Our Times: An Illustrated History of the 20th Century

Organized year-by-year, comprises deftly written entries on a myriad facets of history, art and literature, science, and popular culture. Each entry includes at least one reference forward or backward to a specific year and entry on a related subject or theme. Expert page design allows clear presentation of some 2,500 well-chosen images. Supplemental features include essays by the likes of Stephen Jay Gould, Mary Gordon, and Sir Arthur C. Clarke; contemporary texts selected to illuminate an event or an aspect of the culture pertinent to each year; lists of births and deaths; capsulized stories of international interest and of specifically American interest; and a few lines of tiny print at the foot of each page summarizing significant events and data. In short, this encyclopedia is a good browse and reference, impressively well-planned and executed; it will no doubt be periodically brought up to date beyond its current ending year of 1993. A CD-ROM has reportedly been published in conjunction with the book. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR