AP European History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why existentialism became influential in Europe in the **1930s-1950s**
- Identify how the **Great Depression**, **World War II**, occupation, and genocide weakened faith in progress and certainty
- Distinguish between **existentialism** and **absurdism**
- Recall the roles of **Jean-Paul Sartre**, **Albert Camus**, and **Simone de Beauvoir**
- Analyze existentialism as evidence of broader postwar European disillusionment
- Use this topic in AP European History answers focused on **causation**, **change over time**, and **cultural response to crisis**

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand how 20th-century crisis reshaped European intellectual and cultural life, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that existentialism became especially influential in **postwar Europe**, even though it had earlier philosophical roots
- Identify the impact of the **Great Depression**, **World War II**, the **Holocaust**, occupation, and collaboration on European thought
- Explain the meaning of **“existence precedes essence”** in Sartre’s thought
- Understand the themes of **freedom**, **responsibility**, **anxiety**, **alienation**, and **moral uncertainty**
- Distinguish **Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism** from **Albert Camus’s absurdism**
- Recognise **Simone de Beauvoir** as a major existentialist thinker who connected freedom to oppression and gender
- Use existentialism as evidence of a shift from 19th-century optimism to 20th-century doubt in European culture

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did war and depression make existentialist ideas more persuasive to Europeans?
2. What does Sartre mean by “existence precedes essence”?
3. How is Camus linked to existentialism, and how is he different from Sartre?
4. Why is Simone de Beauvoir important in the history of existentialism?
5. How could existentialism be used as evidence in an AP Euro essay on postwar culture?

## Introduction

In AP European History, existentialism matters less as a narrow philosophy unit and more as evidence of how Europeans responded to catastrophe. The **Great Depression**, **World War II**, occupation, collaboration, genocide, and the destruction of cities all weakened older confidence in reason, progress, religion, and stable moral order. In that setting, existentialism gave language to fear, guilt, isolation, and the burden of choice.

This makes existentialism a strong example for Unit 9 because it connects directly to the AP themes of **objective knowledge and subjective visions**, **individual and society**, and **national and European identity**. It also works well in essays about change over time: Europe moved from much 19th-century faith in improvement to a harsher view in which meaning was no longer assumed but had to be made.

> **Key Term: existentialism**
> A philosophical and cultural movement that emphasizes individual existence, freedom, choice, and responsibility in a world that may lack inherent meaning.

### Why war and depression made existentialism persuasive

Existentialism did not suddenly appear after **1945**. Its deeper roots go back to 19th-century thinkers such as **Søren Kierkegaard** and **Friedrich Nietzsche**, who had already questioned easy certainty, inherited values, and the idea that life comes with a fixed purpose. What changed in the 20th century was not the existence of these ideas, but their urgency.

The **Great Depression** shook confidence in liberal capitalism and the idea that modern industrial society naturally produced steady progress. Mass unemployment, insecurity, and political extremism made many people doubt that rational planning or economic growth would automatically improve life. Then **World War II** intensified this crisis far beyond economics. Occupation, resistance, collaboration, concentration camps, genocide, and total war forced Europeans to ask harder questions: What happens when institutions collapse? What does moral choice mean under terror? How should individuals act when there is no safe or pure option?

That is why existentialism appealed to postwar readers. It did not promise comfort. Instead, it confronted the reality that people still had to choose and act even in a broken world.

> **Key Term: alienation**
> A sense of separation, isolation, or estrangement from society, other people, or oneself.

A major historical shift sits behind this. In the 19th century, many Europeans still trusted some combination of science, nationalism, liberal reform, or religion to give life direction. By the mid-20th century, those confidence structures looked damaged. Scientific advance had not only produced medicine and electricity; it had also produced machine guns, poison gas, and industrial killing. Nationalism had not only unified nations; it had also fed fascism and war. This is the background that made postwar existentialism feel plausible.

A common student mistake is to say existentialism was simply “depressing.” That is too thin. Existentialism is not just despair. It argues that even when meaning is not guaranteed, human beings remain responsible for what they do. That is why it fit a Europe trying to understand complicity and recovery after **1939-1945**.

> **Test Tip:** In an LEQ or DBQ, do not present existentialism as appearing out of nowhere after WWII. Better phrasing is: war and depression **increased its appeal** or **gave unusual force to earlier ideas**.

### Sartre, freedom, and the burden of choice

If one figure is safest to center in an AP answer, it is **Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)**. He became the leading public voice of existentialism in postwar France, especially through his lecture **Existentialism Is a Humanism** delivered in **1945** and published in **1946**.

Sartre’s best-known formula is that **existence precedes essence**. This means human beings are not born with a fixed purpose, role, or nature already assigned. A knife is made for a purpose; a human being is not. People first exist, then define themselves through actions.

> **Key Term: existence precedes essence**
> Sartre’s idea that humans are not born with a fixed purpose or nature; they become who they are through choices and actions.

This idea mattered in postwar Europe because it rejected excuses based on fate, tradition, or social role. A person could not simply claim, “I was only following orders,” or “history made me do it,” and escape moral responsibility. Sartre insisted that freedom is unavoidable. Even refusing to choose is itself a choice.

That sounds liberatinging, but Sartre stressed that freedom also produces **anguish**. If there is no guaranteed script, then each decision matters more. In occupied Europe, for example, individuals faced choices that were morally dangerous either way: comply, resist, stay silent, protect family, inform, hide fugitives, join a movement. Existentialism spoke to that world because it treated such pressure as central, not accidental.

> **Key Term: bad faith**
> The denial of one’s own freedom and responsibility by hiding behind excuses, roles, or social expectations.

Sartre also attacked **bad faith**. This is what happens when people pretend they are not free. Someone in bad faith says, in effect, “I had no real choice; I am just my job, my class, my orders, my situation.” Sartre did not deny that situations are difficult. He argued that people still remain accountable for how they respond.

This is one reason existentialism became a cultural sign of postwar Europe. It fit a continent reckoning with collaboration and moral compromise. It pushed people to ask not just what happened, but what choices individuals made within those events.

### Camus, absurdity, and postwar disillusionment

**Albert Camus (1913-1960)** is often grouped with existentialists, and on an AP exam that is usually acceptable if handled carefully. But the stronger distinction is that Camus is more precisely associated with the **absurd**.

> **Key Term: absurdism**
> The view, associated with Camus, that humans search for meaning in a universe that offers no clear or inherent answers.

The absurd is the clash between two facts: human beings want order, purpose, and explanation, while the universe does not supply them. Camus explored this idea in **The Stranger (1942)** and **The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)**. These works emerged during wartime, not after it, which helps show that the crisis atmosphere of the **1940s** was already shaping European culture before the war ended.

Camus differs from simple pessimism. He did not say that because life lacks clear meaning, nothing matters. Instead, he argued for lucidity and defiance: people should face the truth without illusion and still continue living and acting. That stance made sense in a Europe where many old certainties had failed.

Camus’s outlook was shaped by war and resistance. He became a major voice of postwar alienation and disillusionment because he captured what many felt: the world had become morally unstable, yet one still had to live in it. This is why Camus works well in AP answers as evidence of broader postwar culture, even if a historian wants to separate him from strict existentialist doctrine.

A good contrast for essays is this:

- **Sartre** emphasizes freedom and responsibility
- **Camus** emphasizes absurdity and the need to live honestly without false hope

That distinction can earn sophistication because it avoids treating all postwar thinkers as interchangeable.

> **Test Tip:** If a prompt asks about postwar culture, pair thinkers with specific themes: **Sartre—freedom/responsibility**, **Camus—absurdity/alienation**, **de Beauvoir—freedom and oppression**.

### Simone de Beauvoir and the social limits on freedom

**Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)** is essential because she extended existentialism into ethics, society, and gender. She agreed that human beings are free and responsible, but she insisted that freedom is always lived within real conditions. Poverty, sexism, and social hierarchy shape what choices are available.

This is a major step beyond abstract philosophy. De Beauvoir made existentialism more historical and social. She showed that freedom is not simply an idea in the mind; it is affected by power relations in everyday life.

Her most famous work, **The Second Sex (1949)**, includes the line: **“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”** The argument is that gender roles are socially constructed rather than fixed by nature. This connected existentialism to modern feminism and later second-wave feminism.

For AP Euro, her value is twofold. First, she is a key postwar intellectual. Second, she helps show that postwar culture was not only about despair after war. It was also about rethinking identity, hierarchy, and personal agency.

De Beauvoir therefore broadens the meaning of existentialism. Instead of treating freedom as a purely individual burden, she asks how societies deny or restrict the freedom of some groups more than others. That is historically important in a Europe rebuilding after war while also changing social roles, especially for women.

### Existentialism in wider postwar culture and how to use it in AP answers

Existentialism was not limited to philosophy classrooms. It influenced literature, drama, and the wider mood of postwar Europe. One useful related example is **Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot**, first performed in **1953**. Its repetitive waiting, lack of clear resolution, and uncertainty express a postwar sense that life may not offer clear meaning or direction.

This matters for AP Euro because cultural movements are often tested as responses to historical crisis. Existentialism can be used as evidence in several ways.

For a **causation** prompt, you might argue that depression and war weakened faith in progress, which helped existentialism gain influence. The chain of reasoning should be clear:

- economic collapse and political extremism weakened trust in liberal progress
- total war, genocide, and occupation deepened moral crisis
- intellectuals responded by stressing alienation, freedom, responsibility, and meaning-making

For a **continuity and change** prompt, you could show continuity by noting earlier roots in **Kierkegaard**, **Nietzsche**, and **Heidegger**, but change by showing that the world wars made these concerns central to mainstream European culture.

For a **comparison** prompt, existentialism can be contrasted with 19th-century optimism. Earlier Europeans often trusted science, reform, or nationalism to improve society. Postwar existentialists were far less certain that history moved upward.

> **Key Term: postwar disillusionment**
> A widespread loss of faith in progress, moral certainty, and established institutions after the destruction of the world wars.

A short AP-ready thesis might sound like this: war and depression did not create existentialism from nothing, but they made it influential by destroying confidence in inherited certainties and pushing Europeans to focus on choice, responsibility, and meaning in a damaged world.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Existentialism became especially influential in Europe from the **1930s to the mid-20th century**
- Its rise was linked to the **Great Depression**, **World War II**, occupation, genocide, and postwar rebuilding
- These crises weakened older faith in **progress**, **reason**, and stable moral certainty
- **Jean-Paul Sartre** was the leading public voice of postwar existentialism
- Sartre’s phrase **“existence precedes essence”** means humans define themselves through actions rather than fixed destiny
- Existentialism stresses **freedom**, **choice**, **responsibility**, **anxiety**, and **alienation**
- **Bad faith** means denying one’s freedom by hiding behind roles or excuses
- **Albert Camus** is closely linked to existentialism but is more precisely associated with **absurdism**
- Camus focused on the conflict between humanity’s search for meaning and an indifferent universe
- **Simone de Beauvoir** connected existentialism to oppression, ethics, and gender
- Her **The Second Sex (1949)** helped connect existentialist thought to modern feminism
- Existentialism is useful in AP Euro essays as evidence of broader **postwar disillusionment** and cultural change

## Key Terms and Concepts

- existentialism
- alienation
- existence precedes essence
- bad faith
- absurdism
- postwar disillusionment


20th- and 21st-Century Culture, Arts, and Demographic Trends - War and depression spurred existentialism