The 20th Century brought revolutionary changes to our world and our lives: the human population of the world tripled, space travel became reality, two world wars and a host of other conflicts were fought, and huge advances in science, technology and communication resulted in the globalised world we know today. Enormous steps were made in wiping out widespread discrimination, from the women's suffrage movement leading to women's right to vote in western countries, to the civil rights movement in the US challenging racial segregation. The political landscape has provided lots of excitement, with charismatic and scandalous presidents in the White House, the first female prime minister in the UK, dictators working to various manifestoes across the world, the Middle East conflict and the changing balance of political and economic "superpowers". Technological advances have resulted in nigh on universal adoption and dependence on automobiles, computers, mobiles and other wireless technology. The exponential rate at which technology is evolving is one of the variables that make the twentieth century so fascinating. All this and much, much more happened in a mere one hundred years - where did we find the time to do so much?! Twentieth Century History For Dummies tells all...

Introduction 1 Part I: The Great War Years: 1900-19 9 Chapter 1: Overview of a Century 11 Chapter 2: Fin de Siecle - Wrapping Up the Nineteenth Century 31 Chapter 3: The Great War: 1914-18 55 Part II: The Years of the Great Dictators: 1919-45 81 Chapter 4: The Red Flag - Communism 83 Chapter 5: Men in Black (Shirts): The Right-Wing Dictators 101 Chapter 6: The Twenties: The Decade that Roared 115 Chapter 7: I'm the King of the World! Europe's Empires 133 Chapter 8: Depression and Aggression 147 Chapter 9: The War of the World 165 Part III: The Divided World: 1945-89 181 Chapter 10: You're Cold as Ice! The Cold War 183 Chapter 11: Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me: The End of Empires 201 Chapter 12: Africa's Wind of Change 219 Chapter 13: Going Bananas: Latin America 237 Chapter 14: Asian Tigers 259 Chapter 15: Disneyland: Post-War America 279 Chapter 16: Red on Red: Russia and China 295 Part IV: To the Millennium 315 Chapter 17: Muddle in the Middle East 317 Chapter 18: Europe Rides Again 337 Chapter 19: New Order: Wrapping up the Twentieth Century 353 Chapter 20: And the Living Is Easy - For Some 371 Part V: The Part of Tens 387 Chapter 21: Ten Iconic Images 389 Chapter 22: Ten Triumphs of Technology 393 Chapter 23: Ten Films That Made an Impact 399 Chapter 24: Ten International Bodies that Made a Difference 405 Chapter 25: Ten BAD Ideas 411 Index 415