How one reads pre-1914 Europe determines the diagnosis of 1914-45

Evidence

One reason for dwelling on the question of whether fin-de-siècle Europe was an aristocratic order or a bourgeois society is that the answer one gives is likely to determine one’s assessment of the ‘Thirty Years War’ of 1914-45. For Mayer, the torments of Europe in these years (transmitted to the rest of the world thanks to imperialism) were a consequence of the conflict between the anciens régimes and emergent industrial capitalism, with the former playing the active role. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 190