This work investigates the shifting intellectual and cultural paradigms that defined the immediate post-World War I era. C. B. Cox examines the transition from Victorian sensibilities to the fragmented, modern consciousness that emerged in 1918. By analyzing the literature, philosophy, and social anxieties of the period, the author argues that the conclusion of the Great War acted as a catalyst for a fundamental reordering of Western thought.

Scholars often cite this text as a focused examination of the specific cultural anxieties present at the end of the First World War. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which assumes a foundational knowledge of the period's literary figures.