Customer Reviews

1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

With the coming of the new millennium, every one is writing a book about the top 100 or 1000 in just about every category. This book is no exception to that rule. What makes this book different is that fact that this book doesn't bore the reader to sleep with endless pages of nothing.

There is just enough written about the 1000 people, in this book to make the reader want to find out more. You will pleasantly surprised by the list of people in the book. The authors explain, in detail, how they determined the list rankings.

The book is well written and researched by all authors. They break down the listing in groups of 100, which I found to be extremely helpful. I found each short bio, on the person, to be easy top follow.

This book makes a great gift for those hard to buy for people. The price is in the range for those on a budget. Overal this book is a good buy for the money.

getting my 14-year-old daughter to appreciate world history has proved darn near impossible. at least that was the case before we picked up "1,000 years, 1,000 people." over several evenings, we have played a game: one of us picks a number between 1 and 1,000 and the other reads aloud the name of the historical figure ranked in the book. the person selecting the number then attempts to explain the importance of the individual within one minute. quite often, frankly, it's a shot in the dark, but the exercise has evolved into a game that we call "millennium minute." and somewhere along the way it has helped to engender in her a budding interest in history. though it is easy to quibble with the listed ranking and, inevitably, some readers will protest on the exclusion of some notable, to me this is one of the book's fundamental strengths. indeed, the authors have devised a clever way for us to debate the last 1,000 years and celebrate in an intellectually engaging way the new millennium. unfortunately, however, the publisher and the book distributors are not making easy for us. this book can be difficult to find! if you are lucky enough to locate a copy, share it with your family and friends. and if you have a teenager whose idea of history is what he did yesterday, challenge him to a "millennium minute."

Most books I read I put down, earmark, and come back to. Not this one.

The humor in most of these short bios humanize them and the sheer number of people in the book make it the kind you want to re-read.

This book is perfect for even lazy people like me. It ranks the people based on a point system and it gives one phrase summaries and 2 paragraph summaries. you can learn a helluva lot in 5 minutes. excellent for people of all ages. Also, the authors have an EXCELLENT SENSE OF HUMOR. You should definitely buy this book!!!

1,000 Years, 1,000 People provokes something more than arguments as to who should be listed among the thousand most significant people to have lived in the last millenium. Other readers of this book whom I know argue about who should have made the list, and in what order. Likewise press accounts on the book take up the debate. Everybody seems to have an opinion. Sharing and comparing these opinions reveals a lot about how we weigh achievement in our civilization. Few subjects can more important, as we try to make sense of the present. So the book deserves great credit for stirring people to think about an academic discipline that most left behind in school. The biographies themselves are a great refresher course, and to be honest, I had not heard of some of these people. But indeed they do seem important. We have enjoyed this book as a starting point for discussions with our five children and recommend it heartily to other families.

The Beatles ahead of Elvis? The loser of the cold war(Gorbachev) ranked 237, and the winner(President Reagan) not ranked? What kind of book is this? Well, I'll tell you what kind of book it is, its the kind you won't be able to put down! This book is absoulutly fascinating! It's truly a learning experince, there are so many people in this book that I'll bet most people never even knew existed, and learning of them is not just educational, but also a lot of fun. While you read it, you will say things like, 'what were these people thinking when they put William Blake(mystic poet, ranked #315) ahead of Barthelemy Thimonnier(inventor of the sewing machine, #316)?' This is part of the beauty of the book, the fact that there is no posssible way you could ever agree with all 1000 entries. This book will get you to think. Buy this book, read it. You won't completly agree with all the picks, but you'll trully enjoy reading it.

An excellant read. Even though I didn't agree with every entry, I had a great time reading them. I laughed out loud at many of their entries(who knew Napoleon had a classic Napoleonic complex). I also enjoyed the captions before every entry especially Thomas More #345 (a man for all seasons) was followed by the great French chef Auguste Escoffier #346 (a man for all seasonings). The entries are extremely well written and very witty. Happy reading!

Whether you love or hate history, you'll enjoy this fabulous, readable book. As a college history major, I highly recommend 1,000 Years, 1,000 People to history buffs and non-buffs alike. It's easy to pick up and put down or devour in one sitting (like I did). Kudos to the authors! They have put together a great book.

P.S. It also makes a great gift.

sure i disagreed with some of the rankings in "1,000 years, 1,000 people" -- but that of course is part of the joy of reading this book. well-researched and engagingly written, "1,000 years, 1,000 people" is wonderful because it depicts the sweep of history in bite-sized pieces. keep it by your bedside!

Everything about their selection and ordering of the Top 1,000 is debatable, starting with their criteria, but that's the point. The authors are upfront about their thinking, wide-ranging in their selections and thought-provoking in making their cases. The rest is up to the reader and whoever is sitting across the dinner table.