Customer Reviews

History of the Twentieth Century, A, Vol I: Volume One: 1900 - 1933

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Martin Gilbert is a terrific historian, and some reviews, in my opinion, are a bit too harsh. By definition, an historical overview of the first 33 years of the 20th Century in "just" 896 pages, is general in nature. I don't disagree with some of the reviewers that important events were glossed over, and some missed entirely. However, the most important event of international consequence during the period described is WWI, and Gilbert's account is superb. Having read Gilbert, I had a much greater appreciation of the "falling dominoes" which preceded and were responsible for the war. Certainly there are other works which deal with WWI in more detail (Keegan, Tuchman,etc., or in a different vein, Robert Graves and Remarque), and I doubt if Gilbert would disagree. However, for the hisorical novice, or for one who simply desires to be more conversant on the 20th century, this book is excellent. Like many overviews such as Gilbert's the bibliography provides a great resource for those who desire to probe more deeply into this tumultuous period in our history, which set the stage for WWII. Historial overviews serve a very valuable purpose and the reader should understand that the author is painting with a broad brush. A focused book limited to the First Battle of Ypres or the Battle of Belleau Wood makes far more sense when read after a work such as Gilbert's, not before, and therein, prehaps lies the great value. Likewise, one should read Foote or Catton prior to Coddington's classic on the Battle of Gettysburg. In summary, an excellent read placing the first 33 years of the 20th century in context,and well worth the time.

My only gripe about this book is that, in trying to be comprehensive, it deals very lightly on the scientific, economic, cultural and artistic developments of the first 33 years of the century. How could he not mention the publication of Einstein's epoch-making papers in 1905! The author should have just concentrated on the political and military aspects; it is here that he is in his element. This is not analytical history, but I don't think it was meant to be. It sets out the facts plain and simple, and we are left to form our own opinions. And indeed I often paused to think about the implications of this or that event. Mr Gilbert is a fine writer, and his narrative becomes compelling as one reads on. The highlight of the book are the chapters regarding World War I; it is truly edge-of-the-seat stuff, which is quite remarkable for a narrative of this kind. Despite the faults, I enjoyed this book immensely, and I look forward eagerly to the remaning two volumes.

British historian and academic Sir Martin Gilbert (knighted by the Queen in 1995) has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most authoritative academics on the subject of the twentieth century, and has written perhaps more prolifically than anyone else on various aspects of this remarkable epoch. Indeed, he has written such a torrent of different books on everything ranging from a multiple volume biography of Sir Winston Churchill to histories of World War One, World War two, that a complete accounting of his efforts would require more space than is available for the review. Thus it should come as no surprise that he has written a three-volume overview of the twentieth century itself. What is so surprising is how engaging, entertaining, and accessible each of the three volumes is to the reader.

In this first volume Gilbert masterfully introduces us to the sweep of events beginning at the opening of the century, and we almost immediately understand just how momentous the coming changes must be to sweep away the incredible array of traditional forces present at the turn of the century in 1900. From the description in the opening pages of the so-called boxer Rebellion in China as the marvelous international cooperation that characterized this multi-country military and diplomatic operation to the narrative explaining the difficulties facing both the newly elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the rising Chancellor of Germany, Adolph Hitler, in the depths of the Depression some 33 years later, this is a book that engages the reader in the spectacle of the transformation of our world from everything autocratic, traditional and rigidly controlled to all that became so characteristic of the century thereafter; democratic, irrational, murderous, and wildly chaotic. With an amazing and delightful eye for absorbing detail, Gilbert threads his way through the particular personalities, events and issues as they arise chronologically.

This is the one accurate criticism I have read about which may be directed at the book. He does stick fairly much to a faithful chronological narrative. Yet, given the plethora of events, issues, personalities and changes occurring throughout the world, any other organization would suffer from other problems such as maintaining context for the reader, so one can appreciate all that faced a particular leader in a given situation. Understanding how the multitudes of actors, issues, and countries are involved and intertwined lends itself to better comprehension, at least in this reviewer's mind. After all, it is mind-boggling to understand in the last hundred years the western world transformed itself in almost every dimension imaginable; technological, scientific, social, economic, and philosophical. To attempt to do justice to this wide panoply of revolutionary change requires a certain perspective and rigorous discipline to do so, especially in the 3,000 or so pages allotted to the overall work.

The narrative herein works its way fatefully through the events leading up the First World War, guiding us through the tragedy of this most unnecessary of wars, and shows us how the various national interests and ideologies involved not only during the war but in its aftermath set the stage for what follows. One is struck by how masterfully Gilbert threads his way through this most essential lesson of history; i.e., how the past and what it holds profoundly sets the stage and writes the script for all that follows. From China to Berlin, from Sarajevo to Washington, from Gallipoli to Paris, we follow the story of our own century as it unfolds, and the act of finishing this particular volume only whets one's appetite for the next volume, which covers the era from the Depression of the 1930s through the epic events of the Second World War and the world that conflict created up into the 1950s.Enjoy!

This concise, informative, and historically delightful first volume of Gilbert's three volume series is very pleasing. Although the content is probably more than 60% centered on European affairs, it is still worth purchasing. I look forward to reading the other two volumes in this magnificently interesting and though-provoking series.

This book's viewpoint is that of a British Jew, and he spends lots of time on British colonial history, and of course on the first World War. Some of the stuff on the less momentous years was new to me. There are some errors, e.g., on page 788: "...a prolonged drought spreading westward from the Pacific Coast..."! The 1927 account refers to Henry L. Stimson as an ex-Secretary of State, rather than an ex-Secretary of War. (Stimson did not become Secretary of State till 1929.) FDR is said to have been inaugurated March 3, 1933! There is limited attention to social trends, literature, and such. I think a more analytic approach would have been more useful and attention-holding. Much of the 33 and 1/3 years covered is dismal and sad, but we can't blame Gilbert for that. I feel sure I will read Volume II, I am sure.

Despite all the hoopla, this is a bad, bad book, which reads as if two dozen researchers had gathered every scrap of information on the first part of this century and then the most unimaginative of writers had just put them in chronological order and called it a history.

The first volume spanning 1900-1933 is a comprehensive look at the first third of the 20th century. Gilberts' style is somewhat dry, but not boring as he touches on the important events of these years. The subjects are mostly political, dealing with wars and the shifts in power that occured during those times. A good overview of the first part of the century. My only minor complaint is that a lot of the inventions that were accomplished (flight, the emergence of the automobile) were given only passing interest.

My preference has been to avoid authors for whom writing is not an individual effort but an industrial enterprise. Both Mr. Gilbert and his American twin Mr. Ambrose, prolific and omnipresent in the history stacks, produce such a volume of paper that is quite impossible to be the work of just single men.

Thinking more that in Mr. Gilbert's case, he has an orchestra of researchers and copy writers who proffer up near finished work, which he then edits into his style by removing the individuating writing of others. This can lead to some amusing and albeit depressing errors, some in fact and others in grammar.

1) page 84. Colon, Panama is and has always been on the Caribbean coast of that isthmus.

2) page 102. The bottom third of this page is incomprehensibly garbled.

Such blunders early on cast a shadow over the following thousand pages. They are the kind of technical errors that show a writing project out of control, pressured by time and budget; the author's interest distracted as he becomes more of a manager and less of a writer.

Book Mills have huge advantages over the lone author; massively parallel, coordinated and detailed subject analysis, cross-proof reading, platoons of research assistants spanning the globe on a single subject hunt. And the authors ability to off-load both interest and responsibility when his eye wanders.

The down-side of the economies of scale are that the writing stops; the slow consideration of every sentence, the amusement of word play, the passion that forces every detail into perfection. Good-bye to all that. Still, Mr. Gilbert's last responsibility is to read the book that has his name on it.

This is not the last nor the first of Mr. Gilbert's work that I have; but in stumbling as a amateur historian over poor quality here, I shall regard each subsequent page and volume with some skepticism. Put this book up on your shelf next to the volumes of another author cut by the same sword: David Irving.

Unfortunately not up to Martin Gilbert's ability. This applies to both volumes. They are sorely in need of an editor. Errors abundant. An example, Gilbert refers to Roosevelt's Depression speech.."The only thing you have to fear..." as a reference to impending World War II. Very narrow focus on 20th century which begs the titles "Rise and Fall of Adolph Hitler," "Europe 1914-1951". Essentially, the book is a "clip job" that fails to take into account great and near great events, scientific, political, social and engineering that occurred in this century. This effort fell short of expectations.

Martin Gilbert is a fine writer and an excellent historian. I was surprised to read this work described as a "themeless pudding" and criticized in other reviews as (effectively) not containing enough analysis. Why does a historical work have to have a specific "theme"? Having slogged through many history books where the the author analyzes the subject matter to the point of obfuscating what actually happened, I can only say kudos to Mr. Gilbert for actually relaying events and letting us draw our own conclusions. If you want to know what happened when, Mr. Gilbert lays it all out in an engaging and often touching manner. I look forward to the next two volumes.