The Age of Extremes

Name: The Age of Extremes
Rating: 4.6 (415 reviews)

by Eric Hobsbawm Book 4 in the The Age of… series.

First published 1994

Amazon

4.5(415)

The Age of Extremes follows what Hobsbawm calls the short twentieth century, beginning with the First World War and ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its first half treats the world wars, the Russian Revolution, economic depression, fascism and the destruction of the European-dominated international order.

The later chapters examine post-war reconstruction, the Cold War, decolonisation, communist China, welfare states and the long economic expansion after 1945. Hobsbawm then traces the crises of the 1970s and 1980s, the weakening of both capitalist and communist systems, and the political uncertainty that followed the Soviet bloc’s collapse.

Historical Periods

World War I1914–1918 CE Interwar Period1918–1939 CE World War II1939–1945 CE Cold War and Post-war Era1945–present Russian Revolution1917 CE Soviet Era1922–1991 CE

Genres

Court & Political Fiction

Historical people

Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945 Vladimir Lenin1870–1924 Adolf Hitler1889–1945 Joseph Stalin1878–1953 Mikhail Gorbachev1931–2022 Winston Churchill1874–1965 Mao Zedong1893–1976