Abnegate. Confabulate. Encomium. Hyperopia. Ineluctable. Monolithic. Peripatetic. Saturnine. Torpor. Zenith.
It is hard to believe that my book The Words You Should Know has been in print for more than twenty years. That book has become a bestseller for a simple reason—it lays out in an easy-to-read format the “essential” vocabulary words that people need to know. Other vocabulary books contain lots of words you will never hear. The Words You Should Know, on the other hand, helps people quickly master the words they need to know and hear around them every day.
Aesthetics. Baroque. Class Consciousness. Existentialism. Feudalism. Fortissimo. Impressionism. Multilateralism. Sword of Damocles. Theory of Relativity.
Based on the same philosophy, in a brief authoritative style, 801 Things You Should Know presents the leading ideas and concepts every educated person should know.
Lots of people need a quick and authoritative way to identify and define the ideas they hear around them every day, whether in the news media or in our culture in general.
If you’ve ever confronted one of these terms, you know that the usual approach—stalling for time until you can grasp the context of what the person has just said, or dredging through your mind for a few elusive memories from a high school or college classroom—has its limits. With a few minutes of study each day, the book’s straightforward, succinct definitions will help you become the master of conversation and help you to understand what is being said around you. This book can get you out of a jam, improve your performance at school, and help advance your career. And that’s no hyperbole, rigmarole, or embellishment.
In this book I have done the work of culling out essential terms and ideas. All you have to do is read through the brief descriptions of the ideas and understand them.
Each section contains 100 ideas or concepts that a person needs to know. The categories are philosophy, history, business and economics, art and literature, people and culture, politics, science and technology, and social sciences.
Someone once said that knowledge is power. To a large extent that is true. Knowing the ideas and concepts in 801 Things You Should Know will put you in a position to advance in your career, social circles, or school. But more important, you can quickly expand your appreciation of the world around you and how it became what it is today.
So whether you are studying for the SAT or ACT, want to sound more intelligent in conversation or around the office, or wish to expand your knowledge of politics, philosophy, art, business, or science, you’ll be more successful when you master this book.
But above all, I want to create that rarity among vocabulary and reference books—one you can leaf through enjoyably. Have fun!