World History II

Chapter 30: The Great Depression and World War II
1929 to 1945

51: Wed, Mar 11, 20200

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

The growth of a global culture fosters many different kinds of communities. Economic communities coalesce through international trade; religious and philosophical communities march across boundaries both deliberately and accidentally (note the growth of international mission activity in the church, the spread of modernist philosophies such as Existentialism); political movements such as communism have a purposefully international push (note the international communist agenda, and the early IWW — the International Workers of the World, sometimes referred to as the “Wobblies”).

Nationalism, especially in the modern world, is largely about severing or at least pulling back from some of those international commonalities; it largely arises in times of anxiety in response to a sense that the rest of the world (wherever that is) is spinning out of control and probably that it is victimizing the nationalists. There are always a number of ways to view that.

What are some of the advantages and some of the disadvantages of these international communities, and what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the nationalist response? How can either globalism or nationalism lead nations into severe problems? Look at several examples — don’t just focus on one. Like most interesting questions, the problem is not one that admits a completely simple solution. Avoid glib truisms.

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