Europe’s 1930s political chaos formed the backdrop for existentialism’s rise

Evidence

As titles go, that of Husserl’s last unfinished work The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology is not as arresting as Nausea. But the word at its head, ‘crisis’, perfectly sums up mid-1930s Europe. Mussolini’s Fascists had been in power in Italy for over a decade, since 1922. In the Soviet Union, following Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin had manoeuvred himself into a position of control by 1929 and spent the 1930s starving, torturing, imprisoning and executing people in vast numbers. Hitler, having consolidated his first election victories in 1933, made his expansionist ambitions increasingly clear. In 1936, civil war broke out in Spain between the left-wing Republicans and the fascist Nationalists led by General Franco. Everything seemed to be conspiring to divide Europeans and lead them into another war. This was a prospect greatly feared, especially in France, where the First World War had killed around 1.4 million French soldiers in the trenches alone. The country itself was literally scarred by war, since so much of it had been fought on French soil, and no one wanted to see it happen again. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 399

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the historical context chapter in the earlier reading of The Defeat of the Spanish Armada and general European warfare history; also frames why ‘crisis’ became Husserl’s governing word for the era. — connects to: Modern existentialism originated in a 1932-3 Paris bar conversation — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 8; Existentialist philosophy was shaped by the wars and politics of the European century — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 103; Post-war existentialism thrived on the excitement of a shattered world — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 529 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Post-war existentialism thrived on the excitement of a shattered world #expands (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 529
• Fascism’s violence initially registered as absurdity rather than politics for the Existentialists #qualifies (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 256