Review by Choice Review
Mortimer cruises through the last 1,000 years century by century, describing the greatest changes and choosing the most important "change agent" for each. He discusses social and intellectual developments, wars, revolutions, religion, medical advances, speed of communication, and transport. Historians will enjoy going along with him and arguing with his choices (Edward III as the change agent of the 14th century?). At the end, he concludes that the 19th and 20th centuries saw the greatest changes, driven by the exploitation of fossil fuels. The three biggest changes of the 20th century were globalization, the threat of mass destruction, and the unsustainability of standards of living. Using a photo of Earth from space (1968), the author says this small, isolated orb is the only planet humans have, and its resources are not unlimited, not enough to maintain the burgeoning population at its current level. The Malthusian doom, he says, has been staved off by technological advances but not stopped. One may find the main part of the book too superficial, but the conclusion is a tour de force and should produce serious discussion. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General, public, and undergraduate collections. --Evelyn Edson, Piedmont Virginia Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* During the remarkable 105 years of a life that ended in 1387, Sir John de Sully witnessed many changes in Europe consequent to the Black Death. But assessing the lasting effect of these changes requires the historical perspective that Mortimer develops as he tracks the century-by-century transformations that turned Europe from a feudal patchwork held together by the Catholic Church in the eleventh century to a secular confederation of nations united by international law, mass communication, and cybertechnology in the twenty-first century. Peter Abelard emerges as the decisive change agent of the twelfth century; Richard III, of the fifteenth; and Karl Marx, of the nineteenth. Though Mortimer finally concurs with the widespread judgment that the twentieth century saw more overall change than any preceding one, he insists that the sixteenth century experienced more profound changes in ideology and law and the nineteenth more dramatic changes in demography. An atheist, Mortimer surprisingly identifies God understood as a motivating belief as the master cause of change for the millennium as a whole. Yet he seems quite happy to bid Deity farewell as he faces an anticipated future so dire (food and fuel disappearing, political oppression surging) that readers may start praying. Exceptionally capacious and stimulating historical inquiry.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Acclaimed British medievalist Mortimer (The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England) takes readers on a tour of the last thousand years as he attempts to glean which century of the last millennium saw the most change in Western civilization. He charts the progress and evolution of Western society while asking some truly challenging questions-how much influence did da Vinci truly have on history?-and making startling omissions (Napoleon, for instance, fails to rate even a mention). Given the expansive nature of his study, Mortimer often relies on statistics and data to illustrate a broad historical context; less often, he takes brief but engaging dips into the history of individuals and cultures. Though some may be unconvinced by Mortimer's reliance on quantitative reasoning, it is hard to fault much of what he has selected as the most relevant trends and transformations of the West. But the most startling piece of analysis comes only after Mortimer has rendered his verdict. In the final chapter, Mortimer speculates about the future of Western society using the same schema that he applied to the past millennium. Though his predictions are grim, Mortimer's intrinsic faith in human perseverance offers a glimmer of hope for the coming thousand years. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Most observers agree that the 20th century saw dazzling changes: the automobile, airplane, atom bomb, antibiotics, computers, space travel, the internet, and hundreds of other amazing advancements. What century can match that? Every one since 1000, responds veteran British social historian Mortimer, and he makes a convincing case.Following his format of The Time Travelers Guide to Elizabethan England (2013), the author rewinds the clock for a fascinating, century-by-century Eurocentric argument that stuff more world-shaking than cellphones has been happening for a millennium. In much of the 11th century, the Holy Roman Emperor had the power to appoint and remove popes. By 1100, the papacy was an elected position, and Christendom dominated Europe. A powerful church supported powerful monarchs, whose armies finally drove off raiding Vikings, Magyars, and Mongols. Violence diminished, the population prospered, and cities expanded. By 1200, medieval Europe was enjoying a renaissance. Famine and plague devastated the continent after 1300, but an even bigger renaissance followed. The humanism movement, which glorified individual achievement, produced an explosion of art and science but also, for the first time, diaries and personal letters. By 1800, almost everyone had enough to eat, in itself a unique development. Mortimers chapters on the 19th and 20th centuries are lengthy and familiar but contain a few jolts. The author emphasizes that revolutions have a terrible record in promoting justice. Single-issue crusadese.g., anti-slavery, womens rights, civil rights, the eight-hour workdaydo much better. Throughout, Mortimer focuses on changes that affected everyone. Thus, the revolution of printing didnt fully catch on in 1450 with the invention of the printing press (early books were expensive and in Latin) but rather with the avalanche of cheap, vernacular Bibles a century later. A quirky but always delightful social history that will convince most readers that social revolutions have been happening for a long time. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
