This volume amasses a world of ideas in an accessible, concise way. From philosophy to psychology, politics to economics, religion to inspiration, it gives a review of the great thoughts and their engineers. It elucidates the thoughts, theories and declarations that have defined and developed the core of Western civilization over the millennia, from the classics through to the information revolution. The book progresses through the classical thinkers, including Archimedes, Plato, St Augustine, Descartes, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche, Einstein, Chomsky, McCluhan, Derrida and Lacan, translating the most significant-isms and -ologies into clear stories.