The author John Higgs discusses his new book Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History of the 20th Century (Signal, 2015), with Joseph Planta.

Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History of the 20th Century by John Higgs (Signal, 2015). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

John Higgs joins me again. His latest book has just been published, and it’s a thoroughly thoughtful, thought-provoking and engaging book. The book is called, Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History of the 20th Century. In the book, Mr. Higgs discusses the great innovations of the century and contrasts it to the great discoveries of previous ones, and what he comes up with doesn’t really make sense. The 20th century yields for us, relativity, psychedelics, Postmodernism, Cubism, and quantum entanglement, among many other things, yet someone from the 19th century would be confused. He looks at the geniuses of the 20th century, and their ideas, and just how revolutionary they were to the century, and the comparison to previous ones. John Higgs was on last year for his book Our Pet Queen: A New Perspective on Monarchy. His previous books include I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary, The Brandy of the Damned, and The KLF. He has directed more than 100 episodes of animated pre-school television in Britain, and he created the long-running BBC Radio quiz program, X Marks the Spot. The website for more is at www.johnhiggs.com. The book is published by Signal, which is an imprint of McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, in Brighton, England today, John Higgs; Mr. Higgs, good morning.

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