Never has the human race experienced such rapid and diverse change as during the 20th century. War and famine, technological revolution, social and political upheaval have turned the world and its people upside down. This book follows the dramatic story of the century's optimistic early days, through the unimaginable horrors of war, to the "global village" of its closing years. The story is told using images from the archives of the Hutton Getty Picture Collection and "The Independent". Opening with the Exposition Internationale in Paris in 1900, the book travels full circle, arriving at the end of the century in London as another exhibition takes shape at the Millennium Dome. The pictures that chart the decades focus year by year on the essence of the events that changes the world forever. The camera opens a window not only on the deeds of the figures who will find their place in the history books but also on the lives of the unremembered majority. An informed text reveals what lay behind the images and presents them in a worldwide setting, looking beyond the pictures themselves to where they fit into the global story.