The Century

Front Cover
Doubleday, 1998 - History - 606 pages
What was it like to watch the Wright Brothers soar into the sky? To hear the first crackling voice aired on the radio? To cower in the ghastly trenches of Europe during World War I? To lose everything in the stock-market crash of 1929, or experience the birth of rock and roll? To watch the Berlin Wall divide East and West, and then, twenty-eight years later, to see it fall under the weight of tens of thousands seeking to taste freedom? For the past seven years, researchers, reporters, and producers for ABC News have searched the world's archives for the rarest and most stunning photographs and images, consulted eminent twentieth-century historians, and discovered and interviewed hundreds of eyewitnesses and participants in the significant moments of the most eventful one hundred years in human history.
The result is this spectacular book, the independent companion volume to the landmark ABC News and The History Channel television series "The Century." Co-written by ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings and Senior Editorial Producer Todd Brewster, "The Century" features a narrative of extraordinary quality that tracks major themes--the impact of technology, the soaring of the imagination, the ghastly violence, the joy of entertainment--through chronological chapters recounting the signal moments of each era in the century. From "Seeds of Change: 1901-1914" to "Machine Dreams: 1990-1999," each chapter is threaded through with fascinating first-person accounts of the great events of the twentieth century, and illustrated with over five hundred color and black-and-white photographs (many never published before) reproduced in exquisite depth and clarity.
"The Century" presents history as itwas lived, and as it will be remembered for the next hundred years. Here is a keepsake volume destined to be an essential part of every family's library: an epic journey through the last hundred years, whose heroes are our grandparents, our parents, ourselves.

From inside the book

Contents

Boom to Bust 19201929
98
Over the Edge 19361941
184
Years of Doubt 19691981
420
Copyright

5 other sections not shown

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About the author (1998)

Peter Jennings, July 29, 1938 - August 7, 2005 Peter Jennings was born on July 29, 1938 in Toronto, Canada. His father was a reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Company at the time and at the age of nine, Jennings hosted a half hour weekly children's show for the CBC. jennings attended Carleton University and Rider College. In 1962, Jennings became co-anchor of Canada's first national commercial network newscast. In 1964 he moved to New York City and found a job as a correspondent for ABC. Jennings worked his way up and eventually became the anchor for ABC's nightly newscast for two years, from 1965 to 1967. He returned to reporting in 1968, and was appointed head of the ABC News Middle East Bureau in Beirut in the 70's. In 1971, Jennings received the National Headliner Award for his report on Civil War in Bangladesh. He won the Peabody Award for his report on the Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1974. From 1974 to 1975, Jennings worked as the Washington correspondent for ABC's A.M. America, before heading to London as the chief foreign correspondent. Once in London, jennings co-anchored ABC's World News Tonight. once the show moved to New York City in 1983, Jennings was made sole anchor of the show. Jennings interviewed Saddam Hussein right before the Gulf War, one of the only western reporters to be allowed to do so. In 1998, he published "The Century," a book of photographs focusing on the American perspective of the 20th century. Jennings won numerous honors throughout his career, including 16 Emmys and two George Foster Peabody Awards. The Radio and Television News Directors Association awarded Jennings its highest honor, the Paul White Award in 1995, in recognition of his lifetime contributions to journalism. In 2004, he was awarded with the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting from Washington State University. Just eight days before his death, Jennings was informed that he would be inducted into the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. On February 21, 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg designated the block on West 66th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West as Peter Jennings Way in honor of the late anchor; the block is home to the ABC News headquarters. Jennings died on August 7, 2005 due to lung cancer.

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