>Why were anxiety and uncertainty such prominent components of early-twentieth-century thought and culture? Chapter 26 examines science, culture, and politics in the Age of Anxiety. Late-nineteenth-century thinkers called attention to the pessimism, uncertainty, and irrationalism that seemed to accompany modern life. By 1900, radical developments in philosophy and the sciences had substantiated and popularized such ideas. The modernist movement had begun its sweep through literature, music, and the arts. A growing consumer society and, in the twentieth century, the new media of radio and film transformed the habits of everyday life and leisure.

Even as modern science, art, and culture challenged received wisdom of all kinds, international relations spiraled into crisis. Despite some progress in the mid-1920s, political stability remained short-lived, and the Great Depression that began in 1929 cast millions into poverty and shocked the status quo. Democratic liberalism was besieged by the rise of authoritarian and Fascist governments, and another world conflict seemed imminent.