The Waste Land Historical Context

This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Waste Land.
Related Topics

The Waste Land Historical Context

This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Waste Land.
This section contains 507 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Waste Land Study Guide

World War I

While Eliot published The Waste Land in 1922, it was widely acknowledged as reflecting the disillusionment in Europe following World War I. This global war started from a regional tragedy. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, made a fateful trip to Sarajevo, capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina—two provinces under his family's control—where he and his wife were assassinated. These murders reflected a regional tension among some residents of the two provinces, which wished to become part of Serbia once again. Serbia, which also wished to reclaim Bosnia and Herzegovina, helped stage the assassinations. When this fact was realized by Austria-Hungary, the leaders of this nation state declared war on Serbia on July 28, exactly one month after the assassination. In times past this might have been a localized battle between two countries. But due to an extensive system of pre-existing...

(read more)

This section contains 507 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Waste Land Study Guide
Copyrights
Gale
The Waste Land from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.