Twentieth Century: The History of the World, 1901 to 2000

by J.M. Roberts

From J. M. Roberts, one of our greatest historians, comes an engrossing one-volume history of the extraordinary century we've just lived through. Going beyond a traditional chronological narrative of events, Roberts identifies the major long-term changes that underlie them, pointing in particular to worldwide increases in life expectancy; major advances in science and technology; the radical reconfiguration of the global economy; the disappearance of empires; the decline of white hegemony; and the changing role of women.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History, Academic

928 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Morris Roberts, CBE, was a British historian, with significant published works. From 1979-1985 he was Vice Chancellor of the University of Southampton, and from 1985-1994, Warden of Merton College, Oxford. He was also well known as the author and presenter of the BBC TV series The Triumph of the West (1985).

Reviews

[Darryl Ponicsan]

An exhaustive yet accessible tour of every continent during the past 100 years. Clear-headed, logical, no agenda. One can't read it without realizing we are 20% into the next century and that we are slipping backwards as time moves us forward.

[Elizabeth]

One of those books that you can't read without a green pen because British writing (and editing) is SO BAD. Just shockingly piss-poor. And this reads more like a cataloging of his musings on the century rather than an attempt to educate the reader; even if it had been written clearly and/or edited to high hell, the content is still all over the place -- chronologically and geographically.

[Snow]

It is a very interesting history book. Possibly in terms of readability it was the best one I have ever read. The book is divided into short sections with detailed analysis. I learnt a lot and recommend it to everyone.

[Mike]

A good overview of 20th c. world history (with an emphasis on [b]world[/b]), but overall somewhat thin soup. Considering the page count Roberts chose to summarize rather than edit. Reads flatly but not terrible. A straight history, rather than one that explores dimensions. Good for reference.