Heroes
From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Paul Johnson, bestselling author of Intellectuals and Creators, turns his attention to heroic figures throughout Western history. Heroes features biographical essays on such notable individuals as Julius Caesar, Henry V, Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth Tudor, George Washington, General Custer, Robert E. Lee, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher. Johnson’s aim throughout this entertaining and enlightening work is not to give particular emphasis to gender, class or occupation, but rather to demonstrate that heroic behavior is to be found everywhere.
Paul Johnson has written many books, including Intellectuals, George Washington, Modern Times, and Art: A New History. He contributes a weekly essay to the Spectator and a monthly column to Forbes. He lives in London, England, and lectures all over the world.
“It is Johnson’s gift that he can make his subjects human and fallible enough that we would, indeed, recognize them instantly, while also illuminating what made them heroes.” — Washington Post Book World
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Veteran journalist and historian Johnson (Modern Times; A History of the Jews) offers 30 brief profiles of "heroes." Unfortunately, he offers a vague, tautological definition: "anyone is a hero who has been widely, persistently, over long periods, and enthusiastically regarded as heroic...." Yet Johnson's choice of subjects is highly idiosyncratic; Mae West and Marilyn Monroe are included, but not Gandhi, Mandela or Sakharov, not to mention scientists, entrepreneurs and athletes. Johnson, who is prone toward his fellow Brits, even includes a chapter on "the heroism of the hostess," including the mid-20th-century London hostess Lady Pamela Berry, whom he seems to have known well and portrays as having admirable interpersonal skills. His book contains fascinating facts and insights; for example, Johnson calls the biblical Samson "the first suicide-martyr-mass killer" and we learn that the austere philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who had studied engineering, invented a helicopter part "which later became standard." Still, Johnson profiles no one in depth. The conservative author also cites as a personal hero the late Chilean dictator Pinochet, whom Johnson credits with saving his country from communism and was then "demonized" by the Soviet Union. Though informative and entertaining, this is not one of Johnson's better efforts.
