motivating illiterates
forecasting and the training of specialists for the first time. by using all possible means, such as the mass media,
Planning, which became progressively more elaborate, festivities, demonstrations and awarding diplomas; creating
adopted a twofold approach: planning of general education a movement of opinion in order to encourage the largest
in accordance with population growth forecasts and the possible number of persons to enlist as voluntary teachers;
length of compulsory schooling (which was raised to eleven and popularizing the broad lines of the campaign. Illiterates
years in 1984), and planning of higher and specialized were not the only people to receive political instruction
secondary education in accordance with the needs for skilled through learning to read and write. Literacy workers were
personnel. Rapid expansion of education at all levels was also trained; coming generally from the urban middle
ensured through political commitment and planning. In classes, they gained closer knowledge and understanding of
1914, the Russian Empire had 9.7 million schoolchildren workers and peasants.
and 127,400 students out of a population of 265 million When, after the fall of communism in Europe (1989–
inhabitants, or 48 students (almost all Russian) for every 90), the countries which had adopted that system changed
100,000 inhabitants. In 1990, this figure had risen to 1,867 over to a market economy, the impact on education was felt
students per 100,000 inhabitants, while school enrolment soon thereafter: the polytechnic principle (the linkage of
ratios stood at 89 per cent for the 6–11 age group, 96 percent study and productive work), planning and free education
for the 12–16 age group, and 27 per cent for the 20–24 age were all abandoned (except at the primary level); private
group. One particularly remarkable feature was the massive and denominational schools rapidly sprang up; and
strides taken by science and technology in certain fields, as education systems, programmes and teaching methods were
evidenced by the launching of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 reformed, often modelled on those of the United States or
and Yuri Gagarin’s space flight in 1961. Western Europe.
All the revolutions that claim to have their roots in the In Iran, the Islamic revolution of 1977–79 stressed the
socialist ideal have one feature in common: the efforts they cultural identity of the country, which it said the Shah’s
have made in education and literacy. In fact, the latter’s regime had corrupted by its policy of Westernization of
purpose is not only a social one. It is above all a means of lifestyle and rapid growth, a policy that had above all profited
mobilizing the population for revolution and national a minority of privileged people. The Islamic revolution set
construction, while at the same time people are learning to out to restore the purity of Shi’a Islam in the interpretation
write and read political slogans. given to it by the Ayatollah Khomeini, the guide (imam) of
In Viet Nam, immediately after the revolution of August the Republic. All aspects of life were accordingly redefined,
1945, Ho Chi Minh called on the population to accomplish and the education of younger generations was given special
three fundamental tasks: overcome famine, foreign attention. Teaching contents and methods were redesigned;
aggression, and ignorance. These were interdependent: as in social science disciplines (history, law, economics,
long as a nation is underdeveloped and uneducated, it is an sociology), especially at university, teachers had to take an
easy prey to imperialism. Conversely, imperialism is oath of loyalty and were closely supervised; and co-education
responsible for perpetuating underdevelopment and lack of was banned (which led to a decline in the enrolment of girls
education. A country cannot bring about its economic and in rural areas lacking in women teachers). Action in the
social revolution without promoting a cultural revolution. formal education system was heavily backed by propaganda
National and social revolution is the driving force behind on radio and television, in films, books, posters and murals,
the development of education, and education in turn which extolled obedience to the Law represented by the
strengthens revolution, since education increases the level of government and assimilated any dissension to a revolt
political awareness of the people and their participation in against the will of God. Counter-revolution took the
the revolution. Peasants learn to read through directives opposite direction: since education is a strategic institution,
and political and military explanations. When the agrarian previously existing structures need to be destroyed in order
reform was launched in 1953, literacy was linked to the class to conform to the new ideology.
struggle in rural areas. It set out to instil in the peasants an In Chile, the military coup d’état of 11 September 1973
understanding of how the social and economic structure marked a break with the democratization movement
was at the root of their poverty and what advantages they pursued under the Christian Democrat government and
would derive from overthrowing the landowners. In the subsequently that of Popular Unity, in which education
north of the country, illiteracy was virtually eradicated in was characterized by the growing participation of the middle
1958, and three years later the revolution brought literacy to and lower-income classes, giving rise to greater social
the mountain areas inhabited by minority peoples. mobility. Universities performed a critical function over and
Likewise, in 1960, the literacy campaign in Cuba was above their traditional educational role, and grassroots
seen as a wide-ranging revolutionary movement. Some education was developed in urban neighbourhoods, chiefly
268,000 young volunteers, workers, students and primary under the impetus of the trade unions. The military
school teachers provided literacy training for more than government, which was supported by the bourgeoisie, drew
700,000 men and women in the space of one year. They had on Christian and national values to promote a neo-liberal
a textbook entitled Alfabeticemos, which, after an policy. The objectives of education were to instil love of the
introductory section, set out 24 themes – covering the homeland and the family and to subscribe to the concept of
revolution, the land and the economy, imperialism and the unity of the nation and obedience to the state. Teachers
democracy – in conjunction with those in the primer and students and programmes and textbooks suspected of

465
 thematic section

spreading subversive ideas were accordingly ‘purged’, and which had long had a written literature, national languages
school and university establishments came under the strict (such as Vietnamese and Bahasa Indonesia) replaced the
control of the military authorities. The state only maintained foreign languages imposed by colonization, although some
responsibility for basic education, in which children learnt countries, such as India, the Philippines and Malaysia, more
their civic duties. Access to other forms of education was to or less kept the foreign language in higher education. In
be a privilege, since it had to be paid for; in other terms, Africa, such changes were more difficult to bring about,
such education was privatized in accordance with market owing to the absence of written traditions (the local
laws. The outcome was a sharp decline in enrolment growth languages involved were progressively Romanized), the
ratios. The crackdown on trade union activities led to the large number of different ethnic groups and, in many
virtual disappearance of ‘open’ grassroots education. instances, the limited number of speakers, which increased
However, this continued in a clandestine and informal the cost of preparing and producing textbooks and training
form, since the dictatorship was unable to stifle the love of teachers, quite apart from the political problem posed by
freedom, especially when its neo-liberal policies resulted in the adoption of a ‘national’ language in a multi-ethnic state.
the decline of many industries and in rising unemployment This is why the countries south of the Sahara kept the
and extreme poverty among the most underprivileged languages of the former colonial powers as a vehicular
sections of the population. language, while nevertheless more or less ‘Africanizing’ the
In Western Europe, the First World War had a profound teaching of literature, history and geography. The countries
impact on people’s minds. Democratic ideas progressed, of the Maghreb adopted a similar approach, although
calling into question a double track education system – one Arabic was introduced in the first years of schooling.
for the masses and the other elitist. Yet, the opposition of
conservative forces and the economic crises of the 1920s and
1930s put a halt to this hope for democratic change. Several Population
countries in Europe established authoritarian regimes,
which ruled through totalitarianism. In Italy from 1923 Through its growth rate and age and gender distribution,
onwards, the Fascist regime made the Catholic religion the population changes influence school and university
basis of primary education again, increased the selectivity of enrolment numbers as much as government policies and
secondary schools, abolished transfers between general and family demands. In this respect, there is a fundamental
technical education, subjected the entire system to strict difference between the industrialized and less affluent
supervision, and compelled young people to engage in para- countries.
military training. In Germany, Nazism was even more In Europe, universal schooling grew progressively with
systematic. For the first time in the history of that country, industrialization and urban development, at a time when
education was centralized, and syllabuses were revised to population growth did not exceed 0.5 per cent per year. In
give a leading place to the ‘science of race’, books were the United States, in spite of the massive waves of
banned and burnt, and Jewish teachers and other teachers immigrants, it took place more quickly (except for African-
who refused to take an oath of loyalty were driven out. In Americans and Native Americans) on account of economic
Japan, militarism spread ultra-nationalism in schools by growth. In the first half of the twentieth century, the
instilling in them the ‘path of the subject’, in other words declining birth rate in these countries gave rise to stagnation,
loyalty towards the emperor, the incarnation of the nation. and indeed to a reduction, in enrolment numbers in the
Defeat, however, was to sweep these regimes aside. primary education system, in spite of the extension of
The year 1945 was the starting point for the independence compulsory schooling. After 1945, a short-lived demographic
of the formerly colonized countries. In every instance, boom subsequently gave way to a further decline in the
colonial education had had a twofold purpose: first, to train birth rate, which is now less than 12 per 1,000, so that the
auxiliary middle-grade personnel for government services natural growth rate is fluctuating around 0.6 per cent. These
and the economy, and second, to extol the civilizing mission populations are ‘mature’, in other words the proportion of
of the metropolitan powers and demean indigenous cultures old people (65 years of age and upwards), representing some
in order to make their subordination more palatable. 20 per cent, exceeds that of the school-going population in
However, colonization itself, through its own workings, the 6 to 14-years age-group, which stands at less than
created the elements that were to oppose it. In the first 14 per cent.
place, it had to contend with the at times passive, but more After the Second World War, ‘democratization’ was a
generally armed, resistance led by the traditional elites. highly topical issue. The Universal Declaration of Human
With the spread of the colonial administration and capitalist Rights (1948) included the right to education, as did the
exploitation, new classes came into being, such as the Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959). All the
landowning, industrial or commercial middle class, the industrialized countries tried to effect this right, at least in
proletariat of factories, plantations and mines, and office quantitative terms, assisted by unprecedented economic
workers and intellectuals. The Second World War made growth for a period of 25 years (1945–70). However,
colonized people understand that European domination chances were still not all equal at the pre-school level. In
could only be defeated using Europe’s own means. From 1990, all children aged from 3 to 5 years attended nursery
Asia to Africa, independence would be won by peaceful school in Belgium, Denmark, France and Ireland, while
means in some instances and by force of arms in others between 50 and 60 per cent attended in the United States,
(1945–75). the United Kingdom, Japan, Greece, Spain, Portugal and
The outcome everywhere was a spectacular growth in Switzerland, and even smaller numbers attending
education, which was regarded as a sine qua non for satisfying elsewhere.
the aspirations of peoples, consolidating independence and Compulsory schooling usually begins at 6 years of age,
increasing economic potential. In the countries of Asia, and sometimes at 5 (as in the Netherlands, the United

466
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Kingdom, Israel and New Zealand) or 7 (in Scandinavia world total, which is a considerable absolute figure. In the
and Switzerland). Primary schooling ends at age 11 or 12. It developed countries, the population growth rate has fallen
is followed by a cycle of observation and then streaming from 0.7 to 0.4 per cent. Higher population growth means a
(France) or, as practiced in Sweden, primary school is greater proportion of the population is eligible for schooling:
attended for nine years, with optional subjects in the last in the developing countries, the 5–14 year-age group
few years. In other countries, the break comes earlier, at age accounts for 22 per cent of the population compared with
9 or 10. This is true of Germany where, after four years of 14 per cent in the developed countries. The education cost
primary school, the pupils are streamed – in principle burden is accordingly heavier, especially since it has to be
according to their level, but in reality according to their financed by a lower proportion of the active population: the
social background – either into the Gesamtschule (and then 15–64 year-age group accounts for 61 per cent of the
into the Gymnasium and university) or else into the population in the developing countries compared with
Realschule (and middle-grade jobs) or the Hauptschule, in 66 per cent in the developed countries. In other words,
other words apprenticeship. Integrated schools are rare. 1,000 members of the active population carry the burden of
The demands of families, and especially the growing educating 360 children in developing countries compared
awareness among people from modest backgrounds that with only 210 children in the developed countries. The low
instruction is a factor in social advancement, have been level of income per inhabitant in developing countries
largely instrumental in the extension of compulsory compounds the influence of the population factor.
schooling and of secondary and higher education. However, Another phenomenon whose effects are creating greater
inequalities have not disappeared, especially those suffered difficulties for education in developing countries is the rural
by minorities, to which we shall return later. exodus. In the industrialized countries, urbanization went
Since 1970, economic growth has slowed and funding for hand-in-hand with economic growth, whereas in developing
public education has been cut back. This situation coincides countries it has preceded economic development. In the
with the decline in fertility and population growth: if this latter case, urban growth has increased twice as quickly (5 to
trend continues, birth and death rates will come closer 6 per cent per year) as the population. This phenomenon is
together and population growth will become stationary in particularly serious, since schooling acts as a stimulant for
2025. Since 1976, school enrolment numbers at the primary the rural exodus: young people go to the cities to continue
level have no longer been increasing in most industrialized their studies; they have high aspirations and cannot bear the
countries and have declined slightly at the secondary level, constraints of a village environment, which they regard as
but are progressing in higher education due to demographic being backward. However, their departure deprives rural
and social factors. areas of a large part of their productive resources, since the
The reduction in enrolment in compulsory schooling only people left are women and old people. In the cities,
will have an impact on the demand for teachers. Some many young people cannot find work and will end up in
countries will be tempted to reduce the number of teachers unemployment or delinquency.
and thereby make savings. Rather than expose them to Today, more than 70 per cent of the world’s population
unemployment, others will see an opportunity for improving are living in cities. Urban development is very rapid in Latin
the quality of education by reducing the pupil/teacher ratio. America, followed by Asia and, to a lesser degree, by Africa.
Still others may redirect the ‘surplus’ into non-formal As slums and shantytowns proliferate (one-third of all city-
education, especially as part of lifelong education. dwellers already live in them), and housing estates spread,
On the other hand, the growing number of old people, this will create difficult problems for governments in
accompanied by a reduction in working hours, a lower providing young people with the education, work, social
retirement age and an increase in free time means that there and cultural services and leisure time activities to which
is a greater demand for cultural education and leisure-time they are entitled.
activities from this group. Adult education has been All these factors have created an awareness of the need
developed to cater to this need, as well as to provide refresher for better understanding population factors with a view to
courses and training for workers or young people who have improving the quality of life of individuals and communities.
an inadequate educational background. All countries have However, perceptions may differ for all sorts of reasons.
taken steps in this area, especially the United States, where The first thing that has to be understood is that population
more than 60 million people, one-third of the population growth is both a factor in economic growth and an
aged 17 and upwards, take part in different education and impediment to that growth. There is too great a tendency to
training programmes mobilizing schools and universities, give prominence to the negative aspects of population
museums and libraries, and vocational associations and growth. It is true that when the population gets too large
trade unions. compared with the resources available or is increasing too
By contrast, in the less developed countries, population quickly, the per capita income decreases, education costs
growth is still high on account of a declining death rate and rise, job opportunities are reduced, urban problems grow
a continuing high fertility rate. Sub-Saharan Africa, while worse, and the environment deteriorates. However,
being the poorest continent, also has the highest population population growth is also a source of labour, work and
growth rate, at 2.9 per cent since 1970, and the only one not production. The historical development of Europe, the
to decline in the short term. The other regions are in a United States and Canada bear witness to this. At the
process of demographic transition, in other words their present time in Africa, the economy is stagnating since
birth rate has declined over a period of twenty years, with there is not sufficient labour to develop the land, with young
annual population growth falling from 3 to 2.5 per cent in people who have attended school deserting the countryside
the Arab States, from 2.2 to 1.8 per cent in Latin America and leaving only women and old people behind.
and the Caribbean, and from 2.0 to 1.6 per cent in Asia. Approaches may vary, however. Some countries, for
However, Asia’s population accounts for 60 per cent of the cultural or religious reasons, rule out sex education and the

467
 thematic section

idea of birth control, and limit their efforts to describing the nationals or immigrants, the attitude of the dominant
negative impacts that population growth can have on the majority, as reflected in its education system, can spark off
quality of life. Curricula and contents also vary depending reactions going as far as open revolt in cases where they no
on the different types of audience, whether they are children, longer accept inequalities and discrimination. However,
young people or adult men and women in rural or urban there are also instances of antagonism between the minorities
areas, or depending on whether the mode of education is themselves for political, economic and religious reasons.
formal or non-formal. Moreover, the integration of Europe is increasing the
Naturally, education alone cannot resolve all problems. mobility of people in this part of the world and is making it
It has to be supported by measures in other fields: for increasingly a multicultural society, second only to the
example, is it possible to learn to wash oneself if there is no United States. Regardless of its origins, pluri-culturalism
water, or not to strip woodland if the only source of energy can be a source of both enrichment and tensions, due to
is firewood? In the first case, the answer may be to dig wells differences and prejudices of an ethnic, linguistic, cultural,
or bring water from mountain areas by a system of canals religious or other nature. A genuine intercultural education
(such as the qanat in Iran), and in the second case to use policy is becoming an increasingly compelling requirement;
solar energy. thus far education policy has concentrated on assimilating
The destruction of the environment is not caused only by the children of immigrants.
the number of people (in the South) but above all by
industry and automobiles (in the North). What is more, in
the North, the Netherlands, where the population density The economy
is 350 inhabitants per sq. km, suffers less from pollution
than the United States, with its population density of only Economic development is essential for providing the
22 inhabitants per sq. km. Barry Commoner compiled a set physical and financial resources required for the development
of significant statistics (quoted in the journal Population, of education which, in turn, is vital for training the managers
May–June 1972) on the increase of pollutants compared and workers needed for the different economic sectors.
with that of the population. Over the period 1946–68, Conversely, all other things being equal (such as no foreign
growth in the production of non-organic nitrate fertilizers, assistance being provided for the poor countries), economic
insecticides, phosphate-enriched detergents, tetraethyl lead stagnation or even regression entails difficulties for
and nitrogen oxides (in the automobile industry), and education.
plastic bottles rose from 267 to 846 per cent, while For twenty-five years after the Second World War, the
population growth varied only between 30 and 42 per cent. West enjoyed considerable growth, which resulted in
Many economists in the North and South alike have expenditure on education rising faster than GDP and in an
pointed out that the rich countries, with one-fifth of the increase in school enrolment at all levels (this increase was
world’s population, consume more than two-thirds of its also boosted by the population boom). In East and West
resources, a considerable part of which they waste. These alike, this period was marked by the rapid strides made in
resources are taken not only from their own countries but economics of education, educational planning and the
from those of the South as well. For instance, soya bean theory of human capital.
exports from Brazil (for feeding European cattle) and meat The Soviet economist Stanislas Strumilin was rediscovered.
exports from Guatemala, are to the detriment of small He had been the first, in 1924, to evaluate the profitability of
farmers, and to the advantage of the local landowning education with a view to guiding planners in their choices. By
minority and the rich in Western countries: they work comparing the wages and productivity of different categories
hand in glove through the intermediary of multinational of workers according to their level of instruction – with due
corporations in the agro-business sector. Hence, it is often regard to their age, occupational experience, qualifications,
the poor who feed the rich. A genuine international or and so on – he came to the conclusion that education, even of
internationalist education effort should make public opinion the most elementary kind, made a much greater contribution
in the West aware that it cannot preach in favour of a to economic development than a long period of factory
reduction in economic growth in the South without calling apprenticeship. By increasing the efficiency of workers, it
for a change in the lifestyle in the rich industrial countries, increased the national product, and the expenditure incurred
especially since a balanced diet is more conducive to good on public education was more than recovered. Slightly later
health: Europeans consuming 100 kilos of meat a year in the West (1935), J. Walsh went back to the concept of
would feel much better if they consumed only 30 kilos. capital put forward by William Petty as early as the
One last problem – which is no less important than the seventeenth century, and applied it to individuals, whose
others – needs to be mentioned. This is the co-existence, ‘value’ was equivalent to the actualized sum total of their
owing to historical or economic factors, of a large number of earnings during their working lives, which were in turn
ethnic groups in countries where, during the long period of derived from their level of instruction.
industrial growth following the Second World War, The launching of Sputnik in 1957 had major implications
enterprises imported cheap labour from the less developed for education. It was interpreted as resulting from the rapid
countries. In Western Europe, for instance, immigrant scientific and technical headway the Soviet Union had made
workers and their families now represent some 15 million through the effort it had invested in education and research.
people, to which waves of political refugees from Asia and In the United States and Europe this event triggered a
Africa should be added. The proportion of foreign whole series of studies on the human factor in development,
communities as a part of the total population varies from this term including education, health and organization. The
3 per cent (Norway) to 15 per cent (Switzerland), with theory of human capital took shape in the United States.
Germany and France occupying a midway position (6 to Education was not only a consumer item, as it was considered
7 per cent). Regardless of whether the minorities are until then, but an investment, since it generated for

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individuals benefits that were higher than the costs they In 2002, in most OECD countries, the employment ratio
incurred, including shortfalls in earnings. Since income for graduates of tertiary education is markedly higher –
proportional to the levels of instruction is a reflection of around 5 percentage points on average – than that for upper
productivity and society is a sum of individuals, the increase secondary graduates (with the exception of Mexico and
in the stock of instruction is bound to foster economic New Zealand). The gap in male employment ratios is
growth and social equality. Various authors have calculated particularly wide between those with and those without an
the contribution of education to the rise in GNP, and this upper secondary education. Among females, the difference
has proved to be higher than that of physical capital. in employment ratios by level of educational attainment is
The theory accordingly legitimized the increase in even wider. Employment ratios for females with lower
expenditure on education and in enrolment at all levels, secondary attainment are particularly low, averaging 49 per
especially in secondary and higher education. In turn, the cent over all OECD countries.1 The crisis also led to some
‘school explosion’ caused educational planning to make disenchantment with planning and the collapse of the
rapid strides. Formerly confined to the socialist countries, theory of human capital.
educational planning spread to the West after 1945 owing In the South, the most severely affected region is Africa,
to the needs of reconstruction and, subsequently, which is heavily indebted and whose economy is not taking
modernization and international competition. In education, off. The newly industrialized countries of Asia and Latin
planning was a response to increasing enrolment, which America, however, are more fortunate, although the drive
followed the population boom after the end of the war, the for profit can lead to a neglect of education, which shows a
extension of compulsory schooling, and the growing lower return than industry or trade. In China, for example,
awareness of families that education fosters social the share of GNP devoted to education fell from 2.5 per cent
advancement and mobility. In addition, there was the in 1980 to 2.3 per cent in 1991, the same as in 1996. Owing
concern to meet the growing demand for skilled personnel. to population growth, the problem of unemployment is
International organizations, such as the OECD (Organisation bound to grow worse. The number of people who are
for Economic Co-operation and Development), the United unemployed or underemployed is currently estimated at
Nations, and UNESCO in particular, spread the idea of 600 million worldwide. The International Labour
planning in the West and in the world generally. Unlike the Organization considers that, in order to absorb
mandatory planning in socialist countries, it was merely unemployment, it would be necessary to create one billion
indicative elsewhere. Whether mandatory or not, planning jobs, including 880 million in the developing countries.
was accompanied by maps showing the distribution of Because of unemployment, there is a loss of interest in
schools, with a view to reducing regional inequalities. School school (Plate 162). In many countries, parents take their
architecture was renovated so as to serve teaching methods children out of school in order to put them to work in the
centred on children rather than imposing a single model for fields, in workshops, in small businesses, and on the street.
everyone. Planning spread from formal school education to The unemployment crisis has triggered a series of reforms
vocational training, adult education and non-formal in secondary and, above all, higher education. These tend to
education. diversify the streams and types of schools between which
However, the rise in oil prices in 1973, followed by other transfers are made easier, in order to take account of the
crises, had lasting effects. With a few exceptions it led to the different capacities of pupils, and to cater to the different
decline or stagnation of the share of public expenditure needs of the economy and society. Often, short higher
devoted to education relative to GNP. education courses have been introduced with the aim of
The most serious phenomenon has been the overall preparing students for a particular occupation at the level of
increase in unemployment, which has affected women more technician, production engineer, or primary or lower
than men, young people more than adults and those who secondary teacher. In order to enable students to combine
only had compulsory schooling more than others. On the their studies and their occupation, many universities have
average, employment rates rise with educational attainment. established flexible arrangements for admission, class
attendance, and awarding diplomas, either by establishing a
system of credits that can be capitalized or by making
widespread use of correspondence and radio or television
Table 12  Public expenditure on education in developing courses (the ‘Open University’).
and developed countries (Percentage of GNP) The decline in public expenditure for education has
generally been offset by the increase in school and university
Region 1980 1991 1997 fees and the development of private education, which is
particularly widespread in the United States, Germany and
Developing countries: 3.9 4.1 3.9
Japan. In addition, universities are encouraged to secure
Sub-Saharan Africa 5.2 4.6 2.9 fresh resources through research contracts with industry
and special training programmes. Savings are made by
Arab States 4.5 5.5 5.4 reducing personnel or recruiting part-time teachers, at the
Latin America and risk of reducing the supervision ratio (in France, the
4.1 4.2 4.6 student/teacher ratio rose from 20:1 in 1975 to almost 25:1
the Caribbean
in 1991, and in Austria from 8.6:1 to 15:1). Efficiency is
East Asia/Oceania 2.8 3.4 2.3 sought through better management by analysing the unit
South Asia 4.1 4.1 3.3 costs for each level and type of education; by making full use
of premises and equipment; by encouraging preventive
Developed countries 5.4 5.3 5.1 maintenance, thus saving on later repairs by not waiting for
Source: UNESCO, 2000, World Education Report 2000, p. 118. structures and equipment to deteriorate; by using materials

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and techniques of local origin in order to reduce construction training or providing refresher courses for teachers. A
and fitting-out costs and involve the community; and lastly, hundred or so countries have included environmental
by diversifying financing resources, such as by taxing education in their formal and non-formal teaching
companies and completely or partly doing away with free programmes. On the whole, the activities are still limited,
education and scholarships. In the former socialist countries, since this form of education is not compulsory and its
only primary or compulsory education has continued to be interdisciplinarity is difficult to introduce in practice. At the
free, and secondary and higher education now have to be present time, schools have less impact than the extracurricular
paid for: so much for the market economy. activities by associations, natural parks, local communities
The oil crisis has added another concern common to and ecological movements.
developed and developing countries alike: that of the
environment, or rather of the ecosystem, in other words the
relationship between people and their surroundings. Science and technology
Although the perception of industrial and urban disamenities
is not recent, it was not until the 1970s that a new ecological The twentieth century is the century of science and
awareness manifested itself in the developed countries and technology, two areas in which constant progress has been
more recently in the developing countries. There is the view made, especially since the Second World War, regardless of
now that such disamenities are not incidental to growth, fluctuations in the economy. The two give each other mutual
but its unavoidable consequences, which could lead to the support, since the second is an application of the findings of
destruction of the ecosystem. However, the pursuit of the first, which is governed by the technologies made
unlimited growth, centred on the unchecked exploitation of available to it.
nature, is not independent of a certain conception of the The word science has to be taken in its broadest
world that sees people as the ‘masters and possessors of connotation, so that it includes not only the exact and
nature’, and nature as a machine that can be manipulated by natural sciences but also the human and social sciences,
the power of the mind. Education contributes to this especially since these have a direct impact on education.
attitude: whether it is formal or non-formal, it extols the Since the end of the nineteenth century, teaching has
powers of reason and the pre-eminence of action as developed much more rapidly than in all earlier periods,
fundamental values of a society assimilated to a work when it was considered as an ‘art’ and was the subject of
organization; it propagates the religion of production and philosophical speculation rather than objective studies. This
consumption as criteria of civilization and well-being. new aspect is characterized by the increasingly large place
In 1972, the Stockholm Conference mooted the idea of that ‘science’, in the measurable and experimental sense of
‘environmental education’ addressed to all, young people the term, has come to occupy in teaching. In addition, with
and adults alike, in order to make them aware of their the growing complexity of phenomena, research, which was
responsibility for protecting the environment. It was not long confined to schools, has been broadened to include
envisaged as a discipline, but as an interdisciplinary theme everything taking place outside them and is having an
bringing together both the physical and biological aspects of impact on training. This is how the ‘educational sciences’
the environment, as well as its economic and socio-cultural came to be developed: some of them deal with the general
aspects, since people form part of the ecosystem. It goes factors influencing education (philosophy, history,
beyond the traditional ‘study of the environment’, which, anthropology, sociology, demography, educational
since Locke and Rousseau, has endeavoured to take account administration and planning) while others deal with its
of children in their environment, with a view to shaping inherent processes (biology, psychology, linguistics, teaching
their personalities. Added to this concern is that of methods). Comparative education is not a discipline but a
developing in both children and adults a planet-wide field of study, which is concerned with both external
awareness and responsible attitude towards the management conditions and internal workings, and adopts a particular
of the environment, the source of all life on earth. The approach according to the subject of the research.
Belgrade Conference (1975) listed several objectives for Educational psychology first emerged at the end of the
such an education, including: instilling an awareness of the nineteenth century with William James (1842–1910), a
environment in individuals and groups; prompting them to pragmatist who considered pupils as being ‘machines driven
acquire the behavioural attitudes, skills and capacity to by associations’ and laid stress on interest as the driving
evaluate the training measures and programmes; and force behind educational advancement. The intelligence test
involving them in problem-solving. This is therefore not a method was founded by Binet and Simon (1905) and
new ‘subject’, but ‘a dimension and permanent function of developed by Terman and Thorndike with the aim of
education’, as defined by the Tbilisi Conference (1977), guiding pupils during their compulsory schooling and, on
bringing together biology, history, geography and the its completion, to select individuals and give them vocational
economic and social sciences, requiring active methods and or military training. The same period saw the emergence of
working in groups and in the field. what is currently known as ‘new schools’ or ‘new education’
The Rio Conference (1992) took up all these themes by in Europe, and ‘progressive education’ in the United States.
stressing action and respect for and protection of the In opposition to the bookish and intellectualist tradition,
environment, and the need for continuing education ‘from this new approach required that education of the mind be
nursery school to faculty’ by linking such education to the accompanied by that of character, taste and the body, in a
idea of ‘sustainable development’. UNESCO and UNDP twofold individual and social perspective. The activities of
(United Nations Development Programme) have held a children had to be encouraged in all their forms so that they
large number of symposia, produced the review Connections would participate in their own training and the ‘master’
and guides for the preparation and evaluation of curricula, would give way to the ‘educator’, who would act towards
launched pilot and experimental projects, and assisted in them as a guide respecting their personalities, capable of

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organizing both group and individual work, laying stress on activity alone that can ‘lead to intellectual autonomy’. The
cooperation rather than competition, on success rather than pivot is motivation, and without interest, there can be no
failure, all in a favourable and suitably equipped school motivation. Two issues in this theory have given rise to
setting. The most influential writer of the first half of the discussion.
century was John Dewey (1859–1952), who is best known The first concerns the role of language in cognitive
for his phrase ‘learning by doing’. In fact, Dewey advocated development. In Piaget’s view, children can acquire words
the combination of play and intellectual and manual work without necessarily acquiring logic. On the other hand,
in joint experiments, so that schools would train children in according to J. S. Bruner, it is not action but language that
the qualities of initiative, responsibility and adaptability develops intelligence, since it makes it possible not only to
which they will need later in life. Dewey conceived of school communicate but also to take the experience into account.
not as serving individualist purposes but social ends. Like A third hypothesis is possible: the existence of a factor that
society, it had to be democratic. However, children were would be the basis of both cognitive and linguistic
not adults. It was necessary to foster their current interests, development.
their joie de vivre, their spontaneity, and the spiritual and The second issue concerns the universality of the stages.
moral fulfilment of their personalities, rather than impose Considerable intercultural research has confirmed Piaget’s
utilitarian objectives on them. ‘Education is a life process sequence, although at the same time it has also shown the
not a preparation for life’ (Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed). importance of the economic and cultural factors disregarded
Dewey influenced Ovide Decroly, who, wanting ‘a school in his theory, such as urban development, cultural
for life through life’, created the Ecole de l’Hermitage near integration, schooling, and the physical and intellectual
Brussels in 1907. The school was not expected to prepare environment. For instance, nomads need spatial concepts,
children for adult life, but represented a living environment, while sedentary farmers give preference to those involving
which would give expression to all their faculties. Because conservation, quantity, weight and volume, because they
Decroly entered into contact with reality in global terms, he have to store and trade in their produce. The Arctic Inuit
advocated the global method for reading and writing, as well are quicker to acquire the notion of horizontality than the
as for all-round psychological training. Teaching was not by Ebrie of West Africa, while the contrary is true of
subjects but according to centres of interest, which grouped conservation, with the Australian aborigines occupying a
and ordered knowledge likely to arouse the curiosity of midway position.
children. Each centre was tackled from different angles: Lastly, the performance of the subjects tested may not
observation and measurement, association in space and reflect their skills on account of the conditions of the
time, expression in all its forms. experiment and the structure of their thought, because each
In the same year, Maria Montessori opened the Casa dei culture places a different value on a particular concept.
bambini in Rome. Combining sensualist hypotheses and Piaget gave prominence to formal intelligence, which is
the ideas of child observation, freedom and activity, she bound up with scientific rationality and Western capitalism.
developed appropriate teaching materials, which, through This is not the case with other cultures. An uncritical
successive exercises performed in an atmosphere of application of these criteria would amount to
affectionate relations with the educator, were aimed at the ethnocentrism.
children’s motive and sensory training. Montessori left Schools started to use photographs, films, recordings,
no scope for children’s spontaneity, and she closed the records and radio, which was followed, after 1945, by
classroom to any intrusion from life outside. television, teaching machines and computers. The audio-
The influence of Freud (1856–1939) made itself felt visual media first served as a teaching aid in order to provide
mostly in the years after 1950. His conception of education additional documentation and create or stimulate the
was derived from his theory of individual psychological interest of pupils. They can reach a considerable public; the
development. This is above all governed by emotional Open University in Britain, which was opened in 1971, has
development, which is itself governed by drives, the main been emulated in many other countries as a way of giving
one being sexual. However, the pleasure principle, which educational access to isolated or disabled people (as in
regulates us, comes up against the reality principle because Australia) or to provide more flexible work and study
life with others and culture require the regulation of human opportunities. According to research, pupils learn more
relations. Educators therefore have to teach children to with audio-visual media than with audio or visual media
control their instincts and hence find an optimum between alone, for example when film is associated with other
‘the Scylla of inaction and the Charybdis of prohibition’. activities (the compilation of documentation in preparation
In the case of Piaget (1896–1980), education entailed for the film projection, subsequent discussion and
adapting individuals to the surrounding social environment supplementary information). The limitations originally
not by teaching them ready-made truths, but by making imposed in respect of timetables and the continuity of
them understand and learn through action and exposition have been removed by tape and video recorders,
experimentation in accordance with the laws of mental which have improved learning processes, especially of
growth (Plate 163). Piaget distinguished three developmental modern languages, musical studies and forms of oral
stages whose order of succession are constant: sensory- expression. Video plays an important role in teacher training
motive intelligence in the course of the first two years; (micro-teaching), medical education (transmission of
concrete operations from 2 to 11 or 12 years; and formal surgical operations) and creation (video clips). The audio-
operations from 11 or 12 to 16 years. The move from one visual media are also the subject of teaching since, as stated
stage to the next takes place through assimilation of new by the International Commission for the Study of
objects and the adaptation of action to particular conditions, Communication Problems, ‘information is easily corrupted
resulting in equilibrium. Teachers have to guide and into the dissemination of half-truths and even falsehoods,
constantly stimulate the activity of children, and it is this persuasion into manipulation and propaganda’.2 The role of

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teachers is to help develop the critical thinking of their (lack of premises), mistakes in the compilation and
pupils by teaching them that an image is never neutral, any processing of data, and slowness in adopting new procedures.
more than a word. In accounting terms, the assessment for adopting IT is
Teaching machines were introduced with programmed positive (in employment terms, it is a different matter).
education (theoretically, such education can manage The other applications of information technology for
without the machines and can use ‘scrambled books’ instead, education in developing countries are less obvious, except
but the results are not as good). Teaching machines draw with respect to higher vocational training. The main problem
their inspiration from behaviourism and their driving is the lack of software suited to their needs, along with the
principle is reinforcement, in other words the immediate more general problem that their societies are not yet
reward that increases the activity and motivation of the computerized, except in certain sectors. The demand for an
learner. The programmes, which may be ‘linear’ or ‘ramified’, information technology acculturation has therefore not yet
are applied in the teaching of mathematics, the sciences, and made itself felt. The industrialized countries should not be
modern languages, and in vocational training. blithely imitated on the pretext that the information
Information technology, the latest innovation to influence technology revolution is unavoidable. For most of the
teaching methods, makes possible not only the remote developing countries, the aim is only to train the necessary
transmission of knowledge, but also to process, store and number of specialists for a given number of activities, but
distribute it, thereby stepping up intellectual activity, not yet to seek ‘computer literacy’.
especially since the arrival of the personal computer. In both the developed and developing countries,
Computer-assisted teaching (CAT) has been used above all considerable hopes have been placed in technology – i.e.
as a tool for teaching and learning. The weakest pupils seem audio-visual media and now computers – in order to
to benefit the most from this, but the higher the level of democratize education and, at the same time, create or
education (from primary to higher education) is, the smaller stimulate the interest of learners, and develop their
seems to be the benefit that can be drawn from CAT. If the imagination and creativity. Studies show that technology
progress made with CAT is far from living up to expectations, does not replace the teacher, but should be integrated into
this is because there is no theory of learning to explain how the overall teaching process in the same manner as books.
computers can or cannot foster the acquisition of knowledge. Distance teaching has made education possible for young
What they can already do is to adapt teaching to the needs people who do not have access to school because of the far-
of individual pupils, to their working pace, to the level of flung nature of the population (e.g. in Australia) or for
their knowledge, and to their cultural backgrounds. Some other reasons. It also serves to provide literacy training for
countries are experimenting with educational software adults (the Telescuola in Italy, the Sutatenza in Colombia,
using artificial intelligence processes capable of interpreting, the radio schools of Honduras). Similarly, radio fora or
evaluating and correcting the replies of pupils and putting discussion groups in India, Togo, Niger and Senegal have
forward personalized learning strategies. encouraged local education activities. Elsewhere, multi-
As an academic subject, information technology (IT) media systems have improved teacher training. In all these
was, depending on the country, introduced some 20 to cases, the use of new means has broadened the scope of
30 years ago in universities and institutes of technology, and education and enabled learners to attain the same standard
more recently in general secondary education and even as in conventional schools. In addition, the game-playing
primary education. Increasingly the view is that information aspect of television and now of computers arouses greater
technology forms part of the basic knowledge that children interest and motivation in pupils, who as a result learn
should learn during their compulsory schooling, especially better. In the experience of Télé-Niger, and above all in
since they are encouraged to do so by IT’s game-playing Côte d’Ivoire, enrolment numbers have increased and
aspect. In addition, there is a need to prepare them to live efficiency has improved. In Côte d’Ivoire, from 1968–1969
and work in an increasingly computerized society whose to 1978–1979, the number of children enrolled in primary
languages and mechanisms they have to grasp and master. education rose from 322,700 pupils to 746,710, with average
There is also the need to adopt an integrated approach to repetitions falling from 32.4 per cent to 20.5 per cent.
data-processing techniques and audio-visual media, the first Problems arise, however, when they enter secondary
of which call on logic and the second on imagination: the education, which remains traditional and highly selective:
two systems are combined in the inter-active video-disc television encourages oral rather than written expression.
which makes it possible to introduce illustrated sequences On the other hand, new technologies have not levelled out
into software. social inequalities since, due to quantitative growth, more
Third, information technology is used more and more as people have been left outside the mainstream and these
a management tool. At the level of educational belong to a massive extent to the disadvantaged sections of
establishments, it is used for keeping accounts, the recording the population. Other experiences in Europe and North
and follow-up of pupils’ files and examination marks, the America confirm that technology does not automatically
management of libraries and teaching materials, and so on. result in democratization. Nowadays, having or not having
At the central level, it facilitates the administration of the microcomputers to use is liable to accentuate social
system as a whole by processing and analysing information differences.
flows for the purpose of managing personnel, finances, Even in a large country like India (where unit costs are
buildings and equipment, and drawing up projections. lower than in small countries), television and satellite
For developing countries, this application of information teaching programmes (SITE: Satellite Instructional
technology is the easiest to adopt. It requires only a small Television Equipment) have not lived up to the hopes
number of qualified managers, who are increasingly available. placed in them of equalizing educational opportunities
With a large number of personnel with limited qualifications, while improving quality and reducing costs. According to
however, there are likely to be problems of storing archives Asok Mitra, they have not succeeded in: (a) increasing

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awareness, knowledge and practice of various agricultural when transfers for training purposes promote exports, or
innovations; (b) bringing about significant changes in may oppose that of an international organization, which is
attitudes or practice related to birth control; (c) bringing more concerned with education than with profits. Technical
about desirable changes in social behaviour and political assistance personnel may meekly follow the directives of
participation, organizational activities or leadership; and their governments or spread ‘subversive’ ideas.
(d) substantially increasing self-help capabilities.3 However, In the broadest sense, a country’s education is influenced
SITE did increase the occupational and economic by all the tangible and intangible products circulating in the
aspirations of child viewers ‘even to unrealistic limits’. world: not only ideas and knowledge, books and periodicals,
In formal education, radio and television have contributed cinema and television, but also capital goods incorporating
to increasing the efficiency of science teaching (physics, a particular technology, consumer goods which arouse the
chemistry, biology, mathematics), especially in rural areas desire in people to possess them and which strengthen the
lacking in qualified teachers and equipment. Again according cultural model from which they originate, especially among
to Mitra, the drawbacks of such a system are: ‘(a) inflexibility those who have become familiar with them through school.
of scheduling; (b) the predetermined and immutable The media play a major role in the propagation of the
presentation of the message, ruling out the possibility of ideologies of the North: its radio stations occupy 90 per cent
revision or correction; (c) lack of instant interaction between of the frequencies and its leading press agencies (Associated
the person delivering the lesson and the learner; (d) one- Press, Reuters, United Press International, Agence France-
shot lessons and a corresponding absence of elucidation and Presse and ITAR-TASS) disseminate 80 per cent of all
elaboration; (e) frequent lack of graduated structuring from messages.
easy to difficult stages; (f) absence of optimum mix of the For 70 years, the international scene was dominated by
various media, chiefly instructional and methodological the competition between the communist and capitalist
films, radio, television lessons, and traditional media such as states, which both sought to win over the greatest possible
the theatre and puppetry; and (g) the disaggregation of number of supporters by whatever means. In this regard,
target audiences into homogeneous age groups’. 4 These ideological propaganda and the training of human resources
difficulties are also encountered elsewhere, and some of played an essential role. This accounts for the importance of
them can be remedied, but the fact remains that it is not aid, which performs, in a subtler manner, some of the
possible to dispense with qualified teachers, especially for functions that used to be performed by colonization. In
the design and evaluation of programmes. fact, every major power gives preference to its former
However, the media have changed the role of teachers. colonies or its sphere of influence.
Traditionally, they were ‘those who know about teaching Transnational corporations do not deal only with the
children who do not know’; hence, teaching was based on economy, finance and trade, but also with so-called cultural
authority. The learning of democracy at school requires that industries (books and teaching aids, information and leisure
school become a place for developing a dialogue between activities). Their activities involve the training of workers
teachers and learners, especially when these are young and managers, and more recently the production of audio-
people and adults who have their own experiences and visual and electronic teaching equipment. These corporations
knowledge. This transformation is essential, especially since cater to their own interests and not necessarily to those of
teachers are not the only people dealing with children who the countries where they are established. Since the
possess knowledge. The flow of information channelled by technology is generally imported without being adapted to
the media is such that even in rural areas, children can local conditions, the training is also copied from the original
sometimes be better informed on some subjects than model. As a result, a transnational middle class has
teachers. Teachers now have to be organizers, guides and developed, sharing the ideology of free enterprise, economic
advisers to a greater extent than transmitters of knowledge rationality and competition, success based on material
(which they still remain). criteria, and an individualistic way of life geared to
consumption.
There are also influential private foundations, many of
International relations which emanate from such corporations, as their names
indicate (the Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller foundations). A
Important global factors that influence the evolution of large number of them finance education projects, such as
education include not only economic relations governing the educational television series Sesame Street (also supported
the development capacities of poor and rich countries, but by the American Government), which was broadcast in
also international political relations. For example, the nearly 90 countries in the 1970s (Plate 164). The programme
settlement of conflicts, the decline in tension and met with opposition in certain countries: in the United
disarmament will liberate resources for education. Cultural Kingdom the BBC considered that it encouraged a passive
relations will foster the mobility of teachers, researchers and attitude among children instead of stimulating their
students, as well as the exchange of information and imagination and intelligence; the programme was picked up
experiences; this will build cooperation between institutions instead by the rival ITV network. In Peru it was considered
for teacher and student exchanges, and for joint research. incompatible with the country’s educational reform (1970)
The actors on the international scene are states, based on dialogue and creative participation.
organizations, enterprises and individuals. They do not all The so-called ‘international’ organizations are extremely
have the same possibilities, although their activities always diverse: they may be intergovernmental or non-governmental
take place in a certain national and international context. in nature, and pursue a variety of aims, which may or may
They support each other whenever their interests coincide not be disinterested, temporal or spiritual. They may be
and clash with each other in the opposite case. The policy of established in particular regions or cover the whole planet,
a state may strengthen that of a multinational corporation and have resources of varying importance.

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There are intergovernmental organizations that provide in the conventional sense with lecturers and students, but
assistance for education worldwide, such as United Nations the centre of a worldwide network of research and training
agencies (UNESCO, World Bank, FAO, WHO, activities for development purposes.
UNICEF, etc.), the Council of Europe and the European The World Bank should also be mentioned in this context.
Union, the OECD (Organisation for Economic After having been created to assist with reconstruction after
Development and Co-operation representing the Second World War, it became involved in education,
30 industrialized countries), and the regional development first with respect to buildings and equipment and then
banks (the African, Arab, Asian and Inter-American Banks, reforms, with the aim of improving the efficiency of education.
etc.). The accent has been shifted from secondary and higher
The most important institution in this field is UNESCO, education towards primary education, which the World
which was created in 1945 with a mission to contribute to Bank acknowledges as being a prerequisite for increasing the
peace in the world through education, science and culture, productivity of poorer sections of the population.
to which communication was recently added (Plate 165). There are now more than 3,000 non-governmental
Originally the Organization had 20 Member States, but organizations (NGOs) in the world providing assistance
this number has now risen to 190, some 20 of which have for education and training. They are extremely varied: in
fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. UNESCO’s history has some instances, they are examples of ‘cultural imperialism’
been notably marked by: the Universal Declaration of and in others of selflessness and dedication. The NGOs
Human Rights, comprising the right to education, in 1948; that are warmly welcomed are those which, instead of
the emergence of the term ‘development’ in 1966 and of importing their own ideas, are capable of listening to what
‘UNESCO’s contribution to a world economic order’ in the local population has to say, which start by asking it what
1974; and the crisis provoked by the establishment of a ‘new its needs are and then design their assistance accordingly.
world information order’ in 1980, which led to the Education also includes informing the poor of their rights
withdrawal of the United States (1984) and of Great Britain in relations with their governments and the ruling classes, as
and Singapore (1985) from the Organization, resulting in a well as of women’s rights with regard to men.
cutback in its budget by one-third. (The US and Great Among the non-governmental organizations, religious
Britain have since rejoined.) In 1988, the World Decade for institutions should not be forgotten. None of these is
Cultural Development was launched, and in 1990 a World homogeneous, there are conservatives and progressives, and
personalities sometimes play a more important role than
structures, not to mention the influence exercised by world
Table 13  Gross enrolment ratios by sex in sub-Saharan events. After Pope John XXIII, during Vatican II (1962–
Africa, the Arab States and South Asia 65), declared that ‘development [is] the new name of peace’,
‘liberation theology’ was briefly in vogue; the tide has now
Region All Male Female ebbed with the economic recession.
Sub-Saharan Africa 76.8 84.1 69.4 According to UNESCO’s World Education Report,
assistance to education, in current US dollars, rose
Arab States 84.7 92.1 76.9 from $2.02 billion in 1975 to $6.04 billion in 1990, and
Southern Asia (including India) 95.4 106.8 83.3 $6.63 billion in 1997. The $2.02 billion in 1975 are, in view
of inflation, equivalent to $4.99 billion in 1990. In 15 years,
Source: UNESCO, 2000, World Education Report 2000, pp. 115–16.
assistance has therefore increased by 20.8 per cent, or slightly
more than 1 per cent per year. The share of bilateral
assistance fell from 70 per cent of the total amount in 1975
Conference on Education for All was organized with other to 60 per cent in 1990.
United Nations agencies at Jomtien (Thailand). This was The role of the World Bank became very important: it
followed in 1992 by the creation of two International provided almost one-quarter of the assistance, while that of
Commissions, one on Education for the Twenty-First UNESCO was no more than 1.2 per cent in 1990 compared
Century and the other on Culture and Development. with 2.8 per cent in 1975. In addition to grants and loans
The World Conference on Education for All (EFA) in (which do not really represent assistance if the rate exceeds
Jomtien (1990) set the goal of universal primary education 2 or 3 per cent), the assistance includes the secondment of
by the year 2000, a goal that is far from being reached. The personnel (teachers and experts) and equipment, and the
UNESCO World Education Report 2000 states that in 1997 award of study and training fellowships. According to the
(the last year for which we have global statistics), the gross same source, the number of students abroad rose from
enrolment ratios averaged 71.5 per cent (male: 80.6 per cent, 915,900 in 1980 to 1,177,600 in 1990 (+28.6 per cent), out
female: 62.3 per cent) for the least developed countries and of whom 757,000 (64 per cent) came from the developing
for the less developed regions. Latin American and the countries and 334,000 (28 per cent) from the developed
Caribbean, Eastern Asia/Oceania have ratios exceeding countries, with the remainder being undetermined. Two
100 per cent, respectively 113.6 and 118.0 (male and tendencies can be observed: a decline in the percentage of
female). students from the developing regions apart from Eastern
Other United Nations agencies also work to develop Asia, and an increase in the percentage of students from the
education: UNICEF devotes itself to children of the most developed countries, virtually all of whom pursue their
disadvantaged families in the fields of health, nutrition and studies in other developed countries, especially on account
education; the International Labour Organization deals of European integration.
with technical, vocational and trade union training, WHO To what extent does international assistance benefit the
with health training, FAO with agricultural training, etc. developing countries? In the first place, it is influenced by
The United Nations University in Tokyo is not a university strategic, commercial and financial considerations more than

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by disinterested humanism. In addition, statistical ideological dependence on those supplying both the
computations have shown that, for the World Bank and a hardware and software.
country like France (but the example can be extended to The foregoing analysis has shown some of the reasons
other cases), there are significant correlations between the why the economic return of assistance for education is so
amount of assistance (or loans) and the per capita GDP of low. In the 1960s, the Pearson Commission already
the beneficiary countries. This means that the assistance considered that for every $100 devoted to technical
above all benefits the more privileged countries. It accordingly assistance, there was a probable transfer to the beneficiary
tends to broaden the gaps existing in the ‘South’. country of foreign exchange equivalent to only $20.
What is more, assistance is never free. The cost to the For many countries, far from representing a loss, the
donors is not equivalent to the value for the beneficiary reduction or halting of international assistance would
countries, except in the case of direct transfers (such as study perhaps be a chance, an opportunity for rethinking their
fellowships), for several reasons. The first of these is the ‘tied’ problems, for seeking solutions suited to their national
nature of the assistance. Capital expenditure (such as for the context instead of expecting to receive ready-made solutions
construction of schools) is defrayed for the benefit of firms from outside. Real solutions are never merely technical; the
in the donor country, which produce the design, deliver and problems of the young states are above all of a political and
transport the materials, and send managers to the site; only cultural nature. Indeed, ‘foreign assistance never represents
a small proportion of the assistance benefits local labour and more than an additional contribution or a starting-point.
producers. Tied assistance obliges the beneficiary country to Only the efforts of the population can establish and entrench
pay prices higher than those prevailing on the world market the basis of growth and can guarantee that it will last’.5
and to defray the transport and insurance costs incurred by
the companies of the donor country.
Further, when it comes to the salaries of technical EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT
assistance personnel, which account for 70 per cent of all
assistance to education, a large part is not spent locally. At In the first part of this chapter, we considered the global
least half of the salaries, perhaps even two-thirds, are kept in factors that influence education in accordance with trends
the country of origin or are repatriated there in the form of varying from country to country, and depending on political
savings. In addition, expenditure on consumption itself is system, social relations and power structure, and the state of
concentrated on manufactured products or even food human, financial, scientific and technical resources.
imported from the industrial countries. Hence, only a small A recurrent theme of the second half of the twentieth
proportion of these earnings benefit the local economy. century has been the question: To what extent do education
In addition, the ‘value’ of technical assistance experts for policies influence development? The conventional dichotomy
the countries receiving them is not equal to the remuneration between developed and developing countries is largely
borne by the country sending them, but to their local artificial, since all countries are intent on development,
replacement cost. In addition, in most instances, external although through different means and resources. In
assistance entails ancillary costs (accommodation, transport, addition, the concept itself is open to many interpretations.
etc.), which may reach or exceed the expenditure, and which For a long time, the concept of development was reduced
the country would have to defray if it employed its own to that of ‘economic growth’ and it was only gradually that
nationals. the term ‘economic and social growth’ came to be used. The
The fact that international assistance finances capital ‘cultural dimension’ was introduced more recently, following
expenditure in foreign exchange tends to favour foreign the failure of most of the countries of the South to emulate
rather than national enterprises. This results not only in the ‘capitalist’ and ‘socialist’ models. The latter model, in
higher costs but also in sumptuous and unsuitable fact, is bankrupt, while the former is proving incapable of
architectural designs because they have been produced in resolving its own problems, such as unemployment,
the developed countries. These prestige buildings make a inequalities, violence, the destruction of the environment.
deplorable impression alongside the nearby shanty areas Moreover, the ‘development of education’ involves not
which can be seen in so many cities of the developing only public or private schooling but also ‘non-formal’
countries. The squandering of resources is all the more education organized for specific groups with a view to
regrettable in that the buildings are not fully used. UNDP achieving certain objectives (literacy, for example) and of
(the United Nations Development Programme) has found ‘informal’ education, which includes learning through work,
that they have a utilization rate of only 20 per cent, and for the mass media, travel, etc.
equipment this rate is only 12 to 15 per cent. Many buildings Because of these many and varied aspects, education, like
are closed for four months a year and at 6 in the evening. development, is a contradictory phenomenon, in the sense
Other dangers stem from a naive enthusiasm for that it has both positive and negative aspects. But for whom
innovations, regardless of what they are, without account are these aspects positive or negative? It is obvious that the
being taken of the national context. Before projects proposed same effects can be positive for some groups and negative
by bilateral or multilateral assistance are implemented, even for others, that what is negative at one point in time can
on an experimental basis, they should first be studied become positive at another. However, there is also a
thoroughly. Pilot experiments often enjoy advantages and contradiction between the different dimensions of education.
possibilities (in terms of funds, personnel and equipment) Just like economic growth, it can exacerbate inequalities
which the country cannot afford once the external assistance between cities and the countryside, between regions,
has been withdrawn. Advanced technology (audio-visual between social classes, and between ethnic groups. Economic
programmes, computers, satellites, etc.) demands enormous growth requires the training of qualified specialists, hence
expenditure on the part of poor countries lacking energy the need for selection at the entry to higher education.
sources and involves risks of financial, technological or However, the best applicants do not very often come from

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the disadvantaged classes, but from those which are Figure 4  Net enrolment ratios for the 6–23 age group, by
culturally and economically favoured. This was the dilemma region (1970–1990)
of the socialist countries, which finally resolved it by giving
priority to the economic sector over social egalitarianism.
There is also opposition between the economic and
cultural spheres. Teaching in a widely spoken foreign
language gives direct access to international scientific and
technological literature. It is therefore a factor in development.
However, it will make young people more remote from their
cultural roots and will contribute to the brain drain. The
consequence is most serious when foreign universities
perform such educational activities established in the country,
such as the American and French universities in Beirut.
Within formal education itself, there is a major
contradiction, in that it is expected to contribute
simultaneously to reproducing set social patterns and
bringing about change: scientific and technical change in
order to increase physical resources; social change because
ruling classes everywhere need to renew themselves and
integrate the best elements of the other classes, if only to
ensure their own legitimacy. Hence selection-conservation
based on belonging to a social class has to be supplemented
by selection-mobility based on abilities. Do schools perform
this second function badly or well? It is the former, if many
gifted children from underprivileged classes abandon their
studies owing to a lack of resources; it is the latter, if the Source: Adapted from UNESCO, 2000, World Education Report 2000,
filtering process allows a small number to advance, but not pp. 46, 62.
too many. In other words, school wastage is costly in
pedagogical and financial terms, while schools are ‘functional’
for the privileged classes because they work to their when the oil crisis and its consequences appeared. Enrolment
advantage. Moreover, the use of a foreign language is an continued to rise, but at a lower rate. Similarly, after having
important factor in selection (as in Africa). increased until the 1980s, illiteracy fell in both numbers and
Before examining the relationship between education percentages. However, inequalities continue to exist both
and ‘development’ in more detail, a statistical overview is between countries and within individual countries, between
necessary. sexes, urban and rural areas, regions, social classes, and
ethno-linguistic groups.
Enrolments worldwide rose from 328 million in 1960 to
Statistical overview 618 million in 1970, 843 million in 1980 and 975 million in
1990 (excluding pre-primary enrolments). However, the
Whereas the growth in pupil numbers in the first half of the rate of growth gradually slowed down from 88 per cent in
twentieth century was slow because of wars, economic 1960–70 to 36 per cent in 1970–80 and to 16 per cent in
depression and reigning conservatism, the second half saw 1980–90. This rate was naturally not the same in all countries
those numbers grow quickly at all levels until the 1970s, and in all regions or for all levels of education. Figure 4

Table 14  Enrolments and gross enrolment ratios, 1990–1997

1st Level 2nd Level 3rd Level
Millions Rate Millions Rate Millions Rate
More developed regions
1990 61.3 99.2 68.9 94.5 29.1 34.2
1997 62.9 103.5 75.8 108.0 34.2 61.1
Countries in transition
1990 29.7 97.5 38.2 91.5 10.7 36.1
1997 27.4 96.7 41.1 87.0 11.0 34.0
Less developed regions
1990 505.9 98.9 207.9 42.1 28.8 7.1
1997 578.2 101.7 281.3 51.6 43.0 10.3
Less developed countries
1990 53.8 65.8 12.1 17.2 1.2 2.5
1997 68.7 71.5 16.9 19.3 1.9 3.2
Source: UNESCO, 2000, World Education Report 2000, pp. 115–16

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shows trends in net enrolment ratios for the 6–23 age group, The illiteracy rate, which stood at 44 per cent of the adult
by region, for the period 1970–90. The gross ratio is the population in 1950, fell to 32.8 per cent in 1980 and
ratio of the number of pupils at each level, regardless of their 22 per cent in 1997, In addition to the greater enrolment
age, to the population of the corresponding age group. This numbers of young people, this reduction is also due to the
is why it may exceed 100 per cent because of repeaters decline in population growth. The highest population
having exceeded the official age. The number of enrolments growth rates are to be found in South Asia (54 per cent),
and the gross ratios by level are given in Table 14. sub-Saharan Africa (53 per cent) and the Arab States
In the developed countries, enrolments in primary (49 per cent). The rate in the developed countries is
education have fallen since 1970, owing to the decline in 3.3 per cent.
population. The developed countries, accounting for Illiteracy always affects women more than men (28 per
20 per cent of the world’s population, represent 18 per cent as against 16 per cent in 1997) and rural dwellers more
cent of enrolments at the 1st level, 30 per cent at the 2nd than urban dwellers (on average three times more). Even
level, and 55 per cent at the 3rd level. In developed the industrial countries have discovered, or rediscovered,
countries, for every 1,000 pupils at the 1st level, there were illiteracy in their midst, not only among immigrant workers,
802 at the 2nd level and 315 at the 3rd level. The but also in some social categories where people read and
corresponding figures for developing countries are 420 write little and gradually become illiterate.
and 57. The gap between North and South is again obvious at
The figures in developing countries show the scale of the financial level. Overall, in current dollars, public
school wastage experienced by many countries, especially
in Africa, where the vehicle of teaching is a foreign language.
The English-speaking countries, which use local languages
to a greater extent in primary education, are less affected Table 16  Percentage of the 1985–1986 cohort reaching
than the French-speaking and Portuguese-speaking the grade
countries. In addition, it is estimated that there are millions
of children who are not enrolled at all, chiefly among girls 1 2 3 4
and young people in rural areas.
Developing countries 100 82 76 71
A positive factor is the increase in the enrolment of girls,
which exceeds that of boys at the secondary and higher Africa 100 85 82 77
levels in the developed countries and is catching up in the Arab States 100 95 92 88
developing countries (it is already higher at the secondary French-speaking countries 100 68 68 59
level in Latin America and the Caribbean).
The increase in enrolments accounts for the fall in English-speaking countries 100 92 89 84
illiteracy. In overall terms, after the number of illiterates Portuguese-speaking countries 100 71 54 42
aged 15 years and upwards had increased from 700 million Latin America and the Caribbean 100 73 66 60
in 1950 to 742 million in 1970 and 946 million in 1980, this Asia and Oceania 100 96 94 91
figure fell to 882 million in 1997, and will decline to around
857 million in 2005. Because of the size of its population Arab States 100 98 97 95
(more than half the world figure), East and South Asia have Other countries 100 96 94 91
the highest number of illiterates, amounting to 430 million Oceania 100 96 94 94
in 1997. Conversely, the developed countries still had 14.2
Europe 100 99 98 98
million illiterates in 1997, of which 9.8 million were
women. Source: UNESCO, 1988, ED/BIE/CONFINTED 41/Ref.1, Paris, October, p. 35

Table 15  Gross enrolment ratios by level and sex in 1997

1st level 2nd level 3rd level
M F M F M F
Less developed countries 107.6 95.5 107.0 109.2 12.0 8.5
Sub-Saharan Africa 84.1 69.4 29.1 23.3 12.0 2.8
Arab States 92.1 76.9 61.2 52.3 17.3 12.4
Latin America and the Caribbean 116.9 110.2 59.2 65.3 20.1 18.7
Eastern Asia and Oceania 118.3 117.6 69.3 63.1 12.5 9.0
   of which China 122.5 123.0 73.7 66.2 7.8 4.2
Southern Asia 106.8 83.3 54.1 35.8 9.1 5.1
   of which India 108.8 89.5 59.1 38.2 8.8 5.5

More developed countries 103.6 103.4 107.0 109.2 56.8 65.8

Source: UNESCO, 2000, World Education Report 2000, pp. 115–16

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 thematic section

expenditure on education has increased more in the North Education and economic development
than in the South: in the less developed countries it rose
from us$48.5 billion in 1980 to us$242.4 billion in 1997, Economic development is usually defined by the sustainable
an increase of more than 2.5 times; in the developed increase of the overall GNP, or better still, by the per capita
countries it rose from us$476.1 billion to us$951.1 billion, GNP, which has been most studied. It can be broadly said
an increase of approximately 200 per cent. The percentage that until the late 1960s, the tendency was to emphasize the
in relation to GNP varies little between 1980 and 1997: contribution made by education to economic growth; since
about 5.1 per cent more in the developed regions, and rising then, factors such as its unsuitability and the reproduction
from 3.8 per cent to 3.9 per cent in the less developed of inequalities or dependence have above all been highlighted.
regions. Analysis has gone further and deeper. Setting out from an
While these rates are quite similar, the size of the gap ‘external’ point of view whereby education is considered as
between the absolute figures should not be overlooked, being an economic activity and a statistical aggregate related
with 84 per cent of the world total for public expenditure to the GNP, an attempt has been made to learn more of the
on education being dedicated to 26 per cent of the internal workings of education and the way in which its
enrolment numbers (the North) and 16 per cent of the structures, contents and methods act on the economy and
total for the other 74 per cent (the South). These figures are influenced by it. In particular, interest has focused on
are evidence of the quantitative and qualitative disparities the relationship between training and employment, between
in level, since cost is largely bound up with quality. In 1997, learning and working.
the developed countries spent an average of us$5,360 per In general and theoretical terms, education can be said to
pupil of all levels, while the less developed countries spent be a factor of growth inasmuch as it contributes to:
us$194. Within the developing countries, there are – The propagation of knowledge and of attitudes
considerable variations according to the regions: in 1990, conducive to production – economic rationality,
the average expenditure ranged from us$252 per pupil in technical skills, entrepreneurship, etc. Naturally, this is
sub-Saharan Africa to us$465 in Latin America and the not sufficient: knowledge has to be applied to production
Caribbean; us$182 in Eastern Asia/Oceania, us$164 in and attitudes reflected in behaviour patterns.
Southern Asia and us$584 in the Arab States. Expenditure – The raising of the qualifications of the labour force
also varies considerably according to the level. Higher and hence productivity. In the industrial countries,
education is particularly expensive in Africa with regard to this is often measured in terms of occupational
its per capita GNP: us$1,611 per student as against us$305 earnings. However, there is no linear correlation
in Southern Asia, us$817 in Eastern Asia/Oceania, between education, qualifications and earnings. This
us$1,726 in the Arab States, and us$1,169 in Latin link is biased by an even larger number of factors in the
America and the Caribbean. The same differentials are developing countries, especially in Africa, where it is
found with respect to scientific and technological not uncommon for appointments to be made on an
potential. ethnic basis. It would be possible, however, to apply
Europe’s share of the expenditure fell significantly on cost-benefit analysis to production itself (by evaluating
account of the economic difficulties following the collapse the training costs and examining how training results
of communism in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, the in an increase in production).
share of Asia/Oceania made massive strides bound up with – The training of the different categories of managers
the increase in its human potential. This region comprises (administrative, technical, economic and social) and
countries that are already developed (Japan, Australia and workers (agricultural, industrial, semi-skilled and
New Zealand) or are being rapidly industrialized (e.g. skilled).
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and more recently China, – The education of consumers, so that they make
Thailand, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and rational choices between the different sources of
India). High-technology centres are being established, such supply, with a view to ensuring that the economy
as that at Mangalore, the ‘Silicon Valley’ of India. allocates resources efficiently.

Table 17  Research and development in terms of personnel and expenditure  (percentage per region)
1980 1990
Region
Personnel Expenditure Personnel Expenditure
North America 17.6 32.1 17.8 42.8
Europe 57.8 49.4 53.3 35.5
Asia/Oceania 20.3 14.5 23.6 20.2
Sub-Saharan Africa   0.8   0.4   0.7   0.2
Arab States   1.3   1.8   1.5   0.7
Latin America and the Caribbean   2.2   1.8   3.1   0.6

100 100 100 100

Total %
Total in US$ $3.9 million $20.8 billion $5.2 million $453 billion
Source: UNESCO, 1993, World Education Report 1993

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 Edu c a t i o n

– The provision of training in research and innovation 20 countries until 1973. The idea was to make literacy a
with a view to better resolving the problems of component of development projects (in reality, this was
development. generally reduced to its economic dimension). The
However, education can prove to be a brake on growth corollaries of ‘functionality’ were as follows: selectivity of
because of the following factors: the activities which covered areas of industrialization and
– the transmission of attitudes inimical to production agricultural modernization and involved the individuals
(contempt for manual work, agriculture, etc.); who were most likely to profit by them and who were
– the dissemination of bookish knowledge having no therefore the most motivated; intensity of the learning of
bearing on real life and incapable of being used for knowledge and attitudes contributing to development;
development purposes, which can therefore result in adaptation to the needs of each category of workers, as a
the training of the ‘graduate unemployed’; result of which programmes were diversified; integration of
– the possible lack of skilled personnel if too many education into practical life, the vocational activities of
students pursue their studies and if the education workers and the problems they encountered in facing a
system employs too many people who could be used in proposed change.
the productive sector; In order to draw up a functional literacy programme, a
– the undue cost of education, which reduces the scope prior study was made of the (agricultural or industrial)
for investment; and environment and of the individuals involved; the next step
– international assistance, which transmits unsuitable was making a list of the knowledge needed and laying down
cultural models, imposes high recurrent charges and the timetable of activities. Theoretically, illiterates were
contributes to the brain drain. trained to take charge of each of the problems put to them
These factors can be seen above all in Africa, chiefly for and to study them with the aim of resolving them. In fact, in
historical reasons and because of its lack of human and most cases, the solution was provided to the trainees from
financial resources. the outside and the role of the community organizer
The unsuitability of education for production, which, consisted solely of prompting them to recognize the merits
among other things, results in unemployment, cannot of the solution and apply it (bedding out rice, harvesting
obviously be attributed to the education system alone. The cotton, irrigation, combating diseases and insects, self-
economy, too, is responsible if its rate of growth is very management, marketing, etc.).
much lower than the enrolment ratio (in which case the It was in the course of studying the problem that the
economy has a low absorption capacity). workers were taught to read, write and calculate, and that
For a long time, the developing countries – and the states efforts were made to develop their reasoning and
and international organizations assisting them – have given understanding capacities. Theoretical training (vocational,
priority to secondary and higher education producing technical and scientific, socio-economic, oral and written
qualified managers who increase productivity and make it expression) was accompanied by practical training at the
possible to employ the labour force. The statistical surveys places of work. From the outset, synchronized learning of
carried out in the developed countries demonstrated this reading and writing was aimed at developing the ability to
and the theory of human capital was propagated everywhere. perceive simultaneously the symbols and their meaning
The priority given to this was itself linked to a strategy, according to the progressive pattern:
which laid stress on the modern sector and on
industrialization with imported techniques, providing Sentence → word(s) → syllables → letters → syllables
employment for only a limited number of top and middle word(s) → sentence.
managers.
Agriculture, which occupies from 60 to 80 per cent of the What were the results of the EWLP? In 1974–1975,
world’s population, was neglected and its stagnation or low UNDP (the main funding source) and UNESCO (the
growth eventually had an impact on the economy as a whole. main executing agency) carried out an evaluation. This
As a result, a considerable proportion of the budget, proved to be complex, as was the undertaking itself on
amounting in some cases to as much as 60 per cent, was account of its novelty and the little experience which
allocated to secondary and higher education, whereas the national executing agents and foreign advisers had of the
numbers in that category did not exceed 20 per cent of the subject. Accordingly, the data collected were often of a
total. Over the period from 1950 to 1970, enrolments tripled summary nature and difficult to compare: the tests and
at the first level, increased more than five times at the second criteria varied significantly in degree and subject (reading,
level and six times at the third level (the high ratios are writing, calculation, vocational training), from one project
partly explained by the low starting points). From 1970 to to another, and even in a single country from one region to
1990, enrolments increased by 60.3 per cent at the first level, another. In addition, the starting level was different. Roughly
2.6 times at the second level and 3.9 times at the third level. one million illiterates were involved, but a varying proportion
The priority for secondary and higher education still exists, sat the examinations and an even smaller proportion passed
but the post-primary numbers now form one-third of the them: 8 per cent in Sudan, 14 per cent in Iran, 21 per cent in
total. United Republic of Tanzania, 23 per cent in Ecuador, and
It was this ‘economics-based’ idea that gave rise to the 25 per cent in Ethiopia. The level achieved by the new
idea of ‘functional literacy’. Launched by UNESCO, it was literates is comparable to that of primary school pupils in
adopted by the World Congress on the Elimination of the country. Changes were considered favourable in the
Illiteracy held in Tehran in 1965 and implemented the majority of cases: people showed interest in continuing to
following year in the form of an ‘Experimental World learn, seeking information to satisfy their needs, using
Literacy Programme’ (EWLP), which was carried out with knowledge to manage their affairs and increase their
the assistance of UNDP, FAO, ILO and WHO in some productivity, wishing to raise living standards rather than

479
 thematic section

having a large number of children. The cost of the programme research suggest that on-the-job training has perhaps played
was considerable, amounting to more than us$32 million a more important role than formal education in the rapid
over six years, of which the countries paid two-thirds. strides made by some countries (Japan, South Korea). In
Expenditure on individual projects varied between the case of some technical occupations, simple literacy
us$600,000 and us$6 million, so that the cost per person training is sufficient to give people the same level of
enrolled and, above all, the cost per participant having opportunities as elementary schooling.
passed the final examination also varied. The latter amounted Another approach tried out by developing countries in
to us$212 in Ethiopia, us$269 in Sudan, us$300 in Ecuador, order to raise the productivity of education is the association
us$332 in Iran, as against us$32 in Tanzania. Except for of study and productive work. It derives from the polytechnic
Sudan, this cost was lower than that of primary school ideal formulated by Karl Marx, who considered it not only
enrolment for an equivalent level. It obviously should not be as a method of social production but as the one and only
concluded that adult literacy training could replace child method of producing complete human beings (Das Kapital,
education, which performs other functions. Book 1). All countries that drew their inspiration from his
The World Bank for its part compiled data on the thinking endeavoured to put this into practice, first in the
relationship between instruction and agricultural Soviet Union and Central Europe, then in the developing
productivity, and made the following conclusion in its countries. Cuba, China and Viet Nam all established
World Development Report 19806: provided that additional schools for part-time work and part-time study, schools
inputs required by the adoption of improved cropping associated with production units, not to mention the time
techniques were made available, farmers who had attended devoted in all classes to socially useful work (such as the
primary school for four years had an annual output higher maintenance of schools or, from a certain age onwards,
on average by 13.2 per cent than that of farmers who did not productive work). To take one example, in Viet Nam the
attend school. The additional output of farmers having School of Young Socialist Workers of Hoa-Binh was
attended school but not having access to additional inputs founded in 1958 by the avant-garde youth of this region. As
was generally lower, although still considerable. When the a half-work and half-study school giving a complete
increase in production resulting from attendance at school education from the first level to higher education, it trained
is compared with the cost of schooling, the rates of return senior officials for the administration, technical services
bear very favourable comparison with those of investments (agronomists, engineers) and cooperatives. On an area of
allocated to other sectors. 400 hectares, the pupils cultivated manioc, maize, sweet
In industry, the productivity resulting from both capital potatoes and rice. In addition, they reared cattle, pigs,
and the labour of managers and workers is more difficult to buffaloes and poultry and manufactured manioc flour,
evaluate. It is measured indirectly by wages. However, liqueurs and alcohol, vermicelli and sauces. There were also
wages, especially in the developing countries, are not directly mechanical, carpentry and blacksmith’s workshops. The
linked to the level of instruction but to qualification (arising school was not only self-sufficient as a result of its earnings,
from age and experience) and to social and political factors but even brought in revenue for the state, which did not
(especially in the case of the civil service). While there is no prevent its pupils from equalling those of ordinary schools
denying that, on average, wages rise with the level of at examinations. In spite of the value of the experiment, it
instruction, that level represents a necessary but not could not be widely implemented owing to a large number
sufficient condition for industrial development. Many of difficulties: the lack of motivation on the part of teachers,
countries have high economic growth rates in spite of a low pupils and parents; the negligence of the authorities; the
level of literacy, whereas the converse is true for others. In prestige of traditional education; and the financial cost.
Asia, for example, Pakistan, with a literacy rate of 20 per Attempts to form associations with enterprises came up
cent, developed its industry by 10 per cent a year over the against resistance because they felt that this would disrupt
period from 1960 to 1970, while the economy of Burma, a their operations.
country with a 65 per cent literacy rate, grew by only 2.8 per In other countries, the introduction of productive
cent. Industry requires not only scientific and technological activities in schools often ended in failure for one of the
skills but also a spirit of initiative and management capacities, following reasons: over-ambitious objectives, unsuitable or
which are not learnt from books but from management insufficient resources, unprepared teachers, pupils and
itself. families, and the lack of linkage with other educational
One should not have too narrow a view of relations reforms, in particular with the examination system. For
between education and economic growth. At first sight, instance, if examinations remain traditional and continue to
elementary education does not concern industrial attach great value to book knowledge without taking
development as much as secondary and higher education. account of productive work, how can such work motivate
In reality, it is instrumental in acquiring learning, which will pupils and teachers?
later make vocational and in-service training possible, along The biggest problem – which has already been mentioned
with attitudes conducive to work (discipline, emulation). and with which all countries, developed and developing
Similarly, women’s education displays a large number of alike, have to contend – is unemployment, that is, from the
advantages with regard to children’s health and nutrition as educational point of view, the relationship between training
well as their instruction. It also has an influence on fertility and employment. It is true that unemployment is first of all
by deferring the age at which women marry and by informing an economic problem. If the economy does not develop, if it
them about reproductive health and similar issues. uses production techniques that cut back on labour, it
Education should not be confined to school but should cannot provide sufficient jobs for the young people who
use all possible forms, in particular in-service training at the leave school each year and come onto the labour market.
place of employment. Apprenticeship is the main form of However, although schools are not primarily responsible
acquiring qualifications in crafts. In industry, several lines of for unemployment, they can contribute to it by instilling

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Table 18  Expenditure on higher education

economic results produced by the enormous expenditure
Expenditure per on education during the 1950s and 1960s. Although it is no
Region student (% of GNP long believed that there is an automatic causal effect between
per capita) education and economic growth, international comparisons
Sub-Sarahan Africa 68.3 show that the most competitive countries are those which
have best managed to adapt their education and training
Arab States 65.5 system to new global developments, in particular
Latin America and the Caribbean 34.7 dissemination of recent information technologies. On the
Eastern Asia/Oceania 63.9 one hand, these countries are more efficient in replacing a
low-skilled labour force in various production and office
Southern Asia 72.8
tasks; on the other, they require a high level of skills for
Less developed regions 68.0 design, direction, and management and control tasks. More
Least developed countries 88.2 than financial expenditure and equipment, it is human
More developed regions 52.7 capital that determines productivity, not only in terms of
instruction but also of initiative, creativity and autonomy.
Countries in transition 40.7
All governments are concerned with improving the
Source: UNESCO, 2000, World Education Report 2000, p. 119 teaching of mathematics and sciences, which are at the base
of present-day scientific and technical culture. The research
carried out by IEA (International Association for the
Evaluation of Educational Performance) shows that the
contempt for manual work, by transmitting bookish level in these subjects has risen everywhere (except in the
knowledge having no bearing on life, costing too much and United States) among 14-year old pupils in the sciences.
thus absorbing resources that could be directed to more Moreover, the enrolment of girls has increased significantly
productive sectors. Apart from exceptional cases, these in these disciplines (in Hungary, it even exceeds that of
defects are more conspicuous in the South than in the boys, with 63 per cent of the final class in mathematics in
North, because most developing countries have adopted the 1982 being girls); although their performances are generally
education systems of the industrialized countries without lower than those of boys, the differences have declined. The
sufficient adaptation to their own needs. progress made by developing countries in science and
The new industrial countries of East Asia appear to have mathematics education can also be noted. Thailand, which
adapted their education systems better. This is not a participated in the two studies on science teaching (1970–
question of quantity. In 1996, for example, China had only 71 and 1983–84), has seen its 14-year old pupils equal the
473 students per 100,000 inhabitants, as against 1,767 in score of those in the United States (at 16.5), whereas it had
Mongolia, 1,895 in Egypt, or 3,117 in Argentina. What is lagged far behind in 1970. The other developing countries
much more important is the level of instruction and obtained the following results: South Korea, 18.1; Hong
qualification of the labour force and managers, their Kong, 16.4; the Philippines, 11.5. For pupils in the final
dexterity, their discipline, and the dynamism of the policy class in secondary school, Hong Kong came in first, followed
of the state and enterprises. Some authors account for the by England and Singapore, in chemistry; and by England,
success of the countries of East Asia by one feature they Hungary, Japan and Singapore in physics; Singapore came
have in common: the heritage of Confucianism which in first in biology, followed by England. There can be no
stresses the importance of education and work, a ‘community’ doubt that this progress is partly a factor and effect of
rather than ‘individualist’ social style and a ‘functionalist’ economic progress.
rather than ‘political’ conception of the state.7
In a bid to react to unemployment and the recession,
attempts have been made almost everywhere to ensure Education and social development
closer liaison between school and university and the world
of work, in some instances by alternating between the two, Social development can be defined by the raising of the
in others through exchanges of teachers and researchers, or general standard of living, the satisfaction of the growing
future employment contracts. In terms of streams and material needs of the population, the reduction in
contents, the developed countries and some of the developing inequalities, and the advancement of disadvantaged groups.
countries, especially the new industrial countries of Asia As already stated earlier, the universal expansion of schooling
and Latin America, are introducing technical and vocational has not led to the disappearance – even among the most
subjects into general instruction and promoting vocational ‘developed’ countries – of the inequalities between sexes,
and technical secondary and higher education. In these between urban and rural areas, between geographical
countries it appears that this form of education ‘produces’ regions, between social classes, and between the majority
many fewer unemployed than general education. Also, and national or immigrant minorities.
continuing education is being developed to provide for The main causes of this are differences in economic level,
refresher and further training for the labour force and political discrimination and the social groups to which
managers. people belong. This last-mentioned factor is the most
What is happening, in fact, is that the scientific and difficult to change since social structures are altered only in
technical revolution is changing, albeit to an unequal degree the long run.
from one branch to another, the organization of work, the Academic success, which is taken to mean the level of
structure of qualifications, and productivity. This is again acquisition in a course of education given over the prescribed
highlighting the importance of human resources, which had period, implies not only access but also survival and final
been somewhat blurred by disappointment over the performances. However, neither access nor survival, not to

481
 thematic section

mention performance, is guaranteed in the poor countries. officers and non-commissioned officers: 45 per cent
In the others, survival may be accompanied by repeating [Buenos Aires] and 43 per cent [Cordoba] respectively)
and failure to keep up with age groups, in the same way as and upper classes (industrialists, businessmen, top
significant differences in results are observed from primary managers and professionals: 39 per cent and 44 per cent,
school onwards. Children from less-privileged classes respectively). The other students were from a working-
succeed less well than the others, and this disparity becomes class background (9.2 per cent in Buenos Aires and 4.5 per
more marked in the course of schooling. In terms of equal cent in Cordoba) or were not determined. 13 The
success, the chances of carrying on with post-compulsory composition of universities is less elitist in Africa, where
studies are not the same, since young people from modest social stratification is less marked (but universities are
family backgrounds have to go to work sooner in order to more elitist in that they admit a lower proportion of the
earn a living. At the higher educational level, data from age group). In Rwanda, for instance, the children of farmers
OECD countries between 1960 and 1970 show that the form 65 per cent of all higher education students. It is true
proportion of working-class children is always lower than that they are under-represented, since their fathers
the proportion of their fathers in the active population, represent 93 per cent of the active population, but they do
while the rate of representation of the ‘upper-class’ children make up a considerable portion of higher education
in higher education ranges from 1.5 in the United States to enrolments, which is not the case of Latin America. The
11 in Spain and Portugal. The latter have twice as many remainder in Rwanda is distributed as follows: professions
chances of having access to higher education than the former and top managers, 6 per cent; middle-managers and
in the United States and the United Kingdom, three times teachers, 17 per cent; white-collar workers, 4 per cent;
more in Greece, and 18 times more in France.8 Yet these craftsmen and manual workers, 4 per cent; and traders,
figures should not obscure the movement of democratization 4 per cent. However, higher education students represent
that did occur in higher education: the proportion of only 0.3 per cent of the 20 to 24-year age group (compared
workers’ children in higher education in the Federal with 30 per cent in Argentina), and girls represented
Republic of Germany tripled over the period 1952–76, 11.8 per cent of the enrolments and 9.8 per cent of the
rising from 4 per cent to 13 per cent; in Sweden, in 1969, graduates in 1981–1982. The level of instruction of the
they had a 10 per cent chance of acceding to higher education parents is not known, but the vast majority of the peasants
compared with hardly 2 per cent 25 years earlier.9 However, and manual workers are illiterate or semi-illiterate.14
students from the two different social backgrounds do not What are the factors of success at school? They can be
turn towards the same disciplines: young people from divided into three groups according to whether they relate
affluent families tend to choose disciplines that they expect to the family, school or conditions in the country. These
will keep them in their original environment, with high factors are linked together, since success is all the more
status and earnings (such as medicine, law, and political certain when the culture of the family is closer to that of the
science). The others are content with less ‘prestigious’ school and when its earnings enable young people to
studies, those that will enable them to work at the same continue their studies, but they do not act mechanically:
time. This tendency contributes to slowing down the failure is not something that is bound to happen. Their
reduction in social inequalities. importance varies from society to society: it has been noted
The ex-socialist countries had significantly democratized that, in many developing countries, rich and poor alike
education and at a more rapid pace. However, the disparities share the same attitudes towards school, which is considered
have not disappeared. Fewer children of manual workers as being the essential, indeed the only, means of social
and peasants enter higher education, especially full-time advancement, and they encourage their children in that
education, than those of white-collar workers. In the Soviet direction. The respective shares of objective and subjective
Union, they formed 34.3 per cent and 23 per cent factors in fostering success are not precisely known.
respectively, as against 70.4 per cent of the secondary school According to the studies conducted by the IEA,15 it appears
leavers; 45.5 percent and 7.5 per cent against 47 per cent of that the influence of the social environment tends to decline
the higher education students.10 On average, the children of as the level of education rises, which is explained by the
white-collar workers had 2.8 times more chances of entering over-selection of children from the lower classes and the
full-time higher education11 than those of manual workers, progressive cultural levelling-out. On the other hand, the
and 4.3 more chances than those of collective farm workers. relative influence of the home and school varies with the
In Poland, in 1984, 56 per cent of higher education graduates disciplines. For instance, the level attained by 14-year old
came from white-collar families, 32 per cent from blue- pupils in French and English (taught as foreign languages)
collar families, and 11 per cent from peasant families; the is more closely bound up with the differences between
percentages are reversed for evening classes, at 36 per cent, schools (in other words the quality of the teaching), which
56 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.12 is not the case for the sciences, the understanding of texts in
The South is a very mixed group of countries and the the mother tongue, literature and civil instruction.16
data are inadequate for making generalizations. It seems, Ethnic inequalities exist in all countries, but to varying
however, that the correlation between social background, or degrees. In the developed countries, these consist of
rather between the level of instruction of the father, and the inequalities between the ‘majority’ and either national or
success of the child at school, is less tight in developing than immigrant minorities. In the first case, the best-known
in industrialized countries. example is that of African-Americans in the United States.
For instance, more than half the fathers of higher The Coleman Report Equality of Educational Opportunity17
education students in Buenos Aires (1958) and Cordoba noted that the grade average of five tests (non-verbal, verbal,
(1961) had not studied or had only completed their primary reading, mathematics, general knowledge) at the end of
studies. By contrast, the great majority of them belonged to secondary schooling (grade 12) was 41.1 for African-
the middle classes (self-employed, middle-grade managers, Americans as against 52 for Whites. At the same period,

482
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19 per cent of the Whites and 5 per cent of the African- ‘Western’ point of view. America was ‘discovered’, which
Americans in the 25–29 year age group had obtained a means ‘that the continent, its people and its wealth acquired
university degree. Since this date, the enrolment of Blacks value only because they were discovered and recognized by
has made considerable progress and inequality has declined, the centre of the world, in other words, Europe. It is hardly
although it has not disappeared altogether. surprising, then, that civilization (clothes, big ships, white
Similarly, it was noted in the former Soviet Union that men, and the faculty for naming places and people) should
there were differences in the level of instruction of the leave America on the sidelines. The earliest inhabitants of
population according to the republics. In 1989, there were the American continent were depicted in a pejorative
on average 812 people with a higher or secondary level fashion as half-naked, wild and untamed savages wearing a
education for 1,000 inhabitants aged 15 and upwards. The feathered head-dress, irrational and inferior to the white
figures varied between 753 in Lithuania and 901 in Armenia, European … All this amounts to a process of negation and
with Russia being close to the average with 806 persons. of a kind of cultural genocide’.
Here, too, progress has been made, especially when drawing The only exception is Mexico: the 1910 revolution
comparisons with the beginning of the Soviet Revolution, recognized the Indian heritage as a component of national
when national minorities were virtually illiterate. history on an equal footing with the Hispanic tradition. The
The most systematic segregation was to be found in South muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros addressed the people
Africa, where the apartheid regime had set up four separate and their cultural heritage directly. A Department of Indian
school systems: for Whites, Asians, Coloureds and Africans. Affairs was created, followed in 1948 by an Indian National
The last group was heavily enrolled in primary education, Institute, with the aim of studying the problems of Indians
since industry needs an educated labour force, but found and catering to their needs. It organizes literacy and education
themselves being virtually deprived of access to higher campaigns that use indigenous languages before going on to
education, in other words to high positions, which were Spanish, and provides instruction on agriculture, hygiene
reserved for Whites. In India, the caste system has been and civics. Its action, however, is limited by a low budget and
abolished officially under the Constitution, but it continues insufficient resources and serves more a purpose of
to exist in people’s minds and in reality: the ‘scheduled’ or acculturation-deculturation linked to capitalist development
untouchable castes and tribes represent 150 million people, rather than genuine cultural pluralism. Compared with the
more than one-fifth of the total population, who are other countries of Latin America, Mexico sets itself apart
disadvantaged from every point of view. more by its discourse than actual practice. This is why all
This, generally speaking, is also true of minorities in over the continent indigenous peoples are rising up in protest,
Africa who live in the interior or mountainous regions. demanding justice and recognition of their existence and
Even in instances where the central government has taken their rights. They denounced the celebration of the five
measures in their favour, the reduction in inequalities is hundredth anniversary of the ‘discovery’ of America in 1492
taking place very slowly. These inequalities are, in fact, the and turned it into a year of mourning: ‘Our History is not
result of a long historical past, of a modern economy and its yours. It is an unofficial history which did not necessarily
accompanying education services concentrated in urban start five hundred years ago’, declared Rigoberta Menchú, a
areas at the expense of rural communities and sometimes of descendant of the Mayas, who was awarded the Nobel Peace
the refusal of peoples who are too attached to their traditions Prize in 1992.
to open up to the outside world. In Africa, the West penetrated the continent from the
In Latin America, it is towards the Indians, stripped of seaboard and moved towards the interior. People living on
their land and driven back into the mountain plateaux since the coast were thus the first to have access to modern
the Spanish Conquest, that discrimination is exercised and education, although influences of a sociological nature (the
is made worse by the use of the Spanish language. Yet, in degree of individual mobility in the traditional system) and
some countries, such as Peru, Guatemala and Bolivia, they religious nature (the activity of missionaries, the resistance
form more than half the population. of Islam) also played their part. For instance, in Ghana in
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Deustua, a 1960, the south of the country, which represented 47 per
Peruvian conservative, claimed: ‘What use is there in cent of the population, accounted for 64 per cent of all boys
teaching reading, writing, geography, history and so many and 77 per cent of all girls in the secondary education
other things to these natives, who are not yet human beings?’ system; the centre (21 per cent of the population), 28 per
Seventy years later, the ‘general statement’ of reform cent and 20 per cent respectively; and the north (31 per cent
undertaken by the Velasco government (1970) made the of the population), 6 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.18
following finding, which is also applicable to other countries Similarly, in Côte d’Ivoire in 1963, there were almost three
of Latin America: times as many Agni from the south-east of the country in
‘The majority of the population, especially the peasants secondary education than their proportion of the total
of the Sierra, has been excluded from the information population, and for the lagoon peoples this figure was two
circuits which would have enabled them to play a fuller part and a half times; as for the centre, the Baoulé represented
in the national system; by the hermetic nature of the 19 per cent of the population and 16.6 per cent in secondary
information contained in the circuits given in Spanish, the education; and in the north, the figures for the Senoufo
exclusive national language, the marginalization of these were 19 per cent and 6.4 per cent only. 19 Madagascar,
groups has been increased and has become a virtually however, presents an entirely different situation. The
insurmountable obstacle’. Merina of the central plateau, which was the cradle of the
In the UNESCO Courier of March 1979, the Argentine ancient Malagasy Kingdom, had themselves introduced
sociologist Hugo Ortega criticized the ethnocentrism and schools and the Roman alphabet from the beginning of the
racism conveyed by books published in his country. nineteenth century, and continue to occupy the preponderant
Everything was presented from the strict ‘white’ and position in education today: while they represent one-

483
 thematic section

quarter of the population, they account for 70 per cent of (1995) under the triple banner of Action for Equality,
enrolments at the primary level and for 60 per cent at the Development and Peace.
secondary level. Seven national studies were carried out (in China, France,
Paradoxically, the policy of national integration that has Kuwait, Norway, Peru, Ukraine and Zambia) and were
been pursued since independence has had the effect of followed up by regional guides prepared for the Arab world,
making inequalities and tensions worse in many African Asia and the Pacific, North America and Europe. In her
countries. For example, employment in public services is synoptic report, Andrée Michel drew a parallel between
based on ‘merit’, yet the main criterion for such merit is the racism and sexism. 20 The two are the consequence of
diploma, which gives the advantage to those who have had historical situations and result in legitimizing and
extensive schooling. Even though enrolment ratios are now maintaining practices of domination, oppression and
progressing more quickly in the interior and in rural areas, exploitation towards an ethnic group or a gender that is
absolute numbers are still increasing more in economically assumed to be inferior. Women account for half of the
advanced and urbanized coastal areas. world’s population, perform 66 per cent of all hours of work
The inequalities between urban and rural areas, to which (only half of which is remunerated), receive only 10 per cent
social, regional and ethnic inequalities are partly linked, are of world income and own less than 1 per cent of the property.
also greater in the developing countries than in the developed They represent only a tiny minority of ‘decision-makers’ on
countries. They stem from a variety of causes: historical, a national and international scale.
geographical (the scattered population), pedagogical Stereotypes are everywhere and exercise a constant
(qualified teachers prefer urban areas for career opportunities, influence, right from early childhood: in the family, where
the education of their children, the amenities and leisure- children perceive the division of labour between their
time activities), and perhaps above all social. The governing parents, and where the latter have a different attitude
class lives in the main urban centres; having been trained by towards the former depending on gender (starting at birth,
the West, this class has adopted its growth model, which and continuing with food, games, education); in peer
gives preference to cities, the symbol of modernity, at the groups, which also encourage different activities according
expense of the countryside, which has the image of to gender; on the labour market, where jobs that are regarded
backwardness. The priority that is thus given to urban as ‘feminine’ are less prestigious and less well paid (nurses/
infrastructure and services reduces the expenditure on rural doctors, etc.) and where the top posts are usually reserved
development. Yet the rapid growth of cities has its corollary: for men; and in political life, where the inequality of roles is
the even more inordinate growth of shantytowns and of a conveyed and amplified by the media. Books for children
marginal population whose young people are disadvantaged. and adolescents also convey sexist ideologies through
It is among these people that absenteeism and dropping-out images, the presentation of occupations and the ranking of
from school, unemployment and delinquency are most family, social and political orders, and the glorification of
commonly found. Rural schools, which are fewer in number heroes who are more often men than women.
and often do not provide the full programme, cannot take in Schools, as social institutions, are bound to be affected
all the children and only offer an education that is generally by the explicit and implicit values and norms of their
limited to three or four years, sometimes even less. This is environment. In fact, they are one of the most effective
one of the causes of the school wastage for which figures transmitters of society’s values and norms. In particular the
were given above. These inequalities represent a waste of exteriorization of male and female roles occurs under the
intellectual potential and money, since three or four years’ influence of school textbooks, which, like children’s books,
study is not sufficient to allow children to acquire a lasting act through illustrations, references, and their way of dealing
knowledge of the mechanisms of reading, writing and with a subject. Regardless of the discipline, whether it be
calculation. If they live in an environment offering no or science, literature, history, religion or some other subject,
little education, they will very soon return to illiteracy. and regardless of the country, there are always more pictures
One last type of inequality, which is by no means the of boys and men than of girls and women, and more male
least important, is that between girls and boys. If only figures than female references. In Norwegian and French science
are considered, this inequality has virtually disappeared in textbooks, the men are more active and are more often to be
the developed countries, but persists elsewhere, and seen at places of work or practising sport. Women are
increases as the education level rises: enrolments for girls represented when it comes to showing electric hair-dryers
range from 45 per cent at the first level to 47 per cent at the and bathroom scales. Women are only wives, mothers or
second, and 38 per cent at the third. These averages, however, housewives. In Peruvian primary school textbooks, men are
obscure more or less marked disparities depending on the described as brave, intelligent, patriotic and having a sense
continents and states, and also regions within states. of co-operation, while women are obedient and devoted.
What has not disappeared and is still universal are the The home is their privileged place, while the world of work
prejudices, stereotypes, discriminatory attitudes and is essentially for men. Similarly, the textbooks used in
behaviour patterns towards women (known as sexism). Zambian primary and secondary schools describe men as
This has the effect of demeaning girls and women in relation being ‘more intelligent, more creative, having a greater sense
to boys and men, and reducing their participation in family, of curiosity, more inventiveness and daring than women …
occupational, social and public life. Feminist movements Men take the decisions and lay down the law. Women
were the first to denounce this situation. In order to take follow and obey.’ In the Arab countries surveyed – Lebanon,
appropriate action, UNESCO has supported this struggle Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the People’s Democratic Republic of
by launching a study programme on sexism in children’s Yemen, Qatar and Kuwait – women are always represented
books and school textbooks, while the United Nations has in accordance with the traditional image, dependent on
been mobilizing world opinion by organizing World men for their economic welfare and their social status.
Conferences on Women in Copenhagen (1980) and Beijing Weak, sensitive, and submissive, they fulfil their role best by

484
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scrupulously performing the functions and duties expected degrees intellectualist, notwithstanding some isolated
of a mother, housewife, spouse, and obedient and devoted exceptions. Most schools tend to give priority to cognitive
daughter. Socialist Ukraine is the exception in that it development and make use of authoritarian methods aimed
presents almost as many female figures as male, and their at imposing their views; hence repetition, rather than
individual features are carefully drawn. Women are shown initiative and criticism, is the rule. The outcome is an
as having positive aspects more often than men. However, imbalance in children’s personalities in favour of the
the stereotypes have not disappeared altogether. Sometimes conceptual view and to the detriment of imagination and
the features of each sex are exaggerated to portray activity, emotion. In addition, schools tend to shed a favourable light
efficiency, courage, reason, for one, and passiveness, on their culture, which is the culture of the dominant class
affection, concern, etc., for the other. In textbooks of other and has little room for other views of the world and society:
countries, traditional roles are portrayed, such as women in schools are ethnocentric.
the home or in secondary activities and men as the heads of In UNESCO’s Statistical Yearbook 1995, the heading
the family exercising responsibilities. ‘culture and communication’ includes the following: book
All these stereotypes transmitted in the family, at school titles published, daily newspapers, cultural paper (newsprint,
and in society have the effect of giving girls feelings of printing and writing paper), production of long films,
inferiority, deterring them from scientific and technical number of and seating capacity of fixed cinemas, cinema
studies, and limiting their job aspirations. This means that attendance, radio and television transmitters and receivers.
society is not only not applying the principles of equality of Since 1955, all these indicators have increased in the
opportunity for men and women, but also depriving itself of developing countries and the share of the developed countries
considerable intellectual potential. has accordingly decreased, although still preponderant. The
trend from 1980 to 1990 is shown in Table 19.
It is true that a statistical yearbook, by definition, only
Education and cultural development provides quantitative data, whose content and relevance
should be questioned: the media can inform as much as
Cultural development can be defined as the development of they can disinform. However, the above list gives a fair
the knowledge, values and attitudes that permit the reflection of the habitual notion of cultural development,
fulfilment of people’s personalities and creative capacities. which takes it to be a consequence of economic growth. It is
Defined in these terms, ‘cultural’ development cannot be assumed that such growth makes it possible to increase
readily distinguished from ‘social’ development, as the cultural goods and services whose consumption rises with
example of the education of girls has just shown. It is both the standard of living. In actual fact, the surveys that were
individual and social, since all individuals are members of a conducted in Canada (1973), France (1974) and in the
society and their development contributes to that of the former Soviet Union show that these cultural goods and
group as a whole, especially since their whole being with all services involve only a small minority of the population:
its different aspects – emotional, intellectual, physical, 14 per cent in Canada and 10 per cent in France. In
moral and aesthetic – is involved. Canada, for example, the theatre attracts 10 per cent of the
In history, every society, depending on its way of life and population; opera, less than 2 per cent; ballet, 1 per cent;
communication (oral or written), its religion or ideology, classical music concerts, 6 per cent; and museums,
has dwelt on one particular aspect or another. At the present monuments and art galleries, 8 per cent. On the other hand,
time – owing to the predominance of economic, scientific more than half the population goes to jazz and pop music
and technical activities – schools everywhere are to varying concerts, variety performances and circuses, festivals, the

Table 19  Cultural indicators 1980–1990

1980 1990
Cultural indicator
Developing Developed Developing Developed
countries countries countries countries

Number of radio receivers per 1,000 inhabitants 98 879 177 954

Number of TV receivers per 1,000 inhabitants 25 422 56 480

Circulation of daily newspapers per 1,000 inhabitants 37 242 44 331

Publication of books (titles) per million inhabitants 46 490 60 488

Consumption of cultural paper (excluding newsprint) per

1.4 26.6 3.1 47.7
inhabitant (in kg)

Public libraries: number of volumes per 1,000 inhabitants 80 2,930 170 3,850

Source: UNESCO, 1995, Statistical Yearbook 1995, pp. 63 et seq. International Bureau of Education Statistical Document on Education and Culture, Paris.

485
 thematic section

cinema and sporting events, and everybody seems to listen Education should show that the advancement of human
to the radio and watch television.21 knowledge has resulted from the contributions of the
On this last point, regarding radio and television, the various peoples of the world, and that all national cultures
situation is the same elsewhere. However, these media are have been and continue to be enriched by other cultures.
capable of the best and the worst. They make it possible to
see and hear invaluable documents of the historical and This recommendation clearly sets out the purposes of
religious, artistic, literary and musical heritage of humanity, education for international understanding. Education on
providing a wealth of information and instruction. human rights and the rights of peoples is an integral part of
Unfortunately, this kind of programme represents a minor this education, since it is not possible to aim for international
share of what people listen to or watch, compared with the understanding if these rights are not recognized: it is
share dedicated to so-called ‘mass’ culture, which leads to a obviously necessary to define them, examine their origins
deculturation of the public because it is subject to the and their historical development, and see how they
demands of profitability (and of propaganda, both open are presented in present-day societies. The Universal
and insidious, not only in places where dictatorship reigns), Declaration of Human Rights has defined human rights,
and its contents are of a very poor standard, conveying while the rights of peoples have emerged more recently
half-truths or commercial or political lies, myths on with national liberation struggles and the struggles for
democracy, pluralism and their own neutrality, all aiming economic, social and cultural development. International
to blunt the critical spirit and maintain the social status quo understanding includes that of immigrant minorities whose
to the advantage of those who exercise economic and/or culture is demeaned because they are often composed of
political power. manual workers doing jobs that are themselves demeaned.
The role of the state in cultural affairs varies with the The unwillingness to understand different cultures,
political system (authoritarian or liberal, centralized or especially by cultures which regard themselves as ‘superior’,
decentralized), the importance of private organizations, the stems from factors that go by the name of ethnocentrism,
economic level, the level of education of the population, and ideology, nationalism and racism, In some countries, this
recognition or not of the right to culture written into the holds true for the dominant ethnic group and the attitudes
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Most countries it has towards the ethnic groups it dominates.
endeavour, with varying degrees of success, to preserve and How is it possible to provide education for international
protect their cultural heritage, foster artistic creation and understanding, respect for cultures, human rights and the
expression, and encourage reading and the appreciation of rights of peoples and democracy? This effort, which has to
artistic, literary and musical works. This is promoted both include adults and children alike, should be focused on
at school and in society, with the assistance of associations three main areas:
and enterprises, and through the intermediary of the media, – The training of teachers and adult instructors,
museums, libraries, etc. A growing number of schools are particularly those responsible for multi-ethnic classes:
also opening up to other cultures. Since culture is a whole, the idea is not to separate out
Education for mutual understanding and peace, which is a particular characteristic, which is then compared
written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with the corresponding characteristic of a person’s
has long formed part of UNESCO’s programme. From own culture, but to see how the culture as a whole
1953 onwards, it established a network of Associated functions and how its different elements are
Schools whose purpose is to contribute to the Organization’s interlinked.
efforts by emphasizing world problems and the role of the – The learning of foreign languages represents an
United Nations, human rights, knowledge of other countries introduction to ways of life and civilizations; moreover,
and their cultures, people and their environment. UNESCO it is an excellent mental exercise and meets the needs
encourages the development of new teaching contents, of present-day communication.
materials and methods on these themes, the dissemination – The revision of syllabuses and textbooks in order to
of information, and agreements and exchanges between include the study of the major works of the literatures
participating institutions, for which it provides basic and arts of humanity, and eliminate stereotypes and
documentation and helps organize workshops and seminars. the historical bias that impede an objective view of
Starting with 33 secondary schools in 15 states half a century differences, mutual tolerance, and an awareness of
ago, by 1992 the network had grown to more than 28,000 universal values and the need of peoples to borrow
schools at all levels in 114 countries. from each other’s culture, which is more important for
In 1968, the International Conference on Public their life and development than participating in
Education meeting in Geneva unanimously adopted the international conflict or war.
following recommendation: In spite of these international recommendations, the
question of multicultural education has actually arisen only
Education should help to increase a knowledge of the recently in developed countries. Until the 1960s and 1970s,
world and its peoples and to engender attitudes which the prevailing approach was one of unifying culture and
will enable young people to view other cultures, races and education, aiming to address the issue through assimilation.
ways of life in a spirit of mutual appreciation and respect. In the United States, a nation of immigrants, the common
It should make clear the relationship of environment to school was regarded as the melting pot, in which ethnic,
patterns and standards of living. While providing an linguistic and religious differences were expected to be
objective treatment of differences, including differences merged in order to produce an American citizen. What this
in political, economic and social systems, it should bring meant, in fact, was integration into the dominant WASP
out the common values, aspirations and needs in the life culture (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Similarly, in the
and conscience of the world’s peoples. multinational Soviet Union, which recognized the right of

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each people to cultural autonomy and whose Constitution provinces) onto the private sector. State-run schools take in
made no reference to a national language, unification (indeed all children on an equal footing without any discrimination
uniformization) was brought about through the use of and without granting them any special measure according
Russian in teaching, communist education, ideological to their origin, apart from newcomers, who can enrol for a
control and repression of ‘petit-bourgeois nationalism’. In year in a (mainly linguistic) introductory or adaptation
Western Europe, the issue focused on the immigrant class. The training and information centres, which train
workers who came from the South during the major period teachers for these classes, occupy a marginal place in the
of expansion after 1945. Regardless of whether the minorities general teacher-training system. Courses on the language
are national or immigrant (and part of the latter may remain and cultures of the countries of origin may be given after
immigrant or become ‘national’), the differences of language, school hours by teachers paid by those countries’
religion and customs create sources of tension and conflict, governments. The principle of equality is formally and
which frequently result in violence, especially in periods of strictly respected, but in view of the failure to take account
depression and unemployment. In the Soviet Union, the of the specific difficulties of immigrant children, it does not
resurgence of national and religious sentiments was one of respect their right to be different and contributes to their
the factors in its collapse. In the United States (Plate 166), failure at school or even to their exclusion (the prohibition
the discrimination that persisted following the adoption of of the ‘Islamic veil’ in schools). The Netherlands is the only
the Civil Rights Bill (1964) resulted in the radicalization of European country to have included intercultural education
demands: the African-Americans, Native Americans, as a compulsory subject in teacher training.
Chicanos, Irish and Jews all vehemently asserted their With the construction of Europe, which has focused on
identity and denounced the injustices of the social system. the economic and political spheres as the basis of its identity,
With one-quarter of the population presently composed of a new issue is emerging. The European Union is now
minorities (African-Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, discovering the importance of education, for which no
and Asians), it is estimated that this proportion will rise to provision was made in the Treaty of Rome (1957), since the
almost one-half by the year 2050 as a result of their fertility European Economic Community was only empowered to
rate being higher than that of Whites. This has led to greater deal with training. Rising unemployment and the growing
receptiveness on the part of the latter to intercultural awareness that it is lagging behind the United States and
communication and exchange, abandoning the melting pot Japan in technology has prompted a new attitude. The single
ideology and acknowledging that pluralism and tolerance market implies the existence of qualified human resources
are elements of democracy. Since 1968, the law grants capable of increasing productivity, to which the mobility of
minorities the right to bilingual education: while English individuals and ideas, in other words reciprocal knowledge,
has priority, the language of origin enjoys continuous has to contribute. The most dynamic companies are
support. However, some groups, chiefly African-Americans, encouraging this approach, as are a variety of European
Native Americans and Latinos, are demanding separate programmes. For example: Comett aims at enhancing high-
schools, or at least different curricula, that will no longer technology training by encouraging co-operation between
give preference to Eurocentrism but grant an equal place to universities and industry; Erasmus fosters exchanges of
other cultures, in particular to Africa, and examine the teachers and students, with the logical sequel being the
phenomena of oppression, exploitation and racism in mutual recognition of diplomas (making it possible to
American society. become professionally established in another EU country;
In Europe, the development of multicultural education and Lingua sets out to help enterprises improve the language
appears to be less advanced as a result of older and stronger skills of their employees, to develop language teaching, in
national (nationalist) traditions, the myth of mono-cultural particular teacher training, and to intensify exchanges
society, and the recent nature of multi-ethnic situations. In between schools. The Single European Act, signed in
this case, the term ‘multicultural education’ refers primarily Maastricht in 1986, gives the European Community limited
to the schooling of immigrant children. Until the 1970s, jurisdiction in the field of general education. In spite of a
when immigrants were still few in number in an expanding large number of resolutions aimed at developing the
economy, the policy was one of assimilation combined with ‘European dimension’ in education, teacher training, and
some measures to facilitate the learning of the national teaching materials, and the creation of a Special Unit to
language. The oil crisis and its consequences brought a halt organize summer universities, exchanges of teachers (TEX)
to immigration (which was offset to some degree by the and networks of trainers (RIF), progress is still slow. Not
inflow of political refugees), but did not prevent an increase only are all the nationalist tendencies opposed to
in the number of pupils from immigrant families. In 1988, multicultural education, but even those in favour of a united
they represented between 5 per cent (Netherlands) and Europe interpret it differently.
40 per cent (Luxembourg) of the numbers enrolled in What has to be noted in the developing countries is the
primary schools (France and Germany, 12 per cent; Belgium, demand for, or assertion of, ‘cultural identity’. This comes
10 percent; Sweden 13, per cent). after a period when the strength of the Western development
According to a report to the Council of Europe (1989)22 model prompted the majority of the elites to think that
the countries which have allocated the most funds to the traditional values were out-of-date and incapable of
schooling of children of immigrants (although the overall renewing their societies, and that it was thus necessary to
amount is still modest) are France, the Netherlands, the adopt and emulate the culture of the West in order to be
United Kingdom and Sweden. Policies, however, are very freed of its domination.
varied. France, with its centralizing and secular traditions, The term ‘cultural identity’, however, is used in a very
its conception of the ‘Republic one and indivisible’, where vague sense, which is more political than scientific since,
the French language plays a major political role, unloads the strictly speaking, doubts can be raised about the existence of
languages and cultures of the ‘Other’ (including those of its a cultural identity transcending social classes, regions and

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ethnic groups (in multi-ethnic states, i.e. virtually had no training. However, some universities are more active
everywhere). Political discourse makes use of this term to in this area, and the research and publications that have
designate a certain way of thinking, feeling and acting, a resulted are due more to their initiative than to that of
certain set of values, attitudes and behaviour patterns which governments.
states want to protect from the uniformization of ‘mass In the Arab countries, the language does not, at first
culture’ disseminated by the media on a worldwide scale. In sight, appear to pose a problem since it has been written for
their view, education must strengthen the awareness of the past 14 centuries as the language of the Koran, the
belonging to a community while opening up to outside foundation of unity for all Muslims, and as the language of
currents. ‘Cultural identity’ does not mean withdrawal into a highly developed culture. The problem is that classical
the self. Arabic is different from the spoken language, and this
It is above all Africa and the Arab States that stress creates difficulties for people from lower-class and rural
cultural identity. This is probably because, being situated backgrounds, and also for non-Arab speakers such as
close to Europe, they have been subject to aggression from Berbers and Black Africans, who sometimes form a
European imperialism: in particular, the oral tradition of substantial proportion of the population (Morocco, Algeria,
Africa makes its civilization more fragile than others. Mauritania, Sudan). However, the policy of national
However, the discourse promoting cultural identity is integration pursued by governments since independence, in
hardly reflected in reality. African languages, which are an reaction to the ‘divide and rule’ policy of colonization, has
essential factor in culture, are only used in some countries in ultimately had the effect of more or less excluding minority
the first years of primary education or for literacy training. cultures, and inciting people to demand the right to have
Generally, right from the start, the vehicle of instruction is their identity recognized.
French, English or Portuguese. Yet language is not only a Another problem arises when a foreign language, English
means of expression and communication, it is at the same or French, is used as a vehicle for instruction in secondary
time a system of symbols, which binds individuals closely to and higher education, sometimes in primary school (the
their group. Hence, the mother tongue is the best vehicle Maghreb). The consequences from the social standpoint
for education, since it enables people to learn more rapidly (wastage) are made worse by the fact it is also a ‘quasi-
and better than in a foreign language. The foreign language official’ language in the administration and economy, and
cuts off children from their environment, the ‘elites’ from this works to the disadvantage of graduates in Arabic. The
the mass of the population, and contributes to creating ‘two dilemma is that English or French are essential for giving
nations’ within the same country. access to science and technology, which are an integral part
It is true that making the mother tongue the language of of modern culture.
instruction can also pose objective difficulties: the large The question of cultural identity is also raised in Latin
number of ethno-linguistic groups, the lack of a written America, where Porfirio Diaz’s phrase concerning Mexico
literature, textbooks and teachers, the high costs, etc. Many – ‘So far from God, so close to the United States!’ – can be
political figures contend that the use of French, English or applied. Yet this explains only some of the difficulties of this
Portuguese contributes to national unity, which is debatable continent, where political violence and social injustice have
and which, in any event, contradicts their declarations in been greater than elsewhere. Although a process of
favour of the regeneration of their country’s culture and constitutional democratization has been under way since
personality. In reality, the problem is social and political. the 1980s, the social and ethnic inequalities (which are often
Education in a foreign language favours sections of the combined) continue to be crucial problems. A growing
population that are acculturated in that language, in other minority of public opinion has become aware of this,
words the socially privileged sections. They use the foreign especially after the victory of Castro and the socialist
language as an instrument to select those emerging from transformation of Cuba, and notably within the Church,
other social levels and hence restrict their advancement (in which was long associated with the Spanish conquest and
sub-Saharan Africa, 10–30 per cent of children in primary with the domination and exploitation of the Indians. Two
school go on to secondary education). movements, whose importance lies more in their significance
In the view of many educators, the problem of the than in their actual dissemination, should be noted: literacy
democratization of education while maintaining relevance through consciousness-raising and liberation theology.
and effectiveness can be resolved by adopting bilingualism. The first is linked to the Brazilian philosopher Paulo
Education would start in the mother tongue. When children Freire. He starts out from the idea that culture is something
have mastered its mechanisms, they would then go on to created by people through their work. However, illiterates
English, French or Portuguese, which would first be taught are oppressed (they cannot vote). If education is to be a
as a foreign language before being used as a vehicle in form of liberation rather than of domestication, it has to
subjects for which the national vehicular language cannot make them capable of showing critical awareness in relation
yet be used. This language will continue to be used to explain to their living conditions. It has to make them discover, by a
the foreign language and to link children to their method based on participation and dialogue, that they are
environment. Some countries do not have a clear-cut responsible subjects and not passive objects and that they
cultural policy and hardly concern themselves with cultural have an active role to play in their environment. The
infrastructures, such as museums, archive services and illiterates themselves then feel the need to learn to read and
libraries, or with the preservation of their heritage (by write in order to be able to act more effectively and change
collecting traditions), research and publishing. In schools, reality: literacy training can then begin. It is through self-
culture is above all included in the teaching of history and instruction, progressing from the interior to the exterior
geography. Art, music and theatre occupy a very small part through the illiterates’ own efforts, with the support of the
in the timetable, or no part at all. The teachers who deal educator, that the content and the method are merged in a
with these subjects are usually not very qualified and have single process.

488
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Instead of in schools, which are by tradition authoritarian, them through knowledge of the problems of other regions,
literacy training takes place in culture circles. These meet and developed a critical awareness.
around a coordinator of literacy learners, with whom they Liberation theology is for the moment still a minority
draw up an inventory of their verbal universe. It is from this current, and religious authorities on the whole collaborate
universe, rather than from pre-prepared primers, that they with government authorities rather than oppose them.
draw on key words. Breaking these key words down into However, the pressure of Indian demands has prompted
syllables makes it possible, by different combinations of certain governments (Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala,
their components, to create other words. The words are Mexico) to develop bilingual education. Evaluations made
chosen not only for their phonetic richness and complexity, of bilingual education show that it has positive effects on
but also for their content of real-life experience. Terms like the level of acquisition, and that introducing elements of
favela (shantytown), chuva (rain), arado (plough), etc., indigenous culture into the programme enhances
appear in tables showing practical situations and give rise to motivation, resulting in a reduction in wastage. Nonetheless,
discussions which prompt the group to ‘raise its three obstacles need to be overcome: the lack of
consciousness’ and, concomitantly, to become literate. standardization in Indian languages; their variations across
Thus, consciousness-raising and literacy go hand-in- the country, which entails research to demarcate their areas
hand. Because they have become conscious of their status as of application; and, above all, a resistance to the
people, illiterates can critically assimilate the mechanism of generalization of intercultural education, which is
forming words and they can thereafter easily elaborate their considered to be exclusively for Indians. Countries as a
system of graphic signs. Paulo Freire recounts that, in the whole, however, should be concerned with fostering a spirit
first evening of literacy training, one illiterate in Brasilia of understanding and respect for the other. Isolating the
moved everybody present by saying ‘Tu jà lê’, the Portuguese intercultural dimension from the education system
equivalent of the phrase ‘You are reading already’. ‘perpetuates the vicious circle of marginalization which
At the same time, the ‘Basic Education Movement’ of the affects the Indian populations’.23
bishops of Brazil (1961) put forward grassroots education as Asia is the continent that has made the most progress
‘an instrument of human advancement … without evangelical in economic terms over the past 30 years. It is also a
purposes’. This made an improvement to the quality of life of continent where the environment has seriously deteriorated
the rural population and ‘preserved them from the penetration and where traditional values have suffered the most brutal
of ideologies contrary to Christian principles’. Under the shock from rampant materialism. All the international
influence of progressive groups in the clergy and the active conferences of ministers of education have voiced their
participation of the Catholic University youth movement, concern over this and expressed the need to draw up a
the Basic Education Movement adopted both the idea of policy aimed at inculcating ethical, cultural and moral
‘Christian education as a means of social transformation’ and values. The question is how ‘tradition’ can be reconciled
the ‘consciousness-raising’ view of Paulo Freire. with ‘modernization’, in other words capitalism, the profit
Slightly later, after Vatican II and the encyclical motive, the exaltation of the individual, etc. Moreover,
Populorum progressio (1967), liberation theology appeared in once the values to be taught have been identified, how can
Peru. Father Gustavo Gutierrez defined its three closely they be taught – directly as a ‘subject’ like literature or
linked dimensions: political liberation from dominant mathematics, or indirectly in analyses of situations, case
classes and countries; historical liberation; and liberation studies or discussions? And is it possible to teach values
from sin which is not only individual but also collective. when reality appears to contradict them (corruption,
While the Protestant Ecumenical Council of Churches also abuse of power, injustice)?
condemned the ‘structural violence coming from the The problem is easier to resolve when it comes to
established power’, a further step was taken at the Conference developing scientific and technical education indispensable
of Accra (1977), where the Association for Ecumenical for economic growth. To various degrees, all countries seek
Dialogue of the Theologians of the Third World forcefully to adapt the structures, contents and methods of education
asserted that African (Asian, Latin American) theology to the fast-moving changes of technology in order to
should ‘reject the prefabricated ideas of North Atlantic increase their productivity and their international
theology’ by aligning with the struggles of the people in ‘the competitiveness. Stress is laid on the polyvalent nature of
resistance against the structures of domination’. education, links with industry, continuous education and
It is against this background that some of the experiences the development of research. Project 2000+ aims to create
of non-formal education for rural people that were organized a framework for extending the benefits of ‘scientific literacy’
by or with associations should be understood. Mention will to the entire population or at least to the labour force,
only be made here of the ‘Programa de difusión rural’ in without which the efforts of managers would be futile. It is
Chile, which is particularly interesting since it operated known that the transfer of technology is effective only if
under the dictatorship for several years (1977 to 1981). qualified personnel – who have the necessary knowledge,
Radio broadcasts and press articles (e.g. Cuadernos del social and psychological attitudes, and working habits – are
Campesino) focused on the problems of the rural world available locally, in other words, people who master the
(production, health, family life) and aimed at ‘strengthening technology transferred. However, this transfer provides
the values of solidarity in an environment which exacerbates only short or medium-term solutions, as it transfers
individualism’ and showing that cooperative organizations knowledge and methods elaborated in the outside world, in
make it possible for the moderate classes to ‘tackle the that world’s conditions. The transfer does not provide the
process of production in better conditions’. In spite of the capacity to produce knowledge. Yet such a capacity is
fact that it was short-lived, the programme provided essential. Without it, countries will always remain
peasants with information that had previously been dependent on the outside world, with all the risks of
inaccessible to them, fostered communication between political and economic domination that this entails.

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NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. OECD, Education at a Glance, Paris, 2004, Bowen, J. 1975. A History of Western Education, Vol. 3: The Modern
pp. 148–49. West Europe, Europe and the New World. Methuen, London.
2. UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, Paris, 1980, p. 15. CHUPRUNOV, D. and Avakov, R. 1981. L’éducation en URSS:
3. UNESCO, Reflections on the Future Development of planification et développement récent. UNESCO-IIEP, Paris.
Education, Paris, 1985, p. 200. , AVAKOV. R. and JILSTOV, E. 1981. Enseignement supérieur, emploi et
4. Ibid., p. 196. progrès technique en URSS. UNESCO-IIEP, Paris.
5. Lê Thành Khôi, L’industrie de l’enseignement, Paris, Clignet, R. and Foster, P. 1966. The Fortunate Few: A Study of
1967, p. 351. Secondary Schools and Students in the Ivory Coast. Northwestern
6. World Bank, World Development Report, Washington University Press, Evanston, IL.
DC, 1980, pp. 57–58. COLEMAN J. S., CAMPBELL, E. Q., HOBSON, C. J., MCPARTLAND, J.,
7. Morishima, Why Has Japan Succeeded? Western MOOD, A. M., WEINFELD, F. D. and YORK, R. L. Equality of Educational
Technology and the Japanese Ethos, Cambridge, UK, 1982; Opportunity. Department of Health, Education and Welfare,
Lê Thành Khôi, L’éducation: cultures et sociétés, Paris, 1991, Office of Education,Washington, DC.
pp. 157–60. COUNCIL OF EUROPE. 1989. Intercultural Education: Concepts, Context
8. OECD, Education, Inequality and Life Chances, 2 vols., and Programme. Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
Paris, 1975. Foster, P. 1963. Education and Social Change in Ghana. Routledge
9. T. Husén, Higher Education and Social Stratification: and Kegan Paul, London.
An International Comparative Study, Paris, 1987. Freire, P. 1971. Education, the Practice of Freedom. Writers and
10. D. Chuprunov et al., Enseignement supérieur, emploi et Readers Cooperative, London.
progrès technique en URSS, Paris, 1981. Husén, T. 1987. Higher Education and Social Stratification: An
11. In 1977, white-collar workers formed 22.7 per cent of International Comparative Study. UNESCO-IIEP, Paris.
the active population, manual workers 61.6 per cent, and  and Postlethwaite, T. N. (eds). 1994. The International
collective farm workers 15.7 per cent. Encyclopaedia of Education (1st ed.: 1985). Pergamon Press,
12. T. Husén, op. cit., p. 46. Oxford, UK.
13. OECD, Education, Human Resources and Development , Tuijman A. C. and Halls, W. D. (eds). 1992. Schooling in Modern
in Argentina, 1967, pp. 127–29. European Society. Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK.
14. Lê Thành Khôi and S. Ziarati, Université et INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE STUDY OF COMMUNICATION
développement en Rwanda, Kigali, 1984, pp. 79–80. PROBLEMS, and MACBRIDE, S. 1980. Many Voices, One World,
15. D. A. Walker, The IEA Six-subject Survey: An Empirical UNESCO, Paris.
Study of Education in Twenty-one Countries, Stockholm, Lê Thành Khôi. 1967. L’industrie de l’enseignement. Editions du
1975. Minuit, Paris.
16. T. N. Postlethwaite, ‘Success and Failure in School’,  1978. Jeunesse exploitée, jeunesse perdue? PUF, Paris.
in Prospects, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1980.  1991. L’éducation: cultures et sociétés. Publications de la Sorbonne,
17. J. S. Coleman et al., Equality of Educational Opportunity, Paris.
Washington DC, 1966.  2001. Education et civilisations : Genèse du monde contemporain.
18. P. Foster, Education and Social Change in Ghana, UNESCO/Horizons du monde/Bruno Leprince Editeur, Paris.
London, 1963, p. 133. Morishima, M. 1982. Why has Japan Succeeded? Western Technology
19. R. Clignet and P. Foster, The Fortunate Few: A Study and the Japanese Ethos. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
of Secondary Schools and Students in the Ivory Coast, Evanston, UK.
IL, 1966, p. 37. OECD. 1975. Education, Inequality and Life Chances. (2 vols.) OECD,
20. A. Michel, Sociologie de la famille et du marriage, Paris, Paris.
1986.  2004. Education at a Glance. OECD, Paris.
21. C. Fabrizio in UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, Paris, Piaget, J. 1972. Où va l’éducation? Denoël-Gonthier, Paris.
1980, p. 360. Postlethwaite, T. N. 1980. Success and Failure in School. In:
22. Council of Europe, Intercultural Education: Concepts, Prospects, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 249–63.
Context And Programme, Strasbourg, 1989. Tedesco, J. C. 1992. Education, Culture and Development: Co-ordinated
23. J. C. Tedesco, Education, Culture and Development: Policies and Strategies. The Situation in Latin America and the
Co-ordinated Policies and Strategies – The Situation in Latin Caribbean, UNESCO-OREALC, Santiago, Chile.
America and the Caribbean, Santiago, 1992, p. 10. UNESCO. 1980. Statistical Yearbook. UNESCO, Paris.
 1981. Cultural Development: Some Regional Experiences. UNESCO,
Paris.
 1985. Reflections on the Future Development of Education. UNESCO,
Paris.
 1991, 1993, 1995, 2000. World Education Report. UNESCO.
Paris.
Walker, D. A. 1975. The IEA Six-subject Survey: An Empirical Study of
Education in Twenty-one Countries. Almqvist-Wicksell,
Stockholm.
WORLD BANK. 1978.World Development Report. (Published yearly.)
The World Bank, Washington DC.

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 29
IN F O R MATION AN D COMM U NICATION

Rafael Roncagliolo, coordinator

29.1
a new international information order

José Antonio Mayobré

I nformation among nations M. Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, the former Director-General

of UNESCO, also stated that thanks to the rapid development
The gathering, processing, possession and – ideally – of communication technologies, every nation now forms part
sharing of information, is the basic lifeline that allows of the day-to-day reality of every other nation. The world
people to organize, survive and perhaps even thrive as continues to become increasingly interdependent. This
members of a community; it also permits nations to interdependence however, goes hand in hand with a host of
communicate with each other, have commercial and imbalances and sometimes gives rise to grave inequalities,
cultural intercourse, collaborate among themselves and leading to the misunderstandings and manifold hotbeds of
sometimes avoid war. tension which combine to keep the world in ferment.
Information is at the heart of communication, it is its Thus, throughout history, the development of
raison d’être. The basic object of communication is to information distribution channels was designed, and took
transmit information from one being to another and in place, in what was fundamentally a unidirectional and
transmitting such information to share it, to put it in a unilateral fashion. Information was sent from the seat of the
common space. Throughout history those who have ‘mother’ nations to the colonies, for the purpose of serving
gathered and processed information have been aware that the imperial administration and nationals, and for providing
its possession provides them with the power of knowledge ‘knowledge’ and ‘culture’ to those colonials willing to adapt
over those who do not have it. and be assimilated by the dominant culture.
As with individuals, so it is with institutions and nations. Information from the colonies to the central power was
The control of information and of the channels used for basically designed to further the commercial and political
making it available to others has meant power, and those interests of the home power, and took little if any account of
who hold it have not always been willing to part with it. the needs and realities of the colonies except where this could
One definition states that ‘Communication maintains and further strengthen the imperial hold on the colonial outposts.
animates life. It is also the motor and expression of social And just as all roads led to Rome, so did the
activity and civilization … Communication integrates telecommunications systems with their cables, lines and
knowledge, organization and power and runs as a thread other facilities developed during the last half of the
linking the earliest memory of man to his noblest aspirations nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth
through constant striving for a better life.’1 century lead to the dominant political centres and only
According to a most authoritative if still controversial through them to the nations that would later be known as
source, communication is at the heart of all social intercourse. the Third World.
Whenever men have come to establish regular relations with The first clear warning about the dangers and inequalities
one another, the nature of the systems of communication inherent in this system came from the United States, where
created between them, the forms these have taken and the the Associated Press news agency denounced the fact that
measure of effectiveness they have attained have largely when Reuters, Havas and Wolff 2pooled their resources,
determined the chances of bringing communities closer established complete news agency control of international
together or of making them one, and the prospects for reducing news and allotted to themselves the news agency exploitation
tensions or settling conflicts whenever they have arisen. in all the countries of the world, they brought under their

491
 thematic section

control the power to decide what the people of each nation South was beginning to gather momentum on the matter of
would be allowed to know of the peoples of other nations information and communication.
and in what shade of meaning the news was to be presented, These were not new topics on the international agenda.
and that ‘International attitudes … developed from the As Nordenstreng has pointed out, the issues were already a
impressions and prejudices aroused by what the news subject of concern to the world community by the 1950s
agencies reported’.3 and, as regards, for example, the global imbalance of
The rapid development of new communication information structures and flows, one could already find
technologies after the Second World War and in particular clear criteria about them and their effect on diverse cultures
after the 1960s tended to follow the patterns established early in the century.
earlier for the channels allowing the flows of information. The United Nations and UNESCO had addressed the
With the Cold War and the presence of two dominant and issue of information, approved resolutions in its regard and
radically divergent ideological models in the world, a debate even called for ‘a concrete programme and plan of action in
arose as to the importance of freedom of information and of this respect’. 5 In 1953, the UN secretariat had already
the free flow of such information. published a report entitled Freedom of Information while
What was established early on was that information UNESCO contributed to the topic with Encouragement and
could flow as freely as it wanted, but that the existing Development of Independent Domestic Information Enterprises.6
infrastructures that allowed this flow made it in practice a But as the nations of the Third World began to take
one-way current favouring those who controlled the notice of the limitations imposed on them by the
technological means and media, and thus reinforcing and international information and media structures, it became
strengthening in fact the situation denounced in the 1940s. clear that a New International Economic Order could not
The advent of global radio and, in particular, television really become a reality without the parallel creation of a
changed in many ways the predominance of the print New International Information Order.
medium and of the agencies, but on the other hand As an important student and actor in the process explains,
reinforced the position of the central powers in that the new by the early 1970s, the developing countries had accumulated
audiovisual media usually bypassed the local political elites a great deal of political power and economic potential with
to influence mass audiences directly. the assistance of such organizations as the Movement of
At the same time, the economic realities of the media Non-Aligned countries and OPEC. As a political programme
and information industries were leading to a synergistic and an intellectual concept, decolonization was well
process where concentration of ownership became the norm established by this time. But before 1973, the idea of
at the level of multiple media outlets, thus reinforcing the decolonization was not applied in an articulated and
possibilities for control of message contents and – because authoritative manner to the sphere of information and
of the commercial nature inherent in the way the system culture. This occurred at the fourth Conference of Heads of
was developing in the West – for the predominance of a State or Government of the Non-Aligned Countries, in
vision where ‘information’ was to be considered a product Algiers, when the political declaration of the Conference
for marketing and profit-making rather than as a social made the point that ‘the activities of imperialism are not
good or even as a human right. confined solely to the political and economic fields, but also
Not until the late 1960s was the concept of communication cover cultural and social fields’ and demanded ‘concerted
as a human right advanced. In 1969, the Frenchman Jean action in the fields of mass communication’ as a part of the
D’Arcy wrote that the Universal Declaration of Human Action Program for Economic Co-operation.7
Rights would ‘have to involve a more ample right than that In 1975, in the context of the seventh extraordinary
of the individual’s right to information … and that right is session of the United Nations General Assembly, convened
the right that the individual has to communicate.’4 to discuss the Plan of Action for the NIEO, a group of
And as with individuals, so with nations. While Third World journalists declared that ‘The New International
communications technology was developing during the Economic Order requires a new world structure of
1960s and onward, the world was undergoing a rapid information and communication.’8
process of decolonization and, over a matter of relatively According to Nordenstreng, it was in 1976, at the Non-
few years, a host of newly independent nations appeared Aligned Symposium of Information, in Tunis, that the
and quickly became conscious of the role they should play phrase ‘new international order’ was first applied to
in the international scene. information. There, in the report of Commission I written by
The creation of the Non-Aligned Movement and of the the Peruvian Germán Carnero Roque, it is stated that ‘Since
Group of 77 was a harbinger of a new configuration where information in the world shows a disequilibrium favouring
the so-called Western and socialist blocs of nations would some and ignoring others, it is the duty of the non-aligned
have to contend with an active and assertive Third World. countries and the other developing countries to change this
situation and obtain the decolonisation of information and
initiate a new international order in information.’9
E fforts to establish a new
international information order
T he A cademic debate
While the debate on the New International Economic
Order (NIEO) was reaching its apex in New York during As the political debate took place in international fora, so
the summer of 1975, with the approval by the seventh did the theoretical discussion regarding the various
extraordinary session of the General Assembly of the theoretical approaches to communication and its role in
United Nations of a Plan of Action for its implementation, society. Until the 1950s and early 1960s academics working
the discussion between the nations of the North and the in the field of communication had been ‘led’ or even

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overwhelmed by the sheer volume of research coming from One of the most polemical manifestations of this came in
what was known as the American ‘mass communication 1972, when a proposal was presented to the seventeenth
research’ school, which viewed communication problems session of the UNESCO General Conference by Belarus
from a ‘functionalist’ point of view and, later, strongly and the USSR suggesting the preparation of a ‘draft
proposed a diffusionist approach according to which the declaration concerning the fundamental principles governing
establishment of media in developing countries was the use of the mass information media with a view to
simultaneously a sign of and a means for ‘progress’ – with strengthening peace and international understanding and
the latter understood as coded language for approaching the combating war, propaganda, racialism and apartheid’.
‘American way of life.’ Two other topics were discussed at this session, which
Until the 1960s, UNESCO had favoured the diffusionist would soon become part of the debates: the promotion of
approach, with notable figures such as Wilbur Schramm ‘Professional standards in the field of the mass media’ and
and Daniel Lerner leading the way. But as the decade the promotion of ‘Codes of ethics’ for journalists and media.
progressed the influence of the critical thinkers in To these would be added later the ‘Protection of journalists,’
communication began to make itself more assertive, in which also generated fierce debate.
particular as related to the relationships between It was not until 1978, after much negotiating and conflict-
communication, power and social and economic realities. riddled debate had taken place that the twentieth session of
Researchers from various parts of the world were the General Conference approved a compromise text proposed
convened by UNESCO to exchange views and thus began by the Director-General as the ‘Declaration on Fundamental
what is arguably one of the most intellectually fruitful, Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to
creative and productive moments of UNESCO in the Strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the
communication field.10 Promotion of Human Rights and to the Countering of
New proposals and approaches coming from various Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War.’
individual researchers (Antonio Pasquali, James Dermot The document was the result of a long, arduous and
Halloran, C. J. Hamelink, H. I. Schiller, among others) and difficult process over several years that had threatened the
international non-governmental organizations linked to very unity of UNESCO at the 1976 Conference in Nairobi;
UNESCO, such as the International Association of the compromise wording was characterized by the Director-
Communication Researchers (AIERI/IAMCR) and the General himself as so moderate that ‘nobody can expect to
Fédération Internationale Editeurs de Journaux (FIEJ), as find in it, word by word, the exact draft he would like to see.
well as the International Communication Association On the other hand, nobody can say that it runs counter, in
(ICA), the International Press Institute (IPI), the any profound sense, to the principles to which he is deeply
International Organisation of Journalists (OIJ) and a host attached.’11
of others, led to heated debates, confrontations and What is most striking about this and the ensuing debates,
discussions which soon escaped from the purely academic as related by various observers, is the wide gap they revealed
framework to be inserted into the North-South differences between the countries of the socialist East, the capitalist
and eventually into the East-West confrontations. West and those of the Third World, and how the many
differing perspectives became at some points bitterly divisive
and led to compromises which, in a less charitable view
S truggle for a j ust economic than M’Bow’s, left no one happy and no issues truly
system versus neo - colonialism resolved.
in information

The struggle that was initially seen by some as a search for a The McBride Commission and Report
just economic system versus neo-colonialism in information
was clearly more than that; it involved the role of an increasingly In response to the heated debate and in search of a consensus
powerful mass media, based mostly in a few industrialized following the Nairobi General Conference in 1976, the
nations, and a new and insidious form of transculturalization Director-General of UNESCO, M. M’Bow, created an
being used as an instrument of neo-colonialism not just in, but International Commission for the Study of Communication
through, the management of information. Problems, presided by the noted Irish thinker Sean
Added to these were the basic ideological differences MacBride.
between the Marxist and capitalist camps as to the role the The Commission’s mandate was ‘to undertake a review
media should play in society, and thus UNESCO became a of all the problems of communication in contemporary
battlefield, which would witness many struggles in the society seen against the background of technological
following years, of which the following developments may progress and recent developments in international relations
provide an example. with due regard to their complexity and magnitude’.

T he M ass M edia D eclaration Belgrade and Resolution 21/4.19

As has been seen, the topic of the media and their role in the Four years later, on the occasion of the twenty-first
relations between individuals and between nations had been General Conference, held in Belgrade, the Commission
an important one over the years, and the United Nations presented its report, published under the title Many Voices,
had from the start provided an important forum for the One World, to the Director-General who, in turn, informed
discussions and the search for solutions to the various the conference as to its overall conclusions and
problems posed in this regard. recommendations.

493
 thematic section

In its Resolution 4/19 approved on 21 October 1980, the produced changes that were totally unforeseen only a few
twenty-first General Conference noted ‘with satisfaction’ years earlier.
M’Bow’s Report and, in its Section IV, considered that ‘this While many of the principles and resolutions approved
new world information and communication order could be by the Member States of UNESCO during the 1970s and
based, among other considerations, on …’ and enumerated part of the 1980s still had validity, in particularly those
a list of eleven criteria which were the product of a long and relating to the ethical elements of communication, it was
difficult negotiating process which took place during the also clear that many had been rendered obsolete by a
Conference itself. completely new reality. As a result of these changes, and
The twenty-first General Conference also took note of also in response to the Organization’s efforts to reform, the
the recommendations of the International Conference for United Kingdom rejoined UNESCO in 1997 and the
Co-operation on Activities, Needs and Programmes for United States returned in October 2003.
Communication Development, which had recommended At the beginning of the new millennium, the challenge
by consensus the ‘establishment, within the framework of for communication specialists and thinkers, governments
UNESCO, of an International Programme for the and international organizations such as UNESCO was now
Development of Communication’ and approved the creation the daunting task of conceptualizing and contextualizing
of the IPDC. technologies and communication means that they could
barely imagine.

T he debate on communication
policies
NOTES
From the start it had been clear that the objectives sought
by the various Member States of UNESCO and favoured 1. S. Macbride, Un Sólo Mundo, Voces Multiples:
by a good part of the dominant academic thinking of the Comunicación e Información en Nuestro Tiempo, Paris and
time could not be achieved if governments did not formulate Mexico City, 1980.
clearly defined communication policies that involved not 2. Reuters news agency was based in the United Kingdom
just matters of journalistic practice and principles, but also and while it was a very independent operation it could not
the necessary thinking about telecommunications and the avoid the cultural and political bias provided by its place of
new communication technologies that were rapidly origin. In fact, during the world wars, Reuters correspondents
developing. sometimes acted as intelligence agents for their country
A first Intergovernmental Regional Conference on with at least the tacit approval of their managers. Havas,
Communication Policies was convened for Latin America from France, and Wolff, from Germany, were much more
and took place in San José, Costa Rica, but only after a openly associated with their governments even if still
major campaign against it had been developed both in formally independent.
North America and abroad by many members of the 3. K. Cooper, Barriers Down: The Story of the News
private media represented in the Inter American Press Agency Epoch, Port Washington, NY, London, 1969,
Association (SIP/IAPA).12 pp. 7–9.
These activities, of course, dampened the enthusiasm 4. J. D’Arcy, ‘Direct broadcast satellites and the right to
initially shown by some of the governments in the region communicate’, in L. S. Harms et al. (eds.), Right to
and in some ways affected the results and effectiveness Communicate: Collected Papers, Manoa, HI, 1977, p. 1.
not only of the Costa Rica conference but of the 5. Resolution 633 (VII) of the UN General Assembly of
subsequent ones, which took place in Cameroon and in 16 December 1952 states that ‘it is essential for a proper
Malaysia. development of public opinion in under-developed countries
that independent domestic information enterprises should
be given facilities and assistance in order that they may be
T he U nited S tates and the enabled to contribute to the spread of information, to the
U nited Kingdom withdraw from development of national culture and to international
UNESCO understanding … the time has arrived … for the elaboration
of a concrete programme and plan of action in this respect’
In 1984–85, and after what can be seen now as part of a (see K. Nordenstreng, The Mass Media Declaration of
concerted strategy in response to the positions adopted by UNESCO, Norwood, NJ, 1984, p. 4).
UNESCO over the previous decade in the field of 6. J. Gifreu, El Debate internacional de la comunicación,
communication, the United States, the United Kingdom Barcelona, 1986.
and Singapore withdrew from UNESCO membership. 7. K. Nordenstreng, op. cit., p. 15.
This aggravated considerably the existing financial crisis 8. J. A. Mayobre, Información, Dependencia y Desarrollo,
affecting the Organization and led inevitably to important Caracas, 1978, p. 187.
budget cuts and reductions in personnel. 9. K. Nordenstreng, op. cit., p. 15.
Particularly affected were the sectors concerned with 10. See J. T. Alvarez, Historia y Modelos de la Comunicación
communication, and especially, the Division charged with en el Siglo xx , Barcelona, 1987; J. Gifreu, op. cit.;
the study of communication policies and the free flow of M. Murciano, Estructura y dinámica de la Comunicación
information. Internacional, Barcelona, 1992; K. Nordenstreng, op. cit.,
As the end of the century approached, the collapse of the among others.
Soviet Union and its system, and the exponential 11. K. Nordenstreng, op. cit., pp. 126–27.
transformations in communication technologies, had 12. J. Gifreu, op. cit., p. 101.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY MOWLANA, H. 1985. La circulation internationale de l’information:

Analyse et bilan. UNESCO, Paris.
ALVAREZ, J. T. 1987. Historia y Modelos de la Comunicación en el Siglo MURCIANO, M. 1992. Estructura y dinámica de la Comunicación
xx. Ariel, Barcelona. Internacional. Bosch, Barcelona.
BIELENSTEIN, D. (ed.). 1978. Toward a New World Information: NAJAR, R. 1977. A Voice from the Third World: Towards a New
Consequences for Development Policy. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, World Order of Information. In: The UNESCO Courier, (April),
Bonn. pp. 21-23.
CENTRE INTERNATIONAL POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT. 1975. Mass NORDENSTRENG, K. 1984. The Mass Media Declaration of UNESCO.
Media and North/South Economic Relations. Report of the Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, NJ.
International Encounter on World Public Information and the , GONZALEZ MANET, E. and KLEINWATCHER, W. 1986. New
Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. Nice, France, International Information and Communication Order Sourcebook.
13–15 October 1975. International Organization of Journalists, Prague.
COOPER, K. 1969. Barriers Down: The Story of the News Agency Epoch. PAVLIC, B. and HAMELINK, C. 1985. Le nouvel ordre économique
Port Washington, NY /Kennikat Press, London. international: économie et communication. Série : Etudes et
FASCELL, D. B. (ed.). 1976. International News: Freedom Under Attack. documents d’information, No. 98. UNESCO, Paris.
Sage Publications, London. RAGHAVAN, C. 1976. A New World Communication and Information
GIFREU, J. 1986. El Debate internacional de la comunicación. Ariel, Structure. In: Development Dialogue. Vol. 2, Uppsala, Sweden,
Barcelona, Spain. pp. 43–50.
HAMELINK, C. (ed.). 1977. The Corporate Village: The Role of REYES MATTA, F. 1981. A Model for Democratic Communication. In:
Transnational Corporations in International Communication. Development Dialogue. Vol. 2, Uppsala, Sweden, pp. 79–97
IDOC International, Rome. RIGHTER, R. 1978. Whose News? Politics, the Press and the Third World.
HARLEY, W. G. 1977. The Mass Media and Society: An American Times Books, New York.
Viewpoint. In: The UNESCO Courier, (April), pp. 28–31. SALINAS BASCUR, R. 1984. Nuevas tecnologías de información y
HEDEBRO, G. 1982. Communication and Social Change in Developing desequilibrios de poder mundial. In: Comunicación y Cultura,  Vol.
Nations: A Critical View. Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA. 11, pp. 33–66.
HORTON, P. C. (ed.). 1978. The Third World and Press Freedom. SOMAVIA, J. 1976. The Transnational Power Structure and
Praeger, New York. International Information. In: Development Dialogue. Vol. 2,
LAKSHMANA RAO, Y. V. 1972. The Practice of Mass Communication: Uppsala, Sweden, pp. 15–28.
Some Lessons from Research. Series: Reports and Papers on Mass TUNSTALL, J. 1977. The Media are American. Columbia University
Communication. No. 65. UNESCO, Paris. Press, New York.
LOPEZ ESCOBAR, E. 1978. Análisis del ‘Nuevo Orden’ Internacional de UNESCO. 1976. Informe Final. Conferencia Intergubernamental sobre
la Información. EUNSA, Pamplona, Spain. Políticas de Comunicación en América Latina y el Caribe. San José,
MACBRIDE, S. 1980. Un Sólo Mundo, Voces Multiples: Comunicación e Costa Rica. UNESCO, Paris.
Información en Nuestro Tiempo. UNESCO, Paris/Fondo de  1980. Declaration on Fundamental Principles concerning the
Cultura Económica, Mexico. Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and
MANKEKAR, D. R. 1981. Whose Freedom? Whose Order? A plea for a International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and
New International Information Order by the Third World. Clarion to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War.
Books, Delhi. UNESCO, Paris.
MATTELART, A. and STOURDZE, Y. 1982. Technologie, culture et VOYENNE, B. 1992. Le Droit a l’Information. Flammarion, Paris.
communication – rapport au ministre de la Recherche et de l’Industrie. ZASURSKY, Y.N. and KASHLEV, Y. I. 1977. The Mass Media and
La Documentation Française, Paris. Society: A Soviet Viewpoint. In: The UNESCO Courier, (April),
MAYOBRE, J. A. 1978. Información, Dependencia y Desarrollo. Monte pp. 24–27.
Avila Editores, Caracas.

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 29.2
THE PRESS AND THE MASS MEDIA

Rafael Roncagliolo

As many authors, such as Hobsbawn and Laulan, have Flichy recalls that a characteristic of the late 1900s was
pointed out, the nineteenth century was one of the longest that, for the very first time, industrial production was
ever, but the twentieth century has been one of the shortest. channelled towards domestic consumers, who until then
The nineteenth century actually began in 1789 with the had been supplied by non-industrial producers. Under
French Revolution, ending either around 1914 with the these circumstances, newspapers reached hundreds of
First World War, or in 1918 with the Russian Revolution. thousands of readers, piano-making became an industry
The twentieth century, on the other hand, began with the and the mass consumption of phonographs (Plate 167) and
establishment of a new bipolar world order following the photographic cameras began. Pianos, phonographs,
First World War and is ending with the disintegration of cameras, and telephones (in 1925 one out of every two
that very same bipolar system as well as of large ideological households in North America had a telephone) became
movements, wearing down any consensus regarding the household symbols that were later complemented by the
great ideals and unproved theories of modernity. The turn radio, the television, and the computer.
of the century has seen an upsurge of new identities, new Massive production and consumption are, naturally,
social movements (women, the environment, and based on the growing subordination of cultural industries
community ventures) as well as new conflicts and civil to advertising. The latter was born in the mid-nineteenth
distress, deeply rooted in ethnic and fundamentalist forces. century with the Parisian newspaper La Presse, among
From the point of view of the mass media, the twentieth others. Curiously, the founder of La Presse, Emile de
century has been the century of communications and Girardin, demanded that the advertisement be ‘concise,
information, par excellence. It started with the consolidation simple and frank’ and that they ‘never mask everything’.
of the popular press – the first cultural industry for the Nevertheless, throughout the twentieth century, we
masses – and the expansion of the cinema and radio. It has witnessed the replacement of advertising messages based on
ended with a new culture – the world of television, the information by messages based on seduction. At the end of
computer, multimedia, and the Internet. Giovanni Sartori this process, advertising had been converted into the
refers to the second half of this century as the age of Homo dominant communication language that moulds other
videns, while Nicholas Negroponte uses the term Homo forms of communication.
digitalis.
To illustrate what has occurred with the press and the
mass media, the twentieth century could be divided into P opular press
two parts: the first part (say 1914 to 1945) was the time of
the popular press, radio and cinema. The second part James Gordon Bennett, publisher of The New York Herald,
(1945–89) was the time of television and the computer, the stated in 1830 that the press was ‘the great organ and pivot
threshold of the global world of the new millennium. During of government, society, commerce, finance, religion and all
the first part of this century, Victorian family lifestyles still human civilization’.1 However, the élite press really started
prevailed, with the family at its centre. During the second turning into the mass media during the early 1830s with the
half of the century, people began leaning towards a second ‘penny press,’ particularly with the foundation of The New
and complementary lifestyle: individual life. York Sun in 1833, which focused on crime and sex and
reached a circulation of 10,000 copies a day. La Presse and
Le Siecle appeared in France in 1836, costing 10 cents; in
1 9 1 4 –1 9 4 5 : P O P U L A R P R E S S , C I N E M A , 1863, Le Petit Journal was sold at half the price, or 5 cents,
AND RADIO reaching a circulation of 350,000 copies in 1869.
The industrialization and increasing volume of
Not only did schools develop during the nineteenth century, expenditure on press advertising at the threshold of the
but also the press. Early in the twentieth century, the two twentieth century gave rise to the very first press
basic components of mass culture and cultural industries barons: Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst and
were already established: the mass production of messages E. W. Scripps, who built journalistic empires that turned
and advertising as a financial mechanism. them into key political agents in the United States. The

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power exercised by these barons is illustrated by the story newsreels were also developed at that time, but were finally
about the dialogue between Hearst and Fredric Remington, overshadowed by television in 1967.
his press agent in Cuba early in 1897. Hearst had asked The cinema went through the same industrial
Remington for photographs of the supposed war between concentration process that gave rise to the press barons. In
the United States and Spain. He received a message from 1909, ten of the greatest producers created the Motion
the photographer indicating that there was no war to Pictures Patent Company, marking the beginning of
photograph, to which he replied: ‘Please remain. You Hollywood. Two technical breakthroughs helped to
furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war’.2 The truth is consolidate the popularity of this new art: the first was in
that these chains controlled 10 per cent of United States 1928, when RCA and Western Electric introduced a sound
newspapers in 1910 and 40 per cent by 1935. system that rendered silent motion pictures obsolete. By
Over the years, as shown below, both the informative 1930, the vast majority of the 5,000 films produced were
role played by newspapers and their advertising funds were vocal.4 Seven years later in 1935, the second and decisive
shared first of all with the radio, then television and finally, breakthrough occurred in the motion picture industry:
with the electronic journalism that has recently become thanks to a one-million-dollar investment in research and
completely digital. As a result of this process, by the end of equipment by Technicolor Inc., the first long feature film
the century declining numbers of people read newspapers was produced in full colour: Becky Sharp. By then, 40 per
and each medium carved out a different niche for itself: cent of the adult population in the United States was going
people hear news on the radio, confirm it on the television to the cinema at least once a week.5 The cinema industry
and analyze it in the newspapers. had reached its peak (Plate 168).
However, the popular press, radio, and television that Attendance at the movies began to decline after the
characterized communication in the twentieth century were Second World War, even before the expansion of the
actually invented at the end of the nineteenth century. The television industry. Later, television, videotapes, and video
war enabled countries to test and develop new inventions in games provided a wide range of visual alternatives that
the field of transport (aviation) and communications (radio). negatively affected movie houses. As a result, although more
During this century, we moved on from mastering the oceans films are shown now than ever before, most of them are not
to mastering the air, just as in previous centuries we had seen in movie houses. Large cinemas that had been built
moved from the land to the sea during the printing era, before television made its appearance have now been sub-
according to those who look at human history through the divided to provide a wider choice of films for fewer
development of media technologies. spectators. Nowadays, motion pictures are not only shown
in movie houses but on the air through television, cable
television, pay-per-view, videotapes, and on airlines.
Cinema Digitalization has contributed greatly to this integration.

The cinema became an extension of nineteenth-century

inventions – photography and the phonograph – as a Radio
system which in Maxim Gorki’s words ‘made pictures come
alive’ and ‘which does for the Eye what the phonograph The press began as a public space with two main goals: to
does for the Ear’, according to one of its main creators, provide information and encourage discussion.
Thomas Edison.3 Entertainment began playing its role during the nineteenth
Although photography dates back to the first pictures century, through the popular press. On the other hand, the
taken by Joseph Nicephore-Niepce in 1824, the 1837 appearance of radio early in the twentieth century was
daguerreotypes resulting from the cooperation between initially dedicated almost exclusively to entertainment.
Niepce and J. M. Daguerre boosted the popularity of the Jesuit Anchieta made a wireless transmission of the human
Kodak camera launched by George Eastman in 1898 with voice in the Rio de Janeiro Bay in Brazil, before Marconi.
the slogan ‘You press the button, we do the rest.’ The Also, a coloured television system was invented in Mexico
phonograph had also reached mass production and before the United States systems were patented and
consumer levels as a result of Eldrige Reeves Johnson’s marketed. The radio did not appear as the continuation of
introduction of the Victrola in 1906. Sales of these machines the newspaper, but as a new domestic appliance for home
reached 96,000 units in 1910. The phonograph began to entertainment purposes, just like the piano and the
complement (and sometimes replace) the piano and phonograph before it. ‘The radio was to become a household
singsongs at family parties. Later, during the 1920s, the convenience, just like the phonograph, which it would
phonograph, the Pianola, and the radio competed for pride replace for nearly twenty years. Like records, it would
of place in the living room. Music became merchandise, provide music to dance to at home’.6 Consequently, the
thus giving rise to the musical industry. radio combined the developments of telegraphy and wireless
On 28 December 1895, the brothers Auguste Marie telephony on the one hand, and fulfilled the purpose of the
Louis Nicholas and Louis Jean Lumiere invented a machine phonograph on the other.
that was both a camera and a projector. By 1900, they had The history of radio and television cannot be mentioned
produced 1,299 short films. During the early 1900s, the without referring to David Sarnoff, the self-made man who
pictures began lasting 10 to 15 minutes and westerns and ‘one April afternoon received a message about the sinking of
comedies made their appearance. In 1915, D.W. Griffiths the Titanic. He contacted as many ships as he could and
presented his three-hour film The Birth of a Nation. Even informed the press. For seventy-two hours, he was the only
though this film exalted the Ku Klux Klan, it introduced link between the shipwrecked people and awestruck
patterns that have become standard in the motion picture America. Was this not, by chance, the anticipated work of a
industry: close-ups, tracking, cross-cuttings, etc. The first radiophonic reporter?’ 7

497
 thematic section

The Chief Inspector for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Companies producing on a national scale also required
Company of America, Sarnoff, wrote in a memorandum nation-wide publicity, hence the emergence of networks,
addressed to his bosses in 1915: ‘I have in mind a plan of the first of which was the National Broadcasting Company,
development which would make radio a household utility in which made its appearance on 15 November 1926 with
the same sense as the piano or the phonograph … The idea 24 stations and an audience of 12 million people. Obviously,
is to bring music into the house by wireless. The receiver the networks required even more advertising as the only
could be arranged for several different wavelengths, which means of financing the cost of maintaining the telephone
should be changeable with the throwing of a single switch or lines that became so essential.
pressing of a single button … The proposition would be The evolution of invoicing gives an idea of the importance
especially interesting to farmers and others living in outlying that radio acquired as an advertising instrument in the
districts removed from cities. By the purchase of a “Radio United States: us$4 million in 1927, us$50 million in 1936,
Music Box”, they could enjoy concerts, lectures, music, and us$300 million in 1945. The year 1936 is significant in
recitals, etc., which may be going in the nearest city’.8 The the history of communications, because of three events: the
bosses considered this prophetic proposal to be senseless. first electoral campaign by radio, the first public opinion
Originally, the radio had been an activity for amateurs. polls (Gallup) and the birth of the behaviourist tradition of
By 1922, there were 15,000 transmitters and 250,000 mass communication research. Paul Lazarsfeld, radio’s first
listeners in the United States. These amateurs developed a social researcher and creator of mass communications
passion for the radio as a hobby and some of them thought research, stated in 1940 that ‘Broadcasting in America is
that the radio could become a public service, a passion and done to sell merchandise, and most of the other possible
concept that persist to this day among amateur radio effects of radio become submerged in a strange kind of
communities. social mechanism, which brings the commercial effect to its
After the First World War, the place of those experiences stronger expression’.10
was taken by commercial radio. The first commercial radio Although we are referring to the commercial radio
station, KDKA, was established in the United States on developed in the United States, originally there were three
2 November 1920 by the Westinghouse firm, which models. The American commercial model governed by
broadcast the results of the presidential elections. economic yield; the European public service model governed
Westinghouse had been a major manufacturer of military by the socio-cultural yield (developed by Giuseppe Richeri),
radios during the war and was seeking a new civilian market and the government-party political yield model inaugurated
for its appliances. Consequently, the radio had two origins by the Radio of the People’s Counsel of Commissioners of
that differed considerably from that of the press: (a) it was the Russian Revolution.
created for entertainment rather than for broadcasting The radio continued growing during the post-war period,
news, and (b) it appeared with the intention of selling particularly because of the lower prices and better quality of
receivers (the hardware preceded the software). frequency modulation (FM) and transistor radios. FM began
There were 30 radio stations in the United States by in 1936 with the allocation of a small number of frequencies
1922 and 500 by 1923. In 1922, 100,000 radio receivers were for experimental purposes, increasing to 600 stations during
sold at an average cost of us$50 each. In 1929, more than the post-war period and continuing to grow during the 1960s,
4 million receivers had been sold at an average price of boosted by rock and roll and local stations, until 75 per cent
us$100 (equivalent to four weeks of average wages). of the United States audience was covered during the 1990s.
According to the 1930 census, more than half of American The transistor was invented in Bell Laboratories (1947),
households owned a radio and 80 per cent of them listened giving rise to the appearance of transistor radios in 1954.
to it every day. After the Second World War, radio preferences were
Radio soon conquered other areas. One of these was the already being shared with the television. ‘People tended to
special purpose radio, e.g. police radios. Car radios were listen … not in family groups … The television set had
another radio development niche. In 1931, only 1 per cent taken over the living room, while the radio had moved into
of cars were equipped with a receiver, which is equivalent to the bedroom, or the car, or even the pocketbook’.11
100,000 car radios, less than 3 per cent of all the radio By the end of the century, the radio and all other media
receivers sold that year. However, 700,000 car radios were have became part of transnational multimedia corporations
sold in 1934 and 7.5 million in 1940, which meant that and have joined the digital world, through Digital Audio
25 per cent of the cars were equipped with radio receivers. Broadcasting.
This percentage rose to 75 per cent during the 1960s.
Also unlike the press, which operated in the market with
absolute freedom, commercial radios had to transmit 1 9 4 5–1 9 8 9 : T E L E V I S I O N
through frequencies granted by the government under the
obligation to broadcast clean programs ‘in the public The existence of television has been imagined ever since the
interest, convenience and necessity’ (Communication Act telephone was invented: if the voice could be transmitted
1934.9 through air, why not pictures? As far back as 1879, Punch
The creation of this new means of communication posed magazine’s draftsman George du Maurier had already
a crucial question that prompted lively debates, even in the imagined a couple sitting in their living room following a
United States: Who should pay for radio? The recipient, badminton match on the screen.
the transmitter, the advertiser or the state? The market and The first television system was developed in 1926 by
business interests that could not do without this powerful John Logie Baird in the United Kingdom, using a Nipkow
new instrument gave the reply. The first radio advertising disk, a photoelectric cell, and hollow tubes to amplify the
spot appeared in 1924. In 1935, more than us$100 million signal and a neon light bulb as a receiver. The British
was spent on radio advertising. Broadcasting Corporation used this primitive system with

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only 30 horizontal definition lines, from 1929 until 1937, Based on CATV, pay-per-view television made its
when the electronic solution was incorporated. France also appearance in 1972. Taking advantage of communication
started broadcasting on 26 April 1935, using a mechanical satellites in operation, the first of which was launched in
procedure (180 lines) invented by René Barthelemy, which 1964, cable became a business that provided a better signal
remained in use until 1938.12 and created a much higher demand, which will reach its
At the same time, television was developed in the United prime once all coaxial cables are replaced by optic fiber.
States based on cathodic ray tubes (CRT) and the work of Thus, in the early 1990s, more than 60 million households
Philo T. Farnswoth and Vladimir Zworykin. In 1930, in the United States were connected to cable and there were
Zworykin left Westinghouse, which had shown little more than 1,000 cable television companies. In 1997, two
interest in his work with the ‘iconoscope,’ to join RCA, the out of every three homes had cable television in Argentina.
main manufacturer of radio receivers, which was then Thanks to price cuts in this sector of the economy, television
chaired by David Sarnoff, who had written the following in stations are sprouting all over the world, consisting of no
1923: ‘I believe that television … will come to pass in due more than a satellite receiving antenna, a video recorder
course … It may be that every broadcast receiver for home and, sometimes, a camera.
use in the future will also be equipped with a television It was John Logie Baird himself who began video
adjunct by which the instrument will make it possible for recording in 1926, using 78 r.p.m. records. Since then,
those at home to see as well as hear what is going on at the numerous attempts were made to produce audio-visual
broadcast stations’.13 recording devices for commercial purposes, including the
RCA began broadcasting experimental television programs first Ampex recorder introduced in 1957 at a cost of
in 1935 and made a presentation in New York during the us$45,000 per unit. As a result of various commercial
1939 World Fair, including President Roosevelt’s inaugural experiments, the videotape triumphed over the video-
speech. Television already existed in several countries and the record, making it possible to reduce the size and cost of the
Second World War only temporarily interrupted its units. In 1975, Sony introduced the Beta system, and in
spectacular development during the post-war period. 1976, JVC/Matsushita introduced the VHS system, which
In 1946, only 8,000 homes owned a television in the would become the predominating standard after a few years.
United States. This number rose to one million in 1949, By 1978, 400,000 households in the United States already
more than 10 million in 1951 and 45 million in 1960, by owned VCRs. In 1983, 4.1 million VCR units were sold in
which time almost 90 per cent of all American homes had a that country and this figure almost doubled the following
television set. Naturally, this growth rate continued after year, reaching nearly 8 million. In 1985, 20 per cent of the
1964, when colour transmissions were fairly generalized. homes in the United States were equipped with video
The same structure and finance guidelines that each recorders. UNESCO provided the estimates in Table 20
country had adopted for radio were followed for television: for the 10 countries with the highest percentage of homes
private TV in the United States (and later in Latin America); owning VCRs in 1989.
public TV in Europe and the rest of the world. This primarily At the same time, the worldwide expansion of VCR
affected radio, given that since 1945 television began sales and the development of video-rental establishments
absorbing most of the expenditure on advertising as well as occurred. Videotapes also contributed greatly to audio-
previous radio broadcastings of the most important soap visual globalization (Plate 169) and the evasion of
operas. The cinema industry was also affected as fewer people government censures on television. It is estimated that there
attended movie houses; therefore it immediately tried to were 300,000 VCRs in the Soviet Union in 1986.
form a partnership with the television industry, producing Breakthroughs continue multiplying. The early 1990s
TV shows and selling its old films to TV stations. also marked the appearance of the camcorder, a device that
Colour television made its appearance during the 1950s. combined a television camera with a video recorder, giving
There were three image definition standards: NTSC, PAL, rise to the production of home videos. Video games are
and SECAM. The latter two had a larger number of lines
and, therefore, a better quality image. Most countries chose
European standards (PAL and SECAM), except the Table 20  Percentage of households owning VCRs
majority of Latin American countries and some Asian ones in selected countries
that adopted the American-Japanese standard, NTSC.
Consequently, state decisions concerning technological Percentage of households owning
Country
breakthroughs have followed economic and cultural VCRs
dependence, encouraging some international exchange of Japan 70
cultural products and preventing others. In other words, Lebanon 65
subordination and isolation were created simultaneously.
By the end of the 1960s, the television market in developed Hong Kong 64
countries appeared to be saturated. However, the demand Bahrain 64
multiplied during the new decade as a result of a new surge Australia 63
of audio-visual inventions: cable TV, satellite TV and the United Kingdom 60
video recorder (VCR). Cable was in fact an old technology
that had been used back in 1948 in remote areas where United States 59
costly antennae were required in order to receive signals. It Canada 58
was therefore better to invest in a single antenna in each Bermuda 55
place and distribute the signal to households via cable.
Saudi Arabia 52
Hence the creation of CATV: Community Access
Television. Source: UNESCO, 1989, World Communication Report, pp. 159–60.

499
 thematic section

another milestone of the entertainment industry and the democracies until the 1980s. Many philosophers (particularly
use of the television monitor, although these are now fully Pierre Bourdieu and Sartori himself) have expressed their
integrated with the computer. concern about this dimension of television.
As far as television is concerned, the century is ending In fact, since the first televised electoral campaign – the
with High Definition Television (HDTV) projects. As American elections of 1952 when General Dwight Eisenhower
occurred when the colour television system was adopted, ran against Adlai Stevenson – television has been playing an
discussions have focused on differences between the ever-increasing part in politics. ‘In 1980, three-fifths of those
Japanese standard and the European standard. Clearly, surveyed said that TV played a significant part in their
television will also become fully incorporated into the digital deciding whom to vote for in that year’s elections, compared
era; the main concern is whether there will be enough space to only about two-fifths in 1970’.16
for all the voices and images when the new digital frequencies The nature of the television language forces people to
are allocated at the end of the century, not only for the focus on candidates rather than on programs, on pictures
commercial ones but also for community broadcasts that rather than on speeches, on pathos rather than logos, on
offer an alternate view to complement global views. seduction rather than conviction. It is not necessary to form
Undoubtedly, television is the major communication party teams to act as mediators between the candidates and
phenomenon of the twentieth century. It has changed the their support base, but to establish good public relations
cultural landscape, encouraging linguistic unification (such with the media, particularly with television, in order to
as the use of the Italian language in Italy) and given shape to obtain a decisive political advantage, often without any
the ‘global village’ that Canadian communications theorist accountability or social control whatsoever.
Marshall McLuhan spoke about. There are many
controversies regarding its effects. Giovanni Sartori, one of
the political scientists who has spent time analyzing trends in THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW
contemporary democracies, is particularly critical of the MILLENNIUM: THE GLOBAL WORLD
historical rupture implied by television. He says television
‘primarily and fundamentally changes the very nature of The cultural panorama at the end of the twentieth century is
communication, transporting the context of the word a complete novelty. In 1989, there were 600 million television
(printed or through radio broadcasts) to the context of the sets in the world. In the United States, 99 per cent of
image …. By the same token, it is clear that television cannot households owned at least one television set and every home
be treated as a mere extension of the communication had an average of 5 radios (not including car radios) and a
instruments that preceded it’.14 According to this political personal computer. Naturally, the new means of
analyst, ‘television produces images and undermines concepts, communication displaced the old. The panorama recorded
thus causing us to reduce our concentration powers and our by UNESCO in 1992 can be seen in Table 21.
ability to understand … Homo sapiens is thus replaced by Based on the same UNESCO Yearbook, the following
Homo videns. In the latter case, the conceptual language percentage variations in the consumption of each medium
(abstract) is replaced by the perceptive language (concrete), between 1970 and 1990 were estimated: newspapers: 1 per
which is infinitely poorer, not only in terms of the number of cent; books: 15 per cent; cinema seats: 20 per cent; radio
words, but particularly in terms of the richness of meaning, receivers: 116 per cent; television sets: 93 per cent.17 Such is
i.e. the ability to see between the lines (connotative skills)’. the new cultural galaxy, which marks the decline of reading
Television appears to have a particularly profound effect (newspapers and books) and mass spectacles (cinema) and
on children’s education as well as on political democracies. the affirmation of electronic media (radio and television).
‘Television is a child’s first school (the fun school that Amusement and information have become global
precedes the boring school)’.15 At the same time, video- phenomena. Football has turned into the favourite spectacle
politics have emerged, either overshadowing or replacing on a worldwide scale. Television broadcasts of wars have
the party politics that characterized contemporary become a routine in our times, from the Vietnam war,

Table 21  Media consumption by region

Region Newspapers* Books** Cinema Seats* Radio Receivers* TV Sets*
EUROPE 332 565 58 699 375
NORTH AMERICA 248 392 40 2017 798
OCEANIA 206 454 20 944 375
LATIN AMERICA and
the CARIBBEAN 94 96 17 342 164
ASIA 64 74 7 182 64
ARAB STATES 39 29 4 252 102
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 17 21 3.1 148 22
WORLDWIDE Average 111 159 20 342 156
* Per thousand inhabitants ** Per million inhabitants
Source: Adapted from UNESCO, 1992, Statistical Yearbook 1992.

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which inspired McLuhan’s ‘global village’, which to the Gulf 14. G. Sartori, Homo videns: la sociedad teledirigida,
war announced Baudrillard’s ‘post-modernity.’ Madrid, 1997, p. 35–36.
Globalization is becoming increasingly digital. The group 15. Ibid., p. 37.
of cultural assets comprised by the press, radio and television 16. S. Lubar, op. cit., p. 255.
can now be stored and transported in bits and bytes, through 17. R. Roncagliolo, ‘Libertad de expresión y desafío
satellites and optic fibers. Consequently, the decision tecnológico’, Paper submitted to the Seminar on ‘Desarrollo
regarding the type of means of communication to be used de los Medios de Comunicación y la Democracia en América
(press, radio, or TV) can be transported from the Latina y el Caribe’, UNESCO-PNUD, Santiago de Chile,
transmissions point to the receiving point. 2–6 May 1994.
Furthermore, thanks to the Internet, the personal computer,
which emerged as a data processing machine, has become a
means of communication capable of replacing mail, telephone, BIBLIOGRAPHY
and fax and introducing the new videophone experience.
It is the concentration of economic resources that supports BAUDRILLARD, J. 1991. La guerre du golfe n’a pas eu lieu. Galilée, Paris.
globalization. Corporations like Time-Warner, Murdoch, BELL, D. 1973. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in
Maxwell, Berlusconi or Havas control an ever greater part of Social Forecasting. Basic Books, New York.
the new multimedia complexes. With the expansion arrives a BOuRDIEU, P. 1996. Sur la télévision. Editions Liber-Raisons d’Agir,
third type of censorship, commercial censorship, which has Paris.
come to inherit the old ecclesiastical and state censorship. BUSTAMANTE, E. 1999. La televisión económica, financiación, estrategias
The twentieth century is, par excellence, the century of the y mercados. Gedisa Editorial, Barcelona.
press and mass media. Consequently, it is also a century in CASTELLS, M. 1997. La era de la información, economía, sociedad y
which thoughts have been focused on information and cultura. (3 vols). Alianza Editorial, Madrid.
communications, and most of the theories regarding cultural CATHELAT, B. 1976. Publicité et Societé. Payot, Paris.
industries and the culture of the masses were conceived in its DEBRAY, R. 1991. Cours de médiologie générale. Gallimard, Paris.
early decades. The second part of the century gave rise to the FLICHY, P. 1991. Une histoire de la communication moderne. Espace
consensus that we are going through a revolution of public et vie privée. La Découverte, Paris.
information and communications, expressed in a variety of GARCIA CANCLINI, N. 1993. El consumo cultural en México. Conaculta,
terms: new information and communication technologies, Mexico.
the third industrial revolution, global village, information GATES, B. 1995. The Road Ahead. Viking, New York.
highways, telematics, communications, information society, HABERMAS, J. 1989. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere:
videosphere, post-Fordism, Gatesism, and so on. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Polity, Cambridge,
Throughout this century, we have witnessed the weakening UK.
of public spaces and, at the same time, partial and selective HOBSBAWN, E. 1994. The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth
attempts to gain democratic access to knowledge and culture. Century 1914–1991. Penguin Publishing, Harmondsworth, UK.
Cultural industries, whose social effects so fascinated the HOWARD, F. 1992. Global Communication & International Relations.
Frankfurt school from the 1920s onwards, have now become Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, CA.
transformed. They moved from being industries of the written LAULAN, Y. M. 1991. La planète balkanisée. Economica, Paris.
word to industries of the image; from comprising a closed list LUBAR, S. 1993. InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age
of different products to an endless number of intertwined Inventions. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.
goods and processes; from transportable objects (books, MCLUHAN, M. 1962. The Gutenberg Galaxy. University of Toronto
newspapers, records), to purely communicative messages; Press, Toronto.
from producing for education and leisure time to meeting the NEGROPONTE, N. 1995. Being Digital. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
demands of daily lifestyles and economic activities. In short, RICHERI, G. 1983. La televisión: entre servicio público y negocio : estudios
they have become the hubs of the economy and society. sobre la transformación televisiva en Europa Occidental. Gustavo
Gili, Barcelona, Spain.
RONCAGLIOLO, R. 1994. Libertad de expresión y desafío tecnológico.
Paper submitted to the Seminar on ‘Desarrollo de los Medios de
NOTES Comunicación y la Democracia en América Latina y el Caribe’.
UNESCO-PNUD, Santiago de Chile, 2–6 May 1994.
1. S. Lubar, ‘InfoCulture’, The Smithsonian Book of  1997. Los espacios culturales y su onomástica. In: Diálogos de la
Information Age Inventions, Boston, MA, 1993, p. 19. comunicación, No. 50, FELAFACS, Lima, Peru.
2. Ibid., p. 29.  1998. Las industrias culturales en la videoesfera latinoamericana.
3. Ibid., p. 199. Paper submitted to the Seminar on ‘Integración económica e
4. Ibid., p. 205. industrias culturales en América Latina y el Caribe’, SELA/
5. Ibid., p. 207. UNESCO/Andres Bello, Buenos Aires, 30–31 July, 1998.
6. P. Flichy, Une histoire de la communication moderne: SARTORI, G. 1997. Homo videns: la sociedad teledirigida. Editions
Espace public et vie privée, Paris, 1991, p. 150. Taurus, Madrid.
7. Ibid., p. 145. SMITH, A. 1980. Goodbye Gutenberg: The Newspaper Revolution of the
8. S. Lubar, op. cit., p. 213. 1980s. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
9. Ibid., p. 220. TEHRANIAN, M. and TEHRANIAN, K. 1996. Democracia y globalización.
10. Ibid., p. 227. In : Scientia et praxis, Revista de Investigación de la Universidad de
11. Ibid., p. 232. Lima, No. 20, January-June..
12. P. Flichy, op. cit., p. 191. UNESCO. 1992. Statistical Yearbook. UNESCO, Paris.
13. S. Lubar, op. cit., p. 247.  1989. World Communication Report. UNESCO, Paris.

501
 29.3.1
THE WORLD’S ARCHIVES

Michel Duchein

THE SITUATION OF THE WORLD’S well-known, archives were destroyed in the former Ottoman
ARCHIVES IN 1914 Empire and Eastern Europe. In particular, however, the
great political upheavals in Europe led to huge quantities of
In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, almost all archives being transferred between the former empires and
European and American countries had their own national the new countries that replaced them.
archives, some dating as far back as the eighteenth century, The victors and historians were particularly interested in
but most to the nineteenth. Legislation and regulations the archives of Austria-Hungary. They were transferred in
concerning public archives had begun to develop, at least in accordance with the treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
the countries whose administrations were most advanced. Trianon and Sèvres (1919–20), following the principle that
However, many shortcomings still needed to be addressed, collections should be kept together, although in some cases
particularly in terms of the physical conditions in which their distribution on the basis of ‘territorial relevance’
archives were stored (few buildings were really suitable) and resulted in the new countries taking possession of documents
access for researchers. In many countries, even those with a originally owned by former administrations located in other
strong archival tradition, consultation of documents countries. Certain disputes over these documents remain
remained subject to very long delays and special permission: unresolved even today.
this was the case in Austria, Prussia and Russia, for example, National archives were immediately created in all the
not to mention Turkey. countries established under the 1919 and 1920 treaties, with
Outside Europe and America, only a few European laws passed to establish their legal status and conditions of
colonies had organized archives, which were modelled on access; in the 1930s more than ever, archives were considered
those in the colonizing country. Here in particular, the a national symbol and an attribute of sovereignty.
physical conditions in which archives were kept were 1 June 1918 is a landmark date, the day Lenin signed the
generally deplorable, made worse by the tropical climate. famous decree which was to govern the organization of the
However, changes were already noticeable. The main archives of the future Soviet Union until 1991. The principle,
principles of archive management, i.e. storage for the archives, which was revolutionary in all senses of the term, was that all
the principles of provenance and structure and the metodo the country’s archives should constitute a ‘single collection’,
storico of Italian archivists, were well known and more or less owned by the people. On the basis of this principle, the
universally accepted (in theory, at least). The manual on archives were highly centralized and regulated in great detail.
archive management compiled by Dutch archivists Muller, This decree, which was inspired by the French law of 1794,
Feith and Fruin and published in 1898 had been translated stated that all documents from the ‘single collection’ were
into German, English, French and Italian. An inaugural freely accessible; however, under the dictatorship of Stalin
international congress held in Brussels in 1910 had laid the and his successors, such openness proved to be a complete
foundations, if not for an international archive organization, illusion, since the Soviet archives remained among the world’s
at least for regular collaboration between archivists from most inaccessible until the break-up of the USSR.
numerous, mostly European, countries.
In particular, pressure from historians was beginning to
open the way for archives to be made accessible for research THE INTERWAR YEARS
and, in several countries, archives were no longer considered
the exclusive domain of ancient documents; new items were As far as archives are concerned, the twenty years that
being added regularly, something that had seldom happened elapsed between the two world wars were particularly
in the nineteenth century. marked by a growing awareness of the needs of the
administration and of modern historians. Nineteenth-
century archivists were primarily interested in ancient
T H E 1 9 1 4–1 9 1 8 W A R A N D I T S archives; they failed to see the need to add to the collections
CONSEQUENCES FOR ARCHIVES or to sort and classify more recent documents. It was during
the 1930s that, in most countries, these questions were
Many archives were destroyed during the 1914–1918 war, addressed by theoretical studies and practical applications
particularly in Belgium and northern France. Other, less for the very first time. In particular, the frequency with

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which recent documents were archived was regulated ARCHIVES ACROSS THE WORLD
virtually everywhere and rules were drawn up concerning
the sorting of the documents to be kept. The creation of the One of the basic historical phenomena of the second half of
United States National Archives in 1934 is characteristic of the twentieth century was decolonization, during which
this new-found awareness. numerous states emerged from previous colonial empires.
As a result of these developments, several archive With a very small number of exceptions, these new states
management manuals were published, some of which are have all created their own national archives and archive
still considered classics today (e.g. Sir Hilary Jenkinson, laws. Nowadays, archives enjoy legal status in every country
1922, Eugenio Casanova, 1928). Several countries drafted of the world, although that does not mean they are well
laws establishing the legal status of public archives, which organized in every case.
previously had not always been clearly defined. Dividing the archives between the newly independent
Historical research also changed radically in the years countries and the old colonial powers was no easy task.
leading up to the Second World War. Partly under the Different systems were used, depending on how the archives
influence of the Marxist school, more and more emphasis was had been organized before independence and on pre-existing
placed on the study of economic and social structures, which colonial structures. As a rule (although there are exceptions),
meant consulting types of document that had rarely been used archives that were created in the countries themselves by
up to that point: accounts, fiscal archives and documents colonial administrations stayed put, while those set up by
drawn up by notaries, as well as bank, industrial and commercial the governments of the colonial powers were kept in the
archives. Not without difficulty archivists were forced to adapt former home territories. In some cases, particularly Algeria,
their methods in order to meet these new demands; ancient which was not legally a colony but part of metropolitan
archives were no longer the only ones in demand, and this France, the distribution of archives was a source of conflict,
phenomenon gathered momentum after the war. although it was usually resolved amicably following
independence. A round table was organized in Cagliari
(Sardinia) in 1977 to discuss these issues and draw up
THE SECOND WORLD WAR principles, which are now more or less universally accepted.
After the previous abortive efforts in Brussels in 1910,
First and foremost, the Second World War was a period the founding of UNESCO in 1946 enabled archivists from
when many archives were destroyed, not only in Europe – all countries to form a common organization, the
Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, International Council on Archives (ICA/CIA), a non-
the Balkans, USSR – but also in Asia and the Pacific (Plate governmental organization (NGO) established in 1948 and
170). The loss of the archives of the Kingdom of Naples, in based in Paris. The ICA/CIA holds an international
1942, deprived the southern half of Italy of its historical congress every four years (the last two were in Beijing in
heritage dating back to the Middle Ages (while, in a sort of 1996 and Seville in 2000) and an international round table
prologue to the Second World War, many Spanish archives every year (CITRA: the last was held in Budapest in 1999),
were destroyed during the 1936–1939 civil war). the proceedings of which are published. It also produces
However, quite apart from these losses, the 1939–1945 two multilingual reviews – Archivum since 1951 and Janus
war had very long-term consequences for the future of the since 1985 – as well as manuals and Studies. Its various
world’s archives. In particular, the war generated masses of technical committees cover all issues connected with modern
documents of all different kinds, produced by various archiving. It currently has approximately 1,300 members
bodies – military, economic and political – in all the warring (archive institutions, archivists’ associations and individuals)
countries and those that were occupied. The global nature from more than 160 different countries.
of the war, which involved increasingly complex technologies, Another international archiving initiative is the series of
led to previously unimaginable increases in documentary RAMP Studies, which have been published since 1977 by
production; management of the documents created UNESCO and the ICA/CIA. A further global publication
problems completely disproportionate to any that had ever is the large collection of Guides to the Sources for the History
been experienced before. of Nations, which cover all five continents and which have
Even before the war was over, two countries took the been published by the ICA/CIA since 1970.
initiative of studying the problem systematically: the Grigg The fact that virtually every country in the world has
Committee in Great Britain and the Hoover Commission national archives and archive laws does not, however, mean
in the United States evaluated all the relevant war archives. that archive management and accessibility are the same
They reached identical conclusions: in order to deal with everywhere: far from it! The way in which archives are
these documents, special institutions had to be created to organized is closely linked to the particular country’s
act as intermediaries between the bodies that produced governmental, administrative and legal system. For example,
them and the archive departments themselves. These archives tend to be decentralized in federal states but
institutions, known as ‘records centers’, ‘intermediate centralized in unitary states. The influence that national
repositories’ or ‘dépôts de pré-archivage’, which were set up in archives have over regional and local archives varies from
many countries from the 1950s onwards, now form the country to country. Similarly, the extent to which rules on
basis of the most advanced modern archiving systems. the management of current and intermediate archives are
In 1964, the American archivist Schellenberg deduced binding depends on the country concerned.
from the Grigg and Hoover reports the theory that archives It would therefore be illusory to think that archives could
could be divided into ‘three ages’ (current, intermediate and be managed in the same way throughout the world. As a
final or historical archives). This system was universally legacy of the past and a reflection of the present, archives
adopted and is now one of the basic principles of world have their own personality. However, it is at least possible
archive management. to try to standardize certain methods: classification,

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description and communication to researchers, for example. modernization of their training. Depending on the country,
The ICA/CIA is working towards this goal; the ISAD archive management may be taught in universities, in
General International Standard on Archival Documents archival institutions themselves, or in specialized schools. In
for archival description, which has been adopted by many countries, archivists’ associations play a vital role in
numerous countries since 1993, is a promising first step. the way this training is organized and in the drafting and
dissemination of professional standards.
Unfortunately, not all countries currently provide high-
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND level training in archive management. The ICA/CIA does
ARCHIVES try to coordinate training at the international level, but
there is no escaping the fact that, in many developing
Since the end of the Second World War, the threat to countries, the lack of competent archivists is a serious
archives posed by technological advances has been increasing handicap for the future of archives.
year by year, to the point where their future is now in serious
doubt.
Until around 1960, all archives produced and stored in A R C H I V E S for C I T I Z E N S
the world were composed of paper documents (or, in rare
cases, parchment). Suitable precautions were taken to Until after the Second World War, archives functioned
ensure they were preserved and used correctly. These days, almost exclusively as the memory of administrative bodies
however, more and more documents are being created on and a source for historical research. In principle, they were
new media (film, magnetic tape, electronic media, laser accessible to all citizens, but in reality they were only ever
discs) and can be stored and accessed only by using machines consulted by historians, and, in every country, documents
(machine readable records) that evolve extremely quickly; were made accessible only after fairly long waiting periods
and as a result, the documents themselves are in danger (50, 60 or even 100 years).
either of disappearing in the short or longer term because of A real psychological revolution took place from the 1960s
the fragility of the medium on which they are stored or, onwards, linked to the affirmation of the democratic right
more probably, of becoming unusable when the machines to information and to the growing public interest in
required to read them become defunct. contemporary history. An international congress of
Today, most archive documents can still be consulted in archivists, held in Washington in 1966, stressed the need
paper form, although this is becoming increasingly rare for for greater openness. In 1966, the United States Freedom of
many technical, financial, demographic and other Information Act, by proclaiming the principle of free access
documents, which now exist only in electronic form. These for citizens to administrative documents (which was
issues are currently being discussed at international level subsequently imitated by most democratic countries),
(congresses, round tables, symposia, etc.) and have by no opened up a new era in the history of archives, which ceased
means all been resolved; in fact, they are a growing source of to be the exclusive domain of historians and other academic
concern as technological progress accelerates. Nobody can researchers.
predict with any certainty what archives will consist of a Nevertheless, in order to protect people’s privacy and
century or even half a century from now. states’ legitimate interests (public security, etc.), some
On the positive side, modern technologies (particularly categories of document may still be consulted only after a
digitization) at least make it easier to preserve and use certain period of time, in most countries 20 or even 30 years,
traditional archives, which is definitely a step in the right apart from a few exceptions stipulated in national laws.
direction. Technical advances in the construction and
equipment of archive buildings, which have grown in
number over the last fifty years, also contrast greatly with FUTURE PROSPECTS
the previous half-century.
The legal status of archives is recognized virtually everywhere,
whether they are public archives (owned by states and
VOCATIONAL TRAINING OF public authorities) or private collections (owned by
ARCHIVISTS individuals, companies and private-law bodies). However,
much remains to be done, particularly in countries with no
For a long time, until the mid-twentieth century, the archival tradition, to ensure that the institutions actually
distinction between the professions of archivist and librarian abide by the principles enshrined in the law.
was very blurred in many new countries; in too many cases, In particular, a significant effort is needed to construct
vocational training therefore tended to focus more on library and renovate suitable buildings in order to create a proper
management than on that of archives. environment for the preservation and public consultation of
Moreover, in countries with strong archival traditions, documents.
such as Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Vocational training for archivists should also be more
Italy, vocational training for archivists was almost always widely available and geared to the historical, administrative,
based on historical sciences, palaeography, diplomacy, legal and climatic contexts of the different regions of the
history of law, with little attention paid to modern world.
archives. In particular, the accelerating emergence of documents
Since the 1950s, however, there have been two main stored on new media, which can be accessed only by using
developments that have challenged this tradition: the machines that are constantly evolving, poses problems
professionalization of archivists, with archive management which may radically transform the nature of archives in the
now generally considered a science sui generis, and the next half-century.

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The fate of the whole historical memory of nations, Volume XLIV of Archivum (1999), entitled Basic
peoples and all of humanity depends on the answers that are Archival Problems: Strategies for Development, contains a
found to these difficult questions. complete bibliography of the RAMP Studies, a list of archival
reviews throughout the world and archival bibliographical
resources on the Internet.
BIBLIOGRAPHY All legislative texts concerning archives throughout the
world until 1994 were published in 8 volumes of Archivum
No single publication covers all that is dealt with in this (Vols. 11, 17, 19, 20, 21, 28, 40 and 41).
chapter. However, most countries have their own manuals Finally, a recent publication containing 22 essential
or archival reviews which detail the development of archives studies (in English and French) on archival culture, the
since 1914. international organization of archives and the legal
General bibliographies can be found in the publications principles for the international transfer of archives was
of the International Council on Archives (ICA/CIA, 60 written by the former Secretary General of ICA/CIA,
rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 75942 Paris Cedex 03), Charles Kecskemeti: Sovereignty, Disputed Claims,
particularly the Archivum and Janus periodicals and the Professional Culture: Essays on Archival Policies (Brussels,
series of International Conferences of the Round Table on Archives et Bibliothèques de Belgique, 4 boulevard de
Archives (CITRA), held since 1954. l’Empereur, B-1000 Brussels).

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 29.3.2
Library Development

Pamela Spence Richards

N ineteenth - C entury L egacies T he 1 9 2 0 s

By the end of the First World War, three major trends had The economic consequences of the First World War
emerged to influence the development of modern libraries: enormously retarded the rebuilding of international
The French tradition, originating in the seventeenth century scholarly and scientific networks such as publishing and
of princely libraries that collected cultural treasures for a interlibrary exchanges, as did a sustained international
prescribed elite; the German academic research library boycott against German science and scholarship that
tradition arising from the needs of eighteenth-century prevailed until Germany joined the League of Nations in
enlightenment scholarship; and the Anglo-American 1926. The important contribution of science to weaponry
tradition of tax-supported free public libraries, greatly during the First World War awakened government interest
stimulated at the beginning of the century by the philanthropy in scientific library development in Great Britain, Germany
of Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). Each of these traditions and the new Soviet Union, each of which established
had influences outside the areas of their immediate origins: government-supported agencies for the acquisition and
The French influence was strong in Spain and Latin America; distribution of foreign scientific publications to their
German academic libraries set the standards not only for research libraries: in Great Britain the Department of
Eastern Europe but for American academic library Scientific and Industrial Research (1916), in Germany the
development; and the Anglo-American free public library Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft (1920) and in
was widely copied in Scandinavia as well as influencing the Soviet Union the Office of Foreign Science and
public library development in Northern and Western Technology (1920). Germany’s economic crisis compelled
Europe. The nineteenth century had also seen the founding its research libraries to develop a national cooperative
and blossoming in Europe and the Americas of national acquisitions programme, run by the Notgemeinschaft, as well
libraries as symbols of national cultural identity and as as an efficient national interlibrary loan system (1924). The
important vehicles in the reproduction of culture. A number introduction of standardized cataloguing in a number of
of these national libraries participated in international countries permitted the planning of national union
exchanges of government and scientific publications. A catalogues listing the combined holdings of the nation’s
parallel development was the founding of national research libraries. One such national union catalogue began
associations of professional librarians (the first being the at the Library of Congress as a card catalogue in the 1930s.
American Library Association in 1876) and the establishment The first published national union catalogue was that of
of book classification and cataloguing standards (such as Germany, which brought out 14 volumes before 1939. With
Melville Dewey’s 1876 Decimal Classification and the 1908 these national union catalogues, and with the appearance of
Anglo-American Cataloguing Code in the English-speaking annual commercial publishers’ lists in a number of countries,
world, the 1899 Prussian Instructions in Germany, and the the achievement of national bibliographic control – a record
Universal Decimal Classification System published between of the nation’s published production as well as of its library
1904 and 1907 by the Belgian Paul Otlet). Over a century holdings – came closer to realization.
after its creation, the Dewey Decimal Classification had The Russian Revolution of 1917 breathed new energy
become the most widely disseminated classification scheme into many philosophical issues surrounding public
in the world, used in more than 130 countries and translated librarianship. Millions of volumes confiscated from the old
into some thirty languages. By 1918 specific national norms Tsarist aristocracy and its institutions were made available
of librarianship had been extended through the colonial to Russian readers for the first time. The Soviet leadership
systems of the British, French and Spanish empires, leaving developed a distinctive new style of library professionalism,
imprints, which still endure. Professional norms of differing radically from previous models. In the Anglo-
standardization in cataloguing and classification – especially American sphere, the task of the tax-supported library as it
through decimal classification systems – had in the first developed in the late nineteenth century was to respond to
decades of this century spread to all the industrializing the reading desires of the local community supporting the
countries, including Japan. library. The Soviets, faced with a largely illiterate population,

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which the central government hoped to politicize through matter was current journals rather than books focused
reading, developed the concept of ‘partisan librarianship’. on the possibilities of microfilm for interlibrary loans
After intensive work in literacy training for the masses, the and for achieving total bibliographic control of scientific
‘partisan librarian’ used the library to raise the ‘socialist subject areas. A branch of librarianship calling itself
consciousness’ of the citizens through carefully selected ‘documentation’ – focusing on documents rather than on
readings. The ‘objective’ approach of Western librarianship books – assumed leadership in the development of
was denounced as a fraudulent method of disguising a photographic techniques for storage and dissemination.
bourgeois ideological agenda. The Soviets recognized the The International Federation of Documentation (FID),
central role of the public library in public opinion formation founded in 1895 by the Belgian Paul Otlet (1868–1944),
and encouraged librarians to participate actively in the became the locus of these developments and in 1937 staged
struggle for socialism. As part of this new approach, the a conference in Paris at which the newest technologies of
Soviets, with the encouragement and support of Lenin’s photo reproduction were exhibited. At the conference the
wife Nadezhda Krupskaia, introduced many innovations in writer H. G. Wells told the assembled documentalists that
public librarianship, including the widespread establishment their work with microfilm made it possible to realize his
of factory and trade-union libraries and the general use of concept of the ‘world brain’, in which the complete records
public libraries as centres for adult education in foreign of civilization would be stored for easy access by all
languages, technology and general culture. Library collection mankind.
development was overseen by a central Soviet cultural The assumption of power by the National Socialists in
agency to ensure the exclusion of literature which might Germany had a dramatic impact on library development
work against the regime’s Marxist policies, which included both in Europe and elsewhere. A law of 1933 firing all Jews
the official policy of ‘scientific atheism’. From the late 1920s and socialists from German civil service positions created a
libraries and librarianship were important cogs in the diaspora of German librarians which would influence library
centrally controlled ideological machinery of the Soviet development in other countries, particularly Turkey, whose
state, which partially explains the extraordinary dynamism leader Mustafa Kemal invited German scholar refugees to
of Soviet literacy training and library development before help him build a modern secular educational infrastructure,
the Second World War. including modern libraries – the great medieval tradition of
But in North America library development after the libraries in the Arab world having been stifled by the
First World War proceeded with little assistance from the Ottomans’ banning of printing until 1729. The National
central government except for the continued maintenance Socialists, who saw the Germans as ‘culture bearers’ to the
of a medical library for the US Army and of a national rest of the world, attached much importance to their own
agricultural library. The traditional pattern of private and public and research libraries as symbols and servants of
local financial support for academic and public libraries led ‘Aryan’ culture. Because they recognized the role of libraries
to enormous variation and inequities in library service and in strengthening and reproducing culture, they were
permitted the exclusion of Americans of African descent particularly destructive of libraries in those countries under
from most library facilities in the southern states. The most their occupation whose cultures they held in contempt.
important stimulant for library development both nationally
and internationally at this time were the Carnegie and
Rockefeller foundations. The Carnegie Corporation, T he 1 9 4 0 s
founded by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1911, had
built over 2,000 public and academic libraries in the English- The first five years of this decade were some of the blackest
speaking world before 1917 but concentrated after the in the history of libraries, due largely to the policy of cultural
Second World War on library education, including the genocide carried out by German and Japanese troops in
subsidizing of foreign students’ education at American many of the countries they invaded. The Slavic countries in
library schools. The Rockefeller Foundation, founded in Eastern Europe suffered devastating losses. The official
1913 by the oil baron John D. Rockefeller, concentrated figure accepted at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945 for book
primarily on the sciences and assisted in the reconstruction destruction at the hands of the Germans was 100 million
and rehabilitation of a number of scientific research libraries volumes in the Soviet Union alone. Belarus lost 95 per cent
in Europe after 1918, including several in Germany. Finally, of all its holdings. The Polish National Library was burned
the founding in London in 1927 of the International to the ground. Chinese losses at the hands of the Japanese
Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) under the aegis were also staggering – of the over 5,000 libraries existing in
of the League of Nations marked the formal rededication of China before the Japanese invasion in 1937, only 943
the library profession to international cooperation that had survived in 1943 – and there was major library destruction
been suspended at the outbreak of war in 1914. in the last years of the war from aerial bombardment in
both Germany and Japan.
One of the most important outcomes of the war in the
T he 1 9 3 0 s sphere of library development was the Sovietization of
libraries in those Eastern European countries which came
The worldwide economic crisis, which began in 1929, under Soviet post-war occupation and which afterwards
heightened interest in techniques of photographic were ruled by one-party socialist governments. In these
reproduction, which could lessen the costs of the acquisition, countries partisan librarianship was introduced to support
storage and dissemination of library materials. After the socialism, public and research libraries were placed under
invention of microfilm in 1929, this technology dominated the central administration of ministries of culture guided by
the imagination of library planners for two decades. Marxist ideology, and the concept of ‘differentiated
Research libraries serving scientists whose main reading readership’, developed in the Soviet Union, was used to

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restrict the general public’s access to materials deemed increasingly as global archiving services of subject areas as
harmful to socialism. After the victory of the communists in well as current awareness services. The launching of the
China in 1949, a similar process took place on the Chinese Soviet Sputnik in 1957 further accelerated spending on
mainland. scientific libraries and information dissemination in the
For the world at large, the most important development West: In 1959 the West German Technical Information
of the decade was the founding in 1946 of the United Library (TIB) was opened in Hanover; in the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Kingdom the National Lending Library for Science and
(UNESCO), whose strong library development programmes Technology (now the British Library Document Supply
would help to rebuild war-ravaged libraries and spread the Centre) at Boston Spa was opened in 1962. In the United
techniques of modern librarianship to emerging nations States the National Library of Medicine was opened outside
everywhere. UNESCO’s Constitution charged it with of Washington, DC in 1969. It was during the 1960s that
assuring the conservation and protection of the world’s the attention of documentalists switched definitively from
heritage of books, encouraging the exchange of publications, photo reprography (microfilm) to the potential of machine-
and ‘initiating methods of international cooperation readable electronic information. The term ‘information
calculated to give the people of all countries access to the science’ was now used to describe research into the electronic
printed and published materials produced in any of them’. collection, storage and dissemination of machine-readable
information. The crucial development had taken place at
the United States Library of Congress in the mid-1960s –
T H E 1 9 5 0 s and 1 9 6 0 s the creation of the Library of Congress MARC (Machine
Readable Cataloguing) format for communicating
As new sovereign nations began to emerge from colonialism bibliographic data in machine-readable form. This new
in the decades following the Second World War, UNESCO capability for converting, maintaining, and distributing
became the major vehicle through which the principles and bibliographic information soon became the standard format
practices of modern library development were disseminated for sharing data about books and other research materials.
worldwide. Through consultant missions, pilot projects, The possibility of worldwide application was recognized,
publications and meetings it supported the building of and in 1973, two years after the MARC format structure
library networks, archives and information systems from the became an official national standard in 1971, it became an
early 1950s on. UNESCO’s early emphasis was on public international standard as well.
library development. A cycle of regional seminars on this
topic was conducted from 1951 to 1962. Major pilot projects
were begun in Delhi (1951), Medellín, Colombia (1954), T H E 1 9 7 0 s and 1 9 8 0 s
Enugu, Nigeria (1957), and Abidjan, Ivory Coast (1963). By
the late 1960s UNESCO began to prioritize education and These may be considered the decades of the most dynamic
training for librarianship, especially in the developing library development in the twentieth century, both on the
regions. UNESCO-supported regional library and level of international standardization and cooperation and
information education programmes begun in Senegal and on the technological front. UNESCO was at its most active
Uganda in 1963 were soon integrated into universities. in the 1970s. By the 1970s UNESCO’s programme
UNESCO also assisted in the establishment of other emphasis had shifted from public library development to
university-level schools in Indonesia, Morocco, Jamaica, the overall national planning and promotion in the developing
Philippines, China, Venezuela, Ethiopia and Nigeria. The countries. A study conducted by UNESCO and the
British Council and the United States Information Agency, International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) led to
both of which maintained large networks of demonstration the establishment in 1972 of the UNISIST programme
libraries in the developing world, also offered international fostering cooperation in the scientific and technological
assistance in library development during this period. In information field. A 1974 intergovernmental conference
China the new communist leadership used Soviet models to proposed the development of coordinated national scientific
widen literacy and broaden public library activities in the and technical information systems (NATIS), which would
1950s and early 1960s, greatly expanding the public’s access ultimately become the basis for UNISIST. NATIS was
to the written record. (These positive developments in based on the principle that the best information on printed
Chinese librarianship would come to a dramatic ten-year materials could be supplied by the countries in which they
halt in 1966 with the beginning of the Cultural Revolution were produced. In 1977 NATIS and UNISIST were
and its attendant mass destruction of China’s cultural merged into UNESCO’s General Information Programme
heritage.) (GIP). Guidance on policy and planning for developing
By the 1960s the Cold War between the Western countries was offered by guidelines, the conduct of national
capitalist countries and the socialist countries aligned with surveys of information resources and seminars. At the same
the Soviet Union began to have its own impact on library time education and training for the information professions
development in both camps, as each prioritized the was strengthened by UNESCO, which collaborated with
circulation of up-to-date information to its scientists. In the International Federation of Library Associations
the Soviet Union the work of the All-Union Institute of (IFLA), the International Federation for Documentation
Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI) in (FID) and the International Council on Archives (ICA) in
centralizing the collection, and in abstracting and activities to further standardize professional education,
disseminating of the world’s published scientific information especially in developing regions. UNESCO also supported
was a model for many countries seeking to keep their the continuing education of professionals already in the
scientists current at the least cost. In the West abstracting field. Between 1977 and 1987 more than 100 courses were
services like Chemical Abstracts and Index Medicus operated offered under contract with organizations and institutions

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to 2,500 participants, with UNESCO covering part of the all the library development programmes it fostered at home
costs. But the withdrawal from UNESCO in 1984 of the and abroad; (2) the global accessibility of the Internet and
United States and the United Kingdom meant that many the World Wide Web; and (3) the development of digital
of the GIP library development programmes had to be libraries accessible by computer. The end of the Cold War
reduced to a fraction of their former size. was characterized not only by the massive pullout of Soviet
An important factor stimulating library development aid to library planning in many emerging countries, but also
during the 1970s and 1980s was the increased involvement by the switching of the focus of American library
of the Soviet Union in supporting planning and training in development aid from these countries to the republics of
less-developed countries in the socialist bloc, notably in the former Soviet Union. In the industrialized world, the
Cuba and Viet Nam. Between 1974 and 1991 thousands of information-gathering behaviour of millions of citizens was
students from Latin America, Africa and Asia were educated changed by the availability from their home computers of
at faculties of library and information science in the USSR, the vast resources of the Internet – a network of networks
returning to their countries with an awareness of world which links up a global agglomeration of computer resources
standards in the field. The Soviet Union also supported for public access. By 1997 the Internet comprised 25,000
from the early 1970s on its own International System of networks, over 45 million users and was still growing
Scientific and Technical Information (MSNTI), developed exponentially. Originally designed by the US Department
in line with UNESCO’s NATIS. The Soviets intended of Defence for its own scientists in the 1960s, the Internet
their international system to demonstrate the Soviet has experienced phenomenal growth since 1990, and has
experience in information centralization, as well as attracted private and business users in great numbers. One
international Soviet-led collaboration in information of the most-used Internet services is the World Wide Web
science. Furthermore, MSNTI was intended to compensate (WWW), with its Mosaic software for browsing documents
for the inability of hard-currency-poor socialist countries to on the Web’s servers sited anywhere in the world. The
pay for multiple copies of expensive Western journals. WWW was started by the European Centre for Nuclear
In the West, these decades were characterized by: (1) the Research (CERN), using a form of hypermedia navigation.
gradual but ultimately massive adoption of electronic The easy accessibility of the Internet to any computer user
technologies for routine library functions such as circulation with a modem poses enormous challenges to indigenous
and cataloguing; (2) the switching to electronic formats of cultures and to the libraries which have traditionally
traditional indexing tools such as Index Medicus (which in stimulated and supported those cultures. Like satellite-
1971 began operating as the online retrieval system broadcast television, Internet access has proven extremely
MEDLINE); (3) the development of commercial host difficult to control by sovereign governments wanting to
services providing software and telecommunications support restrict citizen exposure to alternative life-styles, which
offering remote users access to hundreds of databases (the these governments regard as culturally threatening.
largest such host being DIALOG, set up in the United States By the mid-1990s many libraries in industrialized
in 1972); (4) and the establishment of electronic library countries were digitizing their conventional print collections
networks to permit individual libraries to share acquisitions so as to make them available electronically on the Internet.
and cataloguing information and to facilitate interlibrary The creation and use of digital libraries is similar to the
loan. An important pioneer network was the Ohio College creation and use of traditional public libraries, since digital
Library Center (now OCLC), founded in 1967. In 1971 it libraries contain information collected and organized on
began online operations, making the Library of Congress’s behalf of a community of users to supply the information
MARC cataloguing records available to member libraries as needs of that community. Just as was the case with traditional
well as those cataloguing records created by member libraries. libraries, digital libraries contain information in many
By 1977 OCLC was serving libraries in most of the continental formats and media and have been organized by corporate
United States and by 1990 it had extended the power of the services, private institutions, government agencies, non-
computer and access to a multinational union catalogue to governmental organizations, volunteer groups, and religious
many libraries in Europe and Asia. Since then, other regions and political organizations, among other creator groups.
of the world have developed electronic library utilities similar The revolution in practice is caused by the fact that the
to OCLC. The largest of these is the Dutch PICA system, community for which the digital library is organized is a
serving libraries in a number of Northern European nations. virtual one and may in fact be physically distributed all over
By the end of the 1980s the attractiveness of electronic the globe, along with the information it accesses. And the
technology for libraries and the increasingly economical community’s interaction is likewise virtual, not taking place
commercial availability of these technologies through within organizationally definable walls. Thus the entire
personal computers had become the chief determinants of environment of information-seeking, interaction and supply
the future path of international library development. But the has moved into places that seem far beyond the influence of
expense of these technologies, and the extent to which they the librarians – into the office, the dormitory, the laboratory,
depended on the existence of viable national communications the living room, public spaces. A number of methods have
infrastructures, increased the information gap between rich been developed within the global library profession to meet
and poor countries. the challenge of digital libraries. There are several arguments
for the continued maintenance of the library as a physical
space, one of the most compelling being that most
T he 1 9 9 0 s information is still not digitized but is available only in
paper format. Another argument is based on the premise
For the library profession worldwide the most important that digitized information is still inherently difficult to
phenomena of this last decade of the twentieth century have access, and the availability of professional assistance – in the
been: (1) the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and of person of a professional librarian – is vital. Currently the

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most popular argument among public librarians, because of Goody, J. (ed.). 1968. Literacy in Traditional Societies. Cambridge
its obvious political and financial advantages, is that exactly University Press, Cambridge, UK.
because of the wonders of digitally available libraries, access Gore, Al. Innovation Delayed is Innovation Denied. In: Computer,
to these riches must be made available through publicly Vol. 27, No. 12, pp. 45–47.
funded libraries to all the country’s citizens. This is the Gross, R. A. and Borgman, C. L. 1955. The Incredible Vanishing
argument that underlies the US Library of Congress’s 1994 Library. In: American Libraries, Vol. 26, pp. 900–4.
decision to digitize the nation’s ‘patrimony’, both print and MacBride, S., et al. 1980. Many Voices, One World: Communication
graphic, through its National Digital Library. Many other and Society Today and Tomorrow. Report of the International
cultural treasure-houses, such as the Vatican Library in Commission for the Study of Communication Problems. UNESCO,
Rome, have also begun digitizing their precious collections Paris.
for worldwide access. By the late 1990s, librarians in the McEvoy, J. 1995. Third World Wonders about Information Highway.
industrialized world had laid claim to the Information Reuters, London.
Revolution as part of their sphere, and were transforming Mikhailov, O. A. 1988. Electronic Documents in Archives: Problems of
their libraries into sources of electronic connectedness to Receiving Guarantee of Safety and Utilization (Analytic Survey of
the world’s digitized information supply. The greatest Foreign and Domestic Experience). Moscow State University,
challenge of the new century is that of extending this Moscow.
connectedness to libraries in the developing world. Montviloff, V. 1990. National Information Policies: A Handbook on
the Formulation, Approval, Implementation and Operation of a
National Policy of Information. UNESCO, Paris. PG1-90/
B ibliography WS/11.
Richards, P. S. 1994. Scientific Information in Wartime: The Allied-
AiyepEku, W. O. 1991. The Challenge of Implementing an African German Rivalry 1939–1945. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.
Programme in Information Science: TRARECON. In: Journal of RUDOMINO, M. I. 1993. Russian Librarianship during the Time of
Information Science, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 315–20. Perestroika (1987–1989). Digest Moscow.
Borgman, C. L. 1977. Now that we have Digital Collections, Why do TSeng, G. , Poulter, A. and Hiom, D. 1999. The Library and
we Need Libraries? In: Proceedings of the 60th Meeting of the Information Professional’s Guide to the World Wide Web. Library
American Society for Information Science 1997. Medford, NJ. Association Publishing, London.

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 29.3.3
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORLD’S MUSEUMS

Sid Ahmed Baghli

from 1 9 1 4 –1 9 4 5 museums in Germany and Poland, open-air museums in

Romania and industrial museums in Yugoslavia have been
By 1914, museums were already highly respected institutions. particularly successful.
In Europe and even America, some were venerable The following figures represent the number of museums
centenarians. These sacred temples, such as the Hermitage in certain socialist countries: USSR: 1,400 in 1977, 1,800 in
in St. Petersburg, the British Museum in London, the 1985; German Democratic Republic: 700 in 1973, 748 in
Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid and the National 1985; Poland: 657 in 1974, 750 in 1985; Romania: 331 in
Museum of Rio de Janeiro, possessed a valuable, jealously 1973, 331 in 1985.
guarded cultural heritage. The museum was considered an
institution that safeguarded works of art, archaeological
collections and items of natural history.1 Western Europe and the United States
Preservation was paramount; technical and scientific
collections were few and far between2 and the educational The rest of Europe, which boasts an impressive number of
aspect had not yet been recognized. People requiring access museums, took a little longer before it began gradually to
to the British Museum had to submit a written application implement reforms following the harsh criticisms made
complete with titles, wait for it to be assessed in order finally over several decades concerning these ‘luxury attics’, ‘art
to receive authorization and then wait for several more graveyards’ or ‘retirement homes for the dead’.4
months before being granted the privilege of visiting the Dutch and Swedish museums were among the first to
museum!3 Following the terrible attacks carried out during experiment with ways of making museums more accessible
the First World War, Western European museums came to the public and to young people in particular. They began
to a standstill. However, the October Revolution of 1917 to implement the first educational programmes. Between
had a profound influence on the development of museums 1945 and 1963, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam
in the East. provided huge impetus to modern museology and later to
‘open-air museums’, which became a model that was
followed all over the world.
The Soviet Union and Eastern European countries Although art, archaeological and historical museums in
particular still tended to hold exhibitions, the number of
Lenin created a state-run ‘school of museums and heritage’, exhibitions varied. Large museums such as the Louvre in
whose main objectives were to preserve the cultural heritage Paris introduced new techniques of lighting and of displaying
and to contribute to education in science and art through certain masterpieces to the public.
museums. A new type of interdisciplinary museum, the eco-
In 1917, there were some 150 museums in the new Union museum, was also born during this period. ‘An eco-museum
of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This figure rose to is a mirror which a society chooses for itself; a museum of
400 in 1923 and to more than 1,100 in 1970. Historical space, time and the whole human race’, explained museologist
museums underwent some major changes in terms of their Georges Henri Rivière. It provides an overall vision of
content, presentation and public access. In 1977, there were humankind in its natural and sociocultural environment.
approximately 1,400 state museums in the Soviet Union, Examples include the French eco-museums of La
nine times more than in 1917. By then, museums were GrandeLande and Le Creusot-Monceau les Mines.
specializing in fields such as art, archaeology, history and The following figures5 give an idea of the increase in
science and technology. The Polytechnic Museum of numbers of museums between the 1970s and 1980s. Federal
Moscow is an example of a large multidisciplinary museum. Republic of Germany: 1,550 in 1975, 2,415 in 1985; Canada:
Museums attach great importance to the October 471 in 1976, 1,515 in 1985; Denmark: 300 in 1976, 331 in
Revolution and to the ‘heroic struggle of the peoples of the 1985; United States: 4,988 in 1976, 6,120 in 1985; France:
Soviet Union during the national wars’. 1,250 in 1977, 1,921 in 1985; Japan: 407 in 1976, 807 in
The other former peoples’ democracies in Europe also 1985; Norway: 320 in 1976, 359 in 1985; Netherlands: 483
supported the development of their museums. Archaeological in 1976, 793 in 1985.

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In the United States of America, museums of ‘primitive and the Asia Pacific Regional Organization set up by
art’ began to appear at the same time as modern art and ICOM. Art and archaeological museums were the most
contemporary art museums. In the late 1950s, renowned common, particularly in India and Thailand. In 1966, Iraq
architect Frank Lloyd Wright completed the Guggenheim opened its huge national museum, equipped with a
Museum in New York, an immense snail shell with a restoration laboratory, in Baghdad
reinforced concrete spiral inside, forming a gently sloping
exhibition area six storeys high. ‘Geology’ and ‘biology’
museums became particularly popular in North America. T he success of museums in the
Europe remains the ‘master’ of the world’s museums. service of society ( 1 9 6 8–1 9 9 0 )
Thanks to their number, wealth, variety and age, European
collections are particularly important, since they represent After 1960 and particularly the events of May 1968,
virtually the whole of the global heritage. Germany, France museums were increasingly being examined under the
(Plate 171) and the United Kingdom hold the lion’s share microscope by professionals themselves. Artists, art critics
in this respect.6 and students across Europe called for the closure of
‘middle‑class’, antiquated museums. They thought their
collections should be scattered around in public places. ‘Put
T H E gulf between developed and the Mona Lisa in the metro!’ they shouted in Paris.
dev E loping countries The ICOM General Conference in 1971 accepted the
principle of democratization, while the 1974 ICOM
The growing gap between affluent countries and the poor Conference in Copenhagen resolved to make every effort
Third World nations is largely due to the underdevelopment to promote the democratization and development of
that created colossal debts of thousands of billions of dollars ‘museums in the service of society’.
at the end of the 1960s. Indeed, museums began to embrace art, cinema, theatre
The 500 museums spread across the whole of the African and music and, in particular, became more accessible to
continent represent barely 2 per cent of the world’s museums local communities and young people. Pontus Hulten, art
and less than half the number found in some Western historian and curator of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm
European countries. and later of modern art museums in Los Angeles and Paris,
Despite their cultural wealth, the museums inherited from was constantly striving for museums to become ‘the ideal
the colonial era bore a Western stamp that was far removed place for communication, exchange, dissemination and
from national realities and aspirations. They were mainly reflection’.8
European-style museums with an ethnographic flavour, often These developments, which affected all museums in every
created to satisfy the administrative and mercenary colonial country, led to a real democratization, so that they became
aristocracy.7 The President of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konaré, ‘a dynamic instrument of a living culture’. Despite the
later said that Western museum styles, which were out-of- serious socio-economic problems they faced, African
date and inappropriate, should be ‘killed off’ and rethought in museums grew and changed during the 1980s and 1990s as
today’s Africa. Fortunately, following independence, museums local museums were opened, collections were built up,
were designed in original, often ingenious ways, taking into exhibitions were organized and an increasingly skilled and
account available resources and local needs. Mexico, India active professional network was established. 9 All the
and Niger, among others, worked miracles in this respect. strategic development work that was carried out ensured
Through a slow but deep-seated process, changes were that new museums were created to meet the needs and
gradually made in order to place museums in the service of match the real circumstances prevailing in Africa.
society. At the beginning of the century, the Egyptian Museum The remarkable round table held in Santiago, Chile, in
in Cairo was built to replace the Museum of Egyptian 1972 highlighted the importance of the social role of Latin
Antiquities, which dated back to 1857. Established in 1959, the American museums and the reasons for creating a new type
Open-Air Museum of Niamey (Niger) was an authentically of museum: the integral museum, which was a kind of
African museum, bearing witness to native customs. The region-specific eco-museum.
Museums Association of Tropical Africa (AMAT- A number of superb museums emerged in Mexico in the
MATA), founded in 1959, included members from 1990s: half a dozen large museums were established, devoted
22 African States (English- and French-speaking) by 1962. to pre-Hispanic art, the history of Mexico City, Mexican
Museums in developing countries did not really start to anthropology, modern art and natural history. The museum
become known across the world until the 1960s, thanks to of anthropology, which expresses the wealth of cultural
international museum campaigns organized by UNESCO identity, is an architectural and museological masterpiece.
and ICOM. Latin American and Asian countries began to In Brazil, meanwhile, the modern art museum in Rio de
reorganize their museums long before the African nations, Janeiro has also been very successful.
which were still suffering from the legacy of colonialism and There are numerous natural history museums, but the
economic problems. most fashionable are the science and advanced technology
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Peru are museums, as well as planetariums, which have become
among the countries that actively improved their museum extremely popular in Calcutta, New Delhi, Bombay,
policies in terms of staff training and publications. Nagpur and Lucknow. In 1970, Pakistan modernized its
UNESCO and ICOM worked closely together to organize national museum. The national museum in Doha (Qatar)
the international museum campaign in 1956, which included opened in 1976.
seminars and round tables. In fact, in the countries of the Near East, India and
It was after the Second World War and decolonization China, the cradle of the most ancient civilizations, the
that Asian museums began to grow, thanks to UNESCO development of museums really took off during the 1980s.

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The ecological, sociocultural and scientific concerns of Is there a danger that the Internet, which makes museums
museologists in France, Canada, Africa and Latin America led accessible to people all over the world, might seriously
to the creation of a large international eco-museum movement reduce visitor numbers? In fact, ‘in the emerging landscape
during the 1980s. Mention should also be made of the large of online images, the appetite for the original will only
geology museum in London, which, in 1972, began to tell the deepen, as people of all ages become better acquainted with
story of the Earth, using a spectacular model of the galaxies.10 the works of art’.11
More than half of the museums in the United States of The sheer scale of this virtual universe will increase
America are historical museums. Science and technology museums’ clientele, the only danger being that they may all
museums are the second most common, with art museums look alike, whatever their geographical location, size, wealth
in third place. or prestige. Will these virtual sites not constitute excellent
According to a survey carried out in 1980, 68 per cent of means of preventing theft, looting and trafficking of museum
Americans were in the habit of visiting museums. With its exhibits and items of the cultural heritage?
16 museums in Washington D.C., the Smithsonian
Institution alone was attracting 25 million visitors each
year, a figure that climbed to 30 million by 2000! The NOTES
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York received more
than 6 million visitors in 1980. At that time, a new museum 1. Cf. Mouseion, Vol. 12, 1930, ‘Le rôle social des musées’
was opening every three days in the United States. by J. Capart, p. 220.
The rapid development of museums led to the creation 2. The oldest museum of this type is the Deutsches
of new institutions in Japan: ‘peace museums’, such as those Museum in Munich, established in 1903.
in Kyoto and Kawasaki. They described the grave legacy of 3. Cf. Mouseion, Vol. 12, 1930.
the 1945 atomic bomb, although they gave an optimistic 4. In the previous century, Théophile Thoré, had
vision of the future. Understanding between peoples, condemned these ‘temples for the initiated’ and advocated
tolerance and trust are expressions of this ‘culture of peace’ an ‘open forum’ for the public.
that is so dear to UNESCO. The same approach is adopted 5. According to La muséologie selon Georges Henri Rivière,
by the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, which offers a Dunod, Paris, 1989.
futuristic presentation stimulating visitors’ senses of taste, 6. Germany: 4,682 in 1992; Austria: 712 in 1993; Spain:
smell, touch, sight and hearing. 1,054 in 1994; France: 1,300 in 1992; Holland: 732 in 1993;
The Museum of Modern Art in Wakayama, Japan, built Greece: 268 in 1993; Italy: 3,442 in 1992; Norway: 475 in
in 1994, dared to combine modern architecture with a 1993; Russia: 1,478 in 1994; Czech Republic: 254 in 1993;
traditional roof. In the same spirit as that which underpinned Romania: 404 in 1993; United Kingdom: 2,000 in 1996;
the construction of the Museum of Civilizations in Ottawa, Sweden: 197 in 1993; Switzerland: 776 in 1993; Ukraine:
Canada, in 1980, the Australian Museum in Sydney and the 297 in 1993. (Source: UNESCO Statistical Yearbook,
Te Papa Tongarewa museum in New Zealand provide a published in 1997. Only actual museums are included.
perspective of history that expresses the many viewpoints of Parks, zoos, botanical gardens and exhibition halls are not
aboriginals alongside those of Europeans, in a dialogue of included. The figures for the United Kingdom were added
peace. to this list.)
7. ‘The role of museums in today’s Latin America’,
` Museum, Vol. 25, No. 3, UNESCO, Paris, 1973.
N ew museums , new perspectives 8. Interview with Pontus Hulten, Opus international,
since 1 9 9 1 Paris, No. 24/25, May 1971, p. 63.
9. The latest workshops in Africa: Mali, Ghana, Benin,
The last decade of the millennium was marked by political, etc.
social and economic upheavals at the global level, which 10. Cf. Museum, 1974, Vol. 26 ‘Museums of exact and
held back the development of museums in Eastern Europe natural sciences’.
and some developing countries. 11. Maxwell Anderson, Director of the Art Gallery of
In 1997, the national museum in Beirut, Lebanon, was Ontario, in ICOM News, special 50th anniversary edition,
reopened and the Nubia Museum in Aswan, Egypt, was Paris, 1996, p. 22.
inaugurated. The new national museum in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, which was opened at the beginning of 1999, was
established in collaboration with experts from the Royal
Ontario Museum, offering a vast panorama of the country’s B ibliography
tradition, culture and history.
The Getty Foundation used new technologies when it Alderson, W. T. (ed.). 1992. Mermaids, Mummies, and Mastodons:
invested a billion dollars to build the Getty Center in Los The Emergence of the American Museum. American Association of
Angeles, which opened in 1997; it is a grandiose fine arts Museums, Washington, DC.
museum resembling the Acropolis, and looks down over Alexander, E. P. 1979. Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the
the city and the Pacific Ocean. History of Museums. American Association for State and Local
New information technologies offer museums tremendous History, Nashville, TX.
possibilities for attracting visitors. Every day, for example, Ambrose, T. (ed.). 1987. Education in Museums: Museums in
more than 4,000 people consult the Japanese website of the Education. HMSO, Scottish Museums Council, Edinburgh,
Louvre, which has become the most frequently visited Scotland.
museum on the Internet, ahead of the Metropolitan Museum  and Paine, C. 1993. Museum Basics. ICOM/Routledge, London
in New York and the British Museum in London. and New York.

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BARTZ, B., OPITZ, H. and RICHTER, E. 1992. Museums of the World.  ICOM News: Les Nouvelles de l’ICOM – Noticias del ICOM.
(4th rev. ed.). Handbook of International Documentation and Quarterly Review of the International Council of Museums.
Information, Vol. 16. K. G. Saur Verlag, Munich, Germany. (Since 1948). ICOM, Paris.
Bazin, G. 1967. Le Temps des musées. Desoer, Liège-Brussels. The African Museum in Quest of its Future Direction. 1976. In:
Boylan, P. J. 1992. Museums 2000: Politics, People, Professionals and Museum International, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 181–215.
Profit. Routledge, London and New York. La muséologie selon Georges Henri Rivière. 1989. Dunod, Paris.
Cadernos de Sociomuseologia. Centro de Estudos de Sociomuseologia, Morley, G. 1981. Museums Today. (2nd ed.). Department of
ULHT, Lisbon, No. 5, 1996. Museology, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, India.
Cameron, D. F. 1971. The Museum, a Temple or the Forum? In: Mouseion. 1927–1946. Periodical of the International Museums
Curator, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 11–24. Office, Paris.
Desvallées, A. 1994. Vagues, une anthologie de la nouvelle muséologie. Museum International. 1948-onwards. UNESCO, Paris.
(2 Vols.). MNES, Mâcon, France. NEUSTUPNY, J. 1968. Museum and Research. The Office of Regional
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1974. Encyclopaedia Britannica, London, and Museum Work of the National Museum, Prague.
pp. 649–62. Pearce, S. 1993. Museums, Objects and Collections: A Cultural Study.
Encyclopaedia Universalis. 1993–1994 and Supplements. 1995–1996– Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
1997–1998. Encyclopaedia Universalis, Paris. Ripley, D. 1969. The Sacred Grove: Essays on Museums. Simon and
Glaser, J. R. and Zenetou, A. 1996. Museums: A Place to Work. Schuster, New York.
Routledge, London and New York. Sola, T. 1997. Essays on Museums and Their Theory: Towards a
ICOM. 1964. The Problems of Museums in Countries Undergoing Rapid Cybernetic Museum. The Finnish Museums Association,
Change. Symposium organized by the International Council of Helsinki.
Museums, Neuchâtel, 17–25 June 1962. ICOM, Berne and Paris.

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 29.4
The information revolution
Technology, Methodology and Industry

Michel Cartier

INTRODUCTION – The type of information: from printed text to

multimedia screen images
It is impossible to fully describe the present revolution in – The volume of information: from scarcity to a state of
information and communications technologies (ICTs), just information overload
as it is impossible to describe a train speeding along its track. – The type of user: from several hundred experts to
At best, we can talk about its speed and its composition, millions of users of the Internet, CD-ROMS or video
what it seems to be carrying and its apparent direction. There games
are two main problems to adequately describing the many – The nature of the systems: from mass media with no
phenomena involved, and particularly their interrelationships. interactivity to systems which allow navigation in
The first difficulty lies in describing how machines and cyberspace.
technology have developed (hardware); the list of these The context of socio-economic discontinuity that we are
inventions from 1945 to the present is long and relatively well now experiencing is accelerating all these changes. They
known, but it is also rather insignificant because they reflect our society’s need for new tools to help it adapt to
converged to form new, more sophisticated systems several both discontinuity and change. The following is a brief
years later (Table 22). It is difficult to describe the evolutionary analysis of some of these tools: information, ICTs, the
mechanisms that lead them eventually to converge. By the information highways and the content industry.
same token, the evolution of software and content has been
insufficiently analysed to date. The second difficulty is that of
describing the revolution produced in our societies by new I nformation
communications devices, the Internet and CD-ROMs for
example, and their impacts on all societies. One of the problems created by the arrival of ICTs is the
The concepts of information and information circulation of too much unsorted, unsynthesized
technologies have changed enormously over the past several information. The challenge of all these messages with vague,
decades, to the point where they now play a central role in extremely mixed origins and destinations is to articulate
the socio-economic systems of industrialized nations and units of knowledge in a reference system, to offer an
are gradually assuming the same importance in developing organization whose structure allows storage, indexation and
countries. particularly retrieval based on the different criteria and
Prior to the 1940s, information was synonymous with search heuristics of multiple users. The systems we have
the acquisition of knowledge; in the 1950s there came the used to date have processed data but now they must treat
notion of controlling machines (cybernetics); after that, information; this calls for a redefinition of information. A
came the collection and processing of data, and recently, piece of data has only two dimensions, 0 and 1, while
digital processing. During this time, information information has four: subject, object (or properties), and
technologies metamorphosed into mass media around 1945, the space and time in which it is current. Its treatment
with the addition of a parallel stream of mainframe therefore requires a multidisciplinary approach drawing on
computers around 1960 and personal computers starting in psychology, sociology, computer science, and particularly in
1980. Today, ICTs have emerged through the convergence the case of documentation, on cognition.
of mass media and audiovisual technologies with computer In order to survive, human beings must communicate
science and telecommunications techniques, and particularly constantly: that is, exchange information within a society
with a new element, which is changing the entire composed of various environments in a given time and
communications horizon: interactivity. Since 1945, change space. They even manage to construct a model of this society
has been extremely rapid on all levels, as the following brief in their heads, and their languages and cultures reflect this
summary shows: construction. For both its provider and its user, information
– The nature of information: from the acquisition of is more than simply what is perceived in a message, it
knowledge to digital data processing provides the material that helps construct society.
– The description of information: from analysis of the real Information is no longer the province of a specialized
to simulated or virtual situations domain; it has become a basic strategic resource for society

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Table 22  The evolution of ICTs

Technologies Information
From 1900, particularly Printing Content:
since 1945 Photography audio and visual processing of raw data
Film Interface:
Telephony (first generation) none
Radio
1960 Television Content:
Cable television analog processing of large volumes of organized data
Audiovisual Interface:
Satellites simple
Computers (mainframes)
1980 Personal computers Content:
Desktop publishing mixed (half analog, half digital) processing of personalized
Photocopiers and fax information
Electronic games Interface:
Video cameras and recorders more complex
1990 Information highways Content:
CD-ROM digital and multimedia processing of information on information
Automated teller machines Interface:
Consumer electronics personalized, real, simulated or virtual interactivity
Specialized channels
Cellular telephony
Smart cards
Portable computers
Set-top boxes/meters
2000 Intelligent environments: Content:
home, office, automobile, etc. value-added micromarkets
Interface:
incorporated in daily objects (therefore sophisticated)
Note: The dates given above apply only to North America and refer to the period of mass commercialization rather than dates of invention.

as a whole. Within society, information is a phenomenon Information overload

which is simultaneously economic (news as a marketable
commodity), technical (its content and form change with the Since 1945, the development of distribution technologies
nature of the medium), social (it refers to target groups), has caused the volume of information to grow
political (it implies power relationships), and cultural (it uses a exponentially.1
particular social symbolism). All major developments now We are not necessarily better informed just because more
depend on access to and use of information: virtually all information is available, however. On the contrary, the
new machines are machines whose purpose is information increasing volume of information can lead to a narrowing of
or communication. Henceforth, we must analyse focus by citizens, encouraging ‘tunnel vision’. The
information as a simultaneously economic, technical, social, information one wants is often difficult to identify and
political and cultural phenomenon, and the information retrieve from the mass of varied, unsorted information
society as one based on the industrialization of available; this leads to a phenomenon of ‘exformation’, that
information. is, an accumulation of information which goes untreated
due to lack of time and competent personnel. This tidal
wave does not always reach its destination. ICTs and
The value-added era information highways are not much help; instead, they tend
to participate in the creation of the ‘information wall’.
The products of the new economy are termed ‘value-added’.
This value is that of the knowledge brought to bear in
transforming a product, or data. It usually has important The emerging primacy of interactive visual information
cultural connotations: user-friendliness, ease of access,
cultural or linguistic adaptation, or mediatization of content. Over the past hundred years, the transition from lithography
In an information society, the additional value is increasingly to photography and then to film, television and interactive
integrated in content that gives access to additional electronic services has caused the emergence of an interactive
resources: applications, services, programmes, software and visual culture in the West. Film and television had already
documentation in general. brought the image to the fore of contemporary culture, but

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Figure 5  Information overload or the ‘information wall’ I nformation and communication

technologies ( I C T s )

Faced with the sudden appearance of information highways,2

philosophers are asking the following question: will
information highways develop in a context of continuity or
one of rupture? The question may appear academic to some.
Nevertheless, if we believe that the evolution of our world is
proceeding normally we should make certain decisions
(deregulation of telecommunications for example); if we
forecast that our world will be completely different in a
decade, however, much more fundamental decisions must
be made, such as changing our school systems, for example.
The forces of change are difficult to manage, not only
because they are new, but also because they are operating on
a global scale and their capacity for upheaval appears
stronger than any short-term hope for stability. The coming
transition promises a rupture with the past; its positive
aspects lie in its possibilities for innovation. But periods of
transition are delicate and decision-makers will not be
allowed any margin for error or naivety.
In North America between 1975 and 1991 the critical mass of ICTs, particularly information highways, are the vehicles
electronically processed information increased dramatically: for the coming transition, just as the alphabet and the printing
–  the number of servers increased from 301 to 7,637 (24 times);
–  the number of entries increased from 311 to 6,291 (20 times);
press were vehicles for important changes in the past. We
–  the number of providers increased from 200 to 2,372 (12 times); move from one world to another when time and space change
–  the number of vendors increased from 105 to 933 (8 times), each so much that our culture is modified, and when the new tools
selling more than one service. that society gives itself to facilitate the transition change its
A similar exponential curve applies to the number of users of members’ ways of thinking. These new tools are not responsible
information highways; it has grown from several hundred in the for social change, as is generally believed; rather, social and
early 1960s to over 30 million in 1994. As of September 2004, demographic transformations incite societies to create new
there were 812,931,592 Internet users in the world, with Asia tools that will enable them to better meet the challenges
(247,898,314 users) and Europe (230,886,424 users) created by major changes, felt first in industrialized nations,
outperforming North America (222,165,659 users). and eventually in all countries. These challenges include:
Source: www.Internetworldstats.com/stats.
Faced with increasing volumes of information, it becomes
– the entry into the workforce of millions of youth
impossible to process it without more sophisticated access and familiar with ICTs;
improved interface, navigation, and formatting. The transition – the massive penetration of personal computers into
from a situation of scarcity to one of overabundance will the home;
completely transform consumers’ expectations. – the digitalization of information technologies;
– the convergence of technologies with image and
interactivity, etc.
The rise of major entertainment corporations and the
emergence of information highways affect the state. We
they relied on mass diffusion, whereas ICTs now offer may be faced with the deconstruction of the nation state as
interactive visual communication. an internal and external expression of identity, to the profit
Another very important transition: photography and of both higher (large common markets) and lower
film preserved the physical reality of things, offering (nationalisms) levels. One of the challenges of the twenty-
the spectator the appearance of immortality; nowadays, first century will be to unify the large formations alongside
ICTs transform the nature of contact between human the multiplication of minorities who want to affirm their
beings and reality by offering simulations and ‘virtual identities. Industrialized nations recently recognized that
realities’. Before, the real was never questioned; today, ICTs and information highways have become a critical
with computerized imagery, the criteria of reality is what sector for their continued survival and modernity. In fact,
seems real and not what is real; interactive visual culture is one of the ruptures in the structure of our civilization
becoming the kingdom of appearances. Three characteristics is located in the typology of intelligence: extreme
explain the emergence of this new interactive visual decentralization of knowledge and intelligence made
culture: possible by decentralization, which is facilitated by new
– digitization, which decomposes images and sound information and communication systems that institutions
into micro-elements which can be reassembled at will use to reconstruct themselves.
to imitate reality or create fantasies; Around the globe, the promise of a brighter future has
– zapping, which allows information to be fragmented, withered. Today’s society is tired. Its structures, like used
demonstrating that scenarios are less and less motor parts, are unable to supply the performances we
constrained to follow chains of meaning; expect from them. The explosion of ICTs is the indication
– interactivity, which, by bringing technology and of a decisive stage for the world at a crossroads, a crossroads
culture together, puts culture at the forefront of the where many factors are entangled: societal, political,
development of user interfaces. economic, and technological. Information highways, which

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Table 23  New technology and media in the West: three stages of development
Author Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Alvin Toffler Agrarian wave characterized Industrial wave, characterized by mass A third wave characterized
by the occupation of territory production by information
Régis Debray logosphere graphosphere videosphere
Marshall McLuhan traditional galaxy Gutenberg galaxy Marconi galaxy
Luc de Brabandere The aqueduct, a support for The Oleoduct (pipeline), a support for The infoduct, a support
agrarian society an energy-based society for an information society
Joël de Rosnay Agricultural revolution: Industrial revolution: concentrated Information revolution:
renewable energy energy info-energies
Source: Adapted from UNESCO, 1992, Statistical Yearbook 1992, UNESCO, Paris.

are both a support and a consequence of the society that been the case with telephony and cable distribution
uses them, will become the loudspeakers of these mutations, for example.
which they help accelerate and intensify for better or worse. – Present information sources are not credible; the mass
They have already become a world event, a sign of things to media in particular are often perceived as rumour
come and, even in industrialized nations, a major concern of mongers.
government, because they change strategic balances, and – The user's capacity to absorb and interpret information
thus power relationships. remains limited, a situation that is aggravated by
Although they label them differently, authors have ‘unfriendly’ interfaces.
described three stages of historical development in the West, The progressive installation of the information society
as these relate to new technology or media (Table 23). supposes an agenda. Many researchers have identified the
Each stage represents a leap in both the quality and various transitions (or paradigms) that we are living
quantity of information, a ‘mediamorphosis’.3 The transition through, but unfortunately their reflections do not accord
from one stage to the next is made possible by the sufficient weight to the enormous social resistance or to
development of new media tools: writing, the printing press, certain historical factors; consequently, the conditions for
and ICTs, which include information highways. These new these transitions and their time frame have not been
tools have generated three communication codes, alphabets, properly analysed. We must specify our time frame for
typographical codes and mediacodes respectively, that is, making these enormous investments profitable –
new ways of mediatizing content that have changed our way investments that will be higher than we can presently
of thinking. foresee. Following are certain conditions for these
If Gutenberg made us all readers and Xerox made us all transitions over the next two years.
editors, the personal computer transforms us into
information producers and interactive media makes us all
consumers.4 I nformation H ighways
Certain beliefs are widely held in the field, and decision-
makers often base decisions affecting our future on them. It The information highway is an intangible and immaterial
is important to analyse these myths, which are often the subject, a mobilizing concept that evokes such strong images
result of media hype, because they are partially responsible in our society that it is becoming a myth:6 People feel that it
for our present sluggishness. will be the primary force behind the economic development
This is more false than true. It is true that equipment and of the twenty-first century.7 The information highway has
networks are undergoing rapid change. On the other hand, become a shared metaphor for the bonding of industries,
the software field is developing more slowly than forecast, which until recently had no common language: today they all
while agreement on international standards is proceeding at speak digital. The term designates a unique concept, which
a snail’s pace. As for sociocultural acceptance of these new refers to a number of groups of actors and several types of
systems, it would be more appropriate to talk about information highway, each serving different clients and
resistance. markets. At the present time, there are a lot of near misses,
The cost of electronic circuits is truly low now, and the traffic jams and even vehicles leaving the road; the development
cost of personal computers is also decreasing year after of ICTs and the early days of the electronic superhighway in
year.5 On the other hand, the cost of mediatizing content, particular are like a rodeo or an obstacle course.
which must be considered in determining total real costs, is The information highway is the result of the integration of
rarely analysed in depth. a family of technologies that will become a new medium for
The society we live in today produces and diffuses more business and domestic teletransactions It brings together
information than all previous societies together. A tidal wave various media elements that have traditionally been separate:
of information is engulfing the mass media and information data, voice, images and diagrams; it generates major economies
highways; we cannot, however, be certain that all this of scale because of new critical masses of users and applications
information reaches its target public, for several reasons: supported by complete digitization. It includes three principal
– Not only are networks not universally accessible, but elements, which are, in descending order of importance: the
when they are, they are often incompatible, as has consumer, information and the technologies.

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Table 24  Evolution of the information society

Past Transitions New Transitions Conditions
Production economy Knowledge economy Choice of niches
National markets Continental markets
Manufacturing society Information society
Institutional structures Network structures Reorganization of organizations
Disappearance of permanent jobs Creation of new types of jobs (tertiary sector) Ongoing training in new competencies
(primary and secondary sectors)
Technological convergence Media convergence User-friendly
Container Content interactivity
Broadcast Narrowcast
Expert system users Novice general public
Mass medium Pay per view ICT literacy
Textual access Multimedia access
Paper support Electronic support
Static document Dynamic document
National culture Culture of affiliation Cultural industry and industry of language
(given geographic territory) (virtual territory)

The information highway represents a new stage in the – We have to act fast, because the whole world is lagging
development of the emerging information society. It can behind the United States. This is the ideology of the
be defined as follows, according to the three tertiary primacy of short-term projects over longer-term planning
poles:8 of the type of society we want.
– Technical definition: a high-speed network, created by
the convergence of telecommunications, computer and
audiovisual technologies, linking existing networks and Base architecture
creating new ones, to form not one highway but
several; An information highway is a network of networks that
– Economic definition: an international marketplace, communicate with each other via telephone lines, coaxial
composed of various distribution spheres in which cable, fiber optics, specialized high-speed lines, broadcast
clients consume content and business and domestic transmissions and satellites, which link a variety of elements:
services; – A backbone of high-speed central networks called
– Social definition: a new circuit between the information wide area networks (WAN), high throughput lines,
and service provider and the teleconsumer, that is, satellite information highways, teleports, stations with
between supply and demand. large parabolic antennas.
The information highway era began with electronics in the – Local networks: routers, local hosts and servers (MAN,
1970s. It is organized differently than in previous eras, LAN) each with an electronic name and address.
which were founded on matter and energy, rather than – A communication device: a computer, modem,
constructing a new world of time and space combined. memory (magnetic, optical, PCMCIA, etc.), printer,
Information highways are metaphors for a global or in certain cases a television equipped with a set-top
organization which processes and exchanges information. box,9 keyboard.
Functionally, networking ensures flexible (thanks to – Protocols and software in the gateways:
multiple paths), cheaper and less expensive communication telecommunications (e.g. TCI/IP), coding/decoding,
between consumers. It is based on existing infrastructures sorting, classification and research (e.g. Archie,
(data networks, satellites), known supports (copper wire, Gopher, WWW), access, etc.
coaxial cable, fiber optics), knowledge (digitization, – Basic services (in the client-server mode): connection
compression), and techniques that are being developed to local networks, electronic file transfer, electronic
(ATM, etc.). Infrastructure is like a backbone. Once you mail, etc.
have infrastructure, the whole economy follows. The – Content: resources, applications, documentation,
slogan of its promoters seems to be ‘Faster! Smaller! software and other services.
Cheaper!’ Information highways have certain characteristics:
Virtually all discussions of information highways start – Open standards: their specifications must be available
with a description of the technology, and unfortunately to everyone and in certain cases be made public;
most of then stop there. Furthermore, official reports repeat – Interoperability: they must allow communication
essentially the same dominant ideology: between a variety of disparate systems;
– We have to build the networks first, because they will – Standardized access: books can be easily found in
generate (magically?) content. This is the ideology of libraries because there is a standard consultation
the primacy of infrastructure over content. mode. Similarly, non-standard documents on

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information highways will make life difficult for users – they must be digital to facilitate their rapid, low cost
as well as for systems. redistribution;
– they must be accompanied by instructions for their
Documents transmitted on information highways must multimedia or plurimedia use, as applicable.
also have certain technological characteristics:

– we must be able to digitize them and store them in T he content industry 1 0

computer memory;
– we must be able to re-edit them in different ways: they Before they became a technological adventure, information
must therefore be more flexible than their paper highways were an American project whose objective was to
counterparts; allow the industry players (in the major entertainment

Figure 6  The anatomy of information highways

This diagram illustrates, the central core or backbone of the information highway, which uses a variety of technical solutions: satellites,
fiber optic or coaxial cable, or telephones. According to whether they are directed to homes, businesses or mobile communication
stations, information highways adapt to different environments, markets or consumers. The whole forms a new medium particularly
suited to residential or professional teletransactions. It is the battlefield of the major American entertainment corporations.

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corporations) to take control of the content industry – Content kits: The consumer does not want to be
worldwide by the turn of the century. They would be the drowned in 500 channels but is looking for a bit of
electronic marketplaces of the information society, an information to compare with others and respond to.
immaterial society in which information and knowledge are The nature of content is changing; gone are the long
carried by electronic bits that can be copied over and over chains of screen images; content is fragmented in a
again. These bits form the economic base of this industry mosaic of elements whose meaning is reconstructed at
and the backbone of this society. will by the user.
This industry develops in waves, each a hybrid that – New technical reception: Content is transmitted
encompasses what has gone before. The phase that is digitally and no longer through traditional analog
starting now is the result of technological (digitization, and channels such as film or television.
particularly compression) and media (hypertext and – Multimedia content: Thanks to hypertext, texts,
multimedia) convergence. This evolution causes the sound and images are converging. An artificial mental
convergence of many activities in information highways and space is being both created and used by the participation
generates new types of economic relationships: of media designers and consumer/users.
– new exports generated by the continentalization of – Distributed content: The value of products is
markets; increasingly a function of the cost of their distribution
– the reconversion of much content that was previously and marketing: cost of distribution per bit, market
transmitted using analog technologies; forecasts, publicity.
– derivative products, since there are close ties between The new techniques that this industry’s promoters must
on-line and off-line products; and master are:
– tourism. – compression, which after sampling, compacts data
These activities also have a direct impact on certain that is not useful or is less significant than the original
noncommercial elements that are nevertheless essential to signals, in order to occupy as little space as possible in
society: computer memory or on transmission bandwidths ;
– the evolution of language and culture, essential for the – portability, which allows content to adapt to various
adaptation of people’s ways of thinking to social and norms and thus to circulate through different
technological mutations. systems;
This industry ensures the design, production, management – encryption, which encodes a message so that it can
and distribution of information to meet the needs of the only be read by the target receiver;
emerging information society. It is based on ‘grey matter’ – bi-directionality, which allows a telematic system to
rather than capital, raw materials or energy, and its structure transmit information in both directions, thus
is more complex and more fluid than that of traditional facilitating interactivity and two-way communication.
industries. It emerges as the triumph of liberalism and
capitalism, the liberalization of commercial trade across
national boundaries and the arrival of new capital investment A world market
by new actors who are attracted by potential profits. This
industry is developing through simultaneous economic, Twenty years before the organization of the ad hoc Clinton-
industrial and technological integration brought about by Gore US presidential campaign committee, which launched
the creation of alliances between major players. Information the Information Superhighway, many spokespeople in the
highways cause a shift from a market of traditional industry had tried to attract Americans’ attention to their
manufactured products based on offer (technology push) to a industry as the market of the century. These attempts were
market based on demand for information (demand pull), highly publicized. ‘This is by all odds the most important,
which becomes the currency of the new economy. This lucrative marketplace of the twenty-first century.’12 In 1994,
economy is gaining strength with the emergence of electronic its total income was approximately $400 billion of the world
marketplaces where increasing numbers of exchanges of all total of  $900 billion; if information highways succeed in
sorts are taking place. Its characteristics: capturing only a part of this market at the outset, it will have
– a quaternary sector;11 been worth it. Revenues generated by this mega industry
– sudden, almost phenomenal spurts of growth in were projected to exceed 3 trillion dollars worldwide by the
specific niches, frequent deep restructuring and year 2001.13
rationalization; The ‘mega-majors’14 have clearly identified the market of
– an emphasis on added value; the century: the sale of information to offices and homes
– a new socio-economic model; throughout the industrialized world; their motto has
– methods of payment (such as set-top box/meters) become Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime. Alliances are being
adapted to ICTs (source authentication, validation of arranged to take control of the world information industry
demand); by the turn of the century: ‘Within five years, the whole
– data encryption; world will be organized into two or three camps, four at the
– activities in real time. most.’15
The characteristics of its content are as follows:
– Interactive content: This content requires a human
presence. Because of interactivity, the messages are less An industry that will fundamentally change our society
and less a chain of data and more and more an open,
adaptable process. This interactivity may be more or A lot has been written about the mutations ICTs cause in our
less complex. Another novelty: the screen becomes an societies, yet it is economic transformations made possible by
element of the message (icons, multiple windows.) these technologies that will change our society the most

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Figure 7  Organization of the content industry

–This complex, hybrid industry develops from both the content and the container. A growing number of formerly isolated actors are found in
closer and closer association.
–Certain actors supply, transport and deliver content to consumers. All are supported by manufacturers, which provide components and
equipment.
–The industry has three target sectors: public or governmental, commercial, and private or domestic.
–This industry requires supporting actions from society: monitoring of technological developments and strategies, a sufficiently trained
workforce, basic and applied R&D, funding of these activities, the development of alliances, and dynamic marketing.
–All these activities and investments will require the increasing integration of actors, both private and governmental, to confront the major
entertainment corporations.

fundamentally. Not only will its development be more costly technologies. This industry will be a new anonymous, stateless
than forecast, it will also produce unforeseen consequences power. Furthermore, few question the consequences of such
for both the citizen/consumer and the state, because the a scenario, although they are foreseeable: dilution of the state
space and time in which state, citizen and new markets are resulting in a decrease in services (health, education,
operating are different from what they were before 1990. environment), the emergence of a new class of the info-rich,
This economy will be global, that is beyond all control, and the end of free trade to the advantage of the major
since the mega-majors are not accountable for their actions; entertainment corporations.
they need not respect the principles of legitimacy that apply
to relationships between the citizen and the state. ‘Everywhere,
national champions become international networks with no notes
particular attachment to any nation.’16 As the state has ceded
a part of its jurisdiction, and has consequently become weaker, 1. In industrial society, the volume of scientific and technical
these new masters of the world will control the key elements information increases by 13 per cent annually, whereas in an
of power in their field: access to funding, markets and new information society this rate increases to 40 per cent.

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2. Information Highway, net, web, cyberspace, electronic PARROCHIA, D. 1993. Philosophie des réseaux. PUF, Paris.
frontier, etc. RAMONET I. and HALIMI, S. 1995. Médias et contrôle des esprits. In:
3. Expression coined by Joël de Rosnay in L’homme Manière de voir, No. 27 (août), Paris.
symbiotique (Symbiotic Man). RENNEL, J. 1984. Future of Paper in the Telematic World. Editions du
4. Inspired by Marshall McLuhan. Groupe Jaakoo Pöyry, Helsinki.
5. According to Joyce’s Law: At equal power, the cost of ROSNAY, J. de. 1995. L’homme symbiotique. Regards sur le troisième
computing falls by half every ten years, although this millénaire. Éditions du Seuil, Paris
apparent improvement cancels itself out with the need to
add new ‘options’ and additional memory in order to use
increasingly sophisticated software when buying a new Economic aspects
computer. AMES, P. 1993. Beyond Paper. Adobe Press, Mountain View, CA.
6. The myth of a cyberspace that gives users the BSB MEDIA RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT. 1993. BSB
impression that they are in the same room as the person Projections: 2002, Future Effects of New Consumers and Commercial
they are communicating with. This myth was inspired by Communications Technologies. Backer, Spielvogel, Bates, Inc., New
William Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer. In Gibson’s York.
words, ‘There’s some kind of actual space behind the screen. DE LA BAUME, R. and BERTOLUS, J.-R. 1995. Les nouveaux maîtres du
Some place that you can’t see but you know is there.’ monde. Belford, Paris.
7. Each economic cycle is characterized by the emergence KARMITZ, M. 1993. La création face aux systèmes de diffusion. La
of an activity that drives growth: railways around 1800, the documentation française, Paris.
automobile around 1900, services in the 1980s, etc. See the MAYER, R. 1994. Construire un marché européen de l’information. In:
research of Kenneth J. Arrow. Dossier de la journée ‘Impact II’, Paris, 30 mai.
8. A tertiary society has three poles: social, economic, SHEPARD, S. B. 1994. 21st Century Capitalism, How Nations and
and technological. Industries Will Compete in the Emerging Global Economy. In:
9. Set-top box that counts and charges for rights to Business Week, Special 1994 Bonus Issue (January), McGraw Hill,
information or a service on a pay per use basis. New York.
10. Also called the information industry, cultural industry,
digital industry.
11. All economic activity can be classed in three sectors. Technological aspects
The tertiary sector includes services and, more generally, all ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES TÉLÉCOMMUNICATIONS PAR
activities that cannot be classed in the two other sectors. In CABLE. 1994. Une vision claire: Câble vision 2001. ACTC,
order to clarify this ‘catch-all’ tertiary sector, we have Montréal.
baptized services related to the communication and BRAND, S. 1987. The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT. Viking,
transmission of information the ‘quaternary sector’. New York.
12. US Vice-President Al Gore, Time, April 12, 1993. BROWNE, S. 1994. The Internet via Mosaic and World-Wide-Web.
13. Hypothesis supplied by John Sculley, former president Zipff-Davis Press, Emeryville, CA.
of Apple. KROL, E. 1995. Le monde Internet, Guide & Ressources. Éditions
14. The new masters of the world (see the book by the O’Reilly International Thomson, Paris.
same title, 1995) are Bill Gates of Microsoft, Disney’s NEGROPONTE, N. 1995. L’homme numérique. Robert Laffont, Paris.
Michael Eisner, Ted Turner of CNN, Rupert Murdoch of SHEPARD, S. B. 1994. The Information Revolution. In: Business Week,
News Corp., Barry Diller of QVC, Frank Biondi of Viacom, Special Issue, (July), McGraw Hill, New York.
John Malone of TCI, Gerald Levin of Time Warner, SIROIS, C. and FORGET, C. E. 1995. Le médium et les muses. La culture,
Conrad Black of Hollinger, Steven Spielberg of les télécommunications et l’autoroute de l’information. Institut de
DreamWorks, and the presidents of Sony, AT&T, recherche en politiques publiques, Montréal.
Matsushita, Bertelsmann, etc. TAPSCOTT, D. and CASTON. C. 1993. Paradigm Shift: The New Promise
15. Craig McCaw, then president of McCaw Cellular of Information Technology. McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York.
Communications, The Wall Street Journal, 10 May 1993.
16. Robert Reich in The Globalized Economy.
Political aspects
european union. 1994. Livre vert: Fin des monopoles. European
Commission, Bruxelles.
B ibliography  Europe and the Global Information Society. The Bangemann Report
Recommendations to the European Council. 1994. European Council,
Brussels.
Societal aspects GORE, A. 1994. The Global Information Infrastructure. Speech
ENGELHARD, P. 1996. L’homme mondial. Les sociétés humaines peuvent- Delivered at the Meeting of the International Telecommunications
elles survivre? Arléa, Paris. Union, Buenos Aires, 21 March 1994.
GARAnD, M.-F. 1994. Inforoutes : mythes et réalités. In: Géopolitique. JOHNSTON, D. 1995. Le défi de l’autoroute de l’information. Rapport
No. 48., Paris, pp. 2–112. final du Comité consultatif sur l’autoroute de l’information. Industrie
KENNEDY, P. 1994. Préparer le xxie siècle. Éditions Odile Jacob, Paris. Canada, Ottawa.
LEROY, C. (ed.). 1994. Autoroutes de l’information, Pour aller où et à THÉRY, G. 1994. Les autoroutes de l’information. La documentation
quel prix? In: Le Monde informatique, No. 567, (8 juillet), Paris. française, Paris.
Nouvelles technologies et communication. Des inforoutes pour aller
où? 1994. In: Le nouveau Politis, No. 18, (mai-juin), Politis
Editions, Paris.

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 29.5
DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES

David Dalby

I ntroduction genocide and the trafficking of arms or drugs, but have also
been the means for promoting and diffusing the common
By ‘international languages’ we designate all those languages ideals of liberty and justice and for dispensing humanitarian
that have served during the twentieth century as important aid. It should also be borne in mind that peaceful
means of communication among the populations and/or relationships among different language communities have
governments of several different countries or nation-states. usually been associated with gradual linguistic change and
As peoples have spread around the world, they have exchange, whereas war and violence have frequently led to
taken their languages with them, each of those languages the more abrupt replacement of one or more languages by
having normally been in contact with one or more others, in another.
a system of permanent influence and frequent replacement. The most rapid development in the history of the
The spoken languages of humanity have always formed part logosphere took place during the twentieth century, and is
of a continuous system of communication around the discussed below in terms of the geographical extension of
inhabited parts of the globe, although until modern times individual languages, without indulging in speculation
this system was composed of long sequences of fragile links about how many million people may speak or understand
among bilingual speakers of individual pairs of languages. each of these languages. The main purpose of our discussion
This worldwide linguistic system, or logosphere,1 has been is to determine which languages have provided means of
strengthened by the gradual development of written wide communication among different ethnic groups, nation-
languages during the last five millennia, by the much more states and continents, and it will be convenient to review the
rapid explosion of printing that began five centuries ago, history of their development during the twentieth century
and by the telecommunications revolution of the twentieth in terms of three key dates:
century. – 1914, marking the end of a period of Global
Gutenberg’s printing revolution in the fifteenth century Colonization by the major European powers, during
helped stimulate ideas of adventure and exploration, and which the use of their respective languages had been
before the end of that century Columbus and his successors widened and strengthened throughout the world;
had closed the last gap between the eastward and westward – 1945, marking the end of the period of the two World
extremes of the logosphere, across the Atlantic Ocean. The Wars and the beginning of the period of Global
way was then open to the worldwide expansion of a handful Decolonization and the Cold War;
of European languages, as well as to the parallel development – 1989, marking the end of the Cold War.
of creoles partly derived from those languages, leaving
linguistic imprints around the globe along the pathways of
colonial empire. T he situation in 1 9 1 4
In considering the history of individual languages within
the logosphere, great care should be taken not to confuse The use of international languages in 1914 mirrored the
languages with peoples, or even languages with cultures. extent of the eleven corresponding empires which together
Individual languages are of course endowed with whatever covered vast areas of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania, and
specialized vocabulary may be required for the cultural and previously the whole of the Americas. In alphabetical order,
other interests of their speakers, often including items the linguistic role of each of these empires can be summarized
inherited from written sources or copied from other as follows.
languages, and it is also evident that each language and each – The British Empire had accompanied the use of the
local variety of a language has a central role to play in the English language from the British Isles to all the
ethnic or social identification of its native speakers. On the continents, where English had established itself
other hand, languages are functional means of communication (together with the creoles derived from it) as the most
that are intrinsically neutral, and which may be used to widely spoken language of North America, the
convey noble or ignoble ideas depending on those who Caribbean and Australasia. It had also taken root as a
speak or write them. So it is that the languages spread most colonial language in parts of western, eastern and
widely in the world have been used to organize slavery, southern Africa and across wide areas of southern

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Asia and Oceania, as well as in Hong Kong. The the Portuguese language than Portugal itself. The
growing economic power of the USA, originally a empire still included countries in Africa, where the use
federation of Britain’s North American colonies, was of Portuguese, and of Portuguese-based creoles as a
already adding weight to the worldwide power of the first language, had been established for centuries
English language. Unfortunately, the spread of this (former Portuguese Guinea and the islands of Cape
language was associated in some areas, especially Verde, São Tomé and Principé). In Angola and
North America and Australia, with the displacement Mozambique, Portuguese was used by settlers and
and dispersal – even genocide – of many smaller administrators, and was also in the Pacific, in East
language-communities. Timor and Macao. Vestiges of Portuguese creole
– The French and Belgian empires had together helped survived in India, Ceylon and Malaya.
to spread the French language from Europe to every – The Russian empire had carried the Russian language,
other continent (western and central Africa, south- spoken by settlers and administrators, eastward
eastern Asia, Oceania, French Guiana in South beyond the confines of Europe into central and north-
America), including its continued use in former eastern Asia and also westward into Poland and
French colonies in North America (in Quebec, and to Finland. In North America, it had been displaced by
a lesser extent in the Canadian Maritime Provinces English from its brief foothold in Alaska, sold by
and Louisiana). This international diffusion of French Russia to the USA in 1867. The isolation of a vast
was reinforced by its long-standing use as the region of Europe and Asia, dominated by the Russian
international language of diplomacy and of European language and protected by a cordon sanitaire of police
elitist culture (as used, for example, in the aristocratic and customs controls, had begun almost a century
societies of Russia and Poland). More popular, before First World War (Tsar Nicholas I, from 1825)
creolized forms of French had established themselves although the French language was used extensively by
in areas as far apart as the islands of the Caribbean and the Russian aristocracy as their own elitist language
Indian Ocean. In many parts of France itself, and in within the tsarist empire.
adjacent areas of Belgium and Switzerland, other – The Ottoman Empire carried the Turkish language
related and unrelated languages (like Provençal or far into Europe from the fifteenth century, reaching
Walloon or Breton or Basque, referred to disparagingly the gates of Vienna in 1529, but had been in decline
in French as ‘patois’) continued to be spoken, but during subsequent centuries. Turkish withdrawal
compulsory education and military conscription had from the Balkans was already well underway by 1914.
been doing much to reinforce the use of French in all Over the remaining parts of the Ottoman Empire in
areas and in all social classes. south-west Asia (the ‘Middle East’) and through the
– The German and Austro-Hungarian empires together former Ottoman possessions in North Africa, the
ensured the primacy of the German language over a Arabic language remained the dominant linguistic
vast area of Europe, from Alsace and Lorraine in the link.
west to the Baltic Sea in the north, the Carpathian – The Spanish empire had ceased to exist before 1914,
Mountains in the east and the Adriatic Sea in the apart from footholds in north-east and Equatorial
south. The German empire had also carried the Africa, but it had left the Castilian – or Spanish –
German language to Africa (Togo, Cameroon, language as the major language of communication
Tanganyika, Rwanda, Burundi and South-West from the south-west frontier states of the USA as far
Africa) and to Australasia (New Guinea and islands as the southern tip of Chile and Argentine. With the
of the western Pacific), while largely Protestant exception of the three Guyanas, the whole continent
émigrés had established German-speaking of South America was by now dominated by the two
communities around the world, especially in Russian very closely related languages of Spanish and
Asia and in the Americas. Portuguese, both associated – like English – with the
– The Japanese empire, the most recently created of the frequent dispersal or genocide of smaller language-
ten colonial empires, had already carried the communities. In the Pacific, Spain’s cession of the
administrative use of the Japanese language to the Philippines to the USA in 1896 led to the rapid
linguistically related Ryukyu Islands, to Taiwan, to replacement of Spanish by English as the external
Korea and Manchuria, and to southern Sakhalin language of administration and Western education.
Island. Of these eleven empires associated with the international
– The maritime Netherlands Empire had maintained spread of nine languages, two were already moribund: the
the use of the Dutch language in what is now Indonesia Spanish and the Turkish empires. It was the decline of the
(the Netherlands East Indies) and in parts of the Turkish Empire which precipitated the onset of the World
Caribbean (the Netherlands West Indies, together Wars from 1914, leading directly or indirectly to the collapse
with the colony of Surinam in South America). of the other ten empires over the next seventy-five years.
Closely related Flemish forms of the Dutch language, Significantly, the linguistic impact of this collapse was far
largely from what is now Belgium, had been carried by less than the political, and all the above languages are still
émigrés to southern Africa, where they evolved as the playing a significant international role at the beginning of
first language (Afrikaans) of the emigré’s descendants, the twenty-first century.
as well as of many people of mixed descent, especially An important linguistic legacy of the colonial empires
in Cape Province (where the language is known also as has been the many creole languages around the world, which
Kaaps). have drawn their lexicon from metropolitan European
– The Portuguese empire had formerly included Brazil, languages, but their syntax and phonology from African or
which by 1914 already accounted for more speakers of other non-European languages. Those based lexically on

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English and French are the most widely distributed, and dominant language throughout most of Europe. Violent
have remained international throughout the twentieth reaction at the end of that war led to the expulsion of
century, in the sense that their national varieties are often many German-speaking communities from eastern
inter-intelligible. One group of English-based creoles is Europe, including some who had been settled there for
found in the Caribbean and West Africa, and another in centuries, as well as the second reimposition of French
Oceania, and the French-based creoles are spoken mainly in as the judicial and educational language of Alsace-
the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Lorraine (temporarily German, 1940–44).
– The Italian language, established in Somalia and
Eritrea as a colonial language from the late nineteenth
T he geolinguistic impact of the century, was extended more widely in Africa with the
W orld W ars : 1 9 1 4 –1 9 4 5 conquest of Libya, completed in 1932, and of Ethiopia,
completed in 1936. This expansion was short-lived,
In linguistic terms, the period of the world wars saw however, all these colonies being occupied by the Allies
German-speaking Europe opposed to most of French- in 1941-1942.
speaking, English-speaking and Russian-speaking Europe, – The Japanese language, during and after the First
with multilingual Switzerland remaining a neutral ‘island’. World War, replaced German as the administrative
The global extension of the conflict came to involve most language of the Marshall, Marianne and Caroline
other major languages and most other parts of the world. Islands. Before and during the Second World War, it
The linguistic changes brought about during this period can was carried by conquest to Inner Mongolia and north-
be discussed in terms of the following international east China, to Hainan and the south China coast,
languages, in alphabetical order: French Indo-China, Thailand, Burma, British Malaya,
– The Arabic language, in its modern standardized the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and the western
form, gained in international importance during the Pacific. This sudden expansion was short-lived,
inter-war period, with the progressive independence however, and ended with the collapse of the Japanese
of Arabic-speaking countries, first from the Ottoman empire in 1945.
Empire and then from Britain and France (Egypt in In the closing months of the Second World War (San
1922, Iraq in 1932, Syria and Lebanon in 1943–45). Francisco, April to June 1945) the United Nations
The Arab League was founded in 1944–45, just before Organization was established and the following six
the end of Second World War. international languages were accepted as its official languages
– The English language began to replace French as the (in alphabetical order): Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
major language of international communication from Russian and Spanish. Among these, English and French
the end of the First World War, and assumed new became the working languages of the UN administration.
importance in continental Europe after the Allied
landings in Italy and France during the Second
World War. Until 1919, French had been the generally T he geolinguistic consequences
recognized diplomatic language for international of D ecolonization and the C old
treaties, but in that year the Treaty of Versailles was W ar : 1 9 4 6 –1 9 8 9
drawn up as a bilingual document, in English as well
as in French. The colonial empire administered – The Arabic language was strengthened in its
through the use of English was also expanded by international role after the end of the First World
mandates received from the League of Nations after War by the independence of further Arabic-speaking
the First World War, when a number of colonies or partly Arabic-speaking states from French, Spanish
passed from German to British, South African, and British control (including Libya in 1951, Sudan,
Australian or American control (west Togo, west Morocco and Tunisia in 1956, Chad and Mauritania
Cameroon, Tanganyika, South-West Africa, east in 1960, Algeria in 1962).
New Guinea and parts of Melanesia). A number of – The Chinese (Mandarin or putonghua) language,
Arabic-speaking countries also passed from Turkish with the highest number of speakers in the world, is
to temporary British rule (Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan), spoken largely within China itself, including Taiwan.
while Egypt was administered as a British protectorate This gives it an extension through a large part of Asia,
from 1914 to 1922. from the Himalayas to the frontiers of Siberia and
– The French language benefited likewise from mandates from the frontiers of Kazakhstan to the Pacific coast,
at the end of the First World War, with the transfer including non-Chinese-speaking areas to which the
to French or Belgian control of several German language has been carried by administrators and
colonies in Africa (east Togo, east Cameroon, Rwanda settlers (Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, with
and Burundi) and with the transfer to French control parts of Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi).
of two Turkish colonies (Lebanon and Syria). From Chinese (Mandarin) is an official language also in
1919, the French language was reimposed as the Singapore. From 1945, Chinese assumed global status
judicial and educational language of Alsace-Lorraine as one of the official languages of the UN and has been
(previously German, from 1871). consistently used as such by the representatives of the
– The German language lost its worldwide importance People’s Republic of China since they took over the
with Germany’s loss of all its colonies in Africa and UN seat for China in 1972. The most widely spoken
Oceania during or after the First World War. During variety of Chinese outside China has been Cantonese
the Second World War it enjoyed a brief expansion as (or Yue), which has continued to spread with its
the language of the Third Reich and was then the speakers from southern China, including Hong Kong,

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 IN F O R MATION AN D COMM U NICATION

throughout the Pacific and Australasia and to southern the Dravidian languages of southern India, and Bengali
Africa, North America and Western Europe. in eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Hindi has
– The Dutch language, established as a colonial language benefited from the modern cultural force of a strong
in both the Caribbean and Oceania since the film industry.
seventeenth century, lost much of its international – The Italian language, after the independence of
importance with the loss in 1949 of the Dutch East Somalia in 1960, has retained only a vestigial presence
Indies, which had already been occupied by Japan in north-eastern Africa, but continues to provide a
from 1942 to 1945. When this vast chain of islands link between Italy and Switzerland, where it is an
became independent as Indonesia, the use of Dutch official language alongside German and French.
was replaced by Indonesian as the national language – The Japanese language, despite the end of the short-
and by English for contact with the outside world. lived Japanese empire, has benefited from the post-war
Standard Dutch has nevertheless remained the official economic success of Japan, and is now studied as a
language of the Netherlands, of Belgium (jointly with foreign language in many parts of the world, especially
French and German), of Surinam and the Netherlands in Australasia and the Pacific.
West Indies, while its close relative Afrikaans is still – The Malay and Indonesian languages are inter-
widely spoken in South Africa and Namibia. intelligible, and represent a modern standardization of
– The English language, already more widely used the Malay vehicular language long used for maritime
around the world than any other language, increased trading purposes, and encouraged by the British and
rather than decreased in importance during the period the Dutch, throughout wide multilingual areas of
when Britain’s colonial empire was dismantled. The South-East Asia and the Indonesian islands. Since the
process began with the independence of India in 1947, independence of Indonesia, when Indonesian filled
when the Indian government looked forward to the the vacuum left by Dutch, the use of Malay and
replacement of English by Hindi. In fact, however, the Indonesian extends today from the Malaysian
multilingualism of India, plus the opposition to Hindi Peninsula to Irian Jaya (western New Guinea).
expressed by speakers of many other, especially – The Portuguese language has continued to decline in
Dravidian, languages, led to English continuing to be importance in the eastern half of the globe, with the
the principal vehicular language of that federal loss of the Portuguese colony of East Timor and the
country. gradual disappearance of Portuguese-based creoles.
– The French language has a unique position within the Portuguese is still used as an administrative and
logosphere, as the only language to enjoy such wide educational language in Portugal’s former African
distribution as an administrative and vehicular colonies, although English and French have become
language on the basis of such a relatively small more important as languages of communication with
extension as a mother tongue. Apart from an area in the outside world, especially with neighbouring states.
Europe bounded by the English Channel, the As a transatlantic language, however, Portuguese
Mediterranean, the Pyrenees and the Alps, and a appears to have a permanent role to play as the national
second area in North America along the banks of the language of both Brazil and Portugal.
St Lawrence River, the French language is spoken – The Russian language benefited from the allied victory
around the world primarily as a second language. The in the Second World War, and from the ensuing Cold
linguistic loyalty of former French and Belgian colonies War, in the extension of its sphere of influence from
in Africa, encouraged by France’s policy of economic the Soviet Union to its political satellites, especially in
and – where necessary – military support, has ensured Eastern Europe, where it was generally a compulsory
that French remains the second most widely used subject in schools. The sealing-off of an important
language in the debates of the United Nations. part of the world dominated by the Russian language
– The German language, including standard ‘high’ was continued in the form of the notorious Iron
German and a wide variety of regional forms, remains Curtain, a barrier to international communication,
numerically the most important mother tongue in which was eventually undermined by the
Europe, excluding Russia. It is today spoken as a telecommunications revolution.
majority or minority language over wide areas of – The Spanish language has become more limited in its
western Europe, including Germany, Austria, worldwide spread as the result of its dwindling
Switzerland, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, northern historical influence in the Pacific (the Philippines)
Italy and eastern France, and marginally in southern and in north-west Africa (Morocco and the eastern
Denmark. Its use by German-speaking minorities in Sahara). It has, however, strengthened its position as
Eastern Europe and central Asia has been greatly the most widespread language in the Americas with
reduced, but not eliminated. German is still used by the growth of the Spanish-speaking minority in the
many Protestant religious communities who emigrated United States, following immigration from Mexico,
from Europe in recent centuries to the Americas and Cuba, Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
Australia. – The Swahili language has gained in importance since
– The Hindi and Urdu languages, associated respectively the independence of colonial Africa and is the only
with the Hindu and Muslim religions and alphabets, African language south of the Sahara that has such
are largely inter-intelligible in their spoken form. They international extension. Formerly encouraged by the
gained importance with the independence of India German and the British administrations as a vehicular
and Pakistan, respectively, but their spread throughout language in East Africa, Swahili is now the official
the subcontinent was checked by opposition from the language of the United Republic of Tanzania and is
speakers of other major languages in the area, including used also to a lesser extent, but with local variations, in

527
 thematic section

Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Zaire, C onclusion

northern Mozambique and the Comoro Islands. It
should be noted that Swahili is a Bantu language very The twentieth century has witnessed the rapid progression
heavily influenced by loanwords from Arabic, in the of the telecommunications revolution, from the manual
same way that another international language, English, telephone to electronic mail, and the increasing integration
has been very heavily influenced by loanwords from of all the products of that revolution: instant long-distant
French. communication, computerization and word processing,
recording and transmission of sound and image. The human
voice has been liberated for the first time from the constraints
T he geolinguistic consequences of time and space, and the spoken word can now compete in
of the E nd of the C old W ar international communication with its derivative, the written
word. Writing has also undergone a radical development,
From 1946 to 1989, the Iron Curtain in Europe represented the rigid framework of the page having evolved towards the
a major barrier to international communication and fluid medium of the screen, and the printing machine
understanding, its removal being symbolized by the opening having become a common part of the domestic and business
of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The period from 1990 scene.
can thus be regarded as a new era of international Although all languages benefit potentially from the
communication, in which individuals can now converse freely effects of the telecommunications revolution, it is inevitable
and instantaneously between any two parts of the world. that the establishment of more effective and more rapid
Since the ending of the Cold War, specific international communication among the peoples and nations of the world
languages have been affected in the following ways: will favour the development and wider use of English and a
– The worldwide spread of the English language has few other international languages over that of more localized
been reinforced by the collapse of the Soviet Union, languages. This development has aroused fears for the
and English has enjoyed increased study and use as a future, not only of less widely used languages, but also of
foreign language in the countries of the former Soviet ethnic and national cultures, which risk being diluted or
bloc. The rapid worldwide growth of information changed through the open doors of wider international
technology (IT), including the Internet, has also communication.
favoured the use of English as the world’s principal The domination of the world by mainly European
vehicular language. colonial powers until the end of the Second World War is
– The German language has also gained in strength and reflected linguistically by the continued domination of
international acceptability from the reunification of international communication by languages originating in
Germany and from the renewed use of German as a Europe. Of all the international languages discussed above,
vehicular language in parts of Eastern Europe. over half are members of the same Indo-European language
– The Russian language is still widely used within and family, including eight European languages plus Hindi and
among the former states of the Soviet Union, outside Urdu in Asia. No less than four European languages
Russia itself, and increased contact between Russia and (English, French, Russian and Spanish) are included among
the West has led to a growth in interest in Russian as a the six official languages of the UN.
foreign language. It has been largely eclipsed, however, The eight European languages that have enjoyed an
in the educational systems of the former Soviet satellites international role during the twentieth century have all
of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic States. been associated with European and modern American
– The Turkish language has benefited from the opening cultures, although they are not synonymous with those
up of frontiers between peoples speaking closely related cultures. The strongest of those cultures is that associated
and largely inter-intelligible Turkic languages – in jointly with the English and French languages, which have
Turkey itself, and in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, often served to represent two facets of the same
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kirgyzstan, as well as in internationalized ‘Western’ culture: English as a favoured
adjacent areas of Russia and even north-western China. vehicle for its more popular manifestations (sports, fast-
The use of information technology has been accelerating foods and beer, popular music) and French as the traditional
rapidly since 1990, including the development of the Internet vehicle for its more elitist aspects (haute cuisine, vintage
and World Wide Web, and it is evident that the forerunners wines and champagne, fashions and perfumes). Both
of this technology (radio, television, telephone, fax, video- languages have served as vehicles for the spread of Western-
recording, etc.) constituted a major element in fomenting style political culture.
political revolution in the Soviet Union and among its allies. It is perhaps not surprising that the most vigorous
Since Hitler’s manipulation of radio communication in the opposition to the spread of international languages has
1930s, it has become increasingly difficult for governments come from speakers of other widely used languages, whose
to prevent the flow of information through their national position in the world is perceived as threatened by the
frontiers, and this has marked an important, irreversible advance of their rivals. The strongest reaction against the
stage in the general evolution of human communication and worldwide spread of English has thus come from the
political government. francophone (French-speaking) community of nations,
Just as languages should not be confused with peoples especially from France itself and Quebec. Both these
and cultures, so international languages should not be countries have passed legislation to protect the French
confused with their countries of origin. At the end of the language against the increasing influence of English within
twentieth century, international languages are at the disposal their own borders: France from 1975 (Bas-Lauriol law) and
of any person who wishes to communicate with another Quebec from 1977 (charte de la langue française). At
part of the world. the time of writing (1996), the latest legislation on this

528
 IN F O R MATION AN D COMM U NICATION

subject in Paris has been designed to ensure that a certain however, it appears probable that the total number of
percentage of vocal music broadcast within France is in the speakers of that international language will have exceeded
French language. even those of Chinese (Mandarin) by the end of the
From the purely practical point of view, in a multilingual twentieth century, and will have reached a billion individuals
world where communications across national frontiers have (one thousand million) early in the next century.
been growing at an ever-increasing rate, there has been a In the context of the expansion of English and other
manifest need for a universal world language. Early in the international languages during this century, much has been
twentieth century, there could still be some debate as to written and broadcast about the numerous ‘smaller’
whether French or English might best serve such a role, or languages presently in danger of extinction throughout the
even an artificial language like Esperanto, but by the end of world, although it is important that this danger should not
the century only English has the necessary worldwide obscure attention to the much more sombre reality of the
spread. Its international usage is gaining momentum as the extinction of actual peoples, as has occurred this century in
first foreign language in the majority of national educational several parts of the world. In the case of speakers whose
systems, and as the now generally accepted language in such own physical existence is not threatened, the will to preserve
vital areas as the control of aviation. Even at a more modest their language can only come from within their own
level, it has been found that French and German children, community, and it is encouraging that so many small
for example, when visiting each other on linguistic exchange- language communities have succeeded in preserving their
visits, will often converse in English rather than in French own linguistic heritage during the twentieth century, in all
or German, since the French children have usually studied continents. They deserve every possible support.
more English than German, and vice versa. The telecommunications revolution has changed
On the other hand, localized languages are the means of traditional relationships among countries and individuals,
expressing ethnic and cultural identities, and in certain cases and has provided the means for new solidarities across the
have proved remarkably resistant to pressure from more face of the globe. While international languages can now be
powerful international languages. A notable example is beamed to worldwide audiences, videotapes and local
provided by Welsh, which has been maintained as the stations can also be used to link separated communities of
mother tongue of a relatively small population (around half speakers of scattered languages, and to serve the needs of
a million in the 1990s) on the very island from which English speakers of isolated languages.
has spread around the world, and only a hundred miles
distant from Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-on-
Avon, the heartland of the English language. Similarly, in NOTE
France, where a policy of linguistic unity has been pursued
for two centuries, a rich variety of local languages – as 1. For the use of the term logosphere in English, see entry
mentioned above – have survived the pressures of an ‘Languages’ in Encyclopedia of the Future, Macmillan, New
educational system based exclusively on French. York, 1995; for logosphère in French, see entry ‘Francophonie’
Among the non-European countries freed from colonial in Livre de l’Année 1994, Larousse, Paris, 1995
rule since the Second World War, some of the strongest
reactions against their former colonial languages came from
the multilingual states of India (independent from Great Acknowledgement
Britain in 1947), Indonesia (independent from the I wish to thank my colleagues Professor Roland Breton
Netherlands in 1949) and the United Republic of Tanzania (France) and Professor Colin Williams (Wales) for having
(independent from Great Britain in 1961). kindly read this paper in draft form and providing valuable
Although the original constitution of independent India comments.
looked forward to the replacement of English by Hindi as
the sole official language for the whole country, opposition
from speakers of other languages led to the abandoning of
this objective in 1967. English, still only spoken by a minority BIBLIOGRAPHY
of the population of India, remains nevertheless the most
widespread vehicular language throughout that country. In Atlas Narodov Mira [Atlas of the Peoples of the World]. 1964. Glavnoe
the case of Indonesian and Swahili, established as official Upravlenie Geodezii I Kartografii, Moscow.
languages to replace Dutch in Indonesia and English in BRIGHT, W. (ed.). 1992. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics.
Tanzania, respectively, the situation was different in that Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
neither of these vehicular languages represented a dominant BRETON, R. 1991. Geolinguistics: Language Dynamics and Ethnolinguistic
ethnic and cultural group within the country, in contrast to Geography. Ottawa University Press, Ottawa. [BRETON, R. 1995.
Hindi in India. Although there has been some internal Géographie des Langues (3ème éd.). PUF, Paris.]
opposition to the imposition of each of these two national COMRIE, B. (ed.). 1987. The World’s Major Languages. Croom Helm,
languages since independence, their use has presented less London.
of an ethnic and cultural problem than in India. In all three CRYSTAL, D. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.
cases, English has retained an important role, especially for Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York.
communication with the outside world. DALBY, D. 1992. Le Répertoire mondial des langues: théorie et pratique.
Throughout the twentieth century, it has been generally In: BLANCHET, P. (ed.). 1998. Diversité linguistique, idéologie et
accepted that the language in the world with the greatest pluralisme démocratique. Cahiers de l’Institut Linguistique de
number of speakers is Chinese (Mandarin), concentrated in Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Vol. 18, Nos. 1–2, pp. 141–82.
central and eastern Asia. With the increasing study and use GRIMES, B. F. (ed.). 1992. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. (12th
of English as a second language throughout the world, ed.). Summer Institute of Linguistics, Dallas, TX.

529
 thematic section

KLOSS, H.and McCONNELL, G. D. 1974–84. Linguistic Composition of MOSELEY, C. and ASHER, R. E. 1994. Atlas of the World’s Languages.
the Nations of the World/Composition linguistique des nations du Routledge, London.
monde. (Bilingual.) (5 vols.). Presses de l’Université Laval, WILLIAMS, C. H. (ed.). 1993. The Political Geography of the New World
Québec. Order. Belhaven/Wiley, London.

530
 29.6
HUMan MOBILITY, CULTURAL INTERACTION
AND TOURISM

Miquel de Moragas and Carles Tudurí

I ntroduction objectives of the journey. WTO divides the reasons for

travelling into the following types: leisure, recreation and
Tourism – voluntary human movement for cultural holidaymaking; visits to relatives and friends; business and
purposes, chiefly of a recreational nature – has become one professional; medical treatment; religion and pilgrimages;
of the social phenomena most representative of the other.
transformation taking place at the end of the twentieth If we confine ourselves strictly to tourism and the criteria
century. In 1950, the number of people who had made that guide the tourist industry in the provision of services,
international journeys was put at about 25 million. In the we might use the following, rather more detailed typology
closing years of the century, the number was calculated at for the main categories.
700 million. Sun and sand: This is the leading tourist segment, and the
The World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates one that was almost wholly responsible for consolidating
that tourism involves 3.5 per cent of the world’s population mass tourism, as the large volume of customers served gave
and that this figure may rise to 7 per cent in the next the industry the opportunity to apply economies of scale.
10 years.1 As costs fell, tourism as a form of leisure came to involve
The phenomenon is thus a large-scale one, but not really large sections of society in the developed countries.
universal or broadly based. Almost all travellers are citizens Ecotourism: A rapidly growing sector, based on visits to
of the wealthiest and most developed countries on the high-value natural areas, adventure travel, and wildlife
planet. It is significant that these figures – these limitations – observation. It is mainly carried out in Latin America and
are almost identical to the estimates for future Internet Africa. Annual turnover is put at us$335 million, which
penetration in the world, the forecast being that 5 per cent represents almost 10 per cent of total tourism turnover.2
of the world’s population will have access to this technology So-called rural tourism could be included in this
by 2005. category.
Travel and tourism involve a variety of essential factors Cultural tourism: This includes a wide range of pursuits:
in today’s society: cultural factors (identity, heritage, art, music, theatre, ethnology, archaeology, gastronomy. It
education, communication), economic factors (balance of is often a supplement to tourism of some other kind, such as
payments, new types of business, the labour market, the sun and sand or conferences, which many destinations try
indirect development of industrial sectors), political factors to incorporate into their main attractions.
(diplomacy, public assistance, planning, cooperation among Conferences, conventions and incentive travel: A strongly
sectors) and other very important factors such as transport, growing sector. Although usually included in the business
telecommunication networks and environmental travel category, gatherings of this type, especially in the case
protection. of incentive trips, involve the kind of sightseeing and tourist
activities that individual business travellers do not habitually
carry out.
A typology of travel and Senior travel: As older people in the more developed
tourism in today ’ s society societies have broadened and altered their habits and
customs, a segment has been created that is of great interest
Leaving aside remoter historical precedents, which in to the tourist industry, since in many cases their activities
Europe go back to the earliest voyages of the Greeks and can be transferred to the low season. In some European
Romans or the pilgrimages of the high Middle Ages, mass countries, such as Spain, there are subsidized programmes
tourism began to emerge only with the development of designed in part to enable older people to travel within their
modern communications in the nineteenth century, and own country.
was consolidated only after the Second World War. Sports tourism: The main purpose of travel is to carry out
The motives leading people to travel as tourists have a particular sporting activity, such as golf, skiing, cycling,
evolved to create a situation whose typology is now very water sports, hunting and fishing, adventure sports, tennis,
diverse, with variables that include the duration, distance, etc. In these cases people travel in search of the best facilities
form of transport, social group or social and cultural and a suitable climate for the activity concerned.

531
 thematic section

Religious travel: The largest movements are the great means that one of the main strategies now being followed
pilgrimages to Rome and Santiago de Compostela, in the by destinations is to diversify supply, both to attract new
case of Christians, and to Mecca, in the case of Muslims, customers and to keep existing ones.
although this category also includes visits to other sacred Destinations are also striving to extend the tourist season
places such as the Holy Land in Israel and sites where so that visitors are spread more evenly throughout the year
miracles are believed to have occurred, such as Lourdes. and infrastructure use is maximized. Another key trend is
Rome expects to receive about 20 million visitors for the for holidays to be broken up into a number of shorter trips.
‘holy year’ in 2000. This is boosting activities like short city breaks and brief
Cruises: This segment dates back almost to the earliest visits to carry out some particular activity (skiing, golf,
days of tourism, but was not popularized until a few years hunting, shopping). Lastly, it is becoming more and more
ago, when costs and prices came down. The route between common for business and leisure activities (art, sport,
Alaska and the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and northern gastronomy) to be combined in a single journey.
Europe are the main areas travelled by cruise liners, some of
which are built to carry 3,000 passengers.
Theme parks: A form of vacation that is growing very T ourism at the turn of the
strongly as the century nears its end, the main destination century : P rincipal movements
being Orlando in the United States where there are more
than 20 major theme parks, including those of Disney and In quantitative terms, tourism surpassed migration as the
Universal Studios. In addition to traditional parks, which are main driving force of human movement at the end of the
essentially based on cartoon characters (Disney World, Parc twentieth century. However, as of 1999, it was estimated
Astérix in France), other types include parks focusing on that there were 120 million emigrants in the world, or
images and technology (Futuroscope in France), animals (Sea more than 2.5 per cent of the world’s population and
World) and the cinema (Universal Studios). In the United 4.5 per cent of that of the developed countries. Between
States alone, 300 million people visited an amusement park in 1990 and 1995, the developed countries received net
1998.3 Las Vegas, a destination that could be regarded as one migration of about 10.9 million people. During those same
huge theme park, received a total of 30.6 million visitors in five years, Europe received 1.1 million immigrants a year
1998, over 13 per cent of them international tourists.4 and North America about 960,000, while between 1995
Celebratory travel: This category can be used to describe and 2000 the annual figure was expected to be 989,000 in
journeys that are carried out to celebrate special occasions the case of Europe and 930,000 in that of North America.6
and that, consequently, no individual would make more In 1998 the number of tourist journeys was 625 million,
than a few times. They might include honeymoons, with annual growth of about 5 per cent over the last
anniversaries and study trips, each of which has its own decade. As Table 25 shows, the growth of the sector in the
special features. last 45 years has been quite spectacular, with the number
Attendance at major events: Universal exhibitions, the of ‘arrivals’ increasing from 25.3 million in 1950 to
Olympic Games, football world cups are major events which 625 million in 1998. This represents growth of 2,470 per
not only attract a large number of visitors, but which cent, or a 24-fold increase over those years. Figures issued
establish values and rationales for promoting the places by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) showed
hosting them as major tourist destinations. that international tourism in 2000 grew by 45 million
Other forms: There are many other forms of tourism that arrivals. Several Mediterranean countries and new
are hard to classify. Sex tourism, for example, is something destinations like Turkey, Croatia and Bulgaria were
that has a particular impact on certain countries, although especially successful. China showed strong growth in 2002
obviously it is not promoted as such; quite the opposite, in of more than 10 per cent. The WTO also projected a
fact, as there are numerous organizations seeking to eradicate record 60 million international visitors would come to the
it. At the other extreme is solidarity tourism, with some USA in 2006, a 32 per cent increase over 2001.
NGOs organizing stays in Third World countries to promote The economic dimension of this phenomenon and the
interaction between cultures. Looking perhaps overconfidently revenue generated by it have, if anything, grown even more
ahead, it is even possible to make bookings for space tourism, strongly, with turnover rising from us$2.1 billion in 1950 to
and there is a Bureau of Atomic Tourism,5 which organizes us$445 billion in 1998, an increase of 21,190 per cent. These
visits to places affected by nuclear explosions. There are also data do not include domestic tourism, that undertaken by
companies that arrange ‘reality tours’, including visits to travellers within their own countries, which is calculated to
ravaged or polluted places, prisons, etc. exceed international tourism by a factor of 10. The World
Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that
tourism and related activities generated us$3.5 trillion
Main trends worldwide in 1999. In Europe in 2003, the European Travel
Commission estimated that tourism and related revenues
As the industry and its customers mature, some very amounted to 249 billion euros for that year alone.
substantial changes are taking place in the tourism sector. The opportunity to create wealth without the need for
For example, the reasons for travelling are no longer major infrastructure, and the growth in purchasing power
mutually exclusive, as people are not looking to satisfy just a and free time among certain sections of society, have meant
single desire. A tourist booking a journey to a particular that tourist numbers are continuing to rise, albeit to a more
area may be looking primarily for sun and sand, for example, moderate degree than in previous decades. In addition, the
but may be interested in the cultural or ecotourism countries of the so-called Third World are featuring more
opportunities that the destination also provides. The trend and more prominently as both recipients and sources of
of demand is determining the versatility of supply. All this tourism.

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 IN F O R MATION AN D COMM U NICATION

Destinations and countries of origin The great majority of the main tourist destinations are
developed countries. The variety of tourist activity is
Thus, in 1998 Europe received a total of 372.5 million reflected in the diversity of supply among the three leading
tourists, or 59.6 per cent of the world total. The American countries. Much of what France offers tourists is based on
continent was in second place with 120.2 million (19.2 per culture and the attraction of its capital (Paris), which
cent of the total), and East Asia and the Pacific were third receives some 14.2 million international tourists and 10.2
with 86.9 million (13.9 per cent). The remaining regions of million domestic ones each year. A large proportion of
the world were a long way behind, with Africa receiving visitors to Spain are still attracted by the country’s extensive
24.9 million tourists (4 per cent), the Middle East sun and sand tourist infrastructure, despite efforts to
15.6 million (2.5 per cent) and South Asia 5.1 million diversify by offering culture and sports as tourist attractions.
(0.8 per cent). The Balearic and Canary Islands, for example, received
16 million tourists between them in 1998, as against the
3 million or so visiting Madrid. The United States owes its
Table 25  International tourist arrivals and revenue potential to its great diversity of attractions, among them its
worldwide, 1950–1998 (expressed in millions of visitors and main cities. New York, for instance, received 33 million
US dollars) visitors in 1997, 6.1 million of them foreign and 26.9 million
domestic. Los Angeles received 23.5 million visitors in the
Year Arrivals Visitor Revenue Revenue same year, 5.8 million of whom were international, while
Index Index Florida, which is home to Orlando, a city with numerous
(1950=100) (1950=100) theme parks, received 37.2 million visitors in 1997,
(*) (**) 3.5 million of them from abroad.
1950 25.3 100 2,100 100 As regards the countries supplying the largest numbers
of international tourists, Table 26 shows that the first places
1960 69.3 274 6,867 327 are all taken by the members of the G-7, the group of the
1970 165.7 656 17,900 800 world’s richest countries.7 These seven countries account
for 53.6 per cent of all tourist spending in the world, while
1980 286.2 1,132 105,198 5,009 receiving 41.8 per cent of all revenues. This means that the
1990 459.2 1,816 264,714 10,398 tourism balance of payments and income is negative in the
developed countries (by about us$58 billion in 1997), while
1995 561.0 2,218 380,693 18,128 in the less developed economies it is highly positive
1998 625.0 2,470 445,000 21,190 (us$62.156 billion in 1997). The case of Mexico is one of
the most striking, as in 1997 the country’s tourism trade
* Excluding day trips. balance was in surplus by us$3.701 billion, with revenue of
** Excluding transport costs. us$7.593 billion being only partially offset by outgoings of
Source: WTO.

Table 26  Spending on international tourism by country

Expenditure* % Change % of Total Expenditures
Country
1997 1996 -1997 1997
United States 51,220 5.6 13.6
Germany 46,200 –9.4 12.2
Japan 33,041 –10.8 8.7
United Kingdom 27,710 9.5 7.3
Italy 16,631 5.2 4.4
France 16,576 –6.6 4.4
Canada 11,304 1.9 3.0
Austria 10,992 –6.9 2.9
Netherlands 10,232 –11.5 2.7
China 10,166 127.2 2.7
Russian Fed. 10,113 –1.5 2.7
Belgium 8,275 –11.3 2.2
Switzerland 6,904 –8.8 2.2
Poland 6,900 10.6 1.8
Brazil 6,583 13.0 1.7
*Expressed in millions of US dollars, excluding transport
Source: WTO.

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 thematic section

us$3.89 billion. In Cuba, revenue in that same year was in tenth place. The contributions of Thailand and Singapore
us$1.35 billion, a sum that can largely be set down as a will also increase strikingly. The tourist spending of China
surplus, since the number of people travelling abroad from rose by 127 per cent in 1997, which took the country from
the country is very small.8 twenty-second place in the ranking to tenth in just one year.
Consequently, tourism is of vital importance to poor The burgeoning of tourism from some other countries with
countries, particularly in certain cases such as those of Cuba, great potential, such as the Russian Federation, is taking
the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, where it generates a longer than the tourism sector itself was anticipating a few
large proportion of national income. This importance is years ago, owing in this particular case to the domestic
increasing by the year, since less economically developed political crises the country is experiencing.
regions (such as Africa, the Middle East and Asia) are seeing Thus, if expectations about international tourist flows
faster tourism growth than the developed countries. are confirmed, developing countries will be playing an ever
Over the last 10 years (1989–98), the number of visitors to more important role in tourism, both as recipients and,
the Middle East and the East Asia and Pacific area has grown above all, as sources of tourism.
at a rate of 6.9 per cent a year. In the case of Africa the figure
is 6.8 per cent a year, and in that of South Asia it is 5.9 per
cent a year. By contrast, Europe has grown by only 3.8 per E conomic and social aspects of
cent a year and the American continent by 3.7 per cent. tourism

One of the most striking aspects of modern tourism is

Forecasts undoubtedly its economic importance and its ability to
create jobs. WTO estimates that about 100 million people
WTO itself expects that by 2010 the European share of worldwide are employed in this sector, which accounts for
international arrivals will have fallen to 50.8 per cent from about 10 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP).
the 1970 figure of 68.1 per cent, a drop of 17.3 percentage Where employment is concerned, jobs are being created 1.5
points, while the Asia and the Pacific region will have times faster in the tourist industry than in any other. The
increased its share by the same amount, from 3 per cent to tourism sector generated 8 per cent of world exports in
20.3 per cent. Africa will also have achieved an increase of 1997, and 30 per cent of service sector exports. The World
2.6 points by that same year, with a share of 3.8 per cent. Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents
Thus, WTO predicts that by 2020 China will be the the leading companies in the sector, depicts the situation in
world’s leading destination, with 130 million travellers, an even more favourable light, calculating that tourism is
while Hong Kong will be in fifth place with 56.5 million. In responsible for 190 million jobs worldwide, or 8 per cent of
between will be the three leading tourism powers of today: total employment, and accounts for 11.7 per cent of GDP.
France, the United States and Spain. It estimates that the sector will generate 5.5 million jobs a
Poorer countries will also be contributing more travellers year up to 2010. As regards GDP, the figure put forward is
to this international tourist flow, although the numbers will us$3.5 trillion. Also according WTTC figures, 698 million
still be relatively small. Thus, in 2020 the main countries of people travelled to a foreign country in 2000, spending
origin will still be the same, except that China will have more than us$478 billion. International tourism revenues
emerged in fourth place and the Russian Federation will be combined with passenger transport accounted for

Table 27  Economic impact of tourism (1999)

GDP (% of Total) Employment (% of Total)
  1. Caribbean 20.6   1. Oceania 16.0
  2. Other European countries 15.4   2. Caribbean 15.8
  3. Oceania 14.7   3. Europe (except EU) 15.6
  4. European Union 14.1   4. European Union 14.5
  5. North America 11.8   5. North America 11.9
  6. Sub-Saharan Africa 11.2   6. Central and Eastern Europe 11.7
  7. Central and Eastern Europe 11.1   7. North Africa 7.4
  8. South-East Asia 10.6   8. Sub-Saharan Africa 7.4
  9. North-East Asia 10.0   9. South-East Asia 7.3
10. Middle East 7.3 10. North-East Asia 7.1
11. North Africa 6.8 11. Middle East 6.1
12. Latin America 5.6 12. Latin America 6.0
13. South Asia 5.3 13. South Asia 5.4
Source: WTTC.

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us$575 billion – making tourism the world’s number one Tourism also plays a vital role in Oceania, providing
export earner, ahead even of automotive products, chemicals, 14.7 per cent of GDP and 16 per cent of employment. The
petroleum and food. two largest countries in the area, Australia and New
In most countries, the work of developing tourism Zealand, are major magnets for tourism and their
involves different government departments, essentially industries account for 13.8 per cent and 16.9 per cent of
those responsible for infrastructure, cultural heritage and GDP respectively.
the environment, although the size of the sector means that
this involvement is extending to more and more public and
private actors who understand the importance of tourism The impact on developing countries
promotion policies and the value that these can add.
The growing socio-economic importance of tourism Tourism is seen as an opportunity to stimulate development
resulted in the creation of the World Tourism Organization,9 in areas that face obstacles to the creation of wealth through
which commenced operations in 1975. By 1999, it had a the industrial sector. The new jobs and foreign currency
membership of 138 countries and more than 350 affiliate that tourism brings, and the opportunities it offers to
members representing local governments, tourism trade develop new infrastructure, are the main attractions for
associations and companies in the sector. WTO has been these countries.
an executive agency of the United Nations Development Developing tourism involves the creation of infrastructure
Programme since 1976, and its primary objective is ‘through and facilities (airports, highways, sewage systems) that can
tourism … to stimulate economic growth and job creation, help to improve living conditions for those who inhabit
provide incentives for protecting the environment and tourist destinations, although in a good many cases the
cultural heritage, and promote peace, prosperity and respect benefits brought by tourism have not translated into
for human rights’. To this end, it is actively involved in improvements for the local population. Likewise, tourism
compiling tourism statistics, holding conferences, publishing offers an opportunity to capitalize on existing cultural and
research and sponsoring specific tourism policy proposals. natural resources, generating the revenue needed for
conservation and improvement work. Programmes to revive
places of historical and natural interest, such as the
The impact on developed countries designation of World Heritage sites by UNESCO, have
helped reinvigorate many cities in the Third World that
This has led numerous countries and supranational bodies have found ways of generating revenue from tourism.
to implement specific tourism policies with a view to The Caribbean is an example of tourism’s importance,
stimulating this activity and encouraging its positive effects. since in this region tourism generates as much as 20.6 per
The European Union, for example, while it has not elected cent of GDP and 15.8 per cent of employment. In the
to set up a specific directorate general for tourism, smaller tourist islands (Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, the
notwithstanding the importance of the industry to the EU Cayman Islands), tourism accounts for more than 50 per
economy, has launched a number of programmes to develop cent of GDP and similar percentages of employment. Even
the sector, such as Philoxenia, or to create data transmission in the larger islands, tourism is hardly less important to
networks that serve its needs (MINTOUR and national economies. The shares of GDP and employment it
Intourisme).10 It has also provided the sector with structural accounts for are, respectively, 14.9 per cent and 13.2 per
funds that have enabled transport infrastructure and cent in Cuba, 22.1 per cent and 19 per cent in the Dominican
environmental improvement works to be undertaken, with Republic and 35.7 per cent and 28.2 per cent in Jamaica.12
a positive effect on tourism. The ease with which some resources can be exploited for
Tourism is one of the leading economic sectors in tourism purposes (beaches, natural areas, cultural
Europe. It is estimated to employ 9 million people directly attractions), compared to the greater difficulties usually
in the European Union, or 6 per cent of the total workforce, entailed by industrial development, is stimulating the
a figure that is expected to rise to 9 per cent over the coming development of this activity in Third World countries. In
years. As Table 27 shows, WTTC calculates that tourism many cases, however, it is left to foreign investors from
accounts for 14.1 per cent of GDP and 14.5 per cent of richer countries to create facilities for travellers, and it is
employment in the European Union.11 their large hotel chains that usually take the lead in fostering
Spain depends more heavily on tourism than any other tourism in these places. Spanish hotel chains, for example,
country in the European Union, with 22.7 per cent of the play a vital role in tourism operations in certain areas of the
country’s GDP and 24.3 per cent of jobs being generated by Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Maya
the industry, according to WTTC. In exceptionally tourist- Riviera in Mexico), investing heavily in the construction of
oriented regions, such as the Balearic Islands, the service large luxury tourism complexes. Companies from the
sector, largely catering for tourism, generates 84 per cent United States and other powers have also played a very
of GDP. Thanks to this activity, per capita income in large role in the development of the hotel trade, in both
the islands is above the European average, and the cities and holiday resorts. There are cases, therefore, where
unemployment rate is well below the national average. the development of tourism has not resulted in major
In the North American continent, the turnover of the improvements for the local population, since local private
tourist industry is also very large, accounting for 11.8 per companies and public authorities have played only a very
cent of GDP and 11.9 per cent of employment. In the small role in such growth.
United States, tourism accounts for 12.1 per cent of GDP One result of all this has been the creation of luxury
and 13.2 per cent of employment, while the figures for tourist ghettos in very poor regions. Striking examples of
Canada are slightly higher, at 13.6 per cent and 14.9 per such places, from which the local population is virtually
cent respectively. debarred except when it is called upon to provide labour, are

535
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to be found in the three countries mentioned above, and in Travel books and tourist guides
many other countries of the Caribbean and the Third
World. Varadero in Cuba, Playa Bávaro and Puerto Plata Travel has captured the imagination of writers since
in the Dominican Republic and Playa del Carmen in Mexico earliest times. Numerous authors have given the best of
are a few examples. In these areas, furthermore, tourist themselves to travel writing. It is not until travel began to
complexes market an ‘all inclusive’ system, which means take place on a mass scale, however, that we can properly
that tourists virtually never leave their hotels throughout speak of ‘tourist guides’. Little by little, these gained
their stay, or do so only to go on planned excursions. ground in travel literature. Now, at the close of the century,
most tourists preparing to visit a country begin their
journey in the company of one of the guides produced by
The adverse effects of tourism the major publishing houses. Let’s Go, Michelin, Footprint
and Lonely Planet are some of the most popular guide
Despite everything that has been said, the development of collections, with publications on a large number of tourist
tourism is not without its costs. Tourism can make severe destinations.
demands on land, so that uncontrolled development may The main difference between travel books and tourist
result in very adverse effects on the area where it takes place, guides is that the former seek to provide readers with a
leading to irreversible changes in the environment and literary re-creation of a journey, while the latter aim to
landscape. supply them with a body of useful information to orient
Thus, for example, much of the Mediterranean coastline their travels. From the reader’s point of view, the essential
has sustained this kind of impact, and it has been most difference lies in the fact that travel books are read for their
substantial in those areas that were the first to develop, such literary value without there necessarily being any intention
as certain parts of the Côte d’Azur, the Balearics, the Costa to make the journey described, while guides are normally
Brava, the Costa del Sol, and the Italian Riviera, where tons acquired once the decision has been taken to visit the
of concrete in the form of hotels have transformed the destination they cover.
shoreline. Acapulco, Miami, Rio de Janeiro and many other Books are no longer the only format for travel guides,
places on the American continent have also sustained a very however. The major tourist destinations now have video
serious impact on their landscapes. At present, the guides as well. Furthermore, while there have been travel
development of the Maya Riviera in Mexico, stretching programmes on television for many years now, the
from Cancún almost to Belize, is also attracting strong appearance of cable and satellite television has allowed
criticism from environmental groups because of its impact specialist travel channels to appear (Travel in the United
on a natural area of outstanding value. Kingdom, for example, and Viajar in Spain). These
Furthermore, when millions of people visit certain broadcast documentaries are cast in the form of travel
natural and cultural attractions, the effects may be the guides, one example being those of the Lonely Planet
opposite of what the exploitation of these resources was production company.
originally intended to achieve, such as conservation and
improvement. The crowds visiting the Maya and Aztec
pyramids of Mexico have caused them damage, for example, The promotional image
while excursions to view dolphins, whales or the hatching of
particular animals can also have a negative influence on As the industry sees it, the image of the tourism product is
certain ecosystems. the global perception of tourism opportunities available
These negative consequences have given rise to the that is formed in the mind of the potential traveller by a
concept of ‘sustainable tourism’, the aim of which is to range of information processes.
harmonize tourism with its surroundings. Tourism has A large number of communication resources are involved
thus been included in the Agenda 21 programme13 as one of in these processes: the education system, the media,
the few industries capable of creating an economic incentive promotional brochures, promotional videos and CD-
for environmental conservation, provided that it is managed ROMs, videotext, travel guides, global distribution systems,
with a view to sustainable development. travel agencies, advertising by tour operators, attendance at
fairs, personal contacts, national tourism offices and foreign
embassies and, most recently, the Internet. These sources of
I nformation and communication information can be supplemented at the point of destination
by information offices, media, electronic information
Tourism is inseparable from information and booths, brochures and personal contacts with guides and
communication. The whole industry is ultimately based on tour operators, tourism staff and so on.
the psychological motivations that lead people to travel, to The impact and economic importance of tourism have
look beyond the home for whatever they have begun to led both the private and public sectors to invest substantially
imagine in their own surroundings. The motivations for in promotional activities aimed at influencing this process
tourism arise out of information and would be inexplicable of image formation. Thus, in 1997, national agencies
if various cultural factors were not taken into consideration: promoting tourism spent a total of us$1.08 billion,14 a
education, the media, the tourism industry itself and its use figure that does not include spending by the regional
of advertising and promotion. bodies, which in many countries, such as Spain and the
The tourism-culture-communication nexus has not United States, carry out the bulk of public promotion
aroused the academic interest it deserves, however. By way of work.
introduction, we shall make some observations here on the This concern to improve the image of destinations is due
many fields of interest that arise from these interconnections. to the importance of potential travellers’ decision-making

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processes. Tourism differs from other products in that it front pages. Use of the Internet to choose destinations,
cannot be inspected at first hand by the buyer and is a transport systems, hotels, restaurants and activities will
composite of several services provided by companies that grow over the coming years. This will require a major effort
are often located in different countries. These promotional by all tourism actors, as they will need to adapt their current
images have to compete with all sorts of messages put out information formats to the new generation of digital
by other sources with greater penetration and credibility, communications.
such as personal contacts, news and the cinema.
The messages sent out by destinations are not
homogeneous, as they can originate from a large number of T he cultural dimension : world
actors in the tourism process. Thus, at a first level, destinations for local
communication of this kind may originate from the local imaginations
industry and public-sector promotional agencies. At a
second level in the process are industry intermediaries, the The cultural dimensions of tourism are to be sought in the
travel agencies and tour operators, while at the final level are values (meanings) that determine the social practices of this
the communications media, which relay information from phenomenon in the modern world. What are the motives,
all the above actors. the stimuli, that impel people to travel to or stay in other
The promotional image is characterized, obviously, by its places for tourist purposes? Who conditions these values,
exclusive focus on the positive aspects of the destination, and how? Where do they originate?
while the negative aspects can be found, along with the Travel in our time, like mass culture and communication,
positive ones, in information from independent sources is very different from what it was in previous eras when
such as news, films, travel books, personal contacts, etc. what predominated were risk, adventure and rites of passage.
As a number of studies have shown,15 changing the image The mystique of pilgrimages in the Middle Ages, or the
of a tourist destination is an extraordinarily slow process, adventure of discovery in modern times, are examples that
despite all the money that may be poured into it. In cases show how far most of the cultural practices of modern
where dramatic, violent events occur, such as terrorist tourism have moved away from those of earlier times.
attacks, coups d’état and natural disasters, or where the It is not unusual to find today’s tourist advertising
destination hosts events that receive wide international campaigns dwelling on concepts like ‘getting away’, ‘leaving
coverage (Olympic Games, football World Cups, universal it all behind’ or ‘taking a break’. Increasingly, tourist travel is
exhibitions), change may be quicker, however.16 In the case being promoted as a way of escaping from one’s ‘own world
of some destinations, such as Florida and Egypt, it has taken of work’.18 Less and less is it seen as a rite of interaction, in
years for tourism levels to recover after tourists have been the sense of opening up to new cultural experiences. Modern
murdered, despite the resources expended in the effort to tourism is associated to an ever greater extent with the
improve their image. The same thing happened with China satisfaction and pleasure of holiday situations. Adventure
after the events in Tiananmen Square.17 sports are the exception that confirms the rule.
Globalization (of design, consumption and symbology)
has made the same type of commodities available in the
The advent of the Internet farthest flung parts of the world, settings tailored to the
tastes and needs of Western travellers that leave very little
The introduction and development of new information space for the representation of local differences.
technologies has had a major impact on tourist information. This situation, which has been termed the
These new technologies have been seen by tourist ‘McDonaldization of society’,19 is particularly evident in the
destinations and companies as an opportunity to make case of business travel, which accounts for about 40 per cent
direct contact with potential customers more effectively and of all travellers’ movements in the world. Business travellers,
at lower cost, in a process that has been termed like sun and sand travellers, pass through airports, taxis,
‘disintermediation’. hotels, restaurants, bars and conference halls that are all
Thus, the platforms where communication normally designed to the same criteria of comfort and profitability.
takes place in the world of tourism, such as large fairs, have As is generally the case with modern culture, this
had to share this role with new ones, such as the Internet phenomenon needs to be interpreted in the light of the new
and data transmission networks applied to tourism. dialectic between the global and the local.
Printed brochures are under threat from multimedia The culture of the destination is not necessarily the
CD-ROMs, which have certain advantages such as the culture that the traveller will encounter upon arrival. Any
ability to include sounds and moving images in part of the globe can now be the setting for standard
presentations, something that can enhance the interest of Western tourist culture, or even the traveller’s own local
their contents. culture. Even visits to emblematic places end up being made
As already mentioned, digital satellite and cable television outside of the context that gave birth to them. Many tourist
have opened the way for channels specializing in tourism, practices involve a change of physical territory but not of
but also for tour operators selling exclusively their own cultural territory. This is the result not just of modern forms
products on a television channel, one example being TV of air travel, which seem to destroy any perception of the
Travel Shop (United Kingdom). In some countries, teletext real distance and route covered, but also of the introduction
is also a very important tourism sales device. of a few (Western) standard settings everywhere in the
The Internet is unquestionably destined to play a crucial world. Airports, airport corridors, bars, duty-free shops,
role in tourist organization and information in the future. shopping centres and hotel chains are significant examples
Already, all the major search engines (Yahoo, Infoseek, of this cosmopolitan continuum that stretches around the
AOL, Olé, etc.) include a tourism or travel section on their globe.

537
 thematic section

The spread of golf courses, with green fairways and hills Chapel, or Barcelona without standing in front of Gaudi’s
in arid zones, is one of the most startling examples of this buildings, or Paris without visiting the Louvre.
stage-setting, this transposition not only of symbolic Tourists are interested most especially in experiencing
referents but also of social practices from one’s own local the sensation (the ritual?) of having been in the emblematic
context to another local context. places of the world: the Trevi Fountain, Sugar Loaf
This tendency towards globalization and the resulting Mountain, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the
concealment of the destination’s local cultures is being Berlin Wall, the Tower of London, the Plaza de Mayo, the
reinforced still further by new communication technologies, Bridge of Sighs, Lenin’s tomb, the Sagrada Familia, the
and particularly by satellite technology, which enables Pyramids. These places are of different types, some being
travellers to carry on connecting to their local television artistic or historical in nature while others are urban
stations from any hotel in the world. landmarks, and they differ greatly in their meaning and
This ‘semanticization’ of tourism is also being influenced artistic value. What they do have in common, however, is
by the process of convergence between the tourist industry the symbolic value of identification with a different and
and the multinational communication industries. Theme exceptional place. These are fleeting visits, but they are
parks such as Disneyland are striking examples of this enough to provide the background for a family photograph,
convergence, where film fiction becomes ‘reality fiction’. to construct the memory ‘of having been there’ which is
Indeed, Walt Disney is no longer just a communication perpetuated, finally, through the purchase of ‘souvenirs’ of
multinational but a tourism multinational as well. Besides some kind, authentic expressions of kitsch.
its theme parks, it owns hotels, cruise liners and even a Tourist guides mark these great sites with multiple stars.
‘theme’ island, situated in the Bahamas, for its cruise But these stars are now shared with other, less historic
passengers. Universal also has large theme parks, one of referents from the cinema, television, celebrity magazines or
them in Orlando. Sony has stated its readiness to make a more recent literary traditions. As an anecdotal example, we
forceful entry into the world of tourism. may mention the case of a bar in Madrid where the following
In these circumstances, the place of destination, the humorous notice can be read: ‘Hemingway never came to
accommodation available and the local culture tend to this bar’.
become less relevant, with greater importance being attached The scheduling of travel at holiday times and the new
to pre-packaged themes or better climate and environmental cultural forms of leisure in more developed societies,
conditions. Sun and theming, rather than interpersonal combined with the cult of the body, have lent increasing
communication and interaction with the local culture, seem importance to another of the great referents of the tourist
to be the determining factors in mass tourism consumption dream: the climatic and environmental referent, chiefly sun
at the present time. and sand, the culture of heat and skin pigmentation. It is
This accounts for such emblematic cases as that of the true that these referents are combined with historical or
hotels and beaches of Varadero, where it can be said that artistic ones, but it is no less true that in many instances
some travellers go to Cuba ‘without passing through Cuba’, they are the only value or referent for tourism that is
or that of Mallorca, where a British visitor can eat baked conducted thousands of miles from home and is virtually
beans on toast for breakfast, stroll along streets full of bereft of contact with the indigenous population and its
English signs, enjoy a Manchester-Liverpool football match culture.
in the pub and dance to the latest music in a discotheque
where the DJ has a London accent.
National images for tourists

Tourism: local referents and cultural interaction Because of all these factors, the production of symbols to
represent cities, countries and regions in the world tourism
Intercultural analyses20 reveal how important an individual’s market has taken on greater and greater importance.
own cultural influences are in the interpretation of cultures. The aim of these campaigns has to be to attract visitors,
These interpretations also account for the behaviour of appealing to their imagination without violating the image
those who participate in mass tourism today. Consequently, of the indigenous populations themselves. All kinds of
it can be said that the desire to travel originates not just in conflicts and discrepancies arise between the tourist image
the destination culture but also, or chiefly, in the culture of that is projected for each country and its actual image,
origin. whether it is the personality of its inhabitants, the
The typology of tourism given earlier sets out differences characteristics of its townscape or its natural features that
in the referents sought by travellers (third age tourism, are involved.
holidaymaking, business travel, youth tourism), but all This production and selection of symbols to identify
these referents can be resolved into a limited number of tourist destinations has become one of the great issues of
patterns. modern cultural policies, owing to the numerous symbolic
The desire to travel arises out of some type of ‘dream’ and economic implications it entails.
constructed by the cultural apparatus of each society: Modern tourism determines a country’s image in terms
education, religion, media (cinema, television, celebrity of what it has to offer tourists, forcing it to adapt its
magazines), promotional campaigns, etc. But these dreams identifying features to the conditions of its tourist market,
are increasingly being induced by promotional strategies so that certain aspects are given priority over others. This is
designed to benefit the major tourist circuits. the case with Australia and its relationship with Japan, or
Historical and cultural referents remain important as the European Union in the way internal tourism is
motives for travel. But ‘experiences’ are what are essential. promoted, or Mexico in relation to visitors from the United
The traveller cannot leave Rome without ‘doing’ the Sistine States.

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Opportunities and difficulties for intercultural dialogue 14. Data supplied to the authors by WTO.
15. W. Gartner and J. D. Hunt, ‘An analysis of state
Tourism, therefore, represents a great array of risks and image change over a twelve-year period (1971–1983)’,
opportunities, and is a primary focus of the new cultural in Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1987,
policies. The way ahead must be to strengthen the agents of pp. 15–19.
cultural permeability between visitors and visited (services, 16. For the case of Barcelona in 1992, see M. De Moragas
taxi drivers, hoteliers, shopkeepers, musicians) and to avoid and M. Botella (eds.), The Keys to Success, Barcelona, 1995.
unsustainable tourism models, represented by the walls of 17. W. Gartner and J. Shen, ‘The impact of Tiananmen
the new tourist ghettos whose basis is the exploitation of Square on China’s tourism image’, in Journal of Travel
territory without any beneficial interaction among all the Research, Vol. 30, No. 4, 1992, pp. 47–52.
different parties involved. 18. R. Ortiz, Otro territorio, Bogota, 1999.
Above all, this great mass phenomenon needs to be 19. G. Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, 1993.
harnessed for the promotion of interculturality. This will 20. M. De Moragas and N. Rivenburgh (eds), Television
unquestionably mean drawing on all the potential of the in the Olympics, London, 1996.
cultural heritage, which, as UNESCO has observed on 21. UNESCO, Round Table of Experts on Culture,
various occasions,21 constitutes the main cultural dimension Tourism, Development: Crucial issues for the twenty-first
of tourism. century, Paris, 1997.
Furthermore, tourism policies and the resources that can
be generated through them should allow the poorest
countries to create their own cultural policies and defend
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large multinationals referred to here, but should become ASCHER, F. 1985. Tourism: Transnational Corporations and Cultural
one of the priority objectives of modern cultural policies. Identities. UNESCO, Paris.
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~chrisp/atomic.html. Images of Tourists. In: Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 16, No. 1,
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Council, United Nations, March 1999. Publicity and Marketing to Sell Towns and Regions. John Wiley,
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Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Canada. HUDMAN, L. E. and HAWKINS, D. E. (eds). 1989. Tourism in
8. Data supplied to the authors by WTO. Contemporary Society: An Introductory Text. Prentice Hall,
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http://www.world-tourism.org. Cities Campus, MN.
10. MINTOUR is a public service consisting of a network JOHNSON, P. and THOMAS, B. (eds). 1992. Perspectives on Tourism
of multimedia information servers that provides private- Policy. Mansell, London.
sector industry, travellers and public-sector agencies with KINNAIRD, V. and HALL, D. 1994. Tourism: A Gender Analysis. John
information on the European tourism sector. The Wiley, Chichester, UK.
Intourisme project pursues similar objectives through the KOTLER, P. , HAIDER, D. H. and REIN, I. 1993. Marketing Places:
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11. The figures provided by WTTC consider both the of Leisure and Travel. Heinemann Professional Publishing,
direct and indirect impact of tourism on the economy so Oxford, UK.
that they include, for example, hotel construction. LANFANT, M.-F. , ALLCOCK, J. B. and BRUNER, E. M. (eds). 1995.
12. WTTC data (http://wttc.org). International Tourism: Identity and Change. Sage, London.
13. Agenda 21 is the programme of action agreed upon at LEONG, W. T. 1989. Culture and the State: Manufacturing Traditions
the Environment Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to for Tourism. In: Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol. 6,
promote sustainable development. No. 4, December, pp. 355–75.

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LUGER, K. 1990. Perfekte Völkermissverständigung. Wie SHAW, G. and WILLIAMS, A. M. 1994. Critical Issues in Tourism: A
Massenmedien und Tourismus das Bild von der Dritten Welt Geographical Perspective. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
prägen. [Perfect Miscommunication: How Mass Media and SILVER, I. 1993. Marketing Authenticity in Third World
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Entwicklungspolitik, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 5–23. pp. 302–18.
MCINTOSH, R. W., GOELDNER, C. R. and BRENT RITCHIE, J. R. 1995. SINCLAIR, M. T. and STABLER, M. J. 1991. The Tourism Industry: An
Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophies. John Wiley, New York. International Analysis. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.
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PEARCE, D. G. 1994. Tourist Development. Longman, London. particular de la imagen de Mallorca en la prensa británica. Doctoral
 and BUTLER, R. W. 1993. Tourism Research: Critiques and Challenges. thesis. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona,
Routledge, London. Spain.
ROJEK, C. and URRY, J. (eds). 1997. Touring Cultures: Transformations WACKERMANN, G. 1988. Le tourisme international. Armand Colin,
of Travel and Theory. Routledge, London and New York. Paris.

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 29.7
THE Individual and Information
Technologies

Jörg Becker

INTRODUCTION the social sense of the term, can only realize the specific
expression of its genetic potential as a social being – as a
In the Northern industrial democracies, the prevailing personality – through society; (2) empirically it is debatable
wisdom is that the principles laid down in declarations of whether increasing modernization entails increasing
human rights and individual constitutions are based on the individualization; it is conceivable that an empirically
dignity of the individual. The latter is the be-all and end-all determined increase in individualization is simply based on
of political theory. Historically, the individual is the result selective perception and self-fulfilling prophesies on the
of the emancipation of the bourgeoisie from the feudal part of the researchers; (3) from a normative perspective
order – through the Renaissance in Italy, the Protestant too, it is debatable whether an increase in individualization
Reformation in Germany, and the 1789 Revolution in is desirable, since such a development could lead to the so-
France. In the eighteenth century, political philosophy called hedonism trap.
discovered the self, which possesses autonomy, uniqueness, But the gravest objection is that a political philosophy
and dignity. Against this background, the individual is based on the individual is Eurocentric, both de facto and
conceived of as an independent being, capable of reason and from a normative point of view. Neither ancient Greece nor
will. Linked to the concept of the individual is that of Islamic law, neither the cosmic philosophies of India, nor
privacy. This Latinate word appears in German for the first Japanese and Chinese ethics, recognize individual
time in the sixteenth century, in the age of Luther, and entitlement under law. Rather, the individual is recognized
specifically refers to that sphere of life which is divided off not as an autonomous being but as a member of the
from the state. In these countries, the prevailing wisdom is community, and only as such does the individual enjoy
that the individual’s private sphere is to be protected from political rights. In the human rights debate, this has led to
interference by the state. This is the main idea behind both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) being
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), with its augmented by social rights, through the two pacts of 1966,
omnipresent Big Brother, and the many data protection the one on civil and political rights and the other on
laws that have been passed since the beginning of economic, social and cultural rights. The Vienna Human
the 1970s. Rights Conference of 1993 also recognizes the coexistence
The degree to which the concepts of the individual and of individual and social rights.
of privacy are presently undergoing a historical change is The German social philosopher Theodor W. Adorno
made clear by the French cultural historian Philippe Ariès has insisted on maintaining the vision that individual
in his work Histoire de la Vie Privée (1985–87): the term freedom be the highest norm worth striving for. Yet with
‘individualism’ appeared in Europe only as late as 1850. equal emphasis he has insisted that the consumerist
Following the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, character of capitalism destroys all individuality and that
the historical growth in individualism is synonymous with under capitalist conditions there can be no free unfolding of
the process of modernization and civilization. On the one individual potential.
side of the dichotomy between traditionality and All developments in information technology and the
rationalization stand concepts such as family, stability, low mass media which touch on the dignity of the individual
political participation and inward orientation, while on the must be considered within this area of conflict between
other, that of modernity, stand concepts such as individual, individual, society and state.
mobility, high political participation and outward
orientation. At the present time in Europe, the tradition of
the Weberian modernization theory is represented by the P rivacy
English social scientist Antony Giddens and by the German
sociologist Ulrich Beck. Data protection raises the problem as to the conditions
A political philosophy that places the individual at the under which society’s conduct in the information field can
centre of its deliberations finds itself the target of criticism be made acceptable to the members of that society. Whereas
from a number of directions: (1) All schools of contemporary this problem was first recognized as being socially relevant
sociology start out from the premise that the individual, in under eighteenth century absolutism, it is the ancient legal

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institutions of a priest’s duty to remain silent and medical in particular data on health, on illegal acts, and on
confidentiality that may serve as the historically most religious and political views.
important precedents for the current debate on electronic – The laws regulate data processing by the authorities
data processing and privacy. In the field of medicine the and by natural and legal persons, thus interfering in a
Hippocratic oath (named after the Greek doctor range of social relationships.
Hippocrates, 460–377 bc) includes the rule of medical – As interpreted by most data protection laws, personal
confidentiality. In the history of the Church, the seal of data refer only to natural persons. In some countries,
confession became important as the Church went over to data protection laws also extend to legal persons.
receiving confessions of non-public sins in private. In 1983, the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal
Historically, this change can be dated by a decree of Charles Republic of Germany passed down a decision of general
the Great in the early ninth century. A definitive regulation principle on the relationship of data protection to the
in canonical law took place at the Lateran Council of 1215, constitution. For two reasons, this decision is of outstanding
at which life-long imprisonment was decreed for violation significance for the position of the individual vis-à-vis the
of the seal of confession. During the Spanish Inquisition, in state. Through this decision, the court created the so-called
the thirteenth century, the debate between theologians and right of each citizen to informational self-determination.
canonical lawyers over the seal of confession came to a crisis According to this decision, a democratic society can exist
because the problem arose as to whether the seal of only if each citizen knows ‘who knows what, when, and
confession applied to heretics too. under what circumstances about him or her.’ In addition,
In this area of conflict between silence and speech, what is new about this decision is its shifting of the burden
between secrecy and transparency, between privacy and of proof. It is not the legitimacy of the authority to process
openness, historical precedents for the current debate on personal data, but rather the legitimacy of the authority to
data protection may be seen not only in protective laws but make use of such data without, or even against, the
also in basic principles concerning what is public information. permission of those affected, that must now be specifically
In this respect mention must be made of the first Swedish established.
press law of 1766, which for the first time both admitted The whole debate on data protection is, first of all, for the
and regulated access to public documents. most part a product of the 1970s and early 1980s. Secondly
In most industrial countries, the data protection laws it essentially starts out from a Western European legal and
that have existed since the early 1970s are to be understood constitutional understanding of the individual and the
as a reaction to technology, specifically to electronic data latter’s human dignity. In North America the debate on
processing. This is by no means a natural consequence. For data protection resulted in the US Privacy Act of 1974
instance, the data protection laws passed in Hungary in the and the Canadian Privacy Act of 1983. Right from the
early 1980s were not a reaction to technology but the beginning, this debate had less status in North America
expression of a political struggle to assert legal and civil than it has had in Western Europe. At the end of the 1970s,
rights against a centralized one-party state. This fact has, the US Congressional Privacy Protection Study
incidentally, led to the creation of something unique to Commission established that the Privacy Act was de facto
Hungarian law. The country’s data protection laws apply meaningless. Kevin G. Wilson advanced a similar argument:
not only to natural and legal persons but also to organizations in the interests of efficiency and control, government
not having a legal personality, i.e. to citizens’ action groups bureaucracies and the commercial interests of the privately
and above all to human rights groups, for it is precisely the owned information industry have overshadowed any legal
status of the latter which these laws were designed to right to privacy.1 David Banisar even went so far as to say
protect. that the privacy policy of the US Government has, since the
The first data protection law in the world was passed in seventies, ‘fallen into a coma’.2
the German federal state of Hesse in 1971. Together with In 1995, the European Parliament and the European
the German Federal Data Protection Act of 1977, it owes Union promulgated a Directive on the protection of
much to the foregoing debate on privacy in the USA. As is individuals with regard to the processing of personal data
the case with the US Privacy Act of 1974, most data and on the free movement of such data. This Directive
protection laws are oriented towards the rights of the obligates member countries to regulate the collection and
individual. They are understood to be a concretization of transmission of personal data not only within their own
the national constitution of the country in question, states, but also to other member states within the European
specifying that which in many constitutions is covered by Union. As such, the Directive sparked an immediate
such terms as the free development of personality or the international controversy. The focus of contention was
dignity of the individual. Articles 25 and 26, which regulate the transmission of data
Most data protection laws conform to the following basic to non-member states. This Directive was and is of such
principles with respect to the area in which they are operative great significance because its Article 25 regulates the
and are applied: international information market in a completely new way.
– The laws regulate only the protection of personal According to this Directive, the international transmission
data. of personal data must be restricted in those cases in which
– For the most part, the laws regulate not how such data the recipient, non-EU country does not have an ‘adequate’
are handled in general but how their misuse is to be policy on the privacy rights of the individual, even if this
avoided. call subverts international trade. Put simply, the EU’s
– They refer only to electronic data processing and position is ‘no privacy, no trade’. This position brought a
exclude records and collections of records on paper. storm of American and Japanese protests down on the
– In many laws, the concept of protection is not litigable. EU. Behind this controversy is not simply an apparently
Yet what is considered worthy of protection includes obvious conflict between individual rights and international

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trade interests. The fact is rather that Europeans see one and the same: they are an expression of a deeply
privacy as a human right, whereas Americans see it merely hedonistic society.
as a civil right. Although almost every country on earth now includes
Most philosophies of data protection have to be seen the right to privacy in its constitution, in many places such
against the background of technological developments. legal entitlements are more a concession to international
More precisely, they reflect natural rights concepts norms than they are anchored in the country’s culture.
concerning the protection of the individual from the Big
Brother state – concepts which arose in the 1970s against
the background of the kind of mainframe electronic data C ensorship
processing that had been around since the 1950s. Such
individual rights to self-protection may have been effective If one understands by censorship, in general, control over
against stand-alone computers, but in the face of online people’s opinions backed up by force, then censorship has
global networks they are increasingly losing any function always existed throughout history. Taking, for instance, the
they had. The following examples illustrate some of the drastic example of book-burning as a specific form of post-
current difficulties in data protection: censorship, one finds that the first case of such destruction
– In the Northern industrial countries, video surveillance of written documents took place under the Chinese emperor
of public spaces and rooms is increasing at an ever- Shi Huangdi in the year 213 bc. (Books on agriculture and
faster rate. At the end of the 1990s, Great Britain is medicine were spared from destruction, and furthermore
probably the leader in the video surveillance of cities; a one copy of each text burnt was deposited in the state library
total of 500 urban councils have now installed full of Emperor Shi Huangdi.)
video coverage of their streets (Plate 172). As a controlling means to exclude undesirable
– In Germany at the end of the 1990s, several firms publications and to keep the rest in line with state ideology,
began to photograph all the houses in selected a pre-censorship has existed in Europe, in the Catholic
communes and to store these photographs in three- Church, since 1515. State censorship was established in all
dimensional electronic databases. European countries at approximately the same time.
– Interactive online networks and infrastructures In the era of bourgeois emancipation in Europe, when
strengthen the new direct marketing and list broker feudal structures were being cast off in the eighteenth and
sectors. By comparing a range of data, it is now possible nineteenth centuries, the struggle against censorship and
to identify individuals according to age, estimated for freedom of speech and the press took top priority. For
income, profession, hobby and interests. Such trends this reason, the First Amendment to the Constitution was
are encouraged by the global growth in personal smart passed in the USA in 1791. To this very day, in Americans’
cards. The global market for smart cards was expected understanding of constitutional priorities, freedom of
to top $4.2 billion in 2002. speech is more important than, for instance, the dignity of
– The storing of data obtained from DNA analysis – the individual, in contrast to many European constitutions.
so-called genetic fingerprinting – in modern And for this reason Americans’ understanding of what is
criminology, with all the resources of medicine and meant by freedom of speech goes much further than in
computer technology at its command, runs the danger most other countries. For instance the publication of fascist
of using personality and risk profiles to create a and racist hate literature is just as much protected by the
‘transparent individual’. First Amendment as is the public burning of the national
High-resolution cameras on board surveillance satellites flag.
can now achieve a resolution of 1 metre by 1 metre, i.e. a In Great Britain, press censorship was abolished as early
camera positioned in space can recognize a point on earth as 1694; in France it was swept away by the 1789 Revolution,
when it is only 1 metre from the next point. Since the end of although Napoleon introduced a press control system,
the 1990s, one can buy pictures from such surveillance which was extremely similar to censorship. In Germany and
satellites on the open market. The neighbour’s garden can Austria, censorship was finally removed in 1848 (although
be observed from space just as well as a political admittedly it was, in the subsequent period of restoration,
demonstration, traffic jams, or a close-combat battle in the replaced by such mechanisms as licences, the depositing of
desert in a future Gulf War. securities, and newspaper stamps). During the First World
If one takes a look at Sweden, one notes very clearly War, censorship was reintroduced in nearly all belligerent
that a complex dialectical relationship exists between countries. Naturally, such censorship measures have existed
secrecy and transparency. On the one hand, there can be de facto during wartime throughout the twentieth century,
no other country in the world in which the state has such even in the present.
comprehensive informational access to its citizens, as is In political philosophy, the question of censorship has
the case in Sweden. The system of personal identity been a subject of fierce debate in this area of conflict between
numbers created in 1964 accompanies every citizen in individual freedom of information and social responsibility
every administrative act from the cradle to the grave. But for a long time. Three quotations from classic philosophers
at the same time, Sweden is the one country on earth in illustrate this controversy.
which personal data protection is especially intensively In his Areopagitica (For the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing)
cultivated. The increase both in transparent information (1644), John Milton wrote: ‘There is yet behind of what I
and in secret information to be kept away from the public purposed to lay open, the incredible losse, and detriment
eye is characteristic of the general intensification of that this plot of licensing puts us to, more then if some
information, its communication and its exchange. Philippe enemy at sea should stop up all our havens and ports, and
Ariès has called Sweden a ‘transparent’ society. In it creeks, it hinders and retards the importation of our richest
individual data protection and individual data control are Merchandize, Truth … I mean not tolerated Popery, and

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open superstition, which … it self should be extirpate … the Index on Censorship journal, the French organization
That also which is impious or evil absolutely either against Reporters sans frontières, and the World Association of
faith or manners no law can possibly permit, that intends Newspapers. The latter, for instance, has stated that in 1998
not to unlaw it self.’ there were 117 journalists in prison around the world, and
Over 200 years later, in his treatise On Liberty (1859), that in that year a total of 28 journalists were murdered.
John Stuart Mill formulated a similar liberal position: Without doubt, the mechanisms of censorship are also
partly dependent on technology. In general it is true that
If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only digital global networking facilitates both censorship and
one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would avoidance of censorship. Whoever participates as an
be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, individual in an interactive electronic network leaves behind
if he had the power, would be justified in silencing a digital fingerprint, and can be localized and even subject to
mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no individual electronic censorship. The opposite is of course
value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the also true: state censorship is scarcely capable of stopping a
enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would skilled network guerrilla.
make some difference whether the injury was inflicted on At the end of the 1990s, precisely with reference to the
a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing Internet, there were numerous attempts made in many
an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity countries to prevent, repress or censor certain subject matter
as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from on the Web. Germany has laws prohibiting pornography
the opinion still more than those who hold it. If the and racism in cyberspace (1997), and Australia requires
opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of self-censorship by Internet Service Providers (1996). There
exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is are Japanese laws against Internet offences (1996). In China,
almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and Internet subscribers must register with the authorities
livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision (1996), and in Cuba there is control over individual access
with error. (1996). Malaysia monitors Internet contents (1996). Both
the Philippines and the Republic of Korea enacted Internet
And naturally, it was none other than Karl Marx who censorship measures in 1996.
took up arms against such a liberal attitude to censorship. The digitalization of information allows content to be
His starting point was not individual freedom of speech but manipulated in an infinite number of ways. Digital
the profit interests of newspaper publishers. Thus it is no photography allows a single image to be created from 500
wonder that he criticizes the contemporary French press in individual images or more. During a live broadcast of a
the following terms: ‘The French press is not too free; it is sports event taking place in Western Europe to an Islamic
not free enough. Although it is subject to no intellectual country, it is possible to cover up the open décolleté of a
censorship, it is subject to a material one, the depositing of woman sitting in the grandstand. Both examples (which are
large monetary securities. It thus functions according to from actual practice at the end of the 1990s) show that such
material laws precisely because it has been dragged out of its concepts as censorship, manipulation, consideration for
true sphere into the sphere of large-scale trade cultural sensibilities, or optimal targeting of a particular
speculations.’ audience without loss of intensity due to scattering, are by
This difference between a liberal approach to censorship no means clearly separable.
and one based on a theory of social responsibility is to this
very day the cause of differing constitutional opinions on
press censorship and freedom of speech in many countries. P ropaganda
In the countries of the former Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance (CMEA) and in most developing countries, the In 1621, under Pope Gregory XV, the Catholic Church set
social responsibility theory is far more important than any up a commission with the title Congregatio cardinalium de
based on liberal principles. propaganda fide – i.e. a commission for the propagation of
But censorship need not only be organized directly by the Christian faith among so-called heretics and heathens.
the state; it can also function via other mechanisms: (1) In But the history of the current meaning of the word
an act of self-censorship, the communicator (journalist, film propaganda, derived from the Latin propagare (to propagate
producer, newspaper editor) voluntarily distances himself or spread), begins only in the era of Bismarck, in the latter
from certain topics, or refrains from publishing certain third of the nineteenth century. In other words, propaganda
pictures; (2) in an act of group censorship, a moral, political is closely linked with technological progress in the history of
or economic pressure group intervenes in order to prevent the media. Both the means of delivering and the effectiveness
or restrict the dissemination of information; (3) volunteer of propaganda have grown and evolved from innovations in
organs of self-control (press councils, codes of ethics laid printing and the beginnings of film in the last century, to the
down by publishers’ or journalists’ associations) do not see beginnings of radio and TV in the 1920s and 1930s, to the
themselves as exercising censorship, although they do digitalized multimedia world that exists at the end of the
indeed regulate the selection of topics and of content. twentieth century. The twentieth century is a century of
The increasing significance of human rights in propaganda.
international politics in the last third of the twentieth The structure and history of mass media propaganda are
century has caused the question of censorship to grow in closely bound up with wars, with German fascism, with the
importance globally. Increasingly more organizations Soviet Union under Stalin, and later with the Cold War.
around the world collect and publish data on censorship The First World War saw an initial flourishing of
and on the political persecution of journalists, including the propaganda. In both France and Germany, war publications
International Press Institute, the International PEN Club, projected images of the enemy based on counterfeit

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photographs and pictures – in newspapers, on postcards, period (1933–45). On the contrary, both radio and film
and above all in the form of caricatures. were reserved mainly for entertainment purposes. The
The beginnings of radio in the early 1920s also saw the famous film theoretician Siegfried Kracauer bases his 1947
birth of international broadcasting, which was from the start theory of the ‘political in the unpolitical’ on this politically
closely tied to political propaganda. The history of motivated media policy.
international broadcasting may be divided into the following It is by no means a coincidence that what today are called
four phases: (1) colonial broadcasting (1927–32); (2) european the communication sciences began in the middle of the
war and propaganda broadcasting (1933–48); (3) Cold War Second World War, in the USA, as propaganda research.
broadcasting (1949–89); (4) commercialization, and hate The basis of this research was a simple stimulus-response
and crisis radio (1989–today). model involving a sender and a receiver, which was developed
Colonial radio began with the first broadcast by Radio and used for both political and commercial advertising
PCJJ from Eindhoven in the Netherlands on 1 July 1927. It campaigns.
was followed by Radio Moscow and the German A definition of the Cold War would be impossible
Weltrundfunksender (both 1929), the French Radio without the concept of propaganda. In contrast to a ‘hot’
Colonial and Radio Vaticana (both 1931), and the BBC war, i.e. a shooting war, political propaganda was the be-all
(1932). and end-all of the Cold War. And once again, in this era
Although the term propaganda has negative connotations international broadcasting played an outstanding role.
in most languages, being interpreted as an unadmitted or Between 1948 and 1949 alone, the CMEA countries
even secret intent on the part of the communicators to quintupled the number of their international broadcasts,
influence the opinion of an audience without the latter’s and the US stations pushed the BBC from the top of the
being aware of this influence, the German fascists employed international broadcasting league, until they in their turn
the term positively. As of 1933, Joseph Goebbels’ official were overtaken by the Soviet international broadcasting
title was Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda. stations at the end of the 1970s. The logic of the Cold War
The propaganda of the German fascists took the form of a also made it a proxy war between the USA and the USSR
rigorous bringing into line of all media. However, contrary for developing countries. Thus this period of international
to widely held opinion, radio was scarcely used as an broadcasting saw above all a flourishing of international
instrument of explicit political propaganda during the Nazi broadcasting stations in developing countries, led by Radio

Table 28  Activities by public relations agencies in wars, 1967–1993

Year Client Activity PR Agency
1967 Biafran provincial PR campaign led by American opinion makers Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs (USA)
government to support Biafran independence

1968 Nigerian central Improvement of own image in the European press Galitzine & Partners (Great Britain)
government in Lagos vis-à-vis the Biafran secessionists

1985 UNITA rebels in Improvement of UNITA image in US press Black & Manafort (USA)
Angola under
Jonas Savimbi

1986 Marxist government Improvement of Marxist government of Angola’s image Gray & Co (USA)
of Angola in US press

1990 Government of Kuwait PR campaign against Iraq, creation of negative image Hill & Knowlton (Great Britain)
of Iraq in the press

1991 Government of Croatia PR campaign among US politicians, government Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs (USA)
and members and officials, media counselling, organization
1992 of tours for politicians, support for Croatian war aims

1991 Provincial government Pro-Albanian PR campaign in the international media Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs (USA)
of Kosovo

1992 Government of Bosnia- Contact with media, founding of Bosnia Crisis Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs (USA)
Herzegovina Communication Centre, organization of press
conferences, international correspondence for the
government, placing of leading articles in New York Times

1993 Government of Croatia Intervention with American media politicians and Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs (USA)
scientists on behalf of Croatian war policy
Source: J. Becker, 1997, Kommunikation und Medien. In: Hauchler, Ingomar et al. (eds), Global Trends 1998, Frankfurt, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, p. 390.

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Beijing, Radio Cairo, Radio Pjongyang, Radio Havana, and a study on Echelon. The latter is a surveillance and control
Radio Tirana. system for the routine global tapping of fax, telex, email and
The latter third of the twentieth century has seen a telephone communication by United States secret services.
hitherto undreamed of increase in propaganda through the In the Echelon project, the USA works together with the
development of a new business sector: governments waging police and military forces of other countries.
war have commissioned public relations agencies to Historically there has always been a very intimate
manipulate the global press and to mislead global public relationship between communication and the military. The
opinion. Table 28 lists the most important activities of this latter has helped to create a whole range of new information
nature since the 1960s. One of the most outstanding technologies and media, for which it has itself had an
examples of this kind of propaganda work was the testimony insatiable need. And in peacetime, though much more so in
of the Kuwaiti girl Nayirah at a hearing before the US wartime, the military has controlled civilian communication
Congress in the spring of 1991 on Iraqi human rights structures.
violations in Kuwait in August 1990. The girl testified that Thus it is no wonder that it was the Swedish ministry of
Iraqi soldiers had thrown babies out of incubators in a defence that in 1979 for the first time drew global attention
Kuwaiti hospital. Whereas this ‘incubator story’ contributed to the growing vulnerability of modern computer networks.
to legitimizing US Gulf war policy, today we know that it The notion of deliberately destroying computer networks
was nothing more than a professionally prepared has given rise to what has been dubbed at the end of the
performance put on by a public relations agency that 1990s the ‘information war’. In future wars, it will not so
received a fee for its work. And incidentally, Nayirah was much be a question of causing the enemy material damage
later revealed to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador but of deliberately destroying his information structure.
to the United States.3 The focus of war will be, precisely, information war.
After the anonymous terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center in New York and the American Defence
C ontrol Ministry in Washington on 11 September 2001, many
states greatly intensified their surveillance measures and
According to the legend, Dionysos I of Syracuse (404– information controls. Since then, civil rights in the USA
367 bc) possessed a whole range of surveillance and control have been drastically curtailed by the Patriot Act. This act
instruments to keep an eye on communication. For instance, grants the state great possibilities in the realm of information
he is said to have listened in on conversations between technologies for bugging telephone calls and reading e-
prisoners in his dungeons, by means of long subterranean mails, prosecuting computer hackers inside (and outside)
passages with special acoustic qualities that led into his the USA. It also considerably restricts the Freedom of
house. He is also said to have set up megaphones in large Information Act, which, until now, has allowed citizens
stores, which were used to communicate orders. Everywhere access to view government files. In Germany too, state
in his palace, so it is said, there were speaking trumpets built control of information has been increased. Between 1995
into the walls which conveyed all conversations taking place and 2001 official surveillance of private telephone calls has
there to his agents, such that the ruler was always informed increased five-fold with currently about 22,000 surveillance
of what was currently preoccupying his courtiers. cases per year (needless to say without a parallel five-fold
In other words, then as now the media are technical increase in the number of successfully investigated crimes).
instruments with a dual-use character; as is the case with all In view of such trends, the German philosopher Jürgen
technologies, the media are always a means of control and Habermas speaks of a ‘restriction of the constitutional
rationalization in a comprehensive sense. They can be used rights of one’s own citizens’.
in both a communicatively liberating and a communicatively Information control is by definition especially difficult to
repressive manner, with concomitantly different effects. In establish in those cases in which it apparently takes place
this connection, Oliver Cromwell’s 1657 justification for with the agreement of those who are being controlled. In
enforcing use of the state postal system is notorious: ‘The the mass media, this is illustrated by the TV series Big
post will be one of the best means of discovering and Brother, which began in the Netherlands in 1999. In this
preventing dangerous and loathsome attacks against the series, 24 cameras register for 24 hours a day the activities of
Commonwealth.’ Here too it is clear that there exists a ‘volunteers’ in a closed living area. At regular intervals, TV
systematic connection between free and controlled viewers force one of the participants to leave the living space
communication. and end the game, voting by telephone or via the Internet.
What is true for the British postal system under Oliver Are the TV viewers controlling the game? What is the
Cromwell is of course also true for later information difference between players and viewers? Which party is the
technology. For instance, in 1920 the US Senate learned more cynical? Experts are labelling this type of TV
that all telegrams between the USA and Great Britain were programme ‘sensation’, ‘stress’, or ‘clink TV’ – it is has
being read by the British, on the orders of the British already been exported with great success. Control through
Admiralty in London. The background to this affair was as information technology and the mass media takes place
simple as it was alarming: the British Government had independently of whether power is exercised by government
granted the American telegraph company in question the or by private industry. Above all, it takes place in people’s
right to conduct its business, only on condition that it agree everyday lives. In industrial countries in the closing years of
to the British Secret Service’s plan of surveillance. This the twentieth century, socialization means above all media
example of American-British information control is the socialization. As agents of socialization, the mass media
classical precedent for the Echelon project of the late 1990s. make a significant contribution to members of society’s
In 1998 the Scientific and Technological Options ability to comply with a range of social norms and role
Assessment Program of the European Parliament published expectations, as they pass through social learning processes.

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Integration as a concept can scarcely be separated from Even from an economic perspective, rights of access to
socialization. The mass media are the most important agents information are both important and an explosive subject,
for integrating social communication. This is especially true since in many countries government is still by far the most
of many young nation states who achieved independence important and largest producer of information and
only after the 1960s. knowledge, in the following forms:
Admittedly, social control through the mass media has – public school and university systems;
proved to be problematic in many ways. Firstly, a shifting – offices for collecting statistics;
of the socialization process from primary to secondary – the production of information (including concomitant
(media) experiences increases alienation; secondly the publications) in all areas of public administration;
contents of media offerings are ethically questionable. Thus – extensive R&D activities financed by public funds;
as early as the 1970s, Luis Ramiro Beltrán, the ‘father’ of – government activity with reference to patents and
Latin American communications theory, established that standards.
the following twelve elements constitute the basic norms Contrary to popular belief, detailed access rights to
of the world of TV: individualism, elitism, racism, information and knowledge in public archives would have
materialism, adventurism, conservatism, conformism, considerable advantages for private industry:
defeatism, belief in fate, fixation on authority, romanticism – The ambiguous, unstable legal relationship between
and aggression. The large increase in the number of TV private and public information markets would become
channels since the 1980s has probably led to a strengthening more stable and predictable.
of these twelve basic media elements, rather than to – Public authorities would be forced to take precise
plurality. For it is a sobering observation that the stock of their information and knowledge, thus
multiplication of TV channels has not led to an enrichment allowing for more effective business practices.
in terms of content but simply to a multiplication of the – Clearly formulated rights of access to information
same old content. would reduce the number of publicly controlled
Whereas up into the 1980s social control exercised via copyrights, since under such clearly defined conditions
the mass media was demonstrably the result, effect and everybody would have the same right of access to the
function of conscious political action on the part of state same information.
and government, the deregulation of the mass media under Rights of access to information may conflict with other rights
the pretence of neo-liberalism is bringing this state of affairs (such as rights of personality, data protection rights, industrial
to an end. By pursuing a policy of deregulation, politics is secrets, and security interests). As in many other legal areas,
voluntarily handing over control of the mass media to the so in that of rights of access to information, there is a
markets. difference between de jure and de facto rights. For instance,
rights of access may be rendered ineffective by prohibitive
fees. In addition, rights of access to information assume the
A ccess existence of a knowledgeable citizenry that is aware of
possessing such rights. Thus rights of access can de facto be
First of all, rights of access to information are quite old, and effectively claimed – with some chance of success – only by a
secondly, they are derived from two differing legal traditions. socially privileged class of ‘information rich’.
Thus the legal instrument of access to official documents A consideration of rights of access to information are
was already recognized in the Swedish press law of 1766. (directly or indirectly) also to be found in all debates on social
This law exemplifies one of the two legal traditions, namely rights. But there can be no right to development, such as was
that of democratic control over government conduct with formulated in a UN document in 1978 by the African expert
respect to information. The second legal tradition is based in international law Kébe M’Baye, if there is no guarantee of
on the development of social rights in the form of access to information. A right of access to information
participatory rights. guaranteed in international law becomes more important,
In the European Union, national rights of access to and from the point of view of Southern countries more
public sources of information exist in Denmark, France, logical, the more the gap between the ‘information poor’
Greece, and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, such a (developing countries, small countries, national minorities,
right of access is even guaranteed by the constitution (Article impoverished sectors of the population in industrialized
110). In the USA, rights of access to certain information countries) and the information rich (the USA, the EU, Japan
sources are regulated by the Privacy Act of 1974 and the and some fast-developing Asian countries) increases – i.e. in
Freedom of Information Act of 1977. The 1986 Sandinista the whole area of high tech. It was precisely against this
constitution of Nicaragua is also interesting in this respect: background that, in the 1970s, lawyers and communication
Article 30 regulates freedom of speech as an individual right; scientists Jean D’Arcy, Desmond Fisher and L. S. Harms
Articles 66 and 67 both include regulation of the right of developed the legal concept of a ‘right to information’ as a
access to information as a social right. All these laws and social participation right, a concept which they later developed
constitutions in one way or another regulate the right of into a ‘right to communication’. In the MacBride Report
access of citizens to collections of information held by the Many Voices, One World, addressed to UNESCO in 1980,
government or by public authorities. L. S. Harms formulated the case for such rights thus:
Rights of access to information have the following
functions: Everyone has the right to communicate: the components
– popular control of government and administration; of this comprehensive Human Right include but are not
– transparency in executive conduct; limited to the following specific communication rights: (a)
– endowment of citizens with informational a right to assemble, a right to discuss, a right to participate
competence. and related association rights; (b) a right to inquire, a right

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to be informed, a right to inform, and related information conditional access (encryption technology). Whoever has
rights; and (c) a right to culture, a right to choose, a right sole control over these three technologies can determine
to privacy, and related human development rights. The which programmes viewers may access. These new
achievement of a right to communicate would require that technologies considerably complicate the problem of access.
communication resources be available for the satisfaction In addition, this whole complex of problems has a further
of human communication needs.4 influence on economic competition in the digital TV sector.
Ever since the US telecommunications concern AT&T
From such considerations the MacBride Report came to launched its advertising slogan ‘One system, one policy,
a single conclusion: universal service’ in 1909, the meaning of the concept
‘universal’ has never been clear. Does it mean ‘everywhere’ or
The call for democratization of communication has many ‘for everybody’? And is the concept to be interpreted
connotations, many more than are usually considered. It empirically or normatively? Should it be intended as a
obviously includes providing more and varied means to normative claim, then one would have to examine very
more people, but democratization cannot simply be carefully whether the right to communication as a basic
reduced to its quantitative aspects, to additional facilities. human right hides nothing other than a desire to create
It means broader access to existing media by the general ever-expanding markets.
public, but access is only a part of the democratization
process. It also means broader possibilities for nations,
political forces, cultural communities, economic entities, CONCLUSION
and social groups to interchange information on a more
equal footing, without dominance over the weaker Information technologies and the mass media have radically
partners and without discrimination against anyone. In altered the relationship between individual and society in
other words, it implies a change of outlook. There is the twentieth century; above all they have altered the
surely a necessity for more abundant information from a relationship between intimacy and publicity. The American
plurality of sources, but if the opportunity to reciprocate sociologists Richard Sennett and Christopher Lasch
is not available, the communication process is not describe these changes in their books The Fall of Public Man
adequately democratic. Without a two-way flow between (1977) and the Culture of Narcissism (1979), respectively. By
participants in the process, without the existence of establishing a quasi-intimate relationship to their public via
multiple information sources permitting wider selection, TV, politicians have helped abolish public life and replace it
without more opportunity for each individual to reach by the tyranny of intimacy.
decisions based on a broad awareness of divergent facts The twentieth century has been above all a century of news
and viewpoints, without increased participation by services of the most comprehensive kind. The most important
readers, viewers and listeners in the decision-making and agent in the systematic collecting, reading and accessing of
programming activities of the media – true exclusive data has been the state. Its power vis-à-vis the
democratization will not become a reality.5 individual has been based on its ability to employ statistical
methodology and information technologies in order to collect,
Rights of access to information are a controversial issue store and evaluate data on the entire population as it aged, as
in the conflict between North and South in so far as the it lived and travelled, in sickness and in health. With
developing countries seek to use these rights to guarantee deregulation of information technologies and the mass media
access to the knowledge of the rich industrial countries, at the end of the twentieth century, and with the emergence
whereas the latter vehemently refuse such access as not in of globalized societies, the state and the rationale it embodied
accordance with the laws of the market. On this point, it is are becoming increasingly less efficient. The networking of
interesting to note that the legal concept of ‘access to data society, through distributed networks, heterarchical forms of
and information’ also occurs in the OECD Declaration on communication, and interactive media is multiplying,
Transborder Data Flow of 1985. As the developing countries individualizing and decentralizing Big Brother. In collecting,
are not represented in the OECD, the guaranteed rights of reading and accessing information, government authorities
access to information in question here have to do with a must compete with non-government institutions: industrial
very different set of interests: the Europeans in the OECD concerns, organised crime, and terrorist organizations.
were concerned that they might be cut off from American In 1956, the Austrian philosopher Günther Anders
information sources. published his two-volume work Die Antiquiertheit des
In the world of digitalized electronic networks, problems Menschen. Speaking of TV, he coined the term ‘mass
of access have increased in complexity on at least two levels. hermit’. He was referring to television’s tendency to create a
First, faced with an information and communications sector, form of depoliticized individualization. What Anders,
which is expanding at a tremendous rate, the priority of most writing before the age of TV, conceived of theoretically has
European constitutions must be to reach a clear understanding after fifty years of mass TV culture become reality.
as to what are so-called basic services and what are so-called Television, having isolated the individual, has created a
Value Added Network services. It must be a matter of general breed of mass hermits who are incapable of political
agreement that basic services be subject to public infrastructure engagement. At the end of the twentieth century, the
control that has constitutional weight behind it. All citizens American social scientist Reg Whitaker has spoken not of
should have free access to such basic services. Second, this the mass hermit but of the end of privacy, and the German
political problem is accompanied by one of a technological political scientist Volker Gransow has declared that mass
and economic nature. Digital TV is based on three communication is incapable of generating dialogue, having
technologies: multiplexing (the digitalization of programme evolved into a form of autism, in which the individual
content), navigation (electronic programme guidance) and communicates simply with itself.

548
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notes Fisher, D. and Harms, L. S. (eds). 1982. The Right to Communicate: A

New Human Right. Boole Press, Dublin.
1. K. G. Wilson, Technologies of Control: The New Glaser, A. and Smith, S. 1999. Ces Messieurs Afrique. Editions
Interactive Media for the Home, Madison, WI, 1988. Calmann Lévy, Paris.
2. D. Banisar, ‘The Privacy Threat to Electronic Gransow, V. 1985. Der autistische Walkman. Elektronik, Öffentlichkeit
Commerce’, in Communications Week International, 29 June und Privatheit. Verlag die Arbeitswelt, Berlin.
1998. Hamelink, C. 1999. ICTs and Social Development: The Global Policy
3. M. Beham, Kriegstrommeln: Medien, Krieg und Politik, Context. United Nations Research Institute for Social
Munich, Germany, 1996. Development, Geneva.
4. S. Macbride (ed.), Many Voices, One World: Holznagel, B. 1997. Zugangsprobleme beim digitalen Fernsehen.
Communication and Society, Today and Tomorrow – Report Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn.
by the International Commission for the Study of Communication Johnston, D., Handa, S. and Morgan, C. 1998. Cyber Law: What
Problems, Paris, 1980, p. 173. You Need to Know About Doing Business Online. Stoddart,
5. Ibid., pp. 173–74. Toronto.
King, D. 1997. The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of
Photographs and Art in Stalin’s Russia. Metropolitan Books, New
BIBLIOGRAPHY York.
Kirschke, L. 1996. Broadcasting Genocide: Censorship, Propaganda
Anders, G. 1956. Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen. (2 vols.). and State Sponsored Violence in Rwanda. (Article 19). International
[The Outdatedness of Human Beings.] C. H. Beck, Munich, Centre against Censorship, London.
Germany. Kracauer, S. 1947. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of
Ariès, P. 1985–1987. Histoire de la vie privée. (5 vols.). Editions du the German Film. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Seuil, Paris. Kunczik, M. 1990. Images of Nations and International Public Relations.
Aschoff, V. 1984. Geschichte der Nachrichtentechnik. Springer-Verlag, Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn.
Berlin. Lasch, C. 1979. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of
Banisar, D. 1998. The Privacy Threat to Electronic Commerce. In: Diminishing Expectations. W. W. Norton & Company, New
Communications Week International, 29 June 1998. York.
Becker, J. 1996. Datenschutz und verwandte Rechtsgebiete. In: MacBride, S. (ed.). 1980. Many Voices, One World: Communication
FLEISSNER, P. and CHOC, M. (eds). 1996. Datensicherheit und and Society, Today and Tomorrow. Report by the International
Datenschutz. Studien Verlag, Innsbruck, pp. 29–46. Commission for the Study of Communication Problems. UNESCO,
 1997. Kommunikation und Medien. In: HAUCHLER, I., MESSNER, Paris.
D. and NUSCHELER, F. (eds). 1998. Globale Trends. Fischer Orwell, G. 1954. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Penguin, London.
Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt, pp. 378–97. PRIVACY PROTECTION STUDY COMMISSION. 1977. Personal Privacy
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Org. Leske & Budrich, Opladen, Germany. Rafetseder, H. 1988. Bücherverbrennungen. Die öffentliche Hinrichtung
Beham, M. 1996. Kriegstrommeln. Medien, Krieg und Politik. Deutscher von Schriften im historischen Wandel. Bôhlau Verlag, Vienna.
Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, Germany. Reischl, G. 2002. Unter Kontrolle. Die fatalen Folgen der staatlichen
Beltrán, L. R. and Cardona, E. F. de. 1980. Comunicacion Dominada uberwachung für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Redline Wirtschaft
Estados Unidos en los Medios de América Latina. Editiones Nueva bei Ueberreuter, Vienna.
Imagen, Mexico. Sennett, R. 1977. The Fall of Public Man. Alfred A. Knopf, New
Connor, J. A. 1998. Privacy in International Data Flow. In: York.
Communication Research Trends, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 3–22. Stevens, J. D. 1982. Shaping the First Amendment: The Development of
DER BUNDESBEAUFTRAGTE FÜR DEN DATENSCHUTZ (ed.). 2003. Free Expression. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA.
Tätigkeitsbericht 2001–2002. Der Bundesbeauftragte für den Whitaker, R. 1999. The End of Privacy: How Total Surveillance is
Datenschutz, Bonn. Becoming a Reality. New Press, New York.
Egger. E. 1990. Datenschutz versus Informationsfreiheit. Oldenbourg, Wilke, J. (ed.). 1998. Propaganda in the 20th Century: Contributions to
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Europäisches Parlament. (ed.). 2001. Bericht über die Existenz Wilson, K. G. 1988. Technologies of Control: The New Interactive
eines globalen systems für private und wirtschaftliche Kommunikation, Media for the Home. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison,
European Parliament, Strasbourg. (Endgültig. A5-0264/2001) WI.

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 30
Western Europe

Pascal Ory and Dominique Pestre

s c i e n c e A N D t e c h n O L O G Y IN of (and international equilibrium among) nation states; for

w e s t e r n E u r o p e SINCE 1 9 1 4 the last thirty years, by contrast, it was a much more widely
distributed affair, the many parties involved operating in a
The countries of Western Europe played a leading role in political and economic world that we may provisionally
science and technology throughout the twentieth century. describe as one of globalization and liberalization;
Their direct contributions include the invention and (2) between these two phases, science and technology
production of knowledge, the specification of practices and radically changed their own ways of working; they have
establishment of norms, technological developments and shown a great capacity, through IT and biotechnology, for
the creation of high-tech and science-based manufacturing. transforming our physical, social and personal worlds, and
To assert this much, though, is not to imply that nothing have accordingly given rise to public dissent (e.g. the vigorous
changed in the course of these decades; on the contrary, debate on genetically modified organisms [GMOs] in the
there were many transformations, both in the importance 1990s) – in contrast to the earlier period’s relatively general
of Western Europe relative to other countries and regions consensus, which approved of science and indeed on
of the globe, and in the manner in which the production of occasion idealized it. We thus have a fairly clear difference
knowledge was organized and linked with politics, society, between the period 1910–70 and the three following
the economy, law, and cultural and military concerns. Before decades, in terms of the production of scientific and technical
1940, Western Europe’s role in the production of scientific knowledge, the form such knowledge took, the way it was
and technical knowledge was crucial, and often preponderant; received by society, and the way it has transformed and
but in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, complemented our lives.
it became much more restricted and though still considerable, There are also some very noticeable differences between
was no longer dominant. In addition, the manner in which the century’s first four decades and the three that followed
knowledge itself was generated underwent major changes in the Second World War. The most radical difference
the course of the century, both in terms of its organization, between these two periods was something set in motion by
regulation and assessment, but also regarding the ‘products’ the war: the pre-eminence of military considerations in the
techno-science proposed, particularly as applied to evolution of science and technology, and the fact that war
technology. Not to belabour the point, we could simply did not stop, but shifted almost imperceptibly from a ‘hot’
observe that the century’s first seventy years were to a ‘cold’ war. This entailed a sustained mobilization of the
characterized by one ‘regime’ of science production and best scientific establishments in East and West; science was
regulation, while another somewhat different regime took deployed both for the creation of new physical devices and
its place during the last thirty years. The first of these also for optimizing the organization of people, processes and
regimes may in turn be subdivided into two periods, systems along operations research lines and transforming
separated by the Second World War. the management of both production and administration.
The best way to approach the subject in hand, therefore, Developments in electronics, nuclear technology and
is to proceed chronologically; and our first task is to show in materials science led to major transformations in industry,
what ways the first two thirds of the century differ from the the art of war and everyday life. The role of the state in
last. There are two crucial notions here: (1) during the first society (the post-war heyday of the welfare state) and in the
period, the production of knowledge was essentially a matter economy (as Keynesian policies became standard) reached
for national governments; it was dominated by the building tremendous proportions.

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This chapter will accordingly be arranged in three main among these featured the ingenium (source of both
sections. The first will expound the idea of a ‘regime under ‘ingenious’ and ‘engineering’ in English), of the mechanical
which technical and scientific knowledge exists and is arts in combination with mathematics. Such colonization
produced’, over time: it will consist of general observations led to a revolution in the nature of intellectual work, an
and some methodological points. The second section will utter transformation of the ways of thinking and
deal with the years from 1900 to 1970; after some understanding (from those of the academic scholar to those
description of this crucial period as a whole, distinct of Galileo, Pascal and Boyle), of the place of mathematics in
subsections will be devoted to its two divisions 1900–40 explication, of the relationship of knowledge to experience –
and 1940–70. The final section will deal with the century’s from the everyday experientia available to all, the favoured
last three decades. criterion of the Aristotelians’ treatises, to the private,
contrived experimentum, rigorously controlled by devices
and mechanisms. It led to a change in the kind of debate
s c i e n c e p r od u c t i o n a n d acceptable among natural philosophers (from the formal
r e g u la t i o n i n s o c i e t y public disputation to Baconian-style reporting of observed
‘facts’) and in the kind of place where such work must be
We often speak of science as if it consisted of ‘pure’ conducted if it was to be legitimate and ‘valid’: professional
knowledge, which is developed within the special scientific discussion in association with what we recognize
surroundings of academia, and finds (or does not find) now as the laboratory.
applications elsewhere. This perception is fraught with These are familiar points, sketched here only in outline;
difficulties pertaining to the new knowledge invented in but what we still need to do is to work out the overall
Western Europe some four centuries ago, and particularly structures organizing the production and regulation of
so for the hybrid of technology and science that blossomed knowledge at a given moment in history and a given region
from the end of the nineteenth century and totally dominated of the world. In short, we need to describe the various ways
the twentieth. Ever since the moment in the seventeenth in which the sciences exist within society, the various
century we commonly call the Scientific Revolution, science arrangements or, as we prefer to put it, the various regimes
in the West has been viewed as a means of interacting with under which knowledge exists, is produced and regulated.
the world and a way to master it for practical ends. Ever The idea of a ‘regime’ for the production of scientific
since this redefining of the way knowledge is acquired and knowledge is based on two observations. First, the fact that
especially the role of experimentation and mathematical what we include within the scope of the term ‘science’ is by
formalism that distinguishes ‘modern science’, the trinity of no means a ‘thing’, objectively delimited and stable over
discovery, instrumentation and invention have been time, which we need merely describe (‘science is a system of
intimately linked. Despite the close interrelations, the mutually consistent statements’, say, or ‘science is the
reorganization and creation of modern science has never activity of pure knowing’. No: science (or should we say the
been a single operation (conducted by an institution such as sciences? or scientific practice?) is made up of a whole set of
the Royal Society or by an outstanding individual such as relations involving perceptions and issues which may vary
Galileo). Nor was it the working out of an explicit, depending on the individual or group; all sorts of products
unequivocal or even deliberate programme (e.g. the ‘Baconian (writings, results, techniques); practices (instrumental,
programme’ or the ‘mathematization of the world’); nor did modes of calculation, simulations); values and standards
it have a single source (the revival of Platonism), or reflect (epistemological, moral, behavioural); institutional
the implementation of any coherently pre-conceived project: surroundings (laboratories, schools of engineering, start-
on the contrary, the mutation was the doing of many ups); avenues of connection with the political and social
participants with at least as many motivations, all aiming world (salons, amateur groups, learned or professional
independently at their own objectives – but in their societies) and many other things besides. This concept of a
interaction generating a shift in the overall economy of regime for the existence and production of knowledge is
knowledge and its production, a radical transformation in based, then, on the fact that there is at any given historical
the ends pursued and the means employed, a transformation moment a particular arrangement of all these elements, and
of ourselves as social beings and of our potential, our capacity that arrangement takes the form of a certain social
to act on and make use of the world. understanding and certain practices of production and
This overall mutation was the doing of the knowledge- political management. Science is always embedded within
producers on the one hand – in universities, naturally, but given social and political forms; it depends on and in turn
not exclusively, as there were also the Jesuits, the designers helps to shape the individual and collective existence of
of fortifications and artillery, the researchers in Academies human societies, their forms of organization, and their
and Observatories, and the worlds of the architect, the social values.
naturalist, the navigator and traveller, the progressive The idea that there are regimes for the production of
agriculturalist – but also of the authorities, temporal and knowledge refers therefore to a legitimate structure of such
spiritual, on the other hand, all adapting to and profiting knowledge, to a hierarchy (‘mechanics is the most complete
from the changes around them in pursuit of their various science in 1900’) and to a way of life in the world. It refers to
objectives. These institutions included the princely or royal a particular form of regulation (the peer evaluation system,
courts, arsenals and warriors, trading companies and as opposed, for example, to the setting of science policy by
entrepreneurs, philosophers and theologians, politicians the state) and to a style of social existence (consider the high
and critics. It was the doing of a colonization or penetration status of ‘pure science’ and, by contrast, the promotion of
of the universities’ narrowly defined classical purview, with the ‘scientific entrepreneur’ nowadays). It also refers to an
its particular practice of ‘natural philosophy’, by new expression of priorities in actual social circumstances, to the
procedures and new approaches. The most important fact that the regulation of the world of science (modern

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biotechnology, for instance, regulated by new rules for sites at which knowledge and invention were produced, and
intellectual property) is not independent of the current of forms of dynamic interaction among all those involved,
forms of social or economic regulation. A shift in one one way or another, in the mobilizing of science.
register (the state and industry become major commissioners Thus science was reformulated; and this transformation
of science in the twentieth century) opens up possible shifts of scientific practice, this emergence of a new regime for
in others (science must develop metrology and cultivate science and technology took place in a close and organic
precision to the utmost) – and vice versa (the mechanics of connection with a redefining of economics and politics, of
high precision was the precondition, via the provision of the criteria of social justice – and of what ‘the state’ is, or
accurate machines, for the second industrial revolution; ought to be. The primary thrust here, so to speak, was an
biotechnology radically influences our lives via the idea that could perhaps be expressed thus: in the context of
pharmaceutical companies and agro-business). Lastly, this a balance of power among nation states engaged in preparing
idea of regimes governing the production and regulation of for a coming war (the Second World War, or a nuclear
knowledge refers to the standards according to which, exchange with the USSR, depending on the period), a
whatever the register, not only truth and falsehood are Science State becomes established, concerned with science,
predicated, but also, to a great extent, right and wrong, good technology and invention for the higher good of the country;
and evil, the desirable and the undesirable, the noble and a War State, preparing to defend economic, political and
the base.1 It contributes directly to our determination of imperial interests; a Social State, taking thought for the
what is legitimate and good, which governs the relationship problem of the dangerous classes and guaranteeing civil
between knowing and not-knowing and that between peace. The establishment of these three aspects of the state
individuals and groups. In short, the notion of ‘regime’ proceeded in parallel: they constitute different facets of a
postulates interdependence among human activities and the single ambition, different branches of a single enterprise, to
existence of systemic effects that never fail to have their be found from Berlin to Paris to London, in Moscow as in
impact on the sciences and constrain them to take their New York.
place in history. Five particular points will bring these general ideas into
better focus:
First, during most of the twentieth century competing
Science/technology, industry and governmental nations defined themselves by their capacity for total
regulation within the framework of the nation state: mobilization, whether for self-preservation or expansion –
the regime of knowledge from 1914 to the 1970s  and that included the mobilization of science and
technology. The state was the entity which united the
This period, which started without any break the last third nation, which saw to its mobilization, and which
of the nineteenth century, saw a radical transformation of coordinated it internally as well as for action abroad. The
science and scientific practices, and of what it meant to ‘be state apparatus allied itself with science and industry to
scientific’ or to ‘do science’. This was the age in which science prepare for war (on economic or ideological grounds) and
developed a new set of production sites and procedures to prosecute it successfully once actual fighting broke out.
both in the laboratory and in theory. The universities This they did through the production of weapons for the
opened up to technology and to industry (a phenomenon front and the mobilization of economic, social and political
accentuated by the First World War); science became a forces at home. In certain cases (Weimar Germany, for
core ingredient in the means of innovation, an essential tool example) a lack of confidence in the state could lead
in the arrangements of mass production – and a means of particular elements, for instance industrialists and
bureaucratic and industrial rationalization. Like other parts academics, to take its place as the embodiment of the nation
of the social organism, the laboratory became a more and provider of its necessary defence.2
organized, more hierarchical place where the division of Mass violence was an object of theory – and indeed
labour prevailed in the form of specialization. Science was practice – during this period scarred by many conflicts both
taken in hand by national governments and mobilized for among states and between governments and sections of
the preparation of war; it became an indispensable resource society: among the manifestations of this violence were the
for the building of the nation state. In terms of education, Holocaust, two instances of total war and one of a techno-
this change meant the end of the Socratic ideal of wisdom scientific war many decades long (the Cold War), colonial
so far as the hard sciences were concerned, or at least its conflicts that lent themselves to the foulest massacres (the
marginalization. systematic aerial bombardment of civilian populations,
This transformation of science meant a change in its though it became a standard practice during the Second
purposes, its tools and its standards – and also in the sheer World War, was invented to quell revolts by colonial
scale of the undertaking (the Bell laboratories were already subjects) – and some political regimes that ruled through
employing many thousands of people in the 1920s). Indeed, the everyday use of brutal repression. Violence has not, of
we may speak of the predominance in this period of an course, been confined to the twentieth century; but that
academic and industrial science/technology on a massive century did see a particularly inhuman violence, scientifically
scale, quite incommensurate with what had gone before; of organized, technically rationalized, and with the close
the rise of a new social and technical construct characterized support of the highest practitioners of science.3
by three features: an increased efficiency of specialist Second, during these years the state apparatus occupied
scientific knowledge, most notably for industrial and a greater place in the general economy of our societies than
military purposes; a concomitant interest in and sharply ever before. True, the liberal creed continued to be
increased support for the products of science, and reaffirmed; the market remained the predominant form of
scientific activity in general, on the part of the various regulation; but the state became an omnipresent player,
centres of power; and a proliferation and diversification of intervening with more and more legitimacy to regulate

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social affairs (with precedents established before 1914) and standard-setting by governments and state institutions; and
economic ones (from the 1930s onwards). Through research conducted within industry. Lastly, there was a
taxation, it drained off an increasing proportion of national dominant belief in the possibility of a rational and superior
income after 1914, and from 1940 especially it became a key point of view which could provide ‘the’ solution to any
player in industry as well as in health policy. Forms of problem: with incontestable scientific credentials, and
state-organized insurance had already been introduced in strongly allied to industrialists and to the state apparatus,
Europe by the end of the nineteenth century, through a the Expert ruled supreme.
combination of collective management and social groups Fifth, in knowledge itself there were four major trends at
with strongly defined subjective identities: the working work during these years: (a) a tendency in favour of a
class, for instance, represented by its trade unions and generalized reductionism, made possible and effective by
political parties, and more generally the classes and the mastery of phenomena at very small scales in the
categories ‘invented’ – solidified – by the social sciences laboratory and by new theoretical approaches; these were
and the state apparatus, which gave them existence the characteristic features of the physics of electrons, atoms,
intellectually (in scientific sociology, for instance) and nuclei and ‘elementary’ particles, and later of genetics and
politically (in the operation of the Plan, or through molecular biology; (b) an attitude which was very often,
collective bargaining agreements in France during the 1950s under the inf luence of the industrial and military
and 1960s, for example). For the state, as guarantor of laboratories, a pragmatic one, prepared to mobilize all
social order and national power, social stability depended available means regardless of the established subject-
on a compromise between the classes, under its own boundaries of the university; such practices had appeared
leadership. In short, the state in this period became the in industry as early as the closing years of the previous
arbiter for all of society, at the expense of self-government century, but were taken up by governments and by the
by civil society. This social state, or ‘welfare state’ was of military after the Second World War (operational research,
course the inseparable reverse side of the ‘warfare state’, for example, or the management of major projects that
and the necessary condition for its deployment.4 called for a redrawing of the boundaries between disciplines,
Thirdly, over these sixty or seventy years the world of such as materials science in the 1950s); (c) a greater use of
manufacturing was being remade in its objectives as well as mathematics and formalization procedures in general, and
in its practices and structures: mass production became the the extension of their realm to the whole of science and
norm, as both products and forms of work were standardized. technology, and to its management, and eventually to the
Factories saw new, scientific ways of organizing work and study and control of society as well; approaches based on
managing production (Taylorism, Fordism), and offices statistics and calculation became general in all efforts to
new ways of handling information and workflow. This was grasp reality: model-building, in particular, and later
the age of the mega-organization, above all of the great simulation; (d) a tendency in applied research and
industrial structures relying on science and technology for engineering towards fundamentals, an increasing emphasis
the basis of their power. The first large-scale industrial on basic, formal science (in electrical engineering, in
systems had, it is true, appeared during the nineteenth agriculture), as well as the central and primary role of
century (the railways, for instance); but it was between 1914 scientists and engineers in the establishment of a widespread
and 1970 that they became truly widespread and standard. practice of precise measurement.
More generally, these were the years when large-scale We shall now clarify these points further by studying
systems based on science came to dominate, when economies two sub-periods in greater depth: one from the 1900s to the
built on the rational mobilization of knowledge were built, 1930s, and the other from the end of the 1930s to the 1970s,
in the laboratory, in the time-and-motion department, and including the Second World War.
on the assembly line. This movement towards large-scale
production involved not only mathematics and the natural
sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and hygiene, From the 1910s to the 1930s: Nation states, the
agronomy, but also the social and human sciences, including international balance of power, and science6
economics and management.5
Fourthly, science made its way (not least through the In order to understand the interwar years we need to go
establishment of precise measurement standards) to the back a little further, for it was at the end of the nineteenth
very heart of exchange and production, the rational running century that a new industrial world emerged, one already
of huge organizations, and the innovation in product and committed to the latest scientific inventions – the telegraph,
process that provided the engine for the international chemistry, electricity, electrical technology – and moving
economic and military struggle (continuously developing towards radio, agricultural chemistry and, before long,
newer devices, designing new industrial or military products, materials science. That time also saw the creation of:
refining production processes – in short, making all – New teaching establishments: science faculties
activities scientific). There came a certain equilibrium, or radically reorganized; additional capacity in the form
division of labour, between open, public science, whose of newly founded universities, schools and institutes
primary seat remained the university, and a private science of technology of all kinds, springing up in their
embedded within enterprises – the two being coordinated hundreds the length and breadth of Europe.
by a traffic of star researchers back and forth between the – New kinds of site and workplace: for instance, the
two worlds, and by the actions of the state, which had itself research laboratories that appeared in industrial
become an impresario of science. Thus a balance arose in surroundings in the last decades of the nineteenth
the twentieth century among three worlds: science as the century and became the rule after the First World
‘autonomous’ affair of academic savants in universities and War in many European countries (and also in the
institutes of technology; socialized basic research and United States: the majority of American physicists

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were working in such places as early as the 1920s), or the material resources for the systematic practice of scientific
the agronomy research centres and ‘extension’ research (in this case, radioactive elements of sufficient
institutes, or standards centres such as the Physikalisch- quality), but also by the fact that the researcher owed a duty
Technische Reichsanstalt in Germany or the National to her or his country and its economic development. This
Laboratory in England. These research institutions requirement is clear in Marie Curie’s lectures, when given to
were of capital importance for the new economy, and engineers, on the design of instruments for use in prospecting
had the task of developing the essential norms and and in industrial activities, as well as in the continuing
standards for interconnecting networks, trading in interest in medical applications. Pierre Curie was the first to
products, the proper functioning of manufacturing address radium’s biological effects and to work with doctors,
processes, and the management of markets in general while in the early decades of the new century Jacques Danne
(definition of units, calibration, technical standards). and other engineers who had been trained at the City of
– National research agencies financed by the state (and Paris School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry (where
sometimes by industrialists), aimed at socializing a Langevin, Pierre Curie and later Joliot also studied) all
portion of research and what later came to be called contributed to the preparation of calibrated sources for
development: One example was the Caisse National medical treatments, and the evaluation of the dosages
des Sciences and the later CNRS in France, modelled required for medical applications.
and remodelled over four decades, which did not attain In this period, also, the physical sciences adopted a new
a final (massive) form until war was looming at the approach more concerned with fundamentals; it provided a
end of the 1930s, with the scientific mobilization of new conception of scientific research and laboratory practice,
1938; another was the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft in tending towards a reduction to underlying entities and a
Germany, founded in 1911, whose laboratories regression to the ‘elementary’ building-blocks of matter,
developed over the following decades and which was whose combination should make it possible to explain the
joined by other institutions after the defeat of 1918; or macroscopic world of the senses. It was no longer enough
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for science to study phenomena and construct systems of
in England, a by-product of the war effort, established equations linking macroscopic parameters in order to
in 1915 but playing a central role in the interwar progress towards a definitive and descriptive body of laws
period as a coordinator of the country’s civil as well as (e.g. Joule’s Law relating work, electrical resistance, and the
military research; or the Consiglio Nazionale delle intensity and duration of a phenomenon). On the contrary,
Ricerche set up in Italy at the end of the war; and there science was now opening a whole new Pandora’s box,
were others. looking with the aid of the new instruments at the
– National laboratories, i.e. laboratories set up from underpinnings of our world, on a scale which is not ours
scratch by governments in new areas of great technical and had for that reason been left out of the rational world of
potential (such as aviation after 1918), and intended earlier centuries’ science. No longer was the agenda the
to serve as cross-fertilizing links between the two mastering of phenomena by dint of finding the right
worlds of academia and industry. shorthand for the interrelationships among the various
Laboratory work, for its part, was transformed: its products macro-components (electric fields and intensities, for
(both things and people) became the result of a hierarchically example), but the giving of experimentally verifiable meaning
organized professionalism. This was the start, among other to the ancient notions of atoms and corpuscles, catching the
things, of the general institution of the teaching laboratory infinitely small in the snares of experiment – and taming it,
in universities, a place for training the new scientist/ making it useful in its turn.
technicians, where know-how and mastery of This work required not only new theoretical tools
instrumentation were the watchwords. To take just one (quantum mechanics and its attendant philosophical issues
example, from France at the very start of the century: the were of course at the heart of this reform in the 1920s, from
Curies’ laboratory, remarkable in that the Curies are always Copenhagen to Cambridge, from Paris to Göttingen) but
quoted as being exemplary practitioners of ‘pure’ science. also a radical transformation of the experimental techniques
What we need to remember is that the Curies built the and standards defining properly conducted work. This was
French radium industry from the ground up. Two years the product of the small-scale physics of the electron,
after the discovery of radioactivity, they sought the discovered in the last decade of the nineteenth century
collaboration of a company, the Société Centrale des (first in the Cambridge laboratory of J. J. Thomson and
Produits Chimiques. André Debierne, the Curies’ assistant, then spreading across Europe early in the new century),
set about converting their laboratory techniques into the discovery of radioactivity (initially in Paris), and then
industrial procedures, and was rewarded with a share of the the physics of the nucleus and its constituents (again at
radium salts extracted. Five years later, Marie Curie began Cambridge, with Rutherford and his circle, but also in
working in collaboration with an industrial chemist, Emile Paris with Mme Curie, in Berlin with Otto Hahn and Lise
Armet de Lisle; this time, it was Jacques Danne, editor of Meitner, in Vienna, and elsewhere); it remained for nearly
the journal Le Radium, who organized production. In 1907, thirty years (until the emergence of an operational quantum
Danne started his own laboratory, manufacturing mechanics) a more qualitative, composite physics than the
instruments based on those in the Curie lab; and in 1908 ‘precision physics’ exemplified by classical optics and
another researcher left to set up the measurement and electromagnetism. To borrow Carlo Ginzburg’s terms, we
purification department of a company, this one founded by might say this was a physics governed more by a ‘clue-
Henry de Rothschild. based’ paradigm than by a system of precise measurement
Such behaviour – by no means exceptional in the world and exactitude.
of French or other European laboratory-based science – is The years from the end of the nineteenth century to the
explained partly by the fact that only industry could provide 1930s, then, are those of the discovery of the ‘particles’

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themselves (they were to proliferate into a veritable menagerie through the teaching of and reflection on history, through
after the war) – but, even more, they are the years when labour legislation and social security schemes; but also the
experimental techniques and materials were mastered, moment when it took root in a material way through
leading, over these three decades, to vacuum-tube electronics systematic investment in the technical and scientific fields.
(diodes, triodes, magnetrons and klystrons, which proved In this new world, scientists were no longer ‘intellectuals’,
vital for radar when war came) – and also to nuclear but professional specialists devoted to their individual
technology. Even in the century’s first two decades, companies subjects and to the pursuit of an advanced and highly specific
were recruiting electron specialists with the deliberate aim knowledge. Their training was no longer a matter of passing
of improving telecommunications.7 The same experimental on the search for knowledge and wisdom; it meant turning
expertise also led to atomic physics and chemistry (using the out specialists who had rid themselves of anything other
Bohr model of the electron cloud, and quantum physics) and than what would make a decisive contribution to the chosen
to a new science of materials (most perfectly exemplified by field of practical, goal-oriented research. This was, indeed,
the semi-conductors which were at the heart of these the very issue between Ernst Mach and Max Planck in their
projects). More generally, the mix of high theory and great debate on the future of science before the First World
practical concerns invaded these laboratories, and a readiness War.
to cross subject boundaries appeared, along with new links What we see here, then, is a profound secularization of
among craft skills, industries and universities – the whole science and its activities, their embedding deep within the
ensemble leading to powerful revolutions in scientific industrial and ideological framework of nation-building.
knowledge, techniques and industry. Where science had, at the end of the nineteenth century,
This new way of doing physics, invented in Europe been largely a private, local affair (carried on by regional
during this period, is (in its metaphysics, its modes of work academics and industries, in France for example), it now
and of explanation, its techniques, its standards for success became the business of the country, of the nation state. In
or failure) a departure in a new dimension from the this sense David Edgerton speaks of a ‘nationalization’ of
phenomenological physics of laws and the physics of science, a process through which it became a major issue for
precision which dominated the universities at the close of the state, on an equal footing with military power and
the nineteenth century and was the basis for the industrial industrial peace: the development of science and technology
revolutions of the telegraph, industrial electricity, and became a shared concern of politicians, industrialists, and
radio.8 That physics by no means disappeared; on the the military, as well as the grandees of science themselves.
contrary, it remained at the heart of most applied science We can see differences from country to country in the forms
until the 1930s, not least in its standard-setting and this development took (from the organic collaboration in
metrological functions. The techniques of astronomy and Germany of industrialists, Länder and national government,
physical optics continued to provide the most effective to France, where innovation in companies still depended
means of defining the calibrations required by the mechanical mainly on the production designers rather than on separate
arts, and mastering them for practical purposes (the research departments), but the establishment of a
interferometers of Fabry and Perot, for instance, as knowledge-based economy became a central issue in
measuring and calibration tools in mechanical engineering struggles for world domination.9
before 1940). They were vitally necessary for industry.
Nevertheless, another approach had arrived, one which was
less concerned with precision and the establishing of From the end of the 1930s to the 1970s: the Second
standards for industry at the outset, but which would World War and the Cold War
increasingly become, during the 1930s and the war years,
the most powerful means yet of transforming the material The mobilization of 1938, the Second World War and the
world: theoretical and experimental physics at atomic and Cold War that followed without a break mark the high
sub-atomic levels. It would do still more: it would go on to point of the integration, begun in the previous period, of
increase the scope for human action on the world, and after industry, science/technology, and the state – with its duties
the war would open the door to a new stage in the history of of waging war, maintaining social unity and providing the
humanity. framework and sustenance for a mobilization of the whole
The new approach came later in the biological sciences, nation. This was the flowering of the welfare state model,
not really beginning until after the Second World War. the system of protection for the weakest under active
Nevertheless, the early years of the century saw the government protection; this is the coin whose other side
appearance of genetics (Morgan and his school), the was the ‘warfare state’, organized on the self-same basis.
development of statistics in agricultural science, and the Both states were powered by science. This is the characteristic
general adoption of the Pasteur model closely linking the we turn to now.
study of microscopic organisms (bacteria), laboratory At bottom, the culture of the years 1940–70 was one of
practices and laboratory products (serums and vaccines), constant emergency and permanent mobilization. Driven
and social practices of new kinds (the reform of hygiene). by a faith in utterly perfectible technology encouraged by
At this point we should clear up one last thing: in the the successes of the Second World War, these decades
period we are considering here, the world of technology, could not imagine that technique allied to science might not
science and industry was not the only scene of innovation, be able to solve all problems. This faith was universal
nor the only world that mattered. This was also a crucial throughout the industrial, political and scientific elites, and
moment in the consolidation of the nation state. It was in showed itself in the widespread belief that science was the
fact not only the time when what we like nowadays to call origin of all technical development, which was in turn the
the ‘knowledge industries’ appeared, but also the moment source of industrial, economic and social progress (so ran
when the nation was fully deployed and consolidated – the theories of the economists of technical change under the

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linear development model).10 The examples it could point to urgency. The war offered them virtually unlimited
were Los Alamos and the enormous industrial complex set opportunities to do and to invent; it freed them from
up by DuPont de Nemours to produce the fissile materials financial constraints, and allowed them to scheme schemes
needed for the American nuclear programme – and it was of extraordinary scope.
this faith which drove research into nuclear fusion in the These people learned how useful and effective a pragmatic
United States, Great Britain and the USSR until the mid- approach could be when only the result mattered, when all
1950s; it underpinned the pharmaceutical industry’s imaginable resources were used to the full (from psychology
anti-cancer programmes and the scanning of molecules by and propaganda to logic and engineering techniques) and
mass-production methods; it established the policies that no appeal was allowed to any outmoded value system (such
reorganized the farming world for ever greater ‘productivity’. as the Comtean hierarchy of branches of knowledge) against
In every case developments were powered by the belief that the only valid criterion, immediate effectiveness; they
coordinated technological and scientific action could, if learned to define their own problems and solutions, ones
enough resources were applied, do away with any difficulty that were to be applied rationally even in the face of the
and would lead to the solving of all problems, including opinion of the populations concerned; they learned, above
social ones. These firm beliefs led to increasingly technocratic all, the benefits of work distributed within a collectivity, of
versions of politics, economics and military strategy, making starting with ‘brain-storming’ sessions (within a framework
great use of models and computers.11 of ‘think tanks’ and ‘summer schools’), and the importance
The culture which thus came to flower during the war of then continuing with meticulous organization. As they
was not only a cult of the laboratory solution (technical did so, they developed a general pattern for action, a modus
devices, revolutionary molecules, new seeds). It was just as operandi consisting of: (1) precisely define the objective,
much a culture of management, of action for which science which must allow progress to be monitored and achievement
provided the framework, of subjecting populations to measured, (2) create a committed action group including all
experiments (always thought of as legitimate and the forms of expertise that might be needed to tackle the
modernizing) – it was a culture of analysis and planning, problem, no means being ruled out a priori (not even for
stemming from a central core where those with the greatest ethical reasons), (3) lay bare the situation in every way made
power and prestige were those with knowledge: the state possible by a combination of hardware and software, hard
and the experts, scientific and industrial. During the Second science, engineering science and social science, (4) find the
World War and the Cold War, the military and the right angle of attack and set out a procedure to be applied
industrialists learned that if solutions were to give quick and for finding a solution, (5) operate on a massive scale, in a
effective results they must always be technical and logistical, coordinated way, mobilizing all available resources,
must involve hardware and personnel management. It was (6) evaluate the results, numerically if possible, at every
the same for health: if the new molecules were to be properly stage, then move to the next operation. During the 1940s
evaluated, and the neutrality of the assessments publicly and 1950s this modus operandi designed for war became the
guaranteed, large-scale treatment trials must be organized. standard of every properly conducted campaign, whether
The industry had, it is true, conducted procedures of this one was doing physics, organizing treatment trials or
type as early as the nineteenth century; but the change in reforming social institutions at home or in the colonies.
the scale of these activities, the new, centralizing role played The invasive ‘Proministrative State’ (to use Brian Balogh’s
by the machinery of the state (often the key actor in decision- well-established term),14 which was a political form of
making processes because of the war situation), the voluntary regulation based on a close association between a power
mobilization of the best scientific and mathematical brains centre and the experts it helped to organize into autonomous
and the unshakeable trust in the legitimacy of actions taken groups, was therefore to be found not only at the heart of
in the name of Science led to a qualitative change in these the systems of innovation in manufacturing; it was equally
programmes and their impact.12 at the heart of the management and reform of social relations
The elites that supported this movement had in common and their regulation – at the heart of state power. This new
the fact that they had directly contributed to the war effort. state imposed its definitions and activities over such a wide
Some, of course, were military officers, especially those scope for various reasons, some political (mounting conflicts,
from the middle ranks who had been in direct contact with the need to enhance and rationalize the management of
the scientists and engineers, and had been in a position to industrial and political systems that had become huge),
form an opinion of their methods on the battlefield or in the others economic (the recession of the 1930s, the policies
fight against malaria. Others were supervisors, middle applied to cope with economic crises, Keynesianism), others
managers, or captains of industry, who had served in ideological (the fight against Communism); but this was
Operations Research departments or in the field during the above all due, once more, to the Cold War: it was necessary
conflict (the obvious example here is, of course, Robert S. to demonstrate the superiority of one social, political and
McNamara).13 Then there were the inventor/theoreticians, economic system, that of the free world – and that meant
the systems designers, the technicians thoroughly trained in developing forms of a Social State which could serve as a
science, people working in signals processing (Shannon at model. Though liberalism might be the official watchword,
Bell), on new calculating machines (at IBM), in polymer there was no denying the general situation: that in Western
chemistry (at DuPont), in aviation R&D and missile design as in Eastern Europe, the lion’s share of the national wealth
(at Douglas Aircraft), in industrial pharmacy or agricultural during these years was being absorbed and redistributed by
chemistry. Lastly there were the physicists, mathematicians, the state.
logicians, economists, specialists in human, plant and other This Proministrative State is crucial if we are to
branches of biology, psychologists and anthropologists, understand the nature of the social compromise established
each for a while immersed in the world of war, the world of at this time. In a nutshell, these years showed the
solutions to be found and made to work as a matter of characteristics of a wage-earning industrial society in full

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growth – providing for a redistribution of income towards These decades also mark the high tide of a society that
wage-earners as well as opportunities of advancement for saw itself as composed of groups, in balance and in conflict;
lower social strata and an extension of social protection and such a group identity was reflected in scientific thinking of
integration (social security and pension regimes, principles the day. During the three ‘Heroic Decades’ (the post-war
for managing industrial conflict.). The future was bright, boom) the social classes were very strongly marked not only
the outlook one of progress, and the models of consumption, in general awareness (for example in working-class pride, in
education, and culture were converging. The new working its organizations and associations), but also in the European
class was enjoying better conditions – was becoming social sciences: they were the source of very strongly felt
bourgeois, as people say. ‘Egalitarian’ and democratic identities, fundamental to the social and political
projects redefined the main principles of a just polity in the imagination, nourishing the life of parties and embodied in
public domain, and an ‘anonymous’, automatic form of people’s customs, dress, and amusements; but they also had
solidarity, most often organized by the state, steadily their existence through the political and social effects of the
replaced earlier forms. In all Western European countries science of public administration, itself built upon the
the state had the legitimacy to act on a massive scale as scientific constructions of sociologists and political scientists;
regulator and redistributor of goods and services; within a they left their mark on statistics (the obvious use of socio-
codified framework of industrial relations, and in partnership economic or occupational ‘categories’), on forms of social
with social groups organized and represented by trade and industrial bargaining, and on the participation of these
unions and political parties, the state promoted arrangements groups, represented as such, in the running of the state.
for the defence of the weakest and an ideology of reform as Outside the social sciences, the process of reduction to
a precondition for the advancement of all. This social and fundamentals reached a new level. It now meant two things:
political dynamic benefited from economic growth and the first, a practical ability, developed in the laboratory, to bring
development of world trade, and the individual became to light and manipulate an extraordinary number of
emancipated at the expense of earlier solidarities (of kinship, elementary particles (in physics) or molecules (in chemistry
neighbourhood, religion). Though markets were still the and biology), an ability first to measure and purify and then
prime mover in this dynamic, the state intervened far more to rearrange and make use of these elementary units
directly than in the previous phase to correct their disturbing (‘molecular jets’ were produced, for example, and genes
effects, to ensure the cohesion of social organization and sequenced). This practical mastery involved highly
drive it forward towards ‘modernity’. sophisticated instruments, many practical skills (as in
Individuals might to some extent free themselves from today’s biotechnology) and very powerful tools for formal
the most traditional structures of control; but these societies layout and calculation. Secondly, we see sophisticated
nevertheless remained highly structured into groups that theoretical constructs built on these micro-entities, theories
people were subjectively very aware of (it is not, in this which guided laboratory practice and so increased its
sense, illegitimate to say they were still truly ‘class societies’); effectiveness severalfold. The physical sciences manipulated
they were also very hierarchical in their functioning and (practically and theoretically) artificial, laboratory-produced
values. The organization of labour, for example, followed in materials; biology manipulated macromolecules and genes;
the footsteps of Taylor and Ford, with a clear separation of and the industrial transcription of these instrumental and
design and power on the one hand, execution and submission experimental techniques was present from the very outset.
on the other. This top-down mode did not apply solely in We find, therefore, a constant tension between the highly
business: it was burned into the very notion of the state and abstract and the utterly material, a combining of theory and
of its management of the social nexus. It applied to healthcare calculation (through models, for instance), and an intimate
regimes, centrally run by professionals and liable to diminish link between experiment and technique; scientists moved
responsible behaviour before long; it applied to the from work on paper to work with calculation resources and
functioning of public administration (where the ‘users’ had then to work at the bench; there was a constant traffic
no recognized rights) and in passive and consumerist modes between the laboratory, the standardization of techniques
of consumption – whether of material goods, offered in ever and the production stage, between the most abstract science,
greater quantities, or of services such as education. Its the standardized instrumentation and technical
counterpart consisted of the statutory and social benefits development; and one no less constant between academia,
that guaranteed social protection and some mitigation of industry, and military, administrative or political circles.
social exclusion, a restraint on income disparities, and These perpetual shifts from one register to another were
(relative) stability of employment. Not too much should be in fact the result of different but interrelated institutions:
made of this feature, however. There was real life in a nuclear physics in constant contact with industrial
movement composed of associations, sometimes guided by laboratories developing lasers; the tools developed by
the representatives of organized social groups (religions, physics technologists moved across and reordered chemistry
trade unions, works councils) and supported, in terms of and biology (the use of spectrographs and NMR techniques
infrastructure, by a state which was concerned to add to the in chemical analysis, of electronic microscopes and
collective and political mechanisms of assistance to the most electrophoresis in basic and industrial biology); social
underprivileged. Through such state activity there arose a sciences, also, were directly affected (strategic thinking,
professionalization of social work, a taking over and rigorous game theory, systems analysis, psychology). Industrial and
organizing of those aspects of society which functioned as military or quasi-military research laboratories were at the
guarantors of solidarity. There was accordingly an inherent heart of the machine (in electronics, materials physics,
ambiguity in these practices: they tended towards a centrally aeronautics, computers, chemistry, modelling, simulation
run, ‘authoritarian’ direction (even though they left the and pattern-recognition techniques; also in agricultural
individual some real opportunities to act), but they brought science, economics and social science, and urban planning).
definite advantages to the most deprived. New domains (oceanography, the study of the upper

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atmosphere and space science acquired through rocketry), as Thus the new State encompassed ‘civil society’, absorbing it
well as new models of social management and industrial while managing and leading it. So the state proves to be the
production (organization of the ballistics programmes, the realization of the Enlightenment project, the ideal of self-
formalization of PERT [Program Evaluation and Review government; no longer ‘a state’ with origins in a particular
Technique] and, later, PPBS [Planning, Programming and historical time and circumstances, it is now the State: it is
Budgeting System] in management); and, lastly, whole new what the state always should have been, and constitutes its
realms of science and technology came into being, typically true essence, finally realized.
featuring close links between universities and the creation of It is this ‘obvious’ realization, and the concomitant ‘just
knowledge-based enterprises. polity’ of public welfare, which found itself under attack in
This political and economic application of science for the the last three decades of the century.
high purpose of the nation at war, under the strong stimulus
provided by governments, was nevertheless still a business
carried on primarily by private enterprise. The contradiction S c i e n c e , t e c h n ology a n d
is only an apparent or superficial one: all through the e c o n o m i c l i b e r al i s m : f r o m t h e
century, and most of all during the Cold War, big 1 9 7 0 s t o t h e e n d of t h e c e n t u r y
corporations worked both in their own financial interests
and for the higher national good. This is quite clear in the Two major things have changed in the last three decades of
case of France, since the state itself contributed to the the twentieth century: first, the capacity of science and
creation of these industrial giants (many of them technology (above all, biotechnology) to modify the natural
nationalized), and even regarded it as its business to step in and human world profoundly, leading to growing social
when their will faltered (the triumph of Gaullism); it applied concerns; secondly, the regime under which knowledge
also in Germany, where such companies acted both for exists and is produced, as related to economics and politics,
their own advantage and for the national security – with the with its attendant issues concerning the nature of
blessing and the financial and intellectual support of an globalization. We shall start with a brief look at this second
interventionist federal government. It is national government aspect.
policy which explains the growth of these mammoths and To start with, we need to recall the ‘liberal globalization’
provides the key to understanding the period’s rapid changes which developed in the United States and Great Britain
in technical systems (this was the case of transistors, which some thirty years ago and subsequently in the rest of the
were made economically profitable only by a policy of steady world (including continental Europe through the European
subsidies financed from United States military budgets over Community). With this movement came a redefining of the
a whole decade). Even today, indeed, in the all-powerful roles of governments and of business and financial
field of ICT, the state and the military are never very far institutions, the rules of the labour market and of social
from private corporations, nor the latter from the national protection, and what the political and economic elite wanted
interest; we will return to this below. from science. This movement followed an ideological
We may conclude this section by stressing one last point: revolution whose two main protagonists were Mrs Thatcher
though the model of the nation state, as defined from the and President Reagan.
mid-seventeenth century onwards in its dual relationship to More particularly, we may speak of a radical shift in the
a geographical territory on the one hand and an international site of science production (from universities to businesses);
balance of powers on the other (the regime instituted with of the appearance of new prospective participants; of a more
the Treaty of Westphalia, now world-wide), retains all its organic involvement between these and the financial
relevance – once democracy bursts upon (or spreads across) markets; but, more than this, of a fundamental change in
the European scene in the nineteenth century it leads to an the rules of the game, a deliberate change brought about by
utterly radical transformation of the state’s place in society relaxing the age-old rules of intellectual property. The
and, indeed, in the symbolic order. This democratic irruption universities and the great industrial laboratories typical of
contributes, of course, to the gradual emergence of the the decades from 1900 to 1970 remain important, of course;
Social State and its growing involvement in the arrangements but their mode of work and collaboration has undergone a
for education, health and social protection; but it also helps metamorphosis, and they are now supplemented by a
to make this state a ‘thing’ in its own right, and before long thousand institutions providing risk capital, and by
a dominant one, a reality which takes its ‘natural’ place at structures of partnership among private interests,
the nerve centre of society. At its most extreme, it actually foundations and public laboratories. We may detail this
identifies society with the state. modification in the link between science, the state and the
The state did indeed become a managerial apparatus, a market by emphasizing six points.
rationalizing bureaucratic institution based on scientific The first transformation concerns intellectual property:
thinking and applying scientific or innovative policies – but the eligibility conditions for taking out patents have been
it did so by occupying an area which soon involved it in widened to a quite unprecedented scope in recent years;
providing a structure for the whole of society. The state was property rights have been granted for increasingly
a modernizer, anticipating the future, arbitrating among fundamental research prior to any ‘invention’ in the strict
different economic, strategic and social scenarios – and in sense (domains regarded until now as belonging to public
this sense it became the embodiment of the ‘social’. It did science, meaning science published in leading scientific
indeed take on responsibility for the country’s future; it did journals). The result has been greater opportunity for
need to be enlightened; but it was more than that: it was the market control of knowledge. It began with biotechnology
Nation incarnate, the country making conscious choices, (the first patent for a laboratory-designed bacterium was
not driven at the mercy of ‘hidden’ forces, whether of the granted in 1980, then one for a genetically modified mouse
market or of the irrational urges which impel human action. in 1988; this has now reached the point of patenting DNA

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sequences, whose potential application is extremely ill- centred on industrial innovation rather than ‘science’ (a
defined); it has since spread to many other fields, from picture which had great credibility at the time), and the
software to electronic databanks and management methods. need for quick returns in circumstances increasingly
This change in patent law has had a decisive impact on the dominated by financial capital led to abandonment of the
definition of the scientist’s social role, on the relationships earlier model of development with its weaker short-term
among knowledge-producers, the market and property constraints. At the same time public financing for R&D
rights, on the way knowledge itself is produced – in short, was fairly static or even declining in the 1980s and part of
on what kind of an institution science is, or should be, in the 1990s: this tendency also was driven by the rampant
terms of what is common and what is private.15 liberalism of the time, but has generally been reversed
There are many legal authorities who speak in this today (when the economy is in trouble, governments are
connection of a new ‘enclosure movement’, by which they always called to the rescue).
mean that this kind of law allows a privatization of  ‘common The fifth thing to be taken into account is the fully
assets of the mind’ (public science) corresponding, many fledged market in science and research subcontracting that
centuries later, to that of the ‘commons’ or collectively held grew up over these years, the greatly increased number of
land in England at the start of the modern age. That new businesses set up on the basis of a laboratory-developed
movement led to a redistribution of wealth, which had technique, procedure or type of product with high scientific
devastating effects on large swathes of the population but value (this applies particularly to biotechnology and
was justified by the considerable growth it made possible in communication electronics) and the net growth in numbers
overall productive capacity. The extension of private of consultant scientists called in as ‘problem-solvers’ or
property motivated the new owners to invest, and reduced providing specialist services to other businesses. Under the
the chronic over-exploitation of the land. The question now impact of the Cold War’s end and the political drive for
is whether the same process may be expected today – and deregulation, all those involved have changed (some
what the cost will be for the losers.16 radically) their strategies, their forms of involvement and
This first change in the rules of the game in the world of their alliances. In this sense we may say that the research
knowledge production was accompanied by a second: it economy is undergoing a major mutation. It has now spread,
meant a growing number of universities became directly its internal balance has been transformed, and it has
involved in industrial development, increasingly abandoning colonized areas previously less dependant on it.20
their role as providers of  ‘open science’ (to use an economists’ The last point is that there has been no uniform wave of
term indicating academic knowledge as a public asset),17 change, moving forward at the same pace everywhere, no
and actively participating in the lodging of patents and in well-defined evolutionary front neatly distinguished from
exclusive licence agreements on their results, made with its antecedents and applying to the whole world of science
businesses of their own choosing. In the United States, the and industry. There are large differences between fields;
basis of this movement was the set of laws known together differences also, quite clearly, between countries (the
as the Bayh-Dole Act (in reference to a major bill passed in phenomenon is less marked in continental Europe than in
1980), authorizing universities to patent their productions, the United Kingdom). Innovation continues, for example,
including those generated with the use of public funds. to be essentially incremental in origin in the capital goods
This movement was growing in the same period as the sector and in aviation, while the pharmaceutical and ICT
change in patent policy, was based on the same arguments industries, which employ the most graduates, have multiple
and was propelled by the same enthusiastic doctrine (that channels linking them with academic research and in some
private ownership was a guarantee of greater effectiveness). cases have developed major in-house divisions for
It led to a vastly different process in the production of fundamental research.21
knowledge (lawyers become central characters in science
and served on the staff of universities) and to conflicts of What are we to conclude from this? That a change is under
interest, unknown thirty years before, among different way in the regime of production, certainly. Historically,
participants in the Science business.18 ‘open’ science (that which circulates freely in publications,
A third aspect that complemented the last and also and is connected with the idea of the public good) and
concerned the transformation of universities was the ‘private’ science (whose results belong to its producers) had
penetration of many of them by big industrial groups which been conducted side by side within the framework of the
invested large sums of money in exchange for a privileged nation state – and it is this balance that has now been called
position in acquiring the science and know-how produced into question. Scientific knowledge is indeed mobilized by
there: not a few industrialists have endowed university industry and the armed forces, but the tendency towards
laboratories (or created entirely new ones with lavish private appropriation had until now been counterbalanced
foundations) since the end of the 1980s. Encouraged to by the social compromise which makes the nation (and the
renew themselves (read ‘to bind themselves to the business public good) a primary value. University science, technical
world’, and in particular to accept such offers and the knowledge and industrial know-how each had their own
partnership constraints they implied), a great number of rationale, but they were mobilized by the great Leviathan,
universities changed their rules in this direction, and to a each in its place and in order of battle. And the state kept
large extent, in doing so, changed their nature.19 the emphasis on standards transcending any ‘excessive’
Fourth, as a sequel to this, the last two decades have scope for private property. Symbolically, Science belonged
seen many businesses giving up some of their in-house to a protected realm, its core being in institutions whose
investment in basic research, and bringing such research products were not, as a general rule, liable to become private
more directly under their Development divisions, reducing property. Elsewhere, the great industrial laboratories
its independence and freedom of action. This ‘Japanese produced knowledge, often quite fundamental knowledge,
model’ was conceptualized in Europe in the 1980s, where it that was essential to their business; but even this was very

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widely distributed. Many university scientists likewise took is broadly related to the social changes in our societies, not
out patents between 1900 and 1970; but many of their least the emergence of better-educated groups that have
techniques and results were made public, these patents not risen with the new economy and have a different idea of the
leading to the formation of entire domains of research which social nexus and the place of ethics in regulation. The events
were ‘off limits’, as happens today. mentioned above, arriving one after another to generate
It is a shift in this balance that we appear to have been strong feelings and extensive media reporting, have led to a
witnessing these last twenty or thirty years. Under the heightened sensitivity about the procedures and products
influence of the liberal revolution and the transformation of offered by industrial science and technology, and even to
society, the regime for the production of knowledge centred demands for moratoriums and other forms of risk
on academic institutions, and the public welfare values it management.
traditionally upheld has found itself opposed and challenged, The third reason we may offer for this disenchantment is
to the benefit of the private production of technological and the fact that responsibilities nowadays appear less clearly
scientific assets. There seem to be fewer means of opposing articulated: there is a blurring of the boundaries between
the rules of the market; and the trend is facilitated by the the various authorities whose task is to guarantee that a
very nature of the science/technology and the products it proper watch is kept. In Europe this is due to the growing
develops, especially in the life sciences; it is facilitated, also, role of the European Commission and the nature of its
by current political and social transformations which affect power (superimposed on the role and power of national
the value systems and legal framework informing research governments); and on a world-wide scale it is due to the rise
and invention. Patent legislation has been decisive here: by of bodies which, though unelected, nevertheless make rules
widening the scope of what could be patented, it was the and regulations that increasingly govern the lives of
principal means by which the world of the market managed individuals and nations (such as the WTO); it is due to the
to shift the previous balance and make marketability the growing power of the judiciary (also unelected) in its many
predominant or even the only effective standard. Following manifestations – in short, to the fact that the regulatory
the events of 11 September 2001, the United States is once powers of the ordinary democratic authorities, those of the
more on a war footing; but this does not mean that the tilt nation state, have been drastically eroded.
towards a world economic order based on private science These are decisive issues, and deserve to be examined and
need be questioned – though it will have greater support debated in depth – and these debates take place in Europe.
from public funds. We do not disparage the role that experts and scientists
should play in such discussions (a central one, almost by
definition), but the issues at stake are such that they cannot
By way of conclusion: science, risk and democracy be the only participants, or the only arbiters. ‘Technoscience’
today and the industrial world linked to it are indeed capable of
transforming the natural and social worlds so radically that
There is no denying that Western Europe at the end of the the issue becomes a thoroughly political one. This is no
twentieth century was marked by lively social concern about anti-science demand, but an expression of the will of
science and technology. This situation came about for three societies which are both increasingly literate in science and
main reasons. The first is that science, or more precisely the increasingly desirous of controlling their own destinies; and
world of technology and industry to which scientific it would be wise to respect such an expression by democratic
knowledge is organically linked, has the power to alter our means. Let us be quite clear: this desire – that society as a
lives in radical and irreversible ways. We need only think of whole should be in control of the potential developments
the great global equilibriums (greenhouse effect, holes in the offered by science and technology – is not a negative one: in
ozone layer, climate change, the environment generally), no way does it amount to a denial of the role which science
nuclear technology and the waste issue, industrial accidents can play. On the contrary, it carries a rich cargo of
such as Bhopal, or, above all, biotechnology, artificially expectations; and the skill of knowing when and how to
assisted human reproduction, the introduction of genetically intervene is something we all need to learn.
modified organisms (GMOs) into the food chain, the To do so, we need to take three things on board: (1) these
possibility of human cloning – and the list goes on. A new issues arise outside the well-controlled domain of
principal feature of this technological/scientific industry is science itself, and can therefore definitely be expected to
that it cannot predict, before actually applying its knowledge, lack any single or unequivocal solution. Here science is
all the consequences that might result: in other words, what tackling problems it can only imperfectly know (and it
exactly is altered or displaced by its intervention only comes needs to learn that there are plenty of things it does not
fully to light after the event.22 know); (2) these problems are not purely intellectual: they
A second cause of concern have been the crises or inherently encompass technical, industrial and financial
scandals that the European countries and indeed the whole issues and it is therefore mandatory to admit the existence
world have witnessed over a number of decades and which of identifiable interests in the choices made (science does
have made a lasting dent in public confidence in the social not live cut off from the world in an ivory tower); (3) there
and political regulation of science and technology (the are many paths our future could take: they differ according
AIDS epidemic and the blood transfusion scandal in to the degree of civic commitment shown by individuals
France, the carcinogenic effects of asbestos, mad cow (the future they want, for themselves and their children)
disease, Chernobyl, the lack of transparency in bringing and these individuals’ estimates of our capacities, as a
GMOs onto the market, air pollution, dioxin). Such events society, as scientists, to bring such futures about. Again,
have led the victims to refuse to be satisfied any longer with the best way of handling this is by as public a debate as
compensation measures, but to demand that criminal law possible, without pretending that scientific knowledge
be applied to such matters. This change in public attitudes alone can settle such issues. With such modesty, science

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could speak to great purpose, helping to clarify the de siècle which is still continuing, in a world which now has
alternatives and not, we could then legitimately hope, to face the effects of the historic events of 11 September.
triggering a violent rejection.

T h e Wo r ld Wa r P e r i od
T h e h i s t o r y of W e s t e r n E u r o p e
s i n c e 1 9 1 4 : c u l t u r al d e v e lo p m e n t The period from 1914 to 1945, dominated by the culture of
war, was of course a time of great crisis that went beyond
The 1914–1918 war, which later lost its unique status and the direct effects of the two wars; but it was also a period
became known as the First World War, was to its shot through from end to end (partly because of this war
contemporaries and above all to its survivors, the Great situation) by a radical upheaval in technology, whose effects
War. In the historian’s mind, it still is. From it there were in sum beneficial though this was not immediately
emerged a culture turned upside-down by the violence, clear to the collective awareness.
individual and collective, that had been unleashed by
appeals to the masses and by the systematic recourse to
propaganda.23 Ever since then, culture has been haunted by ‘Technical reproducibility’
suspicions about the fragility, the questionable authenticity
or the irreversible decline of the values that had held sway This formula was first coined in intellectual discussion by
before the struggle; there are doubts for the future of the the German philosopher Walter Benjamin in 1936.25 Since
rationalist, humanist and liberal West. The twentieth his exile to France (fleeing Nazi anti-Semitism), he had
century was to bear the marks of those doubts, whether we been led to reflect on the status of works of art in a society
consider it only up to 9 November 1989 when the Berlin that would from now on be governed, or even regimented,
Wall came down, or follow it further. by this new capacity of the culture’s technology to reproduce
From the Great War also emerged a ‘Western Europe’, the same work ad infinitum. This promised widespread
clearly distinguished for three-quarters of a century from availability and a certain ‘democratization’, while at the
another cultural world that consisted at first of the Soviet same time threatening a loss of individuality. Other
Union on its own (alone, but considerable) and was then thinkers, too, noted the problem, though they did not put
extended by the Second World War to include all the it so theoretically, systematically or forcefully. Some were
‘countries of the East’. Though distinct from these, ‘Western optimistic ( Jean-Richard Bloch), others pessimistic
Europe’ nevertheless did not lose its main points of (Georges Duhamel); and of course the phenomenon was
difference from the cultural choices of the United States, not new. Without going back as far as the invention of
which had from the start been dominated by a stronger writing, nor even to that of printing, there is no doubt that
idea of private agency, more business-friendly and less the nineteenth century, from the lithographs of its
centralized. An in-between geopolitical situation also beginnings to the movies of its close, saw a noticeable
reveals this part of Europe developing independent cultural acceleration in the tendency. Nevertheless it was this world
experiences of its own which were deeply foreign to the war period which saw the widespread use of the three
predominant liberalism, most of them harking back to an techniques that make it the first fully audio-visual age, at
authoritarian tradition brought more or less up to date; the least in the modern sense of the term: photojournalism,
most visible of all these brought a fundamentally novel wireless broadcasting and, to top them all, the talking
choice, the newly forged concept of totalitarianism. movies. This period ended with the definitive arrival of the
When we look closer, though, we find we cannot reduce major cultural diffusion technology of the next: television,
the way a society’s culture functions to purely or even whose first broadcasts had actually been made in England
essentially political determining causes. The economic at the end of the 1920s.
situation, with its alternating phases of growth and Photography, so far confined to luxury publications
depression and its often massive social effects, cannot help and an occasional appearance in the popular press, now
but deeply influence the symbolic issues of concern to the came to the fore; in the end it dictated the layout of the
groups of people involved, as the century’s last quarter well mass dailies (Paris-Soir) and the illustrated magazines for
illustrates: as cultural changes go, the fall of the Berlin adult readerships (Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung)26 and for
Wall was no great turning-point, but must take its place in young readers (the Winckler and Del Duca titles, all either
a long, continuous fin de siècle that can be characterized as translations or imitations of American comics). In the
a widespread movement of questioning or even challenging form of photomontage, it became a propaganda tool
the progressive values that had been dominant during the regarded as particularly effective in the installation of the
previous period. Looking more closely still, it becomes great, spectacular exhibitions in which this age so
apparent that we need to examine technical developments delighted (e.g. the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution,
first, in that it is these which give any age the particular Rome, 1932).27
framework for its practices and ways of representing the ‘W/T’ (wireless telephony) proved during the Great
world, though of course that framework is not, as some War that it could do sterling military duty; once peace
early theories of communication science maintained, a returned, it was able to reach a wider public in the form of
mere transcription of them. scheduled programmes which were, depending on the
We may divide the years into three major periods, each country and the date, run by private enterprise or,
clearly identifiable: a world war period (including both increasingly, the public sector, until in a number of countries
wars, and the years between), then a time of growth, a monopoly of broadcasting was established. What this
corresponding to what the French sociologist Jean meant varied, of course, depending on national conditions,
Fourastié24 called the ‘three Heroic Decades’, and lastly a fin which ranged from a liberal country which insisted on the

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independence of the central broadcaster (the British emergence of the hallmark adjectives of the age: ‘mass’ (in
Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC)28 to a totalitarian social terms) and (in politics) ‘total’.
regime concerned to ensure a wide uptake of this ever-
available conditioning tool that penetrated the whole
country, household by household (at the instance of the Mass culture
Nazi state, a People’s Wireless was mass-produced and sold
at an easily affordable price). On the eve of the Second Mass communication media helped strengthen the identity
World War, in which such resources were used of nation states by speeding up the spread of the centre’s
systematically by all belligerents, the number of receivers ways of doing things and thus its particular values, from a
(now called radios) ran into millions in countries like the uniform language to common historical myths; but the
United Kingdom, Germany and France; so did the numbers same cultural technology also tended to weaken national
going to the cinema, which had been offering talking pictures boundaries, and to encourage genres and lifestyles of
since the early 1930s. American invention to take root in those countries most
open to outside influences. Thus popular music was
subjected to strong influences from the arrival of the first
Crises (black or white) American jazz bands in 1917 onwards.
First jazz and then swing established themselves in the
Just as the rise of the silent movies had dealt a fatal blow to public ballroom, before more gradually taking over the
a whole genre of popular theatre (often at fairgrounds), so popular song. They stayed quite separate, on the other hand,
did the even faster spread of the ‘talkies’ permanently alter from the world of art music, which paid them only the most
the theatre of the middle classes (known in France as the passing and superficial interest in the early part of this
théâtre de boulevard), whose plots and actors moved period and then moved off towards other horizons; it was
wholesale to the big screen. This cultural shift coincided not until just before the Second World War that a small
with the direct effects of the economic crisis that went back minority of young amateurs laid the foundations of a new
to 1929, which by considerably impoverishing the sources art form in alliance with the – likewise fragmentary –
of private commissions gave a hard knock to architects and movement of the early cineastes, which dated from the
artists as well as live entertainers. There is no doubt, though, 1920s. Similar American tendencies affected the printed
that the real problem was one of production and distribution, matter aimed at young readers in these same countries
not of creativity. (France, Belgium, Italy and others); this material seemed
The growing mismatch between the education systems destined, just before the war, to align itself with the graphics
set up in the previous century and the social and industrial and narrative patterns that were ‘made in the USA’.
requirements of a world now dominated by industry and Beyond these tendencies which lend themselves to
urban interests brought new issues to the fore, and new geopolitical explanation, the general development of what
dissatisfactions. Mass schooling in the form of free was beginning to be called ‘mass culture’ was driving a
compulsory primary education had been achieved in standardization of collective habits of symbolic
northern European countries, and was well on the way in representation in all urban or urbanized societies, in a
others; France and certain other countries had added an dialectical association with the copy-cat practices of great
aspect of ideological modernity (the exclusion of religious numbers who followed the cult of ‘the star’, a cult all the
matters) that prevailed in the end. However, this solution more strongly established because the star could now be
could not cope with the new problems posed by the self- seen and heard everywhere, on cinema screen and radio set.
sufficient but marginalized nature of strictly technical This association of extreme numbers and supreme
training and by most primary school leavers’ lack of access distinction applied both to the world of the music-hall and
to secondary or, consequently, advanced education: both that of the cinema at their respective zeniths; and also to
were still generally reserved for those privileged by wealth that of sport, which was still at the start of its dizzying
or status. ascent.
Educators who wanted to modernize teaching methods Sport had made its appearance, among the elite, around
in a liberating spirit (Maria Montessori, Célestin Freinet), the middle of the previous century; little by little it had won
or to lower the barriers between one kind of schooling and over the working class, through particular activities which
another, were for the most part preaching in the wilderness; combined social occasions with physical exercise (cycling) or
and the number of teachers in paying institutions were by brought spectators together in a stadium to watch an
no means on the increase in all countries over the whole exhibition of physical prowess (athletics), often including
period.29 The middle and upper classes did, on the other team spirit (football, rugby).30 This evolution can be followed
hand, warmly embrace the rapidly expanding Boy Scout in club memberships and in the rise of the Olympic Games,
and Girl Guide movements, as soon as their methods won which imperceptibly took on the status of a political prize of
over the secular-minded and, above all, the Catholics the first order, both for the country of a successful competitor
(despite these movements’ Protestant origins). Moreover, and, above all, for the organizing country (e.g. Berlin, 1936).
all three persuasions also made common cause in organizing
activities to enrich the leisure – and the minds – of children
and adolescents from the working class: ‘youth’ became a Totalitarian culture
social entity in its own right, thanks to these ideological
strategies; and where they led, the market gradually Right-wing totalitarian ‘fascist’ regimes that were partly the
followed. product of this social trend to mass behaviour became
The practices arising from this coincidence of vigour and established in Italy after 1922 and in Germany from 1933,
misgivings naturally enough combined eventually in the as well as giving a more or less long-lasting tint to the

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political and cultural life of as many as ten other countries, the League of Nations, while still unable to recover entirely
from the Portugal of Salazar’s Estado novo to the lands from its wounds. Here surrealism systematically positioned
subject to Axis domination during the Second World War, itself as an organized subversion, freeing the forces of the
and including also the Spain of Generalissimo Franco. imagination.31 It can be seen as a resurgence of romanticism,
These pushed the opportunities for increasing uniformity but this time deeply alien to national feeling; this made it,
to their most extreme consequences, for they were also in a few years, a real international movement, whose effects
opportunities that helped recruitment to the movements could be detected from Paris to Belgrade. As the surrealist
themselves. They took cultural issues very seriously, and creed also refused, at least in theory, to recognize the
were not prepared to leave them to the free play of market boundaries between the arts or any hierarchy among them,
forces or of voluntary associations; they invented an arm of those effects made themselves felt in literature as much as
government that became increasingly ambitious in its in the visual arts; and here they lasted well beyond the
proclaimed scope and increasingly interventionist in its 1930s, when the movement, as an organization, dissolved
methods. In Italy, for instance, a simple Bureau in charge of in schism.
monitoring the press grew over a decade into the vast The obstinate attempt of the Breton group to identify its
Ministry of Popular Culture, itself only a small version of own struggle with that of the Leninist avant-gardes – first
the government department that Hitler entrusted to Joseph Soviet, later Trotskyist – was a political failure; but it
Goebbels in 1933, with the official remit of popular illustrates well how these tendencies must be understood as
‘enlightenment’ (Volksaufklärung). a single whole. And indeed it is as a single whole that their
This project led to the systematic turning of all forms of enemies saw them, including those who came to reject (as
cultural expression into instruments of one purpose: the kulturbolchevismus or ‘degenerate art’) even those other
service of the totalitarian state, the single Party, and their movements that challenged the cultural order inherited
supreme Leader. Architecture and sculpture produced from the nineteenth century: continuations of earlier
buildings and allegories of colossal size (the Olympic aesthetic revolutions such as abstract art, and, still more
Stadium at Rome, the Berlin Chancellery); music, dance recently, the collective endeavours to establish an atonal
and gymnastics mobilized uniform bodies; the cinema aesthetic in music (the Vienna School around Arnold
provided sublimity and sublimation through spectacle, Schoenberg), or a vitalist body language (German
whether the ostensible genre was documentary or fiction – contemporary dance), or again a functionalist architectural
indeed, the boundary between the two was kept arbitrary and visual environment (the Bauhaus school). All these
(e.g. in the case of Leni Riefenstahl). trends shared the determination to free themselves from all
All the same, we should not exaggerate these dictators’ reference to heritage; they would also, with surrealism,
obsession with propaganda; they were also careful to give prove later to have been particularly fertile; later, and at the
‘pure’ entertainment its rightful place, as long as it served very heavy cost of open persecution by both the Nazi and
the regime’s interests by cultivating nationalism and racism, the Stalinist totalitarian persuasions, they were carried
or the cult of authority and heroism. The essential thing was away by the efficiency of the parallel and contemporary
to produce mass behaviour, and to justify devotion to the return to order.
regime by the quality of the public service rendered, which
entailed demonstrating to all ages and all classes the
admirable activities of youth and leisure movements such as Return to order
Dopolavoro or Kraft durch Freude.
We may well imagine how the forms produced under Immediately after the end of the Great War voices were
such strained conditions betrayed corresponding tensions raised, even among the younger cultural generation,
between the forces fighting for order and those defending advocating a return to the values of reason and clarity,
the established disorder. claiming to oppose some earlier cult of decadence which
was more or less associated with symbolism; in a context
such as that of French culture, these voices found themselves
Revolts and revolutions in harmony with certain stereotypes of the national identity
(Jean Cocteau, Le coq et l’arlequin). It was the strength, but
It is no exaggeration to see in the most radical avant-garde at the same time the limitation, of such a position that it
movement of the years immediately after the Great War tended to produce an aesthetic which kept its freshness by
(provocatively self-baptized ‘dada’) a direct product of the means of an artful simplicity: the music of the Groupe des
war itself, both because the movement was born in the Six is a good instance. One might say the same of the
middle of that war (and in a neutral country, Switzerland) acclamation that greeted the emerging literature of political
as an avowed reaction against it, and because at bottom it witness, its authors invested with the image and often the
offered, in its intransigent rejection of established modes of role of intellectual hero, whether their values were of the
expression, a transposition of the violence of war to the right (Ernst Jünger, Ernst von Salomon), of the left (Erich-
cultural plane. But dada, too, had its antecedents (it extended Maria Remarque, André Malraux, Paul Nizan) or
the provocative methods of futurism) and its successors, oscillating from one to the other (Pierre Drieu La Rochelle,
giving birth to surrealism in the person of its main disciples, Curzio Malaparte).
beginning with André Breton, who was joined later by the As time went by and the economic crisis chafed deeper,
very founder of dada, Tristan Tzara. with rising danger on the international scene, the tendency
Surrealism’s course and fate is illustrative of its whole turned more and more clearly reactionary. Individuals and
age: it took shape in the mid-1920s, at the heart of Western groups who still championed traditionalist values (religious
Europe as the region began to find its way back towards or otherwise) were accordingly joined by others coming
prosperity and dreamed of international peace assured by back into line, whether from the direction of the mild

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modernism prevalent just after the war or indeed from Television broadcasts had been restarted straight after
among the avant-garde itself, from Giorgio di Chirico to the war in the United Kingdom, and a decade later it had
Igor Stravinsky, including the former surrealist Louis already become a mass medium in that country, through
Aragon, who made himself the high priest of socialist the adoption of a technical standard inferior to the French
realism in Western Europe. In architecture, sculpture, one. The French option, taken essentially for protectionist
painting, the decorative arts and music, neoclassicism was reasons, meant that mass penetration took a decade or so
pre-eminent in both public commissions and general longer in France, while the countries of southern Europe
approval. It prospered all the more because its flanks were had to wait until the end of this period to reach the same
covered by a whole literary and artistic industry that either stage. Nevertheless, from mid-century onwards all
claimed it was championing European authenticity or, in observers recognized the general trend. There has been
the same conservative spirit, cultivated exoticism. Exoticism, considerable discussion about the immediately inferred
indeed, was suited to the colonial supremacy that reached connection between the rise of TV and the simultaneous
its high-water mark in this world war period, and was to sharp fall in cinema attendance in these various countries.
ebb so quickly thereafter. The relationship was not in fact automatic, as some timing
This great Return to the Past had its (apparent) triumph differences in certain countries show (Italy, for example);
in Europe under the Axis powers in the early 1940s, when the spread of car ownership, and the resulting new ways of
Antonio Ferro flourished in Portugal and Giuseppe Bottai spending leisure time at weekends, also had a great part to
in Italy, where the futurist element seemed thoroughly play; but the new forms of entertainment the small screen
vanquished by academic tendencies. Nor was it absent from offered, including films broadcast by or made for TV, did in
the deliberately jingoistic, traditionalist attitude of the the end depress cinema attendances, especially once TV
whole Resistance culture. Later on, though, it became clear could offer colour; and the arrival of the VCR confirmed
that the defeat of the Axis would have the effect of utterly the trend.
destroying its legitimacy, for a whole generation. Here again, though, we should really consider a period’s
cultural equipment as a coherent whole rather than
concentrating on any single, supposedly dominant medium.
The turnaround When we do so, we are struck above all by the convergence
of the new audio-visual configuration’s effects as a
We find the technological potential of the earlier period re‑focusing on individual consumption in private spaces; on
rediscovered after 1945, but with a thorough-going change the other hand, we must also take into account the
of direction due to a radical reversal of the macroeconomic simultaneous rise in a number of public, collective cultural
situation. practices in other fields: proof, if proof were needed, that
sociological cause and effect are never unequivocal in
nature.
New audio-visual drivers

The period made no great fundamental inventions in terms Growth

of communication technology: but in this field it is not
invention which counts so much as the diffusion that ensures A large portion of these collective practices, or at least of
that a technology becomes part of the collective endowment. their development, can be attributed to the period’s main
Just as these decades saw not the invention but the driving force, which was the economic phenomenon
popularization of the automobile (one generation later than perfectly captured – fuzzy edges and all – by the term
in the United States), so in terms of cultural media they ‘growth’. Visible in a whole series of indices (output,
witnessed less in the way of qualitative shifts but more in the productivity, trade), this resulted, thanks to the general
way of great extensions of quantity, often so dizzyingly great adoption of welfare state policies, in a thirty-year unbroken
as to amount to the breaking of new ground. Gramophone rise in incomes for all social groups and, in most countries,
records, for instance, now came within everyone’s reach a reduction in income inequalities, as well as a decrease in
thanks to the development, at the end of the 1940s, of working hours (both official and real) and at the same time
recording and duplication techniques that made them much an increase in paid holidays. Western European
less fragile and expensive, utterly transforming the mode of consumption practices were moving away from the
transmission of new popular music styles and, we should not satisfaction of basic needs, and a growing share of both
forget, the means of general access to the heritage of so- money and time came to be spent on cultural purchases;
called classical music which until then had been available this was confirmed by the new statistics on cultural activity
only to the concert-going public.32 which began to be gathered as a sociology of leisure became
Developments in radio were of the same order, as soon as established.
transistors made much smaller sets generally available Growth applied to cities and towns, also. People’s
during the 1960s; these made listening a more flexible and personal ties to rural societies weakened all the more rapidly
increasingly gap-filling activity; there is no doubt this was as those societies were losing their vitality, so as to engender,
related to the shift in programme style towards the modern by the close of the period and in tandem with spreading
dominance of music and news. The change in radio’s status urban frustrations, a considerable nostalgia for a rural way
was at least equally due, however, to the emergence of a of life which by now was largely imaginary. The suburbs
competing medium, television. This, though it did not kill became the predominant feature of urban agglomerations,
sound broadcasting as some had initially expected – any and observers and associations alike applied themselves to
more than the cinema killed the theatre – did take over the needs, real or supposed, of their inhabitants. The
some of its functions.33 combination of large-scale urbanization and the widespread

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European emphasis on voluntary public action generated a definition it did, to the Atlantic world, Western Europe
theory and practice of cultural activity, which greatly added had been the first and foremost site of crystallization of a
to local resource endowments, from public libraries to critique of totalitarian culture which was expressed in such
multipurpose cultural centres. identity-defining instances as the meetings of the Congress
The extrapolation of these indices also had a lasting effect for Cultural Freedom, reviews such as Preuves,35 and works
on the actual content of the culture transmitted: ideological such as those of George Orwell or Raymond Aron. Every
confrontations, far from diminishing, were simply translated indication, however, was that Marxist influences, though
into a conflict of optimisms, as the supposedly dominant confined to a minority presence in public opinion generally,
culture came under increasing attack for its ‘materialism’ retained until the very end of this period a predominant role
and the inadequate pace of equal access to cultural resources within the intelligentsia, at least in those democracies where
and cultural expression. This critique crystallized, again such an intelligentsia played a considerable role, such as
towards the end of the phase, in the May 1968 movement in Italy or France.36
France and similar upheavals in public opinion in the other In a situation that lent itself to partisan commitment
democracies. from start to finish, and was in a sense a continuation of
the world war by other means, Western consciences found
subjects of polemic and occasions for public witness in
Hot and cold abundance. The threat to the future resulting from the
deployment of nuclear weapons by the two superpowers
Beneath the surface of its political demands, the protest gave rise to a pacifist movement, at the outset strongly
movement derived part of its force from its increasing and influenced by the Soviet Union. Imperceptibly another
strictly cultural aspiration to less authoritarian or even issue, closer to home, took over: decolonization, affecting
avowedly libertarian conceptions of sexual and gender especially the United Kingdom and, still more, France,
relationships and the functioning of the family as an which was more attached than the United Kingdom to the
institution. idea of colonization as integration. At last the process was
transposed to the case of Viet Nam, and large swathes of
the European intelligentsia joined in criticism of the
Liberated behaviour United States.
The privileged position left vacant by German
While the media talked, from the mid-1960s onwards, of a philosophy, once the leading inf luence but virtually
permissive society, quoting examples from Scandinavia or annihilated following the disaster of 1933, came for a
the United Kingdom,34 statistics show that the same years generation to be occupied by France, with reviews such as
also saw the start of a major demographic shift that traversed Esprit or Les Temps Modernes and the emblematic figures
Europe from (roughly) north to south, with parallel and of l’engagement such as Emmanuel Mounier, Albert Camus
frequently correlated falls in marriage rates, birth rates and or Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre’s influence, indeed, went beyond
fertility rates as well as increases in divorce, cohabitation the boundaries of that generation, due to his ability to
and single-parent families. The return of liberal democracy pronounce on all the main issues that concerned the next,
in Portugal, Greece and Spain allowed those societies to as well as being the companion of Simone de Beauvoir,
join this general trend, which in all countries took the same whose The Second Sex came to play a seminal role in
institutional and symbolic forms and for which the term awakening feminist consciousness around the world.
‘cultural revolution’ is really no exaggeration. The emergence at the heart of the debate of what a
The cultural productions of the age, from social science French demographer, Albert Sauvy, suggested in the 1950s
to the most popular forms of art, bear witness in the closing calling the Third World for a while gave particular
years of this period to the successive toppling of taboos prominence to those who spoke on this subject (Aimé
which the modernism of the immediate post-war years, Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Jean Rouch).37 Most of the time,
whose priority had been the great collective labour of however, it was to the intellectual issues internal to European
reconstruction and then expansion, had hardly touched, so cultures that the main critical works of this period referred,
far as the great mass of the population was concerned: whether artistic such as those of the iconoclastic French or
taboos that upheld a male-dominated, patriarchal, Italian film-makers from Jean-Luc Godard to Francesco
heterosexual and matrimonial pattern in private life. Rosi or Marco Bellochio, or intellectual such as those of the
Alongside literature and the cinema, a whole world of philosophers and essayists who, though they could be as
popular music, mainly American or British in origin or at different from each other as Ivan Illich, Michel Foucault
least influence, from rock’n’roll to pop music, helped to and Jürgen Habermas, nevertheless did agree in rejecting
spread a more hedonistic view of the world, increasingly conformity.
critical of established institutions. Frequently it is in critical projects of this kind that a
period’s most representative works are to be found; such
projects are positioned, by their authors and by their
The Cold War commentators, in the avant-garde of European cultural
production.
In the end, all the promise of this entire movement made
the period forget just how starkly, in ideological terms, it
remained overshadowed until its end and even later, by a Avant-gardism
deep bipolarity which could be felt not only in its geopolitical
affairs but also within its intellectual debates and, Never has this military metaphor so flourished as during
accordingly, its cultural productions. Belonging, as by this age, fundamentally determining the behaviour not

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only of creative people but of their interpreters and their train their professionals, to spread their inventions and to
various audiences as well. The post-war years saw the discuss their theory.
return to grace and the critical and official triumph of the The post-war years saw a proliferation of such institutions,
great inventions of earlier generations, from abstract often on the initiative of small groups of amateurs who
painting and sculpture to atonal music, and including the gradually built up a network influential enough, though in
Bauhaus,38 which returned to Europe reshaped by the some cases only after many years, to persuade the public
prism of America but quickly seized on as remarkably well authorities of the usefulness of what they were doing, and to
suited to the new urban projects. Some of these masters of get financial assistance and official recognition. One of the
the new modernism enjoyed a reputation that was, to be first to benefit from this trend was the cinema, where much
sure, restricted (Le Corbusier, Olivier Messiaen) but others was at stake for the national economy: film libraries were
ended by becoming popular (Pablo Picasso) and having a endowed, whether public (the British Film Archive) or
profound influence on the new generations. private (Cinémathēque française); schools (Centro
Far from the limelight, younger artists began to introduce Sperimentale, IDHEC) and networks of excellence (film
more socially acceptable forms of earlier ‘outrages’, and with clubs, art houses) were founded, as well as critical reviews
some success, for example in the great town planning (Les Cahiers du cinéma, Positif, Bianco e Nero).39 The
programmes, especially in northern Europe, by applying a chronology of this process shows that the construction of
new, more functionalist conception of everyday objects this new legitimacy coincided with the more or less complete
(‘design’) making much of Scandinavian and Italian models, elimination of the delay between the production of the most
or with an electro-acoustic music which in a short time innovative work and its institutional recognition, as shown,
considerably enhanced the available palette of sounds. The in particular, by public commissioning and acquisition
‘new novel’ rather quickly became unfashionable (though it policies. When the slump came at the end of the century,
left enduring traces in academic theory), but the new wave this two-fold recognition proved able to withstand all
in films captured a wider audience with its aesthetic of retrograde forces.
slimmed-down resources and ambitions, which by no means
ruled out a great sophistication in the results. The critical
and commercial success of this group can also be accounted The fin de siècle
for by technical and economic developments: the formal
choices of the new wave corresponded perfectly to the new In some ways the period starting with the crisis that was at
tools of film-making, while they made themselves attractive first called just the ‘oil shock’ of 1973 might have been a
to producers by costing less. simple return to the depression climate of the 1930s; but
This more or less subtle interplay of formal and social the mid-1970s can also be seen as a unique period, now that
forces illustrates the general trend of radicalism; and ‘radical’ we appreciate the simultaneity of the fall of Saigon (the
pretty well summarizes the period as a whole. It can readily high-water mark of Leninist expansion) and the publication
be seen in a field like the visual arts, where dislike of figurative in the West of The Gulag Archipelago, the first spectacular
expression was combined with a re-examination of media, sign of the upheaval that would vindicate it less than fifteen
first depriving canvas and paper of their supremacy, and years later. We need only look at the cultural clues to realize
then undermining the conventionally tangible object, and that there was indeed a ‘1975 Revolution’ which marks the
ending with more or less ephemeral manifestations such as arrival of a new world of constant economic malaise
the Happening, or conceptual art. associated with an evident acceleration in the freeing of the
energies of the individual. This apparent contradiction did
not fail to produce ambiguities in its effects on symbolic
The death of fine art representation.

In this way, by the time this great, thirty-year progressive

trend had run its course, the legitimate arts had turned into The PC
so many formal extremes, from land art to Pina Bausch’s
minimalist choreography; and, no doubt, extremities: Viewed from a little distance, the period seems dominated
things it would be hard to exceed. However, the appearance by the primacy of television, measured by some in terms of
of pop art at the end of the 1950s (on British soil) reminds the growing number of sets, though the number of channels
us that one form of radicalism was to integrate the was at least equally significant; the latter was considerably
vernacular, to assign the so-called minor arts a somewhat extended by the ending of public broadcasting monopolies
less humble place. and by the appearance first of cable and then of satellite
The old system of aesthetics, based on a clear distinction transmission. Widespread ownership of VCRs opened the
between major and minor arts, fine art and decorative arts, door to a new way of using the small screen, imperceptibly
or more generally between art and craft, had in fact transforming the television viewer into a schedule producer.
preserved its coherence and elitism well into the years If we consider this new domestic apparatus in conjunction
following the Second World War: we find forms of with the replacement of the amateur ciné camera (8 mm,
expression stigmatized as ‘popular’, ‘utilitarian’ or ‘recent’, then super-8) by the video camera, we can clearly see that
as the case may be, and in all European countries these after two decades of such evolution the term ‘television’ is
were still absent from the prime venues that conferred no longer suited to this new pattern: it is no longer only the
artistic legitimacy, or at best given only a marginal showing real-time broadcasting of sound and image which
within them. Songs, improvised music, fashion, furniture, characterizes the equipment and its use, but capacities for
photography and film often still had no dedicated manipulation of technologies that are converging towards a
institutions to protect and champion their heritage, to ‘personal screen’, some or all of which the viewers can learn

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to master, thus ceasing to be passive spectators – if, indeed, public regulation have been dislodged, and we may note
they ever were – and becoming the co-producers of their that the European Union itself, though much concerned to
own media. encourage subsidiarity and deregulation, in the end
This reinterpretation of the tendency is of course decided, when finalizing the Treaty of Maastricht, to
confirmed and enhanced when we turn to what will remain include the cultural sphere in its institutions’ new field of
the great revolution of these decades, and perhaps of the competence.
century, in communication: the computerization of society.
Once again the revolution consisted not so much in the
principles of the technology, which had been developed Leisure planet
from the 1940s to the 1960s, as in its extension to general
use, beyond the restricted sphere of military and industrial Contrary to the expectations that would have resulted from
applications. The cultural revolution was not the computer a deterministic extrapolation from earlier periods, European
but the fact that from now on it could be personal.40 cultural behaviour has continued to develop exponentially,
in both geographical and demographical extent,
notwithstanding the recession.
Economic crisis

The previous period had given Western societies the Leisure

confident assurance of a continuously rising curve of
prosperity, accompanied by a gradual convergence of models The post-war years saw a transition from elitist leisure
for society. The economic crisis which emerged in the mid- practices (and accordingly from an elitist conception of
1970s has forced the West into a new era, unprecedented in leisure as something for the ruling classes) to mass popular
that it has combined recurrent resurgences of relative leisure practices and corresponding ideas. The new element
growth in particular regions or industries with a degree of introduced towards the century’s end was not, therefore,
social exclusion that has been kept high, and an income the phenomena of mass tourism or sport themselves, but
distribution that has seen increased inequalities replace the the fact that this trend continued despite the lengthening
earlier diminishing ones. This last feature was largely due to and deepening of the economic crisis. Though it is true
the rolling back of ‘welfare’, which so far as culture is that a significant minority of Europeans continue to live
concerned took the form of cuts in public spending on with little or no access to leisure facilities and leisure
cultural purposes (most obvious in the United Kingdom products, sociological investigations have confirmed that
under the Thatcher government and, twenty years later, in the obstacle is now less economic than cultural. Attendance
Italy under that of Berlusconi). Such cuts were extended to at cultural venues and consumption of cultural objects
eastern Europe with the collapse of the Soviet-dominated have grown steadily throughout the period, with appreciable
regimes and a sharp lowering of ambitions on the part of differences between northern Europe and a lagging south;
state institutions. and it is evident that, when incomes fall, leisure spending
As the economic crisis affected a culture and society (whether of money or of time) is cut back, but not
dominated politically by government intervention (national systematically cut out.41
or local) and in intellectual and aesthetic terms by The actual content of Europeans’ leisure activities have
progressivism, we find initially a resurgence of value systems undergone a significant transformation, especially in the
directly opposite to these. Nationalism and racism practice of the arts, where amateur activity is increasing, and
accordingly regain a higher profile and a community in sports, where sports-ground activities such as athletics
legitimacy which they had lost since the war, even though have been giving way to physical enjoyment of the natural
the intellectual restructuring of the ‘New Right’ did not world in the form of mountain sports, water sports or
actually make them as dominant now as they had previously countryside sports such as rambling, cycling, riding, and so
been invisible. Liberal culture though, already predominant on. This period’s leisure activities are marked by at least two
in Scandinavian and English-speaking countries, now traits that echo its intellectual trends: a growing concern for
definitely gained the upper hand over Marxist culture individual autonomy and an equally growing preoccupation
among the intellectuals of southern Europe, including those with the protection of humanity’s physical environment.
who defined their position in terms of the fight against All this, however, has come to be regarded from a point of
right-wing dictatorships. view that is more and more explicitly a global one, which of
Under the impetus of general shifts in technology and course it has to be.
markets, cultural life in Europe appears from this point on
to have been subjected to the laws of the market alone, laws
which already governed some parts of it, such as painting Globalization
and sculpture, and had done so for almost a century. A
number of countries, including France, however, continued Acculturation, whether limited to local, bilateral and short-
to champion the concept of a more organized cultural life lived exchanges or in the extreme form of a virtual murder
based on the protection of copyright and the legitimacy of of a culture by another, dominant one, has been a constant
public regulation and financing. As we can see from the phenomenon throughout the history of humanity. The
adoption outside France of central bodies such as Ministries novel feature now is the acceleration of traffic in forms and
of Culture (the formula has been copied not only in the values and, above all, the world-wide character of that traffic
countries of the south, but also in Germany) or regulatory nowadays, and its apparently unlimited scale. This
legislation such as retail price maintenance on books, it is universality was the logical result of the general spread of
not certain that the trend will continue until all modes of communication and duplication techniques coinciding with

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the end of the Cold War and the fall of the last ideological project.43 The formula had become familiar in architecture,
barriers, already sapped from every direction, in the early where it referred to choices of an anti-functionalist kind,
1990s. The building of new barriers by various religious more apparent than structural (Ricardo Boffill); it was
fundamentalists, Islamic ones in the lead, has been the most subsequently applied to an entire posture which deployed
extreme but not the only phenomenon which can be seen as old, traditional forms as the final provocation, possible now
proof of the depth of this penetration, which holistic that every radical experiment had been tried. However, it
cultures experience as intolerable. could be extended to cover all aspects of a hedonistic,
The globalized culture of the early twenty-first century is fanciful conception of the relations between an atomized
by and large a culture of the young.42 It makes much of yet globalized society and a creativity that had rejected any
musical expression (as it emerged from 1960s rock, but now hierarchy among the arts, any a priori distinction between
bursting into a great number of styles all seeking to explore ‘good taste’ and whatever the opposite of good taste might
its diversity), and of audio-visual productions. These are in be. In the field of contemporary music the modernism of
addition to a film industry whose finances depend more and the post-war years has stood its ground better, no doubt
more on adolescent audiences, television serials and soap because at the same time there is provision, in recordings
operas (which became a massive industry during the 1970s) and concerts, for satisfying the taste of a larger audience
and video games, the main play activity of the 1990s. As the through widespread and wide-ranging access to the musical
generations succeed each other, such forms naturally grow heritage (the success of the Early Music movement, for
in respectability. instance); but the return to traditional forms has finally
Interpreting the phenomenon of globalization, though, taken off here as elsewhere via developments of minimalism
is still a complex matter. While it has strengthened the (Arvo Pärt) or lyricism (Thomas Adès).
dominance of the English language, this is still far from Without going to such extremes, the whole of
absolute: in response, it has provoked a modernization and contemporary creative endeavour has been marked for some
diffusion, again on an unprecedented scale, of forms of thirty years by a more and more fashionable return to forms
music that stress identity, from folk to world music. The idea which the post-war generations had solemnly repudiated.
that cultures and ways of life were becoming ‘Americanized’ In literature the tendency is clear: the story, often in a
has been confirmed in the art market or the film industry, narcissistic form, has regained its position almost entirely,
but predates this age, going back to the post-war years in the free from the modernist challenges to subject and plot; it is
first case and further, in a great many countries, in the no less clear in painting and sculpture, where figurative
second. On the other hand, fin de siècle Western Europe has work is to be seen again, though abstract art has not utterly
opened itself to other influences: Japanese, for instance, in given way: here as elsewhere what we have is not a
the marketplace (cartoons, video games), or the East more replacement of one single dominance by another but the
generally in aesthetic and, above all, philosophical models. replacement of all such universal dominance by a
And this Europe which is now, since the fall of the Berlin multidimensional explosion which some see as freedom,
Wall, on course to expand to the whole of the continent, still and others as merely a confused noise.
has the resources to develop its own particular way of doing This revisiting, to savage or celebrate as the case may be,
things, based on the cherishing and use of a heritage which of the avant-garde dogmas of the past is not unconnected
is in total richer and/or better protected than those of other with the rise of individualism; it relates to the growing
cultural regions, and on a tradition of public engagement scepticism concerning both the established religions and
ideally suited to limiting the dangers of ‘dumbing down’ or the great political ideologies which came to take their place
standardization. Such effects are often decried as the and have flourished for two centuries. It casts much light
negative side of globalization; but that phenomenon has on the corresponding widespread popularity of the Heritage
also, of course, considerably widened the range of available movement, which now prompts the ordinary people of
models and the capacity for spreading culture. Europe to visit, and on occasion to flock to, their ‘sites of
memory’.

The great return

Heritage
‘Revisionist’ is a term applied to particular issues in the field
of political ideology (Marxism, the history of the Holocaust); The movement of ‘looking back’, often tinged with nostalgia
but it is also a reasonably accurate description of the or even a readiness to disparage modern times, has been
dominant tendency of this period, characterized in art and part of our cultural conversation since the very origins of
in intellectual debate by a return to earlier notions, though modernity: significantly enough it was known as the
as often in the sense of ‘revisit’ as that of ‘re-adopt’. Renaissance. The end of the twentieth century went far
towards closing the cycle, by gathering within the scope of
retrospection the latest periods and most recent aesthetic
A v a n t - ga r d e s – i n r e v e r s e movements; these had so far escaped this collective
memorializing, with its fund of critical explanation and its
Such revisionism aimed at a critique of the dominant values results in practical initiatives for museums and monuments:
of the previous period, questioning Marxism-Leninism or as well as baroque music, there is the vernacular architecture
even the essence of Marxism itself (the so-called New of the nineteenth century, the academic painting and
Philosophers group in France of the late 1970s); it went sculpture of the same period, the art deco style, the 1960s,
deeper still, however, and affected the very direction of and industrial architecture from any age.
artistic research in suggesting, from around that time Quite apart from this (in one sense definitive) heaping-up
onwards, that the time had come for a ‘post-modern’ of assets, which makes the Western cultural memory, and

571
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particularly the European one, a treasure-chest with virtually 14. B. Balogh, ‘Reorganizing the Organizational Synthesis:
nothing left out (something no age has ever known before), Federal-Professional Relations in Modern America’, in
the Heritage phenomenon can also be more crudely Studies in American Political Development, Vol. 5, 1991,
measured in figures: decisions to protect monuments or pp. 119–72.
sites, new museum openings, and visitor numbers at such 15. For a general historical introduction to the evolution
places, now being made more accessible in a number of ways of intellectual property issues down to modern times, see:
to a public no longer restricted to the inheritors of ‘proper’ J. Kevles, A History of Patenting Life in the United States with
culture. If we also consider the energy with which European Comparative Attention to Europe and Canada: A Report to
societies are re-examining, with a more or less critical intent, the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies,
their own great identity-defining narratives, then we must Luxembourg, 2002; and G. E. Bugos and D. J. Kevles,
conclude that one of the enduring and distinctive ‘Plants as Intellectual Property: American Practice, Law,
characteristics of the period is precisely this: the devotion of and Policy in World Context’, in Osiris, Vol. 7, 1992,
a considerable portion of today’s energies to that which is pp. 75–104. 
not of today’s world. 16. J. Boyle, ‘Fencing off Ideas’, in Daedalus, Spring, 2002,
pp. 13–25.
17. See, among others, P. David et al., ‘The Research
Network and the New Economics of Science: From
N O TES Metaphors to Organizational Behaviours’, in A. Gambardella
and F. Malerba (eds), The Organization of Economic
1. This idea we owe to C. Lefort, Essais sur le politique: Innovation in Europe, 1998.
xixe–xxe siècles, Paris, 1986, p. 9. 18. R. S. Eisenberg and R. R. Nelson, ‘Public
2. G. Felman, ‘Industria e scienza in Germania, 1918– vs. Proprietary Science: A Fruitful Tension?’, in Daedalus,
1939’, in G. Battimelli et al. (eds), La ristrutturazione delle Spring, 2002, pp. 89–101.
scienze tra le due guerre mondiali, Rome, 1986, pp. 117–31. 19. R. Buderi, Engines of Tomorrow, New York, 2000.
3. For a particularly striking history, see S. Lindqvist, This type of development can be traced in reviews such as
A History of Bombing, London, 2001. Technology Review, MIT’s Magazine of Innovation.
4. R. Castel, Les métamorphoses de la question sociale: Une 20. P. Dasgupta and P. David, ‘Toward a New Economics
chronique du salariat, Paris, 1995. of Science’, in Research Policy, Vo. 23, No. 5, 1994, pp. 487–
5. For industrial examples see: Y. Cohen, Organizer à l’aube 521, with an extensive bibliography.
du taylorisme, la pratique d’Ernest Mattern chez Peugeot, 1906– 21. K. Pavitt, ‘Academic Research, Technical Change and
1919, Besançon, 2001; and P. Ndiaye, Du nylon et des bombes: Government Policy’, in J. Krige and D. Pestre (eds), Science
du pont de Nemours, le marché et l’Etat américain: 1900–1970, in the Twentieth Century, Amsterdam, 1997.
Paris, 2001. For agriculture: see N. Jas, Au carrefour de la 22. U. Beck (Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity,
chimie et de l’agriculture: sciences agronomiques en France et en London, 1992) is of course the main reference first on this
Allemagne, 1840–1914, Paris, 2000. question.
6. This chapter uses a set of wide-ranging and well- 23. See G. L. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory
known sources: its own contribution is essentially the of the World Wars, Oxford/New York, 1990; and, for
provision of a perspective. The notes are accordingly example, the works of S. Audoin-Rouzeau and A. Becker,
minimal, especially so far as science is concerned. We shall who drew some of their inspiration from Mosse.
only point out one or two works.  24. See J. Fourastie, Les Trente glorieuses ou la révolution
7. L. S. Reich, The Making of American Industrial invisible de 1946 à 1975, 1979.
Research: Science and Business at GE and Bell, 1876–1926, 25. W. Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Its
Cambridge, MA, 1985. Technological Reproducibility’, in W. Benjamin, Selected
8. See C. Bigg, Behind the Lines: Spectroscopic Enterprises Writings, Vol. 4: Theory of Remembrance, Cambridge, MA,
in Early Twentieth-Century Europe, Ph.D. thesis, September, 2003.
Cambridge, UK, 2001. 26. E.-M. Unger, Illustrierte als Mittel zur Kriegsvorbereitung
9. D. Edgerton, ‘Science in the United Kingdom: A in Deutschland, 1933 bis 1939, Cologne, Germany, 1984.
Study in the Nationalization of Science’, in J. Krige and 27. On this type of medium and the propaganda of the
D. Pestre (ed.), Science in the Twentieth Century, Amsterdam, Italian Fascist regime more generally: E. Gentile, Il culto del
1997, pp. 759–76. littorio: la saccralizzazione della politica nell’ Italia fascista,
10. On the omnipresence of the linear model, see Rome, 1993.
S. G. Kohlstedt and M. W. Rossiter (eds), ‘Historical 28. On the history of British broadcasting: P. Scannell
Writing on American Science’, in Osiris, Second Series, and D. Cardiff, A Social History of British Broadcasting:
Vol. 1, 1985. Vol. 1: Serving the Nation, Oxford, 1991; on French:
11. J. P. Gaudillière, Inventer la biomédecine: La France, J.‑N. Jeanneney, L’écho du siècle: dictionnaire historique de la
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 31
EASTERN AN D C ENTRAL EUROPE

Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky, coordinator

INTRODUCTION

Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky

In February 1917, a year before the end of the First World perished of hunger due to the drought of 1921–1922.
War, Russia was rocked by revolution: the imperial Economic problems were finally solved by a New Economic
government broke down. Nicolas II, the last Tsar of the Policy (NEP) proposed by Lenin. This policy envisaged
Romanov dynasty, abdicated. The Provisional Government, restricted reintroduction of market relations.
which represented the interests of the haute bourgeoisie In December of 1922, a new Russia had formed the
connected with foreign capital and landholding classes, did Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) together with
not manage to lead the country out of the lingering crises. the Ukraine, Belarus and the Trans-Caucasian Federation
On 25 October of the same year (7 November of the new of Socialist Republics (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), as
calendar) the Provisional Government was overthrown in well as autonomous republics and districts of Central Asia
the course of the socialist revolution and power was passed (Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenia, Tajikistan) and
to the All-Russian Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Kazakhstan, which in due course also received the status of
Deputies, which unanimously adopted two historical socialist republics within the USSR. Three Baltic republics
decrees: the peace decree ending Russia’s participation in (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Moldavia joined the
the war and the land decree confiscating landlords’ estates. Soviet Union in 1940. Thus by the time of Nazi Germany’s
These decrees reflected the desire of a vast part of the attack in 1941, the Soviet Union was made up of 15 socialist
population. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – the leader of the republics.
Russian Social-Democratic Party (Bolsheviks) – became Though in theory the supreme authority of the country
head of the Soviet government. From 1918 to 1922 Russia was vested in the Soviets (councils of workers’ and peasants’
was the arena of a bloody civil war accompanied by the deputies, later on councils of working peoples’ deputies), de
armed intervention of 14 foreign countries. facto it was concentrated in the hands of the Central
After the end of the war a number of sovereign states Committee of the ruling Communist Party – the only
emerged in the former Austro-Hungarian and Russian political party that was permitted to exist. The leading role
empires: Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, of the Communist Party was fixed in the Constitution of
Romania, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. All the USSR. After Lenin’s death in 1924, and following a
of them became republics, with varying degrees of democratic severe inner-Party struggle, Josef Stalin became the
liberties. Soviet republics headed by local communists undisputed and unrestricted leader of the Party. He retained
existed for a short period of time in Hungary and Bavaria in his post of General Secretary of the Party until his death in
1919. However, in the 1930s under the influence of fascist 1953. By the early 1930s Stalin had established his dictatorial
Italy and Germany and as a result of internal political rule both in the Party and the state. The process of
processes in a number of states of Eastern and Central industrialization of the country and the creation of collective
Europe, dictatorships were established. farms (kolkhoz) and state farms (sovkhoz) was accelerated.
As a result of Russia’s three-year-long participation in The country’s economic development was based on the
the First World War and especially due to the civil war and system of state planning (five-year plans) originated by the
foreign intervention, the country lay in ruins: production plan of Russia’s electrification (GOELRO) put forward by
fell to 14 per cent of pre-First World War levels; casualties Lenin in 1919. Industrialization was achieved only by relying
of the wars, hunger and epidemics affected 20 million on inner resources, mainly at the expense of the peasants.
people. In 1922 there were about 7 million homeless No foreign loans or investments were available. This policy
children. In the Volga region about 8 million people was supported by a majority of the population, as it was

575
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seen as the only means of overcoming the country’s The war inf licted huge losses on the Soviet Union:
backwardness given the unfriendly relations with countries 26.6 million people perished; 1,710 towns and settlements
surrounding the USSR. By the end of the 1930s, substantial were destroyed, in addition to more than 32,000 industrial
social achievements had been realized – illiteracy and enterprises, more than 70,000 villages, and about
unemployment were overcome. 100,000 kolkhozes and sovkhozes. The Soviet Union had to
By the mid-1920s the Soviet Union was finally recognized carry out the post-war restoration by relying entirely upon
by the majority of foreign states (with the exception of the her own resources; neither foreign investments nor loans
United States of America, which withheld its recognition were available from the West. The problems of post-war
until 1933). However, the country received no financial or development of the Soviet economy were aggravated by the
economic assistance from the rest of the world. Moreover worsening of the international situation and the beginning
the leading Western states often placed an embargo on of the Cold War when the North Atlantic Treaty
Soviet exports, and some neighbouring countries like Japan, Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949. The Soviet
Poland, Romania, Turkey as well as the warlords of north- Union was encircled by a network of American military
east China organized occasional armed provocations on bases, and the Pentagon worked out numerous plans for
USSR borders. The Anti-Comintern pact signed by possible atomic bombardments of Soviet cities. All this
Germany and Japan in 1936 was openly directed against the forced the USSR government to redirect huge resources for
Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership had to accelerate urgent creation of a rocket-launched nuclear defence screen.
modernization of the armed forces. During the 1930s, Nonetheless by the end of the 1950s the country had
thanks to the rapid development of science, education and restored her economy, became a member of the ‘atomic
culture the government succeeded in creating new branches club’ and made a breakthrough to outer space. In the 1960s
of industry for the production of aircraft, automobiles and the Soviet Union achieved military and strategic parity
tractors, and radio engineering. However, the country’s with the US. All this became possible due to the strict
social institutions and creative work were kept under strong limitation of social expenditures to address problems of a
ideological control by the Communist Party; and the waves low standard of living: lack of housing, low wages,
of repression that had already started during the Civil War insufficient medical care, scarcity of consumer goods. Only
and were aimed against those who challenged the Party those investments into science and education connected
orthodoxy acquired a mass character in 1937. Many millions with defence remained intact.
were sent to labour camps, where they built roads, canals, After the Soviet Army helped liberate the countries of
industrial objects – or perished; many hundreds of Eastern and Central Europe from German occupation, a
thousands were jailed and executed. number of ‘people’s democracies’ (later proclaimed as
As early as 1933, the Soviet government openly warned ‘socialist regimes’) were formed. By the end of the Second
the world of the threat of coming war and blamed Nazi World War, communists in those countries enjoyed wide
Germany and militarist Japan as potential aggressors. popularity due to their self-sacrificing struggle against the
Collective security plans were drawn up to confront and German and Italian occupiers. The new authorities
avoid the menace. proclaimed their goal of building a socialist type of society
But the policy of ‘appeasement’ of aggressors carried out and copied the Soviet model to varying degrees: both its
by the Western states (Munich Agreement of 1938, British- positive features (social protection for all people,
Japanese agreements of 1938–1939) forced the Soviet development of education, science, culture, public health,
government in August of 1939, on the initiative of Germany, absence of unemployment) and its negative characteristics
to sign a non-aggression pact with her. By this act Stalin (command and administrative control over the economy,
expected to win time to prepare the Soviet Union for Communist Party and state interference in all spheres of
rebuffing the approaching military menace from Germany. social life, strict ideological control, and persecution of
The unprovoked attack by Germany against the Soviet heterodoxy).
Union on 22 June 1941 led to the eventual formation of an In 1949 the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance
anti-fascist coalition composed of the USSR, the USA (CMEA) was created. Its purpose was to enhance
and Great Britain. During all four years of the war the cooperation between socialist countries, integrate their
Soviet-German front was the main theatre of military economic systems, and accelerate their scientific and
operations; by the end of the Second World War some 507 technical progress. Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland,
German divisions were defeated by Soviet troops. The Romania, the USSR, Czechoslovakia and, later, the
Soviet army expelled invaders of its territory, liberated German Democratic Republic (GDR), Mongolia, Cuba
Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and and Viet Nam joined CMEA. In 1955, in reply to NATO
Hungary, neutralized Finland and victoriously captured activity, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the
Berlin. To fulfil her obligations as an ally of the USA and GDR, Poland, Romania, and the USSR concluded the
Great Britain, the Soviet Union also entered the war Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Military Assistance
against Japan and liberated the north-east provinces of (Warsaw Pact).
China (Manchuria), North Korea, South Sakhalin and In the mid-1950s, after Stalin’s death, there began a short
Kurile Islands. period of liberalization of the strict ideological control by
The Soviet victory over Germany, which had at its Communist parties in the Soviet Union. The icy relations
disposal military and strategic resources from many with countries of Western Europe improved somewhat and
European countries, was the result of the recent social and were said to ‘thaw’ during this period.
industrial mobilization of the entire country, of the vastly During the administrations of Nikita Khruschev (1953–64)
improved cultural and educational level of its population, and Leonid Brezhnev (1964–82), military branches of the
and of the successful development of fundamental and Soviet economy continued to develop at the expense of civil
applied science. ones. As a result, during the years of the ninth Five-Year

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Plan (1971–75), economic growth stopped and the country referendum that took place in the Soviet Union in March
relied only on the income derived from its export of oil. The 1991 that showed that 76 per cent of the country’s
CPSU failed to continue the planned economy, whose self- population favoured preserving the Soviet Union. In
proclaimed goal was to provide for social justice. The party December 1991, the presidents of the Russian Federation,
leadership did not dare to stimulate market relations or Belarus and the Ukraine declared the dissolution of the
competition. Urgent economic and democratic changes Soviet Union and the creation of the Community of
could not be realized under prevailing conditions and Independent States (CIS). Later on Kazakhstan, the
authoritarian rule of the aging leadership of the Communist republics of Central Asia, the Caucasian republics and
Party. The leaders of CPSU lost touch with ordinary Party Moldavia joined the CIS, but not the Baltic republics. A
members and common people and tried by every means to new Constitution for the Russian Federation passed in
preserve the status quo, avoiding any reforms that might 1993, putting an end to the monopoly of the Communist
unblock the economic and social stagnation. All forms of Party in governing the state; the Soviet period of Russian
protest against the undemocratic system were ruthlessly history was over. Independent states formed after
crushed by the state, many prominent intellectuals were disintegration of the Soviet Union became members of the
jailed, forcefully sent to mental hospitals or expatriated United Nations, and Russia inherited from the former
abroad like Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky, Medvedev, and Soviet Union its seat as a permanent member of the UN
Schiransky. President Gorbachev’s attempts in 1989–91 to Security Council.
introduce some political and market reforms were The protracted crisis of the Soviet system was already
condemned to failure because he left intact the old political visible by the late 1950s and early 1960s in the socialist
system with its one-party rule and the command- countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In Hungary as far
administrative system of managing the economy. In 1991 back as 1956 there was an attempt to free the country from
leaders of a number of republics of the USSR (and first of Moscow’s tough grip, democratizing society and
all the Russian Federation under the leadership of Boris implementing market reforms. A similar attempt was made
Yeltsin) proclaimed self-determination and state sovereignty in Czechoslovakia in 1968, but both efforts were quashed by
of their republics, ignoring the results of the public force by the Soviet Union and some of its Warsaw Pact

Map 10  The break-up of the Soviet Union

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partners. Eventually, disintegration of the Soviet Union culture and public health of the newly independent states; it
provoked a rapid break-up of all the communist-led regimes is still hindering the all-scale application of their market and
in Eastern Europe. political reforms.
The breaking-up of the integral economic, cultural and Drastic budget cuts for fundamental and applied sciences
scientific common space established in the course of in Russia resulted in the mass emigration of highly trained
centuries between different areas of the former Soviet Union specialists and engineers to the USA and Europe as part of
had a perilous effect upon the economy, science, education, a continuing brain drain.

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 31.1
the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation

Sergeï L. Tikhvinsky and Yuri S. Borissov

As a united multinational state, the Union of Soviet In October 1918, by decree of the government, a whole
Socialist Republics (USSR) existed from December 1922 new spelling system was introduced, which helped in the
until December 1991. In this chapter we discuss education, struggle to combat illiteracy.
science, social science and humanities, literature and art, as The Programme of the Russian Communist Party
these relate to all 15 republics that formed the Soviet Union adopted in 1919 established certain basic school principles:
before its dissolution (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, teaching using the native language, co-education of boys
Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Latvia, and girls, full separation of schools from the Church, and
Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, making a seamless connection between teaching and
Ukraine, Uzbekistan). productive public labour. The spread of literacy, the
liquidation of cultural backwardness in the outlying areas of
the country and the introduction of obligatory general
Ed u c a t i o n primary and secondary education were considered the
indispensable starting points for the country’s cultural
The immediate task facing the young Soviet government growth and development of the national economy.
after its formation on 25 October 1917 – according to the By the end of the Civil War and foreign intervention
old calendar, or 7 November according to the new one – about seven million children had neither home nor parents.
was the liquidation of the dark and painful heritage of the Yet the government was able to overcome the crisis by
past: two-thirds of the population was illiterate, two-thirds providing them shelter, clothes, food and schooling in
of adults could neither read nor write. The day after the various orphanages.
revolution, Vladimir Lenin, the head of the government, The struggle against illiteracy was also conducted in the
informed Anatoly Lunacharsky, a prominent writer, Red Army, which was formed for the most part by illiterate
dramatist and philosopher, that the Central Committee of peasants. In order to spread literacy, special theatrical
the Communist Party had appointed him as People’s propagandist teams were created, and wall newspapers and
Commissar for Education. ‘It is for you to overcome posters were issued. During those years a series of amusing
illiteracy in Russia’ is what Lenin told him. Two days later posters called ‘Windows of Satire of the Russian Telegraph
the People’s Commissariat for Education published an Agency’ (ROSTAS) was very popular due to their sharp
appeal that read: ‘Any real democratic power in this country and witty cartoons and poetic texts. They lashed out against
where illiteracy and ignorance prevail must first set itself the lack of culture, drunkenness, bureaucracy, bribery and
the task of fighting against this state of unenlightenment. other anti-social phenomena and in an easy form acquainted
It must try to achieve universal literacy in the shortest people with elementary rules of sanitation and hygiene as
period by organizing a network of schools using modern well as touching upon timely subjects of domestic and
methods of pedagogy and by introducing universal, foreign policy. The poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, and artists
obligatory and free education ... the struggle against like Mikhael Cheremnykh and Dimitry Moor also
illiteracy and ignorance cannot be restricted only to in- participated actively in ‘Window’s’ issues.
school education for children and youth ... Adults will also Opportunities for raising the standards of literacy and
be eager to escape from the humiliating state of a person culture were also provided to non-Russian people. Beside
who cannot read and write. Schools for adults must take Russians, who represented half of the whole population,
up a large place in the general scheme of people’s education.’ there were more than 100 large and small non-Russian
Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, a teacher by training, nations. In all national republics and regions native languages
became chief of the adult education section of the People’s were introduced alongside the official Russian language. For
Commissariat for Education, later becoming deputy those ethnic groups that did not have national alphabets
People’s Commissar. Until the end of her life she worked in before the Revolution, written languages were created.
the field of people’s education. Newspapers, magazines and books written in national

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languages were published in huge numbers. As a result, by 8.9 million books, whereas in 1956, libraries numbered
1932 the total number of literate adults had increased to 391,952 with the total reserves of 1,352 million books. The
90 per cent, and by the beginning of 1939 literacy had most popular libraries were: Moscow State Library, named
reached 95.1 per cent of the total population. Obligatory after Lenin and housing 19 million books, the Libraries of
universal primary education was introduced in 1931. By a the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow and in
decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party St. Petersburg, the Library of Moscow State University, the
in September 1931 all forms of post-revolutionary ultra- Moscow Library of Foreign Literature, and the many
leftist experiments in the field of education were abolished. libraries in each of the capitals of the Soviet republics and in
In the school year 1914/1915 there were 9.6 million pupils their provincial universities.
enrolled in school; by 1927/1928 there were 11.5 million
and in 1940/1941 35.5 million children were attending
school. In the year 1956/1957 some 30 million pupils were Museums
being trained in general-education schools of the Soviet
Union. Alongside the general-education schools, secondary Museums also attracted state attention. The most
professional schools and technical colleges were also prominent were: in St. Petersburg – the Hermitage,
functioning. Cabinet of Curiosities of the Academy of Sciences, the
Regarding higher education, the programme adopted in Russian Museum, the Petropavlovsk Fortress, Petrodvorets,
1919 gave wide admittance to high school for all who wanted the Winter Palace; in Moscow – the Historical Museum,
to study, and especially for workers; it was decided to open the Kremlin Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and the
recruitment of lecturers in high school to all available Museum of Fine Arts; the former tsar’s country palaces,
personnel; to remove every kind of artificial barrier between Kolomenskoe and Tsaritsyno, palaces and private residences
new research cadres and old university chairs; and to offer of the aristocracy and merchants; in Kiev – ancient
material support to students so that workers and peasants monasteries and churches; Echmiadzin in Armenia;
would also have the opportunity to enjoy a high school Metekh in Georgia; the emir’s palaces in Bukhara and
education. In order to assist common people to prepare for Khiva. State support was a big help for organizing
their entry into higher educational institutions a network ethnographic and history museums all over the country (in
of so-called ‘workers’ faculties’ (rabfaks) was created. In Pskov, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ekaterinburg), and in the
1955–1956 more than 2 million students were studying in towns of the so-called Gold Ring (Yaroslavl, Rostov,
765 institutions of higher education of the Soviet Union. Serpukhov, Souzdal.) Many nature reserves and
Widespread and free secondary and higher education was architectural heritage sites were also established in Kizhi,
one of the important social achievements of the country. Lake Baikal, Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve, and
After the Second World War, the doors of all institutes of the Caucasus and Askania-Nova Reserves in the Crimea.
higher education and universities were opened wider still to Numerous museums were devoted to presenting the life
include many foreign students, especially from socialist and work of outstanding scientists and artists:
countries and the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga; the Museum-Reserves
Latin America. of Aleksandr Pushkin in Mikhaylovskoe; Leo Tolstoy’s
During the 1920s and early 1930s pedagogical training estate in Yasnaya Polyana; Ivan Turgenev in Spasskoe
was strongly inf luenced by different ultra-left theories Lutovinovo; A. Chekhov in Yalta; Taras Shevchenko in
whose followers denied the leading role of the teacher at Kiev; Yanka Kupala in Minsk; Ivan Aivazovsky, the painter
school, and recommended instead that the teacher could be of seascapes, in Feodosia; painter Vasili D. Polenov on the
replaced by ‘self-study brigades’. They disseminated popular Oka River; composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in Klin.
sociological schemes of ‘proletarization’ of teaching Mass organizations also contributed to raising the general
methods and introduced a decorative badge, ‘Arts for educational and cultural level through a wide network of
Proletarian Children’. Among the major figures in the various cultural and educational enterprises like sports
struggle against such ‘ leftist’ theories were Vasily clubs, public parks, palaces and cultural centres. The latter
Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinsky, whose philosophy of functioned on the basis of amateur talent activity and local
education combined teaching with pupils’ practical work, initiative. They included a lot of different musical, dramatic,
and Anton Makarenko, who started the idea of re-educating choreographic, chess, and sports activities as well as
juvenile delinquents in special children’s colonies that permanent lecture series on different scientific, cultural and
combined work with education. educational topics. Many well-known musicians, singers,
In 1943, the highest pedagogical establishment of the painters, and sportsmen began their careers in these circles
country, the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, was that were often led by skilful pedagogues. In 1947, the All-
founded. By 1987 it consisted of 45 full members- Union Scientific and Educational Society named Znanie
academicians, 84 corresponding members, and 15 research (Knowledge) was organized with branches in every union
institutes grouped in four departments: Theory and and autonomous republic. It made an important
History of Pedagogics, Didactics and Private Methods, contribution in the raising of the educational and cultural
Psychology and Age Physiology, and Pedagogics and level of the population.
Psychology of Professional and Technical Training. After
the disintegration of the USSR, the Academy of
Pedagogical Sciences was re-organized into the Russian Science
Academy of Education.
Libraries made an important contribution to raising the During the years of the Civil War and foreign intervention
educational level of the population. In 1914 there were only (1918–24) when the whole population of the country
12,800 libraries in Russia and their total fund equalled suffered from hunger, the government at the initiative of

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the writer Maxim Gorky, formed a committee for the and scientists, engineers and technologists working in
improvement of scientists’ way of life. This committee different branches of applied sciences. This cooperation
rendered assistance to scientists and artists in need. During helped to strengthen the military might of the country.
these years the government also provided money for the During the war years the T-34 tank was created; later it was
foundation of such large centres of fundamental and applied recognized as the best tank of the Second World War. For
sciences as the Optic Institute (directed by Dimitri the first time in tank-building history, the turret of this tank
Rozhdestvensky), Institute of Aerodynamics (Nikolai was produced by electric welding, a process developed by
Zhukovsky), Physics-Technical Institute (Abram Ioffe), Boris E. Paton, Director of the Institute of Electric Welding
Radium Institute (Vladimir Vernadsky), and the Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. The best attack
of Biological Chemistry (Alexei Bakh), as well as chemical, plane of the Second World War, the Il-2, (built by Sergei
automotive, electrotechnical institutes and a radio Ilyushin), the TU-2 dive-bomber (built by A. Tupolev) and
engineering laboratory (in Nizhny Novgorod). Pe-2 (built by Vladimir Petlyakov) also appeared during
In 1925 the Russian Academy of Sciences, which had those years. Finally, the multi-rail rocket launcher with the
been founded in 1724, was transformed into the USSR tender name of ‘Katyusha’ was put into production, along
Academy of Sciences. It became the leading and coordinating with a very efficient automatic rif le invented by
centre of science in the country. Some important scientific Mikhael Kalashnikov.
institutions like the Institute of Physiology (headed by In the post-war period one of the most important events
Ivan Pavlov, a 1904 winner of the Nobel Prize), Physics- in the development of science was the government’s decision
Mathematics Institute (Vladimir Steklov), the Institute of to build an ‘academic town’ in Novosibirsk. Even now,
Soil Sciences named after Vasily Dokuchaev, and other 40 years since its founding, it is still an outstanding model of
previously independent institutions headed by leading a scientific centre (its initiator and organizer was a leading
specialists in the field were integrated into the Academy. In specialist in mathematics and mechanics, Professor Mikhael
1934 the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences Lavrentiev). Later, scientific and technological satellite
moved to Moscow from Leningrad. In the process of centres of the Academy of Sciences were also established in
industrialization many new scientific-research centres and towns near Moscow: Pushchino, Chernologolovka,
institutes were established throughout the 1930s. These Serpukhov, Troitsk, Dubna, and Zelenograd.
included the Physical Institute (Sergei Vavilov), Institute In the early 1970s the number of scientific staff employed
of Organic Chemistry (Aleksandr Favorsky and by the Soviet Academy of Sciences was about 1 million
Nikolai Zelinsky), Institute of Problems of Physics people; and expenditures for science had increased twelve-
(Pyotr Kapitsa), and the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics fold by comparison with 1950. Also since the 1950s, many
(Otto Shmidt). The Academy began to organize its branches thousands of young specialists from socialist and developing
and departments in various capitals of the union republics countries had been postgraduates of institutes of the
– in Siberia, in the Urals, and in the Far East of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
Union. The Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the USSR
had been founded in Kiev as early as 1919, followed by the Academy of Sciences was transformed into the Russian
Academy of Sciences of the Belarussian SSR in Minsk, in Academy of Sciences. In 1998 it had 458 full members and
1929. In the period between 1941 and 1961 Academies of 677 corresponding members. Its 440 research institutions
Science were organized in all the other republics with the were attached to 18 departments covering: mathematics,
assistance of the USSR Academy of Sciences. physics and astronomy, engineering, computer sciences,
During the war years (1941–45) the entire energy of chemistry, biology, geology, oceanography, history,
Soviet science was concentrated on achieving victory. In the philosophy, sociology and law, economics, international
course of military actions more than 600 scientific relations, literature and languages.
institutions were damaged or destroyed by the German Below we offer a brief summary of research results in
Army, among them the famous Pulkovo and Simeiz different branches of natural science, social science and the
observatories (now renamed the Crimean Astrophysical humanities.
Observatory). Timely evacuation of scientists and scientific Mathematical theory was greatly developed, covering
institutions from the western parts of the USSR allowed the theory of numbers, functions, differential equations
the country to build up new scientific centres in the rear – in and functional analysis, of optimum control, probability,
the Volga region, in the Urals and Siberia. They fulfilled topology, and mathematical logic. In these fields new
important tasks given to them by the State Committee for directions and approaches are closely connected with the
Defence such as ensuring ships’ security from magnetic names of Ivan Vinogradov, Andrei Kolmogorov, Alexander
mines, and finding solutions to many military and technical Lyapunov, Nikolai Bogoliubovv, Lev Pontryagin. Works
problems. In the country’s outlying areas, geologists carried by Mikhail Lavrentiev on hydrodynamics, the theory of
on the search for strategic minerals. These minerals and raw cumulation, and the physics of explosions and impulsive
materials were necessary to keep many industries processes were widely known in the field of applied
functioning even though the territories were occupied by mathematics. Mstislav Keldysh did outstanding work on
the enemy. At the urgent request of the Supreme Command the theory of non-self-conjugate operators, prevention of
of the Soviet Army, the Presidium of the USSR Academy wing f lutter, and calculation of cosmic orbits. Leonid
of Sciences formed several special commissions headed by Kantorovich was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1975 for his
the leading scientists to solve these military and technical work in economics and mathematics. Alexander Sergei
problems. The list included: Abram Ioffe, Igor Kurchatov, Lebedev is recognized for his contribution to computational
Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Leon Orbeli, Vladimir Komarov technologies.
and  Alexander Fersman. Close cooperation was established The most important work on aerodynamics was done by
between specialists in the fields of fundamental sciences Nikolai Zhukovsky and Sergei Chaplygin, which provided

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the basis for new developments in aerodynamics of In 1975 Venus and Vega stations began a complex
supersonic velocity, non-linear mechanics, the theory of research of the planet Venus. They lowered several landing
space flights, the mathematics of elasticity, and the theory of apparatuses onto the planet’s surface and launched
non-linear oscillation. In 1913 the first four-engine airplane balloons into its atmosphere. Vega also explored the Galley
was constructed by Igor Sikorsky, who during the Civil comet.
War emigrated to the USA. The Pulkovo and Simeiz Observatories, which were
destroyed in the war, were fully restored and a large new
astrophysical observatory was built near Bakhchisaray in
Space Research the Crimea. Observatories in the Crimea, Bjurokan,
Shemakha, Estonia and Latvia were equipped with new
Space research built upon work done by Konstantin telescopes. In 1975 an observatory was built in the North
Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935), an early twentieth-century Caucasus with a reflector mirror of 6 metres in diameter.
pioneer in rocket propulsion who also proved the possibility The radio telescope RATAN-600, with its ring-shaped
of human space travel; Vladimir Vernadsky, whose visionary reflector and 600-metre surface diameter was also built
work on the synthesis of living and inorganic natural bodies there. Radio location research of the Moon, Venus,
is the basis of modern ecology and studies on the biosphere; Mercury, Mars and Jupiter were carried out under the
Alexandr Chizhevsky, one of the founders of heliobiology, leadership of Vladimir Kotelnikov Photos of the back
which looks at solar effects on human beings; and Vladimir side of the Moon were received from artificial Earth
Sukachev, who was one of the founders of biogeocenology, a satellites.
field combining botany, soils and diversity. Victor Ambartsumyan developed a theory of celestial
In 1933 the first Soviet stratospheric balloon reached an associations of stars, which confirmed the continuity of the
altitude of 19,000 metres. The practical beginning of process of star genesis. An hypothesis for the origin of stars
research in open space became possible due to the creation and planets was put forward by Otto Shmidt and
of rocke t propu l sion techn iques developed by Vasili Fesenkov. In the 1960s Michaël Molodensky worked
Fridrich Tsander, and due to their further development by out the theory of rotation of the Earth with a liquid nucleus,
Sergei Korolev, Vladimir Chelomei, and Mikhael Yangel. accepted in 1979 as the basis of a new system of coefficients
The first artificial Earth satellite (Sputnik) was launched on notation. The theory of radio-emission of supernova
4 October 1957. On 12 April 1961 the first manned space remnants was elaborated in the 1950s by Vitali Ginzburg
flight was undertaken by Yuri Gagarin. In June 1963 the and Yakov Zeldovich. Andrei Severny studied weak
first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made her magnetic fields of stars. The history of radioastronomy is
orbital flight. Manned flights were preceded by a series of closely connected with the name of astrophysicist Iosef
medical and biological investigations on the effects of Shklovsky.
weightlessness on dogs and other living beings (by Vasily
Parin, Norair Sisakyan, Oleg Gazenko). A number of
orbital stations were built for long duration work on the Physics
round-the-Earth orbit. The latest station of the kind Mir
with a mass of about 40 tons was launched on 20 February To begin with, the theoretical physicists Igor Tamm (Nobel
1986 and continued functioning until it was ‘retired’ in Prize of 1958), Lev Landau (Nobel Prize of 1962), Leonid
2001. By then, some twenty-seven teams of Russian Mandelshtam, Mikhail Leontovich, Nikolai Bogoliubov
cosmonauts and researchers from twelve foreign countries and Ilya Frank (Nobel Prize of 1958) all made important
had worked by turns at that station. contributions to the various branches of modern physics:
Rocket technology was closely connected with national quantum field theory, plasma and solid state physics,
defence. Such mobile intercontinental rockets as Topol and superconductivity, superfluidity and nuclear physics.
Pioneer were installed on special tracks invented by In the 1930s Abram Ioffe initiated systematic
Belarussian engineer Boris Schaposhnikov. investigation of transistors, and by the 1950s the main
In space research, as well as in other branches of Soviet principles of power transmission had been worked out. As
science, one has to mention the unique team spirit of early as the 1930s scientists were working to synthesize
scientists, engineers and technicians, which was due to the crystals, which resulted in industrial production of artificial
Soviet educational system. It had deep roots in old Russia’s quartz, corundum, sapphires and diamonds. In 1951 Alexei
traditional rural life (obchina). This spirit of collectivism, Shubnikov proposed a general theory of symmetry and
sponsored by the Communist Party, was evident during the asymmetry of crystals. In 1975 Alexander L. Vereshchagin
Second World War, known in the USSR as the Patriotic published his seminal works on the transformation of
War against fascist Germany and, afterwards, during the hydrogen into metal under super-high pressure.
process of healing the wounds of war. In the 1920s showers of cosmic rays were discovered by
Progress in cosmic rocket technology allowed the Dimitri Skobeltsyn. In 1940 Georgi Flerov and Konstantin
installation of stable radio and telecommunication systems, Petrzhak together discovered the phenomenon of
and investigation of the surface and deep strata of the Earth, spontaneous nuclear fission and developed theories to
the atmosphere, near space, as well as planets and comets in account for it. During the war years the theory of
the solar system. In 1966 Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to synchrotron radiation was put forward, along with
achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic principles explaining how high energy particle accelerators
data to Earth; in 1970 Luna 10 returned to the Earth with work.
some samples of moon soil. Luna 11 was launched towards As early as 1939–41 Yuli Khariton and Yakov Zeldovich
the Moon from an Earth-orbiting platform and entered carried out the calculation of the nuclear division chain.
lunar orbit on 28 August 1966. Under the direction of Igor Kourchatov the first Soviet

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cyclotron was constructed in 1939, and in 1946 the first respectively. Nikolai Kournakov advanced the methods of
nuclear reactor in Europe was built. He also headed the physico-chemical analysis.
team that created the first Soviet atomic bomb (1949) and The discovery of appropriateness of heterogeneous and
later the thermonuclear bomb (1953). Andrei Sakharov homogeneous catalysis as well as non-stationary catalytic
(Nobel Peace Prize of 1975) and Y. Khariton were key processes elaborated by Georgi Boreskov gave rise to new
contributors. and more efficient catalysts. Vladimir Ipatiev, working in
The problem of guided thermonuclear synthesis was the United States from 1930 onwards, was one of the
being investigated at this time; the so-called ‘Tokomak’ founders of catalytic organic synthesis. In the 1930s
system of was devised, which soon became the basis of Sergei Lebedev elaborated an industrial method for
international thermonuclear research. Alternative ways producing synthetic rubber; after which the chemistry of
were proposed to realize a guided thermonuclear reaction– polymers developed rapidly.
by heating of plasma with a powerful laser beam from a In the post-war years chemistry of elemento-organic
bundle of electron rays. compounds was another field of intense development
Research of atomic nuclei and elementary particles was (school of Alexander Nesmeyanov), regularly creating
greatly extended when, in the 1970s and 1980s, large organic compounds for most elements of Dimitri
accelerators were built. Many new elementary particles were Mendeleev’s periodic table. The famous Kazan School of
revealed, and experiments done on the proton accelerator in Chemistry was founded by Boris A. Arbuzov and made
Serpukhov (operational in 1967) allowed scientists to observe significant contributions to the chemistry of phospho-
and describe the interactions of particles under high-energy organic compounds – one of the future branches of
conditions. After the underground neutrino observatories elemento-organic chemistry.
were brought into operation research on neutrino physics Nikolai Semenov made an important contribution to
and astrophysics of particles of super-high energies coming chemical kinetics by first working out a chain theory of
from space progressed greatly. chemical reactions, combustion and detonations for which
In the field of optics Serfei Vavilov and his colleagues he won a Nobel Prize in 1956. New physical methods of
Igor Tamm, Semen Shubin and Yuri Denisyuk conducted stimulation of chemical reactions by radiation and light
fundamental research on luminescence; they discovered laser beams, shock waves and plasma were developed.
the radiation effect of electrons moving with superlight Ivan Bardin and Alexandr Baykov and their colleagues
velocity, known as Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation (Nobel succeeded in increasing the efficiency of ferrous and non-
Prize of 1958). In 1931, the quantum theory of photoeffect ferrous metals, by producing heat- and acid-resistant
in metals was worked out by Tamm and Shubin. Denisyuk alloys.
made a very important contribution to optics through his
work on holography with 3D media recording optics in the
late 1960s. B i ology
In the 1950s quantum electronics came into being.
Alexandr Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov (Nobel Prize of Everyone has heard the names of Ivan Pavlov, a physiologist
1964) developed molecular generators (masers) and later on best known for his studies on conditioning the behaviour of
quantum generators in the optical diapason of wave length dogs, and Nikolai Vavilov (1887–43), a plant geneticist who
(lasers). Achievements in the field of physics of low and traced the origin of cultivated plants. Nikolai Koltsov was
super-low temperatures are connected with the name of an exceptional plant breeder and geneticist. Andrei
Pyotr Kapitsa (Nobel Prize of 1978), who discovered the Belozersky proved the unity of the plant and animal
super-fluctuation of liquid helium. kingdoms. Vladimir Engelgard put forward a biochemical
In the field of marine acoustics, one must mention the explanation of muscular contraction, while Andrei Bakh
achievements of Leonid Brekhovskikh in the field of worked out the theory of the chemical composition of
musical acoustics, and of Leonid Termen, who made the breathing. Fundamental works on agrochemistry and plant
first electric musical instrument – a ‘termenvocks’ – as long nutrition produced by Dimitri Pryanishnikov and his school
ago as the 1920s. are still valued, as is the published work of K. Skryabin.
In the field of radio physics, Soviet scientists studied the In the 1920s and 1930s works by Nikolai Vavilov,
propagation of radio waves of different frequencies, Nikolai Koltsov, Sergei Chetverikov, and Alexandre
statistical radio physics, and investigated the natural Serebrovsky all made an important contribution to genetics.
environment using radiophysical methods. In 1944 Evgeni But beginning in the mid-1930s and especially after 1948
Zavoysky opened up the phenomenon of electronic Soviet biology and genetics suffered from Party ideology
paramagnetic resonance, which gave impetus to research and especially the influence of Trophim. Lysenko, a plant
on the structure of solids, liquids and molecules. breeder who rejected chromosome theory and supported
Vladimir Zvorykin, who emigrated to the United States the doctrine that characteristics acquired through
in 1919, later developed and patented (1929) an electronic environmental influences are inherited (acquired
scanning device that became the first practical ‘pickup’ tube characteristics). Scientists who opposed his views lost their
for television. He named it the Iconoscope. jobs, were sent to Siberia, or were executed. Thus the whole
field of genetics was virtually suspended until 1965.

Chemistry
Ea r t h S c i e n c e S
In the 1920s Lev Chugaev and Nikolai Zelinsky made their
mark in the chemistry of composite compounds and the Earth sciences were closely connected with the planning of
transformation of hydrocarbons and petrochemistry, the national economy. Geologists made a series of maps

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using theoretical prognoses and data from reconnaissance EconomY

expeditions. These maps guided the search for minerals and
for a better understanding of the structure and evolution of In the early 1920s, the government began to draw up
the Earth, volcanic activity and tectonics. Rich oil- and gas- development plans for the national economy; economists,
fields were found in East Siberia, Turkmenistan and the energy specialists, geologists and many other scientists
Caspian Sea; diamonds were discovered in the Yakutia and were consulted. The first plan was a five-year State Plan of
Arkhangelsk region; and gold in Uzbekistan. Electrification of Russia. Since 1929 the Soviet Union
Dmitri Shcherbakov and Alekandr Vinogradov continued to develop according to five-year plans, except
worked successfully in the field of geochemistry. They for one seven-year period from 1959 until 1965. The
investigated the Earth’s crust using extra-high impulse following guiding principles were common to all: the
electric current and drilling a number of super-deep holes – importance of developing heavy industry and building large
one of which reached the record depth of 12 kilometres. industrial complexes; use of the most advanced technologies
Alexander Peive contributed significantly to the combined with maximum use of local raw materials and
geophysical structure and tectonic dynamics of the resources; and equal attention to the development of
Earth’s crust and mantle. He examined underwater industry and agriculture. In the 1920s, the Russian
ranges in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in the economist Nikolai Kondratiev identified a price cycle that
Antarctic, discovering powerful counterf lows in the is 50–60 years long. He used it to predict the depression of
Atlantic and Indian Oceans. As far back as 1928 arctic the 1930s. Although he worked on the Soviets’ first Five-
pilots and the icebreaker Krasin had participated in the Year Plan, he was imprisoned and died in Siberia.
rescue of the Italian expedition of Umberto Nobile, In the 1950s economists of the so-called ‘mathematical
which failed to reach the North Pole in a dirigible airship school’ (Leonid Kantorovich, Vasili Nemchinov,
named Italia. In 1932, the Sibiryakov expedition set sail Viktor Novozhilov) concentrated their attention on
under Otto Shmidt and covered 5,600 kilometres of the ‘optimal planning’. At the beginning of the 1960s
North Shipping Route during a single voyage. In 1937 Evsei Liberman and Vladimir Nemchinov proposed
the first Arctic expedition headed by Ivan Papanin landed reforms directed against strict centralized planning. At the
on a drifting ice field near the North Pole. Between then beginning of the 1970s scientists from the Central
and 1987 there were 30 similar research units named Economico-Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy
North Pole. In 1937 Soviet pilots Valeri Chkalov and of Sciences (headed by Nikolai Fedorenko) proved that
Mikhail Gromov accomplished non-stop flights of record keeping the command-administrative system and economy
length from Moscow to the USA over the North Pole. would lead the country to deadlock and proposed a
Soviet ship-builders constructed the world’s first atomic programme of reforms. But those proposals as well as the
icebreaker, the Lenin. At present, nine atomic icebreakers reforms proposed by prime Minister Alexei Kosygin (1904–
ensure there is permanent navigation along the North 80) were rejected by the conservative leadership of the Party.
Shipping Route and it is now routine to reach the North The results of Soviet economic science remained unclaimed
Pole safely. and the country’s economy stagnated.
Since 1957 Soviet scientists have been participating in
international projects to study Antarctica and have taken
part in 44 Antarctic expeditions. One permanent research P h i lo s o p h y
unit has discovered the existence of a lake lying three-
kilometers deep under Antarctic ice. Violent class struggle during the Civil War years and period
of foreign intervention (1918–22) left their impact on public
life. Communist Party leaders officially proclaimed the
El e c t r i c Po w e r E n g i n e e r i n g necessity to fight against any hostile ideologies or bourgeois
and petty bourgeois remnants. In 1922 a large group of
The State Plan of Electrification of Russia (GOERLO) prominent dissident philosophers, sociologists, historians,
envisaged construction of hydroelectric power stations and writers were forcibly deported from the country. They
(HPS), thermoelectric power stations working on local belonged to the liberal wing of public opinion, which had
fuel (peat), development of electro-consuming industries, been formed before the war. The most outstanding
and improvement of river navigation. Accordingly, the representatives of liberal philosophy and idealist views were:
Volkhov (December 1926) and Dnieper (May 1932) HPS Petr Struve (neo-Kantian metaphysics), Nikolei Berdyaev
were built. By 1935 the GOERLO Plan was over-fulfilled. and Sergei Bulgakov (religious-philosophic school), Pavel
By 1940 the total output of electric energy exceeded the Milyukov (adherent of positivism), Pitirim Sorokin (spoke
GOELRO planned by a factor of 6. By 1982 the Soviet out in favour of the development of religious culture).
Union held first place in the world in terms of primary In the 1920s national and religious movements such as
commercial power resources (including oil and solid fuel, Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism gained followers among
gas and electrical energy). Cascades of HPS were built on the Muslim population of the country. One of the first
the Volga and Angara Rivers and on many others. Soviet decrees of the Soviet administration was the separation of
engineers constructed the High Dam at Aswan on the Nile church and state. For the sake of propaganda the government
in Egypt during the 1960s. In 1954 the world’s first nuclear started an extensive anti-religious campaign headed by the
power station (NPS) was constructed in Obninsk, followed ‘League of Militant Atheists’. As a result, many churches,
by many others. In 1987, however, after the Chernobyl mosques and synagogues were closed; and numerous priests
nuclear power disaster, much more attention was paid to were arrested as accomplices of rich peasants (so-called
human and environmental safety throughout the energy kulaks who employed agricultural workers), along with
supply sector. other suspected enemies of socialism. In the beginning of

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the 1930s numerous philosophers, historians, writers and and Western cultures as well as elements of nomadic tribes,
artists were charged with belonging to this or that bourgeois such as the Scythes, Khazars and the Golden Horde.
or religious group and were persecuted. In due course, the
leadership of the Communist Party began to limit extreme,
ultra-left, anti-intellectual tendencies. Representatives of H i s t o r y , A r c h a e ology , O r i e n t al
these leftist ideas insisted on ‘proletarization’ of philosophy, Studies
history, literature and art. In 1938 a Short Course on the
History of the Communist Party, edited by Stalin, was During the Soviet period the study of history was heavily
published and widely distributed. One chapter written by politicized. Certain Marxist historians absolutized the class
Stalin himself contained the basic points of Marxist- struggle, describing the historical process schematically
Leninist philosophy and historical materialism and (school of Mikhail Pokrovsky). Only in 1934 was history
dialectics. The ‘Short Course’ was obligatory throughout re-introduced in Soviet universities. In 1936 the Communist
the education system. Its appearance was dictated by Academy where historical disciplines had been concentrated
Stalin’s desire to standardize public thought and his was dissolved, to be replaced by the Institute of History as
attempts to prevent any appearance of non-conformism part of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
after he had succeeded in rooting out any opposition within During the war years attention to the history of the
the Party. Though in the ‘Short Course’ several schools of motherland increased: books by professional historians
Western European and American philosophy were severely glorifying national patriotism (Napoleon, The Crimean
criticized, readers of the ‘Short Course’ could not go to the War by Evgeni Tarle) and by writers of fiction with
original books by foreign authors and had to accept the historical plots (Genghis-Khan, Batu by Vasili Yan
opinion offered on blind trust At the same time works by Yanchevetsky) were highly appreciated by readers. After
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin were the war Boris Rybakov published a number of books on
published in mass copies, giving thinking readers an the histor y and archaeolog y of ancient Russia.
opportunity to get acquainted thoroughly with Marxist- Miliza Nechkina authored a series of works about the
Leninist theory and historical and dialectical materialism. Decembrists’ democratic movement in the 1820s;
A lot of prominent Soviet intellectuals, artists and scientists Mikhail Tikhomirov collected and studied Russian
of those years – N. Vavilov, S. Vavilov, V. Vernadsky, medieval manuscripts; Nikolai Druzhinin researched
A. Ioffe, V. Komarov, N. Kournakov, I. Michurin, democratic movements of Russia in the late nineteenth
O. Shmidt and others – mastered the Marxist methodology and early twentieth centuries. Important work was also
and fruitfully used it in their everyday research. After the done to compile collective historical works, such as the
war, the most important contribution in classical philosophy 16‑volume World History, the 13-volume Historical
and aesthetics was made by Aleksandr Losev; Yuri Lotman’s Encyclopaedia, the 5-volume History of Diplomacy, and the
work on semiotics also won wide recognition. 2-volume History of Diplomatic Relations in the Pacific
During the war against Nazi Germany anti-religious Ocean Region (edited by Evgeni  Zhukov and Aleksandr
propaganda was stopped by the state, and churches and Guber). In addition, there were five separate editions of a
mosques began to open. But after the war Stalin again 3-volume Diplomatic Dictionary, a 6-volume History of the
introduced new ideological pressure against Great Patriotic War, a 16-volume History of World War
‘cosmopolitanism’ and ‘cringing’ before the West. Biologists Two, and three editions of the voluminous Large Soviet
were hounded, while genetics and cybernetics were Encyclopaedia edited by Aleksandr Prokhorov. Many
proclaimed ‘pseudo-sciences’ and brought to a halt. scholars contributed to particular geo-cultural areas.
When Nikita Khruschev ‘dethroned’ Stalin, this was There were Sinologists such as Vasili Alekseev, Japanists
not accompanied by any new philosophy. Repression of such as Nikolai Konrad, Indologists (Fedor Scherbatskoy);
non-conformists continued (e.g. A. Sakharov’s exile, Arabists (Ifgnat Krachkovsky), Iranists (Evgeni Bertels),
dissidents’ deportation from the country or their Mongolianists (Boris Vladimirtsov), and Africanists
confinement in mental institutions). Moreover, the (Ivan Potek hin). Nicholas Roerich, the painter,
ideological battle between dogmatists and realists was philosopher and historian, and his wife Helen and their
extended from the home front to international relations. sons, Yuri and Sviatoslav, were New Age figures living
Dogmatists persisted in believing there could be no mainly in India, who contributed to the cultural interaction
compromise between socialist and capitalist systems. of East and West.
Representatives of the realistic school, who borrowed Archaeologists discovered Palaeolithic and Neolithic
Lenin’s thesis about the possibility of peaceful co-existence sites along the migration routes from Siberia through the
of states with different social-political systems, insisted Chukot Peninsula and Bering Strait to America. Aleksandr
that at the end of the twentieth century it was necessary to Okladnikov discovered Neolithic settlements in the South
solve urgent global problems such as safeguarding peace, Uralsand. B. Rybakov, together with specialists on Indo-
protecting the environment, and reducing poverty, European linguistics and toponymics, such as Oleg
starvation and epidemics; they believed such goals could be Trubachev, determined the habitat of proto-Slavic tribes,
reached only by a common effort of all countries of the while Boris Piotrovsky discovered remains of an ancient
world. Late in the 1980s and especially after Russia’s Urartu civilization in Armenia. Old Russia texts on birch-
proclaiming of sovereignty and the dissolution of the Soviet bark were found during excavations by Artemy Artsikhovsky
Union in 1991, Orthodox, Muslim and Buddhist faiths and Valentin Yanin in Novgorod, Pskov, Staraya Russa,
initiated activities in the Russian Federation. Some Russian and Tver. About 800 examples of these texts are known.
philosophers returned to the ‘Eurasian idea’ whereby Russia Scythian burials preserved in the permafrost were
was viewed as a ‘bridge’ between civilizations of the West discovered in the Pazyryk valley. Soviet archaeologists also
and East. It was a country that had absorbed Byzantine carried on expeditions to the Nubian Desert (Boris

585
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Piotrovsky), to Syria and Iraq (Rauf Munchaev), where Yarovaya (1926), V. Bill-Belotserkovsky’s Storm (1930), and
they found settlements from the 7th millenium bc. In V. Vishvevsky’s The First Cavalry Army (1930). Novels of
Central Asia archaeologists uncovered the site of Nissa, an note include A. Fadeev’s Defeat (1927), M. Sholokhov’s The
important centre of the Parthian state, which existed from Quiet Don (1928). Important works of the 1920s and 1930s
the third century bc and Neolithic settlements of 8000 to include: M. Gorky’s The Life-Story of Klim Samgin (1928–
7000 bc, excavated by Vladimir Masson. The great 37), A. Fadeev’s The Last of the Udege (1929–36), A. Panferov’s
20‑volume Archaeology of the USSR was done under Bruski, (1928–37), N. Ostrovsky’s How the Steel Was
B. Rybakov’s leadership. Hardened (1932–34). The latter became very popular not
In the 1980s the opening up of the previously closed state only in our country but also abroad in China, Cuba and
archives gave a great impetus to publishing new historical Viet Nam. A number of books explored the theme of
studies on the USSR and Russia. industrialization: M. Shaginyan’s Hydrocentral (1930–31),
V. Kataev’s Time, Forward! (1932), and F. Gladkov’s Energy
(1932–38).
Literature The theme of collectivization of peasants was described
vividly in M. Sholokhov’s novel Virgin Lands Cultivated
In the years of the First World War several decadent and (1932), Ukrainian dramatist A. Korneichuk’s In the Steppes
anarcho-nihilistic schools prevailed in Russian literature. of the Ukraine (1941), and the Belarussian Y. Kolas’
The most important was a group of poets who were later Drygva.
described as representatives of the ‘Silver Age’ and Patriotic and historical themes were also depicted in
i nc lu d e d A n n a  Ac h m a tov a , Ni kol a i  G u m i le v, a number of novels and epics, such as A. N. Tolstoy’s Peter I
B o r i s  P a s t e r n a k , M a r i n a  Ts v e t a y e v a , a n d (1929–33), S. Sergeev-Tsensky’s Sevastopol Toil (1937–39),
Konstantin Balmont. Some groups, the futurists for and A. Novikov-Priboy’s Tsushima (1932–35).
instance, demanded ‘to throw down Pushkin, Dostoevsky, From the position of critical realism Andrei Platonov’s
Tolstoy, from the ship of contemporaneity’. Such novel Chevengur should be mentioned, along with two
destructive tendencies survived in literature during the stories by Mikhail Bulgakov, ‘Dog’s Heart’ and ‘Fatal Eggs’,
first years of Soviet power too, and Lenin had to state that and Mikhail Zoshchenko, whose short stories mercilessly
Marxism did not give up the most precious achievements mocked ultra-left and philistine views.
of the bourgeois epoch at all but, on the contrary, In 1932, the Union of Soviet Writers was established. It
assimilated and absorbed everything valuable in its several united artists of various tendencies. The Union was headed
thousand years’ development of thought and culture. by Maxim Gorky, who had already gained vast popularity
Speaking before the Young Communist’s Congress Lenin before the Revolution and whose views had much in
emphasized that one can become a communist only common with those of the Communists.
having enriched one’s memory with the knowledge of all Stalin’s purges of the 1930s inflicted many casualties
mankind’s treasures. In spite of these pronouncements, among the literati: poet Osip Mandelshtam, dramatist
the ultra-left, nihilistic attitude towards literature and Sergei Tretyakov, writer Isaak Babel, two representatives
culture of the past was supported by some members of the of the so-called ‘peasant literature’ – Nikolai Klyuev and
Communist Party leadership, especially by followers of Sergei Klychkov – and many others were brutally
Leon Trotsky. In 1925 the Russian Association of repressed.
Proletarian Writers (RAPP) was established. Its members After the Nazi invasion, one-fourth of the members of
declared their rejection of any cultural heritage of the the Union of Soviet Writers joined the armed forces; during
past, and demanded the establishment of a ‘hegemony of the next four years some 242 writers perished and more
the proletariat’ in literature. They divided writers into than 300 were awarded military decorations, some even
categories according to their class, and, criticized them becoming heroes of the Soviet Union. During the war
fiercely as being ‘bourgeois’, or ‘neo-bourgeois’ authors. years, well-known Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian,
Similar ultra-left activities also affected the fine arts, Armenian, Georgian, Jewish, Latvian and other writers
theatre and cinema, but eventually the ultra-left tendency created patriotic works. Mussa Djhalil – a Tatar poet
was condemned and overcome. The overwhelming imprisoned and later executed by the Nazis – wrote a series
majority of Russian intellectuals kept up with the of lyric patriotic verses while in his prison cell. Poems and
traditional culture of the country. In 1932 RAPP was verses by Nikolai Tikhonov, Vera Inber, Olga Bergolts,
finally dissolved. and the Kazakh bard Dzhambul were devoted to the heroic
Russian poets and writers were among the first to defence of Leningrad.
recognize the Revolution: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Sergei In post-war years the theme of the Patriotic War
Esenin, Aleksandr Blok, Valeri Bryusov, Fedor Gladkov, continued to capture the imagination of many writers, such
Konstantin Fedin, Marietta Shaginyan, Dmitri Furmanov, as Konstantin Simonov, Oles Gonchar, Niktor Nekrasov,
Veniamin Kaverin, Nikolai Tikhonov, Lidia Seyfulina, Vasili Grossman, Viktor Azhaev, and Emanuil Kazakevich.
along with the Ukrainian Pavel Tychina, and the Boris Polevoy’s Tale of the True Man – devoted to the hero-
Belarussian Yanka Kupala. Their books influenced the pilot A. Maresiev, who, despite two artificial limbs, returned
literature of the next generation of writers. For example: to fight against the Germans – made a great impact on the
Maxim Gorky’s My Universities (1923) and The Artamonovs’ youth.
Business (1925), V. Ivanov’s Armoured Train 14-69 (1923), The growth of conservative ideology in the post-war period
D. Furmanov’s Chapaev (1923), A. Seraphimovich’s Iron severely affected Soviet literature. In August of 1947 the
Stream (1924), L. Leonov’s Badgers (1924), I. Babel’s stories, Central Committee of the Party published a directive against
K. Fedin’s Towns and Years (1924), F. Gladkov’s Cement heterodoxy. After Stalin’s death and official condemnation of
(1925). They influenced dramatists too: K. Trenev’s Lyubov his cult in 1956, there was short period of ‘thaw’ (named after

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the title of a story by Ilya Ehrenburg). On the crest of public Pushkin, Shota Rustaveli, Nikolai Dobrolyubov,
enthusiasm arose a new literature reflecting the true Soviet Nikolai Nekrasov, Mikhail Kotsyubinsky, Ivan Franko,
reality. In 1956 a well-known literary magazine, Novy Mir Lesia Ukrainka, Kosta Khetagurov. Such events helped
(New World), edited by the poet Alexander Tvardovsky, promote the literary treasures of the different peoples of
published the novel Not by Bread Alone by V. Dudintsev, the Soviet Union.
which was aimed at Soviet conservatism and bureaucracy. In Outside the country the following expatriate authors
1962, the same magazine issued the story One Day in the Life should be noted: Ivan Bunin (Nobel Prize of 1933),
of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, about the V l ad im ir Nabokov, Dec ade nt w r ite rs Dim it r i
Gulag prison camps. Works by Yuri Trifonov and Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, and Marina
Andrei Platonov, previously prohibited, were also published Tsvetaeva, who returned to the USSR in 1939. In 1974,
in this magazine. Many national newspapers published the Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Prize for 1970) was forcefully
verse ‘Stalin’s Successors’, by Evgeni Evtushenko, where the deported from the country and returned to Russia only in
author unmasked those who endeavoured to renew the 1995. In the late 1970s, the poet Joseph Brodsky (Nobel
dictator’s cult. prize of 1987) had to leave the country for the USA.
At the same time, together with critical verses by such
young poets as Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrei
Voznesensky and Bella Akhmadulina, there appeared in M u s i c , b all e t , fol k e n s e m b l e s
the 1960s and 1970s a voluminous underground literature,
called samizdat. These unpublished manuscripts and critical The 1920s was a fertile period for composers. Nikolai
works had been rejected by state publishing houses and Myaskovsky created his new symphonies, Reingold Glier
were circulated clandestinely using photocopies. Different composed a historical musical poem called ‘Zaporozhians’
unofficial magazines sprang up; they became famous due to and the ballet Red Poppy, Alexander Glazunov wrote his
the publication of letters and articles by physicist string quartet, and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov created
Andrei Sakharov, who advocated a policy of convergence orchestral suites and symphonic poems. This tradition
and that his countrymen borrow the positive aspects of was extended by Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Borodin,
both capitalism and socialism. Historian Roy Medvedev Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and
sharply criticized the defects of Soviet democracy and the A. Skriabin. Music was also developing in the various
suppression of ‘dissidents’ – people who demanded reforms Soviet republics: in Ukraine, the second symphony by
and democratization of the society. Lev Revutsky, creation of the ‘Dumka’ choir, composition
Soviet literature in the twentieth century was of choral works by Nikolai Leontovich; in Georgia,
multinational and polylingual. During the 50 years between Zakhari Paliashvili and Meliton Balanchivadze; in
the 1930s and 1980s, ‘social realism was the prevailing Armenia, Aleksandr Spendiarov. State musician
official art form. It sought to portray a true picture of daily collectives were also organized: the Russian Folk Choir
life using a variety of forms and genres that corresponded to conducted by Mitrofan Pyatnitsky, the Red Army
the requirements of the national character, Party spirit and Ensemble of Song and Dance under the leadership of
social humanism. Aleksandr Aleksandrov, and numerous chamber music
During the Soviet period some of the best-known ensembles.
literature – including ancient texts – produced by the Prokofiev, who returned to the Soviet Union from
different nations of the USSR was ‘discovered’ when it abroad in 1932, composed many of his best-known works
was translated into Russian. This included books by during this period: Romeo and Juliet, Peter and Wolf,
Ukrainian writers Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Alexander Nevsky, and Dimitri Shostakovich wrote his 5th
Ukrainka, Mikhail Kotsyubinsky, Pavel Tychina and symphony and beautiful piano quintet in 1936; however, he
Maksim Rylsky; works by the twelth-century writer was criticized by the authorities for the ‘formalism’ of his
Nizami Gianjevi, Muhamed Fizouli (fifteenth century), music. Armenian composer Aram Khachaturyan wrote
Mirza Akhundov, Sabir Tairzade (Azerbaijan); Alisher his ballet Gayane and various symphonic and piano works;
Navoi (Uzbekistan); Abu Rudaki, Abulkasim Ferdousi Boris Asafiev composed the ballets Bakhchisarai Fountaim
(Tajikistan); Ovanes Tumanyan, Mikhail Nalbandyan, and Flames of Paris, while Nikolai Myaskovsky continued
Gabriel Sundukyan (Armenia); the Georgian medieval to work on his symphonic cycle.
poem ‘Knight in Panther-Skin’ by Shota Rustaveli; The pre-war period also saw much musical activity in the
D. Guramishvili, I. Baratashvili, A. Chavchavadze, Soviet republics. Composers of note include: Useir
A. Tsereteli, Vazha-Pshaveli (Georgia); Makhtumkuli Gadzhibekov and Abdul Magornaev (Azerbaijan); Armen
(Turkmenia); Abai Kunanbaev (Kazakhstan); Y. Rainis, Tigranyan (Armenia); Anatoly Bogatyrev, EvgeniTikotsky
A. Upit (Latvia); I. Donelaitis, Y. Zhemaite (Lithuania); and Victor Kosenko (the Ukraine).
I. Kringe (Moldavia). Y. Kupala, Y. Kolas, M. Bogdanovich, Working alongside these musicians of the old generation
F. Bogushevich (Belarus); K. Khetagurov (Ossetia); and were a number of young and talented performing artists:
the classics of Jewish literature by Sholom Aleikhem, Konstantin Igumnov, Aleksandr Goldenveizer, Genrich
among many others. Many nations of the country that Neigaijz, Vladimir Sofronitsky, David Oistrakh, Marina
hadn’t possessed written languages before the Revolution Yudina, Petr Stolyarsky, Abram Yampolsky, Semen
(Kirghizes, Buryats, Maris) were able to develop their Kozolupov, Emil Gilels, Yakov Flier, Marina Kozolapova,
national literatures as did those whose languages were Galina Barinova and Daniel Shafran.
finally written in the 1920s and 1930s (Tuvinians, Adygeis, Popular opera singers of the time included: Leonid
Nanaians, peoples of the North). Sobinov, Valeria Barsova, Antonina Nejdanova, Dormidont
The following authors were accorded anniversary Mikhailov, Ivan Kozlovskiy, Sergei Lemeshev, Feodor
celebrations in Moscow and other big cities: Aleksandr Chaliapin, and Pavel Andreev.

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During the war years, many composers focused on Fine Arts

patriotic and lyric songs: Vasili Soloviev-Sedoy, Boris
Mokrousov, Anatoly Novikov, Aleksandr Aleksandrov Historic and revolutionary themes were reflected in pictures
and Matvey Blanter. After the war, the following composers painted by Isaak Brodsky, Mitrofan Grekov, Aleksandr
were active: Rodion Shchedrin, Boris Chaikovsky (Russia); Gerasimov, Boris Kustodiev, Konstantin Yuon, Kuzma
Kara Karaev, Fikret Amirov (Azerbaijan); Otar Petrov-Vodkin and others during the 1920s. Petr
Taktakishvili, Sulhan Tsintsa-dze (Georgia); Arno Konchalovsky and Igor Grabar worked in the landscape
Babadzhanyan (Armenia); Veli Mukhatov (Turkmenistan); genre. Newspaper and magazine caricaturists of note
Aleksandr Sveshnikov, Platon Maiboroda, Grigory included: Dimitri Moor, Viktor Deni, Boris Efimov and
Verevka (Ukraine); and Russians Alfred Shnitke, Georgi Lev Brodaty. A creative group of painter-satirists was
Sviridov, Isaak Dunaevsky, N. Strelnikov and Y. formed under the pseudonym Kukryniksy (Mikhail
Milyutin. Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov, Nikolai Sokolov). The names
Composers and conductors of the Soviet Baltic republics of Vladimir Favorsky, Aleksandr Kravchenko, and
continued to develop their national traditions: A. Lepin, Pavel Pavlinov are connected with block prints.
Adolf Skulte, Yanis Ivanov, Margers Zarinsh, Y. Medynsh, In the early 1920s art organizations of the ultra-left
Alfred Kalnynsh, and Raimond Pauls. In Lithuania there such as the Russian Association of Proletarian Painters
were Anastas Rachyunas, Yuri Nuzelyunas, Yuri Tallat- appeared. Being advocates of abstract art and committed
Kyalpsh, B. Dvarionas and Stasis Vainyunas. In Estonia, to change, they wanted to give up all the art of the past.
one should mention the composers and conductors Gustav All of these groups were dissolved in 1932. In the 1930s the
Ernesaks and Artur Kapp. The list of gifted ballet dancers portraits by Mikhail Nesterov, Igor Grabar and
would include: Ekaterina Geltser, Galina Ulanova, Olga Aleksandr Gerasimov were widely acknowledged.
Lepeshinskaya, Natalia Dudinskaya, Marina Semenova, Martiros Saryan and Sedrak Arakelyan were popular in
Vakhtang Chabukiani, Konstantin Sergeev, Askold Armenia, Aleksandr Shovkunenko and Nikolai Samokish
Makarov and of ballet masters: Leonid Lavrovsky, Igor in the Ukraine, and Valentin Volkov in Belarus. Well-
Moiseev, Agrippina Vaganova, Yuri Grigorovich and Kasian known book illustrators included: Demian Shmarinov,
Goleizovsky. Foreign audiences became acquainted with Evgeni Kibrik, Aleksandr Gerasimov, and Aleksandr
many Russian and Soviet artists who lived or travelled Kanevsky.
abroad: composers Sergei Rakhmaninov and Igor In the war years the tradition of ROSTA Civil War
Stravinsky; singer Feodor Chaliapin; ballerina Anna posters was renewed: ‘TASS Windows’ appeared with
Pavlova; dancers Vaslav Nijinsky, Mikael Baryshnikov and stencilled posters painted by such artists as P. Sokolovsky,
Rudolf Nureyev; choreographers George Balanchine and N. Radlov, M. Savitsky, and Kukryniksy. The most famous
Sergei Diagilev (who organized the Russian Ballet company of these were created by D. Shmarinov (‘No Oblivion, No
in Paris); musicians Vladimir Horowitz, Yahudi Menuhin, Pardon’), A. Pakhomov (‘Leningrad in the Days of Blockade’),
Lev Oborin, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri and A. Kurdov (‘On the Roads of War’).
Bashmet, Vladimir Spivakov, Sviatoslav Richter; singers Military themes, portraying rank-and-file soldiers and
Dimitri Khvorostovsky, Evgeni Nesternko, Elena famous generals, continued to be popular, as represented by
Obraztsova; ballerinas Galina Ulanova and Maya M. Grekov. Portraitists included P. Korin, A. Shovkunenko,
Plisetskaya, and conductors Evgeni Svetlanov and Evgeni M. Bozhy and G. Stronka.
Mravinsky. R. Treuman (Estonia), I. Glazunov and A. Shilov are
well known today.
In the field of decorative art, probably the best-known
Theatre crafts are the lacquered boxes and painted miniatures from
the little towns of Palekh, Mstera, Fedoskino and Kholui.
After the Revolution the government offered assistance to Glass, porcelain, wood, mosaic, metal-working, macramé
theatres throughout the Soviet Union, and wherever and carpets are other examples of applied arts.
performances were given in national languages. A number of major Russian painters made names for
Besides preserving the traditions of Russian theatres like themselves abroad after the Revolution, among the founders
the Moscow Art Theatre (founded in 1898 by Konstantin of abstract art, including Kasimir Malevich and Vassili
Stanislavsky and V. Nemerovich-Danchenko), the Maly Kandinsky. Alexander Benoua and Marc Chagall also
Theatre in Moscow, and others in Petrograd and Kiev, new achieved international prominence.
theatres also opened. In 1920–21 the first professional Nicolai Andreev’s sculpted monuments to A. Hertsen
theatres for children were established: the Drama Theatre and N. Ogarev in a realistic style in front of Moscow
for Children headed by A. Bryantsev in Petrograd, a musical University were among the first works of sculpture between
theatre for children in Moscow (N. Sats), and in 1931, the 1918 and 1920. Ivan Shadr created a number of busts of
Central Puppet Theatre (S. Obraztsov). ordinary people in 1922, a work of sculpture named
Performances of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and A Cobble-Stone as a Tool of the Proletariat and a monument
Mariinsky Theatre in Petersburg, the Theatre of Opera and to Lenin in 1927. Later on such sculptors as Matvei Manizer,
Ballet in Ekaterinburg, playhouses in Moscow (MHAT Sergei Mercurov, Nikolai Tomsky and Lev Kerbel also
and Maly), the Taganka Theatre (Y. Lyubimov), Lenkorn devoted their energy to creating images of Lenin.
Theatre (M. Zakharov), and the Sovremennik Theatre A sculpture titled Workman and a Collective-Farm Womam
(G. Volchek), had broad recognition. by Vladimir Mukhina was presented during the 1937 World’s
The Moiseev Folk Ensemble and the Soviet (Red) Army Fair in 1937. Among contemporary sculptors the name of
Choir both toured successfully all over the world, as did Ernst Neizvestny – who designed the memorial to the martyrs
many circuses. of Stalin’s terror in Magadan – should be mentioned.

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Architecture Cinema

In 1922, Vladimir Shukhov created a 148-meter-high The development of the Soviet cinema is connected with the
hyperboloid radio mast in Moscow that is now used for names of such old masters as Y. Protozanov and S. Yutkevitch.
TV and radio transmission. B. Yofan designed the Soviet Historic films include Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin
pavilion at World Fairs in Paris and New York in 1939. A (1925), October (1927), Alexandr Nevsky (1938), and Ivan
number of architectural designs are associated with the the Terrible (1945–58); N. Ekk’s A Start in Life (1931);
industrialization of the 1930s. Among these are: the F. Ermler and S. Yutkevich’s Counter Plane (1932);
Dnepr hydroelectric station and dam, steel mills in the Vasilievs brothers’ Chapaev (1934); V. Pudovkin’s The
Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk, and various tractor, Mother (1926); A. Dovzhenko’s The Arsenal (1923) and The
bearings, and chemical plants, and public housing and Land (1930); F. Ermler’s The Fragment of Empire (1929);
sports facilities. In 1930 a granite mausoleum was built for G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg’s Maxim’s Youth (1935);
Lenin in Moscow’s Red Square according to plans drawn E. Dzigan’s We are from Kronstadt; M. Romm’s Lenin in
up by Aleksei Shchusev. Shchusev and other leading October; and G. Alexandrov’s Merry Fellows, The Circus, and
architects such as Ivan Zholtovsky, Ivan Fomin and Volga-Volg. S. Gerasimov and M. Donskoy were successful
Vladimir Gelfraigh worked on many urban projects in at shooting screen versions of works by Leo Tolstoy, Anton
Moscow, Leningrad and other cities. New bridges were Chekhov and William Shakespeare.
constructed over the Moscow River during 1936–38. Andrei Tarkovsky’s great lyrical film, based on the life of
Some stations of the Moscow underground were built the icon painter, Andrey Rublev is considered a masterpiece.
during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1933 a 227-km-long channel S. Bondarchuk succeeded in creating mass battle scenes and
from Byelomor to the Baltic was completed with the use was also known as a actor. Among the masters of documentary
of forced labour. cinema should be mentioned R. Karmen, who shot films of
Reconstruction of towns, cities and industrial enterprises the Civil War in Spain and Sino-Japanese War of 1941–45.
devastated by German troops was carried out throughout Many brave cameramen shot historic epic scenes of the
the post-war period, and highrise construction was battle from the front.
beginning in Moscow. Erected in 1967, Moscow’s Ostankino There were many popular actors who achieved fame in the
TV and bc Tower is the second-tallest free-standing cinema: Boris Babochkin, Boris Chirkov, Boris Shchukin,
building in the world. It has a structural weight of over Nikolai Okhlopkov, Kyubov Orlova, Vera Maretskaya,
55,000 tons. Tamara Makarova, Nikolai Kryuclikov, Marina Ladynina,
A large memorial complex can be seen in the Treptov Nikolai Cherkasov, Mikhail Zharov, Nikolai Mordvinov,
Park of Berlin. There is a 13-metre-high bronze statue: the Rostislav Plyatt, Evgeni Leonov, Anatoli Papanov, Yuri
Soviet soldier holds a small girl and, in his right hand, the Nikulin, Nikolai Simonov, Yulia Borisova and others.
sword with which he has broken the Nazi swastika. It was Cinema was also developing in the Ukraine (A. Dovzhenko’s
conceived by E. Vuchetich and built by a group of architects films), in Georgia (N. Shengelaya, N. Chaurelli), and in
from Moscow and Kiev. E. Vuchetich also sculptured a Armenia (A. Bek-Nazarov). Famous composers who wrote
Statue of the Motherland on Mamaev Barrow in for the cinema include: Isaac Dunaevsky, Dimitri Kabalevsky,
Volgograd. Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturyan, Tikhon Klirennikov,
Apartment house building began in a number of cities and Dimitri Shostakovich.
and towns in the late 1950s. A mass housing construction Throughout the post-war years film-making studios were
project of five-storied small-flat buildings with a simplified established in the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian Soviet
layout managed to relieve the housing crisis for a while. In Socialist Republics, which did not have their own cinema
1995 a memorial museum of the Great Patriotic War of before. All together thirty-three studios were working in
1941–45 was opened in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill. An the Soviet Union by the middle of the 1980s. Since the late
orthodox church, a mosque and a synagogue were built 1940s there has been cartoon-making and cinema for
nearby in commemoration of the war’s victims. children. Many Soviet films, beginning with Eisenstein’s
Construction of Christ the Savior Cathedral was finished 1927 masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, are recognized as
in Moscow in 1997; it is the exact copy of the old cathedral masterpieces by audiences the world over.
blown up in 1934.

Sports BIB L I O G R A PH Y

In 1939, the government endorsed the initiative of youth Bubnov, A. S. 1959. Articles and Speeches on Education. AS of RSFSR,
organizations to build an All-Union sporting complex to Moscow.
be ‘Ready for Labour and Defence’ (GTO). By 1956 more Bukharin, N. I. 1993. Revolution and Culture Articles and Speeches
than four million people had trained and met their 1923–1936.
certification requirements in GTO. Since 1952 Soviet Cultural Life in the USSR: 1917–1927. Chronicle. Nauka, Moscow,
athletes have been taking part in the Olympic Games and 1975.
set many records, thanks to the support of the state. Cultural Life in the USSR: 1928–1941. Chronicle. Nauka, Moscow,
The Soviet chess-players’ school became widely known 1976.
all over the world and produced a number of world Cultural Life in the USSR: 1941–1950. Chronicle. Nauka, Moscow,
champions: Aleksandr Alekhin, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail 1977.
Tahl, Vasili Smyslov, Tigran Petrosyan, Anatoly Karpov, Cultural Life in the USSR: 1951–1965. Chronicle. Nauka, Moscow,
and Garry Kasparov. 1979.

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Cultural Life in the USSR: 1966–1977. Chronicle. Nauka, Moscow, Kumanev, V. A. 1967. Socialism and National Literacy: Eradication of
1983–84. Mass Illiteracy in the USSR. Nauka, Moscow.
Cultural Construction in the RSFSR: 1917–27. 1983–84. Vol. 1, Parts 1–  1991. The 1930s and the Fate of the Patriotic Intelligentsia. Nauka,
2. Documents and materials, 1917–27. Nauka, Moscow. Moscow.
Cultural Construction in the RSFSR: 1928–1941. 1985–86, Vol. 2, Lenin, V. I. 1967. On Culture and Cultural Revolution. Politizdat,
Parts 1–2. Documents and materials, 1928–1941. Nauka, Moscow.
Moscow. Lunacharsky, A. V. 1960. Lenin and Education: A Collection of
Cultural Construction in the RSFSR: 1989, Vol. 3. Documents and Articles and Speeches. Nauka, Moscow.
materials, 1941–1945, Nauka, Moscow. MATROSOV, V. 1999. The New Paradigm of Russia’s Development in
Cultural Construction in the RSFSR: 1917–1927. 1983. Development of a the xxi Century: Ideas and Results. Complex Investigation of
single state policy on culture. Documents and materials. Sovetskaya Problems of Stable Development. Academia, Moscow.
Rossiia, Moscow. Polyakov, Y. A. 1997. Leading Lights of Patriotic Historical Science:
Diplomatic Dictionary. Vols. 1–3 (4th ed.). 1984–86, Nauka, Reminiscences. URAO, Moscow.
Moscow. RYABUSHKIN, T. V. Soviet Demography During the Past 70 Years.
Gorky, M. 1991. Untimely Thoughts: Essays on Revolution and Culture. [Sovetskaya demografiya za 70 let]. 1987. Nauka, Moscow.
Sovremennik, Moscow. Rzheshevskii, O. A. 1997. War and Diplomacy: Documents, comments
Gorsen, P. and Knödler-Bunte, E. 1974. Proletkult. Frommann- 1941–1942. Nauka, Moscow.
Holzboog, Stuttgart. Science and Humanity: An International Directory. 1962–1987. Znanie,
Graham, L. R. 1993. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short Moscow.
History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. SHTROMOS. A. and KAPLAN, M. A. (eds). The Soviet Union and the
Gubarev, V. 1999. Farewell to the Twentieth Century: The Fate of Challenge of the Future. Vol. 3: Ideology, Culture and Nationality.
Scientists and Academics in Russia. Nauka/Interperiodica, Paragon House, St. Paul, MN.
Moscow. Sobolev, V. S. 1999. For the Future of Russia: Activities of the Academy
 2001. Twenty-first Century Dawn. Nauka, Moscow. of Sciences to Preserve the National Cultural and Scientific Heritage.
History of the Second World War 1939–1945. Vols. 1–12. 1973–82. 1890–1930. Nauka, St Petersburg.
Nauka Moscow. Soviet Culture During the Great Patriotic War. 1976. Nauka, Moscow,
Historical Science on the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century. 2001. Soviet Culture During the Period of Reconstruction. 1928–1941. 1988.
Institute for History, Archaeology and Ethnography Press, Nauka, Moscow
Novosibirsk, Russia. Soviet Historical Encyclopaedia. 1961–76. Vols. 1–16. Sovetskaya
Keldysh, M. V. 2001. Creative Portrait Based on the Memories of Encyclopedia, Moscow.
Contemporaries. Nauka, Moscow. Spiritual Potential of the USSR on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War:
Khramov, Y. A. 1983. The Physicists: A Biography Reference Book. From the History of Soviet Culture, 1917–1941. 1985. Institute of
Nauka, Moscow. Russian History, Moscow.
Kim, M. P. 1957. Forty Years of Soviet Culture. Gospolitizdat, Moscow. THOMPSON, T. L. and SHELDON. R. 1988. Soviet Society and Culture:
Koroleva, N. 2001–2002. Father. (2 vols). Nauka, Moscow. Essays in Honour of Vera S. Dunham. Westview Publishers,
Krupskaya, N. K. 1957. Collected Pedagogical Works. Uchpedgiz, Boulder, CO.
Moscow. World History. 1961–83. Vols. 8–13. Nauka, Moscow.

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EAST-CENTRAL AND SOUTH­-EAST EUROPE

Alexander S. Stykalin, Victor A. Khorev, František Svátek,

L. Nagy, Nikolai Todorov and A. Chojnowski

The 1917–1919 revolutions in Russia, Germany and inter-war period the Czech film studio Barrandov was
Austria-Hungary as well as the victory of Great Britain, recognized as being among the most technically advanced
France and the USA in the First World War were in Europe, while in the Balkan countries during the same
determining factors in the new Versailles system of period the cinema was in an embryonic state. There were
international relations in Eastern and Central Europe. also sharp contrasts between the cultural development of
Independent Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia were different lands within one particular state, as in Austria-
formed on the ruins of the Habsburg Empire. Romania, Hungary, which finally broke apart in 1918. For ages Prague
including Transylvania, was constituted within its borders. was not only a centre of Czech culture, but also an important
The unification of independent Serbia and Montenegro centre of Austro-German culture. In Bosnia, on the other
with the territories that had been part of former Austria- hand, the building of modern cultural infrastructure
Hungary resulted in the creation of the multinational started only after the country had been annexed by Austria-
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (known after Hungary in 1908.
1929 as Yugoslavia). An independent Polish state was These deep historical and cultural differences between
resurrected after a hundred years of non-existence. East-Central Europe and the Balkans go back as far as the
early Middle Ages. The choice between the Catholic Church
and Greek Orthodoxy, between the spiritual orientation of
E D UC A TI O N A N D CU L TURE Rome or Constantinople, helped determined the character
and the way that different European nations were fitting
Historically East-Central Europe and the Balkans reveal into the world. For example, although Serbs and Croats
sharply contrasting education and communication systems, speak the same languages their religious differences
as well as different levels of scientific progress and intensities profoundly influenced the process of nation building.
of cultural life. For instance, what is today the Czech Turkish expansion in the Balkans in the fifteenth to
Republic was the most industrially developed part of the seventeenth centuries was another important factor
Habsburg Monarchy during the nineteenth century. influencing the development of the two regions. The border
Reforms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth between the Ottoman and the Habsburg Empires became
centuries put an end to illiteracy, whereas in the 1920s and the border between two cultures. Long dependence (up to
1930s, the illiterates in Romania and Yugoslavia came to 40 the nineteenth century) upon the Turks, and a tradition of
and 50 per cent respectively, and in Albania to more then anti-Ottoman liberation movements contributed to the
80 per cent. Founded in the fourteenth century, the unique historical experience of the Balkan nations. In the
universities of Prague, Vienna and Krakow for centuries present day Balkans, in Bosnia and parts of Bulgaria one can
played the role of academic centres, whose reach extended find enormous areas settled by Muslims.
well beyond national borders. In contrast, the first university In the nineteenth century, formation of the Czech,
in Bulgaria was founded only in the 1880s, and in Albania Slovak, Croat, Slovenian nations and national cultures in
there were no institutions of higher education until after Central Europe was guided by emancipation from the
the Second World War. Whereas in Poland theatres dictates of language – either German or, in the case of the
flourished already in the seventeenth-century baroque era, Croats and Slovaks, Hungarian. The process was most
in Bulgaria the national theatre culture was not even formed successful in the Czech lands, where by 1918 not only were
until the early twentieth century, when the National the preconditions for nation statehood already in place, but
Theatre in Sofia was founded. Residents of Prague had an also for the forming of one of the most advanced political
opportunity to listen to Mozart and Beethoven. On the systems in inter-war Europe.
other hand, the first permanent operatic company in The problems of defining what was the historical
Belgrade dates from 1920, and in Sofia from 1921. In the specificity of ‘Central Europe’ and what were its borders are

591
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still controversial (let us mention only the concepts of Jenő During the twentieth century, Vienna – the city of
Szűcs and Milan Kundera). Certainly Austria belonged to Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss –
this region, and Habsburg and Vienna played the role of maintained its former stature as a world centre of musical
‘bridge to Europe’, offering a region-wide cultural centre culture. The new Viennese school, namely Arnold
attracting the representatives of different national cultures Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern, reformed the
(the same role played by such other big cities as Prague or musical language by promoting principles of atonality and
Budapest). German cultural influence should also be dodecaphony. Austria gave the world a number of celebrated
mentioned, with its very ambivalent attitude. Besides performers, and one of the greatest conductors of the
German culture one should pay tribute to the trans-national twentieth century, Herbert von Karajan.
significance of Jewish culture. The Jews in Central Europe In architecture, the Austrian secession, and in applied
formed a very creative cultural community whose role has arts and painting the creations of artists like Gustav Klimt
spread far beyond national or regional borders. turned from a local phenomenon into something of
Austrian culture, which had always developed in a close international significance. But already before the First
interaction with Hungarian and Slavonic cultures, gradually World War architecture was turning towards rationalism
emerged as a culture in its own right, consolidating its as a reaction to art nouveau’s ornamentalism and fluctuating
specific national features. One can find them already in the forms. The new era gave rise to expressionism (Oskar
second half of the eighteenth century in the music of Josef Kokoshka), which became the dominant movement both in
Hayden and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and then in the German and Austrian painting. If in the Austrian national
first half of the nineteenth century in the music of Franz consciousness the results of the war were associated with
Schubert, the dramaturgy of Franz Grillparzer, Ferdinand the downfall of Austrian greatness, for Czechs and Slovaks
Raimund or Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, and the poetry of the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy became a
Nikolaus Lenau. Austrian nationalism and identity, precondition for Czechoslovak statehood. Not only its
expressed both in philosophy and the different branches of democratic form of government, but also the country’s
creative activities, were sometimes caught between the quest position at the crossroads of different cultural trends created
for truth in a material world and an attempt to harmonize favourable conditions. Traditional cultural links with
itself with the transcendental German idea of Geist. Austria’s German culture were preserved. At the same time the
failure to become the centre of German unification, Prussia’s Francophile political orientation of Czechoslovakia’s first
ousting of Austria from the process of German unification president, Tomáš G. Masaryk, promoted French cultural
in the 1860s and, finally, the formation of the German influences especially in the fine arts. On the other hand,
Empire in 1871 accelerated the crystallization of Austrian Prague became one of the main cultural centres of the
national consciousness (though up to the second half of the Russian emigration. Russian scholars like Roman
twentieth century the majority of Austrians put their O. Jakobson, Nikolai S. Trubetskoy and P. G. Bogatyriov
German identity before their Austrian one). The sharpness together with Czech scholars Jan Mukařovsky and Vilém
of national and social antagonisms in Austria-Hungary Mathesius played a leading part in the Prague linguistic
probably intensified the spiritual search in Austro-German circle, which contributed to the development of structural
culture at the turn of the century. Austria became the native linguistics, phonology and poetics.
soil for a number of important teachings in European In the inter-war period Czech literature blossomed with
philosophy: Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, Edmund Jaroslav Hašek’s satirical prose and Karel Čapek’s social
Husserl’s phenomenology, Rudolf Kassner’s physiognomy, fantasies. Czech poetry was very innovative. The principles
Martin Buber’s mystical Judaism, Theodor Herzl’s of ‘poetism’ and surrealism, maintaining the priority of free
philosophical doctrine of Zionism and Ludwig association in figurative thinking compared to didacticism
Wittgenstein’s analytic philosophy. Each of these made a and rationality, was theoretically motivated in the
long-term impact on twentieth-century culture. internationally supported essays of Karel Teige. These
From the first decades of the twentieth century Austrian principles strengthened the metaphorical side of poetic
literature entered its Golden Age. Traces of neo-romanticism language, and its expressive abilities were differently
and symbolism could be found already in the works of interpreted by such talented poets as Vítězslav Nezval,
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Arthur Schnitzler. Rainer Vladímir Holan, František Halas, the future Nobel Prize
Maria Rilke, one of the greatest German-language poets of winner Jaroslav Seifert, the Slovak poet Laco Novomeský
the twentieth century, evolved from impressionism through and others.
philosophical symbolism to the ‘new subjectivity’. The Leading theatre directors like Jindrich Honzl and
works of Georg Trakl, Franz Werfel and Gustav Meyrink E. F. Burian were searching after new ways of scenic
gave an impetus to the rise of expressionism. Franz Kafka’s expression. Their works combined satire and the grotesque
prose significantly broadened the scope of twentieth-century with elements of stylization and a quest for new musical
literature. The crisis and downfall of the Habsburg rhythms.
Monarchy turned Austria into a small country, an event In the 1920s and 1930s Czech musical culture developed
perceived as a tragedy in the national consciousness. This through the compositions of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín
found expression in the world-famous works of Robert Dvořák and Zdeněk Fibich, a time when such older
Musil, Josef Roth, Hermann Broch, Stefan Zweig and generation composers as Leoš Janáček and Josef Boguslav
Heimito von Doderer, and such dramatists as Ödön von Foerster were in their heyday. The world famous composer
Horváth and Franz Teodor Csokor. Inter-war Austria was Boguslav Martinů lived abroad but did not break off
depicted with great talent in the works of the Nobel Prize relations with his homeland. Alois Hába, one of the authors
winner Elias Canetti, who showed how the nation was of the quartertone system, was probably the most famous
gradually shifting towards fascism and the Anschluss union representative of the Czech musical avant-garde. In the
with Hitler’s Germany. 1920s and 1930s in the fine arts the use of the artistic

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experience of post-impressionism, expressionism, cubism other parts of the country. Adherents of the officially
and fauvism was combined with an interest in folk idioms. supported concept of ‘Czechoslovakism’ regarded the
The rich traditions of Central-European art nouveau – Slovaks as an integral part of a single Czechoslovakian
initially represented by the Viennese secession – were alive nation. This could not but affect cultural policy. It is
in the drawings of Max Švabinský, in the versatile noteworthy that up until the 1930s the main repertoire of
masterpieces of Alfons Mucha, and in the easel-painting the Slovak National Theatre (founded in Bratislava in 1920)
and monumental frescoes of Jan Preisler. The painter Emil was performed in Czech. Nevertheless, after the downfall of
Filla was strongly influenced by expressionism and later Austria-Hungary and the birth of the independent
cubism. The sculptor Jan Štursa, in his expressive, dynamic Czechoslovakia conditions for Slovak national culture
compositions, was influenced by the work of French improved. The Slovak university named after Jan Amos
sculptors Aristide Maillol and Émile Antoine Bourdelle. Komenský (Comenius) and the Slovak National Museum,
Brilliant sculptural works of Otto Gutfreund were created both in Bratislava, played a great part in cultural life.
under the influence of expressionism and cubism. The great National schools in painting (L’udovit Fulla and others)
master of illustrations Josef Lada and the painter Václav and music were formed. National literature flourished
Špála demonstrated their deep interest in folk art. The (Janko Jesenský, Ivan Krasko and others).
painter and pencil artist František Kupka paved new ways Both in Czechoslovakia and Poland, restoration of
in art, gradually shifting from social realism towards national statehood created better cultural conditions. At
abstractionism and non-figurative art. In the 1930s as the the same time there was a certain continuity with the
fascist threat gained ground in Europe, dramatic themes previous period. Earlier, when the Poles had been deprived
sounded more and more distinctly in the works of many of their national statehood, culture was the main factor in
leading Czech artists. Surrealism became one of the most preserving national identity in the partitioned country. The
popular styles, as exemplified by the tragic passion of reborn state liberated creators from having to shoulder
J. Šíma’s works. patriotic obligations so they could devote themselves more
Czech architects in the inter-war period not only fully to formal experiments. Hence the importance of the
absorbed modern German, French or Dutch influences, but avant-garde in the 1920s and 1930s. The entire work of
also influenced architects from different countries by their Stanisĺaw Ignacy Witkiewicz – an artist, novelist and
constructivist and cubist experiments in architecture. dramatist who earned his fame posthumously – challenged
Among the leading representatives of the twentieth-century Polish nationalism. At the same time continuity with the
Czech architectural school one should mention Jan Kotěra, previous stage was preserved. Those artists who had played
J. Gočár, P. Janák, K. Honzik, J. B. Fuchs and J. Kroha. In a part in the age of the ‘Young Poland’ (1890–1918), such as
industrially developed and democratic Czechoslovakia there the realistic prose writers Stefan Źeromski, Kazimierz
were better conditions for big projects of urban development Przerwa Tetmajer and Stanisĺaw Przybyszewski, poets
than in other East-Central European countries, even though Leopold Staff and Bolesĺaw Lesmian, painters Leon
many projects were never realized. E. Hobsbawm’s famous Wyczóĺkowski, Olga Boznańska, Wojciech Weiss and
definition of the twentieth century as ‘the age of extremes’ is others continued with their creative activity after their
especially true when we speak about inter-war homeland found independance. In 1924 the Nobel Prize for
Czechoslovakia, where leftist, socialist tendencies were very literature was awarded to Wĺadisĺaw Stanisĺaw Reymont,
strong, and many celebrated artists were drawn to the as earlier it was awarded to Henryk Sienkiewicz in 1905.
communist movement. Although the Moscow trials of A positivist strain in Polish culture originated in the
1937–38 were condemned by many left-wingers there was 1860s and 1870s but found further expression in the period
philosophical opposition to those artists devoted to the between the wars. The Lvov-Warsaw neo-positivist school
communist ideals from both the partisans of liberalism, and of Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Alfred Tarski, Jósef Ĺukaszewicz,
conservatives recruited from among Catholic writers, such Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz and others contributed to different
as Jan Zahradíček and Jaroslav Durych. Generally speaking, branches of knowledge: logical semantics, epistemology,
in Czechoslovakia as elsewhere in Europe of the 1920s and methodolog y of deductive sciences. The basis of
1930s, the artists were deeply involved in ideological battles mathematical logic, worked out by the representatives of
concerning, for instance, their attitude towards the socialist the school, stimulated progress in mathematics. Especially
experiment in the USSR. T. G. Masaryk’s Czechoslovakia important are the names of Wacĺaw Sierpińsky, Zymund
held first place in Europe not only in the fine arts, but also Janiszewski, Stefan Mazurkiewicz, Stefan Banach and
in education and science. There were noteworthy schools in Hugo Steinhaus, who helped to develop modern functional
mathematics, chemistry (Bohuslav Brauner’s school), and analysis, the theory of orthogonal series, and made
humanities, Slavonic and comparative linguistics, medieval innovations in the theory of measure and integration.
studies, art history and ethnology. Lubor Niederle’s works At the same time romantic nationalism in Polish culture
on the archaeology and early history of Slavs are well known was still alive and acquired new features. The great composer
all over the world. Bedřich Hrozný deciphered Cuneiform Karol Szymanowski combined Frederic Chopin’s traditions
Hittite and established that the Hittite language belonged with later innovation in musical language. The international
to the Indo-European group. prestige of Polish music was also confirmed by the
Though the political system in Czechoslovakia – the recognition shown such celebrated performers as the
embodiment of Tomáš Masaryk’s political ideas – was very conductor Gregory Fitelberg, pianists Ignacy Paderewski,
democratic, there was no real equality in rights for different Leopold Godowski and Jósef Hofman, the violinist Pavel
nationalities. Slovakia and Trans-Carpathian Ukraine Kochański, and singers Ewa Bandrowska-Turska and Jan
played the role of agrarian satellites of the highly Kiepura, who toured the world. The 1930s witnessed the
industrialized Czech lands; living conditions there were debut of Witold Lutosĺawski, one of the greatest composers
much worse, and educational standards much lower than in of the second half of the twentieth century. Also undeniable

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was the success of Polish ballet: the choreographer acute in partitioned Poland, stimulated progress in
Bronisĺawa Nijinska, sister of the famous Ballets Russes linguistics. The works of Jan Baudouin de Courtenay were
dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, worked in Warsaw in the 1930s of great significance for phonology. There was also some
and contributed to Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. progress in Slavonic linguistics, namely dialectology
The traditions of the Russian theatre were kept up in (Kazimierz Nitsh) and comparative indo-europeistics.
inter-war Poland by Stanisĺawa Wysocka, Stefan Jaracz, Krakow University was an important centre of neo-
Aleksander Zelwerowicz, Juliusz Osterwa and others. Thomistic philosophy. Besides the Polish school of
Many of them had worked in Russia before 1918. The neo- ne o -p o s i t i v i s m t h e re w a s R o m a n I n g a rd e n’s
romantic style of Stanisĺaw Wyspiański, a key figure of the phenomenological aesthetics. Floryan Witold Znaniecki
Young Poland movement that flourished between 1890 and became one of the founders of empirical sociology. Janusz
1914, was developed by the celebrated theatre director Leon Korczak contributed pedagogy. Many Polish scholars
Schiller, who sought to synthesize different arts in his became famous working abroad: the physicist and chemist
theatrical performances. Maria Skĺodowska-Curie, who was twice awarded the
Witold Gombrowicz and Bruno Schulz, together with Nobel Prize, her colleague Kazimierz Fajans, and Bronisĺaw
Witkiewicz, were paving new ways in literature. Their prose Malinowski, noted for his anthropological theory of
is well known beyond Polish borders. Jarosĺaw Iwaszkiewicz, functionalism.
Zofia Naĺkowska and Maria Dąbrowska wrote in a more In the 1930s, with the growing threat from German
traditional, realistic and psychological manner. Polish poetry fascism, Polish intellectuals were faced with three options:
was characterized by a variety of styles. The group Skamandr nationalism, liberal democracy or communism. The struggle
( Julian Tuwim and others) was developing classical among the advocates of these three competing tendencies
traditions in a wider sense of the word, including experience determined the spiritual climate of the Second Republic,
drawn from Young Poland artists with their neo-romantic especially in the last years of its existence.
aesthetics. On the eve of the Second World War apocalyptic The deep contradictions in Polish cultural life in the
presentiments were expressed in the lyrics of Konstanty inter-war period expressed themselves in the disproportion
Idelfons Gaĺczyński, Jósef Czechowicz and Meczysĺaw between the high level of scientific progress, elitist schools
Jastrun. Nobel Prize winner Czesĺaw Miĺosz, the greatest and artistic culture on the one hand, and cultural
Polish poet of the second half of the twentieth century, had backwardness of the popular masses on the other. Some
also debuted in the 1930s. 20 per cent of the adult population was illiterate on the eve
Many opposing tendencies coexisted in the Polish fine of the Second World War.  The percentage was even higher
arts scene. As in Czechoslovakia, strong French influences among national minorities (the Ukrainians, Belarussians
were combined with the quest for national elements. The and Lithuanians), who composed one-third of the population
group of formists (Tytus Czyżewski and others) followed in pre-war Poland. Contradictions between the ruling
the principles of cubism and were influenced by national and ethnic minorities, which found its expression
expressionism. Some of its members, such as Zbigniew in culture, were also characteristic of other Central-European
Pronaszko and Leon Chwistek, were moving to and Balkan countries: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania
abstractionism and non-figurative art. Others, for example and, to an extent, Bulgaria. Unlike Poland, which turned
Jan Cybis, searched after new colourist effects. Wĺadisĺaw into a multi-national state during the inter-war period, in
Skoczylas was the pioneer of Polish xylography or wood the above-mentioned countries this contradiction did not
engraving. In Tadeusz Makowsky’s genre painting there disappear after the Second World War. At the same time
were both cubist elements and naive art. Original one should underline that ethnic minorities in those
interpretations of expressionist experience were characteristic countries were not only a source of tension, but also helped
of Felicyan Kowarski in his monumental and socially acute to establish contacts between national cultures insofar as the
works. The main figure of Polish sculpture from the 1910s minorities played the role of mediator.
to the 1960s was Ksavery Dunikowski, whose works tended
to celebrate the heroic and moral values.
Before 1918 Poland was partitioned between the three CU L TURE IN THE P O ST - W A R PERI O D
empires, each with its own educational system and cultural
institutions. After the reconstruction of the Polish state The establishment of a new system of international relations
there was a great deal of work to standardize education and in Europe had absolutely different consequences for
culture. New universities, polytechnics and high schools Hungary than for Czechoslovakia and Poland. As one of
were founded. Progress in sciences was closely interwoven the constituent parts of the Dual Monarchy, which not only
with progress in higher education. Besides mathematics, was sovereign in all home affairs, but also influenced the
Polish scientists achieved success in physical chemistry (the foreign policy of the Danube Monarchy, Hungary was
school of Wojciech Świętosĺawski), experimental physics, regarded as a loser in the First World War, an attitude that
physics of low temperatures, thermodynamics, optics, dominated the Versailles conference, when her post-war
electrochemistry, biochemistry, aerodynamics, empirical borders were being defined. The new boundaries excluded
mechanics, astronomy and a number of medical disciplines. about one-third of the Hungarians, and Hungary, which
There was also significant progress in economics, social had previously played a leading role in Central Europe, was
sciences, ethnology and archaeology. Since history now reduced to a smaller state, flanked by bigger neighbours.
traditionally played an important part in the formation of The process of adaptation to a new geo-political situation,
the national consciousness, history faculties at the which was extremely painful, dominated spiritual life in
universities accumulated great numbers of talented inter-war Hungary.
historians. Another prerequisite of national consciousness The Hungarian ruling elite tried to compensate for its
was language; the problem of its preservation, which was so loss of a leading role in the Danube-Carpathian region by

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turning into the main cultural centre of East-Central forms of artistic expression (Ferenc Medgyessy, Zsigmond
Europe. The cultural programme of the Horthy regime Kisfaludi-Stróbl, Pál Pátzay, Béni Ferenczy and others).
attempted to create a powerful infrastructure for elitist Victor Vasarely (Vásárhelyi) the founder of ‘optical art’,
culture, the building of new universities, high schools, also called op art, became famous working abroad in France.
academic institutions, museums and libraries. Flanked by In architecture besides neo-baroque and neo-classicism
the hostile ‘Little Entente’ countries, Hungary oriented her there were also new trends, such as constructivism and
foreign policy towards Mussolini’s Italy and later, in the functionalism, represented by Marcel (Lajos) Breuer, who
1930s, towards Nazi Germany, which was also deeply later emigrated to the United States, and others.
dissatisfied with the Versailles system. Being a small and moderately developed country,
After the unsuccessful socialist experiment in 1919 many Hungary could not spend large amounts of money on
renowned intellectuals of progressive convictions had to expensive scientific investigations, and many leading
emigrate from Hungary. Among them were György Lukács, specialists emigrated. The contribution of Hungarian-born
the young sociologist Karl Mannheim, a founder of film scientists to twentieth-century science is invaluable. Let us
aesthetics, Béla Balázs, the leader of the Hungarian avant- mention only a few names, such as the mathematician and
garde and a founder of film aesthetics, the poet and artist cybernetist János Neumann, the ‘father’ of the American
Lajos Kassák, painters and graphic artists Béla Uitz, László hydrogen bomb Edward Teller, his colleagues nuclear
Moholy-Nagy and Sándor Bortnyik and many others. physicists Eugene (Jenő Pál) Wigner and Leó Szilárd, the
Some of them later returned, some never. Despite this experimental physicist György Békésy, the founder of
emigration of many celebrated Hungarian intellectuals, holography Dénes Gábor, the aerodynamics expert Theodor
cultural life in the country was still very intense. Kármán, the chemist Richárd Zsigmondy, biochemist
Béla Bartók is by right regarded one of the greatest Albert Szent-Györgyi, radiochemist György József Hevesy
composers of the twentieth century. He successfully mixed and the astrophysicist Zoltán Bay. More than ten Nobel
folklore elements with the achievements of Schönberg’s Prize winners in sciences were of Hungarian origin. But
new Viennese school. The name of Zoltan Kodály – a only Szent-Györgyi had won the prize (in 1937) before he
composer, a folklorist, a teacher of music – is widely known. emigrated to the West.
Operettas composed by Imre Kálmán and Ferenc Lehár, The Miklós Horthy regime was right-wing, authoritarian
who worked mainly in Vienna, are popular all over the and non-democratic, and its cultural policy failed to achieve
world. Since the 1930s Hungarian conductors Antal Doráti, basic changes in drawing the popular masses into elitist
George Szell, Sir Georg Solti and others had been culture. That is one reason why the regime was widely
conducting the best symphony orchestras of the world. The criticized by people from opposing philosophical camps, for
Hungarian school of pianists and violinists had a very high instance by the ‘national writers’. But the problem of
reputation. Hungarian actors, such as Béla Lugosi or providing cultural infrastructure and education at all levels
Franziska Gaál, were in demand by the best film studios, was even more acute in the Balkan countries. The abolition
including Hollywood. The plays of Ferenc Molnár were of mass illiteracy was mostly achieved only in the lands that
performed in many countries. had been integral parts of Austria-Hungary, namely in
The vigorous development of Hungarian literature and Croatia and Slovenia (Yugoslavia), and in Transylvania
national culture decreased on the eve of the First World (Romania). The Balkan countries did make progress during
War. The key figure of the first decades of the twentieth the inter-war period; nevertheless, in the 1940s, illiteracy
century was the poet Endre Ady, who died in 1919. was still a major problem. In the 1920s and 1930s the Balkan
Zsigmond Móriz, Mihály Babics, Dezső Kosztolányi, countries were more successful in developing sciences and
Gyula Krúdi, Frigyes Karinthy and Árpád Toth, who higher education. As usually happens in industrially
belonged to the same generation, also participated actively underdeveloped countries, Balkan universities allowed arts
in the literary life of the inter-war period. In the 1920s a new and letters to dominate the natural sciences. At the same
generation came along: the poet Attila József, prose writers time national schools of natural sciences had also been
Tibor Déri and Sándor Marai, as well as members of the created by the 1940s. A number of scientists and scholars,
movement of ‘national writers’ that included the master of namely the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić, the Romanian
the psychological novel László Németh, the poet and prose microbiologist Victor Babeş, the Serbian linguist Aleksandr
writer Gyula Illyés and the prose writer Aron Tamási. Belić, and the Bulgarian medievalist V. Zlatarsky, were
The Hungarian fine arts in the period 1900–1930 members of learned societies. Bulgarian and Bulgarian-born
reflected the same process under way in other countries, scholars contributed to archaeology and Byzantine studies,
namely, a transition from traditional academic salon and later to various branches of linguistics. A strong school
historicism to the newest trends (from impressionism to of medievalists was created in Croatia.
surrealism and abstractionism). One should mention the Inter-war culture in the Balkan countries is associated
key figure of the Hungarian secession József Rippl-Rónai, with a cohort of world-famous artists, such as the Croat
the expressionist Károly Kernstock, the fauvist Béla Czóbel writer Miroslav Krleža, his compatriot Ivan Meštrovic,
and the master painter József Egry. The works of Tivadar whose sculpture is full of heroic passion and nationalistic
Csontváry are characterized by deep originality. In the themes, and the Romanian composer and violinist George
1920s some new names appeared: the expressionist Gyula Enescu. The Serbian prose writer Ivo Andrić, a master of
Derkovits, the post-impressionist Aurél Bernáth, and the historical novels, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1961.
great monumentalist painter Vilmos Aba-Novák. In the One of the founders of European abstractionism was the
late 1930s the Szentendre School of surrealism was Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi (Brânkuşi).
organized by Lajos Vajda and Imre Ámos. There were many Although he lived and worked in France, he never broke off
talented sculptors at that time who, while respecting relations with his homeland. Two other famous figures of
academic neo-classical traditions, also searched after new French cultural life – the ‘theatre of the absurd’ dramatist

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Eugene Ionesco (Ionescu), and the patriarch of surrealistic the majority of East-Central European and Balkan countries,
literature Tristan Tzara – were both born in Romania. The communist regimes of the Stalinist type were established.
Croat Anton Augustinčić and Romanians Dimitre The Soviet military presence and political pressure of the
Paciurea, Ion Irimescu and Cornel Medrea were celebrated USSR were decisive. But in some countries the period of
sculptors. The Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov one-party dictatorship was preceded by a short (two- or
became popular working in Berlin in the 1920s in three-year) period of anti-fascist coalition, characterized not
cooperation with the great theatre director Max Reinhardt. only by political struggle, but also by a certain political
The outstanding Croat director Branko Gavella directed pluralism. One of the main motifs was the rethinking of
performances not only in Yugoslavia, but also abroad, in recent history. The emotional experience of people who had
Milan, on the stage of ‘La Scala’. The great Serbian comedy- undergone unprecedented upheavals found expression in
writer Bronislav Nušić was at the peak of his creative ability the Polish psychological novels of the late 1940s (Tadeusz
in the 1920s and 1930s. Borowski, Jerzyi Andrzejewski, Stanislaw Dygat, Tadeusz
In the first half of the twentieth century painting in Breza and others), which were deeply influenced by
Slovenia was in its heyday. Yugoslav, especially Croatian, existentialist philosophy. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s this
naive art by the group Zemlya, founded by K. Hegedušić, motif was further developed in Polish cinema, as well as in
I. Generalić, F. Mraz and others became a significant Hungary, Yugoslavia and other countries of East-Central
phenomenon in world culture. Though a certain Europe. This theme became dominant in other branches of
backwardness of construction engineering hindered the culture also: the Serbian ‘partisan’ literature of Branko
realization of bold architectural projects in the Balkans, in Čopić, Oskar Davičo and others deserves special mention.
Slovenia Jože Plečnik Meštrovic founded a strong national Yugoslav, Czechoslovak and Polish artists created brilliant
school in architecture. There were also talented architects in monumental masterpieces in painting and sculpture.
Croatia, for example Viktor Kovačić. In Romania and later The communist regimes’ total ideological control in
in Bulgaria famous vocal schools were created. After the Eastern Europe had deeply affected the relations between
Second World War the Bulgarian singers Boris Khristov, the politically powerful and the artistic intelligentsia. There
Nikola Gyaurov, Nikola Gyuzelev and others were singing followed attempts to turn artists into instruments of
in the world’s best opera companies. A number of celebrated propaganda and ideological attacks on the population. The
violinists, pianists and conductors came from Romania. dominant concept of socialist realism was obligatory, its
One of the characteristic features of Yugoslav composers postulates prescribed artists a limited number of canons,
was their quest for stylistic variety. In Bulgaria and defining both the content and form of their creations. Most
Yugoslavia many choirs were flourishing. East-Central European countries reduced their cultural
Social criticism was characteristic of Romanian literature contacts with the West. Variety was replaced by forced
(Mihail Sadoveanu), painting and graphic art (Corneliu uniformity and ‘masterpieces’ of Soviet culture made in
Baba and others). The works of Romanian poets Tudor accordance with the model of social realism. Even those
Arghezi, Lucian Blaga and Octavian Goga, Bulgarian masters who accepted the idea of social reorganization along
writers Yelin-Pelin, Yordan Yovkov and Anton socialist lines, tended to submit their activity to the needs of
Srtashimirov, the Serbian poet Desanka Maksimović, the party propaganda. The gradually deepening conflict between
prose writer and poet Miloš Crnjanski, and the Croatian artists and the authorities found its ultimate expression in
poet Tin Ujević formed the core of national literatures. The the Polish and, especially, Hungarian revolts of 1956. Later,
Bulgarian fine arts are famous thanks to such painters as when other attempts to democratize the system
Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora and Dechko Uzunov and the (Czechoslovakia, 1968; Poland, 1968, 1970, 1976, 1980–81)
sculptor Ivan Lazarov. were undertaken, the intellectual elite, including artists,
The gap between high culture and mass culture, which were invariably in the epicentre of events, acting as an
strongly influenced relations between artists, their language alternative political force and exposing themselves to the
and the way they saw their mission, was not so pronounced repressive machine (let us mention persecutions of
in the Balkans as in Central Europe. The notion that artists intellectuals in Poland in 1968, or in Czechoslovakia in
have a mission to enlighten and ‘awaken’ was still deeply 1969–70). Generally speaking, opposition and ‘dissident’
rooted. By the same token, in the first half of the twentieth movements in East-Central European countries were of an
century the ideas of ‘pure art’ and the autonomy of creative intellectual nature, their social base only widening during
activity were becoming established in the region. the height of the crisis, as in Hungary and partly in Poland
The Second World War caused significant damage to in 1956, or in Poland in the early 1980s, when the
the national cultural institutions of East-Central Europe. A intelligentsia and the working masses demonstrated brilliant
number of museums, libraries, educational institutions and unity in their battle against party-bureaucratic socialism.
theatres in Warsaw, Budapest and other cultural centres By the late 1950s and early 1960s as a result of internal
were destroyed. Many celebrated writers, artists, scientists political changes in the Soviet Union, the repressive
and scholars became victims of the Nazi terror. Some of mechanism in most East-Central European countries was
them had to emigrate. Others joined the anti-fascist slightly relaxed. This inevitably influenced the state of
movement in their home countries. Some universities in cultural affairs. Thus, sciences and especially social sciences
Poland went on working underground. The motif of anti- were relatively de-ideologized, while in arts the previous
fascist resistance dominated East-Central European cultures hard line of social realism was replaced with a new concept,
in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Let us mention a more flexible, allowing in some countries a certain variety of
characteristic monument of that age, ‘The Report with the formal and stylistic tendencies and leaving some limited
Loop Around the Neck,’ by Julius Fuěílc. space for critical depiction of negative sides of reality. A
The opportunity for a radical democratic change after the noteworthy example was Stalin’s reign of terror, which
victory over fascism was not realized. By the late 1940s in drew the attention of many writers of that period.

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In Hungary, where the János Kádár regime had learnt a some extent the institutional, material and technical basis of
lesson from the events of 1956, the country was looking for science in Czechoslovakia and neighbouring countries. On
a more effective model of socialism, and thus clearly the other hand it resulted in decreasing the scientific potential
demonstrated how the intelligentsia’s resistance to of universities by causing a gap between science and higher
totalitarianism could force the authorities to make education. The humanities and social sciences suffered
concessions, and sometimes quite significant ones in matters especially. After the events of February 1948, when the Czech
of cultural policy. From the 1960s on, the moderate character Communist Party came to power, many people in these fields
of Kádár’s political regime also created a more liberal cultural were deprived of work. In the mid-1960s, together with some
policy. The authorities interfered in cultural life only when political liberalization, some animation was observed in
alternative views seemed to threaten directly the official almost all social sciences. After changes in August 1968 many
Marxist ideology. For example, in the early 1970s Kádár renowned scholars were again removed from their positions,
found danger in the Lukács school philosophers (A. Heller or had to emigrate. Unlike Czechoslovakia, the communist
and others) who reflected on the possibility of a synthesis regime in Poland never fully deprived universities of their
between democracy and socialism. autonomy. Thus, some prominent representatives of neo-
Nevertheless, despite undeniable limitations in the Thomistic and neo-positivist philosophy were able to keep
sphere of politics and ideology, the Kádár epoch made a their chairs. Between 1957 and 1962 the Academy of Sciences
remarkable contribution in the development of national was headed by Tadeusz Kotarbiński. Since the late 1960s
culture. The most significant success is associated with the social support for the communist regime in Poland had been
cinema. The works of Miklós Jancsó and István Szabó running out. The persecutions of ideological opponents
earned world fame. Films of Zoltán Fábri, Zoltán Huszárik, resulted in the emigration of philosopher Leszek Kolakowski
András Kovács, Marta Mészáros, Károly Makk, István and other celebrated representatives of the Polish
Gaál, Pal Sándor won numerous prizes at international film intelligentsia. By the 1980s the influence of Marxism had
festivals. The composer György Kurtág, as well as György dwindled to almost nothing. The main opponent of Marxism
Ligeti, who lives in Germany, are among the luminaries of was Catholic ideology, backed by the Church (kościól) and
modern European music. The achievements of Hungarian still very influential.
choreography in the 1980s and 1990s are associated first of The same success marked artistic culture during this
all with the Győr ballet company, headed by the pupil of period. The mid-1950s ‘thaw’ gave birth to the new school
Maurice Béjart, Ivan Markó, who, together with the Pole in the Polish cinema. Its heyday in the late 1950s and early
Kazimierz Dziewecki are the most interesting figures in 1960s was associated with the films of Andrzej Wajda,
modern East-Central European ballet. Andrzej Munk, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Aleksander Ford,
In the plastic arts Hungarian sculptors proved to be the Jerzy Passendorfer, Jerzy Hoffman and others. By the
most prominent. Jenő Kerényi, Tibor Vilt, B. Megyeri, 1980s, Wajda had become one of the most celebrated film
István Kiss, Imre Varga, E. Saár and others earned world- directors in the world. That was about the same time that
wide fame. The genre offers great variety ranging from Krzysztof Zanussi was beginning his career, and Roman
smaller forms to genre compositions with theatrical Polański, who had emigrated to the United States, was a
elements. One of the most well-known artists of the 1960s top director in Hollywood. In the late 1980s one more star
was Béla Kondor and his pencil drawings. One should also appeared – Krzysztof Kieślowski.
note the achievements of Hungarian artists in monumental Among noteworthy theatre directors of the last few
painting, tapestry and ceramics (Margit Kovács). The decades are Konrad Swinarski, Kazimierz Dejmek, Ervin
architect Imre Makovec, whose style is a symbiosis of Axer and Adam Hanuszkiewicz. One leader of the avant-
romantic elements with modern construction engineering, garde, Jerzy Grotowski, is well known beyond the Polish
merits universal acknowledgement. border. Tadeusz Kantor and Józef Szajna, a brilliant avant-
In the post-war period there appeared such prominent garde director and painter, are well known throughout the
figures of Hungarian literature as poets Janos Pilinszki and world.
Sándor Weöres, the novelist and playwright I. Erkeny and Many great composers came to prominence in the 1960s:
others. Renowned poets Ferenc Juhász, László Nagy and Witold Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tomasz Berd,
Sandor Csoóri belong to the 1950s generation. The 1970s Kazimierz Serocki and Jan Krenc, who is also famous as a
also produced many talented writers, for instance Péter conductor.
Esterházy and György Spiró. And finally we should In the mid-1950s Polish literature was characterized by a
mention Imre Kertesz, who won the Nobel Prize for variety of styles and produced a number of talented writers.
literature in 2002. Stanisĺaw Lem became famous for his science fiction.
Hungarian science is associated with discoveries in Sĺawomir Mrožek is well known beyond Poland’s borders as
theoretical physics, optics, organic chemistry, biochemistry, a playwright who represents a peculiar branch of the ‘theatre
psychology and microbiology. Compared to other East- of the absurd’. The deeper the crisis of socialism, the greater
Central European countries, Hungarian scholars, especially the role played by the samizdat underground press in Poland.
economists and sociologists, enjoyed more favourable It is noteworthy that many of the underground writers were
working conditions between the 1960s and 1980s. Thus, in touch with Polish emigrants, who served as mediators with
János Kornai’s works on the theory of economic transition Western intellectuals.
were widely published and supported all over the world. From the end of the 1950s, Poland’s art community was
In Czechoslovakia there was significant progress in those characterized by a variety of movements. The works of pencil
sciences that were traditionally highly developed in that artist Tadeusz Kulisiewicz, sculptor Wladyslaw Hasior, the
country. For example, the chemist Jaroslav Heyrovský was avant-garde painter Jerzy Duda-Gracz and others enriched
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1959 for his work on polarography. Polish national culture. Poster graphics became an art form
Scientific reform started in the early 1950s, and improved to in Poland, as it did in Hungary in 1919.

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Polish architects won numerous prizes in international his book The New Class, as well as prosecution of Praksis
competitions. During the Second World War 80 per cent magazine, edited in Zagreb by a group of philosophers who
of Warsaw was completely destroyed, and many other towns were adherents of non-orthodox Marxism.
also suffered severely. The urgent task of reconstruction – One of the most striking features of the Romanian model
and the limited funds available – stimulated rational of socialism under Ceauşescu was its openly nationalist
tendencies in architecture. Poland, as other East-Central character. The unapologetic focus on national traditions,
European countries, fell under the influence of contemporary with its explicit negation of the Soviet experience, could not
Soviet samples – stylistically eclectic, pompous, excessively help but remove numerous typological similarities with the
decorated buildings – but already in the mid-1950s Polish communist systems in other countries. This found its
architecture was shifting towards rationality and simplicity. expression in cultural policy, which became increasingly
As to the sciences, Polish scientists made discoveries in intolerant and oppressive. The theory of protochronism was
theoretical physics (Leopold Infeld), electronics (Janusz a kind of aggressive superiority complex claiming that all
Groszkowski), higher mathematics, medicine and more or less significant trends in world culture came from
agriculture. The heyday of post-war Czechoslovak culture Romania. The recognition accorded Constantin Brancusi,
occurred in the 1960s, when society in general and the Eugene Ionesco and Tristan Tzara encouraged the
intelligentsia in particular believed in the idea of ‘socialism Ceauşescu regime to attempt to submit artists to the task of
with a human face’. The theatre scene was very dynamic: glorifying the ruling clan. Nevertheless, Romanian culture
directors Otmar Krejča and Alfred Radok, and the Czech produced a number of true masterpieces in the last few
school of set design (Josef Svoboda and others) won renown decades. There were incontestable achievements in theatre
in the world. The Czech cinema – not only in feature films, (the famous theatre and film director Liviu Coulei, the actor
but also in animated cartoons – searched after genre and Radu Beligan, and especially one of the greatest figures in
stylistic variety. The Czech school of animated cartoons the modern European theatre, Andrei Şerban), animation
(Jiří Trnka and Karel Zeman), which developed from the (the director Ion Popescu-Gopo), musical performance,
rich traditions of national puppet-shows (J. Skula) is one of sculpture and literature (Marin Sorescu, Dumitru Radu
the best in the world. After August 1968 many prominent Popescu and others). Romanian and Bulgarian architects
artists had to emigrate (film director Miloš Forman among won worldwide accolades for their health resort projects on
them), others, like the playwright Václav Havel or the film the Black Sea.
director Věra Chytilová found obstacles were put in their In Bulgaria, liberal tendencies in cultural policy began
way. Nevertheless, the development of modern showing themselves in the 1970s and were mainly associated
communications and the widening of direct contacts, with Lyudmila Zhivkova’s activity as the Minister of
especially after Helsinki (1975), brought to nought all the Culture. In the 1980s, as the popular masses’ confidence in
authorities’ efforts to block channels of communication the ruling elite was shaken, the latter more and more relied
with the West. There was no spiritual isolation despite the on national traditions. Painters were encouraged to turn to
‘iron curtain’, and in the 1970s and1980s Western intellectual national history, especially Bulgaria’s medieval period. The
tendencies found immediate response in Czechoslovakia, prose of Jordan Radichkov, Yemiliyan Stanev and Pavel
Poland and Hungary due to the samizdat too. So, the Vezhinov, poetry of Elisaveta Bagryana and Valeri Petrov,
involving of these countries in the processes of European canvases of Zlatyu Boyadzhiev and others belong in the
cultural integration had begun much earlier than the day in highest ranks of Bulgarian fine arts in the 1960s to 1980s.
1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. Bulgarian documentary films won many prizes at
The Balkan countries, which had concentrated on international festivals. The theatre, opera and ballet were of
reducing illiteracy and building schools, were doing well in a consistently high level, with traditional chorale singing
improving the citizens’ cultural level and providing carefully preserved and Bulgarian opera singers
educational opportunities and mass communication for the internationally acclaimed.
general population. Specialized institutions for advance Albania made significant progress in overcoming mass
studies in natural sciences and humanities were making illiteracy and building up its cultural infrastructure, but the
progress. political isolation set in motion in the late 1950s quickly cut
Marshall Tito’s decision in 1948 for Yugoslavia to break off cultural links with the outer world and exerted a negative
with the Soviet Union necessarily influenced how Yugoslav influence on national culture. It was during the inter-war
culture developed. Artists were not always obliged to follow period that the generation of educated creative artists was
the Party line and political and cultural isolation from the brought up in Albania.
West were gradually overcome. Owing to this, pluralistic Unlike other Balkan countries, Greece had escaped
tendencies in Yugoslavia manifested themselves earlier than socialist experiments and made good progress in the last
in other socialist countries. From the early 1950s surrealist, two decades. This ancient country, already a cradle of
abstractionist and, later, post-modern tendencies were each European civilization, has gone on in the twentieth century
represented in Yugoslav painting. Avant-garde tendencies to make more valuable contributions, including those of the
showed themselves in music, the theatre and cinema. singer Maria Callas, the Nobel Prize-winning poets George
Literature fell under the strong influence of existentialist Seferis and Odysseus Elitis, the poet Janos Ritsos, novelist
philosophy. The Zagreb school of animated cartoons, the Nikos Kazandzakis, sculptor Georgeadis, composer Mikos
architect Bogdan Bogdanović’s works, Yugoslav monumental Teodorakis, film directors Teos Angelopoulos and Michael
sculpture, novels and films devoted to the national-liberation Cakoyannis, actresses Melina Mercuri, Irena Papas and
movement during the Second World War – all these others. Many of them became famous working abroad.
contradictory tendencies were part of Yugoslav culture. The formation of independent intellectual communities
However, liberalism in cultural policy was relative, and playing an important role in the ideological preparation of
there was still persecution of the activist Milovan Djilas for 1989 was accelerated by Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika.

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 EASTERN AN D C ENTRAL EUROPE

It is too early to evaluate how the great political and outstanding intellect: these are the bricks upon which the
economic changes of 1989 influenced the cultural activities intelligentsia of the region have built their contributions to
and perception of culture in Central and Eastern Europe. both national culture in their own country, and world
One can give only some preliminary notes. On the one culture.
hand, widening of democratic freedoms contributed to
increasing the diversity of conceptual and stylistic creation.
Moreover, one can evaluate positively the importance of Map 11  Eastern Europe, 1945–1990
opening borders, allowing youth to study abroad, opening
access to information, and developing exchange and
cooperation among universities and European cultural
programmes. European integration is embracing East-
Central Europe more and more closely. On the other hand,
the role of the state as a sponsor of culture has diminished.
It is noteworthy, for instance, that in the early 1990s the
annual production of full-length films greatly declined in
most East-Central European countries. Sometimes,
commercialization lowers the quality of a ‘masterpiece’, but
at the same time following the standards of contemporary
Western ‘mass culture’ East-Central European artists lose
out in the competition for expanded markets.

THE P O ST - 1 9 8 9 SITU A TI O N

The post-1989 changes had other consequences for culture

too. First of all, the communist system had always fulfilled
not only the role of ideological guard and censor, but also
that of patron, providing both material protection and
spiritual inspiration. Some creators even came to view the
authorities as the chief audience for their works, more
important even than the public. The reduced role of the
state as a sponsor of culture also affected the status of many
artists. As a result of these changes, the social function of Adapted from R. and B. Crampton, 1996, Atlas of Eastern Europe in the
the artist has also changed. Earlier, given the lack of 20th Century, Routledge, London.
democratic institutions, it was often the artists who played
the role of ‘spiritual opposition’. With the development of
more democratic systems this role was no longer necessary. Map 12  Eastern Europe, early 1994
Today, artists can devote themselves entirely to creative
activities and leave politics to the professional politicians.
But in this case they must give up their former status as the
nation’s spiritual leaders.
Both East-Central, and South-Eastern Europe are
characterized by close interaction of different cultures, and
depending on historical circumstances they alternate
between mutual attraction and repulsion. Processes of
national disintegration in modern East-Central Europe have
taken different forms (Maps 11 and 12). It is hardly possible
to compare the break-up of Czechoslovakia with that of
Yugoslavia, although both testify to the growth of ‘centrifugal’
tendencies closely linked with different manifestations of
nationalism. But another tendency has also manifested itself –
a desire for spiritual integration. It is worth noting that the
intelligentsia of the successor-states have sometimes turned
to Austria-Hungary for their spiritual models: Kafka’s
fiction, Rilke’s philosophical lyrics, Freud’s psychoanalysis
and Wittgenstein’s analytic philosophy, the new musical
language of Schönberg and the Viennese school, and Bartók’s
musical compositions that incorporate folklore. Other
innovative models include the unique mixture of satire and
fantasy in Čapek’s novels, the inimitable architecture and
applied art of the Viennese secession, Masaryk with his
desire to combine democracy and socialism on a solid ethical
base, and Lukács with his desperate and vain attempt to Adapted from R. and B. Crampton, 1996, Atlas of Eastern Europe in the
reanimate classical Marxism using the strength of his 20th Century, Routledge, London.

599
 regional section

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Macmillan Press, London.
ACZEL, T. and MERAY, T. 1960. The Revolt of the Mind: A Case History Politicheskie krizisyi I konfliktyi 1950–1961–h godov v Vostochnoi Yevrope
of Intellectual Resistance Behind the Iron Curtain. Thames and 1993. [Political Crises and Conflicts in the 1950s and 1960s in
Hudson, London. Eastern Europe]. Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies, Russian
BRUMBERG, A. 1983. Poland: Genesis of a revolution. Vintage Books, Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
New York. POPOV, K. 1981. Cultural Policy in Bulgaria. UNESCO, Paris.
Cheshskoye iskusstvo I literatura xx veka. [Czech Art and Literature of RAKOWSKI, M. 1978. Towards an East European Marxism. St. Martin’s
the Twentieth Century]. 2003. Aleteya Publishing House, Press, London.
St. Petersburg, Russia. RAMET, S. P. 1992. Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1962–
Czerwinski, E. J. 1988. Contemporary Polish Theatre and Drama 1991. (2nd ed.). Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
(1956–1984). Greenwood Press, New York. RECHCIGL, M. 1964. The Czechoslovak contribution to world culture.
Djilas, M. 1992. Liczo totalitarizma. [The Face of Totalitarianism]. Mouton, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Novosti, Moscow. ROTHSCHILD, I. 1974. East central Europe between Two World Wars.
Europäische Kunst unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kunst in University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA.
Osteuropäischen Ländern. 1990. Generaldirektion der Museen, SHAWCROSS, W. 1974. Crime and Compromise: Janos Kadar and the
Cologne, Germany. Politics of Hungary since Revolution. Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
GILBERG, T. 1990. Nationalism and communism in Romania: The Rise London.
and Fall of Ceausescu’s Personal Dictatorship. Westview Press, SIMEK, M. and DEWETTER. J. 1986. Cultural Policy in Czechoslovakia.
Boulder, CO. UNESCO, Paris.
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Playwrights without a Stage. University of Toronto Press, East Europe in the 1980s: trends and Prospects. St. Martin’s Press,
Toronto. New York.
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Pluto Press, London. cultural heritage. Technika State Publishing House, Sofia.
HUNGARIAN NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR UNESCO. 1974. Cultural TARAS, R. 1984. Ideology in a Socialist State: Poland, 1956–1983.
Policy in Hungary. UNESCO, Paris. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
 1987. Outlines of the Hungarian cultural policy. Hungarian TOLNAI, M. and VAS-ZOLTÁN, P. (eds). 1989. Guide to Research and
national Commission for UNESCO, Budapest. Scholarship in Hungary. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest/Indiana
KONRAD, G. and SZELENYI, I. 1979. The Intellectuals on the Road to University Press, Bloomington IN.
Class Power. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. Vengerskoye iskusstvo I literatura xx veka. 2005. [Hungarian Art and
LIEHM, A. J. 1977. The most Important art: Eastern European Film Literature of the Twentieth Century]. Aleteya Publishing House,
after 1945. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, Russia.
CA. Vlasty i intelligencziya: Iz opyta poslevoennogo razvitiya vostochnoevropeiskih
LEPAK, K. J. 1988. Prelude to Solidarity: Poland and the Politics of the stran. 1992–1999. [The State and the Intelligentsia: From the
Gierek Regime. Columbia University Press, New York. Experience of the post-war development of the countries of
MICHALEK, B. and TURAJ, F. 1988. The Modern Cinema of Poland. Eastern Europe]. Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies, Russian
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Press, New York.

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 32
NORT H A M ERI C A

Claude Fohlen

Was the twentieth century the American century, as is In only two centuries of existence, ‘the tiny American
commonly said? A close look at the century just ended democracy’ had become the foremost power in the world.
suggests that there is no denying the continuous and rising American preponderance was ensured not only by the
influence of the North American continent, which went country’s economic and military power, but also by its
hand in hand with the shift of the world’s centre of gravity institutions, the democratic liberal ideal successively
from old Europe to the New World. Of course, the proclaimed by Wilson and Roosevelt, which they tried to
appearance of the United States on the world stage, which export to the world, claiming to follow in the footsteps of
goes back to the Spanish-American War of 1898, was the founding fathers, George Washington, Thomas
confirmed by its mediating role between Russia and Japan Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Americans became the
in 1905. Its participation in the Great War – the first time celebrants of a form of government that they believed would
Americans came to fight on European soil – opened a new bring happiness to all humanity, but it was also through
era in history because American intervention saved their material culture that American influence came to
democracy in Europe. In a prophetic article written in 1905, dominate. The French had put their seal on the eighteenth
the French historian Henri Hauser said: ‘In the last ten century, and the British on the nineteenth, but now it was
years, the tiny democracy formed by Washington has the turn of the Americans to do so for the twentieth century.
become one of the four or five main factors in world The ‘American way of life’ took root on every continent,
politics … None of the powers of old Europe, not France, spreading a language which claimed to be of English origin
nor England nor Russia nor Germany can fail to be yet was not English; and spreading a way of living, eating,
uninterested in this new situation’. And he concluded: dressing and spending one’s leisure time that bore the strong
‘Henceforth, government of the globe will no longer be a imprint of its origins and was validated by a neologism, the
matter for Europe alone’. In fact, Europe had already lost it, word Americanization. Watching American films changed
since the Americans, on the strength of their military the behaviour of millions of individuals all over the world,
intervention and Wilson’s advocacy of ‘peace without making America at once a whipping boy and a model, a
victory’, which was later codified in his Fourteen Points, situation that the fall of the Soviet empire reinforced,
had imposed themselves as essential arbiters in negotiating although it was called into question by the al-Qaeda terrorist
the armistice of 11 November 1918 that concluded the war attacks of 11 September 2001.
in Europe and then rejecting the Treaty of Versailles. The history of Canada in the twentieth century is
That intervention heralded the growing influence of the inseparable from that of its big southern neighbour. This
United States in international affairs. While after the war it British dominion moved further and further away from its
gave the impression of withdrawing from the international former allegiance to become an integral part of the North
stage, although in reality it never actually did so, its role in American continent. In 1914, it let itself be drawn along in
the Second World War established its position as one of the wake of the mother-country and entered the struggle
the two superpowers. It was thanks to the action of the against the central empires, but in 1939 it struck out alone,
United States that Europe was able to recover and rebuild making its own declaration of war a week after Britain did
itself materially. Its presence was felt in every hot spot and not hesitating subsequently to place itself deliberately
around the world, where it clashed with the other great in the American orbit. After the conflict was over, the
power that had also emerged victorious from the war, the Canadians established their own citizenship, and adopted
USSR (Union of Soviet Social Republics). The conflict the maple leaf as their own flag in place of the Union Jack.
between the ‘big two’ dominated the second half of the In 1994, the symbiosis with the United States was sealed by
twentieth century, in a quite novel form of confrontation, the free trade treaty (NAFTA) designed to integrate the
the Cold War, which ended in 1989 with the collapse of the continental economy. But while, economically, Canada
Soviet empire and a totally new situation, a unipolar order. became the rear base partner of the United States (with

601
 regional section

87 per cent of its exports going to the US), it was able to different responses. Some put their faith in the melting pot,
preserve its political identity: it remains a member of the the concept popularized in 1919 by Israel Zangwill’s highly
British Commonwealth, combining a typically British successful play of the same name. It was really a slogan
regime – parliamentary institutions, ministerial designed to persuade newcomers that they could become
responsibility, elections called as needed – with a variant of good Canadians or good Americans, by masking the
federalism, all crowned by official bilingualism in French diversity of the population under a single label. In fact, these
and English. While becoming ever more closely integrated newcomers clustered together in ethnic districts, with
into the continent, Canada was nevertheless able successfully Oriental Jews on the Lower East Side of New York, Italians
to maintain and develop its own personality, even in the in Little Italy in Boston or the Italian district of Toronto,
shadow of its neighbour, and sometimes in opposition to it Puerto Ricans in the barrios, not to mention Chinese in two
internationally. Its humanitarian and peaceful interventions, of the biggest Chinatowns on the continent, in San Francisco
which earned its minister of external affairs, Lester Pearson, and Vancouver. Thus, within the population, marginalized
the Nobel Prize for peace in 1957, made it an active and ethnic groups crystallized whose presence worried the
respected member of the international community. Anglo-Saxon majority of WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon
Protestants), worked up by nationalist fervour and anxious
to perpetuate the ‘Caucasian’ values that Social Darwinism
Immigration, settlement, was deemed reliably to transmit.
p o p u la t i o n

Over the century, the territorial configuration of the North Restrictions on immigration
American continent hardly altered. In 1949, the British
colony of Newfoundland decided to join the Canadian The other response was one that sought to slow down and
Confederation and become its tenth province. Then after restrict this massive immigration of people seen as different.
lengthy negotiations, it was finally agreed in 1992 to transfer The idea went back to the nineteenth century, when the
an area in the Northwest Territories called Nunavut (‘Our massive arrival of Irish people had provoked a rejection that
Land’) to the Inuit and other native peoples living in the was often marked by violent clashes. On 18 February 1907,
territories. As for the Americans, in 1959 they extended Congress approved amending existing immigration
their borders outside the continent by admitting two new legislation that allowed President Roosevelt to issue an
states, Hawaii and Alaska, thereby bringing the number of executive order stopping the migration of Japanese labourers
states to fifty, while also maintaining a hybrid ‘commonwealth’ from Hawaii and Mexico. This was followed by the
status for Puerto Rico. Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1908 – an understanding with
But what did change dramatically were settlement and Japan that it would discourage emigration at its source. In
population. While Europe grew older as it suffered the full 1921 Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which
impact of the two world conflicts, the North American limited immigration and introduced a distinct ethnic bias
continent experienced unprecedented population growth. towards northern Europeans to the US immigration system.
A few figures indicate this shift. At the beginning of the One of the means dreamed up to halt the influx was a
twentieth century, the United States had a population of literacy test, although the idea met with vetoes by a
76 million, and Canada, 5.3 million; by the end of the succession of presidents, especially Woodrow Wilson. The
century, these figures were 285 million and 32 million. trigger for change came with the Bolshevik Revolution and
Broadly, the population of the United States had grown by anarchist threats, which led to the deportation from the
a factor of four, and that of Canada by a factor of six. Such United States of several hundred suspects to Europe.
examples, very rare not to say unique among the developed The United States began enforcing a restrictive policy,
countries, merit some discussion. based on quotas, in 1921 and strengthened it in 1924. Not
North America retained and even enhanced its power to only was the total number of immigrants limited to
attract new people, refuting fears expressed in some quarters 150,000 per year, but each nationality was assigned a quota,
at the end of the nineteenth century over the closing of the based on the 1890 census, taken at a time when Europeans
frontier. The American dream continued to fuel immigration, from southern and eastern Europe had yet to arrive.
although its character changed in both countries. Americans from the rest of the continent were not affected,
Contrary to earlier patterns, immigration shifted from nor were categories such as teachers, students or ministers
northern Europe, Britain, Germany and Scandinavia of religion. Canada resorted to similar practices using
towards southern and eastern Europe. The largest immigrant different means. The effects were drastic: between 1911 and
flows, which poured in during the first two decades of the 1920, 5.7 million immigrants entered the United States, as
century, were essentially composed of Italians (including against 4.1 million in the succeeding decade, and 530,000 in
Sicilians), Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians and the 1930s. It was not until the 1970s that their number
Jews from across Europe. There had never been so much again rose above 4 million.
immigration as in those years, with numbers rising to over a This policy remained virtually unchanged for almost half
million for the first time in 1905 and reaching a peak in 1907 a century, despite the racial, political and ideological
and 1914, with 1.2 million. There was talk then of a ‘new persecutions that shook the world. America, deep in crisis
immigration’, since these newcomers were markedly and sapped by unemployment, could not and would not
different from those who had come before them in terms of open its doors even a fraction, except for a few famous
their origins, illiteracy and poverty, and the difficulty of scholars such as Einstein; economics easily won out over
integrating them into their host country. humanitarianism. Following the Second World War,
The integration of these new immigrants into a foreign although quotas were maintained, modifications opened a
environment created difficulties that called forth two special quota for ‘displaced persons’ and orphans, allowing

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the entry into the United States of tens of thousands of an attempt to put an end to it, President Reagan issued an
European victims. As circumstances required, measures of amnesty that offered citizenship to all illegal aliens; however
this sort were applied to other populations deemed to be the experiment failed to clarify the situation and the waves
under threat, including Cubans after Castro came to power of newcomers continued unabated.
(250,000 in the 1970s), or Viet Namese (325,000 in the The upshot was that Hispanics became the largest
1980s). While not so formalized, Canada’s immigration minority, numbering 36.9 million, replacing African
policy had also been restrictive – asserting its determination Americans, who, hard on their heels, were relegated to
to prefer the British immigrant (over one-third of new second place. If present trends continue, it is clear that
arrivals in the first half of the century) and virtually excluding Hispanics will play a growing role in the life of the country
the Chinese. Yet it, too, began to open up new possibilities and that their political clout will increase.
for non-British immigration, by defining categories that
took into account not ethnic criteria but humanitarian and
professional ones instead. Internal movements

Within the continent, North Americans continued and

The new approach to immigration even accelerated their centuries-old movement from the
East to the Southwest (Map 13). Despite the disappearance
Thus, from the 1960s, both countries saw a radical shift, of the Far West frontier, its dynamic continues: at each
with the massive arrival of new applicants for admission. decennial census, the United States’ centre of gravity
Not only were national quotas abandoned in favour of continues to shift in a western movement: at the beginning
overall quotas for each continent, but Canada opened the of the twentieth century, it was located in southeast Indiana;
way by promoting family reunification and professional half a century later, it was in southern Illinois; by 1998, it
skills, with a system of points for assessing the need to was close to St. Louis (Missouri), and, in 2000, near the
attract specialists in specific fields. The results were soon centre of that state. While such a construction is artificial, it
apparent, both quantitatively and qualitatively. does at least serve to highlight the shift of population,
This flood of new immigration surpassed the influx of evidenced by the increasing power of the states along the
the early years of the century. The United States admitted Pacific Rim of the West Coast and along the Gulf of Mexico
4.5 million immigrants in the 1970s, 7.3 million in the to the south.
following decade, and 9 million in the last decade: in total, The growth of three coastal states, Washington, Oregon
there were 20 million immigrants in the first half of the and above all California, has been spectacular. California,
century, as against 26.6 million in the second. Nothing whose current population of 34 million is expected to reach
could slow this flow, which reached an absolute peak of 50 million by 2010 (it was 23.6 million in 1980), is now the
1.8 million in 1991, or 7.2 per cent of the US total population. most populous state in the Union, easily overtaking the
And these official figures under-estimate the scale of the oldest states in the East; even New York State (19 million)
movement, since there were also clandestine entries across has been relegated to third position, behind Texas
porous borders. The American dream now exercised its (20.6 million). As a consequence, these peripheral states
fascination for the poor populations of the South. In have gained considerable weight politically, electing the
Canada, the number of immigrants rose from 130,000 in largest number of delegates to Congress in Washington,
1981 to 230,000 ten years later, and in the 1980s 1.3 million D.C. On top of this rather traditional shift westward, the
of them entered, half in the category of family, in other period since the Second World War saw a marked move
words coming under family reunification. Despite a fall in southward, explainable by the attraction of the sun (the
the late 1990s, immigration continued to represent a Sun Belt), the abundance of resources, whether natural (oil,
substantial contribution to the North American population, natural gas) or man-made (Tennessee valley dams), cheap
which it helped to transform at the expense of its European labour due to the initial absence of unionization. These new
roots. localities were also favoured by the benefits of air-
This massive arrival of Asians and Hispanics profoundly conditioning. Texas was the main beneficiary, while Florida
altered the continent’s ethnic makeup. In the United States (fourth-largest state in the Union, with 16 million
in the 1960s, over 1.5 million Central and South Americans inhabitants) owes its current prosperity to its beaches, its
were recorded as entering, as against 1.2 million Europeans. retirees and Cuban émigrés. By virtue of their demographic
But in 1991, only 7.5 per cent of newcomers originated from and economic importance, California, Texas and Florida
Europe, against 19.5 per cent from Asia, 51.5 per cent from became politically dominant in the last third of the twentieth
Mexico, and 4.3 per cent from South America. The century, providing virtually every president: Lyndon
proportions were about the same ten years later: Johnson (Texas), Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan
132,000 Europeans, 265,000 Asians, 344,000 North (California), George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush
Americans (including 173,000 Mexicans) and 56,000 South (Texas). Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton can be added to this
Americans. In Canada, there were more immigrants from list, since both come from the Southern states of Georgia
Asia than from Europe, and there was a striking influx of and Arkansas respectively. Internal migration benefited the
residents of Hong Kong who settled in British Columbia. West and the South at the expense of WASPs and the
The United States saw the massive entry of Mexicans who Atlantic coast establishment.
used every possible means to enter the Eldorado of the In Canada, where immigrants settled along a line
North, despite electrified fences and the strengthening of following the border, there was a comparable movement
ever-more pervasive surveillance. Trade unions might well westward, although on an altogether different scale. On the
complain of unfair competition from the clandestine labour one hand, Toronto replaced Montreal as an economic
of these illegal immigrants, but nothing could stop them. In powerhouse. And, on the other, the two Western provinces,

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Map 13  Regional migration in North America, 1940–1960

Adapted from R. Chaliand, 1998, Atlas du millénaire: La mort des empires 1900–2015, Hachette, Paris.

Alberta and British Columbia, played a growing role within both in the big urban centres, such as Montreal, Ottawa,
the Confederation, making Vancouver the undisputed Toronto and Vancouver and in smaller urban areas, such as
capital of the whole West. There too the political Oshawa, not far from Toronto.
consequences revealed a rejection of the Eastern This shift is also visible in the United States, where a new
establishment since it was in the West that all the opposition way of representing the population according to Standard
parties appeared, from the Social Credit Party to Preston Metropolitan Areas (SMA) was adopted to keep pace with
Manning’s Reform Party, which was formed in 1987, in these changes. SMAs group together both central cities
revolt against Ottawa’s domination. with a population of over 50,000 and the outlying areas over
which their activities extend. Currently, there are over
300 such metropolitan areas, embracing almost four-fifths
Urbanization of the total population and varying greatly in size, from the
most populous – New York (20 million inhabitants), Los
Another fundamental shift common to both countries was Angeles (15 million) or Chicago (8.5 million) – to the
the phenomenon of urbanization or rather peri-urbanization. smaller ones in the Midwest or the Rockies. The creation of
What had motivated immigrants up to the nineteenth these metropolitan areas reflects a profound transformation
century were possession of land and access to ownership. of American demographics and especially the erosion of
For Europeans still widely subject to an Old World regime, rural areas. In 1900, rural areas accounted for 67 per cent of
land was a major attraction; this pull has recently disappeared, the total population, as against fewer than 25 per cent by
however, leading to rural exodus and the concentration of the end of the century. The attraction of urban centres acted
population in cities or their suburbs. Whereas in Canada in as a magnet, both for newcomers and for Americans already
the mid-nineteenth century, only 13 per cent of the living in the country.
population was living in cities, at present three out of four At the same time, the nature of cities was changing. From
Canadians are settling in urban areas. This urbanization is being places of residence they became centres of tertiary
unevenly distributed across the country, more highly activities. As means of transport developed, better-off
developed in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and households migrated to the residential suburbs (the green
Quebec than in the Maritime Provinces and the Northwest suburbs), and abandoned multi-occupancy buildings for
Territories. These changes led to development of a new individual houses with lawns, gardens and swimming pools.
approach, in the shape of Census Metropolitan Areas This resulted in the typical American landscape of sprawling
(CMA), treating as a single region cities and their suburbs, suburbs, monotonous in the way they are built, but well

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maintained and with plenty of vegetation. The phenomenon Scarcely back home, these men found it hard to get jobs
started right from the beginning of the century, with the in a period of economic recession. Nothing had been planned
arrival on the market of automobiles that were priced within for the changeover to a peacetime economy, and the situation
reach of the pockets of the middle classes as a whole, and was aggravated by the Spanish influenza epidemic and a
not simply those of the wealthiest few. The trend accelerated wave of strikes in the iron and steel industry and the mines
after the Second World War with the standardization of and shipyards along the Pacific coast. Jobs left vacant when
building techniques. The example was set by the Levittowns, the men enlisted in the army had been filled by women who
named after William Levitt, the man who created them. In were reluctant to give them up, especially as the Nineteenth
1947, he launched his first experiment in New York State, Amendment now granted them the right to vote, marking
where in just four years he built a community of their entry on the political stage.
17,500 houses, designed to shelter 75,000 individuals. By Other causes for concern intruded into this already
using prefabricated materials that he produced himself at gloomy atmosphere. The Bolshevik Revolution awakened
the rate of 30 units a day, a new form of habitat was the ‘Red Scare’, ‘Reds’ being suspected of terrorist acts that
launched, which won over the middle classes so successfully culminated in the explosion of a bomb outside the Morgan
that Levitt repeated his experiment in several other states. Bank in New York, causing dozens of deaths. Whoever
The exodus to peri-urban areas accentuated the emptiness were responsible for it, it provoked a harsh repression, with
of city centres and downtown areas. the deportation to Russia of suspected anarchists, including
As their occupants left, these districts were taken over by Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, accused of the
newcomers, immigrants or ethnic minorities. This trend attempted murder of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, in
was already apparent at the end of the previous century, but 1892. The Americans, haunted by the fear of revolution,
in the twentieth it was accentuated by the attractiveness of gave individual rights short shrift, as they would again
these new residential suburbs. This led to a structure following the Second World War.
peculiar to North America, and more particularly the On top of all these causes for concern, there were race
United States, of a rundown city centre gradually taken riots, the most serious occurring in Chicago and resulting in
over by ghettos, contrasting with pleasant and prosperous hundreds of African American casualties. Some people saw
suburbs. In reaction against this abandonment, but in them the hand of the Ku Klux Klan, which had just
especially in the East and the industrial cities along the arisen from the ashes – not in the South, as after the Civil
Great Lakes, an effort was made to rehabilitate the centre War, but in Ohio. Its members paraded ostentatiously in
and to attract well-off residents back in; but, generally Washington, at the foot of the Capitol, lumping Blacks,
speaking, city centres have lost their attractiveness. There Jews and Catholics together in a common hatred. Defending
was thus a twin process of displacement, from the rural nativism and sworn enemies of anything that might sully
areas and from city centres to peri-urban areas. According the purity of America, they made their mark on society, as
to official figures, 50 per cent of Americans change their McCarthyism did later during the 1950s. This bigotry came
residence between censuses, in other words every ten years. through in the hit films of D. W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation
Thus, the tradition of ‘a population on the move’ has (1915) and Intolerance (1919). The aftermath of the war was
continued unabated throughout the twentieth century, indeed a period full of threats, which helps to explain the
making Americans one of the most mobile populations country’s determination to restrict immigration and its
among the industrialized nations of the world. apparent refusal to participate in international affairs.

From Prosperity to Depression The great illusion

The Americans, emerging victorious from a succession of The outlook began to look brighter after 1920, as a period of
conflicts, and in a position to impose their views on their jarring contrasts opened onto the ‘roaring twenties’. After
allies, aimed to restore the conditions of normalcy as quickly the worries and the sacrifices, came enjoyment, pleasure in
as possible. This meant they often ignored the outside world the ordinary things of everyday life, a relaxation of social
that had temporally diverted their attention – continuing a mores and a focus on getting rich. The Republicans came
line of conduct first drawn in 1799 by their founder, George back to power, suggesting weariness with reform and a
Washington, and formalized again by President Monroe in rejection of international engagements. Yet the decade
the Monroe Doctrine of 1821. Two slogans highlighted this abounded in contradictions, since it opened precisely on a
determination: ‘return to normalcy’ and ‘business as usual’. return to morality with the Eighteenth Amendment
In both, American hopes were cruelly disappointed: the (followed by the 1919 Volstead Act) forbidding ‘the
aftermath of war proved to be more difficult than foreseen, manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquor
with a short period of prosperity abruptly interrupted in within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation
1929 by the longest and deepest depression ever experienced thereof from the United States’. So began the era of
and one that was therefore all the harder to overcome. Prohibition, supposed to help deal with alcoholism, one of
Initially, the return to normalcy saw a series of the ills plaguing society, by banning consumption of hard
disappointments. Two million ‘boys’ found themselves in liquors such as whisky. This ban did not come out of the
Europe, wanting to get home fast. But the lack of ships blue, but was part of a long struggle by temperance societies
meant that this return was slower than expected and was and Puritan denominations against an evil for which non-
only completed in 1920. In the transit camps and military Anglo-Saxon immigrants were held responsible – the Irish,
bases there were scenes of looting, acts of indiscipline and the Italians, the Slavs and others. This revenge of the
mutinies, which left a stain on the image of the American Mayflower America against the America of the melting pot
army in Europe. was not a mere chance occurrence.

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While Prohibition was supposed to open the way for an domestic tasks through the use of household appliances
era of morality, in practice it led to a decade of excess, that had become common in middle class homes. A new
debauchery and violence. Bars, restaurants, liquor stores appliance, the refrigerator, left its mark on the language
and pubs ceased, at least officially, to serve beer, wine and (frigidaire). An appliance that had an even greater impact
alcohol, but a whole clandestine traffic sprang up on society was the radio, with the first commercial broadcast
underground, with speakeasies, where regulars would meet, being made in Pittsburgh in 1920. In order to sell their
and a contraband trade that enriched bootleggers. Private products, makers of radios set up stations, which were soon
individuals began to produce adulterated alcohols, and, taken over by national networks dominated by big
above all, a smuggling trade developed with Canada and the broadcasting groups, such as NBC (National Broadcasting
West Indies, while cruises to the Bahamas and other places Company, 1926) or CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System,
where alcohol consumption was legal became very popular. 1927). In addition to news and entertainment, the radio
The struggle for control of this traffic pitted rival gangs and carried religious broadcasts, and later became a political
gangsters against one another; they set up their headquarters instrument. The first medium to rival the newspaper had
in Chicago, the ideal entry point to Canada, just across the come into being.
border, and the focus of crime and violence. Such were Electricity lay behind the success of cinema, which
these unforeseen consequences of Prohibition that its repeal became the most popular form of entertainment. The
became a major issue in the presidential election of 1932, 1920s saw the triumph of the silent film, whose studios
before the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the deserted the East Coast to settle in Hollywood under the
Eighteenth in 1933. clear skies of California. There too, big companies – the
These excesses and violence cannot obliterate the majors, as they were known – monopolized production:
prosperity that Americans enjoyed in these years, buoyed Paramount, founded in 1912, United Artists, launched in
up by technological advances arising from use of the internal 1921 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas
combustion engine and practical applications of electricity. Fairbanks, Warner Bros (1923) and MGM (Metro-
Ford founded his automobile company at Dearborn, Goldwyn-Mayer, 1924). By then the star system
Michigan, in 1903 and launched his famous Model T in dominated, with the likes of Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson
1909. Before production ceased in 1929 more than 15 million or Mary Pickford alongside Rudolph Valentino. The
cars had been sold. It was after 1920 that the motor car appearance of talking cinema, in 1927 with The Jazz
became an item of mass consumption and ceased to be the Singer, revolutionized production and led to the appearance
privilege of the rich: its price fell from us$1,500 in 1913 to of new stars, while at the same time reinforcing the grip of
us$760 in 1920 and us$600 in 1929. This long life proved American studios which, year in year out, showed
fatal to it, as its main rival, General Motors, reorganized in 500 films, in 23,000 darkened rooms, before some
1920 along more modern lines, soon accounted for about 115 million spectators.
one-third of American car production, alongside smaller All these practical mass applications required investment
makers such as Chrysler, Hudson and Studebaker. The capital, which ensured the success of Wall Street. Prosperity
United States became the leading world car producer, appeared to be never-ending, with profits rising year after
making 4.5 million in 1929, as against 1.9 million in 1920, year, whence the infatuation with the Stock Exchange,
and Europeans followed the path. The United States alone with all its excesses, the creation of ghost companies and
possessed more cars than the whole of the rest of the world, the exploitation of the public’s credulity by crooks. But this
with a ratio of one car for every five inhabitants, as against stereotype needs to be tempered, since only a minority let
one for 43 in Britain and one for 326 in Italy. As a itself be attracted by the mirage of easy money. Alongside
consequence there was a great need to build and improve this luxuriating and rich America there coexisted a more
roads, and in the 1930s the first motorways started to appear conservative and traditional America well portrayed by
in the East of the country. This new infrastructure Sinclair Lewis in Main Street and Babbitt, two novels that
immediately threatened the supremacy of railways, which stigmatized the world of the middle class, the world of the
until then had played a key role in the development and small towns of the Midwest, with its own ways, its narrow
westward movement of the country. conformism and its petty bourgeois prejudices. The weight
New applications of electricity were also an important of tradition was at the centre of many affairs of the time,
source of useful inventions. During the 1920s, as many including the one in 1925, involving a Tennessee high-
dams were built as had been built since the discovery of school teacher by the name of John Scopes. He was charged
hydroelectric power, so that by 1930 the whole of urban and with violating state law by teaching Darwin’s theory of
suburban America was supplied. Rural America lagged evolution. In Tennessee it was unlawful ‘to teach any theory
behind because of the high costs of installation, especially in that denies the story of divine creation as taught in the
the South, where private companies hesitated to invest. Bible’. Two years later, the execution of Nicola Sacco and
Giant corporations grew up both for the production of Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were convicted of having
electricity and for the manufacture of equipment, engines, murdered the paymaster of a New England firm in 1920,
lighting, appliances and accessories, with a very high degree put an end to a cause célèbre that had mobilized both
of concentration to the benefit of firms such as General Americans and Europeans. It was their misfortune to be
Electric or Westinghouse. both immigrants and anarchists. In the 1928 presidential
The nearly coast-to-coast availability of motor cars and elections, the Republican Herbert Hoover easily defeated
electricity transformed everyday life, encouraging the the Democrat Alfred Smith, who was criticized for being a
abandonment of cities in favour of the suburbs and Roman Catholic. However, the most lasting manifestation
improved material conditions. The American went to work of this alleged return to traditional values was the drastic
in his Ford or his Chevrolet and at the end of the day restriction of immigration through the introduction of
returned to the bosom of his family, partly liberated from national quotas.

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There were also several sectors of the population that to f lee westward, where they hoped to escape the
prosperity bypassed. After having greatly benefited during ‘dustbowl’ and find Eldorado. No one has better told the
and after the war from guaranteed markets for their cereals, story of the plight of these ‘Okies’ than John Steinbeck in
meat and cotton, by 1925 farmers were faced with surpluses. The Grapes of Wrath.
Stocks were rising, outlets were closing and prices were in Distress led to discontent and social unrest. While they
freefall, causing discontent in the farming areas of the awaited the promised bonus, veterans of the 1914 war had
Midwest. The Republican administration, faithful to set up their camp on the banks of the Anacostia River, near
liberalism within and protectionism at the borders, refused Washington, D.C., whence the name ‘Bonus Army’. When
to pay any heed to their complaints, thereby risking the loss Congress refused to pay the bonus, some went home, while
of their votes. But discontent was also building up in the others stayed. To restore order, President Hoover called
labour force. Prosperity favoured competition at the expense out federal troops who, under the command of General
of unskilled and hence less well-paid wage earners, especially Douglas MacArthur, used cavalry and tanks to disperse the
because African Americans, attracted by the shortage of veterans, a few months before the 1932 presidential
labour in the major industrial areas, took over many jobs election.
previously occupied by immigrants. Moreover, the migration There have been numerous interpretations of the 1929
of African Americans was far from over, indeed quite the crisis, none of which is totally satisfactory. Contemporaries
reverse, creating social tensions in the ghettos of cities like saw it as a logical consequence of the Wall Street crash, but
Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Detroit. The trade union none of the previous crashes – and there had been many –
movement was the victim of this malaise, losing about half had had such a devastating effect. For John K. Galbraith,
its members. The dominant organization, Samuel Gompers’ ‘Had the economy been fundamentally sound in 1929 the
American Federation of Labor, drew its membership from effect of the great stock market crash might have been
among skilled workers, leaving the majority of workers to small ... on the contrary it was exceedingly fragile. It was
their fate or to ‘house unions’. vulnerable to the kind of blow it received from Wall Street’.
For Charles Kindleberger the American crisis reflected the
collapse of the world economic system as a result of the
The crisis American refusal to play a stabilizing role. Milton Friedman
blamed the monetarist policy of the Federal Reserve which,
The two engines of prosperity, car-making and construction by raising its rates, tightened the money supply and removed
work, slowed in the closing years of the decade, without any elasticity that might have assisted a revival. In fact, the
anyone paying much attention, since Wall Street continued American crisis had multiple causes, both endogenous and
its dizzying rise. The reasons for this slowdown lay in exogenous, something that contemporaries and actors,
market saturation and the decline in investment: despite a attributing a surely excessive role to stock market speculation,
decline of 22 per cent in car production in 1927, the euphoria were unable to see.
persisted. Contrary to a deep-seated myth, the administration did
The spectacular collapse of Wall Street, which in three not simply fold its hands in the face of poverty, at either
weeks (October–November 1929) lost over us$30 billion local or federal level. In New York State, which had just
in value, set off panic in financial and banking circles. Despite elected Franklin D. Roosevelt as governor, his associate,
repeated interventions, the decline continued and even Frances Perkins, worked hard to help the unemployed by
worsened in the following months, reaching bottom in paying them relief and opening soup kitchens and shelters
1933. The Wall Street crash had equally devastating effects for those evicted from their homes. As for the federal
on the economy, because it occurred in an already weakened government, it took measures designed to halt the fall in
conjuncture and an atmosphere of speculation. By farm prices, offer credit to firms in difficulties (Reconstruction
undermining the confidence of Americans, it led Finance Corporation) and help banks (Glass-Steagall Act).
automatically to a fall in consumption, which reduced Nothing seemed to work, and the crisis persisted.
production in every area.
At first sight, it seems that it was the rural areas, which
had already suffered falling prices, that were most The New Deal
affected. The fall simply accelerated, making farmers the
most spectacular victims of the crisis. Every branch of It was amid this gloom that the 1932 elections were held,
industry had to cut its output drastically, beginning with which brought the Democrats to power with their candidate
the car industry, where Ford laid off 72,000 workers in F. D. Roosevelt, who won easily with almost 58 per cent of
1931, and, in turn, business slowed. The most visible the votes. On his coat tails, they also won control of both
effect, and the most worrying, was the increase in houses of Congress. The Republicans had never suffered
unemployment, from 4.5 million in 1930 to 12 million in such a defeat before, losing 42 of the 48 states, and holding
1931 and 16 million in 1933, although, in the absence of out only in New England, Pennsylvania and Delaware. A
reliable statistics, these figures understate the reality. new era dawned, the New Deal, to use the expression coined
Poverty was visible in the cities, where the unemployed by the new president.
attempted to sell apples at street corners and queued at Pragmatism and opportunism were the hallmarks of
soup kitchens. Unable to pay their rent, they had been this experiment, which lasted until 1938. Roosevelt had
evicted from their lodgings and gathered in slums, won by his personality, his persuasiveness, good use of the
ironica lly nicknamed Hoover villes. The a lready media and, of course, the fact that the Republicans were
precarious position of farmers was dramatically worn out after twelve years in office, rather than by the
aggravated by the wave of drought and sandstorms that presentation of a programme, a notion quite foreign to his
ravaged a number of states in the Midwest, forcing them personality. Just 50 years old, he belonged to a well-known

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family from Hyde Park, New York, and benefited from the previously rejected, Keynesian methods of budget deficits,
fame of his distant cousin Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, public expenditure for employment and the opening of new
who had served as president of the United States from 1901 public works projects finally saved the day. At the end of
to 1909. Franklin D. Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary 1938, the president could declare: ‘We are once again on the
of the Navy in 1915, and then in 1920 was the losing right path’. The following year production recovered its
candidate for the vice-presidency. Struck down the 1929 level, but two black spots persisted: unemployment
following year by poliomyelitis, he fought against the and trade.
paralysis that affected his lower limbs for the rest of his life The grim face of this period should not be allowed to
but, while remaining an invalid, recovered his taste for conceal one of its brighter aspects, which emerged from the
politics, and was elected Governor of New York in 1928, explosion of cultural activities. Contrary to Tocqueville’s
and re-elected in 1930. The most popular president of the assertion that Americans were not interested by culture, the
twentieth century, he managed to win re-election three novelist Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize for
times (1936, 1940, 1944), thus breaking a taboo that dated literature in 1930, followed by Eugene O’Neill, Pearl Buck,
back to George Washington’s having declined to accept a and, later on, Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck. The
third term in office. Harlem Renaissance confirmed the birth of an African
The New Deal saw increased intervention by the federal American literature, whose big names were Langston
government in economic and social life, and an enhanced Hughes, Arna Bontemps, William E. B. DuBois and many
role for the bureaucracy. Alongside the traditional cabinet, others. At the same time, after its beginnings in New
which remained very stable during these years, a private Orleans and Chicago, jazz exploded thanks to such
group of advisers operated the ‘brain trust’, in which interpreters as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Benny
economists, academics, various experts and businessmen Goodman. Jazz was also incorporated into more classical
quickly followed one another, depending on what the issue works like the compositions of George Gershwin, who,
was. The cabinet acted as a facade for what was the real inspired by DuBose Heyward’s Porgy, composed his Porgy
engine of government action, transmitted less through the and Bess for an all Black cast. Another even more striking
traditional machinery than through more and more agencies facet of this uniquely American cultural trend was its
emanating directly from the executive. This marks the popular productions and musicals, which triumphed on
beginning of an ‘imperial presidency’ which gave the Broadway’s stages, not to mention the westerns, rodeos, and
president a status previously unknown, except in the time of all-powerful cinema, where a new generation represented by
Lincoln, during the Civil War. And beyond Congress, Charles Laughton, Humphrey Bogart, and Katherine
warm contact was assured between the president and Hepburn was making its way, whereas cartoon movies were
Americans through his Saturday evening ‘fireside chats’ and popularizing Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and many other
White House press conferences. A new style of government well-known characters.
came into being, supported by radio; television was yet to If the New Deal was not an economic success, it certainly
come. stirred up the country. There was violent opposition to
The New Deal advanced in stages that reflected not an Roosevelt, accused in turn of being either fascist or socialist,
overall vision, but in response to the pressure of events, the and criticizing his interventionism. But his charisma ensured
main object being to restore confidence and get Americans him wide popularity among Americans, confirmed by their
back to work. The first measures, in 1933, were taken for the increasing participation in elections and symbolized by his
economy, to save the banks, restore credit, stimulate farm triumphant re-election in 1936 when he carried every state
and industrial production and sustain prices. They ended in except Vermont and Maine. Roosevelt was able to galvanize
January 1934, with a devaluation of the dollar that was the American people and restore their confidence, even if
supposed to ensure more flexibility in the economy. At the the results were mediocre. The federal government doubled
same time, specific actions were undertaken to reduce the number of civil servants, which proved to be an adequate
unemployment, especially through public works, such as means of fighting unemployment. But it was in the world of
the Tennessee Valley project that developed the whole river labour that the changes were most felt. Farmers’ incomes
basin through flood control and electrification. A second set eventually improved, and workers, following official
of measures, a prelude to the welfare state, was launched in recognition of trade unions, earned the right to collective
1935; it included the creation of social security, paying of bargaining; ever after they could negotiate directly with
pensions to retirees and benefits to the unemployed. A final employers. The trade union movement was democratized,
set of measures was launched in 1938, which attacked the opening up to unskilled workers through the new CIO
monopolies held to be partly responsible for the (Congress of Industrial Organizations), which emerged
malfunctioning of the economy. In fact, it marked the following a split with the more traditionalist AFL (American
resumption of a policy specific to the Democratic Party, Federation of Labor).
already partly pursued by Wilson.
Did these measures get the Americans out of trouble?
The answer is unclear, for two reasons. The recovery was F r o m i s ola t i o n t o i n t e r v e n t i o n
slow, uneven and disappointing. There was progress, but in
1937, the United States had still not recovered its 1929 After its decisive intervention alongside the Allies, the
level, despite the pick-up of industrial production, the United States returned to its traditional isolationism,
recovery of wholesale prices and, an essential indicator, the confirmed by the Senate’s rejection of the Treaty of
rise in national income. Yet unemployment was far from Versailles, the defeat of the Democrats at the 1920 elections
over, since there were still 7.5 million people unemployed. and the signing of a separate peace with Germany.
And then, suddenly, the recovery ground to a halt, and the In fact, this was only a surface appearance, since the
economy once again plunged into recession. Although reality was more complex. The war had effected a shift in the

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economic centre of the world from Europe to America, and cent of the votes – fewer than in 1936 (60 per cent), although
New York became the nerve centre of business at the expense very comfortably (he carried 38 states and retained the
of Paris and above all London. This totally transformed the majority in Congress) – he took advantage of this
world economy, although the main actors were not truly honeymoon period to begin the country’s rearmament and
aware of it. At any event, there was no way the United States, support the United Kingdom. Going against a public
given its creditor position, could remain politically indifferent opinion still hostile to any intervention, he seized the
to what was happening across the Atlantic. initiative to lead it and impose his views on Congress by
The paradox is, however, that Americans were more measures such as lend-lease. Not hesitating to portray
present in international relations under Republican himself as the defender of the free world, he proclaimed the
administrations than under Democratic ones. In order to ‘Four Freedoms’ that were fundamental in a democratic
ensure their preponderance at sea, following the line laid society, and, in the Atlantic Charter, sketched the outlines
down by Alfred Mahan, they took the initiative of convening of the future world.
a conference in Washington in 1921 to limit naval armaments, But it was the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on
which granted them parity with the United Kingdom – 7 December 1941, destroying much of the American fleet
ahead of Japan – and with France and Italy in third position, and air force, which provoked immediate entry into the war
on the basis of quotas of 5, 3 and 1.75. At the same time, a against both Japan and Germany. Traumatized by this
moratorium on the construction of battleships was declared. blow, opinion rallied behind its president in an outpouring
While they remained outside the Locarno Pact designed to of patriotism and holy union for victory.
keep the peace, a rapprochement with Europe began in 1928
with the signing of the Pact of Paris or Kellogg-Briand
agreement, which reaffirmed the same principles. From defeats to victories
But it was above all in economic affairs that the United
States made its presence felt given that it was directly In the six months that followed, the Japanese exploited the
concerned by the question of war debts, associated with surprise effect to the hilt, driving the Americans out of their
those of reparations. Faced with Germany’s insolvency and forward positions in the Pacific, Guam, Wake and the
the crisis threatening the international balance, it took the Philippines. After also driving the British, Dutch and
initiative in two plans that bear the names of their American French from their colonial positions, they had become the
promoters: the Dawes Plan, which proposed scheduling masters of the situation. Despite these initial defeats, the
payments under the supervision of an Agent General for United States, now the lynchpin of the coalition, reorganized
Reparations (also an American) and, five years later, the itself and prepared to reclaim Allied supremacy by driving
Young Plan. Long before the Marshall Plan, the the Japanese out.
reconstruction of Europe had become a priority on the
other side of the Atlantic. But the economic crisis of 1929
put an end to this collaboration, with President Roosevelt A country at war
rejecting the proposals of the World Economic Conference
that met in London in 1933 on the initiative of the League The country’s economy was very efficiently mobilized,
of Nations, to reach an economic understanding among following guidelines set out by Roosevelt: ‘We must be the
states. Domestic recovery relegated the international great arsenal of democracy ... Manufacturers of watches,
situation to the back burner. farm implements, linotypes, cash registers, automobiles,
This is what gave rise to the dominant impression of sewing machines, lawn mowers and locomotives are now
withdrawal from the international stage, although making fuses, bomb packing crates, telescope mounts,
isolationism was never total. Thus, after a break of more shells, pistols and tanks.’ The targets set were ambitious:
than ten years, the United States was the last great power to 125,000 planes, 75,000 tanks, 10 million deadweight tons of
re-establish relations with the USSR, although without any shipping by 1943. The production effort was enormous:
major results. Conversely, relations improved markedly new factories emerged from the ground in a few weeks and
with the countries of the American continent, thanks to naval shipyards were opened on both coasts, to meet the
settlement of an old dispute with Mexico, the ending of the needs of all the Allies – the British as well as the Soviets.
protectorate over Cuba and regular participation in pan- Two original creations symbolize this reconversion and
American conferences. In trade, the rigours of protectionism help explain its ultimate success; the key lay in innovation
were tempered by the signing of bilateral agreements based and standardization. The naval shipyards produced a single
on reciprocity and a most favoured nation clause. But the type of transport vessel, the ‘Liberty ship’, constructed out
dominant concern remained that of observing strict of prefabricated elements assembled by welding, and not
neutrality, whether in relation to Japanese initiatives in soldering, by teams often composed of women only.
Manchuria and China, Italian conquest of Ethiopia, the Initially, assembling them took six months, but by the end
Spanish Civil War or the outrages of Nazism. To each coup of the war it was being done in two weeks. In this way
de force Congress responded by tightening up neutrality, 56 million deadweight tons of ocean transport were built in
while entry to the country remained obstinately closed to five years. In the car industry, partly converted to aircraft
the victims of persecutions. construction, a new all-purpose vehicle called the ‘ jeep’ was
The defeat of France in 1940 and the loneliness of the designed to meet all uses, and became the norm. Thanks to
United Kingdom led to a gradual abandonment of the the impetus given by the War Production Board (WPB)
policy of neutrality. The United States now deemed itself and despite bottlenecks (the most serious of which involved
directly threatened, both in the Pacific by the Japanese, and replacing rubber from Malaya by rubber from Brazil),
in the Atlantic by Germany. These events moved Roosevelt overall the targets were met, whether for tanks, airplanes
to seek a third term as president. Re-elected with 55 per or weapons.

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Under this War Production Board, which operated until in the army. Of the two hundred divisions originally
the end of 1945, aided by a large number of agencies, planned, only 70 were actually constituted. After quick
production was organized bureaucratically, using the Great training in camps, most of which were located in the South,
War precedent. A large number of federal agents were which perpetuated the military tradition of the Civil War,
recruited to manage the effort; their numbers increased they were sent to the various theatres of operation. Special
from 1 to 3.3 million in three years. These agencies were efforts were made to train shock troops such as marines,
responsible for carrying out programmes and controlling parachutists and green berets. The American army stood
prices – to avoid any slippage, illicit profits or illegal deals, as out for the scale of its support services, which absorbed as
well as to ensure there was no discrimination based on sex many men and women as the fighting units.
or race. Strategically, everything had to start from scratch. A
The social implications of this economic mobilization unified high command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been
were considerable. The number of wage earners rose from constituted in 1939 under General George Marshall. Even
32 to 41.5 million, 17 million of whom were unskilled before entry into the war, plans had been drawn up.
labourers, an increase of 30 per cent. Women played a Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a choice had to be
prominent role in this labour force, accounting for 15 million made. As it was going to be necessary to fight on two fronts,
jobs, many of which were previously reserved for men, but three questions arose: Which front should be given priority?
also taking their place in new jobs in the tertiary sector. How could lines of communication between America and
Thus, by 1943, unemployment had completely disappeared distant theatres be ensured? Should frontal or peripheral
to be replaced by a labour shortage, which encouraged the offensives be launched? All these questions were discussed
advancement of African American and Hispanic at the highest level, in the presence of President Roosevelt
minorities. as Commander-in-Chief. First there were conferences with
Even more than during the First World War, African the British and Canadians (Argentina in 1941, Arcadia in
Americans flocked to the urban industrial areas and 1942, Trident and Quadrant in 1943, Quebec in 1944),
California. They often met with resistance and even violence, then with all the Allies, including the Soviets (Tehran in
were offered jobs at lower wages and above all were exploited 1943, Yalta in 1945). In addition to strategic choices, these
by slumlords, despite Executive Order 8802 of 1941 that conferences also dealt with political aims. Thus two fateful
proclaimed: ‘There shall be no discrimination in the decisions with important consequences were taken: at
employment of workers in defence industries or government Casablanca, in 1943, to impose unconditional surrender on
because of race, creed, colour, or national origin’. The the enemy and, at Yalta, that the USSR should enter into
number of African American workers doubled in industry, the war against Japan.
especially in iron and steel, where they held a third of the The strategic options gave rise to sharp confrontations,
jobs, and in shipbuilding on the Pacific coast. Their growing which can be traced to differing conceptions among the
presence in businesses as well as in the public sector created participants. From the beginning, despite pressure from
palpable tensions, sometimes leading to riots, as in Detroit, General Douglas MacArthur, commander of land forces
Mobile and Harlem in 1943. It was the same with Chicanos in the Pacific, priority was given to the liberation of Europe,
(Mexican Americans) in Los Angeles, where they were at the expense of the territories conquered by the Japanese.
involved in clashes with Whites. However, despite this The strategy was bound to be different between Japan and
unrest, the participation of ethnic minorities in the war Europe. With regard to the former, the views of the army
effort had a decisive effect on the transformation of American (MacArthur), whose priority was the reconquest of the
society. Philippines, clashed with those of the navy (Admiral
Other minorities also had their victims. Whereas neither Nimitz), who pushed for reoccupation of the archipelagos
German Americans nor Italian Americans were hassled, by combined operations using ‘island hopping’ tactics. A
Pearl Harbor triggered real hysteria against first (Isei) and compromise was agreed which left Nimitz responsible in
second (Nisei) generation Japanese settled in California, the central Pacific, and MacArthur in the southern Pacific.
where they were regarded as a threat to public security. In this sector, the Americans had the advantage of being in
Over a hundred thousand of them who lived in the Pacific sole charge of operations, although this did not eliminate
states were arrested in June 1942 and interned in improvised the difficulties arising from both the dogged determination
camps in remote areas of northern California and Wyoming, of the Japanese and the harshness of the tropical climate.
where nothing had been prepared to receive them. When They regained the upper hand in the central Pacific with
they were finally allowed to return home, after the end of the battle of Midway, in June 1942, and, in the south, with
the war, they often found their property confiscated. It took the battle of the Coral Sea. Despite these initial successes,
several decades of litigation for them to win compensation the reconquest was exceedingly slow, partly because the
for the injury done to them. high command had thought it could count on cooperation
with China, which would have been an excellent
springboard for attacks on Japan. This hope never came to
Strategy and tactics anything, because of corruption in the Chinese Government
and the civil war ravaging the country. After two years of
Military mobilization relied on conscription, instituted even merciless fighting, the Americans had only reached the
before the beginning of the war for all men aged 18–35, and outposts of the Japanese archipelago. MacArthur had
later extended to 38. Yet once mobilized, African Americans landed in the Philippines in 1944, after the naval victory at
were not treated as full citizens, as strict segregation Leyte, but met with fierce resistance there, which was also
continued to be enforced in all three arms, particularly in the case in the Bonin archipelago, where Iwo Jima became
the navy. Of the 20 million Americans liable to be called up, the symbol of Japanese determination in the face of
some 15 million were actually enlisted, two-thirds of them American heroism.

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In Europe, seen as the priority area, the situation was thousands of civilian casualties, and three days later the city
totally different, since there were the British and Soviets of Nagasaki suffered the same fate.
to deal with. Aiming to ensure their lines of communication The dropping of the atomic bomb marked the culmination
with the Allies, the Americans remained faithful to their of a project which went back to 1939 when Einstein, a
strategy of establishing secure naval bases in the Caribbean, refugee in the United States, drew Roosevelt’s attention to
Newfoundland, Iceland and Greenland. The strategic the new prospects opened up by manipulation of the atom:
choices related to the opening of a second front, repeatedly ‘This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction
called for by the Soviets at the Tehran conference, but the of bombs of an extremely powerful type’. Roosevelt was
nature, date and location of this remained to be decided. interested in this project, and appointed a committee in
Faced with the might of the German army, a massive late 1939, which was the origin of the top secret project
attack would be required; this called for both a considerable code-named Manhattan and launched two years later. Anti-
strike force and the availability of rear areas where the Semitism and other events in Europe had brought many of
force could be prepared, close to the sites of the future the world’s best physicists to America, including the Dane
landings. The Canadians’ raid on Dieppe in 1942 had Niels Bohr, the Italian Enrico Fermi, the British Leo Szilard
revealed the hazards of such an adventure, and in spite of and the Hungarian Edward Teller. The first bombardment
the repeated pressure from the Soviets, the Americans of an atomic nucleus was achieved in 1941, in a laboratory at
were not ready to venture on before a long preparation the University of Chicago, following by experiments
period backed by adequate equipment. On this point, they entrusted to three test centres under federal responsibility –
disagreed with the British, who advocated a peripheral Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Hanford in Washington and Los
strategy that called for attacking Europe’s ‘soft underbelly’ Alamos in New Mexico – where the bomb was designed
– the Balkans, and then central Europe. In the end, they under the leadership of Robert Oppenheimer. The small
decided to proceed in successive stages, with, in 1942, circle of those in on the secret that the United States might
Operation Torch in North Africa, and then in 1943 Husky be overtaken by Germany, pushed for completion of the
in Sicily and Avalanche in Italy. The twin attacks in 1944 project; President Truman, who assumed office when
in Normandy (Overlord) and Provence (Anvil) were a Roosevelt died, was not informed until the Potsdam
success in terms of combined operations, but a strategic conference in July 1945.
failure, in that the German army was able to escape the He took full responsibility for this crucial decision,
pincer movement and regroup to launch an attack in mid- however, which forced the Japanese Government to
winter in the Ardennes that stopped the American advance surrender immediately after the Nagasaki bombing. On 15
in its tracks (Battle of the Bulge). August 1945, the war ended in the Pacific.
Victory was already in sight when the last conference Nevertheless, once the euphoria of victory had passed,
attended by President Roosevelt met in Yalta to sketch the the use of the atomic bomb raised many questions, both
future outlines of Europe and coordinate the effort against moral and tactical. Was it legitimate to use such a terrifying
Japan. Concessions were made to Stalin in the Far East in weapon to compel an enemy to yield, even one that was
order to gain Soviet support against Japan. Stalin promised determined, but still close to defeat? Should not a warning
secretly to enter the war against Japan within three months have been given first, as civilians associated with the project
of the unconditional surrender of Germany. The United had suggested? The justification was that Japan was not
States was in a weak position at the conference, with the ready to give in by ordinary means and the fighting would
Soviets occupying much of the continent and an ailing and have gone on for a long time. In the atmosphere prevailing
exhausted Roosevelt unable to put up much resistance to at the time, the Allies were anxious to end as quickly as
Stalin’s demands on the western borders of the USSR and possible a conflict that had already lasted for almost six
its advance into central Europe. Yalta signified recognition years and had been as lethal for civilians as for the military.
by the Western Allies of a de facto situation, in which the Morally, use of the atomic weapon was objectively highly
Soviet army was present in the heart of the continent. questionable, but for people at the time, it put an end to a
Whether they liked it or not, the Americans could only be nightmare, even while portending that there might be
grateful for Stalin’s willingness to help them fight Japan. A another. Some have suggested that the Americans had other
few weeks later, Roosevelt died without being able to motives on the eve of the USSR’s entry into the war against
witness Germany’s surrender on 8 May 1945. Japan, hypothesizing that the bomb also served as a warning
to its great rival. That reasoning would attribute to President
Truman a Machiavellianism that his behaviour belied. A
The atomic weapon more plausible explanation is the accumulated hatred built
up among Americans since the ‘Day of Infamy’ when Pearl
As the war continued in the Pacific, the last bastions of the Harbor was bombed in a sneak attack and the harshness of
Japanese defence crumbled one by one. In April 1945, the the war in the Pacific. It remains that possession of the
Americans landed on Okinawa, the closest point to the atomic weapon undeniably ensured military superiority and
archipelago, without however being in a position to attack thus the political supremacy of the United States in a world
it. The anticipated delay of a year between the surrender of that was entering the era of the pax Americana.
Germany and that of Japan threatened to involve heavy
human losses, as the recent past demonstrated. Should the
end of hostilities be hastened? The explosion of an atomic T h e r i s e of Ca n ada
bomb on 16 July at Alamogordo in the New Mexican desert
showed that the United States possessed the absolute When a book that had originally appeared in 1906 with the
weapon; but should it be used? On 6 August, the Enola Gay title Le Canada, les deux races was reissued in 1947, the
dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, causing tens of author, sociologist André Siegfried, gave it a new title: Le

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Canada, puissance internationale. This change highlighted Countries. In addition, during the Second World War,
Canada’s arrival on the international stage. Like the United Canada was transformed into a rear base for both the
States, it was a newcomer in the concert of nations, but this United States and Britain, producing canons, tanks,
came at the end of a long process. Canada had moved from aeroplanes and other war materiel and serving as a training
being a dominion of the British Empire to being a member base for all the British air units. The conflicts hastened the
of the Commonwealth, from a semi-colonial stage to country’s transformation from being a supplier of
independence in successive steps accelerated by its active agricultural staples and raw materials to being a producer
participation in the two world wars. of indu st r ia l equ ipme nt, a nd prec ipitated t he
The similarity with the United States goes farther than transformation of society through a massive resort to
that. Like the United States, its formation was the result of employing women in war factories. Women won the right
successive waves of immigration from Europe, quadrupling to vote in 1920, except in Quebec, where they had to await
its population over the course of the twentieth century. But the end of the Second World War.
it differed in the process of settlement and the origins of its The immediate consequence was the entry of Canada
founders. into the club of Great Powers. During the First World War,
The settlement of Canada was linear, with the inhabited Canadians had fought under British command before
part no more than a narrow strip stretching along the 49th securing an autonomous brigade, but in the Second they
parallel from ocean to ocean, leaving the remaining had their own units in every arm. In 1919, Canada sent its
territory, the second largest in the world by area, practically own delegation to the peace conference and occupied a seat
empty. Unlike the United States, Canada did not experience at the League of Nations and in the International Labour
any ‘frontier’, and this feature was confirmed in the Office. It was the first step on the path to sovereignty that
twentieth century. was completed with the opening of the first foreign
Rather, the origin of its founders, French in Lower legations: even before the establishment of a ministry of
Canada (the valley of the St Lawrence and Quebec), and external affairs, which only came about in 1946, a legation
British in Upper Canada (Ontario), imposed the coexistence was opened in Washington in 1920, with others following
of two cultures living side my side in mutual ignorance. Far in Paris and Tokyo. This independence was made official
from disappearing, this duality was kept alive by nationalist by the Statute of Westminster in 1931, but the British
currents that made Canada a composite state of sharply sovereign continued to be represented in Ottawa by the
differentiated regional groupings: the Maritimes, Quebec governor-general, who was himself always of British
and Ontario (the ‘cradles’ of Confederation), the Prairies, nationality until 1952, when the Canadian Vincent Massey
the Western Provinces, plus the sub-Arctic territories opened the way to the Canadianization of this post, which
occupied by the First Nations (Indians and Inuit). had in fact become increasingly honorific. A new stage of
Communications between them remained difficult, sovereignty was reached in 1949 with the creation of a
especially given the distances. Canadian nationality as distinct from British nationality,
Unity among these highly diverse groupings was ensured and the adoption in 1964 of the maple leaf flag in place of
by a unique political regime of Confederation. Each of the the Union Jack. In half a century, Canadians, while
nine Provinces (later ten following the accession of remaining loyal members of the Commonwealth, had
Newfoundland in 1949) had its own government, with its successfully acquired all the attributes of sovereignty,
parliament and its prime minister, according to British except for control of their constitution.
tradition, and a governor representing the monarchy. In
Ottawa, capital of the Confederation, there was an
analogous structure: a governor-general, who appointed Political life
the prime minister, responsible to a two-chamber parliament
(elected House of Commons, appointed Senate). The Political institutions were based on a two-party system,
constitution still in force was the British North America with Conservatives and Liberals alternating in power. The
Act of 1867, under the sole responsibility of Britain’s latter, under the leadership of Wilfrid Laurier, the first
parliament. French-speaking prime minister, held power for almost
twenty years early in the century. The dividing-line between
these two parties was shifting, since they lacked ideology
Canada and the world and had no set territorial base, although Ontario tended to
be more conservative. The Liberals were more inclined to
Canada’s entry into the international community was reforms, more distanced from the metropolitan power and
facilitated and accelerated by its role in the two world advocates of free trade, which would draw them closer to
wars, in which it participated directly, making a their neighbour to the south. But Laurier’s moves in this
considerable human contribution, given a population of direction ultimately failed, following the Conservatives’
only 8 million inhabitants. In 1914, 600,000 men were refusal to weaken traditional links with the mother country.
mobilized, 420,000 of whom saw service overseas, in Following the First World War, a long Liberal period
particular on the French front, on the Somme and in began, dominated by the personality of Louis Mackenzie
Artois. Twenty-five years later, out of a population of King, who was prime minister for over twenty years, with
12 million, one million men and women served in the an unbroken stretch between 1935 and 1948.
armed forces and fought in both Europe and Asia. The two-party system was challenged by the sudden
Canadians carried out the bloody Dieppe raid in 1942, emergence on the political stage of the Western provinces:
which acted as a dry run for the Normandy landings two getting no response to their specific aspirations from the
years later, and played an effective role in the battle of two main parties, they manifested their difference by
Normandy and the liberation of France and the Low creating regional parties. Farmers in the West were being

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hit by the high cost of transporting their agricultural States stopped its purchases, it was industry’s turn to be
produce to Montreal and Toronto. To counter the affected by the build-up of stocks, devalued and unsaleable,
omnipotence of the railway companies, they set up and then the turn of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia
cooperatives and unions whose demands were taken up by a to be hit. The sharp fall in living standards wiped out the
Progressive Party, which, in 1921, upset the traditional gains of the previous period and favoured the successes of
balance by winning a large number of seats in the Ottawa third parties, which enjoyed their best years. But the
parliament. From then on regional third parties were a provinces were too poor to react, and the federal government
constant feature of Canadian political life. The short-lived remained impotent and powerless to deal with this
Progressives were followed by the CCF (Cooperative depression. The few conventional emergency measures that
Commonwealth Federation), rooted in the Prairies, which were adopted, like restricting immigration, raising customs
portrayed itself as the defender of farmers and workers and duties, establishing imperial preference within the
called for greater state intervention in the management of Commonwealth or setting up work camps, were totally
the economy and social matters. It was a socialist party, inadequate. A ‘little New Deal’, directly inspired by
without actually calling itself such, and inaugurated a social- Roosevelt’s, was launched by the Conservative government
democratic trend that was present in political life right of Richard B. Bennett, who resigned himself to intervention
through the century. Conversely, the Social Credit Party, through such measures as creation of the Bank of Canada;
founded in Alberta by an evangelist who was a past master but some were held unconstitutional by the Privy Council
at media manipulation, the Reverend William Aberhart, in London and were immediately annulled.
skilfully mixed evangelism and populism to denounce the The Great Depression laid bare the weaknesses of the
financiers and capitalists in the East and call for a ‘social Canadian economy because it was over-dependent on the
credit’ that would enable all to enjoy a life of ease. Such outside world, but it also showed up the impotence of the
language could not fail to please and ensure the success of federal government. In 1937, the Liberal prime minister
the Social Credit Party in Alberta and British Columbia, Mackenzie King returned to power and, very conscious of
although its short-lived rise was associated with the Great its weakness, set up a Royal Commission, known as the
Depression. In this way, the provinces in the West and the Rowell-Sirois Commission (from the names of its chairmen),
Prairies now made their mark on political life. to draw up proposals to make institutions work more
Canadian society was heavily dependent on the economic efficiently. For this first revision of the constitution since the
situation. Following the First World War, a decade of 1867 Act, the response, delivered in 1940, was clear: some of
genuine prosperity opened, marked by a resumption of the powers held by the provinces in social, economic and
immigration (over a million arrivals), the return of investors, fiscal affairs must be transferred to the government in
rising agricultural production in the Prairies, high levels of Ottawa, which in particular must be given the right to raise
exports and a general improvement in the population’s direct taxes, in exchange for compensatory payments.
standard of living. As war had exhausted Britain, Canada Despite opposition from some provinces (including Quebec)
turned increasingly to its neighbour to the south, which to this transfer of powers, centralization was stepped up
became the new source of investment, attracted less by the and a form of federalism came to dominate political life.
public utilities than by the extraction and processing of raw
materials, like the manufacture of paper pulp (Canada is the
main supplier of newsprint to the American press), or War and the aftermath
engineering (the suburbs of Toronto became an annex for
the car-makers of Detroit). In the background of this This reorientation coincided with the entry of Canada into
industrialization began exploitation of the vast hydroelectric the world conflict, which led to profound changes in the
potential that lay in Canada’s natural abundance of water. country. The needs of war put the whole apparatus of
This development accentuated the contrast between the production back to work through its modernization, so that
agricultural provinces in the West and the now industrialized Canada entered the small group of world industrial powers.
ones in the Centre. Thus, in 1928, the two provinces of Full employment, including women, and the accumulation
Ontario and Quebec alone were responsible for more than of forced savings, consequent upon the limitation of
three-quarters of industrial production. In terms of trade, consumption through rationing, which was reinstated as
dependence on the United States grew steadily at the soon as peace returned, improved the everyday life of
expense of Britain. Canadians. The Prairies recovered their prosperity through
food exports to Europe. Canada’s loans to the mother
country meant that the Dominion moved from being a
The Depression debtor to being a creditor nation. Finally, with its Big
Neighbour to the south, the conflict sealed a strategic,
This state of affairs plunged Canada into the gravest crisis it diplomatic and even scientific collaboration that, among
had ever suffered: the 1930s were years of recession, other things, enabled Canada to participate actively in
destitution and an explosion of poverty. As an exporter of Allied nuclear research.
raw materials (cereals, lumber, metals) and semi-processed At the same time, the country embarked deliberately on
products (paper pulp), Canada was a victim of the fall in the creation of a welfare state. This involved the introduction
world prices and the collapse of international trade, which of unemployment insurance, along with family allowances,
primarily affected wheat and meat producers in the Prairies. the beginnings of a bold social policy, added to a system of
After borrowing to equip themselves, farmers saw their medical cover and retirement pensions. In this area, Canada,
incomes fall, leaving them only one way out – to abandon unlike the United States, became one of the most advanced
their farms, and perhaps go further west, in the hope of countries in the world. The consequence was the appearance,
finding work: Canada too had its ‘Okies’. As the United in both the capital and the provinces, of a predominantly

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English-speaking bureaucracy, which played an increasingly This shift affected the various provinces unevenly.
important role in the Confederation. Immigrants favoured dynamic, English-speaking areas like
Despite the financial compensation that the provinces Ontario, the most industrialized province, which was their
now enjoyed, this turn of events was far from being first choice along with British Columbia, which benefited
universally well received, especially in Quebec, ever fiercely from its opening on the Pacific and an outstanding
insistent on its autonomy. Added to these discontents was environment. Alberta, hitherto rather left out, took off
the old demon of conscription. Although the Canadian rapidly following the discovery of oil in 1947. Meanwhile,
Government had committed itself in 1939 not to resort to the Maritimes lost their strategic and commercial advantages
it – so as not to awaken the dormant nationalism that had once fuel oil replaced coal: Halifax was abandoned as a
burst out in earlier conflicts – the unexpected length of the staging point, and fishing began its slow decline.
conflict and the scale of losses forced it to shift its policy. In As to Quebec, it was in its period of ‘great darkness’
1942, following a procedure exceptional in this democratic (grande noirceur), under the sway of the Union Nationale
country, a plebiscite was organized around the principle of government of Maurice Duplessis, a mixture of conservatism,
conscription. While accepted by two-thirds of Canadians, wheeling and dealing, patronage and corruption. It favoured
it was rejected by 71 per cent of Quebeckers (85 per cent of American investors over British ones, but it also retained its
French-speakers). The conscription took a long time to stranglehold, relying on a Catholic clergy that was still
organize and in fact no conscript ever served overseas, but powerful, wealthy and omnipresent, especially in education,
the case showed clearly that far from making it disappear, where it had an absolute monopoly. Montreal was still the
the war had further accentuated the cleavage between biggest city in Canada in terms of population and as an
English-speakers and French-speakers, and this cleavage economic centre, one where an English-speaking minority
weighed heavily on the country’s future dominated the world of business. But it is possible to detect
Post-war prosperity enabled Canada to take advantage signs of the changes that were about to occur. Thus, the
of the position it had acquired during the hostilities. From strike launched in 1949 by Christian (Catholic) trade
being a mere member of the Commonwealth, it became a unionists in the asbestos mines ended in victory for the
middle-ranking power, stimulated by the increase in its strikers, backed by journalists, public opinion and even part
population, its proximity to the United States and the of the clergy in the wake of the archbishop of Montreal. In
policy of the federal government. contrast to traditional nationalism, intellectual trends were
The growth in population was striking, rising from emerging that found an outlet in reviews such as Cité Libre,
11.5 million in 1941 to 17.8 million twenty years later, a rise whose contributors openly criticized the sclerosis of power,
of almost 50 per cent, unprecedented in Canada. It was a the clergy’s opposition to change and the conservatism of
result both of immigration and the baby boom. After years society, and called for Quebec to be opened up to the outside
of restrictions and refusal to accept immigrants, including world.
the victims of European dictatorships, immigration reached For its part, the federal government embarked on new
levels unseen since the early twentieth century, with over social programmes that consolidated the welfare state.
100,000 arrivals a year in the late 1950s, and a total of Ottawa intervened in areas previously reserved for the
2 million between 1946 and 1960. A first wave, made up provinces, enhancing its tax-raising capacities, making
mostly of Britons, was followed by a flood of Germans, grants to universities and launching the great Trans-Canada
Greeks, Slavs and Italians. Meanwhile, the baby boom highway that stretched more than 3,000 miles from
ensured that the population was getting younger and opened Newfoundland to Victoria, B. C. This strengthening of
the way for a new generation that would stimulate economic central power was increasingly at the centre of constitutional
and cultural activity. debates.
Industry, now oriented towards civilian activities, Finally, Canada increased its presence on the international
endeavoured to satisfy the boom in consumer demand. Full stage, participating in 1949 in the creation of NATO, which
employment was practically assured, the standard of living offered it the advantage of maintaining its links with the
and expectations were rising, and households were buying former mother-country, while moving closer to the United
cars, household appliances and television sets, following the States. On this basis, Canadian troops were stationed in
American model. Urbanization also accelerated. Despite Germany. It played a much-appreciated role at the United
the prosperity of the agricultural market, rationalization Nations in several peacekeeping operations, in Palestine, on
and mechanization of farms led to a reduction of the rural the Indo-Pakistan border and in Korea. Using their position
population, which found itself alongside the immigrants in as a former colony, devoid of all territorial ambition,
towns that were ever more populous and spread out. In the Canadians provided contingents of Blue Helmets, which
twenty years following the war, the proportion of the were generally well received. Above all, Canadian diplomacy
population that was urban rose from 56 to 76 per cent and, took the initiative of mediating in the conflict over the Suez
in 1961, the rural labour force accounted for only 10 per Canal in 1956, helping both the British and French to gain
cent of those employed. The Montreal agglomeration passed an honourable way out. Canada had become one of the
the 2 million mark, but it was now closely followed by that Great Powers in the world.
of Toronto. The suburbs were much like those of the United
States, with their bungalows, their gardens, and, before
long, their swimming pools and their boredom. The city P a x a m e r i c a n a o r Cold Wa r ?
centres mirrored the continent with its characteristic
division into ethnic districts, each with its own places of Victory in 1945 gave the United States a dominant position
worship, schools, shops and signs in Italian, Yiddish, Greek, in the post-war world and, contrary to what happened in
or Armenian. Communitarianism made its appearance in 1918, it equipped itself with adequate instruments. The
all the big cities, with its counterpart of multiculturalism. broad outlines of this world were worked out in conferences

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held between 1940 and 1945, from the Atlantic Charter to For the time being, people were preoccupied by the perils
the Potsdam talks, and owed much to the ideas of their of a reconversion that proved to be more difficult than the
chief inspiration, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The main one that had followed the Great War. Over 12 million GIs
thrust was to avoid the mistakes of the inter-war period, (for ‘General Issue’) had to be reintegrated into civilian life,
and commit the country boldly to peacekeeping alongside all of whom wanted to get home as soon as possible. Things
its allies, which explains, given the weakness of Europe, the had been changing: thanks to full employment, savings had
upheavals in Asia and the implosion of the colonial empires, accumulated out of money that could not be spent because
the role that external relations played in American life from of rationing and strict measures in support of the war effort,
this time onwards. In 150 years the United States had whereas now, with the return of peace, demand was
become a world power, facing a single rival, the USSR. expanding and stimulating the economy. Finally, in 1944, a
In the logic of unconditional surrender by Germany and significant gesture had transformed the Office of War
Japan, no peace conference followed the end of hostilities: Production into the Office of Mobilization and
the Americans occupied Germany with the Allies; both Reconversion. And above all, in the eyes of its leaders,
countries were deprived of their own governments and possession of the atomic bomb ensured such a degree of
subjected to military rule. This was an unprecedented security that it made possible a speedy return to normal
situation, demanded by the Americans not only to ensure life.
peace but also to establish democracy in the defeated
countries. This occupation became a permanent feature in
the second half of the century, ensuring bases for the victor Towards peace
on every continent.
Demobilization was hastened by the fact that mutinies
had broken out in Germany and the Philippines. Within a
The foundations of power year, the overall armed forces fell from 14.5 to 1.7 million,
and, in the army alone, from 8 to 1 million. Return to
The pax Americana rested on two pillars; one was political, civilian life was assisted by long-term generous initiatives
based on the United Nations and its specialized agencies, such as the GI Bill of Rights in 1944, which enabled
the other was economic and included such institutions as veterans to study at university and obtain loans to purchase
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World a house or farm. Tens of thousands of veterans were thus
Bank. able to enter higher education and contribute to the
The idea of correcting the weaknesses of the League of democratization of society.
Nations by replacing it with an international organization Economic reconversion was based both on needs and
like the United Nations, appeared in the Atlantic Charter demands that had been put on the back burner during the
and took its final form in August 1944, at the conferences at war. The end of price and wage controls triggered a race
Dumbarton Oaks and, following Roosevelt’s death, San between the immediate raising of the former and the rather
Francisco. In between, the idea had been approved by the slower raising of the latter, with waves of strikes in sectors
Big Three at Yalta. The UN’s structure and distribution of such as oil, motor car manufacture, steel and mining. The
powers reflects the influence of the American Constitution, effects of the New Deal’s social policies were reflected in
with an executive represented by the Security Council unprecedented levels of unionization, the number of trade
(11 members, five of them permanent, the United States, unionists having risen by 65 per cent during the war.
the USSR, the United Kingdom, China and France), a Taking advantage of the economic situation, labour
legislature in the shape of a general assembly where organizer Walter Reuther unleashed his United
representatives of all the member states sit, and a judiciary Automobile Workers into the fray, followed by John
in the form of the International Court of Justice. It was Lewis and his miners, who stopped work for two months,
symbolic of the new international order that New York was and finally by railway workers who in the end gave way to
made the permanent home of the United Nations the threat of a federal take-over. This violent social
Secretariat. explosion upset public opinion, which reacted by sending a
It also fell to the United States to prevent the return of Republican majority to Congress in 1946, by adopting
the economic disorder of the inter-war period. The drastic measures to put an end to a situation deemed
international conference at Bretton Woods (July 1944) intolerable, and by regulating the right to strike and
decided to set up an international monetary system, based banning common practices such as the closed shop. Some
in fact on the dollar, which replaced both the gold standard saw this as an attack on the welfare state.
and the gold specie standard. This choice amounted to Meanwhile President Truman openly proclaimed
acknowledging the economic supremacy of the United himself faithful to the tradition of his predecessor, by
States, the main holder of gold in the world. To promote launching his own reform programme called the Fair Deal,
monetary stability, the International Monetary Fund and which he summed up in these words: ‘Every segment of our
its right arm, the World Bank, were established, both with population and every individual has a right to expect from
their headquarters in Washington, in the capital of their our government a fair deal’. A minor, although the most
main ‘shareholder’, the United States. At the same time the promising, aspect of this policy was a new attitude towards
foundations of an international trade organization were laid minorities, African Americans in particular. A Committee
to promote the gradual liberalization of trade, with GATT on Civil Rights, appointed by the president, drew up a
(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and its ‘rounds’ report entitled ‘To secure these rights’, which, without
(Dillon Round, Kennedy Round, Tokyo Round, Uruguay going so far as to make concrete proposals, recommended
Round, etc.). GATT has now been succeeded by the WTO greater protection of individuals by eliminating racial
(World Trade Organization). discrimination.

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On 26 July 1948 the president took advantage of these A defensive agreement among five Western states
recommendations to issue Executive Order 9981, marking (Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and
an unexpected switch in racial policy by putting an end to Luxembourg) followed in 1948. On the initiative of the
segregation in the armed forces. Despite General Bradley’s United States, this agreement was extended the following
warning that ‘The Army is not out to make any social year by the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington
reforms. The Army will not put men of different races in the between the five and seven other nations (Italy, Norway,
same companies. It will change that policy when the nation Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Canada and the United States)
as a whole changes it’, only the Marines resisted. In the end, creating a defence community, NATO (North Atlantic
amalgamation was gradually achieved, facilitated by the Treaty Organization), with both a political and a diplomatic
integration of combat units and operations in Korea, a structure. The door remained open to other members, such
historic ‘first’ for the United States. as Germany or Spain. The New World was coming to the
help of the Old, as also became apparent in America’s
preponderant role in mounting with the British Government
Beginnings of the Cold War a 321-day airlift to sustain the people of Berlin when they
were cut off from the outside world by Soviet blockade.
However, post-war feelings of victory were quickly Defence and security were henceforth at the heart of the
undermined by the fear aroused by the USSR’s political process. Defence was concentrated in a single
intransigence. As early as 1946, Churchill had sounded the secretariat, the Pentagon, which brought together under a
alarm in his Fulton speech, declaring that an ‘iron curtain’ single authority the permanent high command of the Joint
had come down across Europe. The Americans watched Chiefs of Staff and all the armed forces. A National Security
powerless as the Soviets strengthened their grip on the Council (NSC) was set up within the executive branch,
states of eastern Europe, the last to fall being Czechoslovakia assisted by an external intelligence service, the Central
in 1948, while in China, despite their diligent effort, they Intelligence Agency (CIA). However, the explosion of the
had no choice but to accept the downfall of the government first Soviet bomb in 1949 put an end to the illusion of
of Chiang Kai Shek in the face of the successes of the security, and oriented research, spurred on by the physicist
communist Mao Zedong Americans were obsessed by the Edward Teller, towards the making of an even more powerful
communist peril. bomb, the hydrogen bomb, which was first tested in 1952.
These external events weighed heavily on the domestic Even possession of atomic weapons did not guarantee
situation. Faced with Soviet expansionism, a great debate the maintenance of peace. On 23 June 1950, troops of the
raged among the leaders. Progressives, whose spokesman Democratic People’s Republic of Korea invaded their
was the former vice-president, Henry Wallace, stressed southern neighbour. The Americans reacted rapidly, and,
maintaining relations of trust by seeking an agreement with even before the UN intervened, entrusted General
the USSR at any price. Conservatives advocated roll-back, MacArthur with command of the troops. This aggression
resorting to force, which was bound to heighten tensions in heated up the Cold War and the struggle against
a context that was not very favourable to the United States, communism. Following the switch of China into the Soviet
but to resort to atomic weapons. Realists advocated sphere, South Korea was regarded as an essential link, one
containment, according to the line set out by George of the dominos destined to contain the advance of
Kennan in an article in the semi-official journal of Foreign Bolshevism into Southeast Asia.
Affairs in 1947. This was the path Truman chose: ‘I believe In fact, the Korean War was a longer and more painful
it must be the policy of the United States to support free experience than foreseen, marked by unexpected twists and
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed turns: a confused retreat at the beginning, followed by a
minorities or by outside pressures.’ This line, a permanent landing and reconquest, and then an offensive that carried
feature during the Cold War, was followed in both economic the allied troops to the border with China, before a general
and political matters. fallback to a front which became stabilized for two years
Faced with the wretchedness of a Europe under south of the 38th parallel. The Korean War came at a time
continuous Soviet pressure and the slowness of its when Americans thought peace assured and the impact on
reconstruction, the Americans decided to offer direct help. them was all the greater because the losses were heavy
In a still-famous speech delivered at Harvard University’s (33,000 dead, 100,000 wounded). It also brought down the
Commencement in 1947, secretary of state George Marshall Democratic administration in the 1952 presidential
declared: ‘It is logical that the United States should do elections, which paved the way for the Republicans, who
whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal were united around the prestigious figure of General Dwight
economic health in the world, without which there can be D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied
no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is Expeditionary Forces during the Second World War and
directed not against any country or doctrine but against architect of the D-Day landings. One of his first moves was
hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should to conclude an armistice, which actually took things back to
be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to where they had started, since the status quo endorsed the
permit the emergence of political and social conditions in partition of Korea into two separate states.
which free institutions can exist’. The appeal was addressed A war for nothing, and in any event an immense
to all European states without exception; however, when disappointment because, despite their military superiority,
rejection by the USSR led immediately to rejection by all its the Americans had been unable to win. One consequence
satellites, the Marshall Plan was limited to Western Europe was a build-up of armaments; there were also agreements
alone. This plan, comprising both gifts and loans, also drawn up for the establishment of bases in the Mediterranean
included political clauses and the commitment by the sixteen and the Middle East, as well as for admitting Spain,
participating countries to work towards their union. Germany and Turkey into NATO.

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McCarthyism Knock-on effects of this period also affected culture,

with producers becoming more cautious in order to avoid
But the most worrying effects were internal with the renewal becoming targets. A few rare individuals had the courage to
of the ‘witch-hunt’. It had all begun in 1947, with the stand up to the pervasive conformism, such as Arthur
introduction of a ‘loyalty oath’ for federal officials whose Miller, whose 1953 hit, The Witches of Salem, drew its plot
purpose was to exclude everyone suspected of links with so- from a famous historical episode, a witchcraft trial in
called subversive organizations. While the purge was very seventeenth-century Puritan New England, to denounce
limited, a suspicion persisted that saw agents of the the spirit of intolerance that McCarthyism was unleashing.
Cominform infiltrated into government departments, the Two years later, A View from the Bridge reiterated his
media, trade unions and universities. To what extent had rejection of communism, a theme that is also found in Fred
Americans betrayed secrets? Who and where were the Zinnemann’s film High Noon.
guilty ones? Other issues influenced society. The war in Korea had
The first targets were progressive filmmakers and demonstrated the relevance of desegregation in the armed
producers in Hollywood. Many, like Charlie Chaplin, forces, but it remained deeply entrenched in the country. In
Joseph Losey and Jules Dassin chose to leave the country. 1954, the Supreme Court intervened with a decision of
Another favourite target was the State Department, supreme importance. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
suspected of harbouring or having harboured Bolshevik reversed the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, and
sympathizers. One of the most brilliant New Dealers, segregation was declared to be unlawful in public schools,
Alger Hiss, who had accompanied Roosevelt to Yalta, was because it was a denial of the equal protection of the laws.
accused of having passed secret information to the Soviets; Such schools were ordered to ‘desegregate’ with ‘all
his past as a member of the Communist Party made him deliberate speed’. This decision provoked great agitation in
an ideal target. Despite the absence of formal proof, he was the Southern states, which refused to give up an age-old
condemned, and his case allowed a young Congressman practice of strict racial segregation. In Birmingham, in the
from California, Richard Nixon, to begin a long political heart of Alabama, a Black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to
career. More troubling was the case of the Rosenbergs, give up her seat in a bus, and thereby set off an irreversible
accused in 1950 of atomic espionage on behalf of the chain of events. Her simple act of defiance brought to the
Soviets. Of foreign origin and known for their leftist forefront a young minister named Martin Luther King,
sympathies, they were both condemned to death and who was a disciple of Thoreau and Gandhi, and an advocate
executed, despite the cause célèbre they aroused in America, of non-violence. Three years later the ‘Black Revolution’
and even more in Europe, where petitions were signed and began, sparked by the refusal to admit African American
demonstrations organized in their favour. Robert children into a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, where
Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb and a violent confrontation between supporters and opponents
former director of the research laboratory at Los Alamos, of desegregation was only ended by the intervention of
was accused of harbouring communist sympathies and federal troops.
was systematically excluded from sensitive research. He These disturbances coincided with anxieties awakened
called for international supervision of atomic energy and by the first successes of the Soviets in space. The launching
eventually refused to be associated with research on the of Sputnik, in 1957, followed a month later by Sputnik 2,
hydrogen bomb. which carried the first living creature, a dog, highlighted the
Joseph McCarthy, the junior Senator from Wisconsin technological and scientific superiority of the great rival.
who was elected in 1946, has given his name to a current of How had the Soviet Union been able to achieve such an
intolerance based on exploitation of the credulity of a public exploit, when Americans were convinced of their own
ready to see plots everywhere. By ruse and lies, he was able superiority, confirmed by their virtual monopoly of Nobel
to create a climate of suspicion, without ever producing Prizes in physics? Indeed American scientists had been
palpable proof of what he was claiming. Fearing reprisals, nominated 19 times in the inter-war period, mainly in
the media followed him, broadcasting his hearings in the physics (nine), in medicine (seven), and also in chemistry
Senate. Once again, the favoured target was the State (three). In the half-century following the Second World War,
Department, accused of having betrayed the country’s they accentuated their virtual monopoly, being nominated
interests through its most respected members, such as 29 times in physics, 37 in medicine, and 27 in chemistry,
General Marshall, as well as the Democratic Party, which compared with only three for the USSR. It is only fair to
assumed the mantle of Roosevelt, the man of Yalta and point out that several of the winners came originally from
cordial relations with Stalin. Libraries were purged of works foreign countries and, like many others abroad, had been
deemed dangerous, teams scoured cultural centres overseas attracted by the facilities of American universities and
to censor their activities, and individuals hid documents laboratories. The US had an obvious advantage in computer-
that might compromise them. Immigration control was based sciences and had put the emphasis on R&D (Research
strengthened by the requirement to swear never to have and Development), while the Soviets had favoured
belonged to the Communist Party or been a member of a fundamental sciences.
‘subversive organization’. A moral panic descended on the Nevertheless, the Soviets had beaten them into space.
country, without the authorities daring to intervene. In the This shock set off two reactions. Conscious of shortcomings
end, it was McCarthy’s own excesses that doomed him: the in their education system (many of the best scholars were
broadcast, on television, of his Congressional hearings foreign-born, as had been shown in the development of
revealed the man’s coarseness and the emptiness of his the atomic bomb), they decided to use grants and
evidence. Censured by the Senate, he later took to the bottle scholarships to encourage the teaching of sciences and
and disappeared into obscurity, leaving behind a sombre foreign languages. Above all, they reacted by creating,
heritage of fears and denunciations. under civilian and not military control, a specialized

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administration, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space the values of American society and were the source of a
Administration), with broad powers and a large budget, wave of reforms on a scale reminiscent of and even surpassing
entrusted with the task of developing research on space the New Deal.
and laying the groundwork for the launching of rockets. These changes took place in the context created by the
Yet it took many years for the United States to catch up return to power of the Democrats in 1961, with the young,
and be the first to land on the Moon. brilliant, dynamic President John F. Kennedy, who,
Fidel Castro’s accession to power, following his overthrow surrounded by a team of intellectuals and people of action,
of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, represented a different launched the New Frontier programme. His inaugural
threat, one located just a few kilometres off Florida’s coast. speech recalls that of Roosevelt in 1933: ‘The torch has been
Democracy had at first seemed to win out on the island, passed to a new generation of Americans’. He called for a
when the nationalization of oil installations, plus loans from ‘grand and global alliance [against] the common enemies of
the USSR, precipitated a breach. The new regime became man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself … The energy,
more and more anti-American amid moves to a centrally the faith, the devotion which we bring in this endeavour will
controlled society on the Soviet model, precipitating the light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from
emigration of tens of thousands of refugees to the mainland. that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow
The island of Cuba threatened to become a forward base of Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask
the Soviets, putting them within easy reach of the North what you can do for your country.’ Americans were called
American mainland. upon to act, and to extend their action to the world. A myth
These dark moments should not be allowed to obscure was thereby created around the personality of the young
the material advances of Americans during those years of president, both because he appeared someone out of the
prosperity, when the standard of living was rising steadily as ordinary by his willingness to innovate and because his
a result of continuous growth that only experienced its first assassination in Dallas made him the martyr of a tragedy
hiccups at the end of the period. The middle class, the that still remains mysterious. While it cannot be denied
backbone of society, emerged from it strengthened and that he got the country out of a certain torpor and that he
enlarged, borne along by the development of education and thus imprinted on it the taste for action, his achievements
tertiary activities (middle- and higher-ranking personnel), remain rather limited.
at the expense of agriculture and industrial jobs, which The war on poverty and the battle for civil rights
faced competition from Japan in advanced technology, and encapsulate his commitment. The revelation of poverty in a
from Third World countries for the primary sector. But society of abundance owes much to the impact of the book
this prosperity did not benefit either the poorest, whose by Michael Harrington, The Other America, published in
proportion stagnated at around 22 per cent, nor the Native 1962. There was indeed another America, the America of
American and African American minorities. In reality, old people who struggled to survive on their pension, the
opulence masked a more and more unequal society, within America of the disinherited, the America of the
which a small, rich minority owned almost half the country’s underdeveloped areas, the America of the minorities, the
assets, worth more than the whole middle class. Social America revealed by the label ‘poverty threshold’, below
contrasts were thus accentuated, leaving the fate of the most which an American could not live a decent life. But lobbies
disadvantaged unanswered. laid siege to Congress, so that the reforms in the end
amounted to limited measures in favour of farmers, old
people, regions hit by de-industrialization and education.
T h e ag e of p r o t e s t

Even in the euphoria of the post-war period, the signs of The struggle for civil rights
profound changes affecting both the domestic scene and
international relations were already perceptible. The The American Government responded to the Black
beginnings of the Black Revolution, the discovery of poverty, Revolution with a determination to fight against racial
competition in space with the USSR and Castro’s presence segregation by guaranteeing civil rights to minorities. The
in Cuba, all these plunged the United States into a series of way had been set out by associations such as the NAACP
upheavals. (National Association for the Advancement of Colored
Externally, the spectre of communism called for an active People), founded in 1909, and CORE (Congress of Racial
policy which, far from being limited to territorial issues, Equality), founded in Chicago in 1942 to promote the
extended to arms control and nuclear proliferation, both integration of Black Americans attracted by the labour
threats to the fragile balance between the two great powers. shortage. The first upheavals of the 1950s refined the forms
More than ever, the domino theory reigned, in the fear that of non-violent action, which ranged from boycotts to sit-
the fall of one or another of them might make the whole ins, such as when African American students insisted on
edifice collapse. This fear explains the commitment of the sitting at a Whites-only counter. This precedent was
Americans to Viet Nam, the ultimatum to Cuba and the quickly taken up all over the South, where segregation
opening of negotiations with the USSR on the control of continued to be in force in public establishments, in
nuclear weapons. particular in restaurants. The freedom rides followed,
On the domestic scene, the unleashing of the Black whose chief target was segregation on public transport.
Revolution was premonitory of convulsions which engulfed Another target was represented by the universities, which
ethnic minorities and social groups one after the other – remained one of the most tenacious bastions of segregation
African Americans, Native Peoples, Hispanics, in the South. The number of incidents rose, forcing many
homosexuals, students, women, etc. Their demands, onto to be admitted under police guard or to give up in the face
which was grafted the new treatment of poverty, challenged of such a hostile reception.

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The civil rights movement culminated in 1963 with the voting rolls. There too, repeated conflicts often accompanied
celebration of the centenary of Lincoln’s Proclamation for freedom rides aimed to guarantee Blacks the right to vote.
the Emancipation of Slaves. Following violent incidents In the end the Black Revolution ran out of steam,
in Birmingham, in the heart of the Deep South, some revealing the diversity of African American society. A
250,000 people gathered in Washington on 28 August to middle class had come into being, made up of public
demonstrate their support for civil rights. Martin Luther servants, shopkeepers, professionals or businessmen, who
King, one of the organizers, gave his most moving speech: dissociated themselves from violence and excesses to move
‘I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live closer to the White majority. At the bottom of the social
up to the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths ladder, the most disadvantaged groups saw their lot worsen,
to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. I have a because of unemployment, illiteracy (the ill effects of
dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of dropping out of school) and the breakdown of the family
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be unit (single-parent families are proportionally more
able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood ... I numerous among Blacks). Despite every effort, the ghettos,
have a dream that my four little children will one day live in far from disappearing, remained at the centre of many social
a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their problems, and even criminal networks.
skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream
today ... Black men and White men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and Other protests
sing in the words of the old Black spiritual, ‘‘Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last’’’! This prophetic Black Power found an echo in the Red Power of the Native
vision electrified the crowd and earned the organizers a Peoples who fuelled another protest. This forgotten
reception at the White House. The non-violence movement minority, some living on reservations mostly situated in
was then at its peak, as was the popularity of Martin Luther remote areas of the West, but others in cities, had been all
King. But the aftermath was disappointing, as there was no but exterminated. During the twentieth century, their
immediate advance. Confrontations, far from being limited numbers underwent a striking revival: from 300,000 in 1900,
to the South, became more numerous, all over the country. they grew to 3 million a century later. In 1924, the Indian
African Americans saw no improvement in their everyday Citizenship Act gave Native Americans American
lot, indeed quite the reverse, as a hardening was apparent citizenship and the right to vote. However, they remained
on both sides, and demands grew louder. In those hot marginalized, being placed under the tutelage of the Bureau
summers, it was the turn of the ghettos in the North to of Indian Affairs (BIA), notorious for its corruption and
burn: Harlem in 1964, the following year Los Angeles and inefficiency. In the early 1950s, the government inaugurated
Chicago, Newark (New Jersey) in 1967 and above all a new policy, of so-called ‘termination’, granting the tribes
Detroit, under martial law for several days, and then again wide autonomy, which was difficult for them to take on
Chicago in 1968, during the Democratic Party convention. because of their lack of preparation and shortage of money.
The rising numbers of violent outbreaks reflected the The second half of the century saw a renaissance of Indian
radicalization of the Black Revolution. The assassination of culture, which the cinema provides the best approach to:
Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968 marked the from being a foe or a victim, the Indian became a hero, even
turning point. The slogans changed, the rallying call now a model. At the same time, protests mounted, which gave
being ‘Black Power’ and ‘Black is beautiful’. The movement rise to spectacular actions, such as the occupation of the
hardened under the influence of Marxist ideas, which islet of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay, in 1969, of the BIA,
attributed all the misfortunes of the Black minority to the in Washington, in 1972, and the siege of Wounded Knee,
evils of capitalism. In California, the Black Panthers the high point of Indian resistance, in 1973. This movement,
emerged in 1966, with Stokely Carmichael and Huey Long inspired by the works of Vine Deloria and Dee Brown,
advocating violent struggle and separatism. For their part, expressed itself through the AIM (American Indian
the Black Muslims defended a strictly community line, Movement), founded in 1970, which called for the return of
which would consist in making Blacks a Muslim nation confiscated lands to the Indians. There were increasing
within the Union. It was from their ranks that emerged one numbers of court proceedings, with a number of successes,
Malcolm X, the only charismatic leader who might have as in Maine and California. Indian society was becoming
succeeded Martin Luther King, but he too was murdered. more diverse, the most enterprising going into business,
Although high up in Kennedy’s New Frontier especially oil and operating casinos on their own land, while
programme, equal rights met stiff resistance in Congress, the vast majority continued to eke out a living in poverty
and it fell to Lyndon Johnson, the promoter of the Great and idleness.
Society, to get them passed into law. Under President Mexican Americans (or Chicanos) too began to protest,
Johnson segregation was outlawed in public places and especially in the southwestern states, from Texas to
employers were required to give equal treatment to all California. The rapid development of this area, due to both
workers. All discrimination in the exercise of the right to industry (oil and derivatives) and plantations, attracted
vote was abolished, and it was placed under federal labour across a very porous border. Farm workers found a
supervision. In practice, however, two difficulties arose. The leader in Cesar Chavez, who, between 1964 and 1969,
first related to admission to schools, where discrimination denounced working conditions for agricultural labourers,
continued to be applied illegally. Numerous conflicts, often organized strikes and secured the support of consumers in a
violent, broke out in the North as well as the South, with boycott of fruit and vegetables from California. The
parents feeling that the admission of minorities lowered the Chicanos’ protest underlined the inexorable rise of Spanish-
standards of education. The second had to do with Southern speakers, whose main demand focused on the place of
Whites’ monopoly over elections, thanks to their control of language in education.

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Women too played an active role in this wave of protest. as C. Wright Mill’s Letter to the New Left, or Paul Goodman’s
They had won the right to vote in federal elections in 1920, Growing Up Absurd. By advocating rejection of the consumer
but it was not always the same in states and municipalities. society and of middle-class values, the cult of individualism
They continued to be little represented in active life, whether and the promotion of minorities, in short the right to be
in politics (among the few exceptions, at the higher level, different, it linked up with the philosophical line of thought
were Frances Perkins, Labour Secretary from 1933 to 1945, distantly derived from Freud, but in fact owing more to the
and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, who acted as such interpretation given in Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and
during and after the mandate of her husband), or in business. Civilization (1956), a book more often cited than read.
In the middle class, they were much more involved in clubs What the youth of the time got from it was the cult of the
and church activities or spent their time managing the body to attain true happiness, at the price of using soft
household. After the war, where they had played a drugs such as marijuana, or even hallucinogenics, such as
prominent role in the economy, they lost their jobs and LSD, and the rejection of all sexual taboos. Many young
were sent back to their kitchens and babies, victims of their people were attracted to communal living, preferably far
lack of qualification. They complained also of the away from any form of civilization, as well as in urban
discrimination they met with in professional life, as well as pockets such as Greenwich Village in New York, Venice
of their legal inferiority. Things began to change in the 1960s West in Los Angeles or Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.
when they entered in colleges and universities in great The university protest movement took shape in a
numbers and obtained degrees qualifying them for active movement called the SDS (Students for a Democratic
professional lives in medicine or law, research, university Society), founded in 1960 by two former students of the
teaching, or business. At the same time, the availability of a University of Michigan, Al Haber and Tom Hayden.
contraceptive pill made it easier for women to juggle their Hayden was the author of the platform known as the Port
personal and professional lives. As a consequence, the age of Huron Statement, from the name of the city where it was
marriage and first pregnancy was gradually postponed, drafted. Its base was participatory democracy, in other
allowing women to get better jobs, higher salaries and words intervention by students in the running of
extended independence. universities. The SDS was very active and noisy on
Their frustrations were expressed in a pamphlet by Betty campuses, even if it only won the support of a minority,
Friedan, which appeared in 1963, The Feminine Mystique, and took advantage of the popularity of the counter-culture
followed by the creation of NOW (National Organization to attack the university hierarchy. But its favourite target
for Women), whose rallying-cry was: ‘to take action to was the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps), accused
bring women into full participation in the mainstream of of training personnel for the Viet Nam War. Between
American society now.’ This was followed by marches, often 1965 and 1970 there were violent clashes, in California,
noisy and colourful, to demand full equality of rights, along Michigan, Wisconsin, Harvard, and Columbia (New York
with gestures such as ‘bra-burning’ and the public rejection City), where the police attacked a building that had been
of underwear, as a symbol of male domination. occupied by students, and finally at Kent State (Ohio),
The feminist protest met with relative success. More where four students were killed in a clash. The centre of
women entered professional life and they gradually rose to protest continued to be in California, because of its
responsible positions as lawyers, doctors, academics or proximity to the ports where troops embarked for Viet
executives. One of their key demands, the right to abortion, Nam. This revolt of university youth had lasting
was won in 1973, by the decision in Roe v. Wade. But this consequences that included greater mixing of the sexes, an
aroused anger in religious and conservative circles, which opening to minorities, the creation of ethnic studies
regarded abortion as a crime and organized punitive attacks programmes and, more generally, a new stage in the
on clinics and doctors involved in terminating pregnancies. democratization of education.
Since then, the issue of abortion has continued to divide The demands of minorities found a partial response in
American society. On the other hand, although adopted by the Great Society: in addition to the protection of civil and
Congress in 1972, the Twenty-seventh Amendment granting voting rights, there was social protection for old people
equal rights (ERA, Equal Rights Amendment) failed in 1982 (Medicare) and poor people (Medicaid) and the creation of
due to lack of ratification by the states before the deadline, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to combat
with opposition coming chiefly from the more conservative discrimination in employment, not only on the basis of race
South. In a country that sees itself as the showcase of (African Americans, Indians, Hispanics, Asians), but also
democracy, women are still not equal to men. A strong sign, of sex (women), giving them equal access to all jobs (public
however, is their presence in non-combatant units of the works, minority-owned businesses) and education. It paved
army, where in 1980 they accounted for almost 10 per cent of the way to a new concept, that of affirmative action, which
total numbers and by 2003 had risen to nearly 20 per cent. gave preference to minorities for jobs and admission to
The cause of defending racial minorities mobilized a universities. This was not deemed contrary to the spirit of
section of youth, especially in colleges, and led to serious the Constitution, given that there were no rigid quotas of
agitation in some of the most prestigious campuses. admission. Along the same lines, busing was designed to
Previously confined within the calm of campuses often cut enable disadvantaged children to pursue their education in
off from the outside world, the new generation, that of the better schools, even if they were further from their homes.
post-war baby boom, reacted against this conformism and Such were the means to promote racial equality in a society
found a response in the counter-culture, which drew on based on a tradition of prejudices.
both the ideology of the New Left and ideas derived from The Supreme Court upheld the validity of this new
the Freudian tradition course in a famous decision of 1978 (Bakke vs University of
The New Left grew from the encounter between California), concerning a ‘reverse discrimination’ case in
progressivism and Marxism, as represented in such works which a less-qualified minority applicant was admitted to

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medical school at the expense of a more qualified White exchange rates that, when combined with repeated oil
applicant. shocks, led to economic instability and unemployment.
Reformist ambitions and the spirit of protest quickly ran
up against international realities. Already, in 1961, Kennedy
had found himself caught up in the Cuban quagmire after Watergate
the failure of the Bay of Pigs landing. The following year,
the installation of Soviet missiles on the island provoked a A domestic crisis emerged on top of the international
serious crisis that almost degenerated into war between the malaise. After President Richard Nixon had been
two superpowers. But the decisive game was played out in triumphantly re-elected in 1972, he was soon caught up in
Viet Nam. the Watergate scandal, an unprecedented electoral spying
affair at the expense of the Democrats. This affair, which
for two years poisoned all political life, became public
The Vietnam War knowledge thanks to the persistence of several stubborn
and curious journalists. Although the president used
As faithful adepts of the domino theory, the United States repeated delaying tactics, the crisis threatened to lead to his
had replaced the French in this sensitive area, threatened impeachment. Rather than face that risk, he decided to
by communist expansionism. ‘I shall not be the president resign on 8 August 1974.
who sees South Viet Nam take the same route as China’, That marked the end of a constitutional crisis
once declared Lyndon Johnson. In the early 1960s, the unprecedented in American history. Presidents had died in
Americans had sent military advisers to help the South office (Harding in 1923, Roosevelt in 1945), others had
Viet Namese set up an army, when a series of incidents been assassinated (Lincoln, McKinley, Kennedy), only one
drew them into a new phase of containing Vietcong (Andrew Johnson) had actually had to face (successfully)
infiltration. Caught up in a vicious circle, they found trial by impeachment, but none had yet voluntarily resigned
themselves dragged in deeper and deeper, as the numbers to escape prosecution, which was moreover immediately
of their troops there rose from 185,000 in 1965 to 536,000 in halted by the general pardon granted by his successor,
1968, on the grounds that they had to face up to the Gerald Ford. This resignation put an end to half a century
communist threat coming from the north. Despite direct of ‘imperial presidency’ or ‘presidential republic’. In the
participation in operations on the ground, massive future, Congress would take its revenge by strengthening its
bombardments of cities, the use of defoliants in the jungle control and thereby re-establishing the balance, intended by
to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail, along which communist the Constitution, between the legislative and executive
forces were infiltrating into the south, the American branches. Institutions had indeed held up well, but
strategy of massive attack proved ineffective against the American confidence was profoundly shaken by this long
adversary’s guerrilla war, which inf licted heavy losses series of tribulations.
(almost 50,000 dead and 300,000 wounded). Public opinion Politically, there was a new ball game. The Roosevelt
reacted with a wave of massive, violent demonstrations, coalition, based on an alliance among Democrats, minorities
which brought together, in a single movement, protesters and progressives, had fallen apart. While up until then, the
and pacifists, hampering the departure of troops and the Democratic Party had had a rock-solid base in the South,
loading of equipment in the ports in the West. Once elected which held the Republican Party – the party of Lincoln, the
president, R ichard Nixon opted for a new line, party of abolitionism – responsible for its misfortunes, it
‘Vietnamization’, the transfer of responsibilities to the now lost this support. The South joined the Republican
South Viet Namese Government. The American presence Party, victorious in the elections at the end of the century in
fell from 475,000 men in 1969 to 23,500 in 1972, the year many Southern states, such as Texas or Florida.
that saw the effective end of fighting. But these agitated years were crowned by one major
Negotiations, opened in Paris as early as 1968, proved achievement: ‘we walked on the Moon’. Galvanized by the
especially delicate for the Americans as they had no cards initial successes of the Soviets, Kennedy had given a sharp
to play to secure an honourable way out. In May 1972, new push to the space programme. NASA devoted
secretary of state Henry Kissinger announced that peace us$24 billion to it, employing 300,000 technicians, a project
was at last within reach, but it was only at the beginning of far bigger than the Manhattan Project. There were three
1973 that an agreement was signed, practically on the basis successive programmes, Mercury from 1961 to 1964, then
of the status quo, since it confirmed the continued division Gemini, and finally Apollo, designed to put a man on the
of Viet Nam into two states. The agreement was illusory: Moon. On 16 July 1969, flight Apollo XI took off from
two years later, the fragile Republic of South Viet Nam Cape Kennedy, in Florida, with a Saturn V rocket that
collapsed. carried three astronauts – Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins
The Viet Nam War left an enduring mark on the United and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin – in a Columbia capsule, along
States as it was the country’s first defeat (apart from the with their lunar module, which separated as the satellite
War of 1812). It suffered an unprecedented humiliation approached to land on the Sea of Tranquillity on 20 July.
that undermined its credit in the eyes of its allies, destroyed This exploit, watched by hundreds of thousands of television
the national consensus and confidence in institutions and viewers, unleashed enthusiasm and seemed to inaugurate a
humiliated the Democratic Party, held responsible for the new era for humanity, the age of space travel.
disaster. The effects were no less harmful economically: for In the following years, six more flights were sent to the
the first time since the New Deal, the dollar, the international Moon, and Americans began to coordinate their
monetary standard, had to be devalued by some 25 per cent, experiments with those of the Soviets. Thus, in 1975, two
throwing into question the whole Bretton Woods system. rockets, the American Apollo and the Soviet Soyuz,
From now on, the world moved in a system of floating rendezvoused in space by docking with each other, and

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then going on to resume their orbit and land separately. For in this ‘new economy’ based on informatics that the wealth
scientists, the results were very rewarding, but these and risk inherent in innovation were concentrated.
operations were costly and interest in them eventually American economic supremacy was based on a vigorous
declined. NASA set itself to studying other technologies, commercial policy deliberately focused on trade
such as orbital stations to serve as platforms for the study liberalization, using the World Trade Organization, where
of space and reusable shuttles, Orbiter – Challenger, the United States found itself in conflict with both Europe
Discovery, Atlantis and Columbia – which were used to and developing countries. At the same time, it was promoting
make trips to and from Earth. These tools proved to be very a unified continental market: in 1988, after long negotiations
effective, but dangerous, and following the explosion of the with Canada, an agreement provided for the gradual
Challenger shuttle with its crew and because of the high elimination of tariff barriers between the two countries,
costs of the operations, the space programme was severely which was later extended to the whole North American
cut back. Essentially, only its military aspects continued, continent, by the adhesion of Mexico (NAFTA, North
and that meant that control of space became a strategic American Free Trade Agreement) and with the hope of a
objective, as essential for the future of the United States as rapprochement with the countries of Latin America, some
control of the seas. of which were already associated in Mercosur.
Politically, Democrats and Republicans alternated in
power, to the advantage of the latter. Among both liberals
Fin de siècle and conservatives, the welfare state was more and more
criticized, in the name of freedom of enterprise and a return
The last two decades of the century saw America faced with to the country’s traditional values. It was criticized for being
a new series of challenges, with alternating successes and costly, for burdening the budget with useless expense, for
setbacks. Americans recovered their confidence with the hampering individual initiative and for distorting the market
upbeat presidency of Ronald Reagan and the fall of the economy.
Soviet regime. The Cold War was soon no more than a Political parties were losing their influence over citizens,
memory and, according to university professor Francis as shown by the steady decline in voter participation in
Fukuyama, ‘the end of history’ was in sight. But was this not elections. The South became a Republican stronghold,
simply a deceptive illusion? minorities other than African Americans swung between
The absence of a major economic crisis stimulated Democrats and Republicans, and options in foreign policy
technological progress and its practical applications. The (Israel, the Middle East, etc.) led to swings. The age of
country did suffer recessions, the most serious one being in protest was over, and new schools of thought had emerged.
1982–84, but it was immediately followed by the longest The liberal tradition, hitherto all-pervasive in its many
and most sustained period of expansion ever seen. The variants, and the New Left of the 1960s were overtaken by
number of jobs more than doubled, consumption exploded, the rise of neo-conservatism, which took shape in a New
and the population kept on growing. Innovation played a Right. This marked more than the arrival of a new
major role in this boom period. A new industry, the space generation, it also represented the convergence of a religious
industry, was born, a field in which the United States revival and a return to the sources. Revivals, a recurrent
reigned supreme. As with the application of nuclear power feature of the American past, met with new fervour, Jerry
for electricity production and the use of jet engines in civil Falwell replacing Billy Graham before attentive and
aviation, so once again it was defence research that led to enthusiastic crowds, whose image was now picked up by
civilian applications. But unlike in the USSR, technical television and the electronic church. The favourite targets
progress was put in the service of the consumer. were divorce, and, in the fashion of the times, homosexuals,
The most promising innovation was informatics, the abortion and prayer in public schools. This new right drew
first achievements of which date back to mid-century. In on the think tanks, of which there were more and more,
the 1960s, assembly line production began, and then, in the such as the Brookings Institution, and spread the ideas of
1980s, came personal computers (PCs), which made the Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz and Michael Novak on
computer an indispensable item of equipment in all society and the economy. State control, which only served
American homes. Finally, the creation of the Internet the new class (intellectuals, bureaucrats, functionaries,
totally transformed the world of communication at the etc.), must be pruned back in favour of individual energies.
expense of the printed word and social relations. Informatics Economic thought was renewed by the supply theory:
became the engine of the American economy, as electricity contrary to ideas common since Adam Smith, it is not
and the motor car had been in the 1920s, Silicon Valley and demand that generates growth but supply. Therefore the
Route 128 supplanted Detroit, and Microsoft, General consumer must be freed from the burdens put on him,
Electric. The computer became as much a necessity as the especially taxation, and, to achieve that, state expenditures
motor car, and the Internet as the telephone. A whole must be cut back. This represented the repudiation of
industrial sector developed, accompanied by its inevitable Keynesianism, and its origin lay in California, where a
subcontracting, which attracted many young dynamic referendum had successfully put a ceiling on property taxes.
entrepreneurs into software, whose advances ensured the In the future, benefits would go, not to the disadvantaged,
good health of the market. The wave of optimism was such but to the classes that generated prosperity.
that serious minds went so far as to predict, somewhat A new approach, deregulation, was thus launched during
prematurely, the end of economic cycles and crises. The the presidency of Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, in transport
financial markets took off, to the greater profit of the golden and banking. Air transport was the first to be ‘deregulated’,
boys and traders who fuelled the speculative bull market and perverse effects were at once apparent, with the closing
and nurtured the illusion of endless expansion. Quick of the least-profitable routes. The price war certainly benefited
fortunes were unmade as fast as they had been made. It was consumers, and promoted the rise of low-cost companies, at

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the expense of traditional companies, some of the most claim a double origin. Even though that represents barely
prestigious of which collapsed in the storm. The sole 3 per cent of the population, the response is still significant
exception to this deregulation was rail transport, permanently of the trend towards laying claim to one’s difference.
in the red, which was partly reorganized in a covert The debate over multiculturalism has been recently
nationalization, which took a hybrid form in Amtrak. In reactivated by Samuel P. Huntington, when speaking to
banking, the distinction, introduced at the time of the New ‘the clash of civilizations’, in the world as well as in the US.
Deal, between deposit banks and commercial banks was For him, the main threat in this country is the rise of the
abolished, which led to reorganization of this whole sector Hispanic community, which has recently out-numbered
and bank mergers. Deregulation also put an end to the the African American (40 versus 36 million). As Hispanics
monopoly of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), possess a specific culture and speak a different language,
thereby totally transforming the telecommunications sector. Huntington fears for the unity of the country, as he states:
The main standing divergence between the two parties ‘Will the United States remain a country with a single
was over the extension of medical coverage, regarded as one national language and a core Anglo-Protestant culture? By
of the means of fighting poverty. Part of the Great Society ignoring this question, Americans acquiesce to their eventual
programme of Lyndon Johnson was taken up by the two transformation into two peoples with two cultures (Anglo
Democratic presidents, Carter and above all Clinton, who and Hispanic) and two languages (English and Spanish)’.
fought, vainly, for a further extension and failed in the face And yet, the trend shows that Hispanics assimilate as
of Congressional procrastination and obstruction by the quickly as other minorities and that the second generation
powerful lobby of the American Medical Association. speaks English rather than Spanish.
Ronald Reagan associated his presidency with Indeed, this debate is not new. The motto E Pluribus
‘Reaganomics’, a policy that consisted in simplifying the tax Unum, which originally symbolized unity in diversity, is
system and reducing direct taxes for the well-off, by cutting now being given a new interpretation, the origins of which
social expenditures and handling responsibility for it over to can be traced back to the German-American philosopher
the states. This was followed by a sharp economic revival, a Horace M. Kallen, who had discussed this particular
reduction in unemployment, which fell from a peak of feature of American society as early as 1924 in his book
10 per cent in 1982 to 6 per cent in 1987, a growth rate as Culture and Democracy in the United States: Studies in the
high as 3 per cent and the creation of hundreds of thousands Group Psychology of the American Peoples. In the xenophobic
of jobs. Reagan was thus credited with the success of a neo- context of the time (rise of nativism, revival of the Ku Klux
liberal policy, which however excluded the agricultural Klan, restrictive immigration laws) he was already speaking
sector, supported by massive subsidies. One fly in the of American peoples, defending the idea of a ‘cultural
ointment was the worsening of the trade deficit, which pluralism’. Kallen’s aim was to defend immigrant
became a permanent feature after 1986 because of a massive communities, referring to the Declaration of Independence,
rise in imports of manufactured goods, but this deficit was which proclaimed the equality of all beings, including those
made up by the issue of Treasury bonds, made attractive by who belonged to a different culture, like Blacks or Native
the exchange rate of the dollar, which had once again become Peoples. The notions of double a l leg iance and
the dominant currency sought after worldwide. multiculturalism are thus already implicit in his analysis,
even if they are not officially acknowledged. American
society has shifted from the melting pot to the salad bowl.
From melting pot to salad bowl This theme of basic ethnic differences reappeared at several
times, especially in the turmoil of the 1960s, and was taken
Beyond these everyday ups and downs, the recent evolution over by various observers, among them Michael Novak,
of American society gives ground for puzzlement, insofar as whose The Rise of Unmeltable Ethnics (1971) became a best-
the melting pot has been relegated to the rank of a myth of seller as well as a symbol.
another age to be replaced by a new vision, popularly known By the end of the century, American society had changed,
as the salad bowl, diversity and multiculturalism at the under the impact of the diversification of immigrants, the
expense of fusion. push of ethnic or identity demands and the rise of
In a book published in 1991, the historian Arthur M. individualism. Anglo-Saxon cultures, which used to serve as
Schlesinger, Jr. deplored this Disuniting of America, criticizing mould and reference, is now faced with other successful
the moral cowardice of ‘a strident multiculturalism’ and the cultures, African American culture, which has enabled
way American schools had abandoned their mission of Blacks to recover their pride, or that of Mexican Americans,
educating a nation. According to him, multiculturalism who assert their singularity above all through their language.
threatens the very future of democracy because of lack of More generally, the children of European immigrants, be
knowledge of the past and rejection of traditional values. they Irish, Italian, Greek, Russian, Jewish or other, remain
Another historian, David Hollinger, in Postethnic America: faithful to their own cultural traditions. Finally, the recent
Beyond Multiculturalism (1995), presents American society immigration of Asians, Viet Namese, Cambodians, Hong
as an ‘ethno-racial pentagon’, with five segments: Indians, Kongers etc. has introduced a new variant into this cultural
Euro-Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and kaleidoscope. The Fourth of July continues of course to be
Latinos. Thus he was taking up, in a slightly different form, celebrated as the national festival, but it does not rule out
the categories of the 1990 census, in which Americans were either St Patrick’s Day, especially in Chicago, where the
asked to specify the ‘race’ to which they belonged, which is river is coloured green in honour of green Erin, or the
a clear indication that this notion was officially recognized. Chinese New Year in the Chinatowns, or the Cinco de
The 2000 census went even further, adding a sixth race, that Mayo for Mexican Americans, or Columbus Day for Italian
of Hawaiians, and introducing a new category, that of more Americans, or, more recently, Martin Luther King Day for
than one ethnic origin, as more than 7 million Americans African Americans.

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For years, recognition of multiculturalism was aided by anti-Sovietism became tempered with realism, the rhetoric
affirmative action, which made it possible to better integrate of the empire of evil disappeared from his speeches: in 1989,
representatives of minorities into society. It is true that the Berlin Wall came down and the Warsaw Pact was
eventually a reaction began to be felt in sensitive states such dissolved. This return to detente continued under George
as California and Texas. But even if its application there has Bush, who, in 1991, reached an agreement on arms limitation,
disappeared legally, affirmative action has become a habit, and cooperation in space was stepped up.
especially in the selection of students and even more in The collapse of the Soviet empire created a totally novel
businesses, which have made enormous efforts to diversify situation, making the United States the sole superpower in
their workforce. American society has moved to the stage of a unipolar world whose security seemed lastingly assured.
multiculturalism, as witnesses the pride in being a But that was an illusion, for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in
hyphenated American. 1990 challenged the status quo and called forth an immediate
reaction from the United States, which, at the head of a
coalition empowered by the United Nations, undertook the
The end of the Cold War liberation of Kuwait, while refusing to push as far as
Baghdad. The United States was also involved in the long
Events in the outside world have rather blurred this Balkan conflict that followed the disintegration of
evolution. When he came to power, Reagan had to erase the Yugoslavia; and, as a result of its mediation, a compromise
humiliation that Americans had just suffered in Iran, where, was signed at Dayton. The superpower thus saw itself
after the fall of the shah, in 1979, Islamic militants had entrusted with peace missions in various parts of the world,
invaded the American embassy, holding its occupants which dragged it willy-nilly into conflicts that were poorly
hostage for several months. After Carter’s fiasco in his understood by the public. For Americans, the fall of
attempt to secure their freedom, the last of them left Tehran Bolshevism came to mean an increase in interventions that
only as the new president took office. made them into the firemen of the world order.
But what Reagan inherited was not by any means all The persistence of threats led to constantly rising military
negative. Detente, already initiated under Nixon, had expenditures at the expense of social ones and the permanent
continued under Carter, who had signed the SALT deployment of American troops all over the globe: some
(Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) agreements with the 250,000 Americans are permanently stationed in Western
USSR, put an end to the old dispute with the Republic of Europe, the Balkans, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Korea
Panama by handing the Canal Zone over to it on certain and Japan, without mentioning the financial aid, for military
conditions, and had got personally involved in the Middle purposes, given to allies in the Middle East or the war on
East conflict by sponsoring the Camp David Accords drugs in Latin America. A virtual American empire has
between the Egyptian Sadat and the Israeli Begin. But come into being.
detente, which seemed finally to be taking root in that And threats of a new kind were emerging from ‘rogue
sensitive area, was soon called into question by a resurgence states’. Several attacks had already been aimed at American
of nationalist passions. targets abroad: tourists on a cruise in the Mediterranean
Moreover, the USSR’s intervention in Afghanistan, in had been attacked, a bomb had exploded in a Pan Am plane
late 1979, had awakened the spectre of Soviet expansion in which crashed in Scotland in 1996, a booby-trapped lorry
the rear of the oil-exporting Middle East, unstable as it had killed American soldiers in Saudi Arabia in 1998,
was and whose main consumers of oil were the Americans. American embassies in Kenya and the United Republic of
The Cold War seemed to take on a new lease of life, Tanzania had been bombed. The source of the evil lay in
pushing Reagan at once to adopt its style and language, terrorism, emerging from countries that, for one reason or
lambasting the ‘empire of evil’. In reality, the Republican another, cultivate anti-Americanism.
administration, blinded by decades of Cold War, was so The United States is now faced with terror on its own
unable to detect the weakening of the Soviet empire that it soil. In 1994, in New York, a first attack was made on the
made no effort at all to take advantage of it. Indeed, quite World Trade Center, a symbol of triumphant capitalism,
the reverse, it strengthened its military potential with a failing to damage the structure, but causing many casualties.
massive increase in the defence budget, which ended up The following year, an explosion destroyed a federal building
higher than during the Viet Nam War. It involved every in Oklahoma City, and again questions were asked as to the
branch: the navy, which had to confront its Soviet rival in motivation for the attack. The sense of insecurity that
full expansion, the air force, which secured the new bomber overtook Americans culminated in the attacks of Tuesday,
it had long been calling for in vain, and the special forces, 11 September 2001, when terrorists hijacked commercial
while Pershing missiles were installed in Europe causing airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in
friction within NATO. But the novelty was the launching New York City. The twin towers collapsed in a cloud of
of a controversial and very expensive project to protect flames and ashes, claiming several thousand lives. Another
American territory with a nuclear shield, which reignited a plane crashed into the Pentagon, setting fire to one of its
ruinous arms race, of questionable effectiveness, and, in wings, while a fourth, doubtless intended for the White
the end, fatal to the USSR. House, crashed in Pennsylvania. For Americans, it was a
But the coming to power of Gorbachev, and the Reykjavik declaration of war: they united around their president,
summit in 1985, relaunched the Soviet-American dialogue. George W. Bush, just as they had rallied around Franklin
‘It is the beginning of a new relationship’, Reagan declared D. Roosevelt after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in
significantly. An agreement was reached on the resumption 1941. But this time, the enemy was invisible, even though
of talks on limiting conventional and nuclear weapons and suspicions pointed to small terrorist groups originating
renewing cultural relations. When the Soviets left from the Middle East, whose mastermind, Osama bin-
Afghanistan, as the Americans had Viet Nam, Reagan’s Laden, was hiding out in Afghanistan. He was immediately

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designated as the target for the next American intervention. This shift was rooted in latent nationalist sentiments,
Did that black Tuesday signify the end of an epoch or the sharpened by the flowering of a French-speaking culture,
beginning of a new historical era? whose attractiveness lay in its novelty, variety and simplicity.
Where was the American people at the end of a century Initial popularity came from folk-singers like Félix Leclerc,
that had opened under the twin signs of non-interference in Robert Charlebois, Gilles Vigneault and Pauline Julie, who
international affairs and the melting pot? Change worldwide made Quebec famous all over the world, novelists like
propelled the United States, willy-nilly, into a position of Jacques Godbout, Marie-Claire Blais and Antonine Maillet,
responsibility, which it had never sought, to become guardian who celebrates the epic of the Acadians driven out by the
of one particular international order. As for American British and returning to their homeland, poets like Gaston
society, it has proved de Tocqueville wrong: in his Democracy Miron, film-makers like Denys Arcand (Le déclin de l’empire
in America, he had deplored the tyranny of the majority. américain, The Decline of the American Empire), painters
Since then, the minorities have taken their revenge. like Riopelle, dramatists, etc. This flowering restored
confidence and pride to French-speakers and fuelled their
nationalism.
Ca n ada i n q u e s t of a n i d e n t i t y This nationalism, encouraged by General de Gaulle’s
resounding ‘Vive le Québec libre’ in Montreal in 1967, was
In Canada, the end of the century was overshadowed by expressed in several groupings, including the RIN
upheavals in which the very future of the country was at (Rassemblement pour l’Indépendance Nationale), which
stake. The nature of Canadian identity was called into launched a wave of terrorism in 1970, marked by the
question, politically by the ‘Quiet Revolution’ in Quebec kidnapping of a diplomat and the assassination of a minister
and its impact on federal relations, economically by the followed by the declaration of a state of siege in Quebec.
country’s being so close to the United States, and culturally There was a confrontation between two emblematic figures,
by the advance of multiculturalism. on the one hand René Lévesque, the founder in 1968 of the
Parti québécois (PQ), and subsequently its leader, prime
minister of the province from 1976 to 1985 and advocate of
The ‘Quiet Revolution’ and its aftermath sovereignty-association, an ambiguous formula which implied,
depending on the interpretation, independence or
In Quebec, following the death of Maurice Duplessis in autonomy, combined with economic union with Canada;
1959, the electors voted into power, by a small majority, a and, on the other, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, leader of the
Liberal government under Jean Lesage, who embarked on a Liberal Party (PL), also a Quebecker, federal prime minister
sweeping policy of reforms, the ‘Quiet Revolution’, as it was from 1968 to 1984 (with a brief break in 1979–80), and a
labelled by a journalist. This shift was symbolized by a firm supporter of enlarged federal power, which alone could
change of vocabulary: henceforth there would be no more ensure the country’s cohesion in the face of demands from
talk of ‘French Canadians’ but of Québécois, Quebeckers, his native province, to which he denied the right to special
and every area was turned upside down by the change. treatment, which might lead to ‘asymmetrical federalism’.
In terms of administration, a Quebecker state was An initial phase of the confrontation was over language
established by the creation of a bureaucracy recruited not, use. In 1969, Trudeau had secured the passage of the Official
as hitherto, by the vagaries of patronage, a variant of the Languages Act, making bilingualism official policy, giving
American spoils system, but on the basis of competence and French and English an identical status in public life and in
merit; the number of ministries was increased and they the court proceedings. Canada also agreed to set aside a
were made more specialized (including one for external number of high-level positions for French-speakers, who
affairs); a bureaucracy was established, and the House of thus made a much-remarked appearance in the civil service,
Commons, with its excessively British overtones, was especially in external affairs. Where French speaking was
renamed the National Assembly. In the economic sphere, under-represented, in British Columbia, Manitoba, New
priority was given to the development of natural resources Brunswick, the federal government subsidized cultural
and their exploitation by French-speaking personnel. The centres. From then on, Canada was actively engaged in
creation of Hydro-Québec reflected Quebec’s determination organizing the summits of La Francophonie and followed
to benefit from its vast hydroelectric potential (Manicouagan, its work regularly. Quebeckers reacted sharply by making
James Bay, Great Whale River, etc.) and to become an French the sole official language of the province, in public
exporter of electricity. A genuine Quebecker capitalism life, education and advertising. Immigrants there were
came into being, with international firms such as subjected to ‘immersion’, designed to integrate them better
Bombardier in aeronautics (de Havilland) and the railways into a French-speaking environment.
(TGV), or Cascades in paper manufacture. Finally, after In a second phase, Quebec and Canada confronted each
the exclusion of the Catholic Church from education, a new other in a debate over the constitution. In his aim of
educational system was established under the supervision strengthening federal power, Trudeau wanted to ‘repatriate’
of a ministry of education, which set up junior secondary the 1867 British North America Act from London to
schools, CEGEPs (Collèges d’Enseignement Général et Ottawa, in order to put an end to colonial status and give
Professionel), and adopted the California model to set up a the country its own constitution. Quebec opposed this,
network of universities (UQUAM, Université du Québec, arguing that this repatriation was an attack on the powers of
in Montreal) covering the whole province. Everywhere the the provinces. Several inter-provincial conferences were
influence of the clergy was in retreat, with places of worship organized, which failed to reach agreement. Finally,
and convents being sold and turned into educational repatriation was effected in 1981 and then a new constitution
establishments. In just a few years, Quebec lost its was approved, including a right of amendment, as in the
conservative face and took a giant leap into modernity. United States, and with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms,

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all against Quebec’s will: the province found itself then and In the wake of the economic prosperity of the post-war
since in an unprecedented position, still part of the period, growth became more chaotic, with phases of
Confederation, although rejecting its constitution. expansion and stagnation, which followed the course of
The last phase, the longest and most confused, centred the American business cycle. The devaluation of the US
around the position of Quebec in this Confederation. The dollar in 1972 had knock-on effects on the Canadian
PQ, torn between supporters of independence and dollar, which cut itself off from it, and the oil crises hit
defenders of sovereignty-association, had organized a first hard, although they did stimulate the exploitation of wells
referendum in 1980, which rejected the proposal for in Alberta. Canada remained closely in step with its
association by a majority of 55 per cent. The debate then lay neighbour, but a determination emerged to develop a
dormant before being taken up in a new referendum fifteen domestic capitalism, with its epicentre now in Toronto.
years later, which was also narrowly rejected. Quebeckers The main beneficiaries of this were telecommunications,
thus twice rejected the temptation to venture into the as seen in the success of Northern Telecom, the processing
unknown, a reflex that showed both a degree of conservatism of raw materials, with Alcan in aluminium and consumer
in society and the preference of non-French-speakers for products associated with cultural productions in the
the status quo. But the debate was far from over, since, after Bronfman empire, built on whisky. Canada took its place
Trudeau’s systematic refusal to acknowledge the specificity among the great economic powers, which earned it
of Quebec in a majority English-speaking whole, the admission in 1975 into the very closed circle of the G7,
malaise persisted. meeting in 1981 near Ottawa.
As soon as it took power in Ottawa, Brian Mulroney’s But Canadian production cannot compete with that of
Conservative government (1984–93) endeavoured to escape its powerful neighbour. How can a market of only 30 million
from this impasse by proposing a compromise, based on the consumers be compared with one of almost 300 million?
notion of ‘distinct society’, a formula that had the advantage Canadian products are expensive, because of the smallness
of preserving political unity while acknowledging the of the domestic market, partly too because of the burden of
specificity of Quebec. Several inter-provincial conferences social insurance contributions unknown to the south.
discussed it, but the very notion of distinct society was so While it brings security, the welfare state has a cost, which
vague that it was immediately met by hostility from the is passed on to production. Finally, the economy, even
First Nations, who also asked for a special status. though meeting individual needs plays a growing role,
Nevertheless, despite its ambiguity, a platform was cobbled continues to be based largely on the exploitation of raw
together in the end and submitted for approval to the materials and energ y, which involve a degree of
provinces, which rejected it. One final effort consisted in complementarity with the United States. The success of
resorting to a national referendum in 1992, which resulted the Common Market in Europe provides a precedent and a
in another rejection. reference point for what Canadians are seeking, an
enlargement of their economic space, while preserving their
uniqueness.
Customs union Such an idea was not new, since Wilfrid Laurier had
already been dreaming of it a century earlier. The paradox is
The debate on Canada’s constitutional future is thus that it was a Conservative government, that of Brian
blocked and may well remain so for a long time, since the Mulroney, and not a Liberal one, which, after hard
Liberal government, in power after 1993, has refused to bargaining, achieved it in 1988. Business circles had an
reopen this troublesome dossier. Meanwhile, the nationalist ambivalent attitude, both wanting an enlargement of the
drive in Quebec has waned, Trudeau has retired from market and fearing competition from their neighbour. For
politics and none of René Lévesque’s successors (he died in all Canadians, the priority was to maintain their achievements
1987) have inherited his charisma. Yet this impassioned in the area of social security and employment protection.
debate changed the shape of things, at the expense of the What English-speakers feared most was an invasion by the
traditional parties, Liberals as well as Conservatives, who American media, cinema, music, radio and above all
lost their credibility in it. The constitutional debate television, with the risk of killing off local production.
reawakened the old demons pitting East against West, Among the fiercest opponents too were farmers in the
French-speakers against English-speakers, farmers against West, who felt disadvantaged vis-à-vis their American
city-dwellers, centre against periphery. The two-party counterparts by the higher costs their farms incurred.
system was again challenged by the virtual disappearance of Paradoxically, French-speaking circles applauded this
the traditional parties in the West. The Social Credit Party rapprochement, in which they saw a barrier against ‘English-
there had a distant successor in the NDP (New Democratic speaking imperialism’. The United States was the leading
Party), led by Ed Broadbent, social-democratic in market for some of their exports, such as electricity and
inspiration, which put down new roots in the Prairies, and paper pulp.
even made a short-lived breakthrough in the East, while in The agreement, which came into effect in 1989, known as
British Columbia and Alberta a new grouping made its the Free Trade Agreement, envisaged the gradual reduction
appearance, Preston Manning’s Reform Party, which of customs tariffs between the two countries over a period
exploited popular resentment against the centralizing forces of ten years and the free movement of persons. Under the
of Ottawa and Eastern businessmen, so much so that name of NAFTA, it was extended to Mexico, meaning the
following the 1993 elections, the Liberal Party found itself eventual emergence of a common market on the American
the sole national party, and, in a totally unprecedented continent. But it is very different from the Common Market,
situation, the official opposition in the House of Commons in that it is limited to trade and involves no common policy
was represented by a regional party, the Bloc Québécois, or supranational institutions. Canada’s sovereignty emerged
the federal counterpart of the provincial PQ. from this shift unscathed.

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An open society Despite the resumption of immigration in the years

following the war, Canadian society remained traditional in
Like the other industrialized countries, Canada experienced its foundations, because most newcomers were of European
social disturbances, although to a lesser extent than its descent. According to the 1961 census, 97 per cent of the
neighbour. The generation born of the baby boom reacted inhabitants stated themselves to be of European descent,
sharply against the traditionalist society into which it was whereas in 1991, 31 per cent stated that they were of neither
thrown when it reached adulthood. It drew strength from British nor French descent. Starting in the 1960s, there was
an unprecedented cultural expansion that completely broke a profound shift in the way immigrants were selected:
away from its roots, both British and French, while also descent ceased to be the determinant of choice, replaced by
seeking to free itself from the grip of America. Every area of professional qualification (skill, complementarity, capital
culture used this renaissance to protest and demand greater contribution, etc.) or family links (reuniting individuals). In
openness and more equality. addition, selection was now made before departure, and not
In the forefront of these protesters were women, who on arrival. This meant that the nature of immigrants
enjoyed the prestige of an exceptional generation of novelists, changed, and the door was wide open for Asians, Viet
among them Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Mavis Namese, Filipinos, Malaysians, Sikhs, as well as other
Gallant and Margaret Lawrence. Of course, they already Americans, Haitians, Colombians, etc. The main destination
had the right to vote, but they were in an inferior position in of these new immigrants was the provinces that seemed to
many areas, especially employment. In 1967, the government them the most attractive, British Columbia, Alberta or
convened a Royal Commission on the Status of Women, Ontario, and urban areas. Thus, in Toronto, almost 40 per
which delivered its report three years later. Its conclusions cent of the population is made up of immigrants, as against
concurred with the claims of feminist groups about these only 20 per cent in Montreal.
discriminatory practices and sexual harassment. Various In this mosaic, the notion of two founding peoples ceased
measures were designed to put an end to them, although to have meaning, communitarianism became an integral
their effects would only be felt over the long term. More aspect of the urban scene and the newcomers laid claim to
women were admitted to the public sector, among them cultural diversity. Canada officially adopted multiculturalism,
Jeanne Sauvé, the first to reach the position of governor- which has been written into federal legislation since 1971,
general of Canada, in 1984. Salaries increasingly tended to with its own minister who makes grants to community
be more equal, and above all women now occupy a not groups. Recognition of this diversity is regarded as the chief
insignificant position in the world of work. means of maintaining cohesion among cultures that live
Trade unionists, very active in some sectors, represented cheek by jowl but do not mix. Song, theatre and dance
another source of protest. They were fighting to free troupes thus celebrate Cambodia, Malaysia, the Caribbean
themselves from both the grip of international unions, at the or Voodoo.
time dominated by the all-powerful American unions, like Following recent upheavals, Canada has been more than
the AFL, and, in Quebec, the Catholic Church. A reaction ever in quest of an identity that still remains vague.
developed, in often violent strikes and confrontations, to Canadians, including Quebeckers, see themselves above all
‘Canadianize’ these organizations, secularize them and make as North Americans, who have successfully created an
them responsible interlocutors in labour disputes, which original type of society, based on diversity and mutual
continued to be numerous and often bitter. tolerance. While Canada is still in quest of its identity, it
Protest also came from the ‘Indians’, known here as ‘First remains the case that, given the pragmatism by all those
Nations’. As in the United States, they made a striking involved, it has successfully safeguarded and even
comeback over the century: there are officially 750,000 of strengthened its unity, always faithful to its motto, a mari
them, in addition to 50,000 Inuit in the Far North. Three- usque ad mare.
quarters of them live on reservations, in wretched conditions, At the beginning of the twenty-first century, North
where, for lack of employment, they are plagued by alcohol America is at a crossroads.
and drugs. The official attitude, which was one of
assimilation, failed, leading to their marginalization in
society. There too a change has occurred in recent decades.
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SOUT H AN D C ENTRAL A M ERI C A AN D
T H E C ARI B B EAN

Gregorio Weinberg, coordinator

33.1
SouTh and central america
Gregorio Weinberg, Luis Alberto Romero and Germán Carrera Damas

P O L ITIC A L , S O CI A L A N D EC O N O MIC It was at this time that the great export economies took
p r of i l e shape: cereals, wool and beef on the temperate southern
plains, coffee in Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica, sugar in
Latin America is a vague and too all-embracing term, but Cuba and along the Peruvian coast and oil in Venezuela.
it is a useful one, allowing us to distinguish the large Capital from the metropolitan centres in Britain, the United
landmass within the American continent to the south of States and, to a lesser extent, in Germany and France always
the Río Grande (the current border between Mexico and played a decisive role. It paid for the construction of the
the United States). Throughout the nineteenth century railways and ports, silos and meat packing plants. Its
the area to the north of this river embraced capitalism and presence was felt in trade and finance. In many cases it even
democracy with determination. However, in the area to controlled the production process such as the copper mines
the south the so-called ‘colonial heritage’ lived on. In in Peru or the tin mines in Bolivia, the banana plantations
geographical terms, Latin America is a mosaic of bountiful in Central America or the sugar plantations in Cuba. It even
plains, harsh tablelands, mountain chains broken by helped to shore up feeble states, which were supposed to be
pleasant valleys and tropical jungle. It is also a mosaic of responsible for maintaining order.
different ethnic groups; the indigenous base, already These enterprises flourished and expanded when trading
complex enough in itself, offers contingents of black conditions were favourable but toppled in spectacular
Africans, groups of white colonists, mostly from the fashion when the market failed, as occurred with the nitrate
Iberian peninsula, although the English, French and market in Chile and rubber in the Brazilian Amazon. The
Dutch are also represented, as well as the different racial effects were equally disastrous for the natural environment,
mixes which have taken place and continue to occur. It is and for the labour force, because these activities mobilized
also a political mosaic made up of numerous republics of vast numbers of workers: Italian immigrants in Argentina
varying sizes, most of which were born at the beginning of and Uruguay, the Spanish in Cuba and the Italians and
the nineteenth century, when the strong link which had Japanese in Brazil. In other cases, such as the mines in Peru
hitherto joined them to Spain and Portugal was broken, or the coffee plantations in Guatemala, the workforce was
to be replaced by a more subtle but equally firm link tying drawn from the ancient indigenous communities, and
them to Britain. Such widespread political independence, sometimes vast numbers of black workers were shipped
achieved so early in the century, is not insignificant, from their bases in the Antilles to work on the banana
particularly in view of the massive process of global plantations. Slavery disappeared everywhere at the end of
colonization, which characterized the nineteenth century. the nineteenth century, but more subtle forms of semi-
Encouraged by these relations, the region gradually servile dependency lived on in the stock farms and
became immersed in the world of capitalism and plantations, and even the recent white immigrants were
imperialism, which reached its peak at the end of the subject to various forms of coercion. In the large cities, such
nineteenth century. as Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile) and Mexico

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City, a nucleus of organized, militant salaried workers Three events left their mark on the history of Latin
developed, lured by opportunities in the ports and nascent America in the twentieth century. The First World War
services and industries. disrupted its economic relations with the world and
In a cyclical and convulsive manner, destroying perhaps provoked internal social, political and ideological conflicts.
as much as it created, Latin America generated great wealth, The 1929 economic crisis dealt a fatal blow to the export
most of which remained in the hands of the foreign partners, economies. As well as bringing prices crashing down and
although a certain proportion was also distributed locally. precipitating capital flight, the crisis affected state revenues –
Wherever wealth was distributed locally, society changed, practically no state managed to avoid political trauma – but,
becoming more broad-based and diversified. The gap somewhat surprisingly, it triggered the conditions for a leap
between the rejuvenated oligarchies and rural and urban forward. With the Second World War, the structure of the
workers was gradually filled by a layer of traders, public new society, already modified by the crisis, grew more
employees, small manufacturers and educators, who were distinct and, although the post-war period certainly brought
called the middle classes. some serious economic problems, such as the supply of raw
The more traditional societies were governed by their materials and machinery, it also provided the region with
oligarchies as occurred in Argentina. In Brazil, the oligarchies unsuspected opportunities and provoked original political
were duly federated within the old Republic, whereas, in the responses.
case of Colombia, they were divided into rival factions, In contrast to the export economies, the pre-existing
which made civil war a way of life. When the oligarchies industrial sector began to flourish, filling in the gap left by
were weak, their place was taken by authoritarian and imported consumer goods. The shortage of foreign currency
sometimes progressive dictatorships. An example of the as a result of the crisis, which made imports more difficult,
latter was Porfirio Díaz in Mexico. However, in the more contributed to this development, which took advantage of
diversified societies the growing demands of the middle the equipment already in place, the availability of labour
classes and the workers created the right conditions for the and an eager market turned captive by protectionist policies.
political formula prevailing in Europe at the time to be State-controlled economic policy, which aimed as far as
adopted: a broad-based democracy where the will of the possible to defend its share of the old export market, was
people was something more than an agreed fiction. Examples accepted unchallenged. This meant that the domestic
of governments with strong popular support were those of market became the new engine for economic growth, and
Hipólito Yrigoyen in Argentina (1916–22 and 1928–30), the general profile of society was altered as increased demand
José Batlle y Ordóñez in Uruguay (1903–07 and 1911–15), for industrial workers led to wage rises which, in turn,
and Arturo Alessandri in Chile (1920–24 and 1925–32). fostered an increase in demand. In this way, the expansion
They all used their power to distribute benefits more widely of the secondary sector compensated to a certain extent for
among different sectors of society, making use of the the crisis in the primary sector. The importance of industrial,
resources of a state that was on the road to becoming a mostly urban, workers as a social force began to grow.
welfare state. The Second World War favoured this process of
In Mexico, similar demands joined forces with other industrialization, which made remarkable progress, but by
more explosive ones. There, as in many other places, the the 1950s its limitations were becoming apparent. The
inroads being made by the market economy affected the equipment was beginning to age, fuel and energy were
traditional campesino class with its deeply rooted indigenous growing increasingly scarce, and production was too
culture and, above all, its strong links to the land. In Mexico expensive and inefficient to compete in foreign markets. The
the campesinos made their voices heard, and their weapons traditional primary exporting sector bore the brunt of
thundered, turning the original call of those who were responsibility for generating foreign currency, which was
merely opposed to Porfirio Díaz’s re-election into a vast insufficient in any case to cover the costs of industrial growth
mobilization of the masses. The revolution began in 1910 and the generous salaries upon which the domestic market
and lasted, going through various phases, until it was depended. A solution was sought which involved facilitating
institutionalized at the end of the 1930s. During these three investment by foreign companies in order to develop the
decades a million people died. On the ruins left behind by production of fuels, steel, paper, petrochemicals and more
the revolutionary storm a state was formed which intervened sophisticated consumer goods such as cars, offering the
resolutely in the process of reshaping society. It carried out a enticement of captive markets protected by strong tariff
far-reaching land reform programme under President barriers. There was talk of the need for integrated
Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–40), organized the campesino class, development. Inspired by Raúl Prebisch, the Economic
turning the campesinos into its most staunch supporters, Commission for Latin America upheld this position. The
promoted and controlled the trade union movement and ‘development’ trend coincided with the United States’ offer
drafted modern social legislation. The Mexican government to join the effort through the Alliance for Progress
nationalized the oil industry and confronted the United propounded by President Kennedy in 1960. The results of
States, but never to the point of breaking off relations. It this second period of industrial growth were patchy. They
gave a strong boost to capitalist development both in the were successful in Brazil, where the modern industrial core
countryside and in industry, and promoted mass education. was consolidated, but failed in neighbouring Argentina.
Above all, it established an astoundingly stable political In general, notable changes took place, but they brought
system, which defended law and order with zeal but also new problems. Full employment disappeared as efficient
jealously guarded its claim to popular legitimacy. It was a technology was introduced and, as production was oriented
kind of exclusive meritocracy where the rules of cooption towards fulfilling the demands of high- or medium-income
and widespread corruption were, almost up to the present sectors, the productive and social fabric began to change,
time, clothed in legitimacy under the guise of the vigorous becoming polarized. In particular, this second stage did not
and jealously cultivated revolutionary tradition. solve the balance of payments problems and generated a

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new kind of ‘dependence’, a word with more precise political twentieth century. The benefits reached the campesinos, but
connotations, which in the 1970s, began to replace the price to be paid was that of increased conflict and
‘development’. violence, settled by large armed organizations where the
The population, which had grown moderately throughout traffickers mingled with ex-guerrilla fighters.
the nineteenth century – with the exception of the areas of The solution to these conflicts frequently involved an
mass immigration – expanded dramatically between 1930 exodus to the cities, which grew significantly as a result. By
and 1940. Mortality, which was traditionally high, the end of the twentieth century, 40 per cent of the total
plummeted owing to the combined effects of antibiotics, population lived in towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants.
insecticides and vaccination programmes, which eradicated At first, expulsion from the land was aided by the attraction
malaria and other epidemic and endemic diseases. This of finding industrial employment, and later simply the
completed the task begun at the beginning of the century in possibility of surviving by doing odd jobs or in the vast
the large cities with the installation of sewage systems and ‘informal’ economic sector, but the exodus was primarily a
running water. The naturally high fertility rate remained response to the increased expectations generated by the
higher than expected and, except in the case of the societies city itself. However wretched life might be there, urban
of the Southern Cone, where ‘demographic transition’ did poverty, which might include possession of a television set,
occur, was unaffected by improvements in living standards was infinitely more attractive than the prospect of
or the migration towards the cities. Between 1940 and 1970, traditional rural poverty. This was not merely an individual
the population of Latin America grew from 126 million to decision. In Peru, whole mountain communities carefully
278 million, the highest growth rate in the world, exceeding planned their transfer to one of the hills around Lima. In
even that of sub-Saharan Africa. Only in the last two other cases, relatives or neighbours summoned new
decades has the growth rate slowed somewhat. The effects migrants and together they used the tactics of their old
of the population explosion, and particularly the existence subsistence culture to help them in the difficult task of
of large cohorts of young people demanding education, making their way in the city.
employment and services, were numerous and gave rise to In cities such as São Paulo, Mexico City, Santiago,
conflicts and changes, many of which were already latent in Caracas and Buenos Aires, the slums and shantytowns
the archaic Latin American system. spread so that the population explosion took the form of
In the more traditional rural areas demographic pressure concrete and tangible problems. The water, electricity,
on the land, which was unable to provide a living or even a sewage and hospital services were inadequate for the number
home for these new contingents, became evident. This of inhabitants of the ‘young towns’, perhaps so-called
problem was aggravated as the capitalist sectors or simply because the number of young people was the most
the large landowners rapidly encroached upon the land still outstanding manifestation of the population explosion.
held by indigenous communities. This led to violent Also, there were not enough jobs, and the growing demands
conflicts. The indigenous world, which until that point had on the education system could not be satisfied. They could
remained isolated and protected, began to suffer all manner legitimately be called the urban masses; there were many of
of assaults at the hands of modern society – roads, them and, apart from the bodies representing the traditional
communications, market forces, state regulations – all of industrial workers, their organizations were not too visible.
which eroded the ancient community links. Political Politics underwent profound change. The populist
demands also emerged. As in Mexico at the beginning of the politics of Vargas in Brazil (1930–45 and 1951–54), and
century, the campesinos in El Salvador, Bolivia and Peru Perón in Argentina (1946–55), meant involving the masses
rallied together and demanded to be taken into account, from a position of power, giving in to some of their demands,
becoming political agents in their own right. anticipating others, all the while controlling and containing
The ‘land reform’ proposal incorporated all these them. Their example was followed by many in different
demands in an ambiguous and contradictory programme. ways, but in every case it proved to be a way of involving the
This reform would transform the old agrarian world, working class as citizens and members of society. This policy
affecting both the campesino communities and the inefficient, often went hand in hand with nationalism. The all-
patriarchal landowners who embodied the ‘colonial heritage’. embracing slogan of nationalism was nurtured by traditional
This transformation was to turn the rural environment into anti-imperialism, which had developed in the period
the great engine of economic development and, at the same between the wars and during the post-war period, but it was
time, the sphere where the traditional campesino claim to mainly a proposal for the effective integration in national
the land would be satisfied. This was one option; in Bolivia, life of diverse, splintered societies, such as those where the
as had occurred earlier in Mexico, these demands were indigenous communities had reached the twentieth century
heeded, sacrificing development and even an effective means as vigorous, coherent societies. In many instances, these
of keeping the campesinos themselves on an inadequate area nationalist, populist policies aimed to mobilize and integrate
of land. In other places, such as El Salvador or in Chile the traditional campesino classes, as the Mexican Revolution
under Pinochet, modernization along capitalist lines further had done. This was the aim of Arbenz in Guatemala, the
hastened the expulsion of the campesinos. MNR in Bolivia in 1952, and the Peruvian Revolution in
The agrarian frontier advanced, encroaching upon new 1968.
lands, such as the Amazon, which was invaded by Brazil, However these elements were combined, the role of the
Bolivia, Peru and Colombia at the expense of the backward, state was a preponderant one. It had both to foster the
traditional indigenous populations. Perhaps the most organization of workers and campesinos and at the same
efficient and productive agricultural frontier was the time to control them, promoting social policies and
cultivation of coca leaf, and more recently poppies, redistributing resources where these were abundant. The
stimulated by the drug trade. Strictly speaking, this has state’s legitimacy derived more from the democratic forms
been the most successful export in the latter part of the of plebiscite than from the more traditional forms of liberal

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Map 14  Post-1945 military regimes in Latin America

Adapted from E. Baquedano et al., 1998, The History Atlas of South America, MacMillan Continental History Atlases, MacMillan, New York, p. 133.

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constitutionalism, which were pushed to the limit and which isolated the component of pure violence from the
then rejected, as occurred in Vargas’s Estado Novo in 1937. more general humanistic proposals, which had inspired the
In most cases the Armed Forces acted as guarantor for original ideas.
these political experiments and for the leaders, who There was a widespread wave of discontent, generated
behaved more like chieftains than representatives of an perhaps by dissatisfaction born of promises of development,
institution. They were often described as dictators and agrarian reform or democracy, which had remained
they probably were (Map 14). In the second half of the unfulfilled. Parallel to this, the armed forces set themselves
1950s, many of them fell from power: Perón in Argentina, up in every country as the custodians of what, under the
Rojas Pinilla in Colombia, Ibáñez del Campo in Chile, influence of the United States, was called the ‘ideological
Pérez Jiménez in Venezuela. The age of the great civil frontier’, which allowed the enemy to be singled out on the
parties had arrived. Democratic Action (Acción ground and hunted down until annihilated. Such military
Democrática) in Venezuela, National Liberation repression resulted in death, torture and exile on a massive
(Liberación Nacional) in Costa Rica, the Christian scale, in Brazil after 1968, in Uruguay and Chile after 1973
Democrats (Democracia Cristiana) in Chile. They took on and in Argentina after 1976.
the responsibility of channelling development and reform
along democratic lines, at the same time erecting a stout
barrier against communism, opposition to communism The crisis
being the primary demand of the United States. In Peru,
another great party (APRA), under the leadership of Throughout the 1970s, Latin America suffered the impact
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, also aspired to meet this of the oil crisis and then the forced debt crisis in which
demand, but failed. APRA had arisen earlier as a popular, governments found themselves immersed. Caught in the
nationalist, anti-imperialist movement and it attempted to vice-like grip of a debt which it was impossible to pay, states
adapt to the prevailing climate by becoming the champion were defenceless and powerless, being obliged to yield before
of democracy and anti-communism. However, it did not the decisions of their creditors, coordinated by the
succeed in overcoming the disapproval with which it was International Monetary Fund, at a time when the
traditionally regarded by the military establishment. restructuring of the capitalist world was forcing individual
The political scene changed dramatically with the Cuban national economies to eliminate tariff barriers. Whole
Revolution, led by Fidel Castro in 1959. Shortly after the productive sectors succumbed in this confrontation,
triumph of the revolution, the unyieldingly hostile policy of particularly the industrial sector, while the institutions
the United States threw Cuba into the Soviet camp, which had grown up under the welfare state were dismantled
hastening the adoption of the soviet socialist model. The by that very state, sometimes with the backing of market
results were, and still are, subject to interpretation. The forces and sometimes using terror tactics.
great achievements in the fields of education and health While the various national economies thrashed about
care or the democratization of social relationships were not aimlessly, their respective societies, which had been
accompanied by significant successes in the field of growth invigorated by the successive waves of transformation
or even in the diversification of the economy. However, for occurring throughout the century, entered a decline that led
a long time, revolutionary Cuba exercised a tremendous to a sharp polarization within society, where a small but not
influence on the political imagination of the region, offering insignificant percentage of the population managed to adapt
an alternative both to the old regimes, which still survived to the new conditions, whereas large sections of society
in many places, and to the lukewarm proposals for reform. were marginalized. This change is most apparent in the big
Furthermore, it offered a practical alternative, rural cities. The great metropolises grew in spectacular fashion,
guerrilla warfare, the insurrectional cell, which was and there are few cities anywhere in the world as huge as
extremely attractive at the time of the Viet Nam War or Mexico City. The word metropolis has been replaced by the
the student unrest in France in 1968, or in the atmosphere word mega-city to describe this new reality, since inter-city
of post-Vatican II, which proclaimed its support for the spaces are being gobbled up as the cities grow, soon to merge
poor and was interpreted by many ‘Third World’ priests, into one single, sprawling conurbation. This is what is
such as the Colombian Camilo Torres, as an invitation to happening along the Argentinian coast from Rosario to La
join specific struggles. Rural guerrilla warfare took root in Plata and in Chile between Santiago and Valparaíso. At the
many places – Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and in a number same time, urbanization is accentuating the gap between
of places in Central America – adding a new dimension to two worlds: on the one hand, the world of those whose high
old social conflicts. Then urban guerrilla warfare made its purchasing power allows them to follow the trends prevailing
appearance in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. In in the global society and, on the other, the vast universe of
1970, this same trend inspired the Chilean democratic left poverty, unemployment, deprivation and defencelessness.
under President Salvador Allende to draft a project for a All the things, such as shared education, health-care systems,
democratic transition towards socialism. The Cuban and even safety and the law, which in more prosperous
message was also present some time later in the ‘Sandinista’ times had contributed, albeit incompletely and with
movement, which triumphed in Nicaragua in 1979, as well difficulty, towards social integration and expanding the
as in the Salvadorean and Guatemalan guerrilla movements. middle classes, are now split between those services which
In the 1970s, the latter succeeded in mobilizing the are adequate for those who can afford to pay for a private
campesino communities, thus bringing down upon it fierce clinic, school or private security services and those who
military repression that was denounced by Rigoberta must make do with what can be provided by an increasingly
Menchú, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. Echoes niggardly state ever less concerned with the common good.
of the Cuban message are even apparent in the demonic The paradox is that this separation is occurring alongside
Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) Movement in Peru, the tremendous levelling process being generated throughout

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the world by the latest technological revolution, the that, despite a number of attempts in that direction, in
inhabitants of the most exclusive residential suburb and the Latin America there was no equivalent of the Industrial
poorest shantytown hovel may all be watching the latest Revolution, which, at this time, was transforming productive
CNN news broadcast at one and the same time. structures in Europe. Neither is it fortuitous that the
Little is known about how social links are rebuilt in the proponents of an ‘industrial’ policy for Latin America, such
world of the deprived where so many things, from schooling as Sarmiento in Argentina and others, also demanded a
to membership of trade unions, no longer make any sense. scientific policy based on the modernization of existing
Perhaps conditions are ripe for traditional social patterns institutions, the creation of new ones and the recruitment
and survival mechanisms carried over from a not too distant of foreign academics, particularly in the field of natural
rural experience to flourish. Maybe new forms of religiosity, science.
from basic Catholicism to Pentecostal movements or myriad However, the need for professionals helped shelve basic
other rites, will fill the space occupied until recently by scientific research, which was nearly always limited to
political organizations. What we do know is that confidence individual efforts or concentrated in inherited or poorly
in the forms of political relations based on liberalism and maintained establishments. Nevertheless, it did help alter
democracy will not take root easily in such societies. the cultural climate to some extent, making scientific activity
During the 1980s, Latin America witnessed a vigorous more accessible and sensitive by giving it a certain growing
pro-democracy movement, particularly in those countries social prestige. On the other hand, in the production and
that had suffered the most under terrorist dictatorships, service industries the boost was less significant. Perhaps the
such as Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and even Paraguay. In incentive derived from the transformation or creation of
many cases, alongside this trend, we find that civil society museums, setting up of astronomical observatories, founding
managed to recover the initiative once again, but this of botanical gardens and laboratories, activities in the field
honeymoon did not last long. Dialogue broke down, and of natural science, and marking of national boundaries – all
from the midst of some of these very societies authoritarian activities having greater impact at that time. Scientific
regimes found massive support – as in Peru, for example – periodicals in Spanish were scarce, as was the space devoted
whereas elsewhere society grew indifferent to governments to science in the press generally. This lethargic situation
which, for their part, shamelessly paraded the corrupt began to change as the ideas of positivist philosophy linked
conduct that had previously been practised, on a smaller to ‘modernization’ began to circulate, and railways, regarded
scale or with greater discretion. Lack of interest in by some as the ‘engine of progress’, and certain mining and,
democracy was compounded by a passive questioning of to a lesser extent, manufacturing activities linked to the
the legitimacy of governments similar to that encountered transformation of local raw materials began to make their
by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional in Mexico, appearance. It should also be remembered that the
which was impotent to deal with the challenge posed by controversy surrounding the theory of evolution caught the
the campesinos of Chiapas. For the first time its interest of a much wider public than usual.
wretchedness has been paraded in public for all to see. In very general terms it may also be said that during the
Equally representative of these new times is the armed early decades of this century scientific research was shelved
movement accompanying the voice of the campesinos, owing to the lack of flexibility evident in the focus of the
using the name of Emiliano Zapata, which declares that it universities, which adapted their professional outlook in
does not aspire to take power (1970s), but merely to response to the immediate needs of society and the state.
construct a new structure of political relationships. In Contrary to general belief, imports of increasingly complex
this, as in many other areas, the uncertainties facing Latin machinery and equipment did not necessarily create the
America as it approached the end of the century far right conditions for local scientific and technical development
outnumbered the certainties, and the prospects are tinged to get off the ground. In fact, such imports were often
more with anguish than with hope. instrumental in weakening and postponing such
development. During the boom years of apparent prosperity,
when imports were encouraged, a pragmatic, utilitarian
S c i e n c e a n d t e c h n ology attitude evolved that worked against the development of
scientific research in the long term. On the other hand,
Without going back too far in time, though far enough to certain favourable circumstances should be pointed out.
get a perspective on the changes that have occurred, it can One example is the incentive provided by foreign institutions,
be said that preoccupation with scientific matters, their which were not always disinterested in their motivation by
significance and repercussions is evident from the early any means and, in some cases, whose intentions were clearly
nineteenth century onwards. One of Simón Bolívar’s central political. This is true of the contribution made by Germany
arguments justifying the emancipation of the colonies was in the period between the wars to the establishment of an
that the metropolis did not allow them to engage in science. important school of physics at the University of La Plata in
This same argument was put forward in several other Argentina. Germany sent excellent teachers and provided
countries. The alternatives stemming from the civil wars scholarships for postgraduate study. This case has been
and efforts to consolidate the nation-state are possible thoroughly studied and the conclusions may shed light
explanations for their backwardness compared to the upon other similar situations. After the second post-war
momentum of the Age of Enlightenment seen elsewhere. period, ‘development’ ideas triumphed. Owing to their
The modest scientific efforts undertaken, mostly aimed at excessive economic bias, they assumed that science and
catching up but including some original contributions, were technology would be a natural by-product of development.
totally overshadowed by the processes of political Another significant factor was the gradual
organization and the structuring of the universities. Because professionalization of university teachers, which, with the
this is a matter of some importance, it must be pointed out arrival of full-time positions, allowed teachers to devote

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time to scientific research. The growing prestige of the The influx of foreign technology also became one of the
natural sciences and advances in medicine, opening up greatest hindrances to state and private investment in
promising avenues of research, fostered the creation of research and development. Great debates concerning the
highly specialized institutes that gave rise to the three economic and political significance of this trend began then
Argentinian Nobel Prize winners: Bernardo A. Houssay and are still going on. The conclusions reached almost
(1887–1971), who won the Nobel Prize in 1947 for his always went unheeded by the business sector, which
research on the functions of the hypophysis (pituitary preferred to go abroad in search of technology, processes
gland), including its relationship to hydrocarbon and patents.
metabolism; Luis Federico Leloir (1906–1987), who won UNESCO’s World Science Report 1993 carries a valuable
the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1970 for his outstanding study showing the present position of Latin America in
contributions to understanding the functions of enzymes in relation to other regions, indicating the main problems,
the synthesis of polysaccharides; and César Milstein, who analysing budgets, and attempting to quantify scientific
won the Nobel Prize in 1984 for his research into monoclonal production as well as the most important obstacles. ‘The
antibodies. These scientists, along with many other names progress of science in Latin America is being hampered by a
that might be added, show that the state of Latin American scarcity of human resources, a marked lack of economic
science was often on a par with science abroad. resources, the relative isolation of researchers in certain
Gradually a number of institutions arose in Latin fields of knowledge which are only slightly cultivated, and
America whose aim was to promote activity in basic limited regional and international scientific cooperation’.1
science: the Asociación Argentina para el Progreso de la The lack of human resources, the study continues, is due to
Ciencia was founded in 1934, and in 1945 began to publish three main factors: deficiencies in the education system,
an important scientific journal, Ciencia e Investigación; the scarcity of scholarship assistance and low compensation
Sociedade Brasileira para o progresso da Ciência was schemes.
founded in 1948; and the Asociación Venezolana para el For a number of reasons, scientific and technological
Avance de la Ciencia (ASOVAC) was founded in 1950. research, particularly at basic levels, has lost the vigour that
Although, from the second decade of this century onwards, was generated during the twenty years following the
some scientists had already begun to warn of the need to Second World War. The evidence of the twentieth century
promote science and organize and institutionalize scientific so far shows that the role of private enterprise is almost
activity, these organizations did not begin to emerge until insignificant and, in view of investment trends, there is no
the middle of the twentieth century. The Conselho indication that the situation will improve.
Nacional de Pesquisas (CNP, Brazil) was founded in Two fundamental factors emphasize the worrying
1951; the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas importance of this matter on the eve of the new millennium;
y Técnicas (Argentina) was founded in 1958. Mention the first is the ever-widening breach between the developed
must also be made of the appearance, during the following countries and the rest of the world, and the second is the
decades in a number of countries, of higher technological growing role of science and technology in the transformation
institutes associated with research in the fields of of society. In recent years, both these subjects have generated
agriculture, oil, and atomic energy. The boom in such an abundance of stimulating publications, particularly
dynamic branches of science as physics and biology was national and regional studies, as well as other studies of a
not unrelated to this climate. doctrinaire nature, which have an important contribution
Owing to the financial support provided for these fields to make in the definition of problems and the search for
and the fixing of priority subjects, the strong European and responses to them. We shall simply recall, among other
North American influence was felt not only in activities previous works, two valuable collections published by
geared towards physics and the natural sciences, but also in UNESCO, which provide an excellent theoretical starting
the social sciences which, after the Second World War, point. The first of these is Science and the Factors of Inequality:
attempted to achieve intellectual independence and establish Lessons of the Past and Hopes for the Future, written by a
their own personality somewhere between Germanic broad-based group of intellectuals and compiled by Charles
philosophizing and the pragmatic approach of North Morazé (1979);2 and the second is Domination or Sharing:
America. Specific problems, incompatible with the criteria Endogenous Development and the Transfer of Knowledge
and orientation imposed by the central countries, prompted (1983), which reflects the spirit of UNESCO when it says
this search for autonomy. The so-called population that ‘the concept of endogenous development has its place
explosion and the model of urbanization, which occurred in in uNEsco’s programme as a major forum of reflection
Latin America, called for explanations, which the hypotheses with regard to the complex and many-sided process of
and arguments used until that time could not supply. development’.3 It continues: ‘If development is to fulfil
Whereas foreign academics continued to arrive until the people’s expectations, it cannot be patterned on an outside
second post-war period – expelled from the Old World as model; it must be achieved in accordance with goals and
a result of the First World War, the 1930s crisis, the racial methods freely chosen by each individual society, care being
and political repercussions of the period between the wars, taken to ensure that transfers of knowledge in the social and
the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War – this human sciences, as also in technology, do not impede
trend was reversed after the middle of the century, and a endogenous development, but, on the contrary, help get it
constant brain drain of considerable proportions was off the ground. With this end in view, the exchange of
established in the opposite direction. This trend coincided knowledge should prevail over the mere transfer of
with the growing number of military dictatorships in Latin knowledge, which runs the risk of producing effects of
America, the recovery of the central countries and the domination’.
spectacular advances in several fields of science and their Recent developments in the fields of communications,
applications. genetics, physics, and above all developments in the field of

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nature conservation, update this discussion in a most marginalization and exclusion, turning them into citizens,
dramatic way, highlighting the ever-present risk of Latin producers and consumers.
America being once again left by the wayside in this new The size and complexity of a continent such as Latin
and profound, multi-faceted revolution. America as well as the transformations it has undergone
defy any attempt to divide history into periods. The
divisions used to mark out historical, economic and political
Culture and the Arts events have not always proved useful from the cultural
point of view. Some years ago, in an attempt to find a
Early in the nineteenth century, taking up an idea that method appropriate to the study of this cultural process,
had already made its appearance in the previous century, we developed a criterion which, in our view, aids
some thinkers, such as the Argentinian E. Echevarría and understanding. The periods generally known as the ‘colonial
Andrés Bello, realized that there was no automatic link period’ and ‘independence’ seem over-schematic and rather
between political and mental emancipation. Neither was vague. They also carry strong connotations of backward
it enough to reject outmoded colonial ways. It was traditionalism. In our opinion, cultural development may
necessary to rediscover both the geography of Latin be divided into three broad areas, namely: imposed culture,
America and its human inhabitants in their own right accepted culture and criticized culture. The first category,
rather than in relation to Europe. Criticism was drafted that of ‘imposed culture’ coincides in general terms with
using tools of European origin, which hindered the colonial period, but it outlives that period because it
comprehension of what was characteristic and original. continues beyond the historical division usually made at
The great challenge was to find different perspectives and the beginning of the nineteenth century. The idea of an
to recognize the need to devise new instruments or imposed culture lived on until political emancipation was
models, in short, to find an appropriate language. José attained. In the case of Cuba this was at the end of the
Luis Romero, a historian, maintained that one of the century. In Brazil, events developed differently from
greatest obstacles always encountered is that of studying Spanish-speaking countries; slavery was abolished late
new phenomena using old classifications. This is (1888), the monarchy was abolished the following year, and
particularly so when change is rapid. The challenge here Brazil made an atypically peaceful transition to a republic.
was to apprehend a ‘new world’, which was complex and During this period, the prevailing models and values came
variegated, with all that implies. From the Enlightenment from outside and the policies implemented were designed
onwards thinkers, artists and sensitive individuals strove, to benefit the metropolis. The second period, which we call
not always aware of what they were trying to achieve, to the period of ‘accepted culture’, coincides with the beginning
perceive the originality of the society that was emerging, of emancipation in the majority of Spanish-speaking
and to anticipate the course it would take. To do so, it countries. This period, which economists were later to call
was necessary to abhor ‘tradition’. In other words, the period of ‘outward growth’, is marked by closer ties
discovery of reality and assimilation of European trends with Western Europe and the United States, whose
were interwoven. The critical spirit is strengthened when models, values and fashions were generally accepted as
it is applied in greater depth to creative analysis. prestigious, and there was little concern with making them
Furthermore, both the Spanish and Portuguese languages compatible with a different reality. The third and final
were infiltrated by words and expressions taken from the period is that of ‘criticized or disputed culture’, when the
indigenous languages that, in vast regions, have survived up values formulated and accepted during the previous period
to the present time and, as they are spoken by large numbers were gradually rejected, while the ideology of those who
of people over a huge area, cannot by any means be regarded denied them was recovered.
as isolated linguistic pockets. Even today, more than five Gradually the so-called ‘modernizing elites’ took the
hundred years after the encounter between these two Latin American stage. Their gods were unknown during the
worlds, there are still people who dream of recovering previous century – the railroad and in particular the
languages such as Quechua or Guarani, to mention only locomotive, steamboat, telegraph and telephone – but they
two; we are aware that a rich popular literature exists in also worshipped something which was more human,
these and other indigenous languages. The controversy does although abstract, an implicit project for ‘outward growth’
not end here. Rather, it is being reopened, in view of the which involved joining the international marketplace, where
magnitude of the migrations from the country towards the the pound sterling and the gold standard were venerated.
city and of the fact that culture is still not playing the This gave rise to relative economic stability often at the
integrating role that was expected of it. same time as economic growth, which attracted waves of
The environment in which this process developed was investment capital and people. By adopting the ideology of
not satisfactory – geographical dispersion, marked social economic liberalism, these countries set out along the road
differences, apparent in high illiteracy rates and a to a kind of ‘normality’. They tried to make this ideology
predominantly rural population. This should not be compatible with paternalistic and oligarchic attitudes and
regarded merely as a confrontation between the country even with slides into dictatorial and authoritarian regimes,
and the city but as an attempt to find a synthesis demanding such as that of Porfirio Díaz in Mexico or Antonio Guzmán
a more uniform society and greater cultural consistency. Blanco in Venezuela. These were the years of ‘strong
The perception of the world was also undergoing change; governments’, and in almost every case it is apparent that
science, initially natural science, was bringing secularization the number of foreign loans increased and public works
and modernization along in its wake. All this generated projects flourished; bridges, roads, public lighting, sanitation
great tensions which, it was assumed, could be mitigated by projects, railway stations, ports, monumental buildings and
an acculturation process fostered by national policies for parks were built, works of art were acquired abroad, and
integration and education, which would rescue people from bad taste abounded among the new urban sectors. The

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economy showed the influence of Britain, and France left its barbarism. Every construction, particularly abnormal
mark in the field of culture. That is why there was so much syntax. Every rhythm, particularly those which shun metre’.
talk of ‘efficiency’ or ‘profit’ in the former case and of ‘fashion’ For his part, O. de Andrade says: ‘What are we, people of a
and ‘good taste’ in the latter. thousand origins who have disembarked from different
At first sight these countries seemed peaceful and ships, but futurist? We cannot be otherwise.’ This attitude
prosperous. In any case, these were times of order and is expressed effectively but with humour in the Manifiesto
promising prospects rather than times of freedom. From Antropófago: ‘tupí or not tupí. That is the question’. In the
afar they offered an immense cornucopia. The ruling classes opinion of Ana Pizarro, in the field of the visual arts this
had allowed themselves to be carried away by the ‘madness attitude is reflected in the famous painting of Tarsila do
of speed’, as the saying went at that time. Some of them Amaral, La negra.
were said to believe that ‘Enlightenment is the true engine A significant fact is that the supporters of this nationalist
of progress’, which explains the constant preoccupation ‘modernism’, who rejected literary regionalism, were
with educational legislation that was rarely implemented. receptive to the growing influence of ‘naive’ painting and the
Inevitably, modernization affected daily life – the home, development of dance music, with its existential rhythms,
clothing and entertainment – and people read books and which are rich expressions of the Brazilian spirit.
magazines, which they had never done before, and the In a number of his works, the famous Brazilian critic
reading public grew. However, some sensible people Antonio Cândido focuses our attention on and analyses the
murmured under their breath, ‘So much luxury and so little turning point in Latin American cultural life that took place
social well-being’. In their day, the Mexican Revolution and early on with the formulation of optimistic assumptions
the University Reform, which started in Córdoba based on the idea that these were ‘young countries’, i.e.
(Argentina), sounded notes of warning, albeit of varying societies, whose future looked promising, that would be
intensity. Criticism of positivism grew. capable of overcoming the difficulties and constraints
The renewal of Spanish-language poetry and prose owes hampering the development of a bright and fertile future
a great deal to this movement, which introduced innovations and, on the other hand, the pessimistic anguish born of the
in both vocabulary and syntax. Leaving to one side the best- realization, already apparent before the middle of the
known forerunners, the most outstanding exponents were century, that ours are underdeveloped or, more charitably,
the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío and the Uruguayan José developing nations. The challenges to be met in the first
Enrique Rodó. It is a strange paradox that these two men instance were many, but it was assumed that with optimism
from small countries should stretch the limits of the and good will these obstacles could be overcome. However,
American continent perhaps to an extent unprecedented in during the second stage the evidence was more disheartening.
our cultural history. But it would be wrong to think that If some literacy campaigns were relatively successful, these
modernism, which a few decades later would in turn be triumphs did not always lead the newly literate to the world
exhausted and reduced to artificial refinements that would of written culture. Instead, and this is shown convincingly
be dispersed by the vortex of the avant-garde movements, by A. Cândido, they fell almost straight away under the
was strictly a literary movement. It also left its mark in other influence of radio broadcasts, comics and television. The
fields such as painting and music. Some interesting newly literate remained in a cultural limbo, because they
expressions are still to be found on the jackets of many were bereft both of the traditional values and of those that
books published on both sides of the Atlantic that preserve were considered necessary for modernization.
for us that style, which we now find melancholic, that has
left its mark on homes, furniture and ornaments that have
survived real-estate speculation and auction fever. Literature
As we have already pointed out with regard to many
other areas, there is a significant difference in chronology Sometimes an apparently incidental comment may reveal a
between cultural development in Brazil and the rest of great deal about a situation. Rosalba Campra, in America
Hispanic America. It was some time later that a vigorous, latina: l’identità e la maschera,4 relates how in 1960 Roger
but distinct, form of Brazilian ‘modernism’ made its presence Callois advised the publisher Gallimard to eliminate the
felt at the now famous Semana de Arte Moderno de São collection La Croix du Sud because it had been successful
Paulo in 1922. This event ushered in a period of particularly and so was no longer necessary. It was now a part of world
intense cultural activity and aimed to break with the literature and should therefore be included in the collection
conventions and academic attitudes prevalent at the time. Du Monde Entier along with German, Italian, Japanese and
Its effects were felt in literature as well as in music and the North American books. If we are to judge by these remarks,
visual arts. The way was prepared, among other things, by a literature with specific traits had managed to join the
the translation into Portuguese of the most significant mainstream of world literature. In fact, and here the
documents of the avant-garde movements of the Old pioneering work of R. Callois must be recognized, this
World. This was due primarily to Oswald de Andrade who, observation reveals a profound change in the importance
together with Manuel Bandeira and Carlos Drummond de attributed to Latin American literature, which, through one
Andrade, are normally regarded as the foremost exponents of the ‘cultured languages’ of the period, had triumphed and
of this movement, which reveals a strongly anti-traditionalist been consolidated. It was no longer necessary to resort to
and non-conformist attitude, rejecting the past in the name geographical limitations or adjectives or to stress the exotic
of a future full of grandeur and repudiating European nature of the works in order to attract readers. In other
artifice. Two quotations, taken from Jean Franco, illustrate words, it had overcome its geographical ‘confinement’.
this position. Rejecting the sway of linguistic conservatism During the twenty years from 1940 to 1960, the books by a
and in support of the renewal of the language, Manuel number of authors bore witness to the fact that they were
Bandeira calls for: ‘Every word, particularly universal on a par with the best literature being produced anywhere

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in the world. ‘Segregating’ them was therefore not only of the personal development of the various authors, situating
useless but also even harmful; the reading public and literary them in relation to events in each country and period. It
critics had already consecrated them alike. would also be necessary to follow up local influences as well
The same may be said of music and the visual arts, although as those coming from beyond the confines of the American
the time scales do not coincide, sometimes anticipating continent, the role of the critics, the existence of magazines
literary movements and sometimes developing later. In the and publishing houses as well as the changing nature of the
simplest of terms, it may be said that from the First World War public, whether in number, location or tastes. There are also
onwards, artistic and literary activity in Latin America eclipses and rediscoveries, which are not always easy to
underwent a profound change: although it continued to be explain. Consequently, we have opted to select a small
receptive to influences from Europe and North America, it number of names, all of whom are true milestones, whose
gradually consolidated its own identity which had been works are known through numerous translations, and the
developing for several decades. However, it must be recognized studies dedicated to them. Furthermore, they have already
that the many avant-garde movements from Europe and earned their place in world literature and constitute a
North America played a leading role from the critical point of compulsory point of reference in any conscientious study of
view and in the sense that they provided new instruments cultural development during the twentieth century. We
which helped strip language of old academic trappings and have therefore chosen a sequence that shows the dynamic
cramping regional movements, allowing new devices to be current running through different nations, periods and a
adopted which, as well as being more original, were also, and variety of aesthetic movements, quoting only essential dates
more importantly, more authentic. and, in most cases, mentioning only one work which, in our
Without committing the unpardonable offence of omitting view, may be regarded as the most significant.
the forerunners, clearly a series of socio-economic and cultural On the other hand, and almost simultaneously, a series
factors promoted this change in the cultural climate: a strong of other novels appeared which are today regarded as
trend towards urbanization, a significant reduction in ‘classics’, both on account of their lasting value and because
illiteracy rates, the emergence of a new public and the they enriched, often in a sensational way, knowledge of the
appearance of the means to transmit and broadcast to the Latin American countryside and its inhabitants in their
existing public, i.e. the establishment of a publishing industry various dimensions, drawing back veils which had hampered
and later the appearance of radio and the recording industry, in-depth knowledge of life on the tableland, in the jungle,
followed in more recent times by cinema and television. The on the savannah and the pampa, portraying the existence of
range of themes gradually expanded and perspectives blacks, Indians, immigrants, rural workers, rubber trappers,
broadened. It was not merely a matter of portraying rural miners, fishermen and lumbermen. These were works of
problems from this or that region or questions raised by the exploration, which helped assemble the variegated jigsaw
indigenous people in this or that country, the formation of puzzle contributing to a better understanding of these
new social groups such as the middle classes, or typical societies. Although some of these novels and short stories
political manifestations such as the existence of dictators. were regarded as examples of social, regional or costumbrista
These topics triggered a vast literary production, some of literature, hindsight shows that they made a valuable
which is of outstanding quality and lasting value. The most contribution to the integration and cultural maturity of the
salient point is that the aesthetic quality of these works continent. This may explain why today many more recent
imbued them with a universality, which is all the more works sail freely through the waters of universality bearing
significant since they did not set out to achieve it. The artistic Latin American flags.
yeast had acted as a kind of enriching alchemy. By classics we mean: the novels of Venezuelan Rómulo
Another possible method of assessing the importance of Gallegos (1884–1969; Doña Bárbara, 1926); Colombian
Latin American literature would be to enumerate the José Eustasio Rivera (1888–1929; La vorágine, 1924);
number of Nobel Prizes won by writers from the region: Argentinian Ricardo Güiraldes (1886–1927; Don Segundo
Gabriela Mistral (1945), Miguel Angel Asturias (1967), Sombra, 1926); the admirable short story writer Uruguayan
Pablo Neruda (1971), Gabriel García Márquez (1982) and Horacio Quiroga (1878–1937; Cuentos de amor, de locura y
Octavio Paz (1990). However, a more effective indicator de muerte, 1917, and his original Cuentos de la selva para
would probably be to recall that the works of Jorge Luis niños, 1918). This list could be expanded to include
Borges, Pablo Neruda, G. García Márquez and Octavio Ecuadorean Jorge Icaza (1906–1978; Huasipungo, 1934:
Paz are held in great esteem in the halls of universal although its artistic merits are less outstanding, this classic
literature. Not only have they been translated into numerous denouncing the dreadful conditions of the Indian had a
languages, appearing in the catalogues of the great publishing tremendous impact on public opinion); the influential
houses the world over and in academic syllabuses but, more Ecuadorean prose writers of the 1930s and Peruvian José
significantly, they have been and continue to be influential. María Arguedas (1911–1969; Los ríos profundos, 1958: this
This is confirmed by the number of imitators to be found beautifully written work with its well-structured plot had a
beyond the confines of the continent. To mention only one, strong impact).
Jorge Luis Borges, who did not receive the Nobel Prize, is a Ignoring divisions into generations or schools as well as
compulsory point of reference in every literary circuit and classifications weighed down by superfluous subtleties, we
has numerous ‘imitators’ from Japan to Germany. ought to mention some outstanding names, which, in our
This is not the place to record the history of or even to view, paved the way for the ‘boom’ (in Latin American
outline in detail, the most outstanding manifestations of literature, this term refers to the increase in the number of
Latin American literature, whether for its intrinsic values or works translated from 1960 onwards, which had a great
its universal interest. To do so would require us not only to impact on European and North American readers and
distinguish between a number of movements, which are not critics alike). These were, among others, prominent figures
always easily distinguishable, but also to provide a summary such as Guatemalan Miguel Angel Asturias (1899–1974;

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El señor presidente, 1946; and Hombres de maiz three years has already been pointed out, they are both extremely
later; his early work Leyendas de Guatemala merited a influential, and they both enjoy uncommon recognition on
prophetic letter from Paul Valéry); Cuban Alejo Carpentier, the part of the reading public. They have imitators
who coined the happy term, now so widely used, ‘magic throughout the world.
realism’ (1904–1980; El siglo de las luces, 1962); Uruguayan In centuries past the participation of women was scarce.
Juan Carlos Onetti (1909–1994; La vida breve, 1950 with its The figure of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is really an exception.
exasperated realism where he founded the mythical and However, in this century a considerable number of women
fictitious town of Santa María); and Cuban José Lezama writers, particularly poets, have emerged. Among them are
Lima (1910–1976; Paradiso, 1960, regarded by a prestigious the Uruguayan poets María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira (1875–
critic as a dazzling work). 1924) and Delmira Agustini (1886–1914); Argentinian
These and other writers laid the foundations of the so- Alfonsina Storni (1892–1938); the Chilean Gabriela
called boom, the outstanding figures of which were: Mistral (1886–1937), perhaps the best known since she
Colombian Gabriel García Márquez (1928–2005), whose won the Nobel Prize; Dulce María Loynaz (Cuba);
Cien años de soledad, 1967, perhaps one of the cornerstones Brazilian Cecília Meireles (1901–1964). To these we should
of twentieth-century literature, is a world of magic and add, among others, the prose writer Venezuelan Teresa de
dreams where, in the words of R. Xirau, the story is told la Parra (1891–1936). Belonging to different literary
‘with a realism so precise and so raw that he transforms movements, they enjoy fame and recognition, as do the
reality into legend without depriving legend of its charge of more recent generations. Nowadays gender differences are
reality’; Argentinian Julio Cortázar (1914–1984), whose tending to disappear.
Rayuela, 1963, undertakes its aesthetic adventure in a spirit The space available prevents us from dealing in depth
of innovation; Paraguayan Augusto Roa Bastos (1917– with another genre, the theatre. This medium is deeply
2005; Yo, el supreme, 1974); Argentinian Ernesto Sábato rooted in both popular and high culture, and theatrical
(1911–; Sobre héroes y tumbas, 1962); and Peruvian Mario activity in spectacularly variegated forms may be traced all
Vargas Llosa (1936–; La guerra del fin del mundo, 1987). The the way back through colonial times to the pre-Hispanic
above, who are all outstanding novelists, were equally civilizations. The twentieth century has found expression in
significant as short-story writers. In this latter genre we Latin America through a wide range of performance styles
must mention two great Mexican writers: Juan Rulfo and surprising scenic forms, from the ‘popular theatres’, as
(1918–; El llano en llamas; Pedro Páramo) and Juan José non-professional theatres are known in some countries, to
Arreola (1918; Confabulario), as well as Carlos Fuentes the most daring avant-garde creations involving highly
(1925–), who has also tried his hand as an essayist. sophisticated productions, and from experimental theatre
Contrary to a commonly held view, it was not only in the to theatre for the masses. We shall mention only two names:
field of fiction that Latin American literature shone. There Uruguayan Florencio Sánchez (1875–1910; with his
are a number of eminent essayists such as Mexican José forceful work Barranca Abajo, 1905); and Mexican Rodolfo
Vasconcelos (1882–1959); Pedro Henríquez Ureña (1882– Usigli (1905–1979; El Gesticulador, 1937; Corona de sombre,
1946); Gilberto Freyre (Brazilian, 1900–1987); the unique 1947 and Corona de luz, 1965). As in the rest of the world,
stylist Mexican Alfonso Reyes (1889–1959); the vigorous the spread of the cinema, which attracted many authors and
and admirable Argentinian Ezequiel Martínez Estrada actors, was a great challenge, which forced the theatre to
(1885–1964); the remarkable Venezuelan Mariano Picón redefine its role. It is now emerging triumphant and renewed
Salas (1901–1965); the prolific Colombian Germán from this exercise.
Arciniegas (1900–1999) and many others. Brazil also witnessed an intense and very interesting
As the influence of the modernism of Rubén Darío and literary movement, similar in some respects to that which
his most notable followers, such as Argentinian Leopoldo occurred in Spanish-speaking America. Although the
Lugones (1874–1938) and Uruguayan Julio Herrera y Semana de Arte Moderna, to which we have already referred
Reissig (1875–1910), waned, poetry fell into disfavour, and which denied the past, aspiring to find nourishment in
symbolized by a famous sonnet by Mexican Enrique the European avant-garde movements, was a decisive
González Martínez (1871–1952), but was reborn under the milestone in the renewal of the arts and letters in general,
strong influence of the avant-garde movements. A series of the process would be incomprehensible if certain remarkable
profoundly lyrical and highly expressive poets emerged with forerunners were not taken into account, even though they
Peruvian César Vallejo (1892–1938; Trilce, 1922); Chilean may belong to different aesthetic and ideological movements.
Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948; Altazor, 1931); Chilean Such is the case of Euclydes da Cunha (1861–1909), author
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), whose Residencia en la tierra, of the classic Os Sertões (1902), described by Pedro
(1933–37) is remarkably intense and moving, whereas Henríquez Ureña as ‘a sombre tale ... powerfully and
Canto General (1950) attains a degree of splendour brilliantly told’, or José Pereyra de Graça Aranha (1868–
expressing the excesses of nature, humanity and the history 1931), author of Canão, 1902, and a supporter of the young
of Latin America; the extremely refined Argentinian participants in the Semana de Arte. In Mario de Andrade
Ricardo Molinari (1898–1996); and Cuban Nicolás Guillén, (1843–1945), whose work Mucanaíma, o Héroi sem nenhum
who rediscovered the rhythms of Afro-America (1902– caracter (1928) is a cornerstone, the movement found its
1989). Colloquial poetry had a great impact on a wider most felicitous exponent and inspired creator, gifted with a
public. This is the case of Chilean Nicanor Parra (1914–) sensitivity honed by national and popular motifs.
and Nicaraguan Ernesto Cardenal (1925). Outstanding After the third decade of the century, the economic and
among all of these are two great poets who were also great political upheavals and intense debates that shook Brazil
prose writers, although they never tried their hand at the opened the door to a number of movements, which were
novel. We are referring to Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges looked upon in a new light. Among these was the recovery
(1899–1986) and Mexican Octavio Paz (1914–1998). As of the regional dimension which, to a certain extent, stood

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in opposition to modernism, which was regarded as being compounded when we look backwards in time to the
too cosmopolitan. This movement produced great creative nineteenth century. The very commendable contribution of
figures who managed to project their highly aesthetic works bibliographers can in no way fill this vacuum, since their
at national and international level. José Lins do Rego’s aims were quite different. Neither can we depend upon
(1901–1957) novelistic cycle on sugar cane, begun in 1932, qualitative judgements, although they may help us establish
is regarded by Jean Franco as one of the greatest works of some link between prosperity and cultural growth, with the
this century. Graciliano Ramos (1892–1953; Vidas Secas, proviso that automatic links, which might distort this
1938, and other novels), continues to enjoy great prestige complex subject, must be avoided.
among critics and the general public as does Rachel de The development of publishing must be related to the
Queirós (1910–2003), and Jorge Amado (1912–2001), expansion of schooling, the desire to renew the education
whose vast production has sometimes been weakened by his systems and the gradual rise in living standards, and also the
concessions to success. Jorge Amado enjoys great popularity emergence of an urban middle class in nearly every country.
on account of the numerous translations of his books, some These conditions also promoted the search for a new public
of which have been turned into films. without disregarding the social groups that had hitherto
João Guimarães Rosa (1908–1966) was the remarkable constituted the reading public. One of the consequences of
author of Grande Sertão: Veredas, which, with its ‘powerful this was an exploration of the extreme ends of the market:
language and subtle expressiveness’, and despite the luxury books for high-income groups and popular books to
difficulties involved, has been translated into numerous stimulate the growth of the new reading public. Different
languages and is favoured by critics on account of the sales mechanisms were used for each sector, and the topics
richness of its narrative form as well as its narrative covered grew more diversified. Markets beyond the national
perspectives; it has been compared to James Joyce’s Ulysses. frontiers were also explored.
With great aesthetic sensitivity he takes up the popular and The two world wars and the Spanish Civil War favoured
colloquial language of the sertão, giving it a universal the development of publishing in Latin America, which
dimension through his inspired linguistic alchemy. grew and matured in the same way as most other industries
In a shrewd essay on ‘Latin American Literature and the filling the gap left by imports. Very soon the companies,
Cultural Industry’, the Mexican Carlos Monsivais observes which had set up operations in the New World, became
that, after the discovery of popular themes and the ‘national’, i.e. they began to include authors from the
appearance of literature on this subject, up to Eustasio countries where they were based in their catalogues. Later
Rivera, Rómulo Gallegos, Jorge Icaza and others, literature they became ‘Latin Americanized’, which is to say that their
then moved towards social themes under the influence of ‘stables’ were enriched by authors and topics from those
the emerging middle classes. He adds that radio, the film countries with which they established trading links. These
and recording industries ‘mass produce’ certain cultural links were strengthened by opening subsidiaries abroad or
forms, which are despised by the elites. ‘The public replaces improving distribution. Outstanding examples of this
the People’ or, to put it more directly, people are replaced by process are to be seen in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico and
the public. One of the results of this is banalization and, on somewhat later in Venezuela. Over time, the lack of a
the other hand, ‘cinema idols, radio idols, record idols, specialized graphics industry and of personnel in the fields
concert or stage idols’ emerge, promoted by the vested of translation, layout, and proofreading was overcome.
interests linked to the cultural industries with their capacity Some examples will serve to illustrate this somewhat
to colonize minds and invent new heroes: Batman, abstract argument. The evolution of various collections
Superman, etc. Monsivais continues: ‘Until then, the “truly shows how translations were gradually replaced by original
popular” lay in the rural domain. From that point onwards, works written in Spanish, as classic and modern Spanish-
what is authentic has also arisen in the relationship between language authors were included. This promoted considerable
urban life and the cultural industry’, a phenomenon which integration.
passed unnoticed for many years, as did another, no less The work of the Fondo de Cultura Económica in Mexico
eloquent, factor: ‘the higher levels of instruction which go deserves a paragraph of its own on account of the
hand in hand with growing levels of misinformation’. repercussions that it had. In the initial stages it strongly
‘in mass society, what was popular is perforce becoming promoted works in the field of economics, but soon included
a minority concern’, concludes Monsivais, but not before other disciplines, such as philosophy, anthropology,
issuing a warning that, ‘although it may seem spectacular, population studies, history, and Latin American classics. Its
literature is turning towards popular culture and creating influence was so great that it even popularized many words
towns like Gabriel García Márquez’s Macondo or Juan drawn from the technical jargon of these and other
Rulfo’s Comala, which enrich our reality’. disciplines.
The directors of landmark collections, which left an
enduring mark on the history of our culture, include
Publishing outstanding intellectuals from both sides of the Atlantic.
Obvious examples are José Gaos, José Medina Echaverría,
The will to quantify is not exactly a Latin American virtue. Francisco Romero, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Luis and Felipe
This is revealed, among other things, by the fact that it is Jiménez de Asúa, Lorenzo Luzuriaga, Guillermo de Torre,
always difficult to find statistics that are reliable, comparable Francisco Ayala, Amado Alonso, as well as many others.
and relevant. This not inconsiderable obstacle makes it From the middle of this century onwards, the number of
difficult to draw up long-term tables of the number of titles publishing houses increased, as did the number of titles
published, on what subjects, the size of the print run, the published and the size of the print runs. A parallel trend
target public, as well as certain other information that would towards specialization is noted: children’s literature,
shed light on this most noble of activities. This deficiency is dictionaries, encyclopaedias, atlases, textbooks, scholarly

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works, the sciences (particularly medicine, law, psychology), when he points out that the Encyclopedie de la Pléiade, which
art and so on. All this implies a complex round of activities, specializes in music and appeared in 1963, did not have a
which it is impossible to sum up, since it requires careful single entry for Latin American music. This unpardonable
analysis. In any case, two significant experiences deserve a omission is compounded by the fact that, as we are reminded
mention, however brief: the appearance on the Latin by the same author, artists such as Heitor Villa-Lobos,
American market of Editorial de la Universidad de Buenos Carlos Chávez, Silvestre Revueltas and many others already
Aires, and on a more limited, strictly national, scale the enjoyed international prestige and, at that time, their names
achievement of Peruvian pocket editions, which managed appeared on concert programmes conducted almost always
to sell tens of thousands of copies of works at a series of by Europeans who had chosen their compositions.
‘festivals’ when the first editions of five hundred or one Parallel to this, a rich and original folklore was emerging
thousand copies had still not sold out. Peru is a country whose roots were not solely Hispanic, as some scholars have
with virtually no graphics or publishing tradition. The tried to maintain, but authentic indigenous sources as well
phenomenon was short-lived, to be sure, but it is certainly as the rich and highly significant contribution of so-called
worth studying. ‘black music’, i.e. the music of African origin brought by the
About the same time, the now flourishing Brazilian millions of slaves uprooted from their homeland whose
publishing industry began to take off. This process went meagre luggage often included some musical instruments.
hand in hand with the on-going trends towards urbanization, These varied influences brought strength and complexity to
industrialization, literacy campaigns and, significantly, a existing forms of national music. Thus, the counterpoint
real explosion in secondary and higher education. Here, between prestigious foreign musical expressions and the
too, the number of translations decreased in favour of presence of new sources of inspiration and different native
original works. The standard of the graphics is quite forms of expression was reinforced. A strong symbiosis
remarkable. This is to be seen both in popular editions and occurred, giving rise to such composers as Heitor Villa-
in editions for the most demanding bibliophiles. Lobos (1887–1959), whose robust works are distinguished
by their characteristic rhythm and rich harmony. His Choros
and numerous other works for piano, guitar, and orchestra
Music as well as his choral works, are all performed to this day,
showing that he had transcended the ordinary ‘nationalism’
What is vaguely termed Latin American ‘serious music’ has of his roots and achieved a sophisticated synthesis where
not yet achieved the same impact on the international stage the nationalist component was interwoven with the
as Latin American literature. Perhaps folkloric and popular influence of the avant-garde movements. His powerful
manifestations, the latter closely linked to dance, festivals inspiration allowed him to confront the already outmoded
and the more recent activities of the cultural industry which European rhetoric then in fashion. While nationalism is
are dealt with in another chapter, have been more still apparent in the works of Mozart Camargo Guarnieri
fortunate. (1907–1993) and his followers, it is also clear that they had
The initial difficulties encountered by musical become trapped by their attempts to intermingle native
development are understandable: tiny audiences and a lack themes with the trappings of a genre as alien as Italian opera.
of musical tradition; few concert halls or permanent, We are referring particularly to Carlos Gomes’s (1836–
organized orchestras; in short, a lack of professionalization 1896) experiment El guaraní.
in the field. This was exacerbated by the ascendancy of first The tremendous influence of José Vasconcelos from his
Italianate and later French fashions and the sway held by position at the Ministry of Education successfully
foreign concert virtuosi whose fame prevented local figures encouraged all manner of cultural and artistic expression
from emerging. In other words, although printing and among the younger generations, which emerged in the heat
literacy had somehow fostered the reading habit and created of the Mexican Revolution. The evidence can be seen in
a new reading public of some size, these democratizing music and the great murals. This dynamic, creative
winds did not blow through the musical world until the environment produced figures such as Carlos Chávez
middle of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the (1899–1978), who is well known for his Sinfonía India
intermittent pioneering efforts were hindered by a dearth of (1936) and Xochipilli Macuilxóchitl (1940). The latter work
musical scores and the critics’ failure to understand the new is performed using pre-Hispanic instruments. Chávez is the
trends. Official musical education and private music schools author of a vast repertoire covering every musical genre. He
became strongholds of traditionalism, whether of the also conducted the Mexico City Symphony Orchestra
folkloric or Italianate variety. (1928), and was the Director of the Conservatoire. This
However, after the 1920s, the academic approach began provided him with a privileged position in the musical world
to break down for a number of reasons, such as the arrival of where he was regarded as a cultured and erudite artist.
European immigrants and exiles; these events have not been Silverio Revueltas (1899–1941), on the other hand, who is
properly studied. New reforming trends, such as the avant- closer to popular tradition and whose works show social
garde movements, were then adopted and, as a reaction, and political overtones, is remembered among other works
cultural nationalism emerged. However indirectly, this for Sensemayá (1938). Although he died prematurely, his
fostered a sense of independence among artists which, in legacy remains in his brilliant compositions for the ballet.
turn, created a new climate that eventually produced a He was also an early exponent of music written specifically
number of composers and works of lasting value. These for a number of films. The works of both these composers
works are still included in the concert repertoire, appear in were acclaimed not only for their powerful exoticism but
the record catalogues published in the Old World and are also for their intrinsic worth.
frequently broadcast by radio stations which specialize in At the other end of America we find Alberto Ginastera
this type of music. Luis Héctor Correa reminds us of this (1916–1983) who, according to José María Neves, ‘is to

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Argentina what Villa-Lobos is to Brazil’. His brilliant career efforts to attain universality, the presence of painting on the
as a composer should not overshadow his equally outstanding world stage was felt very early on, for the aforementioned
contribution as a teacher. He headed the Centro reasons and owing to the repercussions of Mexican
Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales del Instituto muralism, which constituted a surprising phenomenon
Di Tella, where he accorded great importance to both on account of the originality of the works and because
experimental and electronic music; and, with the help of of their international renown. Here again we must mention
scholarships, many of the new generation of Latin American the work of José Vasconcelos during his time at the Ministry
composers now emerging were trained under his influence. of Education in Mexico. In his quest to assert national
Juan Carlos Paz (Argentinian, 1901–1972), an early awareness, he sparked off creative energies. He sensed that
exponent and defender of avant-garde musical movements, the commotion unleashed by the Mexican Revolution
was a founding member of the Grupo Renovación (1930) would allow him to cast off the fetters of academism,
and later the Agrupación Nueva Música (1937), taking part Hispanicism, and costumbrismo and pursue an ambitious
in their activities as a composer as well as a student and synthesis of all these trends, opening the flood gates to new
proponent of dodecaphonic and microtonal music. He also audacities and exploring new uncharted waters where the
took an interest in concrete and electronic music. He has streams of many different inheritances might flow together,
left a legacy of his pioneering work in a plethora of articles renewed by the currents of the European avant-garde
and books. movements. All this took place in a climate of new appetites
In Chile, the musical renewal is linked, as in other awakened by the social movements that created a new
countries, to the appearance of certain institutions, such as audience for less individualistic, less esoteric art forms i.e.
the Bach Society (1917), the Orquesta Sinfónica (1926), the art that was more ‘popular’ and accessible. It was the great
Conservatorio Nacional de Música (1928), the Facultad de painters, comparable in this respect to the titans of the
Bellas Artes de la Universidad de Chile (1929) and later the Renaissance, who came up with the key. They used huge
National Ballet and Choir. These initiatives, which created spaces to express themes of vital importance and their
a very stimulating climate that had a ripple effect, owe a message was transmitted to that wide public. However, it is
great deal to the predominant role played by Domingo no coincidence that these artists, so closely identified with
Santa Cruz Wilson. their homeland, had also absorbed the ideas of the avant-
Our overview of musical activity should not be limited to garde movements of the day in Paris. Their creations were
the examples mentioned above. Mention should also be the result of many influences coming together.
made of the emergence of festivals, prizes, contests and the José Diego María Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957), known
increased opportunities being offered by radio, records, and simply as Diego Rivera in the annals of art history, met Juan
television as well as the development of outstanding Gris and Picasso in Europe at an early stage. He visited
performers, many of whom have taken Europe by storm. dozens of museums and was spellbound by the art of certain
The list is long, so by way of example, we shall merely periods, particularly the murals by Giotto, Uccello, and
mention the Chilean Claudio Arrau. Piero della Francesca. When he returned to Mexico he
The expressions of popular music, which impregnated visited the Mayan ruins there, and in 1922, he was
‘serious’ music, particularly in Brazil, deserve a chapter to commissioned to paint the murals at the Escuela Nacional
themselves. Folk music, which became urbanized with the Preparatoria, a task that he combined with the organization
flow of migrants from the country to the city, where it of the Sindicato Revolucionario de Obreros, Técnicos y
sometimes underwent a profound transformation, attained Plásticos. He rejected easel painting as elitist and defended
admirable levels of artistic achievement. This is the case of public art on a grand scale on historical and indigenous
Atahualpa Yupanqui (Argentinian), Violeta Parra themes as the national artistic expression. After that he
(Chilean), Vinicius de Morães and Chico Buarque de painted huge works, the murals in the Secretariat for Public
Holanda (both Brazilian), who are known throughout the Education in Mexico City (1923–28), and the Palacio
world. Another case, which is less exceptional than it might Nacional. Later he continued with his work in the United
seem at first sight, is that of the tango, a dance form that has States. Rivera’s stormy life never separated him from his art,
recently enjoyed great success in Japan. Among the which is remarkable for the quality and quantity of his
innovators in that genre is Astor Piazzolla, a classically output, the profusion of canvases, graphics and many
trained composer who, having been criticized and rejected controversial theoretical papers.
by both camps, has finally gained complete acceptance. David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974), who was even
more categorical than Rivera, was personally involved in the
political life of the Mexican Revolution and later in the
The visual arts Spanish Civil War. From his youth he supported the idea
of ‘art that synthesized universal themes, new forms and
With a very few exceptions, it may be said that the Latin modern materials’. Imprisoned and later deported, he
American renewal in visual arts began with some outstanding travelled throughout South America, where he left behind
expressions early in the twentieth century. Certainly the works, his teaching and disciples. His murals at the Escuela
visual arts in their many manifestations did not require de Chillán (Chile), in Buenos Aires, and Havanaare are
translation from Spanish and Portuguese. Paris in particular, worth remembering. Of the great legacy of works he left to
and other European cities, were a strong attraction with his country and the world of art, we might single out, not
their many schools and teachers, marchands and traditional without some considerable hesitation, La marcha de la
welcome to artists, so that nearly every artist of note worked humanidad, painted in 1964.
there at some time, and many stayed on. Contrary to what José Clemente Orozco, another member of the trio
occurred with the boom mentioned in previous pages, which representing this movement, painted at Pomona College in
took more than fifty years to mature and required enormous California (1930), the New School of Social Research in

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New York (1930), the Baker Library at Dartmouth College, Another two Uruguayan painters who deserve mention
New Hampshire (1934), and the Great Hall at Guadalajara are Pedro Figari (1861–1936), who fashioned an original
University. From his youth he also stood out as an extremely style with his Creole market places, candombes and the
talented illustrator and draughtsman. presence of anonymous figures such as gauchos and blacks
Apart from the intrinsic value of the three artists who animate his canvases. Over the years Figari, who
mentioned above, attention must be drawn to the significance mastered an exceptional palette, won the affection of
of their work, which had an impact almost all over the thousands of admirers.
world. They also had many imitators, though none of these The vast fresco of Latin American painting is enriched
ever attained the inner fire of their masters. Apart from by the valuable contributions of a number of noteworthy
these three, mention should also be made of Rufino Tamayo Brazilian artists. Although Tarsilia de Amaral (1886–1973),
(1899–1991), an admirer of a less utilitarian and Dionysian did not take part in the famous Semana de Arte Moderno,
aesthetic philosophy, though the influence of popular and since she was in Europe at the time, she was influenced by
folk art are apparent in his work. One of his murals decorates it, as her anxiety to imbue modernism with a truly national
the walls of a conference room in the UNESCO character shows. She was also concerned to consolidate ‘a
Headquarters in Paris. Belonging to the same movement, new tropical Brazilian aesthetic philosophy, drawing its
but with undisguised differences, is the work of Juan strength from the land and celebrating primitive things’.
O’Gorman (1905–1982) who, in his youth, was a forward- Lasar Segall (Lithuania 1891–Brazil 1957) was trained
looking architect and author of the well-known mosaic in Europe but emigrated to Brazil in 1923. His work tended
mural in the Biblioteca Central at the Universidad to reflect human suffering, ranging from the Jewish tragedies
Autónoma de México. of the Old World to a moving vision of reality in his adopted
Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), Rivera’s wife, was also an country. However, he never ignored the countryside, which
exceptional figure. Her strong personality, talent and he depicted in a remarkably abstract vision.
strength allowed her to evade all the prevailing influences Emiliano de Cavalcanti (1897–1976) played an active
and tune in to surrealism, which she combined with painting role in the movement engendered by the Semana de Arte
of popular origin, freeing her imagination, which proved Moderno before spending a long and productive period
capable of creating lasting symbols, and composing her own immersed in the European avant-garde movements. His
unmistakable message. She captured her heroic life in a spiritual development is interesting in view of his lasting
series of self-portraits, which are still among the most interest in politics.
sought-after canvases of Latin American painting. Today From a very early age, Cândido Torcuato Portinari
her fame, which arrived late, is overwhelming. (1903–1962) was attracted by the Mexican mural. Already
Emilio Pettoruti (Argentinian, 1892–1972), who studied in 1939 he was involved in the Ministry of Education
and worked in Europe for a long time, is regarded as one of building in Rio de Janeiro, designed by Le Corbusier. We
the foremost figures of cubism. It certainly took some time shall mention only his frescos in the Library of Congress in
before his art, which is refined and severe, attained the Washington (1941–42), and in the United Nations building
recognition it enjoys today, stirring up stormy controversies. (1959). His lasting fame was consolidated by portraits and
A contributor to the magazine Martín Fierro (1924), where illustrations.
the spirit of Jorge Luis Borges already prevailed, he left Wilfredo Lam (Cuban, 1902–1982), the son of an Asian
behind an exemplary corpus of works, which is highly father and a black mother, created his own ‘pantheon of
sought-after by collectors and museums alike. He also left saints’. He is one of the foremost Latin American painters
his autobiography, Un pintor frente al espejo, where he tells of all time on account of his highly original style, which was
the story of his human and artistic adventures in Europe capable of combining the exuberant natural surroundings,
and his relations – not always cordial – with the avant- recognition of African sources in the culture of his country,
garde movements, but its primary importance lies in the fact his fascination with primitive art and his sensitivity, which
that it reveals the reaction of the critics and the public is enraptured and logical at one and the same time. La jungla
towards the new movements. (1943), a work inspired primarily by African sculpture and
The influence of Xul Solar (Argentinian, 1887–1963) popular expressions of African art, is perhaps one of the
came later. He is a somewhat isolated figure in the world of highest points in the art of the New World. Lam managed
Latin American art. His pictures, almost always small, are to transpose ‘the formal sources of Afro-West-Indian art
related to those of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir and the evolution of religious beliefs, which form the basis
Malevich. In the opinion of the critic Damián Bayón, he is of so much emotive and spiritual energy in Cuba’.
an interesting painter because of ‘the subtle and intricate Among more recent figures, Roberto Sebastián Antonio
fabric of (his pictures) from the point of view of the symbols Matta Echaurren (Chilean, 1911–2002) stands out. A highly
he uses and his playful, surrealist type humour’. original painter, his large-format works are full of abstract
Joaquín Torres Garcia (Uruguayan, 1874–1949) is and monumental beings ‘committing ritualized and bellicose
undoubtedly one of the most original painters ever produced acts’, which give expression to a disturbing cosmic vision.
by America. When he was still young, he worked with Antoni Jesús Rafael Soto (Venezuelan, 1923–2005) is the author
in Spain. Later he took a great interest in prehistoric, particularly of interesting experiments, such as his penetrables made up
pre-Hispanic art, which had a lasting influence on all his later of metal tubes hanging so that the spectators will make
work. His style is known as ‘constructive universalism’, which them move as they come in. In 1970 he painted a mural for
is also the title of a voluminous and highly original book in UNESCO.
which he expounds his theories. Every fragment of his vast The Colombian Fernando Botero (1932–) forged his
work, part of which was lost in an unfortunate fire which broke own inimitable style very early on, and over the years he has
out at an exhibition in São Paulo, expresses ‘autobiographical, consolidated it. His figures, particularly his human figures,
mathematical, metaphysical and spiritual concern’. animals and objects always appear bloated in his pictures

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and sculptures, as though they have been blown up. They faculties and drew their inspiration from European or
are enormously popular, and his works, which certain North American models, e.g. the prestigious Paris Ecole
sectors of the public find very attractive, fetch high prices on des Beaux-Arts. Construction materials, such as steel, glass
the international markets. and ceramic products, were introduced, displacing local or
Oswado Guayasamin (Ecuadorean, 1919–1999) is a regional materials, such as the noble brick, which would be
prolific painter. He is remembered particularly for La edad ‘rediscovered’ decades later.
de la ira (1959–62), which consists of 250 canvases similar This situation was aggravated by the destruction, in the
to murals. Antonio Berni’s (Argentinian, 1905–1981) two name of modernity, of veritable architectural jewels inherited
series of collages, Juanito Laguna and Ramona Montiel, from centuries past, which had conferred a strong personality
constitute a harsh criticism of the society emerging around upon the urban landscape. Conditions were ripe for a debate
the vast conurbations. The prizes conferred by the Biennale on the nature of ‘national architecture’, which often strayed
di Venezia (1962) brought him deserved recognition. into truly eclectic mixtures, giving rise to a chaotic lack of
All this art is a result of the greater cultural depth and style.
maturity of Latin America, which, in turn, is indicative of In his Arquitectura urbana en Iberoamérica, Ramón
its greater spiritual independence. The appearance of Gutiérrez points out a series of factors that illustrate the
contests, galleries, competitions, biennial festivals, development of a clearer awareness of the problems existing
exhibitions, museums and schools which did not exist a within the Latin American context and identification of
century ago has undoubtedly played a part in this those buildings that are landmarks. Referring to the
development, which, in turn, has led to an increase in the beginning of the twentieth century, he points out that the
number of collectors as well as another interesting fact: most important example of so-called art nouveau
although the traditional role of the state as a promoter of construction in the period, known in Mexico as the
culture has decreased, new middle-class groups with less Porfiriato, was the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which was not
conventional taste have emerged alongside the high-income completed until 1934, although the public competition was
buyers of works of art. held in 1900. The main architectural principles were
established by the Italian architect Adamo Boari.
Jumping a few stages and leaving to one side various
Architecture styles and schools that were distinguished by the prevalence
of ornamental elements used in the private construction of
In Latin America, where architecture was subject to the banks, ministries, hospitals, cinemas, hotels and cafés, it
same influences as other cultural activities, the collapse of a should be pointed out that certain socio-economic changes
cosmopolitan vision, particularly as a result of the serious had by then restored the importance of the state. Other
socio-political events already mentioned, gave rise to a contributing factors were the synthesis of the characteristics
critical spirit and triggered off the search for new directions of oligarchic and military governments, and fascist
to follow. On the one hand there were trends bearing a movements with their preference for monumental
Hispanic stamp, which sought to revive the colonial spirit, buildings. Reform movements had arisen earlier in a
and others, which aimed to salvage indigenist elements or to number of countries. It would be unjust not to mention
combine both these trends. Two Argentinian architects the modernist movements in Brazil inspired by Mario de
stand out among those proposing the reworking of Hispanic Andrade and Gregori Warchavchik, the movements
and indigenist elements: Angel Guido (1896–1960), and inspired by the Manifiesto Regionalista (1926), of the
Martín Noel (1888–1963). In the opinion of Ramón thinker Gilberto Freyre and, above all, the changed
Gutiérrez, this movement culminated in the Argentinian intellectual climate.
Pavilion at the Seville World Fair (1929), and the Teatro Finally, the contributions made by the various
Cervantes in Buenos Aires built in the same year. On the Panamerican Architectural Congresses (Montevideo, 1920;
other hand, the most recent trends arising in the ‘centres’ Santiago, Chile, 1924; Buenos Aires, 1927; and Rio de
were introduced in a mechanical and ingenuous way without Janeiro) should not be underestimated. At the latter
adapting them to the new environment. This meant that congress it was recommended that each American nation
building solutions designed for quite different climates were aim to ‘forge its own national architectural tradition’. To a
applied automatically in tropical and sub-tropical areas. In certain extent the presence of one man in Latin America
short, architectural journals and international congresses made a decisive contribution, precipitating change in the
imposed their criteria, which were soon adopted. Although spirit of the architectural environment. We are referring, of
these trends almost always proved transitory, they often course, to the two trips by Le Corbusier, who visited Rio de
helped spoil the character of Latin American cities. This Janeiro and Buenos Aires in 1929 and 1936. In Rio he
trend was reinforced by the presence of foreign architects, designed the now famous Ministry of Education building.
many of whom arrived among the great waves of immigrants, Among other young Brazilians, Lucio Costa and Oscar
whereas others were commissioned to direct one-off Niemeyer worked alongside him. In Buenos Aires he
projects, which were generally public buildings. To this drafted Planning Regulations, which for many years were
must be added the widespread distribution of books the point of reference for future and frustrated plans. In
containing plans and full blueprints, particularly of French both cities his lectures were fruitful, and the few buildings
and Italian origin, which were usually copied wholesale. planned during his brief stays exemplary.
Proof of this are the buildings still standing in the popular It is not generally known that at the time when skyscrapers
districts of every city which were built using these models. were revered as the ultimate symbols of modernity, the
The fact that architecture schools and faculties came into highest buildings in the world were the Salvo Palace in
existence late must also be taken into account. These schools Montevideo (1922–25) and the Kavanagh in Buenos Aires
and faculties were almost always offshoots of engineering (1933–35). Both these buildings were constructed using

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reinforced concrete, which was used because steel, the above the world average. However, some clarification is
material traditionally used in this type of building, was in required. The first qualification concerns the division into
short supply and still not produced in Latin America. different levels. The second has to do with the enormous
While the large cities, such as Caracas, Mexico City, Rio disparity between different countries and between the
de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Bogotá, were mushrooming as various regions within one country. Such is the case in
a result of the great waves of migrants, more and more plans Brazil, where there are great differences between one area
and blueprints for housing for the poor were produced, but and another owing to the vastness of the territory involved.
the results were almost always unsatisfactory, even if the A less significant point is the reliability and comparability of
slow pace of building is ignored. There was vacillation, data. Another more eloquent illustration of this situation
inexperience, political weakness and lack of organization may be drawn from the estimates of Pablo Latapie, who
among the poor, who did not have much lobbying capacity. analyses the growth of enrolments and school attendance
These factors should not be considered in isolation from the rates between 1960 and 1989 in a report drafted by the
climate of political instability, which was, and still is, one of International Commission on Education for the Twenty-
the greatest problems and challenges facing Latin American first Century (the Delors Commission), and based on
society. UNESCO data (Statistical Yearbook). The conclusions,
Of all the Mexican buildings, perhaps the most significant expressed in thousands, are as follows: Enrolment in
was the now famous Museo de Antropología e Historia preschool education grew from 983 to 10,017 (growing
(1964), designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. 10.19 times); primary education expanded from 26,653 to
Another very influential public building was the Ciudad 73,559 (2.75 times); secondary education increased from
Universitaria in Caracas, where the great lecture hall houses 4,085 to 21,251 (5.20 times) and higher education enrolment
Calder’s paintings. This project was designed by architect from 573 to 7,257 (12.65 times).
Carlos Raúl Villanueva. Apart from the demographic, economic, social and other
Owing to the magnitude of the undertaking, the greatest data, which are well known and have been studied in depth,
town planning and architectural project undertaken in other factors may also shed some light on this phenomenon.
Latin America during the twentieth century was the city of One of these is the tradition, with its roots in the
Brasilia, whose design reflects a long history with clear Enlightenment, which stresses the importance of education
political and geopolitical overtones. It was built in response for ‘progress’. This idea, which is well rooted in Latin
to the idea of constructing a new capital city far from the America, was spread by the speeches of certain great
coast and looking towards the interior, which was isolated politicians and educators in the nineteenth and early
and largely unexplored. This new city would also help twentieth century. These figures were of the opinion that
integrate into national life the vast expanse of millions of education had a decisive role to play in the process of nation
square kilometres suffering from the lack of modern building, which required citizens to be educated. They also
communications and therefore condemned to isolation. believed that education was essential for economic progress,
They were not seeking a magic solution, but they did aim to as training would produce workers capable of assimilating
mobilize the country to turn a myth into reality. One of the the new techniques and procedures arising from the
builders, Lucio Costa, writes that ‘it was a deliberate act of Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions that were changing
possession, a gesture in the spirit of conquest typical of the the face of the central countries, promoting diversification
cultural tradition’. Leaving the results to one side, of production and a clear international division of work.
recognition must be given to the clear-sighted courage of Education was also important for ‘social progress’, promoting
President Juscelino Kubitchek, who supported this colossal upward social mobility and exerting a moralizing or
enterprise that later governments of all political hues were ‘civilizing’ effect upon behaviour and customs. In short, all
forced to continue. Controversy apart, Brasilia, a city that kinds of moderating virtues conducive to change were
now has two million inhabitants, was based on the organic, attributed to education. These ideas, which were propounded
holistic concept of two architectural geniuses, Lucio Costa by B. Juárez, D. F. Sarmiento, A. Bello, J. P. Valera and
and Oscar Niemeyer. The worldwide impact of this project many others, sparked off a real enthusiasm for education,
and the subsequent renown of its creators meant that they which took root at every level of society.
were called upon to act as consultants and were Certain countries, where the emerging middle class was
commissioned to design cities, universities and public taking shape and would be strengthened over time, could
buildings in the United States, Africa and Asia. Latin build education systems, which often gathered their own
American architecture thereby joined the vanguard of momentum, gradually reducing illiteracy and improving
world architecture. schooling rates. However, other countries with large
marginalized rural and indigenous populations had to
postpone these aspirations until more forceful proposals
Ed u c a t i o n appeared which, like J. Vasconcelos in revolutionary
Mexico in the 1920s, demanded more open cultural and
Despite all the obstacles arising as a result of economic education policies that would benefit the deprived campesino
change and the political crises that have hampered normal classes. Examples included Vasconcelos’ ‘cultural missions’
social development, education systems in general have or casas del pueblo. To achieve these aims, forceful and
expanded during the second half of the twentieth century. creative literacy campaigns were launched as well as other
This tremendous expansion has been labelled a ‘boom’ activities, which today would be classified as non-formal
because of the speed at which it occurred. For example, education.
according to data for 1990 provided by UNESCO’s World Somewhat later, in Peru, the fruitful proposals of José
Education Report 1993,5 gross schooling rates at every level Carlos Mariátegui in the field of education are worth
and in every branch of education in Latin America are today mentioning, although the Peruvian experiment was limited

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to the field of ideas, whereas Vasconcelos, as well as country-by-country basis. We shall therefore take a leap in
developing his ideas, also implemented them. In the time to recall an initiative of outstanding importance, the
formulation of his ideas, some of which are highly original, ‘Major Project on the Extension and Improvement of
he rejected ideas of colonial stamp, which excluded the vast Primary Education in Latin America’, which was approved
majority of the population of indigenous origin. He also by the General Conference of UNESCO that met in New
engaged in discussions with the spokespersons of both the Delhi in November–December 1956, and was introduced
‘pragmatic’ trends of North American origin and the the following year. The results were noteworthy. The
‘humanistic’ tendencies of European origin in order to draft number of students rose from 21 million to nearly 32 million
a proposal for a national education scheme, which would in the course of a decade, which means that enrolments
include every ethnic and social group within a single school grew at a rate of 5.1 per cent per year, when population
system. He proposed salvaging the pre-Hispanic tradition, growth was 2.8 per cent per year, and the number of teachers
upgrading it by modernizing it, and altering the regulations increased from just over 600,000 to almost a million. At the
governing land ownership in force at the time. In his view, same time the number of schools increased, state education
both these elements were essential if an alternative model budgets improved and teacher training was stepped up.
were to be achieved which would be all embracing and Until then, most teachers were untrained and lacked
democratic in a practical sense, promoting the participation experience and incentives. At successive conferences,
of the underprivileged classes of Peru. meetings and seminars the methods to be used were assessed
education was regarded as a road to social advancement and perfected, and the aims, which were linked to economic
and prestige. The middle classes, which had developed and social development, were defined more clearly. The
considerably since the end of the nineteenth century and notion of planning was introduced and statistical systems
during the early years of the twentieth century, aided by were improved. Although the aim of universal primary
the emerging trends of urbanization and industrialization, education was not achieved, this continues to be a primary
also tried to take full advantage of the fragmented aim, as was confirmed at the Mexico City Conference
opportunities offered by the system in a bid to breach the (1959), which put forward a proposal for total schooling for
portals of the universities, which were the stronghold of a period of 10 years by the year 2000.
the traditional classes. This process, which can be From then onwards the work of international
understood more clearly when we realize that it was organizations, such as UNESCO, as well as other regional
accompanied by the growing popular movements, reached organizations, with the aid of national contributions, has
its zenith in the field of tertiary education with the grown in importance. The view that education is a necessity
University Reform implemented in Cordoba (Argentina) or an investment rather than a right, or which stresses the
in 1918, which spread throughout Latin America at link between education and other factors contributing to
different speeds and with varying intensity depending on ‘human development’, has gained ground. A valuable series
the regions. Its basic tenets were university autonomy, the of documents and books reflect some of the decisive points,
participation of teachers and students in the government such as the Project ‘Development and Education for Latin
of academic institutions, academic freedom, periodic America and the Caribbean’, directed by Germán Rama
competitive examinations to select teaching personnel, as and sponsored by UNESCO/ECLA/UNDP. The many
well as a regime known as ‘free teaching’, which allowed thousands of pages that make up this document provide
parallel chairs to exist side by side, broader student intake, descriptions, diagnoses and proposals of great interest.
free education, modernization of teaching practice, extra- So as not to dwell too long on this point, we shall simply
mural university education, etc. These principles entailed say that the conclusion of the World Conference on
redefining the role of the university, since the scope of Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990) is a milestone
these proposals outstripped that of merely turning out in the history of education worldwide and is paramount for
professionals, promoting scientific research and Latin America, where 155 countries undertook to provide
maintaining the need to contribute to the effective education for all – including both children and adults – and
democratization of society. Such proposals revealed the to greatly reduce illiteracy before the year 2000.
political implications of the ideas contained in the Because of their importance, it should be remembered
University Reform and explains why it soon spread rapidly that UNESCO has also published two landmark works. In
throughout most of Latin America. The spirit of the 1972, it published Learning to Be (known as the Faure
Reform inspired several generations of leaders, from Report), and twenty-five years later Learning: The Treasure
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre to Fidel Castro. Though Within (1996, known as the Delors Report).6 The latter
they were different in many respects, both from the points out the most significant world trends: from the local
theoretical point of view and in the practical implementation community to world society; from social cohesion to
of their proposals, nearly all of them have openly recognized democratic participation and from economic growth to
their debt to the University Reform. The struggle of both human development. These trends form the basis of its
students and society at large to defend these conquests, proposal: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live
which were undermined by authoritarian and military together and learning to be.
governments, lies at the heart of nearly all the student We shall now take the liberty of going back in time to
movements which, in the course of this century, have take a look at certain other data, which reveal the complexity
convulsed higher institutions. The 1968 disturbances in of these processes.
Mexico were among the most serious on account of their More important perhaps than the ideas generated by the
political repercussions. Student movements continue to so-called ‘development’ movements, with their stress on
call for more democracy. efficient teaching and their concern for ‘training human
It is a practical impossibility to review the ideas and resources’, were so-called ‘freedom teaching’ and a number
achievements in the field of education on a step-by-step and of other ‘de-schooling’ movements that enjoyed some favour

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during the 1960s and 1970s, though their influence has traditional ruling classes were educated. It should also be
largely waned. remembered that university education was primarily a
Paulo Freire (Brazilian, 1900–1987), the ‘prophet of male preserve. In other words, the education system had
liberation teaching’ exerted considerable influence all over to face the new challenge of an extraordinary increase in
Latin America and in Africa, not only through his numerous enrolment with huge numbers of women demanding
publications, which have been translated into several access to higher education. This was accompanied by
languages, but, above all, because of his enthusiastic personal demands for the subjects on offer to be changed. The need
mission which sometimes sparked off authoritarian for teacher training schools, as well as commercial,
reactions. technical, industrial and agricultural colleges, was felt.
Of lesser significance is the ‘de-schooling’ movement, However, before the system had managed to adjust to the
which left its mark in the region, where, in any case, it fired new demands at secondary level, enrolments at tertiary
a critical spirit and gave rise to debate on many problems level, particularly at universities, began to grow, because
that had been neglected or ignored. Although the main the rate of growth in the service sector outstripped that of
exponents of this movement, Ivan Illich and Everett Reimer, industry. In recent years it has been shown that industry
were not Latin Americans, it was in Latin America that has not provided the number of jobs expected, partly on
their ideas attained the greatest, albeit ephemeral, acceptance. account of the introduction of technology and automated
The utopian, i.e. ahistorical, nature of their ideas made equipment that can increase both production and quality
them less effective as tools in the real world. in less time. This has led to growing unemployment and
At university level, among the many books published frustration among the young.
and the paucity of projects implemented, the University of The foregoing shows how, in Latin America, the whole
Brasilia stands out. An original undertaking, whose education system is subject to strong internal tensions. This
characteristics cannot be analysed here, was conceived by situation is aggravated when the role of the state is reduced,
Darcy Ribeiro, who is also the author – among many other i.e. when economic resources are scarce and political
books – of La universidad latinoamericana, which appeared decision-making is weak. Shrinking salaries and diminishing
in a number of editions and was translated into several professional prestige are parallel phenomena.
languages, leaving its undeniable mark on a whole generation At the same time, increased enrolments turned the elitist
of educators and politicians. In passing it should be recalled university into a university of the masses, which does not fit
that D. Ribeiro was invited to organize other universities in the mould of the old structures. Worse still, the university
countries on different continents. was increasingly oriented towards the training of
If the Latin American process is to be understood, the professionals and was unable to meet the challenge of
long dark years of civil and military dictatorships, which scientific and technological research, which later began to be
damaged the social fabric and consequently the education transferred to a fourth educational level, that of postgraduate
systems of most Latin American countries, cannot be degrees, not always with satisfactory results, particularly as
ignored. The theories of these regimes were based on such the objectives were not always clearly defined. Lying dormant
ideas as ‘the natural and eternal order’, ‘hierarchical in the growing number of degrees was the capacity to satisfy
structures’, and ‘traditionalism’. At certain times and in not only the ‘explosion of knowledge’, which is one of the
certain places, depending on circumstances, they assumed a characteristics of modern times, but also to satisfy the ever
technocratic hue, or adopted the trappings of economic increasing demands of society. The state, for its part,
liberalism devoid of political liberalism, or an outrageous gradually abandoned the virtual monopoly it had enjoyed in
form of social individualism. Being elitist, they were opposed the field of university education in most Latin American
to the expansion of the education system on account of its countries and, along with it, its hitherto exclusive right to
democratizing effects, and to qualitative change, pluralism, award university degrees for professional purposes. All these
as well as participation in any shape or form. Any kind of factors mean that, the university as an institution must
educational modernization was suspect. They were also rethink and redefine its role and functions if it is to respond
suspicious of the recommendations put forward by to the challenges of the twenty-first century.
international or regional organizations, which they always
regarded as tinged with ‘Third World’ assumptions.
Clearly, for countries whose main output was raw Final thoughts
materials, where the population was overwhelmingly rural
and change came but slowly, as it did in Latin America at The spirit and objectives that have inspired these three
the beginning of the century, primary education was sections are twofold. On the one hand, it was our aim to
regarded as sufficient and was synonymous with popular outline, however briefly, the cultural achievements of Latin
education. Generally speaking, primary, basic, elementary, America, which helped the continent to reach an awareness
common and popular all meant one and the same thing. of itself as a distinct entity and forge its own personality. On
When major changes occurred, bringing about an increase the other hand, we wished to explore the significance and
in secondary activities and above all in tertiary activities, as extent of these contributions in terms of universal culture.
well as great migratory trends that gave rise to spontaneous That is to say, we wished to explore in some depth the Latin
urbanization, it became clear that this objective fell far American identity and its contribution towards the
short of what was required. Worse still, universal primary formation of a culture of truly human and planetary
education had not yet been achieved. As a result, social dimensions without ignoring, omitting or denying regional,
demands became focused on secondary education, which national, local or minority cultures or forgetting ‘popular’
also underwent profound change. Some explanation is culture by concentrating too much on so-called ‘high’
required. Until that time, secondary schools had been cultures. In other words, it is our view that any culture that
regarded as a stepping-stone to the university, where the excludes local cultural expressions or other internal mixtures

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or marginal cultures should be rejected, as should those Old and new forms of economic and cultural
cultures which attempt to seek refuge in impoverishing integration
cosmopolitan visions.
However useful they may be in other contexts, in our At the beginning of the twentieth century, three crucial
view, data such as the number of television sets per events paved the way for and promoted the integration of
thousand inhabitants, per capita consumption of newsprint America in the wider world. These were the great waves of
or other such information, are an unsatisfactory gauge of immigrants from Europe, particularly to North America,
true cultural development because they are simply the development of the oil industry and the massive
inadequate. However, there is also something disturbing industrialization of consumer goods, and the opening of the
about the current trend. The division into periods, which Panama Canal in 1914.
we suggested at the beginning to facilitate understanding The participation of Canada and the United States of
of cultural development in the long term, would seem to America in the First World War marked the beginning of a
demand a fourth period that is not yet in sight. In view of growing trend towards the displacement of the focus of
the profound changes taking place the world over and, in what has been called the Atlantic civilization to the
the words of French historiographer Fernand Braudel, ‘at American continent. President Woodrow Wilson’s efforts
every level of civilization’ it would seem necessary and to promote the League of Nations were, however, followed
indeed urgent to surmount the previous stages. However, by a period of isolation when the United States of America
what we are seeing is a worrying decline in the spirit of this withdrew somewhat from the European stage. During this
third phase: the critical and creative spirit is being lost, the time the United States of America devoted its energies to
distinct perception of the world is weakening and there is consolidating its sway over the American continent. The
a regression towards the second phase, and even to the imperialistic presence of the United States of America had
first. This is as a result of the overwhelming effect of a begun at the end of the nineteenth century under the aegis
number of factors. However, we shall only single out the of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), which was established to
spread of the cultural industries and new media platforms discourage Spain’s plans for colonial reconquest and later to
that tend towards uniformity and, using formidable halt France’s modern colonial advance in Mexico. When
technological, economic and even political resources, Spain finally lost its last colonial possession in America in
impose models, values, fashions, trends and patterns that 1898, the United States took advantage of the situation to
work against the development of local cultures, where even legitimize repeated interventions of an imperialistic nature
the local languages are often under threat. What we are in Central America and the Caribbean. However, the great
witnessing is a formidable process of exclusion purporting economic crisis of 1929 revealed just how important the role
to be inclusive. of America in the world economy was. The growing
As phenomena which bind peoples together, cultures importance of America’s presence in the wider world was
must first and foremost respect their own unique aided in the field of literature by the appearance of the new
characteristics if they are to enter a new, effective universal North American novel, in the visual arts with the Mexican
dimension that is something more than a variation of mural movement, in music with the arrival of jazz and later
outmoded debilitating ethnocentric tendencies. In the with the development of the cinema.
Hegelian sense of ideas, overcoming does not mean Canada and the United States played a major role in the
denying, throwing out or concealing. On the contrary, it Second World War and Mexico and Brazil a more minor
means salvaging on another level what had been rejected in one. This participation opened the door to the decisive
order to raise it to new heights and imbue it with new presence of America in the world. North America provided
meaning. direct support for the war effort of the allied democratic
front against fascism, but indirect support was provided by
Latin America through the supply of strategic raw materials.
A m e r i c a i n t h e W i d e r Wo r ld On the political front, too, support was forthcoming. The
Atlantic Charter, signed in 1941 by Franklin Delano
America’s presence in the wider world was already being felt Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, marked the beginning of
from the time the Europeans set foot on its shores at the the definitive development of democracy in the world,
end of the fifteenth century. The nature of that presence has which, together with the unstoppable trend towards
changed and grown until the present day. Now, in the decolonization, which followed the war, is the hallmark of
second half of the twentieth century, that presence is truly the twentieth century. The creation of the United Nations
universal and decisive. in San Francisco in 1945, the democratization of Japan and
Two milestones mark this development in the course of the campaign for European reconstruction through the
the twentieth century. The first is the First World War, Marshall Plan (1948), consecrated America’s predominant
when the United States of America entered the international role on the world stage.
stage as a world power and, at the same time, held sway The onset of the confrontation known as the Cold War
throughout the American continent. The next milestone between the two blocs, which Winston Churchill declared
was the Second World War and the subsequent world inevitable at Fulton, Texas in 1946, the establishment of
scenario, where two great power blocs one led by the United popular democratic regimes in central and eastern Europe
States of America, faced up to one another. The outcome of and the triumph of the Chinese Revolution all contributed
this confrontation is that the new world order is dominated to the formation of two broad camps; their opposition to
by a single protagonist, the United States of America. each other filled centre stage of the second half of the
Therefore, it would not seem excessive to regard the twentieth century, producing the longest, most deadly,
twentieth century as the period when America consolidated diversified and widespread of the so-called world wars,
its presence on the world stage. where Korea and Viet Nam stand out in a whole series of

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cruel colonial wars and prolonged guerrilla activity. America implications, the Pacto Andino, signed in 1969,
has not been absent from a single episode in this CVARICOM, the Rio Group, MERCOSUR and the
confrontation, whether through the open or covert action North American Free Trade Association are worthy of
of the United States of America. note. It should be stressed that in the course of the final
At the same time, Latin America’s presence on the world decades of the century sub-regional agreements express the
stage has depended upon political events of varying determination of Latin American countries to join forces in
significance and impact. The Mexican Revolution sparked their attempt to find a fair and direct international voice. To
off a considerable ideological debate, the most significant this end such organizations have been negotiating with
results of which were agrarianism and the industrialization European and other international organizations.
of the oil industry in 1938, which set a precedent. The In the world order, the Organization of Petroleum
triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, followed by Exporting Countries (OPEC) must be mentioned on
guerrilla movements in a number of countries in Latin account of the profound and far-reaching impact it has had,
America, brought the confrontation between the two great as well as its truly worldwide nature. In September 1960,
blocs to American soil. the Baghdad Pact was made public in Caracas. This saw the
The fall of autocratic socialism and the resultant socio- birth of OPEC, based on an idea put forward by Venezuela
political adjustment has laid the foundations for America’s at the Pan-Arab Congress held in Cairo earlier that year.
role on the world stage to grow still further and become The producers of coffee, cocoa and bananas have played a
more decisive, although the process of European unification considerable role in promoting the world organizations for
and the development of economic and political power the regulation of trade in these commodities.
centres in Asia are posing a growing challenge. America is In the sphere of politics and the armed forces, the
opening up new spheres of influence: in the economic order foremost expression of the American presence in the world
with the massive industrialization of the leisure industry, in is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),
the field of technology with space travel, information which was set up in 1949 and was the key to success in the
technology, electronics and genetic engineering. In the confrontation with the Warsaw Pact.
cultural sphere this is reflected in the development of art
markets on the American continent and the creative boom
in literature, the visual arts and music. Place of Latin America in the new world order

Latin America’s capacity to play a direct role in the new

Regional and international organizations world order is still very limited. Those countries that play
such a role do so as members of international, regular or
The creation of regional American organizations was due, specialized organizations and forums. However, in certain
above all, to the need to institutionalize the sway of the areas, such as social concerns, health and environmental
United States of America continent-wide, although it has issues, Latin America’s participation has grown considerably,
also been useful as a means of finding recipes for peaceful as occurred at the Rio Conference on the environment.
coexistence between American states and of opening up The survival in Latin America of a government which
important spheres of social and cultural cooperation. It is at declares itself to be socialist emblematizes a kind of
the economic level that development of a regional order has participation – marginal on account of its dimension – in
proved slow and controversial. one facet of the new world order, that of the demise of
Nowadays, the Organization of American States (OAS), authoritarian socialism.
set up in Bogotá in 1948, is a surrogate means of expressing The re-establishment, or establishment in some cases
the desire for unification first mooted in 1826, albeit in and development in others, of democracy in Latin American
different terms, at the Congreso Anfictiónico called by countries constitutes a highly significant contribution to the
Simón Bolívar and held in Panama. Constituted in 1889–90, widespread aspiration to achieve democracy throughout the
through the formation of congresses of American States, world, particularly at a time when efforts are being made to
which gave rise to the Panamerican Union, it is the oldest reconvert the authoritarian socialist regimes.
multi-state organization. Although not always compatible Unfortunately, a new form of international crime has
with the consolidation of national sovereignty and the set up headquarters in Latin America. Nowadays, drug
development of democracy in Latin American countries, trafficking is a lucrative, illicit activity in which the more
the OAS has played an important political role as well as developed economies participate as excellent consumer
promoting and coordinating huge aid programmes in the markets as well as suppliers of the so-called upstream
social, health and cultural spheres. inputs and beneficiaries of the financial deals derived from
Other organizations, particularly those set up and this traffic.
developed as a result of the programme known as the
Alliance for Progress, launched in 1961, have tried to
respond, with varying degrees of success, to the aspirations Ideologies and self-awareness – regional and national
of Latin American nations for social, economic and political identity
development and to set relations between the United States
of America and other states on a more equitable footing. Overall, it would be true to say that the primary significance
The Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC), of America in terms of ideology has been to develop and
the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) and the implement the broad lines of the socio-political course set
Latin American Economic System (SELA) bear witness to in the nineteenth century, i.e. the practice of republicanism
the efforts made in the economic and commercial sphere. and the introduction of democracy, at both the political and
On a wider political scale, but with important economic social level.

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No proof is required of the role of Canada and the economic and cultural sphere and not primarily on the
United States of America in efforts to uphold these values attainment and conservation of independence, as was the
throughout the world. Their participation in the great world case during the preceding century. At the same time, Latin
confrontations is eloquent enough. However, Latin America American regional awareness has been strengthened as
has also made a not inconsiderable contribution to this national consciousness has developed. However, only a
struggle through its cooperation on the world front, small number of Latin American states have even attempted
although it is only right to stress that this contribution has to draft a new conceptual model that will allow the
been more demanding and significant on the home front. indigenous societies in their midst to express themselves
The democratic vocation of Latin Americans, pulled freely in social, political and cultural terms. There are
hither and thither by anti-imperialism and dictatorship, has hopeful signs that this will change for the better in the early
never ceased to seek its own form of expression. Their self- decades of the twenty-first century.
awareness, which they have always sought to enhance, has
had to face up to imperialism, frequently in the shape of
armed invasions but also in the guise of fascist-type N O TES
nationalism and communist pseudo-internationalism. The
emergence of movements such as the Popular American 1. UNESCO, World Science Report, Paris, 1993.
Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), founded by Víctor Raúl 2. C. Morazé, Science and the Factors of Inequality: lessons
Haya de la Torre in 1924, Juan Domingo and Evita Perón’s of the past and hopes for the future, Paris, 1979.
Justicialismo, and the attempt to Americanize Marxism 3. B. Ribes, Domination or Sharing: Endogenous
represented by José Carlos Mariátegui, must be seen as Development and the Transfer of Knowledge, Paris, 1981.
efforts to find a ‘Latin American way’. 4. R. Campra, America Latina: l’identità e la maschera,
America’s unquestionable dedication to the promotion Rome, 2000.
of democracy has been accompanied in Latin America by an 5. UNESCO, World Education Report 1993, Paris, 1993.
on-going effort to strengthen regional and national identity. 6. E. Faure et al., Learning to Be, Paris, 1972; Delors
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, it would be true to et al., Learning: The Treasure Within: Report to UNESCO of
say that awareness of an American identity does exist, but it the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-
is now based on the achievement of aims in the social, First Century, Paris, 1996.

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 33.2
the Caribbean

Hilary McDonald Beckles

THE C A RIBBE A N A N D M O D ERNIT Y Indian nationalist historiography. Both authors, born in

colonial Trinidad and writing Caribbean history within its
In the context of the discourse known as Western modernity, modern Atlantic context, made significant contributions to
the Caribbean world was the primordial site for its principal Western development discourse within the traditions of
ideological contests. Nowhere in the Western world were Enlightenment idealism. As critical realists they considered
the contradictory forces of slavery and freedom, privilege popular historiography indispensable to any attempt to
and equity, racial domination and ethnic plurality, more locate philosophical ideals within recognizable terms of
keenly contested and openly ventilated. The Caribbean community living. In The Black Jacobins, James documents
became the place where Enlightenment idealism and the struggles of the enslaved peoples of St. Dominique, the
rationalism were aggressively pursued and deeply rooted in mercantile showpiece of French colonial capitalism in the
the harsh reality of a turbulent everyday life. West Indies, for freedom and social justice. In addition, he
The script may have been written by the finest of details the transformation of this successful anti-slavery
European philosophers, and for a stage to be dominated by rebellion into something much more elaborate in terms of
performers drawn from their own ethnic and cultural Western history – the creation of Haiti, the Caribbean’s
groups. But this expectation took a rather surprising twist. first nation-state. In Capitalism and Slavery, Williams
Instead, the stars of the stage were the enslaved Africans, expands and develops the paradigm of African labour
the poor and dispossessed of the plantations, the wretched enslavement and European capital liberation, first outlined
of the violated Earth, who seized the text, managed the by James in The Black Jacobins, which became the basis of
moment, and delivered to a global audience the most the revolutionary reorganization of productivity for
revolutionary performance so far seen in the modern European economic development.1
world. The James-Williams paradigm has had an extensive and
The scene of the subversion and upsurge took its initial discursive impact on thinking about the relationships
shape in the fifteenth century with the crime against between slavery, Western modernity and development
humanity that chattel slavery represented. It matured with discourse. In the Caribbean these works represent points of
the most dramatic of performances; slaves became senators, departure for studies in historiography, decolonization and
chattels became citizens, and exchangeable property became the signal birth of an insider, Creole, nationalist canon.
elected presidents. There was no rendition of the script Both texts have received considerable criticism and
which cast the Caribbean as the site that witnessed humanity enormous acclaim; they continue, half a century later, to
at its finest. Uprooting the evil of slavery and delivering stimulate the most expansive areas of Western historical
upon the space a society dedicated to freedom, equality and writing. James’s explicit intention was to locate the
justice was the role the Caribbean appropriated for itself. It Caribbean politics of black freedom within the philosophies
gave its progeny a remit to remain faithful to this self-vision. of European Enlightenment discourse. Williams’s related
The torn and tortured mandate has not been betrayed. The concern was to illustrate the contradictory and paradoxical
region has stayed the course and remains a site where nature of modernist rationality as expressed in the economic
humanity finds itself challenged to improve upon its best and ideological effects of the application of the principles of
performance. political economy to the relationship between Caribbean
slavery and European industrialism.2
Conceptually, The Black Jacobins and Capitalism and
The James-Williams paradigm Slavery situate the Caribbean as the vortex of a wider
Atlantic modernity that witnessed the interaction of
C. L. R. James’s 1938 seminal text The Black Jacobins, and Europe, Africa, and the Americas. For James, the politics of
Eric Williams’ 1944 tour de force, Capitalism and Slavery, bringing Enlightenment ideas nearer to reality is seen as a
tell the story of this Caribbean journey to justice. They mandate taken up by the enslaved against colonizers who
constitute much more than foundation works in West sought to monopolize privilege and power. The Caribbean

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in the aftermath of the Columbus enterprise is seen by bought their way into metropolitan parliaments and
Williams as culturally unique; Capitalism and Slavery is an imperial courts in an effort to protect and promote the
economic study of Western modernity in action within the world they had made.4
Caribbean space, while The Black Jacobins constitutes a The Caribbean plantation was also home to other
statement of its exploding contradiction authored by contradictory processes of modernity. Industrial technology
subaltern people operating ideologically within the in its most advanced state could be found there in the form
hegemonic philosophical paradigms of their oppressors.3 of the sugar mill. Described as a ‘factory in the field’ the
Columbus did not lie, as Caribbean culturalists and Caribbean sugar mill was probably Europe’s largest
historians often assert. He ‘did’ discover the Caribbean. It industrial complex in the sixteenth and seventeenth
was as real for him as any construction of knowledge within centuries. Its deployment of state of the art production
a specific cultural tradition could be. He believed that he systems, energy and chemical technologies, and a disciplined
had done so, and that Europeans would encounter a new labour force, set it apart as something altogether innovative
and different environment within which they could and futuristic. The manner in which agricultural and
collectively discover themselves as free individuals and manufacturing processes were intertwined – field operations
citizens. Europe was liberated by the experience and its and the mill – also distinguished the plantation as a cutting
subjects became citizens while the colonized became natives. edge organizational technology. It was all achieved, however,
The conception and construction of the Latifundia and on the backs of enslaved, dehumanized persons. Labour
‘plantation’, as the organizing principle of socio-economic systems founded on them carried titles such as economienda,
life brought these worlds together. For the European they debt peonage, chattel slavery, indentureship and
became a metaphor for renaissance economic rationality, apprenticeship. Free wageworkers constituted a very small
civilizing modernity, and entrepreneurial freedom from the minority, and were not institutionally encouraged. Slavery,
constraints of dehumanizing material poverty. The colonial in its many guises, was the expectation, and persons
mission, then, was a missile that launched the Caribbean, its categorized as ‘Indians’ and ‘Africans’ or colonized others
European commanders and African cargoes, on the path to were targeted for life-long experiences with it.
modernity on board the plantation enterprise that rose on European Enlightenment discourse, then, invented the
the fumigated site of native ruins. Caribbean and promoted the idea that slavery was
progressive and developmental for both parties to the power
relation. That Caribbean modernity should begin an
Plantation culture outbound journey with Admiral Columbus taking a ‘sample’
of island natives to Europe for sale and show, as a strategy
Caribbean plantation culture was in every respect symbolic to recuperate project expenditure, speaks to the way in
of the signs of the times. Capitalist political economy found which philosophy, economics, and morality came together
expression during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as integrated systems of pro-imperialist knowledge. There
in a proliferation of mercantilist tracts on trade, finance, and was, therefore, nothing particularly phenomenal about John
manufacturing; their authors preached the values of large- Locke, doyen of Enlightenment writers on civic freedom
scale production, surplus generation, and the accumulation and human liberty, owning slaves and investing in Caribbean
of wealth through foreign trade. The plantation developed (Bahamas) plantations.
as evidence of institutional commitment to these principles, Locke’s participation as an investor in the colonial project
and in opposition to the traditional culture of peasant began with the Royal African Company, which, under the
production, which was considered backward and ruinous to Restored Monarchy, was given a monopoly to supply
a modern nation. Large-scale production required extensive enslaved Africans to the plantations in order to further the
resource mobilization and strategic entrepreneurial competitive interests of the English nation-state. There was
planning. The Caribbean planter, therefore, was required to nothing modern about Africans, Locke thought, which
be global in both thought and action since productive would entitle them to inclusion in discourse about the rights
resources were not readily available and had to be acquired of individuals. Rather, he considered them savages to be
from distant lands. enlightened and civilized by Europeans. Slavery for him,
The Caribbean sugar planter of the mid-seventeenth then, was a sort of beginners’ school in which Africans
century was celebrated as the most successful agricultural would one day acquire the basic characteristics that would
entrepreneur of modernity. This social type was also entitle them to membership in civic society.
considered entirely unique and unprecedented in terms of The racist nature of pro-slavery ideology that emerged in
the global scale of their operations. They were identified as the context of slavery’s expansion throughout the hemisphere
icons of Europe’s economic ascendancy and designated the tore at the intellectual and moral coherence of Enlightenment
leaders of Atlantic modernity. The global network that fed thinking, and revealed it as ideologically driven knowledge
their business was truly impressive. Having pacified and, in constructed to serve what critic Edward Said calls the wider
some places, exterminated the resisting native populations, purpose of culturally preparing European nations, or the
they resorted to importing servile indentured labour from white ‘race’, for the age of imperialism. Williams’ Capitalism
‘back home’ and enslaved labour from Africa. They produced and Slavery outlines the economic, or ‘rational’, reasons why
crops with capital and credit from Europe, imported food slavery was preferred as the dominant labour institution by
and building materials from mainland colonies, and exported colonizers. But chattel slavery was more than a labour system;
their commodities globally. Facilitated by a transcontinental it was part of a political campaign to culturally differentiate
complex of brokers, agents, and financiers, the West Indian the European from the rest of humanity and to establish
sugar planter held the known world with his gaze and ‘made representations of a self-serving ethnic pecking order for the
good’ with the extensive array of goods produced. Using enforcement of ‘otherness’ upon colonized peoples. Liberty,
their economic success to maximum effect, they lobbied and justice, and freedom would not be legislated as real objectives

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for these categories of inhabitants who would be represented Revolutions

as outside the gaze of Enlightenment. Williams, furthermore,
after mapping the financial circuits of wealth accumulation James chose the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804, as the
and money flows that made slavery viable, concluded that discursive device best suited to giving intellectual coherence
modern industrialism in Western Europe has its roots sunk and social reality to his argument. It was not surprising that
deep in the veins of enslaved Africans.5 enslaved blacks, and their free mixed-race allies in St.
Western modernity, then, properly understood, should Dominique, took the anti-slavery revolt to the revolutionary
be viewed from the Caribbean with ambivalence. The stage by seizing the state and declaring national
writings of principal pro-slavery theorists reveal the reasons independence. St. Dominique was the most populous and
why such an argument can hold. Edward Long of Jamaica, financially attractive colony in the Caribbean at the end of
writing at the end of the eighteenth century, considered it the eighteenth century. The relationship between slavery
sufficiently important to seek conceptual reconciliation of and capitalism, as conceived by Williams, had combined to
the reality of African slavery and the idealism of European render the colony the golden crown of colonial success. At
freedom within the context of the colony’s status as the the same time, argued James the Marxist dialectician, anti-
wealthiest within the English Empire. Africans, he said, slavery consciousness among enslaved blacks and disgruntled
were freer as slaves in the Caribbean than as subjects under mixed-race peoples, as well as their organizational skills,
tyrannical, unaccountable monarchs and chiefs in their were highly developed. Anti-slavery mentalities with
homelands. Slavery, for him, was an institution within revolutionary commitment were being created at a rate in
which Africans made real progress towards freedom; in the colony that corresponded with its reputation as the
addition, an added bonus was that they benefited from producer of the most of everything in the Caribbean.
exposure to modern European culture and technologies. As Toussaint L’Ouverture, revolutionary leader and
a transitional state, then, slavery for Long offered Africans theoretician of Enlightenment praxis, appeared as the logical
measurable long-term benefits, which made it ultimately a and inevitable consequence of a society so proud of its
modernizing and progressive institution. These views were economic success.
published, with discernible strategic nuances, by writers in But James did not end his analysis here; he went on to
other imperial systems such as Moreau de Saint-Méry and explain that inasmuch as slavery was a product of renaissance
Hilliard d’Auberteuil in the French Antillean colonies.6 rationality, anti-slavery politics was the social effect of
James’s strategy in The Black Jacobins, was not to engage modernist idealism. No other figure in the Atlantic, he
pro-slavery theorists on the internal composition of their suggests, was as perfect an example of Enlightenment
arguments, nor to challenge the firmness of the ground on activism as Toussaint. The struggle in the colony for the
which they were ideologically situated, but to seek terms of liberty of man against the enormous weight of feudal
inclusion through the adoption of universalisms. The notion backwardness and reactionary opinion constitutes the epic
of Enlightenment, he argued, had at best a temporal drama of the quest for Caribbean modernity. The Americans
relationship to European culture. He recognized and had gone to war against British colonial exploitation and
embraced it as a process in human development with a won. Driven, they said, by the thirst for liberty, the
history that flowed through several civilizations – including philosophical idealism of their contest was compromised
those of Africa. In this sense, its European moment was just and betrayed by the decision to keep chattel slavery as the
that – a passage too short to be nativized and denied its principal organizing social institution within the new,
essential multicultural ancestry and texture. It was, independent dispensation.
furthermore, a merger of historical ignorance and ethnic The American Revolution was tarnished and discredited
arrogance on the part of imperial Europeans who sought to by this unwillingness to declare the liberty of all persons.
show that the new conditions of social living were culturally Citizens were forced by the inevitable maturing of the
linked to their nations. politics in which they were engaged to go back a century
It was understandable, James believed, that Enlightenment later to the battlefield in order to resolve the matter by one
ideals found political agency in Western European societies of the bloodiest civil wars in human history. French
at the moment of Caribbean adventurism. In these revolutionaries abolished slavery in 1794 and restored it a
circumstances, however, they were severely compromised by few years later because they could not see national interests
the cultural needs of colonialism that centred around the being served better without it. The blacks of St. Dominique,
promotion of Caribbean slavery as indispensable to Empire. then, were the first to declare the universality of liberty,
History determined that it was incumbent upon the which they built into the national constitution of Haiti,
colonized subaltern, the enslaved of the Caribbean in the committing a state to eternal opposition to chattel slavery.
first instance, to claim as a right judicial and social access to Enlightenment idealism was rescued and historically
this idealism, and to do so through collective opposition to legitimized by enslaved Caribbean people who were not
imperial power. Only such politics, James showed, could expected to be its beneficiaries. Without Haiti as its
constitute the resolution of modernity’s contradictions, and principal expression, James would suggest, Enlightenment
best illustrate the transforming powers of Enlightenment in idealism would soon have been discredited as a ruling class
action. The subaltern included not only slaves – the black philosophy serving limited self-interests.7
Jacobins – but also disenfranchised women, indigenous If James’s concern was to illustrate Europe’s and the
peoples, and other marginalized groups denied social justice Caribbean’s conflicting philosophical passage within
by managers of the imperial project. The opposition Western modernity, Williams’ text was conceived as an
vanguards so constituted, James believed, would ultimately articulation of slavery’s changing relationship to economic
bring home the true value of Enlightenment ideas and rationality. Primitive capitalism, Williams showed, called
render obsolete the racism and sexism standing in the way Caribbean slavery into being as the main mechanism of
of human progress. Western wealth accumulation, while advanced capitalism,

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driven by industrial and scientific technologies, banished it had greeted the Columbus mission and were later sunk by
from whence it came, aided by the instrument of its missiles. The year 1804, then, was at once a torpedo
Parliamentary legislation acting within a context of moral launch, and the inauguration of a new order in which it was
and philosophical outrage. It was the triumph of the market, demonstrated that the rights of man could be achieved
argued Williams, not the long-in-coming assistance of through resistance from below by the disenfranchised.
Enlightenment moral idealism that made legislated
emancipation all the more magnificent and historically
seminal. William Wilberforce, the (white) man of the Literature
moment, says Williams, should not be diminished within
this materialist interpretation of history; rather, he should These movements for liberty were accompanied by a body
be accurately situated and understood as leader of a ‘political’ of literature within which the enslaved spoke back and
strategy that may have forestalled the production in the countered the ideological representations established within
Caribbean of a thousand Toussaints.8 the texts of slave owners, and their authorized supporters.
Emancipationism, in the form of European parliamentary Slaves wrote memoirs, letters, and narrated their life-stories
politics, however, took nearly one hundred years to sweep to collaborators in the anti-slavery struggles. This literature
the region – across imperial lines – clean of chattel slavery. constitutes the canon of a Caribbean political philosophy.
The Spanish were the first to establish slavery and the last The memoirs of Mary Prince, the autobiographies of
to relinquish it, a history according to James that accounts Esteban Montejo and Olaudah Equiano, and other such
in great part for Cuba’s dramatic entry into revolutionary texts exposed the cosmologies of enslaved communities and
socialism under Fidel Castro. Capitalist economic situated individuals within the wide, elastic vanguard of
rationalization, as Williams argued, may well have been the anti-slavery consciousness and politics. Taken outside its
hidden force behind the Parliamentary legislative anti- immediate situation, this literature, in which the subaltern
slavery strategy. The industrial and commercial maturation speaks, illuminates their socially uncompromised and
of capitalism was rather drawn out in the Spanish Empire intellectually honest attachment to Enlightenment idealism.
and the economic history of slavery in its Caribbean colonies A comparative reading of Locke on liberty and Mary Prince
illustrates this all too well. Slavery was finally toppled by a on freedom should expose the emptiness of Eurocentric
largely Creole, politically complex opposition that featured race and class claims to textual authority, and validate
prominently the slaves themselves, who went to great James’s belief that the speeches of Toussaint L’Ouverture
lengths, as anti-colonial anti-slavery revolutionaries, to win were among the finest on the subject.9
their liberty. But this literature by the enslaved goes some distance
If the freeing of the ‘lower’ orders, as Cromwellian beyond its strategic engagement with Enlightenment
revolutionaries called the working classes, was a principal philosophy. It constitutes the beginning of a post-coloniality
feature of the onset of modernity, the Caribbean ‘slave’ in which African and Afro-Creole identities and ontologies
within Jamesian analysis was ahead of the times as a self- are set out in subversive opposition to imperialism. Certainly,
liberator. In the case of Haiti, slaves seized a state and no post-colonial literary theory should emerge without a
moulded a world in accordance with their own ideological departure from this textual tradition that questions and
praxis. For James, a practical effect of plantation production rejects aspects of the European philosophical canon. Anti-
was to advance the proletarianization of the enslaved slavery was undoubtedly an Atlantic movement, but the
worker. Outside the judicial process that defined them as slaves, noted both Williams and James, were at the core of
slaves, the African worker was certainly the prototype of the it. They were on the ground, developing resistance strategies
modern industrial worker. Organized by a division of labour as features of everyday life, and ultimately were the ones
into discrete productive units, trained in a sophisticated who implemented the first, and numerically the largest, act
way as skilled artisans (particularly in the case of the sugar of emancipation. Furthermore, this early black literary
refinery personnel), and as middle managers, plantation tradition breaks with Enlightenment idealism on issues
slaves contributed to a political discourse that promoted the such as individualism, family, sex, ethnic and gender
democratic values of social justice and equality. In this way relations, religion and spirituality, perceptions of
they ensured the social unacceptability of slavery as a fascist materialism, cultural difference, and the existence of
relationship of power, and centred Enlightenment ethos universalisms.
within popular culture.
The year 1804, rather than 1917, was for James the first
fulfilment of this ethos. The rise of the Haitian State rather Identity politics
than the Soviet Republics constitutes that first moment in
modernity when the alienated and dispossessed seized The demographic and cultural tendency towards hybridity
control of their destiny and emerged the subjects of a new and creolity, for example, that simultaneously divided and
world order. Haiti became the mirror within which Europe unified the social experiences of all persons within slave
saw itself as the Janus – divided to the soul – of its own society stands ultimately as an oppositional movement to
contradictory imperial experiment. The civilizing mission white supremacy ideologies as well as an early affirmation of
became the journey of a thousand atrocities that culminated inter-culturalisms that now challenge identity politics in the
in genocidal actions against natives that refused to give up post-colonial world. The self-assault upon notions of racial
their lands, liberties, and lives. When President Dessalines ‘purity’ by managerial males of Empire whose exploitative
in 1804 named the new republic Haiti – reinstating the sexual engagements with black women stands as a marked
island’s Arawakan language identity – it was an act of heroic feature of colonial society indicates the public fragility, and
self-denial that placed the struggle of Africans and mixed- private irrelevance, of the race theories that underlie
race peoples in a secondary relation to that of those who European Enlightenment thinking. The size of mixed-race

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populations can hardly be considered a reasonable measure free despite their increasing material poverty. They were not
of the extent of inter-racial sexuality. Rather, it should be going backward, but were charting a progressive new path
seen as evidence of the failure to publicly suppress the for mankind.
private. Inevitably, the changing face of Caribbean society These developments when taken collectively speak to
came forth to testify to the truth that colonialism lied. the central paradigmatic feature of Caribbean modernity
Hybridity was as much a subversive feature of the – the rise of the common citizen to institutional and
Caribbean’s contradictory experience with modernity as cultural leadership. While the Haitian experience has no
any other, and may very well be an understated, if not parallel in world history, the general Caribbean process
negated, example of the ‘Empire striking back’ – even if, that now sees the offspring of slaves in control of state
ironically, at itself.10 apparati must be considered a principal expression of social
Freedom was demanded on all sides, but its meaning freedom. That considerations of race affected adversely the
and social application in the hands of blacks went in ways in which European radicals received Haitian
directions radically different from those expected by leadership in the early years, and that Caribbean societies
European anti-slavery activists and thinkers. For this continue today to be torn and tortured by ethnic conflict,
reason, English emancipation in action became a contested should help to reinforce the argument that by turning the
experience in which blacks had little reason to believe that world upside down, Caribbean people found themselves
‘massa day’ was done. Post-slavery societies were politically having to cope with post-modern issues while still attached
charged with a protest culture that rendered them as firmly to the modernist paradigm. Indications of this
unstable as their slavery antecedents. This can also be said contradictory motion can be found in the personalities and
of Haiti. Slave revolutionaries became petty peasants and preferences of both James and Williams, distinguished
disgruntled labourers within the nation-state and humanist ‘Western’ intellectuals (read ‘English’) but
challenged the definition of freedom imposed by the ideologically steeped in an anti-colonial milieu that forced
military-landowning elite. They voted with their feet, them to be deconstructionist and post-modernist at a time
undermined the productive capability of the economy, and when it was not fashionable.
forced the state to implement the 1826 Rural Code that James considered himself justified in the opinion that
sought to tie them to the land and penalized those who the Caribbean was not only at the heart of the ‘West’, but
preferred unemployment or hillside squatting. that the ‘West’ was invented in the Caribbean. Williams
agreed, but recognized as James did that being situated in
the ‘South’ of this ‘West’ meant that different forms of
Enlightenment and emancipation knowledge had to be constructed in order to function
strategically. The challenge for Caribbean intellectuals,
Europeans and Africans, then, engaged Enlightenment therefore, had long been to destabilize and deconstruct
discourse in similar and different ways. Differences were hegemonic notions of the ‘West’ in order to define the
magnified by the challenges of post-slavery reconstruction. Caribbean as a ‘southernized’ Western project with its
While Europeans could understand, and in some instances peculiar oppositional politics and identity. These strategic
support, blacks’ claims to social freedom, they could not intellectual positions did not always win favour with radical
agree that social justice required this freedom be rooted in political opinion. As a result many Caribbean people have
conditions such as landownership, the political franchise, gone for a sterile Columbus-bashing approach. They argue
access to respectable professions, and involvement in large- that the Columbus mission was traumatic, and had a
scale mercantile activities. Blacks should be free to work for profound but backward moral impact upon the modern
whites, they concluded, and be driven to do so by the threat Atlantic world; such persons have failed to grasp the
of hunger and an unrelenting criminal justice system. significance of the invisible cargoes that Columbus carried;
European abolitionists, then, found it difficult to support but this is where the analysis should begin, argued Williams
blacks’ demand for economic and political enfranchisement and James.
as articulated by their community leaders. On board, Williams tells us, were several unseen
Meaningful land reform was out of the question. The commodities: an economic ideology which was not yet
plantation had to stay as symbolic and representative of labelled nor understood, but which came to be understood
economic globalization and white supremacy, and as a as something called commercial capitalism; the ideology of
sentinel against Afro-centric peasant empowerment. racism, which at that time was not clearly articulated, but
Enlightenment, therefore, crashed on the rocks of the which rooted itself in the Caribbean; the social ideology of
Emancipation it had supported in theory, and provided patriarchy, which assumed the superior political and
once again the philosophical basis of a repressive, intellectual capacity of men over women; an intolerant
authoritarian colonial political culture. The defence of the Christian theology which defined other religions as primitive
plantation as a civilizing strategy to ensure that the journey subtypes; an expansionist imperialist consciousness that
of modernity was advanced was articulated in the face of focused on total territorial acquisition; and a rationalist
considerable black opposition to it as the principal philosophy that promoted the notion of materialism as the
institutional oppositional force to their realization of social way forward for mankind. All of these things represented
freedom. The economic decline of Haiti was represented by what the Caribbean voyage was all about. Columbus was
whites as modernity in reversal. The peasant was backward not only a courageous sailor; he was a leader, an emissary of
looking and tied to Afrocentric culture. The plantation was a new epoch; the flag bearer of market forces that had
progressive and tied to European culture. Haitianization become endemic to European social culture, and of a
for whites became the metaphor for the end of civilization which was beginning to sail out of centuries of
Enlightenment. Blacks maintained that in Haiti they were decay and stagnation and finding its identity within the
empowered, had capsized the European project, and were context of an imperialist experience in the Caribbean.

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Commercial capitalism signalled the beginning of the Asian ancestry. Almost every major civilization in the world
integration of the continents of the world into one economic was brought to the Caribbean in order to sustain the
system. It was in the Caribbean vortex of the Atlantic Basin conditions for colonial economic growth. The West Indian,
that this international capitalism took its early cultural and therefore, is a futuristic individual, linked to all major
social identity. Historians on both sides of the Atlantic have civilizations. West Indians are the first products of the
documented very carefully the impact of the slave trade and modern world system.
slavery upon world trade. They now know, for example, When James’s concept of the West Indian is placed
exactly how it called into being African resources, and the alongside Williams’ thesis showing how the Caribbean slave
ways in which they were deployed upon the foundation of plantation complex generated wealth and created financial
Amerindian genocide. Much of the discussion that is taking institutions for the modern world economic order, then it
place in the Caribbean today about cultural identity, race, becomes necessary to look at the cultural role of race and
sovereignty and the fragmented processes of nation-building colour within contemporary market economies. People of
is all part of this legacy. European ancestry continue to dominate resource ownership
It is important to comment on the ideology of racism. in Caribbean societies despite their loss of political leadership.
For centuries prior to the Caribbean connection, it was In this regard, Columbus still sails! The Western white world
rare to find within the literatures of Europe a systematic did to Cuba in the twentieth century what it did to Haiti in
theoretical formulation of a white over black ideology. the nineteenth; imposition of an international commercial
Slavery, of course, had preceded Atlantic colonialism, but blockade, refusal to grant financial assistance, and general
the notion of black inferiority was not popular. Indeed, economic sabotage. No modern nation can now survive
many of the slave systems of pre-Columbian Europe and without international connections. To understand the
the Mediterranean were based on a multiracial electoral defeat of Michael Manley’s Jamaican socialism, the
understanding of labour organization. As a result, cannibalization of the Grenadian Revolution, and attempts
therefore, most ethnicities experienced some degree of to cripple the Cuban Revolution requires first a study of the
enslavement to others. In the enslaved labour gangs history of the Haitian Revolution. The region has gone
working on the estates, vineyards, and in the mines of through all this before. There is nothing new about it.
southern Europe, many ethnicities could be found. It was
after the Caribbean mission that slavery developed specific
racial dimensions, and anti-black ideologies became C O NC L USI O N
culturally established within Europe. By the mid-sixteenth
century it was widely represented in European texts that The Caribbean, then, has had a turbulent and divisive
blacks were suited for subordinate slave relationships experience with Western modernity. Contests have been
within the colonial order. waged with Enlightenment discourse. Political, intellectual
The association of materialist expansion with human and cultural work in the region demonstrates this. One of
progress in Enlightenment discourse reinforced the more important intellectuals of the Caribbean who
commitment to this ideological development. It was stood at the crossroads of these polemics was J. J. Thomas,
accepted by colonial whites that the march towards also a Trinidadian. By the 1860s and 1870s, Thomas was a
economic development required the systematic formidable oppositional writer, political ideologue, and
enslavement of blacks. There was a clearly formulated view philosopher. He spent many years explaining and rebutting
that it was necessary, morally legitimate, not only to the racist Enlightenment opinions of nineteenth-century
enslave persons, but also to exterminate conquered people English intellectuals such as Anthony Froude and Thomas
in an attempt to confiscate lands. The plantations had to Carlyle. Froude had visited the Caribbean af ter
be productive, and the mines had to go deeper; these emancipation, and on his return to England wrote a book
objectives required land and servile labour. It was not in which he said that an injustice was done to black people
possible to organize a free labour force in the war zones of when granted emancipation because they were culturally
the Caribbean. In addition, it was the belief and experience regressing, spending their days eating pumpkins and
of Europeans that colonial frontiers were best developed sleeping under coconut trees. He was supported by Carlyle,
and restructured by slave labour. The Caribbean, therefore, who argued in an essay entitled ‘On the Nigger Question’
was constructed at the centre of a new philosophical and that emancipation represented a retreat from the principles
economic order. It was the theatre where a new dispensation of progress and that the future of the region was bleak.
took shape and first matured. Thomas exposed the race, class, and gender contradictions
The principle of political economy that international of European Enlightenment discourse, and spoke in
trade was the surest way to achieve self-sustained economic defiance on the specific and unique features of a discrete
development was articulated by advocates of colonialism in Caribbean modernity.11
the seventeenth century who promoted the critical role of Tensions and contest with Caribbean modernity in
the Caribbean plantation system in wealth creation. What turn could not be contained within the islands. They
Williams demonstrated was that without the Caribbean’s breached the walls of the insulating Caribbean Sea and
role in the colonial complex there would have been no began a journey to energize liberation struggles in those
eighteenth-century English industrial revolutions; and no same places from which it had drawn ancestral populations.
English imperial ascendancy in the nineteenth century. Garveyism emerged as a Pan-African paradigm which
C. L. R. James went further and developed the concept that maintained that European modernity in all its forms must
West Indian people now represent, because of that history, be resisted and defeated at all costs: philosophically in the
a unique cultural type. Within the Caribbean new academies, in the market relations of the economy, in
mentalities and identities were created: a new people who culture and the arts. The challenge to oppressed people to
represent a melange of European, African, Amerindian and mobilize against racism and Empire was taken up, and

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Garveyism spread like ‘wild fire’ throughout the colonized notes

communities, with over five hundred branches in North
and South America, and Africa, in addition to hundreds 1. C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture
in the Caribbean. Having embraced the Caribbean, and the San Domingo Revolution, London, 1938; a French
Garveyism went global representing the voice of Africans edition appeared in 1949, an Italian edition in 1968, and a
and all racially exploited people. Euro-American elites German edition in 1984. The text was adapted to the stage
sought to contain Garvey in much the same way that the by the English National Opera in 1979 and 1983;
Haitian missile was contained. It was absolutely necessary E. Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, London, 1944; see for
from the point of view of those who claimed representation the debate over Williams’s thesis, B. Solow and S. Engerman,
of the Columbus voyage to ensure that Marcus Garvey’s (eds), British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy
Black Star Liner did not sail. of Eric Williams, New York, 1987.
The contest of Caribbean modernity continued. The 2. See C. L. R. James, ‘Presence of Blacks in the
Cuban Revolution, which consolidated the region’s socialist Caribbean and its Impact on Culture’, in the compilation of
cosmology, linked its own specific struggles with those of essays published as C. L. R. James: At the Rendezvous of
colonized people on the other side of the Atlantic. In much Victory, London, 1984. N. Lazarus, ‘Doubting the New
the same way that Trinidadians George Padmore and World Order: Marxism, Realism and the Claims of
C. L. R. James were critical ideologues and activists in the Postmodernist Social Theory’, Differences: A Journal of
liberation of Ghana, Cuban troops made possible the Feminist Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1991, pp. 94–137.
driving out of imperial Portuguese and racist South African H. McD. Beckles, ‘Capitalism and Slavery: The Debate
armed forces from Angola, and the subsequent winning of Over Eric Williams’, Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 33,
independence for Namibia. In these dialectical ways No. 4, 1984, pp. 171–91.
Caribbean modernity, though fractured, torn and tortured, 3. See K. Worcester, ‘C. L. R. James and the Question of
came to participate in the political liberation of African the Canon’, in P. Buhle and P. Henry (eds), C. L. R. James’
people.12 Caribbean, Durham, NC, 1982; also, P. Buhle, C. L. R.
Despite the pervasiveness of these struggles, and the James: The Artist in Revolutionary, London, 1989.
successes of the independence movement of the post-war 4. See R. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter
era, there remain people in the Caribbean trapped in colonial Class in the English West Indies, 1624–1713, Chapel Hill,
relationships. They are powerless with respect to resource NC, 1972; R. Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery: An Economic
ownership and their economies cannot independently History of the British West Indies, 1623–1775, Bridgetown,
sustain adequate levels of material living. George Lamming, 1974.
however, has consistently made the wider point – with 5. E. W. Said, Orientalism: Western Representations of the
respect to the empty formality of constitutionally Orient, London, 1978; The World, the Text and the Critics,
independent nation-states – that those who govern don’t Cambridge, MA, 1983; ‘Representing the Colonized:
rule. Ethnic minorities who have recently arrived, and those Anthropology’s Interlocutors’, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 15,
who inherited the mantle of a restructured slave mode of No. 2, 1989, pp. 205–25.
production, are still very much in control of the economic 6. E. Long, History of Jamaica, 1774; Moreau de Saint-
destiny of the region. The historical forces of continuity and Méry, Description Topographique, Physique, Civile, Politique,
change suggest that the overlap of modernity in crisis with et Historique de la Partie Française de L’Isle Saint-Domingue,
post-modern discourses are creating in the region new 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1779; Hilliard d’Auberteuil,
conceptual frontiers for theoretical analysis. While one Considerations sur L’état Présent de la Colonie française de
group of citizens celebrate ‘Discovery day’ and another Saint-Domingue, 2 vols., Paris, 1776–77.
‘Emancipation day’ the past continues to dwell in the present 7. See G. K. Lewis, Main Currents in Caribbean Thought,
and the resultant turbulence produces the enormous energy Baltimore, MD, 1983, pp. 252–65. Baron de Vastey, Essai
sources that define and propel the Cultural Revolution that sur les causes de la Révolution et des guerres civiles d’Haïti,
is the Caribbean.13 1819; Le Système colonial dévoilé, Cap Henry, Haïti, 1814.
8. See Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, 1944, pp. 197–
208; ‘the alternatives were clear’ in 1833, says Williams,
‘emancipation from above or emancipation from below. But
EMANCIPATION’; p. 208.
9. M. Ferguson (ed.), The History of Mary Prince: A
West Indian Slave, Related by Herself, London, 1987;
P. Edwards (ed.), Equiano’s Travels: His Autobiography,
London, 1967. M. Barnet (ed.), The Autobiography of a
Runaway Slave: Esteban Montejo, London, 1993.
10. See B. Ashcroft et. al., The Empire Writes Back:
Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures, London,
1989; also C. Tiffin and A. Lawson, (eds.) De-scribing
Empire: Post-colonialism and Textuality, London, 1994;
R. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture
and Race, London, 1995.
11. B. Brereton, ‘J. J. Thomas: An Estimate’, Journal of
Caribbean History, Vol. 9, 1977; J. J. Thomas, Froudacity,
Port of Spain, 1889; J. A. Froude, The English in the West
Indies, London, 1888. C. Campbell, ‘John Jacob Thomas of

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Trinidad’, in African Studies Association of the West Indies, Impact, Mona, UWI, Jamaica, 1988. T. Martin, Race First:
Kingston, 1965, Bulletin, No. 8, pp. 26–42. W. Cohen, The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey
‘Literature and Race: Nineteenth Century French Fiction: and the UNIA, Dover, MA, 1996.
Blacks and Africa, 1800–1900’, Race and Class, 16, No. 2., 13. R. Depestre, ‘Problems of Identity for the Black Man in
1974, pp. 56–76. the Caribbean’, Caribbean Quaterly, No. 3, 1973, p. 55;
12. E. D. Cronin, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey F. Moya Pons, ‘Is There a Caribbean Consciousness?’
and the UNIA, Madison, WI, 1955; A. Jacques-Garvey, Americas, Vol. 31, No. 8, 1979, pp. 72–76; E. Pereira Salas,
(ed.), Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Dover, ‘The Cultural Emancipation of America’, in The Old and the
MA, 1986; R. Lewis and P. Bryan, Garvey: His Works and New Worlds: Their Cultural and Moral Relations, Basel, 1956.

660
 34
W EST ASIA AN D T H E ARA B W ORL D

Anouar Abdel-Malek, coordinator

INTRODUCTION

Anouar Abdel-Malek

In the present chapter on society and culture in West Asia in key areas, mainly in the eastern region of the Middle
and the Arab World, we will endeavour to examine the East, are opening new paths of development (Map 15).
reality behind the turmoil of conflicts. The history of our This is an area of encounters and confrontations where
contemporary world reveals a persistent pattern of conflict the three monotheistic faiths have co-existed for thirteen
culminating in the twentieth century’s two world wars, the centuries. Moreover, it is the focal point of invasions and
Cold War and its aftermath, the rising tide of national confrontations between two of these faiths, and the region
liberation in opposition to imperialism, and, since 1991, the in which the three major religions are expected to converge.
rise of globalism and hegemony. Simultaneously, resurgences Until the 1990s, the ideological divide between the two

Map 15  The Arab world

Adapted from M. C. Hudson, 1977, Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

661
 regional section

major economic and political world systems resulted in a the dominant orientation. Such imitation has taken various
race for allies in the region. To this day, the region remains forms: from the mere replication of institutions, values and
the object of colonialism and imperialism, as the principal processes of the advanced West, magnified by the impact of
European powers, and more recently, the United States, mass media, notably television, to the assimilation of the
have striven to control this strategic zone. achievements of the more advanced societies. During an
This explains the strained evolution of contemporary initial stage, imitation prevailed, particularly when decadence
societies and cultures in the Middle East, now engulfed in was rightly perceived as resulting mainly from the hegemony
the complex processes of globalization, which is rendered of the advanced West over the Middle Eastern societies.
even more complex and acute by the region’s immense oil Imitation was thus accepted as the only logical choice of the
and gas reserves. In this context, many specialists recognize new elites eager to join the ranks of modernity and expecting
the important, yet uneven, achievements in both to be accepted as disciples and junior partners.
infrastructure and production, which testify to the The second orientation in the societies under review
determination of all the societies under study to concentrate proceeded from the constraints and failures of the first
on the fundamental issues. Those persistent major efforts orientation. Gradually this became the prevailing perception
bear witness to the vitality and resilience of Middle Eastern among the rising national middle classes, divided by their
societies, in spite of the mounting tide of pressures and recognition of their distinctive national cultures and the
threats, often exacerbated by the lack of adequate challenges of modernity. Hence the rise of endogeneity in
resources. the modernization and renaissance processes. Yet the
These efforts and achievements have more often than not deepening impact of globalization and hegemony can only
attempted to replicate the institutions and processes of the increase the assertiveness of the members of Middle
advanced Western countries. Among the many Eastern societies. Thus the stage was set for the dialectics
contradictions are the conflict between the two types of between imitation and endogenous creativity at the heart
evolution of the societies under review. The imitation of the of the socio-cultural processes of Western Asia and the
more advanced Western societies has long been accepted as Arab World.

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 34.1
IRAN (ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF)

Ali G. Dizboni

The Islamic Republic of Iran is currently undergoing far- In Iran, during the 1990s, there was a relative and fragile
reaching social and cultural change that may be unique in the liberalization of culture, including the written press. The end
Muslim world. The reform movement symbolized by the of the Iran-Iraq war (1980–88), the American embargo and
1997 presidential elections is the outcome of a lengthy the challenges of economic reconstruction have, together
transition from tradition to modernity. The twentieth century with other factors, revealed signs of weakness in the religious
witnessed major political upheaval: from the establishment of regime. This is true to the extent that there was a ruthless
the Pahlavi nationalist monarchy (1925–79) to the foundation struggle between conservatives and reformists, whom some
of the Islamic republic (1979), which has for some years now have called post-Islamists.5 The struggle resulted from the
been grappling with a powerful reform movement. gap between the vision and capacity of the Islamist political
Historically, the cultural and scientific development of model and the expectations of the population, 70 per cent of
Iran has always been closely tied to political developments. which were under 30 years of age. Intellectually, post-
Under both the monarchist and Islamic regimes, the Islamism was defined by a thorough revision of Khomeinist
development model has been characterized by the state’s ideology and objection to the conservatives’ monopoly. The
desire for radical societal change. Despite the quantative electoral programme of religious intellectuals, including
growth in development indicators, modernization and President Khatami, took up the language of civil society and
Islamization have had disparate effects and have failed to such issues as sovereignty of the people, limitations on judicial
remodel the society or heal the wounds of transition. powers and on the prerogatives of the Leader of the
As Boissel has noted, during the reign of the last Pahlavi Revolution, and finally, freedom of expression.
Shah (1941–79), culture remained the exclusive privilege of The press played a key role in the 1997 presidential
the royal regime: ‘Everything related to conservation, elections by rallying public opinion to the reformist
production and distribution of the arts (music, theatre, film, candidate, Khatami. The number of journals and newspapers
painting, crafts and audio-visual technology) received peaked from 830 in 1997 to 1,491 in 1998. However, since
government patronage through the highly active and 2000, when a major crackdown on the press began, 80 of
powerful Ministry of Arts and Culture, established in 1964, them have been closed down for ‘press crimes’.6 Of the
which has since been under the authority of a member of 50 periodicals forced to cease their activities in 2001, only
the royal family’.1 two have been allowed to resume publication. In addition,
Culture was therefore managed by centralized national in the summer of 1999, the campus of Tehran University
institutions. Firstly, the Society for the Development of was the scene of the Iranian ‘Tiananmen’, savagely repressed
National Music, which later became the National Music by pro-regime militia forces.7
Conservatory of Tehran, was founded in 1945, and it was In 1998, censorship on other fields of cultural production
followed in the 1960s by the first National School of Fine was lifted, at least temporarily. The number of titles of
Arts, the State Institute of Decorative Arts and the Higher books published reached 20,642, and of public libraries
School of Television and Cinema.2 1,304 (with a total collection of 9,605,508 books). There
The film industry, which dates back to the 1966–77 were 307 theatres, with 2,068 drama performances, and
period, was strongly influenced by foreign productions 173,060 cinema screens showing 60 films per year.8 However,
(especially from the US). During this period, only 76 films supply fell far short of the great demand. Several public
were produced nationally, while 500 were imported. television channels have been opened but do not cover the
Production of the first films of international standard began whole country, nor do they satisfy the diversity of demand.
in 1972 with films that often addressed social and economic UNESCO statistics for 1996–97 show that there were
issues.3 After a post-revolutionary break of a few years, the 263 radio sets and 71 television sets per 1,000 inhabitants.9
Iranian film industry took off at the end of the 1980s, when The use of satellite dishes is therefore becoming very
it became remarkably successful and earned an excellent widespread, especially in the big cities.
reputation on the international scene, winning a record- In the field of education, the illiteracy rate, which was
breaking 300 prizes4 at international festivals. approximately 80 per cent in 1962,10 fell to 16 per cent for

663
 regional section

men and 26.5 per cent for women in 2003, a remarkable 70 per cent of whom were men. In addition, in 1978 there
success considering that the population in 2003 was were 10,000 Iranian doctors abroad (almost the same
70 million compared with 33 million in 1979.11 number as in Iran). Iran needed at least 50,000 doctors to
Under the Pahlavi regime, as part of the reform package provide basic medical services, but there were only 750
known as the White Revolution (1962), the state introduced medical graduates between 1980 and 1986.15
a national system of compulsory, secular education in the Beginning in 1983, the regime’s scientific and industrial
Persian language, without gender discrimination, which policy aimed to improve the situation by providing more
was free of charge even at the pre-university and university postgraduate programmes through the expansion of public
levels. The Literacy Corps, made up of 47,000 young universities in the provinces and the opening of the private
graduates of pre-university schools, became the new universities mentioned above.16
spearhead bringing literacy to rural regions. The programme Few accurate statistical data are available on the state of
was moreover copied by the clerical regime in the 1980s and scientific and technological development in Iran. During
renamed the jihad savad amouzi (literacy jihad), covering the reign of the Shah, royal patronage was extended to the
some 2,192 adult education schools. science and industry sectors, especially strategic products
However, religious schools run by the Shiite clergy, (oil and gas). Foreign investment was allowed and the
which had been tolerated and sometimes suppressed by the assembly industry became the model for technological
Shah’s secular regime, have become very prosperous and development.17 Above all, in the petrochemicals and nuclear
widespread under the mullahs. Their diplomas are being fields, the huge oil boom of the 1970s led to massive projects
increasingly recognized by the ministry in charge of higher that were not completed after 1979 and the Islamic
education. Revolution. According to the British magazine the
In the 1980s, the university education system was Economist,18 60 per cent of the Iranian economy is controlled
heavily purged following the outbreak of the Cultural by the Islamic government and 10 per cent to 20 per cent by
Revolution (April 1980 to autumn 1983) supervised by semi-governmental foundations (bonyad).
the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. The Industry recovered only after the Iran-Iraq war in the
clerical regime then decided to close all 200 institutions of 1990s. The energy (exploration and rehabilitation of
higher education in order to remodel the academic production capacity) and military sectors remained at the
structure and impose a single university curriculum. top of the list of industrial projects. Development of the
Secularization thus gave way to Islamization designed to petrochemical industry was still the best option for
eliminate Western influences. The imposition of the hijab, diversifying export. The National Petrochemical Company
the establishment of Islamic Student Associations and worked with foreign firms and investors, and in 1998 it grew
changes in school textbooks exemplify this new policy. by 25 per cent, that is 10.5 million tonnes of petrochemical
The regime centralized academic administration under the products.
Ministry of Culture and Higher Education.12 Admission According to analysts,19 Iran ‘now has all in all a highly
to university programmes is governed by ‘ideological and diversified, quality industrial base (automobile, household
moral’ selection procedures. appliances, chemicals, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and
An important development has been the emergence of construction materials) which cannot, however, meet the
private universities (Danechgahe azade eslami). These country’s needs or produce for export’.
universities, often of inferior quality and designed for young The Ministry of Science, Research and Technology,
people, which were founded in 1981 in an attempt to offset successor to the Ministry of Culture and Higher Education,
the insufficient capacities of public universities, have spread is officially in charge of the R&D sector through two
throughout the country. In 1993–94, such universities affiliated institutions: the National Research Council
existed in 80 towns. The number of students enrolled in (Shoraye Pajoohesh Keshvar) and the Organization of
2001 accounted for 40 per cent of the total of 1.45 million Scientific and Technological Research (Sazamen
university enrolments.13 After the private universities had Pajoohesh-haye Elmi va Sanati). In fact, other ministries
been set up, Payame Noor University (a distance learning (such as Defence, and Health, Hygiene and Medical
university) was established in 1987 by the Supreme Council Education) and other semi-governmental foundations have
of the Cultural Revolution and placed under the ministry in their own scientific and technological research institutes.
charge of higher education. These programmes are overseen For instance, in addition to university research centres
mainly by primary-school teachers and civil servants. there are other bodies such as the Institut Pasteur and the
The 12-year structure of pre-university education, based National Bio-Informatics Network. 20 The fragmentary
on the French system, has remained unchanged but school nature of the research centres, overlapping and the lack of
textbooks have been revised to meet the requirements of the coordination under a national scientific development
Islamic regime. Emphasis has been placed on the teaching strategy are impediments to the optimization of financial
of Arabic, lingua islamica, as a second language. In the and human resources.
1993/1994 academic year, 17,552,092 pupils were enrolled Although pure sciences and engineering account for
in 96,474 schools, which included 445 technical schools, 50 per cent of enrolments in public and private universities,
524 commercial and vocational schools and 73 agricultural the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology recently
schools. The Ministry of Education publishes 747 different deplored the state of advanced research. It emphasized
school textbooks, totalling 100 million copies, each year.14 weaknesses, such as: the living conditions of teachers; lack
The brain drain remains a chronic problem. Until 1970, of dynamism in universities; the need to optimize
owing to the dearth of postgraduate university courses information and communication technologies, and increase
available locally, especially in engineering, students were investment in scientific development; and the lack of an
forced to go to Europe or the United States. In 1976, there organic link between industry, the financial sector and the
were 60,000 students abroad and 154,000 in the country, management of universities, due, among other things, to

664
 W EST ASIA AN D T H E ARA B W ORL D

the highly theoretical nature of university curricula.21 This 15. E. Hooglund, ‘The Society and Its Environment’ in
appraisal is confirmed by a United Nations report which H. Chapin Metz (ed.), Iran: A Country Study, Washington,
states that in 1996 there were 0.7 scientists per 1,000 DC, 1989, pp. 132–33.
inhabitants and that 0.48 per cent of GDP was devoted to 16. B. Hourcade, H. Mazurek, P.-Y. Mohammed-
R&D.22 Hosseyn and M. Taleghani (eds.), Atlas d’Iran, Paris, 1998,
It is evident that it is neither prudent nor easy to make a p. 70.
definitive assessment of the cultural and scientific 17. C. Bromberger, ‘Iran’, in: A. Aubry (ed.), Universalis
development of The Islamic Republic of Iran. The Vol. 12, Paris, 1996; p. 598.
ambivalence of the political situation and the paradoxes of 18. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.
transition mean that there is reason to be methodologically cfm?story_id=1522056, consulted on 20 May 2003.
pessimistic. On the other hand, the positive trend, at least 19. B. Hourcade et el. (eds), Atlas d’Iran, Paris, 1998,
with regard to the quantitative growth in certain cultural p. 126.
indicators, calls for measured optimism on our part. 20. http://www.msrt.gov.ir/English/index.html,
consulted on 20 May 2003.
21. http://www.iran-embassy.org.uk/stoppress/
090702moin.htm, consulted on 20 May 2003.
No t e s 22. http://portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/
SandTec/Table_III_1_Asia.html, consulted on 20 May
1. J. Boissel, L’Iran moderne, Paris, 1975, p. 100. 2003.
2. Ibid. pp. 83, 96, 100.
3. H. Naficy, ‘Cinema as a Political Instrument’ in
M. Bonine and N. Kedie (eds), Modern Iran: The Dialectics
of Continuity and Change, Albany, NY, 1981, p. 343. BIB L I O G R A PH Y
4. http://www.pbs.org/visavis/BTVPages/Iranian_
Cinema.html, consulted on 20 May 2003. AUBRY, A. (ed.). 1996. Universalis. Encyclopedia Universalis, Paris.
5. F. Kosrokhavar, and O. Roy, Iran: comment sortir BOISSEL, J. 1975. L’Iran moderne. PUF, Paris.
d’une révolution religieuse, Paris, 1999, p. 76. BONINE, M. E. and KEDIE, N. R. (eds). 1981. Modern Iran: The Dialectics
6. http://www.freedomhouse.org/pfs2003, consulted of Continuity and Change. State University of New York Press,
on 20 May 2003. Albany, NY.
7. http://www.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/mde/ CHAPIN METZ, H. 1989. Iran: A Country Study. Government Printing
iran!Open, consulted on 20 May 2003. Office, Washington, DC.
8. h t t p : / / w w w . f a r h a n g . g o v . i r / i r a n - m e d i a / i r i . DJALILI, M.-R. 2001. Iran: l’illusion réformiste. Presses de Sciences Po,
htm#Culture, consulted on 20 May 2003. Paris.
9. http://portal.unesco.org/uis/TEMPLATE/html/ ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT. 1999. Country Profile: Iran (1999–
CultAndComm/Table_IV_14_Asia.html, consulted on 2000). EIU, London.
20 May 2003. HOURCADE, B. , MAZUREK, H. , Mohammed-Hosseyn, P.-Y. and
10. J. Boissel, op. cit., p. 50. Mahmoud, T. (eds). 1998. Atlas d’Iran. La Documentation
11. F. Adelkhah, ‘Iran’ in Etat du monde 2003, Paris, 2003, Française, Paris.
p. 250; and F. Kosrokhavar, and O. Roy, Iran: comment KHOSROKHAVAR, F. and Roy, O. 1999. Iran: comment sortir d’une
sortir d’une révolution religieuse, Paris, 1999, p. 76. révolution religieuse. Editions du Seuil, Paris.
12. A. Rastegar, ‘Health Policy and Medical Education’ in New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1993. (15th ed.). Vol. 21. Encyclopaedia
S. Rahnema and S. Behdad (eds), Iran after Revolution: Britannica, Chicago, IL.
Crisis of an Islamic State, London, 1995), pp. 220–22. RAHNEMA, S. and Sohrab, B. (eds.). 1995. Iran after Revolution: Crisis
13. h t t p : / / w w w . f a r h a n g . g o v . i r / i r a n - m e d i a / i r i . of an Islamic State. I. B. Tauris, London.
htm#Culture, consulted on 20 May 2003. WRIGHT, R. 2001. The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and
14. h t t p : / / w w w . f a r h a n g . g o v . i r / i r a n - m e d i a / i r i . Transformation in Iran. Vintage Books, New York.
htm#Culture, consulted on 20 May 2003.

665
 34.2
TUR K E Y

34.2.1
Transformations in the first half
of the 20th century

Sina Akşin

The Ottoman Empire, insistently called ‘Turkey’ by of educated people, the content of educational
Europeans, was a well-organized structure based on the programmes and books was much improved.
principle of ethnic and religious coexistence. Its weakness Intellectual and political currents such as nationalism,
was its basically feudal character. Capitalism could find Westernism, Islamism and socialism flourished.
little room for development and the Turkish bourgeois 3. As a result of new legislation and active encouragement
class was almost non-existent. The Turks were late in from the CUP, capitalism began to develop.
adopting the printing press, which only appeared in 1729. 4. There was a remarkable increase in funds allocated for
Mosque schools, followed by the medrese, were archaic and education, which produced important advances.
almost entirely religion-oriented. To a large extent situated 5. This period also marked the beginning of the
on European soil, the Empire had to modernize if it was to emancipation of Muslim women, with greater
continue to exist. The seeds of this indispensable revolution opportunities for education and work.
were sown by the establishment, during the reign of In 1914, the CUP government chose to join the First
Mahmut II (1808-1839), of modern schools of higher World War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
learning. These were, to start with, the School of Medicine The result was defeat, which discredited the CUP. The
(1827) and the Military School (1834). As the number of Unionists abolished their organization and the leaders fled
their students and graduates grew, they secretly organized the country. Vahdettin, who became Sultan in 1918,
to form the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, thought that with the disappearance of the CUP, he could
1889), composed of civilians and military officers. stage a counterrevolution and revert to absolutism.
Parliament was dismissed, and Vahdettin tried to curry
favour with the victorious British. But Britain, supported
T h e c o n s t i t u t i o n al r e v ol u t i o n by France and Italy, tried to impose the Sèvres Peace Treaty
a n d i t s c o u n t e r r e v ol u t i o n (1920) which not only dismembered the Empire, but
disregarded the principle of self-determination, bringing
Thanks to the military officers who were graduates of the the Ottoman Empire to the verge of extinction. This
Military School, and were also mostly members of the CUP, produced a reaction and the movement led by Mustafa
this organization was able to force the Sultan to apply the Kemal began a struggle for national independence and
Constitution and order elections (1908). It is noteworthy constitutionalism. Constitutionalism materialized in the
that this development was parallel to similar events in form of the convocation of the Grand National Assembly
Russia, Iran and China. Following the absolutism of in Ankara. With due encouragement from the Allies,
Abdulhamit II (1876-1909), the revolution generated an Vahdettin thereupon initiated a civil war against the
explosion of relief and enthusiasm. The CUP had great Kemalists but was defeated. This was followed by the defeat
ambitions. The Empire was to be modernized and in the of the Greek Army, which at one point had advanced up to
process ‘the sick man of Europe’ was to be cured. At first Ankara. This military achievement enabled Turkey to make
Europe seemed to receive the revolution very favourably, a very favourable peace treaty at Lausanne (1923) and gave
but as time passed it developed a great aversion to the Mustafa Kemal, as commander-in-chief, the necessary
CUP. prestige and authority to conduct the Kemalist Revolution.
The CUP retained a varying degree of power up until
1918. During these years revolutionary changes were
instituted: T h e K e m al i s t R e v ol u t i o n
1. The legal infrastructure (laws and regulations) of a
modern state was created. The Kemalist Revolution was the result of the ‘Sèvres
2. With the abolition of censorship, a large amount of trauma’. In order that Turkey never again face another
new publications – periodicals and books – appeared. Sèvres, the Turkish people were to become as developed as
Thanks to freedom of expression and the predominance the Europeans – in the economic field as well as in the fields

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 W EST ASIA AN D T H E ARA B W ORL D

of education, culture and science. The idea was that had a more limited scope, but numbered 4322. In 1933
development should take place in every conceivable field Istanbul University was also reformed, unfortunately
(e.g. music, production of electricity, football and railroads). accompanied by the exclusion of about two thirds of its
The philosophy behind this concept of wholesale, integral academics who were considered inadequate. At this time
development was to be that of enlightenment, so that an Hitler’s regime was busy ridding itself of academics who
end could be put to medieval practices and behaviour. The were Jewish or otherwise in disagreement with the Nazi
Kemalist Revolution was much more radical than the ideology. Of these, 142 were invited to Turkey, where
Constitutional Revolution, being republican and secular almost all of them served until the end of the Second World
(the Republic was proclaimed in 1923 and the principle of War. They were first-rate academics and the level of
secularism was written into the constitution in 1937). development of present-day universities owes a great deal to
A striking reform of the Kemalist Revolution was the their efforts.
alphabet reform (1928). The Arabic script had been adopted The education of peasants was a great problem, owing
during the conversion of the Turks to Islam in Central particularly to financial destitution, lack of communications
Asia, and had been in use ever since. Now the Latin alphabet, and the isolation of many villages. Before the death (in
with certain modifications and additions, was to be used. 1938) of Mustafa Kemal, who had become known as
What made this reform possible was the fact that the Atatürk, an almost miraculous solution was found. Boys
literacy rate, which was 5 per cent in 1918, had by this time and girls from villages were to be educated in Village
increased to only 10.7 per cent. Another reform was the Institutions (21 of them) as teachers, technicians and
language reform. In the Ottoman Empire the written cultured persons and then sent back to their villages. This
language was so laden with Arabic and Persian words that solution solved the problem of adaptation to difficult village
the uneducated (notably women) could not understand it. conditions and communication with the peasants. It was
Discouraging the use of such words and encouraging the also very cost-effective, since those children built their own
use of Turkish equivalents, and creating new words when Institutes and grew their own food. The revolution, unlike
such equivalents were not available, became a campaign in fascist or fundamentalist ideology, also attached great
the 1930s. The Turkification of the language (including the importance to the equality of the sexes. The emergence of
finding of equivalents for Western words) is an ongoing the first professional women – lawyers, doctors, pilots,
process. Thus, Turkish has been so transformed that the diplomats, MPs – was greeted with great celebrations.
written language of the Empire is now called Ottoman to In 1945 President İsmet İnönü (1884-1973), who
differentiate it from present-day Turkish. succeeded Atatürk, decided to inaugurate the multi-party
The People’s Houses and Rooms were a vital institution system. In 1950, his party lost the elections, and the new
of the revolution. Mustafa Kemal decided in 1931 that the government reversed some of the reforms introduced by its
best cure for reactionary movements and obscurantism was predecessor. For instance, the People’s Houses and Rooms
culture. People’s Houses were cultural centres active in nine were closed down in 1951, and the Village Institutes in
areas, including the arts, sports, libraries, educational 1954. However, these changes had limited effects, progress
courses, lectures and social work. A total of 478 of these continued in many fields and economic development was
centres were created, together with People’s Rooms which broadly unaffected.

667
 regional section

34.2.2
Developments in the second half
of the 20th century

Timour Muhidine

Turkey’s geographical situation has determined its history, might be called the second stage of republican cultural life has
particularly its cultural history. The country’s position in begun, with the reappraisal of the Ottoman period, including
the geopolitical landscape changed in the period after the both its zenith (the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) and
Second World War. Its Arab neighbours experienced rapid decline (the late nineteenth century), times of great creativity
change because of the windfall from oil and the pan-Arab that gave rise to a host of political and linguistic projects. One
movement centred in Egypt, while the common border of the major incentives was no doubt the opening of the
with the communist Balkans was a constant source of Ottoman archives to researchers and the general preference
tension. But Turkey managed to assert itself as a hub of for a more prestigious past than that of the Republic. A shift
movement and trade in the 1980s: many conflicts within the occurred from the cult of a martial system centred on the East
country (guerrilla warfare in the East) and elsewhere (around the new capital, Ankara) to acceptance of the many
(Chechnya, the Caucasus and the Gulf War) had a great cultures tolerated by the Empire. This no doubt accounts for
impact on internal political developments and gave fresh the abundance of publications and research on social,
impetus to its foreign policy ambitions. If the issues of oil linguistic, artistic and economic aspects of the period when
and gas exploitation and the water reserves in southern the millet (nations) lived side by side. Interest in this period –
Anatolia are also taken into account, then a shift may be over and above the antiquarian aspect – makes it possible to
seen to have occurred in the pattern of regional alliances: put things into perspective, assigning them their place in
Central Asia (neglected until Prime Minister Turgut Özal history as a means of achieving reconciliation.
came to power) became a central focus of attention, and The widening gap between urban and rural cultures
agreements were implemented with Israel, a strategic ally. became more pronounced in the 1970s: with the shift from
Thus Turkey once again took up a key position in the a mainly rural country to one that was primarily urban,
regional ‘great game’ confirming the break with the Arab habits and language changed; the rural heritage in terms of
world that dates back to the years of the First World War: customs, attitudes to health and food, the very idea of travel
most economic and cultural exchanges were conducted inside the country changed completely. The folkloric
with non-bordering countries. features of art also diminished considerably, and this may
be regarded as mirroring a decline in the nationalism which
had threatened to isolate the country.
A distinctive identity

The distinctiveness of the Turkish model is perhaps best I n t e ll e c t u al a n d a r t i s t i c

seen in certain historical and cultural aspects. Turkey retains movements
a keen awareness of its imperial heritage, and this awareness
has been heightened since 1990. Its position as a multicultural The major world intellectual movements, especially Marxism
and multi-denominational state continues to fuel nostalgia and existentialism, gathered many followers in Turkey.
and also feeds into – or offsets – the model of a modernizing Nevertheless, the question of what constituted a Turkish
secular state that it maintained until the mid-1960s. intellectual was debated mainly within the ‘Anatolian’
Another aspect, which has mainly attracted the attention school, which stressed the cultural continuity between the
of sociologists, is Turkey’s high mobility, both nationally land of Anatolia – considered in terms of its ancient
and internationally (trade and emigration, particularly to heritage – and contemporary Turkey. The intellectual,
Western Europe). This might be called a taste for nomadism Sabahattin Eyüboglu (1908–73), for example, defined
rooted in the imagination of a nation that sees itself as himself in relation to Western classical culture – the
continuing a ‘long march’ towards the West. humanities – and contemporary works rather than in
After a period in which the oral popular culture, often relation to the Orient, whether Arab or Persian.
linked to mystic orders (the Bektashis, in particular), was These trends were most strongly reflected in literature;
rehabilitated (and, in more than one case, rediscovered), what the number of poetic works produced has increased in the

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 W EST ASIA AN D T H E ARA B W ORL D

course of the century, and several writers continued to many state and private universities (Bilkent, the first private
enrich contemporary Turkish poetry: Nazim Hikmet university opened its doors in 1984).
(1902–1963), Fazil Hüsnü Daglarca (b. 1914) and Melih With the extension of the university network, the human
Cevdet Anday (1915–2002). In the novel, best represented sciences have also expanded considerably, as illustrated by
by Yashar Kemal (b. 1922), Turkish prose succeeded in the extensive translation and research projects in the fields
portraying two major developments in the country’s history: of history, sociology and philosophy. What may also be
rural change followed by rural exodus and the emergence of regarded as a delayed effect of the structuralist wave has led
a new urban Turk. In the arts, architecture and music held to renewed creativity in the field of thought: the brilliant
pride of place; painting often fell into line with major school of historians working on Ottoman archives, and the
international trends, and attempts to reinterpret the philosophers who have been won over to logic theories
traditional arts (naïf engravings, miniatures) were not very (Nusret Hizir) and Husserlian phenomenology (Nermi
successful. Uygur) are emblematic of a living culture.
In conclusion, we should note the emergence of a
psychoanalytical trend of thought in Istanbul, drawing on
S c i e n c e , t e c h n ology a n d the French tradition and on the practice of psychiatric
education hospitals established in Turkey since the beginning of the
twentieth century. This is no doubt a clear sign that the
Rooted in a strong tradition of medical and Earth science individual is receiving greater consideration in a society in
education, scientific research expanded considerably only which the group has long had priority.
after the early 1980s. Governed by five-year development
plans, research gained a higher profile owing to the large
number of reports and congresses of TÜBITAK (Turkey’s
Scientific Research Foundation, founded in 1963), which BIB L I O G R A PH Y
were indicative of the progress and aspirations of a country
dependent on Western science but nonetheless determined Akşin, S. 2007. Turkey: from Empire to Revolutionary Republic.
to control its own national development. The recent Hurst, London. [Add this reference to the Bibliography listed
availability of works aimed at the public at large and of under T. Muhiddine’s contribution]
several scientific journals is an important sign of change in EYUBOGLU, S. 1973. Mavi ve Kara [Blue and Black]. Cem Yay,
the general culture of a population that is by and large not Istanbul, Turkey.
scientifically inclined.  1981–1982. Sanat Üzerine Denemeler ve Eletiriler (Cilt 1 et 2)
In telecommunications, Turkey has taken up the [Critical Essays on Art]. Cem Yay, Istanbul, Turkey.
challenge of television programming: many of its broadcasts GÜVENÇ, B. 1993. Türk Kimli [Turkish Identity]. Kültür Bakanli
are transmitted to its neighbours and the countries of Yay, Ankara.
Central Asia. Similarly, in the field of education, Turkey KUÇURADI, I. 1993. Turquie. In: KLIBANSKY R. and PEARS, D. (eds.).
exports an educational model (textbooks, radio and La philosophie en Europe. UNESCO/Gallimard, Paris.
television programmes) to Turkic-language-speaking MUHIDINE, T. (ed.). 1998. Offrandes: Poèmes 1946–1989 de Melih
countries, asserting the influence of its secular republican Cevdet Anday. publisud/UNESCO, Paris.
model geared to a Muslim population. PAZARKAYA, Y. 1989. Rosen im Frost. Einblicke in die türkische Kultur
Education made rapid strides when the Village Institutes [Roses in Frost: Aspects of Turkish Culture]. Unionsverlag, Zürich.
were established in 1941, but that scheme was unfortunately YERASIMOS, S. (ed.). 1994. Les Turcs, Orient et Occident, islam et laïcité.
halted in the mid-1950s. Since the 1980s, the strong support Editions Autrement, Paris.
for education has found expression in the establishment of

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 34.3
AFGHANISTAN

Roland Gilles

Hemmed in between Iran, India and the steppes of Central Amanullah, seized power. He broke off the agreements
Asia, with no outlet to the sea, Afghanistan was one of the with Britain and launched raids on several Indian border
poorest countries in the world at the end of the First World posts. This marked the beginning of the third brief Anglo-
War. And yet it enjoyed some prestige in the international Afghan war. The British, weary of these perpetual conflicts,
arena. It had been neither occupied by Britain nor annexed by signed the Treaty of Rawalpindi, which gave the Afghans
Russia. Bounded together by their faith and their resistance ample latitude to conduct their own foreign policy.
to foreign influence, the Afghans shared a strong sense of According to the terms of the treaty, the Afghans were to be
historical identity, even though they were far from founding a granted full independence in 1921. Two years later,
nation. Their country, apparently unscathed by any form of Afghanistan was endowed with its first constitution, which
colonial rule, was seen as a ‘Citadel of Islam’ at a time when bore the imprint of Mahmud Beg Tarzi: all Afghans,
the Ottoman Empire was collapsing, the sultanates of Central whether Muslim or not, had equal rights and were citizens
Asia were under the sway of Moscow and the Arab Middle of the state. The idea was clearly to replace the old tribal
East was under the protectorate of the Allies. bonds and the umah, the religious community, by allegiance
Its independence must, however, be put into perspective. to the constitution.
Since the second Anglo-Afghan war, in which the British In 1926, Amanullah, now on the throne, undertook a
gained the upper hand (Treaty of Gandomak, 1879), grand tour abroad. On his return to his kingdom, he stepped
Afghanistan had no longer been free to conduct its own up the pace of the reforms, especially in education. Primary
foreign policy. The Great Powers had drawn its borders as education was made compulsory for boys and girls alike.
a buffer state between Russia and British India (Mortimer Afghanistan was on its way to becoming a kind of modernist
Durand line, 1893). Change was brought about by Amir nation-state on the model of Mustafa Kemal’s Turkey or
Abdurahman (1893–1901), who unified the country by Reza Shah’s Iran. But although technical modernization
clamping down on the Afghan tribes, including the Pashtun. was accepted without difficulty by Afghan society, modernity
Without breaking ties with Britain, he laid the foundations caused resentment. The peasantry resisted the social reforms
of centralized government in Kabul. He can thus be seen as imposed by the king, particularly the ban on the veil for
the ‘father’ of modern Afghanistan. women and schooling for girls. At the end of 1928, revolt
His son Habibullah Khan, who succeeded him in 1901, broke out. Insurgents led by a fanatical Tajik, Bacha Saqao
maintained the agreements concluded with the British and (‘son of the water-carrier’), captured Kabul in 1929.
embarked on a process of economic development. On the Amanullah fled to Qandahar, then abdicated. He died in
educational front, higher education establishments were exile in Italy in 1961. This episode demonstrated the
founded to educate the future Afghan elite. Habibiyia College obstacles encountered by the concept of nation-state when
was opened in Kabul in 1903, followed by a teacher-training applied to a conservative peasantry divided by geography,
college and a military academy. Reformist and nationalist origin and language.
ideas championed by Mahmud Beg Tarzi and his newspaper
Seraj-ul-Akhbar were well received by the amir. These ideas,
very much inspired by those of Jamâl al-Dîn al-Afghani, D i v e r s i t y of e t h n i c g r o u p s a n d
claimed that Muslims should seek in their religion – since it la n g u ag e s , a n d m i g r a t o r y
advocated the quest for knowledge – the principles and forms movements
of a new approach to modernization, distinct from the
materialistic and atheist approach of the West. Some 17 ethnic groups, speaking as many languages, have
settled on the lands making up Afghanistan. The country is
divided into five major groups: the Pashtuns, the Tajiks, the
K i n g A m a n u lla h a n d t h e Asian Turkic groups (Turkmen, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz), the
b r e a k do w n of t h e n a t i o n - s t a t e Hazara and the Baluch.
The Pashtuns, who are Sunni Muslims, make up 39 per
In February 1919, Habibullah was assassinated under cent of the population. Traditionally farmers and warriors,
mysterious circumstances. One of his sons, Prince they inhabit the regions extending from Jalalabad to Farah.

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They regard themselves as the quintessential Afghans, since neighbours of the Baluch and who spoke a pre-Aryan
the dynastic state was originally formed by a Pashtun Dravidian language, and lastly the mostly urban Jewish
ancestor of the Abdali tribe, Ahmad Shah Durrani, who communities, such as those living in the Chaharsuq district of
was crowned king in Qandahar in 1747. Enjoying Herat who left Afghanistan during the Russo-Afghan war.
preferential treatment from the authorities, they settled in
the west (Khurasan and Badghis), the centre and the
north. A fg h a n s o c i e t y
The Tajiks, who are Persians of Central Asia, speak Dari
or ‘court language’, a form of Farsi with an Afghan The population, whose numbers at the time of King
pronunciation that has become the language of Amanullah can only be guessed at, stood at roughly
administration and trade. It is in Dari that Afghans read the 15 million at the end of the 1970s. Its diversity was in clear
Persian literary classics, the poems of Rudaki, Firdusi and contrast to the definition of a nation-state. More importantly,
Hafez (consulted in the way the Romans consulted Virgil) the population was 85 per cent rural, attached to its lands
and the works of their great national writers, Ansari, Jami and traditions, with factors of cohesion – Islam, kinship,
and Sanai. The members of the ruling class, even those of community and tribal links – that lay outside the sphere of
Pashtun origin, tend to speak Dari, which remains the the state.
language of culture. The Tajiks, most of them small farmers, Islam was the foundation of all authority, the supreme
settled mainly in the west and north-east (Badakhshan and criterion for judging individuals who would be no more
the Panjshir Valley). than a handful of dust (khâk) in the immensity of Creation
The Hazara, of Mongol origin, are believed to have if they did not fear their God. Religion therefore permeated
arrived in Afghanistan in the thirteenth century in the wake all aspects of life: family life, eating and drinking, manners,
of Genghis Khan’s armies, since the word hazar (‘thousand’ work, travel and battle. Everything happened according to
in Farsi) evokes a military unit. They gradually replaced the the will of God the most great (Allahu-Akbar), and by
Tajik-Aimaq in the upper valley of the Helmand River and invoking his name. Men wore turbans, cut their nails and
in the Bamiyan region. In 1893, their territory was conquered trimmed their beards in a certain way in order to follow the
by Amir Abdurahman on the pretext that they were example of the prophet Muhammad.
‘Twelver’ Shiites. They speak the Dari of their Tajik Islam is not only a belief system, however: it is also a
neighbours and form a hierarchical tribal society with a source of education, law and, to a certain extent, a political
considerable capacity for organization. project. The boys of a village learned prayers, passages of the
The Turkmen, from the Sultanate of Merv Qur’an and the hadith from the mullah – who was often the
(Turkmenistan), settled the north of the country en masse only literate person in the community – since even though
around 1922, to escape the Soviet regime. They were mainly Arabic is not in the same language family as Dari, both
Ersari Turkmen living on the income from their herds. languages use the same alphabet. Shari‘a, the set of laws
Tekke, Yomud and Chodor families have also married into derived from the Qur’an, was for most peasants a respected
their clans. In the course of the twentieth century, these source of authority in addition to – or in conjunction
nomadic herders became partly sedentary, moving into the with – older institutions: councils of elders, water regulation,
towns of Meymaneh, Andkhoy, Aqcheh and Mazar-e and so on. In non-tribal areas where the honour code
Sharif. (Pashtunwali) was not applied, shari‘a was the backbone of
The Uzbeks, who invaded Khurasan in the early sixteenth criminal law and customary law. For Afghan Sunnis, who
century, settled in small fiefdoms in the north of the country were in the majority, this legal framework took the path of
until they were subdued by Amir Abdurahman. Both Hanafism. On the political level, Islam certainly encouraged
nomad and sedentary communities spoke a language the practice of consensus and community assent. This form
descended from Chaghatay Turki. In the north, Uzbeks of Islam, under the reign of Amanullah, was traditionalist,
who continued to herd sheep and horses lived in yurts and although not without a transcendental element, as attested
were referred to by the generic term kuchi (nomads). Among by the attachment of large numbers of Afghans (from the
them, the Lakai are renowned for their great weaving skills. middle classes and skilled craftworkers, among other) to
The Turkic-speaking Kyrgyz lived mainly in the Pamirs Sufi brotherhoods: Naqshbandiyya, Qadiriyya and
(Wakhan). They were nomads living at an altitude of Chistiyya. It was the form of Islam then pervasive in
roughly 4,000 metres in high valleys only accessible in the Afghanistan and mostly untouched by fundamentalist
summer. They raised sheep and yaks. doctrines, like that of the Muslim Brothers which emerged
The Baluch, whose language belongs to the West Iranian in Egypt in the 1920s, or the older doctrine of the Deobandis
group, occupied the far south-west, the Dasht-e Margo Desert of India, which was to serve as a model for the Taliban.
and the south of Helmand and Qandahar provinces. Mostly It would be wrong to contrast categorically the tribalism
nomads, they moved about with their herds in these regions, of the Pashtuns with the absence of tribalism among the
which were devastated and transformed into desert under Tajiks. It is true that the pyramidal structure of Pashtun
Mongol rule. Large groups of Baluch settled around Herat society was more marked, from the family unit, the qawmi
and in the north of Afghanistan, becoming peasants and jirga, run by the patriarch, to the assembly of all the tribes,
small-scale herders. The women made very beautiful rugs. the loya jirga. It was, however, an ideal structure, contradicted
In addition to these major Persian- and Turkic-speaking by the perpetually shifting alliances between small groups
groups, there were the Nuristanis, descended from a very and the widespread practice of blood feuds. On the other
ancient Aryan migration, who remained unaffected by Islam hand, social constraints and aspirations were the same. Zan,
until their territory was conquered by Amir Abdurahman; zar, zamin: women, gold and land – the three main concerns
the Kohistanis, who live in southern Nuristan; some Arabs of Pashtun khans were also those of the Tajik landowner,
gathered in villages in the north; the Brahui, herders who are only the names were different.

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Centuries-old conditioning kept women or Zan in a territory, rejected the deal and turned to the Soviet Union.
state of virtual seclusion. In the countryside, Afghan Cooperation with the USSR, which would be very close
women carried out their work with their faces unveiled. In from the outset, in particular in the technical and military
the cities, they would not dare go out without being hidden field, began in 1955. From 1961 to 1963, the crisis between
under a chadri (burka). Marriage, arranged by the families, Afghanistan and Pakistan worsened. The borders were
was the subject of lengthy transactions. Zar, zanim: gold closed, and King Zahir, worried by the situation, forced his
and land – the peasantry, barely making a living from the cousin to resign.
hostile land, expected a certain redistribution of wealth by
the local powers.
In this discreetly hierarchical society, the individual felt The constitutional monarchy of King Zahir (1963–1973)
obligations towards their relatives, their professional
environment (qawm), the regional chief and the mullah. A Zahir’s seizure of power was accompanied by a return to
whole system of mutual obligations underpinned the neutrality with regard to both the Russians and the
society, which was not feudal in the medieval sense of the Americans. Organized on a competitive basis, foreign
term as there was no oath of allegiance, or indivisible technical assistance started to pull the country out of under-
hereditary fiefdoms, but which operated on the basis of development. In Kabul, in the first mixed university
extensive clientelism accepted by all concerned. faculties, women students were free to reject the veil. The
In the face of this peasantry shaped by Islam and which quarrels with Pakistan died down.
considered itself already to be a society of law, the Pashtun One of Zahir Shah’s first measures was to grant his
rulers had little room for manoeuvre. Everything that came country a new constitution (its third). It was significant.
from the capital was considered to be superf luous or Broadly inspired by the French institutions of the Fifth
impious. The leaders were inconvenienced by the constant Republic and the American Constitution, it was carefully
lack of subsidies, which hampered development projects drafted and was used as a model in 2003 by the government
and degraded public service. As Afghanistan was too poor of Hamid Karzai. The text set out the principles of a
and too resistant to taxation, and as income from customs constitutional monarchy, guaranteed an elected parliament,
taxes was inadequate, they turned to foreign assistance and a free press and the removal from power of all members of
external funding. This indebtedness threatened the the royal family except for the king. It had the merit of
country’s independence and placed its economy in the clearly establishing the separation of powers: executive,
hands of others. judicial and legislative.
The National Assembly elected in 1965 was composed of
three political groupings: a small communist party, a
1 9 2 9 –1 9 7 8 majority party of the centre and, lastly, a large conservative
grouping. The perpetual divisions in the centre party
Previously subject to the whims of Bacha Saqao (Habibullah blocked voting on legislation and hindered the government’s
Ghazi), Afghanistan was taken in hand by Nader Khan, a ability to act. Six prime ministers followed in quick
former commander of the army. He was a high-ranking succession without achieving much, and the parliamentary
Pashtun, of the royal clan of the Muhammadzai, a tribe of the system was gradually discredited.
Abdali. Acceding to the throne in 1929, he immediately had On 17 July 1973, a coup d’état overthrew the impotent
a new constitution drafted, which reaffirmed the predominance constitutional monarchy. The army, led by republican
of Islam and respect for traditional institutions. officers and communists, took power and proclaimed a
In 1933, King Nader fell victim to a feud. His son, republic. Daoud, the king’s cousin, was placed at the head of
Mohammed Zahir, was proclaimed king a few hours after the government.
Nader’s assassination and he reigned until the coup d’état of
1973. Reserved, shy and cultivated, he was only 20 years old
when he came to the throne, and for many years his uncles The Daoud Republic (1973–1978) – the new political deal
governed in his stead. Under the regency of Hashem Khan
(1933–46), Afghanistan remained on the sidelines of the When the prince president returned to power, the political
Second World War by observing strict neutrality. In 1946, and social situation had changed considerably. A significant
Shah Mahmud, another uncle of the king, took over the middle class educated in state schools had emerged. Soured
regency. by the discrimination it experienced (the most important
positions continued to be handed out to the Pashtun elite),
this middle class turned increasingly to fundamentalist
Prime Minister Daoud (1953–1963) – opening up to Islam, which seemed to offer a political blueprint, or to
the USSR Marxism-Leninism, whose principles had been broadly
disseminated ever since Moscow started providing
In 1953, Prince Daoud, the king’s cousin and brother-in- assistance. In the 1970s, the country’s two communist
law, became prime minister. He also reinforced the role of parties, Parcham (the banner) and the People’s Democratic
the state and administration. To implement an initial five- Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which subsequently took
year development plan, he appealed for help to the United the name of Khalq, attracted an increasing number of
States and the USSR. However, as the price of their members, in particular among army officers and teachers.
assistance, the United States asked Afghanistan to join the As for the Islamists, who were revolted by Daoud’s
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), which modernist and secular tendencies, they organized an
would have implied recognition of the Pashtun territory uprising in the Panjshir in 1975. The insurrection was
situated in Pakistan. Daoud, who had laid claim to the harshly suppressed.

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Economic development under the Daoud presidency businesses, managed by the peasants themselves and suited
to the situation on the ground, started in the 1970s.
Despite this political handicap, the prince president Inexpensive projects designed to improve agriculture
embarked upon an ambitious seven-year plan (1976–83). It and the rural infrastructure (roads, dams, canals and
was not the first time such a programme had been launched bridges) were then launched in Kunar, Badakhshan,
in Afghanistan – there had previously been three five-year Hazarajat and the Balkh region. For their part, the Afghans
plans since 1956, which had met with varying degrees of set up a Department of Rural Development (DRD) whose
success. The first two (1956–61 and 1962–67) were intended role was to promote the village economy – whether
to provide the country with the infrastructure it needed agricultural or craft-oriented – by coordinating the work of
for its development. To carry them out successfully, ministries. The cooperative movement was launched with
Afghanistan received us$65 million in external aid, encouragement by the state.
including 50 per cent from the USSR and 30 per cent Livestock farming, like agriculture, was a major
from the United States. The third plan (1967–72) economic asset. One of the country’s riches was its
emphasized agriculture and industry and endeavoured to approximately 24 million sheep, especially the superb
complete projects already under way. The more rigorous Karakul breed. Craftwork was another important source
seven-year plan brought together data provided by the of wealth. Domestic crafts enabled women to make a
ministries and produced a more coherent policy. To significant contribution towards raising family income
counter the USSR’s influence, Daoud asked Iran for aid of (sometimes as much as 70 per cent). In 1977, carpet exports
us$2.4 billion. The Shah agreed to give roughly half that were worth $24 million to Afghanistan, that is, 8 per cent
sum. Based on Soviet models, the plan made heavy industry of annual exports.
and the exploitation of iron and copper mines a priority.
This was a debatable choice for a country which remained
essentially agricultural. Means of communication
Nevertheless, Daoud obtained some outstanding results.
During the five years of his government (1973–78), the In the Daoud era the network was improved. Asphalt
foreign trade balance, previously in deficit, went into the roads, which by then totalled 3,000 kilometres, formed a
black. Major agricultural projects were launched and small- ring around the country, passing around the central
scale industry f lourished, including the mechanical mountain plateau and the high mountains of the east. In
workshops where the ingenuity of the Afghans flourished. 1964 the piercing of the Salang tunnel, 2.7 kilometres long,
If an economic and cultural assessment is to be made of carved out at an altitude of 3,363 metres by Afghan-Soviet
Afghanistan in peacetime, the period selected for such an teams, linked Kabul to the Soviet Union.
assessment should be the Daoud presidency.

The industrial sector

Agriculture, livestock farming and rural development
Industrial activity developed in the 1930s with the creation
Afghans have always been proud of their food self- of the Afghan bank Bank-i Melli, which funded projects
sufficiency, as only 12 per cent of the land can be cultivated. up until the Second World War. One of the earliest
It is divided into irrigated land (âbi) and dry-farming land success stories was the textile company Spinzar, which
(lalmi or dayma), the latter being in valleys or foothills. exploited the cotton crop of the Kunduz region. Founded
Cereal production was the most important, varying in 1935 by a partnership of the banker Abdul Majid
between three and four million tonnes under the Daoud Zabuli and the businessman Abdul Aziz ‘Londoni’, it
administration. Wheat accounted for two thirds, barley extended its operations to six other towns in the north in
and maize for the rest. Fruit came second among the food the 1970s. At the time the company produced oil, soap
crops and played a major role in the economy of Afghans, and ceramics and built housing and schools for its
who exported them or ate them fresh and dried. Industrial employees. When Daoud seized power, he nationalized
crops developed in the same years. Between 1972 and 1977, the banks and to a large extent controlled industrial
production of sugar (from sugar-beet and cane sugar) rose activity, including Spinzar. Thus, the public sector
by 31 per cent, of vegetable oil by 153 per cent and ginned produced cement, sugar, ginned cotton, chemical
cotton by 215 per cent. In Kunduz, the dynamic business fertilizers and most textiles.
Spinzar harvested 164,000 tonnes of seed cotton in 1975. However, Daoud’s main aim was to provide the country
French technical assistance and hydraulic works on the with heavy industry by using its iron, copper and natural
Kunduz River enabled this cotton crop to be extended, gas reserves. South of the Ko-i Baba chain, the iron mines
under the control of the Uzbek Lakais. of Hajikak had excellent quality ore. Unfortunately, they
To improve yields, large water-storage dams were built were at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres and extraction
with mixed results, due to the absence of an adequate required costly infrastructure. The exploitation of copper
drainage system and a lack of consultation with local at Ainak was much easier. The Sheberghân region in the
farmers. The Helmand and Arghandab river valleys were north-west supplied natural gas, which was exported by
fertilized by dams built in 1952 and 1953. Alongside these pipeline to the USSR starting in the Daoud era. In 1975,
major projects, a development policy more in tune with the chemical fertilizer and thermal energy factory of
physical and human factors was introduced. The Mazar‑e Sharif started transforming this form of energy.
participation of the local authorities ensured the success of There are coal reserves estimated at between 400 and 500
these projects, which were focused on varied food crops million tonnes – it is particularly abundant in Darra-i
and creating experimental farms. A return to small Suf – but they have yet to be fully exploited.

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The archaeological heritage of children between the ages of 6 and 14 attended school,
taking into account the fact that the proportion was higher
Development of the archaeological heritage began in 1922 in urban than in rural areas. Although urban families sent
under King Amanullah, after the signing of a convention their children to school, villages resisted state schools
with France, and continued until 1978. It was soon rewarded strongly, in particular for girls. This hostility grew after the
with success, notably concerning the Buddhist monasteries establishment of the communist regime.
and stucco statues at the Hadda site, the discovery of the
Bagram treasure hoard at Kapisa, the inventory of the
Buddhist monastery of Fondukistan, and the excavation of F r o m t h e Co m m u n i s t R e g i m e
a fire temple dedicated by King Kanishka on the hillside of t o  t h e e n d of Tal i b a n r u l e
Surkh Kotal. These discoveries have shed light on the ( 1 9 7 8 –2 0 0 1 )
sophisticated Kushan civilization (first to fifth century ad),
the expansion of Buddhism in Afghanistan and the art of On 27 April 1978, a coup d’état fomented by the communists
Gandhāra. A still more ancient past was revealed in 1964 overthrew the presidential regime. Daoud and his family
with the remains of Ai Khanoum, a Graeco-Bactrian city were assassinated. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan,
founded on the banks of the Amu Darya after the conquests proclaimed by the insurgents, was recognized immediately
of Alexander. Islamic monuments of the Ghaznavid, Ghurid by the USSR. Power was handed to the leaders of the
(Minaret of Jam) and Timurid eras were also studied and communist parties: the leader of Khalq, Noor Muhammad
restored. A national museum established near the Taraki, became president; the leader of Parcham, Babrak
Dārulaman Palace under Nader Khan housed a significant Karmal, became vice-president; and Hafizullah Amin
portion of excavated artifacts. The clause giving France the (Khalq), second vice-president.
exclusive right to research was annulled in 1952 by King From the outset, the number of arrests, instances of
Zahir, and Afghan archaeology was then opened up to torture and executions rapidly increased. There was
foreign scientific missions under the auspices of the United considerable in-fighting between supporters of Khalq and
Nations and its agencies. The Americans were interested in those of Parcham within the leadership. Babrak Karmal
prehistory, and the Indians, Japanese and Italians restored was sidelined and Taraki assassinated. Amin took control
rock chapels and the great Buddhas of Bamiyan. In 1974, of the state and stepped up the repression. Confusion
the city of Herat with its many fifteenth-century Timurid reigned within the government as uprisings broke out in
monuments was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage garrisons and in the countryside, where agrarian reforms
List. By the 1970s, Afghan archaeologists had taken over. In were received with hostility. On 25 December 1979, the
1978, an Afghan-Soviet mission excavated a necropolis at Soviet army entered Afghanistan, ostensibly to restore
Tillya Tepe, west of Balkh, dating from the first century bc, order. Amin was killed and Babrak Karmal returned to
with tombs containing thousands of pieces of jewellery in power. The Soviet occupation of the territory had begun,
precious metals. and with it emerged the Afghan resistance movement,
which was to last nine years.
Faced with failure after a decade of bloodshed, the Soviet
Development of education Union finally withdrew its troops in February 1989, leaving
in place in Kabul a skilful administrator, Najibullah, who
The first secondary education establishments were created tried in vain to negotiate with the leaders of the resistance.
in the 1920s in Kabul, during the reigns of Habibullah and The military victory of the Afghans was not followed by a
Amanullah, and included the Franco-Afghan lycée Estqlâl, political settlement. The mujahedin, more rivalrous than
the Nedjat secondary school (German development aid) ever, fought each other for four years. Kabul, which had
and the Ghâzi secondary school (British development aid). been more or less spared during the Soviet-Afghan conflict,
Subsequently, university departments were founded: the was then reduced to rubble, including its palace and museum
faculty of medicine in 1931, faculty of law in 1938, faculty (1992–94).
of science in 1942, arts faculty in 1944, faculty of economics The population was war-weary. Pashtun fundamentalist
in 1957, engineering school in 1963 and the Polytechnic groups then appeared on the scene and took advantage of
School in 1963 (with Soviet development aid). Most of the situation. They were the Taliban, ‘seminarists’ trained in
these establishments benefited from foreign assistance: extremely strict Deobandi Qur’anic schools in Pakistan.
France for law, medicine and pharmacy; the United States The Taliban made the roads safe and enabled the resumption
for agriculture and education, and the Soviet Union for of trade. In September 1996, they took Kabul and killed
the polytechnic training. Afghan students went on study Najibullah. Darkness fell on Afghanistan. Women were no
trips abroad. In 1972, 7,400 students were registered at longer allowed to work, girls’ schools were closed down,
Kabul University and the Nangarhar College of Medicine shari‘a was applied with an absurd rigour, the country’s
near Jalalabad. Shiites were massacred and the great Buddhas of Bamiyan
In 40 years, from the monarchy of Nader Khan (1931) to destroyed. Under the Taliban and their leader Mullah
the Daoud republic (1973), the number of primary schools Omar, the country became a training ground for international
rose from 22 to 3,800; the number of pupils from 135 to Islamist organizations, most of which were already in place
760,400, and the number of primary-school teachers from during the Soviet-Afghan war. Among them, Osama bin
105 to 21,920. A 1974 UNESCO report underscored this Laden’s movement stood out by virtue of its financial
constant development that would continue through the resources, armament, auxiliaries from all over the world and
decade. Despite this remarkable rate of expansion, outcomes its apocalyptic messianism.
remained modest. USAID statistics showed that 87 per On 9 September 2001, the resistance hero Commander
cent of the population remained illiterate. Only 24 per cent Massoud, who opposed the regime with his Tajik fighters,

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was assassinated in his Panjshir headquarters. As a result of taking regional and ethnic considerations into account. A
the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington, constitution was drawn up resembling that of 1964.
two days later, which were attributed to Osama bin Laden’s Nevertheless, the world is eager to see whether the new
network, the Americans decided to intervene. They drove Afghan state will be able to achieve recognition of its
out the Taliban with the assistance of troops of the late legitimacy and implement its decisions after 22 years of
Commander Massoud’s Northern Alliance. In December conflict. Afghanistan is not only a country in economic and
2001, a provisional government was formed under Hamid cultural ruins that needs to be put back on its feet, but one
Karzai, a liberal Pashtun. King Zahir returned to his that has been reshaped by civil war, where differences between
country to support the new regime. regions, ethnic groups and religions have been aggravated,
The transitional government, composed of 29 ministers, and autonomous economies based on the opium trade,
endeavoured to implement a programme of reconstruction smuggling and the sale of arms have continued to flourish.

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 34.4
Syria, Iraq and Lebanon

Mahmoud O. Haddad

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the three saw the need to borrow certain elements from European
geographical areas covered in this sub-chapter were culture, it nevertheless did not accept it uncritically and
provinces under Ottoman rule, and the main problem then perceived a long-standing, though sometimes partial,
was the polarization between two opposing policies (each friction between Arab identity and European colonialism,
with far-reaching cultural political implications): the first which was expressed in most available genres of literature.
emanated from the centre of the empire in Istanbul, calling This friction came to the fore most noticeably after 1924,
for centralization; the second originated in the different when Turkey abolished the Islamic caliphate and declared
local Arab regional centres, especially Beirut, Damascus, itself a fully secular state following in the footsteps of the
and Basra, calling for decentralization and for accepting West. The rationale for this and similar steps was that the
Arab cultural nationalism as a component of Ottoman Western culture was considered the only viable culture in
political patriotism. However, during the war, the Ottoman- the modern world, and it should be accepted and emulated
Turkish authorities accused several dozen Arab intellectuals without reservations, i.e. with its roses and thorns. This
and activists in Syria and Lebanon of conspiracy to gain kind of thinking was not acceptable in the Arab region we
independence by siding with the Allied Powers, and they are focusing on since the element of tradition (turath) and
were sent to the gallows. This incident was greatly lamented traditional identity still held sway. There were different
by Arab poets through poetry that sang the praises of the Arab responses to this pro-Western stance. Such
martyrs. In fact, rhythmic poetry remained the main form secularization was tantamount, according to the Islamic
of expression of political, social and cultural currents. reformists or modernists, to total rejection of the Islamic
Rhythmic poetry and the journalistic essay dominated the religion and identity. They perceived the Turkish approach
cultural field between the wars. The main topics of discussion as a complete departure from Islam and Islamic identity,
were national, romantic and social. The short story, the not only in the sphere of the state, but also in society at
novel and autobiographies were gaining popularity at the large. This position, which supported Arab and Islamic
same time.1 values while remaining open to modernization, was best
voiced by Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, a Syrian émigré living
in Egypt who wrote:
P O ST - F IRST W O R L D W A R
Renewal and reform are not mere desires; they are
Although the end of the First World War witnessed the necessities of the first order to preserve the last breath of
dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, the result was not the national life and to protect the last vestige of national
formation of one centralized or even decentralized Arab greatness. Otherwise, we would be as good as finished …
state as Arab nationalists had hoped, but the creation of a Renewal is necessary and inevitable if we were to carry
British mandatory system in Iraq and two different French out what we have been enjoined to do when facing
mandatory systems in Lebanon and Syria. As a result, the enemies, namely ‘to prepare all the power we are able to
Ottoman administrative boundaries were modified, muster’. And reform is inescapable if we intend to shed
especially by the French in Syria and Lebanon. Evidently, the cloak of obsequiousness ... I do not hesitate to state
the problem of political and cultural identity came to the firmly and clearly that ignorance is better than a renewal
forefront once again. Various intellectuals recognized the with which foreigners intend to ‘colonize’ our hearts to
pre-eminence of distinct identities. Those who accepted the spare them the toil of colonizing our lands. That is because
new British and French divisions defined the new nation- when we become theirs, the slave and his belongings belong
state identities in a way compatible with European colonial to his master. Would the youth of the glorious Arab East
cultural and political values. The predominant position, accept this sort of renewal? 2
however, gave primacy to Arabic culture and emphasized a
form of Arab nationalism that could lead to the political In engaging in such controversies sparked by the Turkish
unification of at least Syria and Iraq. While Arab nationalism national initiative, we must bear in mind that the cultural

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sub-regions we are discussing were interconnected and such as the novel (al-riwaya), the journalistic essay (maqala),
not independent of each other, especially concerning the short story (al-qissa), and theatrical plays (al-masrah).5
matters related to Islam and Islamic culture. But while But it was after the third decade of the twentieth century
the mainstream intellectuals in Syria and Iraq and part of that these other genres dominated cultural life in Syria,
Lebanon insisted on anti-Western Arab nationalism Lebanon, and Iraq.
expressed either in secular terms and referring to language Inevitably, this interaction between the Western and
and common history or in both religious and secular local cultures did not express itself uniformly in all three
terms blending Arab nationalism with Islam, there was a Arab countries under study here. Thus, it is important to
third trend in Mount Lebanon (which was expanded by point out that the virtually land-locked Iraq, turned toward
the French to create the State of Lebanon within its Iran and the Persian Gulf, lagged behind Syria and
present boundaries in 1920) involving a distinct Lebanese Lebanon, which were more exposed to Mediterranean
nationalism, friendly to the West and especially to France, influences and were, in a sense, more culturally ‘advanced’
refusing Arab political nationalism yet finding merit in than their Eastern neighbour.6 Moreover, because of the
certain aspects of Arabic culture, especially the Arabic immigration of many Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals to
language. Egypt in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
Since Britain was less intrusive in the cultural affairs of there existed what we may term a common cultural axis
Iraq, its capital, Baghdad, became the centre for disseminating that ran from Egypt to Lebanon, Syria, and, to a lesser
official Arab nationalist culture, especially under extent, Iraq. It is, in fact, possible to suggest that these
King Faysal I (1885–1933). This was most evident in the countries belong to one cultural sub-region until the present
teaching system supervised by the prominent Arab day. This is significant because it suggests that different
nationalist Sati’ al-Husri (1876–1968) and backed by the Arab local cultures did not only interact with the West, but
ruling elite that was partly composed of both Iraqi and with each other as well, forming a number of regional Arab
Syrian army officers who participated in the Arab Revolt sub-cultures with shared features.7
against the Ottoman Turks during the First World War.
But Beirut and Damascus remained ahead of Baghdad in
most cultural fields. Science and technology
The inter-war period witnessed an ‘intellectual and
cultural awakening’3 in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, which The scientific development in the specific areas under
maintained its prominent role in the exchange of ideas and investigation (Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq) and in the whole
as the main publishing centre for different political and Arab world in general during the twentieth century was
non-political topics. Music, art and theatre attracted an unfortunately meager. Scientific and technological research
audience and ‘allowed individuals and groups to transcend and application were not properly funded and although
their parochial identities and melt into a common some of the nationals of these countries did make some
cosmopolitan sub-culture’. 4 Damascus and Baghdad important contributions in some scientific fields, they were
followed suit. usually accomplished by émigrés working in Europe or in
The Arab defeat in the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, just the United States. One opinion voiced in the middle of the
a few years after these countries gained independence, was a century stressed that even if the term ‘science’ was enlarged
blow to the traditional ruling elite, who were perceived as to include the social sciences, the region was surely in a
the stooges of the hated West. Oswald Spengler’s book The sorry state.8
Decline of the West was translated into Arabic and gained
currency among the reading public.
Education

CU L TUR A L D EVE L O PMENT One important indicator worth mentioning here is the level
of education and research. According to last available
The twentieth century may be divided into several phases in statistics of 1995,9 the gross percentage of enrolment rate of
terms of the cultural development of Lebanon, Syria, and students of primary education age who attended primary
Iraq. The first third of the century can be regarded, to a large schools was 109 per cent in Lebanon and 101 per cent in
extent, as a continuation of the process of what is generally Syria. Unfortunately, statistics for Iraq are unavailable.
termed as the Arab literary revival (al-nahda), which started These percentages become more meaningful if we compare
in the previous century and assumed the double role of them with the statistics for the Arab region as a whole
reviving medieval or classical Arabic works of science and (83.8 per cent) and for Europe (106.7 per cent) and the
culture while translating Western works into Arabic and world (99.6 per cent). Secondary education enrolment
adapting new forms of Arabic culture, through translation, reached 24 per cent in Lebanon and 17.9 per cent in Syria,
to Western norms. in comparison with 12.5 per cent for the whole Arab region,
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, traditional 47.8 per cent in Europe and 16.2 per cent for the entire
Arab cultural content included literary genres such as world. Tertiary education levels were 27 per cent in Lebanon
poetry, the revived classical maqama (rhythmic prose), al- and 17.9 per cent in Syria, in comparison with 12.5 per cent
tarajim and al-siyar (biographies). From the mid-nineteenth for the whole Arab region, 47.8 per cent in Europe, and
century and under the influence of Europe, a new Arab 16.2 per cent worldwide. The breakdown of tertiary
cultural life began to flourish. Although some older genres education by subject matter is as follows: in Lebanon, 26 per
survived, others started to weaken or fade away. Some were cent humanities, 52 per cent law and social sciences, 17 per
revived for a short period of time like the maqama. cent natural sciences (including engineering and agriculture),
Concurrently, other Western genres started to gain ground and 3 per cent in medical sciences; and in Syria, 21 per cent,

677
 regional section

35 per cent, 29 per cent, 11 per cent, respectively. The science still very active, but it lost its earlier vigour. Today, it is
and technology output is measured by the number of papers impossible to identify any single cultural tendency that
published in international journals from 1990 to 1995: 471 carries a well-defined message. The countries under
for Syrians, 500 for Lebanese, and 931 for Iraqis. discussion, like many other Arab countries, are passing
Despite the great variety among the countries, uniform through a cultural dilemma the results of which are difficult
developmental trends can be identified: i.e. increases in to predict.
population, urbanization, and rationalization. Moreover, In conclusion, it is evident that the last quarter of the
the salaried middle-class element plays an important role in twentieth century was not especially favourable for this
all three countries. But while this development led to a region. Lebanon endured a civil war (that had regional
radical social change in Syria and subsequently in Iraq, dimensions) from 1975 to 1990. Iraq was entangled in a
around the middle of the century when the middle classes of bloody war with Iran (the so-called First Gulf War) that
those countries took control of the state and declared its lasted throughout the 1980s. Iraq’s economic and political
intention of ending superficial decolonization, the change differences with the US and neighbouring Kuwait led to its
was more gradual in Lebanon, which did not wish to tamper invasion of the latter in 1990. This led in turn, in 1991, to
with the free economic market system. the Second Gulf War, led by an international coalition
Naturally, these developments were reflected in the headed by the United States and the United Kingdom
cultural sphere. In Syria and Iraq, theatre flourished under which drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait and imposed a strict
the auspices of the state, while in Lebanon theatrical regime of sanctions that was still in effect in 2003 when the
activities were promoted through private initiative. But in US and a few allies launched a full-scale attack on Iraq with
all three countries the theatre was influenced by a variety of a view to eliminating Saddam Hussein, based on the pretext
Western theatrical schools. Similarly, Western trends that he was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. At
influenced the field of painting in these countries. the present time, the situation in a wartorn and occupied
During the same period, new types of literary forms Iraq is far from resolved. Clearly, the political and military
emerged, such as the existentialist and the feminist novel, situation in both Lebanon and Iraq had a negative impact
both of which brought to the forefront the two topics of the on their cultural and scientific scenes.
destiny of the emancipation of the individual and of women. It is noteworthy, however, that some signs of revival
In Lebanon, writer Suhayl Idriss promoted the existentialist started to emerge at the end of the century in the fields of
movement, and his female compatriot Leila Baalbaki is art. In Lebanon and Syria the novel was established as the
considered the country’s foremost feminist novelist. most important genre of cultural expression. The new
The revolutionary period was the focus of narrative texts Lebanese novel, represented by many intellectuals, dealt
as well a new type of Arabic poetry whose value remains a with the experience of the civil war, while the Syrian novel,
subject of debate in literary circles. Iraq found its vanguard whose most prominent spokesperson is Hanna Mina,
role in presenting a new form of modern poetry that was continued to focus on social affairs.
started by the school of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (1926–1964).
What was most impressive about al-Sayyab’s poetry is that
it blended modernity with rhythm. In the early 1960s, the
periodical magazine Shi’r (Poetry) attempted to promote notes
another school of unrythmic poetry that enjoyed ephemeral
success in Lebanon. 1. A. K. Makdisi, Al-Itijahat al-Adabiyya Fi al-’Alam al-
’Arabi al-Hadith [The Literary Trends in the Modern Arab
World], (2nd ed.), Beirut, 1960, pp. 450–60.
P O ST - 1 9 6 7 2. M. al-Din Al-Khatib, ‘Hamlat al-Tajdid wa’l Islah
Wa Hal Laha Qadah Hukama’ Wa Hal Rasamu Laha al-
The overall cultural picture in these countries changed to a Khitat al-Hakima? [The campaign for Renewal and Reform:
great extent after a second Arab defeat in the 1967 war with Does it have wise leaders and have they drawn wise plans for
Israel. The new ruling class as well as the West were blamed it?], Al-Hadiqa, Vol. 5, Cairo, 1930–1931, pp. 190–206.
for this turn of events. Directly after the war, the perennial 3. S. Khalaf, ‘Lebanon’s Golden/Gilded Age 1943–
issues resurfaced: independence and the preservation of 1975,’ in C. Chartouni (ed.), Histoire Sociétés et Pouvoir Aux
local identity in face of Western culture and power. Proche et Moyen Orient, Tome 1, Paris, 2001, p. 88.
Expressed more eloquently, ‘now in order for the Arabs ... to 4. Ibid, p. 93.
remain themselves while joining the industrial world that 5. M. K. Al-Khatib, Takwin al-Riwaya al-’Arabiyya [The
surrounds and beleaguers them from within, they would Formation of the Arab Novel], Damascus, 1990, p. 5.
have to impress the rhythm of their material advancement 6. R. Allen, The Arabic Novel: An Historical and Critical
upon all their other modes’.10 From this concern, a more Introduction, (2nd ed.), Syracuse, 1995, pp. 16–17.
leftist and radical trend emerged, but it was not long before 7. J. Berque, Cultural Expression in Arab Society Today,
it produced its more powerful antithesis: a right-wing trend translated by R. Stookey, Austin, 1978, p. 3.
that found no outlet in the different modern cultural venues 8. C. Malek, ‘Al-Bahth al-‘Ilmi Fi al-‘Asr al-Hadir’
like the theatre, the novel, and poetry, but rather revived the [Scientific Research in the Present Age] in C. Malek et al.,
conservative part of classical religious literature popularized Al‑Bahth al-’Ilmi Fi al-’Alm al-’Arabi [Scientific Research in
in numerous newspapers and magazines of the early 1970s. the Arab World], Beirut, 1956, pp. 6–7.
Unlike the modernist Islamic trend at the beginning of the 9. Arab Human Development Report 2002, pp. 152–56.
century, it revealed a more self-centred anti-modernist This report was published by the United States Development
orientation whose main concern was preserving Islamic Programme in 2002.
identity in a variety of fundamentalist forms. This trend is 10. J. Berque, op. cit., p. 29.

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B i b l i og r a p h y Buheiry, M. R. (ed.). 1981. Intellectual Life in the Arab East, 1890–1939.
American University of Beirut, Beirut.
Allen, R. 1995. The Arabic Novel: A Historical and Critical Introduction. Hafez, S. and Cobbham, C. (ed.). 1988. A Reader of Modern Arabic
(2nd ed.). Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY. Short Stories. Saqi Books, London.
Al-Khatib, M. K. 1990. Takwin al-Riwaya al-’Arabiyya [The Hourani, A. 1962. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939.
Formation of the Arab Novel]. Wizarat al-Thaqafa, Damascus. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Al-Khatib, M. al-Din. 1930–1931. Hamlat al-Tajdid wa’l Islah Wa Khalaf, S. 2001. Lebanon’s Golden/Gilded Age 1943–1975. In:
Hal Laha Qadah Hukama’ Wa Hal Rasamu Laha al-Khitat al- CHARTOUNI, C. (ed.). Histoire sociétés et pouvoir: Aux proche et
Hakima? [The Campaign for Renewal and Reform: Does It Have moyen orient. Tome 1. Geuthner, Paris, pp. 67–110.
Wise Leaders and Have They Drawn Wise Plans for It?]. In: Makdisi, A. K. 1960. Al-Itijahat al-Adabiyya Fi al-’Alam al-’Arabi
Al‑Hadiqa, Vol. 5, Al-Matba’a al-Salafiyya, Cairo, pp. 190–206. al‑Hadith [Literary Movements in the Modern Arab World].
Al-Sa’affin, I. 1980. Tatawwur al-Riwayah al-’Arabiyya al-Haditha Fi (2nd ed.). Beirut.
Bilad al-Sham 1870–1967 [The Evolution of the Modern Arab Malek, C. Al-Bahth al-‘Ilmi Fi al-‘Asr al-Hadir [Scientific Research
Novel in Greater Syria 1870–1967]. Manshurat Wizarat in the Present Age]. In: C. Malek et al. Al-Bhath al-’Ilmi Fi al-’Alm
al‑Thaqafa Wa’l ‘I’lam, Baghdad. al-’Arabi [Scientific Research in the Arab World]. Hay’at al-
Badawi, M. M. 1985. Modern Arabic Literature and the West. Ithaca Dirasat al-‘Arabiyya Fi al-Jami’a al-‘Amerikiyya, Beirut.
Press, New York. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME. 2002. Arab Human
Berque, J. 1978. Cultural Expression in Arab Society Today. [Trans. Development Report 2002. Statistical Annex. UNDP, New York,
R. Stookey], University of Texas Press, Austin, TX. pp. 138–68.

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 34.5
Palestine and Jordan

Ali Mahafzah

Before the nineteenth century, Palestine and Jordan did not After the first Arab-Israeli War (1948–49), the West
pursue modern scientific disciplines, such as natural and Bank was integrated into Jordan while the Gaza Strip
applied sciences. In both areas, education was confined to remained under Egyptian military administration. Under
the kuttabs (primary schools), which were housed in the Jordanian-Palestinian period (1950–67), there was a
mosques, churches, Muslim, Christian or Jewish schools. rapid growth in the number of schools. In 1950/51, there
Beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century, were 402 schools, 319 for boys and 83 for girls, with a total
modern education was introduced through foreign student enrolment of 65,793 students. In 1966–1967, the
missionaries and subsequently by the Ottoman Empire. number of schools rose to 1,532, some 900 of which for boys
Since the creation of the British Mandate in Palestine, two and 632 for girls, with a total student enrolment of
systems of national education based on language and race 302,668.
developed independently of missionary schools. Since As a result of the Arab-Israeli War, about 500,000
educational opportunities were mainly concentrated in the Palestinians were forced out of the cities and villages by the
cities, rural areas were largely deprived of modern schools. Israeli occupation forces and became refugees in the West
Compulsory education was non-existent, which led to Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The United
growing illiteracy among the Arab population. Arab Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
education, it should be noted, did not aim to serve economic the Near East (UNRWA) was created on 8 November 1949
and social development, and there was a very limited interest to take care of these displaced populations. The students
in developing vocational education. The authorities in power receiving their education at UNRWA-sponsored schools
used general education as a means of producing compliant totalled 42,122 in 1950/51. This number steadily grew to
government employees for the mandate authorities. The most 181,347 in the 1965/66 academic year. In the same year in
significant Arab higher educational institutions during the Jordan, the number of students enrolled in UNRWA schools
mandate were the Government Arab College (Teachers totalled 106,268 or two thirds of all refugee students.
Training College), the Women Teachers Training College, UNRWA also established a male teacher training institute at
and Rashidiyyah Secondary School (later College) in Shu’fat, a suburb of Jerusalem, in 1956 and another for female
Jerusalem, the Women Teachers Rural Training College in teachers in Nablus. Three vocational training institutes were
Ramallah, the Trade School in Haifa, and Kadouri also established in the West Bank and two in the Gaza Strip.
Agricultural School in Tulkarem. The Jewish educational In 1967, UNRWA schools in Jordan rose to 734, while
system was supervised by the Jewish Agency, which schools in the in the Gaza Strip numbered 577.
established its own curricula and programmes that Vocational education with its various industrial schools
endeavoured to fulfil the aspirations of the Zionist movement witnessed considerable development on both banks of the
and were free from any supervision or control by the mandate River Jordan. The total student enrolment in these schools
government. Thus it must be concluded that the education rose from 148 in 1960/61 to 775 in 1966/67. The number of
available to Arabs failed to prepare them for practical life. students enrolled in vocational training centres increased
In Jordan, which came under the rule of the Arab from 37 in 1960/61 to 262 in 1966/67. Agricultural education
government in Damascus from 1918 to 1921, the number of in Jordan started later than in Palestine. Commercial
government schools was increased to 20 primary and education on both banks of the River Jordan was first
elementary schools. This number continued to rise under implemented in 1952 in Amman and Nablus. Commercial
the Arab regime in power before the British Mandate courses were created in the other cities of the kingdom during
(1921–46). In the 1922/23 academic year, there were the 1950s. The student population rose from 26 in 1952/53
44 government schools; by the end of the British mandate to 1019 in 1966/67. The first university in the kingdom of
(1946/47) a total of 77 schools were operating. The number Jordan was established in 1962.
of students during the same period rose only slightly: from In 1967, the whole of Palestine fell under Israeli
3,316 to 10,729. Private schools increased from 33 in occupation, and Israel opened its borders to unskilled highly
1925/26 to 100 in 1938/39. The Arts and Crafts and School paid labour. Palestinian youths rushed in the thousands to
was Jordan’s only vocational school. this prosperous labour market, owing to their poor economic

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 W EST ASIA AN D T H E ARA B W ORL D

conditions under Israeli occupation. As a result, learning created between 1914 and 1984. During the same period,
and education lost status in the eyes of the young Palestinian 163 cultural and sports clubs opened in Palestine.
university graduates, who faced serious unemployment Palestine has nine research centres: the Research and
problems. Thus students began to drop out of school and Documentation Centre at al-Najah National University
university and join the Israeli labour market. At the same (1972); the Documents and Research Centre at Bir Zeit
time, the Israeli occupation forces imposed laws and University (1976); The Arab Intellectual Colloquium
regulations including charging high school fees and banning Society in Jerusalem (1977); the Rural Studies Centre in
many Arabic school textbooks. Israel frequently closed al-Najah National University (1981); the University
schools and universities and arrested many teachers and Graduates League Research Centre in al-Khalil (Hebron)
students. (1982); the Islamic Research Centre in Jerusalem (1985);
Despite Israeli restrictions, government schools in the the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Research
West Bank and the Gaza Strip totalled 1,084 in 1994–95, Centre; the Palestinian Studies Foundation (1963) and the
including 15 vocational secondary schools. UNRWA Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem (1980).
supervises six vocational training centres. There are also 18 Numerous poets and writers were active in Palestine
community colleges (or intermediate university colleges) in during the twentieth century. Among the most prominent
both territories, which trained 4,110 students in technological are Ibrahim Touqan, Abdul-Karim al-Karmi, Youssuf al-
courses in these colleges. There are eight universities and Khatib, Ishaq Musa al-Husseini and Akram Zu’aytir.
four university colleges with a total student population of Among the leading Palestinian historians are Bandali Jozy,
15,632 at the Bachelor degree level, and 945 students Abdul-Latif Tibawi, Nabih Amin Faris, Nicola Ziyadeh,
pursued graduate studies in the 1998/99 academic year. Irfan Shahid, Hisham Sharabi, Anis Sayegh, Mahmoud
In Jordan, after the occupation of the West Bank, the Zayid and Kamil al-Asali. Public and private libraries
number of students in 1967/68 totalled 192,931 and rose existed in Palestine on a large scale throughout the twentieth
to 982,429 in the year 1999/2000 including 32,764 students century. Palestine possessed forty-eight libraries during the
in vocational training. In 1999/2000, Jordan could boast British Mandate. During the Jordanian-Palestinian period,
eight state universities and eleven private ones. The total five public libraries were opened by the municipalities of
student enrolment was 105,813 undergraduate students major cities in the West Bank. Under Israeli occupation,
and 6,670 graduate students. Community colleges totalled however, importation and circulation of 5,410 books was
51, including 28 government and 21 private colleges in banned between 1967 and 1985. This led to a decrease in the
addition to two UNRWA colleges and three nursing number of publishing houses in the West Bank from
colleges. twenty-three to four.
With regard to culture, printing presses and newspapers Applied arts also appeared in urban as well as rural areas
appeared in Palestine during the nineteenth century (e.g. in Palestine during the twentieth century. Urban artists
the Franciscan Press, the Roman Orthodox Monastery practised engraving, decoration and calligraphy, while in
Press, the Armenian Press and the English Missionary rural areas tattooing, embroidery and weaving were widely
Society Press). These printing presses multiplied during the practised. In addition, many Palestinian craftsmen
British Mandate. The Jewish community had its own reproduced icons for sale to local monasteries and foreign
Hebrew presses, while the Arabs and the British visitors. A number of outstanding Palestinian painters
administration operated presses in their respective languages. gained prominence in the course of the century: Ismail
During the Jordanian-Palestinian period, the number of Shammut, Sophie Halabi, Naheel Bisharah, Paul Gerogsian,
Arabic presses rose, while a number of Arabic presses Abdullah Ni’wash, Fathi Ghaban, Jumanah al-Husseini
continued to operate under Israeli occupation. Arabic and Naji al-Ali. Sculpture in Palestine was influenced by
presses numbered 98 between 1914 and 1984. principal Arab and foreign artistic movements. Eminent
Al Quds al-Sharif, the first newspaper published in sculptors include Abdul-Hayy Musallam, Mustafa al-
Palestine, dates back to 1876. It was the organ of the Hallaj, Muhammed Bushnaq and Nazik Ali Ammar.
Ottoman ruler of Jerusalem, or mutasarifiyah. In the same As for popular folkloric arts and traditions, the
year the newspaper Al-Ghazal was founded. Between 1908 Palestinians have developed beliefs, customs and traditions
and 1918, some thirty newspapers came into existence. In related to betrothal, marriage, birth and child raising. The
Jordan, the newspaper entitled Al-Sharq al-Arabi appeared Palestinian cultural heritage also comprises numerous
in 1923 as a governmental organ whose name was later folkloric dances, rhythmic clapping, Sufi (dervish) dances,
changed to the Official Gazette of the Emirate of Transjordan. solo and collective popular songs performed by women.
But the first daily newspaper in Jordan was published in Since the 1930s, Palestinian musical bands have appeared
1927 under the name of Al-Urdun. Subsequently, other featuring string musical instruments (rebec, lute), wind
newspapers came in succession, bringing the number to ten instruments (clarinet, double-barrelled flute and other
in the year 2000, when the West Bank and Gaza Strip types of flutes) and percussion instruments (castanets,
claimed the same number of Arabic newspapers. drums, tambourines, kettle drums, and tabors).
Professional associations and cultural unions spread Jewish colonizers produced the first propaganda films in
throughout Palestine and Jordan. The Palestine Students’ Palestine in 1912, and such films continued throughout the
Union was founded in Egypt in 1959. It was followed by the 1930s and 1940s. During the British Mandate, new motion
Palestine Workers General Union, established in Gaza in picture houses opened for the screening of Egyptian
1963. The Palestinian Women General Union, was commercial films. During the Jordanian-Palestinian period,
inaugurated in 1971, the Palestinian Teachers General film production ceased. Documentary films about Palestine
Association in Damascus in 1972 and the Palestinian and the Palestinian question outside Palestine appeared in
Engineers General Federation in Baghdad in 1973. Some 1968: fifty-three such films were produced between 1970
twenty-eight Palestinian literary and cultural leagues were and 1984.

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 regional section

Since the creation of Transjordan in 1921, Jordanian League, the Royal Academy for Islamic Civilization
writers explored various literary genres, including the short Research (Al-Bait Foundation) (1981), the Arabic Language
story, the novel, poetry, journalistic articles, literary criticism, Academy (1977) and the Arab Thought Forum (1981), as
children’s literature, while studies and research developed. well as dozens of cultural forums and research centres
The court of the monarch Abdullah ibn al-Hussein I operating under the auspices of universities, and numerous
provided a congenial meeting place for Jordanian and other privately operated independent cultural institutions and
Arab poets and literati. Among the prominent literary associations.
figures were King Abdullah himself, Mustafa Wahbeh al-
Tal, Abdul-Munim al-Rifai, Abdul-Halim Abbas, Husni
Fariz and Rashid Zayd al-Kelani.
Popular mores and traditions in Jordan’s rural and urban BIB L I O G R A PH Y
areas were nearly identical to those in Palestine. Jordanian
painting developed in the 1960s through the efforts of artists Abdul-Rahman, A. Ilam al-Lughah fi Filastin. [Linguistic Science in
such as Rafiq al-Lahham, Mouhanna al-Durrah and Palestine]. In: The Palestinian Encyclopaedia, Part 2, Vol. 3.
Princess Wijdan Ali. To promote artistic movement in the Abu Khalaf, N. Al-Ta’lim al-Technologi al-Ali fi Filastin [Higher
kingdom, the Department of Culture and Fine Arts was Technological Education in Palestine]. In: abu lughud, I. (ed.),
established in 1966, followed by the Jordanian Royal 1997, Al-Ta’lim al-Filastini Tarikhan, wa Waqi’an wa Dururat al-
Foundation of Fine Arts and the Fine Arts Institute. Mustaqbal [Palestine Education: History, Reality and Future
Members of an artists’ union established in 1978 exhibited Necessities], Beir Zayt University, Beir Zayt.
their works in Jordan and abroad. Noteworthy sculptors Abu Lughud, I. (ed.). 1997. Al-Ta’lim al Filastini Tarikhan, wa
include Muna al-Saudi and Karram al-Nimri. Khalid Waqi’an wa Dururat al-Mustaqbal. [Palestine Education: History,
Khrays works in the medium of lithography, while Farouq Reality and Future Necessities]. Beir Zayt University, Beir Zayt.
Lambaz and Mazen Asfour are renowned for their collages Amir (al), K. Waqi’ al-Ta’lim fi Madaris Filastin. [Reality of Education
and Rabah al-Sghayyir, Jalal al-Refai, Mahmoud Sadiq and in Palestine Schools]. In: Ibrahim Abu Lughud, (ed.). Op. cit.
Emad Hajjaj are considered the country’s most famous Asad (al), N.-E. 1957. Al-Ittijahat al-Adabiyah al-Haditha Fi Filistin
caricaturists. Wal Urdun. [Modern Trends of Literature in Palestine and Jordan].
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 34.6
the Gulf Cooperation Council
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar,
United Arab Emirates, Oman

Mariam Lootah

The six countries examined in the present sub-chapter are activities are restricted. The participation of women in
the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a economical, cultural and social life is limited. During the
body established in 1981 in the face of various external twentieth century, Saudi Arabia remained a closed society.
threats (e.g. the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, the Soviet The war of liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation
invasion of Afghanistan and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq (1990–91) followed by the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq
conflict) to ensure regional security and stability for its (March 2003) has shaken the status quo in the Gulf States,
highly strategic oil-producing member states. According to particularly Saudi Arabia. Political and cultural stagnation
the organization’s stated purpose: in the Saudi society have created a state of general discontent
in the country, a favourable ground for the emergence of
while, on one hand, the GCC is a continuation, evolution clandestine political organizations. Yet, the increased
and institutionalization of old prevailing realities, it is, on American military presence contributed to the emergence
the other, a practical answer to the challenges of security of extremist Islamic movements, such as al-Qaida. In the
and economic development in the area. It is also a present context, even the near future of the Saudi Kingdom
fulfilment of the aspirations of its citizens towards some is difficult to predict. But it is almost certain that the
sort of Arab regional unity. absence of serious democratic reforms will create social and
political unrest and pave the way for general instability.

Sa u d i A r a b i a
Kuwait
The alliance of the strict Islamic sect known as the Wahhabi
and the Saud tribes determined the contemporary history Kuwait gained its independence from Britain in 1961.
of the Arabian Peninsula and played a crucial role in the Among the factors that have contributed to Kuwait’s
establishment and the continuity of the Saudi Kingdom. instability over the last four decades of the twentieth century
The Saudi state was founded in 1726 even though the are geopolitical and territorial issues, the country’s relatively
peninsula officially remained under the control of the small population (750,000 persons, 2 million including
Ottoman Empire. expatriates), the lack of a strong national identity, and
At the end of the First World War (1914–18), which Kuwait’s vast oil reserves. Despite these difficulties, the
marked the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the geopolitical traditional gap between the people and their rulers has been
map of the Arab World (or Middle East) was redesigned by bridged by introducing a certain degree of national dialogue
the colonial powers: Syria and Lebanon fell under French in the political processes. The first majlis, or consultative
influence; Palestine, Iraq, and the Arab Peninsula were council, was created in 1921.
placed under British control. However, by the end of the With the arrival of King Ghazi in Iraq in 1938, Baghdad
Second World War, American influence in Saudi Arabia claimed that Kuwait was part of Iraq’s Basra region to the
had grown rapidly. American oil companies controlled south. In the same period (1938–39), oil was discovered for
Saudi oil production, and the Saudi Kingdom became commercial exploitation, and Britain intended to ensure
America’s closest ally in the region after Iran. that Kuwait would remain under its sphere of influence and
With the discovery of oil in the 1930s, the country independent from Iraq. In 1938, the newly elected majlis
witnessed some economic development and modernized its recognized the power of the members of the Parliament. As
major cities, but the Wahhabi-Saudi coalition, regarded as Kuwait increases the political participation of its people, it
the bedrock of power, impeded social and political progress, will reinforce the country’s national and cultural identity;
particularly as regards the status of women and the basic however it is believed that Kuwait’s traditional non-
civil liberties. To this day, almost all significant cultural constitutional political system cannot continue indefinitely.

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Ba h r a i n maritime activity including fishing, and subsequently the

fleet was completely destroyed.
The Emirate of Bahrain occupies an archipelago in the Between 1820 and the opening decades of the twentieth
Persian Gulf that has been inhabited for over 6,000 years. century, time seemed to stand still in the region. In 1936, a
The capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain today is Manama. reform movement emerged in the Emirate of Dubai and
Bahrain’s contemporary history is marked by the early resulted in the election of a majlis among the notables. Some
emergence of reform movements in the country. The first administrative and educational reforms were initiated as a
movement, created in 1923, stressed two essential points: result, but this promising undertaking failed after six
the establishment of a Majlis Shūra (Consultation Council), months owing to British intervention.
and the end of the British influence in the country. By Oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi in the 1960s, and the
supporting this position, Bahrain’s ruler, Sheikh Issa Ben bulk of the oil revenues were spent on building state
Ali al Khalifa, was removed from power. infrastructures. In 1971, the seven emirates united to form
This first reform movement was followed by a second (in the present federation. However, the country’s poorly
1938), and a third more effective wave of reform in 1945. planned development resulted in negative setbacks in respect
Known as the National Union Committee, this latter to social and cultural issues. The Emirates currently face a
movement led to more elaborate reform programmes that problem that threatens the identity and security of society:
highlighted the importance of national unity. Abdel the country’s great demographic imbalance. The
Rahman al Baker in collaboration with Abdel Aziz al overwhelming majority (approximately 85 per cent) of the
Shamlan headed the National Union Committee. The population are expatriate workers, most of which are not of
movement’s success is attributed to the fact that, unlike the Arab origin. The three challenges facing the Emirates today
two earlier attempts at reform, it won the support of the are security, the safeguarding of national identity and
Shiites and Sunnites communities within Bahraini society. democratic reforms.
Bahrain gained independence from Britain in 1971, yet
the British continue to exert considerable influence on the
country. The rise of Sheikh Hamad al-Khalifa to power Oman
after his father’s death in 1999 marked a new era in Bahraini
history. In 2002, Bahrainis elected members of the lower One of the world’s foremost maritime nations, Oman served
house of Bahrain’s reconstituted bicameral legislature, the as an important link on the trade routes between
National Assembly. Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and India and China.
From the eighth century, a minor school of Islamic thought,
known as the Ibadit School, ruled Oman for more than one
Qa t a r thousand years and instituted a highly original political
system, the Imama. Unlike the major Islamic branches,
Qatar, a small country with a very recent history, has a Sunni and Shiite, the Ibadits categorically rejected the
population of about 60,000 native Qataris and over hereditary system of power, adhered to the principle of
300,000 expatriate workers. The contemporary history of Shura, consultation, and the free election of the political
Qatar was marked by the rise to power of Sheikh Hamad and religious leader or imam. This principle introduced a
bin Khalifa Āl Thani by the 1995 coup d’état against his theoretical base for democracy in Islamic political thought
father. An ambitious man, his agenda calls for political and has also served to consolidate the national political
reforms, the establishment of a national parliament and the culture of Oman
writing of a constitution. Beginning in the second half of the eighteenth century,
Some social reforms concerning the participation of the British presence and influence grew rapidly. The
women in the public life had been undertaken, as evidenced powerful Omani fleet was destroyed along with that of the
by the fact that women have been appointed to high-level Trucial State (present-day United Arab Emirates). Between
public positions. However, in exchange for the support of 1900 and the beginning of the rule of Sultan Qaboos bin
the United States, the Sheikh was forced to allow the Said in 1970, Oman had practically disappeared from the
Americans to install a military base in Doha and to play a international scene. The sultan has undertaken remarkable
role in Qatar’s domestic and foreign policies. political, economical and cultural reforms, which has
enabled Oman to strengthen its rich cultural and historical
traditions. Since the 1970s, Oman has played an active role
United Arab Emirates in Arab affairs and on the international scene thanks to its
pragmatic foreign policy.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven
emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-
Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The rulers of the C O NC L USI O N
Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, the Al-Qawasim tribe, owned
the region’s considerable naval force and stood up to The major external and internal factors that have marked
British acts of aggression for more than half a century. In the region through its long history are the tribal structures,
1819, the British invaded Ras al-Khaimah, the historic religion, British colonization and the discovery of oil.
capital of the Al-Qawasim, destroying much of their naval Even though not all of these Gulf States developed
fleet, and imposed the treaty of 1820, which marked the along the same lines politically, owing to specific domestic,
official beginning of British colonization of the emirates regional and international circumstances, it is clear that
(formerly known as the Trucial States). Agreements with there are many similarities concerning the manner in which
the British required the al-Qawasim fleet to halt all they were established. Nonetheless, it must be noted that

685
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socio-economic development has not been accompanied Al Sayed, R. 1986. Al-Umma, wa-l-Jamāca wa-s-Sulta. [The State, the
by political and, above all, democratic reform. Clan and Power]. Dar Ikra, Beirut.
Djabran, M. N. and Al Thani, R. 1998. Dirāsāt fī Ta’rīkh al-Jazīra al-
c
Arabīya. [Studies on the History of the Arabian Peninsula].
Hamada Institute for University Services.
BIB L I O G R A PH Y Ghubash, H. 1999. Al-Dimuqrātīya al-Islāmīya wa Taqālīd al-Imāma
wa-t-Ta’rīkh as-Siyāsī al-Hadīth 1500–1970. [The Tradition of the
AL KASSIMI, S. B. M. 1989. Taqsīm al-Imbarātūrīya al-cUthmanīya, Imamate, Modern Political History 1500–1970]. (3rd ed.). Dar
1862–1856. [The Division of the Ottoman Empire, 1862–1856]. Al Farabi, Beirut.
Al Bayan Institute, Dubai. Kassim, Z. J. 1997. Ta’rīkh al-Khalīj al-cArabī al-Hadīth wa-l-Mucāsir,
Al Moussili, M. 1999. Al-Usra wa-d-Daula, Daur al-Kuwayt wa Āl al-Mujallad al-Awwal. [History of the Modern and Contemporary
Sabah fī-l-Khalīj al-cArabī. [The Family and the State: Role of the Arabian Gulf]. Dar Al Fikr Al Arabi, Cairo.
Al Sabah Family in the Arabian Gulf]. Oubaidan, M. Y. 1979. Al-Mu’assasāt fī Daulat Qatar. [Political
Al Nakeeb, K. 1987. Al-Mujtamac wa-d-Daula fī-l-Khalīj wa-l-Jazīra Institutions in Qatar]. Ministry of Information and Culture,
al- cArabīya. [Society and the State in the Arabian Gulf and Doha, State of Qatar.
Peninsula]. Centre for Arab Unity Studies (CAUS), Beirut. Shararah, O. 1981. Al-Ahl wa-l-Ghanīma, Muqawwimāt as-Siyāsa fī-l-
Al Nakeeb, K. h. 1996. Sirāc al-Qabalīya wa-l-Dimuqrātīya: halat al- Mamlaka al-cArabīya as-Sucūdīya. [The Family and Wealth: Political
Kuwayt. [Tribal Conflict and Democracy: Kuwait]. Ministry of Factors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]. Dar Al Taliaa, Beirut.
Information and Culture, Doha, State of Qatar. Dar Al Saki, Beirut. Zarnouka, S. S. 1993. Anmāt al-Istīlā’ cala-s-Sulta fī-d-Duwal al-
Al Okaiki, R. M. 1993. Al-Khalīj al cArabī fī-l-cUsūr al-Islāmīya. [The c
Arabīya. [The Means of Conquering Power in the Arab States].
Arabian Gulf in Islamic Epochs]. Dar Al-Fikr Al-Arabi, Cairo. (2nd ed.). Madbouly Publishers, Cairo.

686
 34.7
egypt

Anouar Abdel-Malek

Contemporary Egyptian society and culture can best be Between 1840 and 1881, European financial intervention,
understood in the context of the re-emergence of Egypt facilitated by the building of the Suez Canal, led to gradual
after four centuries of marginalization and decline. This hegemony of foreign powers over the Egyptian economy.
renaissance occurred as the result of the vision and decisive The first Arab-elected parliament coincided with the
leadership of Muhammad Ali in the first half of the formation of a vigorous private capitalist sector under Ismail
nineteenth century, precisely when Egypt faced relentless (1867–79). In the upsurge of the national and democratic
penetration by foreign investment, which paved the way for movement, a second stage of the Egyptian renaissance
British occupation (1882). developed under the influence of Nadim, Baroudi and
military figures Arabi and Ebeid. The 1881 Revolution
provided the pretext for the British invasion, leading to the
MUH A MM A D A L I occupation of Egypt in 1882. The British occupation put
the clock back in the political, economic and cultural fields
From the onset, Muhammad Ali clearly defined his historic but did not affect the vital transport infrastructure that
goal: the creation of a modernized Egyptian society and ensured the export of cotton. While social development
state in order to achieve the revitalization of the Islamic could not proceed towards the creation of a national
heartland. For Muhammad Ali, modernization meant bourgeoisie, education had to bear the brunt of Dunlop’s
endowing the state with its own army, a state-owned vicious restrictive policy.
industrial base and a system of modern education inspired Facing the oppressive measures of the occupying power,
by the European achievements from the Renaissance to the several significant developments arose. The wealth of the
age of revolutions (scientific, industrial, political) and with Egyptian upper classes depended on the growth of
an overall vision of national culture. This was achieved dependent agrarian capitalism. On the cultural front, the
thanks to the creative energies of Ibrahim Pasha and Rifaa press – under the converging efforts of Arab intellectual
al-Tahtawi, with the support of devoted European (mainly émigrés who sought refuge in Egypt from the 1870s and
French) experts. By 1830, Egypt had created an advanced joined forces with the heirs of Nadim (mainly from the
industrial state-owned sector and the most powerful National Party of Mustafa Kamel and Mohamed Farid) –
modern army outside Europe. Owing to the vision of nurtured the upsurge of the national movement towards
Tahtawi, the state and society had access to an extensive independence, constitutional government and economic
network of highly trained cadres in all major fields of activity, progress.
while progress in education continued, mainly under Ali From the reign of Muhammad Ali until the revolution
Mubarak. Starting with the adoption of selected of 1919, Egyptians had to consider the crucial questions:
achievements of French society during the Napoleonic era What is the cause of the decadence, and how can a revival
and its aftermath, Tahtawi resolutely oriented national or renaissance be achieved? Two major orientations
cultural policy towards national unity and social progress as emerged. The liberal modernist approach, inspired by
expressed in his motto: ‘May the place of happiness for all of Tahtawi, from 1820 onwards held that the selective
us be Fatherland, which we shall build with liberty, thought assimilation of the European experience within the context
and industry!’ of national sovereignty was the preferred path. A second
It took the coalition of all major European states to orientation was to emerge decades later during the period
compel Muhammad Ali to dismantle his protective of foreign intervention: the Islamic fundamentalist
economic shield. Thus, the London Convention (1840) approach inspired by Mohamed Abdoh (1849–1905) held
stifled Egypt’s well-advanced modernization programme – that to avoid the increasing decadence it became imperative
the very process that the Japanese Emperor Meiji chose to to revive the fundamental principles of Islam: monism
study in 1868 upon his rise to power. accompanied by justice.

687
 regional section

EMER G ENCE O F C O NTEMP O R A R Y cultural renaissance was created. Thus, Fuad al-Awwal
E G Y PT (now Cairo) University was founded as the centre of a
network of scientific and specialist bodies including the
Thus, the stage was set for the emergence of contemporary Egyptian Geographical Society, the Royal Egyptian
Egyptian society and culture. The revolution of 1919 Agricultural Society, the Institut d’Egypte, the Egyptian
contained the seeds of both moderate national liberalism Society for Statistical and Juridical Sciences, the Société
and radical populism. The overall balance of forces during des Amis de l’Art. Myriad organizations emerged during
the British occupation led to the emergence of the first this period: the Egyptian national press (Al-Ahŕam,
option: the 1923 Constitution eventually granted to the Al‑Mokattam, Al-Hilal, Sawt el-Umma, Al-Misrî,
Wafd (the Egyptian Nationalist Party) defined Egypt as an Al‑Masawwar), the Misr Bank group, the Federation of
independent kingdom in the lineage of the dynasty of Egyptian Industries, the universities of Alexandria and
Muhammad Ali, while the military occupation proved that Aïn Shams, publishing houses (e.g. Dar al-Maaref, Dâr
the protectorate had not ended. The radical option, as al-Hilal), the Committee for Writing, the translation and
represented by the Wafd’s secret organization (Abdel- publishing company Dar Nahdat Misr, and cultural
Rahman Fahmy), was dismantled to the benefit of the periodicals such as Al-Kâteb al-Misri, la Revue du Caire,
official Wafd led by Saad Zaghloul and his supporters. Apollo, and Al-Rissalah al-Gadiidah.
The year 1923 marked the beginning of the liberal
modernist age, now rehabilitated, during which the
foundations and formative institutions enabled the major THE A RTS
schools of thought and action to promote the revitalization
of Egyptian society and culture, which represented the first The period’s exuberant economic, social and political
major stage of Egypt’s national project in the twentieth activity fostered a burst of creativity in the fields of
century. literature, the arts, philosophy, and natural and social
The basic economic structure remained, i.e. an sciences. This was the age of the emergence of the novel,
essentially capitalistic agrarian economy. However, the which reflected the rise of urban centres in traditionally
rise of the urban middle classes opened new paths. From rural Egypt. Its major centres – Cairo, Alexandria, the
the onset, Talaat Harb’s call for ‘an Egyptian bank for all Nile Delta cities (e.g. Tantah), Port Said – emerged as
Egyptians’ indicated that the new emerging classes centres and settings for the Egyptian novel, although a
intended to assume a role independent of the foreign certain rural flavour persisted. The initial strides made by
investors. The foundation of the Misr Bank (1923) paved Manfaluti, Ibrahim al-Mazni and Taha Hussein were
the way for the Federation of Egyptian Industries and the taken to greater heights by Yehia Haqqi and Nagib Mahfuz.
broad network of industrial and commercial institutions The younger novelists, led by Abdel-Rahman al-Sharqawi,
of the Misr group during the 1930s, whose activities ranged belonged mainly to the progressive faction of the national
from textile to air transport and cinema. By the mid-1930s, liberation movement, while Ihsan Abdel-Qoddous’ novels
the balance within the capitalist class began to shift, from reconciled the romantic approach with the demands of the
the agrarian landowners (the ‘feudal’ sector) to the modern radical nationalists. The transition from the modernized
banking-industrial groups. New political forces emerged traditional forms of the novel to a truly modern, incisive
around the Wafd: the liberal-constitutionals and Saadist approach was the life achievement of Yussef Idris, widely
parties represented the big landowners and the industrial considered the Egyptian Chekhov. To this day, the influence
groups respectively. On the left wing were the communist of Idris and Mahfuz contribute to the emergence of new
and socialist parties, and these new radical forces competed perspectives for the Egyptian novel and short story. Both
with the traditional political establishment: Ahmed authors stand at the juncture of the liberal period and the
Hussein’s Young Egypt, the New National Party, and the age of radical transformation ushered in by the revolution
Muslim Brotherhood. The stage was thus set for a new of July 1952.
national and social revolution. Among the principal exponents of modern trends are
In the midst of this bustling socio-economic evolution, the poets Salah Abdel-Sabbour and Salah Jahine, and the
culture and intellectual activity could hardly remain playwrights Tawfiq al-Hakim and No’man Ashour. Similar
stagnant. The period between 1923 and 1952 can be defined advances in the field of music were achieved by Sayed
as the ‘golden age of liberal modernism’, which precipitated Darwish, om Kolthoum and Mohamed Abdel-Wahab.
in-depth transformation. The economic, social and political During this era, the thriving film industry generated more
crises, and the resulting tensions and contradictions, led to income that any other sector except the textile industry.
serious repercussions in the realm of thought and culture. Once again, the Misr group took the lead, promoting a
Each of the two major tendencies that took shape during generation of directors within the circle of Henry Barakat,
the nineteenth century splintered into conservative and who successfully adopted a romantic approach to social
radical wings. The liberal modernist tendency was divided realism. The period’s leading actors attained the level of
between a conservative wing, bringing together the minority Nagib Rihani, Yousef Wahbi and their disciples. Other
parties concerned with social stability and the imitation of noteworthy artists who shared this innovative movement
Europe, and a radical wing, which combined the goal of include the sculptors Mahmoud Mokhtar, renowned
national liberation and independence with the demand for during the 1919 Revolution, Gamâl al Segini and Adam
radical economic and social transformation as sought by the Henein and the painter Hamed Abdallah. The Islamic
left-wing progressive parties, the youth movement and fundamentalist tendency developed in two directions: the
elements of the new national parties. Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Hassan al-Banna in
During this period of modern liberalism the main 1927, promoted traditional ideology among the peasantry
institutional basis for socio-economic progress and and the urban and rural middle classes, via its organ

688
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Al‑Da’wa, while Sayed Qotb, representing the more works of Ahmad Fuad Negm, Salah Jahin, Fuad Haddad,
moderate position, emerged as the leading theoretician. Ahmad Hegazi, Abdel-Rahman al-Abnoudi. Yet, theatre
Abdel-Razzaq al Sanhouri made advances in the field of and cinema lagged behind owing to the overwhelming
legislation on the basis of Islamic Shariah. popularity of television. Nevertheless some important
films were produced, such as Shadi Abdel-Salam’s film
masterpiece Al-Momiaa (the Mummy), which exerted a
N A TI O N A L REV O L UTI O N great influence on his younger disciples. Alfred Farag
pursued the social realist tradition in theatre, and Egyptian
The radical populist approach developed mainly in the painting and sculpture reached maturity through the
political field, from the nationalist movement Misr al-Fatat, works of Hâmed Abdallah and Gamal al-Segini. The new
founded by Ahmed Hussein, and which gave rise to the Cairo opera house provided a suitable forum for music,
Free Officers, the secret army organization founded by opera and ballet.
Nassar in 1952 for the purpose of overthrowing King In spite of a 50 per cent literacy rate, Egypt’s school
Farouk I and liberating Egypt from Great Britain. It aimed network and fifteen universities continued to grow. The
at revitalizing the national movement in the pursuit of fields of philosophy, geography and geopolitics, history,
political and social goals. This became the message of the psychology and literacy criticism developed considerably
Free Officers six months after the Cairo fire of 26 January thanks to such scholars as Abdel-Rahmân Badawi, Lonis
1952, and the ensuing chaos under martial law, when the Awad, Mahmoud Mandour, Gamal Hamdan, Galal Amin’
Free Officers took power, thus circumventing the united Tareq al-Bishri, Mohamed Anis, Yousef Maurad, Mustafa
national front. Soueif, Mohamed Mandour, Ghali, Hakri and Ezzedhin
Under the leadership of Gamal Abd el-Nasser, Egypt Ismail. The groundwork in the field of Egyptian cultural
underwent a national revolution (1952–64) followed by a history and philosophy had been laid by Sobhi Wahidah’s
social revolution (1964–70), which brought about the philosophy, and Hussein Fawzi provided the chronological
nationalization of the economy and the Suez Canal, and general history of the national movement as documented
followed by the war of attrition after 1967 that prepared the by Abdel-Rahman al-Rafe’i.
ground for the 1973 war. Under Anwar Sadat, the new From 1952 onwards, the role of the state grew in the field
economic policy launched in 1978 led to a general economic of culture education and the media. The state developed its
decline to the benefit of the new class of businessmen, dominance in education, while private and foreign
mainly importers. The road to strategic development thus institutions played a larger role especially at the university
reached a bottleneck. Under Mubarak, attempts to limit level. The newly created Ministry of Culture aimed at
the effects of globalization have proceeded with considerable providing both a general orientation to cultural life and a
difficulty. network of institutions and activities capable of involving a
The cultural field inevitably reflected these profound large majority of aspiring intellectuals. The tremendous
changes. During the early years (1952–67) until the October development of the mass media, and particularly television,
1973 war, the liberal modernists witnessed the regression of occupied centre stage in public life. There was a rapid
their conservative sector and the rise of radicalism. growth of information and creative thinking in the press.
Consequently, nationalism, anti-imperialism, Arab unity, Soap operas proliferated on television after the era of social
and for a time socialism, came centre stage, while the Islamic realism (1973–85), as the once-important Egyptian cinema
fundamentalist faction gathered strength. From 1967 declined.
onwards, the rift between these two groups reached new From 1978 onwards, the impact of globalization was
heights. The 1967 military defeat weakened the national- acutely felt in the spheres of economy, society, culture,
progressive branch of the liberal modernists. Simultaneously, and policy orientation in general. The values system of
buttressed by the growing influence of the major oil modern Egyptian society, deeply rooted in its long and
producing countries, a wave of Islamic fundamentalism illustrious civilization, suffered as a result of this process.
swept the population. The traditional collective spirit gradually gave way to
individualism. The market economy revealed the
predominance of imports and oil revenues. The effects,
A F TER 1 9 6 7 particularly the introduction of foreign global models,
were felt primarily in the modern urban areas and
Thus, the post-1967 period can be defined as the era of eventually in the rural areas as well.
sociocultural conservatism and the growth of a populist In reaction to this unprecedented transformation,
Islamic movement, sometimes veering towards integrism, Egyptian society and culture underwent a revival of
coupled with a parallel growth of Western-oriented national culture, deeply intertwined with its national and
modernization. The moderate position receded in favour revival movements. Hence there emerged a confrontation
of a rising wave of confrontations, fuelled by the Palestinian between foreign penetration and the deep attachment to
tragedy and related military interventions. As a result, a the Egyptian nation and its distinct identity. Thus
closer relationship developed between the two radical globalization has prompted the resurgence of a desire to
sectors of liberal modernism (nationalism) and Islamic affirm a national identity as well as creativity in the
fundamentalism (as distinct from integrism). While the sociocultural field.
liberal modernist current prevailed in the field of culture, The resurgence of the national dimension in the field of
the new novel, under the powerful influence of Nagib culture and in the society at large brought to the fore a
Mahfuz, was enriched by Gamal Ghitani, Son’allah hitherto unknown level of contradictions between the two
Ibrahim and their peers. A new style of poetry combining major schools of thought in contemporary Egypt, i.e. liberal
romanticism with social realism emerged through the modernism and Islamic fundamentalism. The former,

689
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bringing together the national radical and progressive BIB L I O G R A PH Y

schools of thought and action, felt that it was better to face
globalization, while the Islamic fundamentalists considered ABDEL-MALEK, A. 1969. Idéologie et Renaissance nationale: Egypte
that the deeply rooted popular culture would resist moderne. Editions Anthropos, Paris.
globalization. The growing polarization between the two  1962. Egypte, Société militaire. Editions du Seuil, Paris.
schools was fostered by a complex network of regional and ABDEL NÂÇER, G. 1954. Felsafat al-Thawrâh. [Philosophy of the
international influences that were foreign or inimical to the Revolution]. Cairo.
traditional centrist identity. ALEM, M. A. and ANIS, A. A. 1959. Fi’l-Thaqâfah al-Misriyyah. [On
More recently there has been growing dialogue between Egyptian Culture]. Beirut.
large sectors of these two orientations, a process prompted AMIN, G. 2000. Mâdha Hadatha li’l -Miçriyyîn? [What Happened to
by the rising tide of aggression from Suez to Palestine and the Egyptians?]. Cairo.
Iraq. Proceeding from the pioneering socialist thought of BANNA, H. (al-). 1930. Da’watonna. [Our Call]. Cairo.
Salamah Musa and Shohdi Attiyah, a new generation of BERQUE, J. 1960. Les arabes d’hier à demain. Editions du Seuil, Paris.
national-radical political thinkers and experts emerged  1972. L’Egypte, Impérialisme et Révolution. Gallimard, Paris.
around Ahmad Bahâ Eddine and Mahmad Heykal. This BISHRI, T. (al-). 1972. Al-Harakah al-Siyasiyyah fi Miçr (1945–1962).
new trend is also reflected in the modernist Islamic political [The Political Movement in Egypt]. Cairo.
writings of Tareq al-Bishri, Ahmad Kamal abul-Magd FAWZÎ, H. 1961. Sindbad Misri. [The Egyptian Sindbad]. Cairo.
and Selim al-‘Awwa. In addition, a new generation of HAMDÂM, G. 1970. Shakhciyyat Misr. [Egyptian Figures]. Cairo.
publishers and periodicals gave expression to this renewal. HEY KAL, R. H. 1954. Azmāt al-Mouthaqqafîn. [The Intellectual
The general Egyptian Book Organization and the Crisis]. Cairo.
publisher Dar al-Shorouk collaborated with the previous HOURANI, A. 1962. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (1789–1939).
generation of publishers and with influential periodicals Oxford University Press, Oxford and London.
such as Al-Taliah, Woghat Nazar and Al-Fousoul. The HUSAYN, T. 1938. Mostaqbal al-tha Kafah fi Misr. [HUSAYN, T. 1954
national democratic orientation as defined in the 1940s, (1975). The Future of Culture in Egypt. Octagon Books, New York].
particularly by the National Committee of Workers and KERR, M. H. 1966. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of
Students, continues to provide inspiration for advocates Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida. University of California
of this trend. Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA.
More then ever, the question of identity has emerged in MANDOUR, M. 1958. Qadaya fi Adabina al-Hadith. [New Issues in
recent years. The crisis of the project for Arab unity gave Our Modern Literature]. Beirut.
rise to a search for a distinctly Egyptian identity with both MUSA, S. 1948. Tarbiyat Salamah Moussa [1961. The Education of Salama
Pharaonic and Islamic components. One-sided hegemony Musa. E. J. Brill, [Trans. L. L. Schuman]. Leiden, The Netherlands.
raises new questions about Egypt’s cultural future: is Egypt SHAFEI, S. A. (el-) and GIBEILI, A-M. (al-). 1946. Ahdâfouna al-
proceeding along its pro-Western orientation? Or is it Wataniyyah. [Our National Goals]. Cairo.
looking towards the East, consistent with its history and SHUKRI, G. 1965. Thawrat al-Fikr fi Adabinâ al-Hadîth. [Revolutionary
geopolitical context, as expressed in the Non-Aligned Thought in Our Modern Literature]. Cairo.
Movement of the 1950s. WAHIDAH, A. W. Ç. 1950. Fi oussoul al-Mas’alah al-Misriyyah. [The
Origins of the Egyptian Question]. Cairo.

690
 34.8
THE SUDAN

Saidou Kane

Colo n i al S u da n : basins of the main branch of the Nile are age-old techniques,
t h e  Co n do m i n i u m perennial irrigation being introduced by the British. Land
tenure was largely personal (mulk in the region of the White
On the eve of the First World War, the Sudan region Nile). Joint ownership was the rule as in other African
offered the occupying power several geostrategic advantages agricultural civilizations in which only usufruct was allowed,
owing to its location among its neighbouring countries: the land itself being inalienable.
Chad and the Central African Republic to the west; Libya In order to avoid stirring up Muslim fanaticism, the
and Egypt to the north; Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic British administration banned Christian missionaries from
Republic of the Congo to the south; and Eritrea and working in the north. It authorized such activity in the
Ethiopia to the east. This pivotal position led to a strategy of south, where the Christian churches set up primary schools
occupation that took the form of the Anglo-Egyptian using African languages and English for instruction.
Condominium. Until 1939 the policy of indirect administration (Indirect
In 1914, the Sudan constituted a mosaic of peoples, Rule or Native Administration) enabled the administration
subdivided (as they are at present) into distinctive geographic to thwart popular uprisings, immobilizing the rich
entities. The north was entirely Muslim – and for all multicultural reality in fragmented localities. The new
practical purposes, a part of the Egypto-Ottoman world – approach involved the recruiting of docile and apolitical
whereas the centre was more mixed and dominated by intermediaries and the celebration of local cultures with the
Islamicized but not necessarily Arabicized populations. In aim of restricting the influence of the urban elite, inhibiting
the south (where traditional African religions remained its anti-colonialism and preventing its association with
strongly implanted) and in the central mountain regions Egyptian pro-independence circles (1924). All northern
lived pagan and Christian populations, including the Dinka influence was excluded from the south and vanished tribes
(population: 2 million) and the Nuer (500,000), who led a were resurrected. Anthropologists (e.g. Evans-Pritchard)
nomadic existence in the basin of the Upper Nile and the were set to carry out this work in the south. English was
Nuba (500,000), a farming people who occupied the central used in the south instead of Arabic, and the region remained
hills. While the Bagarra, a black pastoral people inhabiting cut off from the north until 1946.
the central regions and practising transhumance, are At the outbreak of the First World War, the British
Arabicized today (although their numbers include some exploited and aggravated the antagonisms between the
assimilated Fulani), this is not true of the nomadic Beja different brotherhoods, setting Sayyid cAbd al-Rahmān al-
camel herders (population: 500,000) who inhabit the Mahdī (descendant of the Mahdi), the leader of the
mountains flanking the Red Sea. Mahdiyya, against Sayyid al-Mīrghanī, the leader of the
In the country’s various agro-ecological zones, the Khatmīyya.
subsistence economy, which is inseparable from the social This situation helped to radicalize the struggle against
structures, was underpinned by basic social structures the British presence, which was organized with the support
characterized by endogamy. The human environment was of the Egyptian national movement, led by the Wafd party
organized according to permanent base villages. of Sacd Zaghlūl (1857–1927). This movement had close
In the north, traditional know-how in relation to food contacts with some members of the new Sudanese
production, handicrafts and monumental art has survived. intellectual elite. An opposition movement in the army was
Upon their arrival in the region, the European colonists crushed, and the Egyptian soldiers expelled.
encountered irrigation techniques that predated those they The division of the country into a north where more
would employ in the inter-war period for the development respect was shown for the culture and a south wrenched
of the Gezira (the 1925 concession agreement). The away from its religious and cultural traditions would come
Archimedean screw (shaduf), the sāqiya (a water wheel to a dramatic climax in August 1955 with the beginning of a
turned by animal traction) and irrigation by flooding the civil war that lasted 17 years.

691
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T h e ag e of t h e n a t i o n s t a t e is free of charge. However, the civil war brought about the

collapse of the school system in the south regions.
The emergence of a modern, independent Sudanese state An Institute of African and Asian Studies, established
was far from certain in view of the existence of conflicting after independence, has published a great deal of material
trends of opinion that favoured, on the one hand, the union on the history, sociology and daily life of people in the
of Sudan with independent Egypt or, on the other, a Sudan. The Arab Centre for Education, Culture and
separate identity for the country. The unilateral declaration Science, which opened in 1977, is devoted to Arabic
by which the King of Egypt proclaimed himself ‘King of the language and philology studies. The Sudan National
Sudan’ in 1951 and granted the ‘province of the Sudan’ a Museum in Khartoum possesses collections relating to the
certain degree of autonomy created serious problems for the region’s prehistory and the period of the Napata, Meroe,
entente between the British, Egyptians and Sudanese. This Kush kingdoms that were contemporary with ancient
decision created unanimity against the union of the Sudan Egypt. The Khalifa’s House in Omdurman contains a
with Egypt. The British, in some difficulty, then endowed collection of relics from the Mahdist period of the nineteenth
the Sudan with autonomous institutions, which swiftly century. Khartoum also has museums devoted to natural
proceeded to vote in favour of independence, which was history and ethnography. The University of Khartoum
proclaimed in January 1956. Library is renowned for its collection of Sudanese and
The Sudan’s major problem thereafter concerned its African traditional objects; the Flinders Petrie Library
unity (the issue of southern Sudan), the nature of its state (named after the renowned Egyptologist) and the National
power (Islamist, since 1989) and the modernization of its Records Office hold a large collection of historic
political, socio-economic and cultural structures. The Sudan documents.
gradually developed education, the arts, science and culture
and is increasingly giving women their place and paying
greater attention to literacy education and the promotion of Literary and artistic life
the press and media, even if, at present, these forms of social
communication are almost entirely under the control of the Sudanese literature has been shaped by oral culture and the
state monopoly. The increasing use of the Arabic language written word. Ancient chronicles still exist such as those
also contributes significantly to communication and produced during the sixteenth-century Funj Kingdom. The
integration. However the status of the other national Tabaqa of Sennar, which relate the lives of the Muslim saints
cultures has still not been properly re-examined. of Sennar, dates from the early nineteenth century. Modern
Sudanese poetry has been strongly influenced both by English
romanticism and classical Arabic literature. On the eve of the
T h e d e v e lo p m e n t of e d u c a t i o n First World War, Sudanese poetry played an important role
and women’s emancipation in the search for a Sudanese national identity as illustrated by
the literature of Tambal: ‘the poetry written by a Sudanese
The British administration trained many auxiliaries. In poet, the manifesto of an entire generation, should reflect
Khartoum, it established the Gordon Memorial College. The Sudanese sensibility and the Sudanese landscape’.
watchword was to avoid turning out ‘intellectuals’, who were From 1932 to 1973, the literary review Al-Fajr brought
‘a source of trouble’. This school would eventually become the together young poets devoted to promoting the country’s
University of Khartoum. At Omdurman, a school of Muslim literature, including the engineer, diplomat and writer
law – the future university – was founded. It focused on a Yusuf al-Tinni, and Al-Tijani Yusuf Bashir, who in the
form of Islam without Mahdism. The modern instruction course of his tormented 27-year existence became one of the
introduced by the British was theoretical. Nevertheless, it greatest Sudanese romantic writers. The following
gradually developed into the main vehicle for social generation were supporters of the Third World and pan-
advancement and access to administrative positions. Since Africanism. They launched the review Les tempêtes révoltées,
independence much effort has been devoted to increasing the which featured Muhyi al-Din Faris and Mubarak Hassan
number of schools and often teachers have become community among others. They were closely followed by Abdallah al-
leaders in the villages. Tayeb and Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Magzub, who broke
Education for females began more recently. A private the rhythms of traditional Sudanese folk poetry. Sudanese
college for women was set up just after independence, and villages provide the setting for novels such as A Season of
girls were first admitted to the University of Khartoum in Migration to the North, which mixes Arabic with the
the 1959/1960 academic year. Since then, a university for languages of Darfur. Tayeb Salih, Rauf Mussad and Jamal
women has been created. The role and place of Sudanese Mahjub, now in exile, head the list of great contemporary
women may be measured by their degree of integration in writers.
the education system and the labour market. Their presence In the realm of the arts, Sudanese music, based on the
is most evident in the area of education, handicrafts and extremely rich traditional genre known as Maqam, is
administration. They predominate in the health sector and currently undergoing modernization. It is experiencing a
are also represented in a majority in the liberal professions. renaissance under the influence of modern Egyptian and
Islamic law studies dominate the curriculum at Omdurman Western instruments. Sudanese vocal art, directly influenced
University, which admits students from the khalwas, the by Arab music, is renowned for its extreme melodic
traditional Qur’anic schools. Two other universities have sophistication. Today, Sudan’s traditional and classical
opened more recently, in Juba and Gezira, the latter being music genres are under threat by the mass media and
specialized in agricultural studies. The Khartoum Technical globalization. At the same time, the oral tradition remains
Institute offers university-level technology training. In 2001, one of the essential sources of Sudanese music, particularly
the literacy rate in Sudan was 78.1 per cent, and education in the southern regions, where it is firmly embedded.

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T h e d e v e lo p m e n t of m e d i a BIB L I O G R A PH Y
culture
ALI, A. I. M. 1972. The British, the Slave Trade and Slavery in the Sudan,
Media culture, which remains under state ownership, has 1820–1881. Khartoum University Press, Khartoum.
affected all aspects of Sudanese culture. Radio broadcasting, ANOUAR, A.-M. 1967. Anthologie de la littérature arabe contemporaine.
which began in Sudan in 1938, is largely credited with (Vol. 2). Éditions du Seuil, Paris.
opening up the entire country to modernity by targeting the BARBOUR, K. M. 1961. The Republic of the Sudan: A Regional Geography.
traditional communities as in all the Arab-speaking University of London Press, London.
countries of Africa. Its programmes, broadcast throughout BESHIR, R. M. O. 1970. The Southern Sudan – Background to Conflict.
the country, greatly contributed to the spread of the Arabic Khartum University Press, Khartoum.
of Omdurman. FAWZI-ROSSANO, D. 2002. Le Soudan en question. La Table Ronde,
Television was introduced in the 1960s, enabling images Paris.
to reach the smallest villages along with a plethora of HODGKIN, T. 1971. Mahdism, Messianism and Marxism in the
melodramatic Egyptian films. Among Arab countries, Sudan African Setting. In: YUSUF FADL HASAN. (ed.). Sudan in Africa.
has remained greatly dependent on Egypt with regard to the Khartoum University Press, pp. 109–27.
cinema and in other areas of media culture. The press and HOURANI, A. 1993. Histoire des Peuples Arabes. Éditions du Seuil,
publishing are developing as the cultural sphere expands, the Paris.
most widely read newspapers being Al-Ayam, Al-Sahafa and LAVERGNE, M. 1989. Le Soudan contemporain. Kathala, Cermoc,
the English-language monthly, Sudanow. Paris.

693
 34.9
THE MAGHREB
Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania

Saidou Kane

Mag h r e b So c i e t i e s (191 4 –19 5 4) inhabitants and their relation to the social and cultural
environment. The policy of settlement in Algeria, the
Well aware of Europe’s expansionist ambitions, Morocco protectorate in Tunisia and Morocco, and the more or less
and the countries of the former Ottoman Empire in North direct colonization of Mauritania and Libya were
Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) experimented accompanied by development and industrialization that
with all forms of European-inspired modernization (e.g. paved the way for dispossession and the confiscation of
the Tanzimat reforms in Egypt) to prevent the direct land, as well as the loss of key aspects of society and
colonization of their countries, which were deemed culture in the Maghreb.
‘ backward and therefore suitable for colonization’. The region’s population quadrupled in less than a
Consequently, customs and institutions attempted to century. From 1936 to 1947, the urban population of
i nte g rate t he d i st i nc t ly We ste r n conce pt s of Morocco grew by one million. In Tunisia, urbanization
constitutionalism, exercise of civil liberties, secularization increased from 23 to 32 per cent between 1921 and 1956;
of justice, liberty of thought, secular education, etc. The in Algeria, the urban population doubled from 1936 to
reformers acknowledged Europe’s superiority not only in 1954.4
technical matters but also in numerous other fields, except
religion.1
The far-reaching liberalization demanded by Europe Changing lifestyles and culture
resulted in the destruction of the Islamic legal system. The
community dimension of Islamic law (protection of The new urban structures and the sociocultural,
collective property, guarantee of a just wage, condemnation educational and transportation infrastructure of colonial
of usury) was seen as a barrier to the new property and society rapidly altered the lives of town-dwellers. Cities
commercial speculation. 2 However, neither reform modelled on principles of European town planning were
programmes that reduced the authority of the independent built alongside existing traditional towns, which became
state and enriched the foreigners, nor the settling of the the ‘medinas’, or historic centres, of these hybrid urban
debts contracted by local governments could prevent the structures. The modern city of Fez, built alongside the
progressive occupation of the countries of the Maghreb by old city by the French Resident-General Lyautey, best
the colonial powers claiming to ensure more effective exemplified this modernizing trend.
protection for European investments in those countries. The different layers of society that were drawn to the
The economic and legal means that made vassals of the new urban lifestyle contributed to the severing of
countries of the Maghreb at the end of the nineteenth and traditional community relations. For example, women
the beginning of the twentieth centuries was the prelude to enjoyed greater freedom in the towns, which facilitated
military violence that persisted until the mid-1930s. For looser marital ties than did the lineal, clan or tribal
over a century, the project to colonize the Maghreb had system of the less urbanized areas. In the towns, the elite,
been the centrepiece of the strategy for the replacement of trained at the modern education institutions, looked
the local Ottomans in north and north-east Africa.3 forward to the Westernization of their society and to a
new interpretation of Islam better suited to modern
conditions. The traditional elite, or ulama, crystallized
D i s m a n t l i n g of t r ad i t i o n al aspirations for a form of modernization free from foreign
society domination, along the lines of the modernist Arab-
Islamic reform culture proposed by Jamal al-Din
Colonization brought about the reorganization of the al-Afghani (1839–1897) and Muhammad Abduh (1849–
Maghreb region and greatly affected the condition of its 1905).

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Challenging the colonial order industry with his film Le vent des Aurès (1965–66). In Les
mille et une mains (1972), Moroccan filmmaker Souhayl
The frustration resulting from the cultural and economic Ben Barka revealed the sufferings of the workers toiling in
loss inherent in the colonial process served to foment the the dyers’ souk of Marrakech and offered a new perspective
ideas of pan-Islamic nationalism between the 1920s and the on the increasing social problems. In 1975, Lakhdar Hamina
1950s. Some national movements and parties, distant echoes returned to the screen with La chronique des années de braise,
of the ‘Young Tunisian’ and ‘Young Algerian’ movements which depicts the tribulations of the Algerian people. In
of the beginning of the century, dealt colonization some 1972, anti-immigration xenophobia in France was explored
heavy blows. Among the early anti-colonial movements: the by Mauritanians Med Hondo (Les bicots, nègres, vos voisins),
Entente for National Liberation, the Association of Ulama and Sidney Sokhna (Nationalité: émigré).
of Ben Badis, the Étoile Nord-Africaine led by Messali al- Twentieth-century Maghrebian literature acted as a
Hajj, and the Évolués of Ben Jelloun and Ferhat Abbas, in catalyst for analysing the evolution of societies resulting
Algeria; the Neo Destour (New Constitution) Party and from the fusion of components from the West, the Arabic-
the Union Générale des Travailleurs Tunisiens, in Tunisia; speaking world and sub-Saharan Africa. Commenting on
and the Istiqlal party, in Morocco. the nahda or Arab renaissance, the Egyptian intellectual
Anouar Abdel Malek draws attention to the very rapid
development of a distinctly Arab culture ref lected in
The new Maghreb: scientific and technological conceptual vocabulary, the style of expression and the
development and cultural renaissance rhythm of the language. In this regard, after the First
World War, the great writers of the older generation (e.g.
The northern Maghreb is one of the rare regions of the the Tunisian poet Shabbi) continued to exert an influence
globe where French colonialism had the resolve to put in on the literature of the Maghreb. Moreover, the 1960s
place the structures essential for the development of a generation of writers – Abdellatif Laabi, Kheireddine and
modern economy. Nevertheless, French policy failed to Tahar Ben Jelloun (Moroccan), Mahmoud Messadi
satisfy the requirements for the internal development of (Tunisian) and Jean Amrouche and Kateb Yacine (Algerian)
modern states, and it could be argued that it even produced – became the spokesmen for those without a voice. The
certain handicaps in the form of obsolete equipment left autobiographical novel of Mohamed Choukri, Le pain nu,
behind by the colonizers. which was banned for 17 years by the Islamic establishment
The cultural renaissance was enriched by the osmosis because of its radical denunciation of certain relationships
between the traditional Maghrebian cultures and the between parents and their children, delighted anti-
European heritage. This dual tradition was noteworthy in conformists. Mohammed Dib, Malek Haddad, Kateb
the fields of the arts, literature and architecture through Yacine, Assia Djebar, Rachid Mimouni and Rachid
which the Maghreb sought to restore the historical links Boudjedra in the north, and Tène Youssouf Guèye, Jémal
that had been severed for more than half a century. The Ould Hassan and Ahmedou Ould Abdel Kader in the
Maghreb refocused its attention on the traditional Earthen south of the Maghreb, echoed the hopes and contradictions
habitats known as ksour (Matmata, Tatouine, Takrouna, of a society in search of its roots and its place in the Arab-
Toggourt, Ouadane, Chinguetti, Ksar Hadada, etc.) and Muslim, African and modern world.
the architecture of the northern cities (Tlemcen, Fez, Towards the end of the twentieth century, the media
Algiers, Tunis, Constantine). culture began to monopolize the spoken word in the
The Maghreb also revamped and redeveloped other Maghreb. From ascetics to troubadours, from politicians to
components of its cultural heritage, including the weaving men and women of culture, the leading players in society
of carpets, and other traditional woven crafts such as expressed themselves essentially through the press, radio
mergoums and bakhnougs. So successful was Tunisia in and television, but means of communication continued to
rejuvenating such crafts traditions that it assisted Mauritania be tightly controlled by the state. The transistor radio,
in reviving its tapestry production by providing training which appeared in the Maghreb in the 1960s, increasingly
grants. Algeria rediscovered Berber music, particularly from gave way to the new medium of television, which was
Kabylia, through the rai movement. implanted in nearly all towns, villages and encampments.
Theatre, which appeared in the Maghreb during the These media are expected to enable the Maghreb to emerge
period between the two world wars, developed rapidly. The from centuries of backwardness.5
author of the acclaimed novel Barrage (1940), Tunisian
writer and former education minister Mahmud Messadi,
paved the way for a literature of the Maghreb free from the
strictures of foreign influence.
Born in Egypt in 1917, the Arab cinema continued to be
dominated by melodramas, musicals and comedies. The notes
arrival of the talkies stimulated film production, and anti-
colonial themes first appearance around 1952. The Maghreb 1. J, Ganiage, L’Expansion coloniale de la France sous la iiie
made its mark in the motion picture industry in 1958 with République, Paris, 1968, p. 162.
the film Goha, shot in Tunisia by Jacques Baratier from a 2. A. Laroui, L’Histoire du Maghreb, un essai de synthèse,
screenplay by Georges Schéhadé. It was not until Casablanca, 1995, p. 234.
independence, however, that the Maghreb turned to anti- 3. A. Laroui, op. cit., pp. 304–22.
colonial themes. Clearly the Algerian War became a 4 . H. Isnard, Le Maghreb, Paris, 1966, p. 58.
predominant theme. The Algerian Lakhdar Hamina 5. M. Chelbi, Culture et Mémoire Collective au Maghreb,
Mohamed gave a boost to the Algerian motion picture Paris, 1993, p. 211.

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Paris.
AGERON, Ch.-R. 1968. Les algériens musulmans et la France, 1870–1919. GALLISSOT, R. 1964. Le Patronat européen au Maroc, 1931– 1942.
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AL-FÂSI, A. 1948. Al-Harakāt al-Istiqlāliya fī-l-Maghrib al- cArab. GANIAGE, J. 1968. L’Expansion coloniale de la France sous la iii e
(1st ed.). Cairo. République. Payot, Paris.
AL-MADANI, A.T. 1931. Kitāb al-Jazā’ir. Algiers. GSELL, S. 1913–28. Histoire ancienne de l’Afrique du Nord. (8 vols).
ALBERTINI, E., MARÇAIS, G. and YVER, G. 1937. L’Afrique du Nord Hachette, Paris.
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Tome 2: Les essais. Editions du Seuil, Paris. Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc. (2 vols) Payot, Paris.
AYACHE, A. 1956. Le Maroc: Bilan d’une colonisation. Editions sociales, LACOSTE, Y., PRENANT, A. and NOUSCHI, A. 1960. Algérie, passé et
Paris. présent. Editions sociales, Paris.
BEDJAOUI, M. 1961. La Révolution algérienne et le droit. Editions de LAROUI, A. 1995. L’Histoire du Maghreb, un essai de synthèse. Centre
l’Association des juristes démocrates, Brussels. Culturel Arabe, Casablanca, Maroc.
BERQUE, J. 1962. Le Maghreb entre deux guerres. Editions du Seuil, Paris. MOUILLESEAUX, L., MARÇAIS, G., LASSUS, J., BARBES, L., BOYER, P. and
BOURGUIBA, H. 1954. La Tunisie et la France: 25 ans de lutte pour une FARRAN, J. 1962. Histoire d’Algérie. Les Productions de Paris,
coopération libre. Julliard, Paris Paris.
BRAUDEL, F. 1976. Le Temps du Monde. PUF, Paris. MARCHESIN, P. 1986. Tribus, Ethnies et Pouvoir en Mauritanie.
BRIGNON, J. and AMINE, A. 1968. Histoire du Maroc. Hatier, Paris. Éditions Karthala, Paris.
BRULOT, J. 1982. La Civilization Islamique. Hachette, Paris. NOUSCHI, A. 1962. La Naissance du nationalisme algérien, 1914–1954.
CHARNAY, J.-P. 1991. La vie musulmane en Algérie d’après la Éditions du Seuil, Paris.
jurisprudence de la première moitié du xxe siècle. PUF, Paris. TERRASSE, H. 1949, 1951. Histoire du Maroc. (2 vols). Editions
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Européenne du Livre, Paris.

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conclusionS and ORIENTATIONS

Anouar Abdel-Malek

To be sure, all areas of the non-hegemonic Western world, provide the required answers. Since the seventh century ad,
from the sixteenth century until the late twentieth century, these roots were mainly Islamic, yet, Islamic societies were
have been made dependent on, and even occupied by, now perceived as decadent.
Western powers thereby leading to uneven development Centuries of decadence resulted from allowing centuries
and marginalization. Yet the Middle East continues to of dogmatism, deformations and dead weight. Hence the
experience protracted waves of aggression coupled with path to a renaissance: the return to original truths and to
concerted isolation, from the early Crusades until the the very foundations of Islam would clear the way for a
present day via centuries of colonialism and imperialism. genuine interaction with modern times, based on a careful
The wider region of the Middle East witnessed the gradual and unrelenting use of common sense. Such was the path
weakening of ancient civilizations, cultures and empires – a defined by the Islamic fundamentalists. However, their
process which has left a deep imprint on the entire region, position was firmly rooted in the belief that orthodoxy was
albeit with different levels of intensity. It follows that a the only ideology appropriate for the Ummah, or the
serious study of the wider Middle East today has to take Muslim community as a whole.
into account the overall cultural and societal crises caused By the early twentieth century, national independence
by protracted aggression and dependence. Hence, the movements struggling against foreign domination were
specific nature of the problem, which each and every society consolidated as Western imperialism sought to divide West
of the Middle East must face. At the heart of the matter, lies Asia and the Arab nations by proceeding beyond penetration
a two-part question: What is the cause of the decadence, and occupation. The First World War led to the Balfour
and how can a revival or renaissance be achieved? policy in Palestine, the Sykes-Picot agreement to divide the
A first wave of questioning began, quite naturally, from Middle East between Great Britain and France, the amputation
the comparison between the West, mainly Europe, and of Turkey, as well as the US control of the oil reserves in the
the Middle East. European modernity was closely linked Arabian peninsula and the Gulf region, as well as in Iran.
to a perception of the human environment by means of Thus the Middle East was forced to bear the brunt of direct
rationality, the satisfaction of human and societal needs, imperialist occupation and rule. Hence the differentiation of
and the convergence of scientific, industrial and bourgeois each of the two orientations into a conservative and radical
democratic revolutions. Hence the first part of the answer: wing, thus opening the path towards a united national front
the decadence of the Middle East can be seen as the direct dedicated to liberation, democracy and social justice. Eastern
consequence of the incapacity of their societies to societies in the Middle East, having thus become the centre of
understand, and benefit from, the processes and the rising tide of tensions, were bound to enact measures
achievements of European modernization. Decadence enabling them to take action. Quite naturally, these measures
could only be overcome through the imitation of the were implemented at the national level.
advanced world. This modernist orientation was In the Arab world, the notion of the two-tiered nation
predominant during the first half of the nineteenth gradually emerged, particularly at the time of the rise of the
century. Arab national unity movement in the mid-1950s. The first
After the 1840s, however, Europe began its onslaught on level was defined as the actual status of concrete national
the Middle East region, particularly on the southern and societies, the recognized nations of the international
eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Finance capital community. While the second level brought together all
buttressed by direct military interventions revealed the national units in the wider circle of their common cultural
limits of the liberal-modernist orientation. If a partnership context. On the other hand, the wider cultural historical
could not be achieved by imitating the West, it was necessary circles of Iran and Turkey were perceived more as a socio-
to seek a more convincing answer to the two-part question cultural area than as a regrouping of different national units.
raised above. Gradually, influential thinkers and activists Such were, and still are, the complex processes at work at
committed to preserving the major societies of the Middle the very heart of Middle Eastern societies. Yet, there seem
East felt that the immersion in their cultural roots would to be additional factors that can explain the exceptionally

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acute nature of processes now unfolding at the socio-cultural sector. To address these questions, these countries must
level. This can be understood in terms of the dialectics ensure the training of new types of cadres, thinkers and
between the surge towards modernity and resurgence in the actors, who must be future orientated while at the same
most complex geopolitical areas of our times, with great time maintaining a genuine respect for living traditions in a
tension between specificities and universality. modern context.
How could historical positivism be secured and sustained The dialectics of universality and specificities lies at the
in light of the relentless pressure of external negative factors? very centre of any meaningful analysis of concrete societies.
Quite naturally the level of the superstructure – ideas, Differences between the centre and peripheries often brings
beliefs, values – appeared more capable of providing a to the fore the notion of exceptionalism – as if the East,
positive outlet. Education – from the eradication of illiteracy including the Middle East, could not be understood owing
to the creation of centres of academic learning and scientific to its ‘exoticism’. Such are the difficulties in studying
research – was, and remains, the most visible weapon against Western societies. A first attempt to bridge the gap between
centuries of isolation and regression. The questions of the Western and Eastern cultures leads us to study their
national defence and security had to be faced simultaneously differences. From the onset, this approach of studying
with the vital requirements of socio-economic development differences, while leading to a better definition of quantitative
and cultural modernization. differences, fails to examine the complex factors that explain
Thus, the march towards a national society and cultural the wide panoply of differences within the all-encompassing
modernization proceeded despite great constraints. From global unity of humankind. Briefly stated, the study of
the onset, the development of infrastructures at the national difference attempts to bring together societies formed by
level required clarifying certain contradictions throughout vastly different, geo-historical conditions. However, the
the Middle East: the dialectics of specificity and universality, major difference between advanced societies and
centring on the quest for a clear vision of national identity marginalized developing societies resides in the fact that the
in all societies of the region, albeit with different degrees of advanced developed societies have access to ‘historical
urgency. surplus value’, while developing societies had, and still have,
The quest for a clear vision of national identity emerged no access to such privileged conditions.
as the direct consequence of the region’s historical processes. Hence the need to seek a more meaningful mode of
The decline of the Ottoman caliphate, with its centre in understanding differences with a view to identifying points
Turkey, led to the emergence of a series of new states in the of convergence. This explains the urgent search to define a
Arab Near East and North Africa. These national states new model on the part of the innovative thinkers and
had been ruled as provinces of the Ottoman Empire until activists of developing nations, particularly in the Middle
the new borders were drawn up by the victorious Allied East and Latin America. This search led to the elaboration
powers after 1918. Thus Turkey emerged from its war of of the concept of specificity in the 1960s and 1970s.
independence as a sovereign national state ruling a much- Characteristics shared by all societal formations are: the
reduced territory. New states were created, either as the production of means of subsistence (economy), the
restoration of previous historical formations, or more often continuity of human life (reproduction), social power (the
as the creation, literally, of new political entities mainly state), the relation to time (transcendence: philosophies,
from the Arab Near Eastern hinterland to the Persian Gulf. religions). Societies structured around these four common
Hence the quest for the greater circle of national cultural dimensions vary according to their geographical and geo-
identities: the Arab nation, in the Near Eastern sector of political context through history. Obviously a nomadic
the Arab world; as well as the orientation towards the wider society existing in a peripheral geo-political location over a
historical geo-cultural areas of Turkey and Iran in West relatively short period of time is profoundly different from
and Central Asia; the greater Maghreb North Africa; and a stable agricultural society whose major urban and social
the Nile Valley union. power centres are located in a sensitive geo-political area.
Having taken stock of the present situation in the Middle Thus, the distinctness of any given society could be defined
East helps us to examine the questions about the future on the basis of its geo-historical formation rather than its
with a degree of realism and clear-sightedness. postulated spiritual disposition. Thus it is necessary to
The future raises the question of feasibility in the new recognize the specificity of the peripheral developing
global environment. To be sure, the incorporation of the societies, as well as the specificity of each and every
Middle East in the globalization processes, albeit with advanced developed society. The bridge was thus built to
severe difficulties, can strengthen this vision. Yet, questions make sense of the dialectical differences and tensions
abound as we explore the concrete processes. How would within our common world, enabling all concerned to seek
the optimal model of economic modernization and areas of convergence while avoiding destructive
development be defined? Obviously, the liberal, or neo- confrontations.
liberal, model can fail to address the very different processes The recognition of specificity prompted a deeper
and factors at work in the societies under study. However, examination of the values and goals of advanced patterns of
since the traditional centralized economy does not provide development. If peripheral societies cannot aspire to joining
the required flexibility, original models of development, the ranks of advanced societies in the near future – as is the
bringing together the private and public economic sectors in case in most parts of the Middle East – perhaps the values
various configurations, are required. Those working in the and aims of advanced societies, mainly in the West, differ
economic field would like to give priority to the major from those of Middle Eastern countries. In other words,
ongoing modes of accelerated development and societal could there be different modes of development leading to
transformation, now being implemented with unprecedented different goals in spite of the reputedly universal nature of
success mainly in East Asia, and in certain parts of Latin fundamental values? This questioning arose in societies
America. Similar developments will occur in the cultural with a long history of progress and crisis. They were related

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to but not directly influenced by societies that came to The ‘civilizational’ orientation of Middle Eastern societies
prominence after the age of maritime discovery, the is gaining momentum at this historical period when social
Renaissance and the scientific and industrial revolutions. thinking in major centres of the world stresses the role of
Most of the Middle Eastern societies are keenly aware of civilization in contemporary ideas and projects, in light of
their past. Hence their tendency to reflect on the role of nuclear and ecological threats, with the objective of peace
civilization and of their being part of major cultures that and harmony in the world. In this context, the ongoing
laid the foundations of the modern Western world. Thus, development processes of West Asian and Arab societies
the search for alternative aims, values and projects emerged demonstrates a determination to aspire to a type of
as the very foundation of possible futures for the West- modernity that combines the notion of cultural heritage
Asian and Arab societies and as an alternative to a mere with the economic, scientific and technological requirements
imitation of the dominant socio-cultural patterns. And this for contemporary developments. In this quest,
search quite naturally gave prominence to ideas and values communitarianism and solidarity occupy a central role in
beyond more restricted material and economic opposition to confrontation, individualism and hegemony.
considerations. Thus the search for alternatives centred on Human values, a normative approach, religion and
the level of civilization. philosophy take precedence over material achievements.
This major orientation has taken place at a time when a This ‘civilizational’ orientation can enrich the processes
sense of crisis seems to pervade the contemporary Western of bringing different civilizations and cultures together. Yet,
world. Major fratricidal and world wars, serious incidents the forging of the new world is now proceeding along
of racia lism and intolerance, coupled with the dangerous confrontational paths. Challenge can give way to
unpredictability of economic development, increasing self- promise, should optimal time be allowed for West Asian
questioning in the West, division rather than agreement and Arab societies to advance peacefully towards achieving
appeared to constitute the very texture of the twentieth a more advanced degree of modernity with respect to the
century, at a time marked by the rise of a renewed self- specific nature of their cultures.
assertiveness on the part of Eastern societies and national As ever, time is of the essence – ‘time, the refreshing
liberation leading towards renaissance. river’ (Joseph Needham).

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SU B - SA H ARAN A F RI C A

Iba Der Thiam, coordinator

in collaboration with J. F. Ade-Ajayi, Lameck K. H. Goma,
Thierno Bah, Joseph-Roger de Benoist, Pierre Kipré, Elisée Coulibaly,
Penda M’Bow, G. B. Ogunmola and Arlindo Gonçalo Chilundo

INTR O D UCTI O N Africans. These claims related mostly to events before

1907, when a supervisory Colonial Office was established
This chapter covers the main trends in the scientific and to carry out reforms.1 Although the Allies committed acts
cultural development of sub-Saharan Africa in the as atrocious as those carried out by the Germans, the
twentieth century. At the beginning of the century, Africa victors occupied the German colonies, and proceeded to
was dominated by the colonial powers – Great Britain, distribute them: Togo and Kamerun went to the British
France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain. The and the French; German East Africa to the British, who
area under British rule included: Nigeria, the Gold Coast took Tanganyika, and the Belgians, who henceforth
(Ghana), Sierra Leone and the Gambia in West Africa; controlled Ruanda-Urundi; South-West Africa was
Uganda and Kenya in East Africa; Nyasaland (Malawi), governed by the Union of South Africa. The year 1918 thus
Northern and Southern Rhodesia in Central Africa; the marked the end of the process of conquest and partition
four colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange and ushered in the concepts of ‘trusteeship’ and ‘mandates’
Free State, as well as Basutoland, Bechuanaland (Botswana) to be supervised by the League of Nations, a responsibility
and Swaziland in Southern Africa. France controlled a that was passed on to the United Nations after the
large area known as French West Africa, including Senegal, Second World War. Despite this, the post-Depression rise
Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Upper of fascism in Europe tightened the grip of racism in colonial
Volta, and Niger; and the smaller French Equatorial Africa Africa, producing a new wave of immigration of poor
(Chad, Gabon, Middle Congo and Central Africa). The whites into Angola, Mozambique and Eritrea, the Italian
Germans held German East Africa, Kamerun, Togo and invasion and conquest of Ethiopia, and the doctrine of
South-West Africa. Leopold, King of Belgium, and his apartheid in South Africa. But it also led to the rise of
associates managed the Congo Independent State as a militant nationalism in Africa and hastened the demand
private venture until scandals about the ruthless methods for independence. 2 Colonial domination persisted until
of exploitation forced the Belgian state to take control in the 1960s, that is, for two-thirds of the century, before
1908 when it became the Belgian Congo. The Portuguese political independence began to be conceded to the states
retained Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and created by the colonial powers. Even afterwards, the
Principe and part of the Guinea Coast in West Africa. The colonial legacy remained a powerful factor in the
Italians occupied Eritrea and shared the Horn with the development of Africa. It will be necessary, therefore, to
British and the French. Spain controlled the island of discuss the scientific and cultural development of Africa in
Fernando Po and the stretch of the coast around the mouth three parts: (i) the policies and strategies of the colonial
of Rio Muni. Even Ethiopia and Liberia, which managed to powers; (ii) the aspirations of the African peoples as
remain independent, were under the shadow of the colonial enunciated in the struggle for decolonization and
powers that dominated their neighbours. independence; and (iii) the policies and programmes of the
At the end of First World War, the victorious Allied post-independence African states.
powers decided that the Germans had proved morally Development, defined as changes in the social, economic
unworthy to rule Africans as a result of the brutalities in and political life that result in improvement in the overall
the suppression of the Maji Maji revolt in East Africa and well-being of society, is widely considered to be the goal of
of the Herero in South-West Africa. The main accusations all governance and social life. Scientific and cultural
were f logging, forced labour, bloody suppression of developments are interrelated strategies in the pursuit of
rebellion, ‘barbaric destruction of tribes’ and the arming of overall development. Cultural policy involves defining the

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strategies necessary to promote the human resources and make the Bible available in those languages, and promote
way of life to enhance the development of the necessary schools and training colleges. Not without some resistance,
skills and technologies. It is thus essential that science and the people welcomed the new trading policies. They
technology be seen as integral parts of the culture so that, in encouraged the work of the missionaries in the belief that
promoting culture, science and technology can be enhanced, through literacy and Western education, their children
and vice versa. Every society and every culture has some would acquire some of the technology that enabled
level of science and technology that sustains it, particularly Europeans to manufacture such large ships and powerful
in the fields of agriculture and food production – including guns, watches, and other interesting objects. The influence
animal husbandry, hunting, fishing – and health care. There of missionaries was spreading, but the most notable centres
are science and technology also in various crafts and of missionary work were to be found in different parts of the
economic activities such as glass-working, weaving, pottery, coast of West Africa, Southern Africa, and Madagascar. It
gold and silver smithing, metalworking, etc. Science and