6.01 Timeline Activity

A good reporter knows headline stories are not isolated events; there is always a story behind the story. While many American writers during the Modern era sought to reinvent American literary style, they borrowed elements from previous periods of American literature. Similarly, art, music, fashion, and even history can show us the repeating of themes and styles throughout our society.

While American culture still manifests the Modern era hunger for making all old things new, journalists sift through to find the origins of our actions.

What will you find at the heart of Modern era literature? Look to Romanticism and Transcendentalism, Realism and Naturalism, and Regionalism. The literature you investigate in this module will have echoes of these earlier movements.

While the format of literature in the Modern period was highly important to the writers of the time, their inspiration was truly the events of history which shaped the world. Two World Wars, Segregation, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and a struggle to make sense of it all provided the angle for their writing.

• when the important events of Modern times in North America occurred.
• when the authors of Modern America lived.
• when the pieces of literature you will study were written.

Become an investigator as you use the internet to find out more about these events, authors, and literary works.

The following links are provided so you can become familiarized with the events of the Modern period. Please click on each of the links, and read about this extraordinary era in American history. Also, read about some of the great literary figures of this era. You will then see a timeline game (or interactivity) that will assist you in taking the timeline quiz (located in the assessments area). You are sure to do well on the timeline quiz if you can match the dates with the according events below:

1910 - 1919

Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1910-1919

1920 - 1929

Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1920-1929

1930 - 1939

Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1930-1939