Selecting these eight books took a while. Or, more accurately, agreeing on the criteria took some time. In the end, these seven great books take into consideration 1) the importance/relevance of the person whose life we're reading, 2) how much we actually admire them or their work, 3) how well-written and researched the book is, and 4) whether they achieve a balance in history, relevance, and geography. We weighted all these elements equally, and then each of us assigned points to each book. A little arithmetic told us which books to propose to you, and, in the case of the more political books, we tried to stay center field rather than go with the more partisan approaches. Here they are:
