Fifty Days That Changed the World

This popular history selects fifty single days from the Persian Wars to the early twenty-first century and treats each as a hinge in world affairs. Williams narrates what happened on the day, the decisions and accidents that produced it, and the consequences that followed. The entries include battles, assassinations, revolutions, scientific announcements, and political turning points, from Salamis and the killing of Caesar through the fall of the Bastille, industrial and military crises, and later moments such as the breach of the Berlin Wall. The book is a sequence of short historical essays, not a continuous chronicle: each chapter is a self-contained case study of how one date came to stand for a larger change.

Quarter bound in black cloth with design printed paper sides. Blue endleaves. Blue slipcase.