Ideas of the 20th Century

Episode Synopsis

In lecture seven, we explore the contrasting perspectives of Rudyard Kipling and F. Scott Fitzgerald as voices of the 1920s, examining their different responses to the post-World War I era. We examine Kipling's "ethics of civilization," emphasizing traditional wisdom, social institutions, and long-term survival over abstract ideals, illustrated through poems like "If" and "The Gods of the Copybook Headings." We then analyze Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise," depicting the lost generation's moral drift after WWI, torn between external values and internal meaning, ultimately finding only self-knowledge amid disillusionment.