On the surface, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, seemed to be the cause of the events that led to a European and, eventually, a world war. ... As the nineteenth century came to a close, Europe had been exposed to new ideas, made credible through scientific evidence, and began to think differently about themselves and about their nations. ... One of the most striking influences of these revolutionary ideas was the rise of nationalism among the European nations. ... While some countries experienced sweeping movements to unite a people or cultures, others mainta...

• Word Count: 5871
• Approx Pages: 23
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Instead, we see his teachings spanning other topics, as thus, Cummings uses the subtlety of parenthesis to show how our culture ignores a symbol as powerful as Jesus if he conflicts with tradition social perceptions, like war. ... To put Cummings in the same list as Plato and Jesus might seem extreme, and almost blasphemous to some, but his work in "plato told" cleverly uses traditional thought to mark him as a revolutionary thinker against traditional culture before most writers of modern time. ... The poem develops an image of a family supporting their brother, and son, before he goes o...

• Word Count: 4790
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: High School

The twentieth century really begins before the end of the nineteenth century. Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent the end of an era. An end-of-century stoicism, and a growing pessimism among writers and intellectuals, may be traced to several sources, not least the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species which put the existence of God into radical question. Across the whole population, and in the face of rapid economic and social changes, radical doubts about the stability of the existing order were expressed. By the end of the nine...

• Word Count: 10566
• Approx Pages: 42