The Intellectual Devotional Biographies: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Acquaint Yourself with the World's Greatest Personalities (The Intellectual Devotional Series) - Hardcover

Kidder, David S.; Oppenheim, Noah D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1605299502 ISBN 13: 9781605299501

Publisher: Rodale Books, 2010

Synopsis

The fifth installment of the bestselling Intellectual Devotional series features 365 captivating entries about the most celebrated personalities in history.

Like its compulsively readable predecessors, The Intellectual Devotional Biographies is organized into seven categories, one for each day of the week. With their trademark wit and style, authors David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim offer an array of fascinating facts about major figures from Atilla the Hun to Desmond Tutu.

In this daily devotional, you will learn about:
• authors and artists, from Homer and Ovid to Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf
• leaders, such as Queen Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, and Napoleon Bonaparte
• innovators, from Johannes Gutenberg to Isaac Newton to Werner Heisenberg
• philosophers, including Socrates, Epicurus, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre
• rebels and reformers, from Joan of Arc and Spartacus to Galileo and Che Guevara
• preachers and prophets, including Lao-tzu, John the Baptist, Martin Luther, and Gandhi
• villains, such as Benedict Arnold, Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, and Jack the Ripper

This volume shares the personal histories, accomplishments, and troubles of 365 people who have left an indelible mark on the world.

About this title

About the Author

David Kidder is an entrepreneur with a wide range of technology and marketing expertise. He is the cofounder and CEO of Clickable, an online advertising Web software service. He lives in Westchester, NY.

Noah Oppenheim, a writer and Emmy-winning television producer, is currently vice president, creative affairs of Reveille, where he oversees all unscripted development. He lives in Los Angeles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

monday, day 1

leaders

Khufu

The ancient Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (c. 2609-c. 2566 BC) envisioned his tomb as a towering limestone monument to his own greatness. The great pyramid in the desert, he hoped, would not only protect his soul during its journey to the afterlife, but also ensure that the world would never forget his twenty- three-year reign.

Sure enough, the world hasn't forgotten. Khufu's name is forever linked with the enormous Great Pyramid of Giza, which it took an army of laborers nearly the pharaoh's entire lifetime to complete. The pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was the tallest man-made structure on Earth when it was completed--and it would remain so for the next 3,000 years.

Aside from his enthusiasm for pyramids, however, little is known about Khufu. He was the son of King Sneferu and the second member of ancient Egypt's Fourth Dynasty. He became pharaoh while still in his twenties, following Sneferu's death. Khufu may have conducted some military expeditions to Nubia, south of Egypt, and Libya, to the west.

The religious significance of the pyramids is thought to stem from Egyptians' beliefs about the afterlife. They considered pharaohs to be living gods whose entry into heaven after their deaths on Earth was eased by pyramids.

Khufu's Great Pyramid was the first and largest such structure built at Giza. The pharaoh also built several smaller tombs for his wives and relatives, and two of his successors built their pyramids nearby. Most of the limestone used in the pyramids was quarried nearby, floated down the Nile on rafts, and then dragged up a massive ramp in enormous, three-ton blocks to the construction site. Other components were imported from as far away as Lebanon.

After his death at about age fifty, Khufu was mummified and buried in a tomb deep within the pyramid. Although the exterior layer of stonework casing was plundered over the millennia, the Great Pyramid remains largely intact, just as the pharaoh intended.

additional facts

1. The Great Pyramid is made of roughly 2.3 million limestone blocks, some weighing as much as fifteen tons. The whole structure weighs about 6 million tons.

2. Khufu's full name was Khnum-Khufwy, meaning "Khnum, protect me." Khnum was the ancient Egyptian god of the Nile River, which was the lifeblood of Egyptian agriculture and commerce.

3. The Great Sphinx, a huge statue of a half-man, half-lion figure that stands near the Great Pyramid, is thought to have been constructed by Khufu's son, the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558-2532 BC).

Edition details

• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1605299502
• ISBN 13: 9781605299501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384