A visual history of the 20th century, the photographs in this volume cover events which range from the hard history of politics to new inventions, the arts, society and fashion. The images have been drawn from international agencies such as Life, Magnum, Picture Post and Stern. The book is divided into six chronological sections corresponding to significant historical moments. Each section opens with a short historical overview which introduces the main concerns during the period covered. There is also a selection of quotations which capture the flavour of the period covered. There are extended captions at the end of each section providing historical information about each photograph.

Author Biography

Bruce Bernard was a picture editor for over thirty years. He started in visual journalism for a part-work publication of Purnell's History of the Twentieth Century, of which he was Picture Editor between 1967 and 1970. He was Picture Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine from 1972 to 1980 and visual arts editor of the Saturday Independent Magazine for its first four years between 1988 and 1992. In 1996 he curated the exhibition 'All Human Life' at the Barbican Centre. He also curated a private collection for James Moores. His publications include Photodiscovery (Abrams, New York) or The Sunday Times Book of Photodiscovery (Thames & Hudson, London, 1980); Vincent by Himself (Orbis Publishing Ltd, London, 1985) and Lucien Freud (edit.) (Jonathan Cape, 1996). Century is the culmination of 30 years' experience. Bruce Bernard died in March 2000.