Customer Reviews

Guinness Book of the 20th Century

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This is a collection of the most newsworthy events that happened every year from 1900 to 1999, with two to eight pages devoted to each year. It's an interesting survey, and if you read it chronologically it's fascinating to see the events of the century unfold. Even the most famous events are surprising, in a way, in this greater context.

This is a book you can read a couple of pages at a time, or in large chunks such as on a long trip. It reads almost like a newspaper, but if it has a fault, it's that like newspapers, it has some inaccuracies (e.g., it states that the 1989 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area occurred on October 19th and killed 273 people, when in fact the quake happened on October 17th and killed 62). I only caught that because I lived through that event, but it made me wonder if there were any errors which I didn't notice.

Still, it's worth reading as sort of a refresher course in modern world history.

Each year of the century covered. Politics, history, science, sports and pop culture. A fun read. Fascinating facts. Great infotainment. Exceptional value.