?
t's at least sometl~ing to think abo~~t, the valtle-and often t11e superiority-of what

now that the 20th century is behind us, a century that, by historian John Lukacs's reckoning, began in 1914 and ended in
1989. Thatmostvertipousof centuriesbganwitl~ a resounding bang, one that dealt a near-n~ortal blow to all the big ideals and to all t11e gods.
In fact, the only god that came through the horrors of Verdun and the Somme unscatlied was irony. Not merely unscathed, it rose within the pantl~eo~~.
After W...