20th Century

1900-1909

Research

Becky Tovell

Some new words added to the dictionary

in this era…

• Accelerator, Dashboard, Windscreen, Speedometer, Limousine, Motorway,

Speeding.

• Pilot, Airliner, Tube, Escalators.

• Electronic, Half-life, Genetics, Adrenaline, Antibody, Clone.

• Television, Radio

• Gas, Bomb, ‘No-man’s land’, Firing Squad, Propaganda

• Servant Problem, Bread-line, Poverty, Welfare, Social Security.

• Racialism, Colour Prejudice, Segregation.

• Cinema, Film, Cameraman, Subtitle.

• Ping-Pong, Table-football.

• Models, Lounge Suit, Beauty Shop, Electrolysis.

• Central heating, Vacuum cleaner, Home-help.

• Coke, Hot-Dog, Cornflakes, Club Sandwich.

• Big Business, Filing Cabinet, Executives.

Some new words added to the dictionary

in this era…

New ‘Phrases’

• To go over something with a fine-toothed comb

• To face the music

• To get one's bearings

• More to something than meets the eye

• Let the good times roll

• Long time no see

• No harm in trying

• Pardon my French

Overview of key events of 1900-1909

22 Jan 1901

Queen

Victoria dies

and is

succeeded

by Edward

VII

22 July 1901

Birth of the

Labour Party

10 Oct 1903

Women's Social

and Political

Union is

formed to

campaign for

women's

suffrage

27 April

1908 -

Olympic

Games

open in

White

City,

London

1903 –

Henry Ford

organises

Ford Motor

Company

1901 –

First

Nobel

Prizes

Awarded

1908 –

SOS

recognised

as

universal

distress

signal

1904 –

Sherlock

Holmes

manuscript

Social History 1900-1909

• Although abortion was illegal, it was nevertheless the most widespread form

of birth control in use. Abortion was often a solution for women who

already had children and did not want more. Consequently, the size of

families decreased drastically.

• Edwardian Britain had large numbers of male and female domestic servants,

in both urban and rural areas. Men relied on working class women to run

their homes smoothly, and employers often looked to these working class

women for sexual partners.

Social History 1900-1909• The upper classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid

developments in fashion, as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed. During the Edwardian era, women wore a very tight corset, or bodice, and dressed in long skirts. The Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life.

• The available recordings of music, such as wax cylinders played on phonographs, were poor in quality by modern standards. Live performances, both amateur and professional, were popular.

• The British historian Lawrence James has argued that, during the early 20th century, the British felt increasingly threatened by rival powers such as Germany, Russia, and the United States.

War, Peace and Politics • January 1, 1901, British colonies in Australia federate, forming the

Commonwealth of Australia

• The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third

Republic sign Entente Cordiale.

• Second Boer War ends with British Victory.

• The 1900s were marked by several notable assassinations and assassination

attempts – including American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots U.S.

President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo,

New York.

Reading and Literature • 1900 – Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

• 1900 – Daily Express started.

• 1901 - First Nobel prize for literature – R.P.A.Sully Prudhomme (F).

• 1903 – Daily Mirror started.

• Rudyard Kipling, English short-story writer, poet, and novelist was extremely

popular in the early 20th century. He wrote tales and poems of British

soldiers in India and stories for children. Kipling's works of fiction include

The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories. George Orwell

called him a "prophet of British imperialism”.

Advertising

1908 USA

Peerless Magazine Advert

- Upper Classes only being able to afford

this car.

Advertising

1908 UK

The Boy's Herald

Magazine Cover

Advertising

1901 France

Corsets le Furet

Poster

Illustrating

Stereotypes, with the

French being the

centre of beauty and

fashion even back in

the 1900s.

Advertising

• 1906 UK

Illustrated

London

News

Magazine

Advertising

• 1900s UK

Raleigh

Magazine

Advert

Advertising

1908 UK

Debenhams

Magazine Advert

Fashion

Videos

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=590Nb7Wdj7U BBC - Britain at its

Peak 1 (1900-1909)

Language of 1900-1909

• Flourished to deal with many new inventions and discoveries

• Not every word coined ‘stuck’

• Very similar to our modern day language

• Prevalence of ‘class system’ – upper, middle and working classes.

• Racial Prejudice, as well as sexual (against women, stereotypes).

• Graphology and Orthography similar, but pictures often black and white and ‘silent’ movies – beginning of this new technology.

• Borrowings from other languages (often French)