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100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events That Changed the World
Much more than a book of pictures, 100 Days in Photographs is a compelling visual journey through our age—an odyssey that's personal and universal, immediate and timeless. To create it, Getty Images and National Geographic identified 100 days that represent defining moments of the past 150 years... and crystallized them with photographs that leap from the page to evoke joy and anger, triumph and despair. Supporting the visuals are firsthand journal excerpts, photographers' on-site notes, and insightful text by photography historian Nick Yapp.
From the Getty Images archive, astonishing images depict major world events: revolution in 19th-century Europe, President Lincoln's assassination, the Eiffel Tower's construction from 1887 to 1889, Bleriot flies the English Channel in 1909, the Wall Street crash of 1929, Germany's Kristallnacht, the British quit India in 1947, and more. National Geographic's contributions illustrate scientific, cultural, and geographical topics—including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees, Chernobyl's nuclear disaster, the cloning of sheep, the attacks of September 11, 2001, and today's global warming debate. Page after eye-catching page reveals the emotion of an entire event or age captured in a single image—whether of a peasant's tears, of world leaders sharing a secret, or the triumph of an Olympic champion. Politics, war, crime, technology, achievement, fads, and fashion all figure into the life and legacy of these 100 days.
Featuring scores of rare and unpublished photographs uncovered during its creation, this remarkable book provides new perspective on key events and personalities of the past 150 years.
From the Getty Images archive, astonishing images depict major world events: revolution in 19th-century Europe, President Lincoln's assassination, the Eiffel Tower's construction from 1887 to 1889, Bleriot flies the English Channel in 1909, the Wall Street crash of 1929, Germany's Kristallnacht, the British quit India in 1947, and more. National Geographic's contributions illustrate scientific, cultural, and geographical topics—including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees, Chernobyl's nuclear disaster, the cloning of sheep, the attacks of September 11, 2001, and today's global warming debate. Page after eye-catching page reveals the emotion of an entire event or age captured in a single image—whether of a peasant's tears, of world leaders sharing a secret, or the triumph of an Olympic champion. Politics, war, crime, technology, achievement, fads, and fashion all figure into the life and legacy of these 100 days.
Featuring scores of rare and unpublished photographs uncovered during its creation, this remarkable book provides new perspective on key events and personalities of the past 150 years.
311 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 1, 2016
100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events That Changed the World
Wonderful book created by National Geographic Society and Getty Images, showcasing rare and previously unpublished photographs of 100 defining events between may 1851 and august 2005.
A treasure trove for history buffs and photography lovers alike.
My most loved moment : the discovery of the 1,8 million year old zinjanthropus skull ('nutcracker man') in july 1959 by Mary Leakey.
July 27, 2022
An engrossing book with eye catching images and insightful narration.
October 25, 2010
The photos in this work deserve a different rating than three stars. The compilation details 100 great and important events, yet the photos that illustrate them are not necessarily the best or even very good in some instances for the subject detailed.
Examples of the mismatch between the story and the image include the Hungarian revolution entry that shows an otherwise pedestrian photograph of a crowd burning a poster of a hated leader. Yet, the thousands of images that came from this event covering a gamut from bodies in the streets, to public executions, and finally tanks rolling in the middle of Buda & Pest are not used. Various other entries have similar problems with photos that have a certain greatness, but don't illustrate well the event that helped to change the 19th and twentieth centuries.
An example of the quality lies with the Partition of India where sheet after sheet and roll after roll of film were exposed where each and every one was stunning. The photos selected for this entry in the "100 Days in Photographs" are at best only average in their impact and don't illustrate well the story told of the throngs of people fleeing one new country or the other depending upon their religion.
Mentioned many times in regards to this work is the problem of rights and clearances. A question arises if the photographs were chosen that were publishable and if that drove the selection of events. Or, were events chosen and photographs previously unseen searched for and the list pared down to the magic 100? Various critical assassinations were neglected, events that were arguably only a small part of the larger story were told and illustrated, and other disjointed editorial choices abound.
There are great and important photographs to be found in this book. Historical early work from the Crimean and Boer conflicts, for example, illustrate early photography well. The sequence photographs documenting the building of the Eiffel Tower are important for a spectrum of reasons. How photography was used and developed is apparent from beginning to end in this book, just not consistently explained.
Finally a note on the photographs from certain photographers. The pivotal events of World War II seem to be skewed in favor of a historical misrepresentation regarding what were the important events and favoring certain Time Life photographers who were not the greatest in photographing certain events. There has to be a rights problem as Time-Life published much better and far more critically acclaimed London Blitz photos, but they were by different photographers than the ones noted. National Geographic surely has better unpublished or not widely seen images of Vietnam and more pivotal events than these of the fall of Saigon.
If this were to just be never before or rarely seen images of pivotal events, it only goes part of the way. If this book is a select 100 events it is only partially successful in the relative value of the 100 selected. Inconsistency in the editorial compilation, erratic commentary on the photographs and events, and in many cases a safe selection of photographers drags this book down from a pinnacle to only stand on the lower slopes of the heights that photographs of 100 great events could bring to a reader.
Examples of the mismatch between the story and the image include the Hungarian revolution entry that shows an otherwise pedestrian photograph of a crowd burning a poster of a hated leader. Yet, the thousands of images that came from this event covering a gamut from bodies in the streets, to public executions, and finally tanks rolling in the middle of Buda & Pest are not used. Various other entries have similar problems with photos that have a certain greatness, but don't illustrate well the event that helped to change the 19th and twentieth centuries.
An example of the quality lies with the Partition of India where sheet after sheet and roll after roll of film were exposed where each and every one was stunning. The photos selected for this entry in the "100 Days in Photographs" are at best only average in their impact and don't illustrate well the story told of the throngs of people fleeing one new country or the other depending upon their religion.
Mentioned many times in regards to this work is the problem of rights and clearances. A question arises if the photographs were chosen that were publishable and if that drove the selection of events. Or, were events chosen and photographs previously unseen searched for and the list pared down to the magic 100? Various critical assassinations were neglected, events that were arguably only a small part of the larger story were told and illustrated, and other disjointed editorial choices abound.
There are great and important photographs to be found in this book. Historical early work from the Crimean and Boer conflicts, for example, illustrate early photography well. The sequence photographs documenting the building of the Eiffel Tower are important for a spectrum of reasons. How photography was used and developed is apparent from beginning to end in this book, just not consistently explained.
Finally a note on the photographs from certain photographers. The pivotal events of World War II seem to be skewed in favor of a historical misrepresentation regarding what were the important events and favoring certain Time Life photographers who were not the greatest in photographing certain events. There has to be a rights problem as Time-Life published much better and far more critically acclaimed London Blitz photos, but they were by different photographers than the ones noted. National Geographic surely has better unpublished or not widely seen images of Vietnam and more pivotal events than these of the fall of Saigon.
If this were to just be never before or rarely seen images of pivotal events, it only goes part of the way. If this book is a select 100 events it is only partially successful in the relative value of the 100 selected. Inconsistency in the editorial compilation, erratic commentary on the photographs and events, and in many cases a safe selection of photographers drags this book down from a pinnacle to only stand on the lower slopes of the heights that photographs of 100 great events could bring to a reader.
December 27, 2014
An interesting compilation and reflection of photographic history, this book still left a lot to be desired.
There were multiple errors in proofreading, such as referring to "the World War I." There were also factual errors that were, I suspect, again a result of poor proofreading. When referring to the failures in the field of aviation "until the arrival of Charles E. Lindbergh (1859-1924)" the book immediately goes on to talk about his flight in 1927. Perhaps they were trying to cite the dates of the aviation attempts, because Lindbergh's life actually spanned 1902-1974. Whatever they were trying to say, it was poorly done and I expect a lot better of any publication with National Geographic involved.
Additionally, as many other reviewers have noted, the photographs chosen to represent the events were often not only not the best, but were sometimes sub-par. The book seems to be aware of this, as the accompanying narration frequently refers to other, not included photographs. When discussing the Berlin Blockade, the text for the chosen photo refers to "Henry (Heinz) Reis's classic image of a group of children waving to a U.S. supply plane coming in to land at Tempelhof Airport) similar to the one shown here." It gave the sense, over and over, that we were not being shown the best photographs but just the ones that National Geographic and Getty Images already owned the rights to.
Finally, through no fault of the book in this case, it was an enormously depressing read with the majority of events depicting death and destruction brought by humans upon other humans. I also noticed that women were actively involved in only three of the events depicted (suffragette movement, Elizabeth Eckford at Little Rock, and the Challenger disaster). Other than that they were at best bystanders to events (Beatles audience or standing near famous husband) or more often victims (mother and child with the wreckage of Hiroshima, women and children corpses of Armenian genocide), or completely absent (see: everything else). I don't really know what to conclude about that, but it is interesting to me that so many turning points of history are so very violent, and that women are so very absent.
All in all, an interesting and fast read but not one that I would necessarily recommend when there are so many other photographic works of history available.
There were multiple errors in proofreading, such as referring to "the World War I." There were also factual errors that were, I suspect, again a result of poor proofreading. When referring to the failures in the field of aviation "until the arrival of Charles E. Lindbergh (1859-1924)" the book immediately goes on to talk about his flight in 1927. Perhaps they were trying to cite the dates of the aviation attempts, because Lindbergh's life actually spanned 1902-1974. Whatever they were trying to say, it was poorly done and I expect a lot better of any publication with National Geographic involved.
Additionally, as many other reviewers have noted, the photographs chosen to represent the events were often not only not the best, but were sometimes sub-par. The book seems to be aware of this, as the accompanying narration frequently refers to other, not included photographs. When discussing the Berlin Blockade, the text for the chosen photo refers to "Henry (Heinz) Reis's classic image of a group of children waving to a U.S. supply plane coming in to land at Tempelhof Airport) similar to the one shown here." It gave the sense, over and over, that we were not being shown the best photographs but just the ones that National Geographic and Getty Images already owned the rights to.
Finally, through no fault of the book in this case, it was an enormously depressing read with the majority of events depicting death and destruction brought by humans upon other humans. I also noticed that women were actively involved in only three of the events depicted (suffragette movement, Elizabeth Eckford at Little Rock, and the Challenger disaster). Other than that they were at best bystanders to events (Beatles audience or standing near famous husband) or more often victims (mother and child with the wreckage of Hiroshima, women and children corpses of Armenian genocide), or completely absent (see: everything else). I don't really know what to conclude about that, but it is interesting to me that so many turning points of history are so very violent, and that women are so very absent.
All in all, an interesting and fast read but not one that I would necessarily recommend when there are so many other photographic works of history available.
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August 23, 2023Petty issue is that they included Live Aid for both London and Philadelphia on July 13, 1985 and included a few of the big name artists that performed at these concerts. Yet, Queen was left out of that list even though everybody knows that they stole the show at Wembly. Maybe the author only picked the artists he liked and he's not a Queen fan. Or maybe he knew that Queen was the star of the show and wanted to focus on the other singers. I don't know and it will probably keep bugging me for years and will probably be the only reason I remember this book when I see it again.
The rest of the book is okay but it can be difficult to look through with the many depressing photos from wars and famine. Not all are depressing though and those ones are of historical moments like the moon landing as well as people like Lincoln. So it's a mix of the bad and the good which is what history is.
The rest of the book is okay but it can be difficult to look through with the many depressing photos from wars and famine. Not all are depressing though and those ones are of historical moments like the moon landing as well as people like Lincoln. So it's a mix of the bad and the good which is what history is.
June 30, 2021
Pretty cool book. I didn't read all the descriptions, but I enjoyed seeing the photographs.
April 6, 2008
Lots of "important events in history" that neither Mike or I had ever heard of...some great shots, but others made you remember the more famous shot of the same event instead, which they didn't have rights to, I'm assuming. Photos are always great to look at though.
April 3, 2010
Really well-made, but also very dark - makes you wonder why so many defining moments of history are dreadfully tragic ones.
January 18, 2013
The photos are AWESOME!
August 9, 2013
A stunning collection, if a little US-centric. B+.
April 5, 2023
100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events That Changed the World by Nick Yapp (National Geographic 2007) (909.8) (3756).
This is a collection of photos from National Geographic taken between 1851 (London's “Great Exhibition”) and 2005 (Hurricane Katrina) which the editors have selected for inclusion to represent “events that changed the world.”
These are iconic photos of events with which students of history are already familiar. Most of these photos are instantly recognizable as well, but it’s nice to have these collected into one volume.
I purchased a used HB copy in good condition for $0.25 from McKay’s Books on 6/1/22.
My rating: 7/10, finished 4/5/23 (3756).
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
April 24, 2025
Getty Images + National Geographic
Questo volume nasce dalla collaborazione tra due grandi archivi fotografici che ha permesso di realizzare una raccolta di foto iconiche dell'ultimo secolo (e mezzo) - accompagnano le riproduzioni (di ottima qualità) alcuni pezzi di inquadramento storico utili per comprendere contesto e significato.
Molto interessante all'inizio (quando le foto erano pochissime e di grande interesse storico), in particolare per la prima fotografia dedicata all'Esposizione Universale di Londra del 1851; l'originalità e l'interesse scema leggermente per le foto più recenti (con alcune assenze notevoli e alcuni inserimenti discutibili - dubito che le foto di Elvis abbiano cambiato il mondo).
In ogni caso opera di sicuro interesse e di notevole impatto visivo.
Questo volume nasce dalla collaborazione tra due grandi archivi fotografici che ha permesso di realizzare una raccolta di foto iconiche dell'ultimo secolo (e mezzo) - accompagnano le riproduzioni (di ottima qualità) alcuni pezzi di inquadramento storico utili per comprendere contesto e significato.
Molto interessante all'inizio (quando le foto erano pochissime e di grande interesse storico), in particolare per la prima fotografia dedicata all'Esposizione Universale di Londra del 1851; l'originalità e l'interesse scema leggermente per le foto più recenti (con alcune assenze notevoli e alcuni inserimenti discutibili - dubito che le foto di Elvis abbiano cambiato il mondo).
In ogni caso opera di sicuro interesse e di notevole impatto visivo.
September 2, 2021
I especially liked the early looks at the infancy of photography and what it was being used to capture; also that almost every day represented had a corresponding note discussing the photographer and his/her work.
August 7, 2017
A great tool in learning some about historic events. Good photographs. I say I' m currently reading because I keep going back to it.
April 22, 2019
A photograph can evoke such memories and most of the events featured occurred in my lifetime. It brought back the feelings of the times and added context to the memory.
February 25, 2008
Wow! This book brings back a lot of memories of events that occurred during my lifetime that I don't think about very often like Chernobyl, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the Live Aid Concerts, Tiananmen Square and more!
It also provided keen insight about other events that are considered most prominent in world history such as the opening of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in London in 1851, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the discovery of Machu Picchu in 1911, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and much much more!
It also provided keen insight about other events that are considered most prominent in world history such as the opening of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in London in 1851, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the discovery of Machu Picchu in 1911, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and much much more!
June 8, 2012
While the concept was great, I found this to be a shoddy book. The grey background with white text meant I could hardly read half of the text on the pages which was very frustrating. I also felt that for some of the events there are other pictures which are vastly more recognizable and should have been included. It kind of felt like a poorly put together yearbook. I did value what accurate information was in there and the pictures included.
July 29, 2013
A very good selection of photographs with good description of the events and short bits about photography or photographers involved. It was interesting that the photographs picked for most of the events were not the stock ones we associate with those events. A nice coffee table book that can stimulate discussion.
June 16, 2008
Fasinating and visual history. I don't know which pictures I enjoyed more - the historical ones before my time or the ones from the mid 70's to the present day. Would be a great coffee table book, Kramer would love it.
July 28, 2008
of course some entries to this book were debatable, however it was still a good book to read. but to me personally, IMO photography was surpassed by videos in capturing histories as they happened. doesn't it?
June 3, 2014
This is the first photography book that I actually sat and read. It was SO fascinating! It had first hand quotes, great pictures and wonderful context for each event. I truly enjoyed how the events were from around the world. I want this one for my shelves!!
December 30, 2024
Yes, I'm aware. There are lots of errors in the book. It proves. That the photos. Capture the moment. Can tell you the entire story. Without words.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews