Best of Book History Online

From the Inside Flap
(back cover)
We all remember those once-in-a-lifetime days when a milestone event transformed the world--such as JFK’s assassination, the first lunar landing, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and 9/11. You now hold in your hands a comprehensive record of those life-changing moments. Authoritatively compiled by historians, scientists, and journalists, 1001 Days That Shaped the World is an essential guide to the most extraordinary days humankind has known. Each of those days has formed the mindset of a culture, the history of a country, or the shape of a region. This fascinating guide is perfect for everyone who wishes to discover more about the triumphs and disasters that have shaped our world.

(front flap)
Certain days mark turning points in the world as we know it. Most people who were alive at the time will remember where they were when Martin Luther King was assassinated, or when the Berlin Wall fell. Such events define the end of one era and the beginning of another, marking transitions that help us map out the ebb and flow of human history.

You now hold in your hands a comprehensive guide to those extraordinary moments, written by respected figures from the fields of science, history, and journalism. Each entry features a detailed account of an epochal event, along with an informed assessment of its cultural and social impact.

Selected from events covering a vast expanse of time, 1001 Days That Shaped the World is history told through key moments, decisive encounters, memorable incidents, and disastrous events, whether triggered by human action or brought about by nature. Each event featured in this book has formed the mindset of a culture, the history of a country, or the shape of a region.

Amazing photographs, incisive text, and revealing quotations make this book an essential guide to the events that have shaped the world as it exists today.

(back flap)
Peter Furtado has been editor of History Today magazine since 1998. He holds degrees in history and art history from Oxford University, and over the last thirty years has edited many reference works on world history.

About the Author
Peter Furtado is a fellow of Britain’s Royal Historical Society and the editor of History Today magazine. Over the past three decades he has edited many reference works on world history, including the Atlas of World History.

Customer Reviews

almost 5 stars
The idea is excellent. Put all the world history in a single book. But it's very difficult to summarize a history fact in just one page.
It's still a good book, considering the idea to work on a single voulme, but I expect someday a further edition with two or three volumes explaining in much more rich details the facts.

A little about a lot
Survey works of this kind can be entertaining. They provide information on many subjects we may have a vague idea about, and are happy to get a better idea of. But they do not cover anything in depth, and they thus open themselves to the charge of superficiality. Moreover the whole approach here of looking at history in terms of single days. So a single day is taken for the writing of Shakespeare's sonnets, or for the appearance of Melville's 'Moby Dick'.All this hints at the fundamental truth that 'history' is processes which develop over varying periods of time. What I am trying to say is that while the whole business of looking at History in terms of individual days may give a certain perspective it is untrue to the whole movement and tenor of History.
This particular anthology has concise, readable entries and is certainly worth looking through.

What a wonderful trip down memory lane's sad and glad happenings
What a GREAT GIFT!

Are you the kind of person who says: Do you remember when ... ?

This hardcover book measures over 2 inches thick--and every inch is used wisely. General Editor Peter Furtado has been editor of "History Today" magazine and holds a degree in history and art history from Oxford University.

Imagine deciding how to break the world's event down to just 1001 - staring from The Big Bang. The first 380 some pages cover very ancient history.

Sampling of the next section: 1700-1899. Learn about the first bicycle, Civil War, Homestead Act, the Impressionist painters, Gettysburg Address, War & Peace (1785), Golden Spike, Suez Canal; telephone (1876), light bulb (1879), motorcar (1886), Statue of Liberty (1886), Eiffel Tower (1889), X-ray (1895), moving pictures (1895), modern Olympics (1896), gold strike (1898), among others.

The 1990-1949 section sampling: Radio message (1901), Tour de France (1903), Wright Brothers flight (1903), San Francisco Earthquake (1906), various explorers, Titanic sunk (1912), WWI (1914), Prohibition/speakeasies (1920s), first television (1926), Lindbergh's solo flight (1927), first talking movie (1927), St. Valentine's Day massacre (1929), first Academy Awards (1929) Wall Street crash (10/24/29), Empire State Building (1931) Hitler is Germany's chancellor (1933), Governments --Mao, Stalin, kings/queens, Churchill, War of the Worlds broadcast (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939), atom bomb (1945), UN created (1945), first bikini modeled (1946), State of Israel formed (1948). WWII dominated 1939 to 1946.

The 1950-present is an era most of us can answer, "Do you remember where you were when you heard that ...."

This section is again filled with war and warring in Korea (1950) Cuba (Bay of Pigs, 1961 and missile crisis, 1962), Vietnam, and other countries. Bombings and assassinations (President Kennedy 1963, and in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy), Russia's Sputnik (1957) and first man in space in 1961. Berlin Wall went up in 1961 and down in 1989. America's successful moon landing in 1969--while others failed, like the Challenger (1986), Elvis has No.1 song (1956 and died 1977), the Beatles on TV (1964), Jonestown massacre (1978). Many famous people died. Disneyland opened in 1955, Baghdad fell, Hurricane Katrina in 2004 and the tsunami in Indiana Ocean.

Armchair Interviews says: Read a page at a time, or inhale the world's history in chunks--this is an amazing resource and time machine.