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

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Summary: Intelligent, challenging and a whole lot of fun!
Review: 1,000 Years, 1,000 People is intelligent, challenging and great fun. This book is a must for everyone interested in the millenium, testing their knowledge of history, or in just having fun.This is an intelligent, informed and well-researched look at the movers and shapers of the second millenium.The scope of knowledge and research is impressive. Despite an inevitable western bias, the authors clearly made significant efforts to provide a world view and to cover all fields of human endeavor. The authors share their perspectives, explain their procedures, and invite us to apply their BioGraph system for ourselves. We may each arrive at different sums, but understanding the process allows us to debate with the book -- and with each other.And therein lies one of the challenges. A simple listing can be ignored. But 1,000 Years, 1,000 People invites us to participate in the process, and challenges our knowledge and judgement.Why didn¹t Eli whitney (#135) or Max Plank (#136) make the top 100? Or Ralph Waldo Emerson (504) or Charles Lindberg (516) not make it into the top 500? Apply the system, and come up with your own solutions.Also test your historical knowledge. Who was Vincent of Bauvais (#447)? Or John Gorrie (#450)? Or Ramanuja (#187)?But, mostly, 1,000 Years, 1,000 People is great fun. The authors obviously had fun writing, researching and arguing about the selections. They share this enjoyment in their writing: did John Montagu -- the Earl of Sanwich -- (#473) hold the mayo? And were Wilbur and Orville (#23) really the Wright Stuff?The real fun comes from endless hours of arguement over selections: Why is Karl Marx 50 places higher than Thomas Jefferson (#14 - 64)? And why is Ram Singh (#310) a more important libertarian than Thomas Paine (#311)?If you only buy one millenium book, it should be 1,000 Years, 1,000 People. In fact, if you buy only one book for the rest of this millenium, consider 1,000 Years, 1,000 People. It will provide hours upon hours of fun and intelligent conversation. And, as USA Today said, launch 1,000 aurguments.Buy it. Give it as a gift. Plan parties around it. Test yourself. Challenge others. 1,000 Years, 1,000 People is a whole lot of fun, as well as a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at our millenium.

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Summary: very factful, lots of great and interesting information
Review: Before I write what I think, I'll say something. It is obvious that this book was done by a combination of liberals, Lutherans (who else would put Martin Luther at #3?) and well, pHds (pretty heavy dudes!).
Here's the review:
I found this book very interesting. It helped me give me a recap on history and what to think how the people that were ranked influenced everybody. I love being taught the casual way. Yes, there are a few disagreements, the main one being that Rosa Parks should be ranked higher than #944. Without her, M.L. King would not have made the Top 100. Am I right? Also cheers to putting Hugh Hefner on there and not J. Edgar Hoover and certain people.
I have put together a list of people they should have included but I will share two people:
-John Deere, the man who modernized tractors
-Ted Turner, the one who helped millions of Americans spend their hard earned dough on cable television and who made it popular to watch.
I thought it would be cool if they put an early television star on the list (hey, they put at least 5 movie stars on the list) such as Lucille Ball. Give it a read. Turns out this is great and it deserves to be on every history buff's shelf.

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Summary: a fun and informative book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: 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."