The Century [Hardcover]

Peter Jennings (Author), Todd Brewster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1998

What was it like to watch the Wright Brothers soar into the sky? To hear the first crackling voice aired on the radio? To cower in the ghastly trenches of Europe during World War I? To lose everything in the stock-market crash of 1929, or experience the birth of rock and roll? To watch the Berlin Wall divide East and West, and then, twenty-eight years later, to see it fall under the weight of tens of thousands seeking to taste freedom? For the past seven years, researchers, reporters, and producers for ABC News have searched the world's archives for the rarest and most stunning photographs and images, consulted eminent twentieth-century historians, and discovered and interviewed hundreds of eyewitnesses and participants in the significant moments of the most eventful one hundred years in human history.

The result is this spectacular book, the independent companion volume to the landmark ABC News and The History Channel television series The Century.  Co-written by ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings and Senior Editorial Producer Todd Brewster, The Century features a narrative of extraordinary quality that tracks major themes--the impact of technology, the soaring of the imagination, the ghastly violence, the joy of entertainment--through chronological chapters recounting the signal moments of each era in the century.  From "Seeds of Change: 1901-1914" to "Machine Dreams: 1990-1999," each chapter is threaded through with fascinating first-person accounts of the great events of the twentieth  century, and illustrated with over five hundred color and black-and-white photographs (many never published before) reproduced in exquisite depth and clarity.

The Century presents history as it was lived, and as it will be remembered for the next hundred years.  Here is a keepsake volume destined to be an essential part of every family's library: an epic journey through the last hundred years, whose heroes are our grandparents, our parents, ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"We have sought," write Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster, "to distinguish our story from other histories by holding each chapter up to a litmus test: Have we looked at this time from the perspective of someone who lived through it? And in doing so, have we captured a sense not only of the events of a particular era, but of the mood, the prevailing attitudes?" Thus, the experiences of ordinary men and women come to life in sidebars that appear throughout The Century. Sharpe James, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, recalls the sense of excitement and possibility he felt when Jackie Robinson became the first black ballplayer in the major leagues. Gilles Ryan remembers what it was like to be a high-school student in Dayton, Tennessee, during the Scopes Trial. Connie Chang talks about emigrating to the United States from Korea and establishing a liquor store in Los Angeles, only to have it destroyed in the civil unrest.

Comparisons to Harold Evans's The American Century are, perhaps, inevitable, but in addition to the emphasis on ordinary lives, The Century is further distinguished by the effective use of color photography (as well as several black-and-white shots). The book's sweeping narrative, shaped by Jennings and Brewster's comprehensive text, also flows a bit more smoothly than Evans's telegraphic prose; one can almost imagine Jennings reciting from these pages as he hosts the ABC/History Channel documentaries to which this book is a companion piece.

From Publishers Weekly

A companion volume to an upcoming 12-hour TV series on ABC News and 15-hour series on the History Channel, this is one of two major histories of the current century to appear this fall. The other is Harold Evans's The American Century, reviewed below. The Evans is the superior of the two, though both volumes have their strengths and weaknesses and either will make a splendid addition to anyone's bookshelf. Jennings is, of course, the news anchor at ABC, while Brewster is the senior editorial producer of the TV series allied with this book. Like the medium they're most involved with, the authors engageAvigorouslyAthe emotions more than the intellect, while offering little that most educated Americans won't already be familiar with, although their recitation of events and analysis of trends is solid, and they give more coverage to important recent events, such as the rise of the Internet, than does Evans, whose history ends more or less in 1989. Their writing is smooth throughout and the many eyewitness accounts to various events gives the book a personal immediacy that the Evans too often lacks. In essence, their book is a chronicle of glories achieved and disasters overcome. The treatment is episodic rather than thematic, and the chapter dealing with the decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall offers only a kaleidoscopic montage of events with no connecting thread. The array of photographsA125 full color, 425 b&wAis spectacular, however, and for many will be the primary reason to buy the book, as well as the Jennings name and the boost from the TV series, which could easily propel the volume onto bestseller lists. Major ad/promo; BOMC main selection; simultaneous BDD Audio.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (November 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385483279
• ISBN-13: 978-0385483278
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, December 2, 1999

By 

Gretchen Johnson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Century (Hardcover)

I found this book to be very enjoyable. The pictures were wonderful. I realized that I had experienced most of what was in the book or I had a relative that had lived through that period. Looking at some of the pictures was like seeing pictures of my own family. Other pictures and writing reminded me of the things that I have experienced during my life. I think that is what this book was meant to do. I do not think that it was meant to be an exact treatise of American history or to neglect world history, but to help us to remember the remarkable things that have happened during this century.

61 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for your home, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Century (Hardcover)

I usually acquire what knowledge of history I have from novels or movies like Saving Private Ryan or The Triumph and Glory. Fictional presentation of historic events is usually far more interesting than dry paragraphs of academic prose about past events. But Jennings' book is an exception to that rule--it is very well written and accompanied by intriguing photos and captions that stirred my interest and led me to further explore the bewildering but fascinating field of history.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An American Pop Diary of the 20th Century, May 20, 2000

By 

David M. Garrett (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Century (Hardcover)

While a nice compilation, this is clearly history for the casual student (or those gearing up for a date with Regis or a game of Trival Pursuit). The book is nostalgic not scholarly. While thought provoking in places it clearly presents the 20th Century in typical American style... by sound bite and snap shot. The volume is long on highlights, celebrity and sensational events and short on analysis or cultural milestones in music, art, exploration, literature, and science. This book certainly fills a niche (coffee table, middle schooler strugging to get a handle on mom and dad's past, etc.) but Jennings would do well to leave history to the historians. Readable, entertaining, but don't pack it to college.