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Summary: Keeps this mother of 2 up late reading!
Review: Although I am only 150 pages into this book, and must write that I find it truly fascinating. This is the stuff that put this thirtysomething, full-time mother of two-under-two to sleep in high school World History class, but now keeps me up reading until 1 o'clock in the morning! I enjoy the form in which it is written - not like a history textbook, but like Peter Jennings is telling me how it was. I also find the individual testimonials highly interesting - these people saw and felt it happen! For those readers wondering why the Titanic sinking, the Armenian massacre, and the Hindenberg disaster were omitted, the answer lies in the introduction. These events, though news-worthy and long-since remembered, did not "force an evolution", Americans are not different because it happened. While the OJ trial was a tabloid circus, and people are now ashamed at how much attention they paid to it, the event definitely caused Americans to change the way they view the law, the media, and the other race (black of white and white of black). Historically worthy individuals, like Amelia Earhart, and singular events, such as John Lennon's death, may not get mention in this book if it did not affect change or shape the century in some significant way. In the 150 pages that I have read, you will see how Charles Lindberg's historic flight brought 4.5 million people to the streets for a parade and caused investors to pour money into the airplane industry so that air travel later became possible for all of us. Miss Amelia did not do that. I trust that I am not too enthusiastic about this book prematurely, but in the short amount that I have read (and I believe that it is a book that can be read cover-to-cover - not just a coffee table decoration), I would recommend it to anyone a rusty on their history who is interested in gaining a little insight and knowledge on how this century evolved.
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Summary: Excellent review of history that is a great read!
Review: I bought this book as a Xmas gift for my brother, and he has raved about it. My 82 yr. old mother has shown a great interest in it to, but made the comment that the book is to big and heavy for many elderly people to hold. I would like to suggest that you consider publishing the book in sections that are individually bound and put together for sale in a box sleeve. That way, separate sections of the book may be read at a time and they would be easier for the elderly to hold. Also, perhaps consider a larger, bolder print face. I feel that the elderly would find this book fascinating and would enjoy it immensely if it were in a more convenient and lighter weight format. Thanks for writing this book that makes history such an enjoyable read.
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Summary: A wonderful coffee table book for the 21st century.
Review: Peter Jennings puts together an exciting and comprehensive look at the twentieth century. "The Century" is not a book that you will sit down and read cover to cover, yet it is a book that you will want to show your grandchildren and generations that will follow ours. We are entering into the twenty-first century and we must remember and cherish the twentieth century. I highly reccommend this book for all ages.
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Summary: TV Journalism in print
Review: I have to admit I didn't read the entire thing; I started reading it in a Borders and finally put it back, pretty much disgusted with the shallowness and the boas of the book.Even the presence of a Jennings' ghost writer doesn't save this thing. It's a picture book for the MTV generation, catering to fashionable views with nothing that you could call scholarship. At best it's a comic book that might interest a child in delving deeper into a subject. A far more interesting and detailed book (though just as biased in its own way) is Paul Johnson's "Modern Times". If you buy the Jennings book, get Johnson's as well and from the two you may get a more interesting and complete picture.
Rating: 
Summary: Dust in the eyes
Review: PETER JENNINGS conveniently forgot to mention the first GENOCIDE of the 20th century, the Armenian genocide of 1915,where 1and a half million innocent Armenians were massacred at the hands of the ottoman turks. Interestingly, the Holocaust was not left out.
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Summary: Bias?
Review: The book contains some good stuff, but it forgets to mention one thing -- the genocide of the Armenians in 1915 by the Turkish government when 1.5 to 2 million Armenians were tortured and killed. I wonder what Jennings was thinking. Maybe he got some favors from the Turkish government which until now refuses to recognise what it did.
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Summary: Future historians will find it worthless.
Review: If this book was intended to be a summary of news stories, embellished by anecdotal information, then the authors' objectives have been met. If, however, the authors were hoping to memorialize events which, at the end of the next century, left an imprint on our nation and the world, then they missed the boat. The impact of surging human populations, and the complications resulting from migration, have been the story of our century. But it never became the story for Jennings' The Century. Future historians in the next 100 years will look back on demographics and migration as having a profound impact on our culture, civilization, freedoms and body of laws. Migration was mentioned for the 1920s. Thereafter, the issue vanished from the book. But it has not vanished for the rest of us. It is lamentable that a 606 page work on The Century would overlook these factors.
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Summary: The Century that forgot the Titanic Sinking!
Review: Peter Jennings forgot one of the most talked about accidents in history. How could he write about the century and forget the sinking of the Titanic.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting...But Missing Alot
Review: I bought this book for my husband for Xmas. I spent several nites reading it, when I should have been wrapping it. The premise is great, the eyewitness accounts fascinating but they left out SO MUCH. Like what, you ask? The Titanic, Bruno Hauptmann, any mention of the Lindeburgh kidnapping, The Hindenburg, Amelia Airheart... to name a few. You can probably find more things, depending on your own interests. I realize they couldn't include EVERYTHING (it was a long 100 years) but to give OJ a page and a half, same for Princess Diana and not mention some of the above? Not a bad book, but could have been a GREAT one.
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Summary: Am I nitpicking??
Review: Received this very attractive book as a Christmas gift and am reading through it on a daily basis. While reading the chapter on the 1920's concerning the general topic of Religion I was taken back by the words on page 123 at the beginning of paragraph #4..."Like the Klan meeting, the evangelical gathering provided an outlet...". do I read into this a typical bias/smear against religion or was it just careless editing/writing? Will I find in this book other paragraphs beginning with "Like the Klan meeting, the typical modern day environmentalist gathering..." or "Like the Nuremburg Rallies of the 1930's, your modern day gathering of the National Organization of Women...my guess is definitely not. Sorry authors but your choice of phrasing on this one seems quite imperfect...one person's opinion.
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