Synopses & Reviews
The British may have claimed the 19th century by force, and the Chinese may cast a long shadow over the 21st, but the 20th century belongs to the United States. This is the premise behind Harold Evans's robust, sweeping, spectacularly illustrated account of the people and events that gave rise to America's political and cultural dominance.
Evans begins in the 1880s, when it was still uncertain whether America, with its diverse peoples, manifold beliefs, and impossible ideals, would even survive its own democratic experiment or manage to reconcile an increasingly headlong materialism with the original virtues of the Republic. He shows how, from that time forward, the citizens of the United States saw increases in material wealth and personal freedom unequaled in history, paralleled by the growing power and influence of the country abroad. He covers upheavals and victories with succinct and insightful prose, aided by a splendid array of fresh, remarkable images.
The American Century is an epic work, an incomparable telling of the rise of the most powerful nation in the world.
Review
"Not a "history," not a conventional chronicle or a disinterested random survey, and not at all a textbook, The American Century is first and foremost an illustrated political essay, a set of tableaux or choreographed historical episodes designed to introduce "new Americans" (and presumably old ones) to the years when the United States exfoliated into an international power. It is also a decade-by-decade account of selected events and people not just the names enshrined in our national annals, but also those of the now near-anonymous men and women long dissolved into our culture and institutions. Finally, it is a story written without hokum or bias by a "new" American of his adopted country's political development from the end of the Civil War until it had become 'the-most-powerful-country-in-the-world.'" Daniel Aaron, The New Republic (read )
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 667-689) and index.
About the Author
Harold Evans is Editorial Director and Vice Chairman of the Daily News, U.S. News & World Report, and Atlantic Monthly. He has been editor of The Times (London) and The Sunday Times, and was President and Publisher of Random House from 1990 to 1997. He lives in New York City with his wife, Tina Brown, and their two children.