After the photographs taken of a solar eclipse verified Einstein's theory of relativity in 1919, articles on the subject immediately began to appear in The Times of London, The New York Times and other newspapers. Books discussing relativity by Arthur Eddington, James Jeans and Bertrand Russell soon entered the bestseller lists. Einstein himself deplored the application of the term in other branches of enquiry including history and to the human experience in general. However, J. D. Bernal aptly commented in 1969 that:

Relativity formed the basis of the work of many popularisations of the mysteries of science.

Here, we will go with the popular flow, as we apply the term to developments from 1921 to 1939 in general. Undoubtedly, European ‘disillusioned intellectuals’ could no longer accept the coherence of Europe as accepted by Gibbon and Burke in the eighteenth century and others since, while their American counterparts of the ‘lost generation’ no longer possessed their pre-war certainties either. Meanwhile, the rest of the world was beginning to awake with nationalist movements in Asia and Africa.

‘Normalcy’ and Breakdown

In his first message to Congress, delivered in person on 12 April 1921, President Warren G. Harding called for a return to ‘normalcy’. At home, this meant reduction of expenditure and taxation, and of government interference in general. Abroad, this would mean the rejection of the League of Nations. However, Harding declared, ‘We make no surrender of our hope and aim for an association to promote peace, in which we would most heartily join.’ For this purpose, in particular, the president would soon sign treaties with Germany and other former enemies. To former allies, he sent out invitations in July 1921 to an international conference to convene in November in Washington, DC, on the limitation of armaments.