As profound as the COVID-19 crisis seems to us now, it pales in comparison to what previous generations faced. Unlike in the past, however, today's biggest threats must be addressed at both the national and global levels, implying the need for political leadership of a kind that is utterly lacking in today's world.
CAMBRIDGE – To the interwar generation of the first half of the twentieth century, today’s crises would have appeared rather ordinary. They had seen much worse: the two bloodiest wars in human history, mass unemployment and destitution created by the Great Depression (which still dwarfs this century’s recessions), and far more serious threats to democracy in the form of Soviet communism, fascism, and Hitler’s National Socialism.
CAMBRIDGE – To the interwar generation of the first half of the twentieth century, today’s crises would have appeared rather ordinary. They had seen much worse: the two bloodiest wars in human history, mass unemployment and destitution created by the Great Depression (which still dwarfs this century’s recessions), and far more serious threats to democracy in the form of Soviet communism, fascism, and Hitler’s National Socialism.