Lost Generation

The Lost Generation was the demographic cohort that reached early adulthood during World War I, and preceded the Greatest Generation. The social generation is generally defined as people born from 1883 to 1900, coming of age in either the 1900s or the 1910s, and were the first generation to mature in the 20th century. The term is also particularly used to refer to a group of American expatriate writers living in Paris during the 1920s.{{Cite book |last=Madsen |first=Alex |title=Sonia Delaunay: Artist of the Lost Generation |date=2015 |publisher=Open Road Distribution |isbn=978-1-5040-0851-8}}{{Cite book |last=Fitch |first=Noel Riley |title=Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties |date=1983 |publisher=WW Norton |isbn=978-0-393-30231-8}}{{Cite book |last=Monk |first=Craig |title=Writing the Lost Generation: Expatriate Autobiography and American Modernism |date=2010 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |isbn=978-1-58729-743-4}} Gertrude Stein is credited with coining the term, and it was subsequently popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it in the epigraph for his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises: "You are all a lost generation."{{Cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |author-link=Ernest Hemingway |url=https://archive.org/details/sunalsorises00hemi_0 |title=The Sun Also Rises |date=1996 |publisher=Scribner |isbn=978-0-684-83051-3 |location=New York |oclc=34476446 |url-access=registration}}{{Cite book |last=Monk |first=Craig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYYNMqtvj7EC |title=Writing the Lost Generation: Expatriate Autobiography and American Modernism |date=2010 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |isbn=978-1-58729-743-4 |location=Iowa City, IA |page=1 |access-date=6 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804233613/https://books.google.com/books?id=OYYNMqtvj7EC |archive-date=4 August 2021 |url-status=live}} "Lost" in this context refers to the "disoriented, wandering, directionless" spirit of many of the war's survivors in the early interwar period.{{Cite book |last=Hynes |first=Samuel |title=A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture |date=1990 |publisher=The Bodley Head |isbn=978-0-370-30451-9 |location=London |page=386}}

In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Western members of the Lost Generation grew up in societies that were more literate, consumerist, and media-saturated than ever before, but which also tended to maintain strictly conservative social values. Young men of the cohort were mobilized on a mass scale for World War I, a conflict that was often seen as the defining moment of their age group's lifespan. Young women also contributed to and were affected by the war, and in its aftermath gained greater freedoms politically and in other areas of life. The Lost Generation was also heavily vulnerable to the Spanish flu pandemic and became the driving force behind many cultural changes, particularly in major cities during what became known as the Roaring Twenties.

Later in their midlife, they experienced the economic effects of the Great Depression and often saw their own sons leave for the battlefields of World War II. In the developed world, they tended to reach retirement and average life expectancy during the decades after the conflict, but some significantly outlived the norm. The Lost Generation became completely ancestral when the last surviving person who was known to have been born in the Lost Generation or during the 19th century, Nabi Tajima, died in 2018 at age 117.

Terminology

The first named generation, the term "Lost Generation" is used for the young people who came of age around the time of World War I. In Europe, they are mostly known as the "Generation of 1914", for the year World War I began. In France, they were sometimes called the Génération du feu, the "(gun)fire generation". In the United Kingdom, the term was originally used for those who died in the war,{{r|aftermath}} and often implicitly referred to upper-class casualties who were perceived to have died disproportionately, robbing the country of a future elite.{{r|winter}} Many felt that "the flower of youth and the best manhood of the peoples [had] been mowed down",{{Cite journal |last1=Zetkin |first1=Clara |last2=Luxemburg |first2=Rosa |last3=Liebknecht |first3=Karl |last4=Mehring |first4=Franz |date=8 March 1919 |title=A Spartacan Manifesto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tVo5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA374 |journal=The Nation |language=en |publisher=J.H. Richards |volume=108 |pages=373–374 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205142648/https://books.google.com/books?id=tVo5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA374 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |number=2801}} for example, such notable casualties as the poets Isaac Rosenberg, Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, and Wilfred Owen,{{r|bbc}} composer George Butterworth, and physicist Henry Moseley.

Date and age range definitions

Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe define the Lost Generation as the cohort born from 1883 to 1900, who came of age during World War I and the Roaring Twenties.{{r|strauss}}

Characteristics

=As children and adolescents=

==Family life and upbringing==

File:StateLibQld 1 169147 Andersen family photographed in their living room at Swanfels, Queensland, ca. 1900.jpg pictured at home (circa 1900)]]

When the Lost Generation was growing up, the ideal family arrangement was generally seen as the man of the house being the breadwinner and primary authority figure while his wife dedicated herself to caring for the home and children. Most, even less well-off, married couples attempted to conform to this ideal.{{Cite web |title=Family Life: New Roles for Wives and Children |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-new-roles-wives-and-children |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200710/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-new-roles-wives-and-children |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite web |date=8 March 2010 |title=Everywoman in 1910: No vote, poor pay, little help – Why the world had to change |url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/everywoman-in-1910-no-vote-poor-206289 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130301200354/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/everywoman-in-1910-no-vote-poor-206289 |archive-date=1 March 2013 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=mirror.co.uk |language=en}} It was common for family members of three different generations to share a home.{{Cite web |date=27 March 2017 |title=Three-Generation Households: Are They History? |url=https://www.silvercentury.org/2017/03/three-generation-households-are-they-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200700/https://www.silvercentury.org/2017/03/three-generation-households-are-they-history/ |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=Silver Century Foundation |language=en-US}} Wealthier households also tended to include domestic servants, though their numbers would have varied from a single maid to a large team depending on how well-off the family was.{{Cite news |last=Wallis |first=Lucy |date=21 September 2012 |title=Servants: A life below stairs |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19544309 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624222510/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19544309 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

Public concern for the welfare of children was intensifying by the later 19th century with laws being passed and societies formed to prevent their abuse. The state increasingly gained the legal right to intervene in private homes and family life to protect minors from harm.{{Cite book |last=Myers |first=John E. B. |title=Family Law Quarterly |publisher=Sage Publishing |chapter=A Short History of Child Protection in America |access-date=20 June 2021 |chapter-url=https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/35363_Chapter1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317220740/https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/35363_Chapter1.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2021 |url-status=live}} {{Cite web |title=A history of child protection |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202903/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021 |website=OpenLearn |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Swain |first=Shurlee |date=October 2014 |title=History of child protection legislation |url=https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Research%20Report%20-%20History%20of%20child%20protection%20legislation%20-%20Institutional%20responses.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119015451/https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Research%20Report%20-%20History%20of%20child%20protection%20legislation%20-%20Institutional%20responses.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021}} However, beating children for misbehaviour was not only common but viewed as the duty of a responsible caregiver.{{Cite news |last=Geoghegan |first=Tom |date=5 March 2008 |title=Was childhood ever innocent? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7276939.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204904/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7276939.stm |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021 |language=en-GB}}

==Health and living conditions==

File:Mary Cassatt - The Child's Bath - Google Art Project.jpg by Mary Cassatt from 1893 of a woman giving a child a wash. The link between hygiene and good health was becoming better understood in Western society by the end of the 19th century and frequent bathing had become common.{{Cite web |last=Elmasry |first=Faiza |date=22 April 2020 |title=Historian Explores the Evolution of Personal Hygiene |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/science-health_historian-explores-evolution-personal-hygiene/6187950.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724153613/https://www.voanews.com/science-health/historian-explores-evolution-personal-hygiene |archive-date=24 July 2021 |access-date=24 July 2021 |website=Voice of America |language=en}}]]

Sewer systems designed to remove human waste from urban areas had become widespread in industrial cities by the late 19th century, helping to reduce the spread of diseases such as cholera.{{Cite web |title=How London got its Victorian sewers |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/engineering-technology/how-london-got-its-victorian-sewers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624212420/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/engineering-technology/how-london-got-its-victorian-sewers |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=OpenLearn |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=History of Sewers |url=https://greywateraction.org/history-sewers/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205952/https://greywateraction.org/history-sewers/ |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Greywater Action |language=en-US}} Legal standards for the quality of drinking water also began to be introduced.{{Cite web |title=Slow Sand Filtration of Water |url=https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssf9241540370.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008223315/http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssf9241540370.pdf |archive-date=8 October 2012 |access-date=17 December 2012}} However, the introduction of electricity was slower, and during the formative years of the Lost Generation gas lights and candles were still the most common form of lighting.{{Cite web |title=The Electric Light System |url=https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628112332/https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm |archive-date=28 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Thomas Edison National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |language=en}}

Though statistics on child mortality dating back to the beginning of the Lost Generation's lifespan are limited, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in 1900 one in ten American infants died before their first birthday.{{Cite web |title=Achievements in Public Health, 1900–1999: Healthier Mothers and Babies |url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723080557/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm |archive-date=23 July 2021 |access-date=30 June 2021 |website=www.cdc.gov}} Figures for the United Kingdom state that during the final years of the 19th century, mortality in the first five years of childhood was plateauing at a little under one in every four births. At around one in three in 1800, the early childhood mortality rate had declined overall throughout the next hundred years but would fall most sharply during the first half of the 20th century, reaching less than one in twenty by 1950. This meant that members of the Lost Generation were somewhat less likely to die at a very early age than their parents and grandparents, but were significantly more likely to do so than children born even a few decades later.{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom: child mortality rate 1800–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041714/united-kingdom-all-time-child-mortality-rate/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327175529/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041714/united-kingdom-all-time-child-mortality-rate/ |archive-date=27 March 2021 |access-date=30 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}

==Literacy and education==

File:Snickarkrogen skola 1900.jpg

Laws restricting child labour in factories had begun to appear from around 1840 onwards{{Cite web |last=O'Sullivan |first=Michael E. |date=1 January 2006 |title=Review of Kastner, Dieter, Kinderarbeit im Rheinland: Entstehung und Wirkung des ersten preußischen Gesetzes gegen die Arbeit von Kindern in Fabriken von 1839 |url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11358 |access-date=14 November 2015 |website=www.h-net.org |archive-date=3 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903162421/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11358 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |last=Hindman |first=Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MrfBQAAQBAJ |title=The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey |date=18 December 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45386-4}}{{Cite web |title=Timeline |url=http://gbchildlaborinamerica.weebly.com/timeline.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121025811/http://gbchildlaborinamerica.weebly.com/timeline.html |archive-date=21 November 2015 |access-date=14 November 2015 |website=Child labor in the U.S}} and by the end of the 19th century, compulsory education had been introduced throughout much of the Western world for at least a few years of childhood.{{Cite web |title=Mass Primary Education in the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/mass_primary_education_in_the_nineteenth_century/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/mass_primary_education_in_the_nineteenth_century/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.sociostudies.org}}{{Cite book |last1=Grinin |first1=Leonid E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NtZbDgAAQBAJ&q=Globalistics+and+globalization+studies:+Global+Transformations+and+Global+Future |title=Globalistics and globalization studies: Global Transformations and Global Future. |last2=Ilyin |first2=Ilya V. |last3=Herrmann |first3=Peter |last4=Korotayev |first4=Andrey V. |publisher=ООО "Издательство "Учитель" |year=2016 |isbn=978-5-7057-5026-9 |page=66 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://books.google.com/books?id=NtZbDgAAQBAJ&q=Globalistics+and+globalization+studies:+Global+Transformations+and+Global+Future. |archive-date=20 May 2021 |url-status=live}} By 1900, levels of illiteracy had fallen to less than 11% in the United States, around 3% in Great Britain, and only 1% in Germany.{{Cite web |title=National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) |url=https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506171358/https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp |archive-date=6 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=nces.ed.gov |language=EN}}{{Cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Amy |title=Education, Literacy and the Reading Public |url=https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |quote=...by 1900 illiteracy for both sexes [in England and Wales] had dropped to around 3 percent... by the late nineteenth century, the gap [in illiteracy] between England, Wales and Scotland had narrowed and closed}}{{Cite web |title=Parallel worlds: literacy as a yardstick for development |url=https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/parallel-worlds-literacy-yardstick-development |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183903/https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/parallel-worlds-literacy-yardstick-development |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021}} However, the problems of illiteracy and lack of school provision or attendance were felt more acutely in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe.{{Cite journal |last=Mironov |first=Boris N. |date=1991 |title=The Development of Literacy in Russia and the USSR from the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368437 |journal=History of Education Quarterly |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=229–252 |doi=10.2307/368437 |issn=0018-2680 |jstor=368437 |s2cid=144460404 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-date=30 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130110338/https://www.jstor.org/stable/368437 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |date=May 2019 |title=Moving towards mass literacy in Spain, 1860–1930 |url=https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/discussion_papers/BeltranDiezMartinezTiradoworkshopBdECEPR_short.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183902/https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/discussion_papers/BeltranDiezMartinezTiradoworkshopBdECEPR_short.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021}}

Schools of this time period tended to emphasise strict discipline, expecting pupils to memorize information by rote. To help deal with teacher shortages, older students were often used to help supervise and educate their younger peers. Dividing children into classes based on age became more common as schools grew.{{Cite web |title=Education – Western education in the 19th century |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-19th-century |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416211705/https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-19th-century |archive-date=16 April 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}

However, while elementary schooling was becoming increasingly accessible for Western children at the turn of the century, secondary education was still much more of a luxury. Only 11% of American fourteen to seventeen-year-olds were enrolled at High School in 1900, a figure which had only marginally increased by 1910.{{Cite web |title=The 1900s Education: Overview {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524012723/https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview |archive-date=24 May 2021 |access-date=7 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} Though the school leaving age was officially meant to be 14 by 1900, until the First World War, most British children could leave school through rules put in place by local authorities at 12 or 13 years old.{{Cite web |date=12 April 2008 |title=The school leaving age: what can we learn from history? |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/the-school-leaving-age-what-can-we-learn-from-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608002058/https://www.historyextra.com/period/the-school-leaving-age-what-can-we-learn-from-history/ |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=7 June 2021 |website=HistoryExtra |language=en}} It was not uncommon at the end of the 19th century for Canadian children to leave school at nine or ten years old.{{Cite web |last=Oreopoulos |first=Philip |date=May 2005 |title=Canadian Compulsory School Laws and their Impact on Educational Attainment and Future Earnings |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2005251-eng.pdf?st=VMTvj4NC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121003/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2005251-eng.pdf?st=VMTvj4NC |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=Statistics Canada}}

==Leisure and play==

File:StateLibQld 2 201815 Three children playing with their toys in the backyard, 1890-1900.jpg

By the 1890s, children's toys entered into mass production.{{Cite web |title=Toy Timeline |url=https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2012/05/21/toy-timeline/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183853/https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2012/05/21/toy-timeline/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Brighton museums |language=en-GB}} In 1893, the British toy company William Britain revolutionized the production of toy soldiers by devising the method of hollow casting, making soldiers that were cheaper and lighter than their competitors.{{Cite web |date=14 June 2007 |title=Hampshire Museums Service |url=http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/toy_soldiers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614232918/http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/toy_soldiers.html |access-date=25 August 2008|archive-date=14 June 2007}} This led to metal toy soldiers, which had previously been the preserve of boys from wealthier families, gaining mass appeal during the late Victorian and Edwardian period.{{Cite web |last=Bedford |first=Gavin |title=Toy Soldiers ... Just child's play? |url=https://eghammuseum.org/toy-soldiers-just-childs-play/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://eghammuseum.org/toy-soldiers-just-childs-play/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Egham Museum |language=en-GB}} Dolls often sold by street vendors at a low price were popular with girls. Teddy bears appeared for the first time in the early 1900s.{{Cite web |date=10 December 2014 |title=Popular Toys in History: What Your Ancestors Played With |url=https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183853/https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Ancestry Blog |language=en-US}} Tin plated penny toys were also sold by street sellers for a single penny.{{Cite web |title=An Edwardian Christmas |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/penny-toys-and-poverty-edwardian-christmas |access-date=2021-12-30 |website=Museum of London |language=en |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230224237/https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/penny-toys-and-poverty-edwardian-christmas |url-status=live}}

The turn of the 20th century saw a surge in public park building in parts of the west to provide public space in rapidly growing industrial towns.{{Cite web |title=America's Most Visited City Parks |url=http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/citypark_facts/ccpe_Most_Visited_Parks_09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015111753/http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/citypark_facts/ccpe_Most_Visited_Parks_09.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 October 2009 |access-date=13 December 2009}} They provided a means for children from different backgrounds to play and interact together,{{Cite web |title=Research reveals rowdy past of UK's parks |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/research-reveals-rowdy-past-of-uks-parks/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814221034/https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/research-reveals-rowdy-past-of-uks-parks/ |archive-date=14 August 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=manchester |language=en}} sometimes in specially designed facilities.{{Cite web |title=Urban Parks of the Past and Future |url=https://www.pps.org/article/futureparks |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520184858/https://www.pps.org/article/futureparks |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.pps.org}} They held frequent concerts and performances.{{Cite web |date=24 February 2016 |title=Parks and Recreation: the Victorian way |url=https://www.marshalls.co.uk/commercial/blog/parks-and-recreation-the-victorian-way |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520184859/https://www.marshalls.co.uk/commercial/blog/parks-and-recreation-the-victorian-way |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.marshalls.co.uk |language=en}}

==Popular culture and mass media==

File:Scene from 'Lady of the Lake' (Vitagraph film), 1912.jpg film, 1912)]]

Beginning around the middle of the 19th century, magazines of various types which had previously mainly targeted the few that could afford them found rising popularity among the general public.{{Cite web |title=History of publishing – The 19th century and the start of mass circulation |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613230320/https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing |archive-date=13 June 2015 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}} The latter part of the century not only saw rising popularity for magazines targeted specifically at young boys but the development of a relatively new genre aimed at girls.{{Cite book |last=Brotner |first=Kirsten |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2250w7m |title=English Children and Their Magazines, 1751–1945 |date=1988 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-04010-4 |jstor=j.ctt2250w7m |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183850/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2250w7m?turn_away=true |archive-date=20 May 2021 |url-status=live}}

A significant milestone was reached in the development of cinema when, in 1895, projected moving images were first shown to a paying audience in Paris. Early films were very short (generally taking the form of newsreels, comedic sketches, and short documentaries). They lacked sound but were accompanied by music, lectures, and a lot of audience participation. A notable film industry had developed by the start of the First World War.{{Cite web |title=A very short history of cinema |url=https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=National Science and Media Museum |language=en}}

=As young adults=

==Military service in the First World War==

The Lost Generation is best known as being the cohort that primarily fought in World War I.{{Cite news |last=Simpson |first=Trevor |date=17 January 2014 |title=WW1: Can we really know the Lost Generation? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/24526419 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024123740/https://www.bbc.com/news/24526419 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |access-date=21 May 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} More than 70 million people were mobilized during the First World War, around 8.5 million of whom were killed and 21 million wounded in the conflict. About 2 million soldiers are believed to have been killed by disease, while individual battles sometimes caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.{{Cite web |last=Herbert |first=Tom |date=11 November 2018 |title=World War 1 in numbers: The mind-blowing scale of WW1 |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521110112/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.standard.co.uk |language=en}}

File:French trench battle.jpgs on a battlefield during the First World War]]

Around 60 million of the enlisted originated from the European continent, which saw its younger men mobilized on a mass scale. Most of Europe's great powers operated peacetime conscription systems where men were expected to do a brief period of military training in their youth before spending the rest of their lives in the army reserve. Nations with this system saw a huge portion of their manpower directly invested in the conflict: 55% of male Italians and Bulgarians aged 18 to 50 were called to military service. Elsewhere the proportions were even higher: 63% of military-aged men in Serbia, 78% in Austro-Hungary, and 81% of military-aged men in France and Germany served. Britain, which traditionally relied primarily on the Royal Navy for its security, was a notable exception to this rule and did not introduce conscription until 1916.{{Cite web |title=Recruitment: conscripts and volunteers during World War One |url=https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/recruitment-conscripts-and-volunteers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517104804/https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/recruitment-conscripts-and-volunteers |archive-date=17 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The British Library}} Around 5 million British men fought in the First World War out of a total United Kingdom population of 46 million including women, children, and men too old to bear arms.{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland – British Empire {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/united-kingdom-facts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521110112/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/united-kingdom-facts |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}

Additionally, nations recruited heavily from their colonial empires. Three million men from around the British Empire outside the United Kingdom served in the British Army as soldiers and laborers,{{Cite web |title=The Commonwealth and the First World War |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/commonwealth-and-first-world-war |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727022235/https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/commonwealth-and-first-world-war |archive-date=27 July 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.nam.ac.uk |language=en}} while France recruited 475,000 soldiers from its colonies.{{Cite web |title=French Army and the First World War |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrenchA.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323211505/https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrenchA.htm |archive-date=23 March 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=Spartacus Educational}} Other nations involved include the United States which enlisted 4 million men during the conflict and the Ottoman Empire which mobilized 2,850,000 soldiers.{{Cite web |title=War Losses (Ottoman Empire/Middle East) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_ottoman_empiremiddle_east |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521163750/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_ottoman_empiremiddle_east |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}

Beyond the extent of the deaths, the war had a profound effect on many of its survivors, giving many young men severe mental health problems and crippling physical disabilities.{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Caroline |title=The Shock of War |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418065816/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/ |archive-date=18 April 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=14 August 2020 |title=What happened to the 8 million people who were disabled during WW1? |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304131605/https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/ |archive-date=4 March 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=HistoryExtra |language=en}} The war also unsettled many soldiers' sense of reality, who had gone into the conflict with a belief that battle and hardship was a path to redemption and greatness. When years of pain, suffering, and loss seemed to bring about little in the way of a better future, many were left with a profound sense of disillusionment.{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |date=20 June 2014 |title=A War to End All Innocence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/arts/the-enduring-impact-of-world-war-i.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521162246/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/arts/the-enduring-impact-of-world-war-i.html |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |date=7 April 2020 |title=The Lost Generation: Who They Are and Where The Name Came From |url=https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/who-is-the-lost-generation/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830204820/https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/who-is-the-lost-generation/ |archive-date=30 August 2020 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=FamilySearch Blog |language=en-US}}

==Young women in the 1910s and 1920s==

File:Women in the First World War Q110080.jpg during World War I.]]

Though soldiers on the frontlines of the First World War were exclusively men, women contributed to the war effort in other ways. Many took the jobs men had left in previously male-dominated sectors such as heavy industry, while some even took on non-combat military roles. Many, particularly wealthier women, took part in voluntary work to contribute to the war effort or to help those suffering due to it, such as the wounded or refugees. Often they were experiencing manual labor for the first time. However, this reshaping of the female role led to fears that the sexes having the same responsibilities would disrupt the fabric of society and that more competition for work would leave men unemployed and erode their pay. Most women had to exit the employment they had taken during the war as soon as it concluded.{{Cite web |last=Rowbotham |first=Shiela |date=11 November 2018 |title=Women and the First World War: a taste of freedom |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/women-first-world-war-taste-of-freedom |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507044631/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/women-first-world-war-taste-of-freedom |archive-date=7 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Women in World War I |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/women-in-wwi |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031170204/https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/women-in-wwi |archive-date=31 October 2019 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Women's Mobilization for War (France) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/womens_mobilization_for_war_france |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521235513/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/womens_mobilization_for_war_france |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}

The war also had a personal impact on the lives of female members of the Lost Generation. Many women lost their husbands in the conflict, which frequently meant losing the main breadwinner of the household. However, war widows often received a pension and financial assistance to support their children. Even with some economic support, raising a family alone was often financially difficult and emotionally draining, and women faced losing their pensions if they remarried or were accused of engaging in frowned-upon behavior. In some cases, grief and the other pressures on them drove widows to alcoholism, depression, or suicide.{{Cite web |title=War Widows |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_widows |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503013745/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_widows |archive-date=3 May 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}{{Cite web |title=How the First World War affected families (War Widows) |url=https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/797 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121006/https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/797 |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.mylearning.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Widows and Orphans |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/defense/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/widows-and-orphans |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194522/https://www.encyclopedia.com/defense/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/widows-and-orphans |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} Additionally, the large number of men killed in the First World War made it harder for many young women who were still single at the start of conflict to get married; this accelerated a trend towards them gaining greater independence and embarking on careers.{{Cite web |title=How the First World War affected families (A Generation of 'Surplus Women') |url=https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/798 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121008/https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/798 |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.mylearning.org |language=en}}

Women's gaining of political rights sped up in the Western world after the First World War, while employment opportunities for unmarried women widened. This time period saw the development of a new type of young woman in popular culture known as a flapper, who was known for their rebellion against previous social norms. They had a physically distinctive appearance compared to their predecessors only a few years earlier, cutting their hair into bobs, wearing shorter dresses and more makeup, while taking on a new code of behaviour filled with more recklessness, party-going, and overt sexuality.{{Cite web |title=Women's Suffrage by Country |url=https://www.infoplease.com/history/womens-history/womens-suffrage |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309223732/http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0931343.html |archive-date=9 March 2017 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.infoplease.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Mackrell |first=Judith |date=5 February 2018 |title=The 1920s: 'Young women took the struggle for freedom into their personal lives |url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/05/the-1920s-young-women-took-the-struggle-for-freedom-into-their-personal-lives |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121007/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/05/the-1920s-young-women-took-the-struggle-for-freedom-into-their-personal-lives |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Pruitt |first=Sarah |date=17 September 2018 |title=How Flappers of the Roaring Twenties Redefined Womanhood |url=https://www.history.com/news/flappers-roaring-20s-women-empowerment |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121102/https://www.history.com/news/flappers-roaring-20s-women-empowerment |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}

==Aftermath of the First World War==

The aftermath of the First World War saw substantive changes in the political situation, including a trend towards republicanism, the founding of many new relatively small nation-states which had previously been part of larger empires, and greater suffrage for groups such as the working class and women. France and the United Kingdom both gained territory from their enemies, while the war and the damage it did to the European empires are generally considered major stepping stones in the United States' path to becoming the world's dominant superpower. The German and Italian populations' resentment against what they generally saw as a peace settlement that took too much away from the former or did not give enough to the latter fed into the fascist movements, which would eventually turn those countries into totalitarian dictatorships. For Russia, the years after its revolution in 1917 were plagued by disease, famine, terror, and civil war eventually concluded in the establishment of the Soviet Union.{{Cite web |title=First World War {{!}} Aftermath (outside the British empire) |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/legacy_war.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121050/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/images/global/redpixel.gif |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=22 May 2021 |website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk}}{{Cite web |title=The National Archives {{!}} Exhibitions & Learning online {{!}} First World War {{!}} Aftermath (Britain after the War) |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_after_war.htm |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |archive-date=24 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224231350/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_after_war.htm |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=The National Archives {{!}} Exhibitions & Learning online {{!}} First World War {{!}} Aftermath (British empire) |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_empire_after.htm |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |archive-date=10 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010145933/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_empire_after.htm |url-status=live}}

File:Flapper detail, The Plastic Age magazine (cropped).png

The immediate post-World War One period was characterized by continued political violence and economic instability. The late 1910s saw the Spanish flu pandemic, which was unusual in the sense that it killed many younger adults of the same Lost Generation age group that had mainly died in the war.{{Cite web |last=Craig |first=Ruth |date=10 November 2018 |title=Why Did the 1918 Flu Kill So Many Otherwise Healthy Young Adults? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-did-1918-flu-kill-so-many-otherwise-healthy-young-adults-180967178/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522115031/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-did-1918-flu-kill-so-many-otherwise-healthy-young-adults-180967178/ |archive-date=22 May 2021 |access-date=22 May 2021 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}} Later, especially in major cities, much of the 1920s is considered to have been a more prosperous period when the Lost Generation, in particular, escaped the suffering and turmoil they had lived through by rebelling against the social and cultural norms of their elders.{{Cite book |last=Moscato |first=Marc |title=Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia: Art & Politics in Jazz-Age Chicago |year=2009}}{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Anton |title=A Dance Between Flames: Berlin Between the Wars |year=1994}}{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=David |title=Hollywood in the Twenties |year=1968}}{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=David |title=Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties |year=2011}}{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Lesley A. |date=1996 |title=Impotent ghosts from no man's land, flappers' boyfriends, or crypto-patriarchs? Men, sex and social change in 1920s Britain |journal=Social History |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=54–70 |doi=10.1080/03071029608567956}}{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Jody |title='Le Tumulte Noir: modernist art and popular entertainment in jazz-age Paris, 1900–1930 |year=1999}}{{Cite book |last=Lindsay |first=Jack |title=The roaring twenties: literary life in Sydney, New South Wales in the years 1921-6 |year=1960}}

=In midlife=

==1930s==

===Politics and economics===

This more optimistic period was short-lived, however, as 1929 saw the beginning of the Great Depression, which would continue throughout the 1930s and become the longest and most severe financial downturn ever experienced in Western industrialized history. Though it had begun in the United States, the crises led to sharp increases in worldwide unemployment, reductions in economic output and deflation. The depression was also a major catalyst for the rise of Nazism in Germany and the beginnings of its quest to establish dominance over the European continent, which would eventually lead to World War II in Europe. Additionally, the 1930s saw the less badly damaged Imperial Japan engage in its own empire-building, contributing to conflict in the Far East, where some scholars have argued the Second World War began as early as 1931.{{Cite web |title=Great Depression {{!}} Definition, History, Dates, Causes, Effects, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509121741/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243118/Great-Depression |archive-date=9 May 2015 |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Seagrave |first=Sterling |author-link=Sterling Seagrave |date=5 February 2007 |title=post Feb 5 2007, 03:15 pm |url=http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9196 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613202437/http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9196 |archive-date=13 June 2008 |access-date=13 June 2008 |publisher=The Education Forum |quote=Americans think of WW2 in Asia as having begun with Pearl Harbor, the British with the fall of Singapore, and so forth. The Chinese would correct this by identifying the Marco Polo Bridge incident as the start, or the Japanese seizure of Manchuria earlier.}}

===Popular media===

The 1930s saw rising popularity for radio, with the vast majority of Western households having access to the medium by the end of the decade. Programming included soap operas, music, and sport. Educational broadcasts were frequently available. The airwaves also provided a source of news and, particularly for the era's autocratic regimes, an outlet for political propaganda.{{Cite web |last=Vaughan |first=David |date=9 October 2008 |title=How the power of radio helped the Nazis to seize Europe |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/oct/09/radio.hitler.bbc.czechoslovakia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812154321/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/oct/09/radio.hitler.bbc.czechoslovakia |archive-date=12 August 2021 |access-date=27 May 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Konkel |first=Lindsey |date=19 April 2018 |title=Life for the Average Family During the Great Depression |url=https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629065110/https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression |archive-date=29 June 2021 |access-date=27 May 2021 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Buck |first=George |date=2006 |title=The First Wave: The Beginnings of Radio in Canadian Distance Education |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ807814.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511134659/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ807814.pdf |archive-date=11 May 2021 |access-date=27 May 2021}}{{Cite book |last=Dennis |first=Peter |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History |publisher=Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-551784-2 |edition=Second |location=Melbourne |pages=558–559 |chapter=Volunteer Defence Corps |display-authors=etal}}

==Second World War==

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J31317, Berlin, Volkssturm, Ausbildung.jpg, a militia all German men not already in military service up to the age of sixty were obliged to join in the final months of World War II.{{Cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Ian |title=Hitler: 1936–1945, Nemesis |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-39332-252-1 |location=New York |pages=713–714}}]]

When World War II broke out in 1939, the Lost Generation faced a major global conflict for the second time in their lifetime, and now often had to watch their sons go to the battlefield.{{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Anne Sharp |title=Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War against Germany and Italy |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing |year=2014 |page=7}} The place of the older generation who had been young adults during World War I in the new conflict was a theme in popular media of the time period, with examples including Waterloo Bridge and Old Bill and Son. Civil defense organizations designed to provide a final line of resistance against invasion and assist in home defense more broadly recruited heavily from the older male population.{{Cite web |last=Cullen |first=Stephen M. |title=Bill Nighy fronts new Dad's Army, but don't forget the real Home Guard |url=http://theconversation.com/bill-nighy-fronts-new-dads-army-but-dont-forget-the-real-home-guard-26007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192318/https://theconversation.com/bill-nighy-fronts-new-dads-army-but-dont-forget-the-real-home-guard-26007 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=The Conversation |date=29 April 2014 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Hasegawa |first=Tsuyoshi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC&q=%22volunteer+fighting+corps%22&pg=PA76 |title=The end of the Pacific war: Reappraisals |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8047-5427-9 |pages=75–77 |access-date=5 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192315/https://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC&q=%22volunteer+fighting+corps%22&pg=PA76 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |url-status=live}} Like in the First World War, women helped to make up for labour shortages caused by mass military recruitment by entering more traditionally masculine employment and entering the conflict more directly in female military branches and underground resistance movements. However, those in middle age were generally less likely to become involved in this kind of work than the young. This was particularly true of any kind of military involvement.{{Cite journal |last=Schweitzer |first=Mary M. |date=1980 |title=World War II and Female Labor Force Participation Rates |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120427 |url-status=live |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=89–95 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700104577 |issn=0022-0507 |jstor=2120427 |s2cid=154770243 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192315/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120427 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Carruthers |first=Susan L. |date=1990 |title='Manning the Factories': Propaganda and Policy on the Employment of Women, 1939–1947 |journal=History |volume=75 |issue=244 |pages=232–256 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1990.tb01516.x |jstor=24420973}}{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=D'Ann |date=1 April 1993 |title=Women in combat: The World War II experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union |journal=The Journal of Military History |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=301–323 |doi=10.2307/2944060 |jstor=2944060 |id={{ProQuest|1296724766}}}}{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Alan |title=World War II: Women at War |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/ |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604183333/https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/ |archive-date=4 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=www.theatlantic.com |language=en}}

=In later life=

In the West, the Lost Generation tended to reach the end of their working lives around the 1950s and 1960s.{{Cite web |last1=Gendall |first1=Murray |last2=Siegall |first2=Jacob |date=July 1992 |title=Trends in retirement age by sex, 1950 to 2005 |url=https://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1992/07/art3full.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194525/https://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1992/07/art3full.pdf |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021}}{{Cite news |date=7 September 2017 |title=Workers retiring earlier than in 1950 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-41187863 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194523/https://www.bbc.com/news/business-41187863 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} For those members of the cohort who had fought in World War I, their military service frequently was viewed as a defining moment in their lives even many years later. Retirement notices of this era often included information on a man's service in the First World War.{{Cite web |title=The First World War generation – later lives |url=https://www.natwestgroupremembers.com/banking-in-wartime/aftermath-and-legacy/the-first-world-war-generation-later-lives.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194524/https://www.natwestgroupremembers.com/banking-in-wartime/aftermath-and-legacy/the-first-world-war-generation-later-lives.html |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.natwestgroupremembers.com |language=en}}

Though there were slight differences between individual countries and from one year to the next, the average life expectancy in the developed world during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s was typically around seventy years old.{{Cite web |title=Life expectancy in the USA, 1900–98 |url=https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621094001/https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html |archive-date=21 June 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=u.demog.berkeley.edu}}{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom: life expectancy 1765–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422081220/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/ |archive-date=22 April 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=France Life Expectancy 1950–2021 |url=https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/FRA/france/life-expectancy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719164139/https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/FRA/france/life-expectancy |archive-date=19 July 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=www.macrotrends.net}}{{Cite web |title=Germany: life expectancy 1875–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041098/life-expectancy-germany-all-time/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514221213/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041098/life-expectancy-germany-all-time/ |archive-date=14 May 2020 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=25 November 2013 |title=Ninety years of change in life expectancy |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-624-x/2014001/article/14009-eng.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121120644/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-624-x/2014001/article/14009-eng.htm |archive-date=21 January 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=www150.statcan.gc.ca}} However, some members of the Lost Generation outlived the norm by several decades. Nabi Tajima, the last surviving person known to have been born in the 19th century, died in 2018.{{Cite web |last=Politi |first=Daniel |date=2018-04-22 |title=The Last Known Person Born in the 19th Century Dies in Japan at 117 |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/the-last-known-person-born-in-the-19th-century-died-in-japan.html |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en |archive-date=28 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228073207/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/the-last-known-person-born-in-the-19th-century-died-in-japan.html |url-status=live}} The final remaining veteran to have served in World War I in any capacity was Florence Green, who died in 2012, while Claude Choules, the last veteran to have been involved in combat, had died the previous year. However, these individuals were born in 1902 and 1901 respectively, putting them outside the usual birth years for the Lost Generation.{{Cite news |last=Blackmore |first=David |date=7 February 2012 |title=Norfolk First World War Veteran Dies |url=http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/norfolk_first_world_war_veteran_dies_aged_110_1_1201358 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003211923/http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/norfolk_first_world_war_veteran_dies_aged_110_1_1201358 |archive-date=3 October 2016 |access-date=7 February 2012 |publisher=EDP24}}{{Cite news |last=Carman |first=Gerry |date=6 May 2011 |title=Last man who served in two world wars dies, 110 |url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/last-man-who-served-in-two-world-wars-dies-110-20110505-1ea59.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508223439/http://www.theage.com.au/national/last-man-who-served-in-two-world-wars-dies-110-20110505-1ea59.html |archive-date=8 May 2011 |access-date=6 May 2011 |publisher=The Age}}{{Cite web |date=8 April 2021 |title=Time use of millennials v. non-millennials |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/12/652_280714.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309022058/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/12/652_280714.html |archive-date=9 March 2021 |access-date=8 April 2021}}

In literature

File:GertrudeStein JackHemingway Paris.jpg with Ernest Hemingway's son Jack in 1924. Stein is credited with bringing the term "Lost Generation" into use.]]

In his memoir A Moveable Feast (1964), published after Hemingway's and Stein's deaths, Ernest Hemingway writes that Gertrude Stein heard the phrase from a French garage owner who serviced Stein's car. When a young mechanic failed to repair the car quickly enough, the garage owner shouted at the young man, "You are all a {{'-}}génération perdue{{'}}."{{r|hemingway|page=29}} While telling Hemingway the story, Stein added: "That is what you are. That's what you all are ... all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation."{{r|hemingway|page=29}} Hemingway thus credits the phrase to Stein, who was then his mentor and patron.{{Cite book |last=Mellow |first=James R. |title=Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company |date=1991 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-395-47982-7 |location=New York |page=273}}

The 1926 publication of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises popularized the term; that novel serves to epitomize the post-war expatriate generation.{{r|mellow1992|page=302}} However, Hemingway later wrote to his editor Max Perkins that the "point of the book" was not so much about a generation being lost, but that "the earth abideth forever".{{r|baker|page=82}} Hemingway believed the characters in The Sun Also Rises may have been "battered" but were not lost.{{r|baker|page=82}}

Consistent with this ambivalence, Hemingway employs "Lost Generation" as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel. In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway writes, "I tried to balance Miss Stein's quotation from the garage owner with one from Ecclesiastes." A few lines later, recalling the risks and losses of the war, he adds: "I thought of Miss Stein and Sherwood Anderson and egotism and mental laziness versus discipline and I thought 'who is calling who a lost generation?{{'"}}{{r|hemingway|pages=29–30}}

=Themes=

File:Underwoodfive.jpgs entered common use as a writing tool for the Lost Generation]]

The writings of the Lost Generation literary figures often pertained to the writers' experiences in World War I and the years following it. It is said that the work of these writers was autobiographical based on their use of mythologized versions of their lives.{{Cite web |title=Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, and the Lost Generation: An Interview with Kirk Curnutt {{!}} The Hemingway Project |url=http://www.thehemingwayproject.com/hemingway-the-fitzgeralds-and-the-lost-generation-an-interview-with-kirk-curnutt/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329202009/http://www.thehemingwayproject.com/hemingway-the-fitzgeralds-and-the-lost-generation-an-interview-with-kirk-curnutt/ |archive-date=29 March 2016 |access-date=30 March 2016 |website=www.thehemingwayproject.com}} One of the themes that commonly appear in the authors' works is decadence and the frivolous lifestyle of the wealthy.{{Cite web |title=Lost Generation {{!}} Great Writers Inspire |url=https://writersinspire.org/content/lost-generation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409171140/http://www.writersinspire.org/content/lost-generation |archive-date=9 April 2016 |access-date=30 March 2016 |website=writersinspire.org}} Both Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald touched on this theme throughout the novels The Sun Also Rises and The Great Gatsby. Another theme commonly found in the works of these authors was the death of the American Dream, which is exhibited throughout many of their novels.{{Cite web |title=American Lost Generation |url=http://www.interestingarticles.com/literature/american-lost-generation-11089.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410005902/http://www.interestingarticles.com/literature/american-lost-generation-11089.html |archive-date=10 April 2016 |access-date=30 March 2016 |website=InterestingArticles.com}} It is particularly prominent in The Great Gatsby, in which the character Nick Carraway comes to realize the corruption that surrounds him.

=Notable figures=

Notable figures of the Lost Generation include F. Scott Fitzgerald,{{Cite book |last=Lapsansky-Werner |first=Emma J. |title=United States History: Modern America |publisher=Pearson Learning Solutions |year=2011 |location=Boston, MA |page=238}} Thomas Wolfe, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, T. S. Eliot,{{Cite news |last=Esguerra |first=Geolette |date=9 October 2018 |title=Sartre was here: 17 cafés where the literary gods gathered |url=https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/travel/destination/10/09/18/lit-and-legend |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312063214/https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/travel/destination/10/09/18/lit-and-legend |archive-date=12 March 2019 |access-date=15 March 2019 |publisher=ABS-CBN News}} Ezra Pound, Jean Rhys,{{Cite news |last=Thompson |first=Rachel |date=25 July 2014 |title=A Literary Tour of Paris |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachelthompson/a-literary-tour-of-paris_b_5611255.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513210926/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachelthompson/a-literary-tour-of-paris_b_5611255.html |archive-date=13 May 2017 |access-date=15 March 2019 |work=HuffPost}} Henry Strater,{{Cite news |date=December 24, 1987 |title=Obituaries: Henry Strater, 91; Artist at Center of Lost Generation |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-24-mn-30849-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=27 July 2022 |archive-date=5 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005181241/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-24-mn-30849-story.html |url-status=live}} and Sylvia Beach.{{Cite book |last=Monk |first=Craig |title=Writing the Lost Generation: Expatriate Autobiography and American Modernism |publisher=University of Iowa Press |year=2010}}

References

{{reflist|refs=

{{Cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |author-link=Ernest Hemingway |title=A Moveable Feast |publisher=Scribner |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-684-82499-4 |location=New York |ref=CITEREFHemingway1964}}

{{Cite book |last=Mellow |first=James R. |title=Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-395-37777-2 |location=New York}}

{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Carlos |author-link=Carlos Baker |url=https://archive.org/details/hemingwaywritera00bake |title=Hemingway, the writer as artist |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-691-01305-3 |location=Princeton, NJ |url-access=registration}}

{{Cite book |last1=Strauss |first1=William |author-link=William Strauss |url=https://archive.org/details/generationshisto00stra_0/page/247 |title=Generations: The History of Americas Future. 1584 to 2069 |last2=Howe |first2=Neil |author-link2=Neil Howe |publisher=William Morrow and Company |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-688-11912-6 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/generationshisto00stra_0/page/247 247–260] |url-access=registration}}

{{Cite web |title=The Lost Generation: the myth and the reality |url=http://www.aftermathww1.com/lostgen.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091201110728/http://www.aftermathww1.com/lostgen.asp |archive-date=1 December 2009 |access-date=6 November 2009 |publisher=Aftermath – when the boys came home}}

{{Cite journal |last=Winter |first=J. M. |date=November 1977 |title=Britain's 'Lost Generation of the First World War |url=https://web.viu.ca/davies/H482.WWI/Winter.LostGeneration.Britain.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Population Studies |volume=31 |pages=449–466 |doi=10.2307/2173368 |jstor=2173368 |pmid=11630506 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713030221/https://web.viu.ca/davies/H482.WWI/Winter.LostGeneration.Britain.pdf |archive-date=13 July 2015 |access-date=11 July 2015 |number=3}}

{{Cite web |title=What was the 'lost generation'? |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/outcomes1_03.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613141141/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/outcomes1_03.shtml |archive-date=13 June 2018 |access-date=22 March 2012 |website=Schools Online World War One |publisher=BBC}}

}}

External links

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkpcAD9OE-0/ Writers of the Lost Generation discussed in Conversations from Penn State interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105063741/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkpcAD9OE-0/ |date=5 November 2022}}

{{succession box

| before = Missionary Generation
Prior to 1883

| title = Lost Generation

| years = 1883 – 1900

| after = Greatest Generation
1901 – 1927

}}

Category:19th century

Category:20th century

Category:Aftermath of World War I

Category:American literary movements

Category:Cultural generations

Category:Ernest Hemingway