The Penguin History of the Twentieth Century: The History of the World, 1901 to the Present (Allen Lane History) (Allen Lane History S) - Softcover

Roberts, J M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140276319 ISBN 13: 9780140276312

Publisher: Penguin, 2000

Synopsis

This dazzling overview of a turbulent century explores both dramatic events and underlying trends. Despite a terrible two-stage 'European civil war' and the traumatic rise and fall of communism, wealth has increased dramatically alongside a four-fold leap in population, women's lives have been transformed, America has assumed undisputed political and cultural leadership. The Penguin History of the Twentieth Century is powerful, international and definitive.

About this title

Review:

J M Roberts' monumental Penguin History of the World became a publishing phenomenon and sold in its hundreds of thousands. Now he has produced an equally brilliant new work, focusing solely on our own troubled and dramatic century, and it has all the breathtaking sweep and confident judgment of his previous work. Most importantly, Roberts takes a truly international view of things. The 20th century, he argues, is marked as much as anything by the decline of Europe as the world's sole arbiter and the emergence of today's cosmopolitan, global civilisation, born of decolonization, the resurgence of Islam and the vibrant, self-assured new nations of Asia and Latin America. He also examines the other two major trends of our time: the social and economic empowerment of women and the extraordinary quadrupling of the world's population, most of it in Third World countries. A challenging and exacting read.--Christopher Hart

Review:

A book that deserves the widest reading. (The New York Times Book Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0140276319
• ISBN 13: 9780140276312
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 928