In this book Livio Maitan and others in his activist Marxist generation review major events in the latter half of the 20th Century. They look at questions of strategy and programme, seeking a democratic socialist alternative.

Contents: Preface by Daniel Bensaid; The battles from the 1930s to the early 1940s; Reconstruction and a contradictory phase: 1948-1953 (Yugoslavia, China, Korea, "entryism"); From Stalin's death to de Gaulle's rise to power: 1953-1958; A tormented phase: 1959-1961 (The war in Algeria); From reunification to the eve of 1968 (1962-1967 - Latin America, Pablo, Ceylon); 1968-1969: two crucial years (The French May and the Czechoslovak crisis); Another phase of upheavals: 1970-1973 (Chile, Europe); The 10th congress of the Fourth International: 1974; Thirty-year balance-sheet; From the revolution in Portugal to the end of the Vietnam war: 1974-1975; A new phase: 1976-1978 (Spain, Latin America); A crucial year: 1979 (Nicaragua, Iran); Afghan civil war and crisis of the bureaucratic regime in Poland:1980-1982; Sharpening of the conservative counteroffensive:1983-1984; The 12th congress of the Fourth International; Global upheavals and internal matters:1985-1995; A "new world order?" 1991-1995 (collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia, PT in Brazil).