History of the Twentieth Century

What a terrible disappointment the twentieth century has been, was Winston Churchills comment in 1922. One world war was over, more than 6 million soldiers had been killed, and four vast empires had been destroyed. A second mass slaughterin which more than 46 million would diewas yet to come, bringing in its wake the arms race, the Cold War, and the nuclear age.

This volume of Martin Gilberts three-volume narrative history of the century charts its first thirty-three years. Opening in the age of horse-drawn travel and colonial wars, Gilbert closes this volume with Roosevelt as the newly elected President of the United States, the inauguration of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, and the first of Stalins show trials in the Soviet Union. As well as chronicling the wars, revolutions, and political upheavals, Gilbert tells the story of ordinary men and women in every continent, making them an integral part of the events of which they were sometimes the beneficiaries and often the victims.