Understanding the 20th Century

Explore the best 20th century books that shaped history, culture, and thought. Discover must-read titles for understanding the pivotal events and ideas of the 1900s.

The Guns of August Cover
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The Guns of August

by Barbara W. Tuchman

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • “A brilliant piece of military history which proves up to the hilt the force of Winston Churchill’s statement that the first month of World War I was ‘a drama never surpassed.’”—Newsweek Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In this landmark account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages. The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmermann Telegram comprise Barbara W. Tuchman’s classic histories of the First World War era
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ID: 0449219771
(Type: books)
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ID: 0195097327
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Citizen Soldiers Cover
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Citizen Soldiers

by Stephen E. Ambrose

From Stephen E. Ambrose, bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II. In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. From the high command down to the ordinary soldier, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy. From the hedgerows of Normandy to the overrunning of Germany, Ambrose tells the real story of World War II from the perspective of the men and women who fought it.
The Good War Cover
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The Good War

 

No summary available.
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ID: 0679721037
(Type: books)
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ID: 067972186X
(Type: books)
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 Cover
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The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956

by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

The Gulag Archipelago is Solzhenitsyn's attempt to compile a literary-historical record of the vast system of prisons and labor camps that came into being shortly after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917 and that underwent an enormous expansion during the rule of Stalin from 1924 to 1953. Various sections of the three volumes describe the arrest, interrogation, conviction, transportation, and imprisonment of the Gulag's victims by Soviet authorities over four decades. The work mingles historical exposition and Solzhenitsyn's own autobiographical accounts with the voluminous personal testimony of other inmates that he collected and committed to memory during his imprisonment.Upon publication of the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn was immediately attacked in the Soviet press. Despite the intense interest in his fate that was shown in the West, he was arrested and charged with treason on February 12, 1974, and was exiled from the Soviet Union the following day.
Kennedy & Nixon Cover
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Kennedy & Nixon

by Christopher Matthews

Details the long standing friendship which existed between Kennedy and Nixon which began in 1946 when both were elected as congressmen, but degenerated into distrust and bitterness and ending in the dark deeds of Watergate in 1972.
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ID: 0393318346
(Type: books)
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ID: 0060921072
(Type: books)
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ID: 0671241109
(Type: books)
The Nightingale's Song Cover
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The Nightingale's Song

by Robert Timberg

How the legacy of the Vietnam War changed the lives of five Naval Academy graduates: John McCain, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, John Poindexter and James Webb.
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ID: 0316107549
(Type: books)
Dave Barry Slept Here Cover
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Dave Barry Slept Here

 

No summary available.