1st Edition

The Fin-de-Siècle World

Edited By Michael Saler Copyright 2015
    784 Pages 55 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    784 Pages 55 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This comprehensive and beautifully illustrated collection of essays conveys a vivid picture of a fascinating and hugely significant period in history, the Fin de Siècle. Featuring contributions from over forty international scholars, this book takes a thematic approach to a period of huge upheaval across all walks of life, and is truly innovative in examining the Fin de Siècle from a global perspective. The volume includes pathbreaking essays on how the period was experienced not only in Europe and North America, but also in China, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, India, and elsewhere across the globe.

    Thematic topics covered include new concepts of time and space, globalization, the city, and new political movements including nationalism, the "New Liberalism", and socialism and communism. The volume also looks at the development of mass media over this period and emerging trends in culture, such as advertising and consumption, film and publishing, as well as the technological and scientific changes that shaped the world at the turn of the nineteenth century, such as the invention of the telephone, new transport systems, eugenics and physics. The Fin-de-Siècle World also considers issues such as selfhood through chapters looking at gender, sexuality, adolescence, race and class, and considers the importance of different religions, both old and new, at the turn of the century. Finally the volume examines significant and emerging trends in art, music and literature alongside movements such as realism and aestheticism.

    This volume conveys a vivid picture of how politics, religion, popular and artistic culture, social practices and scientific endeavours fitted together in an exciting world of change. It will be invaluable reading for all students and scholars of the Fin-de-Siècle period.

    Introduction Michael Saler I: Overviews  1. Global Literatures of Decadence Regenia Gagnier  2. The City and Urban Life Peter Fritzsche  3. The Second Industrial Revolution Andreas Killen  4. The Modernity of the Fin de siècle John Jervis  5. Changing Concepts and Experiences of Time and Space Stephen Kern  II: Places  6. Europe a. France Mark S. Micale b. Britain Nicholas Daly c. Central Europe Suzanne Marchand d. Russia Olga Matich e. Italy Walter Adamson f. Spain Lara Anderson 7. United States Richard Cándida Smith 8. Canada D.M.R. Bentley 9. Latin America Adela Pineda Franco 10. Did China Have a Fin de Siècle? Maura Dykstra and Jeffrey Wasserstrom 11. Japan Selcuk Esenbel 12. The Middle East Jens Hanssen 13. India Ruth Vanita 14. Africa Rebecca J. Saunders  III: Politics in a New Key  15. The New Nationalism T.P. Baycroft 16. The New Imperialism Sascha Auerbach 17. The New Politics of "Higher Individualism" Chris Nottingham  IV. Mass Culture  18. Publishing Chris Hilliard 19. Transports of Speed Andrew Denning 20. Consumer Culture and Advertising H. Hazel Hahn  V. Knowledges  21. The Universities and the Human Sciences Peter Mandler 22. Philosophy Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen 23. The "New Physics" Helge Kragh 24. Biology and Eugenics Marius Turda 25. Psychology and Psychiatry Eric Shiraev 26. Medicine Andrew Smith  VI. Selfhood  27. Gender and Sexuality Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn 28. Race and Ethnicity Laura Tabili VII. Religion and Spirituality  29. Secularism/Atheism/Agnosticism Vincent P. Pecora 30. The Jewish Fin de Siècle Olga Litvak 31. Christianity Vincent Lloyd 32. Islam Mawra Elshakry 33. 2444 A.N.: Buddhism Donald S. Lopez, Jr. 34. New Age Fin de siècle Gary Lachman  VIII. Aesthetics 35. Music and the Gesamtkunstwerk Mark Berry 36. The Visual Arts  Michelle Facos 37. The Cinema Tom Gunning 38. Scientific Romance, Fantasy, and the Supernatural Roger Luckhurst 39. Children's Literature Seth Lerer 40. Realism Petra Dierkes-Thrun  Index

     

    Biography

    Michael Saler is Professor of History at the University of California at Davis. His publications include As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality (2012); The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: ‘Medieval Modernism’ and the London Underground (1999) and editor, with Joshua Landy, of The Re-Enchantment of the World (2009).

    *A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2015*

    "Saler has put together a prodigious, strikingly thorough collection of essays focused on the period around 1900...This overlapping—of the political, national, imperial, social, cultural, intellectual, scientific, spiritual, and artistic—is a good thing because it demonstrates the interactions between the various aspects of fin-de-siècle culture. A reader could hardly ask for a better one-volume treatment of current research. This collection of essays deserves the intense attention of anyone interested in the fin-de-siècle or in a broad understanding of cultural and global history of the near past. Nonspecialists will particularly appreciate the thorough index. Summing Up: Highly recommended." - J. Rogers, Louisiana State University Alexandria, USA, CHOICE Review

    "The Fin-de-Siecle World is an important and timely addition to what has become an interdisciplinary field, focusing on the "crucible of modernity" in late 19th century Europe. The welcome innovation of this volume is to extend our understanding of the fin-de-siecle phenomenon by embedding it within a global and transnational context beyond the epicenters of Paris and London. This book should be of great interest to scholars of European and global modernity." - Mary Gluck, Brown University, USA

    "Michael Saler has edited an extremely comprehensive work that covers almost every aspect of the Fin de Siecle that students should want to know about. The perspective is global and multi-disciplinary; the contributors are all experts in their respective fields. It should become a standard work for all those interested in the period." - Alan Sked, London School of Economics, UK

    "The book's global reach is very welcome... a splendid mosaic." - Margaret Menninger, Texas State University, USA

    “It is not only an intellectual pleasure to read but maps out the global fin-de-siècle in a way that makes it eminently suitable material for teaching the history of this period. For the non-specialist, almost every chapter offers gems of insight and interesting information that greatly contribute to the better understanding of the multiple ramifications of a topic. The visuals of the volume, which includes more than 50 illustrations with many different from the customary ones, are also very rich and rewarding for those looking to enhance their visual material in a course. With this set of strengths, The Fin-de-Siècle World, will definitely stand out as the best introduction to its topic for many decades to come.” - Alexander Vari, Marywood University, Scranton

     "Saler’s collection is expertly edited, cohesive and coherent. The era under consideration was one characterized by anxiety, by ambiguity, by a kind of grappling with rapid transformations across all aspects of social and individual experience. Saler and his authors capture this beautifully. The book does indeed make a world."

    Janine Utell, ELT

    "This is not an encyclopedia but a collection of articles that each demonstrates how the fin-de-siècle was a global phenomenon. Readers may pick and choose what articles are of most interest to them, world historians will find all the articles interesting and inspiring for their own research. It should be in all university and large public libraries"

    Roger B. Beck