The Wonderful Century: Its Successes and Its Failures (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Wonderful Century: Its Successes and Its FailuresThe present work is not in any sense a history, even on the most limited scale. It may perhaps be termed an appreciation Of the century - Of what it has done, and what it has left undone. The attempt has been made to give short, descriptive sketches of those great material and intellectual achievements which especially distinguish the nineteenth century from any and all of its predecessors, and to 'show how fundamental is the change they have effected in our life and civilization. A comparative estimate of the number and importance of these achievements leads to the conclusion that not only is our century superior to any that have gone be fore it, but that it may be best compared with the whole preceding historical period. It must therefore be held to constitute the beginning Of a new era Of human progress.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.