Such a huge topic! So let me just drop a small fact that really characterizes the age and I will let the "pros" get into more detail. Sir Winston Churchill wrote in 1930 an introduction to Forst de Battaglia's Dictatorship on Trial where he basically expected that dictatorship everywhere but English-speaking nations may be the wave of future.

http://www.unz.org/Pub/DeBattagliaOtto-1931-00007

I think this introduction really sets the mood for understand that age.