Total War: Romanticism and the Rise of the Nation-State

Most of what is said about the nation-state is untrue, it is a product of romantic myth was designed to justify territorial demands during the time of war. It was put about in works of fiction and supported by popular culture and finally, by the state directed educational systems.

The major 'nations' of Europe are highly artificial and mythological. Britain is an 18th/19th Century political convenience and is a state made of at least four separate nations; each nation is also, to some extent fixitious.

In the Roman Empire and Middle Ages, people regarded themselves as being part of a nation.- The nation-state is modern and we don't know how long it will last .
In the Middle Ages sovereignty was divided, such as the Church is in secular matters. Europe was totally divided.

• Pluralism- the opposite if totalitarianism
• The State- a monopoloy of legitimate violence.

Thomas Hobbes

• His theory of power is the 'artificial man'
• He believed that the State of Nature was living in fear.
• His solution was to alienate our rights to a supreme sovereignty in order to live in peace.
• He says that the emerging state is already vast and artificial.
• Hebbesian State is explicitly a war machine for subjects and rival states who resist.
• In his system the greatest good arises when the whim of the personified state is automatically low- it does not matter if it's cruel or irrational.

The French Revolution

• All forms of traditional feudal links to the state were swept away.
• The French Revolution shows how the 'artificial man' will always remain; it is immortal and keeps reasserting itself.

Rousseau

• He believed in the Social Contract and the rights of man.
• He stated that the Social Contract was only designed for small states, for example, France. However, it was not suitable for bigger states such as, China.

Hegel

• 'The state is God on Earth'
• He believed that the State/ Nation was not natural

Hume

• 'Authority is based on nothing but opinion'

Social division was all about survival of the fittest.

Totalitarianism and Phenomenology

Phenomenology- "Why is there something rather than nothing"
There is a phenomenology of every science and subject.

Hannah Arendt:
Arendt beieved that the holocaust was normal in our civilization and she also very much believed in totalitarianism, which is the idea of having one single dictator who rules all.
She had the strong opinion that people should think for themselves and not obey others.

Totalitarianism:

• The mid 2oth century and the wake of the Nazi Holocaust and 1956, Krusche's secret speech.
• The re-evaluation of Marxism.
• The new left- Ralph Milliband.
• Hannah Arendt had been a secret member of the communist party or at least, a sympathizer.
• 1930s and 1940s- communist heroics.
• Tropsky tried to stop communism and Stalin
• 195os- The Cold War and anti-communism
• 1960s- The new left, anti-communist aspects. (Prague 1968)

Seminar Paper from Week 2: Tabloid Nation

Chapter 1:

• Alfred Harmsworth fires all the women working at ‘The Mirror’ as he claims that women cant write and don’t want to read.
• Paper immediately becomes male dominated despite the fact that Fyfe was unhappy about this was irrelevant as Alfred wanted to see what Fyfe would do with the paper. Fyfe was in need of a job so he just took it.
• Alfred hated working for others and when he was working at ‘Bicycling News’ he stole some printing paper and used it to print his own paper, ‘Answers’. The circulation increased as Alfred used competitions to attract more and more readers. E.g. offered free insurance and £1 a week to guess the correct amount of gold in Bank if England. 700,000 entered.
• His first Daily National Paper was the ‘Daily Mail’ it was described as, ‘a penny paper for a half penny’ and was also known as ‘The busy man’s newspaper’
• Nearly 400,000 copies were sold on the first day, ‘we’ve struck a goldmine’
• Although Alfred was editor-in-chief, it was Kennedy Jones who did all the daily editing. He learnt his trade working with William Randolph Hearst at the ‘Journal’ and was therefore a veteran of the ‘yellow press’ wars.
• The ‘Daily Mirror’ was the first women’s only daily paper. However, the quality of the paper was disappointing. Covering trivial stories such as the king driving to Windsor in his motor car for lunch, Claridges being full at lunchtime, the weather forecast for cities around the world, but not in the UK.
• Circulation dropped and after 8 weeks they were selling less than 25,000 copies thus threatening to ruin the Harmsworth’s family empire.

Chapter 2:

• Swafter was the one to save the ‘Daily Mirror’ and he transformed it into Britain’s first “picture paper” pushing sales to juts under 1 million in a few years.
• Swafter was one of the first journalists hired by Fyfe in 1904 when he re-launched the paper as a “picture paper”, ‘The illustrated Daily Mirror’ and circulation was up to 71,000 overnight.
• Designed to entertain and not inform circulation reached 140,000 in a month.
• Fyfe’s social condition campaign’s stopped and Swafter started out to improve conditions for pit ponies; the reported bought one and it was shown at the ‘Daily Mail’ Home Show, where Lord Mayoress of London offered to buy and keep it.
• Swafter also revolutionised photography and encouraged his photographers to be different and more daring with the situations they got in to get their photos.
• Northcliffe gradually began to hate the paper more and more referring to it as a, ‘ghastly mess’ despite this sales were high due to Swafter’s pictures.
• Swafter could be a very violent man and his disputes with Northcliffe and and Kenealy were getting worse and much more frequent.
• An example of this would be that of the Titanic picture argument where Northcliffe overruled his opinion that there should be more pictures on the back page of the paper.
• Swafter felt he was the one responsible for the many achievements of ‘The Mirror’ not Kenealy and he wanted him sacked so he could get a pay rise and have his title. This fell through as Swafter ‘sacked himself’ and became a critic, yet was banned from many theatres due to unsuitable criticism.
• Swafter later wrote a book centred on his arguments with Northcliffe, where he explains how he was always right in their disputes.

Chapter 3:

• Alfred Harmsworth was later elevated as Baron Northcliffe for his kind donations and support to the liberal party.
• He made ‘The Mail’ a much more serious paper.
• Northcliffe sold his remaining shares of ‘The Mirror’ on the eve of WW1 to his brother.
• It was found that ‘The Mirror’ was the best to come out of the war as it had the highest sales level of any other paper and was in a very good position.
• Unfortunately, Rothermere neglected ‘The Mirror’ and once again it was the worst off newspaper around.

Chapter 4:

• In April 1922 Northcliffe began to go insane and by June of the same year he had fallen into a state of psychotic paranoia and he started to carry a loaded gun with his finger on the trigger.
• Died on 14, August 1922 age 57 of heart disease.
• Rothermere inherited his papers and he too got sucked in by the competition side of the newspaper and he began to offer more and more free gifts.
• All his time, effort and cash was put towards ‘The Mail’ and diverted away from ‘The Mirror’.

Chapter 5:

• Rothermere became very right wing and offered labour party’s leader, Oswald Moseley full support of ‘The Mail’ and ‘The Mirror’.
• He was told at a public meeting that the papers were used only for their own business and political agendas.
• Rothermere made sure that if Moseley made a speech it made either the lead or second lead article in his papers.
• He regretted that Britain was fighting against Hitler instead of joining forces with him.
• His last words were, ‘There is nothing more I can do to help my Country now.”- Clearly he thought he had tried hard enough during his life.

Chapter 6:

• Through the 1920s ‘The Mirror’s’ circulation declined rapidly as it was starved of money and was aimed at, ‘well-to-do middle classes.’
• ‘The Mirror’ became a laughing stock; “The Daily Sedative”- Known as a Tory newspaper.
• Bartholomew kept his head down about the higher position he wanted, unlike Swafter who openly asked to be promoted.
• When the board panicked about sales under Rothermere, Bart made his move and used his picture operation to convince them.
• He told them the changes he wanted to make wouldn’t be dramatic. But this wasn’t true; he wanted to create the modern, ‘Daily Mirror’.
• Additionally, there was a rumour that Bart was one of Northcliffe’s many illegitimate sons; some saw a resemblance. However, we can’t be sure of this as it was a very sensitive subject.
• He was very scheming and even more determined to reach the top in his field of journalism.
• ‘The Mirror’ became practically impossible to sell and no longer attracted any kind of audience.
• In 1934 Bart was appointed editorial director.
• Soon he along with Cecil Harmsworth King were to create, “the biggest-selling newspaper in the universe” and lay foundations of Tabloid Britain.