The first four were tyrants who dimmed the lamps of freedom and plunged the world into the bloodiest conflicts in all of human history. Those two wars, along with a crushing depression, darkened man's outlook for years thereafter. For the century as a whole, warfare is thought to have taken the lives of three times as many people as were killed in 19 previous centuries combined. Prosperous times after World War II lifted America's spirits, but they were quickly dampened by the Cold War, Vietnam, and Watergate. Only late in the 1900s did exuberance return.
Some answers are clear.
We must nurture and elect more public leaders of the stature of Churchill and Roosevelt. Had they not provided a lion's roar, the tyrants might have won out after all. As it was, it was a close call. Today, CEOs and entrepreneurs command more respect than politicians. But in the years ahead, men and women in public life must once again provide inspiration, vision, and a belief in common purpose.