Postwar Period: A Time of Crisis, Invention, and Change | Diapositivas de Historia Rusa

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 Albert

Einstein 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

ummar

se a

art to i

entify two

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e w

o contri

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ach fi

TAKING NOTES

iel

tri

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lit

era

ure

philosoph

and

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technolog

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Years of Crisis 897

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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 Albert

Einstein 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

TAKING NOTES

898 Chapter 31

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

Writers of the “Lost Generation”

900 Chapter 31

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-