I might be among the last people on Earth who will ever read this book from cover to cover: a fifty-year-old Canadian popular history text that had the gall to give itself this title in 1977 when the last quarter century still lay ahead. It appears there was no interest in updating it for the 1999/2000 era, when retrospective coffee books of this size and calibre were a brief rage. Evidence suggests it was a hasty effort to make a quick buck but at least it wasn't slapdash, as proven by its quality selection of photos, elaborately presented maps and diagrams and its broad, well-edited coverage.

My primary motive in tackling it now was having grown up with it in my parents' home, and many childhood memories of having flipped through its pages while thinking "someday I'm gonna read this whole thing." Now I've done it, and the deed was not without reward. It covers its selection of great events as a series of essays on every subject from the period that you might find in a game of trivia (except that it almost completely ignores sports.) The language is always accessible, mostly high-level with an occasional swoop into interesting details. I learned some intriguing bits and delved into some interesting subject matter that my curiosity hadn't yet led me to. The years covered included everything from the history of modern Israel to the roots of our computerized world to the rise of popular music and cinema. Fifty years on has lent more perspective and knowledge about some of these topics, but it's still a fine grounding in the backstory of our world today.

Minus points for the 1970s perspective and the peculiar categorization of ESP and UFOs among serious science studies (wherein it quotes Carl Sagan in precisely the way he didn't like.) A big plus for the conclusion, which lands on the environmental movement and the challenge of taking collective action or all perishing together. It is a dare from half a century ago to state the choice we've made. ( )

1/29/23