In this witty and thought-provoking book, Paul Johnson takes an unsparing look at the men and women who have shaped the modern world. Johnson profiles Rousseau, Shelley, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Sartre, Edmund Wilson, Lillian Hellman, Noam Chomsky and others, revealing their multifaceted personalities and showing them to be both brilliant and contradictory, magnetic and dangerous.
Paul Johnson has written many books, including Creators, George Washington, Modern Times, and Art: A New History. He contributes a weekly essay to the Spectator and a monthly column to Forbes. He lives in London, England, and lectures all over the world.
“Mr. Johnson revels in all the wicked things these great thinkers have done, and the revealing parts of the book are great fun to read.” — New York Times Book Review
