In 1912, people were quite innocent, so this was seen as a big event
Huh?
40 million people died in The Great War, which just ended. And there were world events which killed people on a much larger scale than the Titanic before that.
It's a very modern and naïve viewpoint to think people of years past were "innocent," as if tragedy and large-scale loss of life is somehow a new invention.
Uhhh...the great war wouldn't start for another two years in 1912....it went from july 28 1914 - November 11 1918 and world war 1 did totally change the way greater society looked at war, death and horror. Actually I read a pretty great article on hn recently that gets into how ww1 changed our perception of horror in general.
Most people of a certain age also remember OJ Simpson's famous highway chase and the subsequent murder trial. A nationwide, shared cultural memory doesn't even require large scale tragedy, let alone innocence.
As others have suggested, I would think interest in the Titanic had much to do with the celebrity status of its victims and the ship itself.
Huh?
40 million people died in The Great War, which just ended. And there were world events which killed people on a much larger scale than the Titanic before that.
It's a very modern and naïve viewpoint to think people of years past were "innocent," as if tragedy and large-scale loss of life is somehow a new invention.