These experiments were not random. They drew on the ideas of their day: mass media, science and technology, Marxism, Freudian psychology, and so on. There was a general search for new materials, new methods and new ideas. There was often a rejection of elitism, and a love of populism and popular culture.
Another criticism was of the connection between modernism and socialism. Certainly many modernists were also socialists. In the early days of socialism it seemed to offer hope of a new future without the baggage of the past. This also explains their rejection of tradition.
Victorian era
The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was a time of Queen Victoria's rule from 1837 to 1901. This time was very prosperous for the British people. Trade was at its best. A well educated middle class ruled the country and the British Empire. Other countries also prospered but Britain became the greatest great power.
The Industrial Revolution continued to increase productivity and prosperity, especially in the middle and later parts of Victoria's reign. Making iron and steel was a basic industry. The furnaces were fired with coal. Shipbuilding was a major industry. Canals and steam railways connected all parts of the country, and British steamships connected the world. Cotton and wool were made into cloth and exported. Ceramics were also a major industry.
One important change in the Victorian era was the making of the sewage system in London. In 1829 photography was invented. Gas lighting was important too. Streetlights became common first, followed by lights in public buildings and at home. In the 1880s people began making power stations and distribution systems to feed the new electric lightbulbs.
Britain began ruling its trading colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. The British Empire now extended all over the world. It used new technologies like the railways and electric telegraph to communicate across these regions. Many British citizens moved to the colonies to make their fortune.
Industrialisation brought with it a rapidly growing middle class. They were not aristocrats and landowners, but on the other hand they were not unskilled workers. They were the people who created, managed and ran the new industrial factories.
In the Victorian era, the middle class people owned their own houses. The family home often included three generations. The concept of "privacy" became a mark of the middle class life. What went on in those homes was the themes of many mid-century novelists.
The printing press became faster in the nineteenth century and paper was cheaper too. The "taxes on knowledge" on newspapers and printed advertisements were lifted. This made magazines and newspapers cheaper. The government tried to improve literacy rates by starting schools for the poor. More books were written for, and read by, the newly educated middle classes.
More theatres opened in London. Orchestras and symphonies played, and operas were widely attended. Gambling at cards and new casinos became popular during the period. In the middle of the 19th century saw The Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World's Fair, and showed the greatest creations of the century.
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization is the way that the Soviet Union tried to undo Joseph Stalin's politics and the heroic image he created of himself using propaganda.
After Stalin died, a group led the Soviet Union for a while. Georgi Malenkov was the Premier of the Soviet Union; Lavrentiy Beria, head of the Ministry of the Interior; and Nikita Khrushchev was First Secretary of the Central Committee.
Because Stalin had so prominent a control over the Soviet Union, he was placed on a pedestal both at home and among communists abroad. In the years 1953–1955, a period of "silent de-Stalinization" took place, as the revision of Stalin's policies was done in secret, and often with no explanation.
Nikita Khrushchev eventually became the leader of the Soviet Union. He attempted to reform the Soviet government. In order to do this, he had to change the way the public thought of Stalin. He took Stalin's body out of the mausoleum in Red Square and he changed the name of Stalingrad (which was named after Stalin) to Volgograd.
Pomelo
The Pomelo ("Citrus maxima" or "Citrus grandis"), is a citrus fruit from South East Asia. It is pale green or yellow when ripe. Its flesh is sweet and white. The rind is very thick and spongy. It is the largest citrus fruit, usually in diameter. It weighs .
Other names for the pomelo are pummelo and pommelo.
Leiden University
Leiden University (Dutch: "Universiteit Leiden"), shortened to LEI, is a public university in Leiden, a city in the province of South Holland, the Netherlands.
Leiden University was established on 8 February 1575 and is the oldest university of the Netherlands.
It has about 25,000 students.
Its focus is on all sorts of sciences.
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (Dutch: "Universiteit van Amsterdam"), shortened to UvA, is a public university in Amsterdam, a city in the province of North Holland and also capital to the Netherlands.
The University of Amsterdam was established in 1877 (its predecessor in 1632).
It has about 31,000 students.
Its focus is on all sorts of sciences.
Wouter Bos
Wouter Jacob Bos (born July 14, 1963) was a Dutch minister of finance, deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Dutch Labour Party. He won the election of Dutch Labour Party leader, defeating Jouke de Vries. He led the party until March 12, 2010, the day he left. His successor is Job Cohen, who used to be the mayor of Amsterdam. He left because he wanted to spend more time with his family.
He left as minister of finance and deputy Prime Minister because the government felt over the decision of Uruzgan. The Dutch Labour Party was in the coalition, together with Christen Democraten Appèl and the ChristenUnie, both Christian parties. The Dutch Labour Party did not agree and stepped out of the coalition.
Hughes Medal
The Hughes Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London for original discoveries in electricity and magnetism or their applications.
The medal was first given to J.J. Thomson in 1902 "for his numerous contributions to electric science, especially in reference to the phenomena of electric discharge in gases". It has been awarded over a hundred times. At first it was awarded annually, now it is every two years.
Unlike some other Royal Society medals, the Hughes Medal has never been awarded to the same person more than once. Only one woman has won it: Michele Dougherty in 2008, who was awarded the medal "for innovative use of magnetic field data that led to discovery of an atmosphere around one of Saturn's moons and the way it revolutionised our view of the role of planetary moons in the Solar System".
The medal has been awarded to more than one person at once; in 1938 it was won by John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton "for their discovery that nuclei could be disintegrated by artificially produced bombarding particles", in 1981 by Peter Higgs, Thomas Walter and Tom W. B. Kibble "for their international contributions about the spontaneous breaking of fundamental symmetries in elementary-particle theory", in 1982 by Drummond Matthews and Frederick Vine for explaining the magnetic properties of the ocean floors which then led to the plate tectonic hypothesis, and in 1988 by Archibald Howie and M.J. Whelan for their work on the theory of electron diffraction and microscopy, and its use in the study of lattice defects in crystals.
J. J. Thomson