This is a collection of essays written by Barraclough in the post World War 2 era, mostly early 1950s, for intelligent popular audiences (e.g. in The Listener, the magazine of the BBC), arguing that it is worthwhile to consider history when thinking about the current and future stat of the world, but that the then-traditional way of approaching European history focusing on strictly European political and cultural developments was outmoded, and even "western civilization" should be reconsidered in view of the obvious importance of non-European states in the post-war world and their great but neglected influence on earlier "European" and world history. This view have now become standard, but at the time they were just beginning to be developed. The book also includes a few more technical essays unrelated to the theme,notably one arguing that the medieval "Holy Roman Empire" was much less important as a major political structure than earlier writers (notably Bryce) had believed. ( )