twentieth century
The previous century
The twentieth century spans the years 1901 to 2000, though in casual usage people often mean the 1900s.
As a modifier, it describes things belonging to or characteristic of that era: twentieth-century art, a twentieth-century invention.
The century saw world wars, space exploration, and the rise of digital technology.
- PostmodernismMovement questioning objective truth
- Cuban Missile Crisis1962 US-Soviet nuclear standoff
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- iron curtainDivider of forged metal
- nuclear arms raceNations competing for bombs
Decolonization · Great Depression · baby boom · Korean War · Abstract Expressionism · pop art · World War II · Civil Rights Act · women's suffrage · Vietnam War · moon landing · Russian Revolution · Existentialism · Surrealism · assembly line · Beat Generation · Harlem Renaissance · silent film
- time periodsday, year, month, week, hour
- Prohibition drinksbathtub gin, bootleg whiskey, hooch, moonshine, near beer
- historiographyhistoriography, historiographer, secondary sources, historical interpretation, historical analysis
twentieth centuryprehistory
Era before writing
ancient times · antiquity · medieval period · prehistoric era · Stone Age