Inside the Red Border: A History of Our World Told Through the Pages of TIME Magazine

by Time-Life Books

As a unique window on the world, the cover of Time is the most celebrated and coveted showcase in print journalism. People who have had their faces on Time's cover-Presidents and movie stars, corporate titans and sporting legends-consider it one of the highest forms of recognition. To Time's worldwide audience of nearly 50 million, the cover declares, "Dear reader, we've decided this is important for you to know."

In this book, thousands of weekly statements of who and what matters are telescoped into a single, never-before-assembled volume that traces our modern history through Time's iconic artwork and cover stories that became an influential part of the news they were covering. Time's cover, "has never lost its power to immediately send the signal...that in some way history is being made before our eyes." That power was reasserted as recently at May 2012 by Time's instantly famous cover, "Are You Mom Enough?"


Interviews with former and current magazine editors will bring insight and a revealing look at how TIME chooses to cover historic moments within its iconic red borders

Genres: History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2013

Reviews

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cool book that my sister gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago and I have just now gotten around to reading. It tells the history of our world - particularly America - through selected cover stories from Time Magazine from its inception in 1923 until the book's publication in 2013. Each cover photo is followed by an excerpt from the accompanying story that not only gives information on the topic, but tells a lot about the attitudes and ideas of the time it was written. It was particularly entertaining to see the predictions made about world affairs, some revealed as prescient and others just silly.

The book is divided into sections: The Presidents, the World at War, The Superpowers, Revolutionaries, The Age of Terror, Builders & Titans, Sport, Science & Medicine, Space, Artists & Entertainers, Faith & Religion, Trends, People, and Person of the Year. This was a great way to review the history of the last 90 years.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you care that much about Time magazine, you probably have the collection already, so what's the point of having this book? The images are meh. Probably when the issue was hot, they were good illustrations. For me it meant nothing. And, as a picture magazine the text has to be mediocre or worse so it won't outshine the pictures. So yea, the cowboy hat over boots is just a cowboy hat and not a "ten gallon".

[Kelevilin Kimathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time magazine

I started reading time when a teenager in high school library.when I started earning my own pay bought the issue which had challenger disaster on the cover. I had an one and off relationship with magazine alternating it with newyorker magazine..it has become my weekly staple over the decades. Now I read the digital version

[Megan Gery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, and I don't just mean its contents. The pages are thick and semi-glossy, the cover pictures are large, plentiful, and in full color. It is simply beautiful.

The writing, as you'd expect, is varied and clever, and the mini-essays make digesting the book in short bites easy. In fact, I often used it as a palate cleanser between novels.

I'd recommend this book for the coffee table or as a gift for a writer friend.

[Dragan · Rating 3 out of 5]

photography amazing!!! the history of time magazine amazing!!!! everything else was bland and very US focused, I understand the primary audience of time magazine is the US but it felt at times annoying because it really focused on how great the US is when in truth it's not. it paints other countries as villains and that's not true.

[Jeannine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not great.