Passage of "Rites"

The author comments on the reception of his book, Rites of Spring: The Great War at the Birth of the Modern Age (1990), & revisits the connection between fascism & modernism. An overview of the author's training as a historian who specialized in 20th-century Germany is provided. The author's mediation of the methodological issue concerning the legitimacy of examining autobiographical & artistic responses to WWI is discussed. The effect of Paul Fussell's (1975) study of WWI's influence on modern sensibility on the author's text is reviewed; specifically, Fussell's book is credited with the author's recognition of turn-of-the-century Germany as the modernist nation par excellence. Theoretical problems experienced during the writing process & problems experienced by contemporary historians in defining the scope of cultural history are explored. Previous criticism of the author's text is in turn criticized for overemphasizing the text's substance & ignoring the text's style. The section concludes by repudiating the popular interpretation of the 20th century as the shortest century to date. J. W. Parker