I often give this book as a gift. There are 100 perfectly sized snippets describing 100 historical figures. It's a great way to get an overview of all of recorded history for almost anyone. I don't know anyone so well-versed in history that they would get nothing out of this book.
I'm a physicist (like Hart), but I had never fully appreciated the importance of Euclid until I read this book. I knew nothing about the invention of paper. The most interesting part of the book for me was the discussion about Shakespeare. I had no idea the question about who wrote Shakespeare was legitimate; I had always thought it was just childish nonsense. Hart convinced me otherwise.
(This paragraph is a little bit of an aside about Hart's take on the Shakespeare issue.) After reading Hart's description of Edward de Vere as the likely Shakespeare, I read a couple of books arguing for the traditional authorship attribution and was shocked that the mainstream had no coherent argument to support their claim that the authorship question is nonsense. For essentially no reason other than upholding tradition, mainstream scholars simply ignore the very real possibility that Shakspere of Stratford was not Shakespeare. The man born William Shakspere was a wealthy businessman who left two demonstrably illiterate daughters five houses and zero books; Shakspere apparently wrote no letters and apparently had difficulty writing his name; he may have been illiterate himself. The documentary record might be misleading of course but the mainstream's claim that there is nothing to discuss is wildly irrational. I agree with Hart that de Vere, though not proven, is a more likely candidate than an apparently illiterate businessman with a similar name (see the hardthinking blog for 9000 words about this). However, it should be noted here that Shakspere had a number of investments in the London theater scene in addition to his real estate holdings in the country and, though he was not referred to as a writer by anyone who knew him during his lifetime, posthumous evidence clearly identifies him as the author. So the mainstream are not necessarily wrong; they're just stubbornly clinging to the idea that there is no way the posthumous identification could have been purposely designed to shield the identity of the actual author, whoever he was.
Aside from Shakespeare, the choices and ordering Hart made are of course highly debatable. I note that the one-star reviews all basically say, "If I wrote this book, I would do it differently." Well of course any thinking person is going to have her or his own opinion about who was influential and what the order should be.
Hart makes his criteria clear and you should *expect* to disagree with him on many points and to disagree with other readers as well. I'd put Euclid at number one for example and I'd probably include at least one person responsible for making women in general more powerful and influential in the world as this particular shift in human relations, although moving at what seems to us a glacial pace, may ultimately be as important for humanity as the development of language. I mean we're talking about half of all humans. Gertrude Elion (not on Hart's list) alone may have saved millions of people with her discoveries in biochemistry and her career was almost crushed by sexism. Of course, Hart would argue that the overwhelming importance of the emergence of a new social structure is something that is still in process and so forth.
The bottom line is Hart's choices are perfectly reasonable whether you agree with them or not. If one think of his books as the beginning of a conversation as opposed to the end of a conversation, then it is perhaps easier to enjoy it. Making one's own list is of course the obvious next step. Happy reading.
This is one of the books I reread most frequently. I know the above sounds like a shameless plug: I don't know Hart, I just love his book. To the author: Thanks!
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2007
- Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2006
Top reviews from other countries
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Eduardo Gonzalez RamirezReviewed in Mexico on July 10, 2023
(Everything is badly edited for Kindle)Edición terriblemente mal realizada
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Claudia NeumeyerReviewed in Germany on September 21, 2015
Der beste Mensch steht verdient in diesem Buch an Nummer 1
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