I'm a sucker for these. History-lite, perhaps, and obviously an artificial construct, but when done well, they are great fun. If before your time, plenty of "ooh, I never knew that" nuggets, and if the year is one you lived through, the combination of re-awakening memories and occasionally challenging them ("That's not what happened! I was there!"). The author's skill is in weaving together disparate events, developing a narrative in a way that makes them plausibly connected without over-cooking it (it's just orbits in the solar system, dude).
A few I've read lately:
1968 - Mark Kurlansky. One of the most (over?) rehashed years of the century, in everything from film to fiction, but Kurlansky's is one of the better recollections. We'll soon be inundated with 50th anniversary specials, so read it now before you hate 1968 with a passion.
1927 - Bill Bryson, you know what you'll get. The underlying theme is the birth of mass media celebrity. I enjoyed it partly because it filled a blank: my timeline was: UK General Strike ... then Wall Street Crash. 1927? "your search yielded 0 results".
1956 - Francis Beckett, Tony Russell. Focuses on Britain, so Suez. A slighter volume, in quantity and quality, but does a pretty good job of explaining how Britain really did still think Imperial, and what a shock it was to learn the truth a decade after everyone else had worked it out.
1995 - W. Joseph Campbell. Only just started this one. Very much within my lifetime, I think it's the most recent "Year" book I've ever picked up, generally I prefer the safe distance of time. It's discomfiting to recall the world of primitive Internet, and my ignorance/indifference which lasted until the century was over. Buy shares in Netscape, now.
There are countless others, of course. As Campbell writes, they usually have a title like "The year which changed America/the world/everything". If you find one called "The year when not much changed at all" let me know, I want to read that one. Maybe around 1353.
A few I've read lately:
1968 - Mark Kurlansky. One of the most (over?) rehashed years of the century, in everything from film to fiction, but Kurlansky's is one of the better recollections. We'll soon be inundated with 50th anniversary specials, so read it now before you hate 1968 with a passion.
1927 - Bill Bryson, you know what you'll get. The underlying theme is the birth of mass media celebrity. I enjoyed it partly because it filled a blank: my timeline was: UK General Strike ... then Wall Street Crash. 1927? "your search yielded 0 results".
1956 - Francis Beckett, Tony Russell. Focuses on Britain, so Suez. A slighter volume, in quantity and quality, but does a pretty good job of explaining how Britain really did still think Imperial, and what a shock it was to learn the truth a decade after everyone else had worked it out.
1995 - W. Joseph Campbell. Only just started this one. Very much within my lifetime, I think it's the most recent "Year" book I've ever picked up, generally I prefer the safe distance of time. It's discomfiting to recall the world of primitive Internet, and my ignorance/indifference which lasted until the century was over. Buy shares in Netscape, now.
There are countless others, of course. As Campbell writes, they usually have a title like "The year which changed America/the world/everything". If you find one called "The year when not much changed at all" let me know, I want to read that one. Maybe around 1353.
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