Short twentieth century

Historian Eric Hobsbawm’s period from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It frames the century as an era shaped by world wars, revolution, and the rise and fall of communism.

Eric Hobsbawm: A British Marxist historian whose books include a four-volume history of the modern era. He defined this period and argued that 1914 and 1991 mark its decisive boundaries.
World War I: A global conflict fought from 1914 to 1918, chiefly between the Allied and Central Powers. Its outbreak marks the opening boundary of Hobsbawm’s period.
October Revolution: The Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917 under the Julian calendar. It created the political project that became central to Hobsbawm’s century.
Long twentieth century: A historical framing that extends the twentieth century beyond 1900–1999, often by emphasizing longer economic or social transformations. Its broader boundaries challenge the short century’s focus on political rupture.
The Age of Extremes: Eric Hobsbawm’s history of the world from 1914 to 1991, published in 1994. This book presents the short twentieth century as a single historical argument.
Russian Revolution: The upheavals of 1917 that ended imperial rule in Russia and brought the Bolsheviks to power. It established the revolutionary state that later anchored the Soviet era.
Great Depression: A worldwide economic crisis that began in 1929 and persisted through much of the 1930s. It exposed the fragility of interwar capitalism in the period’s first half.
The Great Divergence: The historical process by which Western Europe and its offshoots gained economic predominance over other world regions. This framing centers global economic divergence rather than Hobsbawm’s 1914–1991 political arc.
Long nineteenth century: A historical period commonly dated from the French Revolution in 1789 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Hobsbawm paired this earlier span with the short twentieth century.
World War II: A global war fought from 1939 to 1945, involving the Axis and Allied powers. Its destruction and aftermath divide the period into sharply different phases.

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