American Modernism

(noun)

American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. This artistic and cultural movement began at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century.

Related Terms

Examples of American Modernism in the following topics:

  • American Modernism

    • Economic and technological progress during the interwar period gave rise to American modernism, an artistic movement favoring abstraction.
    • American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century.
    • Numerous directions of American "modernism" did not result in one coherent style, but evoked the desire for experiments and challenges.
    • O'Keeffe has been a major figure in American Modernism since the 1920s.
    • She has received widespread recognition for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style.

  • Literature

    • American Modernism reached its peak in America between the 1920s and the 1940s.
    • The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity and a break with traditions.
    • Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology.
    • New technologies, especially automobiles, moving pictures, and radio proliferated 'modernity' to a large part of the population.
    • Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is often described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature.

  • The Rise of Realism

    • American realism attempted to portray the life of ordinary Americans at home, presenting a new artistic perspective.
    • Through artistic expression, American realism attempted to portray the cultural exuberance of the figurative American landscape and the life of ordinary Americans at home.
    • Pulling away from fantasy and focusing on the now, American realism presented a new gateway into modernism.
    • The Ashcan School, also known as "The Eight," along with the group called "Ten American Painters," created the core of American modernism in the visual arts.
    • Twain's style, however, was based on vigorous, realistic, colloquial American speech, and gave American writers a new appreciation of their national voice.

  • Jackson and the Democratic Party

    • The modern Democratic Party arose in the 1830s out of factions from the largely disbanded Democratic-Republican Party.
    • The modern Democratic Party was formed in the 1830s from former factions of the Democratic-Republican Party, which had largely collapsed by 1824.
    • After the disappearance of the Federalists after 1815 and the subsequent "Era of Good Feelings" (1816–1824), a group of weakly organized political factions dominated the American political landscape until about 1828–1832, when the modern Democratic Party emerged along with its rival, the Whigs.
    • Democrats strongly favored expansion to new farm lands, as typified by their attacks on and expulsion of eastern American Indians and their invasion of vast amounts of new land in the West after 1846.
    • During his presidency, Polk lowered tariffs, set up a subtreasury system, and began and directed the Mexican-American War, in which the United States acquired much of the modern-day American Southwest.

  • Expansion and the Mexican-American War

    • Throughout the nineteenth century, Americans continually moved further west into new territory.
    • With the end of the wartime alliance between Britain and the Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, American settlers moved in great numbers into the rich farmlands of the Midwest.
    • This pattern was followed throughout the West as American hunters and trappers traded with the Indians and explored the land.
    • American Progress is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west.
    • Native Americans and animals flee into darkness.

  • The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

    • The Truman Doctrine underpinned American Cold War policy in Europe and around the world, and endured because it addressed a broader cultural insecurity regarding modern life in a globalized world.
    • It dealt with U.S. concern over communism's domino effect and it mobilized American economic power to modernize and stabilize unstable regions without direct military intervention.
    • It brought nation-building activities and modernization programs to the forefront of foreign policy.
    • This was on top of $13 billion in American aid already given.
    • Note the pivotal position of the American flag.

  • The Emergence of "American" Literature

    • Literary nationalists at this time were calling for a movement that would develop a unique American literary style to distinguish American literature from British literature.
    • The American preoccupation with national identity (or nationalism) in this period was expressed by modernism, technology, and academic classicism, a major facet of which was literature.
    • These American writers who questioned transcendentalism illustrate the underlying tension between individualism and conformity in American life.
    • Walt Whitman was a highly influential American writer.
    • His American epic, Leaves of Grass, celebrates the common person.

  • The Spanish-American War

    • The Spanish–American War was a three-month conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States.
    • The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States (effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence).
    • American attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine–American War.
    • With two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay, and a third more modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts, Madrid vied for peace.
    • Analyze the major events and contributing factors of the Spanish-American War

  • The Spanish-American War

    • The Spanish-American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States.
    • American attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to U.S. involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine-American War.
    • The Spanish-American War was swift and decisive.
    • A third more modern fleet was recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts.
    • The war marked American entry into world affairs.

  • War, Empire, and an Emerging American World Power

    • After winning the Spanish-American War in 1898, the U.S. asserted a globally-oriented foreign policy which continues to the present day.
    • The Spanish-American War thus began the active, globally oriented American foreign policy that continues to the present day.
    • The Philippine-American War ended in 1901 after Aguinaldo was captured and swore allegiance to the US.
    • Roosevelt continued the McKinley policies of removing the Catholic friars (with compensation to the Pope), upgrading the infrastructure, introducing public health programs, and launching a program of economic and social modernization.
    • The Filipinos fought side by side with the Americans when the Japanese invaded in 1941, and aided the American re-conquest of the islands in 1944-45.