Waterford High School history teacher Ian Cheney has published a history book that walks a fine line between historical insight and easy readability.

“Who Made the West: A Ranking of the 30 Most Influential Figures in Western History” is essentially a survey of the major events and pillars of Western civilization. It presents brief passages not only about the key people who made the West what it is but the historical movements, trends and developments that surrounded them.

“Each chapter focuses on one individual and is mostly self-contained,” says Cheney, a Norwich Free Academy graduate who has been teaching at Waterford High since 2006. “Just 15 to 20 minutes of reading a day should make a reader feel well-informed on a given historical figure and how he or she impacted the times and subsequent history. Readers can focus on either the figures and eras that interest them, or they can read the whole book and get a sense of history’s arc in a series of brief lessons.”

The book began as periodic biographical blog posts about the people who had the most influence — good or bad — on the course of history. After readers started requesting a compilation of the blogs, Cheney decided to pull them into a book.

Spoiler alert: Jesus of Nazareth ranked only seventh in the list. And the top-ranked influential figure is equally controversial. His statues have been torn down across the country, including southeast Connecticut.

For more information, see NLLibrarium.com.