Editing Lost Generation (section)

==Characteristics==
===As children and adolescents===
====Family life and upbringing====
[[File:StateLibQld 1 169147 Andersen family photographed in their living room at Swanfels, Queensland, ca. 1900.jpg|thumb|Family in [[Queensland]] pictured at home (circa 1900)]]
When the Lost Generation was growing up, the ideal family arrangement was generally seen as the man of the house being the breadwinner and primary authority figure while his wife dedicated herself to caring for the home and children. Most, even less well-off, married couples attempted to conform to this ideal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Family Life: New Roles for Wives and Children |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-new-roles-wives-and-children |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200710/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-new-roles-wives-and-children |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=8 March 2010 |title=Everywoman in 1910: No vote, poor pay, little help – Why the world had to change |url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/everywoman-in-1910-no-vote-poor-206289 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130301200354/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/everywoman-in-1910-no-vote-poor-206289 |archive-date=1 March 2013 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=mirror.co.uk |language=en}}</ref> It was common for family members of three different generations to share a home.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 March 2017 |title=Three-Generation Households: Are They History? |url=https://www.silvercentury.org/2017/03/three-generation-households-are-they-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200700/https://www.silvercentury.org/2017/03/three-generation-households-are-they-history/ |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=Silver Century Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> Wealthier households also tended to include domestic servants, though their numbers would have varied from a single maid to a large team depending on how well-off the family was.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wallis |first=Lucy |date=21 September 2012 |title=Servants: A life below stairs |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19544309 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624222510/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19544309 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Public concern for the welfare of children was intensifying by the later 19th century with laws being passed and societies formed to prevent their abuse. The state increasingly gained the legal right to intervene in private homes and family life to protect minors from harm.<ref name="Myers1">{{Cite book |last=Myers |first=John E. B. |title=Family Law Quarterly |publisher=Sage Publishing |chapter=A Short History of Child Protection in America |access-date=20 June 2021 |chapter-url=https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/35363_Chapter1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317220740/https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/35363_Chapter1.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2021 |url-status=live}} <!-- https://www.jstor.org/stable/25740668 --> </ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A history of child protection |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202903/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021 |website=OpenLearn |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Swain |first=Shurlee |date=October 2014 |title=History of child protection legislation |url=https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Research%20Report%20-%20History%20of%20child%20protection%20legislation%20-%20Institutional%20responses.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119015451/https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Research%20Report%20-%20History%20of%20child%20protection%20legislation%20-%20Institutional%20responses.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021}}</ref> However, beating children for misbehaviour was not only common but viewed as the duty of a responsible caregiver.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Geoghegan |first=Tom |date=5 March 2008 |title=Was childhood ever innocent? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7276939.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204904/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7276939.stm |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021 |language=en-GB}}</ref>


====Health and living conditions====
[[File:Mary Cassatt - The Child's Bath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|''[[The Child's Bath]]'' by [[Mary Cassatt]] from 1893 of a woman giving a child a wash. The link between hygiene and good health was becoming better understood in Western society by the end of the 19th century and frequent bathing had become common.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elmasry |first=Faiza |date=22 April 2020 |title=Historian Explores the Evolution of Personal Hygiene |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/science-health_historian-explores-evolution-personal-hygiene/6187950.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724153613/https://www.voanews.com/science-health/historian-explores-evolution-personal-hygiene |archive-date=24 July 2021 |access-date=24 July 2021 |website=Voice of America |language=en}}</ref>]]

Sewer systems designed to remove human waste from urban areas had become widespread in industrial cities by the late 19th century, helping to reduce the spread of diseases such as [[cholera]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How London got its Victorian sewers |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/engineering-technology/how-london-got-its-victorian-sewers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624212420/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/engineering-technology/how-london-got-its-victorian-sewers |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=OpenLearn |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Sewers |url=https://greywateraction.org/history-sewers/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205952/https://greywateraction.org/history-sewers/ |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Greywater Action |language=en-US}}</ref> Legal standards for the quality of drinking water also began to be introduced.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slow Sand Filtration of Water |url=https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssf9241540370.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008223315/http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssf9241540370.pdf |archive-date=8 October 2012 |access-date=17 December 2012}}</ref> However, the introduction of electricity was slower, and during the formative years of the Lost Generation [[Gas lighting|gas lights]] and candles were still the most common form of lighting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Electric Light System |url=https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628112332/https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm |archive-date=28 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Thomas Edison National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |language=en}}</ref>

Though statistics on child mortality dating back to the beginning of the Lost Generation's lifespan are limited, the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] report that in 1900 one in ten American infants died before their first birthday.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Achievements in Public Health, 1900–1999: Healthier Mothers and Babies |url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723080557/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm |archive-date=23 July 2021 |access-date=30 June 2021 |website=www.cdc.gov}}</ref> Figures for the United Kingdom state that during the final years of the 19th century, mortality in the first five years of childhood was plateauing at a little under one in every four births. At around one in three in 1800, the early childhood mortality rate had declined overall throughout the next hundred years but would fall most sharply during the first half of the 20th century, reaching less than one in twenty by 1950. This meant that members of the Lost Generation were somewhat less likely to die at a very early age than their parents and grandparents, but were significantly more likely to do so than children born even a few decades later.<ref>{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom: child mortality rate 1800–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041714/united-kingdom-all-time-child-mortality-rate/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327175529/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041714/united-kingdom-all-time-child-mortality-rate/ |archive-date=27 March 2021 |access-date=30 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref>

====Literacy and education====
[[File:Snickarkrogen skola 1900.jpg|thumb|Class photo taken at a school in Sweden (1900)]]

[[Child labour law|Laws restricting child labour]] in factories had begun to appear from around 1840 onwards<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Sullivan |first=Michael E. |date=1 January 2006 |title=Review of Kastner, Dieter, Kinderarbeit im Rheinland: Entstehung und Wirkung des ersten preußischen Gesetzes gegen die Arbeit von Kindern in Fabriken von 1839 |url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11358 |access-date=14 November 2015 |website=www.h-net.org |archive-date=3 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903162421/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11358 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hindman |first=Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MrfBQAAQBAJ |title=The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey |date=18 December 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45386-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Timeline |url=http://gbchildlaborinamerica.weebly.com/timeline.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121025811/http://gbchildlaborinamerica.weebly.com/timeline.html |archive-date=21 November 2015 |access-date=14 November 2015 |website=Child labor in the U.S}}</ref> and by the end of the 19th century, [[compulsory education]] had been introduced throughout much of the Western world for at least a few years of childhood.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mass Primary Education in the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/mass_primary_education_in_the_nineteenth_century/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/mass_primary_education_in_the_nineteenth_century/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.sociostudies.org}}</ref><ref name="EUR">{{Cite book |last1=Grinin |first1=Leonid E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NtZbDgAAQBAJ&q=Globalistics+and+globalization+studies:+Global+Transformations+and+Global+Future |title=Globalistics and globalization studies: Global Transformations and Global Future. |last2=Ilyin |first2=Ilya V. |last3=Herrmann |first3=Peter |last4=Korotayev |first4=Andrey V. |publisher=ООО "Издательство "Учитель" |year=2016 |isbn=978-5-7057-5026-9 |page=66 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://books.google.com/books?id=NtZbDgAAQBAJ&q=Globalistics+and+globalization+studies:+Global+Transformations+and+Global+Future. |archive-date=20 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1900, levels of illiteracy had fallen to less than 11% in the United States, around 3% in Great Britain, and only 1% in Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) |url=https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506171358/https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp |archive-date=6 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=nces.ed.gov |language=EN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Amy |title=Education, Literacy and the Reading Public |url=https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |quote=...by 1900 illiteracy for both sexes [in England and Wales] had dropped to around 3 percent... by the late nineteenth century, the gap [in illiteracy] between England, Wales and Scotland had narrowed and closed}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Parallel worlds: literacy as a yardstick for development |url=https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/parallel-worlds-literacy-yardstick-development |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183903/https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/parallel-worlds-literacy-yardstick-development |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref> However, the problems of illiteracy and lack of school provision or attendance were felt more acutely in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mironov |first=Boris N. |date=1991 |title=The Development of Literacy in Russia and the USSR from the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368437 |journal=History of Education Quarterly |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=229–252 |doi=10.2307/368437 |issn=0018-2680 |jstor=368437 |s2cid=144460404 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-date=30 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130110338/https://www.jstor.org/stable/368437 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=May 2019 |title=Moving towards mass literacy in Spain, 1860–1930 |url=https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/discussion_papers/BeltranDiezMartinezTiradoworkshopBdECEPR_short.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183902/https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/discussion_papers/BeltranDiezMartinezTiradoworkshopBdECEPR_short.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref>

Schools of this time period tended to emphasise strict discipline, expecting pupils to memorize information by rote. To help deal with teacher shortages, older students were often used to help supervise and educate their younger peers. Dividing children into classes based on age became more common as schools grew.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Education – Western education in the 19th century |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-19th-century |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416211705/https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-19th-century |archive-date=16 April 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

However, while elementary schooling was becoming increasingly accessible for Western children at the turn of the century, secondary education was still much more of a luxury. Only 11% of American fourteen to seventeen-year-olds were enrolled at High School in 1900, a figure which had only marginally increased by 1910.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1900s Education: Overview {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524012723/https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview |archive-date=24 May 2021 |access-date=7 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Though the school leaving age was officially meant to be 14 by 1900, until the First World War, most British children could leave school through rules put in place by local authorities at 12 or 13 years old.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 April 2008 |title=The school leaving age: what can we learn from history? |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/the-school-leaving-age-what-can-we-learn-from-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608002058/https://www.historyextra.com/period/the-school-leaving-age-what-can-we-learn-from-history/ |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=7 June 2021 |website=HistoryExtra |language=en}}</ref> It was not uncommon at the end of the 19th century for Canadian children to leave school at nine or ten years old.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oreopoulos |first=Philip |date=May 2005 |title=Canadian Compulsory School Laws and their Impact on Educational Attainment and Future Earnings |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2005251-eng.pdf?st=VMTvj4NC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121003/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2005251-eng.pdf?st=VMTvj4NC |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=Statistics Canada}}</ref>

====Leisure and play====
[[File:StateLibQld 2 201815 Three children playing with their toys in the backyard, 1890-1900.jpg|thumb|Children playing with toys (c. 1890s)]]

By the 1890s, children's toys entered into mass production.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Toy Timeline |url=https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2012/05/21/toy-timeline/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183853/https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2012/05/21/toy-timeline/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Brighton museums |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1893, the British toy company [[W. Britain|William Britain]] revolutionized the production of toy soldiers by devising the method of [[hollow casting]], making soldiers that were cheaper and lighter than their competitors.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 June 2007 |title=Hampshire Museums Service |url=http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/toy_soldiers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614232918/http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/toy_soldiers.html |access-date=25 August 2008|archive-date=14 June 2007}}</ref> This led to metal toy soldiers, which had previously been the preserve of boys from wealthier families, gaining mass appeal during the late [[Victorian era|Victorian]] and [[Edwardian era|Edwardian period]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bedford |first=Gavin |title=Toy Soldiers ... Just child's play? |url=https://eghammuseum.org/toy-soldiers-just-childs-play/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://eghammuseum.org/toy-soldiers-just-childs-play/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Egham Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref> Dolls often sold by street vendors at a low price were popular with girls. [[Teddy bear]]s appeared for the first time in the early 1900s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 December 2014 |title=Popular Toys in History: What Your Ancestors Played With |url=https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183853/https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Ancestry Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> Tin plated [[penny toy]]s were also sold by street sellers for a single penny.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Edwardian Christmas |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/penny-toys-and-poverty-edwardian-christmas |access-date=2021-12-30 |website=Museum of London |language=en |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230224237/https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/penny-toys-and-poverty-edwardian-christmas |url-status=live}}</ref>

The turn of the 20th century saw a surge in public park building in parts of the west to provide public space in rapidly growing industrial towns.<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's Most Visited City Parks |url=http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/citypark_facts/ccpe_Most_Visited_Parks_09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015111753/http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/citypark_facts/ccpe_Most_Visited_Parks_09.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 October 2009 |access-date=13 December 2009}}</ref> They provided a means for children from different backgrounds to play and interact together,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Research reveals rowdy past of UK's parks |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/research-reveals-rowdy-past-of-uks-parks/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814221034/https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/research-reveals-rowdy-past-of-uks-parks/ |archive-date=14 August 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=manchester |language=en}}</ref> sometimes in specially designed facilities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Urban Parks of the Past and Future |url=https://www.pps.org/article/futureparks |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520184858/https://www.pps.org/article/futureparks |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.pps.org}}</ref> They held frequent concerts and performances.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 February 2016 |title=Parks and Recreation: the Victorian way |url=https://www.marshalls.co.uk/commercial/blog/parks-and-recreation-the-victorian-way |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520184859/https://www.marshalls.co.uk/commercial/blog/parks-and-recreation-the-victorian-way |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.marshalls.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

====Popular culture and mass media====
[[File:Scene from 'Lady of the Lake' (Vitagraph film), 1912.jpg|thumb|Scene from ''Lady of the Lake'' ([[Vitagraph Studios|Vitagraph]] film, 1912)]]

Beginning around the middle of the 19th century, magazines of various types which had previously mainly targeted the few that could afford them found rising popularity among the general public.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of publishing – The 19th century and the start of mass circulation |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613230320/https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing |archive-date=13 June 2015 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> The latter part of the century not only saw rising popularity for magazines targeted specifically at young boys but the development of a relatively new genre aimed at girls.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brotner |first=Kirsten |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2250w7m |title=English Children and Their Magazines, 1751–1945 |date=1988 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-04010-4 |jstor=j.ctt2250w7m |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183850/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2250w7m?turn_away=true |archive-date=20 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

A significant milestone was reached in the development of cinema when, in 1895, projected moving images were first shown to a paying audience in Paris. Early films were very short (generally taking the form of newsreels, comedic sketches, and short documentaries). They lacked sound but were accompanied by music, lectures, and a lot of audience participation. A notable film industry had developed by the start of the First World War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A very short history of cinema |url=https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=National Science and Media Museum |language=en}}</ref>

===As young adults===
====Military service in the First World War====
The Lost Generation is best known as being the cohort that primarily fought in World War I.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Simpson |first=Trevor |date=17 January 2014 |title=WW1: Can we really know the Lost Generation? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/24526419 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024123740/https://www.bbc.com/news/24526419 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |access-date=21 May 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> More than 70 million people were mobilized during the First World War, around 8.5&nbsp;million of whom were killed and 21&nbsp;million wounded in the conflict. About 2&nbsp;million soldiers are believed to have been killed by disease, while individual battles sometimes caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Herbert |first=Tom |date=11 November 2018 |title=World War 1 in numbers: The mind-blowing scale of WW1 |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521110112/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/ww1-soldiers-in-numbers-how-many-died-world-war-one-facts-for-armistice-day-a3986761.html |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.standard.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:French trench battle.jpg|thumb|French [[poilu]]s on a battlefield during the First World War]]

Around 60 million of the enlisted originated from the European continent,<ref name=":1" /> which saw its younger men mobilized on a mass scale. Most of Europe's great powers operated peacetime conscription systems where men were expected to do a brief period of military training in their youth before spending the rest of their lives in the army reserve. Nations with this system saw a huge portion of their manpower directly invested in the conflict: 55% of male Italians and Bulgarians aged 18 to 50 were called to military service. Elsewhere the proportions were even higher: 63% of military-aged men in Serbia, 78% in Austro-Hungary, and 81% of military-aged men in France and Germany served. Britain, which traditionally relied primarily on the Royal Navy for its security, was a notable exception to this rule and did not introduce conscription until 1916.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recruitment: conscripts and volunteers during World War One |url=https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/recruitment-conscripts-and-volunteers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517104804/https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/recruitment-conscripts-and-volunteers |archive-date=17 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The British Library}}</ref> Around 5 million British men fought in the First World War out of a total United Kingdom population of 46&nbsp;million including women, children, and men too old to bear arms.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland – British Empire {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/united-kingdom-facts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521110112/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/united-kingdom-facts |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref>

Additionally, nations recruited heavily from their colonial empires. Three million men from around the British Empire outside the United Kingdom served in the British Army as soldiers and laborers,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Commonwealth and the First World War |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/commonwealth-and-first-world-war |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727022235/https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/commonwealth-and-first-world-war |archive-date=27 July 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.nam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> while France recruited 475,000 soldiers from its colonies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=French Army and the First World War |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrenchA.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323211505/https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrenchA.htm |archive-date=23 March 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref> Other nations involved include the United States which enlisted 4 million men during the conflict and the Ottoman Empire which mobilized 2,850,000 soldiers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=War Losses (Ottoman Empire/Middle East) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_ottoman_empiremiddle_east |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521163750/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_ottoman_empiremiddle_east |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}</ref>

Beyond the extent of the deaths, the war had a profound effect on many of its survivors, giving many young men severe mental health problems and crippling physical disabilities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Caroline |title=The Shock of War |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418065816/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/ |archive-date=18 April 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 August 2020 |title=What happened to the 8 million people who were disabled during WW1? |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304131605/https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/ |archive-date=4 March 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=HistoryExtra |language=en}}</ref> The war also unsettled many soldiers' sense of reality, who had gone into the conflict with a belief that battle and hardship was a path to redemption and greatness. When years of pain, suffering, and loss seemed to bring about little in the way of a better future, many were left with a profound sense of disillusionment.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |date=20 June 2014 |title=A War to End All Innocence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/arts/the-enduring-impact-of-world-war-i.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521162246/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/arts/the-enduring-impact-of-world-war-i.html |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=7 April 2020 |title=The Lost Generation: Who They Are and Where The Name Came From |url=https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/who-is-the-lost-generation/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830204820/https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/who-is-the-lost-generation/ |archive-date=30 August 2020 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=FamilySearch Blog |language=en-US}}</ref>

====Young women in the 1910s and 1920s====
[[File:Women in the First World War Q110080.jpg|thumb|left|A young woman burning a cable for scrap at a shipbuilding yard in [[Glasgow]] during World War I.]]
Though soldiers on the frontlines of the First World War were exclusively men, women contributed to the war effort in other ways. Many took the jobs men had left in previously male-dominated sectors such as heavy industry, while some even took on non-combat military roles. Many, particularly wealthier women, took part in voluntary work to contribute to the war effort or to help those suffering due to it, such as the wounded or refugees. Often they were experiencing manual labor for the first time. However, this reshaping of the female role led to fears that the sexes having the same responsibilities would disrupt the fabric of society and that more competition for work would leave men unemployed and erode their pay. Most women had to exit the employment they had taken during the war as soon as it concluded.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rowbotham |first=Shiela |date=11 November 2018 |title=Women and the First World War: a taste of freedom |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/women-first-world-war-taste-of-freedom |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507044631/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/women-first-world-war-taste-of-freedom |archive-date=7 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Women in World War I |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/women-in-wwi |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031170204/https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/women-in-wwi |archive-date=31 October 2019 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Women's Mobilization for War (France) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/womens_mobilization_for_war_france |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521235513/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/womens_mobilization_for_war_france |archive-date=21 May 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}</ref>

The war also had a personal impact on the lives of female members of the Lost Generation. Many women lost their husbands in the conflict, which frequently meant losing the main breadwinner of the household. However, war widows often received a pension and financial assistance to support their children. Even with some economic support, raising a family alone was often financially difficult and emotionally draining, and women faced losing their pensions if they remarried or were accused of engaging in frowned-upon behavior. In some cases, grief and the other pressures on them drove widows to alcoholism, depression, or suicide.<ref>{{Cite web |title=War Widows |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_widows |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503013745/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_widows |archive-date=3 May 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=How the First World War affected families (War Widows) |url=https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/797 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121006/https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/797 |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.mylearning.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Widows and Orphans |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/defense/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/widows-and-orphans |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194522/https://www.encyclopedia.com/defense/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/widows-and-orphans |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Additionally, the large number of men killed in the First World War made it harder for many young women who were still single at the start of conflict to get married; this accelerated a trend towards them gaining greater independence and embarking on careers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How the First World War affected families (A Generation of 'Surplus Women') |url=https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/798 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121008/https://www.mylearning.org/stories/how-the-first-world-war-affected-families/798 |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.mylearning.org |language=en}}</ref>

Women's gaining of political rights sped up in the Western world after the First World War, while employment opportunities for unmarried women widened. This time period saw the development of a new type of young woman in popular culture known as a flapper, who was known for their rebellion against previous social norms. They had a physically distinctive appearance compared to their predecessors only a few years earlier, cutting their hair into bobs, wearing shorter dresses and more makeup, while taking on a new code of behaviour filled with more recklessness, party-going, and overt sexuality.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women's Suffrage by Country |url=https://www.infoplease.com/history/womens-history/womens-suffrage |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309223732/http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0931343.html |archive-date=9 March 2017 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=www.infoplease.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mackrell |first=Judith |date=5 February 2018 |title=The 1920s: 'Young women took the struggle for freedom into their personal lives |url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/05/the-1920s-young-women-took-the-struggle-for-freedom-into-their-personal-lives |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121007/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/05/the-1920s-young-women-took-the-struggle-for-freedom-into-their-personal-lives |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pruitt |first=Sarah |date=17 September 2018 |title=How Flappers of the Roaring Twenties Redefined Womanhood |url=https://www.history.com/news/flappers-roaring-20s-women-empowerment |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121102/https://www.history.com/news/flappers-roaring-20s-women-empowerment |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=21 May 2021 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>

====Aftermath of the First World War====
The [[Aftermath of World War I|aftermath of the First World War]] saw substantive changes in the political situation, including a trend towards [[republicanism]], the founding of many new relatively small nation-states which had previously been part of larger empires, and greater [[suffrage]] for groups such as the working class and women. France and the United Kingdom both gained territory from their enemies, while the war and the damage it did to the European empires are generally considered major stepping stones in the United States' path to becoming the world's dominant superpower. The German and Italian populations' resentment against what they generally saw as a peace settlement that took too much away from the former or did not give enough to the latter fed into the fascist movements, which would eventually turn those countries into totalitarian dictatorships. For Russia, the years after its [[Russian Revolution|revolution in 1917]] were plagued by disease, famine, terror, and civil war eventually concluded in the establishment of the Soviet Union.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=First World War {{!}} Aftermath (outside the British empire) |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/legacy_war.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121050/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/images/global/redpixel.gif |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=22 May 2021 |website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The National Archives {{!}} Exhibitions & Learning online {{!}} First World War {{!}} Aftermath (Britain after the War) |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_after_war.htm |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |archive-date=24 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224231350/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_after_war.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The National Archives {{!}} Exhibitions & Learning online {{!}} First World War {{!}} Aftermath (British empire) |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_empire_after.htm |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |archive-date=10 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010145933/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/brit_empire_after.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Flapper detail, The Plastic Age magazine (cropped).png|thumb|Image taken from a magazine cover (published 1924) of a couple dressed in fashionable clothing of the period.]]
The immediate post-World War One period was characterized by continued political violence and economic instability.<ref name=":2" /> The late 1910s saw the [[Spanish flu]] pandemic, which was unusual in the sense that it killed many younger adults of the same Lost Generation age group that had mainly died in the war.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Craig |first=Ruth |date=10 November 2018 |title=Why Did the 1918 Flu Kill So Many Otherwise Healthy Young Adults? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-did-1918-flu-kill-so-many-otherwise-healthy-young-adults-180967178/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522115031/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-did-1918-flu-kill-so-many-otherwise-healthy-young-adults-180967178/ |archive-date=22 May 2021 |access-date=22 May 2021 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Later, especially in major cities, much of the 1920s is considered to have been a more prosperous period when the Lost Generation, in particular, escaped the suffering and turmoil they had lived through by rebelling against the social and cultural norms of their elders.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moscato |first=Marc |title=Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia: Art & Politics in Jazz-Age Chicago |year=2009}}</ref><ref name="Gill">{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Anton |title=A Dance Between Flames: Berlin Between the Wars |year=1994}}</ref><ref name="Robinson1">{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=David |title=Hollywood in the Twenties |year=1968}}</ref><ref name="Wallace1">{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=David |title=Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties |year=2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Lesley A. |date=1996 |title=Impotent ghosts from no man's land, flappers' boyfriends, or crypto-patriarchs? Men, sex and social change in 1920s Britain |journal=Social History |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=54–70 |doi=10.1080/03071029608567956}}</ref><ref name="Blake1">{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Jody |title='Le Tumulte Noir: modernist art and popular entertainment in jazz-age Paris, 1900–1930 |year=1999}}</ref><ref name="Lindsay1">{{Cite book |last=Lindsay |first=Jack |title=The roaring twenties: literary life in Sydney, New South Wales in the years 1921-6 |year=1960}}</ref>

===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>

===In later life===
In the West, the Lost Generation tended to reach the end of their working lives around the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Gendall |first1=Murray |last2=Siegall |first2=Jacob |date=July 1992 |title=Trends in retirement age by sex, 1950 to 2005 |url=https://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1992/07/art3full.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194525/https://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1992/07/art3full.pdf |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 September 2017 |title=Workers retiring earlier than in 1950 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-41187863 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194523/https://www.bbc.com/news/business-41187863 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> For those members of the cohort who had fought in World War I, their military service frequently was viewed as a defining moment in their lives even many years later. Retirement notices of this era often included information on a man's service in the First World War.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=The First World War generation – later lives |url=https://www.natwestgroupremembers.com/banking-in-wartime/aftermath-and-legacy/the-first-world-war-generation-later-lives.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194524/https://www.natwestgroupremembers.com/banking-in-wartime/aftermath-and-legacy/the-first-world-war-generation-later-lives.html |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=www.natwestgroupremembers.com |language=en}}</ref>

Though there were slight differences between individual countries and from one year to the next, the average life expectancy in the developed world during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s was typically around seventy years old.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Life expectancy in the USA, 1900–98 |url=https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621094001/https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html |archive-date=21 June 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=u.demog.berkeley.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom: life expectancy 1765–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422081220/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040159/life-expectancy-united-kingdom-all-time/ |archive-date=22 April 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=France Life Expectancy 1950–2021 |url=https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/FRA/france/life-expectancy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719164139/https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/FRA/france/life-expectancy |archive-date=19 July 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=www.macrotrends.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Germany: life expectancy 1875–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041098/life-expectancy-germany-all-time/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514221213/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041098/life-expectancy-germany-all-time/ |archive-date=14 May 2020 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=25 November 2013 |title=Ninety years of change in life expectancy |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-624-x/2014001/article/14009-eng.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121120644/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-624-x/2014001/article/14009-eng.htm |archive-date=21 January 2021 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=www150.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref> However, some members of the Lost Generation outlived the norm by several decades. [[Nabi Tajima]], the last surviving person known to have been born in the 19th century, died in 2018.<ref name="slate">{{Cite web |last=Politi |first=Daniel |date=2018-04-22 |title=The Last Known Person Born in the 19th Century Dies in Japan at 117 |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/the-last-known-person-born-in-the-19th-century-died-in-japan.html |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en |archive-date=28 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228073207/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/the-last-known-person-born-in-the-19th-century-died-in-japan.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The final remaining veteran to have served in World War I in any capacity was [[Florence Green]], who died in 2012, while [[Claude Choules]], the last veteran to have been involved in combat, had died the previous year. However, these individuals were born in 1902 and 1901 respectively, putting them outside the usual birth years for the Lost Generation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blackmore |first=David |date=7 February 2012 |title=Norfolk First World War Veteran Dies |url=http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/norfolk_first_world_war_veteran_dies_aged_110_1_1201358 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003211923/http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/norfolk_first_world_war_veteran_dies_aged_110_1_1201358 |archive-date=3 October 2016 |access-date=7 February 2012 |publisher=EDP24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Carman |first=Gerry |date=6 May 2011 |title=Last man who served in two world wars dies, 110 |url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/last-man-who-served-in-two-world-wars-dies-110-20110505-1ea59.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110508223439/http://www.theage.com.au/national/last-man-who-served-in-two-world-wars-dies-110-20110505-1ea59.html |archive-date=8 May 2011 |access-date=6 May 2011 |publisher=[[The Age]]}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=8 April 2021 |title=Time use of millennials v. non-millennials |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/12/652_280714.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309022058/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/12/652_280714.html |archive-date=9 March 2021 |access-date=8 April 2021}}</ref>