The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century [Paperback]

Peter Watson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0060084383 | ISBN-13: 978-0060084387 | Publication Date: July 23, 2002

From Freud to Babbitt, from Animal Farm to Sartre to the Great Society, from the Theory of Relativity to counterculture to Kosovo, The Modern Mind is encyclopedic, covering the major writers, artists, scientists, and philosophers who produced the ideas by which we live. Peter Watson has produced a fluent and engaging narrative of the intellectual tradition of the twentieth century, and the men and women who created it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Just as the 20th century dawned with an unparalleled optimism regarding the moral, social and scientific progress of humanity, it ended with an unshakeable confidence in the promises of technology and the power of free-market economics to deliver a better life for all humankind. British journalist Watson's (War on the Mind; The Caravaggio Conspiracy; etc.) panoramic survey traces various 20th-century ideas and their power to bend and shape society and individuals. At a frenetic pace, he gallops through the modern intellectual landscape, pausing long enough to graze the founts of philosophy (from Wittgenstein to Richard Rorty to Alasdair MacIntyre), literature (Kafka, Woolf, Mann, Rushdie), literary criticism (F.R. Leavis to Jacques Derrida), art (Picasso to Warhol), economics (Milton Friedman to John Kenneth Galbraith), science (Linus Pauling to E.O. Wilson) and film (D.W. Griffiths to Fran?ois Truffaut). He also briefly examines the significance of a wide range of political and cultural movements, such as socialism, communism, fascism, feminism and environmentalism. Watson's rich narrative covers every corner of intellectual life in the 20th century, yet the style is so breezy and anecdotal that it lacks the deep learned elegance of a history of ideas by, for example, Isaiah Berlin or Jacques Barzun. Unfortunately, for all the book's breadth, Watson's workmanlike approach has the feel of a handful of school assignments cobbled together from encyclopedia articles rather than of work drawn from years of thoughtful reflection and an intimate acquaintance with, and love of, ideas.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this long and astonishing narrative, British journalist Watson presents an unconventional history of the 20th century, which, he argues, "has been dominated by a coming to terms with science." Although this massive volume is packed with a multitude of events, ideas, and influential people, Watson's infectious writing carries the reader swiftly along. The mosaic he creates can best be illustrated by this typical sentence: "On 25 October 1900, only days after Max Planck sent his crucial equations on a postcard to Heinrich Rubens, Pablo Picasso stepped off the Barcelona train at the Gare d'Orsay in Paris." In 42 chapters, Watson travels from Freud to the Internet, from pragmatism and relativity to Brave New World and Hiroshima, while considering the impact of the arts, existentialism, feminism, sexuality, genetics, medicine, the Great Society, race, AIDS, and more. Key people and ideas are highlighted. It is hard to spot any major omissions, though post-World War II music seems to get overlooked. While this work is reminiscent of Paul Johnson's Modern Times (LJ 5/1/83), Watson's scope goes far beyond politics and history. This book will be read and consulted for many years. Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (July 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060084383
• ISBN-13: 978-0060084387
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > History > Historical Study > History of Ideas

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101 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Everything, March 23, 2001

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (Hardcover)

At 800 pages the heft of the book makes you quite aware that you should think of it as a reference book. But then, you open it up and start reading, and suddenly, you're hooked. You're hooked because Mr. Watson is telling you the great, scary, tragic story of the 20th century, moving from the nearly unbridled optimism at the beginning of the century through the despair and disenchantment and dark days of WWI, Stalinism, WWII, into Vietnam and the rejection of liberalism and modernism in the last decades of the 20th Century, and he's telling it in an inherently fascinating way: through the leading lights in the arts, sciences and humanities -- a kind of meta-biography. Because he moves chronologically, you begin to anticipate the next raft of intellectuals, the next slew of scientific achievements. Then, later, you get the next iteration of certain theories and ideas in the hands of greater and lesser minds. Or, you start to fear how certain misguided ideas -- eugenics and defective Darwinism, for instance -- will be transmogrified into the rationale for evil. What's most valuable is that Mr. Watson also puts various schools of thought -- the Vienna Circle, the Frankfurt School for instance -- into their proper relation in terms of intellectual history. Mr. Watson's grasp of what's important and what's not, of whom to speak at length and of whom simply to mention, is for the most part nearly faultless. But that is another of the lures of the book -- seeing if you agree with his characterizations and the amount of space he dedicates to each one! For those who crave the long view, who weren't alive in Vienna in the 1900s, or Paris in the 1910s, New York in the 20s, Berlin in the 30s, Paris after WWII, New York in the 50s, who have tried to grasp the overlapping histories of the fine arts, music, literature and science in some kind of systematic way, this book is the answer. An awesome achievment!

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Much Information, June 24, 2001

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (Hardcover)

In writing The Modern Mind, Peter Watson has attempted the impossible. He tries to give us a look at the entirety of twentieth century thought. Still, though there are bound to be omissions and inaccuracies in such a book, Watson succeeds admirably in giving us a taste of the intellectual achievements of the past 100 years.

There is so much I like about this book. I like the fact that he sticks to his purpose. He stays away from the wars and politics that dominate most histories and focuses on scientific, literary, artistic and other intellectual achievements. Not that I have no interest in our political history but it is nice to be able to give some consideration to what is often best in humankind--the achievements of the mind.

Also, this is a very well-written book. It is long, but broken up into easily digestible segments with important names and concepts highlighted. Reading too much at one sitting can lead to information overload but in short gulps this book can really educate. I am amazed at the breadth of knowledge Watson displays in this book. I, for one, felt that I gained a lot of insight into things of which I already had some knowledge and, in addition, picked up many new things.

Of course, a book like this with such a large scope can be by no means complete. On the other hand, it achieved something that is rare and that I enjoy very much while reading--it lead me to new people, new ideas and new books to read. I was encouraged to track down and read a handful of titles that I might never have come across without reading this book.

A final warning: if you are a fan of Freud and psychoanalysis, you will not like this book. Watson does discuss the subject quite a lot (as he should, considering the influence Freud and his successors have had); however, he is not a fan and comes down rather hard on the field. Fortunately, I feel much the same way as Watson and was glad to read such a well-articulated position on the subject.

Not that such a position matters much to me anyway. Everyone has a right to a well-argued position and, agree or disagree, it is worth learning. All in all, anyone with a desire to broaden the range of his or her thinking will find some enjoyment in this book. I might not always agree with Watson's conclusions but it really got the wheels in my mind turning.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an introduction; only an introduction, February 4, 2006

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Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (Paperback)

The essential virtue of this book is that there is nothing else like it out there. So if you want to read a book like this, this is the best one available. Thus it gets 5 stars and I strongly recommend it.

In particular, there is strong coverage of science's progress (toward consilience), and its influence and intimidation of the humanities (although the Sokal hoax is unfortunately not mentioned). The influence and eventual failure of Freud, and its implication for his followers (not only the French left but a lot of self-conscious art and critical theory) is a major theme, along with the failure of socialism. But also, economic criticism of capitalism is well covered; as are questions about the meaning of life in capitalist societies. A related theme is the end of high art and the rise of pop. In the early part of the century the discovery of the non-Western mind in anthropology, archaeology and history is considered well; appropriately balanced by the emergence of non-Western intellectuals in various disciplines in the latter half of the century. But the failure to deal with racial inequality in the US (and now, Europe) is considered as well.

Those are the just major themes that I picked out; many more minor issues are dealt with as well. No other book that I know of covers this range of themes.

But I do have to criticize it a bit, hoping that something better does come out.

A minor criticism, which the author acknowledges and is perhaps somewhat inevitable, is that he relies heavily on a few other books, which maybe you should just as well read.

The essential criticism is that it is too brief. The list of omissions is huge: jazz, the Asian values debate, all of Japanese scholarship, math aftr Turing (such as solutions to the sphere-packing problem, Fermat's last theorem, and so on), liberation theology (other aspects of theology are pretty well covered), social and experimental psychology (Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo, etc), the idea of "kitsch" in art criticism, comparative religion. In contrast to the otherwise good coverage of science, he seems to have confused environmentalism with ecology (related indeed, but not the same), and didn't either one well.

Everything that is actually covered is covered too briefly, which is probably necessary from a marketing standpoint at least; but unfortunate for a student. For instance, minor theories and incredibly influential ones are considered shoulder to shoulder; based on the coverage here, a naive reader would conclude that David Riesmann is more influential than Gadamer.

The book should be 4 times as long, and it would still only be introductory.

I emphasize that these are minor criticisms because no other book like this exists currently: if you are a student or desire to fill-out your knowledge of the intellectual world, this is unsurpassed and despite my nit-picking I strongly recommend it.

In contrast to several other reviewers, however, I do not recommend using it as a "reference," as it compares poorly with several resources available on the internet.

I mentioned the author's reliance on a few key books; you might want to check some of them out. Among them are Wilson's "Consilience," Weatherall's "In Search of a Cure," Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," Johnston's "The Austrian Mind," Everdell's "The First Moderns," and Hughes' "The Shock of the New."

Besides them, Pinker's "The Blank Slate" is a book that I'd recommend because it has many similar themes to this one, but more focused and argumentative.