In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I served as an editorial assistant to Professors Thackeray and Findling on this series, though I had no involvement in the production of this particular volume.

This is an excellent starting point for anyone who wishes to understand the world in which they live, but has been turned off by histories that cite an endless number of names and dates. Rather than producing a traditional textbook, the editors chose to focus upon the century's most seminal events, including the origins and events of the World Wars, the Russian and Chinese Revolutions and the Cold War, and the end of Colonialism. Each chapter begins with a short introduction of the facts, and is followed by an interpretive essay which allows the reader to understand the long term ramifications of them.

Extremely useful for high school and college students, this book should also be required reading for anyone who wishes to be an educated citizen, or who wants to make sense of the nightly news, particularly if they are too young to have lived through the events themselves.

This book gives you the who's who and where in the history of the eighteenth century in a manner that is much easier to read than your old high school or college history class. It jogged my memory and peaked my curiousity on many events that were important to the present day politics and culture of Europe and the colonization of the world. It is fun to review the information in this succinct way. The only complaint I have is that the map of the world was changing with every war and it would of been nice to have an illustration or two for each event.