There's a beguiling quality to that argument,

那个论证具有迷惑性
when we look at the folly of human history

当我们看到人类历史的荒谬
and the folly of human nature.

和人类本质的荒谬时
That all changed in so many ways in the wake of the Second World War,

在二战以后有许多方面都都已经改变了
a war that was all about ideology, all about racism,

一场全是关于意识形态和种族主义的战争
all about the survival of Enlightenment ideas against fascism

关于启蒙思想与种族主义之间的战争
and so on and so on;

等等等等
and a generation led by such historians as Arthur Schlesinger Jr.,

以及被小亚瑟·施莱辛格这样的历史学家
and many, many, many others,

还有许多许多别的历史学家引导的一代人
came to see the American Civil War's coming,

将美国内战的来临看作
when they started writing in the 1950s and '60s and into the '70s,

当他们在二十世纪中期开始写作时
as what they would call an "Irrepressible conflict."

一种"无法压抑的冲突"