Peter N. Stearns is provost and professor of history at George Mason University. He is the editor of the Journal of Social History and the author of many books, including World Civilizations: The Global Experience and World History in Brief: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity.

• Part I The Millennium and Thinking About Time -- The Millennium in Perspective -- The Struggle for a Christian Calendar -- The Year 1000: Real and Imagined Precedents -- Refining the Calendar: Visions and Centuries, 1200-1850 -- Apocalypse Now? -- Assessing and Forecasting Millennia: Beyond the Apocalypse -- Transition: From Millennia to Centuries -- Part II Turning the Century -- Hailing the 20th Century: Fireworks and Fin de Siecle -- Where Is Our Fin de Siecle? -- The 20th Century: Guidelines for the Retrospective -- Forecasting the 21st Century -- Conclusion