Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson is a collection of mini-biographies about interesting people throughout history and culture. Whereas his book Intellectuals focused on the humanity and foibles of famous historical figures, Heroes examines the nature of heroes and heroism in a modern context.

I discovered this entertaining book via Ryan Holiday’s always-excellent “Reading List” newsletter, where he adds:

In Heroes, Johnson […] tells the better-than-you-learned-in-school stories of everyone from George Washington to Julius Caesar to Joan of Arc.

It’s great stuff indeed. The book comes in all the usual formats:

• Paperback ($13)
• Kindle ($15)
• Audible digital audiobook ($12)
• Audiobook CD ($20)
• iBooks ($15)