The Modernist Wish
A History of Europe, 1914-1939

A comprehensive, integrated history of Europe's early 20th century, seen as the crucible of a new metropolitan modernity.

Geoff Eley (Author)

9780521811453, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 May 2026

540 pages
23.1 x 16.3 x 4.5 cm, 0.81 kg

'A master social historian drops us into the scrum of politics, aesthetics and everyday life between Europe's two world wars. As alive to the era's victories as its violence, Geoff Eley reminds us that the future is never set.' Quinn Slobodian, author of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism

As the 20th century recedes, how should its history be written? The 1920s and 1930s were a time of paradox, of great conflict and contradiction. If those years were the crucible of a new metropolitan modernity and its possibilities, what were the forward-moving forces and ideas? What were their effects and where did they lead? The Modernist Wish provides a comprehensive, non-hierarchical and integrated history of Europe's early 20th century across the whole of the continent. Uniting social, cultural-intellectual, and political history alongside military-strategic and geopolitical dimensions, Geoff Eley examines the distinctiveness of early-20th century modernity. He draws out the exceptional character of the interwar years and their longer-run social and political fallout, based in the excitements of metropolitan living, the progressive achievements of an industrialized machine world, and the material possibilities for fashioning new forms of selfhood. In presenting a truly European history for our time, this study encompasses both the grand narratives of large-scale transformations, and the everyday realities of individual lived experiences.

List of Figures
List of Maps
Acknowledgements
Preface: Europe after War and Revolution, 1914–1939
Prelude: Europe on the Cusp of the Modern
Part I. Europe after War and Revolution, 1914–1939
1. A New Kind of War, 1914–1918: Mass Killing and its Effects
2. A New King of War: Complete Mobilization
3. Socialist Challenge, Counter-Revolutionary Response, 1917–1923
4. Territories, Nations, and States: Redrawing the Map of Europe, 1914–1923
5. National Bodies, New Women, Damaged Men
Part II. European Modernities: Cities, Selfhood, and the Future
6. Modernity and its Discontents: Estrangement and Possibility
7. Popular Culture and Intellectual Life: Entertainment, Improvement, Contestation
8. Modernity and its Discontents: Art, Literature, Aesthetics
9. Intellectuals, Emancipation, and the Self: Learning to be Modern
10. Modernity and its Futures: Science, Technology, Planning
Part III. Europe and its Others
11. Europe in the World, 1914–1940: Colony and Empire
12. Empire at Home: Race and the Color Line
Part IV. Towards Catastrophe
13. Capitalism in Trouble, Europe in Depression: Breakdown, 1929–1936
14. Fascism, Strong States, and the Challenge of Democracy: A Europe of Dictators, 1922–1939
15. Crisis after Crisis, 1931–1938
16. Back to War, 1938-1939
17. Conclusion: What is to Come?
Suggestions for Further Reading: Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]