A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume 1, 1900-1933

The twentieth century began in an age of horse-drawn travel, and before it ended mankind was routinely journeying by air and had taken photographs on the surface of Mars. It was a century of vast human and ecological destruction, but also one of national exuberance, cultural diversity, and phenomenal scientific progress.

Martin Gilbert's three-volume history of the twentieth century begins with a masterful narrative covering the critical thirty-three years which began this remarkable span of time: from the dawn of aviation through a great war that left six million soldiers dead and four vast empires destroyed, to the inauguration of Roosevelt as U.S. President and Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, and the beginning of Stalin's show trials in the Soviet Union. Moving with ease from continent to continent, conveying the years of struggle, upheaval and achievement on every front, the author also tells the stories of ordinary men and women who were integral parts of the events which sometimes benefited them, and often victimized them. Here begins the definitive chronicle of our century, by one of the foremost historians our century has produced.