The Origins Of The Twenty-First Century: An Essay on Contemporary Social and Economic History

This fascinating book provides a fully integrated explanation of the history of the modern world. Although the sheer complexity of society requires that it be studied from the standpoint of several social sciences (including Economics, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology), using only the tools of just one of these is an obstacle to understanding the whole society, where social, economic and political conditions are interacting all the time. The book explains why and how modern communities have evolved from their pre-modern, Ancien regime, states in the early eighteenth century, to the early twenty-first century, where economic development had reached unprecedented levels. It shows that political revolutions have preceded economic revolutions, rather than the reverse, although there is a considerable degree of interaction between macroeconomic and political variables. Economic histories of the period neglect non-economic factors such as political and legal institutions, which from a wide perspective have a powerful impact on economic developments.

The complexity of the world and of the times in which we live is overwhelming and growing. Professor Tortella provides an international approach and combines economic and social analysis with political, cultural, and scientific issues. Topics covered include:



the Industrial Revolution


capitalism and the West


the First and Second World War


the rise of communism and the era of Stalin


the US depression and the Gold Standard


social and class struggle

Gabriel Tortella is Professor of Economic History at the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. He has also worked as Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and held visiting appointments at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

Introduction 1. The Triumph of Europe 2. The First World Revolution 3. The Industrial Revolution 4. A Century of Progress and Order 5. Division of Labor and Class Struggle 6. La Belle Époque 7. The Second World Revolution 8. War and Democracy 9. Depression and Totalitarianism 10. A New Social Democratic Order 11. The Communist World 12. The Rise of the Third World 13. Renewed Capitalism 14. A Somber Twenty-First Century?