From the Wright Brothers to the election of Nelson Mandela, this engaging, reader-friendly compendium--from the authors of the enormously successful What Every American Should Know about American History--provides capsule summaries of the 200 most important events in world history since 1900.

From the Wright Brothers to the election of Nelson Mandela, this engaging, reader-friendly compendium--from the authors of the enormously successful What Every American Should Know about American History--provides capsule summaries of the 200 most important events in world history since 1900.

A chronological compilation of twentieth-century world events in one volume—from the acclaimed historian and biographer of Winston S. Churchill. The twentieth century has been one of the most unique in human history. It has seen the rise of some of humanity’s most important advances to date, as well as many of its most violent and terrifying wars. This is a condensed version of renowned historian Martin Gilbert’s masterful examination of the century’s history, offering the highlights of a three-volume work that covers more than three thousand pages. From the invention of aviation to the rise of the Internet, and from events and cataclysmic changes in Europe to those in Asia, Africa, and North America, Martin examines art, literature, war, religion, life and death, and celebration and renewal across the globe, and throughout this turbulent and astonishing century.

Great people of the 20th century.

Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself. Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies. • What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war? • What does it feel like to get shot? • What do artillery shells do to you? • What is the most painful way to get wounded? • Will I be afraid? • What could happen to me in a nuclear attack? • What does it feel like to kill someone? • Can I withstand torture? • What are the long-term consequences of combat stress? • What will happen to my body after I die? This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times) “Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings.”—Masha Gessen The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.

The 20th Century brought revolutionary changes to our world and our lives: the human population of the world tripled, space travel became reality, two world wars and a host of other conflicts were fought, and huge advances in science, technology and communication resulted in the globalised world we know today. Enormous steps were made in wiping out widespread discrimination, from the women’s suffrage movement leading to women’s right to vote in western countries, to the civil rights movement in the US challenging racial segregation. The political landscape has provided lots of excitement, with charismatic and scandalous presidents in the White House, the first female prime minister in the UK, dictators working to various manifestoes across the world, the Middle East conflict and the changing balance of political and economic “superpowers”. Technological advances have resulted in nigh on universal adoption and dependence on automobiles, computers, mobiles and other wireless technology. The exponential rate at which technology is evolving is one of the variables that make the twentieth century so fascinating. All this and much, much more happened in a mere one hundred years – where did we find the time to do so much?! Twentieth Century History For Dummies tells all...

In Britain we have lost touch with the Great War. Our overriding sense now is of a meaningless, futile bloodbath in the mud of Flanders -- of young men whose lives were cut off in their prime for no evident purpose. But by reducing the conflict to personal tragedies, however moving, we have lost the big picture: the history has been distilled into poetry. In TheLong Shadow, critically acclaimed author David Reynolds seeks to redress the balance by exploring the true impact of 1914-18 on the 20th century. Some of the Great War's legacies were negative and pernicious but others proved transformative in a positive sense. Exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism and re-examining the differing impacts of the War on Britain, Ireland and the United States,TheLong Shadowthrows light on the whole of the last century and demonstrates that 1914-18 is a conflict that Britain, more than any other nation, is still struggling to comprehend. Stunningly broad in its historical perspective, The Long Shadowis a magisterial and seismic re-presentation of the Great War.

You probably know, or think you know, quite a bit about what happened in the 20th century – chances are, if you're reading this, you lived through at least some of it – and you may have referenced the Cuban Missile Crisis, the double helix, or the Wall Street Crash in conversation. But even for people who were there, it was the fastest-moving hundred years in history, so refresh your memory with these pacey profiles on everything from Sputnik to Stonewall. Twentieth Century presents a unique approach to modern history, condensing 100 years of innovation and art, politics and conflict, triumph and disaster, into 50 graphic snapshots that offer an instant appreciation of the way the world revolves and evolves. Consider which events define a period of history and why. From the Red Army to Black Monday, from Woodstock to the World Wide Web, this is the fastest way to travel in time.

From the era of the industrial factory to the age of the microchip, Pivotal Tuesdays explores four twentieth-century elections—1912, 1932, 1968, and 1992—using the election of the American president as a lens through which to explore the broader sweep of the nation's social, economic, and political history.