The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991 is a book by Eric Hobsbawm, published in 1994.^[1] In it, Hobsbawm comments on what he sees as the disastrous failures of state communism, capitalism, and nationalism. He is also skeptical of the progress of the arts and changes in society in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Hobsbawm calls the period from the start of World War I to the fall of the Soviet Union "the short twentieth century".^[1] This is to follow on "the long 19th century", the period from the start of the French Revolution in 1789 to the start of World War I in 1914. The Age of Extremes is the last in his series of books that include (The Age of Revolution: Europe, 1789-1848, The Age of Capital: 1848–1875, The Age of Empire: 1875–1914). In the United States, the book was published with the subtitle A History of the World, 1914–1991.^[2]