Okay, okay, I'll lead off with a big picture question. This first one is awesome, and you should go find this stuff on your own, cause, um, it's like, important?
1. To what extent did the processes discussed in this chapter (economic globalization, feminism, fundamentalism, environmentalism) represent something new in the twentieth century? In what respects did they have roots in the more distant past?
Economic globalization was a long-term process that began early in human history. It increased in scope and intensity after 1500 as a new global network centered in Europe took shape and industrialization further spurred economic contact between regions. Nonetheless, after a decline in global trade during the Great Depression, developments after World War II— including population growth, technological advances, and the promotion of global trade by the leading powers of the capitalist world—have all led to further rapid economic globalization.
Feminism in the twentieth century had its roots in the ideals of the Atlantic revolutions (mainly the French and American) and the first feminist movements of the nineteenth century. However, the spread of feminism outside the Western world and the emergence of the women’s liberation movement within the Western world during the twentieth century are important new developments.
Fundamentalism at its core was a reaction to the modernity that took shape during the nineteenth century, and elements of this reaction can be found in that century. Nonetheless, fundamentalism in the twentieth century became better defined and more widespread than before.
Environmentalism began in the nineteenth century as Romantic poets like William Blake and William Wordsworth denounced the “dark satanic mills” of the industrial era, which threatened the “green and pleasant land” of an earlier England. The “scientific management” of nature, both in industrializing countries and in European colonies, represented another element of emerging environmental awareness among a few. So did the “wilderness idea,” which aimed to preserve untouched areas from human disruption. But none of these movements attracted the mass following or provoked the global response that the environmental movement of the twentieth century achieved.