I just finished one of the most melancholy books I've ever read: "The Proud Tower", by Barbara Tuchman. It's a study of society in the West during the time from 1890-1914 (i.e., the run up to WWI). It's not a history of the politics of that era, although it does touch on that in a few areas - notably, the rise of the anarchists, the rise of the socialists, and the decline (relative to the lower classes) of the British aristocracy.

However, that's not all that gets talked about. German music, in the person of Richard Strauss, gets a chapter. The evolution of the US in the post-frontier era comes out, through the eyes of an unreconstructed 19th century conservative, Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed. The peace movement and the two major peace conferences that took place - and the forces that arrayed against them.

I found the last chapter, titled "The Death of Jaures", the saddest section. Here you have the rising tide of working class power, cming up politically through the socialist parties in Europe. Some of the leaders of that movement had starry-eyed notions of an end to nationalism, and - via the unified action of labor across borders - the prevention of war. As Tuchman points out, French labor was French first, German labor was German first (and so on) - the dream of unified action without regard to borders was just that, a dream.

It's a great book, and I came away from it with a much better feel for that era. I also came away with a lot of skepticism about claims (regardless of where they come from) about how the world is "worse than ever". That notion seems to be a constant across all eras.

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