Talk with the world's great figures

Author: Hendrik Willem van Loon (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Hendrik Willem van Loon, the full name of the author, was a Dutch-American writer. He was born on January 14, 1882, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and moved to the United States in 1903. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Munich, Germany, in 1911. Before and after his academic pursuits, van Loon did not follow the conventional path of education that we, as Chinese people, might assume. Instead, he worked as an editor, journalist, and broadcaster, and taught at several universities in the United States. He also traveled extensively around the world. Van Loon passed away in Connecticut, USA, on March 11, 1944.
This book introduces dozens of influential figures in human history through a fictional dialogue between the ancient and the modern. The author stages a series of weekend dinners as a clever device, using his rich imagination to bring these long-departed figures back to life. The dinners were held 21 times in total, with guests including Erasmus, William the Silent, George Washington, and Thomas More. The book consists of 21 chapters, each written in a slightly different style, but generally, each chapter includes two parts: an introduction to the guest's life and a detailed description of each dinner. Beyond the music and banquet details, the focus lies on the exchange and collision of ideas among the guests.