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A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume 1, 1900-1933
by Martin Gilbert
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harper Perennial (1998-11-01)
ISBN: 0380713934
EAN: 9780380713936
Dewy Decimal #: 909.82
Paperback: 944 pages
Release Date: 2001-01-01
SKU: 38243
Condition: Very Good
Comments: THE SOFTBACK BOOK! AVON, 1998. VOLUME 1, 1900-1933. EXACTLY AS PICTURED. THE UNABRIDGED 1ST EDITION. SOFTCOVER BOOK AND PAGES ARE IN FINE CONDITION. PAGES ARE SLIGHTLY TANNED. Rapid shipping w/FREE tracking. GREAT PACKAGING . Air Mail. GR.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
The twentieth century began in an age of horse-drawn travel, and before it ended mankind was routinely journeying by air and had taken photographs on the surface of Mars. It was a century of vast human and ecological destruction, but also one of national exuberance, cultural diversity, and phenomenal scientific progress.Martin Gilbert's three-volume history of the twentieth century begins with a masterful narrative covering the critical thirty-three years which began this remarkable span of time: from the dawn of aviation through a great war that left six million soldiers dead and four vast empires destroyed, to the inauguration of Roosevelt as U.S. President and Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, and the beginning of Stalin's show trials in the Soviet Union. Moving with ease from continent to continent, conveying the years of struggle, upheaval and achievement on every front, the author also tells the stories of ordinary men and women who were integral parts of the events which sometimes benefited them, and often victimized them. Here begins the definitive chronicle of our century, by one of the foremost historians our century has produced.
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Customer Reviews
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A Sorry Effort
Rating  (2)
Date: 2003-10-21
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a lousy 800 page book that could have been a superb 500 page book. The author clearly is in love with the sound of his own voice and writes as if he were speaking to his students at Oxford. This does not work very well in print. The book is full of run-on sentences and tortured grammar of a kind that would net a sophomore at a middling American college a C- on an English paper. Decent editing just to eliminate verbosity would cut this tome down by a third. Gilbert's perspective is excessively Anglo-centric -- his main source seems to have been microfiche of headlines from the London Times for the years covered. And his strict year-by-year structure means that important themes are diced up and impossible to follow. Interestingly, the one time he breaks from this structure to write thematically -- his coverage of World War I -- the book works quite well. Sadly, these few chapters are not enough to justify the pain imposed by the rest of this doorstop.
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Author in Need of an Editor part two
Rating (2)
Date: 2003-10-07
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
You would think that someone who was knighted by the Queen and was an English subject to boot would know exactly how long Queen Victoria reigned for....on the first page of year 1901 he writes that she had reigned for "sixty-one years"...though 1837-1901 does not exactly add up to sixty one years.
I really couldn't get past the glaring errors...this is a real shame or sham when there are so many great historians out there who could be publishing and can't because people like Martin Gilbert are pumping out these editorial nightmares.
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Great intro to the start of the 20th century
Rating  (5)
Date: 2001-12-10
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
When I checked this book out at the library the student worker asked what is was about. I said "The history of the 20th century, it's the first of three volumes" and she goes "American History?". I say "No World". She says"It's that small?". I think a lot of people miss the fact that obviously this is not an in depth history of every event and it never was meant to be that. The reason why this series is worthwhile is that it gives you a real overall sense of what was going on year by year. And because of that format it really brings you through the century with the events in context with one another. The reason it focuses so much on the wars and conflicts are that those are what shaped the century! At the end of the chapters he briefly mentions stuff like disasters and inventions which helps to add some overall context without distracting from the main ongoing events. It is very detailed for what it is (a general history) and the many excerpts from speeches, books, and letters really make it much more personal and readable. This isn't a topic that's easy to do well and I can't imagine it being done much better.
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This is the worst of the 3 volumes
Rating (2)
Date: 2001-08-24
3 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
I've read the last two volumes first. Now I'm reading this first one and it is awful. Where's the history on the United States or inventions or milestones. All Martin Gilbert talks about here is war overseas. He leaves one small paragraph a chapter for the US and any trivial information. I'm skipping through it faster then any book I've read. Thank god I read the 2 good ones first. I would think there's more history to those years then just the Balkans and Russia.
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Much to be said for this book
Rating  (4)
Date: 2000-10-19
9 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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