ABC News anchor Peter Jennings brought his version of recent history to life last night with a reading of selections from his best-selling book, The Century, at the Askwith Lecture Hall.

Jennings, the anchor and senior editor for ABC's World News Tonight, shared the stage with his co-writer, Todd Brewster, a former writer and correspondent for Life Magazine.

The Century, a journalistic account of the world since 1900, is a popular coffee-table history.

Last night's discussion spanned the major events of the century, the harrowing anecdotes including World War I, the Civil Rights movement and the end of the Cold War.

Using a photographic slide presentation as a backdrop, Jennings and Brewster took turns reading several of the book's eyewitness descriptions of historical events.

As a family photograph projected on the large screen behind him, Jennings read an account of the Great Depression from a woman named Clara Hancock.

"I started saving money in 1929 in a piggy bank," read Jennings, quoting from an interview with Hancock.

"One day I came into my room to shake it [but] there was nothing in it. My mother told me my dad had borrowed the money.... He said he was sorry and would pay it back. He never did."