The Postcard Century

Thousands of postcard images help illuminate the history of the postcard over the past hundred years. The book is broken out into decades to make the history a little easier.

This is an excellent resource book for postcard fans and collectors. All aspects of postcards seem to be covered. One of the best such books in my collection (and certainly the biggest).


The Postcard Century   September 27, 2002
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

This provides good reading for both the postcard collector and the "history buff". I WAS a bit disappointed that about 85% of the cards are from the UK, but hey, so is the writer. It's just that I find the "Brits" a bit reserved in their letter-writing (the written message on the cards is presented). It's a great book for a long winter's read (I'm only up to 1938).


The Postcard Century.   August 17, 2002
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

In essence this book is a year by year photographic history of the postcard that completely spans the 20th century.When I first picked it up I had personal resevations about it, purely because my postcard interest is solely about cards no more recent than the 1950`s and therefore expected almost a half of the book to be of no relevance.To my surprise the book proved thoroughly interesting right throughout to 1999.
Each year is displayed with many fine examples shown along with a historical and objective commentary that traces both the developement of the postcard and also a fascinating social commentary centred around comments written on the back by the senders themselves.
In conclusion this book I am sure would appeal to all with any degree of interest in postcards and even anyone with an interest in the history of the 20th century.This was borne out by my fascination even with the post 1950`s pages.For the first time I could see why some people only collect modern postcards.Unless one is looking for a priceguide/valuation aspect [not touched on]I would recommended unconditionally...


2000 views of the world.   January 1, 2002
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is one of those books that pops up and you wonder why no one had thought of it before. Just flick through it and be amazed at what was issued on the front of a postcard. It could be said, in the broadest sense, that these images do reflect the history of the last century.

With excellent printing and mostly six cards to the page, author Phillips includes a few words about each picture and then he comes up with a neat idea: include the written messages from the sender. So as well as some striking images you get the feelings and observations of 2000 people.

How many books could be opened at any page and the contents immediately grab your interest? This is one of those books. Strangely, the Amazon sample pages don't show any of the year by year pages which make up ninety five percent of this book.


an intimate glimpse of the 20th century   November 24, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I bought this book for my mom, and then had to have a copy for myself. This contains thousands of postcard images, as well as the messages. The images include famous architecture and people, comics and pop culture of a hundred years, and the messages give us a glimpse of everyday life throughout the last century. Hours and hours of browsing enjoyment, especially for postcard collectors!