A Short History of the Twentieth Century

(Paperback)

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This new book from celebrated historian Geoffrey Blainey takes us on an incredible global journey through a tempestuous hundred years. His eye for detail and evocative style bring to vivid life many of the events that marked the 20th century- two world wars, the rise and fall of communist states, the worst economic slump in the world's history, the decline of European monarchies and empires, the ascent of the first female prime ministers, the resurgence of Asia, and the exploration of outer space. Yet it is not only through such grand markers that we come to know and understand our history. As ever, Blainey brings the past alive by recording the minutiae of daily life - nine-year-old mothers with puny babies, the whiff of chaff and manure, the bustle of crowded cities. It brilliantly evokes the excitement of the times, the triumphs and the tragedies of perhaps the most significant century of all.

Author Bio

Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia's most significant and popular historians. He has written some 36 full-length books including The Tyranny of Distance, Triumph of the Nomads, Black Kettle and Full Moon, A Short History of the 20th Century, Sea of Dangers, A Short History of Christianity and the best-selling A Short History of the World. Professor Blainey held chairs in economic history and then in plain history at the University of Melbourne for 21 years. He was a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention and also chaired various Commonwealth government bodies, including the Australia Council, the Literature Board, the Australia-China Council, and the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. He is one of the few Australians whose biography appears in Encyclopaedia Britannica.