short twentieth century

English

WOTD – 28 February 2023

Etymology

The concept underlying the proper noun was developed by the Hungarian historian Iván Tibor Berend (born 1930), and the term itself was popularized by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) in his book The Age of Extremes (1994). Like the corresponding terms long eighteenth century and long nineteenth century, it aims to define historical eras by significant events rather than by the arbitrary beginnings and ends of centuries.

The common noun was probably derived from the proper noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɔːt ˌtwɛn.(t)ɪ.əθ ˈsɛn.t͡ʃ(ʊ).ɹi/, (dated) /-ɪθ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃoɹt ˌtwɛn.(t)ɪ.əθ ˈsɛn.(t)ʃ(ə).ɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɛntʃʊɹiː, -ɛntʃɹiː, -ɛntʃəɹiː
• Hyphenation: short twen‧ti‧eth cen‧tu‧ry

Proper noun

short twentieth century

1. (history, specifically) The period between 1914 and 1991, from the beginning of World War I to the fall of the Soviet Union. [from 1990s]
   • 1994, Eric Hobsbawm, “The Century: A Bird’s Eye View”, in The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, section II, page 5:

     How are we to make sense of the Short Twentieth Century, that is to say of the years from the outbreak of the First World War to the collapse of the USSR which, as we can now see in retrospect, forms a coherent historical period that has now ended? We do not know what will come next, and what the third millennium will be like, even though we can be certain that the Short Twentieth Century will have shaped it.

   • 1997, P. W. Preston, “Global Changes and New Political-Cultural Identities”, in Political/Cultural Identity: Citizens and Nations in a Global Era, London, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 91:

     In the wake of the end of the short twentieth century and the related collapse of the received certainties of the cold war which had shaped the understandings of European and American thinkers, it has become clear that a new integrated global industrial-capitalist system is taking shape. […] However, setting aside the issue of the overall evolution of the global system to one side, it is the case that the end of the short twentieth century has seen not merely debate in respect of the creation of an integrated system but also a concern for an apparently deepening tripolarity.

   • 2000 winter, Craig Moran, “The Idea of Communism in the ‘Short Twentieth Century’”, in Word & World: Theology for Christian Ministry: The Twentieth Century‎^[1], volume XX, number 1, St. Paul, Minn.: Luther Seminary, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-01-21, page 41:

     The year 1914 will be the crucial date for the beginning of this "short twentieth century," for the world war which began in August of that year marked a break with the classic liberal values of free enterprise, individual autonomy, and political liberty that had suffused nineteenth-century European societies.

   • 2012, Brad S[tephan] Gregory, “Relativizing Doctrines”, in The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 2015, →ISBN, page 121:

     [Karl] Marx’s philosophy and its concretely applied adaptations would have extraordinary consequences especially in the short twentieth century, from the outbreak of World War I through the fall of the Soviet Union.

   • 2013, Derek Sayer, “Introduction”, in Prague: Capital of the Twentieth Century: A Surrealist History, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 7:

     The epoch from whose dreams I wish to awaken is the twentieth century, and more particularly what Eric Hobsbawm has called "the short twentieth century" between the outbreak of World War I on 1 August 1914 and the collapse of the Soviet Union on 31 December 1991—a period that was incidentally, and probably not coincidentally, the bloodiest in recorded human history.

   • 2021, Miguel Saralegui, “Modernity and Postmodernity: Chronology as Philosophy of History”, in The Politics of Time: Introduction to Carl Schmitt’s Political Thought (Social Sciences & Humanities; 4), Santander, Cantabria, Spain: Cantabria University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 231:

     The continuity that exists between the two centuries would appear to distance [Carl] Schmitt from [Eric] Hobsbawm and his description of the short 20th century. But we must squelch this first impression. […] The long 19th century can be explained as adding the "setback of over 60 years", from 1848 to 1917, to Hobsbawm's short 20th century.

   • 2022 November, Rong Jian, translated by Ren Zhi, edited by David Rong, Calling Back the Ghost of Revolution – Critique of Wang Hui’s View on Chinese Revolutionary History (Translation Series of Contemporary Chinese Scholars), New York, N.Y.: Bouden House, →ISBN, page 121:

     However, Wang Hui's strong dissatisfaction with [Eric] Hobsbawm's "short 20th century" is that he believes that this concept was developed mainly from the European perspective, without taking into account the proper place of Chinese events and the Chinese revolution in the 20th century, […]

Alternative forms

• short 20th century

Coordinate terms

• long eighteenth century
• long nineteenth century

Translations

period between 1914 and 1991

• Arabic: سده بيستم كوتاه ?
• Belarusian: кароткае XX стагоддзе n (karótkaje XX stahóddzje)
• Catalan: curt segle XX m
• Czech: krátké 20. století n, kratší 20. století n
• Dutch: korte twintigste eeuw f
• Finnish: lyhyt 1900-luku, ensimmäisen maailmansodan ja Neuvostoliiton hajoamisen välinen aika
• French: court XXe siècle (fr) m
• German: kurzes 20. Jahrhundert n
• Irish: 20ú hAois Ghearr f
• Japanese: 短い20世紀 (みじかいにじっせいき, mijikai nijisseiki)
• Korean: 단기 20세기 (dan'gi 20segi)
• Macedonian: кра́ток XX век m (krátok XX vek)
• Russian: коро́ткий XX век m (korótkij XX vek)
• Spanish: corto siglo veinte m
• Swedish: korta 1900-talet n
• Ukrainian: коро́тке XX столі́ття n (korótke XX stolíttja)

Noun

short twentieth century (plural short twentieth centuries)

1. (history, generally) Any period of years defined by significant historical events falling within the 20th century (1 January 1901 to 31 December 2000).
   • 1997, Roy C. Boland, “El Salvador: 19th- and 20th-century Prose and Poetry”, in edited by Verity Smith, Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature, Chicago, Ill., London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, →ISBN, page 286, column 2:

     […] Salvadorean history – including that of its literary development since independence – falls into three clear-cut periods: a very long 19th century until the Great Massacre of 1932; a very short 20th century from 1932 to the signing of the Peace Accords of 1992, and since then the possibility, at least, of a New Dawn of political reconciliation.

   • 1999, Edward Acton, “The Parting of Ways: Comparing the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and 1991”, in Moira Donald, Tim Rees, editors, Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-century Europe, London: Bloomsbury Academic, published 2017, →ISBN, page 56:

     This essay explores the comparison between the revolution which marked the opening of Russia’s ‘short twentieth century’, the overthrow of Tsarism and of the Provisional Government in 1917, and the upheaval which marked its close, the destruction of both traditional and reformed Communist rule.

   • 1999, W[illia]m Roger Louis, “Introduction”, in Judith M[argaret] Brown, Wm. Roger Louis, editors, The Twentieth Century (The Oxford History of the British Empire; IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 1:

     There is an alternative way of viewing the great events in the expansion and contraction of the [British] Empire in the last one hundred years. In this scheme the critical epoch falls within the framework of a ‘short’ twentieth century. The nineteenth-century Empire comes to a close only with the outbreak of war in 1914, and the twentieth-century Empire comes clattering down in the 1960s. […] Many of the chapters in this volume focus on the years of the short twentieth century.

   • 2016, Nicholas Doumanis, “Introduction: Europe’s Age of Catastrophe in Context”, in Nicholas Doumanis, editor, The Oxford Handbook of European History, 1914–1945, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 8:

     The problem with ‘short’ twentieth centuries, therefore, is that they say more about the nature of the second half than the first.

   • 2020, Thomas C. Mills, Rory M. Miller, “Introduction”, in Thomas C. Mills, Rory M. Miller, editors, Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-century Latin America: Competition, Cooperation and Coexistence (Britain and the World), Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, page 25:

     The period covered by this book represents a ‘short twentieth century’ dating roughly from 1914 to 1970. In commencing coverage with the outbreak of the First World War, it begins where much historical discussion of Britain and Latin America traditionally finished. The late 1960s and early 1970s, where it ends, represented something of a watershed for Britain’s global role.

Translations

period of years defined by significant historical events falling within the 20th century

• Finnish: lyhyt 1900-luku
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• short twentieth century on Wikipedia.Wikipedia