Feb 09, 20171aa rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Its rather awkward to rate this book: from a 'serious history' point of view, its okay; from a 'biographical' point of view, its again only okay. But, just like those Penguin editions of Plutarch, one gets a sense of great (or at least interesting) lives and the times they lived in, over a long span - in the case of this book, about two hundred tumultuous years. This way of writing history is not common, but it does effectively impart to the reader a comprehension of larger spans of historical time, large scale social changes, and accidents, both good and bad, and thereby allow the reader to re-see their own society and their place it from different dimensions from what one may customarily view it from. And that is what makes it an excellent book.
Comment
Wealth and Power