roda do tempo 2

Ainda "A History of Modern Europe":

"The Second Industrial Revolution seemed oblivious to the long economic depression that began in 1873 and lasted until the mid-1890s. It was marked by falling prices and punctuated by financial panics, although not by prolonged unemployment or economic stagnation. Following a fever of speculation, particularly in Germany, banks failed in Vienna. The speed with which the crisis spread to other financial capitals reflected the extent to which improvements in transportation and communication during the middle decades of the nineteenth century had extended the links of an increasingly global economy. Agricultural prices fell virtually everywhere in Europe, in part because imported grain from the United States and Canada flooded markets. In every industrialized country, tariffs became the focus of impassioned political debate, even in Britain, where economic liberalism remained the prevailing credo. Governments responded to the depression by imposing protective tariffs in the interest of native industries and agriculture: Austria (1874), Russia (1875), France (1892), Italy (1887), and Germany (1902)."

the great game

Emmanuel Todd, no Uol:

"O Afeganistão será a guerra que eles irão perder. É uma guerra perdida, uma catástrofe que se desenvolve. A grande questão para os historiadores será entender por que os dois grandes impérios, o império soviético e o império americano, decidiram morrer militarmente no Afeganistão. Há algo de surpreendente. Não sou crente, mas se tivesse alguma crença, eu veria nas duas guerras do Afeganistão uma espécie de maldição divina. Uma região do mundo totalmente desprovida de interesse: é um problema para os metafísicos, para os moralistas, não para os especialistas em geopolítica."

Ou, como talvez preferisse Todd, para os antropólogos: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/16-10/sl_mcfate.