"The rising generation will inevitably look back over the twentieth century with different priorities from ours. Born into a world in which - as all present indications suggest - the major questions will not be European questions but the relationships between Europe, including Russia, and America and the peoples of Asia and Africa, they will find little relevance in many of the topics which engrossed the attention of the last ,generation. The study of contemporary history requires new perspectives and a new scale of values."

"For that reason alone, he might well prove to be the first universal historian of the twentieth century, which means that universities in any part of the world, north and south, could prescribe him with little unease."