Jonathan Daly's favorite books about individuals who followed their muse and changed the way we see the world
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Jonathan Daly's favorite books about individuals who followed their muse and changed the way we see the world
Picked by
Jonathan Daly
What did I love about each book?
List by
Jonathan Daly
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Why am I passionate about this?
My expertise is in Russian history. My passion is understanding the unleashing of human creativity. Only in the past several hundred years have we learned to comprehend and harness nature, organize democratic and rule-based societies, and, more than ever before, enable ordinary people to realize their talents and inner yearnings. Brilliant, creative individuals have existed in every society. Only in the modern era have so many geniuses, who in past ages would have wasted their talents in obscure drudgery, found the means and opportunity to contribute radically more to the benefit of humankind. The books I recommend all reflect this fascinating development.
I wrote...
The Man Who Knew Russia
By
Jonathan Daly
What is my book about?
My book follows the life of Richard Pipes, America’s most influential historian of Russia. Other commentators fixated on Soviet claims…
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The books I picked & why
The Man Who Loved China
By
Simon Winchester
Why I love this book
I loved the story of Joseph Needham, an eccentric English scientist who fell in love first with a Chinese woman and then with China itself.<br>I could relate to the passion he felt for learning about a completely different culture, immersing himself in the language, and pursuing countless friendships with Chinese people.<br>Although I had known that Chinese artisans developed some of the world’s greatest inventions (paper, woodblock printing, gunpowder, and the mariner’s compass), Needham discovered and cataloged dozens of others in many thick scholarly volumes, showing the world the greatness of the ancient Chinese culture.
What is this book about?
The Man Who Loved China
By
Simon Winchester
Why should I read it?
author picked
The Man Who Loved China<br>as one of their favorite books, and they share<br>why you should read it.
What is this book about?
In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.<br>No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese…
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The Man Who Knew Infinity
By
Robert Kanigel
Why I love this book
I was amazed at how a complete outsider, Srinivasa Ramanujan, who grew up in relative poverty, could rise to the highest levels of the British academic world through the sheer force of his intellectual genius.<br>How could this self-taught mathematical prodigy, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, one of the youngest to win that honor and only the second Indian, make such extraordinary contributions to several areas of mathematics? How lucky for humanity that he was discovered and, though sickly, brought to England!<br>How many more contributions could he have made had he not died at age 32? How many undiscovered geniuses, hidden in remote corners of the world, have never realized their extraordinary potential?
What is this book about?
The Man Who Knew Infinity
By
Robert Kanigel
Why should I read it?
authors picked
The Man Who Knew Infinity<br>as one of their favorite books, and they share<br>why you should read it.
What is this book about?
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JEREMY IRONS AND DEV PATEL!
A moving and enlightening look at the unbelievable true story of how gifted prodigy Ramanujan stunned the scholars of Cambridge University and revolutionized mathematics.
In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the preeminent English mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Realizing the letter was the work of a genius, Hardy arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to...