Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age

by Modris Eksteins Professor

Overview

Named "One of the 100 best books ever published in Canada" (Literary Review of Canada), Rites of Spring is a brilliant and captivating work of cultural history from the internationally acclaimed scholar and writer Modris Eksteins.

A rare and remarkable cultural history of World War I that unearths the roots of modernism.

Dazzling in its originality, Rites of Spring probes the origins, impact, and aftermath of World War I, from the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945.

Recognizing that “[t]he Great War was the psychological turning point . . . for modernism as a whole,” author Modris Eksteins examines the lives of ordinary people, works of modern literature, and pivotal historical events to redefine the way we look at our past and toward our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780395937587
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/14/2000
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	521,073
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

Modris Ekstein is a professor of history at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus.

Table of Contents

	Map of the Western Front	xi
	Preface	xiii
	Prologue: Venice	1
Act 1
I	Paris	9
	Vision	9
	May 29, 1913	10
	Le Theatre Des Champs-Elysees	16
	Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes	21
	Rebellion	33
	Confrontation and Liberation	39
	Audience	44
	Scandal as Success	50
II	Berlin	55
	Ver Sacrum	55
	Overture	64
	Technique	70
	Capital	73
	Kultur	76
	Culture and Revolt	80
	War as Culture	90
III	In Flanders' Fields	95
	A Corner of A Foreign Field	95
	Guns of August	98
	Peace on Earth	109
	The Reason Why	115
	Victorian Synthesis	128
	Is There Honey Still for Tea?	131
Act 2
IV	Rites of War	139
	Battle Ballet	139
	Themes	142
	Transvaluation	155
V	Reason in Madness	170
	Theirs Was Not to Reason Why	170
	Duty	176
VI	Sacred Dance	192
	War God	192
	Congregation	202
VII	Journey to the Interior	208
	War as Art	208
	Art as Form	215
	Art and Morality	223
	Avant-Garde	227
Act 3
VIII	Night Dancer	241
	The New Christ	242
	Star	247
	Lest We Forget	252
	Itinerary and Symbol	261
	New Worlds and Old	267
	Associations	271
IX	Memory	275
	War Boom	275
	Life of Death	277
	Fame	285
	Cloud Juggler	298
X	Spring Without End	300
	Germany, Awake!	300
	Victim Hero	305
	Art as Life	311
	Myth as Reality	315
	"Es Ist Ein Fruhling Ohne Ende!"	325
	Acknowledgments	335
	Notes	337
	Selected Sources	367
	Index	371

Editorial Reviews

"A Fertile Book." — Paul Fussell

"A bold and unforgetable journey into the heart of our Daemonic century." - Alfred Kazin —

From the Publisher

``In a trailblazing, iconoclastic work of cultural history, Eksteins links the modern avant-garde's penchant for primitivism, abstraction and myth-making to the protofascist ideology and militarism unleashed by WW I,'' reported PW . ``This provocative and disturbing reappraisal of modernism rings with authority.'' Photos. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A brilliantly conceived and wonderfully written book of cultural and intellectual history that considers the impact of World War I on the 20th century. Ekstein (history, Toronto) begins by arguing that the ballet The Rite of Spring prefigured the mass psychology that was necessary to the waging of the war. He then carefully elucidates how the soldiers who fought experienced and internalized the horrors of the trenches. The last third of the book deals with the postwar era, considering Lindbergh's flight and its effect on Europe, the best seller All Quiet on the Western Front , and the Hitler phenomenon. Like Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory (LJ 7/75), this will likely become required reading for anyone who seeks to understand the central importance of the Great War to the decades that followed. For both public and college libraries.-- Ann H. Sullivan, Tompkins Cortland Community Coll. Lib., Dryden, N.Y.

Library Journal

Describes World War I as the cultural fulcrum on which history turned into the modern age. From the premier of Stravinsky's Rites of Spring in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945, Eksteins (history, Toronto) traces the origins, impact and aftermath of the change through the lives and words of ordinary people, works of literature, and such events as Lindberg's flight. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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