The issue I am examining is how the Prague Spring fits into a broader framework that practically embraces what Eric Hobsbawm called the "Short 20th Century, 1914-1991". Within such a long historical perspective, the event certainly diminishes, becoming an episode in a dramatic period that experienced two world wars, dramatic economic crises, several revolutions, and decolonization. 

In reality, it prompts us to relate the event to the course of communism and the historical structure of the 20th century. I will attempt to do so by examining, more specifically, how the Prague Spring is approached in three interpretations of the 20th century that were considered "ideological" of three different ideological-political approaches. I emphasize this because here I am not so interested in the historiographical dimension as in the different ideological approach. I am referring to the interpretations of three significant and emblematic historians: Eric Hobsbawm, François Furet, and Ernst Nolte.