Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950

By: Charles Murray

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Synopsis: “Readers . . . are sure to enjoy [the] arguments and elegant presentation” of this “engaging” cultural survey by the controversial co-author of The Bell Curve (Kirkus Reviews).“At irregular times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. Human Accomplishment is about those great things, falling in the domains known as the arts and sciences, and the people who did them.’So begins Charles Murray’s unique account of human excellence, from the age of Homer to our own time. Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences—a total of 4,002 men and women from around the world, ranked according to their eminence.The heart of Human Accomplishment is a series of enthralling descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts and what sets them apart from the merely great. Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions. Why has accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit has expressed itself most gloriously. “Well-written and informative.” —Publishers Weekly

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 688 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780061745676
Related ISBNs:: 9780060192471
Publisher:: HarperCollins
Date of Addition:: 03/02/25
Copyrighted By:: Cox and Murray
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Social Studies, Mathematics and Statistics
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.