by The Century for Young People: 1961-1999: Changing America
It is true that the world completely failed to realize the fantasies of a golden age that many people dreamed of at the start of the twentieth century. Even the sophisticated streets of the new “global community” are still the scene of violence and bloodshed. In the twentieth century people believed that human will could control the forces of existence through science and technology. Yet at the end of the century a new humility seemed to be growing, a sense that there are limits to what people can control.
There is still no communications tool more powerful than the family story, and the family stories handed down from this century have all too often been tales of oppression, of prejudice, of war, of sorrow. In every family’s history are ancestors who survived the terror of World War I, the horrors of the Holocaust, the injustices of the Jim Crow laws, or the grim grip of Communism. Both politics and technology made the twentieth century a century of killing. But politics and technology also provide us with hope for the future. And it is hope that carries us forward into the unknown territory we will explore in the next century.
Read more about our nation’s history
in these companion volumes….
The Century for Young People
Becoming Modern America 1901–1936
Imagine …
watching the Wright brothers rise into the sky,
demonstrating for women’s right to vote,
fighting in the trenches during World War I,
hearing the first voice crackle over the radio,
riding the rails as a hobo during the Great Depression.
Let your imagination soar as you experience all the
drama of the twentieth century through the eyes of the
people who lived it. The vivid stories of the
eyewitnesses at the center of this narrative bring to life
the most inspiring, surprising, and terrifying events of the
past hundred years. These are the voices of the
ordinary people—woman and men, children and
adults—who were a part of history in the making. Their
joys and sorrows, hopes and fears provide a compelling
insider’s look at the momentous events that have
reshaped the world and transformed the everyday lives of all
of us in a century of incredible changes.
The Century for Young People
Defining America 1936–1961
Imagine …
landing in a hail of bullets on a Normandy beach,
being blacklisted as a Communist and pressured to
betray your friends and coworkers,
watching the first images spring to life on television,
walking eight miles in the rain to demand equal rights.
Let your imagination soar as you experience all the
drama of the twentieth century through the eyes of the
people who lived it. The vivid stories of the
eyewitnesses at the center of this narrative bring to life
the most inspiring, surprising, and terrifying events of
the past hundred years. These are the voices of the
ordinary people—woman and men, children and
adults—who were a part of history in the making. Their
joys and sorrows, hopes and fears provide a compelling
insider’s look at the momentous events that have
reshaped the world and transformed the everyday lives
of all of us in a century of incredible changes.
Text copyright © 1999 by ABC, Inc.
New introduction copyright © 2009 by Brewster, Inc.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
This is the third volume of a three-volume adaptation of The Century for Young People, by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster. Based upon the work The Century, by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster, published by Doubleday Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1998.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Armstrong, Jennifer.
The century for young people / Peter Jennings, Todd Brewster; adapted by Jennifer Armstrong. — 1st trade pbk. ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89397-1
1. History, Modern—20th century—Juvenile literature. 2. History, Modern—20th century—Pictorial works. I. Jennings, Peter, 1938–2005. Century. II. Brewster, Todd. Century.
III. Title.
D422.A76 2009
909.82—dc22
2009008437
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
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