Technological advancements during the modernist period fundamentally transformed nearly every aspect of life. Stephen Kern’s 1983 book, The Culture of Time and Space 1880–1918, offers an insightful reflection on how technology altered human existence and perception.

Although different in formal characteristics, the Decadent movement of the 1890s served as a model of artistic rebellion for many modernist writers. Notable figures of this movement include Anglo-Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde and French novelist J. K. Huysmans, among many others loosely associated with the group. Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) provides a clear example of Decadent literature.

World War I was the pivotal historical event influencing Modernism. Paul Fussell’s study, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975), offers a detailed and often poignant discussion of the war and its impact on those who lived through it.

The armistice that concluded World War I planted the seeds for World War II. The defeated powers, referred to as “belligerents,” were required to pay enormous reparations and cede significant territories to the victors. In Italy, a nation impoverished and drawn into World War I, the war's aftermath directly contributed to Benito Mussolini’s rise to power. Dennis Mack-Smith’s 1983 biography, Mussolini, provides an in-depth look at Italy in the post–World War I era.