Philipp Blom, The Vertigo Years, Basic Books: New York, 2008, Briefly Noted: The New Yorker, 5 January 2009
"Blom's engrossing history begins with an invitation: "Imagine yourself looking at the years 1900 to 1914 without the long shadows of the future darkening their historical present." His imaginative re-creation of this period argues that speed-both literal and figurative-came to typify and, ultimately, define modern life. This was the age that gave rise not only to Futurism and Vorticism but also to car racing and the electric chair. Precipitate change also ushered in an age of uncertainty and attraction to the seeming stability of the past. The book's strength is also its charm-a multifaceted, panoramic approach animated by vivacious narration of individual stories, such as that of Eugene Sandow, the wildly popular Prussian bodybuilder and pioneering fitness mogul who counted George V and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle among his friends."