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Sometimes, just sometimes, sad stories have happy endings.

The Long 21st Century

Historians sometimes talk about the "long 19th century", which covers the period from the French Revolution to the start of the First World War - the idea being that (in the West, at least) international relations, warfare, social structures and technology in the periods 1789-1799 and 1900-1914 were more typical of the 19th century than of the 18th or 20th. Eric Hobsbawm, who proposed this idea, then went on to propose the "short 20th century" as a natural historical period: in his view, the short 20th century should run from the First World War to the fall of the Soviet Union. Which means, presumably, that we've been living in the long 21st century since 1991. This commenter suggested that the rise of the Internet also makes a good starting point for the long 21st century (though the September that never ended began in 1993).

[It's worth pointing out that redefining the endpoints of your period to include any grey areas is a standard move in the power games played by different schools of historians - Renaissance historians typically put the start of the Renaissance a couple of hundred years earlier than medievalists, for instance. Hobsbawm was just more blatant about it than most. Googling for "long nth century" turns up some relevant hits for most n between 1 and 20, often, entertainingly enough, for two consecutive values of n.]

Anyway, I agree with Hobsbawm and Dresner, but for more pessimistic reasons: 1991 was also the year of the first Gulf War, and I think in years to come that will be recognised as the opening salvo of the Oil Wars of the long 21st century.

I was surprised to see that there are currently exactly 1991 messages in my Livejournal inbox. Coincidence? I think not.