Edwin Kiester

The book would make an excellent high school, perhaps even advanced junior high, history text. It is a fairly straightforward recitation of historical facts without a lot of opinion thrown in.

I was pleasantly surprised in this day and age to find that, while it does mention what some might perceive as warts on famous Western historical figure, the author does not let those facts diminish the individual's positive qualities. Case in point - The chapter devoted to Abraham Lincoln posits that it was Lincoln's visit to a New Orleans slave market as a young man which cemented his anti-slavery feelings. Yet the author also does not romanticize Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. He simply states the facts that the Proclamation "said nothing about the horrors of slavery, and it did not even imply that slavery was wrong. It did not even hint that slaves were individuals, or humans." Further, he recognizes that Lincoln himself had stated that in issuing the Proclamation his aim was simply to save the Union at any cost, whether by freeing all the slaves, none of the slaves, or some of the slaves.

The main thought to take away from each of the chapters is that the figures discussed were each, after all, only human, and shaped by their life experiences. As I said, excellent fodder for a history textbook without woke fodder thrown in.

The book contains chapters on the usual American suspects: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, etc. It throws in chapters on some that might be surprising, but who still, unquestionably, shaped the Western world into what it is today: Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Simón Bolivar, Giuseppe Garibaldi.

It also, however, expands one's eyes globally. The inclusion of Gandhi did not surprise me; the inclusion of Ho Chi Minh and Mikhail Gorbachev certainly did, especially the former. As, however, with the other subjects, the author does not glorify Ho Chi Minh's life, he simply recognizes that his actions shaped history, which they unquestionably did, and sets out the facts, without editorialization, which the author believes shaped Minh into the man that history knows. Many will take issue with the fact that none of the atrocities committed in Minh's name by the Viet Cong are mentioned; however, I must also note that no atrocities committed in the name of the others included are mentioned either.… (mehr)