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

Name: Human Accomplishment The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B. C. To 1950
Price: 28.67 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780060929640

ISBN-10: 0060929642

ISBN-13: 9780060929640

Edition: 2004

Authors: Charles Murray

List price: $24.95

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Description:

A sweeping cultural survey reminiscent of Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence . "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. Employing techniques that historians have developed over the last century but that have rarely been applied to books written for the general public, Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences-a…

Book details

List price: $24.95
Copyright year: 2004
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 11/9/2004
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 688
Size: 6.00" wide x 9.00" long x 1.10" tall
Weight: 1.540
Language: English



Acknowledgments


A Note on Presentation


Introduction



A Sense of Accomplishment



A Sense of Time



A Sense of Mystery



A Sense of Place



A Sense of Wonder



Identifying the People and Events That Matter



Excellence and Its Identification



The Lotka Curve



The People Who Matter I: Significant Figures



The People Who Matter II: The Giants



The Events That Matter I: Significant Events



The Events That Matter II: Meta-Inventions



Patterns and Trajectories



Coming to Terms with the Role of Modern Europe



... and of Dead White Males



Concentrations of European and American Accomplishment



Taking Population into Account: The Accomplishment Rate



Explanations I: Peace and Prosperity



Explanations II: Models, Elite Cities, and Freedom of Action



What's Left to Explain?



On the Origins and Decline of Accomplishment



The Aristotelian Principle



Sources of Energy: Purpose and Autonomy



Sources of Content: The Organizing Structure and Transcendental Goods



Is Accomplishment Declining?



Summation


Appendices



Statistics for People Who Are Sure They Can't Learn Statistics



Construction of the Inventories and the Eminence Index



Inventory Sources



Geographic and Population Data



The Roster of the Significant Figures


Notes


Bibliography


Index