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The Age of Anxiety
and Late Modernism
1945–1970

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Transformations in the Postwar World

When World war II ended their was a euphoric mood that we could move into a “post-war” era where new organizations like the United Nations could insure world peace.
However this euphoria soon faded as the new reality set in. The two remaining superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union (Russia) soon became locked in a “cold war” struggle.
Most industrialized nations chose sides, and the world was divided into a capitalist/democratic U.S. led bloc and a communist/collectivist Russian led bloc.
Through all of this the constant threat of thermo-nuclear war produced moods of absurdity, futility, and despair.

“The Big Three”
Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill

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The Era of the Superpowers, 1945–1970

Before World War II had even ended the chief allied powers (The U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) began to plan for the post-war era.
They joined with 48 other nations in 1945 to found the United Nations, a peacekeeping and human rights organization dealing with international disputes.
The U.N. created the World Bank, which provides funds and technical assistance to developing countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which fosters international monetary cooperation (however the Soviet Union refused to participate in these endeavors).
These efforts did not stop the world from developing into two armed camps, one capitalist and one communist.

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United Nations Headquarters Building, New York (1949-51)

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Postwar Recovery and the New World Order

Germany was split into four occupied zones. Those occupied by the U.S., Great Britain, and France became West Germany, the area occupied by the Soviet Union became East Germany. They would remain separated until the end of the Cold War in 1990.
In Europe the U.S. instituted the “Marshall Plan,” an initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave $17 billion (approximately $160 billion in current dollar value) in economic support to help rebuild European economies.
In Japan, the American victors imposed a democratic constitution on the Japanese that kept the emperor as a figurehead and the military was virtually eliminated. To this day Japan only has “peacekeeping” forces and no military to speak of.

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The Cold War

In 1945 the U.S. and Great Britain had the technology to produce nuclear (fission) weapons. The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949.
After this the U.S. developed the much more powerful hydrogen-based thermonuclear (fusion) weapon in 1952. The Soviets developed a similar weapon in 1954.
The thermonuclear weapons were a thousand-times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These new thermonuclear weapons negated the possibility of a “limited” nuclear war between the superpowers and we emerged into the age of “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD).
The U.S. and her allies formed NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the Soviets responded by forming the Warsaw Pact, made up of Russian satellite states.

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Europe in 1955

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The Berlin Wall
was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. it came to symbolize the “Iron Curtain” that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

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The Cold War

Additionally, the superpowers developed new weapons delivery systems (long range bombers, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, Polaris Missiles from nuclear submarines, etc.) which made the thermonuclear weapons even more destructive.
Because of the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, the U.S. and the Soviet Union never went to war with one another. Instead a series of “proxy wars,” in Korea, Vietnam, Africa, Afghanistan, and other places were fought, with the two superpowers never directly fighting each other.
However, the very expensive arms race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would continue throughout the cold war.
In 1949 the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong took over that country and began another communist state in the far east.

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Emergence of the Third World

After 1945 Europe’s overseas territories began their struggle for freedom and by 1964 most of the colonial holdings had been transformed into independent countries (a process called “decolonization.”
In 1946 the U.S. let go of the Philippines. In 1947 Great Britain agreed to divide India into a separate Hindu-dominated state (India) and a separate Muslim-dominated state (Pakistan). The Dutch gave up the East Indies which became Indonesia. French Indochina was divided into North and South Vietnam (which went to war with one another, and the Europeans gave up their African colonies.
The newly independent, but still developing countries found themselves in severe economic disadvantage, often being referred to as the “Third World.”

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The Middle East and Israel

In the immediate postwar years a revolt against Western imperialism swept across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Jordan, and other Middle East countries, expanded their influence, helped by the large oil reserves in the region.
During World War II Jews immigrated to Palestine, then under British control. After the war and the horrors of the Holocaust, the Jewish state of Israel was created in 1948.
Many Arab nations objected to the creation of Israel and the end of Palestine as a political entity. The Israelis fought a series of wars with the Arab states, but with the support of the U.S., Israel became one of the most industrialized countries in the Middle East.

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The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.

Even after World War II the U.S. was a nation suffering from legally sanctioned racial prejudice. The 14th Amendment guaranteed all citizens “equal protection” and the 15th Amendment guaranteed blacks the right to vote. However, this was not the case.
Legal racial segregation (schools, businesses, etc.) was generally the legal rule in the south and most blacks in those areas were not allowed to vote
The Supreme Court held in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that legal segregation did not violate the Constitution. This was finally overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
The Civil Rights movement continued throughout the 1950’s and 60’s and grew more powerful as whites and blacks joined together demanding racial equality.

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The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.

These demands were often met by violence throughout the Nation (but particularly in the South). Peaceful protests were responded to violently by local authorities. Marchers, freedom riders, peaceful protesters, and those trying to register blacks to vote were beaten and killed.
Attempts at desegregation were violently opposed and federal troops and federal law enforcement were used to fight against the racism.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were landmark federal legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").

Scenes From the Civil Rights Movement

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Mass Culture

In the postwar era American mass culture began to serve as the common denominator of an emerging world civilization. American mass culture was attractive to people around the world.
This was greatly helped by the popularity of American films and the emerging importance of television entertainment.
The popularity of American films, television, food, music, and clothing began to influence people throughout the free world, as well as in the Soviet Bloc and the Middle East.
New forms of amusement, such as watching television, carrying transistor radios, listen to record albums, and attending rock concerts grew with the birth of new media.

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Cultural Styles, 1945–1970

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The End of Modernism

Late modernism flourished from 1945-70 and expressed the vision of a group of artists, writers, and thinkers who seemed overwhelmed by the despairing age.
Existentialism-with its advice to forget the past and the future and to live passionately for the present- seemed to be the only philosophy that made sense.
Two French writers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, were the leading voices of atheistic existentialism, who expressed their views through their novels and plays.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John XXIII initiated the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) which made dramatic changes within the Catholic community, from changing dietary rules to allowing the mass to be said in vernacular languages, to rejecting anti-Semitism.

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Structuralism, Feminism, and Black Consciousness

Unlike existentialism, with its focus on freedom, Structuralism is a theoretical paradigm that believes that elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure.
Structuralism affirms the universality of the human mind in all places and times. It became a growing movement in sociology, anthropology, and linguistics during this period.

This period also saw a revival of feminism and eventually the entire feminist movement, seeking equal rights for women and the rejection of rigid societal roles for women.

Betty Friedan wrote the “Feminine Mystique” (1963) which argued that society conspired to idealize women (as wives, mothers, homemakers, etc.), thus denying their worth as individuals and human beings.

Hand in hand with the Civil Rights movement, the Black consciousness movement, inspired by individuals like Rev. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and writer James Baldwin, reexamined and explored what it meant to be a black person in society.

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Science and Technology

Many important advances were made during this era, far too many to cover. The transistor, a semi-conductor for controlling electronic impulses ushered in the information age.
By the 1950’s the first commercial nuclear reactors were able to provide electric power.
The jet engine was fully developed and, closely thereafter, the space race began.
In 1956 the invention of a safe birth control pill triggered a sexual revolution and gave women sexual freedom and control of their bodies.
In the 1950’s polio was eradicated with the vaccine developed by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Advances in vaccine technology allowed for smallpox to be eradicated by 1979.
The structure of DNA was discovered and innovative surgical methods, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy radically reduced cancer mortality.

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Late Modernist Drama

This period saw multiple trends in drama. Among the leading playwrights were Irish writer Samuel Becket (1906-89) who wrote plays like “Waiting for Godot” (1952).
England’s Howard Pinter (1930-2008) who wrote “The Homecoming” (1965) and was one of the most influential modern British dramatists.
Other great playwrights of the era include American Arthur Miller (1915-2005) who wrote such classic works as “Death of a Salesman” (1949) and “The Crucible (1953).
American Tennessee Williams (1911-83) wrote works such as “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) about forbidden sexual desire and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) about sexual frustration.

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The End of Modernism

Jackson Pollock (1912-56) was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was well known for his unique style of drip painting.
Another originator of abstract expressionism was Willem de Kooning (1904-97) who was originally from the Netherlands, but came to the U.S. as a young man.
Mark Rothko (1903-70) was an American painter of Russian Jewish descent. He is generally identified as an abstract expressionist and along with Pollock and de Kooning was one of the most famous postwar American artists.
The abstract expressionists made spiritual claims for their work, saying the spontaneous methods liberated the human spirit.

Jackson Pollock, “Number 5” (1948)

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Jackson Pollock, “Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)” (1950)

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Jackson Pollock, “Number 11, 1952”

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Willem de Kooning, Women and Bicycle (1953)

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Willem de Kooning, Women III (1953) and Woman V (1952–53)

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Mark Rothko, “No. 3/No. 13” (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange, 1949) and No. 61 (Rust and Blue, 1953)

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Andy Warhol, “Campbell's Soup I” (1968)

Andy Warhol (1928-87) was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s.

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Andy Warhol, “Double Elvis” (1963) and “Marilyn” (1967)

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Henry Moore, “Family Group” (1950)

Henry Moore 1898-1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.

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Henry Moore, “Oval with Two Points (1968) and “Draped Reclining Woman (1957)

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Mies and Johnson,
Seagram Building

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Music

In late modernism revolutionary change alter the sound of American pop music and made it a global sensation. Born in the 1950’s rock and roll claimed indigenous black and white roots, country music, rhythm and blues, gospel, and jazz and mixed it with a sexual tone
In the mid-sixties rock and roll evolved into rock, a more sophisticated, global style embodied most famously by the Beatles from 1959-70.
Soon rock had surpassed most other popular musical styles with its driving rhythms, wailing vocals, and youthful angst.
Rock contributed to the rise of global music, and with the new technology, international relations, and popular tastes jazz, rock, classical, and pop music was exported around the world.

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Film

Film was perhaps the most important art form of late modernism, holding its own against the newcomer- television.
Filmmakers grew more international moving towards a global cinema, despite the dominance of Hollywood.
Italy’s postwar film movement was robust with directors like Roberto Rosselini and Federico Fellini gaining prominence.
Akira Kurosawa rose to fame with film like “Roshomon” (1950) and “Seven Samurai” (1954).
Sweden enjoyed a film boom largely because of the brilliant, multilayered work of Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) and such films as “The Seventh Seal” (1957) and “Virgin Spring” (1960).
While the rest of the world produced art films, Hollywood stayed with the tired and true genre movies like westerns, “film noir” (a style of crime drama), musicals, romantic comedies and dramas.

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Death and the Knight, From Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” (1957)

Posters for “Roshomon” and “Seven Samurai”

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The Legacy of the Age of Anxiety and Late Modernism

Nuclear threat and MAD actually avoided any other major wars.
The Cold War would continue until the early 1990’s and the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Late modernism: United States emerged as the West’s cultural leader.
Expectation of rapidly changing styles.
Mainstream status of counterculture.