The Century for Young People: 1961-1999: Changing America

Experience the greatest moments of the 20th century with an accessible narrative that makes history come alive.

Adapted from the #1 national bestseller especially for young readers!

The twentieth century was a time of tremendous change, the most eventful hundred years in human history. Join Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster for a fascinating journey back in time to experience, through vivid first-person accounts, the most surprising and the most terrifying events of the past hundred years. These are the voices of ordinary people—children and adults who were a part of history in the making. Their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears provide a compelling insider's look at momentous events that have reshaped the world. The Century for Young People is a riveting read and an essential research resource. It is the story of our time for all time.

Experience the greatest moments of the 20th century with an accessible narrative that makes history come alive.

Adapted from the #1 national bestseller especially for young readers!

The twentieth century was a time of tremendous change, the most eventful hundred years in human history. Join Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster for a fascinating journey back in time to experience, through vivid first-person accounts, the most surprising and the most terrifying events of the past hundred years. These are the voices of ordinary people—children and adults—who were a part of history in the making. Their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears provide a compelling insider's look at momentous events that have reshaped the world. The Century for Young People is a riveting read and an essential research resource. It is the story of our time for all time.

Children's Literature

It is November 22, 1963 and a shaken journalist watches as President John F. Kennedy is fatally wounded while riding in a Dallas motorcade. A day later that same journalist becomes one of the first people to see the 8-millimeter film shot by a resident that captures the death not only of a president but also of much of America's innocence. This one anecdote is representative of the amazing quotations and primary source story-telling that make up book three of Jennings and Brewster's fine three volume history of the twentieth century. As in the other two books in this fascinating series, the authors combine a steady narrative with numerous first person accounts of critical events in the late twentieth century. Topics such as the Vietnam War, the rise of the women's movement, Watergate, and environmental issues all are handled in a way that brings history to life. Through the interpretive words of the authors, and the memories of people who actually lived through the historic events, readers are vividly transported back in time. This approach to history will open the doors of interest and comprehension to readers young and old. Reviewer: Greg M. Romaneck

Peter Jennings (1938-2005) was chief anchor of ABC's World News Tonight. In more than forty years as a broadcast journalist, he worked in most parts of the world, from the American South to Southern Africa, from the Middle East to eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Among the hundreds of programs he was a part of, he treasured those he had done with and for the young. 

Todd Brewster was the senior editorial producer of ABC's The Century television series. In more than twenty-five years as a journalist, he has covered the American national political scene and the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe, both for Life, where he was a writer and editor. He is currently the director of the Center for Oral History at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.