The Modernist Wish
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- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Publication date:
- 24 April 2026
- 14 May 2026
- ISBN:
- 9781139020053
- 9780521811453
- Dimensions:
- (229 x 152 mm)
- Weight & Pages:
- 0.81kg, 540 Pages
- Dimensions:
- Weight & Pages:
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Book description
As the 20th century recedes, how should its history be written? The 1920s and 1930s were a time of paradox, of great conflict and contradiction. If those years were the crucible of a new metropolitan modernity and its possibilities, what were the forward-moving forces and ideas? What were their effects and where did they lead? The Modernist Wish provides a comprehensive, non-hierarchical and integrated history of Europe's early 20th century across the whole of the continent. Uniting social, cultural-intellectual, and political history alongside military-strategic and geopolitical dimensions, Geoff Eley examines the distinctiveness of early-20th century modernity. He draws out the exceptional character of the interwar years and their longer-run social and political fallout, based in the excitements of metropolitan living, the progressive achievements of an industrialized machine world, and the material possibilities for fashioning new forms of selfhood. In presenting a truly European history for our time, this study encompasses both the grand narratives of large-scale transformations, and the everyday realities of individual lived experiences.
Reviews
‘This comprehensive and commanding history is a tremendous achievement. The book explores Europe’s dark history. It also looks beyond it. Eley embraces the messy, contradictory and unresolved processes at work in a deeply humane reading of modern Europe’s past.’
Patricia Clavin - co-editor of Internationalisms: A Twentieth-Century History
‘A sweeping, bold new interpretation of Europe’s history between two world wars: among all the dark foreboding and waking dread that undoubtedly stalked the continent, Eley finds strands of optimism and worlds of possibilities, temporary glimpses of hope that would resurface after 1945 and shape the world to come. Written in clear, beautiful prose, a landmark achievement.’
Vanessa Ogle - author of The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950
‘A master social historian drops us into the scrum of politics, aesthetics and everyday life between Europe’s two world wars. As alive to the era’s victories as its violence, Geoff Eley reminds us that the future is never set.’
Quinn Slobodian - author of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism
‘Resonating far beyond the historical period it examines, at a time when Europe is once again confronted with war, forced displacement, humanitarian crises, and growing political polarization, the book deserves to be read by not only historians of modern Europe but also political scientists, sociologists, and anyone seeking to learn from previous upheavals and understand the historical roots of today’s geopolitical and humanitarian crises.’
Oksana Ermolaeva Source: Global Europe
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