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

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Summary: A millennium list that stands above the rest of the pack.
Review: 1000 Years, 1000 People is a book for the turn of the millennium. In that respect, it is not unique. But this book stands above the rest by being both definitive and witty. Bowers et al admit that they may be wrong, and they expect you to disagree. But your disagreement will not be vehement -- the authors write in an accessible, witty style that puts a needed light touch on a subject as hefty as the millennium. At the same time, the authors' explanations and defenses of their choices are scholarly and well argued. The list is wide-ranging, too. Philosophers, athletes, religious and political leaders, entertainers, and business people all make the list at one point or another, revealing as much about the 1990's as it does about the past 1000 years. This book will spark intelligent discussion from your coffee table, and deep thought from your nightstand. Recommended.

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Summary: Babe what?? The Wright Stuff??
Review: Babe Ruth, the greatest athlete ever? USA, Japan, Cuba, Venezuela and Puerto Rico are the countries where Baseball is popular. And even in those countries (but US, maybe) it's not the must popular. What's the great contribution of this man to the mankind? In my humble opinion, that's ridiculous.

Other point I disagree is the machine built by the Wright Brothers. The book starts talking about them with something like: "No one has INVENTED the airplane", in a clear reference to Alberto Santos Dummont, the brazilian who claims having invented the airplane. The point is that the "wright stuff" was something that needed to be in a downhill to take off and couldn't land (it crashed). What a great contribution!

That's my opinion.

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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: The best book written for the millenium!!
Review: First of all, this was the most fantastic book written about the millenium and the most thorough! All those ridiculous "millenium" books that you see in the bookstores, written by Tom Brokaw, or whoever he is, are just about worthless compared to the work that went into this book. Obviously, it was thoroughly researched, and it is so well written, not dry or boring, but actually humorous and just delightful. I'd love a chance to sit down with the authors! They must be really great, interesting people!

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Summary: A very narrow view on a wide topic
Review: I bought this book and turned to who the top 10 people were and gosh, did I gripe. Come on, William Shakespeare as the top person of the millennium? Sure he did affect writing and the English language but how many lives did he affect DIRECTLY? Writers have had little effect on history compared to politicians, businesspeople and social activists.

The authors exclude Bill Gates, saying he was only a salesman, when he helped to trigger one of the biggest increases in world growth in history. Gates helped to spark the IT revolution that boosted the incomes and living standards of millions across the globe. So did reading Hamlet ever feed or clothe anyone? NOT!

The authors themselves admit to having a bias for writers in their book. So they do confess that they boo-booed.

Take my advice and don't buy this complete piece of trash.

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Summary: Who remembers...
Review: Luckily the authors of this book don't take themselves too seriously, pointing out in their introduction that if they had "dined on fish and chips instead of hot dogs and sauerkraut the day we considered [the rankings,] the results might have been much different." They admit that there is no accurate way to rank the most important and influential people of the last thousand years. I have to agree with the reviewer who pointed out the apparent biases of the authors... they did make the effort to get "nominations" from friends and experts, but I doubt they had the time or funds to travel the globe to do so... thus the scope of the 1,000 people is limited, to be sure.

Ok, so here's my main gripe... nowhere in the book is mentioned one of the world's most brilliant minds, Nikola Tesla. I mean, the man only invented alternating electric current (AC) which today brings power all over the world! He also invented modern radio, X-rays, and the vacuum tube amplifier just to name a few. He's not even mentioned as an aside... well, thank goodness Coco Chanel made it!

An enjoyable read, if you want a rather lighthearted and brief look at some of the people who shaped the last 1,000 years.

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Summary: A Fun (but Useful) Book
Review: The authors have sifted thru thousands, using semi-objective criteria, to assign each a rating ranging from 0 to 24,000 - then printed a small bio sketch for the top 1000. It's a handy reference for bio information, but we have found it forms a nice basis for a "parlour game". Name a person, and each assigns his own ranking from 1 - 1000. Then see how the authors ranked him. They also have several interesting appendices.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and educational book
Review: This book is great. It goes through the people of the millennium and ranks them from 1 to 1000. It makes good debate topics: I argued with my friend once for half an hour about why Beethoven was in the top ten.

It ranks all the people on their influence to society, their charisma and singularity of what they did. There are short paragraph biographies of who these people were that are simple to read and fascinating to learn about. More than half the people I didn't know already!

Overall, I would say this is an excellent book, aside from the fact that I think it should be longer. If you don't know what happened in this past millennium, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Shame we had to wait 1000 years for the next book!
Review: 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.