This is a resource for teaching and learning about the issues and events of the 20th century. It never lets go of the period's story, providing opportunities to examine the big picture and investigate particular topics. Discover how, in the 1920s, the German army resorted to practising in cardboard cut-out tanks; the reason why, in the 1930s, some unemployed Americans were paid to walk around with balloons on long strings; why black people in South Africa at the time of apartheid could have been imprisoned for five years just for sitting on a park bench; and how, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, large numbers of police spies lost their jobs and became taxi drivers.

Table of Contents

The world in 1900; the origins of World War I; living and dying in the trenches; the end of the War; the challenge of communism; how did communism change Russia?; the end of German democracy; the survival of democracy; World War II 1939-42; World War II 1942-45; the first nuclear war; the Nazis and the Jews; end of empire; who started the Cold War?; global Cold War; the end of communism.

Author Biography

John D Clare is Deputy Headteacher at Greenfields Comprehensive School, Newton Aycliffe and a well-known author of educational textbooks.