The Century for Young People - Hardcover

Jennings, Peter; Brewster, Todd; Armstrong, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385327080 ISBN 13: 9780385327084

Publisher: Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Adapted from the #1 national bestseller especially for children 8-12!

The twentieth century has been a time of tremendous change, the most eventful hundred years in human history. Join Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster for a fascinating journey back in time to experience the century's greatest moments. Through the vivid first-person accounts of eyewitnesses, the most thrilling--and the most terrifying--events of the past hundred years come to life. Here are the voices of ordinary people--children and adults--expressing their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, as they watched history being made. This is history as it was lived, and as it will be remembered for the next hundred years.

This lavish book, in association with the television series presented by ABC News and The History Channel, includes more than 200 exquisitely reproduced photographs with an astonishing power to illuminate history. They will delight and appall you, educate and entertain you, as you watch the century unfold before your eyes. This spectacular book is a keepsake for every family's library. It is a riveting read and an essential research volume. It is the story of our time for all time.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Jennings is the anchor and senior editor of ABC's World News Tonight. In more than thirty-five years as a broadcast journalist, he has worked in most parts of the world, from the American South to Southern Africa, from the Middle East to eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Among the hundreds of programs he has been a part of, he treasures those he has done with and for the young. Young people, he says, ask questions their parents are too embarrassed to ask.

Todd Brewster was the senior editorial producer of ABC's The Century television series. In more than twenty years as a journalist, he has covered the American national political scene and the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe, both for Life, where he was a writer and editor. He was also the editor of Life's special issues on historical themes. Todd Brewster is now on the staff of ABC News.

Reviews

With Armstrong's (In My Hands) help, news veterans Jennings and Brewster here smoothly adapt their bestselling tome for adults, The Century, for a younger audience. They offer young Americans a unique look at the past 100 years, via not only archival material but through the eyes of the people who lived through it. The volume combines the authors' affecting storytelling style with an exceedingly appealing design to draw readers into the major events that have shaped our nation (and often the world) in the 20th century. A clear chronology emerges in 12 concise chapters that explore events from the Wright Brothers' early flights to the world's devastating wars, to racial strife and the AIDS epidemic. Each chapter contains illuminating accounts in the words of ordinary people living in extraordinary times. Victor Reuther, a 1930s labor union organizer Ernest Michel, an Auschwitz survivor; and Inez Jessie Baskin, who sat at the front of a bus with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the end of the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott, are examples of the myriad personalities that give voice to familiar textbook facts. Although the title implies a global approach to the century, many of the world events are limited to the situations that acted as catalysts to drive people to the U.S. from their native countries (e.g., the Russian Revolution, the chaos leading to WWI) or that affected America directly (such as the Vietnam War). What's most noteworthy here is the sense of immediacy the authors' approach offers: the reading experience is akin to peeking at hundreds of fascinating family trees and may well encourage youngsters to inquire about their own relatives' experiences. A bounty of excellent photographs (especially those taken at the turn of the century) accompanied by ample, detailed captions rounds out this essential addition to the family library. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Just in time for the millennium comes this adaptation of Jennings and Brewster's The Century (1998). Still a browsable, coffee-table edition, the book divides the last 100 years more or less by decade, with such chapter headings as ``Shell Shock,'' ``Global Nightmare,'' and ``Machine Dreams.'' A sweeping array of predominantly black-and-white photographs documents the story in picturesfrom Theodore Roosevelt to O.J., the Panama Canal to the crumbling Berlin Wall, the dawn of radio to the rise of Microsoftalong with plenty of captions and brief capsules of historical events. Setting this volume apart, and making it more than just a glossy textbook overview of mega-events, are blue sidebars that chronicle the thoughts, actions, and attitudes of ordinary men, women, and children whose names did not appear in the news. These feature-news style interviews feature Milt Hinton on the Great Migration, Betty Broyles on a first automobile ride, Sharpe James on the effect of Jackie Robinson's success on his life, Clara Hancox on growing up in the Depression, Marnie Mueller on life as an early Peace Corps volunteer, and more. The authors define the American century by ``the inevitability of change,'' a theme reflected in the selection of photographs and interviews throughout wartime and peacetime, at home and abroad. While global events are included only in terms of their impact on Americans, this portfolio of the century is right for leafing through or for total immersion. (index) (Nonfiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Grade 4-9-An adaptation of the adult best-seller that stands alone as a survey of 20th-century history. The respected authors use primary sources throughout the narrative to highlight the events and people of the 1900s-such as an account by a woman who witnessed the Wright Brothers' test flights as a girl; one by the son of the mayor of Warsaw, Poland, in 1939; and another by an American held hostage in Iran. The information is interesting and relevant and of a primarily U.S. focus; major themes are change and race, with little on the arts and sports. Specific dates are less important than the overall picture; there are no time lines and chapters are not necessarily divided up by decade, demonstrating to readers that history does not always come in neat packages. It is a smooth and readable work that, due to the necessity of cramming 100 years into slightly more than twice as many pages, does not go into depth on any specific person or event, but does show their interrelationships and their effects on our world. The final chapter bookends the century with the deaths of England's Queen Victoria in 1901 and Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Excellent-quality, archival photos capture the moments on almost every page. This is a unique and valuable book that will complement the "America in the 20th Century" series (Marshall Cavendish) and This Fabulous Century (Time-Life). If at all possible, buy two copies, one for the reference shelf and one for kids to take home and explore.
Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385327080
• ISBN 13: 9780385327084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256