Customer Reviews

The Century

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book, which purports to be an historical account of our century, is nothing but a colossal flop and big disappointment. All the glossy pictures and captions are interesting for about five or ten minutes, and then this book will start taking up space and collecting dust on your coffee table or bookcase. Jennings and Brewster claim to cover the history of the 20th century in this book, but what they have produced instead is a dumbed down, jaded, and insultingly simplistic work of tabloid journalism masquarading as history. My condolences to anyone who was duped into buying this book by all of the hype. For those of you who have not yet plopped down the 40+ dollars for this book, don't do it! Invest in a good paperweight instead! Or better yet, read one of the many well-written books about historical events that occurred in the 20th century. At least then you will have a better idea of what you are getting and will not be disappointed, insulted, and misinformed by Jennings' media spin machine.

Having listened to a number of audiobooks on various historical subjects, I rate this one pretty highly. Rather than a reading of a text, this is the sound track to the ABC/History Channel show. The inclusion of speeches, interviews and music brings to life what can be pretty dry stuff--especially if you're listening to relieve the tedium of a long drive. The section on pre-WWII was especially compelling--I will not so easily forget the juxtaposition of a Hitler speech with the interview of an elderly German who tried to explain what this man meant to a country that had been crushed by WWI reparations, runaway inflation, and the Depression. No these types of books and tapes are not for college level history courses--but we are a country in which a junior high school student seriously asked a German friend of mine whether Hitler was still the President of Germany! Under the circumstances, I'm all in favor of a little "pop" history!

Reading this book at this time has been the most meaningful way for me to celebrate the new millennium.

I was born roughly mid-century, so it was a great way to look back on and put into a clearer overall context events that took place within my memory. And it increased my understanding of my own values and the values of my parents and grandparents by comparing events in, say, the thirties and forties vs the sixties and seventies.

The authors state "History is a photograph, a picture framed this way by one lensman, that way by another." The hardest part of making this book must not have been what to put in, but given the scope, what to leave out. I didn't always agree with their decisions.

Let it be said quite clearly that this book is about the AMERICAN century - that is to say from the US point of view. Events elsewhere in the world are covered extensively, but only if they had a substantial impact on the US - the Bolshevik revolution and the rise of the Third Reich, for example. And while many pages are justly devoted to US space exploration, not a sentence mentions a Frenchman's invention, SCUBA, that allowed exploration of the oceans. Although Cuba, Panama and Nicaragua and briefly discussed, I don't recall reading a single word about South America. How is it possible to devote 3 pages to OJ Simpson, yet never mention the wholescale destruction of rainforests, along with the cultures and species that inhabit them, that has truly changed humankind and the face of our planet in the past 100 years? Ample, insightful discussions of race issues never touch on those surrounding Hispanics, Native Americans or Asians.

Despite these criticisms, I found much of this book to be compelling reading, prompting emotional responses in me (I'm from the US) ranging from great pride and amazement to anger and shame. Photograhs play as important a role as the text, and are well used throughout. These, combined with one-page first person accounts by people who lived through the events described put a human face on the history. The layout of the book invites casual browsing, (which is how I first started reading it), but it is most valuable to read it from start to finish to fully comprehend the flow of events. This is definately a book to keep in the family library.

As much as I liked this book, and recommend it to others, it left me with the feeling that I'd like to read a book written on the same topic by authors from Brazil, Kenya, Thailand or Russia....

"The Century" is a large coffee table style book that covers the history of the 20th century. While 600 pages can contain a fairly large amount of text, there are many events that can be deemed important enough to be covered in a history of the 20th century. There are enough events that 600 pages quickly fills up and many things that could be covered in detail can only be glossed over, and some things are only given a passing mention. This is to be expected. Every major world event that happened in a 100 year period cannot be adequately covered in a 600 page book (it would take two or three times as many pages to even come close). What is needed is a filter. The filter, as I see it, is two-fold. First, since this book is intended primarily for an American audience, the world events are seen through American (or perhaps just "Western") eyes. The events that are covered the most are those that directly impact America. The second filter is that events are covered that may not directly impact America, but they are so big and so iconic that to dismiss them would be folly. So, what we do have covered is the American 20th Century, and the biggest world events that indirectly impact America.

By no means is this a condemnation of the book. The topic of the 20th Century is simply too broad to cover every event of importance. This is not an in depth history, but rather a well written survey of the 20th century. It is a jumping off point for a reader to find something that is interesting and decide to read more about a given topic (segregation, the Berlin Wall, McCarthyism, etc). In every chapter, and touching most of the major subjects, there are personal testimonies written by people who actually lived through the events. This gives a personal look at what could be abstract history.

When I finished this book I was glad that I had read it. I find history surveys interesting because they give the bigger picture of what was going on. The text in this book flows smoothly and it is an easy and interesting read (though time consuming).

The point of the book (as well as the History Channel series) is to provide historical accounts by people who witnessed these events first hand. Sure, it is somewhat lacking before 1920, but that is because most of the people who were around for those events are dead. That is also why some of the later events are more complete. There is a bigger supply of witnesses. There is no way to include everything. I thought that it made a good attempt to show the history from the common man's perspective. Sure, it is biased, and it does not include every major event. Don't read it for interpretation of the events, read it for the personal accounts. That is something that you won't get from most history books. I recommend the audio book. There's nothing like hearing the voices.

The Century surely can spark discussion of what was covered and what was not, but it should be complimented for much of what it does include. The narrative is well-written, the photos are wonderful, and the individual anecdotes give real meaning to what it was like to experience these historical events. The effort to include the African-American experience was noteworthy. The volume also seemed to capture the overall tone for most decades; for example, the Fifties' coverage of suburbia and Little Rock. It was impossible to include everything, even when limiting scope to an American perspective. However, my list of omissions would include the Depression era for rural and agricultural America; Latin America and Hispanic immigration; South Africa; and women in our society. I also question the authors' judgment in calling Reagan's contribution "significant" and then totally ignoring President Clinton,the eight years of prosperity and the growth of global trade we have experienced during his leadership. Perhaps, the book should have been called "Not Quite a Century."

Dear Mr. Jennings: Hard to believe that as a former foreign correspondent and citizen of the world you've taken such a glib view of the world outside the US. The coverage of your book is so disproportionate, and so personality-driven that it's almost like the People Magazine version of history. What happened in Asia (Sino-Japanese War, democratic revolution in the Philippines, India/Pakistan) were given minimal coverage. Do you think that more than half of the world's people matter this little? Perhaps you should call this The Century - volume 1.