Invisible Giants: Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation but Missed the History Books

By Mark C. Carnes

Book Overview

Because history is as fallible as the people who record it, many of the figures who have shaped our country have receded from public memory. In order to celebrate and call attention to these lives, Oxford University Press asked fifty accomplished personalities from a diverse range of interests to each select a person from the 24-volume American National Biography that they felt deserved more attention.
In Invisible Giants, the biographies of these forgotten figures appear alongside the often-personal comments of their selectors. We discover the man who inspired Sherwin Nuland to become a doctor, the writer Jacques Barzun considers America's first cultural critic, and the woman who taught Tina Brown to bare her teeth. We learn of the poetry recited to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as a boy, the magazine Helen Gurley Brown required every one of her editors to subscribe to, and the book Andy Rooney deems "better than the Bible and easier to understand."
Edited by Mark C. Carnes and published with the American Council of Learned Societies, Invisible Giants presents the architects of our country's past through the eyes of the architects of its future.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195168836
• ISBN13: 9780195168839
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Forgotten Fifty

What an incredible idea for a book! The brief chapter focusing upon Albert Jay Nock is superb, an excellent summary of the man and his iconoclastic ideas.

what a great idea!

This is a really cool book--perfect for stirring up exticement about the figures who've made american history. The bios are fascinating, and I love the celebrity introductions. I hope this is the first of a series.

FASCINATING!

This book is such a fun, interesting read. Not only are you introduced to 50 very interesting characters from history, but the famous people selecting them have written wonderful introductions to their biographies. You also gain new insight into the selectors. Ed Koch picked Malcolm X? He makes the case that Malcolm X is overlooked for his true contribution, but I'm sorry, he's hardly invisible. But the editor of the book did not put any restrictions on the selectors. The biographies are the perfect magazine-article length--great for beach reading, night-stand reading, or anytime you don't want to get bogged down with a huge book. Simon Winchester's pick is amazing--and I loved Katie Brown's. Cheers to Mark Carnes for putting this book together--he's got a real gift for these things. Check out "History goes to the Movies" for another (although not quite so saucy) great idea for presenting American history in a delightful package. We need more books like this.