by Peter Watson
uranium, 91, 393–6, 398–400
US minorities, racial (negroes; blacks; Afro-Americans): at Black Mountain College, 355; and colonialism, 527; cultural influence on artists, 60; economic/social deprivation, 653–5; education of, 533–4, 655; emancipation and integration, 519; and ‘Harlem Renaissance’, 215–17, 458; and intelligence, 206, 526, 533–5; and Johnson’s Great Society, 522–3; and legal equality, 644–5; and literary canon, 726–8; music and literature, 458–61, 528–9, 705; origins, 556–7; sporting prowess, 329; and US civil rights movement and direct action, 391, 523–4, 528–9, 644; and US racial attitudes, 108–12, 117, 124, 198, 206, 217, 282–3, 390–1, 458, 526, 654–5; war service, 390; women, 705
venereal diseases, 104–5
vernalization, 319–20
viruses: and medical research, 660–1
vitamins, 180
welfare state, 383–5, 444
West: dominance in modernist ideas, 760–2
white dwarfs, 572–3
will to power, 40
women: black, 705; and Christian belief, 604; de Beauvoir on, 422–3; liberation movement, 529–32; in non-Western cultures, 761; portrayed by Klimt, 35; in US literature, 705; see also feminism
work and workplace, 437–8, 440, 443, 447
World War I (1914–18): conduct and effects, 144–52, 156–8, 168; literary response to, 186–201; and poetry, 152–6
World War II (1939–45): effect on economies, 342, 388–90; effect on political allegiances, 386; effect on science, 375; outbreak, 361; progress of, 367, 386
World Wide Web, 738
wormholes (in space), 741
X-ray spectroscopy, 479
X-rays, 49, 479
youth: and counterculture, 595; and Komsomol, 293, 317; and Red Guards, 539–40 see also students
Zen, 597
Zionism, 45; see also Jews
About the Author
PETER WATSON was educated at the universities of Durham, London, and Rome. He has written for the Sunday Times, the Times, the New York Times, the Observer, and the Spectator, and is the author of War on the Mind, Wisdom and Strength, The Caravaggio Conspiracy, and other books. He lives in London.
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PRAISE FOR
THE MODERN MIND
“A remarkable narrative history of all the significant intellectual advances that made the century so glorious, so tragic, so revolutionary, so exciting…. So lucid and engaging that even the most complex and arcane thoughts and subjects are inviting.”
—Indianapolis Times
“Teeming with stories and ideas, alive with excitement of the time. He summarizes accurately, elegantly, and enthusiastically the lives and thoughts of hundreds of impactful thinkers in almost every discipline. He makes archaeology, history, and economics as scintillating as poetry, music, and astral theory. His inexhaustible interest is infectious. His all-devouring appetite stimulates the reader’s hunger for more material…. The result is breathtakingly entertaining, endlessly instructive, irresistibly enjoyable.”
—Felipe Fernandez-Armstrong, Sunday Times
“It is lively, opinionated, and written with verve. Watson takes the reader on a narrative tour of the intellectual, scientific, and artistic landmarks—some familiar, some unfamiliar—of the last century. Whether read consecutively, dipped into on occasion, or used as a reference work, The Modern Mind is impressive in both its range and ambition.”
—Bruce Mazlish, professor of history, MIT
“Chronicles this contentious century with a panoramic overview of the history of ideas in the twentieth century. Watson provides an evenhanded account of the development of ideas in disciplines ranging from philosophy and religion to the social sciences, economics, art, literature, history, science, and film.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“Watson has achieved the near-impossible: a concise reference that is also intellectually compelling—and a fascinating read.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“While this work is reminiscent of Paul Johnson’s Modern Times, Watson’s scope goes far beyond politics and history. This book will be read and consulted for many years.”
—Library Journal
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers.
THE MODERN MIND. Copyright © 2001 by Peter Watson.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03912-5
FIRST PERENNIAL EDITION published 2002.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:
Watson, Peter.
The modern mind: an intellectual history of the twentieth century /
Peter Watson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-06-019413-8
1. Civilisation, Modern—20th century. 2. Intellectual life—History—20th century. 3. Philosophy, modern—20th century. I. Title.
CB427.W33 2001
909.82—dc20 00-063166
ISBN 0-06-008438-3 (pbk.)
02 03 04 05 06 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
PREFACE
Introduction AN EVOLUTION IN THE RULES OF THOUGHT
PART ONE FREUD TO WITTGENSTEIN The Sense of a Beginning
1 DISTURBING THE PEACE
2 HALF-WAY HOUSE
3 DARWIN’S HEART OF DARKNESS
4 LES DEMOISELLES DE MODERNISME
5 THE PRAGMATIC MIND OF AMERICA
6 E = mc 2 , ⊃ / ≡ / v + C 7 H 38 O 43
7 LADDERS OF BLOOD
8 VOLCANO
9 COUNTER-ATTACK
PART TWO SPENGLER TO ANIMAL FARM Civilisations and Their Discontents
10 ECLIPSE
11 THE ACQUISITIVE WASTELAND
12 BABBITT’S MIDDLETOWN
13 HEROES’ TWILIGHT
14 THE EVOLUTION OF EVOLUTION
15 THE GOLDEN AGE OF PHYSICS
16 CIVILISATIONS AND THEIR DISCONTENTS
17 INQUISITION
18 COLD COMFORT
19 HITLER’S GIFT
20 COLOSSUS
21 NO WAY BACK
22 LIGHT IN AUGUST
PART THREE
SARTRE TO THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY The New Human Condition and The Great Society
23 PARIS IN THE YEAR ZERO
24 DAUGHTERS AND LOVERS
25 THE NEW HUMAN CONDITION
26 CRACKS IN THE CANON
27 FORCES OF NATURE
28 MIND MINUS METAPHYSICS
29 MANHATTAN TRANSFER
30 EQUALITY, FREEDOM, AND JUSTICE IN THE GREAT SOCIETY
31 LA LONGUE DURÉE
32 HEAVEN AND EARTH
PART FOUR THE COUNTER-CULTURE TO KOSOVO The View from Nowhere, The View from Everywhere
33 A NEW SENSIBILITY
34 GENETIC SAFARI
35 THE FRENCH COLLECTION
36 DOING WELL, AND DOING GOOD
37 THE WAGES OF REPRESSION
38 LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
39 ‘THE BEST IDEA, EVER’
40 THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK
41 CULTURE WARS
42 DEEP ORDER
Conclusion THE POSITIVE HOUR
NOTES AND REFERENCES
INDEX OF NAMES, PEOPLE AND PLACES
INDEX OF IDEAS AND SUBJECTS
About the Author
PRAISE FOR THE MODERN MIND
Copyright
About the Publisher