Customer Reviews

Eyewitness the 1900s (BBC Eyewitness)

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I've listened to several of these BBC Eyewitness series, and have found every single one to be utterly engrossing. After the narrator gives the background of the decade's major events, we hear the first-hand accounts of the people who witnessed or participated in them. This series covering the first decade of the century is my favorite, for a few reasons: First, the people who experienced life in the "aughts" are pretty much all dead and gone, unlike those from the WWII generation, so to hear these people who lived through the death of Queen Victoria and the Boer War is to hear the voice of a whole generation speaking from the grave. Secondly, theirs was probably the last generation whose voices were not unnaturally influenced by the homogenizing effects of mass radio and television. And in this series we have the pleasure to hear the wonderful diversity of the British tongue in its myriad charming and sometimes indecipherable accents and dialects. Third, it is absolutely fascinating to learn just how backward- economically and socially- Britain was a mere century ago. Especially when contrasted with egalitarian America, it is striking to hear how turn-of-the-20th century Britain was living under a class/caste system that hadn't changed much since the turn of the 19th century. This is a wonderful series of popular history that takes you back in time better than any history book. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to understand the average Briton's world of 100 years ago.