Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Intellectual History
The Intellectual Fallout From World War I, William Dean
The Intellectual Fallout From World War I, William Dean
Faculty Scholarship – History
Many books link World War II to postmodernism, but few link World War I in the same way. The author here explores the intellectual fallout from World War I as the context of the roots of post-modernism. His limited purpose in this paper is to explore one of many possible links between the unanticipated carnage of World War I, through existentialism, to the attack on meaning in history posed by postmodernism. The postmodern drive towards individual isolation and autonomy has a corrosive political impact on our world, as it does on individual well being.
One of the internal inconsistencies that …
Surviving The Death Of God: Existentialism, God, And Man At Post-Wwii Yale, Robert Tice Lalka
Surviving The Death Of God: Existentialism, God, And Man At Post-Wwii Yale, Robert Tice Lalka
Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections
“This is our world to build, adorn, or destroy, not God's or anyone else's.”
These were the words of Hugh McClean, a Yale student both before and after the Second World War. When the war ended, McClean and thousands of his peers returned from duty in Europe and the Pacific to complete their education at colleges across the United States. They saw the world differently than they had before; they certainly viewed the world differently than their parents and grandparents. They had heard leaders of the world’s warring nations invoke destiny to validate their warfare. Some of these teenagers had …