WHAT was the 20th century's most distinctive feature? It is a historians' parlour game, but there can be no definitive answer. For some, it would be getting men to the moon, discovering penicillin, splitting the atom or some other great scientific achievement. For others, it would be the fastest and most sustained period of economic growth in history. Or the end of the age of empires, which had dominated the politics and economics of the world for centuries. For Niall Ferguson, however, only this last description comes close and even then only as background. In his view, the century's most distinctive feature was violence: the slaughter, and not only in war, of millions upon millions of people. His new book seeks to describe and, as far as possible, explain why this happened.
 

　　二十世纪最鲜明的特征是什么？这是一个历史学家们讨论的问题，但可能谁也无法准确回答。有的人认为是人类登月、发现青霉素、原子裂解以及其它一些伟大的科学成就，而有的人则认为是史上经济增长速度最快、最稳定的时期，也有人认为是统治世界政治经济数百年的帝国时代的终结。然而，对于尼尔 弗格森而言，只有最后一种说法才是最贴切的，也只有这一点才是值得参考的时代背景。在他看来，二十世纪最鲜明的特征就是暴力——不计其数的人惨遭屠戮，而且不仅仅因为战争。他新近出版的著作就是要寻求记述并尽可能阐明这一切发生的原因。