Fill - Form 1: Postwar Uncertainty

Years of Crisis 897

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The postwar period was one of

loss and uncertainty but also

one of invention, creativity, and

new ideas.

Postwar trends in physics,

psychiatry, art, literature,

communication, music, and

transportation still affect our

lives.

• Albert

Einstein

•theory of

relativity

•Sigmund

Freud

• existentialism

•Friedrich

Nietzsche

• surrealism

• jazz

• Charles Lindbergh

SETTING THE STAGE The horrors of World War I shattered the Enlightenment

belief that progress would continue and reason would prevail. In the postwar

period, people began questioning traditional beliefs. Some found answers in new

scientific developments, which challenged the way people looked at the world.

Many enjoyed the convenience of technological improvements in transportation

and communication. As society became more open, women demanded more

rights, and young people adopted new values. Meanwhile, unconventional styles

and ideas in literature, philosophy, and music reflected the uncertain times.

A New Revolution in Science

The ideas of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud had an enormous impact on the

20th century. These thinkers were part of a scientific revolution as important as

that brought about centuries earlier by Copernicus and Galileo.

Impact of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity German-born physicist Alber

Einst

ein

offered startling new ideas on space, time, energy, and matter. Scientists

had found that light travels at exactly the same speed no matter what direction it

moves in relation to earth. In 1905, Einstein theorized that while the speed of

light is constant, other things that seem constant, such as space and time, are not.

Space and time can change when measured relative to an object moving near the

speed of light—about 186,000 miles per second. Since relative motion is the key

to Einstein’s idea, it is called the

theory of relativity. Einstein’s ideas had impli-

cations not only for science but also for how people viewed the world. Now

uncertainty and relativity replaced Isaac Newton’s comforting belief of a world

operating according to absolute laws of motion and gravity.

Influence of Freudian Psychology The ideas of Austrian physician Sigmund

Freud were as revolutionary as Einstein’s. Freud treated patients with psycho-

logical problems. From his experiences, he constructed a theory about the human

mind. He believed that much of human behavior is irrational, or beyond reason.

He called the irrational part of the mind the unconscious. In the unconscious, a

number of drives existed, especially pleasure-seeking drives, of which the con-

scious mind was unaware. Freud’s ideas weakened faith in reason. Even so, by

the 1920s, Freud’s theories had developed widespread influence.

Postwar Uncertainty

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898 Chapter 31

Literature in the 1920s

The brutality of World War I caused philosophers and writers to question accepted

ideas about reason and progress. Disillusioned by the war, many people also feared

the future and expressed doubts about traditional religious beliefs. Some writers

and thinkers expressed their anxieties by creating disturbing visions of the present

and the future.

In 1922, T. S. Eliot, an American poet living in England, wrote that Western

society had lost its spiritual values. He described the postwar world as a barren

“wasteland,” drained of hope and faith. In 1921, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats

conveyed a sense of dark times ahead in the poem “The Second Coming”: “Things

fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

Writers Reflect Society’s Concerns The horror of war made a deep impression

on many writers. The Czech-born author Franz Kafka wrote eerie novels such as

The Trial (1925) and The Castle (1926). His books feature people caught in threat-

ening situations they can neither understand nor escape. The books struck a chord

among readers in the uneasy postwar years.

Many novels showed the influence of Freud’s theories on the unconscious. The

Irish-born author James Joyce gained widespread attention with his stream-of-

consciousness novel Ulysses (1922). This book focuses on a single day in the lives

of three people in Dublin, Ireland. Joyce broke with normal sentence structure and

vocabulary in a bold attempt to mirror the workings of the human mind.

Thinkers React to Uncertainties In their search for meaning in an uncertain world,

some thinkers turned to the philosophy known as

existentialism. A major leader of

this movement was the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (SAHR•truh) of France.

Existentialists believed that there is no universal meaning to life. Each person creates

his or her own meaning in life through choices made and actions taken.

DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTIONS

1. Making Inferences What seems to be the narrator’s attitude toward the future?

2. Drawing Conclusions How would you describe the overall mood of the excerpt?

Vocabulary

stream of conscious-

ness: a literary tech-

nique used to

present a character’s

thoughts and feel-

ings as they develop

Writers of the “Lost Generation”

During the 1920s, many American writers,

musicians, and painters left the United States

to live in Europe. These expatriates, people

who left their native country to live elsewhere,

often settled in Paris. American writer Gertrude

Stein called them the “Lost Generation.” They

moved frantically from one European city to

another, trying to find meaning in life. Life

empty of meaning is the theme of F. Scott

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925).

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown

world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first

picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.

He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his

dream must have seemed so close that he could

hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was

already behind him, somewhere back in that vast

obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of

the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the . . . future that

year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s

no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our

arms farther. . . . And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back

ceaselessly into the past.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, The Great Gatsby

A 1920s

photo of

F. Scott

Fitzgerald

Page 2 of 5

The existentialists were influenced by the German philosopher Friedrich

Nietzsche (NEE•chuh). In the 1880s, Nietzsche wrote that Western ideas such as

reason, democracy, and progress had stifled people’s creativity and actions.

Nietzsche urged a return to the ancient heroic values of pride, assertiveness, and

strength. His ideas attracted growing attention in the 20th century and had a great

impact on politics in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.

Revolution in the Arts

Although many of the new directions in painting and music began in the prewar

period, they evolved after the war.

Artists Rebel Against Tradition Artists rebelled against earlier realistic styles of

painting. They wanted to depict the inner world of emotion and imagination rather

than show realistic representations of objects. Expressionist painters like Paul Klee

and Wassily Kandinsky used bold colors and distorted or exaggerated forms.

Inspired by traditional African art, Georges Braque of France and Pablo Picasso

of Spain founded Cubism in 1907. Cubism transformed natural shapes into geo-

metric forms. Objects were broken down into different parts with sharp angles and

edges. Often several views were depicted at the same time.

Surrealism, an art movement that sought to link the world of dreams with

real life, was inspired by Freud’s ideas. The term surreal means “beyond or above

reality.” Surrealists tried to call on the unconscious part of their minds. Many

of their paintings have an eerie, dreamlike quality and depict objects in unrealis-

tic ways.

Composers Try New Styles In both classical and popular music, composers

moved away from traditional styles. In his ballet masterpiece, The Rite of Spring, the

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky used irregular rhythms and dissonances, or harsh

combinations of sound. The Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg rejected tradi-

tional harmonies and musical scales.

A new popular musical style called

jazz emerged in the United States. It was

developed by musicians, mainly African Americans, in New Orleans, Memphis,

and Chicago. It swept the United States and Europe. The lively, loose beat of jazz

seemed to capture the new freedom of the age.

The

Persistence of

Memory (1931),

a surrealist work

by Spanish artist

Salvador Dali,

shows watches

melting in a

desert.

Making

Inferences

What was the

major trend in

postwar art?

Years of Crisis 899

▼

Page 3 of 5

900 Chapter 31

Society Challenges Convention

World War I had disrupted traditional social patterns. New ideas and ways of life

led to a new kind of individual freedom during the 1920s. Young people especially

were willing to break with the past and experiment with modern values.

Women’s Roles Change The independent spirit of the times showed clearly in the

changes women were making in their lives. The war had allowed women to take on

new roles. Their work in the war effort was decisive in helping them win the right

to vote. After the war, women’s suffrage became law in many countries, including

the United States, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Austria.

Women abandoned restrictive clothing and hairstyles. They wore shorter, looser

garments and had their hair “bobbed,” or cut short. They also wore makeup, drove

cars, and drank and smoked in public. Although most women still followed tradi-

tional paths of marriage and family, a growing number spoke out for greater free-

dom in their lives. Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman risked arrest by speaking

in favor of birth control. As women sought new careers, the numbers of women in

medicine, education, journalism, and other professions increased.

Technological Advances Improve Life

During World War I, scientists developed new drugs and medical treatments that

helped millions of people in the postwar years. The war’s technological advances

were put to use to improve transportation and communication after the war.

The Automobile Alters Society The automobile benefited from a host of wartime

innovations and improvements—electric starters, air-filled tires, and more powerful

engines. Cars were now sleek and brightly polished, complete with headlights and

chrome-plated bumpers. In prewar Britain, autos were owned exclusively by the

rich. British factories produced 34,000 autos in 1913. After the war, prices dropped,

and the middle class could afford cars. By 1937, the British were producing 511,000

autos a year.

Summarizing

How did the

changes of the

postwar years affect

women?

▲

Women like

these marching

in a 1912

suffrage parade

in New York City

helped gain

American

women’s right to

vote in 1920.

Page 4 of 5

Increased auto use by the average family led to lifestyle changes. More people

traveled for pleasure. In Europe and the United States, new businesses opened to

serve the mobile tourist. The auto also affected where people lived and worked.

People moved to suburbs and commuted to work in the cities.

Airplanes Transform Travel International air travel became an objective after the

war. In 1919, two British pilots made the first successful flight across the Atlantic,

from Newfoundland to Ireland. In 1927, an American pilot named

Charles

Lindbergh captured world attention with a 33-hour solo flight from New York to

Paris. Most of the world’s major passenger airlines were established during the 1920s.

At first only the rich were able to afford air travel. Still, everyone enjoyed the exploits

of the aviation pioneers, including those of Amelia Earhart. She was an American

who, in 1932, became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Radio and Movies Dominate Popular Entertainment Guglielmo Marconi con-

ducted his first successful experiments with radio in 1895. However, the real push

for radio development came during World War I.

In 1920, the world’s first commercial radio station—KDKA in Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania—began broadcasting. Almost overnight, radio mania swept the

United States. Every major city had stations broadcasting news, plays, and even

live sporting events. Soon most families owned a radio.

Motion pictures were also a major industry in the 1920s. Many countries, from

Cuba to Japan, produced movies. In Europe, film was a serious art form. However,

in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, where 90 percent of all films were made,

movies were entertainment.

The king of Hollywood’s silent screen was the English-born Charlie Chaplin, a

comic genius best known for his portrayal of the lonely little tramp bewildered by

life. In the late 1920s, the addition of sound transformed movies.

The advances in transportation and communication that followed the war had

brought the world in closer touch. Global prosperity came to depend on the eco-

nomic well-being of all major nations, especially the United States.

Years of Crisis 901

TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

• Albert Einstein • theory of relativity • Sigmund Freud • existentialism • Friedrich Nietzsche • surrealism • jazz • Charles Lindbergh

USING YOUR NOTES

2. In your opinion, whose

contribution has had the most

lasting impact?

MAIN IDEAS

3. Why were the ideas of Einstein

and Freud revolutionary?

4. How did literature in the 1920s

reflect the uncertainty of the

period?

5. What impact did the increased

use of the automobile have on

average people?

SECTION ASSESSMENT

PREPARING AN ORAL REPORT

Movies in the 1920s reflected the era. What do films made today say about our age? Review

some recent, representative films and present your ideas in an oral report.

CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING

6. HYPOTHESIZING Why do you think writers and artists

began exploring the unconscious?

7. DEVELOPING HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Why did some

women begin demanding more political and social

freedom?

8. MAKING INFERENCES Why were new medical treatments

and inventions developed during World War I?

9. WRITING ACTIVITY Write an

advertisement that might have appeared in a 1920s

newspaper or magazine for one of the technological

innovations discussed in this section.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

CONNECT TO TODAY

▲

Dressed in a

ragged suit and

oversize shoes,

Charlie Chaplin’s

little tramp used

gentle humor to

get himself out

of difficult

situations.

Recognizing

Effects

What were the

results of the

peacetime adapta-

tions of the technol-

ogy of war?

iel

Contributor

enc

lit

era

ure

phi

osoph

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