Customer Reviews

A History of the Twentieth Century: The Concise Edition of the Acclaimed World History

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Choosing a book of general world history is confusing, but this is a fine choice (it helped me pass the FSOE...twice). It runs through general themes of the last century in a clearly-worded manner without getting bogged down in names, dates, conspiracy theories, ideology, or blaming the world's problems on anyone. I took one star away merely because some of the WW2 stuff is unnecessarily detailed (I understand it interests many, and some other books were worse, but a bit too much on one war to me). If the lone poor review worries you, it's incorrect - the book does well to cover many areas (and why any review in such poor English would convince you not to read a book in English is beyond me, since the reviewer could not have understood the book). But as the foreword makes very clear, this is a selection of issues. It is possible, even likely, that your ethnic, linguistic, racial, or religious group's particular problems - or viewpoints - are not covered, but this book will put those issues in a broader perspective. And yes, it focuses on issues that will interest a Western, English-speaking reader but it does a surprisingly decent job on touching on all areas of the world to demonstrate general themes and does so without judging events. If you want a detailed history or one on a specific group or issue, read a book on that: For example, I recommend The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence for a decent, highly-detailed African history, but this book is a great overview before you head into more detailed work.

The book was used in a short semester study by adults over 60. It was perfect for the course because I could do further research on any subject covered, after getting the basics from the book and further details from the professor - a great book to have around for the grandchildren!

I believe that this book is one of my best, well worth reading, and then re-reading. I should value any feedback, thoughts and suggestions.

I bought this book for my 20th century world topics class. It came in good condition and is very informative and detailed, AND if you have a hard time sleeping at night, just flip this open and sleep comes quickly!

The information in the book is mostly snippets of wars leaving aside a vast amount of technical, development and famine etc related information.
The whole section about second world war leaves the atrocities committed on the gypsy's and other people. Colonial powers point of view is dominant. The Would not recommend for reading