Twentieth-century Stories

Abstract

This essay examines four influential books on the trends and themes of the 20th century: The Age of Extremes, The Passing of an Illusion, Dark Continent and Triangulating Peace. All four books discuss the same historical events but incorporate them in very different stories. The main differences between the books are in the literary forms that they most closely conform to - tragedy, comedy, satire and romance, respectively. The essay concludes by asking why historians tend to bypass in silence the remarkable fact which constitutes the core of Triangulating Peace - and which might well be the most important feature of the 20th century - namely, that no democracy has gone to war against another democracy.

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