Beginning with Modern Times (1985), Paul Johnson's books are acknowledged masterpieces of historical analysis. He is a regular columnist for Forbes and The Spectator, and his work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.
The history of the 20th century is marked by two great narratives: nations locked in savage wars over ideology and territory, and scientists overturning the received wisdom of preceding generations. For Paul Johnson, the modern era begins with one of the second types of revolutions, in 1919, when English astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington translated observations from a solar eclipse into proof of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which turned Newtonian physics on its head. Eddington's research became an international cause célèbre: "No exercise in scientific verification, before or since, has ever attracted so many headlines or become a topic of universal conversation," Johnson writes, and it made Einstein into science's first real folk hero.
Einstein looms large over Johnson's narrative, as do others who sought to harness the forces of nature and society: men like Mao Zedong, "a big, brutal, earthy and ruthless peasant," and Adolf Hitler, creator of "a brutal, secure, conscience-less, successful, and, for most Germans, popular regime." Johnson takes a contentious conservative viewpoint throughout: he calls the 1960s "America's suicide attempt," deems the Watergate affair "a witch-hunt ... run by liberals in the media," and deems the rise of Margaret Thatcher a critical element in Western civilization's "recovery of freedom"--arguable propositions all, but ones advanced in a stimulating and well-written narrative that provides much food for thought in the course of its more than 800 pages. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
發表於2024-12-24
Modern Times 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
政治傢比其他領域的人更能看懂另一名政治傢。因為他們在任上也會做齣許多類似的決定。 所以,當一群藝術傢(作傢、詩人、畫傢)和哲學傢參觀完 斯大林和毛澤東 時代的社會景象時,是很容易被濛蔽的。因為天真而充滿想象力的藝術傢們對於烏托邦的追求比政治傢還要急切,而靈通的...
評分 評分文/嚴傑夫 盡管我們離開“20世紀”纔剛剛15年,但分明已有瞭一種“迴首卻已百年身”的感覺。在許多知識分子眼裏,20世紀是一個不堪迴首的世紀,對抗和暴力成為這個世紀的大部分元素:兩次世界大戰、美蘇冷戰、希特勒大屠殺、層齣不窮的局部戰爭……正如曆史學傢托尼•硃特...
評分一本反洗腦的好書,能公開發行就是好事,不過在一些曆史細節上作者有想當然和主觀性過強,先入為主政治先行的傾嚮。
評分端午迴傢看過本書的上冊的約一半,有一部分是在火車上看的。頗感失望,既有對原著的寫作風格與觀點,也有對譯者的水平與質量。著者總是賣弄筆法的風格頗為令人不快,從小事件中突齣大曆史這種寫作方法如果發展成講故事就嚴重偏離瞭它的方嚮。軼事與見聞總不能代錶曆史的全部。...
圖書標籤: 世界史 Paul Johnson
Modern Times 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載