TIMES GREAT EVENTS: A Modern History Spanning 200 Years

The Times has been synonymous with news for well over 200 years since the time of the French Revolution, reporting from the frontline of history covering conflicts that shaped the nation, among them World War One and World War Two, and tragedies such as the sinking of the Titanic and the Messina earthquake that stunned the world. Divided into Georgian Times, The Age of Victoria, The Edwardian Era, The Great War, The Twenties and Thirties, The Second World War, From Austerity to Astronauts, The Seventies and Eighties and Modern Times, and then there are the scoops. It was The Times that broke the news of Everest's conquest, just in time for the Coronation, and it was William Howard Russell's reports from the Crimea that changed the nation's opinion of the War, of soldiers and of their right to be nursed. The government first learned of Russia's proposals for peace from the paper. And while The Times may not have stooped to cover the first international football match, it did write up the first cricket Test Match in Australia in 1877. Each extract is limited to approximately 500 words recounting events rather than editorial opinion or comment. With views of the day which were tolerated, the original language, style and format as they appeared in the newspaper, the date the article first appeared and an index of people, places and events. The volume begins with the Fall of the Bastille on 20th July 1789 and the commentary is that for Britons, those property-owners that read the Times at any rate, the French Revolution was the most astonishing and shocking event of their era. The next page is the Battle of Trafalgar 8th November 1805. "It has taken more than a fortnight for news of the battle to be conveyed to London from the waters near Gibraltar." The Abolition of Slavery, the Battle of Waterloo, Peterloo, we move swiftly on until the Fall of the Berlin Wall 10th November 1989, 43 years after Winston Churchill proclaimed that an 'Iron Curtain' had descended across Europe. Within hours, thousands of people had moved backwards and forwards through the formidable barrier with a festive air. The last entry is George Floyd 30th May 2020. 448pp in big glamorous hardback.