History
Capturing on the renewed interest in World War II, Ballantine's; in conjunction with the British publishing house Purnell's, starting publishing the Illustrated History of World War II paperbacks in 1968. The series was divided into Weapons (43 books), Battles (31 books), Campaigns (29 books), and War Leaders (30 books) sub-series, and was an immediate success with a cost per book of only 1 US dollar at first. The books were well written by a who's who of Military Historians of the late 60's and early 70's. Some titles had several printings (Patton had five), while others were limited to one, and experienced poor sales. Starting in 1973, the series was retitled to The Illustrated History of the Violent Century, and added books on World War I, the war in IndoChina, and the Middle East conflict. Two additional sub-series were added (Human Conflict and Politics In Action) to address points of history that occurred outside of the wars. By the summer of 1975 interest in the series fell off with only a few further titles published. By 1976 all were out of print, but were being snatched up by collectors. The success of the series added significant funds to the corporate balance sheet, and lead to further books on history being published.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“... the history of the race, from infancy through its stages of barbarism, heathenism, civilization, and Christianity, is a process of suffering, as the lower principles of humanity are gradually subjected to the higher.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)