The Shape of Things to Come, page 56
11. English Statute of Mortmain: These acts of parliament (the Statute of Mortmain, 1279; the statute of Provisors, 1351; and the Statute of Praemunire, 1393) restrict or forbid the giving of property to religious houses.
12. the pseudo-philosopher Hegel: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)was the last and arguably the most important of the German idealist philosophers. His philosophy is most elaborately expressed in his Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissen-schaften in Grundrisse (1817), which has greatly influenced Marxists, Positivists, British Idealists and Existentialists.
13. Max Eastman (1895-1980), whose compact and scholarly Marx and Lenin: Max Eastman’s actual lifetime’s dates are 1883 to 1969. In early manhood he was a socialist who supported Trotsky from 1927, translating his works into English and acting as his unofficial agent. From the USA he moved to France (1924-27) where he wrote Marx and Lenin: The Science of Revolution (1926). From 1941 he rejected socialism and during the 1950s was a strong supporter of Joseph McCarthy (1909-57) and the House Un-American Activities Committee (1937-69) which sought to drive communists out of public life.
§5 THE WAY IN WHICH COMPETITION AND MONETARY INEFFICIENCY STRAINED THE OLD ORDER
1. the City of London: This is the financial district of London, also called ‘the square mile’ or just ‘the City’, which is governed locally by the Corporation of London and (ceremonially) by the Lord Mayor of London.
2. the gold hoarding of the Americans and French: As a result of wartime and reparations payments between 1917 and 1931, the USA and France became the greatest possessors of gold in the world. The USA exacted large gold payments from Britain and France in exchange for her assistance during the Great War, while France received large quantities of gold as reparations payments from the defeated nations after the Great War, especially Germany. The resulting economic imbalance contributed towards the world economic depression after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
3. the first President Roosevelt (1858-1919): Theodore Roosevelt was the Republican president of the USA (1901-13). He was also a noted explorer and rancher and, during the Great War, campaigned unceasingly for American intervention on the side of Britain and France. (For ‘Roosevelt II’, see note 34 of Introduction.)
4. the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): John Sherman (1823-1900) drafted the first American anti-trust bill which aimed to curb the growth of monopolies. The act declared illegal any business combination that sought to restrain trade or commerce. The act was unable to achieve its original objectives due to the vague wording of the legislation and the absence of a strong independent commission for its enforcement. It was repealed in 1893.
§6 THE PARADOX OF OVER-PRODUCTION AND ITS RELATION TO WAR
1. ‘paradox of over-production’’: The ‘paradox’ referred to is the economic phenomenon of simultaneous industrial overproduction and social under-consumption, leading to falling prices, unemployment and poverty amongst plenty.
2. ‘cycles of trade’: Trade cycles were first identified by Friedrich Engels in his Socialism: Utopian and Scientific in 1888. The ‘cycle’ refers to periods of economic expansion and prosperity followed by recession and relative poverty. Engels claimed that this occurred roughly every ten years in industrial society, though there has been subsequent debate as to the length of trade cycles, or business cycles as they are now more usually called.
3. the battles of the English Civil War… (1649-1660): The English Civil War lasted from 1642 to 1651 and resulted in the trial and execution of King Charles I (1600-49), the defeat of the Prince of Wales (later Charles II) (1630-8 5) and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) as Lord Protector of England. The Commonwealth lasted from 1649 to 1660 before the Restoration which saw Charles II crowned King of England.
4. Jane Austen (England, i7y5-i8iy): English novelist, author of such works as Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813).
5. Goethe: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German poet, dramatist, scientist and diplomat. His most famous work is Faust (in two parts, 1808 and 1832).
6. the battle of Jena: (14 October 1806), an important battle of the Napoleonic Wars, won by the French over the Prussians. France lost 5,000 men, but the Prussians suffered 25,000 casualties.
7. Louis Philippe in France: Louis-Philippe (1773-1850), King of the French (1830-48). A popular king at first, he fell out of favour with his people when using repression against the political reform movement. He fled France during the revolution of 1848 which established the second republic.
8. Victoria in Great Britain: (1819-1901), the longest reigning monarch in British history (1837-1901), Victoria was also made Empress of India in 1877.
9. Germany was disarmed after the war: By the terms of the Treaty of Versailles Germany was forbidden to have an air force, her army was limited to 100,000 men, conscription was banned, and her navy was limited to vessels of under 100,000 tons, with no submarines.
10. Reichsbanner movement: A movement for the protection of the German republic against anti-democratic extremists (1919-33). It was largely supported by the German Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
11. the South African War (1899-1902): The second South African War (or Boer War, 1899-1902) was fought between the British Army and the Dutch settlers of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State. The two principal causes of the war were the need to protect British gold prospectors in the Transvaal, and the need to prevent the Transvaal Republic linking up with German South-West Africa. It resulted in British victory, though after heavy losses on both sides, and the incorporation of the Boer republics into the British dominion of South Africa.
12. the Boy Scout movement: This movement was founded in Britain by Lord Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) following the publication of his book Scouting for Boys (1908). Originally aimed at boys between the ages of twelve and seventeen, it quickly expanded to include boys aged eight to eleven (the Wolf Cubs, 1916), while an organization for girls was created in 1910 (the Girl Guides). Its aim is to develop young people physically, spiritually and mentally through non-formal education with emphasis on practical activities in the outdoors. It is now an international movement federated within the World Organization of the Scout Movement.
13. The black and brown shirts: ‘Blackshirts’ was the colloquial name for the Italian Squadre d’Azione (Action Squad) founded in 1919 to maintain internal law and order. In 1921 they wereincorporated into the Fascist Party as a national militia. The name ‘Black-shirts’ is also applied to the German Schutzstaffel (SS), founded in 1925 as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard. ‘Brownshirts’ was the colloquial name for the Nazi paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA) or stormtroopers, founded by Hitler in 1921 and modelled on the Italian Blackshirts.
14. Victorian Military Gothic and Victorian Military Tudor: ‘Military gothic’, also known as the castellated style, was popular from the 1870s to the early twentieth century and featured brick or masonry walls, tall narrow windows, square, round, or polygonal towers, corbelled and machicolated cornices, turrets, battle-mented parapets, buttresses, bartisans and sally ports. Examples of military gothic are the late-nineteenth century expansion of the United States Military Academy, West Point, Fort Cambridge (1876-84) and Tower Bridge, London (1894). ‘Military Tudor’ style architecture is characterized by steeply pitched roofs, masonry and half-timbering, casement windows and varied surface textures. It was a popular style in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and was often used for officers’ houses. Examples of military Tudor include the 32 (Scottish) Signal Regiment Drill Hall in Glasgow (1894), and Kasteel van Beervelde, Antwerp (1873).
15. those immense usually ill-built concrete cavern systems for refuge: During the 1930s Adolf Hitler authorized the construction of immense caverns beneath Berlin to be used as refuges for the Nazi high command in the event of military attack, but also for subterranean aircraft factories and power plants. Paris and London expanded their underground railway systems during this time also, with the air-raid-shelter and military potential of the tunnels being considered during the interwar years.
§7 THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918
1. the ‘war guilt controversy’: Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty, which was designed to provide the legal basis for reparations against Germany after the Great War, reads as follows: ‘The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of a war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her Allies.’ This clause caused a bitter sense of humiliation in Germany, being the one most often cited as necessitating a revision of the treaty by German nationalists during the interwar period.
2. Basic English: A language created by Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957) in 1930 in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar. Developed during the 1920s, Basic English uses 850 English words and is claimed to be a simple way for beginners to learn spelling and pronunciation. Advocates maintain that it is a complete language in itself, ideal for use as an international language.
3. such generals as Haig… Ludendorff: Earl Douglas Haig (1861-1928) was a British field marshal and commander-in-chief of British forces in the Great War from December 1915. After the war he organized the Royal British Legion for the care of ex-servicemen. Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916) was commander-in-chief of the British forces during the Boer War (1900-2) and in India (1902—9). In August 1914 he was appointed secretary for war and successfully recruited a great volunteer army to fight in the Great War before being lost at sea with HMS Hampshire in June 1916. Earl John French (1852-1925) was Chief of Imperial General Staff (1911-14) and headed the British Expeditionary Force in France in August 1914. From December 1915 he was commander-in-chief of home forces. Joseph Jacques CÉsaire Joffre (1852—1931) was French chief-of-staff in 1914 and hero of the Battle of the Marne (September 1914). He was commander-in-chief of the French armies (1915 -16) before being appointed president of the Allied War Council (1917). Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) was a Great War general who became the generalissimo of the Allied armies in March 1918, leading the Allies to victory by November of that year. Erich von Ludendorff (1865-1937) was chief of staff in East Prussia and masterminded the German victory against the Russians at Tannenberg (August 1914). He was also responsible for the spring offensive in 1918 which nearly won the Great War for Germany. He was later a leading Nazi, being acquitted of treason following Hitler’s failed putsch (1923) and sitting as a Nazi member of the Reichstag (1924-28).
4. such battles as Tannenberg, the Marne… the Falkland Isles, Jutland: These are all battles of the Great War: at Tannenberg (26-30 August 1914) the Germans halted the Russian advance into East Prussia; at the Marne (4-12 September 1914) the French halted the German advance on Paris; at the Somme (1 July-18 November 1916) the British and French advanced a few kilometres at the cost of 600,000 troops, with tanks being used for the first time in battle; at Passchendaele (31 July-10 November 1917) the British and Canadians advanced into the Belgian village of Passchendaele at a cost of 300,000 troops, though the village was lost again to the Germans in April 1918; at the Falkland Islands (8 December 1914) the British navy engaged the German East Asia Cruiser Squadron and destroyed all but one of its ships, putting an end to German commerce raiding on the high seas; and at Jutland (31 May 1916) the only major sea battle of the Great War occurred when the British were engaged by the Germans. The British suffered heavier losses, but the German navy refrained from venturing to sea again thereafter.
5. the Peloponnesian War: This war, between the ancient Greek city-states of Sparta and Athens (and their allies) occurred between 431 bc and 404 bc. The war is named after Peloponnesus, the peninsula on which Sparta is located. It resulted in the crushing defeat of Athens, and the end of its maritime empire.
6. the campaigns and conquests of Tamerlane: Tamerlane (or Timur-i-Lang, meaning ‘lame Timur’) (1336-1404) was a leader whose army of Turks and Mongols expanded his empire of Transoxiana across Persia (1360-70) and northern India (1398), as well as subduing the Ottomans and Mamluks (1402).
7. Genghis Khan: (c. 1162-1227), Mongol conqueror whose name means ‘Universal Ruler’. By the time of his death he had established an empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean. He is associated with extreme butchery in warfare, but was also an able administrator.
8. Winston Churchill’s World Crisis: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) was a painter and historian as well as British Prime Minister (1940-45 and 1951-56). Between 1923 and 1931 he published World Crisis, less a comprehensive history of the Great War than an account of Churchill’s own perspective on that conflict. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 for this and his other historical works, such as The Second World War in six volumes (1948-53).
9. the memoirs of such figures as Ludendorff, Bülow, Clemenceau, Fisher, Foch: Erich von Ludendorff published My War Memories 1914-1918 (1920); Prince Bernhard Heinrich von Bülow (1849-1929), German chancellor between 1900-9, published Memoirs (English translation, 1931-32); Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), French premier (1906-9 and 1917-20), published Grandeurs et misÈres d’une victoire (1930; English translation Grandeur and Misery of Victory); Baron John Arbuthnot Fisher (1841-1920), First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy (1904-15), published Memoirs (1919).
10. The Life and Diaries of Field-Marshall Sir Henry Wilson, Bart., G.C.B., D.S.O.: Sir Henry Hughes Wilson (1864-1922) was an Irish soldier who became chief of the Imperial General Staff (1918-22). He was shot dead by two Irish ex-servicemen shortly after becoming an Irish MP in 1922. Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Bart., G. C. B., D. S. O. His life and diaries was edited by Sir Charles Edward Callwell (1859-1928) in two volumes (1927).
11. Sir Andrew Macphail: (1864-1938), Canadian physician, editor, soldier, man of letters and professor of history of medicine at McGill University, Montreal. He enlisted at age fifty to serve in the ambulance corps during the Great War. He founded and edited two journals, McGill’s University Magazine (1907) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (1911).
12. the ‘Marseillaise’: The French national anthem originating as a revolutionary hymn (‘Chant de guerre pour l’armÉe du Rhin’) composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836) and sung by the volunteers of Marseilles as they entered Paris on their way to the storming of the Tuileries (10 August 1792).
13. the Zeppelin: Designed in 1900 by the German soldier and aviation engineer, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), zeppelins were airships used for passenger services from 1910 and for aerial bombardment during the Great War. Although the Graf Zeppelin (1928) and the Hindenburg (1936) were launched as successful transatlantic carriers, the latter’s devastating explosion in May 1937 ended the practical use of the zeppelin, and when the zeppelin factory was destroyed during the Second World War, it was never rebuilt.
14. railway ‘tubes’: This refers to underground railway systems or more specifically to the London Underground, which was established in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway between Farringdon and Paddington (this now forms part of the Metropolitan Line of London Underground).
15. the sinking of the Lusitania – 1,198 men, women and children: The Lusitania was a British transatlantic liner which was torpedoed off the Irish coast without warning by a German submarine on 7 May 1915. The deaths of 128 Americans on board caused indignation in the USA and contributed to the American decision to enter the war against Germany in February 1917.
16. the ‘Q’ boats: These were British military vessels disguised as merchant ships or fishing boats during the Great War which were used to deceive and destroy German submarines.
17. the Masurian Lakes: This is a reference to the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes (which followed the Battle of Tannenberg) which took place during the Great War between the German and Russian armies (9 and 14 September 1914). It resulted in all of Russia’s forces being pushed out of German East Prussia. There was a Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes between 7 and 21 February 1915 which resulted in further heavy losses for the Russians.
18. some thousands of British common soldiers taken prisoners – their captors the Turks: The First Battle of Kut (5-29 April 1916) was an attempt during the Great War by the British to relieve 10,000 encircled troops under Sir Charles Townshend (1861-1924) at Kut, Mesopotamia. George Gorringe (1868-1945) was sent to lead this relief operation but, despite several victories along the River Tigris, it was an overall failure and Townshend surrendered with all his troops to the Turks. This was Britain’s worst ever military defeat and considerably weakened Britain’s prestige in the Middle East. There was a Second Battle of Kut between 13 December 1916 and 27 February 1917, when the British, under Sir Frederick Maude (1864-1917), successfully retook Kut before taking Baghdad a month later.
19. A certain General Nivelle – the loss of nearly a couple of hundred thousand men: Robert Nivelle (1857-1924) was the French commander-in-chief (December 1916-May 1917) who led the disastrous Aisne offensive (April-May 1917) against the Germans during the Great War. Nivelle believed that he could end the war on the Western Front within forty-eight hours with a huge offensive involving a million troops. The offensive failed after two months, and Nivelle was dismissed.
20. Lieutenant Ybarnegaray (in a debate in the French Chamber, June 1917): Jean Ybarnegaray (or Juan Ibarnegaray, 1883-1956) was the founding president of the International Federation of Basque Pelota (1929-46). Politically on the far right, he represented conservative Catholic Basque opinion as a French Deputy from 1914 and was a member of the ‘Croix-de-Feu’ (‘Cross of Fire’) French nationalist movement during the interwar years. He supported the Falangists during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), helping ship supplies across the Franco-Spanish border in breach of French non-intervention laws. Following Germany’s defeat of France in the Second World War, he was briefly the Minister of Family and Youth in the Vichy Government (12 July-6 September 1940).
