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

Charles Murray's 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 descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts and what sets them apart from the merely great; on the differences between great achievement in the arts and in the sciences; on the meta-inventions, 14 crucial leaps in human capacity to create great art and science; and on the patterns and trajectories of accomplishment across time and geography.