Born 1900: A Human History of the Twentieth Century - For Everyone Who Was There - Hardcover

Davies, Hunter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316644714 ISBN 13: 9780316644716

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company, 1998

Synopsis

The Labour Party, the "Daily Express", West Ham United FC, Birmingham University and the opera Tosca all have one thing in common with the Queen Mother. They all first saw the light of day in the year 1900. Author and interviewer Hunter Davies follows the century through these people and institutions, exploring how we live now and how we lived then. Why isn't education as valued today? Where are the great philanthropists? Why does work have so little meaning when it's all people do? These are some of the questions provoked by Hunter Davies' interviewees and their candid recollections of being born with the century. Amid huge technological changes, it is the lack of community and the belief of most people that they now live in an uncaring world, that appears to define the century's end.

About this title

Product Description:

The life stories of 21 people, and the inception of several institutions and inventions, or with a beginning in 1900. The diverse people featured are: - Jane Barrett , Richie Joyce, Emma Logan, Tony Collins, Dorothy Ennis, Dame Elizabeth Hill, Angus MacMillan, Len Vale- Onslow, Anne Westman , Lawrence Parsons, Albert Charlton, Leonard Cooper, Perl Newman, Dr David Davies, Monty Hedges, Mary Ellis, Cissie Read , Dr Daly Briscoe, Amy Wilkinson, Nancy Lambert and the Queen Mother. The institutions and inventions examined are the Daily Express, Birmingham University, Mercedes , West Ham United, hamburgers, and the Labour Party. Freud and the interpretation of dreams is also included.

Review:

What do hamburgers, the Labour Party, Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, The Queen Mother, and Len Vale-Onslow, Birmingham motorcycle mechanic, all have in common? They were all born in 1900, and are just some of the figures discussed in Hunter Davies' Born 1900: A Human History of the Twentieth Century.

Davies' book is a great concept. If, as has been suggested recently, the 20th century is The People's Century, then what better way to take stock of the epoch than through the oral testimony of a group of people born in 1900? Add to this some of the institutions and objects which have defined the century, and you have the basis for a wonderful and fascinating book. Many of Davies' interviews and stories are a joy, such as the remarkable story of Dorothy Ellis, devout Quaker and one of the few female undergraduates to study at the University of Birmingham-- another 1900 babe examined by Davies.

Unfortunately Born 1900 tends to play safe in its subject matter, and as a result often falls into banality. Interviews with people pushing a hundred can never be easy, but what about the issues which have really defined the century? Where's the political conflict? Where's the impact of industrialisation and new media? Where's the sex? Speaking of sex, the chapters on objects and institutions also disappoint, as in the discussion of Freud's.contribution. If the 20th century really was like this, then we're in serious trouble from future generations. --Jerry Brotton

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0316644714
• ISBN 13: 9780316644716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400