A History of the World in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This is the century of war and revolution, of communism, fascism, and nationalistic fervor, of empires crumbling and new orders arising, of technological explosion, mass communication, and, most of all, movement. Never has so much happened so quickly to so many. And never has this uniquely global century received the rich historical insight afforded by this book. This is global history on a grand scale, a full account of the twentieth century from its first days to our own. Drawing on inexhaustible reserves of energy and knowledge, the distinguished British historian J. A. S. Grenville tells a story as remarkable for its sweep and drama as for its deft attention to detail. From the economic fallout of Versailles to the emergence of Japan, from the Great Depression to the Spanish Civil War, from the Soviet threat to the Middle East Crisis, we see history unfolding here and encounter the forces and personalities that have transformed the world. Grenville paints clear, sharp portraits of great events and of key figures such as Churchill and Hitler, Kennedy and Khrushchev, Mao and Gandhi, Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher. But he also stresses the underlying developments in health, finance, industry, warfare, and communication against which all individuals, movements, nations, and ideologies rose or fell. The twentieth century has seen human beings subjected to indiscriminate terrorism, state-sponsored massacres, and systematic extermination in concentration camps and killing fields. Grenville graphically renders the sufferings of individuals, as well as their triumphs in Tiananmen Square, in Eastern Europe in 1989, in Gandhi's India, in Martin Luther King Jr.'s America, in Mandela's SouthAfrica, and even in the bomb shelters of Sarajevo. Richly illustrated with some 275 photographs, A History of the World in the Twentieth Century offers splendid testimony to the difference men and women have made and can make in shaping the course of the history of the world.