Review by Booklist Review
In 1900 the world was dominated by European powers; in 2000 a vaguely felt but undeniably real "globalization" will be the ruling paradigm. These Oxford volumes contain compact essays by eminent scholars analyzing the change. Besides global wars hot and cold, population explosion and urbanization impacted the entire century, as one of 27 articles in Twentieth Century underscores. Embracing nonpolitical topics in areas such as physics, modernism in art, and international economics, this work exposes the interested reader to developments that have affected most people. The talent to economically condense a subject as these authors do (each was allotted about 12 pages) does not grow on trees; some of them have written outstanding works recently, for example, physicist Steven Weinberg and U.S. historian James Patterson. This work, therefore, is a high-powered lecture series that if held at a university would cost big tuition bucks. Oxford's volume, less dear and just as rewarding, covers all regions of the globe. Arguably the most significant event of the century was World War I. Editor Strachan has commissioned 20 historians to summarize present thought about the July 1914 crisis, the military course of the war, the social and economic strains it exerted in all the belligerents, and its conclusion in revolutions and treaties. The war shattered illusions of every kind, starting with the belief that it would be brief; the accounts of why it was not are pithily rendered, reinforced by powerful illustrations of the western front's moonscapes, among other scenes of the war. Strachan's writers also assess the war outside Europe and the nascent nationalisms it unleashed. Readers will find this comprehensive work a captivating introduction to the Great War. --Gilbert Taylor
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
