The Oxford History of the Twentieth Century

by Michael Eliot Howard (Editor)

Of all the centuries in recorded history, none has seen more change, none has ended more differently than it began, than the twentieth. In 1900, Queen Victoria still ruled over England, the Imperial Manchu dynasty over China, and the Romanov Tsars over Russia. The cinema was in its infancy,
radio and television still to be invented. The first cars were on the road, but air travel existed only in earthbound imaginations. And now, as Yeats said, all is "changed utterly."
In this ambitious book, twenty-four of the most distinguished scholars in the world survey the momentous events and the significant themes of the twentieth century in compact, scholarly essays. The contributors tackle political issues region by region as well as non-political topics in subjects
such as physics, modernism in art, international economics, and the impact of new technologies on culture. We have William H. McNeill on communications, disease, and demography, Alan Ryan on the growth of a global culture, James Patterson on the United States since 1945, Jonathan Spence on China,
Lawrence Freedman on the confrontation of the superpowers, Alan Knight on Latin America, Ralf Dahrendorf on the Twenty-First Century, and much more. The authors trace the continuities which have persisted over the past hundred years and analyze the changes which have marked the century's progress.
Early chapters take a global overview of the century as a whole, from a variety of perspectives--demographic, scientific, economic, and cultural. Further chapters chart the century's course, continent by continent and region by region, all written by acknowledged experts.
Beautifully illustrated with both color and black and white plates, and with a detailed chronology, suggestions for further reading, and a full index, The Oxford History of the Twentieth Century is an invaluable repository of information and insight about the endlessly fascinating century we live
in.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History

Hardcover

First published December 17, 1998

About the author

Sir Michael Eliot Howard was an English military historian, formerly Chichele Professor of the History of War, Honorary Fellow of All Souls College, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University, and founder of the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

In 1958, he co-founded the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In 2013, Howard was described in the Financial Times as "Britain's greatest living historian". The Guardian described him as "Britain's foremost expert on conflict".

Reviews

[Penelope Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is going to sound negative but it shouldn't - this book was interesting and exactly as advertised but... This sounds petty but the very small text made a seemingly small non-fiction book actually quite a long, dense read. Combined with some chapters that I should have skipped (development of physics in the 20th C, The Visual Arts etc) it meant this took longer than I expected.

Also, it brought home to me just how geographically narrow my history knowledge is. Once into the more conventional historical narrative chapters, Europe, North America and the Commonwealth flowed easily. But my lack of a base knowledge of Latin America, Asia and parts of the history of the Soviet Union meant that the rapid coverage of those areas was harder to follow. (I will have to make some decisions as to whether my current ignorance there is something I need to fix or accept - it's clearly bigger than I consciously realised.) This book does not give that base - trying to cover everything in 340 pages means a lot of assumed knowledge.

At the end of the day however, I picked it up for 50 cents at a library sale so I still feel pretty pleased about the acquisition.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

😨

[Julian Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the 20th C, it's a bit dry, but it has a nice bibliography at the end.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book made me feel smart :-) I read it to study for the foreign service officers test, and it is extremely comprehensive. The chapters are relatively short, and are divided generally by geographic region and time period. Some of more boring authors stood out as just cataloging of events and people, others made history more of a narrative story. The chronology of events, discoveries, and culture in the back of the book is invaluable for studying.

[za · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ternyata jenis buku itu beragam. Kebetulan kemarin sempat ke library@senayan dan baca buku ini. Buku ini lebih merupakan buku ilmiah. Ditulis oleh banyak orang, sebagai publikasi(?) dari hasil penelitian yang dilakukannya. Indonesia masuk dalam bagian south-east asia.

Aku cuma baca cepat saja buku ini. Tak tahan membaca banyak tulisan dan ingin membaca gambar? Hihihi...

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to read