Summary
An ideal companion for students of world history, Early 20th Century focuses on a time period, from about 1900 to 1945, that saw both unparalleled achievement and prosperity and the lowest depths to which humanity has sunk. The period is dominated by two world wars that were unprecedented in their destructiveness, taking the lives of an estimated 64 million to 90 million people and impacting nearly all regions of the globe. At the same time two ideologies of the 19th century, communism and fascism, were put into practice on a large scale for the first time. Both the Soviet Union's communist regime and Germany's National Socialist fascist regime carried out massive atrocities, in the case of the latter aimed at exterminating an entire people. On the global stage, European power was challenged by Japan, and, far more successfully, by the United States. Europe, dominant over the world in 1900, lay a shattered ruin in 1945.
About the Author(s)
William E. Burns earned his Ph.D. in British history from the University of California at Davis. His many publications include An Age of Wonders: Prodigies, Politics, and Providence in England, 1657–1727; The Scientific Revolution: An Encyclopedia; Science in the Enlightenment; and Witch Hunts in Europe and America.