Life: 100 Events That Shook Our World : A History in Pictures from the Last 100 Years Overview
There has never been another period of time to compare with the last 100 years. From the Auto Age to the Computer Age, from Lucky Lindy to a man walking on the moon, our world has been an endless wellspring of unparalleled drama. Using their trademark brilliant photography and informative writing, the editors of Life have assembled a fascinating, engrossing volume that captures the happenings and the characters who have fleshed out this saga, names that will live through the ages: FDR and JFK, the Babe and Elvis, Einstein and Martin Luther King. And, of course, the likes of Hitler and bin laden. This is a volume certain to entertain today and for generations to come.
Customer Reviews
"100 Events" might better be titled, "100 20th century mostly-American events that LIFE has pictures of." Nothing wrong with that of course, but it would make for a more accurate title.
The book unfolds in classic LIFE format, with full page and double-page layouts of famous events. Some are truly momentous and have potential world-wide historical impact. The discovery of the structure of DNA will affect the way human beings heal, diagnose and even propagate. Dr. Christian Barnard's first heart transplant in 1967 also changed the way we see the human body - less as a unity than as an array of interchangeable parts. The dropping of the atomic bomb dramatically changed the nature of warfare and the way that all nations must learn to relate. And the walk on the moon in 1969 was a technical achievement that truly did astound the world and perhaps even paved the way for an end to the Cold War.
But Marilyn Monroe modeling a bikini? The Yankees acquiring Babe Ruth? Louis Armstrong? Madonna? The U2 Incident? Even the 1969 Woodstock music festival is a questionable choice.
Whatever.
The pictures are fun to look at. The events may spur debate. Which 100 would you choose? LIFE could have done worse.
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