What can be called the long twentieth century represents the most miraculous and creative era in human history. It was also the most destructive. Over the past 150 years, modern societies across the globe have passed through an extraordinary and completely unprecedented transformation rooted in the technological developments of the nineteenth century.The World in the Long Twentieth Century lays out a framework for understanding the fundamental factors that have shaped our world on a truly global scale, analyzing the historical trends, causes, and consequences of the key forces at work. Spanning the 1870s to the present, this book explores the making of the modern world as a connected pattern of global developments. Students will learn to think about the past two centuries as a process, a series of political and economic upheavals, technological advances, and environmental transformations that have shaped the  long  twentieth century.

What can be called the long twentieth century represents the most miraculous and creative era in human history. It was also the most destructive. Over the past 150 years, modern societies across the globe have passed through an extraordinary and completely unprecedented transformation rooted in the technological developments of the nineteenth century.The World in the Long Twentieth Century lays out a framework for understanding the fundamental factors that have shaped our world on a truly global scale, analyzing the historical trends, causes, and consequences of the key forces at work. Spanning the 1870s to the present, this book explores the making of the modern world as a connected pattern of global developments. Students will learn to think about the past two centuries as a process, a series of political and economic upheavals, technological advances, and environmental transformations that have shaped the  long  twentieth century.

Introduction

1. The Biological Transformation of Modern Times
Population Explosion, 1800–2000
Expansion into Challenging Biomes, 1800–2000
A Century of Mass Migrations, 1840–1940
2. Foundations of the Modern Global Economy
The Global Development Project, 1850–1930
Scientifi c-Technical Revolution, 1850–1900
Technological Change, Effi ciency, and Growth, 1850–1930

3. Reorganizing the Global Economy
Global Commodity Extraction, 1870–1914
Free Trade and Emancipation, 1840–1890
“Free” Trade and Imperialism, 1840–1920

4. Localization and Globalization
Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, 1830–1940
Cultural Globalization: Religious Innovation, 1800–1920
Cultural Globalization: Peace and Dance, 1890–1930

5. The Great Explosion
The Global Revolutionary Moment, 1890–1923
War for World Domination: Phase I, 1914–1923
The Problem of the Peasant in the 1920s and 1930s

6. New World (Dis)Order
War for World Domination: Phase II, 1935–1950
Decolonization and Cold War, 1945–1990

7. High Modernity
The Great Acceleration, 1950–1975
The Welfare State, 1950–1975
Development, 1950–1980

8. Revolt and Refusal
Counterglobalization, 1960–1980
The Great Deceleration? 1975–1990
The Ecological Moment, 1960–1990

9. Transformative Modernity
Real Development, 1975–2000
The New Right, 1968–2000
The Gender Revolution, 1950–2000

10. Democracy and Capitalism Triumphant?
The Global Triumph of Democracy after 1980
“Financialization”
The End of the World?
The End of the “Natural” World
The End of the Twentieth Century

Notes
Select Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index