If you have read any of my books, you will know I have a fascination with the recent past. My stories are all set during two eras: the Second World War years and the vibrant decade of the 1960s. Writing any fiction, whether about then or now, involves a certain amount of research. In fact, many authors might add that it is one of the most pleasurable aspects of writing! Over the last ten years or so, I have thoroughly enjoyed delving into books and web archives to uncover as many facts as possible – discovering what it must have been like to live in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. No surprise then when I had the chance to study an MA in Modern History I grabbed it with both hands!

Having just completed my first two terms, my mind is buzzing with all I have learned. So, over a series of weekly blog posts, I will share my thoughts on a wide range of topics, spanning from what it means to be ‘modern’ through to the controversial subject of climate change.

From all I have read so far, it seems to me that by looking back, we can identify so many seeds that have grown into the life we lead today. The more I learn about history, the more I realise that our past mistakes have not only led us into many of the dilemmas we now face but also can teach us vital lessons that, once learned, could help us towards a brighter future.

I hope you will join me on my journey. Feel free to chip in with your thoughts. It would be great to get a lively debate going!

What is it to be ‘modern’?

We don’t have to look far among news articles, advertisements, even scientific papers to find the word ‘modern’. We see it tagged onto everything from attitudes, fashion, technology, even the family. It’s a word that slips off the tongue, something accepted in everyday language, with little thought given as to what we really mean when we use it. When did the modern age begin? What does it mean to be modern?

A roundtable article asked nine historians to address the question, ‘What do we mean by ‘modernity’, with each of them coming up with different answers. What’s more, it’s suggested that ‘if we were to ask another nine—or ninety—scholars to address the same question, we would get just as many different answers in return’.

For people who spend their time researching the past there seems to be a need to divide periods up into the before and after, the past and present, and to attribute labels. We see it in art and culture too. Categories, such as Baroque, impressionism, post-impressionism, art déco, are useful ways to pigeonhole artists, but some might argue that there are those who exist in the margins, where styles overlap.

So, if we consider the period we recognise as ‘modernity’, can we be certain when it began? And did it begin at the same time in Britain, as it did in the US, or the African nations? How useful is the term when it is inevitably subjective, based on cultural perspectives? For some, being modern might have been something to strive for, a sense that once a society was deemed to be ‘modern’ they had advanced in a positive way, leaving behind practices that held them back, with the underlying assumption that development was good. Others suggest modernity has brought with it negative ways of being, associated with a breakdown in social relationships, with ‘modern’ ways of trading, such as globalisation, doing untold damage to populations and the environment.

Again and again throughout history we see peoples and cultures laying claim to the idea of ‘being modern’. The first Roman aqueduct, constructed in 312 BC was considered ‘modern’ for its time, the Roaring Twenties claimed ‘modernism’ as its own, with the jazz age and ‘flappers’ challenging the dullness that went before.

Moving forward to the 1950s and 1960s, we see the emergence of ‘Mods’ in Britain, young people who were willing to use their voice to rail against inequality and a Cold War that threatened their very existence.

Here’s a snippet that paints a picture of the Mod culture, from After the Storm, the second novel in the Giuseppe Bianchi Mysteries…

‘Christina would never have admitted to Tony that when she was riding pillion on the back of his Lambretta, she liked to close her eyes, cling on with her arms around his waist and pretend she was Cilla,and Tony was Paul McCartney. She’d even had her hair cut to match Cilla’s chic style, which she kept in place with half a ton of lacquer. And she’d spent too much of her wages to buy a fab mini dress, ‘A’ line with a kick pleat, that even with her new boxy purple jacket would hardly mean she was ‘wrapped up’. She would have been better off wearing a parka, like Tony and the rest of the Mods, with desert boots, instead of her square-toed ‘granny’ shoes. But she needed to do something to stand out from the crowd. Most of the Mods were more interested in their scooters than the girls who swooned after them.’

So, if the idea of modernity and being ‘modern’ is so hard to pin down, some might ask whether the term has any value at all. Others argue such distinctions help to make comparisons across time, to make sense of change. Perhaps the benefits are worth the risks, assuming we want to address the big question of how the world we live in came about.

A couple of excellent books I read while exploring the whole idea of modernity, compared social relationships in pre-modern times, based on face-to-face interaction, with thte period of modernity bringing with it a ‘society of strangers’ where people relate to each other via institutions, bureaucratic organisations, and ‘imagined communities’. This idea really chimes with my reading and research into life in Britain in the early decades of the 20th century, when close-knit communities were affected by the creation of new towns post-World War II. Population growth, combined with increased car ownership, and the desperate need for house building, meant thousands were moved from inner city areas to new towns, forcing them to discover new social networks. Unable to rely on the extended family or neighbours they had lived next door to for decades, people turned to new connections, based on common interests, hobbies, or work. I will be exploring the concept of ‘community’ in another post later in this series.

Much of this brings me back to the title of this blog post – Looking back to the future. The more I read and learn, the more I realise that so much of our past is being replicated in our present. Technology and social media have brought new ways of communicating, bringing with it (for many) increased isolation.

Look out for next week’s article that asks the question, What if new isn’t always better?

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To continuing exploring the topic of modernity, take a look at:

• American Historical Review roundtable: “Historians and the question of modernity”. AHR 116, issue 3.
• James Vernon, Distant Strangers: How Britain Became Modern.
• Marshall Berman, All that is Solid Melts into Air: the Experience of Modernity.