The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991, Paperback/Eric Hobsbawm

Dividing the century into the Age of Catastrophe, 1914 1950, the Golden Age, 1950 1973, and the Landslide, 1973 1991, Hobsbawm marshals a vast array of data into a volume of unparalleled inclusiveness, vibrancy, and insight, a work that ranks with his classics The Age of Empire and The Age of Revolution . In the short century between 1914 and 1991, the world has been convulsed by two global wars that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government. Communism became a messianic faith and then collapsed ignominiously. Peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers and, increasingly leaders. Populations became literate even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. And the driving forces of history swung from Europe to its former colonies. Includes 32 pages of photos."