Friday, July 09, 2010

Nerd News: Literature And Real World Applications

AWESOME!  Blurb:
The importance of literature to understanding events is probably intuitive to most people. Anyone who has seriously studied the Holocaust, for example, knows that Anne Frank's diary provides a level of insight unattainable through just reading a World War II history book. Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities gives an understanding of the French Revolution (and the long-term implications that we're still discovering) that no non-fiction book could ever do.

This lesson--how great works of literature provide invaluable guidance to understanding events and people--is brilliantly explained in a new book, Grand Strategies, by Charles Hill. In the book, Hill, a highly effective former career diplomat who today lectures at Yale University (and with whom I've worked with in the past), takes readers on a grand tour through the great pieces of literature, along the way explaining their lessons for policymakers.  . . . Taking the argument to another level, Hill shows that being well-read is not just an added benefit to leadership--it's a prerequisite.
OH YES.  Read your history AND your literature, please!

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