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World War One And End Of The Twentieth Century

Decent Essays
• Starting from page one you get the feel that it is going to be an excellent read, the book opens with short observations from the twelve people look at the Twentieth Century. Each give there view on the century that was, and how their views or lives have been influenced with the circumstances that have been handed out over this period. This contracts between wars and massacres and goes forward to technology and science.
• This book begins with World War One and ends with the diminish of communism; this introduction gives a brief overview of the highs and lows of which the following chapter go into further detail.
• Hobsbawn uses his own experiences and memories to give a powerful interpretation of the simple facts of the mass
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• The third and what Hobsbawn believes maybe the most disturbing is the disintegration of human relationships with society changing vital links between generations became particularly evident.
• He states that after the Golden Age the social and cultural changes become the most profound revolution in society since the stone age.

Chapter One “The Age of Total War” (Hobsbawm 1995, pp. 21 – 53)

• This chapter starts with The First World War and considering there had been no major wars over the period of 1815 – 1914. “No major power fought another outside its immediate regions.” (p. 23). This was all about to change with the beginning of what could be called the bloodiest period of the century.
• A time that Hobsbawm claims became synonymous with the term “peace”, due to the fact that the contrast before and after 1914 was so dramatic that it did not even seem like the two time periods were on a continuous spectrum but rather two different entities entirely. Further into the reading, the author details the history of both World War One and Two, describing their causes, outcomes, and lasting effects.
• Turning points such as the Allies victory over the Germans who had advanced past the Western Front and the advances in technology developed by both sides to turn the tide of the
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