The world in our hands

The Eventful Century series captures the most dramatic moments of the 20th century.

It chronicles the epoch-making events such as the outbreak of the two world wars, the Russian Revolution and the rise and fall of communism.

Yet as well as major events, it also describes the everyday background - the way people lived, from fashions to medicine.

The World in Our Hands charts the balance between humans and nature, which has never been so delicate as in the 20th Century.

The 20th century has seen many great innovations, but these innovations have often had their darker side.

The rise of the motor car, for example, has been one of the major causes of the rising levels of pollution, and one of the most outstanding scientific achievements of the 20th Century, the splitting of the atom, had devastating results when it ed to the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.From exploration and discovery to ecological crisis and the dawn of new wisdom, The World in Our Hands examines all the environmental issues that have plagued the world during the 20th century: the depletion of common fish stocks from overfishing, the rapid deterioration of the ozone and the disappearance of vast swathes of rain forest to name just a few.

Beautifully illustrated with contemporary colour photographs, this book is a fascinating history of the impact of man's advances on the natural world during the 20th century.