Libro

For the first, seemingly endless half of the 1940s, large chunks of the world were battlegrounds. In the second half, the world began to rebuild. The United Nations was created, and Israel, India, Pakistan, and Communist China were new nations. The circus was popular, as was tennis, cricket, boxing, and baseball, with the Yankees winning two of the four post-war World Series. Fashion returned with the House of Dior and the New Look. And the dawn of civilization was discovered when four boys found Cro-Magnon cave paintings at Lascaux. Besides many poignant images of the war, this book shows King George confronted by a pig, the introduction of the bikini at Cannes, and a palm-sized bush baby in a tin cup, wearing a miniature air-raid helmet. Each of the small, thick albums in the Decades of the 20th Century series provides a visual tour of one decade in some 400 pages and nearly as many photographs, touching on themes of unrest and conflict, entertainment, fashion, sports, children, and much more. Amusing, stirring, sometimes shocking, the images are from the Hulton Getty Picture Collection, with witty captions in English, German, and French. Once opened, these little books are difficult to put down.