Badass (book)

Badass: A Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters, and Military Commanders to Ever Live, also known as Badass: The Book, is a history and biography book. It is the debut book of Ben Thompson, owner of the website Badass of The Week.

The book focuses on historical figures considered to be badass: having exceptional toughness, aggressiveness, battle skills and/or resilience, and have a significant achievement or impact on history. Thompson has stated in an interview that he intended to convey history in the language of youth, so that they feel like "reading something [they're] not supposed to, but ... actually learning something."

Content
The book has 40 historical figures organized in chronological order through four major time periods:  Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Age of Gunpowder, and the Modern Era. Some of the figures are:


 * Ramesses II
 * Leonidas
 * Xenophon
 * Alexander the Great
 * Chandragupta Maurya
 * Emperor Gaozu
 * Julius Caesar
 * Surena
 * Julia Agrippina
 * Alaric I
 * Khalid bin Walid
 * Charles Martel
 * Ulf the Quarrelsome
 * William the Conqueror
 * Harald Hardrada
 * Tomoe Gozen
 * Genghis Khan
 * Vlad the Impaler
 * Miyamoto Musashi
 * Blackbeard
 * Anne Bonny
 * Peter Francisco
 * Horatio Nelson
 * Napoleon Bonaparte
 * Agustina of Aragon
 * Bass Reeves
 * Nikola Tesla
 * Manfred Von Richthofen
 * Henry Johnson (World War I soldier)
 * Eliot Ness
 * Irina Sebrova
 * Jack Churchill
 * General George S. Patton
 * Carlos Hathcock
 * Bruce Lee
 * Yonatan Netanyahu

There are also additional features such as a list of "Badass Marines" and a feature on "Awesome Things You Can Shoot Out of a Catapult." The illustrations are done by several artists that have done work for Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, and DC Comics. Steven Belledin provided cover art for the book.