BOOK. The Colour of Time is not a book - it is a Time Machine disguised as a publication.
If I told you that The Colour of Time - A New History of the World 1850-1960 is “110 years of global events told in 200 photographs and some text too”, I believe you would say that this sounds like something you have seen hundreds of times before, right?
And I would have to agree with you.
However, the thing is that this book is nothing like other books in this genre. Actually it is not a book at all - it is a Time Machine disguised as a publication.
Smelling bananas
A year ago or so I saw a photo of the “Banana Docks” in New York - the piers where fruit from all around the world once used to be landed.
The photo was taken back in 1890/1910, but it was not the traditional brownish/yellowish historical photo you usually see. No, someone had put colours to it, and in such way that it looked as if it was taken yesterday.
When looking at the photo I felt like I wasn’t witnessing a “historical scenery” but instead that I was peeking through a window in time. Yes, I had a strong feeling that if I could just step right through the screen of my computer, I would be standing right there at the New York pier, checking out bananas in my long skirt, jacket and hat. Smelling whatever smells that filled the air…oily odour from the ships’ engines, damp from the horses, moisturous gravel and smoke from nearby chimneys - and of course fresh bananas too.
Here, have a look yourself:
[Banana Docks, New York c. 1900]
This Banana Docks photo breathes life into the past in a way I have never seen before. The artist behind the work is Marina Amaral, and when I figured out that she also did “The Colour of Time”, I just knew I had to get my hands on that book.
10.000 photos to choose from
So. The p h o t o s of “The Colour of Time” are the main reason why I chose to write this review, and those are exactly what I’m going to talk about in just a sec. However, firstly I’ll give you an idea what the book is about all in all.
To show us 110 years of the world’s history Marina Amaral and her colleague, the British historian and journalist, Dan Jones, have selected 200 photographs.
When I tell you that from the beginning they had no less than 10.000 to choose from you’d know that it can’t have been an easy task.
Anyway, the photos they‘ve picked allow us to pay a visit to each and every decade all the way from the 1850s to the 1950s.
What you see when you go through the pages is mainly photos of people and events from the western world. Also, to a large degree, it is the big events and the high positioned persons that unfolds before your eyes, like wars and revolutions, czars and queens.
Here and there, however, you also see glimpses of the lives of “ordinary people” which I believe is a reminder that history consists of both ‘the big’ and ‘the small’. Also it brings the whole project a little more down to earth.
Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of WWI
To every decade and to every photo there is a piece of text that explains where we are and what we are looking at. You are wheeled from one event to the next, and from one part of the world to the other, and what I really like is that most often the text explains to you how the different events and people are linked together.
Perhaps one thing happened as a reaction to another - a very well known example of this is the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, an Austrian aristocrat, which lead to the outbreak of WWI. Or maybe different (significant) events simply took place at the same time.
[WWI, the slaughter on the Somme, 1916]
This linking together of events and people across history surely helps you navigate. In other words, you don’t feel you are lost in a waterfall of “historical world news of this and that” which in my experience easily can be the case when dealing with a theme as big as World History.
Also I should probably mention that at the beginning of each decade there’s a timeline where the biggest events are marked - a friendly outstretched hand to those of us who feel most comfortable when we have an overview (join the club!).
There are probably many opinions…
Even though I am not a specialist in traditional history, I still have a strong feeling that there are many opinions out there to which events you should and shouldn’t put in a book like this - opinions that can easily turn into a never ending discussion. However, instead of walking down that road I’ll say that what you certainly do get here is a very good idea about what roughly happened in the world from the 1850s till the 1950s.
And what is even more important is that you get to experience it all through the amazing colourized photographs. Which no doubt is where the real treasure of this book lies, so let’s move on to these, shall we?
You actually b e l i e v e that the person once lived
So I guess most of you have visited antique markets and the like, and tripped over old photographs that have been added colours to them. If you ask me most of these pictures don’t look very convincing. However, thanks to new computer driven technology this field of art is changing dramatically. Old, dusty pictures now start to look like the real thing…meaning that when you look at these modernized photos you actually believe that the person portrayed once was alive and breathing, and not just some distant figure.
An artist who has thrown herself into this specialized field of work is, as mentioned, Marina Amaral. I know I have already shown you some of her photos, but let me just remind you how skilful she is. Have a look at this:
[Medical examination, Ellis Island, early 1900s]
Now, there’s no doubt that this is really well made, right? However, what I’d like to talk about here is not only the impressiveness of this art form, but rather what these upgraded photos do to you.
This is not a book - it’s a Time Machine
When going through “The Colour of Time” what happened to me was that I started to get the feeling that I actually knew the persons I saw before me. Maybe not personally, but still I somehow felt I knew who they were. I could recognize them on a personal, emotional level, you might say, and I got the idea that if I’d felt like it, I could start a conversation with the boy, girl, man or woman in front of me. That’s how vivid and alive most of the photos appear.
Also I somehow felt I knew just how it must have been to be present at exactly that moment the photo was taken, whether I was witnessing the people looking at the exotic hippopotamus at the London Zoo in 1850:
[London Zoo, 1850]
…or watching the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in his old years, sitting on a bench together with his grandchildren, Ilya and Sonia, telling them a story of a garden full of cucumbers:
[Tolstoy & grandchildren, 1910]
My point is that what these colourized historical photographs do is so much more than just giving us a more detailed look on our past. They are, I believe, like a Time Machine that brings us closer to who - and what - once were.
And you are not only watching the scenery with your eyes, I dare say, you are experiencing it with a l l of your senses. ‘Cause if you allow yourself to take a really close look, I bet you’ll start noticing all the other details before you, like the crinkles in the clothes the persons are wearing - you can almost feel the fabric - the smells that fill the air in this moment, what sounds the people are hearing, and how the temperature was, and just like that the colours give you an opportunity to be an active part of the past - not just a spectator.
So, travelling to the past is now possible. Amazing, right? Which is why a book like this of course is a great supplement to whatever else you are reading when you study the world’s history.
A rare look behind the scenes
However, “The Colour of Time” doesn’t have to be a lecture book. What I really enjoyed was to look at photos that captured me for a reason I can’t really explain. Like the one of the inside of Queen Victoria’s funeral carriage awaiting the coffin. What a rare look behind the scenes! When looking at the picture you know that in a second, the coffin will arrive and that outside thousands of people are waiting to watch this funeral train pass by. And probably everyone will take off their hat and pay their respect, however, none of them knows how the interior looks like.
But we do.
[Queen Victoria’s funeral carriage, January, 1901]
Well, of course you can use the book however you like, but please don’t be put off by its voluminous size (432 pages). It’s exciting to go through it from A-Z if you’re a nerd like me, but actually I think if you just pick one decade you are extra excited about and allow yourself to spend some time delving into each photo - and text - then you will have a good chance of getting a time-travel experience - if that’s what you’re looking for.
In My Opinion
⭐ What I really like about “The Colour of Time”
The photos! Obviously. My personal favourites are the ones from before the 1900s, since this period is most different from our own time.
Also I like that the written introductions to each decade are told from another angle than that of the powerholders or the ‘big events’. For example we get to see the world through the eyes of the famous writer Mark Twain, we walk in the footsteps of the first photographer in the world, and we hear about a female artsy photographer etc. So it is not only the photographs that are modernized, the text is also told in a present-day style.
And let me add that Dan Jones writes in a nice and easy going way, giving you a lot of interesting information.
📝 Some notes I made
Before I read “The Colour of Time” I had one question in mind in particular: How do you know the true, original colours of the persons and objects you see in the photos? The Introduction-text gave me the answer: You dig the archives. And when the digging proves fruitless the colourizer makes an artistic judgement. “You never pretend to know everything for sure”. I really like that this information is handed out to the readers, and of course you can only agree that neither the historian nor the artist can ever know everything for sure. I’d love if the technical side of the photos all in all was given just a little more space, like when we are told that a single photo can take between 1 hour and 1 month to colourize (waow!).
The story behind the actual photos can be just as interesting as the overall story...hear this: The photographer Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) was a Scottish immigrant to the US who mostly documented significant battles and characters, and who “often heavily manipulated the scenes he captured”. When taking a portrait of Lewis Powell - the young man who violently stabbed the US Secretary of State, William H. Seward in April, 1865 (the same evening President Lincoln was murdered) - Powell looks like a cool rockstar that cannot care less about the whole turmoil...
[Lewis Powell, 1865]
...But the truth was, however, that he was “in a tortured state of mind. He was being kept in miserable conditions, and a few days earlier [he] had banged his head repeatedly against the bars of his cell in a likely suicide attempt.”
F U N F A C T S
🌏 “The Colour of Time” has been translated into several languages.
📗 A pocket book edition was released in 2019.
☄️ In May 2020, Marina Amaral and Dan Jones have a new book out: “The World Aflame - The Long War 1914-1945”
📷 Marina Amaral has also made a series called “Slavery in Brazil”. The photos are free to use for educational purposes - you can find them here: marinamaral.com
📚 If you are curious to see the ‘Top Five’ of Dan Jones’s favourite history books click here
📽 How does it look when Amaral does her artwork? Watch this video to find out
See you next time - Majken xx
This book review is based on The Colour of Time - A New History of the World 1850-1960 by Dan Jones & Marina Amaral. Head of Zeus, UK, 2018.
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