[pelathais]

It's what comes after "Modernism."

Modernism was a rejection of the post Enlightenment period's view of the world. During the Enlightenment and the subsequent scientific and industrial revolutions the thinking that seemed to guide the times was that the universe was this huge machine that was orderly and predictable.

Modernism was an accomodation with reality. Schroendinger's Cat and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle are the chief findings of Modernism and gave Post Modernism the slightest foothold in the arena of science.

Modernism was also something of a hopeful view that despite the uncertainties of the world and in each of our lives, we could still trust "the natural order" and (if you chose) the Creator of that "order" to see that things progressed along nicely. More or less nicely, all too often less.

World War One was the death knell for Modernism in Europe. In the States, we weren't satisfied until after the end of World War Two.