Andrew Marr's History of the World
The Age of Extremes
Andrew Marr's History of the World - Age of Extremes
Robert Oppenheimer
In the 20th century – our age – our brilliance and our foolishness collided to produce one of the greatest moral dilemmas humankind has faced. For three years, Robert Oppenheimer had led a top-secret mission to end the deadliest war in the history of the world.
But to do that, his team were building a weapon which would soon also threaten to end human life on earth. Mankind's greatest intellectual
achievement. Modern science has now unlocked the secrets of atomic power.
In our age, democracy confronted two great enemies – communism and fascism. Their leaders believed that if you killed enough people, some kind of human paradise would follow. Instead, as these ideas were tested to destruction, they planted little pockets of hell on ordinary Earth.
Gandhi "with this handful of salt…"
But new freedoms were won. Science brought us machines of awesome speed and power, and we reached beyond the limits of our planet.
In the 20th century, our failures were greater than ever before and our achievements astonishing. Mankind found itself in a race, a sprint between its technological brilliance and the risks of its political idiocy.
Welcome to the Age of Extremes.
