PublishedMurdoch Books, September 2013 |
ISBN9781743369944 |
FormatSoftcover, 256 pages |
Dimensions22.6cm × 17cm |
One of the defining features of being human is our capacity for rational thought, for considering the possibilities and weighing up the options in order to find the solution to a problem. Most of the time we deal with mundane concerns, like what we are going to have for breakfast or which pair of shoes to wear, but occasionally people face decisions about rather weightier matters.
History's Greatest Decisions is concerned with this second category, those important and difficult decisions which only a very few people get to make and which can have an impact on the lives of millions of others and have the potential to change the world. Sometimes the people who make these big decisions were well aware of the gravity of what they were doing; sometimes they had no idea at all, but nevertheless arrived at the right answer.
From our unknown ancestors who first decided to modify pieces of stone to make them into better tools, to those people in Northern Ireland who managed to put aside their differences in order to create a better future for their children, and from the most powerful man in the world deciding not to start a nuclear war to a woman on a bus standing up for her rights by sitting down and refusing to move, we take a look at some famous and some not-so-well-known examples of people who, when faced with tough choices, have made the crucial decisions and got them right.
