The belief in progress was already cracking
- The widely held belief in progress characteristic of much of 19th-century thought began to break down before World War I.
- Before is the key word — the war accelerated a breakdown that was already under way, as 7.5 recorded.
- So dating the loss of confidence to 1914 is a mistake the CED explicitly forecloses.
The belief in progress began to break down...
난이도 1/5 · 100 코인 + 오늘 첫 완료 시 소액 보너스
The war accelerated a breakdown already under way.
Confidence and uncertainty at once
- When World War I began, Europeans were generally confident in the ability of science and technology to address human needs and problems despite the uncertainty created by the new scientific theories and psychology.
- Despite is the hinge: public confidence and specialist uncertainty coexisted.
- That is a more interesting claim than either alone, and it is exactly what 8.1's third thread predicts.
Public confidence in science and specialist uncertainty coexisted in 1914.
난이도 1/5 · 100 코인 + 오늘 첫 완료 시 소액 보너스
'Despite' is the hinge of the CED's sentence.
Physics opens a door, twice
- The challenge to the certainties of the Newtonian universe in physics opened the door to uncertainty in other fields by undermining faith in objective knowledge while also providing the knowledge necessary for the development of nuclear weapons and power.
- One development, two consequences: a philosophical one and a material one, and the CED puts them in one sentence.
- While also refuses to separate the intellectual history from the weapon.
Before the war, from physics, or from the war itself?
Sort each challenge to existing understandings.
Select both consequences of the challenge to Newtonian certainties.
난이도 2/5 · 140 코인 + 오늘 첫 완료 시 소액 보너스
A philosophical consequence and a material one, in one sentence.
Do not date the loss of confidence to 1914. The CED says the belief in progress began to break down before World War I, and that Europeans were generally confident... despite the uncertainty created by the new scientific theories and psychology — public confidence and specialist doubt coexisted.
Select all the effects the CED gives World War I in this subtopic.
난이도 2/5 · 140 코인 + 오늘 첫 완료 시 소액 보너스
The CED holds cynicism and democratisation together.
A lost generation, and a change for women
- World War I created a "lost generation" and fostered disillusionment and cynicism, while it transformed the lives of women, and democratised societies.
- During the world wars, women became increasingly involved in military and political mobilisation, as well as in economic production.
- The same war produced cynicism and democratisation — the CED holds both without resolving the tension.
During the world wars, women became increasingly involved in military and political mobilisation, and in economic ____.
난이도 1/5 · 100 코인 + 오늘 첫 완료 시 소액 보너스
A change the CED records in its own bullet.
Challenged understandings
- The objective is how the events of the first half of the 20th century challenged existing social, cultural, and intellectual understandings.
- Social: class hierarchies undermined, women's roles transformed, societies democratised.
- Intellectual: progress doubted before the war, Newtonian certainty challenged, objective knowledge in question.
A society can hold two beliefs at once: that its instruments will solve its problems, and that its best thinkers no longer agree on what an instrument measures. The first belief survives in public until an event tests it. Then both are visible at the same time.
The widely held belief in progress began to break down before World War I, and Europeans were generally confident in science and technology despite the uncertainty created by new scientific theories and psychology. The challenge to the certainties of the Newtonian universe opened the door to uncertainty in other fields by undermining faith in objective knowledge while also providing the knowledge necessary for nuclear weapons and power. The war created a "lost generation", fostered disillusionment and cynicism, transformed the lives of women, and democratised societies.