This, the seventh volume in my series An Essay in Universal History, is called “The Age of Socialism” because it encompasses the peak of the careers of the chief ideologues of socialism, Marx and Engels, and the rise of welfare socialism in Germany and Western Europe. It takes the story from the unification of Germany through the first major uprising – and defeat – of socialism in the Paris Commune, to the “scramble for Africa” by the great global empires of Britain, Europe and America. Socialism and nationalism developed in parallel, being the two great antipodal – that is, universalist and particularist - tendencies of the age. Both were kept in check for the time being by the multi-national empires. But the decline of Austria and Turkey elicited a nationalist ferment in Central Europe and the Balkans. Only Russia among the Great Powers continued to wage war against the antiChristian, pseudo-liberational tendencies of the age – and was rewarded by being reviled and resented by the western Great Powers. The Great Reforms of Tsar Alexander II were an attempt to catch up with the west technologically and materially, to strengthen the country’s institutions and thereby stem the invasion of western heresies, especially liberalism and democratism. Unfortunately, in general they had the opposite effect, undermining the foundations of Holy Russia and hastening the process of westernization, as was particularly clearly demonstrated by the inspired writings of Dostoyevsky, with their incisive exposure of Catholicism, liberalism and socialism. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us! Amen.