A lot went on in the years 1900-2000. There were huge amounts of progress and developments in many areas of culture and academia, from Modernism, to Post modernism, to relativity to Rock and Roll. It's a lot to get your head round and certainly a lot to learn, but luckily for us, John Higgs has written a nice little guide.
Stranger Than We Can Imagine tries to hit on all the important aspects of the century. It's a relatively short book to cover some huge shifts in thinking in lots of fields, in some sort of flowing logical order. And the first few chapters seem to be trying to develop a theme. There is a lot of talk about perspectives, and it makes sense. But this theme seems to disappear somewhere in the middle of the book, and the remaining developments of twentieth century aren't as tied together as the beginning made me think they would be.
This book is very good at explaining some complicated ideas though. Relativity is broken down to very simple terms that make it easy to follow (it doesn't get massively into it) and other heady concepts are explained too. The chapters are readable and explanatory - this is a great place to start if you don't know much about what happened last century, or want some of the ideas explained easily.
There are lots of mistakes though. Small factual errors, here and there. They don't mean the explanations and ideas are wrong, but they did ruin the effect of the book for me. After I noticed one, and then looked into some more, this book wasn't a genius historian explaining things to me in a language I could understand, it was a foggy grandparent trying to remember something from 50 years ago.
The mistake that caught my eye was in the chapter on Teenagers, which covered rock and roll. This is my area of expertise, so I was looking forward to this chapter. I wasn't expecting to be taught anything new, but I was looking forward to seeing what Higgs had to say. When explaining that 50's rock and roll was about having a good time and had a sexual undertone, Higgs quoted lyrics from 80's band Dinosaur Jr, who are famous for being extremely apathetic. Why choose a band from 30 years after the rock and roll revolution and not one from the time? Why on earth Dinosaur Jr? I suppose we can let all that slide...except the lyrics quoted were incorrect. The book says the chorus to The Wagon is "Baby Wowee"...It is clearly "Baby Why don't we?" (page 216). This line is used to show that Rock and Roll was about having a good time with your sweetheart - I don't think that's what the song is about at all.
Sorry if this seems pedantic - I know it is. But this made me think how may other mistakes are there? Why did he use such a bizarre example to explain 50's rock and roll? Why not at least put some effort into getting it right? The point is, if I can spot mistakes and the use of absurd examples to make a point, how can I trust the chapters on areas I know nothing about? How do I know the book is not riddled with them? (I have had a look about, and apparently the Einstein chapter is also full of errors)
Ultimately, that one oversight ruined the book for me, and turned what started off as a satisfying retelling of the twentieth century into a game of second guessing. It really changed my experience of this book from a great informative read to one to take with a pinch of salt.
Overall, I'd give this book 5/10 - without the errors it would be a strong 7.
What do you think? Have you read this book? Do you agree or diagree? Let me know your thoughts in the comments
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