Page 111 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

this fleeting world / our world: the modern era tfw-51

Examine the history of all nations and all centuries and you will always find
men subject to three codes: the code of nature, the code of society, and the code of
religion... [T]hese codes were never in harmony. • DENIS DIDEROT (1713–1784)

faith in the role of reason in human affairs. New art tries. For the first time significant numbers of consumers
forms, such as cinema, brought artistic realism into mass in Europe and Japan began to buy private cars, televi-
culture and challenged artists and writers to experiment sions, and radios and even exotic foreign holidays, made
with new, less realistic forms of expressionism, from the possible by the reduced cost of air transportation.A new
cubism of painters such as Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) wave of innovations in electronics, many stimulated by
to the dream narrative of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce wartime research programs, ushered in the electronic rev-
(1882–1941). olution of the 1980s and 1990s, and innovations in biol-
The new technologies of mass culture, including radio, ogy, including the discovery of the structure of
newspapers, and particularly the cinema, offered new deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA, the carrier of genetic infor-
ways of influencing the ideas, attitudes, and fantasies of mation), spawned new techniques of genetic engineering
people throughout the world, and governments as well as whose implications are still unclear.
advertisers came to appreciate their power.The Soviet gov- Capitalist governments became increasingly adept at
ernment was particularly creative in using the mass media sustaining growth by stimulating consumption and by
to spread its ideas.The new mass media also helped cre- seeking the right balance between intervention and
ate a mass culture that could challenge the hegemony of laissez-faire (a doctrine opposing governmental interfer-
traditional high culture. Outside of the industrial heart- ence in economic affairs). Slumps during the early 1970s
land, the revival of traditional religious and artistic tradi- and the late 1990s demonstrated that the business cycle
tions, such as those of Hinduism and Buddhism, began has never been completely tamed. Nevertheless, many of
to play an important role in creating new national cultures the protectionist illusions of the late nineteenth century
that could challenge the cultural hegemony of the North were shed as governments realized that in a world of
Atlantic region. rapid global growth, the wealth of individual nations
(even the most powerful) usually depends more on
Contemporary Period: global economic growth than on the possession of pro-
1945–Present tected markets. A clearer understanding of the economic
After World War II the capitalist engine of growth roared and political realities of modern capitalism explains the
to life again to generate the most rapid economic growth
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
in world history. From 0.91 percent per annum between
American Empire p. 82 (v1)
1913 and 1950, global rates of growth of GDP rose to
Climate Change p. 363 (v1)
2.93 percent between 1950 and 1973 before falling to
Cold War p. 376 (v2)
the more modest but still impressive rate of 1.33 percent
Consumerism p. 435 (v2)
between 1973 and 1998.
Globalization p. 849 (v3)
The international economic order was revived and
Green Revolution p. 870 (v3)
restabilized by expanding markets, by massive recon-
Human Rights p. 939 (v3)
struction aid from the United States, and by the creation
Mass Media p. 1203 (v3)
of global regulatory institutions such as the United
Postcolonial Analysis p. 1502 (v4)
Nations (in 1945) and the International Monetary Fund
Progress p. 1514 (v4)
(in 1947).After falling between 1913 and 1950, the pro-
Religious Freedom p. 1574 (v4)
portion of goods produced for international markets
Russian–Soviet Empire p. 1638 (v4)
tripled between 1950 and 1995. A revival in interna-
Social Welfare p. 1737 (v4)
tional trade and the spread of mass consumerism, first in
United Nations p. 1916 (v5)
the United States and then in Europe and Japan, stimu-
Urbanization p. 1925 (v5)
lated economic growth in all the leading capitalist coun-