BOOKS OF THE DAY
Fin de Siècle (E. L. Woodward) ..
Culture and Capitalism (Edwin Muir) .. The Savage Hits Back (Goronwy Rees)..
Bishop Butler and the Age of Reason (John Sparrow)
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Caravansary and Conversation (Arthur Waugh) Modern English Poetry (Derek Verschoyle) Detective Fiction (Rupert Hart-Davis) ..
Fiction (Hanish Miles) .. • • . • - •
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FIN DE SIÈCLE
By E. L. WOODWARD
ENGLISH readers have not given the twenty volumes published in France under the general heading Peuples et Civilisations the attention which they deserve. These volumes cover the history of the world from the earliest civilisations ; they are written by the ablest French scholars and edited by two of the leading historians at the Sorbonne. The series makes no attempt to compete with the sumptuously illustrated Propy- lden-Weltgeschichte published in Munich, but its scholarship is on a higher level, and its outlook more scientific. There is a certain foreshortening of the earlier centuries—nine of the twenty volumes deal with the period after 1763 ; but this foreshortening is perhaps necessary, and, in any case, responds to a large popular demand.
M. Baumont's volume describes the years of colonial expan- sion and imperialism between 1878 and 1904. These years began with the master period of Bismarck's diplomacy, when a system of interlocking alliances maintained the peace of Europe and the continental supremacy of Germany ; they end with the Anglo-French entente. During this quarter of a century of " high capitalism " the structure of industry was transformed, and the hinterland of tropical Africa opened to exploitation ; Japan became a world Power, and China ranked with Turkey as one of the " sick men " whose inheritance was coveted by States of more robust constitution. Within the orbit of Euro- pean domestic politics socialism, or the movement towards socialism, became a significant fact of the age. There was a general increase of comfort and well-being, and at the same time, in literature and art, a general dissatisfaction and uneasi- ness ; a new term, fin de slick, was invented to describe this d-F.scontent. The restlessness might well have been caused by the increasing fear of a great war which would destroy the delicate equilibrium of affairs. Yet, as M. Baumont points out, few people really thought, as late as 1904, that this war would take place. " On ne cesse de s'y preparer, mais on cesse cry croire." The ententes which blurred the clear alignment of Powers were regarded even by socialists as likely to make for peace. For this reason Jaures, in France, welcomed the Anglo-French agreement. A European war was less likely ; the peace of the world was no longer in German keeping, and the cooler heads in Germany realised that other nations were taking means to protect themselves against German demands for everything everywhere.
The period between 1878 and 1904 falls into two parts, though the dividing line is not plainly marked by a single event. The change in international relations came with the fall of Bismarck in 1890 and the conclusion of the Franco-Russian alliance between 1891 and 1893. In spite of his many faults of character and method, Bismarck had a deep sense of responsi- bility, and his genius was splendid enough for him to avoid mere vainglory. William II, clever, irresponsible, vulgar and unstable, resisted none of the temptations which assail a medi- ocre man in a great place. He was no judge of men, and was badly served because he did not deserve better service. Under his fitful, muddled direction, Germany undertook those un- limited liabilities which brought her to destruction. To the east, Nicholas II of Russia was frittering away his time in bicycling, lawn tennis, and photography, while the chances of reform were passing, and a handful of greedy knaves brought his country into the Russo-Japanese war. Nicholas II succeeded to the throne in 1894. Five years earlier the suicide of Rudolph L'Essor Industriel et l'Imp6rialisme Colonial (1878-1904). 131. M. .Baumont. Vol. XVIII in Peuples et Civilisations Histoite Gentrak: _Edited •by L. Halphen and P. Sagnac. .(Paris : Alcan. 70 francs.)
of Habsburg had left as heir to Francis Joseph the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, perhaps the most dangerous man, after William II, in Europe ; a pathological type, stubborn, fanatical, wayward, and wholly unfitted for his position.
Between 1889 and 1895 there had also been a change in the economic circumstances of Europe. From 1878, and earlier, until about 1895, Europe suffered from a long period of economic depression, due to many causes, among which a relative fall in the production of gold, and therefore a fall in prices, had perhaps the greatest single importance. After 1895 there came a series of prosperous years, with rising prices, an immense increase in the amount of gold brought into economic activity, and an equally vast development of production. The industrial concentration, the transformation of agriculture, the most violent onrush of the imperialist tide belong mainly to these years. It is possible that, with different guides, and in more favourable circumstances, this newly released energy might have been used, from 1904 until this day, wholly for constructive purposes, and that the War, which every one feared, and most people had ceased to expect, might never have taken place.
The period of M. Baumont's history might well have been the prelude to a peaceful and contented age, as far as the removal of material want can signify happiness. It is difficult for us, at this present time, to realise what might have happened ; most people find it easier to take refuge in an unscientific fatalism, and to assume that the troubles of society are and have been inevitable; that they are due to vast economic necessity, the inner logic of a particular phase of material development. Unfortunately, the causes of our distress are less dark and ineluctable. They are even ludicrous ; the result of accidents as silly and annoying as a slip over a banana skin left on an unswept pavement.
M. Baumont's book fills 600 pages ; it is impossible to summarise it, or even to criticise it in detail. His .method is excellent. He divides his subject into three books, of approxi- mately equal length. The first book deals with the diplomatic history of the years 1878-1904, and the colonial expansion of the great Powers ; the second book describes the imperialism of these Powers between 1895 and 1904 ; the third book, which the " ordinary reader " may find the most interesting of the three sections, examines the different social, economic, and political forces at work, and the reaction of literature and art to the events and movements of the time. M. Baumont aims at compression and comprehension ; at times, he gives little more than a list of names ; inventors, artists, painters, social reformers. On the other hand every one, or nearly, every one is included, and a reader who wants to follow up the history of any man or movement will find useful guidance in the short bibliographies which precede each chapter, and, often, the subdivisions of the chapters. The style of the book is clear ; the judgements are very fair and impartial, and M. Baumont has the art of summing up the essentials of a complicated subject in a few short, easy sentences. Some of these sentences are of general application. One of them might well be remembered today in relation to interference with other peoples' revolutions : " les peuples affranchis n'ont pas de reconnaissance ; ils ont des pretensions." Another sentence has a significance which western Europeans have not fully understood : " dans rimpirialisme japcmais, it entre plus de mysticisme que de convoitise." And, on a different theme : " de tous les arts plastiques, l'architecture est le moms favorise ; moms mobile et plus charge de matiere, elle a plus de peine a s'adapter a la vie moderne."