This book is a collage of human experiences made from overlapping pieces and woven together by themes of crises, revolution, and change, aiming to raise issues that people in the twentieth-century world tried to address.

Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- The Early Century -- The Paradoxes of Modernization -- Imperialism and Colonial Rule -- Materialism and the Crisis of Capitalism -- Revolutions Before Bolshevism -- Bolshevism Reshapes Revolution -- Fascism and the Holocaust -- The Later Century -- Independence -- Peasants and Peasant Revolts -- 1968 and New Radical Visions -- Islamic Fundamentalism in Critical Perspective -- Century-Long Themes -- Feminism in the Modern World -- War and Peace -- Science -- Population Growth -- Nations at Risk -- Conclusion