The Reaction against Relativism: Time, Life, and Fortune Magazines

In his survey of U.S. intellectual history, Merle Curti mentioned as one of the most significant trends in the era of World War II a "renewal of the quest for the absolute." He also described it a as "reaction against relativism."The modern awareness of the relativity of knowledge, which made itself felt even in those social science investigations that claimed to exemplify reasonably the objective procedures and results, continued to color much of the intellectual activity of the war decade as it had done in the preceding one. But a strong countercurrent was apparent in the insistent demands for universal and inflexible standards, for "truth," and for an "absolute.".