Century, Mini Edition: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope

By Bruce Bernard and Terence McNamee

Book Overview

Before even opening this award-winning book, you are struck by the sheer physical presence of Century . With 1,224 pages and 1,090 images, this colossal volume offers an informative, intimate and incisive insight into the twentieth century from the very beginning to the very end. Century is an extensive historical trajectory through the twentieth century, told through an eclectic yet exhaustive sequence of monumental photographic images. More than any other before it, the twentieth century was one of unforeseeable advances, discoveries and victories as well as unanticipated atrocities and suffering. It was also the first century to have been documented entirely through the lens of the camera. The chronological journey of Century - in a visually extraordinary sequence of images - takes us from the end of Queen Victoria's reign, through the antics of Buster Keaton and the odyssey into outer space, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the news of September 11. Assimilated from diverse sources across the world, the photographs are instantly arresting and tirelessly thought-provoking. Selected for their capacity to expose distinctly human stories with the dynamism that drives historical change, the tome combines iconic images with photographs previously unseen, from international political events to highly personal and anonymous vignettes. Each photograph is substantiated by a brief but thorough historical explanation; every single scene is brought to life by evocative literary and political quotations. Century is as much an historical tour de force as it is an enlightening visual celebration of the past from a vast range of angles.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0714842796
• ISBN13: 9780714842790
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Length: 1224 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 5.4" x 5.3"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Pictures more powerful than words

I'm amazed to read people commenting that this book is too focused on the struggles of humanity--I rather think it's important to record our darkest hours so that we might learn from them. Nothing could accomplish this more powerfully than the images contained in this masterful book.I paged through Century with my mouth agape. These incredible pictures made me feel a connection to history I had never felt before. I plan to keep this book around as an important historical reference. When my children ask me what WW II was all about, rather than give them some rambling sermon, I'll pull out this book.If a picture is worth a thousand words than this book is worth about one million.

Wonderful surprise

This is a wonderful book. I was very pleasently surprised at the quality and scope of the photographs. I have only browsed through it but I'm looking forward to many repeat trips through its pages.A couple of small problems do not detract from the work as a whole. First, the captions for the pictures are printed in a light gray. This may make it difficult for some people to read. On the other hand, it keeps your attention on the photograph.Second, some captions are not accurate. For example, a Hubble telescope photo of gas clouds in space claims that our universe (sic) could fit in them 50 times. The writer probably meant "solar system" or "galaxy", but not universe.Finally, please note that there are many disturbing images in this book. If you have pre-high school age children you may want to supervise their perusal of the book or, at a minimum, be on hand to answer the hard questions that come up.

Good book for Teachers and Students alike

This is an immense photo-retrospective of the last 100 years. I am continually impressed by the choice of pictures; most are new to my eyes, rather than mere reprints of old LIFE pics and such. The commentary, while brief, is poignant and humble. I use many of the photos in my U.S. and World History classes and the students (high school) are captivated by them. One note to bear in mind: this book focuses primarily on European influence around the world and war and its effects. People looking for a cultural/historical study of non-Western people will probably find more useful information elsewhere. That aside, this is a spectacular and intelligently collected volume of photographs, more deserving of a place on the shelf than the coffee table.

A Classic, Even if Incomplete

This is an amazing book. It is the kind of thing you could indifferently buy for a coffee table, and then find a houseful of people surrounding it until the wee hours. The pictures are nothing short of breathtaking. It is the kind of thing that makes your heart beat faster. And it is an excellent learing tool, too, because no one is aware of every situation chronicled in this book. Don't just browse through it in bookstores (even though it's everywhere); buy it and treasure it. It surely will not disappoint. This book should be the first document of human progress in the twentieth century put into any prospective time capsules for the new millennium, which, as one reviewer rightly stated, doen't actually start until NEXT year. But hey, at least out of ignorance, we get a work of art this precious a year early!

Forget the banalities of other picture books, this is it.

For a unique historical perspective, never have I viewed a finer book. "Century" prints the pictures we haven't seen 100 times before. And it does so in context. Difficult to put down. Excellent.