We’re seeing the end of the long 20th century

The caption reads, “The world you were born into no longer exists”. The grainy photograph it accompanies shows a small blonde girl standing alone in an empty park. In the background, against a faded blue sky, are the two silver towers of the World Trade Center.

This image, which regularly goes viral, doubtless owes some of its popularity to its triteness. The juxtaposition of childhood and the twin towers as symbols of lost innocence is hardly a subtle one. But I think the popular feeling that we are living through the passing of an age — ubiquitous online, often floated to me by friends — is justified.

Historians sometimes refer to “the long 18th century” — the period between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and,

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