Originally published in 1983 and named one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, this revised edition contains a new final chapter. Included is an incisive account of the seven decades-its events, ideas, and personalities- since the end of World War I.

Paul Johnson embodies a rare combination of gifts: he is a distinguished historian and an outstanding thinker. Accordingly, he has written a densely- textured history that not only reports the events and supporting facts, but also analyzes how and why much of this history came to be. The book begins on May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Johnson then describes Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of "Old Europe," the Arcadian Twenties, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Calvin Coolidge, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco, Roosevelt, Mao Tse-tung, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the '29 Crash, the Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal. And there are the wars that followed-the Sino-Japanese, the Abyssinian and Albanian conflicts and the Spanish Civil War, a prelude to the massive conflict of World War II.

Incisive, stimulating and frequently controversial, Modern Times combines fact, anecdote, incident, and portrait into a major full-scale analysis of how the modern age came into being and where it is heading.

Paul Johnson, British author and historian, is the author of many books, including Modern Times, A History of the Jews, Intellectuals, The Birth of the Modern, and The Quest for God, which have been translated into many languages. He has been a frequent contributor to the Daily Telegraph, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Spectator, and other newspapers and magazines. He has lectured to academic, business, and political audiences all over the world.