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Title: Modern Times

Subtitle: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties

Author: Paul Johnson

Narrator: Nadia May

Format: Unabridged

Length: 37 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-29-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 250 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Beginning with May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's theory of relativity, Johnson goes on to describe Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of "Old Europe", the Arcadian 20s, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the '29 crash, the Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal, and the massive conflict of World War II.

Critic Reviews:

"Johnson's insights are often brilliant and of value in their startling freshness." (Los Angeles Times)

"Frequently surprises, even startles us with new views of past events and fresh looks at the characters of the chief world movers and shakers, in politics, the military, economics, science, religion, and philosophy of six decades." (The Wall Street Journal)

"Truly a distinguished work of history...Modern Times unites historical and critical consciousness. It is far from being a simple chronicle, though a vast wealth of events and personages and historical changes fill it....We can take a great deal of intellectual pleasure in this book." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

The Anti-Howard Zinn

Paul Johnson is a journalist turned historian. He is an excellent writer, meaning, he writes well. Given his age and education in England, he is going to form a killer sentence. He explains his theories well and gives a great narrative flow to his take on forces of history.

This book is not for everyone. It should be read widely, but given current trends in academia, it will not be. This is the opposite of A People's History of the United States. That is going to enrage some people and please others. But it is just one more voice speaking and should be heard. His grasp of history (going back to antiquity) is astonishing and seemingly nonchalant. It is amazing what he references. This is more of a history-as-biography as opposed to ideological concepts. Johnson believes history is made by individuals. And you get them in all arenas, political, ideological, and artistic.

This is a history of the western world from the 1920s (he posits that the confirmation of Einstein's theory is the beginning of the "modern" age) through the 1990s. The book derides moral relativism, defends Nixon, hates Communism, and describes the 1960s as "America's Suicide Attempt".

But he backs his theories up with abundant facts. There are some errors in the book, which is going to happen in a book this large. I do not feel they detract from the overall thesis. It is a great companion to his "A History of the American People". (The audio, which I have, is done by Nadia May, too.) A knowledge of Latin phrases is helpful.

Johnson has opinions and is not afraid to share them. I consider this more honest than a lot of histories that I read. (Read Rick Perlstein's arrogant Nixonland, and be astonished by his inherent venom toward Nixon and the implicit belief one would agree with him.) At least Johnson is explicit. You don't have to agree with him, but he presents his argument lucidly.