"The period between the end of World War I and Hitler's accession to power witnessed an unprecedented cultural explosion that embraced the whole of Europe but was, above all, centered in Germany. John Willett here provides a brilliant explanation of the aesthetic and political currents which made Germany the focal point of a new, down-to-earth, socially committed cultural movement that drew a significant measure of inspiration from revolutionary Russia and left-wing social thought, American technology, and the devastating experience of war."--back cover.