Though the 20th century has been a "levelling" age, it has nevertheless relied just as much on previous ages did on great, or at least outstanding, men and women. This book, by a Harvard professor, is obviously slanted towards an American readership; to Europeans, names such as Robert Maynard Hutchins or Alfred P. Sloan mean little if they mean anything at all. The first, seemingly, was an important influence on American higher education, while the second represents corporate business - one of the power-factors of our time. Gandhi is an obvious choice in this category, so is Martin Luther King, and since both died violent deaths they have achieved the status of martyrs to a good cause, or causes. Jean Monnet, another of Prof. Gardiner's choices, has blossomed out as a posthumous reputation, whereas in his lifetime he was regarded largely as a technocrat and "fixer"; he is now a hero of European union, although Monnet was in many respects almost chauvinistically French. Eleanor Roosevelt has always been praised and respected rather than like, while Margaret Thatcher remains a heroine to some people, a reactionary and divisive politician to others. Margaret Mead the anthropologist and J. Robert Oppenheimer make an odd pairing, and there is little mention of the recent decline in Mead's reputation, while Oppenheimer's career has shadowy patches which time has not yet cleared away. The tone of the book is quasi-populist, but it is well and clearly argued.