Modern Times: The World from the Twenties: The World from the Twenties to the Eighties

Paul Johnson is an historian, wether Ph.D. or not. He does his homework and researches well his subjects. But he's thankfully free of the cliches of the profession, and so he is brave and bold when it comes to assess the facts he's described. In this extremely useful and refreshing book, Johnson says things most historians are not willing to tell, or tell while blushing. The distinguishable truth of the last century is that the demise of several basic certainties, i.e. the existence of God, the absolute nature of morality, and the value of the inidividual, borught about only death, war, tragedy and the worst and most horrifying massacres of history, performed by the most perverse and distorted political regimes man has ever known. And you don't have to be a religious nut to believe this.Johnson's history is great to read. It includes illuminating anecdotes and profiles of many of the main characters in the wonderful yet terrible century just finished. We get to peer through the mist of ideology and legend and see what kind of people ruled our world: pure evil people like Lenin (who couldn't stand peasants and workers), Stalin (a crazy whacko with a small soul and a big killing instinct), Hitler (ditto), Mussolini (another lunatic, only also stupid); Mao (a vulgar looney with an incomparable talent to come up with the most idiotic ideas, which only caused hunger and misery), the host of African dictators, which must have made their peoples deplore the day the hated Europeans left, and Latin American morons like Peron, who managed to destroy a first-class economy and transform his country into a poor state (and still they love him and the hooker whom he married).There are also fascinating portraits of other, imperfect but less evil politicians of the century. I realized I knew absolutely nothing about people like Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. There is the frivolous and unlikable Roosevelt, the corrupt (and also frivolous) Kennedy, etc. Churchill comes up, of course, as an admirable and brave man, always a step ahead everybody else even when he made mistakes, and De Gaulle, an arrogant man but a good statesman.You will hardly agree with everything Johnson says, but his book is always thought-provoking and interesting. This is and will remain an important book to read.

I am an historian, with nearly a Ph.D in the subject. I teach history at the community college level. I have 100's of history books, many of the 20th century. Johnson's book is highly moralistic and interpretive, more so than most history books, and frankly, more so than professional historians (which Johnson is not) would prefer. But it is a brilliant interpretation of the 20th century, one with guts. But it's not the popular interpretation because historians are affected by ideology just like everyone else. There are some tremendous anecdotes in the book, some information that mainstream histories do not, and never will, provide. That, in itself, makes the book unique and worthwhile. Every chapter is rich, full of interesting data, and intelligent interpretation. I don't agree with all of Johnson's interpretations; but he is always provocative and he makes the reader think. That, along with his emphasis on the decline of moral responsibility, is why a number of people don't like the book. Americans need to read the chapter "America's Suicide Attempt"--the history of the '60s we still don't get. "The Collectivist Seventies" explains a lot to those of us who lived through the malaise of that decade. "Caliban's Kingdoms" and the "Bandung Generation" are masterful exegeses of non-Western history. Again, I don't agree with everything here; but I do appreciate the fact that Johnson provides information and ideas that are never found in mainstream histories produced by professional historians who are writing to gain praise from their peers. They can't write this because, as Johnson argues, the 20th century (including academia) accepted that "God is dead." And to a conservative Catholic (which I'm not, but Johnson is), that propels the entire century. And that's also why this book is reviled in many quarters. Reader, be aware, this is a book that argues, implicity and sometimes not so much so, that atheistic, relativistic ideas underlie most of the barbarities of post World War I 20th century. Given Hitler and Communism--both Darwinian motivated--it's hard to argue against the point. The book is thick, and even with Johnson's capable prose, not an easy read for a novice. But there's no better explanation, that I've read, of what happened--and why--in the 20th century.

The liberal view of history is so widespread that any deviation is subject to immediate criticism. Johnson goes after modern cultural icons with vigor, examining and reassessing all the way. He has perfected a writing style that is highly readable and entertaining with common components: Broad assumptions, intricate details supporting his idea and unique, incredibly interesting biographies of those that made a difference - known or unknown. The 20th century IS the collectivist century. Every variant of collectivism from communism, fascism, tribalism, socialism and religious classism has been tried with catastrophic results. The eagerness with which "leaders" (most from academia) experimented on whole populations is truly horrific. Glowing theories always gave way to human suffering. Millions have been sacrificed in the name of collectivism just this century - USSR, China, Germany, Cambodia, Turkey, Africa...Oddly, speaking ill of this most anti-democratic "theory" is seen as somehow impolite. Johnson records the fight and the fighters (on both sides) of this battle. Naturally the US and Britain emerge with glowing marks - and why not? Those two have saved the world many times. Germany would have won WWI and WWII without US intervention. Europe would be one vast socialist graveyard without the opposition of Truman. Korea, Japan and parts of South America would be "Peoples States" without our help. Relativism has spread to almost all facets of human existence with perhaps the most dangerous one being that all cultures are morally equivalent. This book aptly demonstrates that this has not - and is not - true.