"Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History of the 20th Century" by John Higgs

 

Publisher: Signal Books (McClelland & Stewart)
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9780771038471

When I first read the title of this book I assumed that it was going to be looking at possible alternative histories of the 20th century i.e., taking some aspect of real history and seeing what would've happened if something else had taken place.

In actual fact this book is an examination of the influences various events and beliefs had on a number of different things that actually occurred in the 20th century. These topics are for example: Einstein's discovery of relativity, the influence of modernism on art and society, how the war influenced imperialism and nationalism, how individualism grew during the century, The rise of science fiction and how it influenced people, the development of space travel, changing attitudes towards sex and their influence on society, the influence rick music and other facets of the life of teenagers, chaos theory, and much more.

Each of these topics is covered in very good detail, and sometimes from an expected angle, with a great discussion of how the other influences and events mentioned in the book are support them. The various chapters are definitely related to each other and make for an extremely interesting read.

Without a doubt a full book could be written on each of these topics as well as more. But this book will definitely whet the readers appetite to look for more information if they are so inclined.

Highly recommended!