Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant and compelling view of how we got to today.
Review: Paul Johnson is one of my favorite authors and thinkers. In this masterful book he sets forth the antecedents of our present condition. His explanation of World War I made it clear for the first time. His story of World War II was riviting and written like a novel. His two greatest achievements in this book are the way he exposes the falsities of the fifties and sixties, especially with regard to the "third world," and in his persuasive view that the actions of heroic or foolish individuals have more of an effect than the "impersonal forces of history." Anyone who wants to understand today must read this volume.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest book of last quarter-century, essential reference
Review: What else can be said? Johnson's research is so extensive that Modern Times has become a reference book for many in public life, kept nearby to quote and cite. The theme of moral relativism as the overriding destructive force in 20th-century history is compelling, as it cuts across the lines of Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism to identify what binds them together.
The sweep of Johnson's analysis is global; his is the first comprehensive history where all the tattered shards of modern history are pieced together. One example -- I'd never paid attention to the Bandung Conference before I read his outline of its importance and how the Third World's fate really intersected with America's and Europe's. The book affords dozens of fresh revelations with each perusal.
NOTE: Blackstone Audio has an unabridged cassette version -- strongly recommended. Note also that this 1992 edition includes Johnson's brilliant summation of the Reagan and Thatcher eras -- buy the new edition even if y
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books written yet on the 20th century
Review: As a history teacher, I can thoroughly recommend Modern Times to both the general reader and the serious historian. It is a very brave book, written not in accordance to trendy historical analysis and politically correct dogma. It gives credit where credit is due, not with those who cowered on the sidelines only later to claim they there from the beginning, but with those Cold Warriors like Reagan, Truman, and Thatcher. I heartily recommend it to those who would downplay the contributions of the conservative side and to those who would twist history to fit their world-view
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books written yet on the 20th century
Review: As a history teacher, I can thouroughly recommend Modern Times to both the general reader and the serious historian. It is a very brave book, written not in accordance to trendy historical analysis and politically correct dogma. It gives credit where credit is due, not with those who cowered on the sidelines only later to claim they there from the beginning, but with those Cold Warriors like Reagan, Truman, and Thatcher. I heartliy recommned it to those who would downplay the contributions of the conservative side and to those who would twist history to fit their world-view
Rating:
Summary: Greatest book I ever read--no kidding!
Review: It's hard to be taken seriously when you say that something
is the greatest book you've ever read, but in my case, that's
true of "Modern Times." (No disrespect meant to the Bible;
it's just that I can't remember my first exposure to it, whereas my memory of "MT" is very clear.) Paul Johnson
completely changed my worldview--or rather, he helped me
to realize that what my common sense told me was correct,
and that the anti-common sense view of history being taught
in most college classrooms was what was wrong. For
instance, that Communism was just as bad as Fascism,
maybe even worse because it dressed up in humanitarian
clothing--what a novel concept! Not only is he a great thinker
and assimilator of ideas (I challenge you to check out those
extensive footnotes), Johnson is also a better writer than the
vast majority of novelists. Especially if you are inclined
to DISAGREE with Johnson's views of history and politics, as I was, this is a must-read
Rating:
Summary: An aboslute must for any educated person
Review: To understand the world we live in today requires an understanding of the century we find ourselves in. To be an educated person requires an understanding of both. Paul Johnson's "Modern Times" is a masterpiece. It is never dull, intellectually challenging and wholly readable. This book offers people who are interested in history a unique opportunity to put the Twentieth Century into perspective.
It is a must read, as are Johnson's other books, which you will probably read after finishing Modern Times
Rating: 
Summary: Everything you wanted to know about the 20th Century
Review: This is the book to fill in the gaps in your education - whatever the gaps are. The command of the history is awe inspiring.It will add another dimension to your reading of tomorrow's newspaper. Marred only by a neo-con slant that is hardly subtle. Also pro-religion and, peculiarly, pro-socio-biological in a way that many readers may find quirky. No mean achievement but apparently the author feels that the "Death of God" is what caused Nazism, Communism and all manner of evil
Rating:
Summary: Good he's not a professional
Review: Paul Johnson is an historian, wether Ph.D. or not. He does his homework and researches well his subjects. But he's thankfully free of the cliches of the profession, and so he is brave and bold when it comes to assess the facts he's described. In this extremely useful and refreshing book, Johnson says things most historians are not willing to tell, or tell while blushing. The distinguishable truth of the last century is that the demise of several basic certainties, i.e. the existence of God, the absolute nature of morality, and the value of the inidividual, borught about only death, war, tragedy and the worst and most horrifying massacres of history, performed by the most perverse and distorted political regimes man has ever known. And you don't have to be a religious nut to believe this. Johnson's history is great to read. It includes illuminating anecdotes and profiles of many of the main characters in the wonderful yet terrible century just finished. We get to peer through the mist of ideology and legend and see what kind of people ruled our world: pure evil people like Lenin (who couldn't stand peasants and workers), Stalin (a crazy whacko with a small soul and a big killing instinct), Hitler (ditto), Mussolini (another lunatic, only also stupid); Mao (a vulgar looney with an incomparable talent to come up with the most idiotic ideas, which only caused hunger and misery), the host of African dictators, which must have made their peoples deplore the day the hated Europeans left, and Latin American morons like Peron, who managed to destroy a first-class economy and transform his country into a poor state (and still they love him and the hooker whom he married). There are also fascinating portraits of other, imperfect but less evil politicians of the century. I realized I knew absolutely nothing about people like Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. There is the frivolous and unlikable Roosevelt, the corrupt (and also frivolous) Kennedy, etc. Churchill comes up, of course, as an admirable and brave man, always a step ahead everybody else even when he made mistakes, and De Gaulle, an arrogant man but a good statesman. You will hardly agree with everything Johnson says, but his book is always thought-provoking and interesting. This is and will remain an important book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Highly readable, with conservative bias showing
Review: Paul Johnson is the thinking conservative's historian. In "Modern Times" (the book that Dan Quayle read!), Mr. Johnson undertakes the huge task of illuminating the political, militaristic and philosophical underpinnings of the 20th century up to the Kennedy era. As the book progresses, Johnson's focus shifts away from the Weltenschauung of Western Europe and Russia towards that of the United States. One gets the impression that Mr. Johnson became disillusioned with Europe after the wars and turned to the U.S. in hope of its role in maintaining the "right" world order. His personal political views also begin to emerge gradually, and culminate in a diatribe on the Kennedy era. Despite its flaws, the book captured me immediately and held me, despite my more liberal views, to the end. It may be a good example of bias in the historian's art, but is nevertheless a great read!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book
Review: I was given this book by a friend. I am here on Amazon to buy 8 copies to give to acquaintances I know will enjoy it as much as I did. It's amazingly thought-provoking. And apparently controversial, I had to write a review after I read the one that gave the book a low rating, though the reviewer admittedly hadn't read it. There's a reference to folks like that around page 750 referring to wayward 'intellectuals' at Smith and Stanford.
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