American Power in the Twentieth Century

The democratic Left must help finish the creation of the world. The world—and I borrow here from Peter Worsley’s imaginative way of speaking—is scarcely begun. The globe has, of course, existed for eons, and humans project their various histories more than 4000 years into the past. But those interrelationships that transcend tribe, nation, and empire, uniting the people of the earth in a common destiny —whether they like it or not—are only a century or so old. The first day of this creation took place when economics, science, and warfare put the planet together. The second day is now, and there might not be a third.

Applying such high-flown biblical imagery to politics strikes most Americans as grandiose; they leave ...