J. M. Roberts, one of our greatest historians, brings us an engrossing one-volume history of the extraordinary century we've just lived through. Going beyond a traditional chronological narrative of events, Roberts identifies the major long-term changes that underlie them, pointing in particular to worldwide increases in life expectancy; major advances in science and technology; the radical reconfiguration of the global economy; the disappearance of empires; the decline of white hegemony; and the changing role of women.