A short history of the 20th century

by Geoffrey Blainey

Australian historian Blaine offers a history of the recently departed century. This was a entury that opened with high hopes and grave perils and ended in the same fashion. In between, the continued ascendancy and ending of European supremacy, two world wars, rival totalitarian ideologies, the spreadof democracy, the withering of empires, mass movements, and technologies, scientific, and medical advances of lardge proportions took place. Blain covers this while exploring developments across the world's landscape. The largest focus is on Europe, perhaps naturally, but he does discuss occurrences in the Western Hemisphere, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, although the coverage of both Latin American and African is quite brief. Including key personalities, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Einstein, Gandhi, Castro, and Gorbachev.