Best Biographies
Last updated: February 05, 2025
-
1
The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
by Ian Scott-Kilvert & Plutarch -
2
The Greek Alexander Romance
by Richard Stoneman -
3
Atticus
by Cornelius Nepos & Nicholas Horsfall -
4
Agricola
by Harold Mattingly, James Rives & Tacitus -
5
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius (ed. James Miller, trans. Pamela Mensch)
The best books on Leadership: Lessons from the Ancients, recommended by Jeffrey Beneker
The best books on Leadership: Lessons from the Ancients, recommended by Jeffrey Beneker
Whatever modern leadership books may say about what’s required to be a good leader, for the ancients there was only one vital requirement: studying philosophy. Jeffrey Beneker, Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks us through what ancient biographies reveal about how to be a leader.
The Best British Political Biographies, recommended by Douglas Hurd
The former British foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, recommends five highly readable political biographies, looking at the lives of some of Britain’s best-known prime ministers of the last 150 years.