Description: Despotism and Democracy is a collection of ten short, highly readable essays about majorthemes in world history of the past century. Each essay provides a broad base of history forunderstanding, in succession: global prospects at the start of the 20th century; imperialism;the end of Western empires and the emergence of new nations; war and revolution, 1900-1945; cold war and its aftermath since 1945; totalitarianism; socialism; capitalism; thestate and bureaucracy; major world faiths and their modern challenges. The overarchingmotif is the spread of Western ideals and institutions over the globe after 1900 and theensuing contests between democratic and despotic governments to control that world.The book is aimed at the common reader as well as for the classroom and aims to presentthe best that has been thought and said about the various topics. For those interested in adeeper understanding, a selection of titles of the leading specialized studies is provided ?forfurther reading.'

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