The Most Important Obstacles to Stability in Europe, Research Paper Example

In the text book ‘Europe in the Twentieth Century, 5th Edition,” Chapters 8 page 203, Paxton & Julie explores the first obstacle to stability in Europe in the 1920s, as the failure of ‘return to normalcy’ strategy as adopted by the Americans. Following the end of the first global war, and being sure that Wilson’s strategy to establish a new order had failed, Americans felt they desperately needed change. In 1920, the republicans were given a chance to bring change through the election of Warren G. Harding as the president. However, he failed to secure stability because his government was extremely corrupt, and things became even worse following his death while still in office.

In the text, the eventual emergence of Stalin, an ardent supporter of change of Marxist derailed the realization of stability in Europe (Paxton & Julie 230). Towards the end of 1924, Stalin made it clear that capitalism was coming to a collapse, and his interest was to establish a successful Russia through the introduction of communism. As seen, the differences in terms of ideologies come out as hindrances towards gaining stability.

In chapter nine of the text, the focus is mainly on the differences in cultures during the First World War, and the mass culture, which is commonly referred to as the age of movies and radio. However, the tensions and divisions among the supporters of different religions also cause instability issues because the modernists failed to support the fundamentalist idea of accepting the teachings of the bible. Following the emergence of different media channels, people got a chance to get enlightenment, and the constitution was changed to allow women to vote. This caused more tension and differences ensured among the supporters of the conservative government and those who were against it.

Work Cited

Paxton, Robert O, and Julie Hessler. Europe in the Twentieth Century. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth, 2011. Print.