Author: Gautam Bhatia
Vishwajyoti Ghosh/
Illustrator: Vishwajyoti Ghosh
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 313
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143031406
Description
A riotous, wacky and unsanctified look at the twentieth century.
Over coffee at the Moulin Rouge, Picasso and Marie Curie discuss the theory of existentialism, with Pablo insisting that the natural existentialist never used contemporary reality as a cover for social and political change, at least not on Thursdays. Niels Bohr splits the atom using a sharp knife, only to find the Americans have beaten him to it, using a blender.
Hugh Hefner ushers in the American sexual revolution by starting the first all-nude magazine. Called Playback, the inaugural issue showed complete stereophonic paraphernalia spread across the pages, both Sony speakers completely exposed and only a light muslin covering the receiver and dials.
In this slightly askew history of the twentieth century, Gautam Bhatia revisits the past to give us his own version of what really happened when the Wright brothers embarked on their first test run, Hitler won the Nuremberg rally, Gandhi gatecrashed the Round Table Conference and other such equally momentous events. With his characteristic panache and impudent wit, Bhatia sprays the whole cast and events with humour, denuding them of their halos. Complementing these comic retellings are Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s brilliant illustrations which pull images and products out of known contexts to create a parallel story of irreverence and subversion.
Shedding new light on the making of the automobile, the Indian independence movement, Marilyn Monroe and heart transplants, Comic Century is one history book that will not gather dust on the bookshelves.
Contents
APOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
THE WAR DECADES
Queen Victoria
Model T-Ford
Frank Lloyd Wright
Queen Victoria’s Death
Women’s Suffrage Movement
Sex Discrimination Act
Germany
First World War
German Advance
The Bomb
The War
Monoplane
The Wright Brothers
Charles Lindbergh
Germany
Modern Art
Pablo Picasso
Le Corbusier
Karl Marx
Csar/Czar/Tsarist Russia
From Russia with Love
Czar
The Bolshevik Revolution
Czar
Science
Albert Einstein
Darwin
Hitler
Dr Steinberg
The British Empire
Hitler
The Master Race
Hitler
Mercedes
Hitler
Volkswagen
The Bauhaus
Hitler
Indian Independence Movement
Eiffel tower
Hitler
Hitler and Eva
Second World War
Dictator of the Year
Mussolini
Hitler
Surrender
Hitler
Extrasensory Perception
Indian Independence
Hitler
Gandhi
Round Table Conference
Civil Disobedience
The Atlantic Charter
The A-Bomb
Opposition to the A-Bomb
Hitler
Victory
Love and Death
Eichmann
THE GREAT DIVIDE
Stalinism
Capitalism
America/USSR
Communism
The Kitchen Debate
Non-Alignment
Nehru
Indian Women’s Rights
Conquest of Mt Everest
Jack and the Chicken Leg
McDonald’s
The Drive-in
The Skyscraper
The Lift
Prefabrication
Mini Car
Gas Guzzler
Chinese Cultural Revolution
Nixon
Yellow Journalism
Nixon in China
Return of the Boat People
Nixon
The Moon Landing
The Pill
The Moon Landing
Test-tube Baby
The Moon Landing
Test-tube Baby
Masters & Johnson
Sex Education
Nudism
The Acid Trip
The Spiritual Trip
Asceticism
Mysticism
END OF THE COLD WAR
Salt Talks
End of the Cold War
The dismantled Berlin Wall
Chinese Capitalism
Transubstitution
Shah of Iran
Salman Rushdie
Ayatollah
Miss Iran Beauty Pageant
Ayatollah’s Death
Clinton
Sextual Harassment
Clinton
Women’s Movement
Clinton
Abstract Art
Jaws
The Godfather
Bollywood
Woody Allen
Psychiatry
Jung
THE LIBERAL DECADES
Pied Piper of Silicon Valley
Philosopher
Postmodern Architecture
New Age Home
The Computer Age
E-mail
E-sex
Homosexuality
Lesbianism
AIDS
The Great Debate