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The 20th century frequently was marked by cultural and political revolutions. Monarchies and feudal remnants either toppled or were shaken to their foundations. Aristocracy lost much of its privilege, and major efforts began to achieve dignity and livelihood for the "common people." Whether it was the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty in Russia, or the 19th-century "robber barons" of the then income tax-free United States, the old orders were slipping away.
The eventual collapse of the Third Reich, fascism, communism and the Berlin Wall, racial privilege and apartheid, demonstrated throughout the century that unjust or oppressive systems weren’t sustainable. However, terrorism became a global phenomenon near the close of the century. The West abandoned an increasingly idiosyncratic and voluptuous Romanticism epitomized by Richard Wagner. It adopted cultural expressions better suited to reflect the tumultuous times. Phenomenal 19th-century archival work heralded a reassessment of cultural roots as long-forgotten music, art, theological books, and philosophical systems came to light. Global concern for the care of the earth increased as the fragility of the ecostructure became evident.
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The
political vacuums those events created do not last. Revolutions occurred.
Eventually, world wars were fought as new political systems emerged. Some
of the systems were ultimately evil and struggled to establish themselves.
The former Soviet bloc, created by socialist and Communist ideologies,
ultimately failed in its 70-year attempt to establish a just "workers’"
society. 