Back to results

Iowa State University

Vonnegut's criticisms of modern society

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>In his age-old effort to predict the future, man has tried many methods, including a careful study of past history. Although the act of predicting social events is largely theoretical--since it is necessarily a tentative process--numerous historians, sociologists, theologians, scientists, and artists persist in discovering trends or seeing patterns in the movement of history. In developing their theories, many of these people discover cycles in historical events, which enable them to shape and to give definition not only to human experience but to the rise and fall of entire civilizations, as well. When studying what they believe to be the cycles of civilizations, scholars have observed that each cycle is a well-rounded unit of history characterized by stages of birth, growth, decline, and death. These cycles occur even in civilizations on opposite sides of the globe, like the Babylonian and the Mayan. Western Civilization may be no exception; many historians suspect that it also can be viewed as cyclical in its development and some further assert that it is presently in its final stage—dissolution.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts
Level thesis:degree_level
thesis
Department dc:contributor.department
Department of English
Year dc:date.issued
1972

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Strawn, Candace

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/34/
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dr.lib.iastate.edu:20.500.12876/75918

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Iowa State University
Base URL
dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Strawn, Candace. Vonnegut's criticisms of modern society. thesis thesis, 1972. https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/75918