LIFE : Our Century in Pictures (Hardcover)

~ Richard B. Stolley (Author), Tony Chiu (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Richard Stolley knows a bit about what we want from the pictures of our century. He's the LIFE magazine guy who acquired the Zapruder film of JFK being shot (the fatal instant is depicted in this book), and he basically created modern celebrity culture as the founding father of People, where he articulated his famous rules for cover photos: young is better than old, pretty better than ugly, rich better than poor--"and nothing is better than the celebrity dead." All of the above are found abundantly in Stolley and Tony Chiu's lively, cannily selected, and sumptuously produced photo album LIFE: Our Century in Pictures.

It's not just a grab bag of 770 arresting, touching, scary, funny, alternately famous and unfamiliar images. It tells a semi-coherent story by breaking up the century into nine "epochs," each introduced with a brief essay by a leading intellectual light (David M. Kennedy, Paul Fussell, and Garry Wills do especially well). There are fun facts aplenty: did you know Columbia Pictures' Lady Liberty-like logo was inspired by a debutante in an anti-Hun propaganda poster? Or that Ike almost chose Margaret Chase Smith instead of Nixon? Each epoch gets assigned a "Turning Point," sometimes a defining moment or a flashy burst of upbeat cultural documentary to offset the sometimes stark violent-event photos. The World War I section breaks up the black-and-white trench-fighting scenes with a quickie history of the American musical, pages as radiant as a rainbow. Each chapter ends with "Requiem" photos of people whose passing is still news.

The layouts are often superb: you have to open the book to see how perfect a Mondrian looks next to a photo of college girls doing patriotic calisthenics that transform them into a similarly energetic grid. There are heftier historic-photo collections, like Bruce Bernard's true test of coffee-table construction, the 1,120-page Century: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering, and Hope. But you're not going to find a more popular book of its kind than Stolley and Chiu's. --Tim Appelo

Product Description

Selected from the photographic archives of LIFE and other major collections, these spellbinding images bring alive the people and events that shaped the twentieth century. With incredible emotional impact, this book captures the triumphs and disasters, the social progress and setbacks, the heroes and villains that have brought us to the dawn of a new century.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 423 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch (October 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821226339
• ISBN-13: 978-0821226339
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

465 of 475 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE History book on the 20th Century for all ages. Powerful!, October 3, 1999

By A Customer

Richard Stolley and Mr. Chiu take their years of experience and powerfully depict how the Century has been changed through events. They have put it all together in this MUST HAVE book for all ages. This book will show your children and your grandchildren how the 20th Century was shaped. Today people are visual and the pictures captured and selected in this book show the way this nation and world has progressed, taken steps back and yet still, moved forward through time. This book is meant to be placed on top of the coffee table and left there by itself! Great conversation starter for family and friends. To find one book that actually shows 100 years of History in a visual sense is THE Book of the Century.

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Slice of History, December 30, 1999

By	Chris Finklein "Chrisn'Di" (Warrenton, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this book on the reputation of Life Magazine and I was definitely not disappointed. It must be truly one of the most amazing and informative treatments of our last century thanks to so many of the famous and not so well known figures and moments that brought our world to where it is today. The quality of photos and script are unique, first rate and yet quite familiar to anyone who has been a fan of Life Magazine over the years. I consider this heavy reflection of our last 100 years one of the best examples of REAL history I could own. My grandchildren will come to know and appreciate their heritage thanks in part to the facts and reflections of events far more impacting than I could ever envision. This will be a valuable complement to my collection of anything 20th century.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Education through pictures, December 11, 1999

By	David Fisher (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Life comes shining through with yet another beautiful books that proves "a picture is worth a thousand words". Watching my 10 year old son slowly turning the pages and reading amazed me as he usually is not interested in history. These are not just ordinary pictures but ones that will make you stare and think about the subject. This book was put together with great thought and covers an amazing amount of material.