2. Ch 13 sec 1

3.  There are 4 areas we will discuss today.  The intellectual changes that occurred during and immediately after WW1.  The artistic changes that occurred.  Social changes  Technological changes

4.  Einstein’s theory of relativity goes against what scientists since Isaac Newton had accepted for years.  Gravity is not a force, but a result of the curvature of space and time due to the presence of mass, energy, and momentum.  He also comes up with E=mc², which will eventually lead to nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons.

5.  He came up with the idea that the speed of light is constant, and other things that seem constant, like space and time, are not.  Space and time change when measured relative to something traveling at the speed of light.  So things that had been accepted as constant for years are now shown to change.

6.  He states that much of human behavior is irrational, without reason.  He came up with the idea of the unconscious mind.  When there are things that the conscious mind cannot handle, it gets put into the unconscious mind, and then shows itself in dreams.

7.  Existentialism becomes more important after WW1, as pessimism grows throughout Europe, and one of the leaders is Friedrich Nietzsche.  There is no all-encompassing meaning to life, the only meaning comes from the choices you make, and what you do.  Nietzsche goes so far as to say that “God is dead.” Meaning that religion is not the answer to life.

8.  The brutality and destruction of World War 1 caused writers to question reason and progress of society.  Doubts about religion, and predictions of an unsettling future are written about.  The young people of the world who survived the devastation of World War 1 were called “the Lost Generation” by Gertrude Stein because of their apathy and doubt.

9.  Artists rebel against the earlier realist movement and go towards Dadaism and surrealism.  Dadaism was really about nothing. It embraced anarchy and irrationality. It went against the accepted ideas of society before WW1.  Surrealism is based on the ideas of Freud and others. They wanted to connect the abstract of the unconscious with the real material world.

10.  In the 1920’s, young people are willing to break from the past and experiment with different values.  The most drastic changes come in the roles of women.  The right to vote, and the changes in fashion allow women to express themselves in new ways, and to have new careers.

11.  After WW1 ends, the war’s technological advances are used to improve transportation and communication.  The automobile affects where people live and work and increases leisure travel.  International air travel increases.  Radio and movies provide new outlets for entertainment.

12.  With the devastation brought by World War 1, everything began to be questioned.  The trust in the old way of thinking was replaced by doubt and apathy.  People wanted answers, but could not find them anywhere. Science, religion, old governments all were shown to be incomplete.

13.  How did the ideas of each of these men, Einstein, Freud, and Nietzsche, represent the Age of Doubt that hits Europe after WW1? Didn’t they help explain things?  Half-page answer.