A History of the Twentieth Century cover art

A History of the Twentieth Century

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

A History of the Twentieth Century

By: Martin Gilbert
Narrated by: John Curless
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Martin Gilbert, author of the multivolume biography of Winston Churchill and other brilliant works of history, chronicles world events year by year, from the dawn of aviation to the flourishing technology age, taking us through World War I to the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt as president of the United States and Hider as chancellor of Germany. He continues on to document wars in South Africa, China, Ethiopia, Spain, Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia, as well as apartheid, the arms race, the moon landing, and the beginnings of the computer age, while interspersing the influence of art, literature, music, and religion throughout this vivid work. A rich, textured look at war, celebration, suffering, life, death, and renewal in the century gone by, this volume is nothing less than extraordinary.

©2001 Martin Gilbert (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC 20th Century Modern World War Military Self-Determination Imperialism Winston Churchill Interwar Period Royalty Refugee Israeli-Palestinian conflict Colonial Period King Holocaust Franklin D Roosevelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The First World War cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1066-1485 cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
The History of Iraq, 1900-2012 cover art
America's War in Vietnam cover art
The Histories cover art
The American Civil War cover art
American Prometheus cover art
Victorious Century cover art
The History of Syria: 1900-2012 cover art
Flashpoints cover art
A Political History of the World cover art
Our Oriental Heritage cover art
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich cover art
Weimar Germany cover art
Reappraisals cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Martin Gilbert's view of the 20th Century is the most dismal I have read or heard. Was it really like this?
This century was dominated by religious fanatics, meglomaniac dictators, tribal conflicts and human misery. Nothing good has come of it. Listen to this book and then kill yourself. Or go out and do something about it.

A century of massacre and slaughter

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don't expect any light relief. This book is a chronological account of atrocities and disasters. There is very little commentary or analysis. It does, however, contain an immense amount of information and certainly identified and filled in the blanks I had. I do recommend it, but be aware of what you're letting yourself in for - it's not for the faint-hearted.

Factual and grim

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Simply the most incredible listen on the subject. Enjoyable and hugely informative with such a great voice for the historical information.

Concise History

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The idea of covering the history year after year, sweeping around the world and moving constantly between continents and issues did not work for me.

Chaotic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The author decides to give us a year by year account of 20th century history.  This means that you end up with a set of very brief sketches of events.  There is no depth and little analysis.  Often there are interesting facts to be heard, but if you have a decent knowledge of 20th century history then this is little more than a revision course.

An extended timeline

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The approach is completely chronological. Interesting idea, but hard to follow. I'm used to getting my history based on particular themes (like the beginning, middle, end of a multi-year war). Not so easy to make sense if the whole world is covered entirely according to the timeline, year by year. Factually interesting though and the juxtaposition of events across the world that happened to have occurred during the same year can be revealing.

Interesting but...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.