Timeline of the Moderns

By Pryorg
  • Pryor Gibson ENG IV (B)

  • Founding of the WSPU

    Founding of the WSPU
    Pankhurst's most important work began with this founding of the WSPU.She defied politicians by disrupting party rallies, marching and smashing store windows, and going on hunger strikes when jailed. During World War I Pankhurst's tactics changed, and she won support for her cause by helping the war effort. In 1918, Parliament voted women age 30 or older the right to vote, and in 1928 voting age was lowered to 21 years old.
    - WSPU stands for Women's Social Political Union
    - Based in the UK
  • Fall of the Qing Dynasty

    Fall of the Qing Dynasty
    China's Qing Dynasty was slow to modernize and underestimated the nationalism sweeping China after the unsuccessful Boxer Rebellion against foreign interference in Chinese affairs. Sun Yixian and his revolutionary alliance threw out China's last emperor, and the country went through a prolonged period of political turmoil until the Communists achieved supremacy in 1949.
    - Ended China's millennia-long imperial period
    - Ended Qing dynasty's rule of 268 years
  • T.S. Eliot

    T.S. Eliot
    Eliot blurred his national identification by becoming a British citizen. However, the St. Louis-born, Harvard-educated poet early on "was English in everything but accent and citizenship" according to his college classmates. "He smoked a pipe, liked to be alone, carefully avoided slang, and dressed the studied carelessness of a dandy.
    - Renounced his American passport, becoming a British subject in 1927
    - Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948
  • World War I

    World War I
    Since recent wars had been small-scale conflicts, a generation of patriotic young British men eagerly enlisted to fight Germany when war broke out; however, trench warfare was a new reality, and by war's end 908,000 men from the British Empire had been killed.
    - Also called "The Great War" and "The War to End All Wars" among other titles
    - 8 million soldiers died in World War I with another 21 million injured.
  • Prelude

    Prelude
    With the publication of this book, Mansfield achieved front rank among British authors. Exclusively a writer of short stories, Mansfield had a style that was unique at the time, emphasizing subtlety and small but telling insights over broad plot developments. Mansfield suffered several personal tragedies in her short, 35-year life, and her death from tuberculosis in 1923 silenced a potentially masterful hand.
    - From New Zealand
    - Known as a modernist short story writer
  • Art Deco

    Art Deco
    The term Art Deco derives from the name of a Paris exhibit: the Exposition Internatinale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. This style is marked by geometric shapes and smooth lines suggesting elegance and sophistication. New York City's Empire State Building is a famous example of Art Deco architecture. What year is this?
    - Began in 1920
    - Combined modernist styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials
  • Sinn Fein

    Sinn Fein
    Members of Sinn Fein--a militant group begun in 1905 by Irish Catholics--proclaimed Ireland a republic with themselves as its head, and Sinn Fein supporters and other Irish nationalists waged a guerrilla war against British troops. The passage of the Home Rule Bill divided Ireland into two sections. The six Protestant counties of Ulster, designated Northern Ireland, remained part of the United Kingdom.
    - Still active as a political party
    - Founded by Arthur Griffin
  • Ulysses

    Ulysses
    Initially judged obscene, early editions subjected to confiscation and book burning, long banned in England and the United States, Ulysses found its exalted stature confirmed in controversy in 1998 when it was chosen the best English-language novel of the 20th century by an editorial board of the Modern Library, a division of Random House publishers.
    - Authored by Irish writer James Joyce
    - First released in parts and later released all together
    - Caused much controversy for its mature themes
  • George Orwell

    George Orwell
    George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Blair, carried a lifelong "horror of politics" and concern for human freedom. This was transferred in his writings into two landmark books, Animal Farm and 1984, the former bitterly predicting the downfall of communism and the latter warning of what he saw as a trend toward totalitarian dominance by governments.
    - Wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction, and polemical journalism
    - His works continue to influence popular and political culture
  • King Edward VIII

    King Edward VIII
    Edward VIII became the subject of one of the most popular love stories of the 20th century. After becoming king in 1936, he announced his intention to marry an American divorcee. When the British government objected to this, Edward abdicated after only 325 days as king, the first person ever to voluntarily relinquish the British throne. With the woman he loved, Edward VIII (1894-1972) lived out his days known as the duke of Windsor.
    - Succeeded by his younger brother George VI
  • Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat

    Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
    To combat despair brought on Britons almost daily German air attacks, prime minister Winston Churchill used stirring words to rally the people to stand defiant. He declared that Britain would "wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all our strength that God can give us...against monstrous tyranny."
    - Replaced Neville Chamberlain in 1940
    - Oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort in WWII
  • Communist Containment

    Communist Containment
    In a speech delivered in the United States, Winston Churchill coined the phrase "iron curtain" as he warned of the threat posed by the Soviet Union, which a year earlier had been an ally in the defeat of Hitler. The United States quickly took the lead in containing communism's post-war expansion, and this Cold War became a fact of international life for the next 45 years.
    -Warned of the Soviets plans for postwar dominance in eastern Europe
    -Western policy was strictly about containing communism