Intro to part 6, Chapter 20
In the intro to part six they discuss "the most recent century" of 1914 to 2012 and question whether it qualifies for a separate phase of history. It's relatively short compared to other centuries that make up earlier eras. It discusses how our time periods get increasingly shorter the closer we get to the present and I think that makes sense because as time goes on I feel like we have gotten more and more innovative as far as technology and civilization goes. The book however, mentions that it's because with such a massive amount of information coming up in such a short amount of time it's hard to know what will matter and what won't. Part six is going to talk about how so many global themes have made this last century what it is that it could possibly be described as an entire new era in human history.
Chapter twenty opens with briefly talking about World War I and how veterans who fought in that war thought it would be the "war that would end all wars". But it in fact did not considering less than half a century later World War II broke out. During WWI since most of the able body men were fighting for our country that left women in the states and created job opportunities for them. This was just one of many changes that resulted from WWI. However, the most impacting change from the war was the Great Depression. The United States responded to the Great Depression with the help of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. This was an experimental mix of reforms that would hopefully restart economic growth and prevent the collapse of the economy from happening again. It seems trivial almost that the economy and money was something to worry about while in Germany Hitler and the Nazis were killing thousands of innocent people. Hitler gained power of Germany mostly because his policies had successfully helped Germany out of the Depression. Although Hitler and the Nazis were a very nasty part of the war, there were other catastrophes as well. Including Japans attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 that brought the U.S. officially into the war. Which made it the axis powers(Germany, Italy, and Japan) vs. the allied powers(USA, Britain, and the Soviet Union) and these powers fought for 3 more years before Germany was defeated in May 1945. I think it's important to mention the atomic bomb dropping that the U.S. did to Japan. The invention of the atomic bomb completely changed the future of weapons. You would think that having a weapon so destructive on either side of a conflict would scare people enough to halt wars. Just because they agreed not to use atomic or hydrogen bombs it didn't stop the fighting. Chapter twenty closes with the quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and I think that's a very important thought because we need to remember how horrible these atrocities were that happened during both world wars and not let that be repeated. I know it's cliche to wish for world peace and maybe a little far fetched because as long as people have been alive there has been conflict and fighting and wars. But it's important to try and find alternative ways to solve conflict that don't involve so many people dying.
Chapter twenty opens with briefly talking about World War I and how veterans who fought in that war thought it would be the "war that would end all wars". But it in fact did not considering less than half a century later World War II broke out. During WWI since most of the able body men were fighting for our country that left women in the states and created job opportunities for them. This was just one of many changes that resulted from WWI. However, the most impacting change from the war was the Great Depression. The United States responded to the Great Depression with the help of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. This was an experimental mix of reforms that would hopefully restart economic growth and prevent the collapse of the economy from happening again. It seems trivial almost that the economy and money was something to worry about while in Germany Hitler and the Nazis were killing thousands of innocent people. Hitler gained power of Germany mostly because his policies had successfully helped Germany out of the Depression. Although Hitler and the Nazis were a very nasty part of the war, there were other catastrophes as well. Including Japans attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 that brought the U.S. officially into the war. Which made it the axis powers(Germany, Italy, and Japan) vs. the allied powers(USA, Britain, and the Soviet Union) and these powers fought for 3 more years before Germany was defeated in May 1945. I think it's important to mention the atomic bomb dropping that the U.S. did to Japan. The invention of the atomic bomb completely changed the future of weapons. You would think that having a weapon so destructive on either side of a conflict would scare people enough to halt wars. Just because they agreed not to use atomic or hydrogen bombs it didn't stop the fighting. Chapter twenty closes with the quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and I think that's a very important thought because we need to remember how horrible these atrocities were that happened during both world wars and not let that be repeated. I know it's cliche to wish for world peace and maybe a little far fetched because as long as people have been alive there has been conflict and fighting and wars. But it's important to try and find alternative ways to solve conflict that don't involve so many people dying.
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