Word: 1920s
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...true that only three people understood relativity, the witty British astrophysicist paused, then said, "I am trying to think who the third person is"). To the world at large, relativity seemed to pull the rug out from under perceived reality. And for many advanced thinkers of the 1920s, from Dadaists to Cubists to Freudians, that was a fitting credo, reflecting what science historian David Cassidy calls "the incomprehensiveness of the contemporary scene--the fall of monarchies, the upheaval of the social order, indeed, all the turbulence of the 20th century...
Moreover, eBay has exposed America as a nation of collectors. Matchbook covers, cast-iron witches' cauldrons, Pez dispensers, pneumatic grease pumps from the 1920s, Three Stooges memorabilia--you name it, some American somewhere collects it. "We define ourselves by our stuff," says Robert Thompson, president of the Popular Culture Association and a Syracuse University professor who specializes in the study of collectibles. In a democracy, with everyone theoretically equal, people want to be different. We don't have a caste system; we've never had a blood-line aristocracy. We've distinguished ourselves by our cars, by the clothes...
...also led to a vicious cycle. Once factory owners realized that time was money--a notion that led to the first so-called efficiency experts in the 1920s--the idea of making every second count began to spread through society. Result: efficiency became an American virtue. Today every conceivable business is open around the clock; we multitask frantically, applying makeup or talking on the phone while driving; we cram our kids' lives with team sports and lessons. Children don't play anymore: they schedule play dates. "We are," says author Gleick, "driven by time...
Although free everything seems like another Internet innovation, it's actually a century-old strategy. King Gillette gave away his safety razor and made a fortune selling the blades. Perhaps you remember something called broadcast television, which was preceded, in the 1920s, by broadcast radio. RCA created the NBC network to sell radios...
...what they actually have to work with. "If acting's the problem, shows need singers and dancers, too," says Montel in an unintentional nod to the common relegation of minorities performers to minstrelsy. Hood mistakenly asserts that "African-American drama did not come about until Langston Hughes in the 1920s." "African-American drama started a long time before that,"says Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chair of the Afro-American Studies Department. Indeed, the first published play by a black writer dates...