1. 15.1 Postwar Uncertainty
The postwar period is one of loss and uncertainty but also one of invention, creativity, and new ideas.

2. A New Revolution in Science
Impact of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein offered radically new ideas in field of physics
Theory of relativity—idea that space and time are not constant
New ideas make world seem more uncertain than before 

3. A New Revolution in Science
Influence of Freudian Psychology
Sigmund Freud—Austrian doctor with new ideas about the mind
Claims that human behavior is not based on reason

4. Literature in the 1920s: The Lost Generation
Impact of the War
Suffering caused by World War I leads many to doubt old beliefs.
Many American younger postwar writers choosing to live in Europe are called the “Lost Generation,” a term used by Ernest Hemingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises, himself a member of the “lost generation.” The term was coined by his mentor, the writer Gertrude Stein.

5. Lost Generation Writers
T.S. Elliot
Wrote The Waste Land, a poem.

6. Lost Generation Writers
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wrote the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” as well as the novel The Great Gatsby.

7. Lost Generation Writers
Ezra Pound
an American expatriate poet, critic and a major figure of the early modernist movement.
His best-known works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and his unfinished 120-section epic, The Cantos (1917–1969).

8. Other Writers Writers Reflect Society’s Concerns
Novels of Franz Kafka reflect uneasiness of postwar years
Novels of James Joyce reflect Freud’s ideas about the mind

9. Literature in the 1920s Thinkers React to Uncertainties
Philosophy of existentialism—no universal meaning to life
Friedrich Nietzsche (right) urges return to ancient heroic values .

10. Literature in the 1920s
French philosopher Jean-Paul Satre (right) becomes a leading existentialist philosopher.
Sartre’s partner Simone De Beuvoir (right) is also a existentialist philosopher and feminist author.

11. Sartre and Beuvoir

12. Revolution in the Arts Artists Rebel Against Tradition
Artists want to depict inner world of mind
Cubism transforms natural shapes into geometric forms
Dadaism—art that rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, anarchy, irrationality and intuition
Surrealism—art movement that links dreams with real life

13. Cubism
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Considered to be a major step towards the founding of the Cubist movement

14. Cubism
Robert Delaunay, Simultaneous Windows on the City, 1912, Hamburger Kunsthalle, an example of Abstract Cubism

15. Cubism
Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

16. Cubism
Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians (1921), Museum of Modern Art. Three Musicians is a classic example of Synthetic cubism.

17. Dadaism
Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90x144 cm, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

18. Dadaism
Fountain is a 1917 work widely attributed to Marcel Duchamp. The scandalous work was a porcelain urinal, which was signed "R.Mutt" and titled Fountain.

19. Dadaism
Raoul Hausmann ABCD (Self-portrait) A photomontage from
The techniques of Dadaism included
Collage
Photomantage
Assemblage
Readymades (manufactured goods the Dadaists considered art).

20. Surrealism
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory (1931), Museum of Modern Art

21. Surrealism
Max Ernst, The Elephant Celebes (1921), Tate, London

22. René Magritte's "This is not a pipe
René Magritte's "This is not a pipe." The Treachery of Images 1928–29, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Surrealism

23. Composers Try New Styles
Composers move away from traditional styles
Jazz—musical style that captures age’s new freedom
Louis Armstrong (above) and Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe a.k.a. “Jelly Role Morton” (left)

24. The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas, January 1921.

25. Society Challenges Convention
Women’s Roles Change
Women take on new roles during World War I
This work helps many win the right to vote
In 1920s, women adopt freer clothing, hairstyles
“Flappers”
Some women seek new careers

26. Pictures of Flappers
Actress Louise Brooks
A flapper on board a ship

27. Pictures of Flappers Clara Bow, c. 1921
Violet Romer in a flapper dress, c. 1915
Clara Bow, c. 1921

28. Pictures of Flappers
Actress Alice Joyce
Actress Norma Talmage

29. Pictures of Flappers
"Where there's smoke there's fire" by Russell Patterson, showing a fashionably dressed flapper in the 1920s

30. Technological Advances Improve Life
The Automobile Alters Society
Cars improve after the war
Cars become less expensive
Increased auto use changes people’s lives
1925 Ford Model T touring sedan.

31. Technological Advances Improve Life
Airplanes Transform Travel
Charles Lindbergh is first to fly alone across Atlantic

32. Technological Advances Improve Life
Radio and Movies Dominate Popular Entertainment
In 1920s, commercial radio stations spread across U.S.
Motion pictures become major industry, art form

33. Top Three Grossing Silent Films