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LIFE: Our Century in Pictures for Young People
Drawing on more than 350 photos from LIFE Magazine, a look back at the last century captures the most important events of this time and includes essays from nine notable children's authors. 250,000 first printing.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
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May 6, 2012Linda Dexheimer
Picture Books
This book is filled with pictures beginning in 1900 and ending in 1999. The book was created by Life magazine which is known for it's beautiful and poignant pictures. Some of the pictures capture our finest moments while other's capture some of the more frightening times but overall, this would be a great tool for an American History class. Teachers could use photos as discussion focal points. Really, a great find. I'm glad I purchased it because my younger (7&8 year olds)readers love the pictures.
Picture Books
This book is filled with pictures beginning in 1900 and ending in 1999. The book was created by Life magazine which is known for it's beautiful and poignant pictures. Some of the pictures capture our finest moments while other's capture some of the more frightening times but overall, this would be a great tool for an American History class. Teachers could use photos as discussion focal points. Really, a great find. I'm glad I purchased it because my younger (7&8 year olds)readers love the pictures.
January 5, 2025
It's 3.5 rating. It's a great book, I had it since I was 13/14 years old.
I just think it's incredible that someone had the idea to make a book before 2000 just for children to remember the 20th century and had iconic children's book authors write short essays along with historical photos. A lot of the photos were present at the Pulitzer Prize exhibition, which I appreciated as an adult. I'm appreciative of my childhood exposure to good and valuable content.
I just think it's incredible that someone had the idea to make a book before 2000 just for children to remember the 20th century and had iconic children's book authors write short essays along with historical photos. A lot of the photos were present at the Pulitzer Prize exhibition, which I appreciated as an adult. I'm appreciative of my childhood exposure to good and valuable content.
October 29, 2017
This is a photographic compilation of some of the major events that happened during the 20th century not only in the United States, but across the globe. Fascinating photos, fascinating blurbs to go with the photos.
January 1, 2022
I bought this for my sister when she was 11. It was on my parents' bookshelf and I was bored so I picked it up and then couldn't put it down. I love that each section of the book has an overview written by an award winning children's author.
August 2, 2023
I bought this secondhand for my classroom library, and I have spent the summer paging through it. It is definitely fascinating, but I feel that the way it was written has not aged well. Nevertheless, I think it will be valuable for kids interested in history.
February 19, 2019
3.5/5.
This is a really useful way for me to brush up on my 20th century history. I really dig these kind of books and I want to look for one about WW1 or WW2.
This is a really useful way for me to brush up on my 20th century history. I really dig these kind of books and I want to look for one about WW1 or WW2.
June 23, 2020
This book was given to me as a child right when it came out and it has shaped me as an adult.
September 30, 2016
The value of this book is the wonderful photos of events and people that create a visual connection to our history. As such the book makes a wonderful complement to a detailed spine title.
However, educators should be aware that while the title states, "for young people," uses of slang, and reference to drug overdoses, violence, prohibition, AIDS, gambling, etc. will raise questions from youngsters lacking exposure to the world's vices. These factoids are not without context as they do relate to the history, but children will need an outlet to discuss their discoveries. I would not give this book to a child younger than 5th grade to read independently.
Another distraction is the uneven and sometimes ridiculous articles ("Get Hot! by Avi being one of the worst), as well as some of the captions. For example, here is caption from page 41. The photograph centers of President Wilson walking through a parade in England as young girls dressed in white throw flowers into his path. The caption, entitled "Was this trip necessary?," reads: "They rolled out the carpet for Woodrow Wilson in Dover, England, one month after the truce ending World War I. The president, age 61, then sailed to peace talks in France. He would play a pivotal role in forging the Treaty of Versailles. Congress, blind to issues beyond America's borders, rejected not only the agreement but also U.S. membership in the newly proposed League of Nations, which laid the groundwork for the United Nations formed after World War II."
The problems with this caption are many:
1) Who is asking Was this trip necessary?
2) It is correct that Wilson was pivotal in forging the Treaty of Versailles. It is also correct that it was a horrible document that contributed to fighting another war in the following generation.
3) Congress was wise not to approve the Treaty of Versailles, if only they had gone back and made corrections. Congress may have been more attentive to "issues beyond America's borders" than the President in rejecting both the Treaty and the League, which both proved antagonistic to foreign affairs.
Simple captions are helpful, but the text and articles take a bit too much liberty, in mind opinion of promoting a left leaning political view of the events covered. Wise teachers will provide balance to these oversights by discussing the photos extemporaneously or engaging older students in discussions of their shortcomings.
It's too bad. A book that highlighted the strength of the photos, including more of them, and limited the weakness of the captions would have been better. There are plenty of other spine books available for analysis of the history.
However, educators should be aware that while the title states, "for young people," uses of slang, and reference to drug overdoses, violence, prohibition, AIDS, gambling, etc. will raise questions from youngsters lacking exposure to the world's vices. These factoids are not without context as they do relate to the history, but children will need an outlet to discuss their discoveries. I would not give this book to a child younger than 5th grade to read independently.
Another distraction is the uneven and sometimes ridiculous articles ("Get Hot! by Avi being one of the worst), as well as some of the captions. For example, here is caption from page 41. The photograph centers of President Wilson walking through a parade in England as young girls dressed in white throw flowers into his path. The caption, entitled "Was this trip necessary?," reads: "They rolled out the carpet for Woodrow Wilson in Dover, England, one month after the truce ending World War I. The president, age 61, then sailed to peace talks in France. He would play a pivotal role in forging the Treaty of Versailles. Congress, blind to issues beyond America's borders, rejected not only the agreement but also U.S. membership in the newly proposed League of Nations, which laid the groundwork for the United Nations formed after World War II."
The problems with this caption are many:
1) Who is asking Was this trip necessary?
2) It is correct that Wilson was pivotal in forging the Treaty of Versailles. It is also correct that it was a horrible document that contributed to fighting another war in the following generation.
3) Congress was wise not to approve the Treaty of Versailles, if only they had gone back and made corrections. Congress may have been more attentive to "issues beyond America's borders" than the President in rejecting both the Treaty and the League, which both proved antagonistic to foreign affairs.
Simple captions are helpful, but the text and articles take a bit too much liberty, in mind opinion of promoting a left leaning political view of the events covered. Wise teachers will provide balance to these oversights by discussing the photos extemporaneously or engaging older students in discussions of their shortcomings.
It's too bad. A book that highlighted the strength of the photos, including more of them, and limited the weakness of the captions would have been better. There are plenty of other spine books available for analysis of the history.
April 19, 2015
Every once in a while I will grab one of the coffee-table books I've somehow managed to accidentally collect over the years...and actually read it. I received this one as a gift when I was leaving an active duty assignment and moving on to the next. Since it happened to be in the year 2000, somebody must have thought this would be an appropriate gift. Evidently they didn't notice the subtitle, "For Young People" but no matter. Sometimes that is for the best.
The book is divided into major sections, each corresponding to an era of the 20th century such as 1900-1913, 'Across the Threshold' and 1930-1939, 'Empty Pockets' all the way to 1993-1999, 'OurFuture.com'. Each section is introduced with an essay by an award winning author of children's or YA books. These served well to summarize the particular era. Of course the majority of the book is the pictures from the extraordinary archives of Life magazine. Most of the famous (or infamous) photographs I have ever seen before are included and many that I had not. Each is accompanied by several sentences of description which serves further to summarize the event.
Of course, in any book like this there will be disagreements on how various events are portrayed and what is important enough to be included and what is left out. I suspect some will be frustrated at the political slant of the choices here but overall I thought they did a good job of representing the century. At least from an American perspective. While events such as Apartheid, Polish solidarity, the Russian Revolution, etc. are included, I would wager that roughly 80-90 percent of the events concern the US or the US perspective on a world event.
The book is divided into major sections, each corresponding to an era of the 20th century such as 1900-1913, 'Across the Threshold' and 1930-1939, 'Empty Pockets' all the way to 1993-1999, 'OurFuture.com'. Each section is introduced with an essay by an award winning author of children's or YA books. These served well to summarize the particular era. Of course the majority of the book is the pictures from the extraordinary archives of Life magazine. Most of the famous (or infamous) photographs I have ever seen before are included and many that I had not. Each is accompanied by several sentences of description which serves further to summarize the event.
Of course, in any book like this there will be disagreements on how various events are portrayed and what is important enough to be included and what is left out. I suspect some will be frustrated at the political slant of the choices here but overall I thought they did a good job of representing the century. At least from an American perspective. While events such as Apartheid, Polish solidarity, the Russian Revolution, etc. are included, I would wager that roughly 80-90 percent of the events concern the US or the US perspective on a world event.
January 13, 2015
LIFE: Our Century in Pictures for Young People. Richard B. Stolley, ed.. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. 223 pages.
Life our century in Pictures for Young people this book that covers the 100 years from 1900 to 1999 going with pictures related to the event and with a small article inside by the author Richard B. Stolley.
This book provides many information about our century that we pretty much don't know and if we don't know our past we can't achieve the future and the century saw a major shift in the way that many people lived, with changes in politics, ideology, economics, society, culture, science, technology, and medicine the 20th century may have seen more technological and scientific progress than all the other centuries combined since the dawn of civilization and some of the mojor event that I like were Titanic and the Manhattan project and the fall of the ampire of Ussr.
But the reader can notice something in this that is not in chronological order so the reader have to be focuse and he is reading bcause it can jumped from 1918 to 1935 and than go back to 1906 but beside that I really like this book.
Life our century in Pictures for Young people this book that covers the 100 years from 1900 to 1999 going with pictures related to the event and with a small article inside by the author Richard B. Stolley.
This book provides many information about our century that we pretty much don't know and if we don't know our past we can't achieve the future and the century saw a major shift in the way that many people lived, with changes in politics, ideology, economics, society, culture, science, technology, and medicine the 20th century may have seen more technological and scientific progress than all the other centuries combined since the dawn of civilization and some of the mojor event that I like were Titanic and the Manhattan project and the fall of the ampire of Ussr.
But the reader can notice something in this that is not in chronological order so the reader have to be focuse and he is reading bcause it can jumped from 1918 to 1935 and than go back to 1906 but beside that I really like this book.
June 8, 2010
This is an overwhelmingly comprehensive look at the Twentieth Century, filled with pictures and articles contributed by notable authors such as Richard Cormier, Avi, and Katherine Paterson. I loved it and wished I could read more, but I know our girls would be bored by it. Recommend it for grades 5 and up.
December 20, 2012
This book was really interesting! There were some amazing pictures in it, with well detailed captions. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a lot about history in a shorter amount of time!
May 30, 2014
I really liked this book from the start and thought I would save it for my grandchildren, but the closer it got to the end, the more irritating the flippant captions and the leftist propaganda became. I think this book will go in the yard sale.
November 24, 2016
It was easy reading and all the events were summarized well.
However, the grammar was constantly bad, and the writing style very annoying. I felt like the authors were trying to phrase things cleverly and make it witty, but it wasn't; it was just badly written most of the time.
However, the grammar was constantly bad, and the writing style very annoying. I felt like the authors were trying to phrase things cleverly and make it witty, but it wasn't; it was just badly written most of the time.
May 14, 2010
The pictures in this book are great. My only comlaint is that I felt that there was more that could have been said about some things that were lumped in descriptions with other pictures.
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September 10, 2009J909.82Lif
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April 24, 2011great authentic images; United States history in pictures
July 12, 2013
I'm not the biggest fan of the twentieth center, but this book was okay. Especially since it was mostly pictures, and very little reading.
December 19, 2021
historical + photographic
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June 21, 2017dnf
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews