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Centuries of Change: Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us
History's greatest tour guide is back. And he's ringing the changes. In a contest of change, which century from the past millennium would come up trumps? Imagine the Black Death took on the female vote in a pub brawl, or the Industrial Revolution faced the internet in a medieval joust - whose side would you be on? In this hugely entertaining book, celebrated historian Ian Mortimer takes us on a whirlwind tour of Western history, pitting one century against another in his quest to measure change. We journey from a time when there was a fair chance of your village being burnt to the ground by invaders, and dried human dung was a recommended cure for cancer, to a world in which explorers sailed into the unknown and civilisations came into conflict with each other on an epic scale. Here is a story of godly scientists, shrewd farmers, cold-hearted entrepreneurs and strong-minded women - a story of discovery, invention, revolution and cataclysmic shifts in perspective. Bursting with ideas and underscored by a wry sense of humour, this is a journey into the past like no other. Our understanding of change will never be the same again - and the lessons we learn along the way are profound ones for us all.
403 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2014
95 people are currently reading
2213 people want to read
About the author
Ian Mortimer
40 books1,450 followersAKA James Forrester.
Dr Ian Mortimer is a historian and novelist, best known for his Time Traveller's Guides series. He has BA, MA, PhD and DLitt degrees from the University of Exeter and UCL. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society in 2004. Home is the small Dartmoor town of Moretonhampstead, which he occasioanlly introduces in his books. His most recet book, 'Medieval Horizons' looks at how life changed between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries.
He also writes in other genres: his fourth novel 'The Outcasts of Time' won the 2018 Winston Graham Prize for historical fiction. His earlier trilogy of novels set in the 1560s were published under his middle names, James Forrester. In 2017 he wrote 'Why Running Matters' - a memoir of running in the year he turned fifty.
At present he is concentrating on writing history books that have experimental perspectives on the past. One example is a study of England as it would have appeared to the people living in his house over the last thousand years. This is provisionally entitled 'The History of England through the Windows of an Ordinary House'. It is due for completion in December 2024 and publication in 2026.
Dr Ian Mortimer is a historian and novelist, best known for his Time Traveller's Guides series. He has BA, MA, PhD and DLitt degrees from the University of Exeter and UCL. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society in 2004. Home is the small Dartmoor town of Moretonhampstead, which he occasioanlly introduces in his books. His most recet book, 'Medieval Horizons' looks at how life changed between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries.
He also writes in other genres: his fourth novel 'The Outcasts of Time' won the 2018 Winston Graham Prize for historical fiction. His earlier trilogy of novels set in the 1560s were published under his middle names, James Forrester. In 2017 he wrote 'Why Running Matters' - a memoir of running in the year he turned fifty.
At present he is concentrating on writing history books that have experimental perspectives on the past. One example is a study of England as it would have appeared to the people living in his house over the last thousand years. This is provisionally entitled 'The History of England through the Windows of an Ordinary House'. It is due for completion in December 2024 and publication in 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
July 3, 2020
I was a little sceptical about this book when I chose as it as my latest audio download from the library. Did it really matter I thought, whether the 16th century saw more change than the 13th, for example? Isn’t it the change itself that matters more than when precisely it happened? Also, our division of the years into centuries is arbitrary in any case. If you had asked me beforehand to nominate a 100-year period when the greatest change occurred in the British Isles, I would probably have said 1750-1850.
In the above respect, my reservations were not justified. The author’s examination of each century broke the millennium into manageable chunks and provided an excellent overview of how gradual changes, many of them imperceptible to those who lived through them, turned the world of 1001 into the world of today. He concentrates very much on social rather than technological change, though of course the two go together to some degree. I didn’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, but he said himself he wasn’t worried about that. He really wanted to get people thinking.
One thing for the reader to be aware of is that this is a history of the western world only, especially Western Europe. Given the detail he goes into, it was maybe best that he kept his focus to one part of the globe, but I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone looking for how change has affected Asia or Africa. The Americas are covered, but only to the extent that they represent a cultural extension of Western Europe.
Approaching the end of the book I was thinking in terms of a 4-star rating, but I’ve knocked a star off for the last few chapters, where the author turns away from history and projects into the future, linking the changes of previous centuries with a pessimistic view of how these will affect the rest of the present century. He reveals himself as a devotee of Malthus (he had dropped strong hints of this earlier in the book). Personally, I think humanity does face plenty of threats in the coming decades, such as climate change and the likely proliferation of nuclear weapons, but the author concentrates on the old tropes of resource depletion and the “population bomb”. His predictions about exponential growth of population in the future seem to fly in the face of clear evidence of a dramatic and continuing decline in birth rates in all parts of the world outside Africa, although of course I realise it will be some decades before we see the effect of this. Part of my issue with these sorts of predictions is that I was taken in by the same arguments when I was a teenager. In the 1970s there were lots of books published which confidently predicted that civilisation would have collapsed by now, and for exactly the same reasons advanced in this book. I kept recalling the old expression; “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” The author even quotes Paul Ehrlich, a man who in the 1970s supported calls that the West should stop providing food aid to countries like India and Egypt as they were “hopeless cases”.
For me, four stars for the history section but one star for the conclusion. The history section does make up the bulk of the book though.
In the above respect, my reservations were not justified. The author’s examination of each century broke the millennium into manageable chunks and provided an excellent overview of how gradual changes, many of them imperceptible to those who lived through them, turned the world of 1001 into the world of today. He concentrates very much on social rather than technological change, though of course the two go together to some degree. I didn’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, but he said himself he wasn’t worried about that. He really wanted to get people thinking.
One thing for the reader to be aware of is that this is a history of the western world only, especially Western Europe. Given the detail he goes into, it was maybe best that he kept his focus to one part of the globe, but I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone looking for how change has affected Asia or Africa. The Americas are covered, but only to the extent that they represent a cultural extension of Western Europe.
Approaching the end of the book I was thinking in terms of a 4-star rating, but I’ve knocked a star off for the last few chapters, where the author turns away from history and projects into the future, linking the changes of previous centuries with a pessimistic view of how these will affect the rest of the present century. He reveals himself as a devotee of Malthus (he had dropped strong hints of this earlier in the book). Personally, I think humanity does face plenty of threats in the coming decades, such as climate change and the likely proliferation of nuclear weapons, but the author concentrates on the old tropes of resource depletion and the “population bomb”. His predictions about exponential growth of population in the future seem to fly in the face of clear evidence of a dramatic and continuing decline in birth rates in all parts of the world outside Africa, although of course I realise it will be some decades before we see the effect of this. Part of my issue with these sorts of predictions is that I was taken in by the same arguments when I was a teenager. In the 1970s there were lots of books published which confidently predicted that civilisation would have collapsed by now, and for exactly the same reasons advanced in this book. I kept recalling the old expression; “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” The author even quotes Paul Ehrlich, a man who in the 1970s supported calls that the West should stop providing food aid to countries like India and Egypt as they were “hopeless cases”.
For me, four stars for the history section but one star for the conclusion. The history section does make up the bulk of the book though.
February 28, 2021
Одна з найкращих книжок, які я читала останнім часом. Востаннє щось аж настільки хороше попадало мені в руки десь у 2018 р.
"Століття змін" - це книга з розділу "історії ідей". Автор ставить собі питання, а яке зі століть минулого тисячоліття зазнало найбільше змін, чи справді 20, як нам здається? І починає відповідати, століття за століттям описуючи ключові зміни в житті Заходу. Коли я брала цю книжку до рук, то думала, що ось почитаю, що коли винайшли і як це змінило життя людей. Але Мортімер робить крутіше, він не застановлюється на "гаджетах" (як би їх нині назвали), хоч і не оминає їх; він дивиться глибше, він показує, наприклад, як вплинуло на Європу будування замків і соборів, поширення чернецтва, чума, виокремлення і підйом народних мов, зміна знарядь і способів війни, географічні відкриття і можливість вимірять час, і звісно, як це зробив паровий двигун, перші медичні атласи, газети, залізниці і тощо, і тощо.
Наприкінці Мортімер змальовує перспективу ХХІ ст., і треба сказати, що вона може вам не сподобатися, бо часом це виглядає на таку нехілу антиутопію, де в майбутньому запаси природних багатств вичерпуються і суспільство знову стає більш ієрархічним і взагалі. Проте, як на мене, тут він робить одну важливу помилку, бо підходить до прогнозування майбутнього з тим інструментарієм знань і досягнень, які ми маємо на момент написання книжки, а як показує його ж таки текст, за 100 років набір наших девайсів може дуже змінитися. Так що я би дивилася в майбутнє більш оптимістично, пам'ятаючи при цьому, що корисні копалини не невичерпні, звісно. (І це тут ще не говорилося про глобальні зміни клімату.)
Чудом ця книжка у мене лишилася після читання не обмальована всілякими примітками і коментарями. Тому тільки, що мені не хотілося перебивати читання порпанням в торбі в пошуку олівця. З іншого боку, вже давно в мене не було в руках такої книжки, яку хотілося розтягнути надовше, ну, бо це ж тааак цікааавоооо!
Читати? Так! Так! Так! і ще раз ТАК!
"Століття змін" - це книга з розділу "історії ідей". Автор ставить собі питання, а яке зі століть минулого тисячоліття зазнало найбільше змін, чи справді 20, як нам здається? І починає відповідати, століття за століттям описуючи ключові зміни в житті Заходу. Коли я брала цю книжку до рук, то думала, що ось почитаю, що коли винайшли і як це змінило життя людей. Але Мортімер робить крутіше, він не застановлюється на "гаджетах" (як би їх нині назвали), хоч і не оминає їх; він дивиться глибше, він показує, наприклад, як вплинуло на Європу будування замків і соборів, поширення чернецтва, чума, виокремлення і підйом народних мов, зміна знарядь і способів війни, географічні відкриття і можливість вимірять час, і звісно, як це зробив паровий двигун, перші медичні атласи, газети, залізниці і тощо, і тощо.
Наприкінці Мортімер змальовує перспективу ХХІ ст., і треба сказати, що вона може вам не сподобатися, бо часом це виглядає на таку нехілу антиутопію, де в майбутньому запаси природних багатств вичерпуються і суспільство знову стає більш ієрархічним і взагалі. Проте, як на мене, тут він робить одну важливу помилку, бо підходить до прогнозування майбутнього з тим інструментарієм знань і досягнень, які ми маємо на момент написання книжки, а як показує його ж таки текст, за 100 років набір наших девайсів може дуже змінитися. Так що я би дивилася в майбутнє більш оптимістично, пам'ятаючи при цьому, що корисні копалини не невичерпні, звісно. (І це тут ще не говорилося про глобальні зміни клімату.)
Чудом ця книжка у мене лишилася після читання не обмальована всілякими примітками і коментарями. Тому тільки, що мені не хотілося перебивати читання порпанням в торбі в пошуку олівця. З іншого боку, вже давно в мене не було в руках такої книжки, яку хотілося розтягнути надовше, ну, бо це ж тааак цікааавоооо!
Читати? Так! Так! Так! і ще раз ТАК!
February 1, 2017
Throughout the later part of 1999, many programs were dedicated to showing the impressive change in the 20th Century over any other time in the previous 1000 years. Author Ian Mortimer thought this was presumptuous and decided to research to find which century of Western civilization in the previous millennium saw the most change. In Centuries of Change Mortimer presents the fruits of over decade worth of research to general audience.
From the outset of the book Mortimer gives the reader the scope and challenge about defining and measuring change, especially when focusing in specific 100 year periods. Avoiding the cliché answers of bright, shiny objects and larger-than-life historical figures from the get go, Mortimer looked for innovations of cultural, political, societal, and technological significance that fundamentally changed the way people lived at the end of a given century than when it began. Throughout the process Mortimer would highlight those inventions or well-known historical individuals that defined those innovations of change which resulted positively or negatively on Western civilization. At the end of each chapter, Mortimer would summarize how the ‘changes’ he highlighted interacted with one another and which was the most profound in a given century and then identify an individual he believe was ‘the principle agent of change’.
The in-depth analysis, yet easily readable language that Mortimer wrote on each topic of change he highlighted was the chief strength of this book. The end of chapter conclusions and identification of an agent of change is built up throughout the entire chapter and shows Mortimer’s dedication to providing evidence for his conclusion. Whether the reader agrees or not with Mortimer, the reader at least knows why he came to those decisions. When coming to a decision about which century of the past millennium saw the most change at the end of the book, Mortimer’s explanation of the process in how he compared different periods of time and then the results of that process were well written and easily understandable to both general readers and those from a more scholarly background, giving the book a perfect flow of knowledge and thought.
Centuries of Change was geared for the general reading audience instead of a more academic one. While I do not think this is a negative for the book, it did allow for those editing the book as well as Mortimer in reexamining his text to miss several incorrect statements on events and personages that while minor do to missing a word or two, just added up over the course of the book.
While looking at the progression and development of Western civilization is always a challenging process, Ian Mortimer’s Centuries of Change gives readers glimpse of how different types of innovations impacted just a 100 year period of time. Very readable for general readers and a nice overall glimpse for more academic readers, this book is a thought-provoking glimpse in how human’s bring about change and responds to change.
From the outset of the book Mortimer gives the reader the scope and challenge about defining and measuring change, especially when focusing in specific 100 year periods. Avoiding the cliché answers of bright, shiny objects and larger-than-life historical figures from the get go, Mortimer looked for innovations of cultural, political, societal, and technological significance that fundamentally changed the way people lived at the end of a given century than when it began. Throughout the process Mortimer would highlight those inventions or well-known historical individuals that defined those innovations of change which resulted positively or negatively on Western civilization. At the end of each chapter, Mortimer would summarize how the ‘changes’ he highlighted interacted with one another and which was the most profound in a given century and then identify an individual he believe was ‘the principle agent of change’.
The in-depth analysis, yet easily readable language that Mortimer wrote on each topic of change he highlighted was the chief strength of this book. The end of chapter conclusions and identification of an agent of change is built up throughout the entire chapter and shows Mortimer’s dedication to providing evidence for his conclusion. Whether the reader agrees or not with Mortimer, the reader at least knows why he came to those decisions. When coming to a decision about which century of the past millennium saw the most change at the end of the book, Mortimer’s explanation of the process in how he compared different periods of time and then the results of that process were well written and easily understandable to both general readers and those from a more scholarly background, giving the book a perfect flow of knowledge and thought.
Centuries of Change was geared for the general reading audience instead of a more academic one. While I do not think this is a negative for the book, it did allow for those editing the book as well as Mortimer in reexamining his text to miss several incorrect statements on events and personages that while minor do to missing a word or two, just added up over the course of the book.
While looking at the progression and development of Western civilization is always a challenging process, Ian Mortimer’s Centuries of Change gives readers glimpse of how different types of innovations impacted just a 100 year period of time. Very readable for general readers and a nice overall glimpse for more academic readers, this book is a thought-provoking glimpse in how human’s bring about change and responds to change.
December 16, 2014
In his latest book historian Ian Mortimer examines a much longer period of time than he did in his previous work: Mortimer takes a look at the past 1000 years and examines century by century the most important changes in the respective periods. His aim is to find out which of the past ten centuries experienced the most changes.
Centuries of Change is written in a very readable way. There was lots of information in it I already knew but now looked at again from a different perspective. I just have some minor critic: the further Ian Mortimer progressed in history, the less detailed he was. This is understandable, however: the early centuries just weren't as fast-paced as the later ones. There were still major changes but just not so many of them. At the end of each chapter the principal agent of change for each century is described. In the nineteenth century Karl Marx is named here. Having read the chapter I was a bit astonished by that: Karl Marx is hardly mentioned before and then he is suddenly the most important person of the century. This seemed a bit weird.
One of the best parts of the book is Ian Mortimer's way of figuring out which century really experienced the most changes. To do that he uses Maslow's hierarchy of needs and constructs his own pyramid from that. He then applies different statistical methods constructed by others to rank the centuries for each item. Ian Mortimer finally comes to the conclusion that the twentieth century was the one with the most changes. To him - and also to me - this was a bit surprising: we both would have opted for the nineteenth century.
All in all this book was an enjoyable read, though not quite as entertaining as I'd hoped. I learned a lot from it and also could identify two centuries I definetely wouldn't have wanted to live in: the 13th (because of the Black Death) and the 17th (because of the wars, e.g. the 30-year-war in central Europe).
(I received a free digital copy via Netgalley/the publisher. Thanks for the opportunity!)
Centuries of Change is written in a very readable way. There was lots of information in it I already knew but now looked at again from a different perspective. I just have some minor critic: the further Ian Mortimer progressed in history, the less detailed he was. This is understandable, however: the early centuries just weren't as fast-paced as the later ones. There were still major changes but just not so many of them. At the end of each chapter the principal agent of change for each century is described. In the nineteenth century Karl Marx is named here. Having read the chapter I was a bit astonished by that: Karl Marx is hardly mentioned before and then he is suddenly the most important person of the century. This seemed a bit weird.
One of the best parts of the book is Ian Mortimer's way of figuring out which century really experienced the most changes. To do that he uses Maslow's hierarchy of needs and constructs his own pyramid from that. He then applies different statistical methods constructed by others to rank the centuries for each item. Ian Mortimer finally comes to the conclusion that the twentieth century was the one with the most changes. To him - and also to me - this was a bit surprising: we both would have opted for the nineteenth century.
All in all this book was an enjoyable read, though not quite as entertaining as I'd hoped. I learned a lot from it and also could identify two centuries I definetely wouldn't have wanted to live in: the 13th (because of the Black Death) and the 17th (because of the wars, e.g. the 30-year-war in central Europe).
(I received a free digital copy via Netgalley/the publisher. Thanks for the opportunity!)
April 11, 2017
Enjoyable and instructive. Ian Mortimer certainly can write in an accessible way while at the same time showing a high level of scholarship. We were all surprised (he and myself) when the 20th century turned out (on his designed tool) to be the century with most change - I thought it would be the 19th.
January 7, 2021
Корисна книга для всіх, хто хотів би краще знати історію Європи до 20-го століття,а також логіку розвитку і змін суспільства. У книзі "Століття змін" автор розглядає 1000 років європейської історії від 1000 до 2000 року, розглядаючи окреме століття і виділяючи в них 5-6 ключових змін, які мали найбільший вплив на суспільство та широкі верстви населення. Також на кожне століття автор виділяє одну історичну постать - агента змін. Ця книга дає добре опрацьовану аналітичну інформацію, тематично структуровану і показує еволюцію Європи за 1000 років, а також ті історичні події та явища, які призводять до найбільших змін, як позитивних, так і негативних.
Загалом, ця книга мені дуже сподобалася перш за все оригінальною ідеєю, бо одна справа читати книгу з історії Європи, а інша річ підходити до цієї теми з погляду ключових змін. Такий ��ідхід дозволяє краще побачити логіку розвитку суспільства і ті позитивні зміни, які, накопичуючись, створюють іншу якість життя та інші цінності.
У книзі подаються цікаві статистичні дані про кількість населення в різні століття, кількість людей, що загинули у війнах і як змінювалась ця кількість від зміни способу ведення війни у різні століття. Також автор порівнює втрати населення під час різних катаклізмів відносно загальної кількості населення, окреслює наслідки значних історичних подій, таких як чума Чорна смерть та інше.
Загалом, це дуже корисна і цікава книга, яка змушує задуматись на таку тему, що, якщо подивитися критично і порівняти з Європою, то багато країн досі не живуть у 21му столітті. І часто причиною є соціальна відсталість, відсутність секуляризації, релігійний фанатизм, релігійні, сексистські, расистські та національні упередження, абсолютна влада, олігархія та інше.
Загалом, ця книга мені дуже сподобалася перш за все оригінальною ідеєю, бо одна справа читати книгу з історії Європи, а інша річ підходити до цієї теми з погляду ключових змін. Такий ��ідхід дозволяє краще побачити логіку розвитку суспільства і ті позитивні зміни, які, накопичуючись, створюють іншу якість життя та інші цінності.
У книзі подаються цікаві статистичні дані про кількість населення в різні століття, кількість людей, що загинули у війнах і як змінювалась ця кількість від зміни способу ведення війни у різні століття. Також автор порівнює втрати населення під час різних катаклізмів відносно загальної кількості населення, окреслює наслідки значних історичних подій, таких як чума Чорна смерть та інше.
Загалом, це дуже корисна і цікава книга, яка змушує задуматись на таку тему, що, якщо подивитися критично і порівняти з Європою, то багато країн досі не живуть у 21му столітті. І часто причиною є соціальна відсталість, відсутність секуляризації, релігійний фанатизм, релігійні, сексистські, расистські та національні упередження, абсолютна влада, олігархія та інше.
January 27, 2024
A book full of interesting facts which make you think about ordinary lives in the last millennium. How technology, medicine and ideas develop.
March 23, 2024
Eine Art Lexikon in Romanform. Das letzte Jahrtausend wir genau analysiert und die wichtigsten Daten eines jeden Jahrhundert genau behandelt. Viele, viele Daten und interessante Fakten. Ein tolles Nachschlagewerk. Nie langweilig und ein Blick in die Zukunft zum Schluss.
October 25, 2015
Check out my full review here: http://preludesblogofwords.blogspot.c...
What is the Point of History?
It's a big question, certainly, and one that people interested in the subject (and especially those funding it) have to justify day in and day out. For me, history is about seeing the consistencies and quirks of humanity as they experience gradual change, and what this change says about us as a species. Essentially: why do things change and how does it affect us? It's no surprise then that I picked up this book 'Centuries of Change' by Ian Mortimer, the talented historian behind the 'Time Traveller's Guide' series.
The book aims to answer the huge question of which century saw the most change? So often we assume it's the 20th or 21st centuries, what with their being rocketed off the back of the industrial revolution and into the space-race and silicone revolution, but is Change (as a capitalised force of nature) limited only to technological advancement? Mortimer takes the inspired approach to take each century at a time and examine what caused changes that affected the majority of society, from the lowly farmer to the grandest lord in how they lived their lives in the day to day, sweeping aside developments that - while full of bells and whistles - really affected the lifestyles of very few people dramatically. In doing so he calls into question the true significance of many of our historical heroes -(how much influence did Leonardo Da Vinci have on history really?) - while also supporting many of them in their status of vital innovators.
In the concluding chapters Mortimer tracks technological change, religious change and ideological change for each century and then finally ranks and weighs them against humanity's scale of psychological needs and freedoms. These are:
-Physiological needs
-Security
-Law and order
-Health
-Ideology
-Community support
-Personal enrichment
-Community enrichment
By taking this approach he builds up a set of data that can be used to properly quantify just how important and wide-spanning the changes are in each century. It's an interesting approach that is certainly interesting to read.
Once he makes his final verdict he then moves on to consider what all of this means for the future of our own society, using the same rules and lessons learned to speculate that we could eventually find ourselves in a situation of reversal as resource-depletion pushes society back into either a more hierarchical nature or a disaster event comparable to the Black Death. It's grim stuff, but is certainly an interesting perspective supported by convincing evidence. In the end, he gives us a glimmer of optimism, assuring us that whatever our fate humans will always keep being humans, finding joy and creativity in our imperfect lives.
However interesting the conclusions and speculations, it is in the journey of this book where the interest lies for me. Because Mortimer walks us through each century in turn Centuries of Change is a great reference book for getting an overview on the important events of each century, boiling them down to the bare bones while still keeping a level of considered detail that really allows them to breathe. If you ever want a book you can keep referring back to when you need a little overall context for a time period, this is certainly handy to have around.
What is the Point of History?
It's a big question, certainly, and one that people interested in the subject (and especially those funding it) have to justify day in and day out. For me, history is about seeing the consistencies and quirks of humanity as they experience gradual change, and what this change says about us as a species. Essentially: why do things change and how does it affect us? It's no surprise then that I picked up this book 'Centuries of Change' by Ian Mortimer, the talented historian behind the 'Time Traveller's Guide' series.
The book aims to answer the huge question of which century saw the most change? So often we assume it's the 20th or 21st centuries, what with their being rocketed off the back of the industrial revolution and into the space-race and silicone revolution, but is Change (as a capitalised force of nature) limited only to technological advancement? Mortimer takes the inspired approach to take each century at a time and examine what caused changes that affected the majority of society, from the lowly farmer to the grandest lord in how they lived their lives in the day to day, sweeping aside developments that - while full of bells and whistles - really affected the lifestyles of very few people dramatically. In doing so he calls into question the true significance of many of our historical heroes -(how much influence did Leonardo Da Vinci have on history really?) - while also supporting many of them in their status of vital innovators.
In the concluding chapters Mortimer tracks technological change, religious change and ideological change for each century and then finally ranks and weighs them against humanity's scale of psychological needs and freedoms. These are:
-Physiological needs
-Security
-Law and order
-Health
-Ideology
-Community support
-Personal enrichment
-Community enrichment
By taking this approach he builds up a set of data that can be used to properly quantify just how important and wide-spanning the changes are in each century. It's an interesting approach that is certainly interesting to read.
Once he makes his final verdict he then moves on to consider what all of this means for the future of our own society, using the same rules and lessons learned to speculate that we could eventually find ourselves in a situation of reversal as resource-depletion pushes society back into either a more hierarchical nature or a disaster event comparable to the Black Death. It's grim stuff, but is certainly an interesting perspective supported by convincing evidence. In the end, he gives us a glimmer of optimism, assuring us that whatever our fate humans will always keep being humans, finding joy and creativity in our imperfect lives.
However interesting the conclusions and speculations, it is in the journey of this book where the interest lies for me. Because Mortimer walks us through each century in turn Centuries of Change is a great reference book for getting an overview on the important events of each century, boiling them down to the bare bones while still keeping a level of considered detail that really allows them to breathe. If you ever want a book you can keep referring back to when you need a little overall context for a time period, this is certainly handy to have around.
August 16, 2017
Towards the end of the last Millennium, Ian Mortimer heard somebody say on the BBC that the 20th century was the one in which most change had taken place. It set him to wondering. Was it? He looks at each century in turn in the Western world, from the year 1000, and examines the changes wrought by man himself, and by natural circumstance. At the end of each chapter, he sets out the reasons why that particular century should be in contention for the title of 'most changed'. And at the end, he examines these contentions, and sums up. So. Which century showed the most far-reaching changes? I'm not telling you. Read this absorbing book. And try not to be as depressed as I was by the last chapter, when Mortimer looks to the future of the planet.
February 11, 2022
Чудова книга, яка побіжно ознайомить вас з історією Західного світу через ті зміни і трансформації які проходили суспільства. Автор підходить до матеріалу як науковець - вводить критерії змін, створює свою систему оцінювання подій та особистостей. Чудова книга для любителем історії та науково-популярної літератури загалом
November 16, 2017
The envoi is depressing and the best part of the book. A quick history of the last 1000 years.
Read
October 15, 2018Український переклад і вичитка просто страховинні, не дай вам Боже віддати за це гроші.
October 10, 2024
Wer sich hobbymässig für Geschichte interessiert, sollte unbedingt dieses Buch lesen. Es rückt die wichtigste Kategorie des historischen Denkens, den Wandel, ins Zentrum. Dabei spielt sowohl die Alltags- als auch die Politikgeschichte immer eine Rolle. Besonders gelungen finde ich die Kapitel zu den Jahrhunderten des Mittelalters. Hier wird anschaulich und leicht verständlich mit der Vorstellung eines statischen, dunklen Zeitalters aufgeräumt. Je näher das Buch an die Gegenwart rückt (inkl. Abschlusskapitel), desto flacher wird es. Fünf Sterne hätte Mortimer erhalten, wenn er nach dem 16. Jahrhundert aufgehört hätte.
Read
November 21, 2018dnf at around 50%
no harsh feelings about this book!! in fact when i read the 50% of it that i read i found it interesting and well written BUT it’s been a year since i read this and i don’t see myself getting into it again in the near future! i would actually still recommend it if you’re interested in the topic. and maybe someday i’ll pick it up again :)
no harsh feelings about this book!! in fact when i read the 50% of it that i read i found it interesting and well written BUT it’s been a year since i read this and i don’t see myself getting into it again in the near future! i would actually still recommend it if you’re interested in the topic. and maybe someday i’ll pick it up again :)
October 14, 2021
Fantastic and thought-provoking. I've been going on at everyone I know about this book since i started reading it. This book puts all the big cultural things in order and explains them and I wish 'd read it 20 years ago!
I listened to the audio version and I liked it so much i need to find a hard copy to make notes from and refer to.
I listened to the audio version and I liked it so much i need to find a hard copy to make notes from and refer to.
July 18, 2021
Mortimer relates technology to change to arrive at a predictable answer. He draws together 50 of the major themes of the last thousand years in the western world. Then tries to get to grips with the nature of change.
The book is pretty much summarised here.
March 3, 2018
This is a curious intellectual exercise spanning 10 centuries, by a historian most known for his highly enjoyable "Time Traveller's Guide" series of introductions to life in much more narrowly defined times and places. I also happily recommend his other books, such as The Greatest Traitor.
As a rule, I avoid books with a scope as wide as a millennium, in part because in any sweeping overview oversights and inaccuracies are inevitable, as nobody can be knowledgeable enough. This book does suffer a bit from that phenomenon, and for example Mortimer's review of the scientific revolution in the 17th century is a part that I read with increasingly skeptical detachment. The author himself considered it wiser to limit himself to the history of European civilisation, which is a serious constraint. But even with these limitations, his review of historical change from 1001 to today is engaging.
If I interpret it well, part of Mortimer's case is that in past centuries the nature of change was different and we should acknowledge that when assessing their importance. With a risk of caricaturing it, his argument is that for example we should stop thinking of the Middle Ages as a static period, just because Medieval people didn't have fast-paced technological changes as we do. They too had major change, but it primarily affected the structure of society and people's perception of the world and themselves in it. These ten chapters, despite some visible flaws, are interesting.
The next step of the intellectual exercise is an elaborate effort to rank centuries by the importance of the changes that happened in them. Unfortunately I don't care for it. Roughly, I feel about it like tallying up Olympics medals by country: It does no good at all and has too much potential to do harm. In the case of the Olympics, state-organised doping; in the case of the ten centuries, a complex struggle to translate our biases into a conclusion that has plausible justifiability. As the original title reflects (much better than the bad pun that disgraces the paperback edition) that assessment was the original goal of writing this book. He wanted to challenge the widespread assumption that the 20th and 19th century were the centuries that saw the most important change, and in the end he concedes that they were.
But this leads him towards a dystopian conclusion, which deserves to be read, even if that is not very pleasant work. To give my own oversimplified summary of it, Ian Mortimer argues that many of these changes of the 19th and the 20th centuries are not sustainable, because of their excessive consumption of the resources of the planet and in particular fossil fuels, and that our societies will therefore revert (either in orderly way or in a chaotic way) to a future that looks much more like the 18th century. He predicts a more hierarchical and unequal society, in which most people will have less freedom or wealth, even if some achievements (such as literacy) are going to stay.
It is not exactly Mad Max, but it is not a cheerful vision of the future either. I hope that it is a bit too mechanistic. Certainly we would do well to think of the technology of the fossil-fuel driven recent past as a blip, a fleeting phenomenon that will pass with these resources, and in the long run far less important than our continuity with antique and medieval ancestors who also relied primarily on water, wind and sun. But to conclude from this that our future will look like our past seems a step too far, ignores too many factors, and is somewhat in conflict with Mortimer's earlier argument that important change is not limited to or dependent on technology alone. I would be willing to concede, however, that given what we know today, his prediction might the most accurate one that a historian can make, for what it is worth.
To put a conclusion to it, I would characterise this book as ambitious and partially successful. It is easier to be critic than a writer.
As a rule, I avoid books with a scope as wide as a millennium, in part because in any sweeping overview oversights and inaccuracies are inevitable, as nobody can be knowledgeable enough. This book does suffer a bit from that phenomenon, and for example Mortimer's review of the scientific revolution in the 17th century is a part that I read with increasingly skeptical detachment. The author himself considered it wiser to limit himself to the history of European civilisation, which is a serious constraint. But even with these limitations, his review of historical change from 1001 to today is engaging.
If I interpret it well, part of Mortimer's case is that in past centuries the nature of change was different and we should acknowledge that when assessing their importance. With a risk of caricaturing it, his argument is that for example we should stop thinking of the Middle Ages as a static period, just because Medieval people didn't have fast-paced technological changes as we do. They too had major change, but it primarily affected the structure of society and people's perception of the world and themselves in it. These ten chapters, despite some visible flaws, are interesting.
The next step of the intellectual exercise is an elaborate effort to rank centuries by the importance of the changes that happened in them. Unfortunately I don't care for it. Roughly, I feel about it like tallying up Olympics medals by country: It does no good at all and has too much potential to do harm. In the case of the Olympics, state-organised doping; in the case of the ten centuries, a complex struggle to translate our biases into a conclusion that has plausible justifiability. As the original title reflects (much better than the bad pun that disgraces the paperback edition) that assessment was the original goal of writing this book. He wanted to challenge the widespread assumption that the 20th and 19th century were the centuries that saw the most important change, and in the end he concedes that they were.
But this leads him towards a dystopian conclusion, which deserves to be read, even if that is not very pleasant work. To give my own oversimplified summary of it, Ian Mortimer argues that many of these changes of the 19th and the 20th centuries are not sustainable, because of their excessive consumption of the resources of the planet and in particular fossil fuels, and that our societies will therefore revert (either in orderly way or in a chaotic way) to a future that looks much more like the 18th century. He predicts a more hierarchical and unequal society, in which most people will have less freedom or wealth, even if some achievements (such as literacy) are going to stay.
It is not exactly Mad Max, but it is not a cheerful vision of the future either. I hope that it is a bit too mechanistic. Certainly we would do well to think of the technology of the fossil-fuel driven recent past as a blip, a fleeting phenomenon that will pass with these resources, and in the long run far less important than our continuity with antique and medieval ancestors who also relied primarily on water, wind and sun. But to conclude from this that our future will look like our past seems a step too far, ignores too many factors, and is somewhat in conflict with Mortimer's earlier argument that important change is not limited to or dependent on technology alone. I would be willing to concede, however, that given what we know today, his prediction might the most accurate one that a historian can make, for what it is worth.
To put a conclusion to it, I would characterise this book as ambitious and partially successful. It is easier to be critic than a writer.
August 14, 2025
4 / 5 Stars
// Great
As a follow-up read to the excellent, but ‘single century’ focused The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Centuries of Change takes a rather top-down view of the last 1000 years of (mostly) European history and asks the eponymous question: Which century saw the biggest changes and can therefore be seen as the most impactful?
Right from the get-go, one could criticise that this roundup is solely focused on what we geopolitically understand as ‘The West’, with a particular focus on Europe especially. The author is transparent about this in the prologue and, given that he is of British birth and education himself, I think it only makes sense to therefore concentrate on the region he knows best. There are surely works of similar kind for other geographical and cultural regions, but as a European, I very much enjoyed this very lively journey into our history.
Interestingly, whilst reading the book, I became less and less interested in getting a somewhat definitive answer to that opening question, but rather started to enjoy the journey itself.
If you have paid attention in school, you will of course have a vague understanding of what the last millennium of human evolution looked like, but Ian Mortimer is very good at diving into the mundane, the day-to-day life in the particular timeframe he is talking about. It is this love for the details which makes the respective centuries come way more alive than they would by merely reading their respective Wikipedia article. The author also has very good pacing in his writing and manages to never dwell on one topic for so long that it gets stale and boring.
Keep in mind though that this book is in a way rather subjective, which seems ironic given the very ‘factual’ way history usually works. But the author made a subjective selection of events, topics, and proceedings he deems as most important to answer the question this book sets out to answer - and therefore excluded some of what could be seen as rather more important happenings of times past.
It is therefore not a substitute for a proper education about our history, but a very entertaining and enlightening read that could widen the reader's horizons and make them see connections where there were none before.
// Great
As a follow-up read to the excellent, but ‘single century’ focused The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Centuries of Change takes a rather top-down view of the last 1000 years of (mostly) European history and asks the eponymous question: Which century saw the biggest changes and can therefore be seen as the most impactful?
Right from the get-go, one could criticise that this roundup is solely focused on what we geopolitically understand as ‘The West’, with a particular focus on Europe especially. The author is transparent about this in the prologue and, given that he is of British birth and education himself, I think it only makes sense to therefore concentrate on the region he knows best. There are surely works of similar kind for other geographical and cultural regions, but as a European, I very much enjoyed this very lively journey into our history.
Interestingly, whilst reading the book, I became less and less interested in getting a somewhat definitive answer to that opening question, but rather started to enjoy the journey itself.
If you have paid attention in school, you will of course have a vague understanding of what the last millennium of human evolution looked like, but Ian Mortimer is very good at diving into the mundane, the day-to-day life in the particular timeframe he is talking about. It is this love for the details which makes the respective centuries come way more alive than they would by merely reading their respective Wikipedia article. The author also has very good pacing in his writing and manages to never dwell on one topic for so long that it gets stale and boring.
Keep in mind though that this book is in a way rather subjective, which seems ironic given the very ‘factual’ way history usually works. But the author made a subjective selection of events, topics, and proceedings he deems as most important to answer the question this book sets out to answer - and therefore excluded some of what could be seen as rather more important happenings of times past.
It is therefore not a substitute for a proper education about our history, but a very entertaining and enlightening read that could widen the reader's horizons and make them see connections where there were none before.
January 3, 2024
Ian Mortimer is great at communicating history, and at finding new and fresh ways of getting us as readers to interact with it. All of his books that I’ve come across so far begin with a specific question or lens with which to explore the particular time period in question - for example, what would you most need to know if you were a time-traveller that turned up in Elizabethan England?
This book was sparked by the declarations made by many people at the turn of the millennium, that the 20th century had seen more change than any other century in history, and he decided to do some investigations based on that. Narrowing it down to the previous 1000 years and focusing on the West, he looks beyond the obvious changes in technology that have happened every 100 years, and takes us on a walk through the changes that happened in religion, communication, social hierarchies, health, travel, family life and many other aspects of every day life, from the first year of each century to the last one of it.
Summarising all these different turning points and how they really would have changed the lives of many different kinds of people, he weighs up all the evidence to paint a picture of how extraordinary the development of humanity actually is. He finishes with a powerful epilogue that tries to predict what the biggest changes in the next few centuries will be, and it’s a real eye-opener!
If you read a lot of Western history and are looking for a fresh angle to approach it, or don’t know much about history and want an overview to help you understand it, either way I would recommend this book as it’s a very accessible read.
This book was sparked by the declarations made by many people at the turn of the millennium, that the 20th century had seen more change than any other century in history, and he decided to do some investigations based on that. Narrowing it down to the previous 1000 years and focusing on the West, he looks beyond the obvious changes in technology that have happened every 100 years, and takes us on a walk through the changes that happened in religion, communication, social hierarchies, health, travel, family life and many other aspects of every day life, from the first year of each century to the last one of it.
Summarising all these different turning points and how they really would have changed the lives of many different kinds of people, he weighs up all the evidence to paint a picture of how extraordinary the development of humanity actually is. He finishes with a powerful epilogue that tries to predict what the biggest changes in the next few centuries will be, and it’s a real eye-opener!
If you read a lot of Western history and are looking for a fresh angle to approach it, or don’t know much about history and want an overview to help you understand it, either way I would recommend this book as it’s a very accessible read.
November 9, 2014
This is really original and fascinating concept, looking at the last thousand years of Western history, which century has seen the most change?
Ian Mortimer is an excellent historian, his works on the Middle Ages are both entertaining and academic. here he has widened his remit to look at the key factors causing change over time and the proportionate effects. Taking each century in turn Mortimer explores the changes that took place economically, societally and scientifically and looks at their impact on life. He also considers which individuals had the biggest influence through their work.
What makes this book more that just a personal view of history is the attempt to quantify some of the information and actually produce a more scientific conclusion than mere opinion. Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and a range of statistical sources Mortimer actually comes up with an answer.
Ian Mortimer is an excellent historian, his works on the Middle Ages are both entertaining and academic. here he has widened his remit to look at the key factors causing change over time and the proportionate effects. Taking each century in turn Mortimer explores the changes that took place economically, societally and scientifically and looks at their impact on life. He also considers which individuals had the biggest influence through their work.
What makes this book more that just a personal view of history is the attempt to quantify some of the information and actually produce a more scientific conclusion than mere opinion. Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and a range of statistical sources Mortimer actually comes up with an answer.
February 4, 2022
Another winner from Ian Mortimer, who confirms his position as my favourite non-fiction author.
Would’ve given this book five stars if not for the last two chapters, which didn’t appeal to me because they include too much statistical comparisons and such like. At times, it felt like a maths or science lesson. I’m not a fan of long lists of percentages.
I am, as stated at the beginning, a fan of Ian Mortimer, though, and the rest of the book was a pleasure to read. Nothing dry or tedious in the writing style here. The narrative is engaging from the start, and the changes throughout history discussed range from the interesting to the fascinating.
Would’ve given this book five stars if not for the last two chapters, which didn’t appeal to me because they include too much statistical comparisons and such like. At times, it felt like a maths or science lesson. I’m not a fan of long lists of percentages.
I am, as stated at the beginning, a fan of Ian Mortimer, though, and the rest of the book was a pleasure to read. Nothing dry or tedious in the writing style here. The narrative is engaging from the start, and the changes throughout history discussed range from the interesting to the fascinating.
November 24, 2014
It's a bit of a text book but is filled with interesting facts and anecdotes for history nerds like myself.
Probably better read a chapter at a time or picking out the bits that interest you - reading it straight through over ten days like I did does seem to blur the facts somewhat.
Overall a fascinating read.
Probably better read a chapter at a time or picking out the bits that interest you - reading it straight through over ten days like I did does seem to blur the facts somewhat.
Overall a fascinating read.
September 17, 2025
It's very exciting to read. But the ending full of left-wing political narrative was really out of the topic
January 10, 2020
I’m going to nit-pick in a second, but overall this a very interesting, and relatively easy read for the density of information through which we travel. The premise of which century experienced the most change isn’t of itself a riveting concept, but as Mortimer takes us through the lives of those living in Western Europe from the year 1000 onwards, it is a fantastic path to see how and why our lives have changed. The narrative works particularly well because Mortimer is able to focus in on details which other books typically don’t dwell. I really enjoyed the core chapters in this book and would heartily recommend it; however, I didn’t enjoy the conclusion or coda.
A couple of issues to which I took some small umbrage:
• Use of statistics. Mortimer attempts to use data, as any historian would, to make his point. However, sometimes it appears as if he doesn’t understand numbers sufficiently well. When he says that average ages went up from say 45 years to 80 years, I’m not sure that he entirely comprehends that these numbers are the mean (and so people live less or more than this number), or if he does, he never explains so. This means that when the average age was 45, and many, many children were dying at birth, most adults who lived to 40 could probably expect another 10 or 20 years of life. It’s not that every doctor in the 1850s would get to 45 and then keel over.
• Examples and referencing. I feel like for these works I want a full set of references for every concept—the more the merrier. It meant that I couldn’t follow Mortimer’s line of thinking even if I wanted to. Further to this, some of the evidence he used was more from creative fiction than serious history; for example, he talks about farmers selecting the Wellington boot as the most important change in agriculture. When one examines the reference, it’s from one of Mortimer’s mates telling an anecdote from 50 years ago. Not good.
• Mortimer from the beginning is up front in explaining the book would be focussed on Western Europe. Ok, I can accept this, but I think he misses tricks along the way by not giving some greater connection here and there to the world outside Western Europe. In addition, whilst he claims it is European, it’s really focussed on England (and specifically his home village), with side glances to the rest of Europe.
• Finale. The conclusion and coda for me were the weak area of what was a very strong book. I objected to the labyrinthine manner in which, at the very terminus of the book, Mortimer creates the goalposts for assessment of which century experienced the most change. By using a co-opted version of Maslow’s hierarchy, Mortimer misses the point. There are so many aspects through which change can be assessed and Mortimer’s aren’t the best. I would suggest the best analysis of how much change a century experienced was whether someone living at the end of the century—say 1299 at the end of the 13th century—could or would readily live and adapt to a life at the start of the century—in say 1200. Mortimer’s best concept is the book itself: that the assumption that the 20th century experienced the most change should really be considered through the lens of individuals living in each century. By looking at my metric, we can see that people would fundamentally be flawed in 1599 to go back to 1500 where the role of god had changed so much.
I did like Mortimer’s pick for the greatest agent of change: god. It was interesting the bubble-gum-in-hair effect of god through the last thousand years, how people’s perception of god influenced every aspect of their lives.
All in all a very good read.
A couple of issues to which I took some small umbrage:
• Use of statistics. Mortimer attempts to use data, as any historian would, to make his point. However, sometimes it appears as if he doesn’t understand numbers sufficiently well. When he says that average ages went up from say 45 years to 80 years, I’m not sure that he entirely comprehends that these numbers are the mean (and so people live less or more than this number), or if he does, he never explains so. This means that when the average age was 45, and many, many children were dying at birth, most adults who lived to 40 could probably expect another 10 or 20 years of life. It’s not that every doctor in the 1850s would get to 45 and then keel over.
• Examples and referencing. I feel like for these works I want a full set of references for every concept—the more the merrier. It meant that I couldn’t follow Mortimer’s line of thinking even if I wanted to. Further to this, some of the evidence he used was more from creative fiction than serious history; for example, he talks about farmers selecting the Wellington boot as the most important change in agriculture. When one examines the reference, it’s from one of Mortimer’s mates telling an anecdote from 50 years ago. Not good.
• Mortimer from the beginning is up front in explaining the book would be focussed on Western Europe. Ok, I can accept this, but I think he misses tricks along the way by not giving some greater connection here and there to the world outside Western Europe. In addition, whilst he claims it is European, it’s really focussed on England (and specifically his home village), with side glances to the rest of Europe.
• Finale. The conclusion and coda for me were the weak area of what was a very strong book. I objected to the labyrinthine manner in which, at the very terminus of the book, Mortimer creates the goalposts for assessment of which century experienced the most change. By using a co-opted version of Maslow’s hierarchy, Mortimer misses the point. There are so many aspects through which change can be assessed and Mortimer’s aren’t the best. I would suggest the best analysis of how much change a century experienced was whether someone living at the end of the century—say 1299 at the end of the 13th century—could or would readily live and adapt to a life at the start of the century—in say 1200. Mortimer’s best concept is the book itself: that the assumption that the 20th century experienced the most change should really be considered through the lens of individuals living in each century. By looking at my metric, we can see that people would fundamentally be flawed in 1599 to go back to 1500 where the role of god had changed so much.
I did like Mortimer’s pick for the greatest agent of change: god. It was interesting the bubble-gum-in-hair effect of god through the last thousand years, how people’s perception of god influenced every aspect of their lives.
All in all a very good read.
March 7, 2024
Оце книга – так книга! Одна з найцікавіших із прочитаних!
Автор поставив мету – визначити найсуттєвіші і найважливіші зміни, які відбулися за останні 1000 років. І не просто виявити такі зміни, а й обрати століття, яке бачило найбільше змін.
Звичайно, нам на думку відразу приходять досягнення науково-технічного характеру, яке людство переживало за останні кілька сотень років. Але чи дійсно це так? Чи дійсно ХVIII-ХХ ст. є найважливішими з точки зору змін?
В книзі мені сподобалося все – від її побудови до поданої інформації.
Кожному століттю присвячений окремий розділ об’ємом 40-50 стор., які зручно читати практично завжди одномоментно. Важливо робити перерву і осмислювати прочитане. Знову ж таки, обсяг матеріалу дає можливість це зробити.
Мені сподобалося, що автор в кінці кожного розділу підводить висновки і пропонує свій варіант найсуттєвіших змін чи виявляє людину, дії якої спровокували найважливіші зміни в описаному проміжку часу. Моя справа – погоджуватися чи ні, але цікаво чути думку спеціаліста, який глибоко занурився у вказану проблематику.
Важливими і потрібними виявилися висновки до всього матеріалу, які говорять про найважливіше століття у багатьох аспектах.
Читаючи, дивувалася, які прості, на перший погляд речі, так багато важать у сучасному світі. Думаю, всі переконалися під час минулорічних блекаутів про важливість такого звичного для нас явища, як електрифікації. Саме власники квартир з електричними плитами (серед яких і я)))) почали в рази більш цінувати той комфорт, який дарує нам винахід віком вже кілька сотень років) Так, про важливість електропостачання задумувалася ще по переїзді в нову квартиру, а відчула її минулої зими…..
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Людство залишається потенційно жорстоким і нелюдяним, як і раніше.
З плином ХХ ст. ми втратили величезну кількість родинних знань, велику частину практичних і основних навичок – як спорудити вогнище для швидкого кип’ятіння великої кількості води (яке відрізняється від вогнища для приготування їжі), як охайно відпрасувати одяг без використання електричної праски, як зберігати їжу протягом декількох місяців без холодильника.
Головними силами, які лежать в основі змін протягом останнього тисячоліття, були: погода та її вплив на забезпечення харчовими продуктами, потреба в безпеці, страх погіршення здоров'я і прагнення до особистого збагачення.
Не всі зміни є технологічними: серед них мова, індивідуалізм, філософія, релігійний поділ, секуляризація, географічні відкриття, соціальні реформи і погода.
Автор поставив мету – визначити найсуттєвіші і найважливіші зміни, які відбулися за останні 1000 років. І не просто виявити такі зміни, а й обрати століття, яке бачило найбільше змін.
Звичайно, нам на думку відразу приходять досягнення науково-технічного характеру, яке людство переживало за останні кілька сотень років. Але чи дійсно це так? Чи дійсно ХVIII-ХХ ст. є найважливішими з точки зору змін?
В книзі мені сподобалося все – від її побудови до поданої інформації.
Кожному століттю присвячений окремий розділ об’ємом 40-50 стор., які зручно читати практично завжди одномоментно. Важливо робити перерву і осмислювати прочитане. Знову ж таки, обсяг матеріалу дає можливість це зробити.
Мені сподобалося, що автор в кінці кожного розділу підводить висновки і пропонує свій варіант найсуттєвіших змін чи виявляє людину, дії якої спровокували найважливіші зміни в описаному проміжку часу. Моя справа – погоджуватися чи ні, але цікаво чути думку спеціаліста, який глибоко занурився у вказану проблематику.
Важливими і потрібними виявилися висновки до всього матеріалу, які говорять про найважливіше століття у багатьох аспектах.
Читаючи, дивувалася, які прості, на перший погляд речі, так багато важать у сучасному світі. Думаю, всі переконалися під час минулорічних блекаутів про важливість такого звичного для нас явища, як електрифікації. Саме власники квартир з електричними плитами (серед яких і я)))) почали в рази більш цінувати той комфорт, який дарує нам винахід віком вже кілька сотень років) Так, про важливість електропостачання задумувалася ще по переїзді в нову квартиру, а відчула її минулої зими…..
*****************
Людство залишається потенційно жорстоким і нелюдяним, як і раніше.
З плином ХХ ст. ми втратили величезну кількість родинних знань, велику частину практичних і основних навичок – як спорудити вогнище для швидкого кип’ятіння великої кількості води (яке відрізняється від вогнища для приготування їжі), як охайно відпрасувати одяг без використання електричної праски, як зберігати їжу протягом декількох місяців без холодильника.
Головними силами, які лежать в основі змін протягом останнього тисячоліття, були: погода та її вплив на забезпечення харчовими продуктами, потреба в безпеці, страх погіршення здоров'я і прагнення до особистого збагачення.
Не всі зміни є технологічними: серед них мова, індивідуалізм, філософія, релігійний поділ, секуляризація, географічні відкриття, соціальні реформи і погода.
September 11, 2017
Ian Mortimer sets out to determine which century of the past millenium saw the most change.
Being a historian of the middle ages Mortimer is positioned better than most to avoid the temptation to assume that the modern era naturally the answer. He is a very talented historian who is able to make life in the often murky and distant middle ages knowable and "real". Like in his other books he is able to bring colour to this period and make you feel like you can understand what life was like back in the 11th century; what was both the same as it is today and what was different. This then allows him to illuminate the pace of change and how people back then may have seen things change dramatically in their lifetimes.
Mortimer assesses each century in turn and then finishes with an attempt to compare them and find some way of ranking them. Here things risk becoming a mere game but he tries to apply methodology which makes his findings seem reasonable.
Naturally enough he concludes that the 20th and 19th centuries saw the most change but makes a good case for the ranking of other centuries. I came away feeling that the 20th century is in many ways a continuation of the 19th century (ie an industrialised, liberal, capitalist, materialist society) which in turn is a continuation of the society that came about in the 16th century - organised, lawful, secular).
At the end of the book comes a chapter he called "Ennui". Here he attempts to draw a prediction for the future of humanity based on our past. His conclusions make for depressing reading. He posits that most of the changes that occurred in the past millenium are a result of improvements in our ability to feed ourselves / provide ourselves with resources. Here he applies Maslows hierachies of needs. Once we were able to feed ourselves we could develop politically and meet other material needs. But he says that until now we have only focussed on meeting the demands of human need ... and now the challenge will be supply. Picking up where Malthus left off he sees the future as one in which an every increasing population and declining fossil fuels will result in less to go around. He puts forward two scenarios - smooth transition and cataclysm. Both of which seem horribly bleak.
I am still reeling from this.
Being a historian of the middle ages Mortimer is positioned better than most to avoid the temptation to assume that the modern era naturally the answer. He is a very talented historian who is able to make life in the often murky and distant middle ages knowable and "real". Like in his other books he is able to bring colour to this period and make you feel like you can understand what life was like back in the 11th century; what was both the same as it is today and what was different. This then allows him to illuminate the pace of change and how people back then may have seen things change dramatically in their lifetimes.
Mortimer assesses each century in turn and then finishes with an attempt to compare them and find some way of ranking them. Here things risk becoming a mere game but he tries to apply methodology which makes his findings seem reasonable.
Naturally enough he concludes that the 20th and 19th centuries saw the most change but makes a good case for the ranking of other centuries. I came away feeling that the 20th century is in many ways a continuation of the 19th century (ie an industrialised, liberal, capitalist, materialist society) which in turn is a continuation of the society that came about in the 16th century - organised, lawful, secular).
At the end of the book comes a chapter he called "Ennui". Here he attempts to draw a prediction for the future of humanity based on our past. His conclusions make for depressing reading. He posits that most of the changes that occurred in the past millenium are a result of improvements in our ability to feed ourselves / provide ourselves with resources. Here he applies Maslows hierachies of needs. Once we were able to feed ourselves we could develop politically and meet other material needs. But he says that until now we have only focussed on meeting the demands of human need ... and now the challenge will be supply. Picking up where Malthus left off he sees the future as one in which an every increasing population and declining fossil fuels will result in less to go around. He puts forward two scenarios - smooth transition and cataclysm. Both of which seem horribly bleak.
I am still reeling from this.
February 12, 2020
I find the way Ian Mortimer views history absolutely fascinating and looked forward to this as an interesting read, however for me it just missed. I think the main problem is trying to condense too much - 1000 years of Western history - into 300ish pages. Some of the information was really interesting; for example I don't think I'd realised just how enormous the effect of the 14th century Plague epidemic was. On the other hand, sometimes the swathes of information being shown were just too broad. I found myself wishing Mortimer had just confined himself to change in the UK or gone for the entire world because it was (self-admittedly) very Western-centric, but this just doesn't work when you are taking into account the effects of the Crusades, slavery etc.
The final two chapters see Mortimer try to project historic economic patterns onto the next hundred years, which was honestly pretty depressing. I'm sure it will make interesting reading for future historians, but it did seem a quite self-satisfying sort of thing to do. Although this book was clearly well-researched and he knows his stuff, there were certain things I really disagreed with (e.g. the importance of the arts - Mortimer believes in a society struggling to survive, the arts have very little place, yet even in the medieval world artists and sculptors created effigies, stained glass, and religious art work, and even in Auschwitz prisoners attempted to make music, art and literature because those things make our existence worthwhile).
For a more entertaining and relatable view of the changes the past millennium has wrought, I would recommend Mortimer's historical novel 'Outcasts of Time' as being far more compelling, optimistic, and interesting.
The final two chapters see Mortimer try to project historic economic patterns onto the next hundred years, which was honestly pretty depressing. I'm sure it will make interesting reading for future historians, but it did seem a quite self-satisfying sort of thing to do. Although this book was clearly well-researched and he knows his stuff, there were certain things I really disagreed with (e.g. the importance of the arts - Mortimer believes in a society struggling to survive, the arts have very little place, yet even in the medieval world artists and sculptors created effigies, stained glass, and religious art work, and even in Auschwitz prisoners attempted to make music, art and literature because those things make our existence worthwhile).
For a more entertaining and relatable view of the changes the past millennium has wrought, I would recommend Mortimer's historical novel 'Outcasts of Time' as being far more compelling, optimistic, and interesting.
February 6, 2022
The format is a nice device to ask new historical questions, bring new perspectives etc. But it is hard not to get lost in the scope. The medieval chapters are really really good and I'll go back and re-listen.
He reluctantly concludes the 21st century saw the most change. But his framework lacked a clear end-point for contributions. For example, he talks about how intellectual skepticism and the rule of law began in the medieval period (maybe 12th century?) but these inventions are still affecting the 21st century to this day, interacting with new media and sources of information etc. Such long-tail impacts seem to inevitably favour later centuries.
Similarly, he won't assign "change" to origins and instead the century in which most of the "change" is realised. So Gutenberg inventing the printing press doesn't lead to change in the 15th century, but instead the "change" caused by mass-printed bibles in the 16th.
Every chapter concludes by discussing the prime agent of historical change. A few popes in the early year, Galileo, Hitler and other usual suspects. But then he concludes by putting God as the prime agent of historical change across all ten centuries. This seemed like a weird trick, wasn't God also the prime agent of change when the Pope's were? And if we're opening it up to such vague notions, couldn't we have "progress" or something similarly broad as an alternative.
Would love to hear a public defense of this book.
He reluctantly concludes the 21st century saw the most change. But his framework lacked a clear end-point for contributions. For example, he talks about how intellectual skepticism and the rule of law began in the medieval period (maybe 12th century?) but these inventions are still affecting the 21st century to this day, interacting with new media and sources of information etc. Such long-tail impacts seem to inevitably favour later centuries.
Similarly, he won't assign "change" to origins and instead the century in which most of the "change" is realised. So Gutenberg inventing the printing press doesn't lead to change in the 15th century, but instead the "change" caused by mass-printed bibles in the 16th.
Every chapter concludes by discussing the prime agent of historical change. A few popes in the early year, Galileo, Hitler and other usual suspects. But then he concludes by putting God as the prime agent of historical change across all ten centuries. This seemed like a weird trick, wasn't God also the prime agent of change when the Pope's were? And if we're opening it up to such vague notions, couldn't we have "progress" or something similarly broad as an alternative.
Would love to hear a public defense of this book.
July 25, 2019
As an illiterate-history person, I love what this book provides. But first thing, I think it is important to state that this book is mainly about European or West history, which of course I do believe they still affect other countries or a whole world, especially in the 20th century, due to technological advancement. I bought the hardback version, sealed, and at the back didn't say anything except for praises and comments from authors and yeah I was too lazy to do some research before buying it. Nevertheless, I like it!
I think the author did his best to be objective to decide which events or who contribute more in each century. I like that he emphasized more on what and how they had affected to wider people a.k.a civilians both for the better and for the worse.
I know that he also gave his own point of view which some people see it as a downside or even outraging, but I think it is the point that made me hadn't stop until I reached the end of this book.
I think the author did his best to be objective to decide which events or who contribute more in each century. I like that he emphasized more on what and how they had affected to wider people a.k.a civilians both for the better and for the worse.
I know that he also gave his own point of view which some people see it as a downside or even outraging, but I think it is the point that made me hadn't stop until I reached the end of this book.
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