From the Bookshelf of 100+ Books in 2025…

7 Tipping Points That Saved the World

Chris Stewart,

Ted Stewart

Start date: January 19, 2012

Finish date: January 23, 2012

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Jan 19, 2012 Dolly rated it liked it

Shelves: 2012, italy-italian-roman, ocean-seashore, iraq, aviation, new-england, religion-philosophy, arabic-arabia, spain-spanish-latinx-hispanic, china-chinese

This is a nonfiction book, with personalized recreations of momentous events in history. Every time I read one of the anecdotal stories featuring trite dialogue and characters that may or may not have been real, I kept imagining television shows that flash "dramatized reenactment" across the screen.

I was also a bit put off with the authors when right away they discredit the title by saying that "...there are many other events that would make this story more complete, but time and space must lim This is a nonfiction book, with personalized recreations of momentous events in history. Every time I read one of the anecdotal stories featuring trite dialogue and characters that may or may not have been real, I kept imagining television shows that flash "dramatized reenactment" across the screen.

I was also a bit put off with the authors when right away they discredit the title by saying that "...there are many other events that would make this story more complete, but time and space must limit our effort to just these seven." (p. 20) I have no problem with the fact that they focused on seven events, but it just seems to make the title seem less valid, less meaningful. I suppose I'm just quibbling...

In addition, I found the argument that Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World directly resulted in the church becoming more pious and less corrupt to be somewhat flawed. The fact that the Protestant Reformation occurred in the same time period appears to be more coincidental than directly related.

Despite my issues with the book, I found the overall topic to be very interesting and logically presented. I think that some of the events are glossed over more than the others, but it's difficult to comprehensively cover seven major historical events, allocating only about thirty pages to each. But for the historically-challenged, like myself, I think it's a concise recap of these events. I noted the multiple references to The Collected What If? Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley. I think I may have to add it to my to-read list.

interesting quotes:

"Justice is achieved only when injustice is absent. In
Bastiat's view, injustice is the norm, the instinctive way of man." (p. 11)

5 Principles of Democracy and Freedom:
1. Self-government
2. Fundamental rights
3. All are created equal
4. Commitment to justice
5. Commitment to the rule of law (summarized from text on pp. 13-14)

"If numbers are what matters, then all of Greece cannot match even a small part of this army," he said. "But if courage is what counts, then our number is sufficient." [quote attributed to King Leonidas] (p. 78)

"...Churchill possessed two rare and precious gifts: first, a clear vision of the great threat that faced the free world; and second, the power of words." (p. 243)

"Slavery has existed among peoples around the world, as far back as recorded history goes. ...It is the idea of freedom for the great masses of ordinary people that is relatively new." (p. 279)

new words: extirpate, screed ...more

Like · see review

Jun 04, 2011 Jennifer Defoy marked it as to-read

Jun 13, 2011 Luzcasa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, history

Jul 20, 2011 Beth Tabler marked it as to-read

Dec 27, 2013 Sadie marked it as dads-reads · review of another edition

Jan 17, 2014 Shelly marked it as to-read

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls