History stubbornly and splendidly refuses to a standstill. For instance, the final decades of the twentieth century have seen the collapse of Communism, the end of the cold war, the emergency of a global economy, a technological revolution in production and communications, and the rise of Political Islam, Indeed we may appear to be living in a kind of ‘Post World”. Much as the pace of change is on the increase year after year, the effects cannot be fully comprehended without knowing the background to the events that have led to the present changes being noticed. This is therefore what this book gives.