Editing Lost Generation (section)

===In midlife===
====1930s====
=====Politics and economics=====
This more optimistic period was short-lived, however, as 1929 saw the beginning of the [[Great Depression]], which would continue throughout the 1930s and become the longest and most severe financial downturn ever experienced in Western industrialized history. Though it had begun in the United States, the crises led to sharp increases in worldwide unemployment, reductions in [[economic output]] and [[deflation]]. The depression was also a major catalyst for the rise of [[Nazism]] in Germany and the beginnings of its quest to establish dominance over the European continent, which would eventually lead to [[European theatre of World War II|World War II in Europe]]. Additionally, the 1930s saw the less badly damaged [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] engage in its own empire-building, contributing to conflict in the Far East, where some scholars have argued the Second World War began as early as 1931.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Great Depression {{!}} Definition, History, Dates, Causes, Effects, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509121741/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243118/Great-Depression |archive-date=9 May 2015 |access-date=26 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref><ref name="sterling">{{Cite news |last=Seagrave |first=Sterling |author-link=Sterling Seagrave |date=5 February 2007 |title=post Feb 5 2007, 03:15&nbsp;pm |url=http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9196 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613202437/http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9196 |archive-date=13 June 2008 |access-date=13 June 2008 |publisher=The Education Forum |quote=Americans think of WW2 in Asia as having begun with Pearl Harbor, the British with the fall of Singapore, and so forth. The Chinese would correct this by identifying the Marco Polo Bridge incident as the start, or the Japanese seizure of Manchuria earlier.}}</ref>

=====Popular media=====
The 1930s saw rising popularity for radio, with the vast majority of Western households having access to the medium by the end of the decade. Programming included soap operas, music, and sport. Educational broadcasts were frequently available. The airwaves also provided a source of news and, particularly for the era's autocratic regimes, an outlet for political propaganda.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vaughan |first=David |date=9 October 2008 |title=How the power of radio helped the Nazis to seize Europe |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/oct/09/radio.hitler.bbc.czechoslovakia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812154321/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/oct/09/radio.hitler.bbc.czechoslovakia |archive-date=12 August 2021 |access-date=27 May 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Konkel |first=Lindsey |date=19 April 2018 |title=Life for the Average Family During the Great Depression |url=https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629065110/https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression |archive-date=29 June 2021 |access-date=27 May 2021 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Buck |first=George |date=2006 |title=The First Wave: The Beginnings of Radio in Canadian Distance Education |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ807814.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511134659/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ807814.pdf |archive-date=11 May 2021 |access-date=27 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="Companion">{{Cite book |last=Dennis |first=Peter |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History |publisher=Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-551784-2 |edition=Second |location=Melbourne |pages=558–559 |chapter=Volunteer Defence Corps |display-authors=etal}}</ref>

====Second World War====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J31317, Berlin, Volkssturm, Ausbildung.jpg|thumb|left|Weapons training for members of the [[Volkssturm]], a militia all German men not already in military service up to the age of sixty were obliged to join in the final months of World War II.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Ian |title=Hitler: 1936–1945, Nemesis |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-39332-252-1 |location=New York |pages=713–714}}</ref>]]

When World War II broke out in 1939, the Lost Generation faced a major global conflict for the second time in their lifetime, and now often had to watch their sons go to the battlefield.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Anne Sharp |title=Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War against Germany and Italy |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing |year=2014 |page=7}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> The place of the older generation who had been young adults during World War I in the new conflict was a theme in popular media of the time period, with examples including [[Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] and ''[[Old Bill and Son]].'' Civil defense organizations designed to provide a final line of resistance against invasion and assist in home defense more broadly recruited heavily from the older male population.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cullen |first=Stephen M. |title=Bill Nighy fronts new Dad's Army, but don't forget the real Home Guard |url=http://theconversation.com/bill-nighy-fronts-new-dads-army-but-dont-forget-the-real-home-guard-26007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192318/https://theconversation.com/bill-nighy-fronts-new-dads-army-but-dont-forget-the-real-home-guard-26007 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=The Conversation |date=29 April 2014 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name="Hasegawa">{{Cite book |last=Hasegawa |first=Tsuyoshi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC&q=%22volunteer+fighting+corps%22&pg=PA76 |title=The end of the Pacific war: Reappraisals |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8047-5427-9 |pages=75–77 |access-date=5 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192315/https://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC&q=%22volunteer+fighting+corps%22&pg=PA76 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Companion" /> Like in the First World War, women helped to make up for labour shortages caused by mass military recruitment by entering more traditionally masculine employment and entering the conflict more directly in female military branches and underground [[Resistance during World War II|resistance movements]]. However, those in middle age were generally less likely to become involved in this kind of work than the young. This was particularly true of any kind of military involvement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schweitzer |first=Mary M. |date=1980 |title=World War II and Female Labor Force Participation Rates |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120427 |url-status=live |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=89–95 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700104577 |issn=0022-0507 |jstor=2120427 |s2cid=154770243 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192315/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120427 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Carruthers, Susan L 1947">{{Cite journal |last=Carruthers |first=Susan L. |date=1990 |title='Manning the Factories': Propaganda and Policy on the Employment of Women, 1939–1947 |journal=History |volume=75 |issue=244 |pages=232–256 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1990.tb01516.x |jstor=24420973}}</ref><ref name="ProQuest1296724766">{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=D'Ann |date=1 April 1993 |title=Women in combat: The World War II experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union |journal=The Journal of Military History |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=301–323 |doi=10.2307/2944060 |jstor=2944060 |id={{ProQuest|1296724766}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Alan |title=World War II: Women at War |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/ |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604183333/https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/ |archive-date=4 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=www.theatlantic.com |language=en}}</ref>