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Centuries of Change

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Centuries of Change

By: Ian Mortimer
Narrated by: Mike Grady, Ian Mortimer, Various
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About this listen

In a contest of change, which century from the past millennium would come up trumps? Imagine the Black Death took on the female vote in a pub brawl, or the Industrial Revolution faced the Internet in a medieval joust - whose side would you be on?

In this hugely entertaining book, celebrated historian Ian Mortimer takes us on a whirlwind tour of Western history, pitting one century against another in his quest to measure change.

©2014 Ian Mortimer (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd Civilization Freedom & Security History History & Culture History & Philosophy Politics & Government Science World Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"His curiosity is boundless and his profound scholarship is leavened by a sense of fun." ( Daily Express)
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The wealth of history is huge and the analysis is unique and meaningful. The conclusions are applicable to every country and we hopefully will use our common sense to modify our lifestyles willingly rather than waiting for very painful changes to be forced upon us! Thanks Ian

This will shake our trees by the end

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This might be my favourite book so far by Ian Mortimer. love all his books .
only part was the end scary to be honest if we don't change how things could end up. sick of the rich ruling the world , while hard working people suffer the most.
good listen. so insightful

love this book

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Very well researched thought provoking and entertaining a great book. I really enjoyed it and I would recommending it to be studied in schools.

Thoughts provoking

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An interesting and enjoyable listen. Well narrated. Slightly spoiled by the very speculative summary about the future.

Interesting and enjoyable

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Thought provoking, well read, and extremely interesting and rewarding listen. I enjoyed the insights and find myself in much agreement with the authors conclusions.

Very good

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What was one of the most memorable moments of Centuries of Change?

It's a great listen. It highlights four periods of change in each century from the year 1000ad up to the 20th century and how each change affected the world.These changes can be brought about, for example, by a person (Hitler) religion (Martin Luther) or science, medicine or technology (steam engine) Each century also gets a most influential person.

Any additional comments?

A listen that will make you think. Ian Mortimer uses his hometown to illustrate how the historical changes have affected our lives and the way we live.

A Thought Provoking Read.

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Loved it. So accessible. And the ending which was unexpected worked very well. Lovely relaxing and interesting narration.

A new take on learning the highlights of history

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Although written in 2015, Mortimer's conclusions are highly relevant and scarily accurate given the geopolitical shifts in the past 5 years

A must read for these changing geopolitical timex

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I’ve listened to the author’s Time Travellers’ Guides and so looked forward to enjoying the author’s stimulating approach to history. I was certainly made to think about what changes in society actually had noticeable impact on ordinary people during each century of the previous millennium and not just the discoveries, inventions, wars or plagues that with hindsight appear to have changed the course of history.

I was certainly made to reassess the impact of historical events, discoveries or inventions that I thought of as landmarks in human history and have to agree with the author that some of these, though eventually life changing, had little impact during the century in which they occurred.

The present book doesn’t use the intimate approach of the Time Travellers’ Guides in which the listener is imaginatively transported to the streets of, say 14th Century, England to experience what life was like. It more fact driven and dispassionate.

My only caveat but this book is the last 50 minutes or so in which the author speculates about the future. Much is sensible: the problems of over-population, depletion of resources and global warming, however it went on too long and didn’t acknowledge how predicting the future has so often been wrong. However, I forgive the author as I too am feeling pretty depressed about the legacy we are leaving for future generations.

Overall, I enjoyed this thought-provoking approach to history and the lively narration.

Though provoking approach to history

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Really useful way of putting history and what we think we know about it in perspective.

perspective writ large. Brilliant.

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