The German as well as the French language have imbued the English language with some succinctly descriptive “catch all” nomenclature. Philologists will concede that some words in certain languages encompass more information than the sum of their parts.
The second word in the title of the article, Déjà Vu, is no stranger to native English speakers. Although the components together mean simply, already seen, the implications on a particular topic or situation can be exponential. The same is true for the German word zeitgeist. Disentangled it means time spirit.
However, the vernacular usage in the English language has evolved to convey a collective episodical psychosocial belief. In more prosaic terms it is used to explain an historical prevalence of visceral thoughts and paradigms.
What are the components of a zeitgeist? How do the various mechanisms influence it's formation? Of course, these questions are the bedrock of the social sciences: psychology, sociology, anthropology and combinations thereof fused with historiography.
This recombination of social sciences, like social history or cultural history, gives more currency to straight forward political histories. For those who shy away from historical writings might associate their ill taste for history because of the way in which history is taught: political (name, place and date) as the touchstone.
But, according to French Historian Fernand Braudel, there are three basic tenets by which history is shaped. He is often seen as the forerunner of modern cultural studies in the realm of historiography. Braudel merged the anthropological and sociological paradigms of the French Annales School into a second generation of historical theories.
In his academically most significant book, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II), Braudel detailed his theory of what motivates history. He outlined the rise to power and affluence of Mediterranean Empires.
The first principle is that of geography and the environment. It is this epoch which requires the most amount of time to bring about its sway on a people. The environment is slow and methodic where change is almost indiscernible.
The second epoch entails prolonged social, economic, psychological and cultural history. These are the long term social movements and transitions of economies and can last from a single decade to a half a century.
Lastly, the last epoch is that of particular events or histoire événementielle. What characterizes this period of short duration are individuals and sudden events. Presidents, religious leaders, despots, military leaders, crackpots are all part of the fabric which make up the last epoch.
All of these epochs are cyclical. Even if the time frame of change is thousands of years the tides still ebb and flow; lands are formed and destroyed. What Braudel hints at, but doesn't delve into with any conviction, is the interplay between the three in a retrospective manner.
For instance, how does an event change or steer a social movement or economical paradigm? In other words, how does the interplay of the three epochs manipulate the zeitgeist?
The US and the world stand still as they remember 9/11. There have been many “events” which have elicited remembrances from America throughout modern history. Before we venture headlong into another Middle East Crisis, let's be unequivocally sure we are all aware of why we are there. Here follows a few “remember” themes which certainly redirected and reshaped the American Zeitgeist.
Mexican dictator/General Antonio López de Santa Anna was attempting to squash a rebellion of Texans who were attempting to form a new nation. American President Andrew Jackson was a keen adherent of American expansionism as typified by his forays into Florida during the Seminole Indian Wars. An almost mythologic cottage industry of “remember the Alamo” began to ensure that Zeitgeist was established to thwart anyone infringing on American western expansion.
Fueled by the need for salt water colonies because contiguous North America was already divvied up; America set forth on acquiring the low hanging fruit of Spain's former colonies. “Yellow journalism” papers like the Hearst print empire and the Pulitzer newspapers, jarred the American Zeitgeist to prepare for war on an encroaching feeble Spanish Empire in the Western Hemisphere. An out of date and in need of decommissioning US battleship was sent to Havana harbor on Cuba. On the evening of 15 February 1898 the ship “unexpectedly” exploded while anchored in the harbor. The yellow journalism press and the US government were quick to lay blame to the Spanish which launched a series of land grabs from Spanish control: Guam, Cuba, Philippines and Puerto Rico.
The Lusitania was a British ocean cruiser which was torpedoed on 7 May 1915 by German U-boats.
The British were keen on stirring the American people to declare war on Germany and subsequently continued with a propaganda campaign until 1917. Remembering the Lusitania came to a head in 1917. That year the Zimmerman Telegram, stating Germany's reinstatement of unrestricted U-boat activity, was the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed the Zeitgeist of the American's to declare war on Germany.