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| Modern Times Revised Edition: World from the Twenties to the Nineties, the | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Johnson
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £21.00
Buy Used: £4.80
You Save: £16.20 (77%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 223123
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 880
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 2.2
ISBN: 0060935502
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780060935504
ASIN: 0060935502
Publication Date: August 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Book in very good condition, slight wear with small remainder mark on edge. Ships from Canada by Air Mail - Delivery within 2 to 3 weeks - Satisfaction Guaranteed
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Entertaining but a little biased and dated, too June 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've had something of a feast of Paul Johnson in recent months. I finished his History of the American People a few weeks ago which I read alongside this one. I did notice that big chunks of the former turn up in the latter!
This is great history as journalism. Johnson has lots of tendentious opinions, and funnily enough he comes up with the thesis that his brand of religion and politics is good, and you can blame most of the world's ills on people who don't think like him. Also a few of his friends, like Thatcher, get glowing references.
He says the Americans weren't ruthless enough in Vietnam, and praises the First Gulf War, as a sign of healthy intervention in foreign affairs. However, the success of the First Gulf War led to the Second Gulf War -and that has been a disaster. He is a bit of a neocon and 80s fuddy-duddy. He has lots of scorn for Left wingers - which is intriguing, since he used to be one.
However his sweep is broad and I learnt loads about Africa and Asia that I had no idea about. He's good on the Soviet Union (though presumably a lot of this stuff has been updated since the collapse). I enjoyed the chapters on Weimar Germany and his views on commerce - and the importance of separating it from Government - I agree with.
He has some strong opinions about the Great Depression, though he admits that no historian can properly explain it. All I noticed is that the conditions he describes before it are very familiar today (long period of boom, low interest rates, excessive credit, hubris from the banks).
To stick him through nearly 1000 pages, or 2000 if I include his American history, he's definitely got an engaging and entertaining style. If you want to get interested in world history, Johnson is a man to get you started. After that, you can be amused by how other historians see the same events in a different light.
 An astonishing achievement; a key text of our age. August 4, 1999
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Johnson surveys our blood-soaked century and its mountains of corpses and lays the blame at the feet of utopian politics and the totalitarian urge to power. American education cannot be considered fully reformed until this book is required reading in every school in the land.
An engaging, thought-provoking, read. May 30, 1999
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is possibly the most interesting historical book around. Even those who are not interested in history will enjoy this book.The massive scope of this work is impressive. The two areas that remain with me, years after reading this book are, 1. The further reinforcement of the notion of "Man's Inhumanity to Man". That man, when left to his own resources, without social restraint, will behave more beastly than any animal. I like to suppose that we can rise above that...but as this book shows, as societies have moved to be more democratic, ruled not by monarchies but by common man, we have become more barbaric. 2. The utter failure of the communist movement...the misguided beginnings, the continued mistakes, blunders...an elitist group of intellectuals who had no faith in the common man; just how non-communist the communist regime was...and this work was written before the demise of the communist world. How interesting it would have been if this book concluded just a few years later. This book would be great for anyone who desires to spark the interest of history in those who have no desire to study it....(i.e., history teachers and their bored students)
Readable history from a unique perspective May 20, 1999
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Paul Johnson combines two qualities hard to find in today's historical works - readability and a theocentric world view. He challenges the reader to interpret the facts honestly, abandoning past stereotypes and biases. A fascinating overview of our century. I hope it's updated for the rest of the 1990's. A must read for anyone with an interest in modern history. Secular humanists may not like some of Johnson's conclusions.
One of the most important works of history ever written May 9, 1999
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is simply one of the best and most important works of history I have ever read. Mr. Johnson is an excellent writer, one of the best writers of history there is. Mr. Johnson understands the world, understands why the tragedies of the past seventy years happened, and he is not afraid to name names. Many persons who are generally presented as heroes in other histories and the mainstream media are not presented as such here. This history is not for the faint of heard, be prepared to have many of your closely held beliefs questioned.
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