Difference between revisions 38252719 and 40879529 on enwiki

Historians already try to make a '''survey of the twentieth century'''. One purpose of history is to see long periods as a whole or at least to discover some overall trends. In general there is agreement about the fact that the twentieth century was an age of extreme tensions and war, especially in Europe or through Europe.  The concrete views differ and there are several attempts to define the past century.

===The European civil war=== 

The "right-wing" German historian [[Ernst Nolte]] was probably the first who described 20th century history in general not as the result of two separate [[world war]]s, but as a European Civil War (1987: ''Der europäische Bürgerkrieg 1917-1945'').  The European wars were fed by irreconcilable tensions between "left" and "right".

One can add the [[cold war]] as another episode of this great European civil war and finally the [[Yugoslav wars|Yugoslav civil wars]]. In a way, the great European war started and ended with a shooting in [[Sarajevo]]. 

===The short twentieth century===  

The "left-wing" historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] uses the term "[[short twentieth century]]" for the period from the start of [[World War I]] to the fall of communism (19894: ''[[Age of Extremes]]''), presumably intended to evoke historians' commonly used term "long nineteenth century", referring to the period from the start of the [[French Revolution]] in [[1789]] to the start of World War I.

===The long twentieth century===

(contracted; show full)
==Reference==
*[[Eric Hobsbawm|Hobsbawm, Eric]] ''The Age Of Extremes : A History Of The World, 1914-1991'', New York : Pantheon Books, 1994. 
*[[Ernst Nolte|Nolte, Ernst]] ''Der europäische Bürgerkrieg 1917–1945: Nationalsozialismus und Bolschewismus'' Frankfurt : Proyläen, 1987. 

[[category:20th century]] 
[[Category:War]]
[[nl:Tachtigjarige Oorlog in Europa]]