The Industrial World Industry transforms Europe, from the heights of political power to the details of everyday life. The Age of the Nation-States Throughout Europe, nations struggle against foreign oppression or to expand their own power at the expense of others. A New Public Mass education and mass communications create a new political life and a new life and a new life of the mind. As the old empires crumble in the war, totalitarian states arise throughout Europe. The rivalry between the superpowers is played out across the globe, although the United States and the Soviet Union never face each other in direct conflict.
Many people still living can remember the invention of antibiotics, computers, and atomic weapons.
Toward the Future No longer at the center of the world stage, Europe has suffered or celebrated every variety of the human experience.