One could list enough books, studies, essays that offer to highlight some points or aspects of the tumultuous history of the 20th century by quoting fragments from two famous stories of George Orwell- Animal farm and 1984 year.

A book by the English historian Niall Ferguson War of the worlds. The Age of Hatepublished in Great Britain in 2006 and in the first Romanian edition in 2013 by Corinthrepublished in 2022, in the same translation thanks to Alina Predescu in the collection History Yassky publishing house Polisher, she also resorts to either lengthy quotations or just a simple mention of some literary works inspired by this story. From fire Henri Barbusu, today in both Romanian and French lands, is perhaps unfairly forgotten (only?) because of the communist sympathies of the author. (but here’s what during the demonstration from War of the worldsNiall Ferguson reminds us that immediately after the Second World War the PCF had over a million members and that not only France but also Italy were serious candidates for communitization as a result of popular will) on A journey at the end of the night Louis-Ferdinand Selina. Around the same time, during the purge, he was on the verge of being sentenced to death for collaborationism and his incredible anti-Semitic writings. In parentheses, if today the works of Barbus are lying forgotten on a dusty library shelf, then the whole of France and not only is waiting with bated breath for the continuation of the saved pages (remember, forgotten pages, censored pages, exiled pages?) from Celine’s creation.

Neil Ferguson’s favorite is not Orwell, but Herbert Wells. In 1898, he published a book called War of the worlds which Ferguson considers “a more than influential work of art”. And this is because “in the century that followed the publication of the book, scenes similar to those imagined by Wells became a reality in cities around the world, not only in London, where the novel is set, but also in Brest. Lithuania, Belgrade and Berlin; in Smyrna, Shanghai and Seoul.”

The above statement, printed on the first page of the book, is reinforced by Ferguson in the last two passages. History reminds us that in the next century after the appearance War of the worlds, not Martians, but earthlings “proved that it is possible to create such a catastrophe without the need for extraterrestrial intervention. And all they had to do was identify a group of their peers as aliens and then kill them. They did it with varying degrees of ferocity, in different places, at different times.”

This is how (and I return to the first page of the British historian’s extensive work) “the hundred years after 1900 were undoubtedly the bloodiest century in modern history, far more brutal both in relative terms and in absolute terms than any previous period.” People died not only in two world wars, not only in conflicts between great powers, but also in regional, territorial, economic or ethnic conflicts. Millions of lives were brought not only in Europe, but also in Asia and the American continent. Mass death sentences were carried out not only by Hitler (Ferguson describes in detail various aspects of the Holocaust) or Stalin in his many endless Gulags (those against kulaks, Ukrainians, anti-communist opponents, even communist nomenclature). At one point, the author of the book analyzes the striking similarities between the two great dictators/criminals. Following Castro and Mao, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the inter-ethnic conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia intervened. The Spanish woman was also the cause of death. I signal a theatrical coup. In 2006, when the book came out, Niall Ferguson made a prophecy. He says that maybe at some point, world war it “will end with the intervention of microscopic organisms such as the bird flu virus, which can mutate and cause a pandemic worse than that of 1918.” There. We had and still have only a pandemic world war it’s far from over. A clear indicator that we learn nothing from history.

The book details a series of unlearned lessons in lavish detail. In 1901, the world was relatively peaceful. It was also relatively prosperous economically. It wasn’t exactly heaven on earth, but you can’t say that hatred became the law either. Ethnic groups showed signs of agreeing to coexistence, anti-Semitism seemed to take a break. But in 1905, something happened in Russia, the Balkan Wars began.

When on June 28, 1914, a certain Gavrilo Princip made an attempt on Sarajevo, few imagined the scale of the consequences. He did not plan them and did not imagine them himself. Watched The Great War which had such great expenses that many believed, it may be said today, that they deluded themselves into thinking that the world would become wiser in the future. That after this peace will be final. Of course, the civil war in Russia had its price, incredibly huge, but there were enough naive people who believed that the communist experiment would remain between the fronts of the Bolshevik state. However, not only the Spanish Flu was exported, but also Communism, which after 1945 dominated half of Europe for about 50 years. Read the full article and comment on Contributors.ro