The Oxford History Of Twentieth Century

Review from previous edition makes other denizens of the depot look like slowcoaches. ... The editors, both of irresistible persuasiveness and prestige, have secured, in most cases, the best-qualified contributors in the world. ...Most of the regional and chronological chapters are composed by masters of summation. ... This is a small book but a big achievement: a model of ambition without pretension, of compression without compromises. (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The Times)

Refreshing (New Scientist)

possibly the two men in the English-speaking world best qualified to edit such a compilation ... this is pre-eminently a book for the general reader ... They write with such style and panache as well as obvious mastery of their subjects, and one reads them as much for pleasure as for instruction. ... This is a book to be heartily recommended. (Philip Ziegler, The Daily Telegraph)

splendid, edited by two distinguished historians who have assembled a team of over 20 scholars outstanding in their comprehensive precision and clarity ... this book is a solid, readable and reliable guide to the past century. Most readers will be pleased, and often surprised, by the skill with which its complex events have been set in their context. (David Killingray, Third Way)

It's an impressive survey, deftly handled and wise in its judgements. (Trevor Royle, Scotland on Sunday)

In 1900 Queen Victoria still ruled over the British Empire, the imperial Manchu dynasty over China, and the Romanov Tsars over Russia. The cinema was in its infancy, with radio and television still to be developed. The earliest cars were on the road, but air travel was yet to come. Before antibiotics and effective vaccines against many common diseases, death rates were high.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the human population of the world tripled, space travel left the realms of science fiction and became reality, two cataclysmic world wars and a host of other conflicts were fought, the internal combustion engine replaced the horse as the basic means of transport, and computer technology revolutionized communications.

In this ambitious book, some of the most distinguished historians in the world survey the momentous events and the significant themes of recent times, with a look forward to what the future might bring.