The causes and characteristics of the two postwar economic and political systems of the superpowers and their allies
The major economic and political trends among the nations of Western Europe
Domestic developments within the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1970
Domestic developments within the United States from 1945 to 1970
The origins and course of the cold war
The causes and results of the emergence of the Third World states
The major intellectual and cultural movements and their leaders since 1945
The renewal of feminism, its chief advocates and their messages
The discoveries and inventions in science and technology and their impact on Western culture from 1945 to 1970
The characteristics of existentialism, its major voices, and representative literature
The development of the novel and poetry after World War II
The rise of black consciousness, its chief advocates and their messages
The trends and changes in the theater after World War II
The characteristics, innovations, and themes of Late Modernist painting, examples of these changes, and the leading artists
The major developments, trends, and sculptors of Late Modernism
Late Modernist architecture and architects
The key developments, important innovations, and leading composers in Late Modernist music
The world in 2003, reflecting its heritage from earlier civilizations: making militant nationalism once again a force for disruptive change around the world, specifically in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia; moving away from an international scene dominated by the superpowers to one governed by a multipolar arrangement; the conflict of the United States with fundamentalist Islamic terrorism; continuing Classical influences in the Post-Modernist arts and architecture; updating nineteenth-century Expressionism and Realism as trends in Post-Modernism; reviving and drastically refurbishing Hellenistic attitudes in Post-Modernist literature and philosophy and in the multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural states that seem to be emerging, particularly in the United States and Great Britain; returning to the roots of Western civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the works of Anselm Kiefer, perhaps the most influential artist working today; restoring harmonious sounds and simple techniques to the music of Post-Modernism; and making American mass culture the world's common denominator
