- Hardcover: 736 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (12 Nov 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224052179
- ISBN-13: 978-0224052177
- Product Dimensions: 29.7 x 23.9 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
201,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #79 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Central America & Caribbean > 19th Century
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Although most of this sprawling book is set in the 20th century, it begins on April 29, 1889, when Benjamin Harrison commemorated the first centennial of American government. This 11-year jump-start allows Harold Evans to write about the last major push to settle the Western territories, the gradual displacement of Native American societies, the rise to prominence of William Jennings Bryan and other quintessentially American moments of the 19th century.
But make no mistake about it--The American Century is very much rooted in the modern world. Evans's tight, journalistic prose marks the significant events and personages in America's rise to superpower status and offers several educational surprises, such as a two-page spread on too-little-known naval historian Alfred Mahan, whose The Influence of Sea Power upon History shaped foreign policy in America and several European nations. His treatments of the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties and the Watergate crisis are substantial highlights. Juxtapositions such as Ralph Nader and Rachel Carson, or Jimmy Hoffa and Cesar Chavez make for a lively overview. The book essentially ends with the inauguration of George Bush in 1989, although brief mention is made to some of what has happened since then. Filled with photographs and contemporary editorial cartoons, The American Century is an excellent one-volume chronicle of a rather momentous 100 years.
Product Description
The story of the last 100 years in the life of the United States, and that of the 20th century. In this century, America became the largest economic and military power, sent men to the moon and opened a branch of McDonalds in Moscow. Over 900 photographs, cartoons and illustrations are included.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Harold Evan's 'The American Century' looks at the history of the United States from 1890 to 1990 and the development of the nation, society and its position in global affairs. This most turbulent and engaging period begins with the cementing and consolidation of the Union post-civil war and looks at the way American politics, business and society changes over time and the great and impressive figures who drive such change and progress. It ends with the United States in the role of global hegemon, and unprecedented military power; and examines the new challenges facing American society in days to come.
Evans draws from a wide range of sources and critically evaluates a wide number of authors before providing his conclusions. The prose is erudite, well-written and retains the reader's interest throughout, as one would expect from a respected journalist and esteemed former editor of the Times newspaper (Britain).
What really makes this detailed colossus stand out from the plethora of books on America in this era though, is Evans use of powerful and envoking photographs, which his undoubted standing and experience allowed him to collate like no other work of this nature.
This book will satisfy the intellectual curiosities of the most rigorous academic and the general interest of the layman. It is an excellent work, and one very good for referencing important events, which I have made full use of at University. A tour de force of greater scope and appeal than many history books of similar ilk.
Evans draws from a wide range of sources and critically evaluates a wide number of authors before providing his conclusions. The prose is erudite, well-written and retains the reader's interest throughout, as one would expect from a respected journalist and esteemed former editor of the Times newspaper (Britain).
What really makes this detailed colossus stand out from the plethora of books on America in this era though, is Evans use of powerful and envoking photographs, which his undoubted standing and experience allowed him to collate like no other work of this nature.
This book will satisfy the intellectual curiosities of the most rigorous academic and the general interest of the layman. It is an excellent work, and one very good for referencing important events, which I have made full use of at University. A tour de force of greater scope and appeal than many history books of similar ilk.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent book. It shows with digestible text and lots of interesting photos, how the United States became the superpower that it is today. Evans gives lots of insights into the prominent people and significant events starting from the late 19th century to the late 1980s. I didn't find it judgemental or overly politically slanted.
The price will probably put some people off this book but it is very accessible and by the time you've finished, you'll have a greater understanding of why America acts in the way it does today.
The price will probably put some people off this book but it is very accessible and by the time you've finished, you'll have a greater understanding of why America acts in the way it does today.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Given the subject matter this book is bound to be endlessly fascinating and, for the most part, it is. The photographs are stunning, providing a compelling visual portrait of the USA as it grew from a sparsely populated, inward-looking country with a largely agricultural economy to the world's number one, undisputed superpower.
You'll sense the "but" hanging over that sentence, and it may be a quibble but it's something I did begin to find a bit annoying. Evans is an unreconstructed old lefty who clearly missed the last helicopter out of the 1960s and his political bias is evident too often here; in his choice of subject matter, the relative coverage given to various events, his overall editorial judgment. You could be forgiven for thinking that Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement were the only things that happened in the States in the 1950-60s; no record economic growth, no consumer boom, no global export of popular culture. Similarly, obscure left wing politicians get blanket coverage while the entire NASA space programme, from John Glenn via the Apollo moon landings to the Space Shuttle, is dismissed in two photographs. An obscure strike in the mid-1930s gets 10 pages of sympathetic coverage whilst the entire Hollywood film industry - surely one of America's greatest 20th century success stories - doesn't get a single mention other than in the chapter on McCarthyism. If you came to this book knowing nothing of the USA, you sure would come away with a pretty odd view of it.
But in the end even Evans' tiresome left-wing posturing can't ruin a story this good, so even if it's not quite up there with its companion volumes 'The Russian Century' and 'The German Century', it's still well worth £10 of anyone's money.
You'll sense the "but" hanging over that sentence, and it may be a quibble but it's something I did begin to find a bit annoying. Evans is an unreconstructed old lefty who clearly missed the last helicopter out of the 1960s and his political bias is evident too often here; in his choice of subject matter, the relative coverage given to various events, his overall editorial judgment. You could be forgiven for thinking that Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement were the only things that happened in the States in the 1950-60s; no record economic growth, no consumer boom, no global export of popular culture. Similarly, obscure left wing politicians get blanket coverage while the entire NASA space programme, from John Glenn via the Apollo moon landings to the Space Shuttle, is dismissed in two photographs. An obscure strike in the mid-1930s gets 10 pages of sympathetic coverage whilst the entire Hollywood film industry - surely one of America's greatest 20th century success stories - doesn't get a single mention other than in the chapter on McCarthyism. If you came to this book knowing nothing of the USA, you sure would come away with a pretty odd view of it.
But in the end even Evans' tiresome left-wing posturing can't ruin a story this good, so even if it's not quite up there with its companion volumes 'The Russian Century' and 'The German Century', it's still well worth £10 of anyone's money.
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