Playing God: Seven Fateful Moments When Great Men Met to Change the World

by Charles L. Mee Jr.

Using an inventive, lively approach and brilliant command of detail, Mee (author of the critically acclaimed Genius of the People and Meeting at Potsdam) reproduces seven singular moments when heads... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671678884
• ISBN13: 9780671678883
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

History Stories

Wednesday, September 27, 2006 "Playing God - Seven Fateful Moments When Great Men Met to Change the World" by Charles L. Mee, Jr., This is a very good history book. It takes the events and puts humans in them. It is not just dates and people. it all ends up that nothing we do to learn from history is of any real value. The real value is in making choices and sticking with them and praying that it will all come out okay. It is odd and I am sure that he really did not intend to end up like that, after all, he is a historian.

Unique views of critical moments

Mee is a playwright and a historian, among other things, and I found his view and dramatic, descriptive powers to be very useful in re-enacting these events. I bought the book because of a debate with an intellectual friend about the aftermath of ww ii in eastern europe, thus I was focusing on the chapter on the conference at yalta. It is particulary interesting that Mee subtitled this chapter with reference to the problems of unintended consequences (the inevitability of which is the foundation of the libertarian tendency toward minimalism in government -- and in foreign policy, for that matter). Not only did the yalta chapter teach me much more about yalta than I expected, each of the other 6 crucial moments were richly rewarding. The only two quibbles I have are with the sub-title. Being a zeitgeist believer, I don't believe out-of-hand in "great men," even when churchill and roosevelt are involved. Somewhat contradictorily, I don't believe in the idea of "fateful," so much as crucial. And from reading Mee, I believe he would let me edit the sub-title accordingly, once he got to know me better. Forelle's Filosofy -- http://forellefilosofy.blogspot.com

Will change your mind about disliking history

Mr. Mee is a fantastic writer. As another reviewer remarked, Mr. Mee definitely brings history to life. The meetings described in this book make for great, enticing reading material for junior high school on up.

Great book

Mr. Mee is an excellent writer and truely brings history to life. I recommend this book to anybody that wants more than "light reading", has an interest in human-kind and is not a real history buff.