¿Sabías que Iván el Terrible, según la leyenda, dejó ciego al arquitecto de la catedral de San Basilio en la Plaza Roja de Moscú para que no pudiera diseñar otra que la superara? ¿Que Al Capone es uno de los dos cerebros de la mafia que fue portada de la revista Time? ¿Que Simone de Beauvoir firmó un documento junto a otras mujeres francesas famosas revelando que se habían sometido a un aborto ilegal? ¿O que el hijo menor de Mussolini, Romano Mussolini,fue un célebre músico de jazz y líder de una banda llamada Romano Mussolin All Stars? Entra y descubre a los protagonista de la Historia con mayúscula.
This book serves two main purposes well: First, it's a great way to refresh yourself with the world's most famous "movers and shakers." There are of course going to be people the book doesn't mention that one might think it should, but overall it provides an inclusive covering of the world's figures including women, non-Westerners, People of Color, and those who weren't necessarily leaders, but rather influencers. Second, the book is a great way to introduce you to new names which can lead you to look up more information on certain people and events that you have not heard of. The book also did a decent job of remaining as unbiased as possible by saying "critics say..." and " supporters say..." Overall, a handy book for any intellectual's library or coffee table.
This was reliably interesting and rather well-written. It is kind of like a guided tour of Wikipedia - a little bit of the highlights about 365 'famous' people.
I was quite impressed by the fair portrayal of those on all political sides and religious convictions... which for some reason I intuit would be much harder to pull off if the book were written today. I hope I'm wrong about that.
I did find a few statements about various Christian figures that I knew to be either wrong or so oversimplified as to be unhelpful, but these were few and far between.
If I come across some of the other volumes in the 'Intellectual Devotional' series, I'll probably pick them up.
No doubt some will complain that important people were left out, while others will wonder why some were included. However, these short biographical sketches provide an interesting glimpse into the lives of important characters in history. The authors highlight the high and low points in their subjects’ lives without sounding dry or pedantic. They also provide the reader with some interesting footnotes: trivia, modern adaptations in book or film, etc. Each sketch gives the reader just enough to decide whether or not he wants to read more on the subject.
Kitap, başlığında vadettiğini veriyor. Liste halinde biyografiler. Biraz gruplama benim adıma kitabı daha okunabilir kılardı. Kabaca geçmişten günümüze ilerlese de, 1500lerde yaşamış birisinden sonra tekrar 1200lere atlayabiliyor. Ya da birbirleriyle alakalı kişileri arka arkaya sunabilirlerdi: simone de beauvoir ve Jean Paul Sartre, Musa ve Ramses. Ya da Benjamin Franklin biyografisinde gecen kisileri hemen sonraki sayfalarda anlatabilir. Ya da ABD Baskanlarini, peygamberleri, bilim adamlarini gruplayabilir.
AHdded this work to my morning reading list since I had read another Intellectual Devotional work last year. Some interesting individuals in the 365 short biographies, some I wanted to follow up on and learn more about the individual, others finish reading this biography and put it behind me. Overall well done. Everyone needs to read something that stimulates the brain and learn, highly recommended…SLT
I had not heard of this series but was very pleased to discover it. Each day is a 2-3 page biographical reading on an important person in history, and each day is grouped into a different category (Sundays = Preachers and Prophets, Monday = Leaders, etc.)
Each biography is well written, pithy and to the point. I learned a lot. Strongly recommend.
This is an unnecessary work because the author tells us biographies of the familiar people. He doesn't add one more level to our intellectual accumulation, just keeping it. For whatever it's worth, this work may be useful for teenagers or students but absolutely it's a rubbish for adult people!
Great daily snippets of some history’s interesting characters, some household names others not so much but definitely worth some attention. I also like to use the margins as a space for a little personal daily journaling.
It’s the end of November and we finally finished Intellectual Devotional: Biographies. It’s our second book by Kidder & Oppenheim, and it took less than a year to read. I think we started last April 2014. We read at mealtime, usually breakfast. It gave us food for thought and discussion. We often found ourselves looking up more information on our iPads. Some of the biographies were like a history review. Others were people we’ve never heard of. It kept our minds working and gave us something to discuss besides the daily barrage of depressing world news. Reading together also gives us a reason to interact with one another, instead of looking at our glow-boxes at mealtime. All of the Intellectual Devotionals are definitely a good intellectual, nonreligious books and great to share with a partner. We’re moving on in the series to Modern Culture.
I really like this book, well maybe not the first part. It begins at the beginning of history or almost it seems. I did however, feel very inspired to read more about many of the people included in this book. I felt inspired to consider my talents and the talents of people I know in a new light. A good read!
Remember those daily devotional for religion same thing. But for those who what something to ponder on the way home. I got this book Fourth. I have hardback and kindle versions of these books. I stuffed notes and research items in the hardbacks. I can add notes to my kindle versions. I enjoy them and since my kindle goes everywhere with me. I always have something to read.
I enjoyed this book and it makes a great present for someone who needs short bites of something to read. I learned a little about a lot of things and the extra trivia at the bottom of the pages is always fascinating. I highly recommend this whole series.
I have so enjoyed The Intellectual Devotional series. I learn so much from each of them. After reading this one, I have added Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies to my Books to Read list. It was written in 1405 which is probably the earliest feminist book written.
I'm a history geek, so I love this sort of book -- a way to fill in the missing pieces of your history education. You take one mini-bio a day and you gradually work your way through a sampling of some of history's more interesting people. Good stuff.
vasatın altında bir kitap, entelektüelitenin paket bilgi içeren kitaplarla olmadığını anlamamız gerekiyor, Vikipedi erişiminiz yoksa kütüphanenizde bulundurun zira hiçbir farkı yok...