People's Century: 1900-1999

Governments around the world liberalise trade and withdraw from intervening in the economy, giving new opportunities to those who are skilled, industrious and adaptable, but disrupts the social order for others. In the United States, Proposition 13 is the precursor to Reaganism, and the inequalities that later emerge lead to the LA riots and the rise of gated communities. Russian society struggles to adapt to a market economy, and in Bosnia and elsewhere the demise of socialism revives ethnic tensions and separatism. However in China economic reforms started by Deng Xiaopeng lift living standards, and the internet allows high-skill work to be transferred from the West to India. The episode ends with the narrator noting how globalisation has contributed to one of the most significant achievements of the twentieth century – that more people have control over their own destinies than ever before. Interviewees include Donald Hodge and Mike Eruzione.