The first three chapters of The Modern Temper by Lynn Dumenil cover the context of the 1920s that inspired the many cultural shifts that would take place, such as the introduction of the middle class, the changing of the role of women, and the change in power dynamics between governments and people in a post-war society. The first three chapters mostly focuses on the United States but also includes some details concerning Europe’s condition after the war.
My topic, the Geneva Protocol, does not directly relate to the topics included in the first three chapters of the book but can be indirectly connected to the book. The Geneva Protocol was signed in 1925 as an attempt by the League of Nations to remove asphyxiating and poisonous gases from warfare due to the suffering they inflicted. Chapter 1 of the book covers the relationship between public and private power and the rise of progressivism in the United States.[1] Part of the reason for the rise in progressivism in the U.S. was due to World War I. In particular, the negative reaction by the population over the U.S.’s involvement in World War I was heavily criticized, especially considering the brutality that World War I contained in comparison to prior wars.[2][DT1] The general population’s disagreement over Wilson’s involvement in World War I becomes exponentially greater when considering the weapons that both sides used to turn the trenches into a hellscape. The creation of the Geneva Protocol itself also falls into the context of the growing number of people that were being hurt at the hands of those with power. Progressives prided themselves on reforming the food industry and trust busting, both of which caused great harm to the common people, while those at the top benefitted from them in some way.[3]
The Geneva Protocol shows a change in the way that weapons have been viewed at any point in history. Previously, there were no cases of weapons that caused so much damage to people so easily, leading to a generation against the idea of war. The lost generation that came out of World War I as fresh adults were now representative of a large amount of the population that was impacted by the gas weapons that the Geneva Protocol attempted to ban. The Geneva Protocol was also a steppingstone for human rights that had not been seen before due to the unique context at the time that brought about its existence.
Fitting the Geneva Protocol into the context of the 1920s helps to bring out the rising tensions between governments and people, as well as war tension. While the Geneva Protocol was a landmark attempt at the removal of gas weapons from war, it was born out of an era that saw the worst of humanity and wanted to prevent it from occurring in the future. More specific to the 20s, its creation was one of a few other movements, such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, that aimed to prevent the horrors that were seen a decade earlier, as populations began to revolt, and new political powers came into place in Europe.
[1] Dumenil, Lynn. The modern temper: American culture and society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024. P. 11
[2] Dumenil, Lynn. The modern temper. P. 11
[3] Dumenil, Lynn. The modern temper. P. 13
[DT1]The Modern Temper page 11 (I think)
Duncan Thomson is a History Major and Museum and Exhibition Studies minor at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
