An Age of Uncertainty

1
An Age of Uncertainty

• The horrors of World War I shattered the
  Enlightenment belief that progress would continue
  and reason would prevail. New ideas and patterns
  of life developed in the 1920s that changed the
  way people looked at the world.

2
Impact of War

• Changes in
• Science
• Literature
• Arts
• Society
• Technology
• Postwar trends in physics, psychiatry, art,
  literature, communication, music, and
  transportation still affect our lives.

3
Science - Einstein

• Albert Einstein greatest scientific genius
  since Isaac Newton.
• Theory of Relativity speed of light is
  constant, space and time can change when measured
  relative to an object moving near the speed of
  light.

4
Psychology Sigmund Freud

• Austrian physician
• Theory about the human mind.
• Human behavior is irrational or beyond reason.
  The irrational is the unconscious.
• Ruled by drives of which the conscious is
  unaware.
• Interpretation of dreams
• Weakened faith in reason.

5
Literature in an Age of Doubt

• T.S. Elliot, American poet living in England
  described postwar world in 1922 as a barren
  wasteland, drained of hope and faith.
• Yeats, 1924, Irish poet in The Second Coming,
  Things fall apart the centre cannot hold, Mere
  anarchy is loosed upon the world.
• Existentialism - Nietzsche, Kafka

6
Rebellion in the Arts

• Rebelled against realistic styles of painting
• Dada movement 1916-1924 absurd, nonsensical,
  meaningless.
• Surrealism link dreams with real life. Example,
  Dali
• Jazz new musical style from United States

7
Society Becomes More Open for Women

• Women abandoned restrictive clothing and
  hairstyles
• Pre-World War I Gibson girl
• Post-World War I Flappers
• Wore makeup, drove cars, drank and smoked in
  public
• Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman spoke about
  birth control
• More women working in careers of medicine,
  education, and journalism.

8
Technology Changes Life

• Automobile
• Airplanes 1927 Charles Lindbergh made 33 hour
  solo flight from New York to Paris
• Radio 1920 worlds first commercial radio
  station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania began
  broadcasting
• Movies 1920s major industry. Charlie Chaplin,
  Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino. 1920s added
  sound to movies

9
Impact of Advances

• Brought the world closer in touch
• Countries were interdependent economically
• Global prosperity came to depend on the economic
  well-being of all major nations, especially the
  United States