History's Greatest Decisions

Book excerpt: History’s Greatest Decisions identifies and profiles the many important and difficult decisions leaders have made through history which shaped the world as we know it today. One of the defining features of being human is our capacity for complex problem solving. Most of the time we deal with mundane concerns, like what to have for breakfast or which pair of shoes to wear, but occasionally people face decisions about rather weightier matters. History’s Greatest Decisions is concerned with this second category, those important and difficult decisions which only a very few people get to make and which can impact on the lives of millions of others and have the potential to change the world. From our unknown ancestors who made the first stone tools, to those people in Northern Ireland who managed to put aside their differences in order to create a better future for their children; from the most powerful man in the world deciding not to start a nuclear war, to a woman on a bus standing up for her rights refusing to move seats. History's Greatest Decisions looks at well-known and not-so-well-known examples of people who made the crucial decisions and got them right.