It Was the Year of the Centenary
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Photo copyright Getty Images
It’s a common trope that the 20th-century — and with it, the modern era — didn’t really start until the outbreak of the First World War (represented in the images above and below).
This year we marked the centenary of that event, ushering in not only the second century of the modern era, but a whole century of centenaries. In the coming years we’ll look back at major events like the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression and the beginning of the Second World War, along with countless less major milestones.
In other words, we’re about to live the 20th century over again in retrospective, and perhaps change our understanding of the modern world in the process.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
