A bestselling historian and a brilliant artist have combined their talents to create a stunning visual history of global war and revolution from 1914 to 1945.
Dan Jones and Marina Amaral tell the epic, harrowing, and world-changing story--in narrative form with colorized images--of global conflict from the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the obliteration of Hiroshima by the first atom bomb.
The World Aflame embraces not only the total conflagrations of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 and the tensions, ideologies and economic forces that set them in motion, but also the revolutions in Russia; civil wars in Ireland and Spain; American interventions in Latin America, colonial wars in Morocco, Ethiopia, and Palestine; and events on the domestic 'fronts' of the belligerent nations.
A fusion of amazing pictures and well-chosen and informative words, The World Aflame offers a moving--and often terrifying--perspective on the bloodiest century in human history.
Dan Jones is a NYT bestselling author and broadcaster. His books, which include The Templars, Henry V, The Plantagenets and Powers & Thrones, have sold more than 2 million copies and are published in 23 languages. He is the author of the Essex Dogs novel trilogy. Dan writes and hosts the popular weekly Sony Music Entertainment podcast This Is History. He has presented dozens of television documentaries, including the popular Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles, and has executive produced and consulted on a number of films and television shows including Anne Boleyn (Channel 5/Sony Pictures Television) and Knightfall (A+E/History). His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post; for a decade he was a columnist for the London Evening Standard. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in 2025 was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Historic Royal Palaces.
Skaitydami šią knygą susipažinsite su mirtimi paženklintais, tačiau dėmesį prikaustančiais karo metų įvykiais. Žmonijai teko išgyventi net du pasaulinius karus. Knygoje apibūdinamas laikotarpis nuo pirmojo pasaulinio karo pradžios iki antrojo pabaigos, kuris vadinamas Ilguoju karu. O visa tai papildo daugybė nuotraukų - nuo kasdieniškų iki šiurpą keliančių.
"Prieš tris dešimtmečius čia žemę vagojo gilūs , drėgni apkasai, jų purve kankinosi ligų kamuojami vyrai, kovojo milžiniškos armijos, ginkluotos naujais pragariškais ginklais."
Mūsų žemė labai trapi. Taip lengva ją paversti pelenais. O karo metai buvo negailestingi ir žiaurūs. Tai buvo nenusakomai alinantis laikotarpis su milžiniškais nuostoliais.
"Jo galvą ir pečius radau šiek tiek už tranšėjų, kojas - apkasuose, o visos kitos šio vargšeliai kūno dalys dingo be žinios."
This is an absolutely amazing collection of colorized photographs blended with concise and meaningful text that defines the mass violence of the first half of the 20th Century. It could adequately serve as a supplementary text for a course focusing on the wars of the time period. Bravo.
4.5/5 I'm being rather harsh but rounding down for Goodreads.
Very good, highly recommend. The colourisation is great and really brings the pictures to life, especially the colourisation of the people in the photos. Plenty of info with each picture, usually 3-4 small paragraphs rather than just one sentence captions. The book does have few pictures of the 1900-1914 period rather than just jumping into WWI. There are a few gory pictures if that sort of thing bothers you - beheaded Chinese rebels, dead soldiers, a dead Armenian child, Mussolini and his girlfriend's corpses before they were strung up etc but not too many pictures of this kind.
Like its predecessor, The Colour of Time, The World Aflame is a superb account of some of the most defining moments in world history. The photos are stunning and a testament to the artistry of Amaral. Jones, in his text, gets across the key points of the events without over simplifying or getting caught up in jargon. This book should be assigned reading for all students of the "long war" period.
Ever since I bought "The Civil War in Color" and saw Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old", I have been a fan of colorized black and white historical photographs. When the colorization process is informed by the appropriate research the colorized photos have a greater sense of immediacy and emotional impact than the originals. This collection focuses on 1914-45, the most catastrophic in human history, is striking, informative and appalling. Dan Jones' narrative is also first rate, Kudos to both the colorist and the historian.
Haunting, detailed and vivid reminder of the atrocities of both the world wars. Such an important book, and the added layer of colour photos really helps drive home how astounding and shocking these years of history were.
I like that it also included some hero’s and key figures of the war, as well as the harrowing aspects. The descriptions of photos were brief but detailed, and that made the book a lot more engaging.
Fantastic. The colourisation of the stills is breathtaking and adds so much more to the understanding of the years between the first and second world wars. Had no idea there were so many conflicts which arose around the world after 1918 and the atrocities committed by nations in an attempt to land grab and oppress others. The accompanying narrative is highly seductive and thoughtfully written. its dispassionate and doesn't seek to cast judgement...........the facts speak for themselves.
This is an amazing book by noted historian Dan Jones. It features many rare and little seen photographs which have been colourised by Marina Amaral. It covers the entire world war period of the twentieth century, from 1914 - 1945. What makes this book extra special is the commentary by Jones which accompanies every photograph. The images have been carefully selected to give a real sense of how both world wars were truly global conflicts. The thirteen chapters each have an introduction by Jones which covers the important happenings that occur in the time periods that each chapter covers. This book really helps the reader to see how all the different battles, and different theatres of the wars, all fit together within their global and political context. My only disappointment was to learn that the evocative cover image was actually staged. An excellent book that gives a great overview of 'The Long War" that defined the early twentieth century.
I "read" the book for the photos. Marina Amaral is a fine photo colorist and her work makes this book.
Dan Jones provides a wide overview of historic events which was interesting to best put the photos into historic context.
Warning: I'd never seen the results of a beheading--and in color, no less. Be careful with that photo!
I looked through this book with a 10 year-old who had announced history was "boring."
This book changed her mind, particularly since I used it as an opportunity to talk about the historic events (we didn't read it. We examined the photos) and put them into a personal context for her.
Have you ever looked at those old black-and-white photos from the early days of photography and found yourself feeling a bit disconnected from the people in them? There’s something about that grey, monochrome world that makes the people in it seem almost otherworldly, like they’re not quite human. It’s as if the lack of color drains away their vibrancy, leaving behind these ghostly figures who seem more like statues in a history book than living, breathing people.
That’s why this book is such a treat. From the moment I opened it, I was struck by the vivid colorized photographs that jump off the page. Jones, along with his co-author Marina Amaral, has taken those old black-and-white images and, with a careful and respectful hand, added just the right amount of color to bring them back to life. It’s almost startling to see familiar faces like FDR or Lloyd George in full color. Suddenly, they’re no longer distant, grey icons of the past but real, flesh-and-blood humans who lived, breathed, and experienced the world much like we do today.
The book is more than just a collection of pretty pictures, though. It’s filled with short tales of the landmark people, places, and events that have been with us since grammar school. But seeing these familiar stories paired with such vibrant photos really got me thinking about these figures as truly mortal. I found myself contemplating not just their historical significance but their humanity—their fears, joys, and the world they inhabited.
Take, for example, the way the book presents Winston Churchill. We’ve all seen that iconic black-and-white photo of him, the one where he’s got that determined, slightly defiant look on his face. It’s a powerful image, but it’s also one we’ve seen so many times that it’s almost lost its impact. But in this book that same image is brought back to life in full color. Suddenly, you notice the twinkle in Churchill’s eye, the rosiness in his cheeks, the details that make him not just a symbol of the war but a man who carried the weight of a nation on his shoulders.
And it’s not just the big names that get this treatment. The book is filled with lesser-known figures and events that are given the same careful attention. There’s something incredibly moving about seeing a colorized photo of a young soldier heading off to war, knowing what lies ahead for him. The color brings an intimacy to these images that makes them feel fresh and immediate, as if they were taken just yesterday.
What I appreciate most about Jones’s approach is how he and Amaral use colorization not to distort or sensationalize but to enhance the truth of these images. The colors are subtle, almost understated, but they’re enough to bridge that gap between past and present, between the “history” we think we know and the real lives that were lived. It’s a delicate balance, and they’ve nailed it.
The text itself is just as engaging. Jones has a knack for storytelling that makes history feel alive and relevant. He doesn’t just recount the events—he delves into the emotions, the motivations, the little details that make these stories stick with you. It’s history, yes, but it’s history told in a way that feels personal, almost intimate.
So, if you’re like me and you’ve ever found yourself feeling a bit detached from the past, this book might just change that for you. It’s a reminder that history isn’t just a series of dates and events—it’s the story of people, real people, who lived through incredible times. And thanks to Jones and Amaral, we can see them not as grey figures in a distant land called “history,” but as the vibrant, living beings they were.
A compelling follow-up to The Colour of Time, Marina Amaral and Dan Jones' The World Aflame: The Long War, 1914-1945 nevertheless does not match up to its predecessor. Whereas Colour almost demanded you to pause and soak in each photograph, with its vivid colours of a forgotten age, Aflame's selection doesn't capture the reader in the same way.
In the previous book, the flaws came from Dan Jones, who contributed the writing, rather than from Marina Amaral's colourized photographs. Here, Jones' writing is better, particularly early on, and there was only one glaring factual error (on page 399, he says Karl Dönitz was hanged for war crimes, an error further highlighted by a subsequent photograph on pages 426-7, the caption of which states – correctly, this time – that Dönitz was not hanged but sentenced to prison in the Nuremberg trials).
However, there are some peculiarities: an introduction (written by both Jones and Amaral) ends with a disingenuous and alarmist 'warning' that "the politics of exclusion… are on the march once more" (pg. 9), whilst the book claims that reprisals in 1944 against Nazi collaborators were "notably severe" against French women. This was because of the "rough and misogynistic" public humiliation of "women who were unable to defend themselves" (pg. 379), completely overlooking the fact that male collaborators were executed. The book also finds time to praise Zelda Fitzgerald's novel, of all the things (pg. 164), and dismiss Ernest Hemingway as someone "far better at drinking and showing off" than writing, in contrast to his "far more talented" wife (pg. 377). These are strange hills to die on.
However, the effort to bend over backwards to revise history in line with more 'inclusive' modern norms is something not entirely derisible, if a bit too worthy, and The World Aflame is only following the crowd, not pushing its own agenda. No – what was the greatest surprise in the book was not Jones, but Amaral. In contrast to those surprising and revelatory photographs from The Colour of Time, the selections in The World Aflame just do not 'pop'. You do not stand in awe of them in the way you did in the previous book. Whereas in The Colour of Time you felt history come alive, here you are always aware they are digitally colourized.
The book is far from a failure, and there are many good photos. The colourization of well-known photos (such as Eisenhower with the paratroopers on the eve of D-Day (pg. 360), or the one from Omaha Beach (pg. 360) are very impactful, encouraging you to look at familiar images through a new lens. This could have been done more often; similar opportunities, such as the famous images of the American flag on Iwo Jima or the Soviet flag over the Reichstag, are overlooked in favour of lesser-known photographs from the same events. It is notable that the most affecting photograph in the book is one that Amaral had already popularized on social media some years previously: the heartbreaking image of the frightened young Polish girl in Auschwitz on pages 338-39. For all The World Aflame's efforts, you can't help but think that the choicest photographs had already been used for The Colour of Time.
A powerfully moving book featuring colourised photographs from the early part of the 20th Century.
The colourisation made me the photo feel more real and along with the insightful historical notes from Dan Jones, helped me to understand and consider the past and the lessons it can teach us.
The content made me really think about issues such as discrimination and prejudice, and how these can cause tremendous suffering to others, and how wrong that is.
Some of the images are rather graphic and might be triggering to younger or readers of a more sensitive disposition. I would advise caution.
As a historian I have studied this time period, but I feel this book has given me a deeper insight and understanding, and how important it is not to whitewash history, however unpleasant it might be to recall.
Lo terminé de leer no hace mucho y me gustó mucho. Además de fotos clave, también muestra fotos no tan conocidas del período comprendido entre 1914-1945, resumiendo en una sola página, la foto que muestra, sin dejar detalles importantes y sin meter paja, a diferencia de muchos libros.
Otro aspecto a destacar es que no les preocupa lo más mínimo la censura, al igual que en el anterior libro "El color del tiempo". Entiendo que no todo el mundo quiera/esté preparada para ver determinadas imágenes, pero me parece esencial que de algún modo se pueda acceder a este tipo de imágenes en fuentes fiables como estos libros.
From my own experience in helping Marina Amaral on one of the photographs featured in the previous volume 'The Colour of Time', the care taken on the colourisation is without equal. The same can be said about the selection of the images and Dan Jones's accompanying text. Like its' predecessor this is an exceptionally interesting book which serves to bring key points in history to the attention of the reader. As a previous reviewer has said - "absolutely beautiful and awful at the same time'. A slam dunk five star review!
Po ilgų ir nepaliaujamo skaitymo dienų, I DID IT! Ačiū šeimai, draugams ir kitiems prijaučiantiems, palaikiusiems mane šiame 50 knygų kelyje. Kitiems metams tokio absurdiškai didelio goal’o nesikelsiu. Turiu dar likusio sveiko proto (biški).
Kalbant apie knygą - puikus darbas. Nieko mažiau iš jos ir nesitikėjau. Geros fotkes, keri aprašymai, geros istoriko įžvalgos.
2 svarbiausi knygos momentai:
1. LDK mentioned 🦅🦅🦅 (Tanenbergo ir Žalgirio mūšio paralelė) 2. Prancūzai į fronta per WW1 varė su mėlynais paltais ir raudonom kelnėm, nes kamuflezas yra beskonybė 🇫🇷
This is an incredibly difficult book to read and look at. Mind you, if you are do not want to see dead bodies: do not get this book. Seriously. The topic is really interesting, yes, but if you don't want to see any, just a warning.
This book is so disgusting, gross, painful, gutwrenching, painful and beautiful at the same time. I don't have any other words really. The last line hit me the hardest:
Одно время хотелось иметь эту книгу в бумажном виде, чтобы смотреть и перечитывать иногда, но, нет, лучше не надо. Я не особо впечатлительный человек, но такое количество кошмарных фотографий и, в противовес, суховатого, емкого, практически безэмоционального текста, просто фиксирующего хронику этого ужасного периода времени, выводит из себя и нервирует. Особенно сейчас.
Si me hubieran explicado esta parte de la historia con fotografías en mis años de instituto otro gallo hubiera cantado. Es un libro ideal para amantes de la historia. Una maravilla de fotos a color explicadas. He aprendido mucho más de lo que me hubiese imaginado.
Stunning book. Incredible what impact the addition of colour can have to photographs from the first half of the twentieth century. The explanations were also perfect, simultaneously thorough but precise.
Na The Colour of Time wilde ik ook dit boek van Dan Jones en Marina Maral hebben. De door Amaral ingekleurde Zwart-wit foto's brengen de geschiedenis dichterbij. Met de tekst van historicus Dan Jones erbij geeft dit boek een overzicht van het tijdsbestek 1914 - 1945.
This is a superb book! I learned so much of all the different wars and people who were involved in it The photographs were outstanding and really spoke to you The essays were informative and to the point Amazing book to have in your collection