The History of the Twentieth Century

Five years into his premiership, Mussolini ruled over a one-party state. He projected an image of il Duce, the tireless, indispensable leader of the Italian people as he cracked down on dissent at home and unrest in Libya.

Although Mussolini had come to power by legal means, he soon cast the moment as a Fascist revolution, and pushed for changes to the electoral system that would tighten the Fascist grip on the country.

The Algeciras Conference awarded Spain a strip of territory in northern Morocco known as the Rif, which became Spanish Morocco. But an award of territory granted by a conference of diplomats is one thing; actual control is another.

In the early 1920s, Gandhi's first nationwide satyagraha campaign saw unprecedented Hindu-Muslim unity, but led to violence and failed to achieve its aims. Gandhi spent some time in prison, but by 1930, with a Labour government in power, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress felt ready to declare independence.

Discover how consumer dissatisfaction has driven the automotive industry's growth by shifting from basic needs to a culture of consumption. Learn about William Durant's rise in the car business, his innovative strategies, and the eventual formation of General Motors. Explore the transformation of cars from luxuries to necessities, along with the challenges of theft and competition. Delve into Edsel Ford's leadership at Ford Motor Company, grappling with family dynamics and modernization amid economic pressures.

Two of the twentieth century's worst technological innovations were leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons. Both were introduced by the same person, engineer Thomas Midgley.

In the 1920s, most took it for granted that Western civilization and culture was the pinnacle of human accomplishment. A 23-year-old graduate student set out to prove that this was not the case, and that even the West had something to learn from other cultures.

Charles Darwin himself noted that the development of civilization had "stopped" evolution by natural selection within our own human species. This led others to speculate on whether society could purposefully direct human evolution.

The state of Tennessee had made it a criminal offense to teach evolution in the public schools. The trial of John Scopes became the most famous court case in America of the period.

If the first great scientific debate of the 1920s was over the size and composition of the Universe, the second was over the structure and nature of the atom. It turned out that the common-sense rules of our everyday world don't apply at the atomic level.