I think Paul Fussell, perhaps, did a better job of this idea in his book The Great War and Modern Memory. The approach works well: Eksteins strikes the right balance between supplying general information and counting on the reader to have a little background on the subject; he writes with both the rigor of academia and the accessibility of popular history.

. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Refresh and try again. Women, even if not combatants, certainly both acted in and were acted upon by the war. Maybe. Much ink has been spilled in trying to locate the fons et origo of modernism, and Modris Eksteins is not the first historian to suggest that it occurred on or about the evening of May 29, 1913 at the Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps.” Eksteins’ social history, however, is as thoroughly compelling as any, re-introducing you to characters in both the balletic production, but also the broader cultural mise-en-scène: the eccentric Diaghilev and Nijinsky, the founding of the Ball. .

If you like reading history, I do recommend this book. Eksteins' Rites of Spring, on the other hand, it's the chronicle of a difficult birth, the birth of an epoch. Kitsch is a form of make-believe, a form of deception. “The ballet contains and illustrates many of the essential features of modern revolt: the overt hostility to inherited form; the fascination with primitivism and indeed with anything that contradicts the notion of civilization; the emphasis on vitalism as opposed to rationalism; the perception of existence as a continuous flux and a series of relations, not as constants and absolutes; the psychological introspection accompanying the rebellion against social convention” (p. 52). Eksteins calls himself a post-modern narrativist, and he gives the reader a lot of responsibility. It is really not a history book in the conventional sense. In a remarkable display of originality and discerning historical analysis. And of course, closing out the modern era, Adolph Hitler (that is, if postmodernism commences post-WWII).

But he never really defines what he means. A thoroughly enjoyable account of how the modern world came to be modern. He uses events like the opening night of the Rites of Spring ballet, or the 1914 Christmas Truce, or the flight of Charles Lindbergh to reveal the hearts and minds of Europeans. You know the saying: There's no time like the present...unless you're looking for a distraction from the current moment. Rites of Spring is a work of art. Please try again. It's very good, particularly for anyone with an affinity for the first World War and the break from the old world of decadent Empire it represented. It discovers the link between Stravinski's Rites of Spring and World War I in just the same way that some of us discover the meaning of life in a dream, then fail to remember it in the morning. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

This is evoked by the production of Stravinsky's "The Rites of Spring" as performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1913 in Paris. Act I – Eksteins draws an extended parallel between the ballet Rites of Spring and the outbreak of the First World War. If you're looking for a pretentious bit of philosophizing around one of the most interesting and least easily understood dramas of the 20th century, this is the right book. He then carefully elucidates how the soldiers who fought experienced and internalized the horrors of the trenches. This book succeeds in doing exactly what it sets out to do, which is provide a cultural history of the Great War, beginning with the avant-garde and the premiere of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in 1913 and ending with Hitler's rise to power. The approach works well: Eksteins strikes the right balance between supplying general information and counting on the reader to have a little background on the subject; he writes with both the rigor of academia and the accessibility of popular history. More importantly, he presents the reader with a wealth of details about WWI and the growth of fascism. Eksteins calls himself a post-modern narrativist, and he gives the reader a lot of responsibility. I think the idea that World War 1 was the defining point for the end of the Victorian age and the start of Modernism is valid and an inherently interesting subject. 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. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. It’s unsurprising that history’s earliest known magical rites involved the Only this particular guy fails to say "oh shoot, I just. . 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. )�KbQ�$���4U���Wɛ�ⱡ?/�@���`in�J�U,����H�B�E�[DqY��6����_����)��*�������v,܎��(E��(U9m��q���2�^6;`�2��Y�m�4*z�a�3^E=��0s��8z+U$�)���Q{�>9�ϡ����舱�s���"�B��ú(*

Probably my favorite history book I've ever read. Presenting events, roughly in chronological order, he tells a cultural history from the days leading up to World War One to the beginnings of World War Two. Solipsism, disengagement, or flirtation with (or even adherence to) fascism are not to my mind, the only possible effects of a breakdown of tradition and a celebration of innovation. Much ink has been spilled in trying to locate the fons et origo of modernism, and Modris Eksteins is not the first historian to suggest that it occurred on or about the evening of May 29, 1913 at the Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps.” Eksteins’ social history, however, is as thoroughly compelling as any, re-introducing you to characters in both the balletic production, but also the broader cultural mise-en-scène: the eccentric Diaghilev and Nijinsky, the founding of the Ballets Ruses. Eksteins co-opts the premiere of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" as a running metaphor for this "modernist" transition in European social/cultural thought.

Eksteins is not a bad writer by any means--far from it!

Subjectivity is not always solipsism. His language would be exceptional in a book of poetry. Different sections focus in on different elements of the arts and political upheaval, including chapters highlighting specific cultural works, cities, or moments in time. (In effect, the OLD is swept away by a series of events and the NEW is now free to grow and bloom on the ashes and wreckage of the old.) Welcome back. to describe the cultural and social nuances of an age and explain how and why they change; and he succeeded brilliantly here. Looking for something that followed the basic idea of a mix between literature and war I found this extraordinary book.

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. especially Germany and Russia as they were and what was to become. Its anti-rational and nihilistic tendencies had however limited its adoption by the wider public.

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