If, keeping all the limitations of periodization in mind, one divides that history into four major phases--
that in which the nationalist movements formed and crystallized;
that in which they triumphed;
that in which they organized themselves into states;
and that (the present one) in which,
organized into states, they find themselves obliged to define and stabilize their relationships both to other states and to the irregular societies out of which they arose--
incongruence comes plainly into view.
The most obvious changes,
those which caught and held the attention of the entire world,
occurred in the second and third of these phases.
But the bulk of the more far-reaching changes,
those altering the general shape and direction of social evolution,
occurred or are occurring in the less spectacular first and fourth.
that in which the nationalist movements formed and crystallized;
that in which they triumphed;
that in which they organized themselves into states;
and that (the present one) in which,
organized into states, they find themselves obliged to define and stabilize their relationships both to other states and to the irregular societies out of which they arose--
incongruence comes plainly into view.
The most obvious changes,
those which caught and held the attention of the entire world,
occurred in the second and third of these phases.
But the bulk of the more far-reaching changes,
those altering the general shape and direction of social evolution,
occurred or are occurring in the less spectacular first and fourth.