Rating: 
Summary: Important view of the century
Review: No book can cover every facet of the 20th century. Bruce Bernard--to his credit--presents not a biased view, but a coherent and independent vision of the 20th century. Advances? Yes, we may have learned to clone sheep. Yes, we may have put a man on the moon & brought the blessings of Tang to millions. Yes, we may have learned how to make really loud movies with computer animation replacing actors. That still does not change that we haven't learned how to live with one another. That we plowed 6 million Jews into the earth. Or that we have done little to prevent the slaughter & imprisonment of minorities around the world, including in this country. Or that we are ending this century as we began it, with war in the Balkans. No, it is far more important that we have made the world a freer place in which to sell more things. The best of our triumphs pale in comparison to what we have done & are still doing to humanity. I believe that Mr Bernard did not set out to paint a portrait of man's inhumanity to man, but I am afraid that that is the unavoidable lesson & warning one must draw from a reasoned survey of what has happened in the world [& the US is not the world, though most American readers seem to think our nation is of prime importance]. I find CENTURY to be an inspiration: to do better in the 21st century, to remember always the human quotient in every decision facing us. CENTURY is history to learn from.
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Summary: The Worst Book Design of the Century
Review: Of all the books published in the last century this could win the worst design award hands down and going away. Too heavy to handle without a crane, type so small you'd better bring a magnifying glass to the library table or suffer eventual blindness, the only way this book could reach a proper audience is to sell it to former students at a Jack LaLanne health club. Readers don't have to worry about children looking through it since a child could never get it onto a table. I gave up after the first 50 pages.Thanks for nothing, Tro Harper
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Summary: The 20th century in pictures
Review: Pictures are more powerful than words. This extremely heavy and wonderfully edited books contains a selection of the most poignant pictures of this century, reflecting all the major events of this troubled time, but also giving insight in the difficulties and pleasures of the daily life in the different periods of this century. Since the commentaries to the pictures are rather short, it might be necessary to have some knowledge of the history background to understand the impact and meaning of all the pictures... If you want a book to memorize the 20th century, go for it...
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Summary: This book is truly astounding.
Review: The absolutely definitive work of its kind. No other photo-retrospective of the century even comes close. This book is amazing.
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Summary: A little less editorializing, please
Review: The book was given as a gift for my daughter, who loaned it to me. I found the over emphasis on war, misery, and man's inhumanity to man tiresome and depressing. Also, I could have done without the editorializing as a photograph tells it all, anyway. The past 100 years included scientific achievements in space, medicine, engineering, and the arts as well as other events which should have been noted, but instead, the author chose to burden us with photograph after photograph of the dead, starving, and maimed. I will not be looking at this depressing work again.
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Summary: Icredible Book
Review: The photographs were stunning, the text was moving, the captions and voices of an era were brilliant. The text seems to have been written perhaps from a British perspective, and the represntation of American pop culture is peculiar. This is such an outstanding book--I really would recommend it to anyone who has the space. You can't be disappointed in the massive collection of photos--not the reprints of familiar magazine photos we've all seen, but rare perspectives and subject areas.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice addition to any collection...
Review: The photography in this book is very provocative. And there is sooo much, so unless you are satisfied just flipping through a book before leaving it for dead, you can count on working on this book for awhile! Yes, a lot of it focuses on war, but unfortunately, wars have become the significant milestones of the past 100+ years of history. It is still very exciting to get to see so much "up close and personal" thanks to the photographers who took the time to take the shots! My only complaint about the book is that I found some of the captions to be excessively slanted, politically. Obviously captions are necessary to explain what we are seeing, but I felt that some of them they were also saturated in judgement that was simply not called for, even for a photojournalism book. Not quite enough to be obnoxious, but enough for me to give it 4 instead of 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A nice addition to any collection...
Review: The photography in this book is very provocative. And there is sooo much, so unless you are satisfied just flipping through a book before leaving it for dead, you can count on working on this book for awhile! Yes, a lot of it focuses on war, but unfortunately, wars have become the significant milestones of the past 100+ years of history. It is still very exciting to get to see so much "up close and personal" thanks to the photographers who took the time to take the shots! My only complaint about the book is that I found some of the captions to be excessively slanted, politically. Obviously captions are necessary to explain what we are seeing, but I felt that some of them they were also saturated in judgement that was simply not called for, even for a photojournalism book. Not quite enough to be obnoxious, but enough for me to give it 4 instead of 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Emphasis on America
Review: The photos were stunning (especially the rarer ones at the beginning of the book). However, after reading it, I could'nt help but notice the overwhelming emphasis on America and it's time this century. Maybe, if there were more pictures from Africa or Asia (where most of the Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope occurs), this book could have deserved 5 stars.
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Summary: the 20th century in pictures
Review: the scope of the book and its presntation make it earn a 5 rating. one could always argue the editing of a book of this size. there is plenty here to look at and learn about. sometimes when looking at a familiar event--you might wonder why the editor chose a particular photo over one most promimently used before but that might be the reason why this book is a added addition to ones library
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