This course examines major intellectual themes and debates in 20th-century European culture.
It begins with the early century's revolutionary developments in thought and art, including the psychology of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the social theory of Max Weber and Émile Durkheim, and the Modernist movement in literature and art exemplified by novelist Thomas Mann and artist Pablo Picasso.
It then moves to a focus on the interwar development of political ideology (Communism and Fascism) and philosophy (Logical Positivism and Existentialism), followed by post-war trends.
Here the emphasis is on Central European intellectuals, both those who came to America (Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse) and those who remained at home (Jean-Paul Sartre, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Michel Foucault).