History of the Twentieth Century

by Martin Gilbert

História do Século XX relata os eventos do século mais horrível e surpreendente que o mundo jamais experimentou - extremo na miséria humana e nas realizações humanas - e tenta dar-lhes um sentido à escala global.

«O autor mais prodigioso do nosso tempo.»
Paul Johnson, Sunday Times

«Um feito enorme, uma síntese prodigiosa que demonstra sentido de proporção, sustentado por uma extraordinária autodisciplina e capacidade para escolher, resumir e processar uma montanha de material desordenado... Um livro de referência notável e inestimável.»
Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ebooks

795 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 5, 2014

About the author

The official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”

Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”

https://twitter.com/sirmartin36

https://www.facebook.com/sirmartingil...

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than two years ago, I had launched myself into reading Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru, a book that gave me some solid knowledge in brief about the world history, and upon finishing it mid-last-year, was amazed by his way of writing [You can read its review here, if need be]. But alas, the book ended just as WW2 was about to be set into motion. To compensate for the remaining, I picked up this book by Martin Gilbert, a cheap copy that I had found in one of the second-hand book-sales.

With that in mind, History of the Twentieth Century did satisfy me with what I was looking for: the political world history in the twentieth century, of which personally I lacked a lot of knowledge. But however, this book did not go beyond that. It was all about wars, racism, violence, number of people dead, and such ...

I also found at least three fundamental errors in the book (will insert an example here once I re-find it). Having said that, I make it a point to mention here, that unless one wants to know in general, superficial political knowledge of the history of the twentieth century, she should rather look for another title. Also, to be kept in mind, is that this book is a condensed edition of Gilbert's three separate books that made up his history of the twentieth century.

Another disappointing fact about the book was, the two dedicated chapters for the two World Wars, did not contain anything else, but only the account of the wars. As a result, nothing has been mentioned about what happens at all in other parts of the world where the World Wars were not taking place.

The good thing about reading the book was that I came to know a lot about what happened in the century. The cascading effect in political history that came to the eventuality of both the World Wars, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the end of the Soviet era. The language is easy, the book is a fast-read, although nothing very 'interesting' to contemplate upon (unlike as in Nehru's book). Contains 26 good maps to refer to while reading, and 75 pages of Index.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough, but lacking.

Gilbert's work is far reaching and full of information, but it's really a chronicle of the 20th century rather than a historical work. As such the significance of most events is largely lost in the tide of dates and names. The book also suffers from a lack of footnotes and sources, which is all the more problematic since there are multiple inaccurate and misleading statements throughout, especially early on.

All in all it's an easy read and does help give a broad, if shallow, understanding of the events of the 20th century, but inaccuracies and a lack of sources and analysis leaves a lot to be desired.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably one of the most depressing books I've read/listened to. It's also kind of dry and jumps from event to event without a lot of detail. But given the topic and scope of the book, that is to be expected. It was interesting to revisit people and events that I grew up hearing about on the news but, being a kid, didn't always understand.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the most part, this is a political history of the Twentieth Century, but I think it accomplishes it's stated goals and is an interesting and entertaining look at a wild century.

I really enjoyed some of Gilbert's previous works and I thought his writing style and method of storytelling here was effective. Don't expect to get deep into any one topic, for the most part, only a sentence or two are spent on the events Gilbert highlights. If you are looking for a sweeping look at the political/war history of the twentieth century, then I would recommend this one.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Em comparação com outros livros do Martin Gilbert, não achei tão bem escrito. O próprio propósito do livro é ser uma súmula de um século, logo a necessidade de sintetizar acaba por limitar o que é extraordinário noutros livros. Esta História do Século XX apresenta um panorama mundial muito abrangente, mas é necessariamente uma obra quase enunciativa e desprovida das reflexões sobre o impacto humano dos acontecimentos, apesar dos esforços do autor.

[Marinho Lopes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como o título indica, neste livro Martin Gilbert dá-nos um resumo da História do século XX. Como seria inevitável num empreendimento desta magnitude, imensos detalhes importantes são deixados de fora. Como também se poderia esperar, Gilbert foca-se principalmente nas guerras e nas mortes, assim como nas personalidades que moldaram o mundo no século passado. Confesso que não gostei muito da abordagem, a começar pelo facto de que contar a História dividindo-a por anos me parece um critério limitador. Seria muito melhor, do meu ponto de vista, que Gilbert desse um passo atrás e contasse de que forma as grandes forças se estavam a mover, ao invés de fragmentar a História nas suas peças elementares. É certo que o autor une as peças, mas as fronteiras entre as mesmas no puzzle são demasiado notórias e artificiais, impedindo a oportunidade de contar tudo de forma mais lógica e abrangente. Por outro lado, a escolha dos conteúdos é também bastante questionável, pelo menos tendo em conta o título, que deveria ser antes a história bélica e política do século. A tentativa de colorir os acontecimentos históricos e suas personagens com alguns detalhes minuciosos é por um lado interessante, mas por outro também limitador (e incoerente). Em questão de erros históricos só encontrei dois. Um outro detalhe negativo é o facto de Gilbert tomar muitas vezes uma atitude parcial, colocando-se claramente do ponto de vista de um observador ocidental. Não obstante tudo isto, aconselho vivamente o livro: preparem-se para uma história de atrocidades, crueldade, e terror. Convém ter presente que em milhões de pessoas torturadas e assassinadas, cada uma delas era um indivíduo senciente, um “eu”, um ser humano com sonhos.

[Rui Moniz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Depois da História da I e da II Guerras Mundiais, a História do Século XX é substancialmente mais leve. E, por conseguinte - até porque o tema não é apenas, mas também, a guerra - mais interessante.
Tem mais graça lermos sobre acontecimentos e pessoas dos quais e de quem nos recordamos realmente, com quem eventualmente até tivemos oportunidade de estar.
O livro é muito bom para percebemos muito do que se passa nos nossos dias, nomeadamente como aí se chegou, e como parece que a história se repete, vezes sem conta, sem os intervenientes aprenderem com os erros alheios.
Condensado em cerca de 700 páginas - a edição original era composta por três volumes com 2700 paginas - são focados os assuntos fundamentais, com destaque, obviamente, para as grandes questões do planeta.
E, entre essas, marcam as duas grandes guerras e a guerra fria e as alterações geopolíticas na Europa, na URSS e no Médio Oriente.
"Muitos são os atributos escolhidos para definir o século XX, entre os quais o século "da guerra", "do homem comum" e "do refugiado". (...) A maior parte, se não a totalidade, das pessoas que lerem este livro, nunca viram, a não ser na televisão, até que ponto e apesar de todos os maravilhosos avanços que o século XX testemunhou, das oportunidades criadas pela riqueza e pelo lazer, dos desafios da criatividade e da produção, a miséria humana é profunda e deixou marcas em todas as regiões do mundo".
Algo que, 16 anos depois, ainda é verdade.
Aconselho!

[Deeps George · Rating 4 out of 5]

The twentieth century , a 100 years where we have seen, wars, genocides, innovations, moon walks, man’s growing creativity through the arts as well an unsettling picture of man’s cruelty to one another. The book puts this all together in a very organized and simple to read and understand approach that makes the process of reading exciting and enjoyable.
Martin Gilbert is probably one of the best historical writers of our times with many books to his credit. This is a must read for those who love history as well as want to understand the truth of human nature in a world whose future is very much related to its past.

[Vaughn]

This is the concise version and I do appreciate the breadth of this book but it wrote largely about Europe, the United States, and Russia. I would've liked to have heard more about other regions. He did discuss Africa, Asia, Australia, but there was so much that was missing. It is the concise edition so I can understand that the author picked the regions for a reason.

[Leandro Martins · Rating 2 out of 5]

It should be more like "the History of Europe and USA with their problems around the world in the XX century". This book is always a tough job for everyone, but I think is a little bit lazy when you write about the 1939-1945 period and only talk about World War II (probably some copy-paste from another of his books...).

[wally walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

the second part, particularly the last 20 years was very boring being largely repetitious the continual struggle against militant Islam and petty dictators wanting to create largely unviable countries

[Ron Willoughby · Rating 4 out of 5]

K

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except for the 1950s which I found confusing, it is a good overview of the 20th century.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The century of war.
The century of the common man. (In it, the common man has suffered most.)
The century of the refugee.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabuloso! Foi muito oportuno lê-lo agora em que a Rússia invade a Ucrânia. Os sinais estavam todos lá.