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Winds of Change

By William H. McNeill
Fall 1990
Article Summary and Author Biography

The most critical axis of world affairs today is the tension between the relatively prosperous urban populations, whose birth-rates have nearly everywhere fallen below replacement levels, and the burgeoning rural masses. This will set the scene for replay, at global level, of the peasant rebellions of the past.

William H. McNeill is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Chicago. This article is adapted from the author's essay in Sea-Changes: American Foreign Policy in a World Transformed, published by the Council on Foreign Relations.

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