Battle of Britain Once Adolf Hitler came to power as the elected chancellor (and later the dictator) of Germany in 1933, he acted to overturn the military limitations placed on Germany by the Versailles treaty that ended World War I and to expand Germany’s borders by every means short of war. In 1938, the Western…
Tag: SETTING
The Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie – Setting
Great Britain Between the World Wars Christie published her first works in the years shortly after World War I. This period was one of relative peace and prosperity in Great Britain, since the country was not directly affected by warfare in the same way as many other European countries. However, the horrors of war most…
With All Flags Flying – Setting
Changes in American Society In The Early 1970s, Americanswerestilldealingwith and reeling from the massive social changes of the revolutionary 1960s. The rise of the counterculture in the 1960s, for example, led to many aspects of this movement, such as questioning authority and tradition, being incorporated into mainstream American society in the 1970s. The administration of…
The Treasure of Lemon Brown – Setting
Homelessness During the early 1980s, homelessness in America increased rapidly. Myers was likely aware of this dramatic increase when he first published ‘‘The Treasure of Lemon Brown’’ in 1983. As Martha Burt writes in her book, Over the Edge: The Growth of Homelessness in the 1980s , homelessness was ‘‘not an invention of the 1980s,’’…
Tears of Autumn by Yoshiko Uchida – Setting
Meiji Era of Japanese History In 1868, political power in Japan underwent a significant shift. For centuries before that, control over Japanese affairs rested in the hands of a central military leader known as a shogun who in turn controlled a feudal-style samurai class of local warrior rulers. The revolution that began in the 1860s…
A Retrieved Reformation – Setting
Criminals as Celebrities In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, certain criminals became celebrities in American culture primarily through news accounts of their escapades but also through such media as dime store novels, stage plays, and even early films. Such criminals and their violent acts became part of the American mythology and helped define…
An Outpost of Progress – Setting
European Colonialism in Africa ‘‘An Outpost of Progress’’ was written at a time when European colonialism in Africa was at its peak. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, two distinct but related factors contributed to an all-out race among European nations to claim portions of the African continent as their own territories. First,…
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Setting
‘‘The Jewels’’ takes place in late-nineteenth-century Paris, between the years 1870 and 1880. The subtle tremors of instability beneath its placid, urbane surface suggest the social milieu of the years following the brief Franco-Prussian War of 1871. Maupassant was mobilized as a soldier in that war, and his most famous story, ‘‘Boul de Suif,’’ is…
Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants – Setting
‘‘Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants’’ first appeared in 1965 during a period of sweeping historical change in Africa. In the decades after World War II, the European powers that had dominated the continent gradually withdrew their colonial administrations as they faced increased opposition from armed liberation movements. In the year 1960 alone, seventeen African nations gained…
The Garden of Stubborn Cats – Setting
Italy During and After World War II Calvino grew up during troubled times in Italy. After World War I, Italy fell under the control of Benito Mussolini. Though King Victor Emmanuel III was technically the head of the nation, he essentially granted Mussolini unlimited powers as prime minister with the hope that the country could…