Modern Times: The World from the 20s to the 90s

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Modern Times: The World from the 20s to the 90s

4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 · rating details · 878 ratings · 87 reviews

Revised Edition
The history of the 20th century is marked by two great narratives: nations locked in savage wars over ideology and territory, and scientists overturning the received wisdom of preceding generations. For Paul Johnson, the modern era begins with one of the second types of revolutions, in 1919, when English astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington translated observation...more

Paperback, 784 pages

Published August 7th 2001 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics (first published 1983)

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May 22, 2013 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Johnson fans

Recommended to Erik by: no one

Shelves: history

What I liked most about this history was Johnson's description of how matters stood before "modern times", particularly his description of the prodigies of walking customarily performed by our ancestors. The rest of the book strongly conveys the sense that its author is very conservative--which indeed Johnson is, being both a Conservative British journalist and a believing Catholic. Although I find this occasionally off-putting, he is a very good writer and his books have generally been enjoyabl...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Kyle rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: History Buffs

Finally finished this one! It's such a thick read that I had to read a chapter at a time interspersed with other reading. Modern Times is a history of the 20th century, or, more precisely, from Einstein's theory of relativity to the Gulf War. Paul Johnson is a British Roman Catholic historian/intellectual of a decidedly conservative bent. And by conservative I mean of the old-school type: free markets, individual responsibility, very limited government in the lives of citizens, and pro-tradition...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, modern-history, world-history, non-fiction, books-i-own

Paul Johnson is a great writer and incisive historian. He doesn't merely tell you what happened. He analyzes events, explains why they occurred, and even, at times, what may have happened otherwise.

His books do take some effort to get through. Long sentences, long paragraphs, long chapters - all with no breaks. Most books now are divided into two to three page segments, for easier and quicker reading, but this book defied that trend. But the reward is worth the struggle. Believe me, if you want...more Paul Johnson is a great writer and incisive historian. He doesn't merely tell you what happened. He analyzes events, explains why they occurred, and even, at times, what may have happened otherwise.

His books do take some effort to get through. Long sentences, long paragraphs, long chapters - all with no breaks. Most books now are divided into two to three page segments, for easier and quicker reading, but this book defied that trend. But the reward is worth the struggle. Believe me, if you want to learn about most of the 20th century, this is your book.

Johnson begins this weighty tome just after World War I. He discusses the perilous political situations in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia, all of which led to various forms of murderous, totalitarian governments, which in turn destabilized the world. He covers Hitler and Mussolini's rise to power, and goes in depth with Lenin and the bloodthirsty Bolsheviks, later called Communists.

Vladimir Lenin was a hateful, violent, evil man. He holds the dubious distinction of introducing the concept of genocide to the 20th century. Soon after he seized power, he ordered all sorts of classes of people murdered, simply because of the place they held in society. And they weren't all wealthy landowners, but peasants and workers, as well. Hitler looked to Lenin as a political model on how to wield power and demand obedience. It's a disgrace that the Russians, to this day, display Lenin's mummified corpse in public as if he were some kind of hero.

Joseph Stalin, Lenin's successor, was even worse. A paranoid monster of a man, he ordered the deaths of millions of Russians, peasants and comrades alike, to further the communist dream. He hated Jews as much as Hitler did. He betrayed friends and foes alike. A raging imperialist, he held several nations captive behind his Iron Curtain.

Unfortunately, murderous tyrants claiming power was the overall theme of the 20th century. Dictators appeared all over Asia and Africa after World War II. The trend did reverse itself a bit in the 80s and finally the 90s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but big government is still with us today.

Johnson discusses much more than this, of course, but it is far beyond the scope of this humble review. If you like to read, if you love history, you must read this. At the very least, it will help you understand the world a bit better.(less)

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Jan 15, 2009 Melissa McClintock rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, ongoing-reading-reference

This is the book that got me interested in world history. It isn't dry, with a lot of tidbits thrown in.

He also has a "premise" woven throughout the book, that with the change from moral thinking to "relative" thinking, there was a huge shift in culture and history. Including wars etc.

However he isnt' heavy handed about his premise, and instead of being biased, he just points out a supporting fact periodically.

It's a book that made WORLD history real to me, instead of something full of dates...more

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Nov 02, 2011 Loring Wirbel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An agnostic wag once said, "Any fool can make fun of evangelicals, but if you really want to see a crazed doctrine, look for a conservative Catholic, preferably a conservative Jesuit." This certainly holds true for Paul Johnson, who mars what could have been a superbly written book of breathtaking scope, with points of view that aren't merely limited or blinkered, but downright crazed at times.

In the first couple chapters, I was ready to give this book an instant 5 stars, due to the author's abi...more An agnostic wag once said, "Any fool can make fun of evangelicals, but if you really want to see a crazed doctrine, look for a conservative Catholic, preferably a conservative Jesuit." This certainly holds true for Paul Johnson, who mars what could have been a superbly written book of breathtaking scope, with points of view that aren't merely limited or blinkered, but downright crazed at times.

In the first couple chapters, I was ready to give this book an instant 5 stars, due to the author's ability to integrate economic, cultural, and political trends in a coherent whole. I did not begrudge him his tendency to paint all collectivist thought with a broad brush, if only because the world needed an appropriately sober look at the crimes of Lenin as well as Stalin.

But by the time we get to the 1930s, Johnson's oddball rejection of all modernist trends became a bit much to take. If he had been a traditional social conservative, or an economic conservative of the Stockman-Laffer school, one could accept his biases and move on. But Johnson is just plain weird, combining a Libertarian-like view of the power of the individual and a rejection of economic collectivism, with a near-devout belief in the power of empire. He rightly chides particular failures of the British empire in decline, like Anthony Eden's 1956 failure at Suez, but at the same time longs for a British and an American empire that would assert itself without regard to the consequences.

In his review of the 1930s, it's no surprise that he'd call FDR an aristocratic publicity-seeker and populist quack, and he'd be right in part. It's also predictable that he'd link the elder Philby's adventures in the Middle East to young Kim Philby's dalliances with the KGB. But to link all strands of 1930s liberal thought to the gay dilettantes of the Bloomsbury group in the UK? Not only does this hold a latent homophobia which Johnson displays throughout the book, but it attributes too much power to this group, in the same way modern conservatives are sure all 21st-century left-wingers have read Saul Alinsky. It just ain't so, folks.

Johnson's fractured-funhouse view of current events veers out of control as we hit the 1950s and 1960s. His analyses of Castro and other socialist "heroes" are traditional conservative views, not that far off base but not particularly interesting. But his demonization of former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold as the man who allowed Third World risings and non-alignment to get out of hand is downright laughable. Memo to Johnson: whether the Soviets manipulated Third World struggle or not, the traditional empires were bound to fall - there wasn't a thing the US or UK could have done to retain their protected domains. At least Piers Brendon, the author of 'Decline and Fall of the British Empire', understood this far better than Johnson did, and provided a far more accurate narrative of the British geographical decline in the 20th century as a result.

The last 100 pages of Johnson's book are comical enough to skip entirely. Of course the strikes at the end of the 1970s doomed Britain, but only a fool still sees Maggie Thatcher as a savior. Of course the liberal media manipulated Watergate, but to try and call John Sirica a "judicial terrorist" is beyond the pale. Face it, seeing Nixon and Reagan as unvarnished heroes of the century, while seeing Jimmy Carter as an unvarnished villain, is a nonsensical two-dimensional view of the world.

Even in the latter chapters of the book, I enjoyed seeing Keynesianism get a tweaking, I loved the way Johnson linked Jean-Paul Sartre with Nazism and commented that all romanticism is close to fascism (which I certainly believe to be the case with Rousseau, Goethe, Schiller, Byron, Shelley, etc.). And I loved his quote about Utopianism being not that far from gangsterism. But Johnson ruins what would have been a provocative book in the Christoper Hitchens tradition with a series of loony conclusions about human behavior that are downright unsustainable, no matter what your political or economic beliefs may be.(less)

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Feb 10, 2011 Cassian added it · review of another edition

Paul Johnson’s broad-view approach to history, his highly engaging style, his vivid character portraits, original insights, and his ability to marshal mountains of data to support his arguments are all attractive characteristics of his work. That being said, his claims need to be treated cautiously. He is a highly talented writer, but he is also a haphazard scholar and a reactionary conservative with an extremely narrow vision, a habit of ignoring key parts of the historical narrative, and a pro...more

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Oct 10, 2012 John Harder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Johnson is generally considered a conservative historian. This means he doesn’t feel communism is generally successful and its leaders tend to be murderous thugs – so pointing out the obvious make him a conservative.

Modern Times takes us through the personalities of our leaders from World War I through the modern day. I personally relished Johnson’s defense of Harding and Coolidge and well as his portrayal of the Roosevelt and Hoover debacle – Harding successfully avoided a financial collapse a...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Steve Stegman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: History Readers

Recommended to Steve by: Charlie Wingard

I just finished Modern Times as a part of my book club. Being a member of a book club has allowed me to read books, such as modern times, that I would regularly not read. The shear size of the book (almost 800 pages) appears overwhelming but will be beneficial to anyone wanting to understand the complexities of the modern world starting with Einstein's introduction of relativity to the end of the cold war.

I particularly found the time between WWI and WWII very interesting. This is a time in hist...more I just finished Modern Times as a part of my book club. Being a member of a book club has allowed me to read books, such as modern times, that I would regularly not read. The shear size of the book (almost 800 pages) appears overwhelming but will be beneficial to anyone wanting to understand the complexities of the modern world starting with Einstein's introduction of relativity to the end of the cold war.

I particularly found the time between WWI and WWII very interesting. This is a time in history that is often not addressed in history, and yet much of modern history is based on the concepts and events of the 1920s and 30s....from Keynesian economics to prohibition. The treaty of Versailles unfortunate and unsustainable and fueled the fires and tensions leading to WWII.

Johnson is liberal only in giving his conservative opinion. The reader must be ready to accept Johnson's perspective to get through the book. If you have a liberal or socialist world view, you will be offended by parts of this book. Johnson does make very good arguments on the benefits of free markets with minimal Keynesian controls. He forcefully paints communism, socialism and fascism as relativism in direct contrast to absolute truth.

His treatment of Hoover and Nixon is much kinder than many other historians. He credits Hoover for the beginning of recovery from the depression and presents him as a good man stuck in an unlucky place and time within history. And he hints that Roosevelt's efforts may have hurt as well as helping to end the depression. He glosses over Nixon's sins but does give him credit for opening China.

Despite his obvious conservative tendencies, he is fair in his criticism of both conservatives and liberals throughout modern history. He is brutally honest of the autocracies inflicted by the dictators of the 20th century and the failings of leaders in Western democracies.

Johnson uses extensive statistics and provided detailed analysis of interrelationships that led to critical moments in history.

This is an exceptional piece of work and I highly recommend reading the book.
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Feb 23, 2012 Nikolay Mollov rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: must, favorites

Само от първите няколко страници се усеща огромният размах, с който пише Пол Джонсън. Приемането на теорията за относителността на Айнщайн и идеите на Фройд оказват своето влияние върху всички аспекти на човешкия живот като се започне от политиката и изкуството. В литературата най-много това влияние се отразява чрез Марсел Пруст и Джеймс Джойс и епохалните им творби "По следите на изгубеното време" и "Одисей", които пускат своите плугове на влиянието след себе си...

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May 05, 2010 Sally rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Excellent coverage of modern history since WWI. Johnson did a masterful job of organizing the material to make it readable and understandable, bringing us up-to-date on events on a worldwide scale and in a chronological manner. I appreciated this book for two primary reasons: first, it helped me to 'put the pieces together', to see for instance how Africa went from colonial status to its present sad state. Second, it put into context things that I have lived through but lacked the ability to com...more

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Jun 30, 2008 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Erin by: Morton Blackwell

A fabulous book. I first read this when I was an intern working in DC. I have re-read it many times. It reiterated to me the unanticipated consequences of government action.

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Sep 08, 2012 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I never liked twentieth century history, but once I started this book, I gobbled it up. Johnson is a fantastic history-teller, with facts and wit and a sense of humor and of the importance of the human drama. He doesn't pretend to be "objective", if that means not making judgments or not caring about whether human actions are good or bad. He takes strong positions, frequently challenging liberal mythology, and supports them with many facts that allow the reader to begin making his own judgments....more

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Mar 05, 2012 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Listened to the audiobook. I liked the presentation, though I did find myself arguing with the book sometimes, as the author's opinion is very present. I was very interested in how the world has changed since this book was written. From the list of problems of the mid-eighties, you would never expect things to be where they are now.
So much of the book dealt with communism and its dangers and strengths. Now it seems so long ago that that was important. My how swiftly the world moves on.
Interesti...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Brian Albrecht rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This book is something else. It is not for the faint of heart but is definitely worth the effort (in my case about 7 months). Obviously Paul Johnson is conservative, but it is hard to be upset about a historian doing what all historians do-he judges stuff as good or bad. He is able to take situations and go beyond the pure facts and into the implications or results. This is what a good historian does in my eyes.
The book switches flawlessly between subjects. I'll be reading along and without even...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Shelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction

While working at a public high school in New Jersey I observed a rather interesting pedagogical practice. It looked a little something like this: a band of students acting as undercover ambassadors of their history class would approach an unsuspecting non-history teacher with a historical or geographical trivia question. If the stunned teacher could not, say, identify a particular world destination on a blank map, or name a particular African dictator responsible for such and such event, the stu...more While working at a public high school in New Jersey I observed a rather interesting pedagogical practice. It looked a little something like this: a band of students acting as undercover ambassadors of their history class would approach an unsuspecting non-history teacher with a historical or geographical trivia question. If the stunned teacher could not, say, identify a particular world destination on a blank map, or name a particular African dictator responsible for such and such event, the students would then report this failure back to their history class, sneering all the way at the ignorance of that unfortunate teacher, who was then labeled by the history class as being representative of a larger pattern of ignorance within our culture.

I'm not here to debate the merits of this type of assignment (although, someone should point out to the annoyingly arrogant students that the only reason why they know the answer is because their history teacher just talked about it last period...). I simply wish to share that the knowledge that, at any time, these students could be on the prowl struck a chord of fear in my heart. Commanding proper attention and authority as a young, female teacher is hard enough as it is; the last thing I need is to not be able to point out the Republic of Djibouti on a blank map in front of my entire class.

I've always been a bit insecure about my flimsy knowledge of historical and world happenings. The last time I took a proper world history class, I was a sophomore in high school. And, it was taught by the high school football coach, whose favorite technique was to distribute pastel colored worksheets, which we were then told to complete on our own. Needless to say, not a whole lot stuck. I can't blame all my ignorance on Coach Small, though. If I had spent my college summer vacations reading about history instead of playing countless hours of Tropico, I would be a much better person today.

Reading Modern Times by Paul Johnson constituted an attempt to better my historically-challenged self. This is not a people’s history, nor does it focus in depth on any one particular person or event. Rather, it's the story of the 20th's century's world leaders, the various ideologies they represented and the bloodshed that resulted when utopian visions inevitably imploded. Johnson seems to be particularly fascinated by the 20th century's unique propensity for producing charismatic revolutionaries, visionaries and messiahs whose often whimsical and ill-conceived decisions tragically influenced the lives of millions of people. The law of unintended consequences is a key theme in this book.

One characteristic of Modern Times that I appreciated is that Johnson doesn’t claim he’s done the impossible task of presenting the cold facts of history in an objective manner, completely free from bias. Rather, he unabashedly analyzes history, massaging the landscape of the 20th century into a narrative arc, replete with characters, themes and tragedies. His basic premise, which drives his analysis, is that Nietzsche’s prediction for the 20th came true, that at the dawn of modern times “the belief in the Christian God would no longer be tenable.” The vacuum left behind by God’s absence inevitably needed to be filled. Johnson goes on to argue, “Nietzsche rightly perceived that the most likely candidate would be what he called the 'Will to Power,' which offered a more comprehensive and in the end more plausible explanation of human behavior than either Marx or Freud. In place of religious belief there would be secular ideology. Those who had once filled the ranks of the totalitarian clergy would become totalitarian politicians. And, above all, the Will to Power would produce a new kind of messiah, uninhibited by any religious sanctions whatever, and with an unappeasable appetite for controlling mankind. The end of the old order, with an unguided world adrift in a relativistic universe, was a summons to such gangster statesmen to emerge. They were not slow to make their appearance” (48).

The fact that a traditional Judeo-Christian worldview undergirds Johnson’s argument might not sit well with some readers who disagree with his presuppositions (namely, that a moral fabric is woven into the universe and that man, despite his best efforts and often good intentions, is inherently weak and easily corruptible, which is why attempts at social engineering are doomed to fail). But to those who are open to Johnson’s particular angle, Modern Times will prove to be an informative and enlightening read. If I had to take a multiple choice test on it right now, I would likely score no better than a 9%, and I probably still can’t find the Republic of Djibouti on a map. So, you might be wondering why I devoted four months of my life to reading this long, boring book. What I can say is that the impoverished picture of the 20th century that I had in my mind prior reading this book has now been edified and enriched, and most importantly, it gave me a solid foundation onto which I will hopefully build.
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May 23, 2010 Eddie rated it 3 of 5 stars

A conservative's view on modern history. I didn't like it because it only told one side of the story and was biased. The value in the book is how Johnson emphasizes and shows the importance of individuals in history. Mao and Chiang Ka-Sheck? hated each other and this precipitated the fall of China to communism. It was not inevitable. He also points out the importance of the example of the free west, mainly America. It was interesting to read these exact same sentiments in recent issues of Foreig...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Found this on a quick trip to the Salvation Army, paid fifty cents for it. In general, the big fat detailed well-written masterful book about a whole period of history is one of my favorite things to read (like Let the Sea Make a Noise, or The Proud Tower); I'm slowly working though this on my bus commute, 20 minutes at a time, and loving it. There is a wealth of detail about a vanished world in here, and its concerns, its diplomacy, its art and society and politics, pulled together into a coher...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Roger Wagner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've had this book on the shelf since it was published. Finally got around to reading through it. Outstanding overview of the century. Johnson will be too opinionated for some (isn't historiography supposed to be "neutral?"), but makes his case more often than not. Interesting to see how many of his views (even those that would have been challenged at the time he wrote) have been confirmed by later scholarship (e.g., re Mao). He punctures many the inflated icons of the age. Well worth the effort...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Hadrian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, economics-finance-business, nonfiction, politics-and-foreign-policy, war, society-and-culture

A grand thousand-page history - just the way I like em. Covers many interlocked subjects and discusses them all in an imaginative and brilliant style. Flows freely from one subject to the other, and includes miniature portraits of the towering figures of the time.

Be warned, this book was written in the latter part of the 20th century, and the author has a fiscal conservative view. Perhaps then it could be justified, as capitalism was at the time a lesser evil than totalitarianism - but now the e...more

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May 23, 2009 Adrian Colesberry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the first historical book I ever read that wasn't assigned by a teacher. I felt so grown up reading through this book. It's based on an interesting take on modernity: when it started in particular. It is in no way an alternative history. It's very much concerned with politics and wars, but I was a young boy and that was just fine with me.

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Apr 30, 2012 Daniel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to confess that I could not get through the whole book, not due to the length but just due to the author being so conservative as to be almost reactionary. The sections on the Vichy regime in France were bad enough, but when he began soft peddling the abuses of power of the Nixon years, that was enough for me to stop reading.

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Nov 21, 2009 Michael rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you're into bullshit, read this book. According to Johnson, Calvin Coolidge was a great president and FDR was a screwball. Johnson is a complete and utter right wing moron. I hope he shares a room with Limbaugh and Beck in the nuthouse. If I could give it less than one star, I would.

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Sep 24, 2011 John Monti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the 2nd time I read this great book. Seminal isn't highest enough praise for it. It puts the 20th century into context for the reader. I especially liked the chapter on the 1920s and the Republican Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

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Aug 18, 2012 Todd rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Paul Johnson is a historian to be read. Modern Times is about the 20th century. Ambitious? Absolutely. Successful? Completely. This is a thick book. It will take time to read. But read you should.

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Aug 04, 2011 Jim Razinha rated it 4 of 5 stars

My edition is through the Eighties. Paul Johnson writes tomes of history, and this is no exception. The topic is broad, and he covers a lot, but with enough depth to satisfy.

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Jun 04, 2009 Zach rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Someone else on goodreads loved this book for the following reasons:

"We read this book with our home school reading group, and I was particularly struck by the bloodiness of modern history. Communism, fascism, socialism, philosophies of government aimed at manmade utopias on earth, inevitably end up killing people in unimaginable numbers. This book was also a reminder, in the face of today's troubling times, that our country has come through difficult straits in the past. While the downward spir...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Fumi added it · review of another edition

After reading this book I finally began to understand the world politic and history.

I found a copy of this in the bookshelf of my father just after his funeral…

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Jun 09, 2010 Steve Tappe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not really a review, but I just noticed that Johnson's middle name is Bede. I think from now on I will refer to him as the Venerable Paul Johnson. He certainly is.

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Feb 25, 2010 Glorious.Clio rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, i-read-it-in-class

This one... it's a dense one. But it gives a good picture of the Twentieth Century: it's only failing is the fact that it's such a broad period of time.

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Dec 09, 2009 Amy is currently reading it · review of another edition

The physical and historical dimensions of this book are too vast for a typical commute read, but now that I don't have a car anymore, I think I can handle it.

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About Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson works as a historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst School in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Magdalen College, Oxford, and first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. He has also written for leading newspapers and magazines in Britain, the US and Europe.

Paul Johnson has published over 40 books incl...more

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Books by Paul Johnson

A History of the Jews (Perennial Library)

Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky

The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830

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“A Stalin functionary admitted, "Innocent people were arrested: naturally - otherwise no one would be frightened. If people, he said, were arrested only for specific misdemeanours, all the others would feel safe and so become ripe for treason.” — 4 people liked it

“It is one of the many ironies of this period that, at a time when the intelligentsia were excoriating Mellon for tax-evasion, and contrasting the smooth-running Soviet planned economy with the breakdown in America, he was secretly exploiting the frantic necessities of the Soviet leaders to form the basis of one of America's most splendid public collections” — 1 person liked it

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