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The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914 Paperback – Illustrated, November 2, 2010

by Philipp Blom (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 98 ratings
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Europe, 1900-1914: a world adrift, a pulsating era of creativity and contradictions. The major topics of the day: terrorism, globalization, immigration, consumerism, the collapse of moral values, and the rivalry of superpowers. The twentieth century was not born in the trenches of the Somme or Passchendaele -- but rather in the fifteen vertiginous years preceding World War I.

In this short span of time, a new world order was emerging in ultimately tragic contradiction to the old. These were the years in which the political and personal repercussions of the Industrial Revolution were felt worldwide: Cities grew like never before as people fled the countryside and their traditional identities; science created new possibilities as well as nightmares; education changed the outlook of millions of people; mass-produced items transformed daily life; industrial laborers demanded a share of political power; and women sought to change their place in society -- as well as the very fabric of sexual relations.

From the tremendous hope for a new century embodied in the 1900 World's Fair in Paris to the shattering assassination of a Habsburg archduke in Sarajevo in 1914, historian Philipp Blom chronicles this extraordinary epoch year by year. Prime Ministers and peasants, anarchists and actresses, scientists and psychopaths intermingle on the stage of a new century in this portrait of an opulent, unstable age on the brink of disaster.

Beautifully written and replete with deftly told anecdotes, The Vertigo Years brings the wonders, horrors, and fears of the early twentieth century vividly to life.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    488 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Basic Books
  4. Publication date
    November 2, 2010
  5. Grade level
    11 and up
  6. Reading age
    13 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    6.14 x 1.23 x 9.21 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0465020291
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0465020294
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Guardian
“The vertiginous atmosphere of a tumbling prewar society—at the same time exciting and frightening—is described with atmospheric clarity. The combination of easily worn scholarship, fascinating character studies and fluent story-telling that is often very funny makes this a hugely enjoyable and illuminating book.... A work of narrative history at its best.”

The Economist
“Impressive and thought-provoking…encapsulate[s] complex historical and biographical events pithily and in an illuminating context.... The book brings the fears, enthusiasms and blindspots of the period brilliantly to life.”

Globe and Mail
“In this enthralling, panoramic sweep of the 15 years preceding the First World War, Blom convincingly argues that it was this decade and a half that truly marked the start of the modern age, with all its grandeur and calamities.... With his impressive synthesis of historical literature, old and recent, and his finely drawn portraits of both emperors and workers, Blom's Vertigo Years will surely enlighten and interest another generation of readers in an era far in the past, yet worth understanding all the same.”

About the Author

Philipp Blom is the author of several award-winning books, including A Wicked Company, and The Vertigo Years, which has been made into a three-part television documentary. A frequent lecturer at European and American universities, he also contributes to international newspapers and hosts a radio show on Austrian national radio. Philipp Blom lives in Vienna.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Illustrated edition (November 2, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 488 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465020291
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465020294
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.44 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 1.23 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 98 ratings

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Philipp Blom

Philipp Blom

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
98 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

DUSA
5.0 out of 5 stars Synthesis of That Which Ails Us
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2023
Verified Purchase
Essential reading:

With Philip Blom's canape of occurrence, science,
philosophy, theory, fact many readers will be familiar.
It is Blom's synthesis of events that startles and delights.

The book is chaptered by years, their happenings and the effect
thereof. Blom has a wicked sense of humor.

As a young woman, I would listen to my maternal grandmother,
tell me that it was a shame that I had
not lived in the first decade of the 20th century. She described
her settled and peaceful life. Blom describes that which tore apart that
her idyll.

Of all the books I’ve read in the past few years, this
one stands out. If nothing else, the disintegration of
the social order pre-1900 is that against which today's
right-wing fights. Read this book to see what inspires
the right wing and how the solutions to their distress
will cause mass misery.
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Stephen Balbach
5.0 out of 5 stars The Vertigo Years
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2008
Verified Purchase
`The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914` is Philipp Blom's third non-fiction book. I bought it on the strength of his former two, both of which are fantastic, and I'm happy I did - his ability to write engagingly on just about any time period is demonstrated here in what is probably his strongest book yet. Bloom's central thesis is that, traditionally told, the years leading up to WWI were overshadowed by the war - it was an idyllic "long summertime" of peace, an extension of the assuredly naive 19th century. However Blom reveals just about everything we think of as "modern" was happening before the war, it was a time not of coasting, but of "machines and women, speed and sex," a disintegration of the old world without a clear vision of a new. Like a teenager getting behind the wheel of a car for the first time, it was exciting and dangerous, a cocktail of fundamental social changes converging all at once. Technology of the car, movie, photo and electric light; class relations; women's roles, Freud; Eugenics; colonialism; modern art; cult of "manliness", etc.. all combined to create a fractured new world, where individuals don multiple identities no longer tied to tradition, and an endemic vertiginous exhaustion flourished. Bloom crisscrosses the continent from Russia to England, from the Balkans to Sweden, each page a small feast of ideas, people and events. As a native of Vienna, Bloom commands a deep understanding of central European history in a way I have never seen before, revealing insights and people entirely new to me - it's a true pan-European perspective told with compelling prose.

Like the subject it describes, the book is fractured, moving between ideas, people, events, places and times - but Blom is nothing but orderly in his exposition of how things were related. Freud's theories for instance were mirrored by the political realities of the Austrian culture he lived in. Each chapter has a human interest "frame story" providing a smooth flowing narrative and Ken Burns-like feel for the time. There are ample quotations and fascinating black and white pictures, including a color plate section of modern art. It is a social history not only about the wealthy and intellectual elite, but the attitudes of the general public and zeitgeist of the many. A very long and up to date bibliography and notes section provides a lot more reading.

It's one of the better history books I have read, enhancing my understanding not only of the early 20th century, but its inheritor the present.
24 people found this helpful
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alan j. greczynski
5.0 out of 5 stars ... has ever wondered about how the tragedy of the Great War (World War One) came about
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
If anyone has ever wondered about how the tragedy of the Great War (World War One) came about, this book is a must read. Like Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August," and Paul Ham's "1913: The Eve of War," this book in necessary for understanding the roots of this horrific tragedy. The Industrial Revolution opened a new world of wonder and machines that mankind was now developing. Blom describes this perfectly in his Introduction with the young men watching racing cars dashing by them, depicted magnificently on the books jacket cover. Blom's book describes perfectly the problem that has been facing modern man for over a century; our technology is far ahead of our morals and laws. The steamship, the wireless, gasoline engines for automobiles and the rickety aircraft have given man faster transportation and communication. Mankind was going from the horse and carriage to rapid transportation, but the mores were slow to grasp this. Europeans, especially Western Europeans (and Americans) were moving technologically far ahead of the rest of the world. Hilaire Belloc described this best in his poem "The Modern Traveler." Modern weapons are used against "native" peoples, "whatever happens, we have got The Maxim Guns, and they have not." Little did they know they would use these new wonder weapons against fellow Europeans. Blom's book almost gives a year by year reverse countdown from 1900 to 1914, the war catches them by surprise.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Peacock Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a first-rate book which everyone who is interested in recent European history should read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
Item arrived promptly and was well packaged and in good condition. I don't know why you require me to add more words to this report, what else is there for me to say? The book itself--as a text--is really excellent; but this is not relevant to any report on how
the sellers responded to my order. However, for the record: this is a first-rate book which everyone interested in recent European history should read. In addition to his short, but very good summaries of the work of Freud and of Einstein, Blom provides a very revealing account of the atrocious behaviour of the Belgian king, Leopold II, in the Congo: the ten million native inhabitants whom he murdered in the course of eight years; the men whose hands were cut off as a punishment for not having collected enough rubber; the others whom he flogged to death. Owing to the very efficient Jewish lobby, everyone knows about Hitler and the Holocaust: but the even worse activities of the Belgians in the Congo have, for some reason, been 'swept under the carpet'.
One person found this helpful
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Lawrence Holden
5.0 out of 5 stars A significantly different and relevant angle on history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2019
Verified Purchase
History helps us to understand the human condition and predicament. At present the rapid rate of change creates huge pressures everywhere, In this book Bloom shows us how the major burst of change during the period 1900 to 1913 had a profound effect, frequently deeply negative, on the remainder of the twentieth century. His eye for pertinent detail is fine. A "must-read" book indeed.
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Charles Osborne
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and dramatic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2012
Verified Purchase
I found the book very interesting and well-written, with a striking thesis - essentially that the early years of the 20th century were a time of great change which virtually predicted later events - which was presented with ample evidence in an engaging and convincing manner.
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