Badass: A person whose extreme attitudes and behavior are admirable/cool.

I guess that when one has a website that features badasses from the past and also from the present, one should also proceed to write a book about badasses throughout history, a book that sheds light not only onto historical luminaries but also to the obscure ones as a reminder that badassery is one for the ages.

That one such person is Ben Thompson (https://www.badassoftheweek.com/) and his book is aptly titled Badass. With a title like that, it surely succeeded in attracting my attention in bookshelf filled with General Interest books.

badass

Being a history buff, I’m pleasantly surprised that Mr. Thompson decides to kick off a book of badasses with those from Antiquity. Julius Caesar, Alexander and that 300 dude, Leonidas are presented here in their respective chapters with prose that mixes history fact and badass hyperbole. It’s adopted through the entire book and one example of such a mashup would be:

“Once upon a time there was this place called Sparta, and everyone who lived there was a total badass”

There are also guys and girls like Xenophon and Aggripina, which I bet you’ve not heard before, but Ben Thompson assures that they are badasses in their own right.

There are a total of 4 sections, right up to the modern era and despite the frequent abuse of badass vocabulary, I never got tired of reading Mr. Thompson’s unique take historical figures.

Overall, Badass a fun romp and an enjoyable read. Even though you might have some trouble separating historical fact and hyperbole in some instances, there’s Wikipedia you know…if you want the sterile, know-it-all facts, and that’s just not badass in my book.