Introduction : Western civilization in its world setting -- Western civilization to 1914 -- The Russian empire to 1917 -- The buffer fringe -- The First World War, 1914-1918 -- The Versailles system and the return to "normalcy," 1919-1929 -- Finance, commercial policy, and business activity, 1897-1947 -- International socialism and the Soviet challenge -- Germany from Kaiser to Hitler, 1913-1945 -- Britain : the background to appeasement, 1900-1939 -- Changing economic patterns -- The policy of appeasement, 1931-1936 -- The disruption of Europe -- World War II : the tide of aggression, 1939-1941 -- World War II : the ebb of aggression, 1941-1945 -- The new age -- Nuclear rivalry and the Cold War : American atomic supremacy, 1945-1950 -- Nuclear rivalry and the Cold War : the race for the H-bomb, 1950-1957 -- The new era, 1957-1964 -- Tragedy and hope : the future in perspective

"This book shows the years 1895-1950 as a period of transition from the world dominated by Europe in the nineteenth century to the world of three blocs in the twentieth century. With clarity, perspective, and cumulative impact, Professor Quigley examines the nature of that transition through two world wars and a worldwide economic depression. As an interpretative historian, he tries to show each event in the full complexity of its historical context. The result is a unique work, notable in several ways. it gives a picture of the world in terms of the influence of different cultures and outlooks upon each other; it shows, more completely than in any similar work, the influence of science and technology on human life; and it explains, with unprecedented clarity, how the intricate financial and commercial patterns of the West prior to 1914 influenced the development of today's world"--Cover page [4]