Monday, March 7, 2011

"History's Greatest Events: 100 Turning Points That Changed the World--An Illustrated Journey" by Kelly Kauner and the editors of Time Magazine.

154 pages

Here, the editors of Time magazine highlight 100 events, from the invention of the alphabet to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, that have shaped the world as we know it. For each event there is a one-page general description and a photograph or two. The selection seems heavily biased toward the Western world and relatively modern events (six of the 100 most important events of all time happened during World War II?!), but I still learned a lot from it. The descriptions are the perfect length for those who want to understand the big picture but get bored with tons of details. Many of the photographs are stunning, and they stay away from the images that we've all seen plenty of times (the flag rising over Iwo Jima, execution of the Viet Cong guerrilla, etc). Overall, I enjoyed this collection and I recommend it for anyone who wants to brush up on their world history, although hard-core history buffs won't find anything new here.

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