The Remarkable 20th Century

After the turn of a century marked by mass innovations released more rapidly than any time period prior, the world's populous was anxious and impatient for what the next could bring, making way for economic, social, and scientific, political, and artistic cultures unparalleled by anything prior.

A decade significantly defined by what was then the most deathly and international war in human history, equivalent progressions were demanded by the times in parallel fields, such as art, philosophy and science, during years that necessitated perpetual improvements in all industries upstaged by the backdrop of a worldwide catastrophe.

In the 1920's, following the "War to End All Wars," countries that were already amid reforming their semblances of peacetime, found themselves confronted with the need to reinvent and solidify decidedly solidified cultural identities, from the way citizens dressed, to the way they shopped, to the places they traveled.

Following a seemingly worldwide regression, a decidedly active collective effort initiated to establish and balance the increasingly unpredictable nature of modernity. New world orders dominated what had otherwise been a static and (recently) stagnant global fluidity, instead opting for their idealistic visions of preferred ways of life.

A decade intrinsically linked to the infamous iconography that defined it, the 1940's have become almost synonymous with all things WWII and Holocaust-related, as these years saw the natural order of things reevaluate themselves and adapt to an era full of perpetually evolving complications in the eternal search for global peace.

With cultures and world identities solidifying themselves identifiers later recognized as staples of the times (and the countries) beginning to form, the 1950's became a widely identifiable starting point of what we now colloquially refer to as pop culture. With the new advent of mass media, mongered fears were able to spread about foreign ideals and plans to infiltrate one another's ways of life.

The 1960's served as a pivotal transition period, filled with revolutions ranging from social to governmental. With disillusionment growing towards the many outdated facets of contemporary life, protests and systematic demands for change instigated transformations to the world scape on both local and global levels.

With tensions mounting over America's imperial presence in all corners of the planet, combined with juxtaposing dissatisfactions over domestic policy, fear was a recursive staple of daily life in what would be known as a decade of military upheaval, many with no clear good guys and bad guys.

The 1980's were a time of technological progress, which naturally implemented changes ranging from oppressive regimes to improvements in daily life. Populaces demanded the best that they felt were conceivable, and a widespread need to rid the combative regimes of their fascist stems led to innumerable changes, most notably the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

With the turn of a new century breathing down its neck, the 1990's were recognizable by the inevitable presence of a new millenium breathing down its neck. With science and technology's capabilities amplifying with each given year, the 1990's were ideal as any for active choices to be made on what future the world wanted going forward.