This course will examine the European cultural and intellectual experience from the 1870s. Positivism, Liberalism, Idealism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, and Existentialism will be discussed, focusing on the relation between ideas and arts, politics, and economics. We will pursue a number of themes, including the emergence of distinct class identities, religion, and morality, new forms of nationalism, and the changing nature of selfhood. Special attention will be given to the "crisis of the end of the century," the transformation of political and social thought, and the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies.