History's Greatest Decisions And The People Who Made Them

by Bill Price

In this cynical age, in which we are constantly reminded of our mistakes, perhaps it is worth recognizing that we are capable of greatness. Some of the decision-makers featured in this book were well aware of the gravity of what they were doing; others had no idea at all. Some were rich and powerful; others were ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. From our unknown ancestors who first modified pieces of stone to make more sophisticated tools to those people in Northern Ireland who put aside their differences to create a better future, we take a look at fifty stories of people who, when faced with crucial decisions, got them right.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Bill Price is originally from Herefordshire and now lives in North West London. After working in various areas of the UK book trade for fifteen years, he become a full time freelance writer and is now the author of ten books. Most of these have reflected his interest in the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and, in particular, the First World War.

Reviews

[Arminius · Rating 5 out of 5]

“History’s Greatest Decisions” is a nice read breaking up all the stories in short chapters high lighting the important points.
He starts with recognizing groups of people who made great decisions. The first of which is the group which migrated from Africa to inhabit the rest of the world. The plausible explanation for the route the original group took was from Africa through the Bab el Mandeb straight or else they traveled through the Sinai Desert.
He also recognizes the Sumerians as the people who first put words on paper. Where their ancient city of Uruk once stood, located in the lower Mesopotamian region, tablets were found dating back to 3400 BC with written words upon them.
Now I am going to list some of my favorite individuals in the book.

Ashoka the Great. He is known as one the first rulers to denounce war as means in favor of negotiated settlements. After Ashoka had conquered much of modern India and Afghanistan he became disgusted with war’s terrible consequences. He ruled in peace for 40 years after his conversion and died in 232 BC.

Russia’s “Peter the Great.” After unsuccessfully trying to take the Fort of Azov from the Ottaman’s in 1695 to gain much needed access to the Black Sea, Peter commissioned “The Great Embassy” to travel among the European countries and learn their military and shipping knowledge to instate in Russia. He modeled his Navy after the British and Dutch and Army after the Germans and Swedes. He brought back with him scientists, engineers and architects. He even prescribed that Russians dress like their European neighbors. Then he created one of the World’s most beautiful cities from uninhabitable bog land and named it St Petersburg.
Deng Xiaoping. After decades of Chinese economic struggles due to Communism, Deng set out in 1979 to make China a vibrant growing economy. He reorganized the agricultural system allowing family farmers to take over management of their farms and sell excess produce to whomever they wanted to for profit. He restructured the Chinese school system to emphasize science and technology. He also reorganized Chinese industry to produce for exporting goods. He modernized and shrunk the military and separated them from the political arena. After adopting all these capitalist ideas he still declared himself a Communist. He died in 1997 but left China in remarkable economic condition. China now sets, because of Deng’s policies, as the second richest countries in the World right behind the original Capitalist and still the greatest country.

I have to add the rebuilding of Germany after its World War II defeat. The original plan was by Harry Dexter White. He proposed that Germany cede the coal mining region of Upper Silesia to Poland and the industrial Saar Valley to France. In this way Germany could not rearm it's military. What was revealed fortunately though was that Harry Dexter White was a Soviet Spy attempting to make the German economy so bad that Communism would become its savior. As a result Secretary of State George Marshall came up with a multi billion dollar grant and loan program to pay for Germany's rebuilding. This act created a lasting friendship between the United States and Germany,

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Препоръчвам да се прочете за чисто обща култура. Събитията, обозначение като най-велики, трябва да се знаят задължително от всеки човек! За нещастие, моето и следващото поколение не учат особено много неща в училище.
За книгата - всяко едно събитие е сбито в до 5 страници, има портрети, снимки, карти където е необходимо.

(спойлер: от всички 50, само е едно от тях главното действащо лице е жена)

[Jessito (Reny) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, and finally managed to read it.
The title is interesting enough to make someone buy the book, but for me, the content is not so exciting.
There are quite a few chapters, related to events from USA, which are quite well-known, and not really that important globally. Instead of chapters like "Steve Jobs returns to Apple", I would have preferred events, related to previous centuries, that have actually had a huge global effect, or at least more specific topics, such as the one about Myanmar, as those are not well-known, but at least enable the reader to learn an interesting story, that has a huge significance for a whole country.
It felt as if the book had no direction, no focus, but its rather compiled of random stories, which came up after a quick google search.

[Edward ott · Rating 1 out of 5]

while several inoffensive fluff articles on different historical events . the book does not live up to the hype of the title.

[Robin Gane-McCalla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books is easily readable and provides a somewhat biased perspective of important historical events. Much of the decisions are relatively common knowledge and the decision process is largely ignored. I didn't fully agree with all of the decisions and none of them were particularly detailed or insightfully explained.

[Krista Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s an insightful book that’s great for beginners who are interested in history, such as myself. It provides a general overview of the timeline of ancient and modern history, despite its biases on European and American history. I don’t think this is the bible for history; the entries made here should provoke the reader to do more digging and research with other sources.

The writing and analysis of the early decisions are splendid and detailed, but once you get to the middle and end of the book, the writing gets sloppier and the analysis becomes more shallow and brief. Also, some decisions don’t seem to be that great, considering the early-established parameter of large, impactful consequences. How is Apple/Steve Jobs included in this when the consequences aren’t that grand compared to other modern business decisions? (Nestlé, which helps change how babies eat and consume nutrition, comes to mind.)

If you’re looking for a simple, uncomplicated introductory book to history, this book is for you.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic late elementary school primer. An easy, interesting read for unknown items. The style is very approachable, assuming the content level is understood. 4 stars for style, 2 stars for content.

[Matthew Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of fascinating and important parts of history. A good telling of global history, covering several events not widely taught in some education systems.

[Shashank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book to read various critical moments in the history of western world.

[Shabi Hanifah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this one from a book bazaar and thought that it will be interesting. I love how on the start of every chapter there's a quote to reflect the events, and also a summary about what the event is.

But on the down side, I think that the idea of "greatest decisions" itself is pretty subjective, because most of these decisions revolves on United States and Europe.

I got a few new insights here and there about some events, but most of these events are quite well known. This book will be great though for someone who are looking for events that change the world in one book.

[Rana (This City That Book) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moderately interesting. A bit disappointing at the same time.

I had expected a few more “recent history” stories, a lot more female-led decisions and a few more cheerful decisions.

It was concise and fast though, summarizing each decision quite well.

After finishing the book and reflecting on its content, I found it very depressing with around 80% of the decisions involving war, apartheid, racism and just plain ugly greed. The remaining measly 20% celebrated whatever scientific discoveries and technological advancements the human race could muster.

I am sure there have been a lot more “positive” decisions made along the way and perhaps it would have been a good choice to have 2 editions of this book categorized under “distant history” and “recent history”?

Anyway, below is a list of the decisions i enjoyed reading about the most:

- Inventing the internet
- Steve Jobs’ return to apple
- Inventing the Gutenberg printing press
- Rosa Parks refusing to stand up

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty great for helping you learn things about history and get a broad over view. It was good for reading in small chunks and gave me a few topics to look into in more detail. There was a large focus on things that happened in european countries like france and england despite there being other topics that may have been more influential that could have been covered.