num_pages: 304
description: The British Century, a witness to the art and historical importance of the 20th-century photograph, should find its way to classrooms, coffee tables, and studios. Through the dramatic contrasts of 300 pages of black-and-white images are portrayed, chronologically, the dark and light of Great Britain's last hundred years. The images reflect in their scope--from the grimace of death to celebrity smiles--editor Brian Moynahan's combined experience as a historian and newspaper editor. He supplies a substantial, balanced, and sensitive text, which, like the photographs, portrays mood in addition to fact and includes poignant quotations from ordinary people as well as from the famous. The photographs communicate where words would struggle: a grainy image of the Beatles in the Cavern Club, Liverpool, and the eerie view seen by a German pilot of the Spitfire he is about to attack convey the atmosphere and emotion of the past. With detailed captions, the images may be looked at separately, and readers will be drawn to them again and again. The British Century is a book filled with emotional power. It is not easy to forget such images as that of seven First World War veterans, posed as in any old club photograph, but with just one leg where there should be 14. --Karen Tiley, Amazon.co.uk 
language: English
title: The British Century
titlecomplete: The British Century
genres: History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 22
publisher: Random House Value Publishing