Interwar Research Articles

Blind Spots in Crowds, Masses, and Multitudes

The brief historical overview comprises an account of classical crowd theories and their contemporary metamorphoses to contextualize the thematic section of the journal. Regarding the proverbial “age of the crowd” of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe, a variety of attempts of conceptualization proved controversial but productive. Hyppolite Taine, Scipio Sighele, or Gustave Le Bon approached the phenomenon dominantly in psychological terms foregrounding the destructive elements of mass dynamics. In the interwar period, however, a first wave of differentiation might be detected, insofar as younger academic sub-disciplines, i.e., social statistics, seek to grasp the crowd as a structure with its intricate and partly paradoxical qualities. In recent scholarship, however, the diversification of the concept seems to have become even more complex: by shifting the focus from the “object crowd” to the “subject crowd”, descriptions of the multitude, the network, the swarm, or the assembly reflect the need to think of the crowd as an autonomous agency with emancipatory potentials.

’Gypsies’, Natural Monogamy, and Violence Full of Love

The paper examines modern knowledge about non-human primates in Czech travel narratives concerning Africa and biological journals from the late nineteenth century to the end of the interwar period. Particular attention is given to the way discourse on primates and anthropological discourse mutually influenced each other. Inspired by the intersection of human – animal studies, critical race theory, and gender studies, the paper emphasizes the anthropomorphizing character of biological discourse and popular travel narratives. At the time, presentations of primates created a specific anthropological resource and, in addition, helped to naturalize the dominant racial and gender ideologies. In the context of the Austrian–Hungarian and Czechoslovakian relative inability to obtain colonial possessions in the way western powers did, the representations of anthropomorphized non-human primates can also be interpreted as a specific field where Czech colonial fantasies about dominance were expressed.

Writing war: Owen, Spender, poetic forms and concerns for a world in turmoil

There is a significant shift in the literary treatment of war between the trench poets and the subsequent generation of British poets, an understandable one given their very different experience and investment in the war itself. This paper discusses a selection of poems from Wilfred Owen’s (1893–1918) and from Stephen Spender’s (1909–1995) oeuvres as products of their different historical moments in order to reflect upon crucial transformations in poetic forms—especially the elegy—and concerns in the interwar period, a time open to the violent and chaotic experiences that a turbulent history was producing.

„W tej sytuacji sprawę znów odłożono”. Kwestia prawosławia w województwie krakowskim na marginesie sprawozdania Wydziału do spraw Wyznań z 1969 r.

After World War II, the displacement of the population irreversibly changed the ethnic and religious structure of south-eastern Poland. The Lemko people who lived in the districts of Nowy Sącz and Nowy Targ were displaced from the area of the Kraków voivodeship. Most of the people belonging to this ethnic group were of the Greek Catholic faith. In the interwar period, however, some of them converted to Orthodoxy. There were nine churches of this religion in the Nowy Sącz district. All of them were closed due to the displacement of the faithful. The liberalization of the system allowed expatriates to return. For many reasons only few of them returned. None of the Orthodox parishes in the Krakow Province resumed their activities. However, efforts were made to set up pastoral centers. This was met with the reluctance of the local authorities. In 1969, the national religious administration conducted a survey on the functioning of the Orthodox Church in the country. In response, a report was prepared on the situation of this religion in the Krakow Province.

Miraculum Leona Lustra – powstanie i dzieje firmy do 1945 roku

The “Miraculum” company, which was one of the most famous cosmetics’ producers in the interwar period and in the People’s Republic of Poland, was established in 1924. Its founder, Leon Luster, a doctor from a Jewish family, was one of the pioneers of dermatology and cosmetology in Poland. From the medical practice in Krakow and writing in the women’s press, he moved on to the production of cosmetics. The company’s success was based on innovative products and extensive advertising. The entrepreneurship of his son-in-law Witold Böhm was also of great importance. During the German occupation, “Miraculum” was taken over by the Germans. Leon Luster initially stayed in Kraków and supported the work of the factory, in 1941 he decided to move to Grybów, where he was hiding due to his Jewish origin. In 1943, handed over to the Germans, he probably ended his life in the ghetto in Nowy Sącz.

The league of nations as an imperial assemblage: coloniality, indirect rule and the actualization of ‘International Law’

Abstract In this article, I reconceptualise the League of Nations as an Imperial Assemblage that embeds and is embedded by coloniality. Relying on the return to the League’s historisisation by Third World Approaches to International Law, I argue that we can understand the League as a governance body that works across scales of international, transnational and local actors, processes and structures to reiterate coloniality within the mandated territories. I utilise Deleuzian notions of assemblage alongside the concept of ‘coloniality’ within the literature of decolonial theory within International Relations and Sociology to show how the work of the League’s various actors, processes and structures across different scales made, actualised and evolved the laws on Forced Labour and Slavery from 1925 to 1932 in the inter-war era with a particular focus on Mandate Territories B and C.

In and Out of the Text: Polish 1920s Avant-garde Poetics of Pleasure

“We are related to enjoyment as something which intimately belongs to us, to our corporal existence and inner vitality, yet is separated from and independent from us, and thus can be surprising, bewildering, burdensome, disgusting, overwhelming, terrifying, thrilling, conflicted, uncanny, uncontrollable (and sometimes even pleasurable)” – claims Aaron Schuster (2016: 44). According to the theorist, enjoyment can manifest as its opposite, especially in the context of its representations in literature. In this essay, I would like to look at avant-garde erotic poems from the interwar period that address the fascinating entanglement of the bodily and the textual. The metaphors of reading and writing, lyrical dialogue between some of the poems, metatextual reflections on the nature of erotic poetry, and the problem of embodiment are some of the strategies that Bruno Jasieński (Moja nieśmiertelność [My Immortality], Słowo o słowie [A Word about a Word], Na bis [An Encore]), Tadeusz Peiper (Naga [Naked], Ja, Ty [Me, You]), and Mila Elin (Książka [The Book], Głód [Hunger]) use to discuss the joys and challenges of trying to represent jouissance in the text. The starting point for my reflection is Alenka Zupančič’s diagnosis of a similar type of satisfaction coming from sex and talking about sex and her insights on the procedures of intellectualizing sexuality.

“Un prophète discret”

Abstract This article analyzes how the French fascist and collaborationist author Pierre Drieu la Rochelle thought critically about the forms and the functions of the modern writer-prophet. In essays dedicated to the cases of D. H. Lawrence and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as to his own ideological and literary trajectory in the interwar years, Drieu defined the true prophet as a writer of decadence, one compelled to narrate and embody the decline of the nation. By assuming this burden, the writer-prophet in turn becomes doomed to be misunderstood or ignored by his decadent contemporaries. This logic of prophecy’s ultimate failure provides a key to understanding the political and literary vision of Drieu’s autobiographical fascist bildungsroman Gilles (1939). Finally, this article considers how Drieu’s linking of prophecy and literary posterity can be seen as anticipating his recent controversial inclusion in the prestigious Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.

The notion and practice of psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period. Part 1.

The paper explores the development of psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry in the interwar period from the perspective of Kurt Danziger's historical psychology. Firstly, the organizational and social context of the development of Polish psychiatric care in the interwar period and its impact on the development of psychotherapy is outlined. Then, the most influential in Poland, European psychotherapeutic developments in the interwar period are reconstructed. Finally, the views of psychiatric personnel of three psychiatric facilities proposing psychotherapy as one of the main means of treatment of mentally ill patients are introduced: Dziekanka Psychiatric Hospital, the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw and Psychiatry and Neuropathology Clinic of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Psychiatric personnel from Dziekanka Psychiatric Hospital, directed by Aleksander Piotrowski, understood psychotherapy broadly, as the influence of the environment on the patient's psyche. Psychiatrists of the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw, Adam Wizel, Gustaw Bychowski, Władysław Matecki, and Maurycy Bornsztajn developed psychoanalytically influenced psychotherapy of schizophrenia. Bychowski also advocated for the application of psychotherapy in such neglected groups of patients as children and the intellectually disabled. Jan Piltz and Eugeniusz Artwiński pursued psychotherapy in the treatment of war neuroses at the Psychiatry and Neuropathology Clinic of the Jagiellonian University.

The notion and practice of psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period. Part 2.

The paper further explores the development of psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry in the interwar period. Jaroszyński attempted to sketch out the idea of "emotional psychotherapy". Stryjeński organized a counseling clinic for the mentally ill, using psychotherapy as one of the means of treatment. Bilikiewicz developed oneiroanalysis - a psychotherapeutic method of dream analysis based on modifications of psychoanalysis. Gottliebowa advocated for the use of psychoanalytically influenced psychotherapy in the gynaecologist practice. Markuszewicz considered psychoanalysis the only psychotherapeutic modality aimed at unearthing the real causes of mental illnesses. Henryk Higier proposed to consider psychoanalysis practically as a method of psychotherapy and saw its heterogeneity as its advantage. Critical views on psychoanalysis as a psychotherapeutic method were delivered by Wirszubski and Mikulski. In general, psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period was highly influenced by psychoanalysis. Moreover, the understanding and practice of psychotherapy in public psychiatric facilities differed from that in private practice. In public psychiatric facilities, it was used mainly to deal with psychoses, so it urged clinicians to modify the classic psychoanalytic approach. In private practice, psychiatrists were dealing mainly with cases of neuroses and therefore could apply standard psychoanalytic procedures. Methods of suggestion, persuasion and hypnosis, characteristic of nineteenth-century psychotherapy, were still in use in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period. The main obstacles to the development of Polish psychotherapy in the interwar period were antisemitic attitudes contributing to hostility towards psychoanalysis, as well as the biological orientation of the majority of the Polish psychiatric society.

Solitary Listening, Copyright, and Reification during the Interwar Years: A Discourse Theoretic Approach

Solitary Listening, Copyright, and Reification during the Interwar Years: A Discourse Theoretic Approach

Metamorphoses of superiority: German military missions in the interwar period as a (post)traumatic experience of expansion

Germany’s defeat in the Great War deformed the development of its armed forces, yet did not force it to abandon the idea of revising the Versailles Peace. The sharp reduction of the Reichswehr and the Reichsmarine, as well as political crises, exacerbated the problem of maintaining human resources. One of the tools for its preservation was the resumption of military missions in different forms and on different continents. Both official and unofficial missions, initiated earlier, formed future alliances and made it possible to circumvent many restrictions. Many of the sites of these activities – in the USSR, China, Japan, some Latin American countries – are well known, some remain virtually unknown and their significance is greatly underestimated, e.g. in Finland, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. The circumstances of this activity were shaped by multiple factors and depended on the conjuncture of international relations, as well as on the traditions of co-operation established prior to 1914 and greatly affected by the Great War. The historiography of the problem continues to grow, but concentrates on bilateral relations and lacks comparative approaches. A holistic examination of these German military missions, which is necessary for a proper assessment of this phenomenon in the history of the interwar period, has not yet been undertaken. Despite a number of source-related and historiography-specific problems, the study of German military missions will allow for the development of a number of research directions, including a discussion of continuity in German foreign policy, further development of transnational history, and analysis of the transformation of ideas of superiority and self-identification of European elites.

Skola på museum: Ernst Klein och Nordiska museets undervisningsavdelning 1929–1938

School at the museum: Ernst Klein and the Teaching Department at Nordiska museet, 1929–1938. This article examines the dynamic relationship between schools and museums during the 1930s. It investigates how elementary school teachers and students became a prioritized audience for Nordiska museet in Stockholm by analyzing the foundation of the museum’s teaching department (“undervisningsavdelningen”) and the work of the museum’s first lecturer Ernst Klein (1887–1937). Material from the museum’s archive reveals how a mutual beneficial relationship was established between the museum and local schools in the 1930s and how visits to the museum gradually was included in the elementary school curriculum. The study cast new light on the reciprocal development of the two institutions in the interwar years and stresses the importance of local circumstances and individual actors’ initiatives when analyzing past teaching practices.

The colonial labour question: Trade and social expenditure in interwar Africa

Access to education and health care are core development goals of the United Nations since its inception. Today, almost all countries have education and health systems in place. In former colonies, the historical roots of these systems can often be traced back to colonial times. In this article, we argue that spending on social services for the local population was seen as a necessary condition to expand the trade-based colonial economy especially in the initial stage of social services dating back to the interwar period. Using novel data on health and education expenditure in 35 former British and French African colonies during the height of their empires (1919–39), we show that trade volumes account for a large share in the variance of expenditure on education but not health services, and that present-day expenditures partly reflect these patterns. Our results suggest that similar mechanisms are at play within the two empires and differences between them are in degree rather than in kind.

‘For everything, the local priest is a helper in adversity’: Catholic clergy and the new order in post-Habsburg Tyrol

ABSTRACT Austrian North Tyrol – the northern part of the former Habsburg Crownland not occupied and annexed by Italy after the Great War – is often presented as a redoubt of tradition and religiosity, in which conservative powerbrokers and the Catholic Church easily wielded rural allegiances to their own ends. Such narratives, however, elide the substantial efforts necessary to maintain this system through periods of crisis. In this article, the author investigates how a key group of actors within the Catholic conservative elite – Roman Catholic parish priests – navigated one of these periods: the post-imperial transition. Identifying the Tyrolean clergy as a sub-elite that mediated between higher political elites and the wider population, the author uncovers how local resistance challenged the influence of the Church in the aftermath of the war. In response, priests led a Catholic offensive aimed at winning back their parishes and reaffirming the hierarchies that underlay conservative rule in Austrian Tyrol. Ultimately, through their multiple functions and role as mediators, Tyrolean parish clergy contributed in often-overlooked ways to shoring up Catholic conservative hegemony and extending it across the interwar period.

Elite hostesses as disruptive forces: the country house in interwar Britain

ABSTRACT British high society in the interwar years was led by a small group of hostesses who were instrumental in heralding consistency after the upheaval of the Great War. Yet, they were also beacons of change, introducing the famous names of the day to each other. Likewise, the country house was entering a period of adjustment as many changed hands or were utilised more often due to the advent of the motor car and quicker travel. This article analyses the role of two hostesses who were at the centre of two of the greatest scandals of the 1930s and argues that the seclusion of the country house was significant to events. Wallis Simpsons role as de facto hostess at Fort Belvedere is explored through the writings of her contemporaries and analysed in the context of the Abdication Crisis. Nancy Astor's role as chatelaine of Cliveden House is explored in relation to her involvement with the Cliveden Set.

Central European strategies in the new Cold War: between balancing and bandwagoning

This article argues that the security of Central Europe – defined as stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black See–is based first and foremost on the viability and engagement of the Western alliance, understood as NATO and the European Union. The security and defense policies in the region are designed in relation to NATO and bilateral relations with the United States, with limited attempts to achieve some degree of self-sufficiency. Therefore, to understand the security of Central Europe and its individual nations, it is essential to understand their attitudes and fears related to alliances as well as their perceptions of Russia’s intentions. It is posited here that the concept that can best explain the behavior of the nations of the region, allowing also for forecasting future behavior, is the balance of threat theory, as put forward by Stephen Walt. According to the theory, the nations facing threat chose to either balance the threatening power by joining forces with other actors and forming alliances or joining in with their predator, which constitutes a bandwagoning behavior. Historically, especially during the interwar period, these strategies have been employed by Central European nations. Today, the security environment is arguably very different– we have NATO, EU, and American engagement in the region. However, the international environment has deteriorated recently, especially since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Arguably, Central European states have responded by falling, to some extent, into patterns of behavior familiar from the past, with some clinging to closer relations with their external patron (the United States) and some hedging their bets and opting for relative neutrality or even closer relations with Russia. The article argues that four factors determine states’ behavior vis-à-vis the Russian threat: geography, history, predator intentions, and the perception of allied reliability.

Economic Expertise at War: A Brief History of the Institutionalization of French Economic Expertise (1936–46)

Abstract French economic expertise developed significantly during the interwar period when economic issues, and particularly those resulting directly from World War I, became the overriding concern for Europe's democracies. Before the end of World War II, three major institutes of conjuncture had been created, all of them driven by the need for economic policy indicators. The IRES was established in 1933 by Charles Rist, the Institut Français de la Conjoncture was founded in 1938 by Alfred Sauvy, and ISEA was founded in 1944 by François Perroux. Not surprisingly, all three were working on productivity measures. From 1936, debate was focused on the issue of the forty-hour week and then moved to the context of the arms race and the preparation for an inevitable war. The war period resulted in shortages that required planning of production; and in the postwar period the focus was on plans for the reconstruction of France and then Europe more generally. All these periods generated demand for differentiated economic expertise in productivity. In 1946, the first French National Accounts were published alongside the establishment of the Commissariat Général au Plan and INSEE, which resulted in another distinct period.

Economic Responses to Nazi Aggression in Europe: Albert Hirschman and Paul Rosenstein-Rodan on the Economic Sovereignty of Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract Germany's expansion in Central and Eastern Europe was not just one among many aggressive moves by the Third Reich but the central strategy of the Nazi imperial project on the continent. Prominent economists, politicians, and think tanks agreed that crucial to this project was Germany's economic domination of the area, and they committed to developing a new vision for a postwar international order that avoided the instability and turmoil of the interwar years. This article discusses the analyses of the crisis of Central and Eastern Europe and solutions to it that Albert Hirschman and Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, then both virtually unknown and working independently one from the other, produced during World War II—Hirschman with a focus on the international dimension and Rosenstein-Rodan with a focus on the domestic one. This article offers a synthetic discussion of how the war deeply affected their economic thinking and how, in turn, their analyses became foundational elements of new and important disciplinary fields in the postwar decades, such as international political economy and development economics.

French Imperial Statecraft, Capital, Corporate Taxation, and the Tax Haven that Wasn’t, 1920s–1950s

Abstract Towards the mid-1920s, a growing number of colonial firms began to transfer their headquarters from the metropole to French colonies to evade taxation on investment capital income. These transfers threatened to transform French colonies into tax havens. Why was this averted? This article explores the politics of corporate tax planning in the French colonial empire and shows that French colonial tax havens could have materialized on a large scale at two critical junctures: first in the inter-war period and then in the aftermath of the Second World War. It argues that they eventually did not come into being because successive administrations within the French Ministry of Finance did not let it happen. Broader structural determinants — the relative weakness of the French metropolitan fiscal state in the inter-war period and the unwillingness to let international capital dictate French development strategies in the late colonial period — crucially influenced the positions taken by the Ministry of Finance. Post-war dreams of restored grandeur made French authorities much more reluctant to outsource development and let go of state prerogatives. This unrealized possibility sheds light on the role of state power in the making and unmaking of tax havens and contributes to a fast-expanding historiography.