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February 8, 2004
REVIEWS: Learn from the heroes
Adventure and history are of the same ilk. History is made through the adventures of some men and women who happen to command the destiny of others. From the heady adventure of high-altitude mountain climbing to drawing lessons of success from the experience of historic figures is the theme of this book.
Michael Anthony Jackson set out to conquer the great K-2. Midway, his guide would have died of lung failure, if Jackson had not carried him back to civilization through three days of turbulent weather and death-friendly paths. The very success of his superhuman struggle to save a man a kiss away from death set him thinking about the ability of humans to surmount what may seem insurmountable problems in life.
This led him to study the achievements of men and women who made their mark on world history; in search of how they overcame their great problems to make their awe-inspiring mark upon the minds of humanity for generations to come. He concluded that by following their examples, people today can attain their goals successfully.
Jackson’s heroes of the past are four men and one woman. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan of course need no introduction, while Hannibal, the Carthagenian scourge of Ancient Rome, is a model for military strategists. William the Conqueror, the Norman Duke, who conquered England and became the first of many French-born monarchs of that great island is not so well introduced in our part of the world. Nevertheless, his place on the pedestal of world heroes cannot be denied. And Queen Elizabeth I of England is undoubtedly a prime example of the ability of a woman to succeed in a highly conservative man’s world by sheer dint of brilliant statesmanship and brute courage. The path to success of each hero is simply laid out in separate chapters, followed by the author’s own analysis and suggestions on how one can approach the difficulties one faces in everyday life — be it in business or any other profession — by following the examples of the heroes.
The book is well written and the history is kept concise and simple. More focus is on the methods of negotiating one’s life through the travails of the modern world. It is more for the easy reader than the scholar. The average reader might be impressed by the halcyonic careers of the heroes and may perhaps give serious thought to the author’s interpretations in the context of modern day human endeavour.
It is, however, difficult to imagine the serious reader easily accepting the author’s historiography, which certainly lacks in-depth analysis of tact, guile and strategy of the historical figures chosen as examples to follow. Moreover, Genghis Khan, despite his greatness as a world conqueror has a downright inhuman aspect to his character, an aspect that was probably the key to his success. He was amongst the first exponents of unrestrained terror, brutality and carnage of such ferocious proportions that his very mention was enough to subdue whole peoples for centuries. In the modern day, he would have been surely tried for war crimes!
Life Lessons From History’s Heroes
By Michael Anthony Jackson
Arrow Books. Available with Paramount Books, 152/O, Block 2, PECH Society, Karachi-75400
Tel: 021-4310030.
Email:
paramount@cyber.net.pk
ISBN 0-09-945332-0
249pp. Rs345
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