Lost Horizon

The interwar period is the period between the end of World War I in 1918 and the beginning of the second in 1939. Many social and technological developments impacted the art and culture of this period, including new, more destructive weapons; the economic struggles of the Great Depression; and growing conflicts between European nations. With the Russian Revolution of 1917 and fascist movements in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the stage was being set for a clash between ideologies. The devastation of World War I was still fresh in the European mind, and soldiers from WWI were struggling with new conditions and disorders that had never been documented before, such as shellshock, which is now more commonly known as PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

The interwar period can be divided into two smaller periods of contrasting prosperity, with the Roaring Twenties being a period of activity, pleasure, and prosperity, while the Great Depression of the 1930s involved a global economic crisis. Lost Horizon takes place shortly after the stock market crash of 1929 dashed the exuberant hopes of the 1920s, and the novel rejects both economic and ideological excesses in favor of “moderation.” As a utopian novel, Hilton is proposing a method of living that is ideal and a society that is paradisical.